A couple of weeks ago, my friend Cindy got married. Here she is in the Summer Flies shawl that I knit for her:
We had a great time, it was wonderful to see Cindy and Mano get married! The ceremony was beautiful, and so were the dinner and the reception! I’m so so happy for them!
First Dance:
Here are some pics of us…all dressed up!
I have a pattern in this new book: Brave New Knits: 26 Projects and Personalities from the Knitting Blogosphere
Here’s the project that I designed:
I called it “It Comes in Waves” because that’s just how life seems to go. Sometimes there’s nothing at all going on and I have all the time in the world, and then other times (like now) everything seems to happen at once.
The sweater is a simple top-down raglan sweater with a repeating cable motif over the entire surface. Knit in scrumptious Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK. (Can you tell from recent posts that I LOVE this yarn!?)
And here’s the Facebook page for the book.
This is another of my fave types of knitting book: one with INTERVIEWS! In the book are not only 26 patterns from your fave bloggers, but also 1 or 2 page interviews. I love getting a glimpse behind the scenes into designers’ lives!
(more pics on Flickr)
Both shrugs are knit in Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK, color: Periwinkle
In all of my (haha) free time lately, I’ve been working on a new version of my Whirligig Shrug pattern. The shrug was initially created for the September 2009 issue of Interweave Knits Weekend. It was only sized for infants up to 24 months. Even with such a limited size range, this pattern has been really popular…check out the 522 Ravelry projects! Someone even told me that this little tiny shrug was one of Ravelry’s top 10 projects for a while!
Unfortunately, this issue of the magazine is out of print, and you can only get the pattern IN the magazine.
BUT…it being September means that my one year non-compete agreement with Interweave is over, and I can re-release the pattern myself!
I’ve upsized it to fit not only infants, but the entire range of child sizes from 3 months to 12 years. In this pattern, you’ll have a total of NINE sizes, so you could knit one for every girl in the family! I knit the 6 month size for Olive in an evening, and the one for Mazie (4T) in a total of about 6 hours.
I’ve been working with some wonderful people in the Ravelry Group “The Testing Pool” who have volunteered their time in exchange for a few patterns from my Rav Shop to try the pattern out. Each of the new sizes has been tested by several knitters, and all of their suggestions and comments have been taken to heart. Jenn Jarvis has done a great job as tech editor, and the pattern is ALMOST ready to go! I just need to fill in the blanks on a couple of yardages (yarn quantities) and get my daughters to hold still long enough to get some photos!
Here’s Mazie last spring in the original shrug:
My heart melts! She was so LITTLE!!
Anyway, the pattern should be ready in a few days, I’ll let you know!
Lots of people have also commented that they’d like to have the pattern in adult sizes. I’ve started working on it, and that pattern will be released separately at some point in the hopefully-not-too-distant-future.
ETA: The pattern is now live and ready for purchase in my Ravelry Shop.
Last weekend, I taught two classes at Loops yarn store in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’d never been to Tulsa, but my friends all told me how lush and green it is, and how friendly the people are.
WOW. Tulsa is a beautiful city, but the people really make it shine!
Olive and I were welcomed at the airport by Shelley Brander, the owner of TWO Loops knitting shops in Tulsa. Olive is still nursing, so she came along. Some shop owners might have said, “UH…no thanks!” But Shelley was wonderful! She even hired a babysitter (Hi Hallie!) for the weekend!!
Oh, we loved our trip! Look at this beautiful, soothing shop:
I taught “How to Shape Your Knits” and “Converting Flat Patterns into Circular Knits.” Both of these classes teach the basics of knitting pattern math and how to add shaping to circular garments. The Flat –> circular class goes a step further to show how to do just what the title says and knit any garment in the round, either by creating a yoke from the armscye / sleeve cap OR by knitting the front and back separately and then adding on an in-the-round sleeve. (I also teach both classes on line, and signups for fall are open now.)
The students were awesome. Everyone seemed to “get it” and already had uses worked out in their own knitting for all of the things we learned.
Shelley has a great selection of yarn in her shops! Too great! I was able to pick up lots of yarns that I’d heard a lot about but hadn’t had the chance to work with. Most yarn companies will supply the yarns that I use in my patterns, but it’s nice to have a few “sweater quantities” of yarn to design with just for fun and with no pressure.
We had a great time, but we needed to cuddle our Mazie LOTS when we got home:
