Congratulations commenter Minh! You’re the winner of the Spud and Chloë yarn and and pattern contest! Thank you so much to everyone who commented and entered.

I’ll be in touch by e-mail to let you know the details of how to get your prize.

Tomorrow I’ll post about a new shawl I’ve just finished. Tonight I’m working on some new crocheted socks in lusciously soft yak yarn.

Oh, ok. I just can’t write a post without a picture. Here’s some wild columbine that’s blooming now around Cordova. I shot this on our hike on Tuesday up Haystack trail. You can see the rest of the pictures from our walk on flickr.

Back in February we took the kids to Anchorage for the weekend. It happened to be Valentine’s day weekend, and we had a nice time going to movies (Coraline for Selma and Me, I can’t remember what the guys saw) and doing things you can’t do in Cordova.  For instance, we saw moose (four of them!) roaming in the hotel parking lot:

We learned there are rules about this sort of wildlife appearance in the city:

And of course we made safety a top priority:

On the ferry to and from Anchorage I worked on a Valentine’s gift for James. He liked my Valentine Hat and wished for a not-so-pink hat for himself. I did finish it not too long after Valentine’s day, but never got a picture of it until today because he ran off with it so quickly.

It’s done in crochted fair-isle and I improvised the pattern as I went.

The wool is Jaimeson Chunky, which is rustic and sturdy and perfect for an Alaskan hat. You might be able to see that I concentrated all of the increases into a couple of rounds in the crown of the hat. I did this so I wouldn’t have to worry about increasing in pattern on the sides of the hat. It did work out, but it looked ruffly for quite a while and I just had to have faith that it would smooth out when the hat got to the right size.

By the way, it was a beautiful and warm day today (in the low 60s!) but when you’re heading out to fish in the evening it never hurts to wear your hat. Keeps the bugs off as well as keeping you warm.

James caught three sockeye salmon which he’s cleaning now. Since this post began with a photo of snow, I’ll end with a slideshow of our exploration of Orca Inlet today at low tide.

I’ve had a great time the last few days hanging out at my LYS, The Net Loft, and helping move yarn around. It’s inspiring to just be surrounded by yarn even if all you’re doing is taking it off of one shelf and putting it on another. The store’s owner, Dotty has brought in some new yarns with colors inspired by our surroundings and given them great names like “Salmonberry,” “Orca Inlet at Low Tide,” and “Cordova Mist.” Of course, I love them all, but I was relatively restrained (don’t you think?) and only came home with four skeins:

I took this shot last night at about 9:30 p.m. So the midnight sun is pretty convenient for procrastinating photographers like me.

I have big plans for the third skein from the left, but the others are still percolating.

Don’t forget you have five more days to enter the Spud and Chloë scarf kit contest. Thanks to everyone who’s commented so far, I love hearing about your methods of choosing colors.

We’re back from our month-long trip. We arrived Saturday and I’m slowly emerging from a fog of jetlag. In the last week, I was on planes 5 out of 7 days. Airports are crazy places.

We’re so glad to be back and settling into the routine of being home. I have yet to unpack and do laundry and I have bear book revisions to do.

I was in Columbus for 5 days of the trip at the Needle Arts Association trade show. One of the things I like about trade shows is seeing my designs “in the wild.” Lorna’s Laces had a version of Ribs and Mesh worked in their Shepherd Sport that was soft and stretchy and showed of the hand-dyed colors beautifully. In the Blue Sky Alpaca booth there was lots of buzz about the debut of their new yarn line Spud and Chloë. The yarn line is different from other blue sky yarns because all the yarns are washable. Two of the yarns Sweater and Bulky contain superwash wool and organic cotton.

Late last year, I was asked to come up with a crochet design for the new yarn. I chose to use the Sweater and I designed this scarf in Mosaic Crochet - a fun technique that creates color patterns using chains and spike stitches, but only working in one color per row (similar to mosaic or slip stitch knitting). In fact, the stitch pattern was adapted from a Barbara Walker knitting stitch.

I love how the scarf turned out–on the one side, you have the color block pattern, and on the reverse you have textured stripes. In choosing the colors I wanted to make sure there was a good contrast so the pattern really pops. I usually love subtle color variations in colorwork, but I thought in this case bold choices worked better. The Spud and Chloë color palette has some great colors and I was sent a sample of each for swatching, I spent a lot of time, just rearranging skeins on the floor to come up with color combinations.

The folks at Blue Sky have generously offered to give away a kit for the scarf (4 skeins of Sweater in the colors of your choice, and the pattern), to one reader of my blog. The yarn is so new that most stores don’t have it yet, so if you win you’ll be one of the first crocheters to try it out.

To enter, just leave a comment on my blog about how you make color choices in your crochet. On July 1st (my birthday), I’ll pick a winner. Good luck!

Kristi Porter, designer and technical editor extraordinaire (who also happens to be a member of our Stitch Cooperative), is the author of the new book Knitting in the Sun, which, the last time I checked was #1 in knitting books and #978 in all books (!!!) on amazon.com. Go Kristi! She’s doing a blog tour and graciously offered to guest post here. I asked if she would write about the photo shoot. Kristi got to use her own photographer and style the shoot herself, which means the garments really look like she intended (yay!) She also modeled and coerced convinced her daughter to model too. I love the look of the book, and the idea that knitting is a year-round activity. (Of course, today in Cordova, it’s 49 degrees and raining sideways, so I can wear wool). Without further ado, here’s Kristy:

Amy asked me to write about my experience with the photo shoots for Knitting in the Sun. There are something like 80 color photos in the book, and I think many will agree that the wonderful photography by Stephen Simpson really  brings this great collection of knits to life.  So here’s the behind the scenes story.

When my editor and I began to talk about the photography for the book, it became clear that we would need to do the photography in October. Given the nature of the book, it was obvious that the  photos needed to be done outdoors and, you know, in the sun. Where would it be dependably summery in October? My house! San Diego! I was very fortunate to have the folks at Wiley agree and trust me to take on the responsibility of managing the photo shoots.  I was also ecstatic when my friend, Steve, agreed to do the photography. Steve and I met when our daughters were in kindergarten together a couple of years ago (you can see the two of them beneath the Silver Strand wrap on page 23!). He’s a professional photographer and I love his work, but fashion photography and this kind of project was unfamiliar territory for him. Anyway, he agreed to take on the job. Hooray!

Part of being an independent designer includes a broad skill set, as, often, you end up not only designing and creating the finished garment, but also at times being your own model, photographer, layout artist, printer, and lackey. So I had styled and photographed and modeled my own stuff before. I think the first thing I modeled was “Surf & Turf” for Knitty. At the time, Knitty only had 3000 hits an issue or something like that, so the fact that I was there looking silly in a faux grass skirt didn’t really seem like a big deal (now Knitty gets 1.5 million hits a month or something insane like that, and I hope that few of them are looking at me in my bathing suit! Okay, here’s the link go  ahead and look.)  After that induction into the world of knitwear modeling, it never seemed like a big deal to do it!  Plus, I’ve always felt strongly that it’s important to see real people on the pages of knitting books and magazines. So I don’t necessarily love modeling, but I will always put myself out there when asked. I want readers to identify with the models. Really, I want knitters to feel great about how they look in what they’ve made.  If you’ve created something beautiful, you should also feel beautiful in it. Smile at your accomplishment and walk with pride!

Back in late 2006, just after Kim Werker was named editor of Interweave Crochet, she contacted me and asked for help in scouting some San Diego locations for the photoshoot  for the Spring 2007 issue of the magazine, since they wanted to shoot here in January. I did that… and ended up modeling too! Anyway, that afforded me the opportunity to see how Interweave managed the photoshoot. How they organized things, how they brought their coherent aesthetic to each shoot, and what they focused on during the photo sessions. I remember that the weather really didn’t co-operate and it was really cold and foggy and damp… because of that, we ended up doing several of the photos at my house because no one really wanted to be outside.  Anyway, that experience definitely taught me a lot and made me more confident that I could pull off being the stylist and manager of something a little larger than shooting a couple of pieces in the backyard.

So I had a photographer lined up and an overall vision of what I wanted the photography to look like. Next I started sweet talking people I knew to model for me. Neighbors, knitting students, my baby-sitter, my kids… I also had to come up with the rest of the wardrobe for the shoots, so I raided my closet, and hit the thrift shops looking for some nice summery neutrals to serve as background for the knits. I scavenged around for accessories. My mom was visiting at one point and did a bunch of ironing for me. (I’m not much of an ironer, so I was really glad to have some back-up on that one.) So we had everything lined up and ready to go!

Steve and I chose a few locations  like nearby Windansea Beach and Balboa Park. We also ended up shooting at my house and his house… in the neighbor’s front yard… I think we did about five shoots to get all the photography done. The models all did great and Steve was really good at putting them at ease, I think they all look great, but more important, the knits look great. I know how terrific they look in person and have had the luxury of trying them all on, but there’s a big challenge  of communicating that on the page. I think Steve’s photography has really helped bring them to life in the book.

It wasn’t necessarily my intention, but Knitting in the Sun ended up being a very personal book, my family, my friends, my neighborhood, and that’s really cool for me. But, at the same time, I think readers will take away something different. It’s my hope at least that readers will simply be drawn in and become inspired to re-create some of these great designs for themselves.

I’m in travel limbo. I got back from a week-long trip on Sunday, and we leave tomorrow for a month. I feel like I’m moving stuff from one suitcase to another. But really, there’s a lot more to it than that, involving many loads of laundry and trying on summer clothes to remind myself what fits (both me and the kids).

Selma and I spent the last week in Tatitlek, Alaska. Tatitlek is a tiny native Alaskan community with a population of about 130. Each year they host Tatitlek Cultural Week when they invite students from all over the state to come and learn native Alaskan cultural traditions: dance, language, craft, subsistence living.  Selma is a member of the Cordova native dance troop and the group was invited to attend. I went along as chaperone. I have tons to say about the experience, it was wonderful and we are looking forward to doing it again next year. But right now I’m finishing an edit of my book and packing for our next big adventure which is a month-long trip to the east coast. I’ll leave you here with a little slideshow of our trip and I hope I can write more about it soon.

In other news, Twitter has helped me solve a knitting mystery. My grandmother e-mailed me a scan of a dishcloth because I had seen it at her house last summer and I wanted to decipher the stitch. OK, I don’t know what’s stranger about that last sentence-the idea of scanning a dishcloth, or the fact that My grandmother, who will be 93 this summer knows her way around a scanner and e-mail. Either way, I was impressed with her mac skills.

Here’s the dishcloth:

My twitter knitting sluth buddies @sbutterAmfly and @sandysays have guessed that it’s a brioche stitch, and I tend to agree. The most likely one is Moss Brioche. I’m looking forward to trying it out to make sure. This will make a good plane project as we leave again tomorrow. This time the trip includes my 15-year college reunion, a long-awaited visit to DC (where I get to go to the Stitch and Pitch game AND to my old knitting group!), as well as TNNA. Whew! I hope I’ll be able to pick up the pace of posting too. Be sure to check out my twitter stream for mini-updates between posts.

Later this week, guest blogger Kristi Porter will be writing about her inspiration behind the creative production of her new book Knitting in the Sun.

Is it spring that’s giving me the attention span of a gnat? I’m not sure, but luckily, I’ve been finding projects to match. Rachel over at CraftZine posted a link yesterday to Kootoyoo’s blog-where Kirsty shows a very pretty granny square necklace made simply with embroidery thread. I kept thinking about it all day, how nice and simple it was; how I have lots of embroidery thread and how I have tiny steel hooks which I inherited from my grandmother and never use. Last night when it was way to late, I made one little square with some size 5 thread and hook.

It turned out about the size of Kirsty’s. I decided I wanted a smaller one, and dug up some size 8 thread I had bought when I thought I was going to teach myself needle tatting (I still will, someday). I used a size 8 steel hook and got a much smaller square which seemed more my size. In the dim light, the tiny stitches were a little hard on my eyes, but I think in daylight, that wouldn’t be a problem.

Here are the two squares together for scale:

Of course, I couldn’t get by with just using what was in my stash. I quickly realized that I needed some thinner and more interesting threads to play with. Today I went to The Net Loft and got 6 colors of hand-dyed Valdini Pearl Cotton Thread in size 8 and size 12, and I’m going to experiment a little with other motifs using Edie Eckman’s Beyond-the-Square Crochet Motifs book for inspiration.

I’m going to be travelling with Selma on Sunday to Tatitlek, a very tiny remote town up the coast from Cordova. They’re hosting a week of traditional arts and culture and they’ve opened it up to some students in the area. Selma was invited because she’s part of the Cordova native dance troop. I’m going as a chaperone. I’ll bring the thread projects with me because they’re small and portable. I’m looking foward to learning some new crafts while I’m there too.

Yesterday I was teaching at The Net Loft when I had one of those strange convergences whereby the need for something springy to wear (brought on by a bit of rainy weather) and the urge to crochet a quick project ended hitting me right as I walked past the cubby of Noro Silk Garden. (I swear, I didn’t plan this, I even had to buy a hook as I had only brought one with me for a lace project).

I didn’t mean to scowl, but it was cold and wet, and I’m not so good at the hasty self-portrait. This was before I blocked the scarf. It’s crocheted with a point at one end beginning with just one v-stitch and increasing in each row until I had 8 v-stitches. I then worked even putting in a keyhole (basically a buttonhole made by chaining and skipping stitches) after a few rows. Then I continued to work even in v-stitches until the scarf was about 36″ long. I finished the crocheting in about 2 hours, it was a nice change from the hard to see lace-mohair that I’ve been working on.

After about 3 inches of work on the little scarfette, my friend Becca had to put down the socks she was knitting and go get her own ball of Silk Garden to make a scarf too. So now there are two of these scarves in Cordova. (It takes a wee bit more than one ball to get the length and width I wanted, but you can get two scarves easily from three balls, so Becca plans to make one in the color I used yesterday and I’ll do likewise with her color).

I washed it last night in Unicorn Fibre Wash. I knew that Noro was pretty minimally processed (there were lots of twigs to be removed while I was crocheting), but I was still suprised at the amount of actual DIRT that came out while I soaked it. It’s much softer after blocking. I hard blocked it with pins, but I’m actually planning to wet it again and re-scrunch it a bit, because I like it’s rustic, scrunched up look better.

Selma was home from school today recovering from a stomach bug, and by evening she was feeling better and looking for something yummy to eat that wouldn’t be to hard to digest. She requested gingerbread, and this is what I came up with after reading quite a few recipes (looking for one that used only ingredients already in my pantry). I was inspired by a Blackstrap Gingerbread on Jennifer’s awesome Recipes from the Vegan Lunchbox, and adapted it to fit our tastes and available ingredients.  Jennifer likes her gingerbread with lemon sauce. I’m more traditional and serve it with applesauce (which is also good for ailing tummies).

Gingerbread

Preheat oven to 350F
Grease and flour an 8″ glass baking dish

DRY
1 3/4 c + 2T flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
2 T tapioca flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
2 t ground ginger
1 t cinnamon
1/8 t salt

WET
3/4 c unsulfured molasses
1/4 c honey
1/2 c canola oil
1 c hot water (I don’t know the science behind using hot water, but so many of the gingerbread recipes I read included it, that I’m using it too)

In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, stir together wet ingredients. Once oven is preheated, combine wet with dry and stir until smooth. Pour into prepared baking dish and bake 30-40 minutes or until done.

Enjoy with applesauce while still warm!

Congratulations to Betty Crowther and Juliann the winners of the Get Hooked book giveaway. I’ve e-mailed you both to get your addresses. Happy Monday!