New Hampshire Conference

I spent the last week on cloud 9 at the CGOA conference in Manchester, New Hampshire. While the weather was awful (it rained almost every day!) I had a wonderful time. I don't want to bore you with specifics, but I do believe pictures tell it all. I spent way too much money - but made some money!! I met amazing people, saw beautiful things and just had a great time. I will be showing pictures of what I purchased, but for now (because the kids would like to go to the beach) I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures.

Here I am with THE CROCHET DUDE, can you tell how star struck I am?  His class on successful blogging for crafters was amazing and I hope to use some of his suggestions to make this blog the best I can.  Standing next to Drew is Vashti Braha, what a nice person. Check out her blog to see how cool she is.

The top I am wearing is the top I designed for the Tahki Stacy Charles 2nd Edition Crochet booklet. 

I am off to make sandwiches and go to the beach - Back to life.......back to reality!

Greetings from Paradise

We have been here for a little over a week. The place that I love to be. The place where my family goes to recharge their batteries without the distractions of television, phones, and everyday life. We are so lucky we are able to come here, and I have my parents to thank for this little piece of Heaven in my life. Want to see my front yard?

That is Son #1 in the kayak, he is 9; and right now he feels like he can take over the world. We are trying to get adjusted to no schedules, and it is a little harder than I anticipated. Mr. Fantastic will be going back to work on Monday, and I think we will settle into our summer non routine next week. 

I finished the job for Coats & Clark and now I am working on a pair of socks for my mother. It is really funny, here we are in paradise for 8 weeks or so, the place I love - and I show up with yarn for socks and two pounds of Dunkin donuts coffee!! Kids!

Strike A Pose

This is my first blog post with my new MacBook! I love it so far (when I can get my hands on it) there is so much to learn, and I'm afraid I will only learn the basics for a while until I have time to devote to it.

We are headed to the beach this week on Wednesday for the rest of the summer and I am so excited to go. I was lucky enough to be able to go for the summer last year and it really is a great chance for me to recharge my batteries!

I am finishing up a great new shawl/vest pattern in Frog Tree yarn. The cool thing about it is that if you wear it one way, it looks like a swing coat (but cropped) and if you wear it upside down, it looks like a vest with a shawl collar and a funky bottom, I am thrilled with this. The color is great, and with the Frog Tree yarn very economical (I believe it will be about $60.00 to make the medium/large size.) Pictures of that tomorrow.

This weekend I was involved in my first "photo shoot" of my pattern Impression. The pictures are going to be used for the finished pattern, and I have to say........I was a little nervous having my pictures taken. I have a few that were taken with my camera, (by the super talented Mr. Cho) and here are the ones I like....

Are you noticing the common theme here? Yeah, no face shots!!! After looking through the ones I have, I feel like my face looks like I either was eating lemons prior to the shot or I was smelling a poopy diaper! Now, I know we all have issues with ourselves, and I always joke about it, but really, my arms in many of the pictures make me look like an Olympic Russian Shot Put er! I mean really - you will be missing me this summer, not because I will be at the beach, but because I will be competing in the Summer Olympics!! Holy Cow!!

This is the Noro sock yarn version of Impression. The sample is crocheted in the smallest size, so it does not fit me perfectly, but you can still see how beautiful the yarn looks! (Once again, notice the absence of my face!) The small and medium version only takes 2 skeins of this beautiful yarn (if you want sleeves!)

I am off to work on a cool project for Coats & Clark and to block the shawl/vest. Have a great day!!

PS - OK, I did most of this post on my Mac, but had trouble moving the pictures around. I had to come up to the PC to finish - I'll get there!!

Goddess and the Three Beasts

Once upon a time there was a house Goddess. She worked very hard at keeping the house looking neat and laundry done and meals balanced. One day, the house Goddess decided that she wasn't contented anymore with these tasks. She was looking for a creative outlet.... a craft to keep her mind and her hands busy. Eureka! this house Goddess found her calling.... knitting and crochet! How happy the Goddess was....... she even began to publish some designs! Thrilling, everything was in order, house, knitting, and then she started a blog. Oh, how much fun, the Goddess' family in other kingdoms got to see what she was up to. Perfect. The blog, did, however cut into the Goddess' chores about the castle. Some times the blog was not updated because it was too late, and Mr. Fantastic was sleeping (the PC is in the room just off the bedroom). Sometimes the other members of the family were on the PC when it was time for the Goddess to blog... What will happen when the family vacations? How will the Goddess continue to design, write patterns, email contacts, look on Ravelry???? Mr. Fantastic came up with a spectacular solution. Buy another computer.... this one for the Goddess alone.... something portable, so it can be in the kitchen (where she belongs?!) and about the countryside (or the beach!).

Research was done, private shopping completed, and Lo and Behold!! a White Knight appeared!!




On the third day of the Knights arrival..... the Goddess was looking to update her blog.... use her mind, think up witty things that others in the kingdom might want to read.... and found this:



What is this? How can it be? Isn't the White Knight for the Goddess and the Goddess alone? Here is what the Beasts replied:

This one is too small....


This one is too big......


But this one, this one is Just Right.....


THE END.............I am on the PC, updating my blog.
Have a Great Weekend!

Gorilla Glue, Check......Clamp, Check......

I never thought in all of my Knitting and Crocheting, that I would need these tools:



Yep, that's Gorilla Glue and a set of Clamps. It seems that on very hot days, when Mommy is trying to get a design out of her head and onto paper, little girls that are seemingly sweet and innocent get into mischief.





See how cute they are? See how it looks like they are content to be dressing up and playing dancing princesses? DON'T LET THEM FOOL YOU!!! It seems that in the very hot land of princesses, they needed to get into left over yarn and wind it around my entire knitting room. Where was I, you may ask? Me being Cinderella (aka the slave of this kingdom) I was folding laundry and wearing my magical happy maker (my ipod) to get me though this torture and I did not hear the little fingers or giggles in the other room. I did hear the loud crashing boom that snapped me out of my happy folding (thanks to Cold Play). What I found was this.




My poor dress form. She takes so much from this family, with our 7 and almost 10 year old boys constantly feeling her up and being naked so much. The poor dear, she was knocked over, and one of her legs broke. Leaping to her aid, I found the Gorilla Glue and Clamps - can you believe it! I read the directions and got right to work. In about 1 to 2 hours, she should be right as rain. Hopefully tonight she will have a new shawl on her (can you see it in the corner?). I was working this pattern in the Noro sock yarn, but I wasn't thrilled with the way it was coming...a quick stop at the yarn shop and some Frog Tree later, and a new creation is under way. I do think that since the Frog Tree is a worsted weight yarn, I will also write the pattern for lace weight yarn (since I already started one) and I do know someone who really liked the way the Noro looked! Groovy..... two patterns for one, a really quick worsted version and a lace version.

After the shawls are finished I am going to start on Miki's bag, here are the colors I picked.




I am excited for this one.

Noni for Nonie

Well, I finally did it, I finished the Noni bag. I am so happy with the way this looks. I love every bit of it. I hope Nonie likes it too! I met Nonie at a party and instantly thought of this bag! How cool they are the same name (spelling is a little off, but you can't have everything.) I never made a Noni bag before, so I thought I would give this one a try. Let me refresh your memory...

The patterns are worked up in doubled 100% wool, the patterns are very easy to read and very easy to make; the pieces are then felted in the washing machine so that the stitches are no longer separate, but look like one piece of fabric. For my bag (well, not mine but Nonie's) I used Ella Rae Amity in black and red. The flower pattern is separate, but I know I will use it again, and the flower is huge! Here are some pre-felting pictures of the bag and flower.





I also used my front loading washing machine. I read a great tutorial here and I was very happy with my results. I think one of the reasons this took so long was that I was waiting for an opportunity to go to the laundromat and that never happened, so my bag just sat and sat in my knitting basket waiting to be finished.

Here is the lining. I found a great tutorial here about lining the bag, and I did that this weekend. I couldn't believe how well the fabric (I found it at A.C. Moore) matched the flower and the bag colors! The lining was fun to do and I have a few projects (well, no, one project) that I would like to do using my sewing machine, so it was good to get the big machine running! I have missed making things with my sewing machine.


Instead of attaching the flower (which you may have noticed is different from the picture on the pattern) permanently to the bag, I attached a pin backing so that Nonie can move the flower if she wants, or wear it like Carrie Bradshaw!


Voila! Here is the finished product - I LOVE it so much I was inspired to design my own, this time in crochet and I will be working on that pattern soon (that one will be for you Miki!!!)








I am beginning a new shawl design, I have picked the stitch pattern and I am working on the numbers, this one is going to be cool!! It is going to be worked in Noro sock yarn!! You know what? I finished the last Impression using the Noro sock yarn, but forgot to take a picture of it, I will get a picture next time I see it. Let me tell you, it is so beautiful - it will be worth the wait!

Ode to the Little Man

Oh Little Man, how good of a Godmother am I?
to let your birthday fly right by...

Without so much as a birthday call...
I guess you could say I "dropped the ball"!

But what did I do to make things right?
of course, a woolly to warm you tight.

A beautiful cable, for a handsome little boy...
a sweater this year, not a useless toy.

Little Man, Little Man, I love you so...
I made this one with room to grow!

I will not forget, never again, my dear...
for if I do, the next will be cashmere!



The pattern is Get Ziggy from Anny Purls and I loved the design, Anny's blog and her adorable model! The yarn is Rowan cashsoft dk in color donkey. I made the 24 month size and it took only 3 balls of yarn! I loved this project - but not as much as I love the Little Man.....oh, and his dad (that's my brother!)

Good night Di Di!!