First things first, thanks to everyone who left a comment to be entered in the yarn bowl giveaway sponsored by  StardustPottery. The random number generator has spoken and has chosen Julia, who has an email addy that ends in earthlink.net. Julia has been emailed so if this sounds like you, check your email!

Lucy thanks you for all your good wishes on the anniversary of her having come to live with me. In celebration, here is the first photo I ever posted of her, on May 12, 2003:

Look at how light-colored her body fur is. She was 2 years old at the time I adopted her (so she is 12 now) and her coat darkened in the first year after she came to live with me.

Lucy today:

I am finishing up the second prototype for my upcoming Summer Mystery Shawl this evening, so will be needing a new project.

Here’s the yarn I plan to use:

This is a natural colored China silk that I purchased from Handknitting.com. You can see it here.

(Do you know about Handknitting.com? They have some great yarns at very good prices.)

I am going to do something lacy with this yarn. Stay tuned.

In other news, I am going to Camp Loopy this summer! How about you?

First of all, the winner of my copy of Scandinavian Stitch Craft: Unique Projects and Patterns for Inspired Embroidery is Bobbi, who has been emailed.

Second, I finally wrote up the pattern for the rainbow Kauni wrap I knit a while back and the pattern is available on Ravelry, here.

Now. on to new business

I have a new toy! I have a new toy!

By looking at the photo, you can probably guess that my toy is a yarn bowl. This bowl was made especially for me by Cindy Douglass, of StardustPottery. (You can check out her range of yarn bowls here.)

Cindy makes bowls in three sizes:

• REGULAR size fits 50 grams / 1.76 oz skeins of yarn.
• LARGE size fits 198 grams / 7 oz / Super Saver skeins of yarn.
• EXTRA LARGE size fits 453.6 grams / 16 oz / 1 lb skeins of yarn.

Mine is the “regular” size, and it looks like it could easily hold close to a 100-gram skein of yarn, so I will be able to use it with almost every knitting project.

It has a number of very thoughtful features. First off, it is nicely solid, sturdy, and level. There is pretty much no chance that tugging on recalcitrant yarn will tip it over. It is also taller than I expected it to be — another feature that will keep yarn in place. A ball of yarn would have to jump pretty high to be able to hop out of the bowl.

Cindy’s bowls are either right- or left-handed, depending on which side you keep your yarn when knitting. Mine is the left-handed bowl since I always knit with my yarn at my left. If you knit with your yarn dead ahead in front of you, I’m thinking you could easily use either model.

In addition to having the curved slot through which to feed yarn, there are also two holes. You could use those holes as needle rests, or as yarn feeds. I’m betting I could use this bowl for colorwork and stack two small balls of yarn in it and feed one through each hole. I’m excited to give that a try on my next colorwork project.

Last and certainly not least . . . it is so pretty! You may have noticed that my bowl has my lovely Miss Lucy on it.

Don’t you love how it looks like Lucy is reaching up a paw to gently bat at the yarn as it feeds out the slot?

As I said, my bowl is a custom design. Cindy has a form on her website where you can request custom work, specifying if you want a Right or Left Hand model, and what sort of design you’d like, the color, the size, etc. But she already has a lot of lovely standard designs for sale from which you can choose. What a great gift for another knitter . . . or for yourself, of course. Who deserves it more, eh?

Can you tell that I love my new yarn bowl?

Because I am pushy, I asked Cindy if she would donate a yarn bowl to be given away in a blog contest and she very generously agreed.

So . . .

If you would like to be entered into the contest to win a regular sized sheep yarn bowl, either left or right handed (winner will specify his/her choice), leave a comment on this blog entry by noon Eastern time on Wednesday, May 15, 2013. At that time the Random Number Generator will chose the lucky recipient.

Please note that the actual yarn bowl may differ slightly different in appearance from the photo above, or be a different color, as each bowl is hand made and unique.

Thank you so much, Cindy, for offering one of your wonderful bowls, and for my lovely Lucy Bowl.

Still Knitting

I have a project on the needles but can’t share it yet, as it is a prototype for my Summer Mystery Shawl. The Mystery Shawl KAL wil start in June, and more information will be forthcoming soon!

Happy Lucy-versary to Me

It was on Mother’s Day ten years ago that this purring bundle of floofy love came to live with me:

I have another lovely book to review, this one not on the topic of knitting, but embroidery.

This is Scandinavian Stitch Craft: Unique Projects and Patterns for Inspired Embroidery by Karin Holmberg.

The book uses traditional Scandinavian embroidery techniques in a collection of projects (both clothing and housewares). There are thirty projects in all, and they all start with a plain item that you might already own, or could buy new. Using the techniques in the book, the author shows you how to embroider and embellish items to make them unique and beautiful.

Along with instructions for various techniques, the book contains templates for embroidery patterns.

It even includes sheets of tracing paper in a pocket inside the back cover.

The projects include kitchen items like towels, aprons, and tea cozies, and clothing from leggings to t-shirts to hoodies to babies’ onsies. Also included are cushions, wall hangings, and bags of various types.

The book provides a lot of wonderful inspiration. You could easily use the embroidery design from one project on something else, so there is a lot of room for your own creativity to grow.

Who’d like to receive my review copy?

To be entered in a drawing to receive my copy of this lovely book, please leave a comment on this post by 11:00am Eastern Time on Sunday, May 12, 2013. At that time I will use the Random Number Generator to select the lucky recipient.

Lucy sez “Whazzup?”

Ta-da!

Early this morning I bound off the last stitches of Viajante. It seems as though I had been working on this for a very long time, but a check of the project page in Ravelry tells me that I started this on April 17. So . . . not all that long.

Knit using a U.S. size 6 needle, I used 396 grams of Kauni 8/2 Effektgarn in the “EQ” colorway. That’s almost 1750 yards.

Along the long edge, it is approximately 90″ and around the bottom it is 146″. This will make a lovely wrap/poncho for next winter!

Lucy is impressed.

I am now knitting the second of my prototypes for my upcoming Summer Mystery Shawl KAL. More about that later, but expect it to start in June.

First up, the winner of my review copy of  Classic Elite Shawls, Wraps & Scarves: 20 Ideas * 3 Ways is Cathie Jones, who has been emailed.

I’ve got a couple more books waiting to be reviewed. Here’s the next one up:

This is Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Hat Book: History * Technique * Design, another Sixth&Spring book. As you may have cleverly deduced from the title, this is a book about knitting hats. And it is pretty darn comprehensive.

The book starts with a brief history of knitted hats, including an interesting “then and now” mosaic of different hat types:

Many different type of hats and how they are constructed is covered, along with information on fit and measuring, yarn substitutions, blocking, etc.

And then there are 51 patterns for hats.

Some of the patterns have appeared in the pages of Vogue Knitting magazine, but many have not. By my count, 35 of the patterns are new.  I think there must be a pattern for everyone.

Rather than post a few random photos of some of the patterns, here is a link to the book’s page on Ravelry.

My bottom line — awesome book with great patterns!

And now I have some rainbow knitting to do.

And Lucy appears to want her dinner.

“Feed me, dammit!”

ETA: I am not doing a giveaway for this book. It’s a large hard cover that does not fit into a flat rate priority envelope so it would be rather expensive for me to mail out!