Holiday Socks: Part Three

Hi!

Did you have a nice holiday?

Mine was quiet, which was exactly what I wanted for Christmas.

I did something kind of radical this weekend.

I frogged every.single.project. I had on my needles. Yup.

I decided I wanted to start 2014 off fresh, without things hanging over my head. It was kind of painful but also felt pretty good!

I frogged my other Christmas socks, I had one sock finished and a quarter of one done and I realized I just wasn't loving knitting them. I debated slogging through it but my knitting time is special and not a job, so see ya later Christmas socks! I'll try again with that yarn later.

I did finish my Hermoine Socks on Christmas Eve though! And I'm wearing them today and I LOVE THEM!

Yarn: Candy Skein Savory Fingering in Candy Apple!

Needles: Hiya Sharps in 1.5

Pattern: I did Hermoine's Everyday Socks toe up with a Fish Lips Kiss Heel

I am such a fan of these socks, I love how the heels came out and I love how the yarn works with the patterns texture. I want to knit another pair of these and more textured socks in 2014. I realized this winter any socks that have lace or open work have been completely neglected and hidden to the back of the drawer, I just don't like wearing them I guess!

I made a list of my 2014 goals on Sunday, it feels nice to take an afternoon to sit and reflect. I liked thinking about 2013, what was awesome & what was terrible, what to change & what to stay the same. I'll share my list in a few days. It involves some knitting (naturally more socks-I know, you are shocked!), it involves some sewing and a lot of stitching.

I'll be back tomorrow with photos of my Sock book! :):):)

Holiday Socks Part Two

Hey!

It's Holiday Socks Part Two Day!

Ok, so you know how sometimes you jump head first into a project? In your mind you know the exact yarn. The exact pattern. The exact needles. The exact project bag.

And you start and you realize...you've got it all wrong?

Uh, that would be me and these socks!

I went into it thinking monkey socks! for Christmas! size two needles!

WRONG!

I am a complete goober. This yarn is called Socks That Rock MEDIUMWEIGHT in Holiday Inn.

The key thing being mediumweight. It's essentially (in my humble, not knowing a ton about yarn opinion!) sport weight yarn.

I happily cast on my stitches using a size 2 needle, knit my toe and began my monkey sock. And I got two pattern repeats in and sort of looked at my sock like "huh...that looks...wide?!" So I tried it on and it was BIG. Like, I could pinch an inch of extra fabric.

So I pulled it out and start over again using 1.5 needles. The same thing.

This went on and on for two days. Yeah. Two days.

Why at this point did it not occur to me to cast on fewer stitches on larger needles, is beyond me. I was still thinking monkey socks, 64 stitches. I had it so firmly cemented into my brain.

I ended up with 64 stitches on a size one. It's fabric isn't drape-y but it isn't stiff as a board either which is good! But purling hurt my hand so they are just plain vanilla socks. In reality, I should have gone up a needle size and knit a cute sport weight pattern, like with less stitches. But it's fine and fits nice!

A few of you wanted to know how the Fish Lips Kiss Heel fits, good question!

It fits GREAT!

I have a favorite heel, the Gusset! It's very easy and fits my foot perfectly. Short row heels frustrate me, I can't always knit them as neat as I'd like too and sometimes I can feel my grafting stitches in an afterthought heel when I walk. Gusset is my favorite.

HOWEVER!

Fish Lips Kiss could be my new favorite. Yeah! I know. Weird right?

PROS:

• it cups your heel nicely
• no wraps
• no increases on the back needle which can be tedious
• you can use it with striped yarn
• easy as pie once you get the two stitches down
• watched the knit girllls mention it and say they liked it, I like them, therefore, I tried it. Haha!

CONS:

• I found myself having to watch the videos over & over to learn the new stitches for the first time but you know, it was my first time!
• I can't think of another one!

In my photos above you can see how the heel fits, you don't feel the seam while walking around. I wore my striped socks with a pair of boots that have a narrow heel and it didn't rub or get uncomfortable. It's interesting to knit because you see the crease when the sock is off the foot but when it's on, it's very smooth and doesn't add any extra bulk.

So above: Pheasant Socks with a Gusset Heel on the left, Holiday Inn with a Fish Lips Kiss Heel on the right.

The only thing I'd change is I wish the yarn was pooling like how the toe and heel look. Chop thinks the yarn in the ball looks like an ugly sweater. Haha!

My next holiday sock post will maybe have one finished sock. MAYBE. Hopefully.

;)

Holiday Socks: Part One

I feel like I have a million things to tell you about my holiday sock knitting so I think I'm going to break it up into multiple blog posts k?

I finished my first pair of holiday socks on Thanksgiving Day! And I finally took photos of them today because I've been wearing them a ton and this morning we had such pretty frost on the ground so I thought I'd share those two things at once.

Details!

Yarn: Poste Stripe in Humbug, AZ. I bought this yarn because I was totally inspired by the colors in Ashleigh's Gingerbread Lane, it's a perfect match!

Needles: Hiya Sharps size 1 with a 32 inch cord. I'm still loving these needles!

Pattern: Toe Up ala Wendy Johnson but with a Fish Lips Kiss Heel. Amazingly inspired by knitting this heel. I first heard about it via The Knit Girllls and I'm really glad I tried it! I had to watch the videos about a million times for the first heel (I'm not the fastest or brightest knitter ;)) but the second heel went great. I did it a third time on the right hand sock in that little basket (more on that in another post!) and I didn't even have to refer to the photos. It becomes really intuitive and easy to read your knitting which is neat!

I've been wearing these socks all the time since I finished them. I like how they fit and the colors are really sweet.

So of course I cast on for a new pair using Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Holiday Inn and I am a huge goober. Long story short (I'll tell you the long story in Holiday Socks Part Two ;)) I've knit and frogged this yarn 7x before getting to where I am. And I have a foot completed. I need to do the leg still! Oi!

While that project was making me a tiny bit grumpy, I bought a skein of CandySkein Savory in Candy Apple. And it literally lasted about 30 seconds before I begged Chop to help me ball it so I could start.

Basically: it's the perfect Christmas yarn. I'm not joking. This is coming from a total scrooge. It's the best green and red. Ever. And the base yarn- so squishy! I.can't.stop.knitting.this.sock. I'll share my pattern notes and whatnot in Holiday Socks Part Three. I'm pretty sure this pair will be finished by Christmas. I'm to the heel right now and if my hand cooperates, I'll knit that tonight and start the leg.

Also: I got that little basket at Michaels this weekend for .79! I've been carrying it around the house, it cracks me up for some reason. I also got my first Christmas in years, he's sort of (ok, very!) Charlie Brown-ish but I like having a tree again.

One more thing, our internet has been incredibly rotten lately so I haven't had a chance to watch this episode yet, but Dianne is giving away some Frosted Pumpkin patterns! I'm hoping tonight I can take my sock to Starbucks and watch from there. Here's what I love about her: she knits/quilts/stitches. Her accent. She's so genuine and hilarious. If you don't watch her podcast, you should.

Okok, I've been cross stitching a new sampler and I need to get back to work!

:):)

JOURNEY by Jane Richmond & Shannon Cook:: A Blog Tour

When Shannon emailed me and asked if I'd review her new book that she wrote with Jane Richmond, I did a little dance! I was like YES YES YES! Because I genuinely love both of their aesthetics so much. I think I've knit every one of Jane's hat patterns and I love seeing what Shannon is up too- she's a knitter AND a sewer which appeals to me because I like to do both as well.

Their new book is called Journey and it's everything I personally want in a knitting book. Amazing lifestyle photos by Nicholas Kupiak, easy to understand patterns with clean graphics and a stitch guide with graphics of special techniques.

I think my favorite part of the book is you are literally knitting a cozy wardrobe. Which I am so into. I love any sort of handmade every day!

You can knit:

• Swift- which is a hat!
• Climb- which are socks!
• Onward- which is a cozy worsted weight shawl!
• Spate- which are textured fingerless mitts!
• Antrorse- which is a pull over!
• And Inland which is a cardigan!

I am of course inspired by the socks, Climb. That shouldn't surprise you. They are knit toe up (my favorite!) with a gusset heel (another favorite!) and they have subtle color changes that make them special. White toes and cuffs with the rest of the sock being pale grey and then these red stripes. Eep! So good!

The styling in this book is top notch- the sock photos are so great, feet in a bed of white sheets, reading with feet on the wall, grabbing things in the kitchen on your tip toes and putting your feet into your favorite boots. Seriously awesome.

I love that each pattern has a photo narrative that goes along with it, each garment is going on a journey. Road trip, farmers market, woods, etc. I guess what I'm trying to say is: I find this book VERY approachable. These are items I'd knit and wear. These are adventures I go on. It's not a knitting book where I think to myself "oh that's cute but...not quite me." They are projects that aren't crazy hard and are designed thoughtfully with clever little details.

After I saw Climb, I dove into my stash and pulled out three skeins of plucky feet: oatmeal, wintery mix and barn door. I think they'd make the prettiest socks in a similar feeling as the pattern.

I'd honestly love to knit Antrorse because the panel of arrows is just awesome. And those wooden buttons!!!! I like that the model is wearing it with a white tshirt, leggings and boots because that's exactly how I'd wear it. It's a perfect weekend roaming around outside and then reading at Starbucks sweater. My only concerns are: I still haven't knit a sweater. And I'm large busted & shouldered. But it's still tempting me to  give it a try BECAUSE it does go up to a 50 inch bust!!! I'm seriously debating asking Porkchop for sweater yarn to knit this for Christmas.

Out of these patterns, which would you knit?

Leave me a comment with the pattern name and on next Tuesday, December 10th I'll close the blog post at midnight and pick a winner for a copy of the e-book! That's neat right?! I'll give Shannon your email address and then you can be as smitten as I am with this book!

Comments are closed! Thank you for entering!

:):)

ps: want to see other bloggers thoughts on the book? Check out these links:

- 

SINGLEHANDED KNITS

  & 

CELTIC CAST ON

- 

TRULY MYRTLE

 & 

THE YARNIAD

- TANIS FIBER ARTS -NOODLEHEAD & SKIRT AS TOP

-

IN COLOR ORDER

 & 

MISO CRAFTY KNITS

Day Four at The Stitchers' Village

Patty invited Ashleigh & I to take part in The Stitchers' Village 12 Days of Christmas!

Stitchers' Village is a neat online needlework community with activities and chats! You can click on each building and visit different designers. To keep up to date with cross stitching info in the community, you can sign up to be a member.

If you click the tree in the middle of the village, you'll be brought to a click-able room that has free ornament designs! We have a little gingerbread theme pattern for you!

Since I didn't get a chance to blog this weekend with the holiday promo code, I'm going to give my blog friends a special chance for 25% off your total pattern purchase! From now until 12/06/2013 at 12:00am PST you can use  promo code PORKCHOP in our shop! Woo hoo!

CONTEST HAS ENDED AND COMMENTS ARE CLOSED!

Forgive me but....

It's beginning to look a heck of a lot like Christmas around here.

I know, I know. I can hear you saying "But Amanda! Thanksgiving is TOMORROW! Don't be one of "those" people"!

Well...I've been living & breathing Christmas cross stitch patterns since August and we KNOW August is too early to share things of red & green nature.

Christmas is very low on my favorite holidays list. Halloween would be first (does that surprise you?), Valentine's Day second and Christmas falling around number 30. I don't even know 30 holidays off the top of my head, but Christmas is that low on the list. Sooooo if I'm feeling festive, I have to jump into it ok?

Here are Christmas-y things that I'm excited about:

Gingerbread Lane! AHHH! Part two! Part TWO! Gingerbread men having snowball fights! The most tacky house on the block with a giant glowing Noel sign!

The 12 Days of Christmas launches this week. I stitched the sample and o m g is it CUTE! It's very warm and traditional but with Ashleigh's kawaii spin on it.

We will be having an after Thanksgiving sale! All weekend long! Make sure you "like" us on facebook so you can get the promo code.

I absolutely positively will not be mall shopping this weekend. I plan on stay very cozy at home & online shopping. My plans this weekend involve the Dr. Who special (don't tell me anything!), knitting Christmas socks, reading and keeping an eye on the shop.

Christmas socks!

Ok so I have one done, I'm using Poste Stripe, Humbug AZ. After seeing The Knit Girllls mention Fish Lips Kiss Heel, I thought I'd try it.

And it is FUN! It's $1 for the PDF which I have mixed feelings about. I truly believe that people should be paid for their work and this PDF is HUGE. Like, this should be $5-7. She made freaking video tutorials and tells you from start to finish how to make awesome fitting socks. And, when I had a question she emailed me back right away. If you want to try a new heel or knitting socks, this is definitely a good pattern. I had to watch the videos a few times, it's not hard- I'm just kind of slow at learning new things. And it fits great! I just hate seeing people work hard and not get paid what they are worth!

AND THEN!

I found this girl's ravelry page. Be prepared to drool over absolutely gorgeous sock photos. Seriously. How does she make yarn and socks glow? I'm not sure but I'm a huge fan. I took the plunge and bought my first skein of Socks That Rock Mediumweight in a color called "Holiday Inn". I know Michele and Ashley have made cute stuff with it and I really like their projects and then seeing Gail's photos just threw me over the edge. Seriously. I was so excited to see my skein looked EXACTLY how it did online, this rarely happens to me! It's the most beautiful blues, into ice colors into rich reds. It's intense. My plan is to make a pair of monkey socks because my pair is looking rough because I wear them ALL the time. More than I should admit to wearing per week probably. ;)

I've been on a bag sewing kick, I found this etsy shop, JAM PACKED full of kawaii Christmas fabric so I bought a few fat quarters. Can we talk about how much I love online shops that will cut fat quarters? I don't need a ton of fabric and rarely can justify buy bigger cuts so fat quarters = best. I made myself a scrappy drawstring pouch, it has boxed corners on the bottom so it'll stand up, with a traditional block called "Christmas Pine" (I found it in EQ7), it's 7 inches finished and then I just used up some scraps to make it bigger.

That gingerbread fabric? Um yeah. I begged Ashleigh to design some gingerbread man fabric for me to match gingerbread lane. I'm so in love!!!! But she got a Christmas project bag too, so don't think I force her to do my bidding always ;)! It's hard to tell but I used Sulky Holoshimmer thread to top stitch both bags, they have glitter linen in them. My featherweight will sew with metallic thread like a champ! High 5!

One more thing, that Christmas quilt in the background? It's by Audrie and it's my most favorite thing EVER EVER EVER.

Ok, I have to go to Chico today and I need to wash my hair. Let's talk about long hair in the winter: it turns out you have to blow dry it so you don't freeze. ;) Girl problems right?

I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow! :):)

Finished in 2013: Rawr Socks & Striped Socks

If my math is correct, these are my 9th and 10th pair of socks I've knit this year.

That isn't too shabby! My goal was a pair a month, I'm not quite there but I'm pretty excited to have these tucked into my drawer!

I've had one of each sock done for a little while. I knit the first striped one in August/September and the first tiger one in September/October. I finished the second of each sock this week.

I'll talk about the striped socks first.

These are the socks that I first learned continental knitting with, I knit one full sock minus the heel with Signature Needles in size one. Unfortunately my pair snapped from the cord before I could knit the finish the heel. Super annoying. I've last heard from them in the end of August, they said the needles are back ordered and I'd receive a new pair. The general consensus on ravelry is that they are re-designing them. I'm not sure if that's true or not. I let this finished sock just sit in a bag but it was in the back of my mind and driving me nuts that it wasn't a full pair! This yarn is sooooo cute and a BLAST to knit with. So I cast on again, using hiya sharps in a size one, my gauge was different so the socks look different but I knit them to fit as close to each other as possible. Sadly in order to get the heel to fit properly on the second one I had to split a stripe which is kind of a bummer but it's not super noticeable. I know I could have just waited until the new needles arrived but I didn't know when that would be!

Yarn: Lollipop Yarn in Life is Beautiful. This yarn is a dream to knit with, the colors are so vivid! It's really fun watching each stripe progress.

Needles: Signature Needle Arts in size 1 and Hi-Ya Sharps in size 1

Pattern: None- it's a toe up 64 stitch sock with an after thought heel. I put the waste yarn in once the foot reaches the middle of my ankle bone and knit straight for 7 inches, then one inch of rib with a sewn bind off. The afterthought heel I've learned fits best when I knit until the heel is very snug and barely meets together, then I graft the two sides together. I think I have funny shaped heels or something, if I don't make the after thought heel fit CRAZY tight at first, through out the day the sock will twist and the heel will migrate onto the top of my foot! Awkward! ;)

The Rawr Socks are definitely a new favorite pair. I know a lot of knitters think Opal is sort of blah but I like how wool-y and durable it is. I finished this pair first and then went to the lollipops, the difference in yarn quality is incredible. Lollipop is so bright and soft, Opal is more muted and rough. Lollipop = posh fancy yarn. Opal = the working girls yarn.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned my emotional attachment to this yarn before? Chop & I had gone up to McCloud, CA one weekend when we'd first started dating and we were acting like we were just friends but we were absolutely not just friends. Inside their museums gift shop they had all these Opal yarns that would turn into animal stripes. That's kind of random right? Yarn in a museums gift shop?! Whatever, I thought it was neat! I had wanted to knit a shawl from it but I could never figure out the pattern (Clapotis). I was a relatively new knitter with not too much confidence but Chop bought it for me anyways. He's always been a big yarn supporter. I got about 5 rows in to the shawl and gave up. It sat in a rubbermaid in our garage since 2006 in a random box of books until I found it this summer. With the needles still in it. Ha! So this was literally my FIRST skein of sock yarn ever!!! l started knitting the first sock during opening weekend of dove season with Chop and then finished the second sock while playing New Leaf with him.

Yarn: I know it's Opal and I know it's tiger stripes, the label is long gone.

Needles: Hi-Ya Sharps in a size one.

Pattern: My very favorite sock pattern- Gusset Heel Basic Socks by Wendy Johnson. Basically, this sock fits my foot perfectly. It's so easy and comfortable!

I have to admit, I *love* the sharps! They are becoming my favorite needle since learning continental knitting. I find I need a really point-y needle when I knit that way and I love how incredibly lightweight they are. I honestly don't have a single bad thing to say about them. I sort of wish I didn't invest in an Addi Lace Click Set because these are much sharper. They aren't quite as sharp as the Signature's but they haven't fallen apart either. (I'm trying not to be grumpy but this is my second pair of broken Signatures.)

One thing I've been sort of flirting with the idea of is trying toe up socks on DPNs. I've been talking to a lot of prolific sock knitting friends and they've said that DPNs are much faster because you don't have to adjust the cord and the knitting like you do when you use a magic loop. You just speedily go around and around and around. I knit my very first sock, top down on DPNs and HATED the experience, lol. BUT! That was a while ago! So I might try DPNs again. The only problem is, I have no clue what to look for in DPNs! Sharp, length, material?! I'm at a loss. I'm sure I'll research it to death. I have heard Signatures are the best but I'm a little hesitant to spend that much money in case I don't love them!

My new goal is to knit two pairs of Christmas socks this year but I'll talk more about that in another post. This one is already giant sized. ;)

Christmas on Gingerbread Lane!

FINALLY!

I've been dying to share with you guys this project for months now!

This is Christmas on Gingerbread Lane!

I think I've mentioned this before but we had a bunch of ideas/plans for this winter. We wanted to do a winter sampler (and we still might in January!) and we wanted to do something traditional Christmas and something very fresh and bright Christmas.

For fresh & bright, we picked a palette of hot pink, aqua, pale blue and a good Christmas-y red. I begged Ashleigh to do something sweet themed and we came up with a neighborhood of gingerbread houses! I *love* anything house/home themed. I have a good collection of house fabric, I have prints of houses from artist friends, I just am big into houses.

And houses covered in sugar? Count me in! Ashleigh literally went to town (lol, I crack myself up!) designing this pattern. She made each house (there are three!) chubby and filled with gum drops, icing and then the little creatures...

Oh.my.gosh. Ok: PENGUIN. GINGERBREAD MAN. CUTE SNOW GIRLS. ALL ICE SKATING. One hint...wait till you see the snowman in the third part. Yup. Snowman.

So we made a list of our favorite winter activities. Drinking hot cocoa, snowball fights and ice skating. We put them all in this pattern. And then when we made the list we got to thinking about driving around town and seeing decorated houses. Each house is decorated differently and the top of each house has something special happening too. We knew we also wanted to make it a countdown to Christmas so if people wanted a cute Advent Calendar, they could have one but if it was left out, the design would still be awesome.

A million bits of and details all in one pattern but we honestly had no clue how to present it! Most of our mystery patterns have a chart to work on at first, like frames or a lace-y border. This one was tricky! We thought about sending the scalloped countdown border but it's low in the pattern, I was concerned first time stitchers would have a hard time counting the stitches down to start. Then we thought: what about all the houses at once? But that is a LOT of stitching all at once and again, there are a lot of things above and below the houses that need space around them. We didn't want people to be intimidated!

Then one afternoon it randomly hit us. Duh. Start in the middle! Do one house at a time with the scalloped border and numbers given to everyone in the first week to help make counting easier! SO! When the pattern launched at midnight, people received the chart for what you see above and for the next two weeks they'll receive the rest of the homes in the neighborhood! Awesome!

I'm not sure if I told you guys this before but we've been wanting to expand the patterns. They now have two page stitch guides with both illustrations and photos. And we really wanted to make the charts more beginner friendly so they now have a black and white symbol chart AND symbols on color squares! Two full big separate charts, both broken up in half so you can print and tape big versions together AND a full one page chart. It's 13 pages. 13 pages! Like a little book! It's so cool and we hired some great proofers who have given us amazing suggestions on how to make things easier for everyone. I'm really pleased about how much we've learned and grown this year.

I'm going to share with you for the next two Friday's how the project progresses, it's been inspiring to me to watch podcasts and read blogs where you get to watch something grow each week. I feel like I'm cheering people on as they work on things.

If you want to stitch up your own gingerbread lane, you can find the pattern here!

A few FAQs I get asked often:

$14.95 is a one time fee for the full pattern!

You can print from home, your local copy shop and the patterns are compatible on ipads/phones/kindles. If it can open a pdf, it will open our patterns.

The pattern is automatically sent to your paypal email address after paypal receives confirmation, so there is no waiting for anything in the mail!

One more thing. I finally finished a pair of socks but I've been wearing them since I finished them, I'm going to reblock them today so I can share them with you this weekend!

Cross Stitch Life

I've noticed the cutest trend ever among the people I follow on instagram.

Trays!

Everyone I know who's knitting, spinning or stitching has some sort of cute tray on their couch with them.

Hello! Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?!

I keep all my stitching supplies on the arm of the couch which frequently results in:

• dropped scissors
• pins going in between couch cushions
• little threads stuck to everyone
• general fumbling

So I went to Target last week for coffee (this month: candy cane. add one drop peppermint extract, 1tbl coconut milk & 5 drops of vanilla creme sweet drops. perfect!) and thought I'd look at trays. And I found a crazy cute one. But it was $30. And it seemed like a lot to me for some reason.

I left Target empty handed but on Sunday as I was rummaging around and sorting mail, I realized: I HAVE A CUTE TRAY ALREADY!

My father-in-law works for Sunsweet and gives a lot of their boxes of dried fruit as gifts. I have an empty box! It holds mail to be shredded! And it's big without being huge! Now I have my supplies all organized and on the couch! And if someone sits next to me, nothing falls over. Like a cup of coffee. Not that I've had that happen lately. (because I have. ;))

In my cross stitch bin I have:

• My needle minder collection. usually one is on my project, the rest are stuck to my metal gingerbread tin. I got my first minder from Lindsay (the acorn one) but you can buy them from theworkroom & 123stitch.
• Hand lotion
• Bobbin pin
• Needles
• Floss for my current project

One thing I was missing was a needlebook!

In between answering emails this morning, I made one! I used scraps and a piece of 100% wool I had. I pieced a 1.25 inch maple leaf and used some little bits of Japanese fabrics. The back is a Hello Kitty Liberty of London print and the lining is Lizzy House with a Japanese canvas pocket for spare scissors. I used fabric glue to stick on some wooden stars because I love stars! I've been trying different sized needles lately, just to see if I like one size more than another. My favorite brand is Bohin and they are very smooth and high quality. Also, I picked fabric that would match this Weekender and I already have 4 blocks made for a quilt in these colors too! I really, really, really HUGELY want to work on sewing a blue & cream quilt. It didn't help my urge when I saw Lindsay quilting snowflakes earlier this week. I'm not huge on Christmas but I adore winter.

Do you notice those little sneak peeks? A little turtledove for the 12 Days of Christmas and floss for one of next years projects! Yeah! Next years projects! Crazy to think about, right? We ordered a whole bunch of new fabric, I can't wait for it to arrive so we can get started. I think Ashleigh & I are cross stitching 8 hours a day and working on computer stuff in between. I can definitely tell that I'm stitching neater, FINALLY! I'm hoping practice makes perfect. ;)

Anyways, maybe you will have a cute tray to keep you company now when you stitch?!

Here are few things:

NPR is streaming Hilary Hahn, it's a very beautiful album, I've been listening for the past two days straight!

I'm not sure if it's a holiday thing or what but lately I can't stop thinking about star jewelry, I'm not really a jewelry person but I love stars so so so so much!

I think this would be REALLY cute as a wool applique!

My grandparents had braided wool rugs in their house, I had no idea that there was such thing as a braided wool basket! Can you imagine sewing one of these from old jeans or tshirts?

Lately I've been day dreaming about how neat it would be to have some girly clogs to wear with hand knit socks. Is it weird to wear an open shoe with hand knit socks? I feel like it would be really cute!

Speaking of socks, my goal in November is to finish a pair I started in...August. *gulp*. Yeah, it's been forever since I've knit and finished something. But hey, it's not even cold enough to need socks yet! ;)

:):):)

It's cozy time

Three things:

• This weekend I hiked into a waterfall. It might sound like NBD, but I'm terrified of moving water. Not only did I sit right next to the falls, but I knit while sitting there! It was equal parts awesome and omgamIgoingtodie.
• Chop bought me a giant woven basket for all my knitting WIPs as an anniversary gift. I'm absurdly in love with it. I can't wait to have a cute little living room and keep it next to my couch. You can see, I have about a million projects going on. Isn't that pink folder adorable? I got it as Daiso with Pam & Frankie. I'm asking for another one for Christmas to hold all my cross stitch projects.
• Yesterday I drove to Placerville. With Smash. Through Sacramento traffic. And it was a very awesome day! I absolutely hate driving, I hate city driving and I hate driving to places I'm not familiar with. But it was totally fine! And now I wish Placerville was only 20 minutes away instead of two hours.

Ok, so why isn't it cold out yet? It's been in the 80s all dang October. Monday it was overcast and chilly but that was it. This weekend in the area that we hiked, it was 24 degrees in the morning. 24!!!! Then we got home and it was 82!!! Totally a shock. But I got to wear my fingerless gloves, a shawl and a hat during our hike, knit goods galore. It was such a nice way to spend time with Chop.

Our cross stitching class was *amazing* but some idiot (me) left their camera home and I only took TWO cell phone photos. I get an F in blogging. The shop we went to is called Kelsey's Needle Krafts! We stitched with Karryn and wowza, she's been stitching over 30 years. Her work is absolutely perfect. Truly. I learned a lot of neat tricks, my main goal was to get NEATER. Somehow the more I stitch, the worse I get. Well! It turns out I'm stitching WAY too loose! As a result over time my stitches get squashed so now I'm stitching tighter and it's much nicer. It's going to take getting used too!

Something about sitting at a table surrounded by needlework, listening to passionate ladies talk about cross stitch really got under our skin. We both talked the entire drive home about how excited we were to get home and stitch, what kind of designs we want to do in 2014, how we want to grow and change things. It was a really inspiring trip to say the least. If you are in Placerville, CA, definitely swing by their shop. If not, check to see if you have a local needlework shop. As fun as it is opening packages of cross stitch supplies, it's a different experience to go and check out things in real life! I'm obsessed with notions, that's my favorite thing to look at. I got these neat Christmas themed pins to use for marking, Ashleigh also got a set but her's are pinks/aquas. So cute. Also it's really neat to see fabric in real life too. We bought a pretty piece of white sparkle linen too!

I'm starting to get REALLY antsy about our new Christmas patterns, I work on 12 Days of Christmas everyday and it's taking all my will power not to share photos 24/7 on here. Truly. Ashleigh & I sent each other a million photos a day, she's working on Gingerbread Lane. One of the colors she's cross stitching with, bubblegum, o m g. I've never seen a prettier floss color. Except I reallllllly love the color Cayenne that I've used for the numbers and red accents. It goes from a dark red to a bright red and it's pretty perfect. Basically: we love Weeks Dye Works. Ha!

Ok, back to work! I hope you have a Happy Halloween! :):):)

Yarntini Halloween Mini Skeins

Hi!

It's Monday.

Did you have a nice weekend? I hope so!

I bound a quilt that Lindsay quilted for me with freaking OWLS on it.

I went through my Halloween fabric stash, cut 6.5 inch squares and sewed them into rows. I backed it with some dimple minky and it is sooooo soft. She used wool batting and some super pretty shiny purple thread. I washed it with some Soak Wash yesterday and it's cozy to the max. I sat under it for about 45 minutes yesterday playing New Leaf. Unfortunately it's also 80 degrees here so that sort of puts a damper on using it during Halloween but you know by now that I do Halloween pretty much year round. ;)

With the release of our two new Christmas patterns (tonight is the last night for promo code SNOWMAN) I've had very little knitting time but I'm daydreaming of a new project and I think I found the perfect combo!

This summer Jessie, from Yarntini asked me if I'd create a blogger bundle for her. Um. What! YES! OF COURSE!

Naturally I picked Halloween colors: orange zest, charcoal, smoky, purple haze and key lime. The base is her top shelf sock and it's sooooo soft and squishy! It's made from 80% merino, 10% cashmere & 10% nylon.

At first I thought STRIPED SOCKS but this yarn is soooo nice against skin. I sometimes just smoosh it against my face because it's so soft so I think I'm going to make a cowl. I've never had mini skeins before and I realllllly like them! It's so cool to get a little bundle of yarn in a bunch of different colors.

I *love* color work and I think I'm going to try Chevron Stripes by Jill Zielinski. It doesn't look too crazy hard and I can practice knitting with the yarn held in each hand. Plus Halloween chevrons?! Awesome! I've only done three colorwork projects so far, a pair of socks, a pair of fingerless gloves and a pair of mittens. I'm looking forward trying it again.

Next week is our wedding anniversary (yay! go team porkchop!) and this weekend we are going on a little adventure to celebrate. I'm going to bring this yarn & pattern with me and hopefully cast on. I know, I know, I have a million projects on the needles right now but I think I'm going to frog Brickless, I love the yarn but knitting it has become tedious.

I'm also SO excited, Ashleigh & I booked a class next week for learning intermediate cross stitching with an heirloom stitcher! While we both stitch a ton, we tend to use other peoples projects for our pattern covers because neither one of us loves our level of neatness, so we are going to learn how to get better! I can tell Ashleigh has gotten super neat compared to when we first started but somehow I've gotten worse! How does that even happen? Ha! So it's going to be a pumpkin road trip, I'll be sure to bring my camera and blog about it!

Remember, tonight at midnight the promo code expires for $2 off your Christmas sign ups!

I hope you have a good day, I'm going to be cross stitching a new project all week and tomorrow we have a business meeting. woo woo!!!!

The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery: New Christmas Patterns!

I'm ridiculously excited to share this with you today!

We've been working on these new patterns and they are finally available for pre-sale starting today! EEK! Plus: PROMO CODE! Double EEK!

We started in June with four winter/Christmas patterns and these are the two we picked! They are quite possibly the cutest ever.

It was *hard* picking the patterns but we loved hearing your responses on Halloween Sampler, it was a really different style for us and the direction we wanted to go in. Everyone loved the border, it's a little tricky to stitch but the sense of accomplishment when you finish is *so* worth it. 12 Days of Christmas had that border and I'm not going to lie, it's REALLY fun to stitch once you get going.

We knew we wanted to go with Weeks Dye Works again and we listened to your feedback, more variegation in the colors! The colors we picked for these two projects. OMG. So amazing, especially the Gingerbread House body, you can see in the photos how much the color changes through out and it's beautiful! The same with 12 Days of Christmas's frame, when we picked a solid for it for people who might not want to use the Weeks, it was so hard to choose because the frame changes from browns to grays and to greens. Truly stunning. My very favorite though is the richness in the red of the numbers, it's a little trick to photograph (red always is for me!) but it's very deep!

One thing we really suggest is clicking on the above Weeks Dye Works link and see if there is a needlework shop in your area, you might be surprised! We really try hard to support smaller businesses and we know that's not always possible, if you can't find Weeks locally, try 123stitch.com.

What we heard the most was "the hand dyed fabric is incredible! can we use it again?!" YES! YES! YES! We are so excited that you guys liked using it. Picture This Plus fabrics, all 100+ colors are dyed by one incredible woman. Yes. You read that correctly. Her name is Marilyn and she's just great. So when you buy hand dyed fabric, you are supporting a really neat indie company, which I'm a big fan of. We got to talk to her and she helped us pick the color for the projects, we are using the same color for both charts and it's dyed on a glitter linen. Yup! Linen with metallic thread woven into it! If glitter doesn't say Christmas, idk what does! ;)

And of course! FLOSS BUNDLES!!! The workroom is carrying Cosmo bundles for each project, so you'll be stitching it up in all beautiful, silky solids. They are dreamy.

Here are some little details of each mystery project:

12 Days of Christmas:

• This is based on the song, The 12 Days of Christmas!
• My favorite version is The Muppets & John Denver.
• Lace border featuring: mittens! snowflakes! music notes! trees!
• Each square will be a scene from the song, sneak peek shows 8! 8 Maids are Milking! It was so hard to pick which day to share but I love that little cow!
• There is stitching to start once your supplies arrive like our other patterns have been, the lace border and the inner green border. This projects squares doesn't start being filled in until November 29th.
• More traditional, rich jewel toned colors.

Christmas on Gingerbread Lane:

• This is a neighborhood made up of gingerbread houses, roof top adventures, snow ball fights and shenanigans.
• Lots of small details: gum drop roofs, snowmen in scarves and little ice skaters.
• The bottom of the chart features a cute scalloped frame with the numbers 1-25, counting down to Christmas!
• This pattern has NO stitching before it's release date of November 15th!
• Bright colors, lots of pinks, teals and pops of red.

If you sign up for both patterns, in a single purchase between now and 10/21 at midnight PST, you can use promo code SNOWMAN for $2 off! Woo woo!

I hope you'll join us, I had so much fun stitching up the 12 Days project last week, I'm still unsure if I'll frame it or make it into a pillow. Ashleigh's finished the Gingerbread pattern and I think she's making a pillow, we found some cute Christmas fabric last week!

(ps: I'm not allowing comments on this post ONLY because if someone has a question, we can answer fastest via email: thefrostedpumpkinstitchery at gmail dot com)

Coastal Cranberry

Do you have someone in your life who is just incredibly full of life, absolutely hilarious and just a privilege to know just because you know that just having them in the world makes it *that* much better? Last Wednesday I said goodbye to my friend Judy and I sort of feel like the world is a little dimmer without her in it. My friend Brenda Lou blogged about her and it sums her up perfectly, the pictures she posted are so amazingly Judy. She also spoke at her service and I'm so glad she did. <3<3<3<3

Chop & I don't visit Eureka very often, it's a really emotional place for me. It's where I learned how to quilt and met amazing friends. It's where Chop & I decided to get married. It's where I went to college and then dropped out. It's where I learned I need the sunshine more than I ever realized. It's where I learned that there are some things I just can't see on a daily basis. Going there always sort of stirs up all these emotions in me.

Seeing my friends was absolutely fantastic, Judy *loved* tea parties so after her service the quilting ladies threw a tea party in her honor. They all wore pearls, long gloves, fancy dresses and prepared little sandwiches, it was incredible. I wore a cat dress. And a sweater. Because I forgot how dang cold it is on the coast!

After the tea party we walked around Old Town, my friend Katie suggested two shops: Yarn & North Coast Knittery. If there was ever a time for retail therapy, this was it. I got a skein of Madelinetosh Sock in Black Velvet and a skein of Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere in Cranberry Ice. As I was looking at them I realized I must have had cranberry sauce on the brain because both skeins are different, yet the same! Isn't it funny how our minds gravitate towards a color but in different variations?!

We had a great dinner out with my friends Liz & Larissa, followed by ice cream in Arcata. This trip was so much food! SO MUCH! But one place, omg. Larissa mentioned a new ice cream shop in Eureka called Living the Dream and holy smokes! The flavors! THE FLAVORS!!!!! Avocado gelato! Siracha! Miso!Tomato Basil Sorbet (I had this one! amazing!) Humboldt Smokehouse Bacon (Chop had that one!).

It was so, so, so nice to see my friends, I can't say that enough. Even though I "see" them daily on facebook, it's so different than when I'd sew with them twice a week. I miss having that sense of belonging for sure. They welcomed me into their group, taught me literally EVERYTHING about quilting, encouraged me and just are great people.

On our way home we took something Chop & I refer to as "the owl drive". Ironically here in Gridley we also have an "owl drive", the one here we see barn owls & great horned owls. The coastal version we'd see short eared owls. We used to drive out there and sit up high on this cliff over looking the ocean and just talk. I'd mostly cry (it was truly a rough time in my life) and he'd hold onto me. I tend to do my best thinking in the car, surrounded by nature. I think it makes me feel small and helps put things into perspective, does that make sense? This time the drive was quiet, I thought about how drastically my life had changed in four years, about my friend Judy, about my husband. It was a good drive. We went down on the beach and walked in the sand.

I worked a little bit on my Cameo, it's the perfect car knitting, very relaxing. I haven't worked on it since then because we are gearing up to launch our two new clubs: The 12 Days of Christmas & Christmas on Gingerbread Lane! It feels so good to just sit on the couch and stitch away. Also! New albums came out on Tuesday that I've been looking forward too! I can't stop listening to The Magpie and the Dandelion and Let's Be Still, I think I love Let's Be Still more right now but that could change. Also, last winter one of my friends burned me a mixed cd and it had a few Bon Iver songs on it, so I also got For Emma, Forever Ago. I think of the bunch, that's the best for cross stitching too. But it's been out for a million years ago clearly, I'm the last to know. ;) (also, these are amazon affiliate links! But remember, I only link to things I actually buy and like.)

I'm going to go back to stitching now, I'm in the process of finishing this project by Friday. I haven't decided what I'll do with it yet, I thought about having it framed but people in our Stitch-a-Long Group have been posting the cutest wall hangings and pillows from their projects so I might do that. :)

Morticia Shawl (Hey! I'm knitting lace!)

Last Sunday I started knitting a new shawl for a KAL I signed up for. Seriously. I'm casting on for ALL the things.

It's by BooKnits, called Morticia.

I'm using Madelinetosh Lace in The Brothers Grimm, it's a very, very, very dark green, almost black! I seriously love that name so much, especially for a Halloween Shawl! I'm kind of sad because all the online photos I found of the color is more dark green with a few bits of bright green so when I ordered beads I went with peridot and silver. Well the peridot beads really yellow and look not so cute, of course I only really noticed this part way in. The smart thing would have been to swatch but clearly someone wasn't thinking. I only placed 4 of them so I just left them and I'm using the silver ones instead. Rebel knitter!!!!! These are size 5/0 Miyuki triangles and they are so pretty!

For needles I'm using addi click lace, I'm sort of wishing they were pointier! But it's not bad and once I get in the rhythm of knitting they are fine, but every now and again I wish they were the HiYa Sharps!

I haven't decided which size to knit this,  I'm 1/2 way through the second lace repeat right now and I'm REALLY enjoying it, so most likely I'll do it as written rather than making it smaller. The chart is nice and clear. It's a lace where I can listen to music and sing-a-long but still knit ok. I had a few aha! moments where I figured out "hey! now you can add another stitch marker" and when the pattern started to click. I'm *not* the most intuitive knitter out there, you know how when some people cook they have to follow the recipe to the letter? That's me with knitting, I don't really "get" how fabric is formed, I just follow the pattern exactly to the best of my ability. I think that's why I kind of feel bad when people say "Oh you are such a good knitter" because I'm not, I'm just following a pattern blindly. Ha! I sort of psyched myself out at first thinking I couldn't do it, it's my first time using laceweight yarn and about 1/4 through the first chart I realized it's not that much different (to me!) than sock weight yarn! I think the only reason why I've not made more progress is just because I'm slow at purling, I'm hoping to get better as I go but I'm honestly ok with going slow because I love the process of knitting this.

When I work on it, I sit at the kitchen table, turn on some music and lay out the chart with notes, highlighter tape, crochet hook and beads. Usually the window is open and it's just NICE feeling. I like having a project that has me focus on something complicated and forget everything else for a little while. It feels like BIG PROJECT knitting vs laying under a quilt watching NCIS knitting vanilla socks.

Tomorrow I'm going out of town for two days and I can't decide what project to bring with me! Most likely Cameo or maybe a pair of socks. I have five hours in the car so whatever I pick I'm hoping I can get a fair amount done.

So tell me, which do you prefer? Projects that you have to focus on or mindless knits? Right now I have one of each, shawl wise and sock wise on the needles and I'm curious about you!

PS: Don't forget, tonight at midnight the sale ends for Autumn Sampler!

Autumn Sampler, I love you so much.

We just released our third week of Autumn Sampler! YESSSS!

Ok, so we've done all the previous seasons in a 25 block format (you can find winter, spring and summer here) but this one I wanted to be extra special. I'm a total Fall Girl. I love Autumn, it's truly my most very favorite time of year.

When Ashleigh & I sat down to design the pattern I made a list of Very Important Things that had to be included in this pattern:

• Pumpkin Spice EVERYTHING (sorry PS haters!!!)
• Sock Knitting
• Leaf Peeping
• Cozy Homes
• Warm Drinks
• Something Primitive Style (my most favorite quilting/stitching style-yet I've never done it before!)
• Turkey!

Ashleigh wanted:

• Continuing theme (like something builds each week-hint check out the apple basket in week one and the baking in week three!)
• Apples galore
• Pumpkins xamillion
• More people
• Cute animals
• Back to school

As she worked on it, we built the color palette (you can buy one here), it's warm and filled with rich earthy tones. This is so much fun for us, we bring Ashleigh's laptop into Michaels and pull up the chart, then we sit on the floor (I know, we are kind of obnoxious) and pull embroidery floss and create a palette. It's so much fun to say "oh no, not that brown, THIS brown, this is a good brownbrown" and "that is the best burgundy ever, no other burgundy can ever come close- wait, I like this one better". We *really* have a good time with it. And I'm glad that we each got all the things we wanted in this one sampler! Woowoo!!!!

I got a new scroll bar and frame (you can buy it here but we don't recommend it- very expensive & not so good quality), set it up to start stitching and realized I cut my fabric wayyyy too small. Heartbreaking! So Ashleigh built me a little chart that is just 9 squares, I'm going to stitch it up and make a pouch. It'll take me forever because we are currently stitching all our winter patterns but it's SO much fun. I'll be sure to post photos of it once it's done, but it might be in November. ;)

Tomorrow we are getting together bright & early and re-vamping our stitch guide. We designed all new graphics and made it a lot bigger with more details, I'm so excited to put it in our patterns. I think it's going to help people a lot. Plus, we are *always* growing as small business owners/designers, we are constantly editing and updating, it's a good cycle! If all goes well, it'll be sent out in week 4 of Autumn Sampler and we'll update all the previous patterns with it. *knock on wood!*

And then we are hopefully *crossing my fingers* picking the palette for our 2014 year long sampler! EEK! I've only told two people the theme of the 2014 club and both people said it was AWESOME. And Ashleigh's designs just keep getting more and more rad. When she first said the theme I was like "hmmm" but then I saw the first four months and almost fell over. It's amazing. I'm really looking forward to stitching up the sample for that one, it's going to be a blast and has lots of small details. I can tell you that fans of Japanese kawaii fabric are going to love this pattern.

Our facebook group has been really active, it's pretty neat watching everyone interact and share their tips/tricks. I feel like I've learned a lot! Plus everyone is really friendly which is always awesome. I want everyone to feel welcome to stitch-a-long with us always, that's a big thing that Ashleigh & I want to encourage. Friendliness = Awesomeness!

If you want to join our group, we'd love to have you! And if you want to sign up for Autumn Sampler, you can sign up until tomorrow night at midnight PST for $12.95, then the price rises to it's permanent price of $16.95.

I'm hoping to get far enough along in one of our winter patterns to share a sneak peek next week, cross your fingers!!! :):):)

Cameo & Reading!

I am SO glad that it is Friday. Words can't express how glad I am. Seriously. If I could post a video of me dancing a muppet-like happy dance, I would, but you'd be terrified! I dance like Elaine. Yes. It's that bad.

So Tuesday I decided that I needed to start knitting something new. My criteria was:

• knit only
• cozy
• big
• not hard/mentally challenging
• super soft
• comforting
• from stash

Knitting can totally be therapy for me, I love getting lost in a good pair of socks on car rides or focusing 100% on some tricky lace, so much that the rest of the world sort of falls away. But right now, my brain just can't do socks or lace, I decided the endless rows of garter stitch in the Cameo pattern would be perfect. I fell in love with Andi's and felt like this is the right project for the next few weeks. I'm using two skeins of Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere: Torchwood & Cinnamon Girl. Torchwood is the color of a smoldering pile of firewood, Cinnamon Girl is like a rich rust. Both are tricky to photograph. The base yarn is incredibly soft and all the garter stitch is very smooshy. ;) It's already well loved, I've spilled coffee on it, made about a million mistakes while talking on the phone, brought it to a business meeting where I realized my picot wasn't even remotely right, it's not my finest knitting job but I love it. I'm using size 5 hiya sharps and I am in L O V E with them. They are so incredibly light and smooth and slick.

While I'm working on this shawl I've been looking through an issue of CottonTime that Pam very sweetly gave me. I'm absolutely obsessed with CottonTime, it's one of my all time favorite magazines and I savor each issue. It's filled with Japanese crafting goodness. I'm trying to only look at a few pages per day so I can make it last all month. I also got the newest issue of Kinfolk, it's all about weekends and filled with beautiful photos, I'm looking forward to a hot bath and reading this tonight. I wish I had some sort of fancy bath bomb or boozy drink but sadly, I have neither. I'll make do with a few drops of essential oil and a peppermint tea. ;)

I recently finished three books, I started 4 others and gave up reading them because they just can't compare to the first three!

I'm not a book reviewer but just an avid reader who has to tell you how much I loved these books k?

The Raven Boys series. Yes, that's an amazon affiliate link but I wouldn't suggest it if I didn't truly love it. I genuinely feel like the publishers synopsis doesn't do the book justice, it makes it seem like it's a silly YA romance but it's much more than that. It's very hauntingly pretty, it's more supernatural spookiness than romance. I love how the imagery is built. The lead character, Blue, omg FINALLY a female lead who is weird and likes being weird. She's told all her life that if she kisses her true love, he'll die but that's not even a huge part of the story. The story is more about Gansey and his quest for a ley line and Glendower, plus it talks about his friends and their POVs, it's a really layered and rich story. I read the book when it first came out last September and felt like it was the perfect time of year to read this story. So with the sequel finally out, I decided to re-read it before reading The Dream Thieves and I'm really glad I did, I felt like I gleaned more about each character and it made the sequel even more enjoyable, plus I'm the type of person who loves to read books back to back like that. In the sequel it's still about Blue and Gansey but it has a lot of Adam & Ronan. I realllllyyyy loved Ronan in this book, we learn about his family, his abilities (I don't want to spoil it but Chainsaw is one of my favorite characters!) and everything just sort of explodes. I can't believe that I have to wait like, a year for the next one. ugh. But after I finished reading it, I kept thinking about the characters, I have a few other books to read and I can't even get into them because they feel sort of flat after this.

And then!

Cuckoo's Calling. I didn't read this physical book, I listened to it while working last week and WOW.

Ok, first off: Yes. It's J.K. Rowling. No! It's not Harry Potter! There is only one HP and it drives me nuts to see how many people are bashing the book in reviews because it's not HP! No kidding! Of course it's not! Geez.

But it IS an excellent crime novel. Each character is rich in personality, the setting is phenom and I literally was like..WAIT THIS WAS THE KILLER? It should have been obvious but I totally didn't see it coming until the last 1/4th of the book. I loooooove crime and mystery novels but only if they are good. I hate when I can tell right away or the author gives it away in the first few pages. I like to be surprised. The narrator on this book is excellent, his voice was the best and I found myself repeatedly walking around the house saying "Kieran Kolovas-Jones!" because I loved how he said it, hahaha!

If you like crime/mysteries, try this book. But don't go into it thinking OMGZ JKROWLINGGGG and a Harry Potter mindset, think of it just as a superb crime/mystery and you'll love it. There are totally some JK things that make it completely her's, the way she describes locations, details, people's emotions and relationships, that's her writing through and through!

Have you read any good books lately? I have the new Endless Knight but I haven't read it yet, I'd also really like to read Through the Zombie Glass!

Halloween Spooky Sampler: Finished!

The final club email of Halloween Spooky Sampler went out last week and I'm so freaking obsessed with this pattern. Seriously. It is just so dang cute! Ashleigh totally did a great job on this chart.

My favorite parts:

• skull lace border
• mouse with cheese
• the witches little face!

I was working on emails yesterday and listening to the knitgirllls after you guys suggested their podcast, they were talking about their CAL AND THEY FREAKING MENTIONED SPOOKY SAMPLER! I almost fell off my chair! I have no idea how they knew we even existed because we are small, Ashleigh just now is to the gusset on her first sock and I just knit little things, I'm barely active on ravelry! IT WAS SO COOL. SO! If you want to join their CAL, you can make this pattern too! I totally want to join in, I'm not quite sure what I'd make but the board seems *really* friendly!

Speaking of FRIENDLY!

People have been asking us for ages for a FACEBOOK GROUP! I am the absolute least facebook savvy person ever, I couldn't figure out why people wanted a group when we have a page, but then I realized I'm part of a group already! A private book club!

So I'm gathering it's more like a place where it's less formal and you can chat a ton. So we now have a group and we'd love it if you wanted to stitch-a-long with us. All our patterns are sold year round, lots of times people assume that once the club is over, the pattern is done but NOPE! You can stitch any of our patterns whenever you want! It's also good for people who don't want to commit to a mystery, now you can see what the final chart is like!

Can I share with you guys a few finished projects that people sent in???

EEP! And I know that at least 2 of these folks...it's their FIRST CROSS STITCH PROJECT. Um yeah! So cool right?

Anyways, if you are looking for a fun Halloween project, this is so it! And if you are working on one of our patterns or want to learn and want to come chat with other cross stitchers, join our group! I'm going to do another blog post about Autumn Sampler and share sneak peeks of our new winter patterns soon!

<3<3<3

This project is quite possibly the most photogenic and addictive knit ever.

It's called Brickless by Martina Behm and I'm pretty smitten. It's keeping me company on Friday nights when I watch Haven. (Duke, you are so wonderful in your mustache. Nathan, scruff= best, I really wish someone would just kill Jordan. please! least favorite character ever! Audrey's nose ring is so silly sweet) I'm a really, really, really slow knitter so this is three weeks worth of progress. I'm using size 6 hiya sharps and I have to say...I love them. They are quite light and pointy which I'm pretty keen on. I've been getting a little tiny bit better at knitting Continental style, I struggle with k2tog for some reason, I'm not sure why but this pattern is full of them so it's good practice, just don't look too close at my uneven tension. ;)

Soooo YOWZA right? Can we talk about this yarn? Holy.smokes.

I knew 560 yards was a lot of yarn but I think because I'm so used to sock yarn that I didn't really think twice about how BIG of a skein it was. Well, it turns out in light worsted weight it's a HUGE SKEIN. And I flipping LOVE IT! I hugged it! Literally! I wanted to be it's BFF. It's HUGGABLE SIZE. I wish I'd taken a photo of it before I wound it because it's awesome!!!!

It's incredibly soft too. And squishy! This colorway is called Berlin, how on earth do they dye this yarn without it becoming a disaster? I have no clue but I am so into it. Look how many colors are in it, so neat right?

I like to pretend that at some point I'm going to knit a sweater but this yarn has me sort of thinking that a plain pullover would be amazing. Last Friday I sort of went "hmm, should I frog this and buy a second skein and knit a very loud sweater for myself instead?" I'm just not sure if it would be a little bit much. Plus, I'm sort of enjoying this shawl. But now that I'm looking at that sweater I think it might be fun.

Please file this blog post under: most indecisive girl ever x a million. ;)

SewOn NorCal Retreat

Where do I begin with SewOn Northern California?

Do I talk about how I stayed up absurdly late on a ridiculous sugar high from eating oreos for the first time in months? Or about how I drank wine out of a glass with an owl on it and eating fancy cheese with girls from Napa? Or how about how my butt didn't leave that couch all weekend? Or that when I did leave the couch, I got to ride around in Dorrie's super cute Mini Cooper with her cute daughter and we bought fabric?

There is something super satisfying about staying in a huge house with a bunch of ladies with whom you have a common interest. The common interest in this case is sewing but guess who decided they didn't want to sew? This girl. I found the most cozy couch ever and sat and knit alllllllll weekend. And it was glorious. The room was in the trees and we had amazing thunder and lightning storms with windows open, I just sat under my quilt and worked on my socks. And drank tea. And wine. I told Porkchop that our future house has to have big windows with deep windowsills and I want a leather couch. Because it was just so cozy!!!!

I became friends with this amazing girl named Tamiko who doesn't know it yet but I'm going to become her best friend. You know when you meet someone and you just really like them? I just really like her! I got to spend time with Tracey who was my roommate, she baked us this super yummy clean zucchini bread and she sewed a super cute table topper for her friend Kelly. And I got to watch Lorelei make a patchwork weekender, every time she'd come upstairs (sewing machines were downstairs) with part of the bag completed we'd cheer because seriously: patchwork weekenders deserve a cheering squad. Adrianne was there, I'd met her before and I was so excited to see her again that I sort of cried and did a little dance all at once, she made a maple leaf quilt that weekend and I truly feel like I need to make a king sized one for our bed and have Lindsay quilt maple leaves on it for me. I have no idea if I even have enough cream fabrics for it but I think this winter I'm going to sort through my stash and get started. It was so fun because you can just watch everyone inspiring each other, everyone's projects were just SO good. One girl was making a medallion quilt, another a swoon, some were binding...it was just neat to be surrounded by so much talented quilt-y goodness.

I definitely liked meeting new people and seeing old friends. I only remembered I had my camera and snapped the above photos just before the battery died (lame!) so I don't have any photos of actual PEOPLE. Worst right?

I wanted to steal both Tamiko's maple leaf quilt and that owl wine glass, I'm kind of regretting not leaving with both. ;)

I dyed a skein of yarn

Right before SewOn NorCal, I decided to dye a skein of yarn. I thought it would be fun, I pinned this blog post ages ago and I kept going back to look at it because it was so dang pretty.

I had a skein of blank (is that the right term for it?! natural? blank? plain? undyed? idk) MCN sock yarn and decided to give it a whirl with some acid dyes my friend Amy gave me. What a morning!

It was so much fun but also, every single dang time I had a spot of yarn that I LOVED, I'd accidentally move the water and it would blur. Worst! But it was a super fun morning for me, I sort of felt like a mad scientist. I wore goggles because it was windy outside (I used an outdoor stove for this) and I just sort of sprinkled dye all over the place. I think it also reminded me a bit of college, just mixing ink and having a ball, not quite knowing if it would turn out beautiful or into a hot mess!

It's kind of neat to see how it looks in the skein vs how it's knitting up! It looks completely different and I love that. I'm doing a plain pair of 3x1 ribbed socks, I like how squishy ribbed socks are!

I feel like I have a million things I want to share with you right now. Some photos from the retreat, some quilts that just came home from spa treatment at Lindsay's, my day out with Pam & Frankie, the final installment of Halloween Sampler + the beginning of Autumn Sampler, a brickless shawl I started knitting and a book series that made me incredibly happy! So be prepared for a lot of blog posts this week k? ;)