Mojo - are you back?
So, it has been awhile, hasn't it? A lot has been happening here in Knittin' Mom land. First, we survived TNNA, the big yarn/needlecraft trade show in Columbus, Ohio, two weeks ago. Well, more than survived - we had our best show ever! It was our 4th time exhibiting and we're finally starting to feel like old pros. We sold lots of our new designs (which you can see at the top of our Design page) and the book got rave reviews. We booked a bunch of trunk shows for the book and I'm now trying to get my act together so I can actually schedule a few book signings/workshops this fall.
Hot on the heels of TNNA was Black Sheep Gathering down in Eugene, where we shared a booth with Lavender Sheep. I was so wiped out from TNNA I could barely function, but fortunately Donna was not in the same bad shape. She went down for the whole weekend and manned the booth with Yvonne. I showed up briefly with family in tow on Saturday (they went strawberry picking while I struggled to stay coherent in the booth) but was pretty useless. I did get a few pics of the booth.
Don't you just love all that yummy yarn? And this final pic shows the fabulous Grumperina-reknitted Path of Flowers along with one of my favorite new designs from Crochet All Day - the cow bag!
If you missed Black Sheep, come see us at Sock Summit. Speaking of Sock Summit...for some reason I thought it might be a good idea to design a bunch of new patterns to debut in our booth there. What was I thinking? Oh, right - I wasn't.
I just finished the sample for the first sock, and it turned out spectacularly. I'm going a little bit crazy with these socks, since the place will be swarming with avid sock knitters, and making them a bit more challenging than usual (at least, the one I just finished is a tad challenging with some seriously crazy cabling). I'm also using some handpainted yarn that I don't always get to use because of the need to have highly photographable, widely-available yarns used in my normal patterns. I'm going to have these designs reknit in commercial yarns this fall and add them to the regular line in January, but for now, I'm having fun using yarns that I don't normally get to, like Lavender Sheep!
I'm also trying to recover my home-making mojo. Between the final push to get the book done and TNNA-prep (and recovery), the house has basically gone to hell. Bill has done a pretty good job of maintaining, but he gets sick of being the only one doing anything (and I don't blame him - I get cranky about that, too). After I get over myself (I just wrote a freaking BOOK after all - I shouldn't have to do housework too!), I do try to help out as much as I have energy for, but I really want to get back to baking and cooking instead of driving down to Mickey D's for dinner. The kids are starting to like it a little bit too much...
I've started by trying to make sure we use up our CSA share each week instead of letting it molder in the fridge and then using it to feed the compost or the chickens. I don't know why I find this so strange, but Sydney is absolutely ape for artichokes. She loves the things! I find them very strange and a little scary, but I'm willing to cook them more often in order to get a veggie down her little gullet.
I should also admit that we were able to squeeze a little family fun into the mix. In fact, I've been trying to make sure the kids aren't totally neglected now that they're not in school, which takes a bit of time. The Oregon coast just experienced record low tides, so we headed out for the morning to check out the tide pools. It was very cool.
We were out by Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, which is normally out in the water but when we were there, was almost totally accessible. We missed the very low tide (didn't get up early enough), but we were still able to walk almost all the way out. Very cool!
Sydney thought it would be a good idea to make "sand angels".
Crazy kid! If you can't get enough of the beach (or can't get to the beach because, like me most of my life, you're in the middle of the country), check out the exclusive design I just finished for T-SPOT, a lovely little shop in Manzanita, which is a beach town just south of Cannon Beach.
It's called, surprisingly, the Manzanita Tam and you can get it from T-SPOT along with lots of good other stuff. And here end these messages!
Hot on the heels of TNNA was Black Sheep Gathering down in Eugene, where we shared a booth with Lavender Sheep. I was so wiped out from TNNA I could barely function, but fortunately Donna was not in the same bad shape. She went down for the whole weekend and manned the booth with Yvonne. I showed up briefly with family in tow on Saturday (they went strawberry picking while I struggled to stay coherent in the booth) but was pretty useless. I did get a few pics of the booth.
Don't you just love all that yummy yarn? And this final pic shows the fabulous Grumperina-reknitted Path of Flowers along with one of my favorite new designs from Crochet All Day - the cow bag!
If you missed Black Sheep, come see us at Sock Summit. Speaking of Sock Summit...for some reason I thought it might be a good idea to design a bunch of new patterns to debut in our booth there. What was I thinking? Oh, right - I wasn't.
I just finished the sample for the first sock, and it turned out spectacularly. I'm going a little bit crazy with these socks, since the place will be swarming with avid sock knitters, and making them a bit more challenging than usual (at least, the one I just finished is a tad challenging with some seriously crazy cabling). I'm also using some handpainted yarn that I don't always get to use because of the need to have highly photographable, widely-available yarns used in my normal patterns. I'm going to have these designs reknit in commercial yarns this fall and add them to the regular line in January, but for now, I'm having fun using yarns that I don't normally get to, like Lavender Sheep!
I'm also trying to recover my home-making mojo. Between the final push to get the book done and TNNA-prep (and recovery), the house has basically gone to hell. Bill has done a pretty good job of maintaining, but he gets sick of being the only one doing anything (and I don't blame him - I get cranky about that, too). After I get over myself (I just wrote a freaking BOOK after all - I shouldn't have to do housework too!), I do try to help out as much as I have energy for, but I really want to get back to baking and cooking instead of driving down to Mickey D's for dinner. The kids are starting to like it a little bit too much...
I've started by trying to make sure we use up our CSA share each week instead of letting it molder in the fridge and then using it to feed the compost or the chickens. I don't know why I find this so strange, but Sydney is absolutely ape for artichokes. She loves the things! I find them very strange and a little scary, but I'm willing to cook them more often in order to get a veggie down her little gullet.
I should also admit that we were able to squeeze a little family fun into the mix. In fact, I've been trying to make sure the kids aren't totally neglected now that they're not in school, which takes a bit of time. The Oregon coast just experienced record low tides, so we headed out for the morning to check out the tide pools. It was very cool.
We were out by Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, which is normally out in the water but when we were there, was almost totally accessible. We missed the very low tide (didn't get up early enough), but we were still able to walk almost all the way out. Very cool!
Sydney thought it would be a good idea to make "sand angels".
Crazy kid! If you can't get enough of the beach (or can't get to the beach because, like me most of my life, you're in the middle of the country), check out the exclusive design I just finished for T-SPOT, a lovely little shop in Manzanita, which is a beach town just south of Cannon Beach.
It's called, surprisingly, the Manzanita Tam and you can get it from T-SPOT along with lots of good other stuff. And here end these messages!
posted by knittinmom at 7:45 AM
3 Comments:
Black Sheep totally rocked! Onto Sock Summit, full speed ahead!
BTW, artichokes grow really well in Portland. My mom grew them in our garden while we lived there and they were very low maintenance.
Can you believe I had no idea there was that low-low tide? If the word "irony" needed a definition, that would be me, living 4 minutes away from the beach and working 1 minute away from it, MISSING the low-low tide. I only found out yesterday.
Thank you for the gorgeous tam design, and for all the kind words about my shop. Olga
T-SPOT
Yarn, Teas and Chocolates
www.tspotshop.net
Just returned from Manzanita where we stayed with our daughter and her partner (we're from Indiana--really!). Our cottage was within a stone's throw of T-Spot, so I visited it plenty. Even got a demo of Olga's continental knitting. Before I left, I bought both your whitecap sock and Manzanita tam patterns. As is too common with me at my age, I am currently hunting for both. Might be in touch about a replacement copy, but I'm still looking.
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