The winners of Tres Bien Ensemble Follower Appreciation Giveaway have been randomly selected! YOU WON!Thank you all for making the first monthly giveaway of this year a success! I love reading your comments, visiting your blogs and scoping out your amazing talents on Ravelry! Keep an eye out for more fun in February!
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Things remain mostly as they did a week ago. My attention is spread over a large number of projects, making progress on any individual item, well, slow. There has been little progress of note. Yet, there's been progress.
See, progress. I really do hope next week is more about finishing than it is about progressing. I could use some completion.  As a final mention, TODAY IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO ENTER the FOLLOWER APPRECIATION giveaway. I will post the winners tomorrow. Thanks so much to those of you who have already participated!  Hello lovely people. How are you today? I'm nearly fully functional, if a bit scatter brained- per usual. Without the structure of monthly, self-imposed project goals, I feel I'm experiencing some knitting project ADD. I have numerous projects in progress, in varying degrees of completeness. I'm like a rubber ball on a staircase bouncing between them. 
The latest project to join the parade is this _______. It's somewhat secret for the time-being. Any guesses what it might be? 
As intended, I devoted a large chunk of Monday to sewing my Hollyburn. I'm down to the hand-finishing already! At some point this week (hopefully), I'll get that waistband fully secured, add the buttons to the tabs, and finish the hem. I didn't make it to the blouse, but I did get the fabric pre-washed, so it's ready whenever I feel inspired to start. 
Then, there's the Fargo sweater I started. It needs another sleeve and some seaming. But, it's close. 
I haven't stopped progress on my Oolong. Though, things have slowed to a crawl now that I'm seaming all those little stitches. Is it strange that I'm enjoying seaming this? It was a conscious choice to modify the pattern from its seamless, raglan design to a fully pieced, flat knitting project, but I didn't expect to find pleasure in the tedious act of mattress stitching a fingering weight sweater. Weird. I have one sleeve and the raglan remaining before I can pick-up and knit the collar. 
Additionally, I have started sweaters for Dulce and Danger. They weren't excited about having to go outside naked yesterday while it was -2F. I think that's it. I'm probably missing something(s). What are you working on this week? 
Good morning. I'm off to a moderately slow paced start, sipping away on some delightful tea, and getting caught up with all that occurred on the internet over the weekend. I'm enjoying a day away from the office in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.. I plan to sew and knit all day. I hope he would have approved; both these activities do have ways of bringing the most unlikely people together, yes? 
I'm fully prepared to start work on my Hollyburn skirt. Rachel over at My Messings is hosting a SAL over two weeks, it's just beginning, so there's time for you to play along too if you'd like. Additionally, I've planned out a blouse project to pair with my Hollyburn. 
I'm using an aubergine 100% wool crepe as my primary skirt fabric. I'm going to line my skirt, per my personal preferences. The lining is also purple. Not very exciting, I know. But a purple skirt is already a little bit of a stretch for me, friends. I need to learn how to walk before I'll be doing any running around in wild prints and crazy colors. 
The blouse fabric is considerably edgier. I hadn't intended to buy any fabric when I stopped at Joann's for notions, but this jumped off the shelf and into my arms. It was an end-of-bolt piece. There was 1 1/8 yards left. I bought it and crossed my fingers it'd be enough for a blouse. This Vogue pattern requires 1 1/8 yards. Destiny. Plain and simple. The fabric is difficult to see in my shody photos. It reminds me of a honeycomb and it has all my favorite colors in it: Purples, greens, black, plus a few more. It should be interesting.
I've got the funk. Not the type a person might want. The opposite, actually. I've been pretty worthless for a couple days now. I spent yesterday afternoon in bed feeling sorry for myself. It's very strange for me to get sick. It doesn't happen. I'm insanely proud of, and cocky about, my mega-resilient immune system. Yet, I succumbed. I'm not sure how I contracted this super-strain, but it can go back to wherever it came from. I have too many, far more important things to do than deal with it. For example, sewing this skirt. 
My copy of Sewaholic's Hollyburn skirt arrived in the mail yesterday. It's my first Sewaholic pattern. I've heard and seen so many great things about Tasia's designs that I knew I wanted to participate in the upcoming Sew-Along, hosted by the lovely Rachel, at MyMessings. I'm pretty thrilled to start working on this project. This skirt is going to be a perfect wardrobe building staple. 
And, yes. This marks one pattern in... so I also need to dedicate some energy towards sending ten of my existing patterns on their way. Stupid resolutions.
Have a lovely and healthy weekend!!! Hooray! My first giveaway of the year!! As I mentioned in my resolutions, one thing I'd like to do this year is build up this blog. In my efforts to do so, I've branched out into the realm of social media. Not everyone has a facebook, a twitter account, a blog roll, and a ravelry page, but I'm willing to bet most people use at least one of the aforementioned.    Ravelry BlogLovinYou can follow Tres Bien Ensemble numerous ways. Each of the above images will link you to Tres Bien Ensemble's surrogate homes around the internet. Add me to your blog roll, follow me on Twitter, friend me on Ravelry, or like me on Facebook and you can enter to win this month's giveaway! To enter, leave me a comment telling me your chosen platform for keeping up with Tres Bien Ensemble. (If you use Google Reader, Blogger, etc... you are very welcome to participate.) This is largely based on the honor system; I'm trusting there won't be any funny business. On January 31 I will announce FOUR winners. All winners will be randomly selected. Each winner will receive the pattern they have queued-up in the #1 spot on their Ravelry page (individual patterns only). BONUS: If you follow Tres Bien Ensemble using more than one method, you will receive multiple entries! Each entrant is eligible to win only one time, but you can increase your odds by dropping your name in the hat multiple times. RULES
One of these things is totally WRONG. Yes. My brain has failed me. 
What a disaster. Between the Packers' loss on Saturday and my sock failure, the weekend was a bust. Of course, I didn't realize my error until I was weaving in the ends on my second sock. I thought to myself...."huh, there seem to be fewer ends than I recall on the first sock." Sure enough, there are. 
I've considered the surgical options for repair on these, but the slip stitch pattern makes it a pretty risky endeavor. I'd probably make things worse. Alas, I've accepted that ripping and re-knitting is my best approach. (SIGH)
On a brighter note. Thank you so much for you lovely comments on Mike's hat. He read them all, and he blushed a couple times. He now feels confident that he deserves a recurring feature post on the blog, being as he was such a smash hit. :-D Happy Monday. Well, in this case, the knitter's husband had no hats. The other night, Mike, not so subtlely, reminded me that he had chosen yarn for two hats while we were in Minnesota. Being that it is January, in Chicago, he was really going to need some follow-through on my part, or he was going to have to buy a new hat. From a store.
Oh, the shame of it. My husband, wearing a machine-knit hat. What would people think? ...I couldn't allow it.
I grabbed the worsted tweed from the cubby. Mike selected a relatively simple cabled beanie. And, I set to work immediately.
By the following morning, a hat.
It's a warm hat. It fits him well. He says he likes it. I think he looks cute in it.
I do like a man in wool.
Pattern: Men's Ski Hat by Irina Dmitrieva
Needles: U.S. Size 8 Yarn: 2 Balls SMC Tweed Deluxe (orange/schwartz) 
They just keep coming. Babies everywhere. There are three more on their way this year, and it's still January, so I'm betting that number increases before we see things through.
The first addition to the fold comes in February. He/she will be ready for knitted goodness upon arrival.
The pattern is Baby Jumpsuit by Pinar Ürün Sizun. I first fell in love with the little accessories that can be knit to coordinate with the pattern, but, alas, I didn't save myself enough time to get them ready before the showering of gifts. And, I literally used all but inches of the skein I knit from during the knitting of the jumper.
I would have preferred to do a few additional rounds in the sleeves, but I didn't have the yardage to make it happen. The nice thing is that this pattern takes exactly one skein of Patton's Beehive Baby sport. Exactly one.
It took me a while to get used to the 'wrong side' look. It totally makes most sense to have the smoothest side of the knitting against that soft sensitive skin, especially, since this is intended for a newborn, but I'm just, generally, not a purl side fan. Regardless, the pattern is very easy to follow. And, I just adore the cable detail and button-up closure along the side. Again, great thinking on the part of the designer to put buttons in a spot where they are least likely to be an irritant. Even without a chubby little body inside, it's pretty cute, yes?
LOOK! I made a shirt. Isn't it swell? 
And, it's snakeskin! Isn't that...well... honestly, I have no idea what part of my brain made the decision to come home with this print. I'm almost positive most of my brain activity the day I bought this was dedicated to processing the abundance of fabric available at LZ Textile Discount Outlet's warehouse. Meg and I had fire in our eyes and Groupon vouchers in our pockets. Things got a little out of control, and I bought some snakeskin print fabric. 
I could be deluded, but I think it works. 
Based on my incredibly scientific analysis of the fabric (see here and here), I've determined the fabric content to be Rayon. 
This is edgy for me, folks. Totally uncharted territory. I didn't want to overdo it, so I opted for a contrast collar. I used my leftover fabric and a Clover bias tape maker to create trim for the sleeves and hem line. 
I did my buttonholes on my sewing machine, which was nearly not cool. The buttons are three dimensional, glass, upside down pyramids. They BARELY fit through the openings of the buttonholes. I think the sizer on my button-holer anticipates the use of a flatter button, or something. And, I will be sure to test-run on scrap fabric before attempting similar feats again. 
Getting over my fear of setting sleeves is a total game-changer. And, now I can't wait to make more blouses! 
These waistline tuck pleats create an ultra flattering, very feminine shape. 
Technically, I finished this shirt before 2013 started. I steady, rocked this shirt all night long on New Year's Eve. I see this blouse entering my regular rotation, but I definitely need to whip up some skirts and/or a pair of black pants to wear with it.
It's imperative that I get this pattern traced onto tissue, because I'm going to use it repeatedly. I fell in love with this pattern the minute I saw it. And, it completely lived up to my expectations. The pattern I own is a size 12 (Bust 30, waist 24), which are totally not my measurements, yet I didn't change a thing in the construction. When I held the pieces up to Midge, I had a feeling this was going to work out just fine. It did. However, next time, I'm going to make a 'big bottom' adjustment so I have more room over the hip. I also can afford to shorten the length of the bodice by an inch or so. And, that's it. For now. More soon.
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