Emerald

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

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)!!!!

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

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'...."

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

"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

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)