Marvels of Knitting

I have Moved

2011-02-11T19:54:00.000-08:00

I have moved my blog to my website.

Marvels of Knitting

It is still in transition but ready for company.
Come visit me over there!!!

I have Moved

2011-02-11T19:53:00.000-08:00

I have moved my blog to my website.

Marvels of Knitting

come see me over there!!!

Knitting Classes

2011-01-26T22:25:00.000-08:00

I am starting to put together the class options for the spring. There is always a lot of "gnashing of teeth" during this time, and I have the dental bill to prove it.

Good Beginning Lace Project

There are so many options! I not only have to narrow it down to a manageable number but pick the classes that people are going to want to take.

These are needle holders!

Anyone good at reading a crystal ball?
Yeah, me neither.

So I do the next best thing. I create a survey and send it out to my mailing list. By doing this I take a lot of the choice out of my hands and into theirs. So far this has worked pretty well.

Survey Monkey is a miracle as far as I am concerned.

Here are a few of the options I am thinking about teaching.

Mara is a beautiful shawl and great for the beginner. It looks so different with different yarns. This is also a great easy knit for the experienced knitter.

This simple white one is beautiful

This is the same pattern only smaller.

Isn't color is such a wonderful thing?

Presto Chango is an old Favorite.

Here is the version I knit a few years ago.

Look at what this creative knitter did!

There are classes to learn new techniques

or just make something wonderful.

Intarsia or Fair-Isle, Your choice.

Garments with Beautiful Cables

Or a Touch of Lace

These are just a few of the choices.

Which ones do you want to knit?

Goodbye Indie

2011-01-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

Thank You for

15 years of Love

What have I been Knitting?

2011-01-17T15:17:00.000-08:00

I love January. It is such a quiet month. The house feels quiet after putting away all the christmas decorations. Outside feels quiet with the cooler weather. My knitting feels quiet after the mad dash to get everything done in time to mail and to put under the tree. My knitting is so quiet I am having a hard time finding something that I really want to knit. A bit of a stooper I would say.

Camera to the rescue. Time to take pictures of finished projects and show them off.

Socks for The Marvelman

This is actually the first thing I have knit for the Marvelman. You see he is a surfer. The dress code for all surfers is shorts, t-shirts and flip flops. Where would a knit garment fit into that I ask you. But the last few months he started to ask for a pair of socks. I decided that I could make him a pair to wear around the house, I don't like the sock flip flop look so no toes in these socks. Of course they had to be red.

Yarn: Jitterbug "Vatican Pie" and misty alpaca sport. I needed gray and that is all I had. I hope it doesn't wear out to fast.

He loves loves loves his socks. They have been seen peaking out from underneath his black slacks and loafers!!

Gloves for Mom and my Sisters,

I really enjoyed making these and the stretchy fabric makes them an easy fit. They are the Ringwood pattern from knitty.

I blogged about these here. But here they all are done and beautiful.

These are made with socks that rocks light weight. The color is Peaseblossom. I am pretty happy with the way they came out. This sister loves color and I new a solid pair of gloves would not be for her. These are just right. The buttons are vintage mother of pearl.

The last pair is made with Madelinetosh dk, color tart. I really loves these too. The color is so wonderful.

Yes, I need to knit one more pair for myself, maybe that is the next project to jump onto my needles.

My Leaf Print Fingerless Gloves and they are knit with Mink!

Yes these are all mine. It was really cold all of December and these got a lot of use. Mink yarn you ask? Yup, Great Northern Yarn Company has yarn with a mink and merino blend. I love these. They are soft and the mink gives them a really nice halo. I have warn these a lot and they show no pilling!

Another yarn that I am totally head over heels about is Shelter. This is the brain child of Brooklyn Tweed. It is completely sourced in the United States and is woolen spun yarn.

Pattern is Saroyan

I had never really had any woolen spun yarn before and always thought it would be to "wooly" for So. Cal. How wrong I was. This yarn is very light weight. It has a lot more air in it because of the spin. I wore this non-stop during the cold December. I wore it the house, (I do keep my house cold) and out side with my sweater. It didn't itch the back of neck and never got "heavy". I can not wait to make a sweater with this yarn.

I think that about does it for the finished garments. As I said I am a little stumped at what I want to knit next. The weather has heated up to 80 the last few days so that is making difficult to knit something really wooly.

I have decided to do a lot of knitting for the house this year and I have a new knitting chair!

I am losing weight (weight watchers with some of my knitter friends) and don't want to knit any sweaters right now. So the house is the perfect solution.

I have a new knitting chair I found on Craigs Lists for $25. It needs to be painted ( green, peacock blue?) and a cushion, but it is very comfortable.

I could knit a cushion or Maybe some of these will find my needles soon.

What are you wanting to knit this year?

Merry Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T17:36:00.000-08:00

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring-not even a mouse:
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Gifts are Flying off the Needles!!

2010-12-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

I was not going to knit any gifts this year. I know, what was I thinking. But last year I knitted rather large gifts for my mom and sisters.

This year I had intension of felting soaps and then giving a wash cloth to go with it.

But I had done something similar a couple of years ago.

Then I thought I would just buy something. But alas, I just couldn't. It isn't hand made and seems not as personal.

Then I went on a hunt for something easy, fun, and useful. That's when I rediscovered The Ringwood Glove Pattern in the current Knitty and the rest is history.

I decided that I would knit a pair for my mom and if all went well and quickly I would add two more pairs for my sisters. Good news, these are fast, fun and the finished product is wonderful. Just the right ingredients for gift giving.

Here are mom's. (no worries, she doesn't read the blog).

I used Caper, a cashmere/merino blend Dk yarn from String Theory. I love love love this yarn. It is really nice, soft, and cushy to knit with and the color is wonderful. The finished project is just so nice. I still need buttons on the cuffs but I have one set done and 2 more to go.

On to the second pair. These are for the sister that loves color. I used "Socks that Rock" light weight that I had in my stash.

Since this yarn is fingering weight and not dk I am making the medium size. The "ringwood" stitch pattern is very stretchy so going up just the one size has worked perfect. Since my row gauge is smaller I am measuring against the other gloves for the length of different parts of the glove. That has worked out perfect. I have one done and the second on started.

The third pair will be a deep red color "tart" of madelinetosh dk that I got at Abuelita's here in South Pasadena. They have a lot of madelinetosh dk and fingering weight.
I Love this yarn too.

I have one more top secret present to knit. I will be using Jetterbug from Collinette in "Vatican Pie". Fun fun fun!

I will let the secret out of the bag after christmas. Don't want to spoil the surprise. It is about as much knitting as the gloves so I feel I am in good shape.

I have a lot of FO's that I need to take pictures of and post about. But that will be another day.

I want to leave you with one more picture. This is my street today. After the rain last night I have sidewalks full of leaves and the colors on the tress are just to die for. I keep looking out the window as I write this and smile. The colors make me so happy!!

I hope your knitting keeping you happy!

This Moment in Time

2010-11-19T23:00:00.000-08:00

{this moment} - A Friday ritual (inspired by soulemama). A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Yarn and Pattern Love

Fall Retreat ~ La Quinta, Ca

2010-11-17T07:57:00.000-08:00

Our spring retreat was last weekend. We where in a wonderful house, right on the PGA West Golf Course in La Quinta,Ca. The weather could not have been better for lounging, knitting, felting, eating, swimming, and relaxing with each other.

Enjoy the Photos

Day 1 started with a stop at Colors in Claremont Village. I love this shop. You can tell from the outside that you are in for treat!

The shop is small, but has

so many wonderful yarns!

The girls working there where the best

with 14 of us raiding their space.

They where very helpful and again

what a great selection of Yarn.

This is our Abode for the weekend.

Fabulous!!!

We spent most of the weekend outside.

Lots of great seating, shade and water.

Manning the Barbecue in the Dark on the first night.

Notice the OTT light?

Conversation, glass of wine and

a great Kitchen.

Day 2

Does it get any better?

This is what we looked at on the

other side of our bushes.

This is the PGA West gold course.

It was closed for reseeding so we were

able to take our golf cart onto the golf course.

What an amazing Golf Course

Back at the Ranch

Enjoying the Table before the sun gets there

Jenny bought some needlefelting kits

and made a cute pig and cat!

Settling in for the Evening

Friday Night's dinner was a catered Taco Bar.

Rosa prepared it all for us and boy was it good.

Day 3

Saturday morning we Felted Soap.

That means we wrapped fleece around a bar of soap

and wet felted the fleece to cover it.

Once they are done you just use them

and the wool felt takes the place of a washcloth.

Here are some more ideas on etsy if you are curious.

Saturday afternoon some went on

another yarn crawl.

We went to Harriet's and the Yarn Co.

There is more then one way to find a soft seat

The knitting must be going well.

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful group of women to share the love of knitting with.

Thank you all for such a lovely weekend.

Click here to see all the pics I have so far.

Exercise while Spinning

2010-11-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

I have often thought that I should make myself exercise before knitting.

Did you know there is even a Blog with that name?

So far I have not been able to hold myself to that ideal.

I do set a timer when I am knitting for any length of time and get up and do something around the house for 15 min out of each hour. I actually love spending an afternoon like that. I get a lot of knitting done and I get house work done. The best is that there is no guilt spending the afternoon knitting.

Over the past years I have set another boundary I have lived up to.

Thou Shalt Not Look at or even Think about Spinning.

I do know how to spin using a spindle. I learned as a Waldorf Teacher years ago and taught it to the children.

I Love spinning.

I Love working with the fiber and the colors.

I Love the peace it give me as I spin.

After years of other crafty endeavors I have become self-aware enough to know that I would be Obsessed with spinning and it's wonderful supplies would fill my home and time would be even more fleeting.

But thanks to Cat Bordhi I may have found the perfect justification to break my self-impossed exile without guilt. After all, if there is no guilt there is no problem, right?

How does someone come up with these things as they are drifting off to sleep?

So here is my idea:

I could knit for 45 min. and then spin for 15 min. and have it all!!

I can have it all!

No, really, I can!!

Happy Halloween!!

2010-10-31T12:06:00.001-07:00

THE WITCH

I saw her plucking cowslips,

And marked her where she stood:

She never knew I watched her

While hiding in the wood

Her skirt was brightest crimson,

And black her steeple hat,

Her broomstick lay beside her -

I'm positive of that.

Her chin was sharp and pointed,

Her eyes were - I don't know -

For, when she turned towards me -

I thought it best - to go!

Percy H. Ilott

This Moment in Time

2010-10-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Moment in Time

2010-10-15T12:15:00.001-07:00

{this moment} - A Friday Ritual started by SoulMama.

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Fall!!!

2010-09-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

The Fall Equinox

is Tonight,

Sept 22 at 7:09 (pst)

My favorite time of year

officially starts tonight.

(pause for a Happy Dance)

This gives me permission to enjoy all the

activities that comes with fall

even though the trees on my street

will not begin to change colors

until November.

Oh Joy!!!

The No Knitting Challenge

2010-08-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

I am about to go on vacation. I am taking two weeks off from teaching knitting and one week off from taking care of Miss Claire and am going to Utah for a few days to visit Mom.

Before that time comes I have decided to try and take two weeks off from actually knitting.

Why would I do such a thing?

Part of it is the heat, but mostly, I need a break before I have to get fall classes figured out and knit up the samples for the classes. Just thinking about it makes me want to go and hide.

So I thought that" Not knitting" and taking a break from all things fiber for a couple of weeks would rejuvenate me.

Progress Report:

~I am doing pretty good not trolling around too much on Ravelry.

~I am enjoying the new magazines as they land in my mailbox but not researching them or looking for yarns that I would like to knit my favs in.

~I have not been on Webs (and they have a sale going on) and have clicked off all emails that have to do with yarn.

Sounds like I am doing well, right? HaHa

~I am knitting a sock.

Not being able to survive "No Knitting" made me realize that I have never gone any length of time without creating something with my hands. Before knitting there was beading, before beading there was quilting, before quilting there was cross stitch and before cross stitch there was knitting. I have to be creating something regularly. I have creating fiber kinds of things or creating music since around 6th grade. That would be forever!

I did spend a Sat. a couple weeks ago on my front porch reading a book which was quite lovely. I don't have a book in the house right now that has me hooked (note: need to go to the library).

As for No knitting,

Not going to happen.

But the socks I choose are very simple. Does that count?

I am casting off my Kauni Damask Bag that I have made into a tote

similar to this one. Then I need to felt it and find handles.

And will finish my Art Deco Beaded Scarf which is 80% done.

And that, in my world, is considered Not Knitting. The best I can do.

Now if I could only get myself to feel the same about exercise!

Twist Collective and Knitty

2010-08-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

The Fall Online "magazines" are out. Even though we have a couple of months to go before So Cal feels like fall. I love it when the fall magazines come out. Let's face it, knitting is really a cold weather activity. There is something about getting all cozy with some tea, good music or a good audio book, a fire in the fireplace or candles lite around the room and knitting in ones hands that is "Heaven on Earth".

I do knit all summer and really enjoy sitting on my front porch with ice tea, the audio book and knitting. I probably spend more of my life in the second scenario then the first one. Once the patterns start showing up fall can't be that fair away, right?

Twist Collective

Acorns by Carol Sunday

This is going to be high on my list to knit. I think this is such a lovely cardigan with just the right amount of interest done in such a flattering way.

Hallett's Ledge by Elinor Brown

I like this a lot. I think I would wear this as a 4 button sweater and not button it all the way down.

There are two coats that are lovely

Issara by Anne Kuo Lukito

Red Oak by Julia Trice

I am partial to Issara. Love the collar and the pleat in the back.

Kiloran by Cirilia Rose

I think this is the nicest dress I have seen in a very long time. It would be so flattering on so many people.

Manolo by Yarnissima

Each of the magazines always have several pairs of socks. I think these are really nice and love the little bow in the back.

Knitty

The "Early" Fall edition of knitty is up. Now the "early" denotes that maybe they had so many good patterns that they will be putting out a "second" fall edition in the next month or so!

In this edition there are some really nice patterns that I would love to knit.

Iced is a lovely basic wear all of the time sweater. I need one of those this year. Maybe this will be the winner. It uses a bulky yarn so it would be a fast knit. But bulky isn't the best idea for those of use that are sporting "bulky" hips to start with. But I do like it a lot.

I love Victoria. It has a really nice shape to it. I like that you can wear the collar up or down and it looks great. I love the way moss stitch looks. It is probably my favorite looking stitch. But knitting sooooo much moss stitch is a whole other thing.

Mythos is the most popular pattern in Ravelry from this issue of knitty. There are already 6 of them completed and it is very flattering on all body types. It is a really nice basic very usable transitional kind of sweater. It is done with fingering weight yarn on size 8 needles so it will be very light weight and a great way to use up some of that sock yarn!

Coquille Shawl is the runaway favorite pattern on Ravelry. It is a really nice use of striping yarn and short rows for the gussets.

What are you favorites??

What is on the Needles

2010-07-16T09:52:00.001-07:00

Where did the month go??

I have been knitting away on class projects and socks. Here is what is on my needles.

Toe-up socks: This pair has been giving me some trouble. The yarn is a light weight fingering and I am knitting on a size 1.5 needle. That means that my row gauge is smaller then normal. I usally knit the foot to 3" before the heel. But doing this with this yarn I ended up with a sock that was too short.

Hmmmmm. Now what?

I took out the heal and knitted for another inch and then tried the heel again. Better, but the heel was still to small.

I took it out again and made the largest size on the pattern, I had been making the small for the other socks I have done off this heel pattern. So I have my fingers crossed that this will be the final tweak.

There has to be a mathematical way of figuring this out. I will have to start researching that.

Oh No!! The "M" word!

I have done a little research and found this pattern with lots of "math" and also found this book which has several heals and the "M" to go with them.

Kauni Yarn changes it's color.

I found this great Rainbow Scarf (blogged here) that used the double knitting technique. Decided it would be a great class last winter. It was a good class but a little difficult because of the colors changes happening. After knitting on it and teaching the class I decided that it was way too heavy to ever wear here in So Cal.

I casted off the 6" square as a souvenir of this project.

So now what does my Kauni Rainbow Yarn want to be?

A Felted Bag of course. I have been eyeing this bag for a long time and decided that is what I really wanted to do with it. It falls right into my "Year of Color" theme.

So I have it on my needles. I have several people signed up to make it as a class. This is so much fun to knit and it is soooo pretty. I may change the actual bag some but the fair-isle pattern is wonderful.

That is what I have been knitting in the heat that was this past week. I sure hope it cools back down or my knitting my have to switch to crocheting cotton somethings. I know I said I was going to try and crochet something fun this summer so that wouldn't be the worst thing that ever happened.

How are you staying cool in 100+ degree weather?

Waxing Needles

2010-06-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

I love love love knitpixs needles.

I have the interchangeable set and use them almost exclusively.

They have several finishes to choose from. My default choice is the Harmony wood ones. They feel so nice in my hands, smooth, they are really beautiful, they have wonderful pointy tips and you cannot beat the price!

The smaller sizes, size 3 and under, don't come in the interchangeables so you have to buy them separately. The needles are too small to fit into the screw join on the interchangeables.

Most of my fellow students have these needles and we all love them.

The smaller wood ones are prone to splitting and breaking. I find that any wooden needles in the thin sizes have this tendency. They are like knitting with toothpicks!

But all you have to do is call knitpicks and they will send you new ones. No questions asked and you don't have to mail your back!! What a deal.

We were talking about this issue some and Christine (Unraveled) commented that waxing them before you use them could help them not break. The wax will fill the in pores and that should make them stronger.

So I have a beeswax candle that I am going to use. I suppose you can use any kind of wood wax or candle wax. I will report back in a few months and let you know how it is working.

Family Fun

2010-06-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

The Last few weeks have been great for both Wes and Josh.

Those Two Babies have all Grown Up into

Two Wonderful Men

Wesley Graduated from the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco.

He has a BFA in New Media.

In other words, he is a mean artist on the computer. He knows how to use all those really hard and very very very time consuming programs and creates magic with them.

Some of his portfolio is up on his website.

He has one more class this summer to finish putting all the rest of his work on the website and in all the other forms it needs to be in for prospected employers to view.

Great Job Wes.

We are so proud of you!

And then My Baby turned 23 this week.

That little one is now Tall and Muscular

Very Athletic and Brilliant

Talented in oh so many things

With one of the kindest Hearts around

We wish you a Fabulous and Prosperous year.

What's on My Needles

2010-06-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have started knitting up the class samples for the classes I am teaching this summer. There are some great projects in my future.

First up is the beautiful Shawl that was on the cover of the spring Vogue Knitting Magazine. Chris M. had to make this and drummed a class full of people so I would offer it as a class. She is really good ay rallying people.

Yup, that "Egg Create" looking thing is lace. It is funny how lace knits up all crumpled like.

The orange edge is a crocheted provisional cast on. I did it like this instead of the way the pattern calls for. It is much easier to take out and your don't have to pick up stitches in the back of 100 or so crochet bumps. That is really tedious. It is there for adding on the boarder that goes around the shawl. I am going to that different then the pattern says too. Hey, that is way my students pay the big bucks to take a class. To see how many times I am going to do it different then the pattern does. Hopefully my changes makes things easier.

How does one make the green crumples look like beautiful lace you ask? Buy blocking the "heck" out of it. You soak it and then when you pin it down you stretch within an inch of its life. I love blocking lace. It is almost magic to see the pattern actually appear.

Next on my needles? A Lace Bag made with chunky yarn! That should be a lot of fun and fast.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

My Grandmother, My Mother, Me and Wesley 1986

Before I was myself you made me, me
With love and patience, discipline and tears,
Then bit by bit stepped back to set me free,

Allowing me to sail upon my sea,

Though well within the headlands of your fears.

Before I was myself you made me, me

With dreams enough of what I was to be

And hopes that would be sculpted by the years,

Then bit by bit stepped back to set me free,

Relinquishing your powers gradually

To let me shape myself among my peers.

Before I was myself you made me, me,

And being good and wise, you gracefully

As dancers when the last sweet cadence nears

Bit by bit stepped back to set me free.

For love inspires learning naturally:

The mind assents to what the heart reveres.

And so it was through love you made me, me
By slowly stepping back to set me free.
~ Nicholas Gordon

Josh and Me 1987

Spring Retreat

2010-05-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

My oh My what a weekend!!

Perfect Weather

Perfect companionship

Perfect, delicious and abundant food

Perfect knitting and Crocheting (well there was some pulling out)

Perfect Conversations and Food

Perfect View from our Window

Perfect Relaxation

Perfect Concentration (this is actually a rare moment of concentration)

Perfect Walks

Yes it was the Perfect Weekend!!!

Click here to see all our pics

Toe-Up Socks I Love You

2010-04-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

I have not been a real sock knitter. I have about 4 pairs and I love wearing them. I get tired of knitting them so I just don't do it that often.

Enter Toe-up socks. I learned how to knit these for a class I was teaching and they have changed everything. I love knitting socks from the toe up. They fit perfectly. All the "hard" parts of knitting a sock is gone. I used up all of my yarn, no left overs. They seem to go faster. That is probably in my own head but what ever works.

I have knitted 3 pairs of socks in the last month!!

Berry Toe-Up Socks - "Lifestyle Toe-Up Socks"

The stranding pattern was easy to figure out and fun to do. With stranding you have to be careful that the sock doesn't end up to tight to go over your heel. There isn't much stretch. I went from a 1 1/2 size needle to 2 1/2. It is still a little tight getting it on but I love them.

Baudelaire Socks - Cookie A.

This was a very easy lace pattern to memorize and they are so beautiful.

Crocus Socks - Wendy Johnson

These are the ones that came off my needles last night. The pattern was a lot of fun but I had to keep the chart in front of me the whole time. It was a simple chart to read, only k2tog, ssk and yo's. Again very fun and really pretty.

I fear I am going to have to get some more sock yarn. I love the lace socks and they really need to be knit in solid or mostly solid sock yarns. I don't have a lot of that kind. My stash is mostly variegated sock yarns. What to do?

This weekend is our 2nd knitting retreat for "Marvels of Knitting" in Oceanside!! I know you are crying you feel so bad for us.

Knitting, beach, friends, several really nice yarn stores in the area, great food, too much fun. I will have to get my hands on some great sock yarn while we are there!

Knitting, Lot's of FO's

2010-04-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

I have been finishing a lot of projects lately. Feeling the need to find all my needles missing in action or held captive on different projects. Finishing projects and gaining back needles is much more fulfuilling then buying more needles because I can not find the size I need.

Botanical Hat by Stephen West

I made this for Wesley. It was sort of an add on christmas present I made when he came down mid January for a visit. I used Casacade for the black and Noro silk garden for the color. This is a really fun hat to make. I think there are at least 3 of them in the knitting group now. The guys seem to really like it too. It is reversible and designed from a really cool architectural design. Very guy like.

Barb's Koigu Ruffle by Kit Huchin

I was looking for something fast and with a lot of color. This has been in my queue for a while. I went stash diving into the Koigue corner and come up with this. The pattern is a really easy knit as long as you can get past the idea that you cast on and cast off a crazy number of stitches (648!!) But you are knitting two together right away for the ruffle...... It was a great addition to my wardrobe.

Hemlock Ring by BooklynTweed:

This has been in my queue even longer then the ruffle scarf. I used the Knitpicks City Tweed in Brocade. I love this yarn. It is really soft and the tweed is wonderful. I made mine bigger then the pattern so I could use it as a lap blanket. I had a hard time getting the blanket to block perfectly flat. I would go up at least 3 sizes needles sizes bigger to cast off and use Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy bind off for the k2tog sections and a regular bind of during the yarn over sections. I really enjoy using this as a lap blanket in the evenings while I knit.

Byzantine by Susan Pandorf

This was one of the most fun projects I have done in a long time. Mosaic knitting is really easy and fast and watching the colors change made me happy!

Clapotis by Kate Gilbert

This is one of the most knit projects on Ravelry (14,735 as of this post). The pattern came out in Knitty the Fall of 2004. I resisted knitting this one for years and then within a few of months I have now finished my second one. Why did I finally fall you ask?

Because of Noro sock yarn and Noro Scarf Stripping. I love love the way this turned out and the silk garden sock yarn is pretty soft.

Whirligig Shrug by Stefanie Japel

I knit this up really fast for a class. It is another great instant gratification knit. The pattern is from Interweave Knits Weekends 2009. I used Soft Wave Cotton from Queensland. I think it was a closeout yarn from Webs at some point. It was in my stash. Of course Miss Claire will end up with this at some point. It sure is fun having a little princess to knit for after having boys of my own.

Last, but the most fun of all, is Mr. Bender, a character from Futurama. This is a B-day gift for Wesley. We used to enjoy watching this show together when he still lived at home. As an art student he has great appreciation for such creations.

I have most of my needles back and the knitting is a bit quiet right now. The only thing really on my needles is Baudelaire by Cookie A , my second pair of Toe-up socks. I am already on the second sock in less then a week. The pattern is easy to memorize, learned a new heel and I just love knitting these. Socks may be back in my life just in time for summer!

How many needles are missing in action at your house?

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

Spring Prayer by Emerson

For flowers that bloom about our feet

For tender grass so fresh and sweet.

For song of bird and hum of bee,

For all things fair we hear or see,

Father in Heaven, we thank thee!

For blue of streams and blue of sky,

For pleasant shade of branches high,

For fragrant air and cooling breeze,

For beauty of the blooming trees,

Father in heave, we thank thee!

Make it a wonderful day!! Blessings to you.

Dream Knitting

2010-03-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

My taste in knitting changes a lot once the days get longer and warmer. I think many of us feel that change especially here in So Cal where the weather can be warm for half of the year.

Since I have just spent the last couple of weeks getting things off my needles I feel I can indulge myself in some "Dream Knitting".

Dream knitting: The gigantic queue of ideas that one creates with a real since that one could actually complete all the projects in such a queue within a proportionately small amount of time.

Shhh...... I am dreaming........

Yarn Dreaming:

It starts with a list of wonderful new summer yarns that I need to get my hands on and then find something wonderful to knit with them. Some of my favorite summer yarns right now are linked below. But there are soooooo many to chose from you could knit all summer and not have time to knit with all that is available.

Tahki Yarns Replay 100% recycled cotton

Tahki Yarns Good Earth Cotton 100% organic cotton in natural cotton colors

Rowan Purelife Revive 36% Recylced Silk/ 36% Recycled Cotton/ 28% Recycled Viscose in a tweed!

Misti Alpaca Tonos Pima Silk 83% Peruvian Pima Cotton and 17% silk. Hhand dyed in tonal colors. Love this!

Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy 40% Hemp/40% Cotton/20% Modal

Rowan Lenpur linen 75% Vi Lenpur/25% Linen What is Lenpur?????

Kolláge Yarns Milky Whey 50% Milk/50% Soy Great Colors

The Dream Continues: Summer Tops

Berroco's Peltigera, I saw someone wearing this at Stitches and man was it cute!

Inamorata Little lace top from Knitty.com

ButterCup (rav) This is done with the Hempathy listed above. There is also one done with the Rowen Lenpur linen

Petrie I love the shape of this shell

The Lace Dream:
Anything Lace is another great choice for the summer. The best thing about lace is you can use just about any yarn you want and come up with something wonderful.

There are so many choices out there it is really hard to choose just one.

Art Lace Bag scroll down. This uses bulky yarn!

Vogue Knitting Cover Lace Wrap.
There are several people wanting to make this one. You could join us!! Actually there are a lot of really nice projects in the current issue of Vogue Knitting.

Summit from the new Knitty.

Citron Not really lace but such a nice useful project for the summer. Out of bamboo??

Emily Dickinson with beads. Beads added to any lace is a beautiful thing!!

Crochet Dreaming:

My fancy often turns to crochet this time of year. Small projects for the home. They are fast and portable. The beach is always calling and crocheting with cotton is the perfect beach project. Here are a few fun projects that might be seen on my hooks soon.

Wavelength (rav)

Trinity Lace Shrug (rav)

Disc-Disc (rav) hotpads

Tiny Pin Cushion

I might start a motif blanket. I have wanted to do that for a couple of years.

Garnet Hill Inspried (rav)

Sock Dreams:

They are the perfect summer knit and your toes will thank you come next winter.

Nebula

Toe-Up Bayerische

Drops 100-20 socks

Get Rid of Terrible Sock Yarn. How cool are these!

Skew

Shhhhhhh......

I hear you mumbling about how I will never get this all done.

Shhhhhh.......

I am still enjoying all the possibilities and the options. This might be one of my favorite parts of knitting.
Dreaming it all up and changing my mind constantly about what yarns I want to use for which pattern.

Shhhh..... I won't tell anyone.....

What are your Knitting Dreams???

Stitches West 2010

2010-03-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

Stitches West was mind boggling and inspiring. From the opening presentation to my last purchase of Malabrio Lace, it was just what I needed. I realized, believe it or not, that I have been yarn deprived since Unraveled closed. I loved ordering yarn, opening the new boxes of yarn and most of all stocking the yarns on the shelves. Tactel and color therapy and I got payed for it!!

Thursday's Opening Presentation was with Jane Slicer Smith (Swing Swagger Drape) and Anna Walden of Twisted Sisters.

I was very taken with Jane's talk and her patterns. She uses a lot of color, love that, and the drape and fit of her sweaters is very impressive. The photographer for XRX was wearing her sweaters throughout the weekend and they all where wonderful. My favorites are:

Greta Swagger was my favorite. The shape of this cardigan and perfectly placed cables is just beautiful.

Jane was wearing this one done in different shades of green and longer. Beautiful!!

Metro A-Line. I saw a couple of people wearing this one and it looked really good on everyone.

Anna taked mostly about her garments. Her things are not my taste but her construction is very ingenious. I wish she had talked about dying fibers and colors since that is what I really know her for.

Thank goodness the Market opened Thursday evening for those registered for classes. This was about the only time you could walk around and see everything without the crowds.

My goal was to find MadalineTosh yarn and Qiviuet. I was sucessful and glad I made MadalineTosh first on this list for it flew off the shelves. My first color choice was already picked over but I got a sweaters worth of Duchess, black and purple. Beautiful!!

And 2 skeins of the Moss.

My second stop was for Qiviut. This is like gold. One tiny little skein of about 200 yards can run $70+. It is the soft undercoat of the MuskOx. There is not that much undercoat (see the link) and they collect what falls off. But it is the softest yarn ever. They have some of the skeins mixed with silk and/or merino. The blends lower the price point a lot and it is still really soft. I got one skien of the Royal blend

and one of the softest Suri Merino I have ever felt. These yarns made the cashmere feel course.

The classes I signed up for where all about shapping without really seeing the shaping. Especially around armholes and necklines. No more "stair step" shaping around here! They where very good and I learned a lot of little tricks that will make me look really good as a teacher. After all, that was the whole reason for trekking up here in the first place.

And you thought it was the yarn!

Here are some of my other aquisitions:

Malabrigo Lace to make a really cool scarf pattern that is due in the mail any day now.

Redfish is an amazing hand dyer. She has about 50 shades of the rainbow. Her booth was a wonder of color. She also had socks knitted from her lace weight bamboo yarn. The most delicate socks ever knitted on "000" (yes there are needles that small). I bought some for those socks, now I just have to unearth my "000" needles.

Feltz Inc had wonderful felted kits. Her bags a really well done. I got this kit for this wavy felted bag. It was so cool. She includes all the hardware and sewing directions for the lining which I really appreciate.

Next up was the Habu Booth. It was great to see all of these yarns and lots of samples knit up in it. This is a Japanese company based in New York. Their yarns are constructed of many very interesting things such as paper and stainless steal along with the usual fiber suspect blended in amazing ways.

They had the Aeolian Shawl from Knitty.com knit in bamboo lace.

It was so stunning I had to get some.

Just for fun. The felted flowers are part of the roving.
Scarf? Little bag??

Ruffling yarn (trendsetter Cha Cha) along with Merino 8

for another cute little scarf only in black and gray. The ruffles made with the cha cha yarn is really cute by itself too.

Last but not least there was a presentation by Anna Ziboorg. She is a retired MIT professor that now lives in the Mountains, on a vineyard, by herself and knits. Has she found heaven??

Her book "Magnificent Mittens" has been updated with socks. She figured out how to turn the same mitten patterns into socks. The one problem with stranded knitting is it doesn't stretch very well and makes it hard to get the socks over your heel. Replacing the sole with regular stockinet was the answer and she found a very elegant way to add the sole and heel to the stranded piece. She was just a delight and I am really glad I got to meet her.

So you guessed it. I have to try that too.

Now the only question is.....

How long is it going to take me to knit up my stash from Stitches 2010??
Any one care to place a wager?

Inspiration

2010-02-21T14:41:00.000-08:00

,I have a lot of blogs I read just for inspiration. The Creative blog community is amazing. To be able to sit at the computer and look at the amazing work from artist all over the world is the gift of the internet. No mater when I am in the mood it is there for me and it always lifts my spirits.

Here are just a few of blogs that have me drooling all over my screen.

NICOLE CHAZAUD TELAAR
"Wet Felting" taken to the extreme. I want one of these so bad. Can you believe she starts with fleece, roving, some water and soap to creat these?

Jamie is a very prolific Photographer that is very generous with his photos. He puts out photos each month that you can use for free as wall paper for you iphone. I love living into all the pictures on this blog.

I secretly want to create art journals like Debra

What better way to bring a smile to a cloudy day then one of Anablela's Necklaces

New Video

2010-02-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

We are starting to add video to my website.
This is only possible because this is what Mr. Marvel does for a living. Not only is he talented but he is also very patient. I would not even think about doing videos without him doing all the shooting, asking the great questions and then creating editing magic.

Thankfully he is not only willing to do all the work, but is also able to get me past my inhibitions with cameras and insists that I really can to do this.

So thanks Marvelman, you get all of the credit.
I couldn't be teaching out of our home without your love and enthusiasm for what I am doing.

Sunday Inspiration

2010-01-31T19:15:00.001-08:00

Knitted Tea Cozies to keep you Cozy

1. DSCF1744, 2. Christmas Tea Cozy, 3. Tea Cozy, 4. old knit cozy, 5. Hearts Valentines Tea Cosy, 6. Tea party, 7. Jilly's Funky Tea Cosies, 8. Cozy Tea Handknit Tea Cozy, 9. Sleeveless in Seattle - Twin Tea Cozies, 10. 4 Cup Handknitted and Felted Tea Cosy, 11. 4 Cup Tea Cosy, for Chantal Teapot, 12. 2 Cup Tea Cosy Cozy with Hotpad, 13. cottage tea cozy, 14. knitted_cat_tea_cozy, 15. Wild Tea Cosies - Sea Squirt, 16. Tea Cosy

The Magic of Friends

2010-01-29T23:18:00.000-08:00

Last night my house was full of Knitting friends.
How lucky am I?

2010-01-23T20:14:00.000-08:00

The new classes have been up for a week now and the sign-ups have been going really well. Putting up the classes always increase the number of people checking out my site.

While looking at stats to see what was going on, I realized that I actually have people reading my blog.

Yup, not only are people coming during the week I have put up new classes, they come back on a regular basis.

Yup, there are people reading this blog. And the numbers are actually higher then the number of my friends and students.

I find this amazing. I am not a writer by any stretch of the imagination. I am so greatful that someone, or as it turns out several someones, are actually taking the time to read my pages and then come back and do it again.

Thank You Thank You Thank You.

On with the knitting!
Since putting classes up, I have been busy knitting the samples for the classes. I selected the classes a little differently this time around. Instead of thinking about what I thought you, the student, might want to knit I decided to pick things I really wanted to knit.

What a difference that made. I have found that because I am excited about what we are going to be knitting so are you. I am also having a blast knitting everything up.

First up is the Mosaic Stole. This is a slip stitch pattern and it has been really fun knit. I have had to do some color managment with the noro silk garden lite I am using. There are 4 shades that are in the same family (pinks and corals). I don't want them coming up at the same time because, well, that would be too much pink and coral going on.

Solution? I rewound the balls so I could see what was happening with the colors and then figured out where I should start the two strands so that, in theory, those color families will not show up at the same time. I have a feeling I will have some more management to do before I get to the end of this project.

In hindsight, (don't you just love hindsight? I only wish we could have it more often as foresight), I would use noro colors that had more, distinctly different colors in one skein. The whole project would probably flow better.

Next up is the Hemlock Ring Blanket. It is finally on my needles. I have wanted to knit this for a very long time. I have had the yarn in my stash for maybe a year now. Any time it came to the top of my list I would place it back down to the bottom in favor of projects that were more pressing at the time. Now it is on the "I need to knit list" and guess what??

I am loving this pattern. It took me a couple of times out of the gate to get it going but it is moving right along now.

I started with an alpaca yarn I bought for this project a long time ago. It was a light worsted weight yarn and this pattern really needs the heavy worsted. I could have gone down needle sizes and it would have worked just fine but I really wanted to use heavier yarn so it would be a thicker blanket and it would work up faster.

So into the stash I went and came up with 7 skeins of City Tweed from Knitpicks that I had originally bought for a cardigan. Now it will keep me warm as a blanket. I am about done with my 3rd skein as I write this and it really is coming out lovely.

Next on my needles will be the rainbow scarf (rav link) and the Nona's Garden Pillow. I know, it is a shawl, but I just have this feeling that I will end up with a pillow. Which suites me just fine.

Craft of Hope for Haiti

2010-01-21T20:50:00.000-08:00

"spreading seeds of hope, one stitch at a time"

Craft of Hope was started by Jade Sims and has been creating handmade items to share with those that are in need. They have had some very successful projects but their Haiti project has taken off over night.

Craft of Hope has created an Etsy shop with a 100% of the proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders

Edit: 1/25/10 - Over $27,000 raised and over 1400 items sold!
That is a lot of product being donated by a lot of artist and a lot of product being listed and organized by just a few woman.

The creative community is the best. If you have wanted to help the people in Haiti and just not sure where to send your money this may be your answer.

Year of Color

2010-01-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

I have been putting together the classes for the next few months. Almost everything I am drawn to right now has a lot of color in it. There are so many things to choose from it is hard not to just start one project after the other.

Luckily I have friends to help me make my choices. Because I teach knitting I am able to pick out some of my favorite things to knit and then see if there are others who want to learn to do the same thing.

I used to have to guess at this. But now there is a great online site, "survey monkey" that allows me to send my ideas out to my mailing list and see what everyone thinks about my choices before I schedule them. Of course I still knit things that are not on my class list. But I love that I can knit some wonderful things and share the joy with others.

Here are some of the projects I am really excited about.

Byzantine Scarf by Susan Pandorf
(thanks Debra for finding this one)

The magic of these beautiful colors are accomplished by using a technique known as Mosaic knitting. Only one color is used per row along with some slip stitches. Looks much more involved then it is. Love that!

Then there is this lovely Rainbow scarf. (rav. link)

Double knitting and one skein of yarn used from both ends is the magic behind this color wonder. Another very impressive scarf for such a simple technique.

The one project I am really going to sink my teeth into is the "Mona's Shawl".

This is going to be a KAL with some of us knitting the shawl and then several people have opted to knit the "East meets West" bag. Knitpicks

Both projects are what color knitting is all about.

This is the Year of Color for me. I want to really push myself and see where it leads me. Want to join me?

Harika Socks by Stephanie van der Linden
(thanks Lisa for pointing these out)

What are some of your goals for knitting this year?

2009 in Pictures

2009-12-31T11:08:00.000-08:00

January was all about Family. We made a wonderful road trip that included both of the boys. Something I never thought would happen again.

The three of us drove up to San Francisco to spend 1 night and day on Wesley's turf with his girlfriend. We were blessed with a stellar day for January in SF.

Then the four of us where off to Eden Utah to ski and spend time with my Mom, Dave, my Sister and her boys. This is a magical place to live and visit.

Wesley is a graphic artist and an apple aficionado sharing with the grandparents how easy it is to do fun things with a Mac.

Josh, the athlete, snow boarded with his cousins and my sister who is an instructor on the mountain. She keeps him honest!

Febuary was a quiet month with lots of time for knitting.

March was more knitting and my continued time each week spent with Miss Claire.

April was a very sad month. Unraveled had to close it doors. I had been working and teaching there for 4 years and loved the people and the space. It was a very sad day to see those doors close.

May was a very busy month. Out of the ashes of Unraveled "Marvels of knitting" came to be. I really enjoy teaching people to knit and didn't want that to die with the store. So I opened my home and started teaching from there. My goal was to continue to build the community around all things Fiber and you know what? It has worked. Better then I could have hoped for. I am blessed to work, laugh and play with some amazing people every week.

May also brought Josh's graduation from Colorado College. What a happy day!!

June brought Wesley and Heather home for a visit. He pulled out his old legos and they started building. Childhood peeked through for a moment.

June was also the big kick off month for classes at my house. It all went so well!! We are touring around "Ravelry" and figuring out how to use this amazing website

July I dropped into a knitting slump that lasted for a couple of months. I looked for inspiration every where. I spent a lot of time on Ravelry and at book stores. Ultimately, amazon was the happiest for my slump. I bought a lot of books during this time.

The end of August I finally found a project that I was excited about. This Clapotis, my first, made from Noro "silk garden" sock yarn was the answer. It was so much fun and the colors made me smile the whole time I was knitting.

September I continued with color. Just about that time Kristen Nicholas' Book on Color came out (blogged here) and all I wanted to do was something fair isle. I found one of her patterns in the Knitted Gifts book (one of the best books of the fall season) (rav link). This was nothing but fun. I see a lot of fair isle and other types of color work in 2010.

In October there was a lot of teaching going on. With class samples ready to go and the website in full swing (thanks Wesley) people where signing up for all the classes. I was so happy. All of my classes where a go for the whole season except for 2 of them. That was a record! Again, I am so blessed to have so many people joining me in this passion. This is our Friday morning group that meets at Chris's house in Arcadia. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Chris.

November was the first knitting retreat for Marvels of Knitting. We rented a wonderful house at Lake Arrowhead, right on the lake. It had lots of bedrooms, a great kitchen and a large couch to gather together around.

Again a lot of fun was had, some knitting was seen and a lot of it was worn.

More delicious food was eaten then any one would belive.

And one of the hits of the weekend where these little guys.

December was all about getting the christmas gifts finished and in the mail by mid month. It was a success. Mom and my two sisters received completely finished gifts (blogged here) and Josh had a completed afghan, last years christmas present.

Once again my knitting buddies did not disappoint as we had a felting party in Maria's garage to end our wonderful year of fun.

All in all 2009 has been a very good year here at the Marvel home. I am looking forward to next year. There is so much fun to be had with knitting, friends and family. I have so much to be thankful for.

FO: Holiday Gifts

2009-12-28T15:33:00.000-08:00

My Christmas knitting has all been received and I can now post about them. I was pretty ambitious this year but I did complete it all in time, which has often not been the case. So I am feeling rather good right now.

I knit the Every Way Wrap for my Mom. (Ravelry).

Yarn: 12 skeins (1,176 yrds, 600 oz) of Berroco Ultra Silk.
Gold 6113

Make sure you down load the Errata before you start. The key to the chart is wrong.

This was a pretty straightforward knit with cables. I love that they are reversible so there is no wrong and right side. I have to say that cabling with yarn that has no stretch is a bit hard on the hands and made the progress a little slower then I wanted. Having said that, the yarn showed both stitch patterns beautifully and the sheen from the silk makes this very luxuious. I chose the silk because my mother doesn't like wools around her neck and I new this yarn wouldn't be the least bit scratchy. It was also on closeout at Webs so the price was right. The silk makes this something she can wear throughout the year in Utah.

I knit the Sweet Pea Jacket by Kate Gilbert (ravelry) for my youngest sister, JN, who also lives in Utah.

Yarn: Berroco Peruvia.
#4777 Blue Nile 7 skeins (700 gr, 721 yrds)

Needle size - 11

Size: I had major gauge issues (blogged here) with this. I ended up knitting the medium size as far as number of cast on stitches and such go, but used the measurements from the small size. This ended up working out perfectly.

My sister is amazed at how well it fits, as though we had fittings during the making of the jacket!! This was a very succesful knit and after I figured out how to deal with the gauge it was a fast and easy knit. Big needles and big yarn, almost instant gratification.

This is the Striped Clapotis for my other sister, LA, who is in the Bay Area.

Pattern: Clapotis
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden sock. I used three skeins of color 211.
Needle: #6

I used both ends of the same skein and alternated the two ends every two rows, like the Noro Scarf. I love the way the dropped stitches stripe one way and the colors striped the other. I love the colors. A few times I took out a color as it came up so I didn't have the same color on both ends of the yarn. But that didn't happen to much.

I was burning some late night knitting oil to get these done and in the mail before we left for our vacation on the Dec. 13. Even though I started them relatively early in the holiday process, LA's in Aug, Mom's in Sept, and JN's in Oct. that was still too late.

Next year I am going to reinstate the "knit the christmas present when their birthday comes up" rule. I did this one year and it worked so well I am not sure why I have not continued to do that. Their birthdays come in May, June and August so it works out really well.

I am telling you this now so that you can remind me in Sept or Oct when I come up with the big idea to knit a major project for someone for christmas you can refer me to this post. I have too many other things to knit, with class samples and all, not to be more organized about knitting the things that are really fun for me.

My family really appreciates handmade gifts so it is pleasure to knit for them.

Do you have any good ways of dealing with handmade gifts for the family?
Do you knit for your family and/or friends?

Where did the Week Go???

2009-12-19T23:17:00.000-08:00

Our week in Vegas went so fast. We were very successful moving ourselves onto Vegas time. We stayed up late, like 1 and 2 in the morning every night! Woke up late and didn't get out of the room until mid afternoon most days. We have had the best time visiting lots of casinos and some of the nature that surrounds Vegas. I don't think we have ever had a vacation that we stayed in one hotel (actually it is like a one bedroom apartment) for a whole week, ever!

Here are some more pics of the fun and mayhem. All of this was a block from my Hotel.

The Bellagio, beauitiful. Can not get enough of the water fountain.

The Bellagio was all made up for Christmas. It was about the only thing that was decorated for Christmas.

The brand new City Center, which opened this week. We watched the fireworks from our window. The Casino opened at 11:00 pm!! Only in Vegas.

One afternoon we went to Red Rock Canyon. Breath taking and peaceful and only about 20 minuets west of the Strip!

We even touched a bit of snow on the side of the road.

The Venetian and the Palazzo where my favorite places to hang out. They where also decked out for the season.

But the Highlight of the whole week was happening upon this amazing Violinist and Flautist in the Venetian Square where the gondolas are. It is very rare that you get to hear someone so good on an instrument just playing. We had dessert at the the Italian restaurant right there just so we could listen to them longer. All I can say is Wow!! I may have to pull out my flute and start playing again after listening to them.

Last stop today was Hoover Damn. Since we were on Vegas time we didn't get there until 4:30 and the vistor center was closed, so all we could do was walk around. It was dark before 5:00!

I did go two yarn stores and I did buy some yarn. I will blog about those when I get home.

All in all a great week of relaxation and lots of fun.

Los Vegas

2009-12-15T00:25:00.000-08:00

We are in Los Vegas the week before Christmas. We are staying at a wonderful time share (extra points from mom) located right next to Planet Hollywood and across from the Bellaggio. The weather is perfect and the crowds small, just the way we like it. Our first night was spent getting the lay of the land and taking in the sights.

Of course almost the first store I come to is this wonderful import store with lots of knitting garments.

Look at the color work in these sweaters!! I just love them all.

I can find yarn anywhere. But there where only two skeins left and orange just isn't my color.

I love being a tourist

And Scott love taking pictures

Time to unwind. I worked hard all week to get the Christmas knitting all done and I was successful!! I mailed it all off on Saturday morning. No worries, just relaxation, wine and time with my Hubby!

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T18:23:00.001-08:00

It was a stunning day today in LA. We had our turkey meal wednesday night with Josh. I have not cooked a whole Thankgiving meal in.... well.... forever.

The food was great and time spent with the boys always the best.

That left Thanksgiving Day to enjoy perfect weather (80 degrees) and crystal clear skies.
What do you do if you live in LA on a day like today?
You go to the Beach Baby!

Malibu Pier

I was in heaven reading one of my new Favorite Magazines

Mr. Marvelman enjoyed the water and then chilled out.

After a couple hours of bliss we headed over the Gladstone's to enjoy some clam chowder beachside and watch the sunset.

The traffic was so light that we got home from Santa Monica in about 20 min. That drive can be anywhere from 45 min to 2 hours!

I am so grateful for days like today and being able to spend time with Scott and the beautiful ocean that brings me such peace.
I hope you all found some peace in the bustle of the day and found time to enjoyed the space you found yourself in.

My Knitting Weekend

2009-11-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

I am in full swing of holiday knitting. My little knitting fingers are tired indeed. But I have to be honest and say that the project I have worked on most this weekend is an UFO.

This is the blanket I started for Josh last christmas. I worked on it a lot last winter. But it is a big blanket, he is a big guy and I just couldn't get it done before the weather turned too warm to have a giant blanket on my lap. The hardest part of pulling out a hibernating project is trying to figure out where you are and what still needs to be done. I was so happy to find that I have only the borders left to do.

But oh those borders are longggggggg.
If the stars work in my favor this week I should have it done by Thanksgiving. As long as I get it to him before this christmas I have been successful. Right??

Added Dec. 28, 2009
I finally got some pictures of the finished Bronco Blanket with Josh. He uses it all the time!!

Knitting Retreat at Lake Arrowhead

2009-11-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

Marvels of Knitting's First Knitting Retreat!
It was at Lake Arrowhead the first weekend of Nov. 2009

16 of us went and had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect. The food amazing. The laughs and knitting plentiful. The friendships and time with each other dare I say "Priceless".

Our Home for the weekend right on the lake.

Settling in for the weekend.

Cindy's Socks are Done!

The view was wonderful from the deck.

It was cool but we had a lot of hand knits to keep us warm!

Judy knitting out on the deck.

Sylvia is wearing and knitting her scarf at the same time!

Debra on dinner duty.

Rebecca cooking dinner with style.

The Surprise project for the weekend. The gnomes quickly multiplied. pattern here

Here they are in their own habitat!

We were already talking about the next one as we cleaned up from the weekend. Spring time at the beach??
You can see all the pictures here

The Finished Project Parade

2009-11-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

I have finally put up a lot of my FO's on Ravelery which means that I have finally taken pictures of everything. Here are some of the projects that have been keeping me busy the last couple of months.

Baby Blanket Tulip Style

Yarn: Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton
1 skein of pink, cream and green. 2 skeins of the brown
Needle: #10
Cast-on 100 stitches.
Blanket measures about 32x32

I love this yarn. It is really soft and has a lovely weight to it. This pattern was inspired by the Tulip Baby Sweater. You do a seed stitch pattern on the row that you add the new color and that makes the "eyelet" effect. I think EraLunaris came up with the idea.
Simply Lovely!

Veyla Gloves

Pattern: Yoslda's Veyla
Yarn: Knitpicks Gloss 1 skein (had a good amount left over)
Needle: #3

I loved making these gloves. The lace is a simple 23 stitch pattern (except for evil row 4). The pick up edge for the hand is done with the wrong side facing and the slip stitches form a wonderful edge. The thumb is shaped with yarn overs, genius. Every little detail is just beautiful. I hope I have time to knit another pair of these for myself. Yes, these are mine!

Beaumont Tam

Pattern: Jared Flood's Beaumont Tam
Yarn: Classic Elite Fresco in Cool Raspberry and Graystone
Needle: #4 and #8

I love this yarn. It has some angora which makes that wonderful halo that looks so good in color work. I never noticed the angora when I was knitting it. It wasn't on my cloths or in my nose. The finished hat is so soft and lushes.

The hat pattern was a fun knit. Easy to understand. I enlarged the charts so I could see what I was doing. Have I told you how much I love color?

Damson

Pattern: Ysolda's Damson
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock Yarn
Needle: #6

I have knitted several of Ysolda's patterns and have enjoyed them all. This one is no exception. Super simple, lot's of garter stitch, yarn overs and K2tog. Talk about something you don't have to think about yet the results are wonderful.

Malabrigo, need I say anything more. A simply beautiful pattern + luxury yarn = my definition of heaven.

Most of these project where either for classes or for christmas. I am starting to think about classes for the winter and what I want to knit. The goal is to make them one and the same. I find that the project I love to knit are the classes that end up with most of the buzz.

What are you looking forward to knitting after the holidays?

New Books!!

2009-10-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

I LOVE FALL. I love everything about fall. The colors, the smells, the sounds, the food, the list goes on and on. Of course knitting takes on a whole new dimension in the fall. The wools and alpacas come out to play and the new fall knitting books hit the shelves. I have been waiting for these two books to come out and I was not disappointed.

First up is Susan B. Anderson's Itty-Bitty Toys:
These are some of the cutest toys ever. Here are a few of my favorite projects.

I am going to make these for me to use!

Need I say anything???

These ducks are on Wheels. How brilliant is that!!

Princess and the Pea

She has about 4 or 5 "topsy-turvy" dolls. Turn one inside to get the other one. I have not looked to see what the process for knitting these little guys are but I love love love them.

I have already got this little guy on the needles.

Kristin Nicholas is one of my favorite color knitters. She has a wonderful blog about her knitting and her life on the farm. She has been blogging about the patterns in her new book with lots of pictures.

My favorite part of the book is the beginning. She talks a lot about using color and the how to do so. There is talk about swatching for color (another reason to knit up those little squares).

Lots of instruction on fair-isle, steeking, making up your own patterns, the magic of embellishing and duplicate stitching.
She talks about where she gets her inspiration, which surprise surprise is all around her.
These are my favorite pics in the front of the book before you even get to the outstanding patterns.

This is just the inside cover!

I want a stack of knitting like this sitting on a chair in my living room. Could you pass that and not smile? I sure couldn't!

You're smiling aren't you??

This is one of my favorite things in the book and I am going to make me at least one. Call it a design board, inspiration wall, Walk by and smile space?? Call it anything you want but what fun is this??

This covered ottoman has inspired me to cover my poor beat-up ottoman and possibly the chair that goes with it. I will do the ottoman first so that if I am over this idea at the end of that project I will not be without a chair.

I am thinking this pattern from Mason-Dixon "Outside the Lines" could be nice.
I would knit it with a much smaller gauge yarn so the pattern won't be as big. Haven't really checked to see if it will work but could be prudy!

There are more books to be talked about and a few magazines. What have you been inspired by?

Swatches: An Esoteric Science

2009-10-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

I started The Sweet Pea Coat for a christmas present.
For all garments I swatch and I almost swatch properly.

What is swatching properly?

My understanding is:
1. Knit a 6" inch square. How many stitches will be about 6 inches? If your gauge is 20 stitches=4" then 30 stitches should get you a 6 inch square. 1 1/2 times the number of stitches equaling 4 inches.

2. Knit your swatch with a garter boarder by knittig for 2 rows. Then start the stitch pattern noted in your directions. Knit the first and last 2 stitches. Knit till swatch is about 5". Knit the last two rows.

3. Cast-off and wash and dry your swatch the same way you will wash and dry your garment. Then measure you stitches.

This is my reality:

I do cast on 1 1/2 times the stitches need for 4" gauge.
I do garter ridges because I hate dealing with the curling edges.

Then my short cuts take over.

I knit about 3" and then take a measurement of my stitches per inch. If I am on gauge I would do a few more rows, cast off and do the washing and drying.

But what if I don't have gauge?
I knit 2 rows which creates a ridge so I know when I changed my needles and then I go up or down needle a size to get the right gauge.

I repeat the above until I have gauge. Cast off and wash and remeasure.

Of course that sounds like a lot but it is worth the hour or so to have a good chance of a fitted garment.

Here is where knitting a swatch leaves the Scientific realm and moves into the Esoteric side of things.

I have no good explanation for why a swatch doesn't put you on the right track all the time. In the perfect knitting world it would.

You have given your time and energy to making friends with your new yarn. You have married the perfect needle with the yarn and the pattern. All should go swimmingly as far as measurements go. But then for no good reason the science of "stitches per inch" leads your project astray.

After knitting a few inches of the back of the jacket the measurements for the width is not correct.

What? Not the right measurements??
The right number of stitches? YES
The right gauge? YES
But it is not the right measurement?? OMG
The back is not even close to being the right measurement. It is 2" too small. 16" instead of 18 1/2".

Could I block it to fit? Yes.
But I really don't want to. This is a jacket and is going to be worn over clothing. I want it to have enough ease.

So Now What???
Cry?
Put the project in time out?
Go clean the bathroom and scrub really hard?
Find another project that I can use the yarn on?
Start a scarf that doesn't need a swatch???
All of the above??

I really want to do this jacket and it is a Christmas present. I really need it done. So on I go..........
I did time it out for a few days.

I am not going up a needle size. I am on a size 13 and a 15 makes the fabric way to loose (why is there only 1/2 stitch difference between the 13 and the 15 needle? Those needles are very different. There is a bigger difference between the 11 and the 13. More esoterics at work).

Actually I would like to go down to a size 11. I like the fabric better. If I go down a needle size to a smaller gauge then I will have to adjust the numbers.
Oh no, the "M" word (math).

I swatched on a size 11. My gauge is tighter, the fabric looks better. How many stitches do I need to get the right number of inches for the size I am knitting? I do a little of that "M" stuff and.....

Oh look, it is the same cast-on number as two sizes bigger.

So this was my answer to the project.

I am knitting the Medium size and using the extra-small measurements.

It is working perfectly. It sounds tricky but really you just have to make sure you highlight the right numbers in the pattern and it is really a no brainer.

How do you Swatch??

Arlington Gardens - The Secret Garden Revealed!

2009-10-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

As the weather is actually turning cold here I am a little saddened that I have just found this garden and didn't get to enjoy it over the summer. You can bet I will be taking advantage of as many sunny days as possible.

The Garden in Located on Pasadena Avenue South of Huntington Hospital. It was one of the Caltrans Properties that would have been used if the freeway extension had gone in.

The city leases the property from Caltrans and asked a local couple to spear head what to do with the property. Thus the garden was started and built by many volunteers. It is a wonderful jewel and I hope you all come buy sometime and enjoy it.

Here is the official Website

More Secret Garden Clues!

2009-10-06T06:49:00.001-07:00

More Pictures of my new knitting place. I was there just yesterday for about an hour in the late afternoon. What a joy!

Shhhh........Don't Tell Anyone!

2009-10-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

I have found a most wonderful spot for knitting, reading, contimplating or just for enjoying nature in the middle of the city. It is a wonderful garden that you pass all the time if you live in my area. It is off a very busy street. It was an empty lot for years and years. Then about four years ago landscaping went in. It has been wonderful to drive by it and see a lovely lot with native plantings.

But what I didn't know until this last week is that it is a 2 acre garden that is open to the public!. It is not a park but a garden with all these wonderful seating areas and different zones. I am in love!!

So on this wonderful cool, cloudy, breezy, fall like day I went up to knit, listen to a book on my ipod and take some pictures to share with you.

I am going to keep it a secret for a few more days to see if any of you know about this place. I will add more pictures over the week and then let you in on my new sanctuary at the end of the week.

Do you know where this is??

New Post!! Fall Knitting Classes!!

2009-09-27T15:26:00.001-07:00

If you read past posts you will see that fall is my most favorite time of year. What better time to bring some focus back to my poor neglected blog.

I have been working very hard on getting Marvels of Knitting ready for the fall. The new fall classes have been added here and now I am a knitting fool trying to get all the samples made up by next week for the Class Fair.

So far my favorite knit is the Fingerless Gloves by Ysolda. The lace cuffs where easy and fun to do. I love the way the thumbs where increased for and the the little leaf detail is just lovely. There is just enough to keep the interest yet it is a pretty simple knit for an intermediate beginner.

After i finish this post I am going to start the Beaumont Tam by Jared Flood of Brooklyntweed. He is one of my favorite designers. His esthetics's are so simple, clean and beautiful and his photography makes everything look fabulous. I am going to be using Classic Elite's Fresco, the yarn used in the pattern. This is a new yarn for me to try out! It has angora in it so I will let you know how that goes.

On the needles is Damson, another Ysolda design. I am using my Malabrigo Sock Yarn. It is a dream to knit with and the colors are working really well. This is a really easy beginning lace design. Anyone that can knit and do "yarn overs" can knit this. It is a perfect first lace type of project because you can practice all the little tricks for knitting lace without having to concentrate so much on a lace chart.

After I have all these projects done then I will have to rest my hands for a bit. Which means I will have some time to dream about new knits and new yarns while watching the leaves starting to change and hopefully enjoying some cooler weather.

2008 in Pictures

2009-01-01T11:39:00.000-08:00

January ~ Finally the whole family was able to be together after the holidays.

February ~ We lost a long time member of our family. We miss Callie a lot.

March ~ There was much knitting going on during the last few months. Baby sweaters, hats, purses, socks. February and March where the very productive months.

April ~ 5 1/2 weeks of jury duty began on April 7. I spent most of my lunches at the wonderful fountain at the LA courthouse crocheting and listening to a book on my ipod. Crochet kept me sane during this never ending stint.

May ~ As soon as court duty was over I was blessed with being able to watch Miss Claire 4 days a week. She has been such a joy and has brought back the magic that only little ones can bring into our house.

June ~ Josh is home for the summer and Wesley and his girlfriend came down for a visit. The house is full once again!

July ~ Was a wonderful summer month with lots of time for reading, knitting, and enjoying the perfect weather before August comes.

August ~ The olympics and ravelympics. Need I say more.

September ~ Claire is sitting up now. Playing on her own. August was a rather mild month. I know that meant we would be in for it in September.

October ~ I visited my mom and sister in Eden Utah. My first time there during fall. It was beautiful and a great visit.

November ~ Fall seems to not want to come to So Cal. Scott and I spent Thanksgiving in San Diego. It was a beautiful weekend. Scott grew up here so we visited many of his favorite places around La Jolla and Coronado.

December ~ December was all about getting gifts made and mailed in time. Success!! Once again only one of the boys was home for the holidays. It really makes for a quiet time. So we are taking Josh with us to San Francisco mid January to visit Wesley and take one more road trip with the whole family to Utah!! I thought family road trips where done. But we have squeezed one more in. The best present ever!!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T15:39:00.001-08:00

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
~Norman Vincent Peale

Mom's Eden

2008-11-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

I went to visit my mother and my sister in Eden Utah a couple of weeks ago. I have been going to this part of Utah since my sister moved up there over 20 years ago. Eden is over the mountains east of Ogden.

My mom and dad retired there almost 11 years ago now and my father passed about 5 years ago. My mother moved down the hill to this amazing condo with a million dallor view. It is play land. She is 73 and still snow skies at a slop that is litteraly 20 minuets from her door. Boating, water skiing and golfing are all close at hand.

This last visit was the first time I was there during the fall. My visits have all been either during summer vacation or over christmas break. Inspiring fall colors where to be found at every turn. I made my mom drive me all around so I could take lots of pictures of this place called Eden.

The View From Mom's Balcony
(yes, those are hot-air balloons in the air)

Reflections on the Lake

Road to ???

My Beautiful Mom and her new "Monkey Socks"

Do You Feel it Coming Around the Corner?

2008-09-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

School started in South Pasadena yesterday. All of my jobs have revolved around the school year.

Private flute and piano teacher
Director of Handbells at my church
The "Waldorf" inspired pre-school that I had at my house when the boys where young.
Then I became a real Waldorf teacher for 9 years.

June has always meant that my schedule got lighter and I would have free time. We always spent August away somewhere and September meant the beginning of not just the kids schedule filling up but mine too.

Now the boys don't live here most of the year, I have retired from teaching and handbell directing, and my life can often be the same day in and day out.

But yesterday, even though the weather outside is far from "fall like" I sat on my front porch with Miss Claire watching all the kids walking to school with their new backpacks and it just felt like fall.

The start of school gives me the hope that fall really is on it's way. We may have weeks of hot weather ahead but I can smell sweater knitting just around the corner.

I found this on flickr. Waldorf teachers and parents have been "felting" scenes like this for a very long time. Take a look at her other felted dolls they are wonderful.

Nushkie Design's

I want to start needle felting like this again and making
Nature Tables that will celebrate the Seasons once again in style.

Baby Time

2008-08-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

Ok I have to jump in after 5 months and do this quick post so I can be in the drawing for this cute little outfit.

Wandering Waif Collection GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Why would I care about this cute little outfit? Because of the cutest little girl ever. Miss Claire.

I am Claire's "nanny" 4 days a week. We are having the most fun ever, and now I am a hopeless sucker for these cute girly things as I have two grown boys and didn't get to dress and knit and sew for a little girl.

So cross you fingers!

No Posting but a lot of Knitting

2008-04-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

When does a knitting teacher get to knit her own projects?
Maybe never.
I have been knitting up samples for the april classes at Unraveled. It has actually been a lot of fun because they are relatively easy knits so the instant gratification comes into play to keep me happy.
Two of the new classes for me are Baby Hats and Booties

and Beginning sock class using a child size sock to learn from.

I have one more class to get samples made up for, a spa set for mother's day. And then it will be time to think about next month.

Along the teaching thread, I am not sure why we have not been taking pictures of our classes and what the students make in them. There have been so many great things made and fun times to be had. So I have started doing that. This was a beret class from last month. Everyone finished their project. Yeah!!!

I will be adding an FO page to the stores website for our customers. If you have anything you have finished bring it in so we can take a pic and but it up on the website!
Gotta love knitting for work. Doesn't get better then that?

Speaking of getting better. Hubby and I went down to San Deigo last weekend. Of course I had to go to a couple of yarn stores.
First I went to Knitting by the Beach. It was a great little store. With lots of good yarn. But the best was the owners own designes, she is really good. She has made up a lot of garments using Habu yarns. Just beautiful. Well worth the trip in if you are in the area.

Then I went to The Black Sheep in Encinities. It was a great store. With so much yarn. I mean it is as big as Unraveled and filled to the gills with lots of things. They use a lot of ribbon yarns in their class projects so they had a wall of yarn from colnette, fiesta, great adirondack and some prisim. Now I am not one to use a lot of these yarns, but the wall was a spectacular sight full of amazing color. I did find something to come home with though.

First some lace weight Alpaca, just because it is so pretty. Misti Alpaca and Alpaca with a Twist which is Alpaca and silk. Be still my little heart. Now I know I won't be knitting on this any time soon. So it will live in the treasured basket in my living room where I can see it everyday.
Bet you can't guess what my favorite colors are?

And some Lousia Harding Cinnabar for the great bag on the front of Knitting Little Luxuries

I can still plan and dream about my own knitting projects.

I Must Knit Faster

2008-03-11T04:23:00.000-07:00

I have come to the conclusion that I have to learn to knit faster. There are just too many things to knit and not enough time. I know that that is the way all knitters feel. But really, have you looked at my queue on Ravelry or my list of favorites? I want to do them all and I am having a really hard time making choices.

I was going to knit for myself this year. What happened? I have been doing class knis for Unraveled and that always takes more time then I think it will and I have some good classes coming out of them. So I really can't complain about that.

My great joy is the new baby in my life. One of my dearest friends just had her first baby. she is an older mom which means I get to play with a very small baby. That has to be one of the greatest joys in life. And of course the second greatest joy is knitting for a baby, the third greatest joy is that she is a girl! Having boys of my own and nephews this is so much fun!!

Right now on the needles I have a pair of socks, presto chango #2, Cocoon Lace Scarf, Montego Bay, Celtic Tote, Mom's golf club covers, a hibernating felted stash tote, and my "larger then life" bag that needs lining and finishing.

The solution? Knit faster so I can enjoy knitting all the things I want to knit. I am going to try and do combination knitting. I hate the continental purl. But after watching Mary knit today, I think that maybe combination is the answer.

But of course I am deluding myself. No matter how fast I knit there will always be more to knit. So really I need to knit, enjoy every stitch, and enjoy all the ideas and inspiration that is out there in Ravelry land. Because after all, isn't knitting supposed to be relaxing?
Didn't KnitDad just have the same post?

One Day Beret by Kirsten Kapur, free online pattern

Raisin Beret by Raven Jakubowski

Quantt by Star Athena

Boho Beret by Shannita Williams-Alleyne is a free ravelry download

Baby Sweater on Two Needles (February) by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Designing (don't laugh)

2008-02-16T11:04:00.000-08:00

We are putting together classes for the next two months at Unraveled. For some reason, that I can't think of right now, I got the idea that I wanted to teach beginning lace. Ok, nothing wrong with that, but then I decided that I wanted to have my own lace scarf pattern for the class.

Ok, what was i thinking. I spent pretty much the entire day yesterday going through stitch pattern books and online resources, doing the math, and doing the charting. I came up with something that works really well mathematically but now that I have a few inches knitted I don't like it. I could have just found a nice "all over" pattern, add a little boarder and be done with it. But no, I was doing something asymmetrical, because that is that type of girl I am, (a little off on one side). The lines of the two main patterns are too much alike and I don't like it.
So now I have the choice to start over or use the Fiber Trends Cocoon Lace Pattern AC-73 by lace master Evelyn Clark.

Yup, I think I am going to choose "Cocooning" and go back to my Lady E! Decision made? Stay tuned.

Speaking of Lady E, she is out of hybernation and almost done. I have just under 2 skeins left.

Next up is Mom's Christmas Present. Argyle Golf Club Covers. She is going to be golfing again in Utah before I know it so I have to get going on these.

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

Compliments of A Cottage Industry

Bye Callie

2008-02-02T05:51:00.001-08:00

We lost our dog of 13 years yesterday. She was attacked by another dog and was so badly hurt we had to put her down. She was a very small sheltie, the cutest sweetest thing ever. Very much the little lady. She was my boys childhood dog so with her goes a large piece of our lives.

Callie came to us on Christmas Eve 1994
and left us Feb 1, 2008
We will miss you

First Video Podcast!!

2008-01-13T19:26:00.001-08:00

Unraveled is having a Celtic Tote knit-along starting this week. We are trying to make it a mutli-media event. You can participate by coming to the store, by watching videos on the website, and the Unraveled Yarn group on Ravelry.

I made a video with tips and tricks for the pattern. It was a lot of fun to put together.

It was a little nerve racking and there are already things I want to change next time. But all and all I think it is pretty cool.

Check it out KAL Video
Of course the only reason that this was even possible is because video production is what DH does so I have access to the equipment and more importantly the expertise.

Thanks Sweetie!!

2007 Knits and Simply 2008

2008-01-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

Here are my knits for the year. I think there are a few things that I didn't get pictures of and are gone off to their new owners. But all in all this is it. Much of my time and energy has gone towards knitting for the store and classes. This year we are revamping classes and such at the store, more drop-in kinds of things, so the prep time should go down.

I want to knit much more for myself and family this year. Even though all the things I knit for the store are my idea, I still knit with "what would be good for the store in mind". So this year it is going to be what is good for the me and the family first and then add store things.

I hope I can actually pull that off. It sounds like a good goal.

A P.S. to this post. I don't do resolutions. I am not disciplined enough for them. But an overall goal or theme for the year usually helps me in all areas. After thinking about my knitting above I realized that I really do have a theme running already this year. Simplify. What does that mean? With everything I am doing I want to simplify my life. Consume less, be deliberate in my choices, eat simple foods, fresh foods, make small changes over the year that add up to big changes as time goes on. Simply and consistently keep life simple. This easily fits with being pickier about what I am knitting and why I am knitting it.

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T23:33:00.000-08:00

It must be an amazing omen when you come home from a wonderful evening at the Grove on New Years Eve

to find 12 dozen, count them 12 dozen long stem roses. (there where two more of those packs. 6 in all with 2 dozen in each pack)

On your back porch. I am pretty sure they are from a Certain Flower Guru that is in charge of flowers on one of the Roseparade floats. But my oh my. I had to raid the umbrella bucket!

Note: I woke up to two more packs!! This may be the only time in my life that I have 20 dozen roses sitting on my fireplace!!

Happy New Year!!

10 Years Today

2007-12-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

Today is my tenth wedding anniversary. Marvel Man and I were talking last night about how time seems to move so fast and slow at the same time. It seems like a lifetime that we have been together and at the same time just yesterday that we met! (there are more wedding pics on the flicker badge on the right side)

I had the most beautiful intimate wedding on Christmas Eve. My parents had sold their stunning Tudor house, moved out so it was empty but not closing escrow until after the 1st of the year.

The living room had a wonderful high vulted beamed celing that looked like a church. There were only about 35 family and friends.

My two boys played recorder with my neighbor on guitar, my dad played flute with the guitar and our dear friends married us.

Then what most of you don't know is that 2 years ago I retired from 25 years of being the director of handbells at my church. After dinner all the guest joined together to sing and ring christmas carols with the bells.We all had so much fun. It was magic form beginning to end and set us on this amazing journey together.

So Happy Anniversary my Marvel Man. I am looking forward to the next 10 years and beyond. I am so lucky to have someone that gets me better then I get myself and supports not only this crazy knitting thing but all the other crazy things I get myself into.

I Love You! Happy Anniversary!

I have Fallen

2007-12-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

The ten little elves at my house want a break. I have been knitting and knitting and knitting. So I brought them over to the computer to type for a change of pace. I will but up more picks of all the holiday goodness when it is all finished.

But I have Fallen for Webs and thier pre order of Kauni (cow-nee) yarn.

I am in love with so many of the projects that are up on Ravelry using this amazing yarn. This Tote is probably my favorite. Makes my felting heart go pitter patter and we have those handles at the store!

Then there are all of the Lace Shawls. For these color changes I would tackle lace!

Color work on the sweaters that looks much harder then it really is

So I have several skeins of several colors on pre-order. Do I have company in my weakened state?

FO Wednesday on Tuesday

2007-11-27T16:12:00.000-08:00

I have been a busy christmas elf the last couple of weeks. I am going for fast, fun and easy projects this year and actually knitting for more people then I ever have before. I have made lots of presents for everyone over the years and I have been picky aboout who gets my knitting. But I have to say that I am having a blast knitting small things, even more multiples of the same thing, and being done in a few hours. Can you say "instant gratification" !

Here is what I have so far. I am about half done and still have a few weeks to go. Yeah!!

I have made 4 pairs of fetching.

All of the fetchings are being paired up with either the Dream Swatch Head Warp from knit and tonic,

or the Calorimetry from knitty.

I still have three pairs of Dashings and I am half way done with my second Montego Bay Scarf. I really love this colorway. I am not sure this one will make it out of thes house.

This is the one I have already finished. Both are done out of seasilk from handmaiden.

Merry Ho Ho Ho!!

I Must Be Psychic or Just Psyched

2007-10-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

I must have felt the vibes of this book, on it's way to me in the mail yesterday when I was talking about color. Today I got my copy of "Kristin Knits" from Kristin herself, before any of the bookstores have it! The only person that could possibly have it before me would be L. Some how she has the earliest inside scoop to all books and patterns.

I am so excited about the book. It is Nothing but Wonderful Color!!

Over the top, lot's of work involved,
many colors all in one piece kind of color.
It just makes me happy looking at it.

I know this is over the top for some of you out there and will not be your cup of tea. But I have to own up to the fact that I love color and I have to have more of it in my life right now. Even the walls of my house may not be safe!

This book has so many great pictrues, ideas and inspirations it will be awhile before I can make a decision of what to do first. Thank goodness I have the fingerless gloves I talked about yesterday to give me some focus.

Oh no, wait........there are thoughts about designing my own fair isle patterns...................Just playing with swatches and swatches of color!!

No Bunny Killa is gunna stop me now!

I Feel the Need....

2007-10-29T16:59:00.000-07:00

I Feel the Need For Color. Not just the easy kind where the yarn does all the work for you. I have had enough of that lately (see the BSJ below).
Not the kind where you just switch between two yarns every two rows, ie: chevron scarf,

mistake ribs scarves,

self fridging shawls .

No I am in the need of real color done by switching the yarn stitch by stitch......yes that is right, I am going to the "Fair Island" of Fairisle knitting and I am going to tackel the "Composed Mitts" in the current Fall 2007 IK magazine. I have been itching to do fairisle for a while now and so there is no time like the present.

I am going to be using Berroco Ultra Alpaca light in 5 colors. Not sure I will stick with these colors but I will start with them.

On the finishing front, Here is BSJ #4. I think this is the wild and crazy one.

No, but wait, I still have a BSJ on my needles all in white.
Someone save me from myself. Or I know who can help.......
just send Bunny Killa after me?

Color on my terms, here I come!!