Archive for the 'press' Category
Needle Arts Studio
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
My episode of The Needle Arts Studio is going to air soon. It’s a little bit hard to tell from the website exactly when, but they’ve got a link up, and an image from the episode.
I was sponsored by Cascade Yarns to do a segment using their “Cash Vero” yarn. I re-knit the Turtleneck Tube sweater from Fitted Knits in the Cash Vero and demonstrated that process a little bit. The segments are only about 8 minutes, so not a *whole* lot of teaching, more talking about the sweater and the yarn.
We filmed in Detroit last spring, so it’s fun to see the show actually about to come out!
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Interweave Readers’ Choice!
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Oh you GUYS!
This just blows me away! I am SO overwhelmed to have my design chosen for this award.
On Thursday, I’m on blog tour at Chez Aristote. Woo!
I feel like there’s so much new stuff happening right now! I’m still fully entrenched in babyland, but I’m finding that as Mazie gets bigger, she’s more content and I’m able to scrape together the time to do some things. Which is GREAT.
(More photos of the new pattern here,and I’m knitting another in my size, so you can see how it looks on an old lady, too!)
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Knitting in the Heartland…the short version
Monday, April 7th, 2008
I’m back home, feeling totally inspired and maybe even a little bit gung ho, and knitting SOCKS! We JUST stepped through the door and I had to sit down and write about my weekend before I sit down to knit and review Glam Knits.
FIRST…let me tell you that the Sunflower Knitters Guild can organize a
convention! Everything was so wonderfully put together. Events ran on schedule, people and things were where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there…and if not…someone made sure that that changed QUICKLY. And the vendor market was EXCELLENT. I went over budget by a healthy 50%. So much variety and lots of things that I’d heard of but hadn’t seen in person before.
Oh! And I started knitting a pair of SOCKS (in happy-feet!) How long since I’ve knit socks? The last pair I finished was probably 2003. Seriously. I’m knitting them toe up with a short-row heel. And so far, I’m not using any instructions, just trying to knit from memory…we’ll see how that goes when I get to the heel!
I’m SO glad that I was invited to go!!
(This is Jo. We’ve known each other online for a LONG time and FINALLY got to meet this weekend. Well, this is Jo after several very hectic days and a few nights of no sleep!)
On Friday, Jo and Teri met Me, Mom and Mazie at the airport. They were nice enough to take us all the way to the hotel to hand Mazie off to her eagerly awaiting Japel grandparents (who had decided that we were just too close to them in Sioux City not to drive down and visit us) before taking us to the cutest and best-stocked yarn shop I’ve seen in a WHILE. Amber has done a really great thing in opening Miskints! I picked up a couple hanks of Happy Feet ( colorway 8 ) and a T-shirt (that I’m wearing right now!)
We went to dinner with most of the organizing committee (Me, Mom, Jo, Teri, Jo, Sandra) at Blue Koi. I got the shrimp with Chinese Curry…YUM. After that, it was back to the hotel to hang out with M&M (Marv and Mary) a while, knit, and get ready for Saturday.
I taught “Fitted Knits Techniques” first and “Airy Wrap” second. We figured out how to custom size the airy wrap for these who are in-between sizes. It was such a genuine pleasure to teach these knitters! I’m STILL in awe as to how knowledgeable they are and REALLY in awe as to how gung ho they are! They were such a treat!
Saturday night, we went to dinner with 20 KC area knitters! How cool is THAT!? There were bacon jokes, tales of *another* (more famous) teen-author-Stefanie, and some truly crazy camping stories. Did you know that you can send all the ticks to the other end of the campground by letting off a bug bomb outside? Did you know that the older girl scouts know how to catch rabbits and prepare them to eat?? Or that major purchases by husbands justify the purchase of MORE YARN? I don’t hang out with enough knitters.
On Sunday, “Drop Stitch Tank” class went really well. The last time I taught that, we spent like an hour and a half getting our swatches under control…but these ladies just came in with their perfect swatches and went to town. We custom-fit everyone’s DSTs! The second class “Converting Flat Patterns to Circular” didn’t start out as smoothly as I would have liked. Advice: don’t put your most math-intensive class LAST on a big weekend! The Sunflowers were so awesome, though, that it ended up warm and fuzzy.
After class, the girls (Jo, Gwen, Carmen, Teri, Christine, Jo) invited me out to dinner to recap the weekend and give ourselves small backpats and hugs and a little bit of mutual admiration over a job well done.
(Photo courtesy of me…stealing it from Gwen!…Jo and Jo are missing…Teri, Carmen, me, and Gwen are all there.)
If you’re in the area next time…or if they ask you to teach, GO!
(I’ll get pics of my haul tomorrow in the daylight!)
Posted in Trips, events, press | 5 Comments »
We had quite the evening with Miss Mazie.
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
She’s been really colicky some nights starting at around 6 and going to 10 or sometimes even 12. It’s not every night, but once in a while she’s SO TIRED but just won’t let go. She’s also having some pretty bad gas. Sometimes when she passes a bubble, she screams. Again, not every time, but often enough that it just must be really hard for her. She’s just so new that she’s still getting used to her body. It does some weird stuff!
We’re well on our way out of Mazie’s newborn days. She’s smiling, crossing her eyes as she tries to focus on farther and farther objects, she chatters and has
little bla-bla conversations with us, and is starting to be more alert during the day. She still takes a lot of naps, though. I think this colic stuff is on its way out. In the meantime, though, she has a couple of things that soothe her. One is a vibrating chair that she got from Olin’s mom and dad. Tonight she was crying and crying and Nate put her on that and she immediately stopped. Like someone flipped a switch. I bet Aaron and Margi are going to want this one back!
She also likes her swing. 
She didn’t like the chair or swing at first, because she really preferred to be held all the time. But now being held all the time is too boring…so she wants to go to one or the other. She laughs and chatters away in her swing. It’s really cute.
One other thing she really likes is her stretchy sling. 
It’s made out of the kind of fabric that you can buy in the fabric store to ring t-shirts or to use as cuffs on something made out of t-shirt material. It’s heavier than t-shirt. ANYWAY…it’s almost guaranteed that she’ll fall asleep if I put her in there and start a load of laundry. I’ve got several variations on this…pouches, ring sling, wraps, hybrids of those…it’s almost as addictive as sewing diapers. The different ones are good for different moods and situations. It’s easy to make your own and there are tons of web forums about it. My favorite is thebabywearer.com.
Speaking of diapers, I just finished a batch of 4. It’s not a lot compared to what I had time to sew pre-Mazer, but I really like how these came out:
Some of the fabrics are directional the wrong way, but I got more cuts out of them this way.
They’re so soft inside!
They’re made using the Chloe Toes sewing pattern.
The outers are DIY (do-it-yourself)cotton woven PUL(polyurethane laminate), the inners are dyed velour, and I dyed the FOE(fold-over elastic). They all have 2 hidden layers of cotton sherpa and the soakers are 2 layers of microfiber towel.
I got some excellent advice from Chloe Toes owner/designer, Catharine Decker:
*make sure you use 100% polyester thread
*polyester pul wicks less than cotton, but many use
cotton with success
*keep the soaker layer out of contact with the edges
of the diaper and binding within the crotch area;
wicking occurs by contact, with wetness travelling
along the adjacent fibers, so your soaker should be
narrower than the full crotch width (the pattern is
designed this way) to minimize wicking contact
*make sure your inner layer wicks fast if you have a
wicking layer against baby’s skin
*consider using a very fast-absorbing fabric for the
layer of soaker closest to baby’s skin (so wetness
absorbs quickly and doesn’t have time to pool and soak
at the crotch) I like microfiber, but others prefer
other fabrics
*include at least one layer of something that really
distributes wetness well in your soaker (so that
wetness spreads out through the whole diaper instead
of being wet just in the “wet zones” and dry
elsewhere) Again I like microfiber for this
*include at least one layer of something that really
locks in wetness well and doesn’t tend to experience
“compression leaking” (where it holds a lot of wetness
but the wetness easily squeezes out when baby sits or
moves) I like hemp for this
*if you have a very heavy wetter or need a
long-holding diaper for overnights, etc, consider
using a waterproofing spray applied in several light
coats to the outside of the diaper (information on
this is included in the pattern)
Having all this spelled out for m was so helpful. Like when starting to knit, I knew there were certain things to do…like using wicking layers, don’t let the soaker touch the edge, etc., but understanding WHY is really helpful.
…and I love how my diapers came out!
Thanks to Joy’s suggestion, I’m trying to get some shots of Mazie’s sweaters as she wears them…
(click to see them)
Also…thanks to Ainsley for the note today!
Posted in Uncategorized, Book Talk, press | 7 Comments »
Sunflower Knitting Guild: Knitting in the Heartland
Friday, February 15th, 2008
I’ve been invited to be the Featured Artist and Instructor at Knitting in the Heartland this year!! (Past featured artists include Nicky Epstein and Lucy Neatby!) It is an AMAZING honor to be invited to do this!
I’ll be teaching four classes:
1. Knitting flat patterns in the round
2. Ribbed lace tank from “Fitted Knits”
3. Airy Wrap from “Fitted Knits”
4. Techniques from “Fitted Knits”
The convention is being held Saturday, April 5 & Sunday, April 6, 2008 at the Radisson Hotel in Lexena, KS (a suburb of Kansas City.)
Registration is currently open, here is a link to the registration form and brochure. (pdf)
Posted in Trips, events, press | 1 Comment »
2008 Best of Interweave Knits: vote!
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
What an amazing honor!!
My cabeldown raglan pattern from the Spring 2007 issue of Interweave Knits is up for the 2008 Readers’ Choice award!
To quote the site:
“Last winter, to celebrate the publication of our editor’s choice collection, The Best of Interweave Knits, we asked you, our readers, to nominate YOUR favorite Knits patterns. We received thousands of nominations, and we are now proud to announce Your Top Ten Readers’ Choice Award Finalists:”
Click the screenshot to vote for YOUR favorite!
Thank you so much to all of you who nominated my design for this award! It’s an amazing honor, and I’m so touched.
Posted in Patterns, press | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
There’s a new podcast at Yarncraft! I was interviewed by Zontee Hou of Lion Brand yarn. It was an interesting conversation about inspiration and creativity…really nice to chat with Zontee.
You can listen directly if you click here. (Opens right up, so check your volume!)
Posted in press | 1 Comment »
Fitted Knits Trunk Show at WEBS!
Saturday, October 20th, 2007
Thanks to Kim for taking this photo for me!
Here’s Fitted Knits on display at the Mothership.
Posted in Book Talk, press | No Comments »
In the News!
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
Well, maybe not the NEWS, but Glampyre Knits has been getting some press lately!
Firstly, I picked up the newest issue of Adorn Magazine over the weekend, and Fitted Knits is given a very warm review!
Secondly, Yahaira (who is for some reason /wink-wink/ scoping out the bride websites) pointed out that the Minisweater was April’s featured project on DIY bride.
This explains why a few people have emailed me about knitting wedding dresses! I was thinking, “I know it’s spring, but this is sure a lot of wedding dress emails.”
PS: My Knitty Gritty episode will be airing again on June 19 at 2pm Eastern.