Archive for June, 2008
Are you sure it’s July already NEXT WEEK?!
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
I just (with Cathi’s help) finished up the last of my DK weight garments for the pattern book I’m working on. If you know me, you know that I don’t often reach for the DK and US5s. I’m more of an Aran/Worsted girl. SO this has been fun-but-hard knitting. Well, not *hard* so much as just time consuming. The patterns are really easy to knit, as per my usual.
It’s nice to have them finished up. A few people have wondered aloud where those will be published, and I’ll tell you more about them when they’re out. You know how it goes. A hint, though, is that they’re knit with Mission Falls’s new DK weight superwash wool.
It’s SO nice to have them finished that even though Mazie’s asleep (my usual knitting time) I’m taking time to do some computing. You know what’s so weird…I spent so much more time on the computer when I worked full time than I do now. Now that I’m working from home, I spend most of my time with Mazie, the rest of it knitting or doing housey stuff like laundry and dusting. (I’m not a neat freak dusting machine, but it’s so windy lately that everything gets covered in sand, inside the house and out…so I occasionally have to clear surfaces.)
Maybe it’s not so much that I’m not working outside the house as it is just that I have a baby!
Next on the needles is a project for Kristi Porter’s new book, “Knitting in the Sun.” This will be knit in Berroco “Love-it,” an aran weight cotton blend.
In other news, We just got back from a week in South Dakota with the Japels. Nate’s dad Marv hasn’t been feeling the greatest lately. He had to go to the hospital a few days before the trip because his blood sugar crashed and his body went into shock that mimicked a stroke. We have all been concerned about his health. This trip was a reunion of sorts…all of Nate’s brothers and their families met up in Rapid City, SD in a cabin in the woods for a week.
I’ve been through SD before, and stayed a night at the Badlands, but had never spent much time there.
We did a lot of the tourist stuff, Rushmore, 1880s train, Deadwood, Moriah Cemetary, it was a really traditional “family vacation.” One of the good things about the cabin was that even though it had all the amenities, including a game room, it didn’t have internet. So we all spent time actually talking and playing games, taking walks together…just enjoying being together. Mazie got to meet all of her cousins for the first time. It’s so fun to see how they all get along and how sweet her older cousins are with her. There are some serious family resemblances. (Especially her little chin! The mini-cleft/dimple is a Japel thing.)
Posted in Trips, Patterns | 1 Comment »
Only when on a deadline does something like this happen…
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
There I was, swatching along. It was going quickly and going well. I even took a photo for posterity!
And THEN look what I did(!!):
OMG! Only on a deadline could I do this. I know that most of you can tell right away what happened here, but for those of you who can’t…this is (was) a Colonial Rosewood single-point US 4 knitting needle. That I SAT on. And broke almost in TWO. The blanket is wrinkly and the flash is on because I didn’t even take time to set up the shot…just screamed and took the photo.
For my non-knitting friends and family, this is a total disaster. It takes years to find the perfect needle. Not too fast, not too slow. Not too long, not too short, not to heavy, etc. etc. I not only found my perfect needle in these Colonials, I had found a whole SET. So. Now my set is 4-less.
The really bad part is that when I was expecting Mazie, I had put away all of my extra knitting gear somewhere in the big stack of Rubbermaids in the garage. I mean, somewhere in the stacks and stacks of Rubbermaids.
You might say, hey, just buy a new one and move on!
We just don’t have a place to run right out and get even a a specific SIZE needle. If I were to go drive to the yarn store, and then as a last resort to Wal-Mart (both of them) JoAnns, and Hobby Lobby…I may or may not find what I need. Even if I said, “hey, I’ll knit with hot pink plastic to get this done.”
Believe me, I’ve done this on several occasions, and it’s more time-effective to just look for my old ones. (In the end, I found an old pair of Susan Bates 4s.)
If anyone out there can help a sister out with a new pair of Colonial Rosewood US4 needles, I’m a good trader!
(And I’ve dyed way too many skeins of sock yarn lately!)
While I was swatching this morning, I caught an episode of What Not to Wear. The guest/contestant/questionably-dressed individual for the day was a fiber artist! Every piece of her clothing had a story. That was the most interesting part of the show…her going through the stories of her garments as they threw them into the big trash can. She had a sweater that she had knit from silk produced by worms that she ahd grown, carded together with mohair from a friend’s goat. They let her keep that one.
I really have a love-hate relationship with the show, I think they make everyone who goes on there look like they all stepped out of the same catalog. But at the same time, I really like seeing the new haircuts and how just a haircut can really make someone look like a different person.
Oh crap, it’s lunchtime already?! OK, I’ve got to get back to my swatching. Mazie is with her grandma today and I need to take advantage of these few hours.
Posted in just chit chat | 8 Comments »
Carseat and KIP and shopping and shopping and nap missing…
Monday, June 16th, 2008
Saturday was another big running-around-all-day day.
We started off by going to Knit In Public at La Llorona Park on the Rio Grande.
We were nine knitters and 3 kids in all, so a pretty good turnout. We found a nice big shade tree, spread out blankets and lawn chairs, and settled in for a few hours before it got too hot to be outside. It was another 110-degree day!
After the park, Mazie and I went shopping. We picked out Nate’s Father’s Day gift, and then took it over to my parents’ house to wrap it. Then me, Mom, and Mazie all went grocery shopping, then came home.
By the time we got home, it was almost 5, and Maze had missed both of her naps. The thing about the bigger carseat is that you can’t just snap it onto the shopping carts…so I had to wake her up from both her 1 pm and 4 pm naps. It was kind of a rough evening last night until she finally forgave me and just went to SLEEP.
I took this with my phone, so it’s neither high-quality nor a very good angle:
We’re not really GIRLS WEAR PINK people, but it was this one or a black one. We live in an area where it’s over 100 degrees in MAY…so we took pink. The poor baby would roast in a black carseat. (Her last one was black and SILVER, so we know from which we speak.)
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Little Ms. Big Girl!
Friday, June 13th, 2008
In knitting news, I’m still in hustle-mode, getting a few inches here and there done on my projects. Here’s another preview:
In other news, Mazie turned five months and suddenly outgrew EVERYTHING.
We’ve had to buy new clothes, go up a Robeez size, and today she gets a new carseat.
My mom’s coming over in a few minutes, and we’re going to drive to El Paso to go to Babies-R-Us. I’m oddly excited about this car ride. It’s an hour down and an hour back. With Mazie safely strapped in and occupied (or sleeping.) So…I will get a full 2 hours’ of knitting time in. In the DAY time!!
I’m also really looking forward to going to Babies-R-Us. We have no dedicated baby toy store (or even a toy store!) here in town. There are little boutique-y shops where you can buy a blanket for $60, but nothing with just a lot of toys. Mazie has been going on a lot of play dates lately, and one unexpectedly great thing about them is seeing which toys the other kids have that she responds to. She’s one of the youngest babies, so the others have all kinds of things that I wouldn’t have thought she’d be ready for…but is!
It’s just so fun to see her progressing from a baby-baby to a standing, almost-crawling, incredibly vocal, happy, laughing, cat-petting baby, and I’m excited to pick out some new toys that will challenge her and help her to that next level.
Posted in Patterns, baby | 2 Comments »
5:30 am and I was still knitting!
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
I’m working on a sweater pattern using the new Mission Falls DK weight wool. So far, I’ve really liked working with it! I can’t show you the whole sweater until the pattern comes out, but here’s a shot of what the fabric looks like. This is their “Tricolor” yarn in the Wildflower colorway. Great stitch definition, and it’s so SOFT!
June is a busy month!
I have two garments and two book chapters due at the end of it….so I’m hustlin’. Yesterday, Mazie and I did some errands like going to Target and to Kinko’s to copy my book proof so I have something to reference over the next few months until it’s officially OUT. While we were doing our jobs, I picked up a copy of the third season of Weeds. (The new season starts on the 16th, if you have Showtime, which I don’t.)
After we picked Nate up from work, we stopped in at the brewery for a beer and a burger, then came home. He watched soccer and I worked up a new knitting pattern while Mazie had some tummy time.
After Mazie went to bed, I decided that it was a good time to start knitting and ended up staying awake until 5:30 this morning…knitting and watching Weeds.
Sometimes, it’s just so nice to have a few uninterrupted hours, even if they *are* at some completely insane time of day.
PS: Mazie’s 5 months old today!
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
TNNA Recap
Monday, June 9th, 2008
(More F&W author blog posts and pics from Shannon, Hanna and Cosy.)
A lot happens at TNNA…you meet TONS of people and (usually) mayhem ensues. Several times. I had so much fun this year catching up with old friends and meeting new ones at the Stitch Cooperative booth!
(Mary-Heather, Jess, Me, Amy on Saturday night.)
It was kind of a whirlwind trip for me (Just the one full day, one partial day.) I’m back home already, and have lots of things on my “to investigate further” quicklist:
Lorna’s Laces Green Line
Shibui Knits yarns
O-Wool
Yarn Thing podcast
SWTC Therapi
Tilli Tomas Fil de la Mer
Knit a go-go
…I’m sure there’s more that I’m too punchdrunk to remember.
TNNA is such a great time for me as a designer to go through all of the booths and check out new yarns and toys. Usually the vedors are really nice but sometimes when I tell them that I’m a designer, I get the “OH. (eyeroll)” reaction and they turn away or just shut down.
To me it seems like a yarn company would WANT their yarn to be included in a book or in a pattern that might reach a few tens of thousands of people. Fitted Knits is in its third printing of 15,000 copies! But I suppose not everyone is on the internet or knows which books are even out there. SO, rather than blog about the people who don’t talk to me, I’ll just spend time raving about those who do! 
(…and just not ever use the mean ones’ yarns.)
Here’s me and (new mom) Lexie Barnes. I’m checking out the Jinx model in the diablo fabric. I carried this bag with me on the trip home…and I was stopped three times by people wanting to know about it! I LOVE this bag! It reverses to a cordura-type of fabric in a copper color. Really, really cool!
I also really enjoyed my personal tour of Lorna’s Laces Green Line. The colors are just beautiful, and the yarn is soft but has a great stitch definition. They had lots of projects on display that were knit with it. The yarn does great in cables and lace and holds its shape really well. You will definitely see some Glampyre projects in this yarn!
Tilli Tomas had some intriguing new things in her booth. One that I hadn’t yet seen in person (but really do covet) is the Fil de la Mer. It catches the light and shimmers like pure silk, but has the resiliency of the sea cell along with a binder thread that holds the whole thing together. One thing I’ve heard people say is that 100% silk both grows and pills, and I think that this blend is a great solution. Amy was wearing a blouse that she crocheted from this yarn, and it was so pretty!
Another company I always enjoy meeting with is Malabrigo. They are always such a pleasure to deal with on email and in person. Just really lovely people. (There are FOUR Malabrigo projects in Glam Knits!) I got to see a super-secret preview of 2 hanks of the new sock yarn! It is so pretty. It’s going to be one of those yarns that knitters covet. It’s dyed in that speckly process that produces a semi-solid with flecks. They’ve also got some colorways that are dyed in their traditional non-pooling multicolors. (They said that they are doing fine under the circumstances, and will be fully recovered from the fire in about 3 months.)
Mission Falls launched their new DK weight yarn, and are bringing out a DK-weight organic cotton that’s also organically dyed. I’m coordinating the pattern booklets for both of these yarns, so I’ve known about this for a little while, but wanted to wait ’till the official launch to say much. The DK wool is really easy to work with and knits up into a SOFT fabric. I took home several hanks of the cotton to get started working on my patterns for that book. It’s similar in feel to the 1824 cotton, but (obviously) finer.
SWTC is known for their unusual fiber combinations, and this weekend I got to try out the new Therapi. It’s a blend of jadeite, wool, and silk. The geology geek in me f***ing LOVES this! And the knitter in me also effing loves it! When on Earth have I EVER had the chance to combine my two nerdiest passions?? Jadeite is a MINERAL, dudes! And now you can KNIT with it!! I’m definitely making a project with this.
I also stopped by Berroco and oogled the samples of Norah’s garments. Ooh. Can I just say, “ooh.” and you know what I mean? SO cool. They also had a wall of “Comfort” in all its colors that was just beautiful. I love Comfort.
Artyarns had an amazingly light-catching display of beaded and sequined yarns. Iris was wearing a shawl that she made from one of the sequined ones and it was casting so much sparkle that I could track her from all the way over in the F&W booth! (I’m a glitter girl, so this was a good thing in my opinion!) I love that she uses beads of several sizes AND sequins all in the same hank of yarn.
Another favorite of mine is the Blue Sky Alpaca booth. Sylvia showed me their new Skinny Dyed yarn, which is a smooth, silky organic cotton.
Neighborhood Fiber Co from DC was there in full effect. One of the garments from Glam Knits was on display (sneak peek!) in Karida’s worsted semi-solid yarn. Karida and Libby have a book coming out soon from North Light (my publisher.)
Shibui Knits has yarn in the most gorgeous colors. Bright but not trendy…with a depth that just reaches out to you from across the room. I have to use this in something soon. (The owner, even though we had never met, was very warm and welcoming to me, too.)
I also really want to try O wool. I love the colors, love the concept. The yarns are soft and the colors have a very natural feel.
Well, Mazie’s getting cranky, so I’d better wrap up my wrap-up. Check my Ravelry stash for enhancement photos …in a little while… as soon as I can get them taken and uploaded! Ok, don’t check any time today…but maybe soon. I didn’t pick up much yarn to bring home this time, it’s easier for me to manage if I just take cards and contact the people later.
**I keep editing this to add more links and things as I remember them. Mommy Brain strikes again! (and again, and again…)
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
I got my Glam Knits galley today!!
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
Today starts the official “fun part” of writing a book!
Look what arrived on my doorstep this morning!
It’s the galley proof for Glam Knits!
I consider this the “fun part” because all of the major hustle is over, and it’s time to do the promotions, go on signings, schedule workshops, classes, launch parties, and things like that.
Here’s the promotional postcard that Justin at F&W made:
I just love seeing the photos for the first time! When I first opened the padded envelope containing Fitted Knits,
For Glam Knits,
Here’s another little tease:
(This is from the little promotional booklet that we are giving away at TNNA and gave at BEA, too. It contains a free pattern for the sweater in the picture. If you’d like one, be sure to stop by the F&W booth and / or the Stitch Cooperative booth.)
Hopefully soon I’ll be sent some more photos that I can share. The galley is in black and white…probably because they KNOW I’d be sneaking you peeks otherwise. Part of the promo is the hype. You know.
I’ll be doing three book signings (of Fitted Knits) over the weekend:
Saturday at 10 at R&M
Saturday at 2:30 at F&W
Sunday at 10:30 at F&W
They have started a system at TNNA where you have to get tickets for signings early, instead of just standing in line. So make sure that if you want to have *any* book signed, you go get a ticket in advance!
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Getting ready for TNNA (in Columbus, OH)
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
So, here it is a few nights before TNNA and as always, I’m excited to go, but feeling a little bit behind in my preparations. I’m not *quite* as fast a knitter as I used to be…or at anything any more! Having a 4 month old baby does that!
Speaking of whom…
When we go on walks, I put her hat on, her sunglasses on, and slather her in spf 50. She’s fair like mamma.
But back to TNNA…
I’m putting the finishing touches on one sweater that needs to be Fed-Exed tomorrow morning, working on the pattern for another one, and gathering my display stuff together for the Stitch Cooperative booth. At TNNAs past, I’ve had my own booth.
This year, I’ve gotten together with a few other talented indie designers and we’ve gone in together on one big booth. The idea is “One Stop Shopping” for indie designs. This way, a yarn shop only has to fill out one order, pay shipping once, and write out one check…and they can order from several designers all at once. Shannon’s also setting up an ONLINE wholesale ordering system! Check US out!
We’ll be in booth #1056, so stop by and see us!
I’m looking at the weather for Columbus and it’s in the 70s and 80s for the next few days, then jumps up to 90s for the weekend! I’ve learned to check the weather…not everyone is in the 100s in May and June like we are here in the L.C.. This has been a rude surprise more than once while traveling. I’m from Iowa, you’d think I’d know about these things…but I’m acclimated to the desert now, I guess.
I have Rapid City on my iGoogle weather-watching-widget because we’re going there later in June for a week. Mazie’s going to get to spend some tiem with all of her cousins this summer! Yay!
Posted in Trips, baby | 3 Comments »
I’m back from Book Expo America!
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Last weekend was my first ever overnight away from Mazie! I went to L.A. for Book Expo America. This is the first time that it’s worked out for me to go. The past couple of years, it’s overlapped with TNNA.
It’s so fun to do these events. I get to hang out with people that I normally talk to only on email or phone, like the reps and PR people at F&W, and get to meet other authors at my same publisher. This time, I met Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club fame. Jennifer’s new book is coming out SOON!
I got to see a few more photos from Glam Knits…they had a little press release for it. I’m *so* thrilled by the photography! I think it’s going to be a beautiful book.
On Friday night, we went to supper at Spago! And I met Wolfgang Puck. (I have one of his saucepans in my kitchen at home!)
So *this* week, I’m finishing up a garment for Mission Falls (I’m coordinating the pattern booklet for the new DK weight Mission Falls yarn…more later!) and trying to get myself together to display at the Stitch Cooperative booth. If you’re going to be at TNNA, stop by and see us! I won’t have my own booth this year, but you can order any of my patterns and see previews from Glam Knits at the co-op booth!