Color Fun

2 new colorways! One breezy, the other dramatic...

And the Winner is....

Thank you so much for your comments, and suggestions. Thank you for all the lovely names. I have the really hard task of picking one now. I expect the pattern will be ready by this Saturday.

Now for the winner of the giveaway...

corycoakley said...
I left this open all day because I couldn't think of the flower this reminded me of...columbine was the one! of course, a few others beat me to the punch. But columbine, totally.

Congratulations corycoakley! Use the contact me button on the right side of the page and send me your full name and your address. I will send you the supplies by mail, and will email you a copy of the pdf pattern by Saturday!

Now it's off to homeschooling for me!

New Furry Baby!

Every Monday, the boys and I host an animation group for teens at our house. Yesterday, one of the mothers brought 2 little rescue kittens with her, wondering if someone wanted one of them.
My motherly instinct kicked in right away, and so within minutes "Mittens" became our baby.

Welcome home Mittens!

Doll Play

A little doll fun for today.
Meet Wednesday, Betsy McCall's dark, spirited twin sister!

A Pixie Hat Story, and a Giveaway!

When I went to Little Miss SockPixie's girlscout meeting on Thursday, I packed a ball of Ella Rae Classic wool in a lovely lavender color with the idea of knitting a hat.

As I sat in a corner of the room, I sketched a hat. Maybe it was because of the laughter of the girls, and their little screams of excitement as they buzzed around the room... I felt like pixies were everywhere. I  envisioned a pointed hat, warm, soft, felted wool, and flowers, all in cheerful colors.

After a few calculations, I started the hat. By Friday it was finished. I stood impatiently next to the washing machine as I was felting it. I anxiously pulled it out. It was love at first sight! It was just the hat I had dreamed.

I knit the body of the hat with the lavender ball of Ella Rae Classic, and added a simple edge of mauve grey to frame the face and give the hat a well defined edge. I knit the strap of the same grey.

For the flowers and leaves, I picked through all my little left over "yarn walnuts". I needed less than 7 yards of each color!

I placed little aqua flower buttons at the center of the tiny blue buds for contrast and texture.

Who knew a hat could make someone so happy!

I will be offering the pattern as a pdf later this week. But there is one little thing I need your help with: a name for my little hat. "Pixie Hat" just does not seem enough for it.

Leave a comment in this post with your suggestion of a name by Tuesday November 16, 10 p.m. Eastern Time, and I will pick one comment at random using a random number generator. The lucky comment will receive all the necessary supplies to make the hat as well as a copy of the pattern!

New Yarns

I worked in my studio yesterday, and created some new colorways. I let myself create freely, just playing with colors, and techniques as well as materials.
My inpsirations ranged from  flowers to Madame Bovary to seashells, the matericals from Merino, to Tencel blends, to cahmere.

I have added these skeins to my Etsy store! I hope you will enjoy them.

How about a Little Knitting: Sashiko Mittens

I am an eclectic crafter. I love knitting but also so many other crafts. I love crochet. I love spinning, I love needlepoint and I love embroidery. I am particularly fond of Sashiko Embroidery. I have delighted in the embroidery of the organic, peaceful geometric shapes with oatmeal thread on indigo grounds.

I was so inspired by Sashiko, that I wanted to translate and reinterpret it into knitting. With winter coming, Sashiko mittens seemed like the perfect choice.

I chose 2 worsted weight yarns from my stash. One with a lovely indigo tone, the other a soft oatmeal.

I first knit a little swatch to decide on tension and fairisle pattern. I wanted the oatmeal design to be present but not crowd the mitten. This was my first sample, interlocking circular shapes on size 5 needles.

I loved the contrast of the colors, but decided the gauge should be tighter. The circular shapes appealed to me, but the interlocking made the pattern overwhelming. I switched to size 3, and after drafting a simplified pattern evocative of honeycombs, I started on the mittens.

I am really excited about these Sashiko mittens. These test ones will be for me. I am writing the pattern and will be offering it as a pdf as soon as the pattern is written, tested and edited. I should leave you now, and go work on them...

Hello World!

Hi everyone! I am so happy to be back. I want to thank all of you for your well wishes for Little Miss SockPixie. These last few weeks have been difficult for her and of course for the whole family. I think we are finally on the right track.

I thought it would only be appropriate to start my first post in more than a month with Little Miss SockPixie.

A few weeks ago, we gave her a vintage SmithCorona typewriter as a gift. She had been dreaming of owning one for a long time. We told her a computer was in many ways more practical to use for writing but I guess she had already imagined herself writing novels on a typewriter like the great writers of the past, like the heroes of her favorite movies, like Hubbel Gardner in the Way we Were!(Odd movie I know for a nine year old!)

Little Miss SockPixie, her typewriter and her stories have been inseparable ever since. I could not resist taking pictures of her today. It was so wonderful  to see her expressions as she wrote. I had to capture them.

Pensive at times...

Looking for inspiration or for that perfect word ...

Bursting with frustration with every typo...

Furiously typing away...

And most of all enjoying every minute of it...

Thanks Little Miss SockPixie. You and your stories made my day!