If you had asked me a year ago, I never would have guessed that my most-used handmade item would be my tea cozy, but it is! I make a big pot of tea each morning and my cozy keeps it warm for a long time. I’ve finally uploaded the pattern, so you can make one too.

Sombrero Tea Cozy on Flickr.

buy the pattern

Here’s a version my friend Deneen crocheted for her tiny 1-cup tea pot (just a coincidence we used the same colorway?)

A student from my beginning crochet course made the sides longer and uses it for her coffee press. What handmade items do you use every day?

Pearl is ready for her close-up, but I have a feeling the news media might have other things to cover today. Nonetheless, my new book, Knits for Bears to Wear is officially released today. (A friend of my mom’s in upstate New York even confirmed a sighting in the wilid). Pearl did insist that I clean up the mess in my studio just in case a rogue reporter mistakenly stumbled on over to Cordova. I am excited about the book launch–we’ll be having a party to celebrate at my local yarn shop, The Net Loft on November 19th.

The book has over 20 outfits for soft toys–that’s right, they don’t have to be for bears. The patterns can fit bears, American Girl Dolls, and any soft toy. Each pattern can be easily customized to exactly fit your toy with a simple little “customizing sidebar” we built into each pattern. You do a couple of easy calculations, and you’re ready to knit!

I also, can finally tell you that I’ve been asked to do a sequel to Knits for Bears. A yet-to-be-titled Crochet for Bears book will be out in spring of 2010. I’m working on it now, and without the wonderful group of sample knitters I had helping me with Knits for Bears, it is a little more challenging, but I’m delighted to be designing on a small scale again–it’s a process that allows for creativity in ways that human garments do not.

OK, back to my regularly scheduled obsessive watching of the election results!

The September issue of Crochet Today magazine came out while I was in the midst of moving, and I didn’t get to see a copy until I was in Hawaii (I found it at Safeway!). I have a pattern for toe-up crocheted socks. Toe-up socks are my favorite method. They do have one challenge, and that is getting a roomy-enough heel so the sock is easy to put on, but the ankle still fits. These are ankle socks because they were originally meant to be in a summer issue, but they ended up in fall instead.

I crocheted two pairs of these, and numerous step-out-bits, because the socks (not me) are going to be featured on Knit and Crochet Today–the companion TV show for Crochet Today that is on PBS. It looks like my socks will be on episode #205, so once the show airs the socks will be available as a free PDF download. I’ll link to it once it’s posted.

The toe and heel are worked in single crochet. I wanted to have a lacy pattern for the ankle and foot, but a solid footbed so the socks are comfortable to walk on. I couldn’t use single crochet because the double crochet from the lace pattern would cause some distortion since it’s so much taller than a single crochet. To solve the design dilemma, I used linked double crochet stitches on the footbed and double crochet for the lace. When worked in the round, the linked dcs have a very nice, smooth fabric which is perfect for the footbed. The ankle is worked in crocheted ribbing, attached as-you-go. The socks could just as easily be made longer. I used two balls of Heart & Sole sock yarn, but had some left on the second ball. Each ball is 213 yards. Working in self-striping yarns can be quite a challenge in crochet–it’s easy to end up with odd pooling or a camouflage effect. Here by playing with the stitch pattern a bit, I was able to get the colors to cooperate.

Emily is wearing a new vest that is debuting this weekend at TNNA–it’s called Waltz (because the edging seemed to have a rhythm of one-two-three, one-two-three), it will be available for sale on my web site after the show. Emily was not only the model, she was my contract crocheter on this project, and she did a fabulous job! Waltz is worked in O-Wool’s new two-ply organic merino. For this sample, which is a women’s Medium, we used just under 4 skeins.

I think that our house is kicking us out. Our phone has been intermittently going on the fritz, every time it rains, as a matter of fact. And last week our furnace broke. Someone came to fix it, but a few days later, it broke again. Oh, and all the rain we’ve been having flooded the basement (i.e. my studio), so rugs are piled on top of boxes and things that I had to move to allow the carpet to dry. Argh. We do have to be here at least another 6 weeks until the movers come, so the house and I are going to have to reach some sort of détante. Maybe a little feng shui is in order.

Meanwhile, I have a new hat design in the works… here’s a quick snapshot. I hope to be doing a photoshoot of this and a few other new projects this week that we’ll be debuting at TNNA in June. The yarn is a sock yarn from Pagewood Farm. It’s a hand-dye on a lovely sock base that is great to work with–this is part of a trio of knitting patterns I’m doing with Pagewood Farm that will include a scarf and a purse.

This weekend we had a break from many, many days of torrential rain on Saturday, and we took advantage of it by going to see the US Women’s soccer team beat Canada at RFK stadium in DC. We had front-row seats, and the kids really got to see the action. A few of the players were moms and their kids got to run out to the field and bring them flowers for mother’s day. Afterwards, some of the players came and signed autographs.

One of them, Kate Sobrero, who was carrying her son, Keegan, tossed Jay one of her signed Jerseys!

Of course, he had to put it on, right away.

If you’re a Heroes fan, you’ll appreciate this adorable Mohinder amigurumi doll created by Violet Anchovy. I love the sideburns.

She based it on Kim Werker’s Amigurumi Dude pattern at CrochetMe. Oh, and she’s made a Sylar one too!

Last Tuesday, at SSK (Silver Spring Knitters, our local group), I coerced Heidi into modeling my newly completed hat.

The cap is a summer version of a hat I wore all winter long. (I’m obsessing a little bit about hats right now, lots of deadlines for sweaters, vests, socks and minutely crocheted shawls, and all I want to do is make hats.)

After we had settled back in…

We had some unexpected (to me, at least!) visitors:

You may recognize James, I’m holding Jay, and in the bottom right corner is the back of Selma’s head. (Note they all have dressed for the event–James in a nice jacket, Selma in a skirt and crocheted shawl, and Jay in his Spiderman Jammies–everyone picked out their own outfits, I hear.) They had come to surprise me and James had worked quietly with the Martha, our group’s fearless leader to arrange their visit. James said something like this, when he arrived:

“In the military, when someone has a big achievement, we like to make a fuss, have a ceremony and give them a plaque to commemorate the event. Amy’s first book was just released in March, and to celebrate Jay and Selma and I had this put together.”

Then, they unveiled the coolest surprise ever:

James wrote to my publisher to ask them for a cover of the book, and they sent him one! Then he took it to our local frame shop and worked with the framer to come up with the perfect frame. I love it. And I was so touched that James took all that time and effort to say publicly that he was proud of me. What a sweetie.

Well I’ve finished the yoke, and now I need to separate the sleeves from the body. I’ve changed stitch patterns to differentiate the yoke from the rest of the sweater. I’m still really enjoying crocheting this, when I get a moment to do it. (The kids and James have all been sick last week and I’ve barely had a minute to myself). I can’t wait to see how it looks finished.

Oh, and this will be my Project Spectrum project since it falls well into the “earth” category. I actually had some stuff appropriate to “fire” going last quarter, but unfortunately, they weren’t “bloggable.” I’ll do a late round-up of my fire projects when they’re published.