A quick hello!

Just a quick little hello!

I've been crazy busy writing and whipping up a lovely crochet shawl pattern that will debuting  (in a collection that I also helped edit) this Friday at Vogue Live.  As soon as it is live, I will be hooting up a storm about it, but I've been trying to not say anything about it.  You don't know how difficult it has been!  I can't shut up at the best of times.

Anyhow, I just got a little thrill today when a friend let me know that one of my patterns was mentioned in Alana Dakos' blog Never Not Knitting as one she used for making a gift for a friend.  Check out the little knitted owl on her post here.  The pattern (seen above) is Owls Two Ways, and both the crochet version and the knitted version are on the same pattern.  Yay for little owls!

Crafty Little Day of the Dead Needle Case

Crafty Little Needle Case - Knit Version

OPEN, SESAME!

 Here is my latest little pattern - the Crafty Little Needle Case.  It will hold a lot of yarn needles and pins.  This one is knit, and I chose a Day of the Dead theme for embellishing.  It lends itself to lots of embellishing, I'll warn you.  Available here on Ravelry.com FOR FREE!  Enjoy!

Plain little needle case

Getting an applied I-cord makeover

My Ships & Seaside - Finally done!

Done, done, done! Well, I finished a few days ago, but this is the first time I've goten a chance to write about it since then.

As you see, the stripes go all the way around. It began with a provisional cast-on, and ended with a mega-session of Kitchener stitch. The pattern is Tiny Owl Knits - ships & seaside.

I love it. No, wait, I adore it, I worship it, I am thrilled to sit by it's little feet. The pattern, that is. I am similarly entranced by my version. Darker, moodier, stormier.

I made it for a summer KAL in the Tiny Owl Knits group on Ravelry. I also made a prize for the raffle for those finishing by September 1. (Next time, sweethearts, lots of pics.)

Video blog madness...

I've been spending my time making longer and longer and more and more involved video blogs for one of the yarn stores where I teach. Here's the latest:




You can check more out at the oceanofstitches channel on YouTube: here.

Busy, busy me! I've been teaching my tushie off to make ends meet and I love it, but I get super tired! Mind you - it is a good tired.

Progress progresses

I promised you updates on my ships & seaside cowl. Well, here's all I've gotten done so far - but I've been working on other things at the same time. And here are my lovely colors - in lovely Malabrigo. Clockwise from the top left we have Bobby Blue, Emerald, Azul Profundo, and Vaa. The latter has some of those lovely olive colors that I referenced from the Turner painting, Fishermen at Sea (below). And some of the deep inky blues. You can see the stripes from the bottom two are working out well. The light green is just the crochet thread that I used for the provisional cast-on. No one will ever know it was there (except you, if you are reading this.) I chose the lighter emerald green and the light green-blue to be the brief contrast to the dark colors, as Turner did with the foam and reflections on the waves.
I have altered the original colors of the pattern, as well as reversing the dark and light tones. Because I can't leave well enough alone.

Ships & Seaside

I am starting on a lovely cowl as part of the Tiny Owl Knits group Summer 2011 KAL on Ravelry. The ship & seaside cowl. I chose colors based on this J.M.W. Turner painting - stormy, dark, and mysterious. I'll post photos as I work on it!

Baby Luchadora

This is Rose, in a skull mask, looking like a miniature Mexican wrestler. I crocheted a skull from this pattern, crocheted around it, and my daughter put it on. An idea was born - baby luchadora. I put ties on it and she decided she must wear it to dinner, AND that we should go to dinner at Torchy's - a great taco place here in Austin, Texas. So, being a mother that encourages flights of fancy, we did.