A Birthday

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

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!

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....

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

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....)