Dad & Nancy’s Ear Warmers
Originally uploaded by stefaniesummerer

I love this photo of the Bicycle Helmet Ear Warmers Stefanie made for her dad.

crochet today dress
Originally uploaded by plainsight

I finally got my hands on a copy of the latest issue of Crochet Today–it’s got some must make patterns like Robyn’s plaid skirt and Doris Chan’s lace capelet. There’s also my mod mini dress you see here. When they comissioned the dress, they said “something along the lines of Austin Powers Mod” and this is what I came up with. It was fun to make, using short rows to get the a-line, and the modular construction makes it stretchy and easy to customize. I think it’s funny that they styled it more à la 1980s than 1960s (cowboy boots and fedora rather than go-go boots!) but it does look nice and fall-ish with the turtleneck. Like all Crochet Today patterns its worked in a Coats and Clark yarn–this one is their Washable Wool, which was pleasant to crochet with and made the dress go quickly.

Monday, school starts (yeah!) and I am turning my studio in to a hermitage so I can concentrate on the bear book fully–I may be posting just as sporadically in September as I did in August–but do expect to see a write-up of the bear photo shoot soon. It was really fun!

More specifically–me and two of my favorite other “Amy’s,” Amy Singer and Amy Swenson. Because fiber impresario Shannon Okey didn’t have anything better to do in addition to writing books, teaching classes, being on TV, Radio, opening her store Stitch Cleveland, she’s also now hand painting and selling selling beautiful lace weight, yarn on Etsy, and naming it after her fiber buddies. This skein is called The Amys. I love the candy colors. It’s a suprewash merino, she says slightly thinner than sockyarn. 2-ply, the 8 oz., 1120 yd skein sells for $35.00.

Technorati Tags:
knitgrrl, knitting, lace, etsy

Ribs and Mesh
Originally uploaded by plainsight

This project, the Ribs and Mesh sweater, has been a fun collaboration for me–I designed a sweater in Tilli Tomas yarn, but instead of turning everything over to the yarn house as I sometimes so, I’m publishing the pattern, and Tilli Tomas will be distributing it to your LYS. It will also be available online, from me. Stay tuned!

The single-ply sport weight merino yarn was a dream to work with–and it only uses one skein of the beaded yarn which keeps the project cost down. And with the modular construction, you can get a perfect fit, regardless of size. One of the best parts of this collaboration is I get to keep the sweater, so I now have something new and fun and warm for fall–considering how many sweaters I knit/crochet in a year, it’s a surprisingly rare occurrence.

Shannon has tagged me as a Rockin’ Grrl Blogger! Thanks Shannon! You totally rock. I’m currently blogging from a small cabin in the North Woods of Wisconsin. Here are five of my fave blogger grrls (Thanks to Shan for updating the spelling of the title):

Robyn
Vashti
Hannah
Stefanie
Martha

Finally Published! Two designs I did for Blue Sky early this year:

This sweater is Crocheted with a fun twisted stitch that gives the geometric lace pattern you see in the photo–it has a modified drop shoulder and integrated crocheted ribbing at the cuffs, waist and u-neck. The yarn is Blue Sky’s ultra-soft Suri Merino.

This pleated vest is knit with the Blue Sky Sport 100% baby alpaca. The yarn is held doubled, so it’s a relatively quick knit. The fun thing about this vest is the construction. You begin at the waist with a provisional cast on a knit the ribbing and then work up to the shoulder. Then, pick up and knit down to created the pleated peplum.

James and I are reading Harry Potter to each other, which means we only get to do a chapter or two a night. But I’ like dragging it out, and I can knit when he’s reading. Last night, I picked up The City of Your Final Destination when I couldn’t sleep, and I read to page 34, where the young girl in the story is talking to an older woman (not her mother) who lives in her house.

“Oh, before I forget. I’ve got to bring some yarn to school tomorrow. Sister Domina is teaching us knitting.”

“Knitting?”

“Yes. It’s either knitting or decoupage. But Sister Julian’s doing the decoupage, so everyone chose knitting. So then we had to count off because there weren’t enough needles and I was an even and evens are knitting. Ana Luz and Paloma are knitting too. Marta is decoupage, but she’s going to pretend the varnish makes her sick and get switched. Ana Luz showed her how to be sick.”

“You must teach me to knit,” said Caroline. “I would like to knit a nice, warm gray sweater to wear when it rains.” She drew her arms around herself as if she were chilly. “I used to have the loveliest gray sweater. It was my sister’s. I wore it when I painted, which was stupid of course, but I felt good in it. It must have been full of turpentine because one day I dropped my cigarette on it and it went up in flames. Luckily I got it off before it burned me. that’s when I stopped smoking. Although it’s really drinking I should have stopped. I only dropped the cigarette because I was drunk, you see. But there is only so much we can give up.”

“We’re knitting, scarves, I think,” said Portia. “Not Sweaters”

The dialogue in this book, by Peter Cameron, is just as amazing the whole way through (as far as I’ve gotten anyway, I’m resisting the urge to read while I should be working). The characters are sympathetic and it’s so witty–it reminds me of Oscar Wilde. Peter Cameron was a student of my dad’s when he was an undergraduate at Hamilton College, so I got to know him a little back then. My dad says he had the gift for dialogue even when he was a student.

The City of Your Final Destination will be a movie next year–made by Merchant Ivory and starring Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney. Peter has another novel coming out in September called Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You.

Technorati Tags:
book, peter cameron, the city of your final destination, harry potterknitting