caffaknitted

Crewel

I can't believe I made it through all of January without posting. I've been too busy trying to stay warm. 

That's not really much of an excuse, but things have been busy. After 4 years as a member of the Nth Degree Gallery, I've decided to move my studio to the house. This wasn't an easy decision, and I will greatly miss all my studio mates. On the other hand, it's a lot easier to work here at the house, and even though my new studio is technically the laundry room, it actually has a lovely view of the river, and smells like fabric softener. The Nth is in an old building that mostly smells of mold.

Since I've finally settled in here at the house, and reorganized my tools and supplies, I've gotten back into a little crewel work. Her are a couple of new pieces:

I'll be exploring this medium more this year. I have a solo show scheduled for December. This will be my first solo show, and the gallery space is pretty large for my small work, so I better get busy if I want to fill it!

How to not be a boring gift wrapper:

Are your presents boring? Do you want to trick your recipients into thinking they're not? Have a little fun with your wrapping.

Here are the tools you need:

-multi-colored contruction paper or cardstock

-gluestick

-double-sided tape

-scissors

-wrapping paper (plain colors are good, but patterns can work too)

-imagination

Really you can make your gifts look like anything, but I like to start with the box. What are the proportions? Does it remind me of any particular object around the house?

Here are a few gifts I've wrapped this season:

Mixed Tape and

Record Player

In this case I tried to pair the object with the age of the recipient. When I made the tape, my daughter replied, "What is that supposed to be?"

Transistor Radio

There are some really cool looking vintage radios.

Cameras

Like radios, there is an endless stream of amazing cameras to base your creation on. This package actually contains a knitted hat. He'd probably rather get a camera.

Holiday Sale

Hi folks! This week only...all patterns in my Ravelry store are 50% off!  The discount will show up after the pattern is added to your cart. Happy Holiday Knitting!

Katie

It's the end of the world, as we knit it.

You may be wondering, how did that poor little gummi bear fall into that vat of toxic waste? It's really not that complicated. It's a long, exhausting day at the toxic waste management facility. Bob wanted a snack. He popped some quarters in the vending machine in the break room. Fast forward an hour or so, and you have a 50 story tall, lazer beam shooting mutant gummi bear, hell bent on destroying mankind.

It may not be exactly what the Mayans had imagined, but it's an interesting way to go. You might be able to ride out the Mutant Gummi Bear Wars in your underground shelter. But what will you have left to live for? The post-apolcalyptic world will be  a sad lonely place, devoid of laughter and gummi snacks.

Was the snack worth it Bob? Well was it??

Because times are tough...

Surprise! A FREE PATTERN. 

Meet Dinosaur Jr.

He's the cuddliest stegosaurus you'll ever meet. Knit one for yourself! Pattern found here!

The Shorties

This fall is proving to be the busiest season ever, hence the lack of knitting posts. Both my kids have reached an age of epic over-scheduling. Between dance and piano classes, swim lessons, cross country meets, and other various and sorted clubs, I spend a large portion of my day as a chauffeur. The one benefit being that all that waiting in the car does give me a lot of time to knit. Still, I'll be glad when things settle down a bit. Time is flying by, and I feel like we rarely have any downtime to enjoy as a family. They're growing inches before my very eyes, and there doesn't seem to be enough time to enjoy it. Since this is my blog, I think I'll take a little time to shamelessly talk about my kids.

Drew is a sophomore this year. He's a pretty amazing kid. Not only is he a straight A student, but he's a very talented runner. His season on the school's cross country team has been exciting! On top of all that, he's just a really cool person. He's smart and has a dry wit that's as sharp as a machete. Other interesting facts about Drew: he's an avid juggler, speed-cuber (look it up if you need to), and during movies, he talks to the tv as though the characters can hear him. And actually, I guess I need to stop referring to my eldest child as "shortie", seeing as how he's now taller than me. Drew recently started driving too, which is an adventure to say the least. Pedestrians beware!

And then there's my youngest, Sophia. Sophia has just turned 8 this week! She is a delightful mix of creativity, sweetness, and just plain weird. Sophia has the crafty bug already, as evidenced by the random piles of felt scraps and string, and the piles of drawings littering her bedroom floor. Every day is a new project that involves an even bigger mess. But balancing out the mess is a child who has the biggest heart imaginable. A large portion of those papers littering the floor are love notes written to myself or Drew. Sophia also loves climbing rocks and trees, while wearing an interesting ensemble that usually incorporates her loves of knee pads and sequins. In the photo, she is hosting her own version of the olympics, more specifically, her version of fencing. Her opponent was the cat. The cat won. 

Despite our busy lives, I'm fighting to find time to enjoy my favorite season. Last weekend we squeezed in a hike. Today is cold and rainy, so we're building a fire in the wood stove and making cookies. Maybe if I'm not too tired after the kids are in bed, I'll get out my needles and finish knitting something. 

Oh Baby!

It's one of those years, a year where it seems like everyone is having babies. I love those years. Being a knitting designer makes knitting for soon-to-be parents really fun. The tough part is decided what to knit! For this particular set of friends, I decided to reknit my Giddy up booties. They are a quick, fun knit in worsted weight wool. I added a little additional embellishment this time around. You can find that pattern here, or in my Etsy shop.

I also decided to knit a sweater. I love this little fair isle ragaln yoke sweater. This pattern is available free from DROPS design.

BABIES!!

August

Here is a summary of August, in the form of a collage.

Summer update: Micro-farming edition

My knitting has been on hiatus this summer. I haven't been completely yarn-free, just working on the same summer sweater for 3 freakin' MONTHS, which includes 2 episodes of mega-frogging. sigh. This sweater better be amazing.

In the meantime, I've certainly had my hands full with the garden and the chickens. The garden is now in full harvest mode. We've had a cool, wet summer. While I don't miss the task of dragging miles of water hose to the garden every other day, the wet weather hasn't been very kind to some of my garden, in particular, the squash and tomatoes which are disease-ridden and rotting away in the soil. Still I'll take this problem over the horrendous drought most of the country is experiencing. Other crops are doing really well. We had large harvests of peas and beans, and the corn and potatoes are starting to come in now as well. I planted a decent sized herb garden this year, which has meant plenty of pesto, and soon, homemade marinara. I will be forlorn when the first frost settles in. I'm planning my first attempt at wintering over a few crops. I'm most excited about the garlic. 

The chickens are on the verge of sexual maturity and all that comes along with such changes (you know...chicken sex). For the month of September, we'll be on egg watch. We won't be getting quite as many eggs this year, since out of the 15 chickens that I hatched, 9 turned out to be roosters (Boys rule...girls drool apparently). Five have been rehomed. The other will be sticking around for the time being. I've decided that my flock needs direction, so next year I'll be focusing on expanding and improving 2 breeds...Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, and Olive Eggers (which aren't actually a breed, just 2 types breed together to create chickens that lay dark green eggs). The remaining roosters have just learned to crow, though it sounds more like someone punching a defective squeaky dog toy.

Knitting will resume in full force shortly, as I have a backload of commissioned work to complete, and some great ideas for new patterns, one of which will be released for free! So stay tuned.

New book countdown!

This past week I received an exciting package...

My copies of Wearable Knitwits!

I love this book! I really do! I'm so proud of every project. I hope you all enjoy knitting from it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Even more exciting, today I saw that Amazon has moved the release date up to August 17! That's less than one week!  You can preorder here!