Exciting announcement!

My Fit Your Knits online knitting course is now available for sign-up on Craftsy.com! And as a special deal for my blog readers, you can take the class for only $25 if you follow any of the links in this blog post or in my sidebar.

Here’s the course description:

You’ve found the perfect sweater pattern and even bought the perfect yarn. Before you spend days, weeks,
or even months knitting the sweater just to find that it’s too tight in the bust, rides up in front, pulls across
the hips or hangs like a sack, stop and check out my new online course. In Fit Your Knits, I will help you solve
these problems before you even get started.

Whether knitting flat OR in the round, you will learn to:

• Take proper figure measurements for yourself or anyone you know

• Analyze any knitting pattern and determine whether its shaping will fit your body

• Make adjustments to bust, waist, hip, length, and sleeve

• Add bust darts

• Adjust depth and fit of the armhole

During the course, I debunk the myth of the “average-sized” person, and helps you to embrace
your own personal shape. With her guidance, you will soon be wearing a sweater that not only looks good
on you, but also feels good on your body. So, get out your tape measure and Fit Your Knits today.

Well, TNNA is a whirlwind. If you haven’t been, you definitely know this from the Twitter spikes and blog posts from around the globe.

My TNNA was no exception, I had a great time, met lots of new people, saw (and brought home) some really cool projects, and went to some awesome events. Pam Wynne of FlintKnits and I even matched one day!

I came home with lots of fuzzy pictures like these, of everyone hanging out on the floor at the Hyatt bar after the show, knitting and crocheting in public:

If you look closely, you’ll see Kristen, Jenn, Mercedes, Andi, Miriam, and even more designers…(and if you click on the pic, you’ll find lots more similar pics with lots more people.)

One of the really neat things was meeting three of my Online Design Your Own Shawl Class students in person. Angela, Roxanne, and Mindy all had shawl designs at the show, either in their own booths or in the booths of yarn companies!

Roxanne had several of her shawls in her very own Zen Yarn Garden booth:

Here is a pic of me with Angela Tong, wearing one of the shawls she designed through my class (isn’t it beautiful!?):

Here’s Angela’s Ravelry page, impressive!!

And here’s Mindy Wilkes in her Holden shawlette at the Anzula yarns booth:

Several new yarns caught my eye this year, and I promise to blog about them some more later…here are a few cell phone pics that I snapped of booths / yarns:

Alisha Goes Around:

Knit Collage:

Berroco (What a cool idea!!):

Here’s me and Craftsy Crafter (and amazing designer) Rebecca Velasquez:
with our Craftsy measuring tape!

And, last but not least, here’s my Roomie, Anne Kuo Lukito of Crafty Diversions with her Fall 2011 KnitScene cover!!

I had a really great time. I wasn’t promoting anything, just walking around seeing the new stuff and meeting people. I did talk a *LOT* about my new job at the new online craft community Craftsy.com!

Stay tuned for product reviews!

I’m the June 11 stop on Vickie Howell’s Sheep(ish) blog tour!

(Part of this post is an excerpt of the interview Vickie Howell: a Craft – Rock Life on the Craftsy.com blog.)

At dinner with Vickie on Saturday night, she gave me a skein of her yarn in one of my favorite colors, this awesome acid green. I immediately cast on and started working on what will be a child’s buttoned cowl. I think this yarn will be perfect for the little girls. It’s next-to-the-skin soft and meets one of my newest criteria for kids’ yarn: washable!

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to interview Vickie about her new online crochet class at Craftsy.com, and the following is an excerpt from that interview:

Vickie: I couldn’t tell you what my first, general craft project was, but I still have my first crochet projects. In (my online crochet class) Crochet Lab I share a couple of them: a granny square doll sweater and cradle blanket. I think I made them when I was around 9. My 2 year old daughter likes to drag the latter around, which pretty much melts my heart.

(Vickie and her Daughter, Clover in front of a display of Vickie’s new yarn line.)

Me: SO SWEET! I love that your own daughter is carrying around things that you and YOUR mom made together! And I really love this photo of you and Clover with your yarn in the store! I can definitely see how crafting was and still is a big part of your home life.

Woo – Hoo! I finished my laptop sleeve!! I’m still in awe of the fact that I had this piece of patchwork lying around, all quilted and just waiting to be put to some use. It fits my computer PERFECTLY!

First, I bound all of the edges. I didn’t do this in a persnickety way, just sewed strips onto each edge to finish them off.

It looks like a little sleeping bag!

I stitched along one short edge, and about 3/4 of the way up one long side, and added a length of touch tape along the open short edge:

Here’s the finished sleeve, modeled:

A little bit wonky, but I’m sure it’ll work perfectly!