a speckled hat!

Whenever I walk into a yarn store, it's a dangerous thing. Especially when the cold weather is finally maybe sort of starting to show up and I have about a million projects stored in my Ravelry favorites that I want to tackle so bad. This hat is the product of my most recent trip and I am so happy with how it turned out!

I generally used this pattern, although my yarn wasn't quite at worsted weight, so I increased my cast on to 96 stitches instead of 72 to make the gauge right. Even so, it is not quite as slouchy as the pattern, but that is alright with me. The delicate speckles are super cute and the yarn is very soft, so I call this pattern a success! It is definitely a great launching point for a bunch of other projects I'm working on this fall!

Some other modifications I made (in case you were wondering):

-Again, because I wasn't using worsted weight yarn, I also increased the total rows to make the hat big enough for my head. I worked the color chart three times instead of just two.

-With the increase in stitches, my decreasing pattern wasn't exactly the same as the one listed in the pattern. Honestly, I don't think this made a ginormous difference so if you find yourself in the same shoes, don't stress too much about it.

What are you excited to be making this fall? :)

xoxo,

Abby

THE FIRST WEEK IN JUNE

June so far is so fun! I've been in Chapel Hill this week since Tuesday after saying goodbye to my mom and sister for the summer (sniff sniff) as they venture out towards Colorado! Besides the aggressive monsooning, it has been wonderful here. Here are just a few photos from my week and what I've been up to.

1/2) I have become a little bit obsessed with embroidery floss. I'll share some of the projects I've been working on soon but for now let's just say OMG COLORS. Speaking of projects, remember how I told you guys I was going to be a part of that Summer Stitching Club? Well my first mini-embroidery is done! And I am so excited to see what else Mollie rolls out for us this summer.

3) I have found the most wonderful lip gloss of all time. And it is Philosophy Pink Frosted Animal Cracker. Get it here.

4) Sweet cherries. Summertime. Yes.

5) Spending time with this one at Straw Valley workin' on ABAN projects and memorizing menus is one of my favorite things.

What have y'all been up to this week?

xox. Abby

SUMMER PROJECTS

With some free time on my hands the next couple of weeks, it looks like I will have time to dive into some fun summer projects! I always find that during periods of time like this where I don't have the structure of school or full-time work that it's really good to make goals and to stretch my creativity more than I usually get to do.

While I'm not 100% committed to all of these projects yet, it is TOO FUN to brainstorm all the ways I can invest my time this summer. Here are a few of the ideas that I've come across, in addition to the million projects that I'm eager to work on on my Pinterest boards as well.

My mom and I have both signed up for Wild Olive's Summer Stitching Club! By the end we hope to have had a lot of fun stitching summer patterns and have a little quilt to show for it.

I've been eyeing the e-courses that A Beautiful Mess created a few years ago and this summer would be great to dive into a few! I'm looking at this Blog Design e-course, but some of the others look fantastic as well.

For my stitching project and for general life skills I have been wanting to take a sewing class for a while now. I'm looking into actual classes at studios in my area, but I love Raechel Myer's tutorials as a fun way to get started.

Speaking of classes, I'm looking into the best way to learn Photoshop this summer too! Some fun projects that I have done on Photoshop Elements have come from tutorials done by Pugly Pixel. These tutorials would be an awesome creative boost for Photoshop skills this summer.

And of course, this summer I will be continuing to dive in to the studies put on by She Reads Truth. Right now we're covering Nehemiah and it is really doing good things for my heart.

What are some of your goals for the summer? Let me know in the comments below!

Riding those good planning vibes,

Abby

FINISHED! CHEVRON BLANKET

Last week one of my fun "lets-avoid-packing-my-room" activities was finally finishing this grannie ripple afghan that I made as a going away present for my friend Molly. She has had a tremendous impact on my life and walk of faith over the past year that I have known her so I wanted to make her something special to remember me by.

If you're a fellow crochet-er (?) and wanna know how I made it, you can check out this general series of videos on the grannie ripple afghan on Youtube. I followed her tutorials pretty closely except for the colors and size (mine is way smaller).

Happy creating!

Abby

WEEKEND DIY

No class on Fridays means that this afternoon is the start of another wonderful weekend here in Vandyland. This weekend I really want to get into some fun projects as spring is finally coming and I'm feeling all sorts of great motivation to be active and create something. Here's a list of some of my favorite DIY projects right now that you could easily knock out in a weekend!

Jazz up a spring cardigan with these fun heart elbow patches

Thinking about future apartment decorating and these beautiful, simple embroidered curtains

And while we're at embroidering, these fun card ideas

Easter is so close! These egg decorating ideas are so lovely

Spring is near but it's not too late for this adorable knit hat

I think I'll be making one of these restaurant passports soon for Raleigh/Durham!

Plans for my weekend so far include a day trip outside Knoxville, some spring cleaning and continued work on this afghan, and of course Easter services at Crosspoint. What are you up to this weekend?

Wishing you lots of sun today,

Abby

VALENTINES POM POM GARLAND

More than any other holiday, I think, Valentine's Day has a tendency to polarize people. Either you loooooove Valentine's Day, or you absolutely hate it. I would be lying if I said that I didn't have Valentine's Days where I felt like this, but on the whole, I have always been a hopeless romantic when it comes to sappy stuff like this. I also love how Valentine's Day has the potential to make people think about what love in action really looks like. For more on that topic, check out this blog post by Kinsey. I love the way she thinks.

Coming out of a post-Christmas decoration depression, I used this tutorial  to make myself a pom pom garland with some yarn that reminded me of V-Day, and it really makes me smile whenever I'm sitting in my living room. I hope it makes you happy too!

Lots of love from Nashville. xoxo

EASY COFFEE COZY

It's Sunday! And you know what Sundays are good for...Starbucks! And you know what goes great with your Starbucks? This knitted coffee cozy!

This is a pattern that I did over Thanksgiving break in preparation for all of the delicious holiday Starbucks drinks around Christmas and it has worked out so well. It keeps your hands warm like gloves AND saves the environment from one more cardboard sleeve getting tossed (even if they are recycled originally). But let's not contain this cozy to just one season. After all, warm caffeine is good for New Years Day, Valentine's Day, random frigid days in March...the possibilities are endless.

Note: Because this yarn was so thin (below worsted weight for sure), I only did 30 for casting on. But for normal, worsted weight yarn, follow the pattern below. And if you're a beginner knitter and want to learn about this crazy business of DPNs click here.

Easy Coffee Cozy

Worsted weight yarn
4 Double Pointed Needles (DPNs)
Stitch marker
yarn needle

1. Cast on 35 stitches to three of your double pointed needles evenly (10-10-15)

2. Place stitch marker on first stitch and knit 3 purl 2 continuously in the round until the desired height. (Mine was about 3 and a half inches)

3. Bind off darn in ends with a yarn needle.

Enjoy through these winter months!

GLITTER DIPPED MASON JARS

Happy Christmas Eve!

Today I will be celebrating Christmas Eve working at my church's childcare ministry all day helping out with the crazy number of kiddos that they get around these services, so the filled-cookie baking and the Charlie Brown Christmas-watching will have to wait until Christmas day, I suppose. I'm also primed with leftover cinnamon raisin bagels from yesterday to make some sweet pumpkin bread pudding, so get excited for those results soon!

In the meantime, a simple and fun DIY for your Christmas Eve. Glitter-dipped mason jars!

Assemble your supplies. You'll need:

-LOTS of newspaper (unless you want a glitter explosion on your table)

-Tape

-Extra fine glitter

-Mod podge

-Foam brush

-Mason Jars of your choice

Take your mason jars and tape the line where you would like your glitter to stop. It can be anywhere on the jar, really. Totally up to you.

Next, take your mod podge (matte or gloss) and coat a thin layer onto your mason jar up to the taped line. **It's really important here to make sure the mod podge doesn't get under your tape, lest it mess up your pretty line.

Pour a liberal amount of glitter onto your jar as you twist it in your hand. When your jar is covered, shake the excess glitter off lightly. Do not touch!

Wait an hour or so until the mod podge has totally dried and then carefully pull away at your tape. 

(This is the fate of your fingers if you touch it too soon. Surprisingly difficult to get off.)

See how pretty when it reflects off your glass table? 

And there you have it! The glitter does shed a little bit using this method, but I think it looks beautiful and unfinished without a sealant. After winter break I might try with some clear spraypaint, we'll see! 

Merry Christmas, and enjoy!