Kiyo is finished!

Ok, those of you who have been patiently waiting for it: Kiyo is available for purchase today at KnittingMatters.com and will be in local yarn shops around the US very shortly.

And, just because I can’t help myself, here’s the next pattern coming up — the Breckenridge Cardigan. This will probably be the last new pattern I can get finalized before the TNNA show in Columbus next month. I’ve got another design and a swatch for another on the needles, but I’m not counting on finishing them in time. But you never know….

A Square For Mander’s Quilt

I just mailed off my contribution to Mander’s Survivor Quilt. Here’s a picture. You can read about her efforts on Amanda’s blog, and maybe help her out if you have time. It’s really easy — just use sock yarn that has at least a little bit of purple in it.

10,333 steps

Yep, that’s how many steps I took yesterday. At least up until I took the pedometer off my belt. Heck, I could have had another 1500 or so after that, who knows? When my sister was visiting last weekend, we watched some episodes of Paul McKenna’s show, “I Can Make You Thin.” He helped to jump start our lifestyle changes, and motivated us to get pedometers and set goals to increase the number of steps we walk every day. My first day to wear mine was Saturday, and I only logged a little over 2000 steps — pathetic. So on Sunday, Eric and I took a walk on the community walking path that runs through our neighborhood. We walked about 4 miles in about an hour and half. That amount of walking would be too much for me to aim for on a normal day, but having the pedometer made it fun. I think Eric got tired of me asking him, “Guess how many steps I have now?”, but at least I had fun.

The pedometer even makes household chores feel more productive — I logged 50 steps just walking from the bedroom to the kitchen to make coffee this morning. I can get about 200 steps from going out to the mailbox and back. And now I don’t get frustrated when I go into a room and forget why I went in it. I just go away and come back when I remember, and add more steps! Can you see how this is addictive?

It’s raining in Detroit…

…and I love it! Wish it were a little bit warmer, but we can definitely use the precipitation.

I got my camera cable back (Eric didn’t have it with him after all — apparently I just need to declutterize around here - blush), and so now I can post a couple pictures of Kiyo, my newest design.

It’s done in SWTC Phoenix, a soysilk tape yarn, and it’s part of my Green Knits pattern line.

Here’s the introductory paragraph on the pattern:

The “dragon skin” stitch pattern found in one of Barbara Walker’s stitch dictionaries works up beautifully in SWTC’s Phoenix, a next-to-the-skin-soft tape yarn. It also inspired the name of this design – Kiyo was a waitress in a Japanese legend who turned herself into a dragon to take revenge on a suitor who spurned her advances. (Yikes!) The ¾-length lace sleeves are the only remaining trace of her feminine side. You know, the non-dragon part.

What do you think? Here’s a view from the side. (I apologize for the weird formatting around the photos. For some reason the text editor on WordPress doesn’t recognize the HTML I’m using…hmph.)

Kiyo’s pattern just went off to the editor today, so she should be available for purchase in about a week. I’ll post again here and on Ravelry when the pattern is finalized. Whew, it feels so good to get another one done. Now I can take the rest of this Friday evening off. Maybe I’ll curl up with a good book and a cup of tea to listen to the rain. Well deserved relaxation, IMHO.

Did I mention that the Fiesta Baby Vest is now available for purchase?

An Exciting Week

Well, there won’t be any pics with today’s post because I just discovered that my husband mistakenly took my camera’s USB cable with him on his business trip. Too bad, because I wanted to share preview photos of my newest design, Kiyo. But that’ll have to wait for the next post I guess.

Verena Knitting Magazine

Have you heard of the new North American edition of Verena Knitting magazine? I just received my advertiser’s packet containing the first issue, as well as a recent issue of the German edition. Very nice, with lots of patterns in each issue. The English version only has a few ads, but I’m guessing that will change once they become more established here. I haven’t been able to spend a great deal of time with it yet, but I did notice that their patterns appear to use alot of “same as other side but reverse shaping” instructions. That’s fine for experienced and/or confident knitters, but that kind of abbreviated instruction may not please those who need a more detailed path to guide them through a pattern.

Another thing that bothers me is that I can’t find the designer names for any of the garments. I’ve scoured the pages with the photos as well as the pattern instruction pages, and they don’t seem to mention designers at all. Hmmm, what’s up with that? I think I may buy a subscription to keep tabs on this one.

Hong Kong yarn shop

As I mentioned, Eric has been in Singapore and Hong Kong for the past 10 days or so. He was able to go to a yarn shop in Hong Kong (”Cheer Wool“) and he says he got me “a bunch” of yarn. He says it’s Japanese yarn, but other than that he has no clue what he bought. So I’m in for a big surprise when he gets home. Please, please, please, let it be good yarn! I asked him to just buy me a skein or two as souvenirs, but he said “it came in a big bag” — I think over there they display the yarn in bags of 10 skeins, the way it comes from the distributor. I guess he didn’t understand when I told him he could just buy one skein out of the bag…. Oh well, he gets points just for taking the time to find the shop and pick something out for me.

My sister’s visit

Deb came up from Ohio to spend a few days with me this past weekend. As usual, we had a great time together. We had fun doing Pilates and lifting weights (yes, I said “fun”), and we made a commitment to making some healthier lifestyle changes. We made some beaded jewelry (earrings for me and a bracelet for her), and talked and talked and talked. I always have a sore throat from talking after a visit with Deb!

TNNA progress

Preparations for the show are coming along. We’re at about 5 weeks and counting now. Jodi just finished editing the Fiesta Baby Vest. I’ve just finished my sample garment for Kiyo, and need to finish Breckenridge in the next couple of weeks. Then I can focus on working out how I’ll display everything, and getting order forms printed up, etc. I’ll also try to cram in at least one more new garment during the last couple of weeks before the show. If I can at least get the sample knitted up, I’ll be able to display it. The written pattern may be delayed until after the show, but I think that’s ok.

And we have SUNSHINE today — and that’s a good thing!

Audacity Yarn for Barack

I’m on the waiting list for 2 skeins of the awesome Audacity Yarn from Black Bunny Fibers — hurray! I’m only 2 from the top so I hope I’ll have that yarn very soon. I found out about this yarn back in March in a Ravelry group called Knitters for Barack Obama. (I’m not posting a link because Carol is struggling to keep up with demand as it is. But you can google it or search Ravelry if you want to find it.) The colors were apparently loosely based on the range of human skin tones. I just love the symbolism of that! I’ve no idea what I’ll make with it, but I just must have it. And she’s donating her profits to the Obama campaign, so that’s even better.

I skipped my weekly knitting group tonight to stay home and finish writing another new pattern, the Fiesta Baby Vest. I finally sent it off to my editor just a few minutes ago. Clicking “send” on those emails is always fun. <G> Now I can relax and enjoy a weekend with my sister Debbie, who’s driving up from Ohio tomorrow morning. We had planned to make this a fitness weekend to jump start the summer, but our weather isn’t going to cooperate for outside activities. So we’ll be exercising indoors I guess. Phooey. I made up a little “fitness gift basket” that I’m going to put on the bed in the guest room for her, just to set the tone for the weekend right from the start. I can’t wait to see her face when she sees it. I usually leave her candy or something much-less-healthful.  (Oreos can take us both down in a split second!)

Raccoons Gone Wild

Ok, there’s a knitting picture. Now on with the news…. I usually don’t deviate from writing about knitting so much on my blog, but these raccoons are becoming a major part of my life lately. This morning at 6:30 when Mickey woke me up (The Cat Who Will Not Be Denied), guess what I saw out on the deck? Two raccoons making babies. Yep, that’s right. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever seen raccoons doing it before, but it was very strange. Unlike cats and dogs, they stayed joined together for at least 5 minutes. Every 20 seconds or so the male would grab the female’s belly with his front paws and shake it several times. She didn’t seem to be enjoying it much either, so after a few minutes I scared them away to give her some relief. Poor little thing. (Sorry no pictures…that would be, um, inappropriate.)

Last year we had 2 baby raccoons here, and apparently we’re going to get more this year. They’re so cute to watch, but they can be real pests. They just ate through another bungee cord the other day too. Sigh.

On the bright side, the beautiful weather here in SE Michigan keeps getting better. Yesterday my forsythia bloomed, as well as a few hyacinths. And the weeping cherry beside the front door is starting to open up too. The woods around us still look brown and dreary though, and they’ll take several more weeks to green up. I spent an hour or so yesterday hosing the thick mud and gunk out of the garage and that felt great. Cleaning out the winter dirt always cheers me up!

Gotta hand it to the raccoons

Honestly! It’s a constant battle with the squirrels for the bird feeder and the raccoons for the birdseed storage can. Just when I think we’ve outwitted them, they strike again. After learning the hard way that a squirrel will chew through the wall of the garage AND a heavy molded plastic storage bin to get the goods (hope they got bellyaches from that escapade), we resorted to a metal garbage can with a tight lid. Well, that worked for the squirrels, but the raccoons used their little fingers to lift the lid right off. So we drilled a hole in the can and put a lock on it — Exhibit A:

Cut to the middle of the night, when a distinctly metal-sounding crashing noise is heard outside. Crap! They managed to flip the lid over from the side opposite the lock. Ok, I know what you’re thinking — so put another lock on the other side and problem solved, right? Well, we were trying to strike a balance between making it harder for THEM to get in without making it annoyingly time-consuming for US to open it. So I got the bright idea to try bungee cords, In addition to the lock. Exhibit B:

And now Exhibit C from today:

Yep, chewed right through the bungee! Ouch, that must have hurt too! We try to be very tolerant of the wild and semi-wild animals (i.e., herds of deer) that frequent our yard (and deck, and garage). Heck, we even put apples out for the deer (I know, I know…). And there are limits to the damage deer can do — at least they don’t have FINGERS, for crying out loud. But these raccoons are pushing it. They’d better have a good life insurance policy, cause they may need it very soon!

What’s most annoying isn’t really the money wasted, or even the food that was meant to feed the birds for a week or two being dumped all over the ground in one day. No, what really peeves me is that these little guys keep OUTSMARTING me! It’s like they *know* that I’m an animal lover and will let them get away with far too much nocturnal destruction. Well, be careful little masked bandits, I’m watching you.

New Designs Coming Sooner Than Expected

Well, as I mentioned the other day, I checked with some TNNA show veterans about what qualifies as a “new” design for purposes of the summer show…. The consensus is that anything that hasn’t been shown since the previous show is considered “new”. Can I just say …HURRAY!? (Have you noticed that I can’t seem to write a sentence without using ellipses…?)

Even better, some designers say that releasing a pattern prior to the show gives you valuable feedback with which to tailor your marketing efforts. So I’m going to start releasing my new patterns as soon as I can get them ready. My tech editor probably isn’t thrilled about my sudden “rush” to publish, but she doesn’t let on if she’s annoyed (Hi Jodi! You’re the BEST!)

Here’s the pattern she’s finishing up for me now, the Jellybean Vest:

It’s done in Tahki Bunny Print, a gorgeous colorway that reminds me of jellybeans (hence the oh-so-creative name for this pattern).

The next new design to be released will be the Baby Fiesta Vest:

It’s done in the heavyweight version of Socks That Rock, in their “Fire on the Mountain” colorway. It’s like a party (aka Fiesta) for the eyes, if you ask me! This cute little vest is knitted side-to-side, with the fringe added as you go so there’s minimal finishing. I’m a slow knitter and I cranked this one out in 2 evenings.

More coming soon….(oh those ellipses are back again….)

Knit.1’s new Green Issue

I received my copy of the Green Issue the other day and eagerly flipped through the pages to find this…

…my first ad in a Soho publication! I sure hope it brings people to my site to see my Green Knits patterns….it cost me an arm and a leg to place this ad. It’s amazing how expensive it is to place ads in the knitting magazines these days. I actually spend more on advertising than I do on yarn, believe it or not. Anyway, if you have this issue, take a peek at page 27 and share my giddiness!