A Monster Of Your Own

We believe each person deserves a monster of their own. A whisper and secret keeper, a best friend who always waits for you. Each of them is one-of-kind and was handmade by me (Christa) right here in our studio. Each will arrive with a tag including his or her history, hopes and dreams. These ladies and gentlemen are all available and ready to ship.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/yesterdaydream

Roadtrip! (A Belated Update)

Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania

So...I moved to Seattle! I've been here since early September and it's becoming more of a home daily. There is so much to see and do. I realized I never posted about it, so let me backup a little...

It was the end of a very long relationship. My best friend Susan and I packed up Quasi & Lola into my little car and headed west along the Northern United States. We have been friends for over 25 years and through school, boyfriends, children, family gatherings (happy and sad). There wasn't another person I'd have preferred to make this journey with. 

Goodbye, New Jersey. See you soon!

We took turns driving during the days and talked about everything. She would find the local Country music stations wherever we were. A bonus was her singing and dancing skills. I would knit and in-between, there was pug-cuddling. Sue had her husband of almost a year Ted and her dog Zoe home waiting, so she would be cuddling every chance she had.

Michigan-Indiana state line

I realized that car knitting is one of my favorite things. It's a great way to relax and just let your hands become a blur. With all of the unknown ahead of me and a new life, it was the best way to focus on something besides the breakup and epic move. Besides, one of the reasons I moved when I did was my brother Sam and his lovely fiancé Megan were getting married in less than two weeks. 

outside Fargo, North Dakota

Did you know that at the Fargo-Moorehead Visitor's Center, they have the actual grinder used in the movie Fargo? We stayed up late and talked about everything. We ate terrible food and drank way too much whiskey. These are all of the ingredients for a great roadtrip. The land was always rolling, always moving along with us. The clouds went on forever and we were in awe as we drove through miles of sunflowers, cows, plateaus, the Dakota Prairie National Grasslands. 

Big Timber, Montana

Montana is a clear favorite of the trip. The rambling rivers winding for miles around the most beautiful land I ever did see. It's where the prairies fall into the base of the Rocky Mountains. We spent the night in Butte, Montana. It's an old mining town on the edge of the mountains. Quiet and comfortable. We had local steaks at Casagranda's Steakhouse, located in the historic
Bertoglio Warehouse (built in 1900) and it was amazing. The restaurant was wallpapered with old documents found in the old warehouse from purchases and agreements for the Bertoglio business. 

Idaho

We would stop where we could easily walk the dogs. We would gather stones from the Rockies; they were all different colors and little pieces of our time together. We would almost run out of gas but only just make it to the most remote gas station in the United States. 

Wild Horses Monument Viewpoint, Washington

We would stop wherever we could and stretch our legs with the pugs and see the most beautiful things. Finally, after five days, we made it to Washington!

Space Needle, Seattle, Washington

Susan stayed for a few days before flying back to New Jersey and we did some touristy things like go to the Space Needle, check out the Public Market and stick our gum to the "Gum Wall" in Post Alley. She left me feeling fortunate to have such a good friend/sister and looking forward to seeing one another again.

Beanie Hats!

I've been whipping up some chunky beanies for my shop and also as gifts for the Holidays. This one is an alternate version of my Basic Ribbed Hat pattern. Instead of doing the 2x2 ribbing, I changed it to 1x1 ribbing. 

Do you already follow me on Instagram? If not, you really should and please be sure to say Hello!

Two-At-A-Time, It Ain't So Bad

At first, I thought the yarn would be a tangled mess, I would lose track of the needle(s) or some other random excuse. The truth is that it's pretty simple to figure this all out. Maybe a tiny bit more fiddling and sorting the yarn is in order if you're using multiple skeins but it isn't so bad.

Some of my more inspiring insta-friends have been whipping socks out and there I was, afraid to let go of my DPNs. For my next pair there had to be a change. I bought myself a 40” circular needle and some pretty yarns and here I go!

Finding a simple pattern for two-up "two-at-a-time" with an afterthought heel was a bit of a challenge so I did a combination of the cast-on and toe-up from Heidi Bears and since I'm making this pair for my Mom who has smaller feet, worked it up to only 56 stitches instead of the typical 64 around. Heidi Bears had a great diagram on her post as well to make this easier. The rest of the sock will be based on the pattern from Loop Knit Lounge which includes the afterthought heel and it is written for 48, 56 or 64 stitches. Perfect. 

For these socks, I'm using Knit Picks Stroll Fingering "Make Believe" and Black Market Wool's The Milo "Room Without A Window” to create my own stripes. I plan on doing the toes, three stripes, the heel and the upper band of the sock in the aqua and the rest in the purple-ish blend. 

The photo above marks one day's knitting in my spare time! How nice will it be to have two finished at the same time?

Ugly Socks

I will admit here and only once that my first adult pair of socks took me about two and a half years to complete. It was all because of that second sock. Call it "second sock syndrome" or whatever you'd like. They traveled across The United States! The yarn used for these was Lion Brand's Sock-Ease Prints in "Lemon Drop" and perhaps I chose the wrong project for them but these are referred to as my "Ugly Socks" now. I started the second sock's ribbing incorrectly and had to redo the whole thing. It was traumatic and I felt defeated but I pushed on. Happy I finally finished them.

Here they are:

I guess they aren't so bad.

We Have Yarn!

We are proud to announce we have launched new one-of-a-kind batches of hand painted Merino yarns in many different weights and fiber combinations. We source and mill locally and all of our products are made in America.

Have a look here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/yesterdaydream

Each of our skeins is guaranteed to have NO knots! How wonderful is that? We knit and crochet and understand the value of a perfect skein of scrumptious, lush, high-quality, squishy yarn. 

 

county fair

gaelic magic

This is so exciting for us! All of our yarns are also already on Ravelry so it will be easy for you to link/share your creations with us too!

We will be adding more fingering weight and worsted weight to our shop very soon. If you're interested in certain colors, we'd love to hear it. Comment below or get in touch with us another way:

website: http://yesterdaydream.com/
"Like" us on facebook: http://facebook.com/yesterdaydreamdotcom
Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/yesterdaydream
Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/yesterdaydream
Instagram: http://instagram.com/yesterdaydream

Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/brands/yesterdaydream