I recently finished knitting the cutest little top for my daughter and I had to show it off here. The pattern is available for free from the blog Soulful Hues in case anyone would like to check it out. It is a really easy pattern to follow and knits up nice and quick. I was able to finish this for her in under three days.

I used an organic cotton yarn for this top and love how soft it is. It unfortunately fits her perfectly so I wish I had made it a little larger. At the rate she is growing these days it will be outgrown in no time! At least if this happens I can always unravel it and use the yarn for something else.

Today we were out running around town and a lady stopped and said what a beautiful sweater my daughter was wearing. That certainly made my day!

My First Blog Giveaway!

I have been pretty busy these past couple months with my knitting and dyeing. I am also having a blast selling some of my work online. (Just in case you missed it you can find it here and here.) It is an amazing feeling when someone actually buys a piece of my work that I created with my own two hands. I’m really enjoying it- even if I am beyond stretched for time these days!

To celebrate some of the recent sales I have made and as a way to thank all my readers for their continued support over the past few (difficult) months I thought it would be fun to host a blog giveaway here on Brambleberries in the Rain. So, up for grabs is the knitted market tote you see in the picture below.

It is made of 100% cotton that I first hand-dyed and then knit into a stretchy tote that is perfect for trips to the market, library, beach, pool, etc. This tote is similar to the ones I have for sale online that retail for $15 each.

To enter this giveaway simply leave a comment below- that’s all. A winner will be drawn and announced here this Sunday morning (March 29, 2009).

Good luck to all that enter and thank you so much for reading my blog!

*Update: Congratulations to Victoria! You’re number was randomly pulled thanks to Random.org and you are the winner of my first blog giveaway! Thanks to everyone that entered. It was a lot of fun for both me and my family. My kids read my blog and enjoy every one’s comments as much as I do so it was exciting for them to see who would win. Have a great rest of the weekend everyone.  

This year I grew onions in the garden and there are all but two left that I finally pulled up just this week. We managed to eat up all the rest rather quickly. They were so good on tomato sandwiches! I now know that for this house, I need to grow lots more onions next year.

We do cook with onions a lot in my house. They are such a versatile ingredient that adds so much to one’s cooking. Leave out onions and you are leaving out a lot of flavor. As tasty as they can be I have yet another reason for loving this simple crop.

Briefly on this blog I have mentioned my love affair with knitting but I have failed to mention yet another passion of fiber I have. This passion happens to combine my love of gardening with my love of knitting very well making it a power packed craft for me. What is this craft? Well, for a few years now I have been using herbs and other various plants from my garden to dye my yarn that I use in my knitting. It has been an incredibly addicting thing for me to do. All I want to do now is fill my garden up with plants that I can dye with.

That brings me back to the humble little onion. Not only is this one handy veggie crop to grow for eating BUT it can also be used for dyeing. The skins from yellow onions make an amazing dye and the colors you achieve from them are very beautiful. The picture below shows yarn that I dyed with onion skins just recently.

Every time I pull out these skeins of yarn I am amazed that I can achieve this range of color just by using simple onion skins. So, the next time an onion starts to bring tears to your eyes as you cut it up keep in mind just how useful they really are!