The End.

I am bit sad to say goodbye to blogger and my beloved Button Jar.
I had a wonderful time sharing with you on blogger...

Now everyone, Quick! Hop on over to my NEW WEBSITE and check out my blog there.

and I promise to post more often!

The Gift of Giving Thanks

Last night I had the rare opportunity to do something that I have wanted to do for a long time. I got to say Thank You to the man who started my design career. What a thrill!

My friends at Knit-A-Bit are celebrating their 10th year in business and this week they are having some heavy hitters in the the knit/crochet world. Last night the featured guest was Stacy Charles of Tahki Stacy Charles.

Now a lot of you know that Harriet and Susan started my design career by taking me to TNNA many years ago. For those who don't, the quick version is: while they were placing their order with TSC, Stacy asked if I was a designer, Harriet immediately said yes (even though I wasn't) and the rest is history!

Leave it to Harriet and Susan to have an event many years later that would connect me with Stacy again and give me the opportunity to say Thank You for giving me the opportunity to begin a completely new chapter in my life.

What a wonderful gift for me.... to be able to say Thank You to the man that started it all. I even got a hug!

**top I am wearing is the Java top I designed for the 2nd crochet book.

Let's Play Catch Up

This week let's get caught up with each other, shall we?

In the spring Marin was asked to be the flower girl in our Niece's wedding... I was , I mean, Marin was so excited to be in this wedding!

The wedding was in June and was going to be at a vineyard on Long Island...

We ordered the dress.....

We practiced with hairstyles.....

Of course I knit a sweater for her to wear in case it was cold....

Pattern is by me.... but will never be written. It was a pain, but look at how beautifully it matched! The lace is called vine lace (Barbara Walker first book, I think) because that kind of stuff really blows my dress up, if you know what I mean.













She looked so beautiful.... I cried really hard when she walked down the aisle, really it was a bit embarrassing.... she is a vision....

Dress.... $100.00
Hand knit sweater..... blood, sweat, and tears
Hairstyle........ 1 hour to roll, overnight to set and 45 min to style....(all by me)

Having pictures like these for the rest of my life....... priceless.

The Smell of 50 Shades

So, let's just acknowledge the elephant in the room and say, yes.. once again I have let my poor blog suffer from my lack of posting... What, made me come out of my hiatus?

Was it a super new knit job that I am so excited about? Nope.

Was it the hurricane that destroyed my beloved summer and left us in the dark for days and days and days? Nope... but totally would have if I was posting regularly

Was it kids getting back to school? Nope, that helps the blogging.

Nope to all of these (but more to come on each subject)

It is my friend Kristin Omdahl's new wool wash called..... Wrapture. It's smells so good, I wanted to mix it with vodka and take a swig!! I blocked a swatch with it... oh, so, good!

What does this have to do with 50 Shades? The scent is a sensuous, delicious, jasmine oil.... and for all of us who read 50 Shades of Grey.... that's what the chick in it always bathed in. If you want your warm woolies to give you that smirk (remembering that book) every time you wear them? Wrapture is for you friends, and if you just want your stuff to smell great? Wrapture is your wash!!

I love, love, love my buddy Kristin... to find her and wrapture click on over HERE.

It's even Otis approved!

Almost forgot with all of this 50 Shades talk! The winner is..... Figaro, please email me your address and if you wish for fiber for spinning, yarn or a book on knitting or crochet. Email me at kmcalindin@yahoo.com. Thanks everyone for your comments!

Wait For Me!!

I'm coming back....
I have so much to tell.........

Will you wait for me?
Respond to this post with a comment and a random winner will be picked to win some fiber or a pattern or a book or some yarn!!
See you soon!

May Day

Red Heart Boutique Yarn in Midnight

Happy May Day! It sure seems like May snuck up on me....I feel like we were just skiing. This is a wet and raining day - it even thundered last night!

Yesterday, Mr. Fantastic was not feeling well so I took the day off to give him a little TLC. He needed it. I worked a bit on my design that's due and actually knit my quota for the day. I'm hoping by tomorrow at this time the body will be completed. In this picture I am almost up to the armholes. The sweater will be worked all in one piece to the underarms and then split for the fronts and back. I can't decide if I should work the sleeves separately and sew them in or pick up stitches around the armhole and knit the sleeves down. The yarn company asked for a beginners pattern, I'm torn.

Coopworth fleece soaking

Since it's a rainy, yucky day and I am here knitting away, I thought I would wash some more of the coopworth fleece. I made some packets last night while watching television. I just love the whole fiber prep thing!




I am also washing this fleece from Namaste Farms... lucky me to have a friend who is a shepherdess and will send me fleeces! I am getting more fleeces this week. A merino (which I am sending to a small mill for processing) and two more fleeces from the same shepherd the coopworth fleece came from. I would like to have a bunch of fiber washed and prepped so that I can spin the summer away at the beach!

Beautiful Namaste Farms Fleece

Flippin' Friday

Were are the weeks going? I feel as if the weeks are just flying by! This week I finished up the little shawl for my friends daughter... here it is all blocked and looking pretty.

Yesterday morning I was finally able to unpin Marin's wedding sweater and this morning she tried it on for me. She is still in her pajamas and has sleepy hair... but when she put the sweater on? I was so happy with it! Boy, it really is a spectacular feeling when you see something in your head and are actually able to translate it and make it a reality. I just love this little sweater!

Last night during Blogtalk radio, I was happily flicking away on my coopworth fleece. Wow, what a pleasure this fleece has been to process. Originally I was going to send it off to a processor, but I can't bring myself to do it. I want to process the whole thing myself! Here are pictures of the box of fluff that I worked on - I can't tell you how much I love feeling the softness of the fluff!

 I was going to show a quick tutorial of how I flick open the locks. I started to take still pictures of the process, but I needed two hands to actually flick the locks (it's really just like brushing hair with a special brush - you can actually use a dog brush) but my camera is too heavy for my little tripod. I thought well I'll do a quick video and post it here. I went to the drawer to get my flip and...... nothin'. I went through each child's room... nothin'. I wasted 45 min trying to find this thing... and I came up with nothin'.

box filled will delicious fiber!

washed locks (remember that photo with the packets of fleece?)

twist fiber, holding the twist brush out each end.

fluffed out fiber... so soft and pet-able!

Sorry folks no video, but I now know going into the weekend that there is no contraband in any of my children's rooms..... and believe me I searched!

Yesterday I wrote the pattern for the new RedHeart design and I will be starting that up today. Hopefully I will have a major chunk of the knitting done this weekend so I can start a baby blanket on the rigid heddle loom my friend ordered.