A Bug's Life

Celebration of the Miracle of Life

2012-01-29T11:29:00.000-08:00

Today is an anniversary. A very very special anniversary.

Today is my beautiful daughter's tenth birthday.
She has been in our life for more than a decade. I say more than a decade, because while it has been a decade since I laid eyes on her, I knew her for 9 months before that.

On this very special anniversary in which we celebrate the 10 years of joy this beautiful Daisy has brought to us, I thought it appropriate to share the story of my miracle child.

I feel very blessed to have been very aware of my children during each pregnancy. It has been so fun to look back and recognize that these beautiful little people are the same little people I got to start getting to know before they were even born. Each one still has the same personality that I felt growing inside of me.

With Daisy, this showed up in how she listened.

Example: The first time I went to the Dr, he had a very difficult time finding the baby's heartbeat. She kept moving all over while we were there. So the next time we headed in for a check-up, I talked to her (remember, this is in the 1st trimester of pregnancy. It is said that the baby is not a human at this point. I will never every believe that), I told her that there was nothing to be afraid of, we just wanted to make sure she was doing well.

She was still so we could listen to her heartbeat. Yes, it would be very easy to say that was a coincidence. But it wasn't. That was not an isolated incident.

Daisy was very active before she was born. She liked to kick (I swear she bruised the inside of my ribs. She did pop them once.). She listened to us. She recognized her father's voice, and his hands. If he would rub my belly, she would calm down. She would curl up into his hand to be rubbed. Occasionally, she would put her hand up against his. He could feel each finger pushing against him through my skin. She would listen to him sing. It was amazing how aware of us she was.

Because Daisy was overdue, the Dr recommended an induction. We went to the hospital and got ready. In the morning, the Dr told us she was up too high, and if she didn't come down in 6 hrs, we would have to cancel the induction and try again later. So Joel and I walked the halls of the hospital and talked to our baby that we couldn't see. We told her it was time for us to meet her. We told her we were so excited to see her. We told her that she had to move down and come out to us now.

She did.

She came down so far so fast that I wanted to push for 8 hours before the rest of my body was ready for it.

Backing up just a little bit here- when we first came to the hospital, I talked to the nurses and the Dr. I know my body pretty well. I have some health issues, and always have. I am the 1%. I told them this. I said "Be ready. I don't know what is going to happen, but I know this is not going to go as you expect it to." They smiled gently at me and said, "You'll be fine, don't worry!" I said, "I'm not worried, I just know this. Trust me. Please, be ready." And received again the gentle smile and head shake and calming comment.

After the Dr broke my water and as we were waiting, Joel read to me. He read what we were currently reading in the Bible. This is a part of what he read in Joshua chapter 1:
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous,
⁷ “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
"Only be strong and courageous!”

Then things got more intense, and I needed him to do more than read. ;)

Really, everything went quite well (except that the baby was so incredibly low....) until after Daisy was born.

Another example of how well Daisy listened to us: when they put her on my belly with the umbilical cord still attached (her dark brown eyes wide open) and she started crying I said (utterly unknowingly- remember, this was my first), "Oh, baby, it's ok, you don't have to cry!"

And she stopped. Just like that.

And the nurse stared at us and said, "yes she does!!!!" Oops. She didn't cry again. Until they suctioned her lungs.

And that was the last I saw of her for over 2hrs.

Because as the Dr was trying to get my placenta to come out (it was not cooperating), my uterus came out.

Things moved very fast for me after that. A human uterine inversion is a really big deal. It's not like when it happens to a cow (that's called a prolapsed uterus)- then it's not a big deal. The vet puts it back asap because otherwise it's very hard to get back and more likely to happen again- but there's not much blood, and it's not life-threatening. I grew up as a vet's daughter. I saw cows in that situation all the time. It took me a few minutes to realize that it was a much much bigger scarier deal when it happened to me.

By the time I realized the gravity of the situation, the nurses were wheeling me into the OR, and I was so weak, I couldn't even tell Joel I loved him. He stood there, holding our daughter and looking at me as I was taken away from him- for all I knew, for the last time. And I could not even speak to say "I love you". It was one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life.

While I was in the OR, Joel was with our parents and my sister, and our daughter. They prayed for me the whole time. Daisy was incredibly aware. She watched everybody. My Dad says she always watched Joel. And she knew him. If someone else held her, she watched Joel. If he held her, she relaxed. She recognized him. She felt safe with him. They had an amazing bond from the first moment.

I was fully aware of everything that happened to me until they fully knocked me out. I remember hearing the nurse saying my blood pressure and thinking "oh wow, that's not good". Then the warm blankets as they brought me out of it.

I had 3 blood transfusions and 10 liters of fluid. I was in the hospital for a week, and on bed rest for 2 weeks after that.

But I was there.

I held my daughter.
I nursed her.
I have watched her grow from this amazing, aware little listener

Into this beautiful, intelligent, loving 10 year old.

And I am thankful for every single minute of it.

God told me to be strong and courageous. And He took care of the rest.
And He always will.
Thank you, God.

First Book Review of the New Year

2012-01-10T19:09:00.000-08:00

It was so hard to get into this book! The beginning was just so confusing tome. There was so much jumping betweencharacters and moving around the timeline. I was quite lost for the first 10percent of the book, and I almost gave up. ButI was very glad that I kept reading. The characters got sorted, the timelinebecame more obvious, and then the story just soared.

By about halfway through the book, I think I had an idea ofwhere the story was going; but that didn’t make it boring. It made me totallyinterested to see what was going to happen to the characters as the story wentalong. The characters were verypoignant. You get to know them very verywell, and begin to identify with them and feel for them- to the point that Iwas almost disappointed when the book ended.

This story is about freedom, I think. Different forms of freedom, and how peopleseek for it. I don’t want to give awaytoo much of the story line, so I’m not really going to say a lot about it. It is set in the South before, during, andafter the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. It is also set in Nepal- in the caste system and the practical slaveryof the quarries. The story brings the 2very different settings together beautifully, challenging bias and prejudice ina very good way.

This is not the kind of story I usually get into- it’sreally pretty intense; but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will be looking for morefrom this author. Highly recommend it.

A Belated Happy Birthday

2012-01-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the day- but we were so busy celebrating, I didn't get it posted....

Six years ago, my wonderful Bear joined our family.

We have been utterly blessed by him every since. Happy Birthday, sweet Bear, We love you!!!

Goodbye 2011, Welcome 2012

2012-01-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

Here we are at the beginning of a brand new year! Crazy how very very fast the time is going.
What a wild year 2011 was.
It would take me such a long time to go through all that happened last year- if I could even remember it all, which I don't think I could. It was amazing, and God saw us through it all; that's what I know.

This next year? I don't know. It's going to be a new journey, and I'm looking forward to it. Around this time, I hear and read a lot about New Years Resolutions, and goals for the year. I confess I have spent less time thinking about things like that this time around then ever before. I really don't have any goals or resolutions. I'm already working on whatever I would have goaled or resolved.

Weight loss? Doing it- and so far successfully, thanks to a drastic diet change and help from my naturopath- as it turns out a lot of my weight problems were a result of health issues- not bad eating or lack of exercise.

Exercise? Doing it- it's part of the weight loss, and it feels great.

Make over? Sort of doing it, and it seems to be working nicely.
About 4 weeks ago I got The Curly Girl Handbook from my library. I read skimmed through it, and started trying it out. This is the before picture:

And this is 2 weeks into it:

I think it is going quite nicely. I would say my hair is a little curlier now than this last pic, but not by much. Joel likes how it's looking too. Although I think that may just be because I leave my hair down more often now and he likes that. I confess it's difficult for me. I'm pretty busy, and having hair in my face and on my neck is a frustration when I'm in the middle of a lot of stuff- but for the most part its really working out quite nicely and I'm pleased. I'm impressed with the difference in my hair- but mostly I'm stoked because I no longer have issues with itchy scalp or dandruff. Pretty great.

Knitting? Well, I'm already doing that too. I still have a book contract I am working to finish, and I expect that to take the whole year. I'm cooking right along on the current design, and have things mostly lined out for the rest. Yarn support is already dealt with except for maybe one or 2 things that I don't have to worry about until after June- so really the knitting thing is kinda taking care of itself this year. I'm also still teaching knitting classes at Andersen Fiber Works on Thursday evenings, so that aspect of the knitting thing is also already going.

Other goals? Well, I want to read more intelligent books this year and actually learn more rather than escaping into fiction consistently. But that's another one I've already started on, and so far it's going great and I'm loving it. I just finished Forgotten God by Francis Chan- and I highly recommend it. Totally impressed. I got it from the library, but I think I'm gonna have to buy it and read it again with a highlighter and a pen for notes. My current intelligent read? A God-Entranced Vision of All Things. I'm starting it today and looking forward to it. I'm loving exercising my mind along with my body- and I'm learning so much! It's great.

So really, whatever goals I may have made or resolutions I may have wanted to follow- I feel like I'm already doing it. I'm really looking forward to seeing what this year brings us.

Roo is looking forward to the coming year too- in fact you might say he's jumping right into it:

Jabberwocky

2011-12-29T08:42:00.000-08:00

…"Beware the Jabberwock, myson!
The jaws that bite, the claws thatcatch!
Beware the Jubjub bird,
and shunThe frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe hesought --

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes offlame,
Came whiffling through the tulgeywood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two!One, two!And throughand through
The vorpal blade went snickersnack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamishboy!
O frabjous day!Callooh!Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.…

Lewis Carroll(from Through the Looking-Glassand What Alice Found There, 1872)

My last contribution to The Unique Sheep's Wonderland Sock Club:

This is what happened when I sat down to knit while thinking about the Jabberwocky from the Alice in Wonderland Movie. Personally, I think it fits pretty well....

Book Review

2011-12-22T17:04:00.000-08:00

This isthe 2^nd book of the C.H.A.O.S Trilogy. I confess to not reading the1^st one, as I received this one from Book Sneeze to review. Thatwasn’t a big problem. There’s a little comic strip section in the front of thebook explaining the background of the story. It is a fun little inclusion.

This isdefinitely a Young Adult book- and in a lot of ways, it might have been betterto continue the whole thing as a graphic novel, because that’s really what itreads like. There’s not a lot of characterdevelopment; there is a lot of stuff that is way out there and difficult tobelieve in the way the characters act and react. It’s very much an action book, not big ondescription.

Basically,Colt is a teenager (around 16, I guess, it never was clear) that is newlyorphaned and living with his Grandpa, who apparently is a famous superheroimmortalized in comic books. He and his two friends are on their way to theCHAOS Military Academy- although for some reason Colt is also being pushed asthe successor to the CHAOS Directorship. (Which makes no sense to me, as it isobvious through the whole book that he’s a young, clueless kid- and nogovernment agency is going to be run by a clueless teenager. A bit toofar-fetched on that one for me.) In themeantime, the current director of CHAOS has hired an assassin to get rid ofColt. There’s some background stuffgoing on to fill things out nicely, but that pretty much sums it up.

It wasa quick, fun little read. It did hold my interest quite well, even though someof it was a bit far-fetched. All in all, it was a nice distraction; andprobably a great book for teens.

Celebrations

2011-12-22T09:23:00.000-08:00

I love this time of year. I love that family gathers together often during the last 6 weeks of the year. It seems like the perfect way to end one year and start another- by being together.

And our families have a lot of reasons to get together and celebrate during the last weeks of the year. Not only do we have Thanksgiving and Christmas to enjoy- but there are a lot of birthdays this time of year as well.

Even though today is the actual day of her birth, last night our family joined with Joel's brother's family to celebrate the birthday of my beautiful niece, Sylvia, one year ago- as well as a brief Christmas celebration. We all had a most wonderful time together.

Sylvia loved her cake.

It is so hard to believe it's been a full year since she joined our family. What a wild and busy year it was. Roo and his cousin illustrated it perfectly for us:

This weekend is Christmas (Not that you didn't already know that....) and I am so looking forward to it. What better way could there be to end the year than to celebrate the birth of my Saviour?

"How Old Would You be....

2011-12-15T08:17:00.000-08:00

"....If you didn't know how old you are?"

I love that quote. Joel got me a magnet with it for my birthday a few years ago. It has a picture of an elderly nun playing paddle-ball. I think it's great.

If I didn't know- I think I would be 22. I don't feel older than 22. Even though today is my birthday, and I do actually know how old I am, I still feel like the person I was when I was 22. I know I'm not- not entirely. I've changed, I've learned, I've grown (and shrunk a little- more than once; having kids'll do that to a person), I've taken up knitting.... But I'm still me.

I must confess, I get a little more spoiled each year when this day comes around. Apparently, the older I get, the more friends I get. I am a very very blessed woman. I have the most amazing family and friends.

This year, they conspired to get me everything on my Birthday/Christmas wishlist.

A lot of it, I got early (somehow that seems to happen more when you're an adult. When you're a kid, you never get your birthday presents early- you have to wait until the day- then you have to wait until the end of the party- and THEN you have to SHARE. That's always the hardest part. I've discovered there are some definite advantages to being an adult- even if it does come with an awful lot of responsibilities!), like the dehydrator I talked about in an earlier post (Thank you again, Mom, I am using it weekly!).

Then this last weekend, I REALLY got spoiled. My Plurk pals got together (again- remember the bread machine last year?), and blessed me.
The Amazon gift certificate gave me some unexpected fun- the joy of watching my children help my husband put together my new shelf set:

Which is totally cute. Along with the shelves, I got some collapsible buckets- I need more storage space!

And to top it all off, they sent me a Kindle Touch.

I spent the weekend loading it.
I have over 160 books on it already- so I should be set for awhile!
I love it. I've been watching the Kindles for awhile- I actually got the Kindle for PC app over 6 months ago and have slowly been collecting free books- but I don't sit at my computer to read, so they were just sitting in there. Now I get to read them when and where I want to!

In fact, I had so much fun with my Kindle this weekend, that yesterday when I was trying to finish the library book before it's late; I touched the page, and was totally confused for a second because the page didn't turn like it was "supposed" to. :D

Once again, I am blown away by the generosity of the amazing people I know. Thank you so much my friends. I am so thankful for you.

I did get yet another gift for my birthday- but the dress boots that Joel ordered online for me didn't quite work out- so I'll be trying to find some later. But seriously- I can't believe it. How blessed can one person be????

My favorite part of my birthday and Christmas is yet to come, though. I've saved up, and today, the kids and I are going to go through the Samaritan's Purse Catalog together. We are so blessed- and now we get the opportunity to share it. I love that part of December. Advent and the opportunities that are all over for us to give something to someone else. It's my favorite tradition.

Samaritan's Purse also does Operation Christmas Child. We used to do this yearly with our church- now we do it on our own or with friends. The kids love it. They get to pick stuff out for other kids that don't have the resources we do. It is a great way for the kids to be involved in giving.

A couple of churches I have been to in the past do something I LOVE. It's called Advent Conspiracy. During the Advent/Christmas season, people take a close look at their traditions and gift giving and choose something that costs money, and give it up for this year. Whether that means 1 less toy for each kid- or 1 less trip to the restaurant, or whatever it looks like for each family/individual- the money that is saved then goes to an organization such as Water for Life. I love this. I think it is the best. We are so blessed here- we need to share the love; and what better time than Christmas to do so?

What tradition of sharing do you have during this season??

Update

2011-12-02T12:17:00.001-08:00

Wow! What a wild week it has been !Thanksgiving was a wonderful as I anticipated. The kids helped me make Frosty the Breadman:

All of our family came and celebrated with us. We shared our thanks, ate all day, and then the (younger) men had the traditional "Feats of Strength" Competition to burn off some of the calories:

The kids were suitably amazed. :)

Since Thanksgiving, I have been so busy.

I got all of my Christmas shopping done (except for my shopping for Joel. He is incredibly hard to find a gift for....), thanks to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. I do not, however, have all my Christmas crafting done; which means the busy-ness is far from over.

I have been frantically catching up on pattern writing and prepping for the next couple of designs I need to get going on. In November, I have designed and knit 2 pairs of mittens, 2 hats, and completed a pair of socks- all of which had to have the patterns to go with them finished and sent out to test knitters.

Admittedly, that doesn't seem like very much knitting to show for a full month- but I have been so busy otherwise with school, the kids, Thanksgiving, and all, that there was at least 2 weeks out of the month that I was only able to knit maybe 1 hr per day- which is not a whole lot of time. I am hoping that things will actually start to calm down here pretty soon- when I'm done with the Christmas crafting, that is- and I will have some more time for knitting. In anticipation of that, I've started a new purse project (mittens and a cowl- or maybe a hat, I can't decide.), and a big at home colorwork sweater. Which I finally cast on for last night- and I am so loving how this yarn is knitting up!!! I am really excited about how this is going to turn out. I'll tell you more about it later.

So I have spent the last week prepping (shopping) for Christmas, doing and prepping for school and vacation, taking Roo to the Dr (prayer would be appreciated- that surgery is unnecessary. Nothing life-threatening, just things are not where they are supposed to be...), knitting/pattern writing/designing, cleaning and organizing (we always go through the toys and pass a lot on before Christmas in preparation- do you??), and just being busy with general mama stuff.....

In the meantime- I also received an early Birthday/Christmas present!

I am extremely excited about this big black box.

Because you see, it is a dehydrator. A nine tray Excalibur Dehydrator.

And I have been putting it to good use already. The kids are thrilled- and so am I!

First Fruits:

First Meats:

Snacks the kids can have, and snacks I can have. Happy tummies all around. :D Yay for useful gifts! (Thank you, Mom, I LOVE it! :D )

And just because I can't leave a blog post that has this many pictures without the requisite cuteness- here is Bear and Roo happily playing together- and Roo has discovered what to do about that painful camera flash.

Giving Thanks

2011-11-23T07:37:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

This is my favorite time of year by far. I confess I like Thanksgiving better than Christmas. Somehow, the whole gift giving thing is stressful for me. Maybe it's because I never feel like I can knit fast enough- and then I worry if the person will like their gift, or just say so, or maybe even not say so.

But Thanksgiving-

Thanksgiving is about being together. It's about celebrating what you have (not planning what you want). It's about gratitude, family, love, and counting your blessings. Somehow, it's hard not to be content and joyful when you are counting your blessings.

I love it.

This year, if the weather is cooperative (and it looks like it will be), we will have a total of 6 kids and 9 adults in our cozy home tomorrow. They'll start coming today. I am so excited.

Tomorrow, we will feast and talk and watch the kids play and share what we are thankful for this year. We do it every year. It's my favorite part. There are those things we are always thankful for- but each year also adds its own blessings.

This year, I am thankful for health. My family is healthy- and I am healthier than I have been in years.
I am thankful for my husband's job- he has work that he enjoys and it provides enough that I get to be with my children all day.
I am thankful for our warm home, our vans that work, the good food that fills our bellies....
I am thankful most of all for my family. They fill my days with adventure and my heart with joy. I am blessed beyond measure.

Happy Thanksgiving- from our family to yours.

What are your special blessings this year?

Today

2011-11-19T15:10:00.001-08:00

Today, I took a wild trip down memory lane.

Today, I tried on a dress that I wore once- 11+ years ago.

Today, I got to remember one of the happiest days of my entire life.

Today, I spent over half an hour ironing a dress that I haven't worn in 11+ years, and apparently will be completely unable to ever wear again.

Today I realized that 11 years and 4 kids changes ones body in rather unexpected ways.

Today, I am thankful for every minute of those 11+ body-changing years and the 4 miracles that helped change not only my body, but my entire life- for the better.

Today, my daughter said she wants to wear my wedding dress someday.

Today, as I am every day, I am completely and utterly blessed.

I am thankful for today.

50 Things every Young Lady Should Know

2011-11-11T10:03:00.001-08:00

A little Book Review Friday for you:

By Kay West with John Bridges and Bryan Curtis

This is a very nice little advice book for youngladies. It was advertised for ages eightto fourteen, but I have to say I really think it is not for girls undereleven. That’s just my opinion, but itdoes not seem necessary to me for an eight year old to read about dating and cosmeticetiquette. If you’re okay with yourdaughter dating and going to dances at a younger age, then this book would beappropriate for her at that age. I am a bit old fashioned, maybe, but I thinkthis book is for tween and teen-aged girls.

Thatlittle rant out of the way, this is a good book. I do recommend it. It covers a lot of material- from writing athank you note to getting out of a car correctly. It also covers how to use modern media such asthe internet correctly- something I appreciated. It is easy and quick to read, as each topiccovers no more than 5 or 6 pages at most. It will be a couple years yet, but this isone I am definitely going to have my daughter read- and keep for a handy littlereference book.

A Little Purple Hat

2011-11-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

This story is just a bit on the late side. It actually happened a little over a week ago. But I have been so busy with school, kids stuff, and other knitting in the meantime I haven't taken the time to blog.

Not last weekend, but the weekend before, I sat down to knit a little purple hat for a baby. I grabbed some nice warm wool, because the baby this is intended for will be living in Canada. Canada in the winter is cold.
The yarn is Plymouth Galway Chunky. The pattern is the hat from the Bouncing Baby set in Homespun, Handknit- which you may recognize from the YarnHarlot's blog a couple months ago.

I chose this pattern because after the intensity of the lace on the pink blob (which did turn out totally gorgeous by the way- and she does love it- but you can't see it 'til it's published, sorry), I desperately needed some instant gratification- and garter stitch.
So I happily sat down and cast on- with larger yarn and larger needles than the pattern calls for. Didn't swatch, just started merrily knitting away. You'd think I'd know better.
Half a day later, I realized that I was almost out of yarn, and not even halfway done with the hat. Hmmmmm.
This is what I had:

(remote for scale). Even my 8 year old laughed at me when I replied to his "Whatcha makin' Mama?", with "A baby hat." Yeah, not a baby hat. Not at that rate.
So I sat down, frogged the whole thing. Turned on a movie, cast on a good deal less stitches, did a minimum of math, and started merrily knitting again.

Three hours later, I had this:

(remote for scale, again) Much more like what I was looking for. I happily went to bed, got up in the morning and did some seaming, and got this:

I think it will do a great job of keeping a little Canadian girl's head nice and warm- and cute at the same time.

Dimples Cloth

2011-10-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

Imade this cloth for a friend. Being me,I couldn’t just find a stitch pattern. I sat down one evening after flippingthrough some stitch dictionaries, and doodled out a pattern. I wanted something simple enough that Iwouldn’t be staring at it all the time, but complex enough to be interesting-at least for the length of time it takes to knit a washcloth. This is what Igot.

It's a fairly simple textured cloth- similar to a basketweave, but with some garter striping to break it up. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. A fun, fast knit. Just when I needed some instant gratification after that huge pink project. :D

It is available for sale on Ravelry for $1.00

All Wound Up

2011-10-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

Last night, I had the pleasure of going to Powell's Books to see the YarnHarlot present and sign her new book: All Wound Up.

I tried to get there early; but I'm a mom of 4 hungry kids, and I had to go to Costco on the way there. So I wasn't as early as I wanted to be, but still early enough to get a seat. And not a bad one, either.

Before the fun began, many knitters were taking pictures of the crowd. There was a big crowd. Standing room only. I got a picture of Tina Newton taking crowd pictures.

I don't know what it is, but I absolutely cannot take a picture of Tina that is not blurry. I have tried and tried. At 2 Sock Summits and here- and I don't have a single picture of her that is clear. My camera is jinxed or something. And I'm pretty sure it's her. It used to be her and the YarnHarlot, but I realized last night, that that is true of pictures of them together. But I got some clear ones of the YarnHarlot last night, so I'm convinced now that it's just Tina that jinxes my camera.

Here is Stephanie taking her obligatory photos of the crowd:

And Stephanie reading. This photo was very difficult to take, I'll have you know. It's hard to take pictures when you are laughing.

As always, Stephanie wrote a fantastic collection of humorous essays on, yes, knitting.

I thoroughly enjoyed what she read, and am looking forward to reading the rest of the book. If you knit, I recommend this book. If you don't knit- buy it for the knitter in your life. Don't bother reading it yourself, you won't get it. But we do, and we laugh. :D

I got some more fun and laughter this morning at home. When I came out to the boys playing with the boxes from Costco:

Laughter is a great start to the weekend.
Hope you have a good one. :D

The Winner is:

2011-10-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

The random number generator said 6- so...Dawna! You have won an autographed copy of my book! Sending you an email now!

Thank you all for participating. :D

In other news-
I'm not as far along on the pink blob as I was hoping. I had to frog.
I was just running out of yarn too fast- and to complete the pattern attractively, I had to frog back a bit and start the end of the pattern sooner. I wound up ripping out 10 rows, then doing some stitch dropping and fixing to put some extra patterning in.
It took me all day to get in a lifeline- then all of the next day to get all the stitches on the needle and the drop-down fixes finished. But I'm back up and knitting normally again, and very pleased with how it is turning out.
It does seem a bit small to me right now- especially for putting almost 2000yds into it- but I think it will be much bigger when I get around to blocking it.
Tomorrow I write up the pattern whether I've actually finished the last few rows or not. I have to get some other stuff knit up this weekend, so even if I haven't done the bind off on the pink blob, I'll be knitting with cotton for a Christmas design for The Unique Sheep tomorrow. It will make a nice break. I'm looking forward to it.

This morning I got a surprise. UPS brought me a big box with a brand new crockpot in it. Remember the Bread Machine story? Well, the amazing woman behind that was paying attention when I complained yesterday (yesterday!!) that my crockpot cracked. I use my crockpot a LOT. Like 3 or more times a week. Well, Karen stepped in again to bless me and my family. What a lovely early birthday present- yet again. We have a lovely new crockpot that I will be using first thing in the morning for our dinner tomorrow. Thank you, Karen. Everyone needs a friend like you. :D

Monday Meanderings

2011-10-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

1. My family is home. They went to see Joel's parents over the weekend to help celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. (Isn't that awesome? We are so blessed to have them in our lives, and so happy to get to celebrate such a wonderful thing.) I should have gone, but Roo got himself a fever Thursday night; and there was no way I could take him for a 6 to 8 hr drive in a car seat on Friday when he was sick. We were sad, but we stayed home together. It turned out well. For everyone. The celebration went well, Joel and the kids had a good time; and Roo and I had a great weekend together. He woke up well on Sunday, and I got a lot of quiet time. That was a wonderful blessing. Except for the poor sick baby, it was almost like having my own personal retreat at home. :)

2. This afternoon, I took Bear for his 2nd hearing test. All I can say is that God is awesome- and thank you so much to all of you who have prayed for him! His eardrums are moving, and he is hearing all the frequencies in a normal range. He is borderline, but the Dr said that that is probably because there is still some fluid draining out. But compared to the last test 6 weeks ago, he is doing wonderfully!!! We are so thankful.

3. I am 8 rows and a bind off away from finishing the "pink blob" and turning it into a shawl. However, with 1192 sts per row- that's about 9 hrs. (yes, I am unfortunately a much slower knitter than I would like. I can knit at about 35sts/minute, but I think I've been doing closer to 20sts/min on this. I suppose I should stop reading while knitting- but if I do, I'll never get any reading in- and I kinda like to read....) However, 9 hrs isn't too bad, and that means that if all goes well, I should be blocking the blob out this weekend. I am very excited to see what it really looks like.

4. I need to play chess with my son. Joel said today that he thinks Buddy is at least as good at chess as he is. I totally believe him. Buddy learned to play chess about a week ago, and it is all he has wanted to do since. He plays all day- as long as he can talk his brother and sister into playing with him! I think it's my turn to get beat. :)

5. This is my 170th post since starting to blog in 2008. I think I should have something special for that....

Leave a comment on this post before 12pm Pacific Time Friday the 21st to be entered in a giveaway for an autographed copy of my book from The Unique Sheep- "More Socks Inspired By the Lord of the Rings".

8 patterns in this book- including the 2 new ones- Faramir and Eowyn that are available no where else at this point. :D The others are One Ring, Undomiel, Mithril, Dunedain, Fangorn Forest, and Days of the King (my personal favorite). Leave me a comment telling which sock you would knit first. :)

Birthday Boy

2011-10-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

It is incredible to me that it has been two years already- and yet at the same time, I can't believe it's only been two years.

Happy Birthday to my sweet busy happy crazy Roo.

I am so blessed by all wonderful kiddos. This guy is no exception. The only one who woke me up in the middle of the night before he was even born just because he was so very busy. He hasn't changed. I'm glad. :D

The Pink Blob

2011-10-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

I think it will be beautiful when I am done.

I love The Unique Sheep yarns. This one is Marici in their Love Spoken Here Gradiance.

This is the largest project I have done to date with lace weight yarn. 2000yds. It has taken me 5 weeks to knit up 1000yds. That seems a bit ridiculous to me when I remember that I have knit sweaters that take over 1200yds within 3wks. Granted, I had to do a lot of frogging. I got to a certain point; had a stitch pattern in mind, and for the life of me, I could not make it work! I finally scrapped it and found a new one. Sometimes the yarn has most definite ideas of what it wants to be, and no amount of finagling on my part is going to make it work any other way. I think I wasted a week on that one; but once we got past it, it has been going fairly smoothly.

I think it will be beautiful when I am done. I sure hope so.

This is a special project. A special project for someone very dear to me.

I hope she likes it when it's done. Really likes it, not just says so likes it.

It's also meant to go in the book I'm working on. I figured a bit of a teaser would be okay. ;)

I think it will be beautiful when I am done. I hope you think so too.

Book Review

2011-09-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

Wild at Heart by John Eldredge

I just finished this book this morning. It may seem a bit odd that I would read a book that is "for" men, but the subscript on the cover says "discovering the secret of a man's soul". It doesn't say that it's for men only. I got it thinking I'd rather like to know the secret of a man's soul so that I can maybe understand a little more about my husband.

Well, I got what I wanted, and then some. This may be written as a book for men, but I really and truly think it is a book for couples. And the woman should read it first.

I am totally impressed with this book. I admit when I first started it, I was very skeptical. It seemed a bit on the theatrical side; but as I got further into it, and the points were expanded on, the feeling of theatrics disappeared to a large extent. Not entirely, which is totally expected, as the author was in theatre for a while; but his points were so well supported that a touch of theatrics didn't matter.

Eldredge talks about the dreams that boys have- that turn into the heart desires of men. How our world/culture creates boredom instead of fulfillment of those dreams and desires- and how men can recover their hearts. Going beyond recovery, he talks about how a man's heart can be wounded when he is a boy- which pretty much is a fantastic parenting section on how to help your boy grow up not wounded, with his heart and dreams intact.

I loved this book. It gave me insight into my husband that I did not previously have- a greater appreciation for our differences as man and woman; as well as teaching me how to help my boys become strong men. I will be keeping this book around to reread as my boys get older- and I've already grabbed several of John Eldredge's other books from my local library. If they are as good as this one, I'll be buying them to reread over the years as well.

Dormouse

2011-09-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

This post should have been done in August when the pattern was actually released to the Wonderland Sock Club- but I've been busy, so it's happening now.
This is the Dormouse sock. Inspired by the Dormouse from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

“There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head.

“….Here the Dormouse shook itself, and began singing in its sleep, ‘Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle-‘ and went on so long that they had to pinch it to make it stop.

“…the Dormouse fell asleep instantly, and neither of the others took the least notice of her going, though she looked back once or twice, half hoping that they would call after her: the last time she saw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse in the teapot.” Alice in Wonderland- L. Carroll

The sock is ankle height because mice are small. I love the jingle bells that "twinkle, twinkle" next to the star on the heel. It just seemed to fit so perfectly.

I also love the teapots around the ankle and toe. This is a very fun, quick knit. Excellent for learning stranded knitting without being overwhelmed by it.
This is done with The Unique Sheep's Pashmi yarn, which is so perfect. It has cashmere for that extra softness.
Currently available only for club members, this pattern will be up for sale on Ravelry next year.

Buddy's Birthday

2011-09-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

It has been so amazing to watch this baby:

Become this amazing eight year old.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, athletic, considerate Buddy. It's been a great 8 years. I am so looking forward to the next 8- and then some.

WIP's or UFO's?

2011-09-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

I hear a lot of knitters talking about their WIP's (work in progress) and UFO's (unfinished object). Most of the time, they are talking in multiples.

There's this thing about knitting. Some people call it startitis. It's the desire to start the next beautiful thing, whether you're done with the current one or not. It's a craving. There are so many gorgeous things to knit! Or, in my case, so many things trying to get out of my brain and into the yarn.

I know few knitters that don't have more than one project OTN (on the needles). I hear about some on Ravelry that can't get less than 20 OTN at one time.

I try to be good about it. I kinda have to be. As a designer, I have deadlines; and I have noticed in the past that when I get 3 or more projects going at once, it takes me 3 or more times longer to finish any one of them. Being more of a product knitter than a process knitter (all about the finished product rather than the process to get there), that makes me crazy. I need to see progress. And so does the yarn company or magazine I'm designing for.

I usually keep my WIP's to 2, maximum. I try to just have one, but there are times when I have a project that just can't travel. It's too big, too complicated, or just needs too much attention to go in the purse and be worked on when I'm waiting in line or sitting in a car. That is when I wind up with 2 WIP's. One for the purse (which these days means it languishes while I chase the toddler around wherever we are), and one for the serious designing at home. I do pretty good most of the time. But I realized the other day that I actually have 3 projects going, not just the 2 I am consistently working on. Which brings up the question: When does a WIP become a UFO?

I'm pretty confident the 3rd project is in UFO status. It's been sitting in it's little (ok, not so little, it's a huge project) bag for at least a year now, and I haven't looked at it, much less knit on it. It is exactly halfway complete, no more, and no less. The reason it's sitting there is that it's not my design. If it was my design, it would probably have a deadline, and I wouldn't have been able to set it aside in the first place. But it's another designer's pattern. One of the few which I have (at least tried to) knit more than once.

It's the World Map Afghan from Vogue Knitting. It's an old pattern, but I love it. The first time I did it, I taught myself intarsia knitting, and fell in love with colorwork. The second time, I wanted to knit it for a gift. I made a little modification- added some words in the ocean; but only made it through 2 of the 4 panels. Then I got some contracts, and with deadlines looming on my designs, the World Map got stuffed in a bag and put in a corner of the closet, where it has sat ever since.

Someday, I will pull it out and turn the UFO back into a WIP. Someday. And then it will become the gift I wanted it to be. I just have to finish this book of designs, and those club designs, and the things my kids are begging for..... It might be another year or two. But the World Map doesn't seem to mind. It just sits quietly in the corner. Every once in a while it reminds me that I think it is beautiful and that a certain person would love it, but it's nice about it so far. Hopefully I can get back to it before it decides it's time to get tough....

When do your WIP's become UFO's? How many do you have?

Briefly....

2011-08-30T16:13:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy couple weeks. That would be why I have somewhat neglected the blog.

Last week, Joel was in Canada with Skatechurch on the annual trip that is the reward for the kids that have faithfully come to the Bible Studies. While he was gone, I took the opportunity to do a hard core Fall Cleaning of the house. I literally moved everything out of a room, wiped down all the walls, cleaned the carpets/floors, and then cleaned everything as I moved it back in. All 11 rooms in our house.

I thought it was a small house.

I was wrong.

While I was at it, I used the opportunity to get rid of a few things here and there to try to cut down on the clutter. It was good. We have a clean house- well re-arranged so that it feels a bit like we've moved even though we haven't. I'm hoping that besides cutting down on the chances of getting mold and getting rid of a lot of allergens, just maybe it also means we'll live here for a few more years. It's pretty nice to stay in one place for longer then 3 to 6 months. I've been enjoying it.

Naturally, all that work meant less time to knit. I think I got in barely 2 hrs of knitting the whole week. I tried to make up for it last Saturday and yesterday, but I'm still behind where I want to be in my designs. I have about 3 inches left of this project, then I have 2 that need to be planned, graded, and knit before November. Which seems like it shouldn't be a problem except that next week, I start teaching knitting classes (yay!) and the week after that, we start school. Talk about cutting into the knitting time!

It'll be good, though. I'm looking forward to school this year. It'll be quite a challenge working it out with a busy 2yrold running around, but that's ok. The kids are ready for the structure of school again, and I think it will be fun.

In the midst of all the cleaning last week, there were several Doctor visits for Bear and I. We discovered that for some unknown reason, Bear's eardrums are not working correctly (it's not fluid buildup, we checked already, and dealt with that). So we'll be starting a long road of tests and more doctor visits. All prayer for his healing is much appreciated.

Friday Flibbertigibbits

2011-08-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, Flibbertigibbits is: a silly flighty person. I feel a bit flighty, but not very silly. I have full intentions of flitting all over various topics in this post, though, so it fits a little. Mostly I just like how it sounds. Say it out loud. Isn't it a fun word?

Today, my daughter finished her first knitted object.
I honestly have no idea what it is.

But she did it all (except the cast on) by herself, and I am proud of her. It took her 5 days. She's gonna be a speed knitter, I know it. :D

It's getting to the end of summer. Fall is coming, school is starting, and harvest is in full swing or almost done.
Doesn't it just make you want to knit? With some of the fantastic colors you see out there in your garden?? Well, if that's the case (and I know it is), you need to check out this sock yarn club. Karen B colors yarn in the most delicious ways....

Speaking of gardens...

Do you feel better inside when you help things grow? Does getting your hands into the soil help you feel connected to something bigger than yourself? Is your spirit fed by growing things?

Anamchara Books and Grow It! Know It!™ invite you to share the ways gardening and farming—even simply growing a geranium in a window pot—have helped nourish your spirit and feel connected to something bigger than yourself. Send us your poetry, essays of 500 to 3,000 words, photographs, or artwork to tell others what gardening—large or small—means to you. (If you’re sending images, be sure they’re high resolution—at least 300 dpi at full print size, which will be about 7 inches by 7 inches.) Selected material will appear in the book Growing a Bountiful Spirit. Those whose entries are selected for publication will receive a complimentary copy of Growing a Bountiful Spirit and be able to order additional copies at 50 percent off the retail price.

For information or to make a submission, e-mail editor@growit-knowit.com.

I confess I'm not much of a gardener. I have my little herb pot, but my allergies make it just about impossible to get out and really get my hands dirty. That's ok. My kids are just about at the age that they can do it! Next summer, they will be learning about the joys of watching something they've planted turn into something edible and beautiful. I'm looking forward to it.

In the meantime, I'm knitting. Oh, and getting ready for school. The kids are about ready. I just have to catch up. :)

Compare and Contrast

2011-08-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

I've worked with several different kinds of knitting needles over my short knitting career, and at Sock Summit, I was blessed with the opportunity to get a new kind of knitting needle. One considered to be the best of the best.

In talking with a dear friend of mine (a knitter, fortunately, so she didn't think I was crazy) yesterday, we got to talking about the advantages and disadvantages of different needles. I have discovered that I am very opinionated about my knitting needles.

When I first started knitting, I didn't know anything. I just went for cheap(there's a big story there, but we'll save that one for another time) and available. Well, at my local big store, that was Boye. After knitting with Boye straights for awhile, I began to switch to Clover bamboo. This happened at first only because the local store didn't have the Boye in the size I needed. But after the first one, I started switching all my needles to Clover, because I discovered that they didn't hurt my hands as badly as the metal Boye's. I have sensitive hands. Also, I didn't get so frustrated at the stitches slipping off the needles. I loved the softness, warmth, and stickiness of the bamboo/wooden needles. (I got a pair of US 4 Birch dpns somewhere in there too, but they kept snapping. I am hard on needles when I cable.)

The differences in the Boye and Clover were big for me at the time. The difference in the slip of the yarn on the needle was immense. I needed the yarn to stick a bit. I didn't know enough to care about the tips. Neither needle was particularly sharp, in my opinion. The Clover especially has a blunt tip. I have also discovered that I am very very hard on the tips of my needles. The Clover tips would eventually become spade-shaped. I never used Boye circulars, but I was always frustrated at the Clover circulars, because if it was longer than a 16" circular, the cable was twisted and very hard to work with no matter how much I soaked it in hot water.

When I discovered KnitPicks Harmony, I immediately set about replacing all my needles with them. I loved that they are soft, warm wood. I loved that the wood is slicker than the bamboo, because I was ready for just a bit more slipperiness. I loved that the cables are wonderfully flexible. But the longer I've worked with them....I hate that the cables pull out of the needles so easily. I hate that the tips start getting snaggy as soon as I start working cable stitches. I hate that the small sizes snap if I try to work a p3tog more than once in a row.

Quite honestly, the Harmony needles worked very well for me for a long time. But then I learned to knit differently. My old throwing method, holding the yarn between my thumb and forefinger was thrown out the window. I learned Lever knitting from the YarnHarlot, and it changed so very much about my knitting- and the needles that work best for me. The Harmony stopped being as effective. They were no longer slick enough. They snagged and dented and snapped too easily. I had to move back to metal needles.

I got some Addi Lace. I switch needles by getting what I need for the project I'm working on. At the time, I needed US 0's because I snapped my Harmony's. I like the Addi Lace. I like how sharp the tip is. I like how smooth the needles are, and how well the stitches move on them.

But I have a couple issues with them.

See the cable in the picture to the left? It's got kinks. That's from transferring stitches from one side to another in Magic Loop.

Also, the needles are hollow. Not a big deal, right? I'm hard on my needles. My 0's bent. I can bend them back, but still. Sometimes the bend gets pretty bad; and the longer that keeps up, pretty soon, it'll break too. I think the 1's will probably bend too. And maybe the 2's. So I haven't bought those sizes in Addi Lace. I probably won't. I will eventually replace my 0's. But I do like the Addi Lace in the larger sizes.
It's hard to see in this picture, but there are actually 2 different cables on the Addi Lace needles. I'm not sure why the different circulars come with different cables, if it's an old/new thing or a size thing or what; but I have a definite preference of cable. The blue cable is by far the most flexible, with the least amount of memory. The gold cable is flexible, but kinks easily. The red cable is alright, just a tad stiff; it might soften if I soaked it, but it hasn't been bad enough for me to feel the need for that yet. You can test flexibility and memory by pulling the needles out of the package and seeing how straight they fall when you just hold one needle.

Theses needles by far fall the straightest. There is no memory in this cable after being coiled in a package for a long time. These are ChiaoGoo.

I bought a few of these at Sock Summit because I've been hearing good things about them. I'm 3/4 of the way done with a sock using them, and I have been favorably impressed.

The needles seem strong- minimal bending on the 2.5mm even with hard cable work. The tips are nice and sharp- but the are shallowly beveled(short tips), which makes cabling without a cable needle a bit more difficult and time-consuming. It's not drastic, but I notice it.

The best part about these needles is definitely the cable. I really really like it. I do think it has the ability to kink if I'm not careful, but it won't kink as readily as the gold cable on the Addi Lace.
Look at this. The cable is flexible, and has no memory, but it's just a wee bit stiff. The stiffness is what keeps it from having memory. I have heard a complaint that the stiffness causes ladders when Magic Looping, but I'm not having that problem personally. And I have to say, I absolutely love the way the stitches slide on the cable. Because it is slightly stiff, and quite smooth, the stitches glide beautifully and don't need any extra manipulation to get them around. The extra manipulation has to happen on the needle, just past the join of the cable. There's a bit of a ridge there. On the small sizes- sock needles- it's minimal, and not enough to bother me to badly. But I won't buy this needle in the larger sizes no matter how much I love the cable, because the ridge is so defined that I think it would aggravate me.

I've been moving up the scale of knitting needle quality in my knitting career, I think. You get what you pay for, and needles are no exception. (That said, I really have to point out here, that the Chiaogoo cost less than the Addi Lace, but I think I am more impressed with them. At least so far. We'll see how they stand up to 2yrs of cable work and p3tog.) At Sock Summit this year, I received the ultimate in needles.

Thank you Signature Needle Arts, for sponsoring the teachers!

I was especially excited about this, because I had been saving up to purchase at least one pair, as I have heard SO much about them! The hype is not exaggerated, folks. Yes, they are expensive. But they are tools of the trade. How much does your husband spend for a good table saw? Way more than the cost of these needles- which will probably last longer than the table saw, by the way.

Anyway, I got the circulars. 6" needle length, 47" cable length. US 3's and US 5's. The stiletto tip is what you get on the circulars, which I am thrilled with. I love this tip. I can't tell you how much I love it. It is so perfect for cabling without a cable needle. P3tog's or k3togtbl? Not an issue. Love, love, love.

The cable? No memory, utterly flexible. The most flexible cable I've ever seen or used. Very impressive.

The join? Smooth, seamless, struggle-less. And, pivotal. Literally. The cable is not fixed in the needle. It swivels. No more untwisting the cable by spinning the needle in the stitches. The cable doesn't need untwisting.

I have to be honest in my review, though. I do have one problem with these needles. (no, not the price, although it does limit how many I will purchase at a time. )

My issue with these needles is the cable.

It is sticky.

I know, I just told you how amazing the cable is. It is amazing. It's great.

It's just sticky. I have to manipulate the stitches around the cable. I know, I have to do that on just about any cable needle. But on this one, I actually have to set the needles down, and work the stitches around the cable in order to continue working them. It slows me down. It's annoying. It is not annoying enough for me to stop using these needles. I love them, but it is a hang-up I have with them.

Please note, this would only be an issue with the circulars. I personally prefer circulars. It's all I normally use. But if you like straights or dpns, there is no sticky cable, and I have to say, the needle quality is unsurpassed. Utterly worth the money. (The circulars really are too- I fully intend to save up and get the US 4's when next I need the 4's- I just have to tell you what I've discovered in my "research". ;D)

The end of all this? For me, I'm ok with the Addi Lace. I won't replace the larger sized ones I have now unless they break in some way. I will replace the sock needles. I don't like dealing with the bending and the kinks in the cables.

I'm fully pleased with the Chiaogoo. I won't replace them unless they somehow break. I will use them to replace the Addi lace sock sizes. I won't buy them in larger sizes.

The Signatures? Too good not to use. I'll purchase them in any sizes I don't currently have needles that I'm happy with. I'll use them to replace any broken needles - if the size is available. Definitely my go-to needle of choice. I do hope they can fix the stickiness of the cable, though. But if they don't, I'll still buy them.

What needle is your fave?

Sock Summit 2011

2011-08-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

I should have posted about Sock Summit earlier, but I was so excited about the 2nd LotR booklet being released, I had to blog that first- and I've been recovering from all the excitement as well.

I wish I was better about taking pictures. I'm so bad about remembering my camera, and that I'll want to look back and remember all the awesome people and yarny goodness.... I had my camera the whole time. I got few photos. I think I was just so busy soaking it in I didn't have time to think about pictures.

Anyway, I'll try to do a bit of a recap of last weekend.

Wednesday evening I attended the Teachers' Dinner, where we all were thoroughly spoiled by the awesome Summit Teams (ST's). We mingled, we ate, and I at least, was inspired by the incredible amount of talent assembled in the room. It was an honor to be included as a teacher along with such as Anna Zilbourg, Amy Singer, Fiona Ellis, Cat Bordhi, and the 55 other amazing teachers. I just sat there, knit, and soaked up as much knowledge as I possibly could.

Thursday, I had the pleasure of auditing Cookie A's class on Advanced Top-Down Sock Design. It was great. Cookie is an excellent teacher, and I am very thankful for the opportunity to learn from her.
As it was a 6hr class, it kept me busy all day. I did get a break at lunch to meet my Plurk bud KarenB who was a vendor (her yarns are fantabulous, you should check them out- just sayin').
After class, the marketplace opened for students, and I promptly went and spent all my money. It didn't take very long.This is a shot of the majority of the great and useful souvenirs I walked away with. Note that on top of the basket is 2 pair of Signature circular needles. I'll be doing a review on those in the near future.

The green bag I talked about in a previous post. It is the Rio from Jordana Paige. Love it.
This is a Buffy Ann Stitchlight. I'll be reviewing it as well. Thanks to Buffy Ann for her support of the teachers. :)
A couple books and a pattern that followed me home. DH said I could keep them. They would have been lonely in the cold.

Friday morning, I took the class Morphing Cables from Fiona Ellis. Fiona is one of my design heroes, so it was pretty awesome to get to learn from her for 3 hrs.

I had my little fangirl moment when Fiona came into the classroom, saw my back, and said, "I know you!"

[side note: About 3 years ago, Fiona did a lecture at Twisted, which I attended. I was pretty excited, because at the time, I was knitting her Celtic Icon design from Inspired Cable Knits. I got to talk to her about it afterward, and she recognized it when I wore it to her class last Friday. I honestly didn't expect her to remember, but a designer knows her designs. And I did knit it in a distinctive color. :D )

Most wonderful time.

Friday afternoon, I got to teach my 3 hr class. I hate that I get so nervous and my voice shakes for the first 5 minutes, but once I start showing people how to do different knitting techniques, all the nerves go out the window. Knitting is so comfortable.

I was going to go to a party Friday night, but my daughter started running a temperature Thursday, and when it wasn't better by Friday evening, I went home. She had the fever from Thursday morning until Sunday night. What a coincidence. I'm just glad she woke up on Monday feeling great. It was a bit stressful not to be there when she was so sick, but hooray for my mom! :D It would have been a whole lot more stressful without her there to take care of my babies.

Saturday, I taught all day. A three hr class in the morning, and 3 1 hr classes in the afternoon. What a blast. I think at least one person in each class left feeling that they had gotten their money's worth. I had such a high by the end of the day. I love inspiring people and giving them tools to enhance creativity. It was amazing.

And then! the day was topped off with the most amazing Sock Summit Flash Mob. You have to go here to see it- my video was not so great, and for some reason, it wouldn't upload. But it happened, and if you come to my house, I can show you video footage of Fiona Ellis dancing in a flash mob.

What a great way to end the day!!! I went home and crashed after that.

Sunday, I came back to take a one-hr class from Kat Wilson. It was very informative. She is very knowledgeable, and I am thankful I was able to attend.

I had to bring Roo with me on Sunday.

He refused to let me out the door without him. He had had enough of me being gone. It wasn't a problem, and I was happy to get to spend some time with him after such a busy week.

It was pretty cool, really, because the first Sock Summit, I was 7 months pregnant with Roo; so I got to take him around and introduce him to the people that had known of him without knowing him before if you know what I mean. :) And that time, I DID remember my camera. :)

Then we walked around the marketplace some more, said goodbye to some of the wonderful people I had the opportunity to meet- such as Sharon of Three Irish Girls, who also has amazingly yummy yarns, and Shannon Okey of Cooperative Press, who is publishing a Men's Sock book with The Unique Sheep with one of my patterns in it. :) The book debuted at Sock Summit, and will be available soon. :)
Then I had to pry Roo away from the amazingly fun Sockgate that Tina surprised Stephanie with, and we came home to rest and recuperate. I'm not sure I'm fully rested from all the fun yet, but I am recovered enough to start planning and saving for the next one (if there is one, which I hope there is cause I loved it both times and I would be utterly sad if that was it.).

It was an amazing time. Thank you Stephanie, Tina, Rachel, Stephen, Natalie, Deb, and all the other wonderful ST's who worked so hard to put on such an awesome party!!!!

Another LotR booklet!

2011-08-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

The first year of the Lord of the Rings inspired socks was published in booklet form last year. This year, the remainder of the patterns from the sock clubs is available in booklet form; with two new patterns that have not yet been released anywhere else!
The booklet is available for pre-order on The Unique Sheep's website.

And I have the pleasure of introducing you to

Eowyn

“Very fair was her face, and her long hair was like a river of gold. Slender and tall she was in her white robe girt with silver; but strong she seemed and stern as steel, a daughter of kings. Thus Aragorn for the first time in the full light of day beheld Eowyn, Lady of Rohan, and thought her fair, fair and cold, like a morning of pale spring that is not yet come to womanhood.

“…..’What do you fear, lady?’ he asked.

“’A cage,’ she said. ‘To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.’

“…..Faramir said: ‘….For you are a lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell….’

“’…I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.’”

The Lord of the Rings- JRR Tolkien

When I think of Eowyn, I think of red and gold. I love the way The Unique Sheep has portrayed the colors in this colorway. The gradiance goes from a light gold down to a deep red. The yarn is Pashmi and is a dream to work with.

I'd also like you to meet

Faramir

The brave Captain of Gondor who was of the highest quality (as proclaimed by Samwise the gardener) was a “grave young man”. He did not desire to be a warrior, but because it was necessary, he did it well. He was rewarded for his whole-hearted service by being made the Prince of Ithilien and receiving the hand of Eowyn, Lady of Rohan, in marriage.

The pattern is doubled on the top of the foot and splits at the ankle to wrap around the leg and meet again at the back.

I have had so much fun designing from The Lord of the Rings. I hope you enjoy knitting the patterns.

Which is your favorite?? (find them all on my Ravelry page)

Sock People

2011-07-29T07:17:00.001-07:00

We are starting the 2nd day of the Sock Summit.

Wednesday evening, as I was leaving the Teacher Dinner, I overheard 2 waiters:

"I like the sock people, they...."

"They're so happy!"

"They are so happy."

All of the knitters I have seen since Wednesday have been happy!

And here are some of the people that are contributing to that happiness this week(a couple of them were in hysterics at the moment the picture was taken- so happy that there are 3 more days left of the "sock people"'s take over of Portland)

It's an amazing ride. Twice as big as last time. Which makes for twice the fun.
The Marketplace is beyond amazing. I have no words. (I also no longer have money. ;))

At Long Last

2011-07-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

I am releasing a pattern that is somewhat special to me.

This is the very first design I ever submitted anywhere.

It was accepted, but the publishing company went out of business, and the book was never published. So I had the design, the sample, the pattern, and nowhere for it. I did submit it to other places, but it is a very specific design, and I at least like to think that it wasn't accepted just because it didn't fit with the rest of the patterns in the current edition of the publications it was submitted to.

I suppose I could try again, but at this point, I think I will just release it via here and Ravelry.

The Lacy Little Evening Skirt:

This is a straight skirt with revealing fishnet lace panels down the side of each leg. A slit in the back allows ease of movement and a flash of leg. The sheen of the yarn keeps the stockinette stitch surrounding the lace from being plain. The yarn drapes beautifully showing off those curves. Knit in the round from the bottom-up, with figure flattering shaping, this skirt is designed to fit just above the hips.
The pattern is written for a short version, but you can easily add to it and make it longer. In black or red, this is the perfect addition to your evening wardrobe.

Or make it in blue or the silver shown and use it for every day use. This is an extremely versatile skirt.

Pattern available for $5.00

I have to confess here that this design idea (as so many of my patterns are) was originally an idea of my husband's. He is very good at coming up with the ideas for me to execute. I think we make a good team. :D

The Utimate Knitting Bag is for more than Knitting

2011-07-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

I came home from a playdate for the kids to find this in a box on my front step-
It is a Jordana Paige bag. This is the Rio.

I've already filled it. It'll be my Sock Summit bag. When I take the diapers out, there'll be room for extra yarn and needles as well as some samples for my classes. I love this bag! I think this just may be the first of a collection of Jordana Paige bags that I own. I have to say these are the best designed knitting bags I've ever found. It triples as a knitting bag/purse/diaper bag for me.

I've got my notions, crochet hook for mistakes, current small knitting project, wallet, business cards, sunglasses, emergency meds, diapers, wipes, cell phone, mace, hand lotion, Purell, chapstick, gauge ruler, pens, patterns, and there's still room for more.

What's in your knitting bag?

The best laid plans....

2011-07-14T18:58:00.000-07:00

What a busy busy summer this has turned out to be! I was so planning on a relaxing time: preparing for school this Fall, taking my kids to the parks, playing board games and putting puzzles together with the kids, knitting, hanging out.... Nope. Not even close.

I did manage to get somethings ready for school this Fall- as in purchase the books. But looking at them and getting the notebooks ready? Mmm, no so much. Reviewing my curriculum? Ha! Not even close. I'm now hoping that might be a possibility in August. We'll see. Fingers are crossed (when not needed, so you have a good idea of how accurate that statement really is).

Taking the kids to the parks? Occasionally. Not half as much as I had intended to. But that's not entirely my fault- it really would help in the park thing if the weather was a bit more like a normal July. It's not. It's still acting like May. We even had to turn the heater on in the boys' room the last couple nights. Usually this time of year it's the fan. Weirdness.

The knitting thing is happening. Mostly because it absolutely has to. I have deadlines. People that are counting on having patterns when I told them they would have them. It's actually going pretty well. I feel like I am way behind on the big book I'm working on, but all the testing and pattern writing is complete for the smaller book, and I'm just waiting for the photos. Details only on that one, now, and that is exciting.

Oh, a little side note here: today I got to check out a new LYS in town! A nice close one! It's on Main Street in Gresham (used to be a bridal shop, if you know Main in Gresham), and it is fixing up to be fantastic. Emphasis on Indie artists- yarn dyers, spinners, etc. Gorgeous place to hang out and chat, spin, knit, weave, crochet.... You should check it out if you're in the area. I'm so stoked there's finally a yarn store in Gresham- you can bet you'll find me there a lot..... (there's even a kids' room!!!) but back to our regularly scheduled blog now....

The hanging out thing is happening a bit, so that's good. I got to take the kids up to Multnomah Falls with my Mom and sister a week or so ago. We had a blast. The kids we so disappointed I wouldn't hike all the way up to the top with them. I made it about halfway, but packing a kid up a steep grade on bad knees is not as easy as exercising at home on my level treadmill by myself. And I had to think about going back down on those knees too.... But we had a good time.
We also got to go hang out with some family over last weekend. Eastern Oregon is a lot warmer than Portland these days. A lot more allergens there too. You'd think it was summer or something....
We had a great time. Roo absolutely loves his cousin.

So even though the summer is not going quite as I had planned, it's still good. I'm enjoying it. It's going to get wilder before it gets calmer, too. We're about 12 days away from Sock Summit! I'm so excited. I get to talk knitting to my hearts' content. And not bore the person I'm talking to half to death....

Summer Experiences

2011-07-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

Before you get amazed at the amount of chocolate Roo got on himself, let me inform you that it is not chocolate.

It's dirt.

And drool. He is, after all, only 1 and a half, and teething.

And a really cute little ham. The above pose is his instant response to hearing me turn the camera on.

He is loving this summer. Loving exploring. Loving the outdoors, and the siblings, and the family times, and the dirt.

I confess I had almost forgotten what it was like to take a kid to the bath and discover that their sandy colored hair is a perfect disguise for a head full of dry dirt. Which, once you put it in the water, is no longer dry, it is now mud. Mud that you wish you had known about before so you could have used the hose instead of the newly cleaned shower....

Roo is not the only one enjoying summer. Bear has learned to ride a "big" bike. And it is all he wants to do all day long.

Which is pretty great because it wears him out and he sleeps really well; and it's not nearly as dirty as pouring dustpans full of dirt on his head. Which is a nice change, really, because it was only last summer that he was the one filling my clean shower with mud hidden in his abundant thatch of hair.

Now he's the one with massively bruised shins, scraped arms and the occasional scrape on the back. And the perma-grin. Can't forget that, that's the best part.

Buddy and Sweetheart are enjoying their summer too. No school! And, we have started chore charts- with "allowances". It's amazing how a goal motivates a kid. I haven't had to mention that the laundry needs done for the last 4 days; I just have to remember to put mine away before bedtime.

In between the chores and the dirt and the bikes, we read. The kids are signed up for the summer reading program at the library yet again (they love it!), and I get quiet afternoons at least once a week if I'm able to get them to the library. I think it's hilarious that we have 4 double-stacked bookshelves in our house, but it's after a trip to the library that they sit down and read....

Oh, and we found out how to get Roo to stay still long enough so that we can read a book to him:

It has to be done somewhat differently than normal....quite appropriate for us.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

2011-07-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

"It's something to say when you don't know what to say."

Tuesday, my Father and Mother-in-law took the children and I to see the Broadway musical of Mary Poppins.

I have the best in-laws ever. And you can't have them. So there. ;D

We had a blast! All the kids stayed awake for the whole 2hrs and 45minutes of the show. And they stayed interested and focused on it (until the end, when Roo decided the Exit sign over my head was more interesting if only because it looked like it just might be within reach if he tried hard enough). They especially liked the fact that it really wasn't like the movie (the older 2 are a bit tired of the movie, truth be told. And I'm kinda glad. I think I could sing you every single song on that show, verbatim, in order.)

In other news, Roo has started babbling in different ways. This is of especial note because his doctor (and I to a lesser degree and only occasionally) have been concerned about the fact that he's 1 and a half and not talking. I mean really not talking. 3 barely understandable words at this age don't really count. The doctor was concerned enough to send him to a speech pathologist. But over the last week, Roo has started babbling some new sounds, AnD acting like he's having a conversation with me in Roo-lingo. Sweet. Big progress. I'm stoked.

Before you think Roo's Dr and I are nervous ninnys, please understand that by this age, all my other children were using full sentences. Yes, I know that's probably somewhat unusual, but it's what I'm used to. Roo is different in many wonderful ways. The kid definitely has his own personal drummer. I'm just thrilled that he's showing progress which probably means we won't have to repeat visit the speech Dr. :D

And in the meantime, I think I discovered that the mitt mis-measurement actually wasn't a mis-measurement. I blocked them to different sizes on accident. *palm-face* Yeah, well, before you say anything about that, I'm not used to blocking mitts. I'll do better this time. I'll even break out the measuring tape. I'm just really really happy that I don't have to frog or cut or re-knit any part of it. I've got other fish to fry-er, things to knit- at the moment.

More about Time

2011-06-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Time seems to be a major topic with me lately. I think it's because it is so elusive these days.

I look at my kids, and remember being that age and how slowly time seemed to pass. They seem to think it passes slowly. Something that they want to do being a week away, or even just a couple days away, and they just can't believe how long it takes to get to whatever it is.

To me, now, something being only a week away means I better have been getting ready for it a week ago, or I won't ever be ready. A week is just a couple hours in perceived time these days.

And I think I have figured out why that is. Filled time is in a hurry. Unfilled time just sort of meanders along. My kids have unfilled time for the most part. They are just going along and enjoying whatever they can that comes their way. I, on the other hand, have filled time. It's all mapped out. Full, stuffed, and overflowing. No spaces left. Time is so full for me that it thinks it's in a race.

It didn't used to be that way. But somehow, college, friends, then a marriage, a job....and then, kids. Dude, kids fill your time like nothing else in this world. And in such a way that you don't really know what the time got filled with. But what an adventure!! To see those little eyes looking at something new and amazing- like a squirrel that found it's way into the bird feeder, or an eagle that's just floating in the midst of the blue nothing- that is the most awesome way to fill your time.

In the spaces that I squeeze out, mostly when the explorers are dreaming about the explored, that is where I fit designing. Knitting happens anytime, anywhere during exploration. Designing has to have it's own time, at least to a certain extent. A lot of my designing happens during the knitting. I design "on the fly", or at least "on the knit". And because of that, I LoVe lifelines.

You know, those little strands of waste yarn that is threaded into the live stitches and left there? I use them all the time. Anytime I reach a point on my design that I say "yes, that's what I wanted", I stick in a lifeline. Then when the next section is questionable, I can frog back to where I know it's good without stressing about dropping good stitches.

But designing is more than knitting. Designing requires math. Sometimes it includes sketches. Almost always it needs a chart or two.

Not really possible to fit that in while explaining that 12/3=4 not 6.

So I have to push the bag of time just a little wider and squeeze just a little bit more into it every once in a while. This usually happens with the baby is napping and the other 3 wild things are exploring outside- or after all 4 of them are crashed out for the night. If I'm really desperate (more often than I'd like to admit) I cram numbers, charts, swatches and sketches into the weekend, and type like a maniac while my husband is home monitoring the exploration.

There's no set schedule or time of day for this. I push it in when it has to happen. Part of the reason it's working is because I force myself to be disciplined. No more than 2 designs going at a time- one for the purse, and one for home. When one is cast off, it must be utterly completed before I can cast on another. That means all the finishing, all the pattern math, all the pattern writing. The pattern is sent to the tester before I pick up the needles and yarn for the next one. Otherwise, I'd have tons of finished knits, and no patterns. I have to be disciplined about it.

Sometimes, it is so hard to do that. Like last week, when I cast off the sweater I was working on... It took me half a week to write the pattern, finish the math, and prep for the next design. By prep, I mean solidify what I wanted in my head, chart the stitch patterns I needed, swatch the options, choose one, and then do the math so I could cast on the correct number of stitches. In the meantime, when I couldn't take any more math, I pulled out my purse project and knit on it. It doesn't often take me that long to move from one project to another, but every once in a while......

Another reason I do it that way is so I don't get confused in my mind what exactly I did at that point in the project where I was too busy knitting (or chasing an explorer) to bother with the note taking.... I have the project there to look at and do some reverse engineering if I have to. And sometimes, I do.

And when I'm not good about focusing on one pattern at a time, I can get into trouble. Like the issue I just discovered after blocking the pair of mitts I just finished knitting. I still can't figure out why the one is an inch and a half longer than the other when I used the first one to measure the 2nd. Oh well. Now I just have to figure out how to fix it with a minimum of frogging....

Finding Time to Knit

2011-06-20T18:59:00.001-07:00

I'm a busy person.
But if you know me, you knew that already.
I have 4 awesome kids whom I homeschool, a fantastic husband that I can never spend enough time with, a home to clean and care for, meals to cook- and designing and knitting to do.
I get asked a lot how I find time to knit. Or I hear people say, "I just don't have the time/patience to knit".
Well, let me tell you about it!
First of all, as someone once said; (I wish I could give credit to the person that said this, but I really can't remember who it was- probably the YarnHarlot, but I'm not sure) "I don't knit because I'm patient, I'm patient because I knit."
Wow, that is so totally true for me.
Or the more popular one: "I knit so I don't kill people".
I don't think I'm that bad, but knitting is a patience maker and a solace for me.
My husband says I'm an over-achiever.
I suppose I am.
(He also says I'm a hippie, but I'm not going to address that right now.)
I hate it when my hands aren't busy.
I love playing games with people, and talking to people and hanging out....
But I'm just not patient enough for it!
I'm not accomplishing anything tangible when I'm playing games, talking, hanging out. But- if I'm knitting while I do those things....
Well, then I can touch something that I am accomplishing as well as enjoying family and friends.
With kids, I've learned to multi-task in some surprising ways.
When do I find time to knit??
I have had the worst time answering that question.
I usually just say "You make time for what you love". And I think that is true.
But there is more to it than that.
My brother-in-law loves taking pictures.
Some of his pictures can be very revealing. At least to me.
I finally found out how I find time to knit thanks to a couple of his photos.

Forgive the cheesy facial expression, I was laughing and talking as well as playing a board game while holding my gorgeous little niece,,,and, yes, knitting.
I think that day revealed to my family just how much I love knitting and really will work to make time to knit.
I knit in all the usual places- watching movies, hanging out with friends, waiting in the Dr's office...all that good stuff.
I also knit while playing board games, teaching my children, following the baby around the park, reading my books....anywhere and anytime I possibly can without being offensive.

But I must admit, this is one I haven't tried yet:

Roo will be potty-training soon too. Hopefully he can learn from his cousin's example.....

So where do you make time to knit???

Summer of (Re)Organization

2011-06-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

We are in the beginnings of our summer break.

Well, the kids are. School's done for the summer, the sun is occasionally out, and their responsibilities are basic daily chores, getting along with each other, and having a good time. How fun to be a kid.

In celebration of/preparation for that, the kids and I spent the weekend reorganizing a few things, and weeding out some others. I had them thin down their toys a bit and clean it all up and organize it so that I could then bring out the Treasure Chest.

The Treasure Chest is full of Legos. Full. A collection of many years; from when my brothers and I were growing up. This is about a quarter of the full collection. (Unfortunately, the other 3/4 of our collection was stolen a few years ago, but we are very glad that these were not.)

I love that my kids love playing with the contents of the Treasure Chest. I love that they have imaginations that are not taken over by video games and TV shows. I love that they would rather play and build and imagine than sit and stare. I intend to encourage that in any way I possibly can.

To that end, this summer, we have the Treasure Chest fully available (it's been in storage for over a year because of a little Roo that put everything in his little mouth-but now that he's older....), and a game table that is set up for board games that we can leave out for days and days to finish whatever long game we want (Life, Monopoly, anyone?). I've re-organized the house and freed up some space so when (if) it gets hot, there is imaginative play available inside.

And for the outside, I've added a little fun to the usual bikes, sticks, and dirt.

This old couch became the kids' play couch as we got some nicer furniture. It's basically our version of a trampoline. Now, they can enjoy it even when they are dirty. Which, if he's outside, Roo is, quite, as you can see.

My re-organization?

Well, the house needed some work. And the school stuff. My part of the re-organization is going to take most of the summer. It'll involve a lot of prep work for next year, but for what we did last weekend- I was a good girl. I made the kids get rid of some of their toys before we brought more in. So I made myself get rid of some of my toys.

Yes, that means I went through the yarn stash. I pulled out half a small trash bag full. Mostly odds and ends. None of my nice hand-dyed stuff (not even hand-dyed remnants, I have plans for those!), but a lot of old project remnants, a few things I was given years ago that I haven't touched, have no plans for, and know I will never use, but have hung on to, just in case. That was harder than I anticipated. But it was good. Freed up some space (and a Rubbermaid) that can now be enjoyed as free space.

I've also been knitting away. I am about 4hrs away from completely finishing the cotton sweater. I am very excited about that. I have a little bit of edging to knit, and then it's seaming time. Then on to pattern writing and the next project!!!

I have a couple secret projects not related to the book to do next. Then I get to come back to the book- and a huge lace-weight project that I've been looking forward to with some trepidation. Nothing like learning new skills on the job!!

I love a challenge.

Rant, Rave, Review

2011-06-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

Rant

Actually, I don't have anything to rant about, but the word fit so well with the title that I had to use it.

If I were to try to rant, it would probably be something along the lines of wishing it were easier to communicate than to miscommunicate, and the old "why can't we all just get along?!" line.

It's especially difficult to teach communication skills to small children who don't even understand their own thoughts and feelings- and if I were a better communicator, it would really help. Not saying that in regard to anything specific. Just noting that it is a rant-able topic.

Ok, so I guess I found a rant. :) I'll stop now.

Rave

I am currently knitting a pretty little Spring Cardigan for my book. I am absolutely loving it. The yarn is so perfect, in color, texture, softness, drape. Everything I want this yarn to be for this sweater, it is.

It is The Unique Sheep's Pima Petite, in colorway "Prince of the Wood Elves" from the Lord of the stRings Sock Club.
In my opinion, the best cotton yarn ever. It is actually a joy to work with. Immensely soft, not hard on your hands because of the inelasticity, gorgeous drape- in short, everything you want from a cotton yarn. I don't see any other cotton ever replacing this as my favorite.

I got this yarn 2yrs ago with a vague idea in my mind of what I wanted. I am finally getting to play with it, and the vague idea didn't totally materialize when I needed it too, so I sat down with a sketchbook, some old sketches that I knew wouldn't work well as they were, and a stitch dictionary. I am loving what this is becoming. I really hope you do too.

Review

I have just had the pleasure of reading a book authored by a friend of mine. (I get to say I know an author, now. And not just know him, he played piano for my wedding. I feel like a little fan-girl now. *grin*)

"An Imperceptible Spark, Finding the Courage to Live a Life of Joy"

By Steven Rice

In this book, Steve shares his journey to joy with us. The beginning of the story is one a lot of us can identify with- feeling trapped, in a rut, running as fast as we can to nowhere we want to go.

As Steve shares throughout the book, the rest of the story can be full of joy and peace, rather than the frustration and emptiness we may be anticipating.

Unlike a lot of Motivational or Self-Help books, Steve doesn't tell us to change what we are doing- rather, we should be changing how we are thinking. I love this. Our thoughts have such a profound effect on what we do, how we do it, and most of all, how we feel. In a lot of cases, we have no control over what is happening to or around us, but we can have control over our minds.

Another aspect Steve talks about in sharing his journey is gratitude. Gratitude is an attitude changer. Another point I love that he makes here. Gratitude helps you fix your focus where it needs to be, and brings joy in difficult times.

I confess I'm not giving this book a 5-star review. But the reason for that is not because it is not a good book. I think it is. It is well-written, it is an easy read- I don't feel like I'm slogging through a bunch of technical or spiritual terms I don't get- I like the format, I enjoyed the extra quotes (and fully intend to copy some of them for my wall); but theologically/philosophically, I just could not agree with some of the points. For me, that knocks off a couple stars, but that's an issue with my worldview, not an issue with the writing or the book. I am glad I read this book. I learned from it. It's worth reading for sure.

At the end of the book, Steve reveals to us that the search we are on, in the end, is not completely about joy and peace. It is a search for............ oh, sorry, you'll have to read it to find that out.

The book is available through Amazon (link to the Kindle edition above), or Barnes and Noble.

Spring just may have finally Sprung

2011-06-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

It seems as though Spring may finally have descended on the Pacific Northwest. At least we can hope. We've had a whole 3 days without rain.

And the kids are loving it!

Roo made a discovery recently. What boy doesn't just love to play....

In The Dirt?? With the arrival of Spring (and the dirt)- it must be time for Spring Cleaning, right?

Well, Bear thought that was an ok idea. He even managed to look rather dashing in the midst of it all.
And with the coming of Spring, it must be time to check out the local parks and see which you will spend the most time in over the Summer, right?

Well, the cousins thought this one was pretty great. There was lots to show each other. (quick, tell me which is older, left or right??)
(left. By a full year.)

After all the Spring fun, one must get rested up for Summer.....

Eleven and a Half

2011-06-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

Eleven and a half years ago, I married my best friend. It was one of the best things I ever did.
Yes it probably seems odd to be bringing that up when it's not really our anniversary or anything- but we just celebrated our 11 yr anniversary last weekend. Better late than never, right? We usually do better about celebrating on or around the actual date, but 20 months ago, we had to put it off b/c I was 9 months pregnant. So we wound up celebrating at the "and a half" mark.

For our anniversaries, we always make it a point to have a "honeymoon". Some fantastic advise that our pre-marital counselors gave us; and we are so glad!
This year, thanks to a fabulous Groupon deal, we went to Corbett, Oregon. To the View Point Inn. It was pretty much perfect for us; close by, very quiet, gorgeous scenery, and good food.

In fact, the food was fabulous. The chef went above and beyond in working with my special diet- and it was the best salmon I have ever ever had. I ate it while looking at this:

And afterwards, we went for a walk to the little pond on the grounds. I had to take a picture for the kids:
I wish I had remembered to bring my camera. Cell phone photos really don't do it justice. But we had a lovely time, and I'm excited to see what the next 11 and a half years will bring.

A Sense of Accomplishment

2011-05-26T08:21:00.001-07:00

Before I get into why I have such a sense of accomplishment this week-

I had the random number generator pick again, as I have not heard from the original randomly chosen person, and have no way to contact her...

So, Nimrodita, get ready to knit! :D I will email you.

I finished the big sweater. Completely. Pockets in. Zippers in. All the ends woven in. Washed. Blocked. Photographed (but unfortunately, I can't share them yet), and given to recipient.

I love the feeling of completely finishing a big (or even small) knitting project. It's so much better than the feeling of accomplishment I get when I finish the dishes or clean the floors because it lasts so very very much longer.

You know what I mean. I have kids. I usually don't get ALL the dishes clean. At least not for very long. As for the floors....there's no way they stay clean long enough even to get them mopped. Oh, I can keep one room clean long enough to mop- and then when I start on the next one, the one I finished suddenly has stuff on it.

I'm ok with that. I have kids. I like having kids. I like having them around. Obviously, or I wouldn't homeschool, right?

But I like finishing something that will stay finished, too. And when it's a big something, it's a bigger sense of accomplishment. Especially when it's a bigger something that was really really hard to finish correctly- and the person it was intended for really really likes it. A lot. Enough that he wants more handknits.....Now that is an accomplishment. Not only did I finish the 7 week monster (ok, 6. I took a week off to make a knitting bag because the steeking was so traumatic), but I spread the love of handknits.

That is a wonderful sense of accomplishment. :D

ETA:

I wrote this last week, but have been having computer problems, so you're getting it now. Sorry for the long delay. Nimrodita is enjoying her ebook. :)

And the Winner.....

2011-05-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

the random number generator picked #3.

Janice, please email me at lobugdesigns AT gmail DOT com and I will give you the code for the CSI ebook!!!

Thank you to all who commented. It is a difficult choice, isn't it? Remember if you purchase the pattern or the ebook before mid-June, you will save!

Thank you again, Heather, for the interview and the giveaway.

An Interview and a Giveaway!

2011-05-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

I am very happy to introduce you to Heather Zoppetti, of Digitalnabi, who has just published:

How did you get into designing?
I started designing on a whim. I had this great entry idea for a contest being held on Knitty.com called Spin Control, at least I thought it was a great idea. I submitted both an article and a pattern and won second place. My dream of starting a design career on Knitty was waylaid, but my hunger for designing was just getting started.

How did Crafty Detour come into existence?
I met Ida online and we quickly became friends. We spent quite a bit of time chatting over Plurk and both of us had such varied interests that extended beyond knitting. I thought it would be fun to have a place where we could be diverted from our normal blogs and share other crafty conversations. So, one day I flat out asked her if she thought it would be a good idea to start a joint blog, and would she consider starting one with me. The brainstorming began, and now we have Crafty Detour.

As a designer, I am so interested in other designers’ inspirations- why CSI?
CSI was actually going to be something else on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. However, that idea didn't pan out and so Ida and I started throwing about some other ideas. We wanted a collection of socks - something that would work together as a theme. Other ideas came and went but knitting criminals won out in the end.

I love the names of the CSI patterns- Would you describe your design process for the patterns in this book?
Thank you - the names are subtle hints at the story of the sock.The early designs started with a pattern followed by name and story. Later, I had a more defined list of crimes/themes, and so I was able to work in the opposite direction. Usually I designed on the fly, meaning I did my designing as I was knitting the sample. This was both good and bad. Good because when the pattern was complete, so was the sample. And bad because if something went wrong, I had to rip out quite a bit of work.

What considerations went into the process of choosing yarns for this project?
Um, mostly the yarns came from my stash. I have a huge stash. HUGE. I sometimes have nightmares that it all comes crashing down on me, burying me alive. I'm not kidding; I have pictures; I could open a yarn shop in my home. Other than that, I tried to keep a varied color pallet. Each sock needed it's own personality and one of the easiest ways to accomplish that was to make each one a different color and use different yarn brands. Occasionally I would start a sock only to find the yarn too twisted, not twisted enough etc. and so I would have to switch it up.

Of course, I have to ask the obvious- Why socks?
I love knitting socks! There are so many different combinations to play with. Cuff down, toe up, various heels and toe styles, the possibilities are vast.

Which pattern was your favorite to put together and why? Your least favorite and why?
My favorite pattern was Mae Finch; my least favorite was Typsi Miovre. Mae Finch because it was my first - I really had fun putting all the pieces together while establishing the layout, style, and mood that would be used for the entire series. Typsi Miovre gave me a terrible time during the testing phase. I couldn't get the charts correct and the photo tutorial didn't come out as nicely as I had hoped.

Where is the book available? Are the individual patterns available also? Where?
The book and individual patterns are available from Ravelry (no account needed) both directly and via Crafty Detour.

At this time the book is $20 and each pattern individually is $3. However, mid June prices will go up to $28 for the book and $4 per individual pattern.

Thank you so much, Heather. I love the book. My personal favorite would have to be:

Heather has graciously offered a copy of her ebook to for me to give away. Check out her Ravelry store or Crafty Detour and then leave me a comment telling me which is your favorite CSI pattern, and the random number generator will help me choose the winner. You have until 8am, Monday, May 23th to enter.

On the Wildness that is My Life....

2011-05-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

I fully intended to blog last week. I had all the best intentions. In fact, I even had a blog tour stop planned; but when I went to post it, Blogger was down. So the one time I had time to think about blogging- it was impossible.

All that to say, the wildness that is my life is getting out of control. Not that I ever had control, really, but I like to pretend sometimes. I'm good at pretend, actually. The thing is- once again- I'm wildly busy to the point that I can't think straight 3/4 of the time, but I can't really figure out what I do all day to be that busy.

I can tell you that I'm busy in a few additional way because my sister has moved in with us for the summer. It's great really, because she actually likes to cook and bake, so she's been testing gluten-free recipes for me. I'll cook, but I only really enjoy cooking/baking when the mood hits me once every 3rd Tuesday of the 6th week of the 14th month in the 7th year after the buffalo migrate across the prairie. (ok, so it's not really that bad, I enjoy hyperbole a little more than cooking, though, obviously)

The gluten free thing has been adding an amazing amount of internal noise to my head. I think I may have reached a crisis point with the internal noise over the weekend- and yesterday. It seems to be calming down now, and I'm hoping that the confusion and stress about it is over. I have been GF before and it wasn't this big of a deal. I'm really not sure why I've been so worried about it. But hopefully, the stress bit is over. And my sis tested a recipe for hamburger buns for us yesterday- and even my picky eaters liked it, so that was very very encouraging. :)

The knitting thing has been wild over the last week and a half. I did finish off the big sweater- the knitting part anyway.... I hope. Yes, hope. I'm not sure the sleeves really work. And I discovered yesterday as I was grading sizes for the pattern that I may have made more mistakes on them than I realized. Which is not cool. I'm not interested in ripping out 2 weeks worth of work. And I don't intend to if I don't have to. I'm going to have the person it is for try it on sometime in the next week or so and make sure. If it works, hooray; all I need to do is sew in the waterproof fabric pockets. I'm 16" away from finishing sewing in all the zippers; I have the pattern written, but I haven't finished the sizing yet(mostly b/c I need to know if I messed up on the sleeves). So if it works on the body, I'm stoked. If not? Well, I'll make it so I am.

While I wait for the fitting, I have been working out my next 3 designs. I have one OTN for my purse project, but it is not a high priority just yet. It's going well, and I work on it when out somewhere, but I have some big projects that aren't portable that I need to work on more consistently.

Yesterday, I finally had a breakthrough in a design idea, and I'm really excited about it. That one, I'm waiting for yarn for, but when it comes, it's the most urgent. The one I'm working on while waiting for yarn is one I've been playing around with in my mind for literally 2 years. I'm still not fully settled on what I want to do with it, which is odd, but I hope to get some time today to sketch and look at stitch patterns. I'm hoping that does the trick. I'm at least going to start the basic calculations so I can cast on tonight. I've been sewing zippers for the last 2 days, and my hands are begging to knit. My calluses are starting to peel off. (sorry, was that more information than you wanted? oops. ;))

Last week, Daisy took her State Assessment test. I'm pretty sure she did great. She finished 45minutes early, so that's either really good, or really not so good. I'm going with the glass half full on this one. She's pretty awesome and smart.

We're about 3-4 weeks away from finishing school. I haven't told the kids that yet, because I want them to stay focused. I also haven't told them yet that we are studying insects for the next 2 weeks or so. I admit, I am totally not looking forward to that one. I don't like bugs. But they do, and I think they are going to love this. I got some rubbing alcohol yesterday so we can start an insect collection. Joel is going to make us a bug box that we can pin the creatures to. This should be an interesting couple of weeks!! I will try to be good and take pictures....

Random Friday

2011-05-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

Because that's all I have time for....

1. We've spent more time at the Dr's office over the last 2 months than we usually spend in a year. It's eating up a lot of my time- and I don't get to knit during those visits anymore because Roo is so active and requires my hands all the time. I've tried knitting- but spend more time getting my yarn tangled up in him while I catch him falling off the tables than anything else. I've given up.

2. I think we are finally coming out of the sickness hole. Fingers crossed. If we can get Roo's ear infections taken care of- and my crazy allergic reactions- we should be golden for the summer.

3. My sister moved in with us this week. She'll be here probably for most of the summer if not all depending on the job situation. It's pretty cool. Free babysitting rocks. Especially with all the Dr. visits.

4.Thanks to my crazy allergic reactions, we are going gluten free. Not a big deal- it's mostly just me, and I've done it before, but the transition time is kinda wild. So are the start up costs. Wow. But there are so many more options out there for GF than there used to be, it's easier than ever. I think I found a couple recipe books that will work really really well for us-this is my favorite so far, especially as I also am dairy-free due to allergies.

5. I'm intriqued that diet helps Autism so much. I want to learn more, but not sure I can find the time to do that right now.

6. I love my library. Being able to check out cookbooks for free is really cool.

7. I haven't had much time for knitting this week, and it's really on my mind. It has taken me 4 days just to knit a sleeve cap, and that is really frustrating me. I need to make progress and I am getting desperate to finish this big sweater. I'm hoping that it will go faster now, as I'm back to working in the round, and decreasing which always speeds things up.

8. It might not have taken me so long to do the sleeve cap if it hadn't involved steeking and picking up sts. Both of which I have discovered I am very slow at.

9. I'm also very slow at purling, apparently. It seems to take me twice to three times as long to do a purl row as a knit row. Not sure why, and not sure how to fix that.

10. The weight of this thing is not helping with the speed knitting either. It's a good thing we are having a very cool spring, or this would have been thrown in a corner to wait for next winter a long time ago. I might as well be working on a wool afghan. Same weight and heat production!!!

Announcing....

2011-05-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

A new sock club featuring my designs!!!

ilLOOMinated Yarns has opened sign-ups for a sock club celebrating the Royal Wedding. Sign-ups are open here.

Club starts in October. 4 bi-monthly shipments featuring yarn(hand-dyed gorgeousness by Karen B) and patterns(by me) inspired by the flowers of the 4 members of the United Kingdom.

More sock fun!!!

(Yes, I know I said 6 months off of socks. I also said I have a big mouth. Go sign up. ;D)

Out of Excuses

2011-04-29T11:25:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was able to finish my new bag! Just in time to dash off to the Naturopath.
It's huge. I've never packed a purse this big. Diaper bags, yes. I feel like this looks more like a diaper bag than anything else- but it carries all I need with me with room to spare. It is much easier than juggling my purse, my knitting bag, and occasionally adding a diaper bag to the mix. This is the inside:

I couldn't fill all the space. Which is cool, b/c it means when I have a slightly bigger knitting project, it will fit! And when I go to the yarn store..... you get the idea.;)

My current favorite feature of my new bag?

A false bottom in which to carry all the diaper bag stuff. I need to have them with me, but they don't have to be in my way!! And if I'm concerned, I can put my wallet in there and it's hard to get to.

It's a huge bag, but it's fun and will come in handy, I think. I'm not getting rid of my other bags. When the time comes that I don't have to carry all the extra stuff for the kids, I will probably want the option of a small bag again; and the bags I had I really really like.

Oh yeah- the other best feature of my new monster bag? It was totally free.

Now, I have no excuses. I must knit on the big scary sweater. It has to be done. My goal? The zipper band and the hood done this weekend. I may be over-estimating my abilities, but I've never been one to back down from a challenge. (Which may be why I opened my big mouth again and wound up with 2 more super secret projects.....shhhhh!!!)

Productive Procrastination

2011-04-27T17:22:00.000-07:00

I have been deliberately and admittedly procrastinating.
I should be knitting on the big sweater I'm working on.
I'm not.
And I have good reason.
On Sunday, that sweater gave me a scare. A very bad scare that I do not care to repeat anytime soon. And since I have to repeat the steps which caused that scare at least 5 more times- I'm avoiding it.
No, avoiding it is not going to solve the problem; but I'm doing it anyway.
What happened?
What took you so long to ask?! ;)

Sunday, I steeked the sweater. That means, for you non-knitters, I cut it. Yes, CUT it. A sweater body that took me 3 weeks to knit up. I CUT it. (Yes, that word requires capitalization.) I'm so very very glad that I asked Joel first if I should get the hard part out of the way first or start with the easy bit. He said easy bit, so that's where I went. Fortunately! Because as I was picking up the stitches to knit, the steek started to unravel!

I have no clue why it did that. I'm using a fairly sticky, non-treated wool yarn, and when I steeked a superwash yarn using the same method (Eunny Jang's crocheted steek) I had no such problems! I was finally able to salvage it by figuring out my sewing machine enough to machine stitch around the steek. Then yesterday, I machine stitched the tar out of the other 5 steeks I have yet to CUT, as a preemptive salvage. But I can't quite bring myself to pick it up and do the rest of the work on it yet.

So as an attempt at putting it off, I started doing some cleaning. Yesterday, my cleaning turned into an attempt at bag making. Not knitting, sewing.

There are a lot of reasons I knit rather than sew. But once in a while, I seem to need reminded of those reasons.

I've been wanting a specific knitting bag. This one, to be precise. But there hasn't been much work for Joel's employers this month- so it's gonna be a long time (if ever) that I can justify paying that much for a knitting bag/purse. So I got to thinking about it and thinking about all the things I'd like in a knitting bag/purse and wondering if I could do it myself. I have a sewing machine. I have thread. I have a lot of scrap fabric. I seem to be developing a bigger creative streak.
12 hours of figuring, cutting, sewing, pinning, and bleeding later:

A completely unfinished knitting bag/purse.

But it stands on it's own, and it has the terrible looking zipper in the right place. (putting a zipper into knitwear is 10x easier for me) I'll have you know that zipper alone took me 3 hours. I am not a seamstress. I am a knitwear designer.

The inside is utterly unimpressive.

But that's because it's not done.

Hey, I made the bag able to stand up. That took some time! And a lot of figuring. And even more fabric.

I'm gonna put a liner in it. Then. Oh, Then it will be impressive.

But first, I have to get the nice fabric away from the Roo.

Wear and Tear

2011-04-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am late blogging this week. It's been crazy around here. Last week, my Roo (18months) had to go to the Dr. twice. He had a double ear infection and bronchiolitis (the beginnings of pneumonia). He's much better now. It's so great to have my busy happy Roo back. :D

But then this week, my Bear (5 yrs) had to go to the Dr. He has sinusitis and walking pneumonia. I don't know what it is this year, but the sicknesses just won't leave us. It just cycles through. By the time the last one is getting well, the first one is getting sick again. I think it's just the season. The rain will not stop this year!

We did have some gorgeous sunshine this week, so I am hoping the end is near, and we can get everything dry so the germs will die out.

This week I had to throw away a garment I had knit several years ago.

These pants have been all over the place. I made them for my Buddy (now 7) when he was about 3. He outgrew them when Bear was 3, so they went to Bear. They instantly became Bear's favorite pants ever (isn't that the best feeling for a knitting mother?!), and he wore them constantly. Over the last year, they have been repaired at least 3 times. Well, this week, they became irreparable.

I could have fixed that. I've fixed similar several times. In fact, one of the similar repairs is right next to that hole. But then I started looking at them closely. If I had repaired that hole, the yarn was set to tear in at least 3 places next to it. So I looked at the other leg.

It's a bit blurry, but can you see it? That stitch that is held by a thread smaller than embroidery thread? And directly above a previous repair? I really can't complain. These pants lasted 4 years of being worn whenever they were clean and find-able. For going through 2 very active boys that wear out a pair of store-bought pant knees within 5 days(yes, literally), I'm pleased. In fact, I may need to knit a few more pairs of pants for these boys, they like them so much- and they really last well. But if they can go through Red Heart that fast, I'm not using my nice wool for the new pants!!

It's kinda funny that this should happen now. According to the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week (yeah, I know it was 3 weeks ago- like I said, I'm doing it to work with my time frame. ;D), this is what I would be blogging about:

Day Four: 31st March. Where are they now?

Whatever happened to your
__________?

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it
be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another
person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

There are a lot of different aspects to look at when looking back at a
knitting project and it can make for interesting blogging, as much of the time
we blog about items recently completed, new and freshly completed. It is not so
often that we look back at what has happened to these items after they have been
around for a while.

How has one of your past knits lived up to wear.
Maybe an item has become lost. Maybe you spent weeks knitting your giant-footed
dad a pair of socks in bright pink and green stripes which the then ‘lost’. If
you have knit items to donate to a good cause, you could reflect on the was in
which you hope that item is still doing good for it’s owner or the cause it was
made to support.

A long time ago...after I'd been knitting for about 2 or 3 yrs, I heard or read somewhere that you should keep track of your knitting projects- have a journal or something with pics of your FO's. I thought that was a cool idea, so I started doing that; and promptly realized that I'd already lost track of an unknown number of handknits. I was shocked at how much I had knit in a short time and it was so cool to go back and see the pictures of things I had made. I tried to get the pics of the FO's on the intended recipients too, so that was especially fun. Especially since I give away most of my knitting. Then Ravelry came along, and the project page performs the function of a journal. Either way, it's a great idea to keep track of your FO's.

I still journal my knits- but now it's a design journal. There's no pictures in it anymore, the pics end up on the finished pattern, but I still have a record of it in the journal. It's really cool to look back in occasionally. So far, I've filled one project/design journal and now I'm working on my second. I wonder how many I can fill? How many can you fill?

Also, have you seen? http://www.socksummit.com/teachers/ It's official. I am once again honored to be a part of the madness that is sock knitting gone viral.

I can hardly wait.

Yarn, Yarn, and Yup! More Yarn.

2011-04-15T12:11:00.001-07:00

Today, I received some lovely Peruvian handspun, hand-dyed, lace-weight alpaca yarn from my parents; who just returned from a vacation in Peru. Over 800grams of gorgeous lace-weight. I love it. It's beautiful. I am very excited to use it. I just don't know what for, yet. (ideas?) I could do shawls. I could probably get 8 or more shawls from this. I could probably do a full-size tablecloth and still have enough left over for at least 2 shawls. Or a king-size lace comforter cover. I don't know. But that's ok, I have time. I have a huge list of things I'm working on for my book right now, so I have time to think about it. I'd love to fit something knit with this yarn into the book, but that might be a little bit too ambitious. I don't know. I'll find out, though. ;) In the meantime, I'll have to find a place to keep this gorgeous string. I've already used all the space on my bookshelves: The Rubbermaid's on my shelves next to my knitting chair are full of what is next in the book queue and of remnants of my most recent projects:

My footstool is crammed with a lot of yarn for book projects- as well as some extra that doesn't have an assigned project: The small Rubbermaid's in my closet have project remnants and hand-dyed yarns waiting for projects: The larger Rubbermaid's are also crammed- these are mostly remnants and non-specialty yarns such as Red Heart that were given to me several years ago. I do have plans for them, they are just kinda low on the totem pole, so to speak.And the Rubbermaid next to my bed has no more room to spare either; it's already full of yarn that has been assigned a project that I haven't gotten to yet. These are also mostly acrylics that were given to me. I love yarn. I admit I have a lot. And my yarn storage is scattered all over the house. (When things get desperate, I have a big desk drawer I can clear the bags out of and put yarn into. That may be where that gorgeous Peruvian alpaca is going to have to go.) Even with having that much yarn, I have to say in my defense, I really do intend to use it all. Even the rough Red Heart acrylics that I really don't like to use, I have plans for. And believe it or not, I am nowhere near SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy)- yet. But for those relatives and friends who read this, and think you need gift ideas for my birthday and next Christmas- I would love to reach SABLE, so, uh, don't hesitate to purchase more yarn for me. In case you hadn't noticed, I really love it and use it. A lot.

Unique Sheep Wonderland Sock Club- Spoiler!!

2011-04-11T08:12:00.001-07:00

I love it when I get to unveil a design. :D
This is the latest installment in The Unique Sheep's Wonderland Sock Club.

Flamingo Croquet “Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet ground in her life: it was all ridges and furrows: the croquet balls were live hedgehogs, and the mallets live flamingos, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

“The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away comfortably enough under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing….” -L. Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland This sock is knit from the toe up. The foot is relatively simple, with a basic 2/2 cable on the center front of the foot. But when you get to the leg....

The detail is more intricate. The lace is meant to look like flamingos in flight. Wingstroke up, Wingstroke down. The cuff is a fun detail; with a flap that hangs down on the outside of your leg like a wing. The garter stitch of the flap matches the garter stitch of the heel; and the black beads are an elegant touch matching the black tips of the real flamingos' beaks and wings.

Once again, Kelly of The Unique Sheep got the colors absolutely perfect. The Gradiance goes from a very soft pink(the heads) to a darker pink (the wings) and it's gorgeous. You can see a photo of it here (Rav link).

This was one of the designs that just seemed to happen perfectly. I love it. What do you think?

And Now for Something Completely Different

2011-04-10T16:48:00.001-07:00

We just returned from a week of farmsitting for my parents. A wonderful time was had by all. :D The view is lovely. You get to see rolling hills and horizons instead of houses and cars.

Oh yeah, and animals. How about a donkey?

Or mothers and babies? The rest of the pictures speak for themselves.

It was an excellent vacation. The kids (all of them) had a wonderful time. And I had 3 hrs a day to knit while the baby took his nap. :D Bliss.

Silly me

2011-03-31T14:39:00.000-07:00

Oh wow, I'm so out of it these days! :blushing: I just now realized that THIS is the Knit and Crochet Blog Week. Oh well. I'm doing it, I'm just not doing it every day. I still don't know if I can blog next week, but I will complete the Knit and Crochet Blog Week over time.

So today I'm supposed to talk about how my knitting skills have improved over the last year.

I can't even remember what I was knitting at this time last year. I do keep a knitting journal of sorts- at this point it's more a design workbook- but I'm not so good at dating the projects. I need to start working on that.

If I remember correctly, over the last year, I have worked on a few new skills.

I've definitely been knitting faster since I took the YarnHarlot's Speed Knitting class at Sock Summit 09- granted, that was almost 2 years ago, but it took several months to get any sort of speed with it because it changed the way I knit.

I knit/designed my first knee-high sock. That was a fun new skill to learn. Lots of research went into that one in an attempt to not frog constantly. I also took a class on knee-highs at SS09, so I was happy to be able to use the lessons I learned.

It seems like I've knit/designed mostly socks over the last year. A couple non-sock projects that I got to do something new in really stand out-

I used my first lace-weight yarn and knit/designed my second Cowl pattern. That was a fun one, and I think it turned out really well.

I did my first steek this past year. That was a scary one. Another that I think turned out well. Which is good. I've been meaning to learn that skill for several years now, and I'm pretty pleased that I finally did it- and with success! Enough success that I intend to use that new skill again a couple of times within this upcoming year of designing. :D

I love the fact that I am still learning in knitting. I love being challenged and doing new things. I'm sure I've said this over and over, but I love that you can knit for years and years and not learn all there is to learn in knitting. I've been knitting for 7 years now, and can't see the end of what I get to learn yet. I'm not sure there is an end. And I'm so stoked on that.

I'm also very happy that as soon as I finish this sock I've got on the needles right now, I get to turn my attention to things other than socks. I intend to not knit a sock for at least 6 months. Not because I don't like them; but because I need a creative break. I am running out of design inspiration for socks. When I start feeling like it's all been done, it's a pretty good signal that I need to rest on that one. I like socks, and I think I'll come back to them soon, but I need to enjoy these other designs that I've been shoving to the back burner for the last 2 years. I anticipate finishing this sock this weekend, and then on to sweaters and mitts, hats and scarves, pants, cardigans, and maybe a blanket or two. I have a big book of patterns to put together and lots of ideas to solidify for it. :D

Knitting Blog Week

2011-03-29T14:09:00.001-07:00

I heard about the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week on Twitter a week or so ago. I thought it sounded like a fun thing to do. So I'm going to participate this year; but I'm participating a bit differently. I'm not blogging every day next week. I don't have the time, and quite honestly, I don't know if I'm going to be able to blog at all next week. I will try, but next week will be particularily busy, and I may not be able to get around to blogging. So rather than blog every day next week, I will use the topics that are meant for the Knitting Blog Week over my next 7 blog posts, whenever they happen to be.

A Tale of Two Yarns:

In case you didn't know, I really like yarn. Most yarns. A lot of yarn. I like it a lot. I invite it into my home whenever possible. Sometimes it accepts and stays, sometimes it just comes long enough for me to play with it and make it into something pretty and then it goes away and so someone else can enjoy it. Either way, I like it. There are some yarns that make more of an impression than others, though. I have learned that I am very partial to bamboo and bamboo blends. I like cotton too, but I'm a bit pickier about it. Some cottons are painful to knit with, and require very specific knitting techniques- usually the more basic ones. I really hate cabling with Peaches and Cream, for example. It's a great yarn, but the lack of elasticity is difficult to work with. But that's not the yarn I intended to talk about.

This yarn has become one of my very favorites over the last couple years:

This is The Unique Sheep's Sushi Sock yarn.

This is a wool/bamboo/nylon blend. Besides the colors that Laura and Kelly can put on it (the picture is of the remnant of my Bombadil sock), this is a really yummy yarn. It is soft and smooshy, which I really like. It has just the right amount of elasticity, and no scratchiness (which I notice in a lot of wools, as I am pretty sensitive to animal fibers). It has great stitch definition and a lovely sheen that I have found common to bamboo and bamboo blend yarn. I love that little bit of shine. You know how little kids are? So attracted to the shiny. I don't think I ever outgrew that. (Does any woman?)

I use this yarn a lot. It is truly one of my favorite sock yarns. I love it so much that I designed a pair of socks specifically for me with it - even though I'll only be able to wear them for a few hrs at a time because the wool content starts bothering me after a while. For those few hours, I will thoroughly enjoy those socks. So very warm and soft.

This is Cascade Fixation. My picture really doesn't show it very well, follow the link to really see what it looks like.

I have made a couple pairs of socks for myself with this. It's a nice yarn and also has great stitch definition. However, it is a lot more difficult to knit with than a lot of yarns I've used. Maybe it would work better in a different project than socks, I haven't tried yet. It's a more difficult yarn to use because of the elastic content. It's nice to have the elasticity in cotton- but it's a lot. It's a bit like knitting with an elastic band. If you are trying to knit tight enough to make something to last- like a sock- it is uncomfortable. It's great for texture stitches, knit and purl, but I wouldn't want to work a lot of increases, decreases or cables with it. That's limiting. I do think I would feel differently if I tried it with larger needles and a much looser gauge, but then it would be harder to regulate the elasticity, and I'd probably wind up with a wonky gauge because some stitches would be so much tighter than others.

The first pair of socks I made with this yarn, I had for 3 years. I used them so hard! I washed and dried them with the rest of the laundry, and as I really only had 4 pairs of socks for 1.5 of those 3 years, those first blue Fixation socks got worked very very hard. I finally ripped out the afterthought heel accidentally. At that point, I darned them right into the trash can. They really weren't worth trying to mend.

The 2nd pair of socks I made with the red Fixation in the picture, I like a lot better. The construction is better- I actually designed a sock rather than just playing around and knitting myself a quick pair. I've had them for probably 6 months. Yesterday, a strand gave out in the toe. I really think it was just a weak strand. This yarn is pretty tough. I did mend it, it was worth it this time. But I'll stop throwing them in the dryer.

Maybe I need to be more careful with my handknits.

It was very difficult to decide which yarns to really talk about. I try to use as many different yarns as I possibly can, and I have become a whole lot more opinionated about yarn than I was when I first started knitting. I wasn't too worried about what kind of yarn I used when I first picked up needles. Now I confess, I'm much pickier. But I'll try any yarn at least once quite gladly; and change my favorites almost as often as I change my socks.
What is your favorite yarn of the moment?

More Bread and Knitting Talk

2011-03-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

I promised I would share if I ever got a nice looking loaf of the Whole Wheat Sesame Bread, so here it is- sortaAnd I am convinced the problem was the whole wheat part of it. Because this week I really wanted some of this bread, but I am out of whole wheat flour. So I used all-purpose instead. And voila! There it is! In all it's nice round-top glory. So I will continue to use that recipe without the whole wheat flour. :D

So, I'm not really sure what bread and knitting have in common, other than the fact that I like both. I admit to not being as obsessed about bread as I am about knitting- but I do like it. I especially like it homemade freshly baked. For some reason, it's easier for me to resist bread after it has cooled from baking. When it's hot? mmmmmmm.

As for the knitting? Well, I was right. It took a lot less time to fix my glaring error in that sock by just dropping those sts, than it would have to frog the whole thing. I finished that sock on Tuesday night- all but the Kitchener. Did the Kitchener on Wednesday, and cast on for the next design. The last sock design that I will be doing for a while. I have some sweaters, mitts, hats, scarves, and other fun things to whip up before I move back to socks. So I'm excited.

But back to the new design: I was actually able to brainstorm, chart, swatch, and cast on for this pair all on Wednesday. This is unusual for me. But I must admit that it might have something to do with- #1, I am LOVING this yarn. It is Good Grrl, by Tempted Yarns. I've never used Tempted before, but am quite impressed. It's smooshy, I love the stitch definition, it's just all in all a joy to work with.

Another reason I was able to get that much done on one design in one day? It might have something to do with the size of my swatch:

I know, I know. Shame on me. A swatch is supposed to be at least 4"x4". I know. I hate swatching. Don't you? I have yet to meet a knitter that really enjoys it. (surprise me, tell me it's you) I recently read Sweater Quest, my year of knitting dangerously by Adrienne Martini, and in it she talks about how designers love the swatch and love making those who knit our patterns do swatches (at least I'm pretty sure that's where I read that. It may have been someone's blog post. Forgive my sick Mommy brain today, please); but I have to say, for the record, as a designer, I hate swatching.

In case you missed it- I really don't like swatches, or swatching.

It's just as much as waste of my time as it is a waste of your time. Here's the thing: as much as I dislike swatching, I have to do it. Because if I didn't, you would get a pattern that would come out in a completely unknown and probably unusable size. The difference between my swatching and your swatching (if you use my pattern), is that I get to choose the gauge while you have to match my gauge. I get to say, I want to use these needles with this yarn, and I want it to look like this (drape, tightness, looseness, etc), so if you want your garment to look like the one in the picture, this is the gauge you need to have. It's still not fun. And I have issues with it sometimes too.

When I started designing, I didn't really think swatching was all that big of a deal. I learned the hard way. One of the first designs I did, I didn't wash and block my swatch. I finished the garment, washed and blocked it- and discovered that I had knit a size XL instead of a size M. Oops. Had to re-do ALL the pattern math. Not fun. I take swatching a bit more seriously now. I washed and blocked that swatch in the picture, I promise.

Confessions

2011-03-22T17:11:00.001-07:00

I confess we didn't do all our schoolwork today. But we had such a very good time crafting homes for the kids' toys, I thought it would be OK.

We made parking garages and stables (4 actually, but here's a sample)And we made special stables.

We had so much fun I intend to do some more on Saturday. I have some boxes left, and they have more toys in need of homes.

I confess I stole this idea from my big brother.
When I was a kid, I wanted a Barbie house for my birthday so bad- but it was really expensive. My brother made me 2 Barbie houses with cardboard boxes. I wish I still had them to show my kids. They were 10 times better than what we made today. Mine had carpet and wallpaper and tables, doors, windows with curtains. My brother was the coolest.

I confess I almost left a glaring error in my knitting today.

But I couldn't quite bring myself to leave it. I also couldn't bring myself to rip out over 4" of knitting on size 0 needles.
So I compromised

I ripped out only the stitches that contained the error. This may take a little while to fix; but I guarantee it won't take as long as it would have if I had frogged all 70 sts. (yes, I know the picture is fuzzy and all the patterning is hidden. I couldn't show it to you otherwise. ;D)

Nothing to Report...

2011-03-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

....but I'm reporting anyway.
Things are pretty quiet around here this week. (I shouldn't say things like that, I'm sure I've jinxed myself now.) I know this to be true because I finished up a sock (a sock with a gauge of 10st per inch on 2.0mm needles) in a week even with having to frog the first 2-4 inches of it at least 5 times. And I am glad that I went ahead and did that. I like the end result. In fact, I know the end result is good because Joel commented on it before I asked him to- and his comments were good; as in "that is a cool sock" and "the pattern really works with those colors", rather than "Yeah, it looks fine. You did great." That last is the normal comment I get, so when it goes up even a notch, I'm pretty happy. (He really doesn't care about socks, but he loves me, so he plays this sweet little game with me about the sock designs I do.)

I was good. I finished the Kitchener this morning and cast on the second one right away. For those of you who have wondered and commented in the past- I do my socks with the Magic Loop method- and I used to do them 2-at-a-time, but I had to stop. It's one thing to whip out two socks at time when you are following a pattern- but I'm usually not. I'm designing. And when I design, it is very frustrating to have to rip out and re-organize not just one sock on the needles, but 2. So while I would normally prefer to work 2-at-a-time, I don't do it when I design. It's much faster and easier to design them one at a time. Yes, it's harder because of my horrible Second Sock Syndrome, but it is a better way to go. So I am trying to be good, I've already cast on the 2nd sock- but I noticed that progress then immediately slowed way down. :shaking my head here: Oh well.

I also have the pattern pretty much written up, which is well in advance of how I normally do it. I think I'm getting excited to be done with the hard part of this big project. I already have a test knitter for this pattern- and then I only have one more pattern to design, write, and have tested for book #1. I am so jazzed. That is definitely not all the work that needs done for it, but the most time consuming stuff on my end is almost over; and then I can concentrate on something other than socks!!! Not that I don't like to design socks, because I do; but it will be so nice to have a little break so I can come back with fresher ideas in the future. I'm really excited about some sweater designs I've been sitting on for awhile(as in over 2yrs). This is so fun. :D

Some Slightly Connected Things

2011-03-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

Remember the socks that I was talking about a few weeks ago- the ones that were dragging along? Well, I did finish them. (They were the ones inspired by the song- see previous post) They were helped along considerably by the fact that they were the one and only knitting project I took with me on a weekend retreat the weekend before last. I knit over 11" of sock at that 1 and a half day retreat. I think that's pretty good for me; seeing as how I am nowhere near as speedy of a knitter as the YarnHarlot- even though I have taken her class on speed knitting, I have nowhere near as much practice as she has, and am therefore a whole lot slower and can't knit a complete sock in one day. Well, maybe I could if it was a small sock. But that's beside the point. At least for today.

As I continue to knit away on the the things that I can't share with you, the rest of my life keeps going. This is one aspect of it that is super cool.

We homeschool, so I get to say, "Ok, today we are studying the planets, so I want you to paint Styrofoam balls so we can hang them on the ceiling so you can learn the order of the planets from the sun. " Dude, it was so much more effective than I imagined. They know so much more about the Solar System than I do!

I also get to say, "Field Trip Day!" And take them to the zoo on a Tuesday. They loved it. It was especially cool this time because it was my Roo's first time ever. The sea lions were a bit overwhelming for him, he wouldn't stand up close with the others.

But he spent most of the morning saying "oooooooh" and "whoooaaaa". Which would have been even more cool if it had been directed at the animals instead of at how fun it was to run and crash. It was cute anyway, and we all had a great time.

Speaking of my Roo, the child is the biggest eater I've ever met in a toddler. My other kids hit this age, and didn't really eat a whole lot; kids can do that, you know. But this one? Nope. Wow. The boy can eat. So yesterday, I fed him breakfast (I honestly did, or I never would have gotten to eat mine- he'll just come over and start eating it- well, he usually does that even after his breakfast anyway, but honest, I fed him.), and about 2 hrs later, I came out of the back room from talking to another of the kids to find the crazy boy here:

Please notice the banana peel in front of him.

That was the first banana he had gotten. He climbed up, pulled off two bananas from the bunch, peeled them, and proceeded to eat them both on the spot. And his tummy was not noticeably huge afterwards, which you would think it would be. The boy is only 17month's tomorrow, and those were good sized bananas. No, the other kids didn't help him with this. He did it all by himself. And then he ate a big lunch too. Mom talks about my teenage brother doubling their grocery bill- this kid? I don't even want to think about it.

Inspiration

2011-03-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

I get asked frequently where I get my inspiration for designs. That is a very difficult question for me to answer. It varies rather a lot.

Some examples:
Remember the Erratic Argyle which I recently fixed so it would fit my husband? That was a case of halfway seeing something out of the corner of my eye as I drove by some pedestrians and having a complete design formed in my head instantaneously. I came home, sketched it, and when Yarn Forward put out a call for menswear submissions- there it went.

Once on a "honeymoon" trip with my husband (we take one at least once a year), he graciously took me to a yarn store. I couldn't find anything and was ready to leave, but he asked me to look again and get something. I picked up some yarn from a back corner, and it said "I will be the perfect pair of socks you have been looking for". I finally knit that yarn last year, and yes, they are my perfect pair. I love them. (You have to wait for the book)I love it when yarn talks to me like that. Fabulous designs happen when the yarn talks. Like Hanging Gardens, and Love the Forest.

I get inspiration from books (The Lord of the Rings series), from movies (Alice in Wonderland Clubs), from songs (I just finished a design based on this song), and from pictures.

This is the inspiration I am working with right now

It was pretty tough to work out just how I wanted to do it. I think I will be pleased with the results, though.

Personally, I think my best designs are inspired by people.

I love working with people to find a design that they will wear and love. The Argyle Skater Sweater was the 2nd one I did for Joel, and one of my favorites. I've designed vests for my parents and my in-laws(sorry, that was before I was good about pictures). Every once in a while, when I design something for someone else, I have to admit that I don't really like the result. But you know what? I don't care whether or not I like it- if the person that I made it for does. If they like it, I've won.

I have to watch closely. I never know where inspiration is going to come from. Must be time to go the yarn store and see if the yarn will talk....

Interview and coupon code giveaway

2011-03-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

I am very excited to be a part of the blog tour for Karen B, an independent yarn dyer who has a gorgeous line of yarns out right now called Colors from Nature.

Karen, just from reading your blog, I can tell you love the fiber arts. You dye yarn, you knit, you weave; how did you get started on all of this? And do you have a favorite in the fiber arts?
I've been involved with the fiber arts since I was a child. I first learned to sew in 1968 when I started 4-H. In fact, I still have my original sewing machine that my parents bought for me back then. I also learned to crochet when I was a child. I don't make my own clothes any more, but I made almost all of them when I was a child and, in fact, for my parents' 25th wedding anniversary I made my Mom a dress and my Dad a suit -- jacket, pants, the whole works.

Fast forward to 1996 or so. John was doing art fairs and I loved going to them with him. I met a weaver at the East Lansing Art Festival, realized she turned her handwoven fabric in clothes, and thought: I can do that. So I took a lesson at the Weavers Guild down in Minneapolis, and never looked back. I haven't quite progressed to making clothes yet but part of my life every summer involves traveling to art fairs to sell my handwoven rugs, table runners, towels, scarves, and the like.

In 2001 I decided I wanted to try and make my own yarn, so I bought a Majacraft spinning wheel. Massives of all different kinds of fleeces soon entered the house, but I realized that I didn't have the time or inclination to clean them, so I send them off to a processor so I get them back ready to spin. Eventually I'd like to use more handspun in my weavings for but now I'm just having fun spinning. My favorite fiber has to be alpaca and I have a dear friend who owns an alpaca farm; she lets me participate in shearing and their farm tour, so I get all the fun without the monetary involvement. Other than buying a fleece from her every year!

In 2003 I decided that I wanted to learn how to knit socks. I have no idea why! (lol) The first sock was not quite pure torture when I got to the heel because I like to figure out stuff before I do it, and I could not wrap my mind around the progression of the directions, so just decided to do one row at a time -- the short row heel turning. Once I got past that, I was fine.

I really don't have a favorite, I love them all. I just wish there were 48 hours in a day sometimes.

How long have you been dyeing yarn to sell? What are some of your business goals for the future? (if you don’t mind sharing)

I've been dyeing yarn maybe 4 -5 years, more or less for fun, but last year for Shepherd's Harvest (the MN Sheep and Wool festival, held Mothers Day weekend) I dyed and sold several skeins of sock yarn so I began to thought that maybe I had something. I kinda let the sock dyeing slide during the rest of the summer because I was busy with art fairs and farmers markets, but in December I determined that either this yarn business had to succeed. Because of the economy, I had been looking, to no avail, for part time work. Nothing was out there, so on a whim I applied to Sock Summit (one of my goals) and the goal was just to apply. I thought, if I was lucky, that maybe I would be accepted in another couple of years. Much to my surprise and delight and ACK! WHAT DO I DO NOW!, I got in.

Being as I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams with my Sock Summit goal, I need to figure out new goals and am still working on that. I suspect the biggest one would be selling my yarn wholesale to a show but I'm not sure I'm ready to do that yet. Ideas are welcome, if anyone has suggestions.

Your Etsy store has some gorgeous yarns. Some are colored with commercial dyes and some with natural dyes. I know nothing about dyeing- how different are the processes with the different dyes? Do you have a preference for commercial or natural dyes? If so, why?

Chemical dyeing involves dissolving the chemicals in water. I've processed the dyed yarn a couple different ways: one involves putting the mordanted yarn in a roasting pan (dedicated to dyeing alone, I won't use it for food), and painting it with the dye and then baking it in an oven for 1/2 hour at 200 degrees. I've also dipped skeins into a simmering dyebath once last summer at a friend's house and really liked that, so I propose to do more of that this year.

Natural dyeing involves soaking the dyestuff in water for a 24 hr period, then I bring it to a simmer on the stove, then strain it, then put it back on the stove. The mordanted yarn is submerged in the dyebath and left to simmer for about an hour, then I take it out, let it cool, rinse it, then let it dry.

I have no preference really. I can achieve much brighter, more varied, colors with chemicals but the natural dyes can also produce some unexpected colors, and it's always interesting to see what I do get. I never really know until I take the yarn out of the dye bath.

these are freshly harvested walnuts. I have to cut them in half to get the seed out, and then lay the halves out to dry. My fingers end up quite brown.

What are some of the natural substances you use for dyeing; and where do you obtain them?

Most of the dyestuffs we procure from our yard or garden, or John's work shop: walnuts, goldenrod, tree bark, hollyhocks, marigolds, indigo. I've only bought one item, some brazilwood, that we proceeded to chip up.

How do you decide what color(s) to create on the fiber?

I can control the colors some when I chemical dye and try to create what I envision. Last year I had a sudden dye fit, where I had to dye yarn revolving around local birds: the loon, the hummingbird, the baltimore oriole. I think I mostly succeeded. With natural dye I can hope but nature makes the color, not me.

walnut stellina superwash sock yarn.

I understand you dye out of your home. Do you have a special studio, or is your kitchen multi-purpose?

Our kitchen is multipurpose, but I refuse to use anything toxic, like the copper and iron mordants, as they are difficult and require special procedures to dispose of. I always clean up afterwards, and anything I use for dyeing is not used for food preparation.

You’re going to be at Sock Summit, (I’m very excited to see you there and get to actually pet some of your yarns!) do you go to any other fiber festivals during the year??

This year I will be at Yarn Over (the MN Knitters Guild get-together), Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival, and of course Sock Summit. I have an application in to the Michigan Sheep and Wool Festival and I’m on their waiting list. Crossing fingers ....

the beginning of my shawl knit with the walnut dyed stellina yarn

Thank you so much for letting me host you on your tour, Karen. I wish you luck in getting in to the Michigan Sheep and Wool Festival!

Karen has provided a 10% off coupon for one of my readers in her Etsy store. Leave a comment here before 12pm March 12th, and you will be entered in a drawing.

Follow the rest of Karen's blog tour:
March 9: Sunset Cat Designs
March 10: Purls Entwined

Slowly knitting

2011-03-03T12:55:00.001-08:00

This latest design is dragging. And I'm not sure why.

I'm working with yarn I really really like. I'm happy with the pattern I'm trying to put it in. I am liking the result so far. But it is still dragging.

I could blame the lack of knitting time. I think that is definitely playing a part in it. I have been so busy this week. And I really can't tell you what I've been busy with because I'm not sure.

Does that ever happen to you? Do you run around like a chicken with its head cut off and have no clue what you've been running around doing??? I know I'm getting things accomplished, but they're not really anything to speak of, ya know? Normal day to day things like cooking, cleaning, running errands, getting groceries. Things that wear you out and take up so much of your time, but at the end of the week, you really don't have anything to show for it. Mostly because it all gets eaten up or messed up or used up. That's the kind of stuff I've been busy with lately. For some reason, this week is chock full of that kind of busy-ness.

But I can't blame the drag on the design entirely on the lack of knitting time. A lot of it, but not all of it. I think I have to blame the rest on the fact that I already knit this once. Once with a lot of problems and it's no good, and I have to rip it out, and I will rip it out when I am done with the re-do so I can knit the other sock so that I have a pair so that I don't have one cold foot and one warm foot after the photography session is done and I get to have this pair to wear because I'm making it for me because I don't have very many socks and I need more and I love this yarn and I want this pair for me. (That was some of the fastest typing I've done in a while. *pant, pant*)

I have horrible SSS (*Second Sock Syndrome for those of you who aren't into the knitting lingo). And I am demonstrating that now. I need to get a grip and just do this. I will. I should be able to have a complete sock by the end of the weekend. Then I'm giving myself a week to rip out the 1st one and re-do it. It's on US size 3 needles, not the 0's, so that will help a LOT. I'll be back to the 0's after this design is done. (Hah! The next design is going to feel like it's taking forever after working with the 3's!!! )

I know my posts are sadly lacking in pictures lately. It's very hard to share what's up when so much of my knitting is secret. I guess I'll have to find something besides knitting to talk about next week.

Tuesday Tidbits

2011-03-01T13:27:00.000-08:00

1)I've been working on this pretty Fair Isle sock design for one of the books. I think I'm gonna like it when I finally get it complete. I better like it. I've worked on it for a week, and I only have a toe to show for it. That would be because I completed it, looked at it, thought about it, and started from the beginning. Frogged. All the way. The stitch pattern was great, but the construction and other details need some further attention. Fortunately, I like colorwork- and especially with this yarn.

2)I can be a bit clueless sometimes. I really like Malabrigo yarn, but I had no idea where it was made. It was a pleasant surprise when I recieved some yarn from them to read the return address. I must say it is the first time I've ever had a package from Uruguay.

3)I have this thing about saving the best for last. I like to savor good things. When I was a little girl, I would eat the food on my plate in a very specific order- from my least favorite to my favorite. I discovered that this was a problem, because my Dad would come through the house and grab a snack on his way by...sometimes off my plate. And inevitably, because it was still on my plate, he would get what I had wanted the most to eat! But for some reason, this never stopped me from saving what I considered to be the best to be enjoyed last.

4)Yesterday, I went to the bank. (yippee, right?) I handed the teller some money. And I walked out of the bank with Joel's van completely and totally paid off. No more payments. (note here- we actually hadn't had the loan long enough to pay more than the down-payment) This after using almost every penny in our account to pay for repairs to my van.

Sometimes, all you can do is just Praise the Lord. He always provides for us. This is just one of the many examples of His provision in our lives. By the blessing of God through the Body of Christ, we are provided for yet again. Thank you. You know who you are.

The Bread Machine Story

2011-02-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

I promised you a story today.

But first, thank you for all the comments, ideas and suggestions about how my bread turns out! You all agree that it has to do with the yeast...and I am sure you are correct. There is a really good chance that it has to do with the temperature of my water affecting the yeast- I doubt the issue is the yeast itself, because it came out of the same package for both loaves. It could also be how I measure the salt. I will be more careful about that as well.
I was originally thinking that it may be because I occasionally omit ingredients. I am allergic to milk, so I don't add dry milk, and I substitute water or rice milk for buttermilk and regular milk. But the 2nd loaf (Spicy Gingerbread) was supposed to have dry milk, and it was fine. The first loaf (Whole Wheat Sesame) I had all the ingredients for. But that loaf consistently turns out like that. It rises fine, but when it starts cooking, the top falls in. It's not a brick- it's not thick and doughy, really, it is nice and fluffy and yumm (the best toast! I really want to make vegan French Toast with it!), but it's a bowl-top.
I will try to measure my salt more carefully and be more consistent in the water temperature. I'll let you know what I did if I get a WWSesame loaf with a nice round top.

This is my bread machine.

I LOVE it. I use it constantly. At least 3 times a week. Joel uses homemade bread for his work lunch sandwiches now; and we use it for snacks, I make our hamburger buns, desserts, even dinners (Stromboli, mmmmm) with it. It is fantastic. It also saves us a great deal of money. I used to spend in two weeks on bread what I now spend for 3 months of flour/yeast/etc. And I did not purchase the machine.

On November 11, 2010, I posted on Plurk (look me up as Lobug) that I wanted a bread machine for my birthday in December. I was trying to figure out how I could convince my Mom or Joel to buy one for me. ;) And I thought that was it. Something nice, but whatever, whenever, you know?

On November 17th, these came in the mail:

(the Post-It notes were not included. I use these constantly; just in case you wondered....) And the receipt had 2 names on it. 2 names of my Plurk buddies. So naturally, I very excitedly posted a thank you- thinking all the time, "wow, now I really have to talk Mom or Joel into the machine!!"- only to find out that that was not the extent of my birthday present. A few days later, my machine showed up at my door. 9 of the most amazing people blessed me with an early birthday present (I got to use it for Thanksgiving dinner!!!). Only 1 of those 9 have I ever met in person. (I love that I get to meet and know so many wonderful people because of the internet!)So KarenGMT, AlliCat, Strem3kids, Trillium, Elvisneedsboats, RozinPDX, KelticKarma, Mishya75, and Painty, this is my (very late, I'm sorry) public thank you to you amazing, wonderful women. Thank you. I think of you every day. ;D

Sweaters and Bread

2011-02-22T13:05:00.000-08:00

No, Sweaters and bread really don't have anything to do with each other- other than the fact that that's what I'm going to be talking about here.

Do you know how hard it is for me to find titles for my blog posts? Well, sometimes it's not that hard, but the majority of the time it's the hardest part of the post. Maybe that's part of the reason I design knitwear instead of being a writer. Ok, now that we're done with that rabbit trail, I'll try to get back to the subject(s).

I did it. I finally finished the modifications on Joel's sweater. It only took me two years. He wore it Sunday. It looked really good on him, but you'll have to take my word for it because I totally did not get a picture of him wearing it. I thought of it. I told him I was going to have to get a picture. And then I didn't. Although, when I saw him wearing it, I realized I was going to have to take the leftovers from the sleeves(yes there were leftovers. Guess they were puffier than I realized):

(pacifier for scale) and put them around the waist. Making a sweater for a model is entirely different than making one for my lengthy husband. It fits ok, but it would fit better if it was just a few inches longer. Like 5. But that will have to wait. I am getting a bit behind in my self-imposed schedule for my book designing- and so I'm going to kick that into high gear for awhile and see if I can get ahead with it.

I just finished another club design today, so that's the last one for a bit and I can focus on book #1- for which I have 3 more patterns I need to get to my test knitters.

As for the bread- well, there's this really cool story about how I got a bread machine last year. I was going to share it, but all of a sudden there are some needy little ones surrounding me- so I need to cut this short. Come back on Thursday for the cool story.

In the meantime, can anyone who uses a bread machine tell me why sometimes I get loaves like this:

and sometimes I get loaves like this:

What did I do differently? I'm really not sure. Bread machines are one of the very rare places where I actually follow the recipe even to the actual measuring of the ingredients.....

Story on Thursday. Not about how I got different loaves, 'cause I don't know- but about how I got a cool bread machine to bless my family. :D

To Purl or to Twist?

2011-02-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

Well, I did not finish the socks last Thursday. But I did finish them last Friday! In fact, I was just a little bit selfish and finished the socks first thing in the morning instead of starting school on time. But we got school done too, so it was ok. :)

I am 6 inches away from finishing the 2nd sleeve of Joel's Erratic Argyle. So incredibly close. I am hoping to be able to finish it this evening- but not holding my breath as I have an amazing amount of paperwork to do tonight too.

I cast on a new sock design this last weekend. I have the toe of the sock almost done, and I must confess, the inspiration is not working very well. I am going to have to make a decision here soon about just what this pattern is going to be and I am rather stuck. I kind of want to do a knit purl texture on this sock, but I'm pretty sure the colors of the yarn will make it impossible to see any patterning done that way. So I thought cables, but I'm concerned for the same reason. In looking at this yarn, I'm really feeling like it is telling me it needs lace; but lace doesn't go with the inspiration at all! Now as I'm sitting here thinking about it, I'm wanting to do some sort of special construction technique to make it work, but the ones that are coming to my mind aren't really fitting into my plans either. I think a trip through the stitch dictionaries, followed by some time with Knit Visualizer is going to have to happen before I get any farther. Maybe even some sketching.
Sketching is not my strong point; but there are some designs that absolutely beg for it. Which probably means I will be casting on a completely different sock design with different yarn and needles tomorrow or Thursday. Perhaps this design needs to percolate a wee bit before it is ready to talk to me nicely....

I hear colorwork calling my name- and that is not this sock.

Random List

2011-02-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

1) Today is my Husband's Birthday. We don't really get to celebrate because he is at work. But I intend to have a chocolate pie (his favorite) waiting for him when he comes home. :D

2) I am so incredibly close to finally finishing this pair of socks. If I can just get an hour and a half of peace this evening, I will be done.

3) There is no way in the world I will get the sleeves done for Joel's sweater before Valentine's Day. I know this, because it would take a full day of knitting, and I won't have that before Monday. But I might get it done before next weekend. Here's hoping.

4) I'm clueless when it comes to telescopes and constellations. Really, totally clueless.

5) I'm supposed to be teaching my children about the Solar System. Some wonderful friends lent us their telescope.

6) I spent an hour trying to look through the telescope on Tuesday evening. It was a perfect evening for it- quite clear.

7) I couldn't see a thing. Yes, I took the lense caps off!!!! I even spotted on a streetlamp, and still could only see through the spotting scope and not the actual telescope.

8) The blog tour continues: I'll be at Sunset Cat Designs tomorrow, and Digitalnabi on Monday! Hope to "see" you there!

9) I can't believe it's time to clean the bathrooms again.

Behaving

2011-02-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

I was good.
Sort of.
I didn't do the swatch after all.
I discovered that when I had frogged back to the heel, I wasn't comfortable leaving it. I put it on the needles right away so I wouldn't lose any stitches. So my needles were busy, and I had none for the swatch.

So....I....used a different size needles, and put the sleeves of Joel's Erratic Argyle sweater on them.
So I do now have two WIP's - which I haven't done for a long time- but every once in a while it has to happen.
I can't really show you pictures of the sock, because while I did change the design a bit- it's not enough to be obvious to anyone but me, so you'll have to wait for the book for those pictures.
I can, however show you the sweater. Not that you can actually see what is happening with it. I'm having a hard time seeing what is happening with it, and I'm the one knitting it. That whole stockinette stitch with black yarn thing.

So this is what I'm doing. I decided to not waste any time whatsoever with it- so rather than frogging and winding the sleeve only to re-knit it- I'm frogging as I knit. It's going pretty well, really. Although, I had forgotten how very much the dye on this yarn bleeds. I have to wash my hands every time I put this project down. Which is a lot with my busy life!
Besides knitting part of the Erratic Argyle again, I also took a little time and re-worked the pattern and put it up for sale on Ravelry. So if you weren't able to get this pattern when it was published in Yarn Forward, you can get it now.buy now
I'm wanting to finish the sleeves before Valentine's Day, so Joel can have it then, but that is probably very unrealisitic especially since Dear Joel has long arms to correspond to his perfect manly height. (and he doesn't like it when the sleeves don't fit. Ask me how I know.)

I need to get the Roo off the table now- but just a reminder, I'll be at Knit-a-While tomorrow, stop in for a visit and a chance to win a pattern.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

2011-02-06T06:53:00.000-08:00

My goal right now- barring a certain level of craziness- is to post twice a week. I managed that last week; so consider this your extra for the week.
Next week, there will be a little extra as well- I'll be going on a tour from my chair. A Blog Tour. I'll be starting the Tour on Wednesday at Knit-A-While. So if you want a little extra, that's where you'll find it. I'll try to post here when and where the next stop on the tour will be. There'll be some pattern giveaways along with my babble, so head over for a visit. Wednesday, at Knit-A-While.

And if you'd like to participate in by hosting a stop on the tour, contact Ida at info@evolvingblogtours.com . Or if you are a designer or indie dyer, and would like to do a blog tour, you can also contact Ida at the address above.

Back page story:
I did fix the 2nd sock. I can now get it on my foot and I am pleased with it. I am now in the process of frogging the leg of the 1st sock to fix it.

I must confess, I was unable to stick to my original design. I'd already knit it 1.5 times, and like I said, I was done with it. So I adjusted it just a bit, and the recipient will be getting an original, b/c this design adjustment will not be written down for repetition. It's not that different. But it's enough for me to notice and feel like I'm not knitting this pattern endlessly. ;)
My problem right now is forcing myself to put this sock back on the needles before I cast on something else on those needles.

I only have one pair of most needle sizes. US 0's included. There's a good reason for that. No, 2 good reasons for that. 1)I don't have extra money to get more than one pair of the nice needles that I want. 2) it forces me to complete projects and not have WIP's all over the house when I get startitis. Well, at least not WIP's on the same size needles!! ;)
So at the moment, I need the 0's to finish this sock I'm frogging- but there is a new design I need/want to get going on that requires the 0's. The yarn is sitting on my shelves next to my knitting chair begging me to cast it on before I finish this fix. I'm trying to be strong......but I may have to do a swatch really quick. Just a swatch....

Trying to keep my knits about me

2011-02-03T12:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I finished reading this book:

Yes, it's been available for awhile now. Yes, I'm slow. But I did get the book, and I did read the book (in 3days), and I did enjoy the book, and I do recommend the book.

It's good! Shannon has put together a must-read for those that aspire to enter the world of handknit designing. (yes, that even sounds cliche' to me) But truly, I think there is some great advice in there. And I will probably be going back to it again and again as a reference guide and advice column as I continue to design.
I was happy to see that I wasn't completely off-track with what I'm doing. I have to admit, that was one reason I got the book... ;)

Yesterday, I also continued in my procrastination of working on the socks I currently have on my US size 0 needles. Not b/c I don't like them, but b/c I'm a bit discouraged with them. I knit one of the socks, after futzing(I don't know how to spell it, I only know how it sounds. No, I don't know if it's a real word, but I don't care, I'm going to use it anyway, 'cause I say it all the time as it is.) around with the design for awhile. And I was happy with it.
And then I tried to put it on.
And then I had my daughter try to put it on.
And then I sent it to the person that I made it for and had her try to put it on.
And then I got it back in the mail with the note that said "Sorry! I can't get it on, either!"
:insert big sigh here:
So I took out the binding (it was a toe-up), and tried again to put it on.
And then, I finally admitted- the whole thing is way too small.
And I put it in the frog pond; and proceeded to try to fix the 2nd one that was already on the needles and 1/4 of the way done.
Still working on it. But now it's 1/2way done, and I am done with this design.

This happens to me a lot.
I make a design. I knit the design. I love the design. I look at the design, and I smile.
Then I realize I have to knit the design again. And I'm done. It was nice the first time.
And I say to myself: "Self, this is why you are a designer. When you design, you get to knit something brand new. HOWEVER, self, now you must be good and FINISH this pair of socks BEFORE starting the next design."
(Yes, I talk to myself. Yes, my children look at me oddly for it. I don't care.)

So I'm trying. I'm knitting the sock. Then I WILL frog the leg of the other and finish it too. I will.

But in the meantime.....

I dug out a sweater I did a while ago for Yarn Forward magazine. Remember this? This is the Erratic Argyle. I like it. My husband likes it.
But he won't wear it.
That is why you see it now- with the sleeves off, and the child standing on it trying to get my attention.
I have to fix the sleeves so he'll wear it. He said they are puffy and girly. Ok. I can fix that. I can fix that while I teach the kids about the stars. I am good at frogging while talking. So yesterday, this is how I procrastinated.
Tomorrow, I'll knit on the socks......

Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax...

2011-01-31T19:49:00.001-08:00

Or rather, of birthdays, socks, and other things....

Last Saturday was my eldest's birthday.

She is only one year short of a decade. Her last year in single digits. I really don't know where all that time went, but I truly cannot imagine life without my "flower child".
In nine years, she has surprised us with her understanding, her verbal skills, her love, her dreams, her amazing growth in a short time, and so much more. What a blessing is my miracle child.
When Daisy's birthday comes around, Joel and I always remember her first one- her birth. We do with all the kids, but with my Daisy it's different. There's always a deeper level of amazement, thankfulness and joy in remembering when she came into our life. Yes, part of that is due to the fact that she was our first. But mostly, it's because when we remember her birth, we also remember what almost happened.
And then, I'm truly thrilled to tears that I am here. That I am watching this lovely young lady grow. 'Cause I almost wasn't. God is so good. And I thank Him for every day that I get to enjoy my amazing, beautiful family.

I'm also pretty thankful for knitting. But that's on a slightly different level.... ;) But this is one of the reasons I like it:
When pretty colors on string become pretty colors on something useful and make a necessary garment a lovely and fun garment- I like it. :D

This is from The Unique Sheep's 7 Wonders club.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

There are some designs that come to me fully formed; triggered by a variety of things- a certain yarn, a picture, a phrase. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon sock was one of those. The name and pictures of it put a picture in my mind of the sock that wanted to be created from it. I really had no color to the picture- Kelly provided the awesome colors, but I had a basic idea of thetexture and patterning. A little browse through Walker's Treasuries provided more of the bones for the skin, and there it was! I think the pictures of the terraces with ivy and trees hanging off and growing up was the main trigger for this design (sometimes it's hard to know exactly with the ones that hit me like that)- the combination of smooth rock and
textured vine with the sun shining through and dappling the stone....I think it transferred nicely to the sock.

In other knitting news, I completed 3 new sock designs in the last 3 weeks. Whoo-hooo! I think it's a record for me!

2 for the Wonderland Club, and 1- surprise! one more LotsR design!! I just can't stop designing from LotR. There is so very much there... No, unfortunately we are not doing another club series. 2 years of LotsR clubs is a pretty good run! Remember last June, The Unique Sheep published a booklet with the LotsR designs from the 1st series? Well, we are hoping to put together another one with the 2nd and 3rd series designs in them for you. Aaannndd maybe with a couple extra NEW patterns?...... stay tuned!

As to the other things-

Well, Joel purchased a van last night. Another Chevy Astro- complete with payments. While the payments aren't really something we want, we are very thankful for the Lord providing for us to get this van. It is so very needed. We are afraid that the van we have been borrowing from his Dad is quite falling apart under the rather hefty weight of the tools he has to haul around. Yay for a van that is built to handle heavy stuff. :D

Better Late than Never....

2011-01-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

I really should have posted this at the beginning of December, but it just didn't happen. (obviously)
But now, I introduce to you, the last of the Lord of the stRings Sock Clubs:

The Days of the King

Please forgive the horrible photography. It is very difficult to accurately photograph your own feet. Really, it is. Try it. You'll find your feet twist in funny directions rather than being straight up and down!

It is hard to see in these pictures, but the design on the front of the sock is of a tree with seven stars around it.

Inspiration?

“Tall ships and tall kings
Three times three,
What brought thee from the foundered land
Over the flowing sea?
Seven stars and seven stones
And one white tree.” The Two Towers, JRR Tolkien

And the crown of Gondor Aragorn wore in the movie.

I couldn't get the design to work exactly like I wanted. I would have needed a larger canvas than a sock- and more colors too.

Incidently, the colors you see in these pictures are not the colors we wound up with in the club. Instead of the dark grey, the main sock color is a gorgeous royal blue. Black would also work well, but the base yarn of this sock is Sushi Socks, which takes color softly. And, in my personal opinion, no other yarn base would work half as well. This is the best sock yarn I've ever used for Fair Isle work. I loved it.

And so ends the Lord of the stRings. Thanks for the fun.

December

2010-12-27T14:55:00.001-08:00

What a crazy month. When I was a little kid, I loved December. It was my favorite month ever. The fact that I had both my birthday and Christmas in a month that I didn't usually have as many allergy problems made it naturally the one I always looked forward to. It was great.

Now? Well, I want it to be a fun month for my kids, but it's no longer my favorite month. Yes, all the reasons I used to like it are still here- but now, it's also a month of responsibility. And have you driven in the city in December??? Yeah, I avoid it as much as possible, but when you live in a city, you have to get around somehow. The commercialization of Christmas has made the entire month of December much more stressful than it was when I was a kid! So now, I just try to live the wonders of December in the eyes of my kids. :D Sometimes I succeed, sometimes, I struggle, but seeing a child's wonder the first time the Christmas tree lights are turned on...... It is priceless.

This December has been pretty amazing in my house. It was Milo's first "real" Christmas- you know, the first one the child is aware of what's going on around him- and it was adorable. We didn't put the Christmas tree up until the night before Christmas Eve, because we knew that it would be impossible to keep him out of it. And it was. And he was cute. And he was fascinated. And he opened presents early- other people's presents....but they understood. (And the tree is already down and put away. He's really into putting things in his mouth. May have something to do with the teething thing that's going on, but I haven't committed to that answer yet.) We had a great Christmas. And I think Milo did too. ;D

In the knitting portion of my world, I learned something new this month....Something I've been saying for 3 yrs I intend to learn.....
Steeking. Literally? Cutting your knitting.
Yeah, not something that is usually considered a good thing in knitting.
But steeking is doing it on purpose, so that's supposed to be okay.

So I read books, looked online for tutorials- then I crocheted 2 rows on where I intended to cut. That's supposed to hold it together so that it won't unravel. I admit I was very sceptical.

After I had my crochet lines, I sat down at the table and wished I had some wine. I don't drink any alcohol normally, but this seemed like it would have been a good time for some. Then I picked up the sharpest scissors I had in the house, and cut. I cut what I had just spent the last 2 weeks trying to knit together.
It was not the best feeling I've ever experienced.

But I finished it. (really, after the first cut, there's no going back anyway). And I cut the entire little adorable jacket. And then, I knit buttonbands on it- and it was better than ever. So it worked! And it looked good! And I am positive that it will feel just as awful the next time I do it.

But steeking was not my best adventure this month. This month, I got to be present at the arrival of a very special little girl.
Meet Sylvia.

Sylvia is my niece. She is beautiful and I love her. She missed my birthday by 7 days, but that's ok. She's here. And she's healthy.

Next year has a lot to live up to.

Books and books, and other stuff.

2010-11-28T17:39:00.001-08:00

Can you believe it? Two posts in a week? I must be bored, right?

Well, not really. I don't actually remember the last time I was bored. That must have something to do with having kids. There's always something that needs to happen.

Actually, I had a minute, I am sitting at the computer, and I thought I would write (well, type) something. I don't know that I have anything important to say, but do I have to have something important in order to say something? If that were true of all people, there would be much less news and much less books, and I'm sure much less blogs. ;)

Speaking of books (yes, this is stream-of-consciousness typing), I've been reading this book, "Honey for a Woman's Heart" by Gladys Hunt. I've been enjoying it; although, as I told Joel, I've discovered that reading about reading is somewhat stressful for me- because I'm reading about all these great books- I want to read them- but I already have shelves full of books I haven't read that are patiently waiting their turn. Well, some maybe not so patiently. Or is that just my imagination?

Anyway, this book, I recommend it if you are a reader. Well, even if you are not a reader. If you want to be a reader. Well, maybe even if you don't want to be. Ok, I recommend it. Back to the point- I am enjoying it because it gives me the answers I could always feel but never put into words with Joel would ask me why I like to read so much. It also provides a fabulous (and huge) book list. Which I intend to utilize. As soon as I finish the shelves of books that are sitting there quietly and requesting me to read them. Ok, some not so quietly. ;)

When I get too stressed out wanting to read this massive list of books, I set aside the reference book, and pick up something lighter. Right now, I've started "The Hobbit". I love Tolkien's writing. (betcha didn't know that! ;D) When that is over, I think revisiting "The Lord of the Rings" is in order... and then, well, then, I have shelves, like I mentioned, and this list....

In the meantime, I knit. I'm over halfway done with one set of secret knitting, and I am luxuriating in that while I try to catch up with the other set that I am behind in- as well as scheming out some more designs for Unique Sheep clubs. At least, I'm trying to. Chasing an exceptionally busy toddler seems to cut in on my knitting time somehow. ;)

On a complete subject change (that happens a lot in my house), I can't believe it is only 4 weeks to Christmas. What happened to this year?! Wow, Babybug is over a year old and about to experience his first (well first that he is aware of) Christmas. What does one get for a toddler that can't sit still? He's already got a slide, and all of his siblings toys that he can't swallow....Somehow I think it would have to be a pretty amazing toy for him to be interested in anything that is approved for his age after having had a year to play with things that are meant for older kids. ;) He thinks he's older. :D

Well, dinner is on the table and the Babybug is hungry. End stream of consciousness ;D

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

I love Thanksgiving. It is definitely my favorite holiday. Yes, even more than Christmas. 15yrs ago, I would probably not have said that, but as I get older, I appreciate Thanksgiving more.

I love remembering and talking about good things. I love having family and friends in my home enjoying remembering and talking about good things with me. And of course, making, sharing and eating good food is really fun too. :D

Looking back over the last year, there are so very many things that I have to be thankful for! I'm not sure I could list them all. But the things that top the list?

I'm thankful for:

My Savior and Lord, Jesus. :D

My amazing husband

My beautiful, smart, busy children

Family and friends that walk through life with us and share the good times and the bad.

and so much more. My mind is so full of the wonderful blessings I have that I can't seem to get them out....

from this last year,

my husband's new job that he actually enjoys,

my little Babybug that arrived safely and healthy just over a yr ago.

finding an old friend again and being able to continue our friendship

finding a good curriculum and being able to homeschool my sweet kids- not having to miss out on any time with them. :D

And yes, I'm thankful for knitting. :)

and more......

"Oh taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in Him." Ps 34:8

"They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and you shall make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures." Ps 36:8

I hope you all have as happy a Thanksgiving as we have been. :D

October Sock Clubs

2010-11-08T09:09:00.000-08:00

2 of my patterns were released in October (I know, I'm a month behind. Let me tell ya, it is BUSY homeschooling 3 kids, chasing a toddler, getting them all to swim lessons on time, and designing for 2 full books!!! But I'm loving it. :D ).

This one is Down the Rabbit Hole from The Unique Sheep's Wonderland Club.
I'm pleased with how it turned out- although I was originally going to use cabled ribbing, and it looked so cool....but there was another Wonderland club going from a different company- and I didn't want to look like I was copying their sock; which it did with the cabled ribbing. So plain ribbing it was. I frogged the cuff of this sock at least 3 times before I settled, and I still think if you're going to knit this sock that cabled ribbing would look cooler.

My pictures don't do this sock justice. The colors are so fun. This is a gradiance colorway, and on it are flecks of color. It was fun to knit with the little bits of color every so often.
There are 3 sets of cables on this sock; a simple cable down each side, a more complex cable down the front that morphs into a set of doors inside each other on the foot (get it?), and a slightly more complex cable on the back that utilizes various stitch textures. The idea there was to illustrate the things Alice fell past on her way down the rabbit hole.

“Either the [hole] was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides…and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled “ORANGE MARMALADE,” but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.” ~Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

This is from the Lord of the stRings sock club, series III. This is the next to the last of my LotR designs. One more in December (one of my faves. :D)

Fangorn.

This design was inspired by Fangorn Forest on the edge of Rohan and around Isengard. The home of Treebeard, the Ents, and the Huorns. One of the oldest forests on Middle-earth, it was instrumental in saving Rohan from Isengard; and ultimately destroying the power of Saruman.

This is another gradiance colorway (I love the gradience, it is so fun and so pretty!), that perfectly shows the different colors to be found in an old forest.

I love the way the lace on this sock looks like tiny trees from up close. And the patterning on the heel shows bark-like texture. Sometimes the designs just work out perfect. :D

A Birthday

2010-10-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, my Babybug became a one year old.
He "helped" with his cake.

It was a slow realization....

But it came....

He liked the batter. :D

Not only is he now one, he is also a TODDLER. He still walks a bit Frankenstein-ish, but it's very cute.

A whole year. He has grown so fast. I am so thankful that he is a very happy, healthy, busy Babybug.

Brief Update

2010-09-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

Bet you thought this blog was obsolete! hahah, I'm back. :D At least for today ;)

I have been so busy. Yes, knitting- although that has taken a back seat for a little while. School started in September. And I am teaching 3 this yr, as well as dealing with the busy little Babybug. And he is Busy with a capital B!!! I don't know what I will do when he goes to only one nap per day, as I only accomplish tasks when he is asleep. He is constantly on the go. And So Very Observant! I cannot believe how fast he learns. Example: one morning this week, he watched me kiss Joel goodbye; he spent the rest of the day kissing everyone that would come close enough for him to reach. It was so adorable! The kids loved it- he got lots of practice. :D

School so far (almost 4 wks into it now) is going better than ever before. I think we may have found the curriculum that works for us. It's called Weaver, and it's from Alpha Omega. It is Unit Study, and the lessons are pulled right out of the Bible. Besides that, it is very hands on and active, so of course the kids are thrilled. They LOVE it. They are begging me for Science and Math now. Although, they think any "experiment" is Science- they have no realization that we are also doing Social Studies, History, and Health at the same time. :D It's great.

Joel's new job is going so very well. He is loving it. God is so very good! Perfect job, perfect timing. :D Joel is pretty tired, as he is doing much more physical work than he has for the last 2 yrs, but he is enjoying it, and that helps. Although the tiredness sometimes causes forgetfulness..... last week, Joel left the sliding door to his work van (Work Van= FULL of tools for work! Expensive tools!!!) open all night. O_O Not intentionally....but still....However, The LORD is so incredible! NOTHING was missing. NOTHING. I'm still amazed. It had to be God, this is a very busy street even at night.

In other news, as I said before, I am knitting. It's very exciting knitting..... I have signed 2 book contracts!!! (one of those is the super secret knitting mentioned before ;D) They won't be coming out for over a year (or over 2, depending on which one you are referring to....), but that's good, as I need all of that time for knitting in b/w being a wife, mother, and teacher!! Also, for those of you that enjoy sock clubs, I am designing for the 2nd Wonderland club as well. (yes, I'm good at biting off more than I can chew!)

It's a busy life, but a good one! And that's as long as Babybug will let me not look at him.... ;D

August Sock Club Patterns!

2010-08-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

I had 2 sock club patterns go out this month.
The first, The Lord of the stRings Series III.

This is Mithril.

Mithril is the dwarves’ truesilver, their most precious metal, which they delved so deeply for that they awoke Durin’s Bain. Frodo wore a corselet of mithril rings which Bilbo gave him, that saved his life in Moria. This sock is a tribute to the dwarves and their amazing metalwork.

I love the way the fabric turned out on this pattern. It just looks like metal links to me. But unlike metal, it is stretchy. Surprisingly stretchy, in fact! Very comfortable.

This sock is knit with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together, and because of that, it is a fairly quick knit for socks.
(and yes, that's my hubby's handsome foot- just so you know. *wink*)

This sock is for The Unique Sheep's Wonderland club. Take a guess, what do you think I called this one??

This is Queen of Hearts.

When I think of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, a few things jump out at me: the picture of a short, dumpy lady with a big head- and a couple of phrases: 1) “Off with their heads!” (of course); and 2) the little cards singing “We’re painting the roses red.”

So this sock has a reversible cuff. One side, shows you the little card people with the Queen front and center.

Flip the cuff down to take off their heads. :D (see first picture)

The roses didn't get painted. They are still white. ;)

This was a fun sock to design. But I have to give credit where it is due- my husband helped a lot with the ideas. :D

On this date....

2010-08-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

One year ago, I was smack in the middle of the biggest sock knitting event ever! You know, I have to admit, I would have missed the anniversary completely if The Yarn Harlot hadn't posted about it. (blushing here) But really, you must admit, I have a lot of other things to take my mind off of anniversaries:

Back to the sock knitting event- surely you've heard of The Sock Summit by now! One year ago, was the first ever Sock Summit- and the first time I ever taught knitting to more than one person at a time. There are so many memories! Here's just a few before I must dash off to put Babybug to bed:

I got to meet The Unique Sheep ladies! Laura and Kelly whom I've been loving working with for the last 3 years. The kids had so much fun with Laura (she stayed with us), and still talk about her a year later. :D

Some of the biggest names in knitting gathered in one place- answering questions. That was a learning experience of a lifetime! :D Plus taking a class from Stephanie which made my knitting much faster. Very very handy now that my knitting time is so limited!

The most knitters ever knitting in one place at the same time. What a great experience! Never to be entirely duplicated- although next year, we get to have the fun all over again. It'll be different because one can never really repeat the very first time- but it's guaranteed to be a wonderful time! Hope to see you there!

Emerald

2010-06-30T10:27:00.001-07:00

I would like to show you a cowl I have designed in the color and inspiration of emeralds:

Modeled by Lane. Isn't she lovely?

She was very patient with my slow photography.

This cowl was designed for Handarbeitskram (try saying that 3 times fast!)for a lace-weight yarn club. I totally enjoyed working with this yarn. I must admit it was the first time I had ever worked with lace weight yarn. But it didn't turn out too badly did it?

The pattern will be available for purchase on my Ravelry store in December 2010.

Playing catch up

2010-06-27T07:50:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in so long I'm going to be playing catch up!
First of all, the June Lord of the stRings sock:

Dunedain

The Dunedain were the Rangers of the North. They wandered about Middle Earth protecting the innocent, unknown and unsung. Except for one-The Dunedain, Strider, the heir of Isildur:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again
shall be king.

From the Fellowship of the Ring By J.R.R Tolkien

This sock has a wandering cable up the front, and cable fabric around the leg representing the wilderness. It is worked with 2strands of yarn held together for a larger gauge and a quicker knit. One of the strand of yarn is Luxe- the same yarn used for Undomiel. Yes, intentional symbolism there. :D

.

In other news, Joel, Babybug and I had a mini-vacation last weekend. I had a coupon for the Resort at Port Ludlow left over from Sock Summit last year. Since it expired in August, it was time to use it! We had such a great time. It was so quiet up there. So very relaxing! Babybug enjoyed getting some extra attention.

What else has been going on?? Well, I signed a designing contract last week, and will be focusing on that for a good long while. It's super secret- but I will reveal it as soon as I can! :)

You know, I originally intending for this blog to be a knitting blog. I meant to share my current projects, my WIP's and whatever else was going on in my knitting world. It really hasn't been like that. Mostly because at about the same time I started this blog, I also starting doing more design work. Well, design work doesn't often lend itself to blog material b/c I can only share it when it is complete and published for the most part. Which is why so many of my posts are talking about which of my patterns are published now. Because I am finally getting to share the projects I've worked on! I thought at one point last month that I was going to be able to start using this blog the way I had planned at first. But then I opened my big mouth again- and signed up for more secret knitting! (laughing at myself here) So this blog will continue in the vein it is now in. I will share knitting when I can- but it will be usually be a year or so after I've actually done the project! And you'll get lots of pictures of my awesome kiddos in the meantime. :D

My patterns in a Book(let)!!!!

2010-05-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Laura and Kelly of The Unique Sheep, nine (9) of my sock designs are in a Booklet that is now for sale on their website. These are the first 9 sock designs I did based on The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien. If you like knitting and The Lord of the Rings- these patterns are for you! ($15 for 9 patterns is a pretty good deal!)

(I need to point out here that it is difficult to really show excitement on a blog. But if you could see me, you'd know I'm pretty excited about this....)

Teaser Plus

2010-05-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a teaser pattern for the Wonderland Sock Club:

Say hello to Cheshire Cat.
His tail is lashing up the back of the leg- his paw prints trail up the front. It's hard to see, but his toothy smile surrounds his paw prints.

The color is much more accurate in the second photo; displayed courtesy of The Unique Sheep.

This pattern is on sale now! Here.

Also now available,
The Triquetra Cardigan pattern:

This pattern was previously only available in Yarn Forward Magazine Aug 2009. Now it is available from my Ravelry store as well. For $7.00
A comfortable zip-front cardigan with both cables and colorwork.

(Last photo displayed courtesy of St. Range Photography)

It's pretty crazy to be able to offer my designs for sale here. :D

"Time keeps on slippin', slippin'...."

2010-05-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

Into the future.

And I can't keep up. When I was a little girl, I remember time moving so slowly. A day seemed like what a week is now. A week was a huge amount of time! Now a year is too short. It's crazy how our perspective of time can change. I know I keep harping on this concept, but it is just incomprehensible to me, I guess; so my mind keeps going over and over it. I can't tell anymore if something happened last week or two weeks ago or even 6. It all runs together. And memorable things are remembered based on how old my kids were when such-and-such happened. (That's how I keep track of how many places we've lived in. We're up to 12 in 9 1/2yrs of marriage.) And it's a good thing I learned to take pictures of what I knit- or I would never remember half of them!!!

So before I forget, I'm going to set down here the things that have happened recently. In another couple days I'll probably feel like they happened 2 months ago; and really, it's only been in the last week.....(but that week has been wild!)

My beautiful daughter had an app't w/ the eye Dr. last week. She is now the proud owner of eyeglasses. She chose her frames. I think she made a great choice. Isn't she lovely?? I love her smile. She still has those great eyebrows too. They looked just like that (except a bit smaller to fit her face) when she was born. Sorry, little trip down memory lane there. So easy to do with your kids.... ;)

Speaking of kids, my Babybug is growing so fast! He's getting up on his knees now. He hasn't quite figureed out that he needs to be on his hands and knees at the same time, but he can get up there! He's also sitting up on his own. He still lauches backwards occasionally, but he's doing pretty good! And happy about it, too. ;)

With all 4 of them, I stay busy. Sometimes too busy for knitting. Lately, it seems like that's how it goes. But I have some knitting that has to be done- so I'm squeezing in time here and there. I've got some new patterns coming out in the near future (two of which I am working on right now)- you can sign up to be among the first to get them..... in the Wonderland sock club, or the 7 Wonders yarn club. There is also the last LotR club which is open for new members now.

Unfortunately, as I get busier and busier w/ the kiddos (and as Babybug grows it is getting more so all the time!), I really don't have that much time for knitting. So after I finish the designs for these clubs, my designing is going to slow way way down. I just can't keep up with deadlines any more. I am hoping that in a year or so, I'll have more knitting time again- but at the moment b/w the 4 kids, the house, feeding my family, and homeschooling, knitting time is very scarce. And working on deadline projects takes time from my family that they need. Which means that the knitting goes. At least to a certain extent. Which means I might be sharing more of my knitting on the blog, as I won't be doing as much secret knitting. At least that's the theory! We'll see what happens in real life....

Life leaves no time for.....life

2010-04-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

"There just aren't enough hours in the day for all that I want to accomplish!"
I have come to the realization that I am so busy with life that I have no time for, well, life.
Ever been there? "So much to do, so little time." There are a lot of quotes about it. I guess I should be encouraged. I'm definitely not the only one who feels/has felt this way. But somehow it doesn't really help. I'm glad I'm not alone; I'm not abnormal or freakish. But that doesn't add more seconds to my day..... ;) And I can't add more time by not sleeping. I'm already so sleep deprived that a decent night's sleep(which means I get a whole 3 or 4 hrs straight w/o being woke up once) only makes me more tired. Which seems backwards, but that's the way it works....

So what are all these things I want to get done, anyway??
teach my kids
play w/ my kids
cuddle my kids
clean the house/feed the family(and myself!)/do the laundry/clean the kids/cut their hair (you know, all the wife/mama stuff)
read
knit
design

Somehow those last 3 get left in the dust most of the time. I realized last night that even when I do have time for me (which usually means I am frantically knitting or writing patterns) I don't enjoy it as much as I used to. I feel guilty. Guilty that I am not actively engaging w/ my family(kids). Guilty that I'm not providing someone with something that they need.

Wait.

Knitters need patterns, right?

Goodbye guilt. Hello knitting! (goodbye sleep!)

Continuing with the Shameless Plugs

2010-04-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

So, just to continue the self-advertisement..... There is another sock club coming out in a couple months that will be featuring some of my designs....
You can find out more about it here. This one will also include a design from Janine LeCras.
Hey, Unique Sheep yarns and Alice in Wonderland. Hard to beat! Go sign up...(if you knit. ;D)

2010-04-26T08:21:00.001-07:00

And now we pause for a word from our sponsor....
Well, not exactly sponsor, but at any rate- shameless plug insertion here.
A LobugDesigns original pattern is going to be featured in a lovely lace-weight yarn club. Lace weight. (It needed repeated) My very own lace pattern will be included with some gorgeous yarn in this yarn club. Check it out!

LotS II April

2010-04-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

The second shipment of the second year of The Lord of the stRings Sock Club has gone out! Most people have received their package.If you haven't, you might want to wait to see the rest of this post.

Undomiel

Inspired by Arwen, the daughter of Elrond Half-elven.
Appendix A of the Return of the King tells of the meeting of Aragorn son of Arathorn and Arwen Undomiel daughter of Elrond, Evenstar of the elves. They met in Rivendell under the trees, and Aragorn believed himself to be seeing Luthien Tinuviel once again walking in silver and blue. But they were doomed to be apart until the day Aragorn took up his inheritance and the white tree bloomed again in Gondor. Then she came to him, and they enjoyed the peace of the Days of the King together.

This was a difficult sock for me to design. There was so much I wanted to put into it. But when I got around to working on it, I was 3 months pregnant, and horribly sick. Quite honestly, the last thing on my mind was knitting- and much less, designing. But I had other designs that had to be done on a deadline, and a baby coming. I knew there was no way I could design for several months after Babybug came, so I forced myself to work on this design.

For all that was going on at the time, I am very pleased with how this sock turned out. It is another one that really didn't end up like what was in my head- but that's ok. I love the scalloped beaded cuff- and the lace pattern is my own creation, so it is a special sock for me. What do you think of it?

Book Review 2

2010-04-08T15:36:00.001-07:00

Saint Patrick by Jonathan Rogers is a biography of Ireland’s most beloved saint. Rogers takes his information from the writings of St. Patrick himself; and includes various legends about the deeds of the great man. Patrick’s two known writings are included in the Appendices.

I enjoyed this book. I love stories about St. Patrick, and to have available his own writings and Rogers’ extrapolations from them are great. I liked the way Jonathan Rogers brought out the known facts of St. Patrick’s life and illustrated them with various legends and myths that are told about him.

I didn’t feel that I really learned very much new about St. Patrick from this book; except perhaps for the fact that he was somewhat of a borderline renegade priest (in that he took his commission from God as being greater and more important than his commission from the Roman Catholic Church). I really liked having Patrick’s own writings available at the end of the book, and thought that was a great touch to the authenticity of the work.

I don’t really think it’s necessary to give an overview of the book here. If you don’t know anything about St. Patrick, this is a fabulous first book for learning about him. If you do know about St. Patrick, this is a nice little addition to your library- particularly for having access to his own translated letters. Otherwise, it’s a nice little book- but not one I would have spent money on personally (I got it from Booksneeze- free, for reviewing it).

Happy Easter!!

2010-04-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

He is Risen!!! I am so thankful!!

I wish you all a very Happy Easter and hope you are able to enjoy friends and family and celebrate. :-)

This is what I gave my family for Easter this year:
A 27 lb. mountain of granola.
I haven't been able to make granola for my family since Babybug's arrival. (Thank you, Agata, Mom, and Kristal for keeping us supplied in the interim!!!) If I were capable of just doing one or 2 trays of it each week or so, it might work out all right. But I've never been capable of doing little things like that. It has to be all or nothing with me. ;-) So granola making is a 4-hr ordeal. Hopefully, those 9 gallons will last us at least 9 weeks!!! Last time, 14gallons only made it 6 weeks. I think my family is growing....
Anyway, I've had some requests; so my Easter gift to you, dear reader, is the recipe I use for granola!
This is kinda hard to write, b/c I don't measure very much when I cook. I'm a slap-dash sorta cook. Designing in cooking? Things usually turn out slightly different every time- but here's the basics, and you can experiment and make it your own. :-)

Lobug's Granola:
Recipe for 1 cookie sheet's worth (repeat to desired amount!)

Pre-heat oven to 400deg.
Place Wax Paper or equivalent on flat surface for cooling.(easy clean)
Cover Cookie Sheet with Non-stick Aluminum Foil for easy cleaning- and less oil use.
In large bowl, Mix:
3to4cups of rolled oats
~1/3to2/3c of desired fruit/nut mix(I use a fruit salad trail mix-we don't do nuts. And I add sweet-flake coconut as well)
~1/4c oil(your choice- vegetable, canola; I haven't tried olive, but it would probably work) use more oil if you don't have Non-stick Foil!!
~1/2to2/3c of warm honey

Mix until well-coated, scrape onto cookie sheet. Spread it out flat-ish for even cooking. Bake until golden brown on top and edges.
Remove from oven and mix by folding edges of granola in and under the center. Flatten again and place back in oven until golden brown on top and edges again.
Remove from oven and spread onto covered flat surface until cool. Enjoy!!

There it is! I hope you enjoy it! It is possible to do small batches (I think I did once upon a time before there were children under my feet....), but I think it saves money to buy bulk....

Welcome to my busy life

2010-03-26T08:01:00.000-07:00

Hi! Welcome! I have no cool pictures to show you today. Just thought I'd get that out up front so you weren't disappointed. I have been knitting; but can't show you b/c it's design stuff that has to be "released" at the right time. I have been taking pictures of my kiddos; but I'm not showing them off today.
I thought I'd give you an idea of "a day in the life" in my world today! This is a very basic picture- every day is different when you have four busy kiddos... :-)

12am- sleeping, but not for long.
1am-Babybug wakes me for a diaper change and a snack, and has a hard time getting back to sleep; but we eventually get there again
5am-Babybug is awake. He wants breakfast, and wants to play. I give him breakfast, try to get him to go back to sleep, and finally give up 45minutes later and let him wake Joel up. My amazing husband gets up, takes the baby, and closes the door on me in a dark room knowing full well that I am not getting out of bed(he even did it on purpose!).
7:10am-Joel has to go to work, so he brings Baby back to me.
7:20am-I have managed to get some clothes on and move myself and Babybug out to the couch. Not claiming awake yet.
7:30am-Get breakfast for the other boys. Daisy's already had hers.
7:40am-Get my own breakfast while checking email and holding Babybug.
7:50am-Babybug needs second breakfast. Feed him while frogging this sweater(remember this one? the Nordic sweater in the middle- scroll down. I just don't like the fit, I never wear it; but I do like the yarn and I am going to make something out of it that I WILL wear).
8:10am-Babybug is back in bed and I am here! On the computer, blogging and checking out what all my internet friends have been up to. Ian's unloaded the dishwasher, and Daisy's doing dishes, while Asher folds the diapers from the drying rack.
8:30am-School time! (yes, I know it's spring break. We had 3 months off when Baby was born- we still have some catching up to do.) I'll do some cleaning in b/w instruction- if there's not something glaringly filthy, I might even knit at the table while they study....
11am-Oh, yeah, Lunch. hmmm. What to fix? Somewhere b/w 8:10 and 11, Baby will probably have woke up- and it's time for his lunch now too.
12pm-Feed myself and the other 3 kids.

This is when the schedule really gets flexible. Today, the kids are clearly very tired, so after lunch, they will have quiet/nap time in their rooms while I deal w/ Babybug. If Baby goes to bed then too- I might get a quiet hr for some knitting. That's always nice. :-)
Today it's raining- inside games after quiet time. Maybe a video while I make dinner tonight. Puzzles for Asher- he's loving them right now. Play-doh anyone? While Baby sleeps, the other kids play well, I can usually get some designing in. But ya never know- yesterday Baby didn't sleep much and picking up the needles was a laugh.

Evenings are the very best time of day. When Joel gets home from work. :-) It's a breath of fresh air in our house. He plays with the kids, gives me adult conversation and a renewed perspective. Dinner together is always a good time. Laughter really is the best medicine. ;-D

Round 2 of the Lord of the stRings Sock Club

2010-03-15T14:06:00.001-07:00

I am horribly late with this post- these socks went out to club members in February. (Sorry, been busy around here!)

One Ring
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
JRR Tolkien Lord of the Rings

There is a lot of imagery in this sock. The One Ring attached to the other Rings of Power. (Count 'em- 3, 7 & 9) as well as the symbolic colors used.

I loved designing this sock. I love the cuff not being traditional ribbing- I love the way the colors flow. And I'm a big fan of afterthought heels, so this was a great design for me.

I hope you like it too....

Magazine Publication #3

2010-03-02T18:04:00.003-08:00

Here is my third magazine published pattern!

The Erratic Argyle
Argyle has been used in knitting for a LONG time. This is argyle taken a slightly different way.

This was one of those designs that just kind of smacks you upside the head. It came to my mind complete, ready to be knit. I love it when that happens.

The yarn is SWTC Tranquility in Black, Aqua, and Lemon. It's a relatively quick knit up on 5.0mm (US 8) needles. Currently, it is available in Yarn Forward Magazine, Issue No. 23, March 2010.
For gauge and other specifics- look on my Ravelry design page, here.

Love the Forest Cowl

2010-02-25T16:29:00.001-08:00

It's been awhile since I have been able to post a new design here!

Here is my latest:

Love the Forest Cowl

This is a case of the yarn creating a design. I couldn’t bear to make socks with this luxurious yarn; the cashmere in it just had to be something that would wrap a neck and be snuggled. The colors begged to have a woodland theme; double moss stitch created a bark-like texture. As this was designed during the XXI Winter Olympics which began on Valentine’s weekend, hearts were needed as well. And the Love the Forest Cowl came about. I hope you enjoy it.

Pattern available for $4.00 on Ravelry.

BookSneeze

2010-02-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

Ever heard of it?? Well, you will now. It's a website. Where you get books for free in exchange for doing a book review.

So, here is my first book review. :-)

“Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God”
By Sheila Walsh

In a sense, this is three books in one. A book just for an individual to read; a book set up for a book club, complete with discussion questions; and a book for a Bible study- individual or group(complete with study guide and questions in the back). I like the fact that it is set up this way- for maximum benefit.

Sheila is very vulnerable in this book. In my opinion, she writes this as if she were sitting down and talking to you from the pages. It is easy and enjoyable to read; while thought-provoking and instructive at the same time.

She uses stories and images from her life as well as looking into the pages of Scripture to show women the beauty of trusting God. This is a very encouraging book no matter what stage you are at in your walk with the Lord. If you are new to the Bible, the ten character sketches she gives are a great introduction; if you have known the Bible for a long time, Sheila brings you back to it with fresh eyes.

This is a great book for any Christian woman who struggles with trust and/or fear. And I only saw two minor typos. ;)

Homeschool Giveaway

2010-02-11T16:30:00.000-08:00

Big homeschool giveaway at a new website!!! Check out Simple Homeschool!

Check it out for more than just the giveaway- for good ideas and encouragement in homeschooling. Always a good thing :-)