Planning for my Craftsy class

I have been lucky enough to be hired by Craftsy.com to teach a stranded knitting video class! Can't tell you how excited I am. Let the knitting begin...

Oh my, it's been a long time...

As I get ready to start on the next adventures of my crafting life, it feels like it is time to start blogging again.

Over the past several years, I have knit TONS, started to sew a bit (very humbling both by machine and by hand), turned into a busy knitting teacher and done some other crafty things. Some of this you can find on Craftsy.com or Ravlery.com - but really most of it has just been mine.

Lately, for my real job and to expand my crafting, I have been re-finding the desire to blog. It will help me with my writing on the professional side and give me an outlet to express some of the reasons, emotions and pride that comes with the small victories in my crafting.

As I look to future blogs, there is Studio Week at Alabama Chanin's Factory next week and then my Craftsy video shoot the first few days in December... Big things to come... Here are a few things that I have been working on...

knitting has been plentiful here...

While there has been quite a bit of knitting around here lately, the picture taking has been lagging. I did get a fancy new camera for my birthday, so I am learning how to use it and hope to have it up and running for better picture quality soon.

In the mean time, here are my two blocked lace projects. The raindrop shawl with Smooshy from the Woolgirl sock club -- which, yes, gives you alternate patterns to just socks! Jen at Woolgirl rocks!! I did have to toss the shawl over Roscoe, since it was his color. He did not appreciate it, but was a good boy for the photo.

The other lace piece is my stonewall stole. I love knitting it. A co-worker had traded yarn with me, so this was her one ply alpaca. I doubled it for the stole and love everything about it - the feel, the colors and the pattern. It blocked to almost double the size it was when it was just knit.

I did take a photo of my make-shift blocking area and Roscoe helping with the blocking process - which really was him laying on the floor sighing and yawning loudly... He did get an extra walk after everything was pinned :)

Soon there will be more photos...
Happy KNitting!!

It's all Roscoe's fault...

In the last three months, Jordan, our foster lab, had a name change to Roscoe and was adopted as a forever member of our family. He has greatly cut into my knitting time - along with a number of other summer activities - like camping, mr.sunneshine's mountain bike racing, yard sales, and family visiting. Roscoe has added a lot of love and joy to our house - so it is worth the lesser time to knit. He has started to carry his own gear hiking and camping, which he loves. And generally is a great dog! And really, who could resist that cute face looking up at you....

There has been knitting. I just have had the camera pointed more on Roscoe then knitting, the next post will have FO's and a couple that I am really loving that are in progress :).

Happy KNitting and happy summer!

Meet Jordan

This is Jordan - our foster lab. He is wonderful, well behaved, loves to be pet and walked and generally a joy to be around. He will infringe on my knitting time, but with a face like that, it is hard to hold him responsible. We are really enjoying him!

Happy KNitting!

One more reason to try on as you go...

Please excuse the not so great cell phone photos. I was so proud of my sock, I decided to try it on... Then I realized, that being the tight purler that I am, it was too small... So the lovely ball of yellow yarn is now the yellow sock. I have re-cast on - it will be easier the next time around, right? Next time, I will try it on much more often... And I jumped up a needle size as well!

Happy KNitting!

Things I am proud of...

And one thing that I am excited about - but I purchased it, so no need to be proud. Let's start with that one - the Susan Bates sock needle sets with 000, 00, 0 and 1 needles all bundled for a better price. They are jones-ing to start on a new pair of fair isle mitts with some sale jade cashmere, I purchased last week... That's another story, that my husband doesn't know.

Then there is the Cleo sock from the Woolgirl sock club - I am not worried about spoiling, since everyone I know in the club has finished theirs already. It is a fun knit - takes some concentration, but isn't really difficult - its beautiful, though!
Finally, we have my new Double Point storage . For $15.00 - I found these little clear vials at the science supply store down the street - cut up some pretty paper that I had - added some fun labels that I had and changed their centers to numbers - to mark the US size of the needle. They are not really full yet - but it got all the needles off the stitch marker table - YEAH! And I am very please with how they look. I am feeling a little "Friend" today (you know who you are - wink). Now I will not have to search through the knitting bag and measure every needle to distinguish between a two and a three....
Happy KNitting!!