Still looking for test knitters!

I'm still looking for test knitters for the Clara Sweater in size medium (bust measurement 34-38 inches) and size large (bust measurement 39-44 inches) this sweater would look great with some positive ease so if you're normally a size small, try the medium, or if you're a medium, try the large! If you would like to give it a try, send me a message on Ravelry or e-mail me at shamupops@gmail.com!

Here's a picture of the keyhole back of the sweater

And here's a closeup of the button I used, it's a cute little cluster of crystals, I think it goes well with the 1920's inspiration for the sweater.

I hope I can get 1 or 2 test knitters for the sizes medium and large, the sooner I get test knitters, the sooner I can put it up for sale!

I'm still working on getting the official photos, these are just snapshots. I also have another sweater in the works that I will need testers for soon!

I also have a big surprise for all my readers on monday! I'm so excited about it!

Thanks everyone!

Help my sister win a photo shoot with Liam Gallagher!

My sister entered a contest to win a photo shoot with Liam Gallagher for his clothing line, Pretty Green. To help her win, go to Facebook, "Like" Pretty Green and then "Like" her photo. Thank you so much!

Clara Sweater

I just finished the sample for my latest design, the Clara Sweater!

The Clara Sweater is inspired by the Art Deco architecture and bold fashion of the 1920's.

It is a cap sleeve slightly cropped sweater with a scoop neckline and exaggerated keyhole back. The lace pattern has eyelet columns on the cap sleeves and yoke of the sweater and an eyelet diamond pattern on the lower body of the sweater. The sweater is knit in one piece and the cap sleeves are created by raglan shaping. It looks perfect knit with Knit Picks Stroll Sock Yarn in Basalt Heather.

I'm currently looking for test knitters, if you're interested, post your e-mail in the comments or message me at AshleyEFay@gmail.com, or on Ravelry

London

So, if you read my last post, you'll know that in April, my family took a vacation, we went to London for 4 days, then Malaga for 5 days, and back to London for 5 more days, or so we thought, about 2 days before we were supposed to leave, a volcano errupted in Iceland, and the ash cloud travelled down and covered most of the UK and other parts of Europe, apparently volcanic ash is bad news for planes. I thought we would be fine because our flight wasn't for 2 days, but every day on the news, they would announce that all flights to and from the UK are cancelled until the next day, so 2 days came and went, and we had no way to get home. After our first flight got cancelled, they rescheduled us for the next day, but that day came and went, still no flights, so they put us on a flight for a week later. I know being stuck in London doesn't sound like the worst thing, but it got a little scary not knowing when we would be able to go home, if it would be a week, a few weeks, maybe more. People were sleeping in the airport because they had no place to go. It was really strange.

So about 4 days before our next scheduled flight, airlines started doing test flights, because they were losing hundreds of millions of dollars, and they were getting tired of it, and stranded passengers weren't so happy either, so the test flights happened, and the planes were fine, but they still had to wait for approval to be able to begin flights again. The next day, still no flights, but the day after that, they started letting a few planes go, so we took that opportunity to call our airline and get the first available flight, which turned out to be in a few hours, so we gathered our luggage as quickly as possible and finally got flighy home, a week after we planned on coming home, it was certainly an adventure, but I still had a great time :]

The siblings at Broad Street mall in Reading

Cute pictures of the family on the tube

Me in Hyde Park

Me and sister in phone booths near Carnaby Street, touristy picture :]

the siblings in front of the Victoria monument outside Buckingham Palace

The girls in front of Buckingham palace

Siblings on the cute little scooters at the gelato stand in Westfield mall in London

My cute mom at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Brother, me, and sister in front of the British Museum

Me in front of Harrod's! My favorite place in London!

I have been to the UK a few times, I have had some amazing opportunities to travel, and I think this was my favorite trip, I loved it.

If you read this entire long post, thank you!

Have a lovely day!

Malaga

I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you about my trip to Malaga, Spain. In my next post I'll tell you about London. In April, my family and I went to London for 4 days, then Spain for 5 days and back to London for 5 days.

We got an amazing opportunity to stay at the 5-Star Hotel Torrequebrada

Photo from their website

Malaga was so beautiful, the beach was amazing. The beach was right outside the hotel doors, we would go out there and spend hours just watching the waves and eating delicious local fruit. Or we would walk around and find the best restaurants, they had delicious mediterranean food.

 

The whole family, minus dad, who was taking the picture

Me, my sister, and my mom

I even got to go sightseeing in Malaga city with a cute boy from Germany that I met there

 

This is us in front of the bullfighting ring, where they still have bullfights, sadly.

Here's the view from the top of the castle in Malaga.

sisters

We all had such a wonderful time, I think that Spain was one of my family's favorite vacations ever. We were definitely sad to leave, but we got to go to London again, so we were excited about that, but Malaga turned out to be the calm part of the trip, before our big adventure, which I'll tell you about tomorrow.

Thanks for reading! Have a lovely day!

Alpacas and Lavender

Today was my dad's birthday, and we went to a lavender farm and an alpaca farm! The alpaca farm was having it's annual farm day where they let people visit their alpacas and they also have yarn and roving for sale. I don't normally buy yarn impulsively, I usually buy it when I have a project in mind, but the yarn was so soft and gorgeous, I just had to get some. I got 4.7 ounces of this worsted/heavy worsted black and grey twist:

4.8 ounces (total) of this gorgeous medium rose grey fingering weight, which will make a beautiful pair of socks:

And 8 ounces, about 450 yards, of super amazingly soft baby alpaca. It's from their cute little copper brown baby alpaca named Penny Candy!

And this is the best part, I got to hang out with Penny Candy! Here we are:

It was really cool to see the alpaca that my yarn came from, I let her know I appreciate the beautiful fiber I got from her :)

We also picked lavender, which was so fun and so pretty smelling

So it was a very fun day! I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Etsy Shop

I did a small update on my Etsy shop today.

I made a white pillow with 3 fabric roses attached:

And I listed 2 pairs of my pointe shoes

So just a small update on my Etsy and on this blog today, but I'm glad I have been a little more motivated than I have in the past week :)

Have a lovely day!

Mail Call!

So I got 2 interesting bits of mail today! Number 1:

A Boye Needlemaster! This was a surprise gift from my Grandma and Aunt, they heard about my accident and they sent me this! I was so excited, it definitely made me feel better!  

The second was 2 packages of teeny-tiny clothespins!

I got them because I saw them on a display in a store and I thought they would be perfect for my mini sock advent calendar! I am making 25 mini socks to hang on a clothesline with my little mini clothespins and I think they will make a cute advent calendar christmas decoration!

Unfortunately I haven't felt up to much crafting in the past few days, I did make some baby bloomers to go with the cherry dress, here they are in progress:

Other than that, I have been working on my latest sweater design! It's nearly done, I can't wait to show you pictures because it's exactly what I pictured in my head!

Thanks for reading!

accident :(

Sorry for the lack of posting this weekend, but on Saturday I was in a car accident. I wasn't driving, I was with a friend, and no one was seriously hurt, but I did have to get my spine x-rayed yesterday and I found out I have bruising all over my spine. I also have a scrape and bruise on my collar bone from the seat belt and a painful bruise on my knee. For the past couple days I have been in pain and trying to rest, so, needless to say, I haven't been very productive with any knitting or sewing projects this weekend. Anyway, just so this post isn't too much of a downer, I was having photos taken of me right before the accident, here are a couple of my favorites: (P.S., I'm wearing the shorts I made in the last couple photos!)

I hope to have more crafts to show in the next few days as I recover! Have a lovely day!

Mini Cherries Dress

My sister owns a cherry print dress by Collectif, I don't think they have it on the website, she got her dress from a store called Rocket Rebellion in our town. She wore it when we went to a family reunion and my aunt mentioned that she thought it would make a cute baby dress, her baby is about to turn one, so I got inspired to try to recreate a tiny baby version of the dress. Here's my sister in her dress:

And here's the baby dress:

I was really happy that I found this cherry print fabric because the cherries are really little, so it looks like not only the dress has shrunk to baby size, but also the fabric, and I think the dainty print will be more suitable for a baby than some of the larger prints I was looking at.

I think my aunt will be pretty happy, because this dress is going to be a total surprise! I haven't told her that I'm making it.

Have a lovely day!