tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71831375643028444592024-03-13T01:14:15.352-04:00knit-along little doggieHey! I knit here and sometimes I even write about it too.Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.comBlogger322125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-33987143418913659262012-01-26T14:06:00.000-05:002012-01-26T14:06:13.631-05:00Moving on up!This is the post I've been waiting for. I'm finally announcing that I've got a brand spanking new blog, on my pretty new website! I'll be blogging from Cambria Washington: Knitware and Designs from now on. <a href="http://www.cambriawdesigns.com/">Come on over!</a><br />
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p.s.- if you follow me through google reader, or any such service, you'll want to update your subscription to the new address: www.cambriawdesigns.com.Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-16661078204209716792012-01-21T09:43:00.000-05:002012-01-21T09:43:56.641-05:00Stocking done, prototype almost done, homework not done.Last night I finally finished the second of the two Santa stockings that I was commissioned to do in November. I still have a pair of mittens for a little girl, and one more stocking kit to do for a new mom, but after that my time is my own, to knit as I please...until the next project comes along :) So it's back to the Apogee prototype, and then on to my husband's sweater. Did I mention that he's agreed to wear a neck warmer?? I'm making him one ASAP. It's taken me years to wear him down, but I'm gonna make him look like the husband of a knitter if it's the last thing I do.<br />
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School is back in full swing, which means more papers, and stupid amounts of reading every week, and lectures with overly opinionated professors, for the next four weeks. Then I only have four more classes total so that should be about 20 weeks of school left. I could possibly be done with classes by the fall! But my degree plan says that I graduate in March of 2013...which I think means that we'll all cross the stage together in March but I'll be finished with classes before that. I'll be making a call to confirm that later today.<br />
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So, back to my homework. And my prototype. And finally updating my Etsy shop with my latest collection (which has been out for weeks now on Ravelry). Oh, and my blog will probably be out of commission for a few days, while we make the transition to my brand new, sparkly, pretty new blog layout :) See you on the other side!Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-64738421623109668122012-01-19T10:42:00.000-05:002012-01-19T10:42:57.626-05:00Philosophy and hot cocoa mixI've been stalking the <a href="http://annies-eats.com/">Annie's Eats</a> food blog for a while now, and I just love her to death! She takes beautiful photos of the food (and lets face it...that's what draws me in to the food), but every recipe is practically fool proof. I don't think I've made a single thing yet that I haven't absolutely loved...until yesterday. I made <a href="http://annies-eats.com/2009/12/17/hot-chocolate-mix/">hot chocolate mix</a> this holiday season and I love the stuff, but it needs to be made with milk and we were going through an awful lot of milk around here. Then I found the <a href="http://annies-eats.com/2008/12/24/hot-cocoa-mix/">hot cocoa mix</a> and figured I'd give it a shot. I was pretty tired yesterday (as usual) so I mixed it up as best as I could and tried it out. Not bad, but not what I'd expected. I had a few cups last night, trying to trick it out with a little of this or a little of that but it wasn't working out. Then today I thought I'd try again...and use good quality powdered milk (instead of generic) and the chocolate flavored creamer to kick up the chocolate flavor that was lacking. As I mixed it up this morning I realized what I'd done yesterday...I forgot to add in the salt! It's crucial. So today I mixed up another batch with the flavored dry coffee creamer, and realized that this batch would have been perfect if I'd just used the regular creamer like I did yesterday, lol. So now i have two 32-oz jars of almost perfect hot cocoa mix and I'm sure the boys won't care a bit about how it's not exactly perfect. Third time's a charm?...<br />
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So anyway, last night I was on the way to bed and felt suddenly philosophical about why I do what I do, and how blessed I really am. It usually happens after I've had a big emotional parenting set-back like I had on Monday. But I had a chance yesterday to help a brother and sister learn to knit. They'd come in to take a class together, and they didn't fit our usual customer demographic. I was a little on edge at first but after they picked out their yarn I took her brother over to find an appropriate set of needles. I noticed right away that he was a little different. A little shy. A little hesitant and unsure of himself. Very sweet. And I realized that he needed a little extra care so I chose the needles for him. <br />
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We went back and sat down and I asked him about what he wanted to make. That was when I realized that he had a learning disorder, or a mild developmental disability of some sort. I don't know what, and I didn't ask (because honestly it wasn't my business and I didn't care). I only picked up on something because of my training. So I showed him how to knit and talked about how it's like an exercise and our muscles in our hands will learn what to do and take over after a while. He was so diligent! He really struggled at first and it took about an hour of constant coaching and instruction before he was able to knit his first stitch unassisted. At one point I wasn't sure if he'd be able to learn it, but the time was his...he was paying for it...and I just kept trying to show him what to do, altering my instruction where I felt it was appropriate and breaking steps down smaller and smaller if necessary. He kept apologizing for not getting it, and I kept telling him it wasn't necessary, and cheering him on. Every time he did something right, I got really excited for him. At one point, their mother called to check on him and he told her that he was at the knitting shop taking a lesson, and that he was having fun :) I couldn't tell because he was concentrating so hard, but he was enjoying himself. That encouraged me so I didn't give up, and kept being patient; sometimes using hand-over-hand to help him learn the feeling of the stitches, and sometimes demonstrating on the piece I was knitting. And finally, finally it all paid off when he completed a stitch on his own! I have never been so proud of a student in my entire teaching life. Then he did another, and another, and another. Once he had it down, I switched with my friend who had been helping his sister, and I went over to see what she was doing, and help her out a bit, while my friend kept an eye on my star pupil.<br />
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After about half the class went by, my friend asked why they decided to take up knitting. The sister told us that her brother was a twin, and that his twin had just passed away last month. They were taking this class together as a way to help them heal from his loss. We could tell right away that she was very protective of this younger brother, and she took great care of him. He lives near the shop in an apartment of his own, and checks in with a caseworker every morning to take his medication and evaluate how he's doing on his own. He's a success story. And now he's become my friend, how promises to stop in and say 'hello' to me when he walks by in the mornings, if he sees me in the shop. I'm looking forward to it. And this is why I do what I do.Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-53279448049825271522012-01-16T13:36:00.000-05:002012-01-16T13:36:48.009-05:00One of those posts...about kids and stress...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMAlneFC14Zwta19w9yOXVAV9j98TtYCFuAIMnZm54nuxifc0qxHhAUlBCE81LeK_B7z-6YgnWL82QRpmJpNFjZkTZ2vbBsgA8QGf1sDLvC68MJwIntdXVHZ7VCgBVhnDvquR1_qf9Jn8_/s1600/mohawk+alex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMAlneFC14Zwta19w9yOXVAV9j98TtYCFuAIMnZm54nuxifc0qxHhAUlBCE81LeK_B7z-6YgnWL82QRpmJpNFjZkTZ2vbBsgA8QGf1sDLvC68MJwIntdXVHZ7VCgBVhnDvquR1_qf9Jn8_/s320/mohawk+alex.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>Look at this face. You would never know that under this angelic face is a master criminal in the making. This is your future Lex Luther. He's a genius. He's stubborn as a mule. He will not listen to reason (and yes, I realize that he's only 5-years old, but seriously). It's going to take every thing I have and everything that I've learned over the course of my psychology degree with emphasis on child development and applied behavior analysis, to ensure that he harness' his powers for good instead of evil.<br />
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Today, this cute brilliant so-smart-he's-actually-dangerous child managed to get through the child-safe toddler knob on the bathroom door, and climb onto the toilet seat to reach my makeup bag (which he smeared all over the bathroom floor, and drew on his chest with liquid eyeliner, but I digress...) and his brother's ADHD medication. He took one of Dante's pills. My 50lb, 5-year old swallowed a little green 10mg Ritalin pill...because. This results in my freaking out and running down the stairs with a pill bottle in my hand to call the pediatrician, which then resulted in a call to poison control. He will be fine. I'm less fine.<br />
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This is only the latest stunt that my cat-burglar son has pulled. He wakes up anywhere between 4 am and 7 am, so getting up before him is not an option. He knows how to open the locking toddler gate at the top of the stairs, so there's no keeping him on the top floor. He can now apparently open the toddler-knob-protected doors and reach items placed on 6 foot shelves. I now have to replace those knobs with ones that lock and require keys to open, because the current locks can be opened by pushing something into the little hole from the outside and he figured those out last year. Five-year olds have no idea what dangers lie around the corner and just can't comprehend when you try to explain, and this one in particular is just determined to do what he wants to do. He's compelled to do it. Punishment is not an effective deterrent, and rewarding good behavior doesn't work either, when he really really wants to do something. So now my only option is to try to prevent (which I thought I'd already done) until he's old enough to understand what I'm saying to him.<br />
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Want to know how bad it gets? My little genius (and I don't mean that sarcastically) looked at a box of Safety 1st latches (which I'd planned to use on my kitchen cabinets to lock up the cleaners) and figured out how to open them from the picture on the cover of the box. This resulted in my freaking out, yelling at him about how he isn't taking this seriously and he could have died, bursting into tears, and going up to my room to cry for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, he started to cry downstairs because I'd yelled at him and left the room crying. After my husband calmed him down, he came upstairs to calm me down. I'm usually the level-headed one but today I'd had all I could handle. Then Alex came upstairs to apologize to me for getting into "stuff that doesn't belong to me", promised to clean up the mess he'd made, and came over to hug me. That cause me to cry more, and hug my sweet little boy who just doesn't realize that he's taking his life into this hands every time he does something like this. I feel like Clark Kent, who constantly tries to talk Lois Lane out of doing something stupid which inevitably leads to her being in peril, and his having to go save her as Superman. There's only so much "child proofing" a parent can do!<br />
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So, that being said, I appreciate you sticking with me as I rant to the internet about my stress. I'm gonna go have something fattening and loaded with chocolate, since I can't go have a drink.Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-72534926896948014232012-01-14T09:32:00.001-05:002012-01-23T09:48:08.465-05:00The Great Design Project, Part 4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXr-T-AJo-aECgODydKlPBR6QyZVDQG30Zx2X0BMOsqm-qBdBxpL9ZKXZlVN1PORvHXFueWaT4K40CQ_Sa2G2FOJ7OKgipzPdd6sr4mAXeHbrC-cjenPzmZ9xFPwb1QRF15qB7k91f4iLT/s1600/Apogee_back_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXr-T-AJo-aECgODydKlPBR6QyZVDQG30Zx2X0BMOsqm-qBdBxpL9ZKXZlVN1PORvHXFueWaT4K40CQ_Sa2G2FOJ7OKgipzPdd6sr4mAXeHbrC-cjenPzmZ9xFPwb1QRF15qB7k91f4iLT/s320/Apogee_back_medium2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> As promised, I've finally found time to post about the progress on my Apogee prototype. I'm very happy with the progress so far and things are coming along nicely. I've been writing the pattern as I knit (or I'll never remember the details) and I can see from this very rough draft that I've got a lot of math ahead of me, and I'm definitely going to need testers (both tall and average height). And it's going to be the little details that either make or break me.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeU73f-GXzW7QBrz0eRHrYRpWeaL2TlihqXOw57MFj2SJAb3YxstzbpVRwX_ZEZbla1vliYARAO11oYOjfWykCaJZQzKlDOMUVrBfES2SC2iHd-elwmdDqhJtjffZXzfNa4JefsopjMVBq/s1600/Apogee_front2_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeU73f-GXzW7QBrz0eRHrYRpWeaL2TlihqXOw57MFj2SJAb3YxstzbpVRwX_ZEZbla1vliYARAO11oYOjfWykCaJZQzKlDOMUVrBfES2SC2iHd-elwmdDqhJtjffZXzfNa4JefsopjMVBq/s320/Apogee_front2_medium2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> For example, I loved the idea of using cables to create the waist shaping because it kept the pattern more simple and allowed the knitter to customize how much it pulled in by simply adding more cables, or taking cables away. No fussing about where the decreases should start and how far they should go before increasing again. In my experience with sweater knitting, I always need to start the decreases about six inches from the underarm, but most patterns suggest starting before that (because they aren't as tall as I am). On the other side of that coin, I always have to stop the decreases before they suggest and start working back out because even though I'm tall, I'm very short-waisted. I only know all of this from many sweater experiments and finally getting one right. So this method takes care of that and makes this a more simple knit...until you hit the ribbed hem, that is (but more on that in a minute).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1ztQ9FJxCzdo4ruWPEBp8AAniNb28G8pPgjtSsGCigtVvNKOK4uVB8kYzBSmOHygorr_ej6aNaszkO8TDzIHqgRV5pU6GAgzyEnnIOQzaSqnbeQEsMZLhl5PzcDdsrotTNlJFJ2GH3Pj/s1600/Apogee_shoulder_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1ztQ9FJxCzdo4ruWPEBp8AAniNb28G8pPgjtSsGCigtVvNKOK4uVB8kYzBSmOHygorr_ej6aNaszkO8TDzIHqgRV5pU6GAgzyEnnIOQzaSqnbeQEsMZLhl5PzcDdsrotTNlJFJ2GH3Pj/s320/Apogee_shoulder_medium2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> The OCD in me insisted on symmetry where ever possible, so that meant that the cables needed to appear to flow from the shoulder and down the body. I didn't want all of the cables to appear out of no where and float in the middle of the sweater. That took some serious doing to get it set up correctly, but once that was finished, it worked out just as I'd hoped and the alternating cables over the ribs kept things interesting enough to make the body work up very fast. In fact, I averaged about a skein per night! Once I reached my intended length, I started working on the ribbed hem. Here's where things get complicated.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxnx5ygK83EDNJy44zKdk4qwbDEyTrtxmZW1rbphOYNPllHfzhDbPvaT2lEPltwmnHqtC3BCQzlQtfU_ctV1Wx75mcgDftBcmekPddg4o2wNQId6UIj75saFadeOCj06C68RHjlgP4UMLc/s1600/Apogee_side_cables_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxnx5ygK83EDNJy44zKdk4qwbDEyTrtxmZW1rbphOYNPllHfzhDbPvaT2lEPltwmnHqtC3BCQzlQtfU_ctV1Wx75mcgDftBcmekPddg4o2wNQId6UIj75saFadeOCj06C68RHjlgP4UMLc/s320/Apogee_side_cables_medium2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>As you can see from this shot, the center cables extend all the way down the body and I wanted them to flow into the ribbing too. That was harder than it sounded at first. I couldn't seem to get the numbers to line up so that the center K2 column would continue down both sides (on the other side it became a P2) and when I finally decided that it didn't need to be that detailed, and that maybe I was the only one who really cared about that, I got to the end of the round and saw that it started and ended with a K2. That's not good. I needed to decrease two stitches so it would line up correctly. So I decided to continue the cable-ribbing all the way down the hem, and to work a 2x2 ribbing over the front and back sts between them. I needed to decrease the 2 sts from the front of the sweater to make that work and I think that has to do with where I started the neck shaping on the prototype...so I'm not sure if it will be necessary to do this in the actual pattern. This is where the editor and the testers will be necessary.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHyK8jT9LqWpYdvfSYFbUhXsCuMyVUdXtvFdEVtuqi6N79kf-VMW5VDPX6pvvwVr2-tkFcreTlDr9xco2pqXysIReVmDdsTtK_huD_Tq7oajBZzZ6FW5aucpBEDTQwgc_cvp1EtSng1qCK/s1600/Apogee_waist_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHyK8jT9LqWpYdvfSYFbUhXsCuMyVUdXtvFdEVtuqi6N79kf-VMW5VDPX6pvvwVr2-tkFcreTlDr9xco2pqXysIReVmDdsTtK_huD_Tq7oajBZzZ6FW5aucpBEDTQwgc_cvp1EtSng1qCK/s320/Apogee_waist_medium2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Anyway, the reason you don't see the hem in any of these photos is that I haven't actually knit it yet. I worked two rows and then put the body on a holder to start the sleeves. This is unusual, but I decided that I needed to know how many yards were used in knitting the average length sweater (in order to calculate yardage for the other sizes) and the best way to do that, other than knitting two sweaters, was to stop knitting mine when I'd reached the finished length of the average 38" an work the sleeves until they are also the correct length of the average 38", and I'd get my numbers. Then I'll go back and finish off my tall 38", and I'll know the difference between the tall and average yardages (in theory). I have a very large swatch, and I'll have yardage for one size (in two different lengths), and I have an excellent reference book that discusses how to calculate yardage for a design...so once I finish and I've had some sleep (still working on that whole <i>balance</i> thing), I'll take a stab at it.<br />
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Oh, one more thing about the sleeves...they've got a fun surprise :) A design element that I'm excited about and that I think you'll like...maybe. Well, you'll either love it or you won't. Let's just wait and see :)Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-14372246416345587932012-01-10T11:47:00.002-05:002012-01-23T09:49:05.637-05:00The Great Design Project, Part 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://knit-alonglittledoggie.blogspot.com/search?q=great+design+project"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj46z_YBD5Sz9_esUyzd7RGinBx7nD-50FY6igbiO7kR2QU5DCgYKoHPmpkIX12n9X8ArxE08EVNCanIGl0FGQsCBYbadQp6s2r9XM1paTt5EqFgz92Ijf5OXvb3rQidTIsGy6YodhDKkcO/s320/TGDP+button.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Today I should be working on my Juvenile Delinquency Unit 4 project (which is worth about 100 pts) but instead I thought it would be fun to create a button for my big design project :) Feel free to take it for your sidebars if you wish (but remember to save it to your computer before uploading it). I've organized it so that all posts related to this project should be accessible from the button on my sidebar. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdC56Uqw9gdepf2TJNNHbD7R31tBg4jF6dVzPgYUCnK2wQPuTRuAWjueP7G3uUmDP_6bhShnemJcjfnTvSqfhnwKDODO7_ogRn9HPOZDR0q-CSONBDhWaEiTGfXrPkTlMHnnRx-h6cM0n/s1600/prototype+yoke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdC56Uqw9gdepf2TJNNHbD7R31tBg4jF6dVzPgYUCnK2wQPuTRuAWjueP7G3uUmDP_6bhShnemJcjfnTvSqfhnwKDODO7_ogRn9HPOZDR0q-CSONBDhWaEiTGfXrPkTlMHnnRx-h6cM0n/s320/prototype+yoke.jpg" width="320" /></a>Last night, or early this morning depending on how you want to look at it, I finished the raglan yoke increases. I put it on some extra needles and tried it on. Success!! I've been taking notes and essentially writing the pattern as I go because I know that I won't remember any of the details regarding what I've done or where I decided to start increasing on the neck edges, or how many stitches I decided to cast on under the arms. I'm pleased with how the cable fit into the raglan section, and how the left-leaning and right-leaning increases crease a clean line on either side. I'm continuing these cables down the side of the body and I'm planning to stagger more cables on either side of these (in pairs of two) to create the waist shaping. That means that I should end up with a smaller waist in this sweater without having to work any decreases in that section. I like that idea, and it makes it easier for the individual knitter to adjust for more or less shaping by adding or removing cables.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPFeRcCyVmaDD18N7QTHsAofBB6H69CBxH-TLRTQuMv-jVjb-XQ6u3C2Ynt264neOfmmrVdI5qEPfz7xMIDkVfVHCiPb6NPQaXxa499sS3j06nHFkqTrfH5goFY7L5LFOtoPU0bSJqUBI8/s1600/prototype+yoke+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPFeRcCyVmaDD18N7QTHsAofBB6H69CBxH-TLRTQuMv-jVjb-XQ6u3C2Ynt264neOfmmrVdI5qEPfz7xMIDkVfVHCiPb6NPQaXxa499sS3j06nHFkqTrfH5goFY7L5LFOtoPU0bSJqUBI8/s320/prototype+yoke+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Now I know that the v-neck might look a little bit steep, but keep in mind that there will be a ribbed collar attached to it and that will bring it up a bit. My plan for this sweater is to knit it to the standard length for a size 38 pullover, and then adjust the lengths up and down so I can figure out how long the average sweater should be, and approximately how many skeins will be needed for it. Then I'll continue to knit it to the 6' measurements, and hopefully that will give me an accurate estimate of how many skeins will be necessary for the tall versions.<br />
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You know, I have a lot of school work waiting for me, and a Christmas stocking that needs to be finished by the end of January, but I'm having a really difficult time putting this sweater down, now that I've finally started it ;) Next up, Part 4: cable waist decreases!Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-44672346140874880742012-01-09T07:52:00.000-05:002012-01-09T07:52:58.188-05:00Fly Tribe Blog Hop: Balance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE0Xyjix13zlvuBfEoak3UKY1WBowv_aTdfuCqOO48gVwDuhjcYDAQvyiHYxlSk84L51NTQpBWoCIZGnIgrUms5mdk6OtffjSi3ddCRzcYhrPiKCDr8YIeBvAOVA8bIlphz-mJsej2gqQo/s1600/WIP+full.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE0Xyjix13zlvuBfEoak3UKY1WBowv_aTdfuCqOO48gVwDuhjcYDAQvyiHYxlSk84L51NTQpBWoCIZGnIgrUms5mdk6OtffjSi3ddCRzcYhrPiKCDr8YIeBvAOVA8bIlphz-mJsej2gqQo/s320/WIP+full.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Last year, the East Coast was hit with a hurricane and we lost power for three days. I was (and still am) in school full time, with kids in school, a husband who was having some medical issues, and I had just been asked to come back to teaching Sunday school at my church. I was freaking out, overwhelmed, and worn out.<br />
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The storm taught me something. When I was forced to unplug from the internet, I actually got more work done in a shorter amount of time (I know, it seems simple), but I also noticed that my boys were getting along better. I started dinner earlier and we ate at the table together as a family. It only took them about 12 hours to unplug and they were good. They played outside, in their rooms, or with each other. We went to bed early (because it was dark and there wasn't anything else to do). We woke up early. I cooked from scratch. I was happy. That was when I realized that burning the midnight oil trying to get it all done wasn't actually working. Sometimes I needed to rest so my brain could run at full speed (see Saturday's post for another lesson on sleep, lol). I needed <i>Balance</i>. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgizu2K7caPzMhj1sD-0mDuaWZTuUvAVKoFtwCoxuTvJk3rSUWOXpkACrMqCbAAPA_SeDHAzubq9FvAUI0LDT0qP2oA76rk4THuxQAJ7shqGHhenh88p-TsiOwGUDF-n75Wy3Yyr_ZLGODE/s1600/WIP1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgizu2K7caPzMhj1sD-0mDuaWZTuUvAVKoFtwCoxuTvJk3rSUWOXpkACrMqCbAAPA_SeDHAzubq9FvAUI0LDT0qP2oA76rk4THuxQAJ7shqGHhenh88p-TsiOwGUDF-n75Wy3Yyr_ZLGODE/s320/WIP1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> This year, I've decided that <i>balance</i> was going to be my goal. I'm still working on it, but yesterday I took the day off from school and I'm feeling more refreshed. I'm still working on going to sleep earlier (I've tried every day for the last three night in a row, and failed). But I've remembered to make dinner earlier and I've been creating a menu every week so that I can make a grocery shopping list for the week. I'm hoping that if I can bring balance to my day-to-day life, I'll be able to carry that over to my creative life.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi1K2QB-1c0LS_Jb_lBSkyod-g_cWeKw4yiBPFQx7HE8j2Tb8mI8bXpWeihyphenhyphenjeeG7U6m46nGe6UT2TNPt2lnHLszWkazTUJo8Oa2RBzqHIG55TvDvRZlen40Aze6h0nDeaKg08r5Hfc_t2/s1600/WIP2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi1K2QB-1c0LS_Jb_lBSkyod-g_cWeKw4yiBPFQx7HE8j2Tb8mI8bXpWeihyphenhyphenjeeG7U6m46nGe6UT2TNPt2lnHLszWkazTUJo8Oa2RBzqHIG55TvDvRZlen40Aze6h0nDeaKg08r5Hfc_t2/s320/WIP2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Now, about the photos, lol. This is a pile of my current Works In Progress (commonly known as WIP's). I struggled to come up with a way to express balance in my chosen creative form, so I decided instead to show my total lack of balance, and why I chose to go with it this year. I have in this pile, 15 current works in progress (4 pairs of socks, two stockings, 1 sweater to repair, 1 blanket, 1 almost-finished shawl. 1 commissioned pair of pink children's mittens, fiber to be spun on my Turkish drop spindle, 2 sweaters, and a bag of sample yarns for design ideas). This is typical of the way that I work, and I'm hoping to streamline a little this year. And I'll admit, for the sake of full disclosure, that this large pile doesn't even represent a quarter of my current yarn stash. I need some balance in my stash too :)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPZXzFR_Ptv9HcNQqvKYLcPpVMqO1-1nKL_ol1MW1G6_rmmVpI7cJOuotnf0b5Pab9E-DKnO7KSCW9RvRDLpsaCBY5oxK4aUTxV2rZWcOsSEWIfhuUZaSRKy33TEHDsYKcCWcyQk6xT4dr/s1600/WIP3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPZXzFR_Ptv9HcNQqvKYLcPpVMqO1-1nKL_ol1MW1G6_rmmVpI7cJOuotnf0b5Pab9E-DKnO7KSCW9RvRDLpsaCBY5oxK4aUTxV2rZWcOsSEWIfhuUZaSRKy33TEHDsYKcCWcyQk6xT4dr/s320/WIP3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Now, I hope you enjoyed my post on balance, and I hope you'll hop on over to the <a href="http://fly-tribe.blogspot.com/2012/01/wordhop-2012.html" style="color: red;">Fly Tribe blog</a> to read posts from other talented artists.Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-64573485437001910532012-01-08T15:14:00.000-05:002012-01-08T15:14:09.581-05:00Fly Tribe Blog Hop starts tomorrow!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://fly-tribe.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7x1KffegDgbuKsV3kkyVoxMNSVgvIIHqnrrtTj3yWb2yEZ_cuVcXBjlL8PYbRsTUI1-mmWna0G7iieKdijJzGOYR9CWUig0dr8qP79xl5e8IpRXE1-gUD3qMlzf3e21pIg7kguzKksmj9/s1600/flytribebutton377125_2937780088730_1387976261_3080447_1801967604_n.jpg" /></a></div>I'm really excited about this one! I missed the sign up for last year's blog hop and I made sure to get in on this one. Tomorrow, I'll post a blog about my word for the year. There will be a link from that post to the official Fly Tribe Blog, with links to other blogs that are participating. It should be fun!! Now...to figure out how to represent my word in yarn.Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-89166279237502251152012-01-08T00:05:00.002-05:002012-01-23T09:49:40.726-05:00The Great Design Project, Part 2No photos yet, but I've got some stuff to share. I decided to dive, and just start knitting. I know I've got the necessary skill set to knit a sweater out of thin air (I've done it before and Lord knows I've got enough reference books!), and I'm feeling much more confident thanks to the success of my last project and finding a technical editor who will help me with the pattern grading. So, I'm going to go ahead as originally planned and share my project with you. I'm designing a top-down, raglan pullover with a v-neck and cable accents. You'll see my successes and failures along the way, and I've got a few to share with you today, lol.<br />
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Lesson 1: Swatching is your friend. If you value your sanity and your own time, swatch! The bigger, the better. Last night I swatched for a few hours while watching a movie. It gave me the customary stitch and row gauge, but it also let me play with a cable idea that I'd been thinking about, and I used different hem ideas at the top and the bottom of the swatch so I could see which one I liked best. I learned that the ribbed him would look better with the cables, and that the cables will definitely serve the function I had hoped for; they will provide waist shaping to this garment without the need for decreasing. I like that idea and I think other knitters will too :)<br />
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Lesson 2: When you think you're ready to start knitting, you're really just going to do some garment shaped swatches, lol. I cast on with the idea that I would incorporate a cable into the raglan shaping for this pullover. I just thought it would flow better than having the side cables suddenly come to a dead stop, and it would provide just enough detail to keep this basic pullover from being just another stockinette top-down pullover. Now, here's the think. I'm anal about details and symetry. I'm drawn to patterns that focus on the details and incorporate them into the design. It makes the finished piece look more...finished. This doesn't always make it easy to design (because you have to be able to translate what you've done into directions that other people can follow).<br />
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Lesson 3: Never work the numbers for a complicated design when you're sleep deprived. Never! I worked on my first top-down yoke swatch and figured out the basics of where I'd need to put the markers to allow for the extra stitches in the raglan section (that will become a cable), but I had trouble with the increases. My first attempt worked, but it wasn't what I was looking for, and it seemed like the rate of increase was just too fast. I questioned myself about this, because any top-down pattern I've ever knit (and I've knit plenty) has instructed me to work the increase round every other row. However, my sleep-deprived brain figured out that I would need 172 sts for the body (gauge of 4.5 sts per inch x 38 inch bust = 171, with 1 st added to allow for a hem with 2x2 ribbing). This will be important later. So, I did the math and realized that at this rate, I'll have reached 172 sts after about six inches of knitting, but I actually needed to work ten inches before I could divide for the arms and work the body. So, I did more math and figured that if I started with 68 sts and I need to get 172, that is a difference of 104. Every increase round adds 8 sts. Dividing 104 by 8 gave me 13. I need to work my increase row 13 times, over 10 inches, or aproximately every 0.75 inches. My row gauge (thanks giant swatch!) is 6 rows per inch, so that means that I'm increasing every 4 rounds.<br />
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With this sound mathmatical reasoning in hand, I grabbed a different skein of Cascade 220 and started a new sweater (setting aside the other one and leaving it on the needles so I could compare them and see what I liked best). I put the markers in the right area, took notes on the increase row as I figured it out (I won't remember later), and managed to figure out exactly where to place the increases to get the look I was after in the cable section. It was coming along beautifully, when that nagging feeling started again. Finally, I took out three top down v-neck patterns (one written in child sizes, one in my gauge with different directions for the neckline, and another at my gauge and in adult sizes that provided a complete stitch count at the end of the increases). After a short nap, I was clear headed enough to realize what the the adult pattern in my gauge had a huge number of stitches after the increases were finished, and that all three patterns increased every two rounds. That's when it hit me like a ton of bricks... I forgot to calculate the stitches for the arms, and I only calculated the stitches for the body! I was increasing too slowly, and I wouldn't have any stitches for the sleeves.<br />
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So, I sat down with all of my reference materials and worked out what I hope will be accurate cast on numbers and stitch marker placement. None of today's knitting was wasted, and now I'm going to pull out my most recent effort and start again...but not until I've slept :)Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-15962899408943689962012-01-05T21:28:00.001-05:002012-01-05T21:29:00.876-05:00I made an ebook!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuZoEQSiMv0CdupdM07ObC5AeZ47DDQnOV3xVIKVTsekY4I2NyhneY8WX8zeOK2TtFHP2SWDRuUKMMDP71uTGIxnoQTZ1jjGCr5s8cNvjEv4Dc034nVIWx-GH2Pp5ySFT6ioIFYRB1-61T/s1600/ebookRavcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuZoEQSiMv0CdupdM07ObC5AeZ47DDQnOV3xVIKVTsekY4I2NyhneY8WX8zeOK2TtFHP2SWDRuUKMMDP71uTGIxnoQTZ1jjGCr5s8cNvjEv4Dc034nVIWx-GH2Pp5ySFT6ioIFYRB1-61T/s400/ebookRavcover.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Today my friends, I made an ebook! It took me like...three hours, but I got it done. Here's what happened...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM61dI7HJMkRa2iKUnX0UKRXUv7Mwvw-kRc7OXQwzTerbt1osvji9x-x5JT2UvD3lLtxUNY-6beXnDaxcIfY2pXBqdTx5Y8e7ggwJg0wDnhkwRMiZTNEgFHwiQDpo6bnOOUPgKVHZ156Z9/s1600/e-book+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM61dI7HJMkRa2iKUnX0UKRXUv7Mwvw-kRc7OXQwzTerbt1osvji9x-x5JT2UvD3lLtxUNY-6beXnDaxcIfY2pXBqdTx5Y8e7ggwJg0wDnhkwRMiZTNEgFHwiQDpo6bnOOUPgKVHZ156Z9/s320/e-book+cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I got up this morning and realized that I still hadn't looked at the revisions for my ebook, from the tech editor. I pulled them up and went through them, using my revised copies from the individual patterns to help out. I really wanted everything to be consistent (which is the reason for using an editor). After revising everything (which took up a good amount of the aforementioned three hours), I send her the updated version and went on Ravelry to create my ebook. This is where everything went haywire.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg26PdZz4Vv8-2hi_K0h23f-ce6Y8HUqFancw0LNJAZkkW8OmlaZ-XEoT5QdBZ_jABPWpiFjn33KwSOJ2NPcg1Nc3Zh2SDC2JukhLgLFe0-lf-LNMlDRxagDSNNGtSX7UPG-p39Tt2WRXfO/s1600/DSC_0139.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg26PdZz4Vv8-2hi_K0h23f-ce6Y8HUqFancw0LNJAZkkW8OmlaZ-XEoT5QdBZ_jABPWpiFjn33KwSOJ2NPcg1Nc3Zh2SDC2JukhLgLFe0-lf-LNMlDRxagDSNNGtSX7UPG-p39Tt2WRXfO/s320/DSC_0139.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">fun with photo shoots, lol</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
I went into my pattern store and added the ebook to my list of patterns, along with about 10 beautiful photos from the collection. I spent a lot of time writing the description, and getting everything just right. I also went into my original patterns and updated them to say that the ebook was now available, and then set up a promotion that would deduct the cost of a single pattern purchase to those Ravelers who had already paid for a single pattern, and wanted the book. Right in the middle of the madness, I got a message from a very helpful (and patient) editor who told me that I shouldn't have added the ebook to the pattern store, and provided me a link with instructions on exactly how to create one. Thankfully, she walked me through the parts I struggled with, and encouraged me along the way :) It was the most pleasant reprimand I think I've ever received ;)<br />
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Turns out that you just add the title of the book as a source on the pattern itself (which creates the ebook), then go in to edit the ebook with all of the necessary information (photos, yarn, etc), and then you publish it. That's it! So much easier, and that way all the financial info stay in one place.<br />
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So there you have it! I published an ebook for my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/fibonacci-striped-accessories-collection">Fibonacci-Stripe Accessories Collection</a>. I posted it to my facebook page. I tweeted it. I stalked it on Ravelry to see how it's being received. And now I've blogged about it. Excited much?<br />
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Oh, and turns out that Aaron and Dante (both of whom were very resistant about letting me knit them a sweater) have decided that they really like <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rockaway">Rockaway</a> from <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/designers/jared-flood">Jared Flood</a>, and have put in requests in specific colorways. I don't like to knit the same thing twice, but I might have to make an exception this time if the end result is that I can get all three Washington men in a hand-knit sweater!Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-8615146634517357562012-01-03T12:28:00.000-05:002012-01-03T12:28:26.737-05:00Fibonacci-Stripe Collection<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fibonacci-stripe-cowl" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6k8SrSDzV-n5m0F-9OXQbiWcako3VWqSfaQY-WWUQ0v7ah6tDNih0uGDwKvWAJSxFQ7iBqKPWEsq6axsuNjRL6bDBn9d3RCeI9DN_PDAbmZHKXOjPj8EAwU7jnPH3_DWBlmo2C2tl7sYm/s320/Fibonacci+Cowl+cover.jpg" width="320" /></a><span id="goog_416061066"></span><span id="goog_416061067"></span></div> I've been holding on to this one for a while now, and I was going to wait to launch it when the new blog goes live but I just couldn't wait any longer. I'm excited to introduce my Fibonacci-Stripe Collection!<br />
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Starting with the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fibonacci-stripe-cowl">Neck-Warmer/Cowl</a> pattern. <br />
This is the updated version of my original Fibonacci Cowl pattern, which pulled over the head and fit close to the neck. As anyone with long, thick or curly hair knows…pulling anything over the head causes hair to become wild and out of control. My solution…knit a neck-warmer that buttons up the side, and/or a cowl that can be worn loose or worn doubled to keep the wind at bay (and the hair looking neat).<br />
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The pattern includes both the neck-warmer and the cowl, in either two-color Fibonacci stripe, or one-color textured stripe variations. The close-fitting neck-warmer uses six buttons (but could be knit in the round without buttons if you prefer), and uses two 50g balls of Berroco Blackstone Tweed or any aran weight yarn of at least 130yds. The longer cowl uses three balls of Blackstone Tweed for the one-color texture stripe version, and four balls for the two-color stripe version.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fibonacci-stripe-hat" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP446a1-JbaKa-ZOCTT6RCEUQ8I7KCqS3VJ2VjGUgJ1fysWJGrKC0RedR2gRC51tIAQ_L061anohBj7XUnRSQG7nIdeOIpG7haGR8gn8rEjJbkRyEUzX0ScsSGRrJOTq_VfWvG2zYEmo6C/s320/Fibonacci+Hat+cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Next up: <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fibonacci-stripe-hat">The Slouchy Hat!</a> For the hat, I wanted to knit something that would be pretty and warm, and would also be capable of fitting all of my hair into it when the weather takes a turn for the worst without wrecking my hair for the rest of the day. Any of you girls out there with curly hair know what I’m talking about, and this hat is for you! (I’m happy to say that after field-testing this in New England winter weather, it’s just what I hoped it would be.) The pattern offers two sizes, two different depths, and one-color textural striping or two-color striping. It is worked in the round, and uses “bulls-eye” decreases to accentuate the Fibonacci striping. The hat uses two 50g balls of Berroco Blackstone Tweed, or any aran weight yarn of at least 130yds.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fibonacci-stripe-mittens" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzOvyZcD32wTXhLHfthSBp_yBZcsgUmuGyRo1OBSneNsNbo0wvMNdTgMzGtuYeZBVGyPDKFQjYwJCX0oQvDn3M6Ply1hVnxw1_iLQn5zN8ipdeAucnYVr0Xfe9QtjaoGZlpdKLu0PVCHxM/s320/Fibonacci+Mitts+Cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> And my personal favorite: the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fibonacci-stripe-mittens">Convertible Mittens</a> :) These convertible mittens are the most practical, warm, soft, and all-around best mittens I’ve ever designed or worn. They provide quick access to your fingers when you need them, and the ability to quickly tuck them away when you don’t.<br />
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The pattern provides two sizes, with options for two-color stripes or one-color texture striping, flip tops or traditional mittens, and optional “texter-thumbs”. It is easily adjustable for length (great for tall knitters!), and the extra-long cuffs keep the wind out of coat sleeves. The flaps are worked as a continuation of the mitten, in one piece with short-row shaping, and they lay flat against the back of the hand when not in use. No buttons necessary, so no silly little button loops at the tip of your hand (and no How-The-Grinch-Stole-Christmas-hands when you wear them closed). The mittens use two 50g balls of Berroco Blackstone Tweed, or any aran weight yarn of at least 130yds.<br />
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The patterns are all available for individually sale, and will be released soon as a collection in e-book format. Customers who purchase an individual pattern but would like to purchase the e-book, will be able to deduct the the price of that pattern from the cost of the collection at checkout.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshqLKuBUtF-TEAS8i6pa22k8WWhu6LAyLMy5h-dBRHx6JesLxM4KskM_ZNaFESD-7BY9yiTXD0bAJnIu5HDXMWbLjHXITflg6gSo9qd0C4cCzRfUJwzd09_-b8PrZ7FSzbLtWU3xIotri/s1600/Fibonacci-Stripe+Accessories+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgshqLKuBUtF-TEAS8i6pa22k8WWhu6LAyLMy5h-dBRHx6JesLxM4KskM_ZNaFESD-7BY9yiTXD0bAJnIu5HDXMWbLjHXITflg6gSo9qd0C4cCzRfUJwzd09_-b8PrZ7FSzbLtWU3xIotri/s320/Fibonacci-Stripe+Accessories+Cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">e-book coming soon!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Fibonacci-Stripe Hat<br />
<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/purchase/cambria-washington-designs/87807"><img border="0" src="http://www.ravelry.com/images/shopping/buy-now.gif" /></a><br />
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Fibonacci-Stripe Mittens<br />
<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/purchase/cambria-washington-designs/87784"><img border="0" src="http://www.ravelry.com/images/shopping/buy-now.gif" /></a><br />
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Fibonacci-Stripe Cowl<br />
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<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/purchase/cambria-washington-designs/50428"><img border="0" src="http://www.ravelry.com/images/shopping/buy-now.gif" /></a>Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-2320460242344026422012-01-02T19:21:00.000-05:002012-01-02T19:21:56.864-05:00As is customary around here...I'm blogging when I should be working on my homework assignments. But I really need a mental break, and this blog is therapeutic. I don't know why I though I'd enjoy taking criminal justice classes (must be the part of me that's a fan of crime shows), but I'm finding it difficult to connect psychology and criminal justice. I know that there are course designers, and my professors are just doing their best to facilitate this course, but I've hardly seen anything in my forensic psych that addresses specifically how psychology is used in the legal system. The reading is almost exactly the same as my reading in the juvenile delinquency classes (which only deals with kids and crime), so that tells me that the course designers didn't add much to this class that helps the student tie the two together, and most of the time I feel like I'm groping around in the dark trying to find that needle-in-the-haystack answer that they're looking for. Meanwhile, my boys are home from school driving me nuts and making it almost impossible to get any school work done.<br />
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In knitting news, I cast on for the second of two Santa Clause intarsia Christmas stockings that I'm doing for a client on commission. I've also got another stocking and a pair of mittens (I've mentioned these both before) and I'm working on the beautiful <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flora-18">Flora knee highs</a>. I ended up pulling the sock back to the ribbing and getting rid of the cherry red from Cascade. It's a beautiful color, but I just don't like it in combination with any other color. It mutes it too much. So I decided to go with white in combination with my pretty <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/madelinetosh-tosh-sock/stashes?status=&cf=%3F&photoless=0&search=antique+lace">Tosh sock</a>. I'll save that red for one of the non-stranded knee highs. I just keep looking at this book and I'm so inspired to knit knee highs that it's difficult for me to stay on task with any of my other projects. I seriously want to knit my way through this book. Maybe I will, as a side project ;)<br />
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Speaking of side projects...I just took a look back and realized that I owe you all a post for the Great Sweater Design Project 2012. I haven't forgotten you, but with trying to catch up on my school work, I just haven't had the time. But maybe you could help me with something. I'm torn between starting with a pullover, or a cardigan. Any preferences? Leave me a comment and weigh in.Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-68468916586189573122012-01-01T19:17:00.000-05:002012-01-01T19:17:26.812-05:00Heritage Silk Mitten KALIt's the first day of a brand new year, and I was hoping to greet you with my brand new blog (which I've been keeping quiet for a while now) and I wrote this whole beautiful post that I was going to publish over there, but I forgot that the blog is private right now because it's still technically under construction. So after trying to publish it and linking to it...I realized that I'll just have to be patient a little bit longer and we'll have to hang out in this space for a bit. Good thing we're all comfy here :) But don't be shocked if you log on one day, and it's had a face lift.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/heritage-silk-mittens-kal"><img border="0" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMKFMVAAxOjmnH2_ltzXyJgwgD9QtO8FouU_IKN3StML-UzSOsWfVGpAkcaHMpxl7lGFXrHL_i5tLED0fdj4HpAYNS-_7ji87XiUu4qSsQQYvztk3awXRGZbX2x97pUoIypnDUfu75l4yT/s400/heritage+silk.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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Now, with that being said, I'm really excited to announce a knit-along for my Heritage Silk Lace mitten pattern, for Cascade Yarns. It all came about a few months ago when a Raveler sent me a lovely message about my pattern, saying how she'd seen it at a yarn tasting in Spokane WA. It turned out that the wonderful folks from Cascade took my mittens with them as an example of the Heritage Silk in action (the very mittens I knit with my own two hands). It toured a few local shops in Washington state and a lot of excitement was stirred up. Three of the local knitting groups started chatting about doing a KAL, so I contacted the various groups on Ravelry about hosting a KAL for them, so they could all gather in one place and have a blast. A few hours on Photoshop and Ravelry later, the group was formed!<br />
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The official start date is January 4th, but I couldn't wait that long (and neither could most of the knitters, it turns out, lol), so I changed the cast on date to today! So go get your needles, two skeins of Heritage Silk (or any other fingering weight yarn), and your free copy of the pattern, and cast on with us. It's national mitten month anyway. You might as well kill two birds with one stone ;)<br />
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P.S. - Stay tuned for the release of my latest pattern collection, which is currently in tech editing.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAUbcHCHe7Tw2LreHKxZmZMW6C8sboGrzB8vjgUKGun6sw580OgQNRHOCvmlh9e4bKfUTNQk42-civM_RfVmMty6CbZvKeh69_ENYaNsE_HV9Ojq5dq4VLaCGXR6ohfXzQnIzUdmBjNpsu/s1600/neckwarmerDSC_0158_medium2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAUbcHCHe7Tw2LreHKxZmZMW6C8sboGrzB8vjgUKGun6sw580OgQNRHOCvmlh9e4bKfUTNQk42-civM_RfVmMty6CbZvKeh69_ENYaNsE_HV9Ojq5dq4VLaCGXR6ohfXzQnIzUdmBjNpsu/s200/neckwarmerDSC_0158_medium2.JPG" width="133" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtaM_rKw_q0JqTNp78QmaHmK-WBPsIR_eU4zD5_x_NsE7FpSU5RGn5TufWzaw0NKmhwEsUw5Gufzw0vJRy2joliC-5ZIwP-R8c3kwu6_CQBc4pNhsh50EOkuMpbb5TfplPsKCQsT3hXdQr/s1600/fibonaccicowlDSC_0195_medium2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtaM_rKw_q0JqTNp78QmaHmK-WBPsIR_eU4zD5_x_NsE7FpSU5RGn5TufWzaw0NKmhwEsUw5Gufzw0vJRy2joliC-5ZIwP-R8c3kwu6_CQBc4pNhsh50EOkuMpbb5TfplPsKCQsT3hXdQr/s200/fibonaccicowlDSC_0195_medium2.JPG" width="133" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7reSNFPB3uBEtocvr9s0gblkJgHGWtY5PKfS2DZZ-aXeWrmKADwCv_Ic-yDsT-v3f7Y4cyp37NWp7ys10H4_4KD1yiPO0rNo2WSdaZ8AA-6swjXUllffsfGDZsHzX4oq_in6Uf2C2FG8g/s1600/fibonaccimittsDSC_0180_medium2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7reSNFPB3uBEtocvr9s0gblkJgHGWtY5PKfS2DZZ-aXeWrmKADwCv_Ic-yDsT-v3f7Y4cyp37NWp7ys10H4_4KD1yiPO0rNo2WSdaZ8AA-6swjXUllffsfGDZsHzX4oq_in6Uf2C2FG8g/s200/fibonaccimittsDSC_0180_medium2.JPG" width="133" /></a></div>Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-46593432756889163602011-12-30T23:49:00.000-05:002011-12-30T23:49:06.510-05:00last post of the year (probably)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Well, I thought I'd cap off my round-up with the last post, showing what I've knit and designed this year. It was an adventure. I had a child start high school, and another one start Kindergarten...all in the same year. I started teaching the Senior Primary class at church, during a time when my life couldn't take one more responsibility, and surprisingly I've excelled at it (and had a wonderful time, I might add). I took a great e-course from <a href="http://kellyraeroberts.com/learn">Kelly Rae Roberts</a> that encouraged me to spread my wings and fly! I've submitted projects to <a href="http://www.interweaveknits.com/">Interweave Knits</a>, <a href="http://twistcollective.com/2011/winter/magazinepage_01.php">Twist Collective</a>, <a href="http://www.knitty.com/">Knitty</a>, a few independent book proposals, and <a href="http://www.cascadeyarns.com/">Cascade Yarns</a>. Most did not choose to go with my design but all were encouraging and kind, and asked me to try again. Cascade published my most popular design ever (thus far...you know...<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/c224-cascade-eco--quilt-and-cable-blanket">the blanket</a>). And I sold dozens of patterns at my LYS during the first annual Great Rhody Yarn Crawl, which did wonders for my designing moral.<br />
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I started working with a very talented <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TheDoyleTreatment">graphic artist</a> who has helped me to create my brand. I've got a new logo, a new <a href="http://www.facebook.com/KnitAlongLittleDoggie">facebook page</a>, a pretty new <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/cambriawashington">Etsy shop</a> (which is still a bit empty, but will fill up), a pretty new layout for <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/CambriaWdesigns">my twitter account</a>, and a brand <a href="http://cambriawashington.blogspot.com/?zx=d0490cf24671125b">spanking new blog</a> which I'm going to start using first think next year! The rest of this blog will be slurped over in due time. I'll have new business cards to match soon, and labels for my custom work. <br />
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This year was not very lucrative in terms of online pattern sales, but I was able to see from the reports that I sold more sock patterns than anything else, and this year my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/night-of-the-lepus">Night of the Lepus</a> was by far the most popular. I think that <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bride-of-frankenstein-2">The Bride of Frankenstein</a> is going to give it a run for it's money in 2012. I've already got a pretty new ad that will start cycling through your Ravelry project page on January 1st, so you'll probably see it there! I sold more patterns directly through the shop, so next year I'll continue to overhaul my current body of work and focus on getting hard copies printed, and contacting a sales rep to help me get into some of the area shops. It will probably be an easier job, once I've graduated from school in the Fall :)<br />
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I also took on quite a bit of commissioned knitting this year, and at a fair price. I realized (thanks mostly to the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/designers">Ravelry Design forum</a> group, and the Flying Lessons course) that if I charge what I'm truly worth, I'll only have to take on projects that I want to do, and the ones I'm not as excited about won't be nearly as bad because I'm being paid a fair price to do them. I won't get stuck doing something I don't truly enjoy doing. I've also learned the need to provide a quote in writing, so customers don't forget what we discussed going in, and that I have the right to refuse work if I know it won't be worth the time or cost to myself or the client. I've gotten much smarter about it, and my self-assurance translates to customers, which makes them feel comfortable paying me what I ask (and I always try to be fair...because I know what it's like to have to work on a budget and I could never afford me).<br />
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Finally, this year I learned that other people see me and my work differently than I see myself and my work. I've had the opportunity to 'talk' to other designers who I admire through Ravelry, or in person, and they're regular people just like me. They have flaws that only they can see, and they hate some of their early work just like I do, lol. They have all been encouraging, and have told me that I'm much better and I really am...which keeps me going ;) I've had a chance to work with a very talented photographer who literally makes me look good, and recently a tech editor contacted me and asked about working with me on my latest collection. She has worked on some of my favorite patterns, and with some of my favorite designers, and I was honored that she asked to take a look at my collection. Maybe she sees something in my work that I can't see yet. <br />
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So, now that I've reviewed what I've learned and what I'm still finishing up from this year, here's a look at what I managed to finish. I hope you enjoy :) There are photos for everything except the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-rococo-shawl">Rococo shawl</a>, and the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/owls-2">Owls sweater</a> (which I'll be ripping out), and they are presented in no particular order:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5IpRqFm_BzSTzxa-s6rqzKQWNPzKayfC4k1X9BUvDVhtQGboeL_-raLOqpdfWEbXvNtdNzDMsEdJGgXrxwn7YhSPQig2Zu8Ns_in42eZAUIZpCbBK9Q7kAOzt8d0_QKKi3jQ6XEBPflRB/s1600/BofFsockswall_closeup_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5IpRqFm_BzSTzxa-s6rqzKQWNPzKayfC4k1X9BUvDVhtQGboeL_-raLOqpdfWEbXvNtdNzDMsEdJGgXrxwn7YhSPQig2Zu8Ns_in42eZAUIZpCbBK9Q7kAOzt8d0_QKKi3jQ6XEBPflRB/s320/BofFsockswall_closeup_medium2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bride of Frankenstein</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYjG-UI0msyuGbMurTWIlcB0dKYNeLnpkzUj0d77i8RvJHaoGopTT_VTOgDkTVBM7zwVYz1zAK-8XJUJ6eVvW9pAAEvr6ZJ8i4wsipwstwQLGQiN4Jlx9t86TKwHtZq7lNvRCiJBoyyEZy/s1600/crescentparkberet_profile_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYjG-UI0msyuGbMurTWIlcB0dKYNeLnpkzUj0d77i8RvJHaoGopTT_VTOgDkTVBM7zwVYz1zAK-8XJUJ6eVvW9pAAEvr6ZJ8i4wsipwstwQLGQiN4Jlx9t86TKwHtZq7lNvRCiJBoyyEZy/s320/crescentparkberet_profile_medium2.jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crescent Park Beret (matching handwarmers not shown)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii9CDB7yeTJAE9PcjjZgHcogV0uRHwjWf8gi7_Jv1ctxHbvhkP3O8yoIAMOoIB0rWy7fwLU4INo9FkxvG1Hsi_LmY75wynJOI3WyhAIXDpNG8G0XNZE7rG9dhOJCrqkwslXSHkuQUXrXm_/s1600/effortlesscardiP2100008_medium2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii9CDB7yeTJAE9PcjjZgHcogV0uRHwjWf8gi7_Jv1ctxHbvhkP3O8yoIAMOoIB0rWy7fwLU4INo9FkxvG1Hsi_LmY75wynJOI3WyhAIXDpNG8G0XNZE7rG9dhOJCrqkwslXSHkuQUXrXm_/s320/effortlesscardiP2100008_medium2.JPG" width="255" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Effortless Cardigan, by Hannah Fettig</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjClgobaXnSyPxjf79C8rPAL-hOSIMkTIBCEe-t3A5N0BT6LMWXO5qpHY9oavXcU5e_Wyp6TLiVaMnT5fyynUooMgcvQhcbpz3Ns0jnyBYFYg6OyP2UM86KT3JdIOXaoO7zut6kP55XlbIx/s1600/HSLmittens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjClgobaXnSyPxjf79C8rPAL-hOSIMkTIBCEe-t3A5N0BT6LMWXO5qpHY9oavXcU5e_Wyp6TLiVaMnT5fyynUooMgcvQhcbpz3Ns0jnyBYFYg6OyP2UM86KT3JdIOXaoO7zut6kP55XlbIx/s320/HSLmittens.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heritage Silk Lace mittens, for Cascade Yarns</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWjuIZ5OiAX1xURHEBL8lVynDe2yW6tRh5u7_6dysX13tlp-7vJs1VTFtT3Q5LhCK37RJjGQ5QSJIauqIIDw3WUDyYQvKrQzJ-gwXAI2ONO3r9qjvMmj1aBMesPInpV4v3D0FbkDMBUYv_/s1600/Julissa_3_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWjuIZ5OiAX1xURHEBL8lVynDe2yW6tRh5u7_6dysX13tlp-7vJs1VTFtT3Q5LhCK37RJjGQ5QSJIauqIIDw3WUDyYQvKrQzJ-gwXAI2ONO3r9qjvMmj1aBMesPInpV4v3D0FbkDMBUYv_/s320/Julissa_3_medium2.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">my Julissa test-knit, for Knit Rhapsody</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpFuhy7bxUpqXg_7yaEyRvsaCngCWYRWJIUcFofftRAhREBmLKd3-qOsX2_To43X1Pokr7wjtV5mbVs6GKnHDiKiM60J3jNVCFeuR_lJzI9Ai3hYt_3KoJ3k9WJmUuaCIQOwYrNTw7YEls/s1600/noropullover_medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpFuhy7bxUpqXg_7yaEyRvsaCngCWYRWJIUcFofftRAhREBmLKd3-qOsX2_To43X1Pokr7wjtV5mbVs6GKnHDiKiM60J3jNVCFeuR_lJzI9Ai3hYt_3KoJ3k9WJmUuaCIQOwYrNTw7YEls/s320/noropullover_medium.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">freestyle striped Noro sweater</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwWTzfI_C1ev3tDVbyNkW00QLvkMfXZSchn8egceDIpKqO94PzhfpQPJFsqXz7tf8A_PzGJAb36sD3CZNngyY10LjF2hqX0AGMTsIwhqCERH-bcC-QjRUGZjhidbd9nTAhu28D6fUDt0bX/s1600/NotLSsocks_tree_fg_yellow_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwWTzfI_C1ev3tDVbyNkW00QLvkMfXZSchn8egceDIpKqO94PzhfpQPJFsqXz7tf8A_PzGJAb36sD3CZNngyY10LjF2hqX0AGMTsIwhqCERH-bcC-QjRUGZjhidbd9nTAhu28D6fUDt0bX/s320/NotLSsocks_tree_fg_yellow_medium2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Night of the Living Sock</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh__Uvf45OIlKqFcqgL7wjhCyplcx6W5VZ7wQU7TqM_y_r-FWuGC_WBybaCzaQw9RbFddDI5htNhoNy2saWA7hNpWh6fruRqVWyZz66fkdzBYKTiq4KqG3wkmKH0ntZT8D9ErR3OX3fWKyR/s1600/purplesweaterP2230005_medium2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh__Uvf45OIlKqFcqgL7wjhCyplcx6W5VZ7wQU7TqM_y_r-FWuGC_WBybaCzaQw9RbFddDI5htNhoNy2saWA7hNpWh6fruRqVWyZz66fkdzBYKTiq4KqG3wkmKH0ntZT8D9ErR3OX3fWKyR/s320/purplesweaterP2230005_medium2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alexander's Purple Sweater</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEkVxlrMWl_65STXxxlfV2tiiy18xed-6h1MSqPt0g_LJ9VFARhfbEJ5XsH_-FfmVupvwOko5jAbsJVMC6G8p3x8G6U446X7v6XscogKbolHUJC8Q_2zjtAmrvAWO2T2qQNzbni33e2fcQ/s1600/Q%2526CBlanket_medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEkVxlrMWl_65STXxxlfV2tiiy18xed-6h1MSqPt0g_LJ9VFARhfbEJ5XsH_-FfmVupvwOko5jAbsJVMC6G8p3x8G6U446X7v6XscogKbolHUJC8Q_2zjtAmrvAWO2T2qQNzbni33e2fcQ/s320/Q%2526CBlanket_medium.jpg" width="291" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quilt and Cable Blanket, for Cascade</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi18FBBLxU8gHW8ogQiZfMOGKN8ESRkare3x5h-dHIOK5GD8KrwL4-w3DJZHEoU_r3_2TRrsH3wS74EvhaHEGwtF2cOaTbs84epiF586Q-xPKFUiPTrLQtB7XOS_tUvQpkZAPP21WZk7mVc/s1600/regiasocksP3070003_medium2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi18FBBLxU8gHW8ogQiZfMOGKN8ESRkare3x5h-dHIOK5GD8KrwL4-w3DJZHEoU_r3_2TRrsH3wS74EvhaHEGwtF2cOaTbs84epiF586Q-xPKFUiPTrLQtB7XOS_tUvQpkZAPP21WZk7mVc/s320/regiasocksP3070003_medium2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Regia socks</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6t0Zg1PhJwPNOd4J-3rxmy_b_Q6aqOTtix1mAOYoXrEhXWB4YofYw9-FmjxuOpBSt9eY06glDKvEVbjD4btTju9S5qgidUFVis37lDo884xtZwSvZ-0YpfDS0YT3QJR9KMIEctv2MXrbr/s1600/rhodes_side_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6t0Zg1PhJwPNOd4J-3rxmy_b_Q6aqOTtix1mAOYoXrEhXWB4YofYw9-FmjxuOpBSt9eY06glDKvEVbjD4btTju9S5qgidUFVis37lDo884xtZwSvZ-0YpfDS0YT3QJR9KMIEctv2MXrbr/s320/rhodes_side_medium2.jpg" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rhodes Stranded sock (currently touring the Stitches conventions)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkyVPp6YOwOPBJ35yTm6tghFUHrIIytPhYvoU6X_Hm8jU6hQbbZwR7YgI0h2qUwRezE4k42W9qtW-D6SrivBrUYg-1cr9i8-o4WMAZIKG5W69Babi8HhTq-2gRhzM4MXztLPStdivkO1Nr/s1600/shelbytie100_0476_medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkyVPp6YOwOPBJ35yTm6tghFUHrIIytPhYvoU6X_Hm8jU6hQbbZwR7YgI0h2qUwRezE4k42W9qtW-D6SrivBrUYg-1cr9i8-o4WMAZIKG5W69Babi8HhTq-2gRhzM4MXztLPStdivkO1Nr/s320/shelbytie100_0476_medium.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shelby- A Handknit Tie for Little Boys (and Alex's go-to tie for church)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi76IqFtp9XK8hv3sRidO2HAC4g1vx3_J6g977Wca8VC_-c4VtkS3wiDIOGzKNxhZbVLVb_O3H_9wnaUsV1YGWJtrAtwfND6g0bJJuZgw-VbBNUdKcx-3lzgmQrd0TwWnrf8VuV3ezAtBF2/s1600/Takomafront_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi76IqFtp9XK8hv3sRidO2HAC4g1vx3_J6g977Wca8VC_-c4VtkS3wiDIOGzKNxhZbVLVb_O3H_9wnaUsV1YGWJtrAtwfND6g0bJJuZgw-VbBNUdKcx-3lzgmQrd0TwWnrf8VuV3ezAtBF2/s320/Takomafront_medium2.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Takoma in-the-round</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP55jW-bPBg2vVh8uUBPBQ-VbfbLAKq2cL0eNPo1HSIGCELfdNfSCd-BAuPO2pKrhQ25BlejObmmr85V3_oS6DEkg7VGb8SaQ_vx-WAB1S6joAvBQgfSY5Avq-o0g6pcJf-W6L8tEIlt8Q/s1600/vladjaunty_indoor_medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP55jW-bPBg2vVh8uUBPBQ-VbfbLAKq2cL0eNPo1HSIGCELfdNfSCd-BAuPO2pKrhQ25BlejObmmr85V3_oS6DEkg7VGb8SaQ_vx-WAB1S6joAvBQgfSY5Avq-o0g6pcJf-W6L8tEIlt8Q/s320/vladjaunty_indoor_medium.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vlad</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkji8PIE-Qc0oOauJ6uot0U4G6lqTN8AG7H96ZpGst_Oo1AFLiLCopK0K_avKG1xT0GnaagfTx-PCvRKcLmDAApxj-shVap8tQeSi6XD7D4bqkYfsRM-6Izf_ROEKBzxuLTUmXGDgKjuYx/s1600/brambles+setP2030013_medium2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkji8PIE-Qc0oOauJ6uot0U4G6lqTN8AG7H96ZpGst_Oo1AFLiLCopK0K_avKG1xT0GnaagfTx-PCvRKcLmDAApxj-shVap8tQeSi6XD7D4bqkYfsRM-6Izf_ROEKBzxuLTUmXGDgKjuYx/s320/brambles+setP2030013_medium2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brambles Beret, and my Brambles Mittens</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr76mi8Mg5fPz9tK3lEYB-hEuyKVtIUIVCNszuMHlZb-7CGwN0crC3deb5XqVrwSZhihUs-djP4huLdOOdiwajvn3PC1fis6Bsx3G4TJ4_7K51bCqK6Jn-SKJvmXXnwQUfJwbcIPV7F3-J/s1600/neckwarmerDSC_0158_medium2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"></a></td></tr>
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</tbody></table>Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-12974984735957957552011-12-24T14:48:00.000-05:002011-12-24T14:48:03.587-05:00Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNY5qogTGjfrM5VWQHEnCEAfGE4r3tkNix7-rGcKH72gtlImIiI6M21DHwNF6jGkKlkW6gDoExtaFE0B1Tf7BsgNm5UJPyhAqF-3fDWK_Xsk0__RFnn6MFrO3zh2E1rxP_TpR16qd9q5L1/s1600/alex+baking+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNY5qogTGjfrM5VWQHEnCEAfGE4r3tkNix7-rGcKH72gtlImIiI6M21DHwNF6jGkKlkW6gDoExtaFE0B1Tf7BsgNm5UJPyhAqF-3fDWK_Xsk0__RFnn6MFrO3zh2E1rxP_TpR16qd9q5L1/s320/alex+baking+2.jpg" width="286" /></a></div> Now that I'm a grown up, Christmas Eve is my favorite day. When I was a child, it was Christmas day of course but now that I'm the mom, it's more fun for me to spend the day before prepping my boys for the 'big day', talking about Santa...watching every single Christmas episode of every one of our favorite shows...watching the classic Christmas movies like Rudolph and Christmas Story, and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation ;) We've added Elf to the list in recent years.<br />
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I spend almost all day in the kitchen baking cookies for Santa. My boys seem to think that he needs a variety to choose from, so I end up baking chocolate chip, peanut butter, butter balls, and oatmeal raisin. This year I changed it up a bit with the French Butter cookies from <a href="http://annies-eats.com/">Annie's Eats</a> (which were a huge hit!) and I scaled the rest back and just made chocolate chip. Meanwhile, I added peppermint bark, candied pecans, and sugar-free apple butter for my FIL. He has to watch his blood sugar, so I always try to make something special just for him. Oh!, and I almost forgot about the vanilla sugar and the hot chocolate mix. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmbWeVmGDBByWvE0hbWaEFhidxltDjnD_a2bPFpFYvdWql2adnLb_NvQI1udOoUB9yAvhjthcCO2oqpIvYelljNx_ab3lJZpdjSNQNjxNBs91qSMQZ40O6qXLa-8zwwtoqbxDe-Tr2KEAk/s1600/baking+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmbWeVmGDBByWvE0hbWaEFhidxltDjnD_a2bPFpFYvdWql2adnLb_NvQI1udOoUB9yAvhjthcCO2oqpIvYelljNx_ab3lJZpdjSNQNjxNBs91qSMQZ40O6qXLa-8zwwtoqbxDe-Tr2KEAk/s320/baking+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>For dinner I make spaghetti and meat balls. It's fast and easy, and nearly impossible to screw up (which is important because I'm usually running on fumes by Christmas Eve). <br />
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After dinner, I love to pull up the <a href="http://www.google.com/landing/noradsanta/index.html#utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=hpp&utm_source=en-hpp-na-us-gns-gm&utm_term=norad">NORAD Santa tracker</a> for the boys, and let them watch his progress as he makes his way to New England. Then, after the boys are finally in bed I hurry to wrap the things that I never got around to wrapping before. I stuff stockings, and watch movies on t.v. This year, I think I'm watching the latest Resident Evil movie. Maybe that'll be my newest tradition... horror movies on Christmas Eve.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCPPHv9UYNaQR_00ktFcMixB5QTwIiLEEvFuAfP1ZVRKv1IXhzQQy9CfuNYKw3CbgGs9_D0cS-jKhntP0iVWkZeULuXWOPSE3ev3eMSOeLXBnMExkMd0dtAouoVd1QXY3IL4gGktbzGF-/s1600/baking+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCPPHv9UYNaQR_00ktFcMixB5QTwIiLEEvFuAfP1ZVRKv1IXhzQQy9CfuNYKw3CbgGs9_D0cS-jKhntP0iVWkZeULuXWOPSE3ev3eMSOeLXBnMExkMd0dtAouoVd1QXY3IL4gGktbzGF-/s320/baking+2.jpg" width="320" /></a>This year, I let Alex help me a little bit. He got to count out 30 mint candies (he got to 29 before he ran into trouble), unwrap them and put them in a bag, and break them into pieces with a rolling pin. I took a hammer to them after he was done ;) The boys have been on quality control all afternoon, tasting everything I've made along the way. It's been really difficult to get some nutritious food into their bodies, what with all the cheese-it chex mix, and peppermint candies, and white chocolate, and peppermint bark, and chocolate chip cookies. I still have some banana bread and pumpkin bread to make, but I seem to have run out of butter, lol. No worries though...I'm sending Aaron out for more butter...and also spaghetti...cause I may have forgotten to get some for tonight's dinner.<br />
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After Santa's cookies are out, the boys are in bed, and gifts are wrapped, Aaron and I usually exchange gifts. He's not a morning person and I don't like to wait till the afternoon to get my presents, or for him to open is. So we get to exchange our gifts quietly, just the two of us and no boys being loud or making a mess of things. It's a good system...it works.<br />
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Merry Christmas!Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-23471843587791754952011-12-23T14:31:00.000-05:002011-12-23T14:31:44.801-05:00Year in Review: the sock editionI designed quite a few socks this year, but two in particular were very popular. Surprisingly, they were my socks for the Super Sock Scarefest 2011. (On a side note, last year's SSS design was also extremely popular, so maybe I should consider sticking with this horror movie sock thing, lol). Anyway, maybe you remember these:<br />
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Or these:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnWrVwaBaR-Q7QdrYwhpgDqONZ3Wzn9Cd8EwV154UNmRkZG0PwBTgc7fbxAPiLPxxPd_BbLV4kNcCIkKtB2iY0DDJVqa6ZGoIsm_VKNaaU0n8hFo6EkTQXvDigUmBFMRM5qjzKPjfkv8Y/s1600/NotLScovershot_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnWrVwaBaR-Q7QdrYwhpgDqONZ3Wzn9Cd8EwV154UNmRkZG0PwBTgc7fbxAPiLPxxPd_BbLV4kNcCIkKtB2iY0DDJVqa6ZGoIsm_VKNaaU0n8hFo6EkTQXvDigUmBFMRM5qjzKPjfkv8Y/s320/NotLScovershot_medium2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>My most popular socks this year were the Bride of Frankenstein, followed closely by the Night of the Living Sock. I loved them both and had a blast designing them. The NofLS was designed during this years Scarefest round, so I never had a chance to actually knit any of the other patterns (but I saved them all to my library for future knitting). This was the pattern that taught me that I will never be an actress because my attempt to show fear in a photograph came across as irritation, lol. <br />
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So, for your enjoyment I've rounded up some of the completed projects from Ravelry, with links to the project pages. All photos are copyright of the knitters who completed the projects.<br />
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Bride of Frankenstein: <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/clarbineds/bride-of-frankenstein"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw5Tw0_Z-kOSYr2IWiInm8tMG3aKpxzpMj-nXtWiDfh8OSc_YNW-CJK3HnQe4wEbgK1TwSU1hLjMtt4CMdp1GYn2ndSna___Fo-31Nulr8d6zxnnDmDlv1XeC53Jzkv4WY7nEar0BURceH/s320/BoF002_medium2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Olivia23/bride-of-frankenstein"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcajnPGzqmxBAhiw57WW1jcFRsAglNCQQRDxzBrHawhKX1eXRb83qCw4I7N623SvXDjPG0Xz9PTSSr_VGAPvA9zQDIuyz2Ze-mtyHMYIbAla7YtJfcUzvXRAvVTQR_X31esDVoddnrODUV/s320/BoF6167592771_3d010f1dc6_z.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Rowlesgirl/bride-of-frankenstein"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEink1PQz85kH9qRTpmOVPGNvEriUECBYmINyS6XHeKES4UbftqG5CKoizN6FBkouoot85MwdKz7akpr44flXV-VOoLTbIbyvYA7vB2gQbS8KXIsAjoiPbF1pfZAwePJ3oN-_FBapTy_lT_r/s320/BoF6213004038_1736d3a3f7_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/dawnsp99/bride-of-frankenstein"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC8WtWbNgE__dTmGkhBRouZw2xdWf5XpX2WUJTbO2Ev25Dc5RNWONQyvqhiBx_XJtCI7ZBD6mT0uwzUI71HYc_q3fVdtPySgMqka4FpYSmMjC1Lkd3Y-74zzg06oA7TH4K9vr4pwM2auUQ/s320/BofFP9170007_medium2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/clarbineds/bride-of-frankenstein"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFGUSEVMppdJP0LJ-_WYtspD-HGlhufcqc_9HE89-rUkwqskp6zjkOKk7ViXJJ7uQ7hy8T8cBOCpjhNtdIK05XszXgR6cZDBnr1gw_QVE1vmUR06Drfl13T4mOqzZahx3ZzmXBiuwIXoDk/s320/BoFzombiesock2_medium2.jpg" width="302" /></a></div><br />
Night of the Living Sock:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Syntaniel/night-of-the-living-sock"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5y7G73YgLCePK459XV68PeVYR14_3fBS7EJsZ345i2XF9BOmiU3VOPw70UvG2ECM7jm8gMsrGHm-8lt079Oza1wPe8ayBd2t4Z4rKZXrYt3xCoaJCmluAXwIhs8IvebkBpduEyc3rzWDt/s320/NotLS6320287351_4a18f89c21_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/dawnsp99/night-of-the-living-sock"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzcpr9CPjKGZvhE_IUpvn44FbP7f16JD3J_6tVXyUoqYVoW6W9fAa4XtJXF6HStsCDTbMBd8auAnMzGuvbbYBoG41zgP1hr-2TBX8VJh6f1k8ldvzqlRAl6BrjVPANBnaDqdzn2C2t2MwZ/s320/NotLSPA280008_medium2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-32702679609686921662011-12-22T12:41:00.000-05:002011-12-22T12:41:54.176-05:00A Year in Review, part 1: Quilt and Cable BlanketI've been a pretty busy lady this year! I've designed several items and I thought that I'd share them with you over the next few days, with photos showing what other knitters have done with my ideas. Today's post is all about my biggest project to date...the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/c224-cascade-eco--quilt-and-cable-blanket">Quilt and Cable Blanket</a> that I designed for Cascade Yarns. As you may remember, this used under four skeins of Eco Wool and featured an interesting variation on a cable and the smocking technique. I first came across the idea from a blanket in an advertisement in one of my MIL's home decor magazines and she loved the idea of it, so I sketched it out and after a year of flipping past it in my sketch book, I finally gave it a shot.<br />
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This was the first time I'd ever had a submission accepted, and my first time working with a 3rd party on a design, and it was truly a pleasant experience...so pleasant in fact that I worked with Cascade again on another design that I'll review in another post. Anyway, I was really excited to see how well received the design was. As of this date, it's been listed as a favorite 900 times, and is in 293 ques with 24 active projects currently on Ravelry! It's been downloaded hundreds of times through Ravelry (not to mention all of the direct downloads from Cascade's website, which I can't track). It was 'faved' by <a href="http://brooklyntweed.net/blog/">Jared Flood</a>. It was included in the October edition of <a href="http://www.vogueknitting.com/free_patterns.aspx">Vogue Knitting's monthly newsletter</a>. And it remains my most popular design to date.<br />
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Now, here is a fun gallery of projects from knitters on Ravelry who have altered the pattern in fun ways, ranging from changing the gauge to create an heirloom baby blanket, to using a luxuriously soft yarn to make a blanket that you just can't stop touching! Enjoy!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7up7mL7ccy_dOWNB3ON0K7SyuWee_qhTrEiC_G_uV00RpV0_fBanQm6fNJBD83Q3HoMQbcm-EKFMKI_gcGF3BQ2_LUlE4T53neHPsOM6PMejSkb6T_wtepPdEAlNyFxy6Lg3aeq3ThKO6/s1600/Q%2526CB_Rika_IMG_1388_medium.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7up7mL7ccy_dOWNB3ON0K7SyuWee_qhTrEiC_G_uV00RpV0_fBanQm6fNJBD83Q3HoMQbcm-EKFMKI_gcGF3BQ2_LUlE4T53neHPsOM6PMejSkb6T_wtepPdEAlNyFxy6Lg3aeq3ThKO6/s320/Q%2526CB_Rika_IMG_1388_medium.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Rika/c224-cascade-eco--quilt-and-cable-blanket">Rika's</a> blanket in Eco Wool</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFelVqiE1BNqfUbK7-nt3Ad-V6qigLuSgUahamnHNNO9r_FBDwo2XGQlNCDi6_mfLA-ADzo69KdedV5M9FZXGmIjXQS77xAfu55tjeK1rnOcJB1OYMBxGk0H4nRUYQVdRwKaOWmfvEUeQF/s1600/Q%2526CB_StaciBabyBlanket_10_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFelVqiE1BNqfUbK7-nt3Ad-V6qigLuSgUahamnHNNO9r_FBDwo2XGQlNCDi6_mfLA-ADzo69KdedV5M9FZXGmIjXQS77xAfu55tjeK1rnOcJB1OYMBxGk0H4nRUYQVdRwKaOWmfvEUeQF/s320/Q%2526CB_StaciBabyBlanket_10_medium2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/akemi/c224-cascade-eco--quilt-and-cable-blanket">Denise's</a> stunning baby-blanket adaptation, in Berroco Vintage</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkxErQkRNlCDD_Zex76fQaMPdCTjc0bdXP07RJ7dxlvaF21HKxzy-hNX_KQJUx34up_MpN4-fdxxsLYMwpWqFGZTTt4Z0L3PbL4v78J1rCgNst8X3wa70EBJfpxaSOAfH-4tzSspZIOTP_/s1600/Q%2526CB_StaciBabyBlanket_13_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkxErQkRNlCDD_Zex76fQaMPdCTjc0bdXP07RJ7dxlvaF21HKxzy-hNX_KQJUx34up_MpN4-fdxxsLYMwpWqFGZTTt4Z0L3PbL4v78J1rCgNst8X3wa70EBJfpxaSOAfH-4tzSspZIOTP_/s320/Q%2526CB_StaciBabyBlanket_13_medium2.jpg" width="320" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiqakUbcxFH3fXEJNgk60V51DP3I6uvWI7zKJR4CdJFXxtQS0a3Mxob3EGyrnQ5c3DY5P-7gvChyphenhyphennu7FCgql-wo27r3L8SJF8tBL6EhwO1h48PCXEz99Bdz2b7irsQeyoV-ruLI-CvfTKV/s1600/O%2526CBblanket1_001_medium2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiqakUbcxFH3fXEJNgk60V51DP3I6uvWI7zKJR4CdJFXxtQS0a3Mxob3EGyrnQ5c3DY5P-7gvChyphenhyphennu7FCgql-wo27r3L8SJF8tBL6EhwO1h48PCXEz99Bdz2b7irsQeyoV-ruLI-CvfTKV/s320/O%2526CBblanket1_001_medium2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/blindasabat/c224-cascade-eco--quilt-and-cable-blanket">Lynne's</a> blanket in beautiful Malabrigo Worsted</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjiyhpFcuWCW2b9pLZW-rxJMC29fSembBZVH2wQMmoBxF-6B1l_IHwfCCnvRtxZd42SqA93d8wm219keYBPNyy-TiEQLDUY7tsexH0k_z85rii1r9HV9Rxn8RJrPEJRKQrRD5pZ_LNESd/s1600/Q%2526CB003_medium2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjiyhpFcuWCW2b9pLZW-rxJMC29fSembBZVH2wQMmoBxF-6B1l_IHwfCCnvRtxZd42SqA93d8wm219keYBPNyy-TiEQLDUY7tsexH0k_z85rii1r9HV9Rxn8RJrPEJRKQrRD5pZ_LNESd/s320/Q%2526CB003_medium2.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ZSdtzUVUess56Ins8Ql3Gr9BTwbu5s1LWO66gsRK8CdxxLTvsiV8XP1JVghq4E1qf0dGVwvpf-6Zlc1-fzGwmX6RWXTc7N9ogoaJNFsd4G00sCQGk3wxkcdOxByHxfovnXvjohOxa98K/s1600/Northeast-20111212-00012_medium2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7ZSdtzUVUess56Ins8Ql3Gr9BTwbu5s1LWO66gsRK8CdxxLTvsiV8XP1JVghq4E1qf0dGVwvpf-6Zlc1-fzGwmX6RWXTc7N9ogoaJNFsd4G00sCQGk3wxkcdOxByHxfovnXvjohOxa98K/s320/Northeast-20111212-00012_medium2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/dannynkathy/c224-cascade-eco--quilt-and-cable-blanket">Kathy's</a> blanket in Berroco Vintage Chunky.</div>Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-52299514402958125452011-12-17T20:12:00.000-05:002011-12-17T20:12:10.347-05:00Holiday prep<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IKv6wpT8NZXZZ-lE1XuCuVTGTGQTpHI4BhIJPu3rnKzmR_LbwVDr7AqcesJ5w8qmT-RC60DGmB-Y6_u_sxusjL3bdDs48aqjcHZ7Oq2KmvP8VLy_c2FeV2wch9VyBDawpV37Lyl8uy-c/s1600/cocoa+mix+in+jars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IKv6wpT8NZXZZ-lE1XuCuVTGTGQTpHI4BhIJPu3rnKzmR_LbwVDr7AqcesJ5w8qmT-RC60DGmB-Y6_u_sxusjL3bdDs48aqjcHZ7Oq2KmvP8VLy_c2FeV2wch9VyBDawpV37Lyl8uy-c/s320/cocoa+mix+in+jars.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">7 jars of hot cocoa mix, and a hidden jar of vanilla sugar</td></tr>
</tbody></table> I love Christmas. I love it more now as an adult than I did as a child. Now that I'm a parent, I love watching my children growing increasingly more excited with each passing day. For example, this year Alexander is 5 and it's my personal opinion that Christmas is never better than it is when you're 5-years old. He's finally old enough to appreciate all the festivities and to really participate. This year, we've colored wooden ornaments, colored and cut out paper ornaments to hang on the wall, put together a foam gingerbread house and hung it on the wall, and in a few days we'll put together an actual gingerbread Christmas tree and decorate it with white and green icing. <br />
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One of the other things I've really enjoyed is being able to establish my own Christmas traditions in addition to those that my mom and I shared. The last few years, I've let the boys hang all the decorations on the tree on their own, and left them where ever they landed (lopsided or not). I also wait until Christmas Eve to put any presents under the tree. My boys are just too impulsive and impatient to have to stare at those gifts every day, and it's hard on them and stressful on us to police them all the time. Plus...isn't Santa supposed to bring the gifts? So if you're going with Santa in your house, it makes logical sense that gifts wouldn't show up until the night before, when he brings them. <br />
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Another Christmas tradition that I've started with my family (three whole years running, lol) is that I spend all day Christmas Eve in the kitchen baking cookies. I make 2-3 different varieties and they all have their favs so it works out. One year, I had 11 dozen cookies! I've scaled it back quite a bit since then. I also make various holiday treats to give to friends and family during the holiday season. One year it was cookies. Another year it was <a href="file:///Users/aaron/Desktop/recipes/Fiber%20Fool%20%C2%BB%20Spicy%20Slow%20Cooker%20Peach%20Butter.html">peach butter</a> and apple butter. This year, it'll be the <a href="http://annies-eats.com/2009/12/17/hot-chocolate-mix/">hot chocolate mix</a> that you see in the photo above. This is one way that I can show my love and appreciation to those close to us, and still keep my holiday budget reasonable. I can also show my boys that meaningful gifts don't always come from a major retailer. <br />
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My favorite new traditions...socks in the stockings on Christmas morning. I knit Dante a pair of socks a few years ago, and when Alex saw them, he wanted a pair too. The next year, I knit them both ties and I have to admit that the socks were a bigger hit than the ties (although they wore the ties most of this year). This year, all three of my guys are getting socks (although only Alex's are done because I've had commissioned work and design samples competing for my knitting time). <br />
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And finally, my second-favorite new tradition is making pasta with Sicilian meatballs for dinner on Christmas Eve. We go over to my In-Laws for Christmas dinner so I don't have to worry about cooking, and frankly, the guys are turkey-ed out by the time Christmas rolls around. I always thought that it was silly to make what was essentially a second Thanksgiving dinner on Christmas, and I always thought that Christmas should get something special, but my family were turkey people. Now that I'm in charge of the food, I make meatballs. It's fast, easy, about five ingredients, and the guys eat it every single time. No dinner disasters (and I've had my fair share). Dinner is ready in 30 minutes, and I can actually eat it too (cause I have the sauce without the meatballs, on my pasta). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5-t9EzfKve_ThcrE1bsKuiHiMpk0RZxl4nWQMRpSVeaVcg9mdxD-oAOaigrtOWaIGFat6K4DrPrF1jjyIsEGlrBuzFLqSDXhCoW5e6pbj_4_mXCublnJ2gzQ0VLJU6OoE3FjOIy-8AN25/s1600/santa+stocking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5-t9EzfKve_ThcrE1bsKuiHiMpk0RZxl4nWQMRpSVeaVcg9mdxD-oAOaigrtOWaIGFat6K4DrPrF1jjyIsEGlrBuzFLqSDXhCoW5e6pbj_4_mXCublnJ2gzQ0VLJU6OoE3FjOIy-8AN25/s320/santa+stocking.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">one of two commissioned stockings, drying.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>What will <i>not</i> be included in my Christmas traditions, you ask?? Intarsia!Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-90390171028622310332011-12-12T16:47:00.000-05:002011-12-12T16:47:29.884-05:00Putting up the tree<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_CgqZPsPNqOOdslAMBcWkUFLuKqgJJExXaLLGG-HD-__b0pAD76oUgjWekZXfQECSa7faQm-d6vnJwf4klCxaIw7iegBoJiNG3CnXu4zhsZRN9NARSCR5V4TMmgIEcjI0s80IsEa6nkL/s1600/decorate+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_CgqZPsPNqOOdslAMBcWkUFLuKqgJJExXaLLGG-HD-__b0pAD76oUgjWekZXfQECSa7faQm-d6vnJwf4klCxaIw7iegBoJiNG3CnXu4zhsZRN9NARSCR5V4TMmgIEcjI0s80IsEa6nkL/s1600/decorate+13.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> We put up the tree this weekend, after a lot of urging from Alex. Dante was at Nana's, so he's absent from these photos.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs50rRU1l9CTNhjMJKBAZnCojVWkaRqTnS7gWI4TWJEStYbecSp9C_1jKvf7_Q_nvsHodUJJ8oadtp2I3jqZYNwXA_TAcbod1C0Zl9cdB3aVoDzEDiXwFc0HRuf2LezFkAmUFruT4GiNjU/s1600/decorate+16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs50rRU1l9CTNhjMJKBAZnCojVWkaRqTnS7gWI4TWJEStYbecSp9C_1jKvf7_Q_nvsHodUJJ8oadtp2I3jqZYNwXA_TAcbod1C0Zl9cdB3aVoDzEDiXwFc0HRuf2LezFkAmUFruT4GiNjU/s320/decorate+16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Alex handled all the wooden ornaments, and Aaron handled all things breakable...except for the glass gingerbread ornament that he let Alex put up...which crashed to the floor and shattered into a million pieces. We bought that set the year we got married, so I guess we're lucky that this is the only one to be broken.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVQCDg_DRXfjY5H7o1lmrAat1ne8rgeukFF1rRc0tjdocTY3fm-YNq2JhWTyQiaUU_3OEKt_wGxv_S5Rw9L3KPOGgmQ2hBrPBFu9M0E8gN7v6KHq-5dZR0B5AFxDvf5yg17PHeZ1DFEB78/s1600/decorate+17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVQCDg_DRXfjY5H7o1lmrAat1ne8rgeukFF1rRc0tjdocTY3fm-YNq2JhWTyQiaUU_3OEKt_wGxv_S5Rw9L3KPOGgmQ2hBrPBFu9M0E8gN7v6KHq-5dZR0B5AFxDvf5yg17PHeZ1DFEB78/s320/decorate+17.jpg" width="315" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">The "tree skirt" is really the yoke off of a giant pullover, that my buddy Lisa cut off and couldn't bring herself to toss out, so she gave it to me. I never got a chance to finish the edges, but we were in a bind and needed to get it on there so we went for it. Looks great on the tree, and the boys all like it. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">If you want to see all of the photos (as I only put up three), then follow <a href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.243569855708382.58505.100001661070798&type=1&l=0af8990e87">the link</a> to my facebook photo album.</div>Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-15424780190791578602011-12-09T11:54:00.001-05:002012-01-23T09:42:28.333-05:00A definite change in plans<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivHj0vU5Zmr85qLJB8nWcbLnKdUJOGAEyP_qrMhR7ZJFc2kFxeBXsroJmbnO_6faczQdD7xfCNLX-CBNE50Rzm0e36DQ-31DH77Z8hW4DSqQXrHZ4LwS4lpBlfCKHQTquFFVvWilaHIwlP/s1600/PB250011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivHj0vU5Zmr85qLJB8nWcbLnKdUJOGAEyP_qrMhR7ZJFc2kFxeBXsroJmbnO_6faczQdD7xfCNLX-CBNE50Rzm0e36DQ-31DH77Z8hW4DSqQXrHZ4LwS4lpBlfCKHQTquFFVvWilaHIwlP/s320/PB250011.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> This week has been an interesting one. I started me new classes yesterday, and even though I was really excited about the subject matter, I'm not so excited about the E-books (because one can't read ahead and be prepared for the first week if one doesn't have access to the books), or the fact that seminars are graded again and therefore mandatory. I like to attend class, but I don't like having to be really rigid about my schedule or having to do extra work to make up for a missed class. I also don't enjoy being the only psych major in the class, because almost no one sees things from the prospective of a psych major and I don't much like being the odd one out in a classroom.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6EcHvSXd_xmm4rizTlzWKONPNQvaxg6aybdZo9IqJF2mDOIIsrwfQCpbf7LX5Lq3C4qMD61TVKWjwDQPN1tD9Ck7rx1wnRS9uNC7k3chFE8EiCzJkhN20n3Qq-XQVpTGx43VHaalWwdm-/s1600/PB270018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6EcHvSXd_xmm4rizTlzWKONPNQvaxg6aybdZo9IqJF2mDOIIsrwfQCpbf7LX5Lq3C4qMD61TVKWjwDQPN1tD9Ck7rx1wnRS9uNC7k3chFE8EiCzJkhN20n3Qq-XQVpTGx43VHaalWwdm-/s320/PB270018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Then there was the class I taught at Blithewold Manor in Bristol. I had a lovely time and the ladies were wonderful. But, the mansion is set off the road in the middle of nowhere, with no street lights and it was pouring rain. I couldn't see much of anything and my eyes are still killing me from struggling against the lights, and the glare, and the dark. Thankfully, I thought ahead and took the GPS with me this time so I got home just fine. And I came home to find a Keurig coffee maker gift wrapped for us on the coffee table! This is one of the coolest gifts we've ever received, especially the reusable filter that lets me use my own teas. Now I can make my favorite tea from The Coffee Depot at home, and it comes out like their does :)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>And lastly, we got a large shipment of books and yarn in the shop this week (and you can read a little more about the aftermath <a href="http://bellayarns.blogspot.com/2011/12/boxes.html">here</a>). Anyway, Naomi suggested that I take a look at all the new books (so I'll know what's in there and I can direct customers to the right stuff...really!...it's not just about looking in the books, lol). While flipping through a copy of <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/modern-knits-vintage-style">Modern Knits, Vintage Style</a>, I came across a pattern for a crocheted skirt. When I looked closer, I realized that it was the same exact skirt I had previously submitted to that Book Project and that I was going to design here on the blog!! Now, I've heard that this happens a lot (two different people who've never met and live in different parts of the world come up with the same idea at the same time), but I have to admit that it's happened to me quite a bit recently. See <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crescent-park-beret--handwarmer">exhibit one</a>: this is mine, and <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/chevron-hat-2">this</a> is not, nor is <a href="http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEff11/PATTcreekbed.php">this</a>. <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fw165-cascade-heritage-silk-lace-mittens">Exhibit two</a> is mine, and <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/kuurankukka">this</a> is not. I can't exactly show you exhibit three, because I only have a collection of swatches and a sketch, and the pattern photo is not uploaded to Ravelry, but trust me when I say that unlike the other examples, these were spitten images of each other...right down to the scalloped hem. So I guess it was truly for the best that my proposal was rejected because I wouldn't have anything to contribute after all, and I would have been terribly embarrassed.<br />
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So the project isn't off, but it's definitely different that planned. I'm going to force myself to take the plunge and design my first sweater, right here on the blog. I know that I'm going to run up against some issues with my first design and I think that having a place where I can talk about them will be therapeutic :) Plus, the peer-pressure will keep me from backing out. The Great Design Project of 2011 is back on (with a new name), and this time it's a sweater! So, check back for the next post in <i>The Great-ish Sweater Project</i>, where I'll have a pretty sketch and some swatches to show you.Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-50231766055869172502011-12-05T11:01:00.000-05:002011-12-05T11:01:32.581-05:00Holiday MadnessToday, after I went to Petco for cat food and cat nip, I went into Michael's looking for plain tree-shaped blocks of wood to paint for Alex's Thomas set. I didn't find that, but I did find some pre-painted trees and a boat, a light house, and a sun. But I also found a gingerbread Christmas tree, and a foam gingerbread house that he can put together. I figure that if I get a few inexpensive things and let him color/paint/put together one every day or two...that should hold him till Christmas. I even found a wooden advent calendar with dials that let you count down the days until Christmas, and he gets to paint it!<br />
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Meanwhile, I've finished the first of his socks so I know that at least Alex will have socks in his stocking on Christmas morning. I'm still in the middle of Aaron's first one, and I haven't even cast on for Dante's socks. But the good news is that these stockings I'm knitting are basically worsted-weight socks so there's a good chance that I can finish them in about a week. The only issue I've had so far is that I've had to completely chart the colorwork myself using Intwined Pattern Studio, because the chart is non-existent. I'm also going to need to re-write the pattern because much of it is missing. So I'm pretty much reverse engineering from the stocking itself. Maybe when I'm all done, I'll refresh this vintage pattern and release it with modern directions (if I can find the time, lol). <br />
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Also, tomorrow I'm teaching a knitting workshop at the <a href="http://www.blithewold.org/">Blithewold Mansion </a>in Bristol RI from 6-8pm, if you're in the area. Stop in and knit a scarf or a cowl with us!Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-41192502927828618182011-12-04T09:56:00.000-05:002011-12-04T09:56:57.169-05:00Takoma is all done!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_GpSaLDAh9ZFSL9nmTcdnECFkdKBV4rl6zxNA8OpMniR84TIOWqakFy3OY1ibGFutIIp0EBXcICP74L64RNDgjSazDglxZktuppDscl-onnBhKAmNaQx9tfDc0aimsdVi68-tswq3DQFg/s1600/back_2_medium3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_GpSaLDAh9ZFSL9nmTcdnECFkdKBV4rl6zxNA8OpMniR84TIOWqakFy3OY1ibGFutIIp0EBXcICP74L64RNDgjSazDglxZktuppDscl-onnBhKAmNaQx9tfDc0aimsdVi68-tswq3DQFg/s320/back_2_medium3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> I finally finished knitting <a href="http://ravel.me/CambriaW/gcn4j">my Takoma sweater</a>, and I haven't taken it off since I got the buttons put on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb77-K2M_w9Q9fWb_ApdTyGzBh0ipY-p7D9JJkZn4mX2S-EZTVNSkVfDlacHLKW5YgFxKozEr0xPqVJiIjTrMo2hMCogj9Usdba3rNdhkeCTmPtrH7WmHWfYFjcfc5NxXwr0eWL9a1RBi2/s1600/collar_medium3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb77-K2M_w9Q9fWb_ApdTyGzBh0ipY-p7D9JJkZn4mX2S-EZTVNSkVfDlacHLKW5YgFxKozEr0xPqVJiIjTrMo2hMCogj9Usdba3rNdhkeCTmPtrH7WmHWfYFjcfc5NxXwr0eWL9a1RBi2/s320/collar_medium3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> I changed the shawl-collar to one with 2x2 ribbing to better match the cuff and hem details. I actually did knit the original collar as written in the pattern, but then I pulled it out and replaced it with this one. I'm much happier.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmLbPS2XMwdw7HxryEyGtH2iaceO8hB4WeyYZ-aHNoAceEvCHCHtiXYb4b_E8vG5X_WL2azmP2J8DuGXoXqPQKwEWEnU3v_7RWtZ_wm8e1FiwIBPvRw6ceRa9qw6Vx5YcFkdDIPd4xegD4/s1600/cuff_medium3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmLbPS2XMwdw7HxryEyGtH2iaceO8hB4WeyYZ-aHNoAceEvCHCHtiXYb4b_E8vG5X_WL2azmP2J8DuGXoXqPQKwEWEnU3v_7RWtZ_wm8e1FiwIBPvRw6ceRa9qw6Vx5YcFkdDIPd4xegD4/s320/cuff_medium3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> The Eco Wool grew a bit after blocking. I knew it would, and I counted on it, but I didn't realize that my sleeves would grow quite as much as they did. They're super long, and I'm actually really excited about that. When you're as tall as I am, you rarely have to worry about sleeves being too long :) It's a refreshing change.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPkC_RC7lGNa0dOq80G5Nb7osPxqOg2gI3JJAVyQuJrIIiYj4UVr7_jnx_o6JSfelOLVb44M752zhuNxolbeJtNudIYh15GyzLqfPC8PMSnuvRrpsVRAH9YzuZpPbwZfWOC-Sbaog2yEXX/s1600/front_medium3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPkC_RC7lGNa0dOq80G5Nb7osPxqOg2gI3JJAVyQuJrIIiYj4UVr7_jnx_o6JSfelOLVb44M752zhuNxolbeJtNudIYh15GyzLqfPC8PMSnuvRrpsVRAH9YzuZpPbwZfWOC-Sbaog2yEXX/s320/front_medium3.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> I went with dark brown leather buttons from JHB. Naomi and I are going to have to go onto their site to get the care instructions for the buttons. I hope that I won't need to remove them every time I need to wash the sweater... Thankfully, these don't need to be cleaned very often.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfK4QqoFx6kgt2SYa2brRrlG8G-8oUGbUUGZ2c7soE_Cs3bK5bIXULAV2H5nKOHQ0tMSeV2t4u0fWA-XSDkMQL_PbVqeE-NmLqEr9SweWuKYxlddQjsnIQhNaP5WgHMmorO-BeU7scmXKg/s1600/side_medium3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfK4QqoFx6kgt2SYa2brRrlG8G-8oUGbUUGZ2c7soE_Cs3bK5bIXULAV2H5nKOHQ0tMSeV2t4u0fWA-XSDkMQL_PbVqeE-NmLqEr9SweWuKYxlddQjsnIQhNaP5WgHMmorO-BeU7scmXKg/s320/side_medium3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">Check out that set-in sleeve! I'm really proud of this one. The fit wasn't exactly perfect, since I'd steeked the armhole and I knit the sleeve in the round. Thankfully, I got it sewn in evenly all around. And you'll also notice in earlier photos that I fixed my error in the colorwork section in the middle of my arm. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">My husband said this was the most impressive thing he's ever seen me knit, and that it looks like I bought this sweater in a store. When you knit as often as I do, your family gets pretty jaded over the handknits (cause they see so many come off the needles). They get tough to impress, so this is one of the best complements he's given me (regarding my knitting). That's saying something :)</div>Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-84359256802356663972011-11-29T10:02:00.000-05:002011-11-29T10:02:11.577-05:00Guess who passed her finals?! lolAs if I needed to answer that question ;)<br />
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I just finished registering for my December courses, and confirmed with my advisor that I passed this term's classes at 99% and 100% for the term! Who's a smarty-pants! lol. Now I'm registered for intro to forensic psychology and juvenile delinquency. I'm really excited about these classes. I've been interested in forensic psychology for a while, and now I get to use my remaining electives to take a few classes in criminal justice. (and on a side note, I just want to state for the record that I spelled 'forensic' and 'juvenile' correctly on my own the first time, without needing to use the spell check!) This, my dear long-suffering readers, means that I have one core class left for my ABA requirement, four electives, and my capstone left, and I will be walking away with a Bachelors degree in Psychology with special emphasis in Child Development and Applied Behavior Analysis! And I won't be qualified to do a whole lot with it, because there isn't much one can do with a bachelors in psychology, lol. However, I will have finally finished my 16-year college degree (and made my parents proud), I'm qualified to deal with my son's special education department, and I can work in a classroom if I take a special test and get some classroom hours under my belt. But what I'm most likely going to do is to go enroll at URI or Rhode Island College, and start working on my Masters degree.<br />
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Now, for what you came here for: knitting!<br />
I've nearly finished my <a href="http://ravel.me/CambriaW/gcn4j">Takoma</a>. I actually finished my shawl collar, and when I was done, I hated it. It has nothing to do with the actual design. I just have some sort of block when it comes to executing a traditional shawl collar, and each time I try to do it, it just doesn't look right. After two days of hand-hurting work, I ripped it all out. Instead, I'm subbing the technique used on the Emerald sweater (the one I wear every day, so I know that I like the collar). I think that using the same 2x2 ribbing along the collar will look better, since the hem and cuffs are knit that way, and I like the overall shape better. I just finished the button holes, and I'm getting ready to start the actual short-row shaping soon! Then I'll put on sleeves, and wear this baby within an inch of it's life.<br />
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In other knitting news, I'm working on socks for all three of my boys, and it's killing me because at least on of them is home and awake at all times! I only have so many sets of 2.5mm needles! So I've been taking Aaron's set with me to work to knit on during class, and I started Alex's, which I work on after he goes to bed. I just would the yarn for Dante's and I'll have to knit those after he goes to bed as well. Thank goodness I'll be working on the crocheted skirt, because I'll need something to do when everyone is home and awake, lol.<br />
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Oh, and in interesting news...my photo made the <a href="http://blog.berroco.com/2011/11/28/trunk-show/">Berroco Blog</a>. Normally that would be exciting, except that I was wearing prototypes for two of my pending designs and someone snapped a photo without my knowledge...and put it up on the blog so now, my designs have been 'published online' and are no longer eligible to be submitted to any of the major publishers. I feel bad about this for two reasons. First, I've had the hat test knit but the mitts are mid-test right now and I've made everyone promise to keep them offline (which they have...since March!), and then I somehow manage to get caught wearing the only hat that fits my giant head, and ruin it myself. Second, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this design, but I wanted the <b>option</b> of submitting the pattern elsewhere, because I'm still pretty small potatoes and my indi-releases don't reach a very large audience right now. I had higher hopes for these babies, but never fear. I've arranged for a photo shoot, and I'll get cracking on the matching cowl, and then I'll release them on my own. Maybe when I launch my freshly branded blog, with matching etsy page? lol.Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-9337458264075398522011-11-25T19:37:00.000-05:002011-11-25T19:37:33.124-05:00The Great Design Project: part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzq2PJbVSInpZEvZkumaAhoaij1NczCNe2KuJLABCga3TF4ZwSlpmfm2aSjHebCwKny4RIdYT1PZWzKG6vLit1Tg8vPN6fw1T-BzIhyQEJGmIrSyg4DqV18E-X6EpKhRknexpFP8jNsmW/s1600/CWashington_sketch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZzq2PJbVSInpZEvZkumaAhoaij1NczCNe2KuJLABCga3TF4ZwSlpmfm2aSjHebCwKny4RIdYT1PZWzKG6vLit1Tg8vPN6fw1T-BzIhyQEJGmIrSyg4DqV18E-X6EpKhRknexpFP8jNsmW/s320/CWashington_sketch.jpg" width="259" /></a></div>Welcome to one of the scariest things I've done yet as a knitter, blogger, and designer: The Great Design Project. This is going to be a series of posts related to my lasts design idea. I submitted this design to be included in a fantastic project, but it didn't quite fit with the other designs. And that's okay! So I decided that since I love this project, I'd take this opportunity to show what I go through from the first step in the process, all the way to design completion. This is the first part, and I'd love if you followed along until this is all done :) Keep in mind that the way I work in no way reflects the way that all (or even most) designers work...it's just what works for me. So, lets get started<br />
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This is a sketch of my baby. It's a crocheted skirt. I got the idea when I was working on a swatch for a baby blanket. I wasn't in love with the colors that I had available to me, so I went to the shop and found a pretty heathered-brown. When I started doing my 3rd swatch, I thought "this would make a fantastic skirt!", and I ended up shaping my swatch like a mini-skirt. It was so cute! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYexR_lNx-hJkwlsy26DazpdiW1Bi_CrG20I4Y_S7d4XT7vSK2GYhCVisKRct-4qGRvrpOWYQirEI1vcmRbM5EMup5fY5jlfaMMDhUQ9P8AX4hnM7_Zh01jZWem_7IDHHDXsJqQwkwmIBL/s1600/CWashington_swatch3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYexR_lNx-hJkwlsy26DazpdiW1Bi_CrG20I4Y_S7d4XT7vSK2GYhCVisKRct-4qGRvrpOWYQirEI1vcmRbM5EMup5fY5jlfaMMDhUQ9P8AX4hnM7_Zh01jZWem_7IDHHDXsJqQwkwmIBL/s320/CWashington_swatch3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The pattern is simple, and and easily customizable. I put a great deal of the work into the conception of the idea (for the proposal packet) and I've decided that it will be worked top down, to allow the wearer to more easily adjust the length. I've also decided on what I feel to be a pretty good range of sizes. Unlike most of the knitted skirt patterns I've come across, the sizes increase two inches at a time because it's been my experience that crochet has less horizontal give than knitting does.<br />
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So, now that I have a few swatches, and a sketch, and a range of sizes with a general idea of how I plan to approach this baby...what's next? Well, this is where I start working on a prototype, and taking some good notes. The prototype is simply that; a prototype. The finished garment can very quite a bit, or not at all from the original concept, because sometimes designers run into issues that work fine in a one-off situation but will never work out when it needs to be duplicated in multiple sizes. I've experienced this before, and probably will again. That being said, I'm off to go crochet a few more swatches and get some ideas of row gauge to go with my stitch gauge, and then I'll come back with more photos and an idea of what worked, what didn't, and where I'm headed next.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKiIYoWfuuTU6CKO1Mcg27gj8TNSfOlKYRVeLn_5MtfYw4TsuhKsF6QSvYLxErO8VyzOVYzRJSo-kbxSZlOIYchIszyjt9Nmk7ICQ-BHZL0m8h02wAzv_-ieYbsoCTrKWd75FRnfo0ovuk/s1600/CWashington_sketch_closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKiIYoWfuuTU6CKO1Mcg27gj8TNSfOlKYRVeLn_5MtfYw4TsuhKsF6QSvYLxErO8VyzOVYzRJSo-kbxSZlOIYchIszyjt9Nmk7ICQ-BHZL0m8h02wAzv_-ieYbsoCTrKWd75FRnfo0ovuk/s320/CWashington_sketch_closeup.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7183137564302844459.post-91843840392248349282011-11-24T08:59:00.001-05:002011-11-24T08:59:52.057-05:00Happy Thanksgiving!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxzK3gtlmgtLXp6Pi8_g957joaoMaiAjmQWpDZSiey_r7LtqGYX3vfd5d7pJKXMpBBhSnW_lLDslsgm2JiKtzwD8Cm0jPVq_NBxNGJ46fJKFWDtCLt3jRL9etm0kLzZBGxB1is1SLMDdNh/s1600/Me+%2526+Norah+G.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxzK3gtlmgtLXp6Pi8_g957joaoMaiAjmQWpDZSiey_r7LtqGYX3vfd5d7pJKXMpBBhSnW_lLDslsgm2JiKtzwD8Cm0jPVq_NBxNGJ46fJKFWDtCLt3jRL9etm0kLzZBGxB1is1SLMDdNh/s320/Me+%2526+Norah+G.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">me standing in socks, and Norah in 3" heels, lol</td></tr>
</tbody></table>This Thanksgiving, I'm really thankful for the fact that my finals were last week, rounding into this week, and finishing up on Tuesday, because I can have a school-work free Thanksgiving this year! I don't have to leave my MIL's early because I had a major homework assignment due (like last year, or the year before). I also finished my homework early enough that I had time to scoot down to Slater Mill on Tuesday night to meet <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/designers/norah-gaughan">Norah Gaughan</a>! That's right. This is me...standing with my arm around NORAH GAUGHAN!! An up-and-coming designer, standing right next to one of the most prolific and talented designers of ALL TIME. Maybe some will rub off on me :)<br />
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This holiday season I'm looking forward to spending time in my kitchen with Alex. He loves to help me (although sometimes it's not quite as much help as he thinks it is). I'm going to bake cookies today with my new Pampered Chef stoneware cookie sheet. I'm going to make mashed potatoes with goat milk/butter so I can eat them. I'm going to make candied yams with the mini marshmallows and brown sugar :) And if I can find the energy...I'll be making a pumpkin pie with coconut cream instead of condensed milk so I can eat that too! Oh, and at some point in time I have to put my vegetarian pot pie in the oven so it'll be warm when I go to my MIL's :) See... I'm a considerate vegetarian, and I come to holiday events with my own main course so the chef doesn't have to sweat over what I can eat ;)<br />
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Now, I'm gonna go knit the rest of my Takoma sleeve, on my couch, sitting next to all of my boys...who are all awake at 8:57am for once.Cambriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05232130578364635101noreply@blogger.com0