More Photos

We have more photos for you to look at. They give you a taste of what is coming up with our "SOON" to be released book. Click on the golden tank top photo to the right of this post. These photos were taken by Faina before we sent the finished projects off to the publisher for the real photo session.
We have a date scheduled in July for a book signing at Heart Strings Yarn Studio. I will post the date and time when all details are worked out. You will want to mark your calendar. It will be a fun event.
Faina and I spent a little time this week promoting locally. Later this summer, she will be on a trip to visit family where she will also do more promoting and put on a workshop of two for LYS in the area.
These are very exciting times!!!!!

I'm Home!

YOSEMITE CALIFORNIA

I just returned from a wonderful trip with extended family to Yosemite. It is simply gorgeous there!! The drive up there on the windy roads nearly had me reaching for some Ativan, I thought I would die of fright! Needless to say I was needle-less for quite some time. However, I would have loved to have had a nice chair and the time to do some creek-side knitting here, this was so peaceful and calming after the long drive and a good night's rest.



El Capitan how MAGNIFICENT! I am such an indoors person that a view like this tells me that my world is way too small. If you are like me in that respect, I want to encourage you to take a break and experience some of the wonders of nature. It brings a whole new perspective to your soul.



Bridal Veil Falls-we took the 1/2 mile hike and had the wonderful pleasure of the fine mist spritzing across our faces as we joined the crowd of people seeking the same.

I am just learning to use a digital camera, and how to put them on this blog. I am soooo not technical, but even if all this is not perfect I am learning as I go and wanted to share this with you.

I did manage to get a little knitting done on the trip, but it didn't seem to be a huge priority while being surrounded by close family and beautiful scenes from nature. I hope to do this a little more often.

New Project

Just because I design doesn't mean I design everything I knit. When I have been working on a lot of my own designs, I like to relax by knitting up a pattern that someone else has written. I just want to knit without too much thinking. It is my way of appreciating other designers and their work.
Right now I have started up a summer top using Berroco Bonsai (bamboo, my new favorite fiber). I am using an old pattern from my vintage stash; which includes patterns from the 20's-90's. This pattern is from the 80's but looks very current in style. The only thing I am changing on this is to do a little shaping in the body so that it goes in at the waist a bit.
I just love finding a new and current yarn when the yarn called for is no longer made-it is like a treasure hunt.
Well I am off to knit and I will post a photo when it is finished.

Late Night Finishing

YES, I do love to do the finish work on a project, but I have learned the hard way that late at night is not the best time to try to finish up OR do the actual finish work on any thing. Many a time I have not taken my own advice and have paid the price. Now some of you may not have had the same experiences that I have had but I certainly have had more of my share.
Let me tell you about the night I stayed up til 2 am to finish a poncho during the poncho craze.
Beautiful, slippery Fiesta Rayon Boucle worked in the round, on large needles. I was just finishing up the neckline - so anxious to wear this beauty. The last bind off stitch was off the needle when I noticed an unwanted loop a few stitches back, so carefully (I thought) I undid a few stitches, then I do not know how this happened but a stitch just dropped off the needle, then a neighboring stitch decided to follow. The more I tried to catch up with these guys the more things started going crazy, before you knew it this slinky poncho that took hours to knit became a ball of yarn of yarn in minutes maybe even seconds.
That lesson stayed with me for a long time-years even, however last night I guess I forgot, because a similar thing started to happen. It was late at night, the yarn wasn't as slippery but there were a lot of stitches on the needle of this openwork shawl and Voila!! a stitch jumped off the needle and it's friend started to follow suit, to make matters worse there was a lot of yarn over patterning going on here. The more I tried the worse it got. But you know what I remembered my previous disaster and set it down in the middle of the row and told myself I could get to it in the morning.
I had a fresh start in the morning, a lot of patience and in a little bit of time I was able to correct the errors and now I can resume working on the piece.
I should have put it down right away, before helping it to become worse than it already was, but at least I did put it down. So I am off to work some more and hope that my addiction to knitting will allow me to think straight if things start going awry tonight.
Knitting Dreams and Occasional Knitmares.

SPECIAL DAY!

Yesterday was really a day of good surprises. I woke up to a knock at my door and there was a delivery person with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. My day ended with the arrival of an advanced copy of our book. These are very exciting times for Faina and I as reality sets in that we are published authors. Now we wait for the release date, some book signings and blog tour.

We will keep everyone posted on this

Knit So Fine Blog Tour

Isn't the internet amazing? I just love that you may spread the good news about people, publications and information at a stroke of the keyboard. One good example of this is the blog tour being hosted today by Faina Goberstein for a new book "Knit So Fine". If you have not been to Faina's blog today, please do so. (Her link is to the right side of the page). You will be inpsired to add another book to your knitting library, not to mention putting one (?) more project on your needles.

Designs, Plans and More....

So much is happening in the design work for me. I have a new design accepted for a book that Kriti Porter is writing "Knitting in the Sun", and another accepted for the Fall /Winter issue of Interweave Knits.
I am working on new submissions with hopes of these getting accepted also. Always busy!! Always knitting!! Or should I say, "Always busy knitting."

Faina and I are busy making our plans for local book signing events. We met last week with the event planner at Barnes and Noble (Chico), we are very excited about this book signing event.
We will keep everyone posted and will supply you with the date and time of all of our events as soon as we can.

Please check out Faina's site, the link is on the right of my blog page. She is part of an upcoming blog tour for a new book the date is set for June 4th.