KnitBrit

Congratulations to Shannon and Arabella on the opening of their new collaborative studio – I can’t wait to head up there tonight for the grand opening! 

Hope you can make it there too! It promises to be a great evening!

For some daft reason, I thought it would be a good idea to have Mark take a photo of me in the second pendenza hat. I don’t like having my photo taken at the best of times, and I really don’t like the way I look in hats, however, this one is so cute, that I thought we should give it a try. Imagine my surprise when the best pic turned out to be the one where Mark said – do blue steel! It was definitely a Zoolander moment! Thanks Cake! 

Huge thanks to everyone who entered the competition to name my new scarf and hat. I was thrilled with all the names, and would have been very happy with each and every one of them. You certainly got my creative juices flowing with some of them! Imagine my delight with the name that was picked out of the hat: Pendenza. It means slant in italian. I love it! Huge thanks to Mary for the suggestion – and congratulations to her – she’ll be receiving a goodie bag of TNNA fabulousness very soon. 

Five of you also will be receiving a pdf of the pattern in your mailboxes tomorrow, and everyone else will have a special coupon for a special price on the pattern!

Thanks so much for the love everyone

You can find the scarf for sale here

Yesterday, I got to take a break from home and go over to my friend Amy’s house for a couple of hours. Knitting, gossip and her adorable puppies – joy!

Got lots of design ideas, a little knitting done, and had a rollocking good time! Thanks Amy for being my sounding board, giving me the RHP design idea and for letting me play with Marshall and Lucy! 

I love my group of stitch n bitches – not only are they an awesomely talented bunch of individuals, they also happen to be very funny! This week, I was hosting the group and looked forward to two or three hours of uninterrupted sock knitting. 

I’m silly sometimes. I know that there’s no way anyone of us can do any serious knitting when we get together! Anything that isn’t straight garter or St st. just gets messed up! How can you seriously knit when there’s a very deep conversation going on regarding the correct latin for “always wear underwear”? I was laughing so hard, I thought I was going to snort onion tart out my nose! I love these women, two hours with them is like a two week vacation. 

I did want to knit though, so I cast on another scarf – same unnamed pattern, different yarn – I think it’s Lambs Pride seconds that I picked up at Great Lakes Fiber Festival? Not too sure – it’s lovely though! The great news is that this pattern passes the “knitting whilst seriously distracted” test! woohoo! I can’t wait for the patt to be released this week – i get to pick a name out of the hat for it, give copies of the pdf away and see what people make of it!

I’m working on another pair of the sunny side up socks from Alt Fiber. I’m using a purple hand-dyed yarn from my bautiful friend Martha, and I have to say, I’m quite enjoying the knitting process. When I designed them, time was definitely a factor and even though I enjoyed the process, I was too busy on a deadline to notice just how much fun they are to knit. Other than a very wonky start this time, I’m having a blast! A toe-up sock is a wonderful thing, however, starting out on dpn’s is a bit of a tactical nightmare. Do you know where I put my US1 16″ circs? I wish I did! So I gamely used dpn’s and I think if I had about three more hands, it would have been fine, but it sure felt a little clumsy until I got going

Now though, I’m loving the way the cables flow into the lace, the way the increase at the back is so seamless. And I’m thoroughly thrilled with Martha’s yarn – I’ve seen her dye techniques, and am a big fan! Here’s an original piccy of the socks, I’ll post a pic of the new pair later today!

Photography by Sasha Gulish
Originally published in Alt Fiber by Shannon Okey 2008 

Check out photos of the pink cabled scarf by scrolling down the page. Come up with a great name for it and win a TNNA goodie bag, a free copy of the pattern and bragging rights!  Deadline 6/30. Good luck! 

Update- You guys are knocking my socks off! What great ideas you all have. You’ve inspired me to add a hat to go with the scarf – photos tomorrow, along with the finished scarf. And just to sweeten the pot, five of you will also receive a copy of the pdf July 1! 

Tuesday Update – Thanks to all who have looked at the scarf, and special thanks for the amazing suggestions! I knew I could count on you all. Finally have pictures of the finished scarf and hat – enjoy!

Another Tuesday update – the wonderful people at Ivy Brambles yarn are also offering up a couple of skeins of the awesomeness that I made these from! How cool is that? 

as you can see, the back of the scarf is also pretty, the diagonal columns were definitely an added bonus! 

A mitten version of my Love Squared Gauntlets. 

The new scarf

A crochet scarf that I really can’t talk about, but am loving desperately! 

Not too bad for my first machine aplique – and Ben loves it (hence the wrinkles) Enjoy!

Sitting on my back porch this morning, I noticed that one of the plant pots had exploded – and it looks like Robert Smith! All it needs is some smudgey red lipstick.