Movie quote time...

While I was seaming up two sweaters this past weekend, Bill and I got to watch one of our very favorite movies. How's this for the most grammatically incorrect sentence ever?

"I ain't said I don't want no new house."

Any guesses as to the title of the flick, anyone? Katrina?

Eggy Goodness

The Perpetrator:



(she's the one in front)

The Product:



Now I'm going to open my window and wait anxiously for the commotion that will herald the arrival of the next little treasure. Although it may be optimistic to think that she'll lay another today (it might take her awhile to get revved up). Hopefully we'll get to this one before it gets stepped (and pooped) on!

Happy & Sad

I'm about to run out the door, but I wanted to write quickly before I lost my train of thought. First, happy news - Diddy laid her first egg today! I will add pictures later of the lovely, light-blue little egg she produced. Unfortunately it was cracked so we can't eat it, but I'm looking forward to many more eggs in our future.

Now on a sadder note, I just read Larissa's post on the loss of our lovely Mabel's. I was crushed when I first heard the news, but we were in the midst of our vacation and I couldn't really process it. Larissa's post brought back the memory of Mabel's and what it really meant to me. After all, Mabel's is the place where I first got back into knitting. It's where my mommy knitting group got together and I made some of my best friends. It's where I discovered that there's a world of yarn beyond Michael's and Jo-Ann. It's where I decided that I wanted to figure out how to make a career out of this knitting thing. I owe Mabel's so much, even though I didn't get down there that often (especially recently). Sadly, they closed up shop while I was still out of town, so I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.

Sometimes you just don't know what you've got until it's gone. Cliche, I know, but so very, very true.

Whew! We made it!

After an adventuresome drive home (after we survived the tempest that was Rapid City, we ran into flood, fire, lightning, more hail, falling trees, mudslides, kamikaze children who run off the edge into the deep end of pools and then sink like stones, and one flat tire), we arrived in Portland on Tuesday evening, tired and happy to be out of the car. The kids did amazingly well, and I tend to have a very short memory for discomfort and am already planning next summer's road trip in my head.

I can't locate the camera, so you'll have to wait until next time to see our plethora of bison pictures from Yellowstone (that place is filthy with 'em!). In the meantime, let's talk knitting.

As you may already know, I'm waffling about closing up my retail shop and going wholesale-only to yarn stores. At least, it seems like I've been waffling. However, after picking up a couple new accounts on the trip to Minnesota, I've decided that pursuing wholesale sales is the best way to get my patterns into the hands of lots of knitters. I've also become more and more convinced that I want to be sure to support the shops as much as possible. We just had another Portland shop close its doors while I was on vacation, which solidified my decision.

I know there are complex forces at work, and that nothing is going to keep an unsustainable number of shops open, but I still don't want to dilute the customer base any more than it already is. I could make more money per pattern selling them myself on-line, but ultimately I think I'll reach many more customers selling them via shops. There's also a lot less competition. The competition is still fierce, but it's different than on the internet. There are so many bloggers putting up patterns (both for free and for sale) that it's hard to stand out from the crowd and the sales are very inconsistent from month to month. When you start to wholesale, there's an entirely different level of commitment involved. You need to have the stomach to pony up money for advertising, joining TNNA as a wholesale member, and attending the shows. You need to have a very good-quality product, since shops remember who has patterns with lots of errors in them. You need to figure out how to pay for printing and graphic design and layout software. I'm realizing it's a whole different ballgame, but I'm loving it!

I will be adding four new shops to my website very soon (hopefully this afternoon, if I can get through grading the pattern-from-he** for Interweave) - two in Oregon and two in Minnesota. Boersma's down in McMinnville ordered some sock patterns and All About Yarn in Tigard just ordered the entire line. Playing with Yarn in Knife River, MN ordered the whole line, and Needlework Unlimited in Minneapolis ordered a bunch as well. I don't think I ever talked about my visit to Needlework Unlimited - it was a really great stop. The shop includes both knitting and other needlework (like needlepoint canvases and thread) and is packed full of great stuff. The owner sat down and talked to me for quite awhile and gave me great advice on how to move forward with my line. After we were done, I snooped around for a little while and picked up Cat Bordhi's new sock book for myself and some pink ribbon yarn, needles and Knitgrrl 2 for my cousin who just turned eight. I didn't get a chance to actually teach her how to knit, but I gave my aunt a refresher course so they can work on it together. Gotta get 'em hooked young!

And now, back to work on the PFH (aka pattern-from-he**). It's really going to be lovely, but I'm working on the sleeve caps right now and I DO NOT LIKE GRADING SLEEVE CAPS! I need to design more drop-shoulder sweaters. Too bad those sleeve caps look so darn good...

Rapid City Outrageousness!

Well, we're finally heading home after two fun-filled weeks on the road. Yesterday we headed out from Northfield, MN, where we had a lovely visit with my aunt, uncle & cousins, and drove to Rapid City, SD. We'd thought about driving through the Badlands, stopping in Wall for dinner, and possibly heading to Mt. Rushmore when we got into town. Sydney was SO excited about seeing the big faces in the rock.

We got on the road later than expected, so we opted out of driving through the Badlands. Both of the kids fell asleep in the car, so we opted not to stop for dinner in Wall. Our guardian angel was certainly watching over us - the skies were grey all day long, but when we pulled into Rapid City it started to rain. We checked in to our hotel and headed downtown to eat dinner at the Firehouse Brewery.

As we were driving, the rain really started to pour. There was ridiculous lightning. The streets were starting to flood a little bit. When we got downtown, the emergency sirens started going off. We parked and turned on the radio just in time to hear that there was gigantic hail in the area. We decided to high-tail it back to the hotel. It was a crazy drive back, through torrential rains, flooding streets and with the sirens blaring. When we got to the hotel, we each grabbed a kid and ran inside to our room to watch the news.

We were extremely lucky that we timed things the way we did, and that we stayed where we did. There was a tornado warning (nothing touched down, but there were multiple funnel clouds spotted over town) and the interstate was closed north of Rapid City and, later, east of Rapid City where we'd just been driving due to tennis ball-sized hail that was breaking sunroofs and windshields. There was also flash flooding all over the area.

It seems that the storm has passed and we are hopeful that the interstate has reopened and we'll be able to head on to Wyoming. We're going to try to go see the giant rock faces this morning to keep Sydney happy. I keep thinking of our last trip through here, when we camped down in Custer State Park (scene of much havoc last night) in ridiculously hot weather. What a different experience this year! My thoughts are with the South Dakotans who will have much cleaning up to do today.

Now we head off to Cody, Wyoming, and tomorrow will take us through Yellowstone. I'm looking forward to our sightseeing, but boy am I ready to be home!

Quick note from Duluth, MN

How time does fly! We're getting ready to leave my mom's place in Duluth already. Seems like we just got here! We've managed to have plenty of fun, though, and I got to visit three local yarn shops and drop off pattern catalogs. All of the owners were positive about my patterns, and Judy, the lovely owner of Playing With Yarn up in Knife River, ordered my entire line on the spot! I just love visiting local shops - they all have their own, very distinct personalities. Judy's shop is attached to her house and overlooks Lake Superior. It's just a gorgeous spot, and she has a small space packed to the gills with the best yarns. I picked up some dark purple Colinette Jitterbug and a skein of Mt Colors Bearfoot along with a new set of Addi Turbo circs and the Vogue Knitting 25th Anniversary edition. After spending some time at the shop, the family and I headed to Betty's Pies, where we gorged ourselves on delicious pie (what else) and fried cheese curds (only in the midwest) followed by a quick wade in the river at Gooseberry Falls. You can certainly tell there's a drought here - the falls were the lowest I've ever seen them! They were barely a trickle.

This was all on Friday, and to top it off, we took my mom & Mark's sailboat out for a spin that evening. The kids just loved being on the boat, although we overestimated their enthusiasm and ended up staying out too late. The kids both fell asleep as we headed back to the marina in the dark, and then Sydney did that half-asleep/half-awake whining the entire drive home. Other than that, it was a perfect evening.

Ahoy, mates!



We spent the rest of our weekend eating (and eating, and eating), playing (and playing, and playing) and eating some more. Mom & Mark are putting a patio in behind their house and right now they've got a big pile of crushed rock that they're using to lay the foundation for the bricks. The kids were in total nirvana out there piling rocks, throwing rocks at each other, and generally making a mess out of all of Mark's hard work. Makes me think we need to get a pile of rocks for the backyard...

Sydney also made friends with the resident tame chipmunks...



Yes, she's petting one! Mark has been feeding them and cultivating their trust for years. They are very cute (setting aside any intellectual dismay I may feel at the taming of wild animals...) and fun to watch.

Here's what I've been doing, frantically, for most of the trip:



Ah, love that deadline knitting! I've gotten so used to socks that knitting an entire sweater (and at 7 sts per inch at that) is a challenge to my patience! I think it's going to turn out really well, though - I blocked a couple of the pieces last night and that got me all excited about it again. I need to get it finished up so that I can start on the socks that are also due in early September! I'm counting on that long car ride back across Montana to take care of those...

The other two shops I got around to (and have to mention) were Yarn Harbor in Duluth, which is a great little shop with a wonderful selection of both Cascade 220 and Jamieson's (in fact, when I was in there, the wall of Jamieson's had fallen down and the yarn was scattered all over the floor - I had to work hard to suppress my urge to roll in it), and Fabric Works in Superior. Fabric Works is a combination quilt and knitting shop, and from the outside doesn't look like much. In fact, I almost didn't go in but my mom talked me into it. It's just a couple of blocks from her library (it's just north of Belknap on Tower Ave). Well, I am sure glad I did! The front half of the shop is filled with a huge array of gorgeous fabrics, and the back half is packed with fabulous yarns. I picked up two balls of Sirdar Baby Bamboo. If you're in the area, I'd definitely recommend a stop at both of these shops (and Fabric Works is a great reminder to never judge a knitting shop by its storefront).

And now the family is getting impatient to hit the road (well, Bill is, anyway). We're off to visit my grandmother and then we're heading to the Twin Cities for the next few days to visit friends, family and, of course, more yarn shops. I'm looking forward to squeezing in breakfast at my favorite restaurant, the New Louisiana Cafe in St. Paul. Cajun breakfast, here I come!!!

Montana Burning

Yesterday, we drove from Spokane to Helena. As we headed east into western Montana, the sky grew progressively more and more hazy, then smoky. When we got to Missoula, it was downright thick. Apparently fire season is in full swing here in Montana, and there's a gigantic fire northeast of Missoula. In fact, as we drove east on I-90, we could see black grass near the edge of the freeway where the fire had burned shortly before we drove through. By the time we got to Helena, our eyes and noses were burning and we were very happy to be through the worst of it. I couldn't help but worry about Montana knitting folk like Janet and Siri (but from their blogs, it looks like they're both out of range of flames for the moment).

Being so close to the aftermath of the fire brought back vivid memories of our Southern California fire experience. We'd called the fire department that morning to see if we should stay home form work, but they'd told us there weren't any fires anywhere near our house (even though we could see them glowing on the other side of the hill at night). We were eating lunch when we got a frantic call from our nanny, telling us that the neighborhood was being evacuated and we had to get home right away because we'd have to walk out once the fire trucks came in and blocked the streets. We sprung for a very expensive cab ride home (since the trains don't run much during the day), threw a bunch of random stuff in the cars and, for lack of a better idea, checked into the Hyatt for the next two nights. We watched the news extremely anxiously (particularly since they were reporting from the end of our street), but everything turned out just fine. The fire crews were totally on top of things, and we were in a relatively new neighborhood where everything was built with fire prevention in mind. Unfortunately, there were many, many families that year that weren't nearly as lucky.

Anyway, I hope that the fires are brought under control soon and everyone stays safe. This morning, after Bill's meeting in Helena (I was going to visit the LYS, The Fiber Whorl, but it's closed on Mondays), we headed off to Butte and then Dillon. While Bill talked to bankers, the kids and I chilled at local parks or, in Dillon, my new personal version of nirvana, the McDonald's Playland. I know, I know... I've never taken the kids to a Playland before because they feel vaguely immoral somehow. But today, I fell in love. The kids played, there was a door that closed, my participation wasn't required - I knitted and sipped a giant vanilla iced coffee while the kids burned off the energy they've been storing up while trapped in their car seats. It was fabulous.

Speaking of knitting, I'm working on a new commission in the most fabulous yarn. I can't tell you what the project is, but the yarn is Naturally Dawn - 50% silk, 50% wool. I will tell you that I'm knitting a garment (that goes on your upper body, not your feet) on size 3 needles at a gauge of 7 sts to the inch. In fact, I should be knitting right now...

Montana truly is the land of big skies. It is so gorgeous here, it makes me want to run away from home and get a job on a ranch. Tomorrow we're off to Big Timber and then Billings. I'm hoping to stop off at the prairie dog town on the way through. Good times, good times.

Greetings from the Griswolds

We're heading in the opposite direction and our kids are in a totally different phase of annoying development, but otherwise our trip is shaping up to be much like the Griswold's classic Vacation. Last night, as Owen screamed in my arms after bouncing headfirst off of the hotel bed onto the not-so-soft floor, I was so very, very close to packing it all in and just driving home. We're only in Spokane, so it would be reasonable to just turn around. We're not past the point of no return yet.

Last summer, the first summer we were crazy enough to try the cross-country road trip, the biggest annoyance was baby Owen crying for what seemed like hours at a time from the back seat. This year, we have an entirely different annoyance - Sydney's constant barrage of "Are we there yet? Are we at the hotel? How much farther do we have to go? I'm tired of sitting in this seat. Can I have a drink? I'm thirsty! I'm hungry! Are we at grandma's house yet? How much more driving do we have to do?..." And on. And on.

What was I thinking?

The thing that makes it all worthwhile is the gorgeous scenery of the western US. It's so easy to forget how vast and beautiful this country is when all you do is fly from city to city. This country seems so crowded until you drive through the west and realize how much empty space there is out here. Today we're heading off to Helena, and I'm really looking forward to the short trip across the northern panhandle of Idaho. It is so pretty. Assuming the family wakes up in time to make the trip before dark! They don't seem to be in any hurry.

Sydney and Owen are all snuggled up together. They both insisted on sleeping with Bill (which was very cute, and gave me the chance to wallow in the spaciousness of my own bed), and right now Owen has both of his legs over Sydney and she has an arm across his chest. They're so sweet when they're sleeping - you can forgive them pretty much anything! I'm going to go stare at them for awhile. It might be my last chance today to see them actually getting along...

DVD Review

So finally, this morning, I managed to dust off the review copy of my friend Chris de Longpre's DVD that she sent me to review after TNNA. I wanted to be sure to give it the attention it deserved, so of course that meant I had to continually put it off... Since the kids decided to sleep in, I settled down on the sofa with my remote control and my venti mocha and watched some knitting.

You may already know Chris's designs - she's the brainpower behind the quiet classics from Knitting at Knoon. She also has a great line-up of video tutorials available on her website. I've used these as a reference countless times when asked how to do so-and-so. However, sitting at your computer watching a jumpy video over the internet just doesn't compare with sitting on your couch, watching a smooth DVD on the big screen.

The contents of the video (which you can view listed here) are a basic menu of techniques that every knitter should have in their arsenal. All the increases, decreases, several cast-ons and bind-offs, repairs and finishing techniques are included. Chris narrates everything in her smooth, soothing voice and shows each movement a number of times. I'd particularly recommend this video for anyone who wants a reference other than a book for those times when a personal lesson from an expert just isn't available.

Another bonus is the introduction and acknowledgment sections - both show video of knitters from Chris's local shop. There are a whole range of speeds, techniques and abilities. Everyone thinks of the big dichotomy as being throwers vs pickers (English vs continental), but these clips show just as much variation within the groups as between them. Yarn is wrapped around fingers in different ways, and fingers are used to tweak the working yarn back and forth in all sorts of manners. It just goes to show that the best way to knit is the way that works best for you!

Now, I've watched Chris's internet videos and knew the DVD would be good. I wasn't necessarily expecting to learn anything since, after all, I already know it all, right? (Um, yeah, right.) And truly there aren't any techniques on the DVD that I don't know how to do already - this is for a much different audience than the rock-star knitting on Lucy Neatby's DVDs, for example. But what I found really useful was Chris's great teaching technique. Since I'm starting to branch out into teaching knitting classes, I need to be able to explain and show as well as I do. This isn't always easy. I'm going to be keeping this DVD close at hand when I stumble across something I just can't figure out how to teach.

So, to wrap this up, this DVD is going on my list of top-10 references for beginning-to-intermediate knitters (and beginning knitting teachers). It would be a great gift for anyone who learns well from visual repetition and it's just so handy to be able to pop it in the DVD player and watch it in the middle of the night in your jammies. Ask for it at your local shop, or visit the Knitting at Knoon website to find out how you can lay your hands on it.

And now, you may be asking yourself, "why is she reviewing knitting DVDs when she should be packing for her two-week road trip?" I'm sure my husband is somewhere in the house, wondering the exact same thing. I'm still trying to figure out how much yarn I need to bring.

Yowza!

I'm sure nearly everyone in the world has heard about the collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis yesterday. As someone who lived in the Twin Cities for nearly 10 years, two of them very close to that bridge, I can't quite express how mind-boggling this is for me. I've driven over that bridge hundreds of times. Fortunately, I didn't have any family or close friends (that I know of) involved in the accident, but it's still horrifying to have something like that happen in a place you still consider home.

We will be in Minneapolis in just over a week. Normally, we would drive over that bridge on our way from my mom's house in Duluth to our friends' place in the south suburbs. Not this time. I can't believe it's gone.

Life is such a dangerous game. It seems that there are perils lurking around every corner, and yet the vast majority of us manage to keep ourselves alive somehow. It seems silly to worry about things like bridge collapses and airplane crashes which happen so rarely. Why is it that it's so easy to become obsessively fearful about these kinds of things, when it's so much more likely that you'll die in a car crash, or of heart disease or something equally unsensational? I, for one, can't shake my fear of flying and will often spend the entire flight telling myself "well, there are hundreds of other planes in the air right at this minute - why would it be THIS one that would crash? If you believe that, then you should start buying lottery tickets, because that's just as likely..." Sometimes it works, other times I just need to flag down the flight attendant and buy one of those little bottles of wine to calm myself down.

Living in the city of bridges (or "bridgetown", as Portland is often called), it's difficult to get anywhere without crossing some sort of chasm at some point during the day. There's an urban legend about one of the big double-decker bridges in Portland that the engineer who designed it won't drive over it because he doesn't think it's safe. I drive over this bridge at least once a week. I hold my breath every time.

Fun with swatches

Wondering what to do with that swatch you made at the beginning of a project (you DID make a swatch, right)? Take a tip from Sydney...



...turn it into jewelry (or a funky bib)! They also make nice spinning toys (as in, use one of the ends to spin it over your head or, better yet, into your brother's face). Sydney loves swatches. She's going to be a great knitter.

The Sockapalooza 4 socks are done, so here's the official posting:



It's my Wavelet pattern (release date TBD) in the Zen Yarn Garden Gone Surfin' wool/tencel blend. Nice! I'm quite happy with them and hope my pal will be as well. They're going to have to go on vacation with me so I can send them on the correct date. Now to go add myself to the list of sock finishers...

In other news, I'm busily prepping for our big road trip to Minnesota. I've managed to get several shop owners to meet with me while on the trip, so I'm trying to get sample patterns and catalogs printed up (plus a few extras for any other shops we manage to find along the way). I've also got some great design work that has been suddenly plopped in my lap. It's a real challenge when the deadlines are in early September, but I'm going to be gone for two weeks and unable to get yarn in the mail. Oh, the problems I face - I tell ya!

But wait - I have even more knitting to show off. First, the socks for my toe-up class at Twisted (this will also be a GYW pattern to be released very soon):



The big sock is knit in the Dream In Color Smooshy I was talking about in my last post. It is SO nice (and you can get it at Twisted if you're lucky enough to live in the area).

Here's my Sea Silk shawl, modeled by my new dress form:



This is a single-skein project and also looks great in sock yarn (my blogless friend Donna made one out of some random stash yarn she had, and it turned out really fabulous). This is also a pattern to be released any day now.

I made one more stop at Lint on Sunday to see if they had any other bargains to pick up in their going-out-of-business sale. There was still quite a bit of yarn left, all 40% off now, but it was so sad being in there that I couldn't get excited about buying anything. I wandered around for five minutes and then left. Sigh. It reinforced, yet again, my decision to unload the rest of the yarn in my shop and get on with this wholesale-only thing for my patterns. I was pretty surprised that nobody bought Lint, but when I was in there, I realized that I really don't want to run a retail business. I want to design. And the little dabbling I've done in online sales has been fun, and I love to support my indie yarn dyeing friends, but it's time for me to just get down to the business of building my pattern line.

Speaking of the pattern line, I just added a new feature to the web store. You can now view a pdf of the front page of each pattern by clicking on a link on the pattern page. This will give you everything you need to know about yarn, gauge, materials, sizes, etc. I hope this is helpful! New shoppers will also get a taste of the pattern format.

And now the pizza's here - I may or may not get a chance to post again before we hit the road, but I'll be sure to try to post from the front lines of our summer vacation as we speed through Montana and the Dakotas on our way to the homeland (aka northern Minnesota). Yippee!