day 49: black coffee

Black Coffee…but you can skip the cigarettes!

You see, I quit over 10 years ago… haven’t had one since then.

I started knitting about 40 ish years ago and used to make little baby sweaters and hats when the kids were little. But single motherhood… with 4 kids took a bite out of free time, so knitting was set aside.

But I started back up again, about 15 years ago, and when I quit smoking, I really started knitting… it became a great replacement habit.

Knitting has gotten me through some tough times and sleepless nights, and I am grateful for that. And it has given me a wonderful creative outlet, and a way to make personalized gifts for people.

I started designing my own patterns about 5 years ago… and you can find them on my Ravelry page… or go to my Gypsywagonknits.com for ideas, resources, and some free patterns.

This #100daydresschallenge has made me look at my life differently. ANd it has made me wonder, how else I can challenge myself, and do better. So this year — I am going for 12 sweaters. And this is sweater #2 for the year. It is for #1 daughter… and she picked out the yarn, Cloudborn highland wool in…espresso. I will be testing and publishing a pattern, at some point, and will call it Skylark.

For those of you new to this blog …I am involved in a 100-Day Challenge, put on by Wool& — Same dress. 100 days. (And yes, you can wash it!) Part of my reasons for deciding to do this was to simplify my life, especially with my lifestyle.

What’s in store today:

Knitting and blogging, and some dancing thrown in… but that was after the gloriously long shower I had this morning… after coffee and podcast time.

And I made a little movie starring the new sweater — so I could send it to #1, and she could see her new sweater. Although she promptly called and said I could NOT keep it! Here is the video…

It’s 100% silk… and I think it’ll be perfect for summer… especially If I get my Sierra! Yarn info HERE! Code TRACY15 gets you 15% off.

This sweater was a joy to knit. Top-down construction, and knit in one piece, no seaming. Just how I like sweaters. I made it slightly cropped, and 3/4 sleeves.

And I love how the raglan increases came out. This is a lighter-weight sweater, made out of DK on US 8 needles… so there is lots of spring and stretch.

And larger needles mean a faster knit — just love it when it get’s hard to put down!

I think this length goes really well with Woolamina.

Hmmm, what color shall mine be????

Thanks for joining me on my black coffee post. Stay tuned for the next 51 days of #tracywearswool!

Be well, and knit on!

–Tracy

As part of the challenge, I will be posting my daily outfits on blog posts as well as social media with the hashtag #tracywearswool — please follow along — and see all the creative outfits that I can come up with!