Style Your Knits: Eustice

Many of you will know I've been using Polyvore to style knits for quite some time. I've decided this is going to be a fairly regular thing on the blog, so I've officially named the feature "Style Your Knits" (I know, original, right?). You can see the first few I've done by clicking here.

Today's set features Eustice, which is a free pattern from Berrocco using their gorgeous Ultra Alpaca Light. I absolutely love the cabling on this sweater, as well as the comfy, oversized cowl. For this set, I've paired it with skinny jeans, suede heels, a delicate leather lace handbag from Valentino and some shiny details. Looking at this set makes me really want to knit this sweater! I've already got most of these items, except for that amazing Valentino, which was sadly priced a bit out of my budget at a mere $2500. Ahhhh, Valentino, how I love thee. Someday, you will be mine! Perhaps, in the meantime, I can substitute with this more reasonably priced lace beauty?

I have a winner for the lovely notions bag giveaway from Kusala Knitworks! It's commenter #14, InJuneau! I'll be in touch! Remember, you still have another 2 weeks to finish a Muffalette and win the grand prize!

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Deliciousness: Weight Watchers Cupcakes! (sorta)

This weekend, the Dr. and I had guests over for dinner and board games.We wanted to keep it low-key, so we just heated up the big pot of chili I'd made on Monday, and I whipped up a fresh batch of cupcakes. I didn't feel like making cupcakes from scratch, though, so I bought a box of Pillsbury Moist Supreme in Classic Vanilla. Boxed cake mix is awesome if you're feeling lazy, but sometimes I feel like preparing it according to the box instructions makes for greasy, heavy cake, and I wanted something a little lighter.

The ones the guests got were tied with fancy ribbons too, but I totally forgot to do that to these!

A few years ago, a friend of mine told me a little Weight Watchers trick. If you buy a cake mix that says it has pudding in the mix (all of the Pillsbury Moist Supreme flavors say this), you can make light, fluffy cupcakes with barely more calories than the cake mix itself by adding a few simple ingredients. And I'm gonna tell you how to do it! Here's what you need:

• 1 box Pillsbury Moist Supreme cake mix, any flavor
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 egg whites + enough water to make 1 cup

Toss these ingredients into a bowl, mix them up with a whisk for a couple of minutes, then bake as directed on the box. The only extra calories you're getting is from the applesauce, and hey - that's a serving of fruit, right? So really, you could even say these cupcakes are good for you, amiright? This recipe will make 1 dozen Texas-sized cupcakes or 2 dozen regular cupcakes. I promise the final cupcakes don't taste like apples or applesauce at all. Just yummy cake that will leave you feeling satisfied, not guilty! You can also use 1 cup of canned pumpkin instead of the applesauce, which I hear goes really well with the spice cake. :)

Adorable, edible extras from Sugar Robot

I topped my cupcakes off with cream cheese buttercream frosting (okay, so they're not THAT great for you, but you gotta save calories where you can, right?) and edible Christmas ornaments from Sugar Robot.

Cream Cheese Buttercream:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 4 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar
  

Beat these together until smooth. This is tasty and delicious, but be warned: it's thick, so it won't pipe through a frosting bag well (ask me how I know). This frosted all 12 of my Texas-sized cupcakes, but I think you might want to double the recipe if you're making regular sized cupcakes.

I'm no Grinch...

I'll leave that in the very capable hands of one Mr. Jim Carrey.

Since it's Christmastime, and I'm not a Grinch, I've decided that Muffalette will be free through the end of December! So go snag your copy while you can, and remember...if you finish one by December 31, you could win a kit to make another!

In the meantime, here's my video tutorial for making & inserting thrums:



Thrum, they told me, thrum-thra-thrum-thrum...

Watch while you can, because the video will go back into hiding at the end of December! :)

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Introducing Muffalette (and a giveaway!)

The new Knitty got me thinking...it's been awhile since I self-published a pattern (nine months, actually, since Limeade Fizz came out), so I've decided to go ahead and release a pattern I've been working on for some time now. I give you: Muffalette!

Cozy thrummed muff!

I’m a native Texan. I spent the first 23 years of my life in Fort Worth, Texas, followed by 3 years in West Palm Beach, Florida. It should have been 5 years, but that’s a very long story involving the Dr.’s career and other people moving and someone else having a stroke, so perhaps that’s best saved for another time. Long story short, at the age of 26 I suddenly found myself residing in the Midwest. You know what? I have learned one very important thing from my time here: I do not like being cold. I’ve also never seen this much snow in my life; luckily for me, I happen to be a knitter. It suffices to say that I quickly set out on a quest to find the best way to cocoon my entire body in as many layers of wool as humanly possible during the winter months. My quest was over when my lovely local yarn shop owner told me about thrumming. Thrumming is, for someone who does not like to be cold, a godsend, because thrumming is a means by which you can knit huge gobs of fluffy, unspun wool, right into your knitting. This leaves you with an insulative layer of wool underneath your knitted fabric! It would almost be like wearing a sheep, if sheep came in loads of different colors and knew how to cable.

Colorful diamonds decorate the outside, while the inside keeps you nice and warm.

Muffalette is designed to be truly practical; it has all the grace and charm of its counterparts from a time gone by, yet still caters to the demands of today’s busy schedules. Worked with a single skein of worsted wool and two colors of fiber, this muff features diamond cables on the cuffs and sneaky colorwork across the body. There’s also a wrist strap, in case you need to send a quick text or open a door to let yourself in out of the cold.

Diamond cabled cuffs are expertly finished with an I-cord Bindoff and wrist strap.

The pattern uses just 200 yards of worsted weight yarn and 60 grams fiber, total. The 5-page PDF includes a link to a video tutorial for making the thrums and inserting them into your knitting, as well as stitch-by-stitch written instructions and charts for both the cable and colorwork sections. I'm offering it for just $4.00, but WAIT! You can get it for FREE, for the next 30 minutes, right here. If you missed the freebie, you can get $1.00 off when you use the coupon code "clubsexy" during checkout.

But that's not all!

No, friends, no post of mine would be complete without a giveaway, would it? I didn't think so, either. To help promote Muffalette, I'm going to be giving one lucky winner the following:

• 2 skeins Spud & Chloe Sweater in Lake
• 80% Merino/20% Bamboo Top with Angelina from Shunklies
• Undyed 100% Corriedale roving
• Project bag from Kusala Knitworks

Jenifer's bag fits all the goodies with room to spare!

Want to know how to enter? Well, I'm giving it a bit of a twist this time. To enter, you need to knit a Muffalette, and post your FO photos to Ravelry by the end of December 31. That's it! Muffalette knits up quickly, I promise; you have plenty of time between now and then to whip out one or five. Remember, each FO you produce counts as one entry, so go crazy! Surely you know someone who needs a lovely thrummed muff for Christmas, right?

I also have a beautiful notions bag from Jenifer to give away to one lucky commenter. To enter to win the notions bag, all you need to do is leave a comment to this post! I'll choose a winner sometime next week. (You know me, I try to be specific and then nope, it just happens when it happens.)

So cute! This one measures 7.5" x 7".

For a second entry for the notions bag, tweet the following:

"Couldn't you use some FREE YARN this Christmas? @TheSexyKnitter tells you how to win enough for her new thrummed muff: http://tinyurl.com/79nvrvg"

Good luck, everyone!

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New Knitty is Here!

The Winter issue of Knitty came out tonight, and whooboy, it's pretty great! I'm sure you've seen it by now (and if you haven't, head on over and give it a looksee), but I wanted to point a few things out. Y'all remember my interviews with Laura, Alex, and Julie, right? Well, all three of these rockstars are featured in this new issue. Take a look:

Velvet Morning, by Julie Crawford

Mandelbrot, by Alex Tinsley 

(Alex's corresponding article regarding fractal spinning is here)

Teknika, by Laura Nelkin

A huge shoutout to these three ladies and all the other featured designers! Another great issue. :)

Looking for the winner of Stacey's amigurumi giveaway? Random Number Generator tells me it's KisforKrissy! Congrats, Krissy! Stacey or I will be in touch shortly to get your address. 

I'm going to be posting another giveaway tomorrow, so don't miss out! More yarn, fiber and project bags to be had!
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