Surprise #2

Remember those surprises I was hinting at the week before I left for CU?  Well.... you may have forgotten, but I haven't!

Here is the surprise #2 reveal!  

The latest Knit Picks Catalog just arrived in my mailbox this weekend, and as I was flipping through I came across...

My Daughter!  :)  Yup!  Now both my girls are famous.  

Here's a close up:

Pretty exciting stuff, right?  And by the way... I've got a few pairs of dinosaur gloves and cupcake gloves that are ready to go up in my Etsy store.  So if you want a pair for your little man or your little princess (or even for yourself) be sure to check out my shop!  I'll try to have them posted by the end of the day.

And if you'd like to see this great little catalog online, feel free to click here:

http://www.knitpicks.com/Catalogs/online_catalog.cfm?intmedid=OC+Footer

Creative University Recap!

Wow... I'm not even sure how to begin.  CU this year was simply UH-mazing.  Definitely the BEST year ever.  Seriously.  :)  It epitomized the perfect craft retreat trifecta - great classes, super fabulous time with friends, and just the right amount of relaxation and down time.  It was amazing to catch up with friends I only get to see once a year, and this retreat was made even better because my best friend Wendi came too!

Tresa had a record number of attendees this year - close to 60!  Here's a group shot...

Here's a cute shot of Tresa and Denise.  Thanks Tresa for the image!

Best Buds: Jenn, Kendra, Christina, Deanna, Melody, Tresa, and Crissy!

(I took this picture with Tresa's camera).

In addition to all the gabbing, eating, and personal projects, we made some pretty incredible stuff in our classes...Here are some of the finished (and not quite finished) projects!

From Donna's class - we made these adorable cards using the new CTMH Mayberry papers:

Sheila taught us how three new ways to create Gift Card Holders:

Jenn taught us these "Pear-fect"ly cute bookmark cards.  We got to make two.  The corner part slips over the top of the pear on the card.  It can also be used by itself as a bookmark!

This is my clipboard from Denise's class in progress.  Thank you Tresa for the image!

and here it is all done (minus the photo).  The paper roses are SO much fun to make!  You'll likely be seeing them again on my blog in the near future.

This layout in progress is from Chrissy's class "Scrapbooking with Fabric".  I love the ruffly edge.  I still need to finish my yo-yos and add the embroidery stems and leaves, as well as a few photos.  It's gonna be so stinkin' cute when it's done!

I missed out on Erin's class, because we were teaching at the same time.  However, Wendi is a jewelry expert and she graciously made my necklace for me!  Thank you Erin for the image!

Finally, here's me holding one of the pages I taught.  Thanks Chrissy for the image!  Idaho and I are NOT great friends.  Apparently, once I crossed the state border, my hair product decided to stop working.  So I had horribly flat hair all weekend.  This was as "faux hawk" as I could muster - and it's extremely pitiful.

here's the completed layout:

As you can see, we had a TON of fun and made some AMAZING projects.  

I can't believe I have to wait a whole year to go again!  Let the countdown begin...

Leaving on an airplane...

I had big plans to post about Valentine's day, and a few other cool things, but unfortunately my eldest daughter has been sick the last two days, and I leave bright and early tomorrow morning for Creative University.

I was able to finish a HUGE project yesterday.  It's been in the works for 2 years, and I completed the very last page yesterday afternoon.  That feels amazing!  In 2009 I did "Project 365" and took one photo a day, every day that year.  The last time I worked on this album was at Creative University last year!  And since, I decided not to bring my laptop with me this year, I knew I just had to finally get this project out of my "to do" bin for good.

Most of my pages looked similar to this one - with just a few photos, and a description of the events. 

 I can't believe how little Ruby was!

In an effort to just "get'er done" I decided that for Oct, Nov, and December, to just limit it to a 2 page spread.  The templates were from Mandagirl (see the link for her site on the right), and just2things blog (which no longer exists).  The papers and embellishments are primarily Shabby Princess and Zoe Pearn.

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone!  And I'll write more upon my return!

:) N

Sweater Progress

I do have more surprises for you, but I'm waiting to get the go ahead first.  I don't want to spoil anything terrific!

In the meantime, I worked on my sweater this weekend!  I wish I had more progress to show, but I had to do a little "surgery".  Unfortunately, after knitting the right sleeve and the back, I discovered that it was a little shorter than the pattern said it should be.  My gauge swatch was dead on, so I'm not sure if this is my issue or the patterns, but thankfully I was able to go back and add some rows to make it work out alright (at least alright for now).  I guess we'll see what happens when it's time to pick up stitches for the front.

Anyway, this is what I had finished on Thursday evening before discovering the length issue...


I had to rip out the sleeve to where that marker is, then knit an additional 20 rows and reknit the lace.  This added an additional 3 or so inches to the sleeves making them a true 3/4 length and not a 1/2 sleeve length.  Much better.


Here is the sleeves and back laid out, before fixing the right sleeve and the back.  You can see how the left sleeve (on the right side in the photo) is longer than the other.


Once both sleeves were fixed, it was back to the back and more frogging ensued.  The trickiest part of ripping out lace is that you never really know if/how you will get those finicky stitches back on the needles.  Thankfully I took my time and was very, very careful.  They went on pretty well, thank the Lord, or I might have had to indulge in a few glasses of wine before continuing.... and that could have resulted in an entirely different outcome, full of swearing and a big pile of loose yarn drenched in my tears.



This is what the back looks like currently after decreasing back to the second lace repeat, re-knitting the third without increases, and 2 rows into the 4th (where the increases will go).  I didn't get any time to work on it today between church, a top-secret mission, a pedicure, and dinner with my parents.  But the couch is calling my name, so I think I'm gonna try and get the back finished up tonight.

Surprise #1

I promised earlier in the week that some big surprises are in store -  (no, I'm not preggers!) - and here is the first reveal...

I have a new pattern up on Knit Picks today!  Yahoo!

Introducing my Beaded Cupcake Gloves (in 4 sizes) - to match the Beaded Cupcake Hats

If you've been following my "What's On My Needles" photo essay, then this might not be such a huge surprise.  I've been test knitting this pattern for several weeks, and am so glad to finally have it done, photographed and up at Knit Picks.  You can purchase it HERE.  I'll try to get it up in my etsy store and ravelry by this weekend.

The photo shoot was challenging, but fun.  I've discovered that as my girls get older, they get harder and harder to photograph.  They are either constantly in motion (Ruby) or constantly complaining (Samantha).  I originally thought this shoot was a total disaster, and put off proofing and editing the photos for over a week.  Thankfully, however, there were enough good shots that I didn't need to redo it after all.  Whew!

Here's a few more pictures...

ps... update on my sweater tomorrow.  :)

Gettin' Ready

Creative University (a scrapbooking/craft retreat put on yearly by the incredible Tresa Black) is just around the corner, and I can't wait!  I shipped off my class kits this morning - whew!  All that's left is to pack my bags and I'll be ready for 4 fantastic days of creativity, classes, and relaxation.  Next Thursday could not come soon enough.

I'm teaching again this year, and we've got the largest group ever - almost 60 ladies will be in attendance!  That meant 60 two paged 12x12 layouts for me to prep:

And 60 baggies of embellishments to put together:

But hopefully that will also mean 60x the fun.  :)

In other news... I was up uber late last night working on a sleeve to my sweater!  Take a look at my progress throughout the day...

Just about to start the first sleeve:

Sleeve 1/2 done:

About to start the leaf pattern...

All done!

You might remember my drool-fest from this post, and also my reluctance at purchasing mass quantities of yarn (and yet another sweater pattern) simply to have them tossed, lost and forgotten in the depths of my "yarn stash closet".

You might also remember my lack of will power.

Well I got a little something in the mail yesterday... (notice how the rays of light from heaven shine down on this lovely package.  It must be a sign!)

...and I really don't know how, but the yarn fairies at knit picks just happened to put the exact number of skeins, in exactly the right color of yarn into said box...

...and I just happened to download the (cough, cough) $8 pattern that I was drooling over last week.

Well, since it was just the biggest coincidence, I figured it would be best to get right on to knitting the sucker, since the "yarn stash closet" fairies can be big bullies and I didn't want to give them any chance at harassing me.

So I started (at 2:00 pm yesterday) with only the second gauge swatch I've ever knitted - yes, ever - in my life, and it went well.  (I tend to pick patterns where gauge isn't super critical).

After collecting one little one from school, I got started on the yoke...

and about an hour later...

Below was progress after dinner and a movie with Sam.  It might seem to be coming along slowly, but with increases of 6 sts every other row, it takes longer and longer to knit each row.  I started with just 94 sts, but at this point I have more than 130 sts, and by the time the sleeves are started there will be 218 sts.  Thankfully it is pretty mindless knitting, which is great when adding mindless TV to the mix.  And since the chickpeas were finally in bed, that was the plan.  :)

The color here is actually more accurate than in the photos above.  The yarn is Knit Picks "Swish Worsted" in squirrel heather.

Here's one last photo of the sweater progress before I succumbed to warmth and rest of my bed at 

12:42 am.  I made it through the first skein, and row 41.  Just another 7 rows to go and I can start a sleeve!

What's On My Needles

I had the most relaxing weekend - and it was wonderful.  And with the craziness of this week and next, I'll take it!

The first event of the weekend, besides sleeping in Saturday since grandma and grandpa had the girls (bless you two!) was updating the look of my blog.  I hope you are enjoying it.  I need to make a few more changes, but those will likely not be as noticeable.

Here's a bit of catch up on what was on my needles last week, Saturday and Sunday.

On Wednesday I finished those orange gloves for Jennifer:

  

Totally inspired (and a little smitten) with the orange yarn, I whipped up a pair of Montmartre Gloves with the second half of the ball on Saturday.  The scale once again saved the day, as I had less than 1 yard left of yarn when they were complete, but I knew with 100% confidence that it would work out.  Don't believe me?  You should read this post.
  
(i love that first picture with ruby's little paw reaching for the glove)

On Thursday I finished another pair of Lily Gloves - this time in black yarn with red beads.  They are delicious.  (You might notice that the cuffs are a little different on these than in the pattern.  I changed them so they are more fitted.  If you have purchased the Lily pattern and would like the updated notes for the changed cuff, post a comment with your email address and I will send it to you.)

Speaking of the Lily pattern, this little number that I started on Sunday is the prototype for my latest pattern.  Besides this sneak peek, mums the word.

I've got more knitting to share, along with some big surprises that will get doled out as the week progresses.  Hope you enjoyed this little tidbit for now!  Off I go back to the couch and my beloved needles.