Archives for August 2011

I’ve been holding out on you — look what I finished Friday morning:

It’s my Camp Loopy III project, finished with time to spare!

This sweater, my own design, is knit from Hand Maiden Swiss Silk in the “Boreal” colorway, using a U.S. size 6 (4mm) needle. I used just an ootch more than 3 skeins, about 1350 yards.

For this sweater I knit a lace edging, then picked up stitches along the long straight edge and knit the body (and sleeves) up from that. I did a three-needle bind-off for the shoulder seams, as well as for attaching sleeves to the body, the same way I did my last lace tunic — by picking up stitches along the sides of the body (it has dropped shoulders) and three-needle-binding-off with the live sleeve stitches. I love doing this — it gives a perfect, firm seam!

Speaking of lace, if you don’t have your copy of Wendy Knits Lace yet, there are two copies of it being given away over at Mason-Dixon Knitting. Also two copies of Teeny Tiny MochiMochi, so hustle on over there!

As an aside, I clearly need to consult with Mason-Dixon Kay before I come up with a title for my next book — should I decide to write a next book, that is.

Speaking of Wendy Knits Lace, I today bought (yes, bought my own copy) of the Kindle edition and downloaded it to both my iPad and Android phone. I noticed in flipping through it that there are links to a web address with pdf files for all the charts, so you can enlarge them, print them, etc. Nice!

Lucy sez:

“Meow.”

It’s been a full weekend, but all my guests are now on their way home, and I’m having my regular Sunday afternoon — doing laundry. Quite a difference from what I was doing yesterday at this time.

That’s the display at fibre space set up for my book party yesterday. The party was great — so many people braved the wind and rain to come and I so very much appreciate that.

After the party we made the executive decision to cancel our restaurant reservations and order pizza. So it was pizza and champagne at home!

Starting a new job tomorrow so blog posts this week will likely be brief.

Lucy sez:

“I miss Stacy, Muriel, and L-B! Why did they have to leave?”

I am so pleased that so far so many of you are liking Wendy Knits Lace. All of the patterns have been entered in Ravelry with my less-than-stellar photos. So feel free to queue ’em up!

My interview with Mark Lipinski at Creative Mojo yesterday afternoon was great fun — if you weren’t able to catch it live, you can find it on the website. It’s the most recent show posted, from 8/24/11.

And we’re all set for the book launch party/book signing on Saturday. This will be at fibre space in Alexandria, VA, from 1 – 3pm on the 27th. I think we’ll be ahead of the hurricane so there shouldn’t be any weather-related problems. The page with the info for the even is here. If the timeline for the hurricane moves up and you have doubts about whether the event will take place, check fibre space’s website or give them a call on Saturday. I’ll have some special guests with me at the party so if you are in the area, come on by!

Back at home, I am working along on my lace sweater.

I’ve got one sleeve attached, and the other one in progress.

Lucy sez:

“We had an earthquake aftershock last night, so I’m gonna duck and cover!”

ETA: Clearly I am distracted today — forgot to mention two important things!

First, my last guest post for the week is up at Crafter News — here. 🙂

Second, the new issue of Knitcircus went live this week! I have an article/tutorial in it on designing your own easy lace cowl.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Today is finally the release day for Wendy Knits Lace (though the e-book won’t be available for another few days).

I’m not terribly thrilled, however, that Mother Nature saw fit to celebrate this event with a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Virginia. We are all okay here, though both Lucy and I were pretty freaked when everything in my condo started shaking. Pictures fell off the walls, my couch moved, and all my kitchen cabinet doors flew open, but I seem to have no real damage here. Poor Lucy finally settled down an hour after the event.

In less shaky celebration, my second guest post at Crafter News is up. 🙂

We will try to get all the patterns from the book entered in Ravelry this week. I do hope all of you enjoy the book!

Creative Mojo!

Tomorrow, Wednesday (barring further earthquakes), I’ll be a guest on Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski. My segment will be from 4:00 – 4:30pm eastern time. To listen to it live, go to http://toginet.com/ and click on the “Live On Air” button.

Back at home, it’s still all about lace. I have made some tremendous progress on my Camp Loopy III project.

Being off from work really helps with the knitting progress! I have the front and back completed, and I’ve joined the pieces at the shoulder via a three-needle bind-off.

And I’ve done the neckband.

I’m working on a sleeve now, but have not gotten very far.

Vintage Sign Giveaway

The Random Number Generator chose Katy to receive a set of three 12″ x 18″ signs from the Flying Junction Etsy shop. Katy has been emailed! Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway.

Okay, back to my knitting. I have a feeling that this little girl will be pasted to me for quite a while:

“I don’t like it when my world shakes, Momma!”

I am making good progress on my new lace sweater. The back is done and I now have some done on the front as well.

On the back, the stitches are on holders because I am going to join the shoulders via three-needle bind-off, the same way I did the last lace sweater.

Lace Week!

This week is publication week for me — my book Wendy Knits Lace will be available starting on Tuesday, August 23. Yes, I think I might have mentioned this once or twice. 😉

In celebration, my publisher, Potter Craft is having a “lace week” on the Crafter News blog. They asked me to do some guest blog posts this week and the first of these posts is up today.

Other Cool Things

A couple of weeks ago a stationery company, Minted, contacted me and offered to send me some personalized knitting-related stationery to review. I popped over to their website, liked what I saw, and said yes, thank-you.

Last week I received my stationery. Everything was beautifully packaged, and what cute stuff!

I love the square business cards:

And these personalized notecards (which come with envelopes) are lovely:

They also send me a set of wrap-around address labels:

You position them on the envelope so that your return address is in the usual spot on the front of the envelope, then wrap the rest of the label around the back. How cool is that?

(Note that I blurred out my addy on the above pix — the stationery itself is of course not blurred!)

By the way, if you go to their website via the link provided (before September 23), you can get a set of free cards. You’ll have to pay the shipping charge, but the cards are definitely worth it — very nice, and very high quality.

Lucy sez:

“Are we gonna block lace today? I’m ready!”