Giveaway Winner

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Not only does was the winner of the giveaway get the Christine Haynes Chelsea dress pattern, buttons from Liberty, and a Cath Kitson pincushion, but she was promised a ***mystery*** surprise. When I wrote up the original post I didn't even know what the mystery prize was going to be, that's how mysterious of a gift it was haha. A week ago I went to The Fabric Store in Los Angeles and bought 1.5 yards of this lovely (mysterious) cotton polka dot fabric and am happy to say that it is going to Nadine.



Thanks to everyone for entering the giveaway and to Christine for supplying the amazing pattern! xoxo

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A visit to Birch Fabrics

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I've been to two awesome fabric stores that I would like to blog about, one in my hometown and one in Los Angeles. Today I'm going to talk about my visit to Birch Fabrics in Paso. Where is Paso Robles? Paso is a cute little town halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It's known for it's wine and boasts close to 200 different wineries. There are cute shops and amazing restaurants and, most importantly, it's the home of Birch!

When Melissa informed me that Birch was having a sale I invited myself to tag along with her for the forty five minute car ride. FYI I have no shame and totally invite myself places, especially when fabric is involved!



There were three girls working the sale. Unfortunately, the sidewalk sale landed on one of the few rainy days of the year and had to be moved inside. Despite that extra stress I thought the girls handled it well. It was pretty busy and they all provided great customer service.

Melissa got some awesome stuff! 

You can't go wrong with Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe!

If you're not familiar with the store, they carry primarily quilting cottons and even design their own line of fabric. There were even some Colette and Sewaholic patterns!

You know you have been partying too hard when you are covered in little bits of thread. I guess I shouldn't wear all black when I'm fabric shopping haha.

Pretty tree in the rain.


We finished our fabric shopping extravaganza with lunch at my favorite restaurant in town, Odyssey. We both had the artichoke and brie sandwich (YUMMMMM) and I had a cup of carrot bisque. Fabric + good food = amazing day!

Have any of you been to Birch? If I lived closer I would try and get a job there, I love it so much!

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Stray knitted beret

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After knitting Tasha's Victory beret pattern I realized how much I enjoyed color work knitting and immediately got started on another project, Andi Satterlund's Stray beret. It's probably not a surprise to anyone that this was my next knitting project, my love for leopard print is well documented throughout my blog. I have leopard clothes, so of course the next step would be knitting a beanie :)

This beret may not look as complicated as the last one I knit, but trust me, it definitely took awhile to get the hang of things. With the Victory beret there were many different colors used throughout, but while knitting there were only two colors used in each row. With Stray I learned how to knit with three strands at once. In my right hand I held the tan (main color) and in my left I held the dark brown and black. As I went along it seemed like the dark brown yarn wasn't being held tight enough and looked a little puffy. Luckily my problems blocked right out for the most part.

I would like to inform everyone that I have since gotten my bangs trimmed, so no need to stress over that situation!

The yarn was purchased online at Knit Picks. I used the Swish DK Yarn  which was nice to knit with and was super affordable. I tend to knit pretty tight, so I used needles a size up, a 3 for the ribbing and a 6 for the color work. Knitting with double pointed needles drives me crazy, so I used magic loop to finish off.

 Knitting guts!

Every knitting project that I have made so far has used the same cast on method and when I saw that this one required a stretchy cast on I was excited to learn something new. I wasn't sure how to go about starting it, so I lurked around on YouTube and found this tutorial to be super helpful. The finished edge was super stretchy (mission complete) and I can see how it's perfect for a hat.

 
I enjoy blocking berets because they are so easy! Soak them in water for a half hour and then stretch them over a dinner plate to dry.

Lebron doesn't know what to think.

Overall, the pattern was great to knit. Andi did a good job of designing something that looks difficult, but is actually really straightforward to make. Now I just need recommendations for another color work pattern. What's your favorite? I think I'm addicted.

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