Okay, I'll Show You...

...what I've been working on.

Yes, it is Shruggity Shrug Revisited in Claudia Handpaints Mohair. The lightest most lovely soft mohair, a little heavier than Kidsilk Haze but sooo much softer. My plan is to kit this pattern but it takes 3 skeins, so I am stalled, wondering if it would be too pricey.

This one will not be kitted, just the pattern will be available. You might recognize my snowflakes, crocheted from my sick bed. This was what I had planned and I am so happy with both the sweater and the snowflakes. It is called "Snowflakes in Summer" and Eden says it looks Japanese. I am so flattered! I adore the Japanese pattern books and have no doubt been influenced by them, but where did he see Japanese knitting? He definitely doesn't look at my books.

But he studies Japanese in school and collects anime films and Japanese graphic novels, so I suppose there is some crossover in design sensibilities.

And those of you who know me know that cannot be all. There are several other things that haven't been photographed yet..

16 Years Ago

16 years ago this day, I was sent home from the hospital with a tiny, helpless 6 pound boy who now tops 6 feet and weighs in at over 270 pounds! He is no longer helpless, but still rather clueless.

No one warned me that the sweet little bundle of joy was going to turn into a hairy refrigerator emptying machine.

As I was patiently enjoying him saying his first little words, no one warned me about the words that would someday be coming out of his mouth.

Or that those sweet little feet would become huge, size 16 things that would be itching to walk out the door.

I should have known. After all, I was once a teenager myself.

I admit it, I never thought beyond carrying him around in a little basket, reading him stories and singing lullabies, and then playing childhood games with a sweet little boy who I would help mold into the kind of man who would have all the strength of character and gentleness of spirit I saw in my dreams.

Ha, ha!

But still, I am glad I have him and I believe, in my deepest heart, that he will grow up into that man I described above, and even more than that.

In the mean time, I have my knitting...

Alfie's Blankie Update

A good fit and a good color match. And isn't he the most bee-yoo-ti-ful kitty?

Other Projects From the Sickbed and a Contest!

I have been working through Sasha Kagan's Crochet Inspirations. I just love this book!

Playing around with little motifs made from some tapestry wool from my stash. I have big plans for these, once I am able to count past 10 again.

One of these is from my own mind, not the book. Let's make a contest. The first person who can tell me which one I made up will receive a nice selection of my tapestry yarn stash to make their own motif samples.



Here is the prize!

14 little skeins of wool tapestry yarn! No germs included!

Still Sick

But does that stop me from needing to create?

Nooooo!!! But what I'm creating is not too great! Well, maybe it will be considered great by one (now fully grown) rag doll kitty named Alfie, my catphew.


How could anyone not fall in love with this little face?


Or the little toe tufts?


I made him this blanket to set off his beautiful blue eyes. It is a section of the Lion Brand free pattern called Circles to Squares
from Vanna's Choice yarn. I admit to being a yarn snob and never work with acrylic yarn, but a kitty blanket needs to be washable and basically indestructible. I have been listening to Lion Brands' podcast and they interviewed Vanna White recently, and were so complimentary about her yarn that I slunk out of my flu-bed and took advantage of Michaels $2 a ball yarn sale.

I also really appreciate that she is donating a part of her share to a children's charity, although I am still foggy and can't remember which one.

The yarn was fine for the purpose, but if I were ever to make an afghan for myself (don't hold your breath on that one) I would want it to be made from something real, even if it had to go to the dry cleaner's. But that's just me.

Kitty Blanket

I have the fu and can't do math so all my new designs are on hold. I did manage to make this Kitty Blanket for my friend's cat, Dink, and it was like making a giant swatch. A new idea for a design is in my mind, but I need to wait till my brain isn't all stuffed up.

Figaro is testing the blankie for catibility. She a-purr-ooves.

TNNA Report

I had a wonderful time at TNNA this year!

The first thing that was great was meeting my friend, Mary Moran, in person! Mary is the brilliant developer of Sole Solution NeedleTrax, and Knitter's Desktop Companion. She also owns The Knitting Zone and most recently, she has added North American Distributer of Hiyahiya Needles to her empire.

Like a true idiot, I forgot to have someone take a picture of us to prove we have been on the planet in the same space and time, so you'll have to take my word for it.

But our story is that we 'met' at least 5 years ago on the internet and after discovering that we share a birthday (except she's much younger than I) we began a friendship that has developed over the years. She lives on a farm in Alabama and when she's not being a knitting mogel, milks cows, gathers eggs, nurses goats (and worse) and has a pet pig named Wilbur.

I so much enjoyed sharing a couple of dinners with her and her sidekick, Sue, who flew with her from Alabama to help with the show.

Their runaway best seller is the 9" circular sock needle. It seems everyone loves making socks and would prefer bypassing the dpn's!

What a thrill I received to answer the phone on Saturday morning and hear Margaret Hubert's voice! Years ago, I took a class with Margaret, just to get an opportunity to meet her and tell her how much I admire and appreciate her work. Margaret is very generous and gracious to provide aspiring knitter-designers with advice culled from her successful life-long knitting career. We developed a little e-mail friendship and although she was already booked for all meals, we were able to have a little sit down on Saturday while she got me caught up on her 18 (yes 18!) books!

And we were joined by the beautiful and multi-talented Myra Wood, who showed me a copy of her new book, Creative Crochet Lace. I have already pre-ordered a copy from Amazon, and if you love freeform or lace or both, you should, too! The sweater Magaret is wearing is actually featured in Myra's book!
And then I got to spend time with my newest knitting pal, Janice Rosema, who unveiled her newest creations for Ozark Handspun. I got to see Dave and Terri for the first time since becoming a customer of Ozark myself! Janice's work is just exquisite and Ozark supplies patterns FREE here.

This is my favorite Janice design.
If you haven't seen her creations, you must check them out, although her newest ones aren't up yet. But you can see them on ravelry here, and I know the patterns will eventually be on the Ozark site.

And then there was Claudia! Once again I am an idiot and didn't use the camera! I instantly felt a connection to this lovely woman whose hand dyed yarns have taken over my life and my upstairs hallway! How could I not love someone whose logo is a heart and who prints the words "Peace, Love, Comfort and Joy" on each label of her gorgeous yarn?

Claudia had a modular coat that she made and designed herself that showed how talented and patient she is, not just with the dye pots! I ordered more of her gorgeous yarn, this time in sport weight and her new linen, and plan on some new designs for Summer TNNA! Stay tuned!

The only thing that would have made my day better was getting to meet the woman who first inspired my imagination with her freeform book, Prudence Mapstone! And guess what?
I was so inspired I came home and worked all night. I knit so much that I got a boo boo on my finger. See the groove that runs around my finger? That is a permanent groove worn in from years of holding the yarn wrapped around right there. When I work with Noro, especially, over days, I sometimes start to bleed from that groove. Knitter's stigmata.

Embellished Clam Shell Bag

Remember that tease from a few entries ago? Well, I have decided not to write the pattern, so here is the entire bag.

It is made from Noro Kureyon and Claudia's Hand Paint Boucle', then felted and embellished by needle felting with Ozark Handspun, then beaded. It has beautiful handles from Labeana.

I just don't like it enough to write the pattern. Sometimes designs don't live up to my expectations. The bag itself is nice enough, but it doesn't knock me out to the degree that I want to keep working on it. Not with so many other ideas screaming to be released from my imagination into the world.

I Would Trade Half My Stash to Go to Morocco!

Well, maybe a quarter of my stash. Half if I can replace it while I'm there...

Jane Thornley is organizing a dream trip to Morocco, specifically for knitters, fiber artists, beaders, photographers, and artists of all types.

There will be sightseeing and fine dining and touring and knitting and shopping and knitting and shopping.

Here s a picture of a store that sells nothing but tassels!!!

I just LOVE tassels! This makes the tassel department at Michael Levine's look like chopped liver!

Here is the hotel.
I can't go but maybe YOU can! Read her delightful prose describing the trip here.

If you go, please bring me some tassels.

Shetland Lace Shell Scarf

Pattern is by Frances Goodman, who I 'met' on Ravelry and is free here.
The yarn is from Knit Picks, called Shimmer, and it was wonderful to work with, plus stood up to many froggings, as before Frances was good enough to post her pattern, I had been playing around with it, trying to figure it out myself.

Oh dear, I just went to Knit Picks to get the address to link for you and I see that there are a few color ways of Shimmer on sale for $4.99! I only used 1 skein for a nice length, once it was blocked.

My New Year's resolution is to not buy yarn in 2008! That's right - no yarn! Trades don't count - as in trading graphic services or patterns or .... a teenager? I am also considering making an exception for yarn I need to purchase wholesale to make up kits. That is a slippery slope, though, as I tend to make up more kits than I sell, and then the unsold yarn becomes more ... stash!

My strategy for handling the 'M U S T B U Y Y A R N' urges is to go through my stash when they get real strong. Before I click on the PayPal button, I will be calling my 'sponsor' or shopping in my own closet. (closets, hallway, under the bed, storage room)

Think I can do it? Even I don't think I can be that strong, but I will take it one day at a time.

Say It Loud! I Knit and I'm Proud!

Yes, I am so proud of myself today!

I actually accomplished the task I set for myself - to format the pattern for 'Hot Hands' for both hard copy and download, get them onto my website, including the kit, and format the ad for Ravelry!

I am hoping people will like the pattern and the price for the kit!

Although I have decided not to go to Stitches West after all, I am still hoping to sell kits for some of my patterns on my site.

I have so much yarn purchased for kits that I have spilled out of my workroom and am taking over the hallway.



If you want to see, go here.

I Answered Kyle's Mememe

From Kyle Knits.
01. Can you cook? Yes, and I love to do it. My 265 pound son is a living testimonial to the quality of my creativity in the kitchen!
02. What was your dream growing up? I am living it.
03. What talent do you wish you had? I wish I could sing R & B like Chaka Kahn.
04. If I bought you a drink what would it be? Iced tea (plain, no sugar, lemon or fancy flavorings)
05. Favorite vegetable? Romaine lettuce.
06. What was the last book you read? Confessions of a Concubine
07. What zodiac sign are you ? Cancer
08. Any tattoos and/or piercings? Just ears.
09. Worst habit? Too embarrassing to admit.
10. If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride? If I knew it was you.
11. What is your favorite sport? Tennis.
12. Negative or optimistic attitude? Optimist.
13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me? Talk about knitting and laugh.
14. Worst thing to ever happen to you? Smashed a kitten in a door by accident.
15. Tell me one weird fact about you. I count bicycle riders while I am driving.
16. Do you have any pets? A black bulimic cat named Figaro.
17. What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly? I probably wouldn't answer the door.
18. What was your first impression of me? Impressed with your knitting.
19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary? Neither.
20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be? Make my hair longer.
21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience? conscience.
22. What color eyes do you have? Brown
23. Ever been arrested? Once.
24. Bottle or draft? Tea Java and water are the only things I drink that come in bottles.
25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it? Save it.
26. Would you date me? My husband wouldn't let me.
27. Where's your favorite place to hang out? My den or my bed.
28. Do you believe in ghosts? Absolutely.
29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time? Knit.
30. Do you swear a lot? Hell yeah!
31. Biggest pet peeve? People who don't say please and thank you. Especially kids.
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself? Creative.
33. Do you believe in/appreciate romance? Absolutely. Especially romantic ghosts.
34. If you could spend 12 hours with me and ask/do anything you like, what would it be? Go to a knitting event like Stitches.
35. Do you believe in God? Absolutely.
36. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same? sure.

Hot Hands!

I have been making "Hot Hands". A new pattern for my collection, and intended to be kitted with Hacho by Mirasol and to retail for about $12 for the kit, I decided to make up each size to make sure you could still get an entire pair of Size Large from one skein. You can, but there's only a tiny bit to spare. Like a few yards. This means that if you buy this kit and are making size Large
a) You might run out of yarn if the skein is a little short or you knit at a slightly different gauge than I do.
b) You will feel very tense towards the end of the project, worrying about whether there will be enough yarn.


It's a yarn dilemma! I don't want to add another skein because
a) I like the reasonable price
b) Small and Medium are okay with one skein
c) Large might be okay, too.
d) Why charge for an unused almost entire skein?

On the Designbiz list, I received a suggestion that I wind off a little extra from another skein and just add a little extra to the price.

I don't like the labor involved in winding off yarn. Especially since most people won't even need it. So the price goes up unnecessarily.

I saw this in Knitty for the pattern 'Fetching':
"Yarn note (from knitty.com): Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran is beautiful and soft and comes in gorgeous colors. The cool thing about these gloves is that you only need one skein to make a pair. However, you have to be willing to unravel your gauge swatch to do this, because one pair takes an entire skein with less than a yard of yarn left over. If you feel the need to keep your gauge swatches, you will need to buy two skeins"

That's fine if you are just buying the pattern. But it doesn't solve the kit dilemma.

So far I have made a couple pairs in every size. There is a discrepancy in how much yarn is left over. So far, there has been enough to finish every pair I've made, but maybe that's just me.

What to do, what to do?

I tried making up a pair in this gorgeous handpainted yarn from Urban Gypz that I bought from the Loopy Ewe. The colorway is called Rainy Day Blues and it is scrumptious. Gauge slightly different than Hacho, but lots left over!!! As well there should be. This gorgeous yarn costs $25, I think. I bought it with a special friend in mind and she will be getting these for Christmas.

Funky Pink Wrap

I am finally beginning to put pieces into the eboutique at yarnartists.com. I would much rather make them then photograph them and my least favorite is working on the computer, but it must be done, and I am the woman for the job.

It's a good thing that the deadline for Stitches West is approaching. Because of that deadline, I am forced to work on the yarnartists website in my system of productive procrastination. There's a twisted logic to it. Always have a second business so you can be productive while procrastinating over deadlines.

If you want to peek at yarnartists.com, I would welcome feedback.


This wrap combines about 25 different yarns, mostly PINK. It has pieces of pink pearlized shell and carved shell flower embellishments. Very snuggly.

A Few Flowers

Here are a pair of Flower Socks I made for my sister for Hanukkah. The yarn is Claudia Hand Paints Plumicious and is available from me as a kit with the pattern and the beads right here! The sock blockers are from Loopy Ewe.

And while we're talking about Loopy Ewe, what's up with that site anyway? Why do I feel COMPELLED to order yarn from them? It's not like I NEED more yarn. It's not like I USE the yarn I buy from them. I just find I MUST VISIT the site and order yarn on a regular basis! They just have the absolute best collection of hand dyed sock yarn under one roof, so to speak!

Here's another pair of Flower Socks I made from some Knitpicks sock yarn. This color is no longer being sold. Maybe these are for me, since they contain my favorite color combination - pink and turquoise. (in this case, coral and turquoise)

I wish I could show you my new handbag pattern. How about a tease?






That's all I'm sayin' for now...

Some Holiday Projects

Finally I am ready to share a couple of things I have been working on.

Gefelted Fish - a sample for a class I will be teaching for the Pomegranate Guild in February. They caught me at a weak moment and I so loved the title they had already picked that before I knew what hit me, I said yes.


A knitted and crocheted skirt for my niece, Aimee, in her favorite colors.



And finally, a vest for my very special someone for his birthday. Inspired by the cover of Sally Melville's Color book, but beyond that, there is nothing at all similar in the construction or the purpose.





I hope he likes it. I'll report back on his response.

What I Got Today

I know this is backwards but I am saving time and using Photo Booth instead of my camera and apparently, it sees me like a mirror instead of like a camera.

This is the newest version of Creative Suite. I use Photoshop and InDesign for all my patterns and of course, Acrobat for my pdf files. I recently purchased a really cool interactive pattern from that genius, Carol Wulster.

To my chagrin, it wasn't fully functional in the version of Acrobat that has served me just fine for several years!

Time to upgrade. I was 'talked into' getting the upgrades for Dreamweaver and Flash, while I was at it. Now if only I could actually figure out how to use Dreamweaver!

The other (backwards ) picture is my dear copy of Pineapple Lace.

What a fabulous book! I love all the old doily crochet books, but some of them do not have charts and I can't abide the line by line directions written out. They make my eyes cross and I start feeling dyslexic.

Charts, on the other hand, make crocheting such a pleasure. And this book is pure pleasure (although if you are a written out kinda crocheter, it's in there, too)

Whenever I find a paperback book I know I am going to use to death, I chop off the covers, laminate them with my lamination machine (left over from when I was an art teacher) and have Kinko's spiral bind it. A $5 upgrade that makes sure it will last forever. Plus it opens flat, so it's much easier to work with.


Yes, but what am I knitting, you may ask! I can't show you yet. I've been working on NEW PATTERNS. Yeah! 4 or 5 new patterns. I will be debuting them here when they are done. My objective is to have them printed and ready to go to Stitches West in February.

I know that gives me lots of time, which in my case is dangerous as I am "La Procrastinator Extraordinaire" and will start 3,000 new projects if the deadline is not breathing down my neck. Now you know one of the secrets of my prolific-ness - procrastination on meeting deadlines.

Another Week, 3 More FO's

It has always bothered me that the neighbors could see silhouettes through our bedroom window at night. I saw this screen at Aaron Brothers and thought it would be perfect for my booth at Stitches West in February. My plan was to print out 8x10 photos of some of my patterns and put them into the frames. When I saw that the one I wanted (black) was on sale for 50% off, I whipped out the Mastercard.

Back home, set up in the bedroom, I realized that it would solve my window problem and fit in to my decorating scheme perfectly.

Using my Joann's coupon, I purchased some scrapbook paper in colors that worked with the colors of the room, came home, cut them to size and voila! The solution to the window problem, and I can still use it for Stitches West!

See, watching HGTV endlessly will eventually rub off!



But home decor is not all I've been up to. My friend, Angela Best, who I 'met' on Ravelry, has this terrific design in Stitch and Bitch Crochet, called Short 'n Sweet. I used Shine Sport from Knitpicks, which is a really nice, drapey yarn that I am currently quite fond of. And at $2.49 a ball, you can't beat it with a stick!

I made this little shrug in a day and a half. It will be a Hanukkah present for one of my nieces.





And no, I am not tired of making the Heartbeat sweater yet! This one is called Summer Melons because the yarn is so melony and delicious and cool. I had an uncontrollable craving for rainbow sherbet while working on this one.




And yes, I do sleep, in case you are wondering. But not very much.

Oscar, I Wanna B U

Probably I don't really want to be Oscar de la Renta. I just want to get $2,450 for one of my crocheted freeform pieces!

Ravelry Ads

Ravelry has opened to beta testing advertisers. I created a few.
Click on the ad to go to the page on my site.
Here they are:





It's a great opportunity to be able to advertise on Ravelry. I am so impressed with the way the site is developing. It''s creators deserve every success!