Knittin' Mom

Better late than never!

2011-02-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

This was supposed to be posted yesterday, February 7, on Charles Dickens' 199th birthday. However, yesterday I was dealing with calls from the assistant principal (the boy spent the afternoon in her office, bless him) while knitting furiously on a replacement Valencia (the original sample got lost in the mail last summer) and watching a Real Houswives of New York rerun marathon. So...in other words, I was busy with Very Important Stuff.

Without further ado, here's my latest project (well, not MY project per se, but one I was very happy to be involved with):

(Click on the image to be taken to the preorder page.)

Here's a little peek at my project, inspired by Wilhelmina, the heroine of Bram Stoker's epic vampire novel Dracula:

This sweet little baby was a welcome break for me from socks, socks and more socks. I love socks and all, but it is nice to branch out every once in awhile! The book includes the work of a bunch of designers, inspired by works of classic literature, and each designer wrote an essay about how their design emerged from their chosen characters. It's great fun, and another experiment in non-traditional publishing spearheaded by Heather Ordover of Craftlit and Shannon Okey of Cooperative Press.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program of learning to spin, losing weight at boot camp and dealing with an overly exhuberant kindergartener and newly knitting 2nd-grader. Yes, I have more to talk about very soon!

So much for more frequent blogging!

2011-01-24T17:00:00.001-08:00

I'm really trying to do more tweeting, Facebooking and blogging this year, but I keep forgetting! Forgetfulness runs in my family, and it doesn't get better with age. It's very unhelpful combined with my tendency towards procrastination.

I'm sure you'd like to see a little knitting, so here's what I've been working on. It's all about the CSK these days, and I just turned out one of my favorite patterns so far:

This is Supernova, which I named for the little star-explosion looking motifs up the front and back. It's made in the colorway Ladies That Lunch, dyed by my friend Lorajean of Knitted Wit. I fell in love with this colorway when she introduced it at Deb Accuardi's pre-Sock Summit luncheon in 2009, but it was a toughie to work with. I probably love this sock so much because it was such hard work finding a stitch pattern that actually worked with the crazy variegation!

Besides knitting sock after sock, I've also managed to start really getting myself in shape by going to daily boot camp workouts. Fortunately I was sort of in shape already from all the walking I did to train for the marathon last fall, but my muscles (other than in my legs) were totally soft. I wasn't so sure about my chances for survival after the first week, but I do like the fact that all my pants are too big now. Too bad I don't have any money left for shopping after the Christmas craziness!

I've also grudgingly accepted the fact that I enjoy watching football. From about the 8th grade on, I've spent my life cultivating a studious disdain for football (and golf). Bill has had a lifelong love affair with the Pittsburgh Steelers (even though he's never lived anywhere near Pittsburgh), so I finally sat down and had him explain the game to me a few weeks ago. I watched the entire playoff game yesterday and am now looking forward to watching the Superbowl. There - I said it. The planet can officially explode now. I've been watching golf lately, too, although I can't sit through a whole day of it (or more than 45 minutes or so, to be totally honest).

I will always prefer basketball to any other spectator sport, however. Tennis and running are a close 2nd and 3rd, but basketball I'll take any day of the week. One of the big irritations in my life right now is the fact that Comcast blocks out games in our local market so the only way to watch all the Blazers games is to have Comcast. We've had DirecTV longer than we've had Sydney, so Bill especially is not enthusiastic about changing. His grand plan is to sign up for Comcast during the basketball season just to watch the games but nothing else. I'm not sure why he's so attached to DirecTV, but he is!

Now is my chance to get a bit of work done while the kiddos are at swimming lessons. Sydney finally mastered the back glide last week, so she's pretty excited to be moving up to the next level. She's so skinny she can't actually float on her back without sinking, so it has been a struggle to get her courageous enough to glide on her back on her own.

Hope you all are having a great first month of 2011. I promise my next post will be a little less sports, a little more fiber!

New pattern for the new year!

2011-01-04T10:25:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since I've released a new pattern for Gardiner Yarn Works (the book is taking up almost all of my pattern-writing time and energy, along with a couple other little side projects), but I've finally got one for you.

These are the Desmondus Socks (named after the vampire bat, if you were wondering):

There is both a men's version (that's Bill's giant foot and hairy leg there on the right side of the photo) and women's version (the women's has a little lace panel on either side of the foot while the men's is just cables).

Men's close-up:

Women's close-up:

It also has two heel options - linen stitch or heel stitch:

This pattern was designed exclusively for Sandra Singh, and can be purchased either as a pdf pattern or in a kit with the yarn (which is also exclusive to her, from our talented friends at Serendipitous Ewe).

Look at that - two posts for January already. I'm on a roll!

Goodbye, 2010 - Hello, 2011!

2010-12-31T12:27:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!

This has been a year marked by many things, including a horrible lack of blogging. Will 2011 be better? It's always hard to say, but I like to start each year fresh with possibility. Blogging felt a little bit dry in 2010 because it started to feel like I was living the same year over and over. Another trip to New York to visit Bill's grandparents. Another trip to Montana. Another kid birthday party. Another TNNA. Another OFFF. But when I think back on this year, there were a lot of firsts.

Here's what happened in 2010:
* Sydney turned 7 and Owen turned 5 (weren't they newborns just yesterday?)
* Bill & I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a weekend in Vegas
* Our first niece was born, and Bill's grandfather passed away at age 99
* We took family vacations to Los Angeles, New York, Montana, Seattle and road tripped around SW Oregon (I got to see Crater Lake for the first time)

* I finally met my goal of completing a marathon, walking the Portland Marathon in 7 hours and 35 minutes.
* I went on to walk a half marathon in December in 3 hours and 12 minutes, which was a delightful time improvement.
* I got my CSK off the ground and have managed to get one pattern released per month (now to get working on the REST of the book patterns...!).
* Owen started kindergarten, and phone calls from the principal started almost immediately.
* I cut my hair off! And after a few months, decided to let it grow back (this is still a work in progress).
* I bought a spinning wheel, but I'm terrified of it so it's still in its shipping box.
* Sydney took over my office and now has her own fabulous bedroom (as does Owen, who no longer has to share with his sister). My office moved to the basement, which is currently about 20 degrees so I'm working from the dining room table instead.
* I traveled to London to teach at Knit Nation, which was one of the highlights of the summer. European knitters are great fun!

All in all, not a bad year!

I love to make New Year's resolutions. They usually don't get kept, but it's great fun to look over the list at the end of the year. I'm sort of an obsessive personality, in that I get really into things and they take over my life for a few months. Then, I'm on to something else. The resolutions always reflect what I was enamored with on New Year's Day, and often these things are a distant memory by the time the next New Year's comes around (like my resolution from last year to do yoga every day - that didn't work out quite as expected...).

For 2011, my resolutions are:
* Continue to lose weight. I've dropped about 20 lbs since mid-summer and have about 20 more to go to be back to where I was before I got pregnant with Sydney. I figure that my babies are 5 & 7, so it's time to lose that baby weight once and for all!
* Continue to work on my marathon training. I've signed up for the Portland marathon again, and hope to get my time under 7 hours this year. My ultimate goal is to break 6 hours so I can walk/run Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN, one of these summers.
* Get the book out. The CSK has given me a great start, and the CSK members are expecting a book at the end. Time to get knitting!
* Start the next CSK. Once the book is finished, I'd love to do another CSK - perhaps something to do with lace this time, since I'm going to need a break from socks...
* Yell at the kids less and hug them more.
* Take myself a lot less seriously, particularly when it comes to work and parenting. I lead a pretty charmed life - there's no need to be so crabby about it!
* Make more of an effort to connect with others. It's so easy to get wrapped up in family, family, kids, kids and forget about anyone outside of our little bubble. I will focus on not getting overwhelmed at the thought of leaving the house for an hour to have coffee with a friend, or spending 1/2 an hour reading tweets and/or Facebook posts. I've got the time, if I'm really honest with myself.
* Ignore politics as much as possible, for the sake of my blood pressure.
* Give people the benefit of a doubt.
* Make a conscious effort to have fun! I have an amazing ability to resist fun in favor of inertia, especially when the kids are involved. I'm sure nobody on their death bed wishes they'd spent more time on the sofa (or surfing the internet).

Think I can stick to 'em? It's nothing overly difficult - remembering to do things I'm not in the habit of will be the hardest part.

Welcome to 2011, everyone! Here's to approaching the new year with a fresh attitude and renewed hope.

Here it is!

2010-08-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

The post you've been waiting for all summer! Yes, I'm back. For awhile I wasn't posting because I didn't feel like I had anything interesting to say. Then the tables turned, and I started getting intimidated by how MUCH I had to say. I figured that the situation isn't getting any better, so I may as well suck it up and just post.

Is anyone still reading this? Mom? I'm still alive, really!

So much has happened since last we visited. I launched a little pattern club, which now has over 200 members. (I know, I can hardly comprehend it myself!) I've just sent the September pattern off to the test knitters. The August pattern, Tulip Socks, is being knitted up by many happy CSK members and I'm loving seeing all the different results. Here's my original version:

I'm finding the CSK to be highly motivational - I've even got a non-CSK book sock on the needles, something that desperately needed to happen if I have any chance of finishing the book on schedule!

I also spent a fabulous week (well, 5 jet-lagged days) in London, teaching at the inaugural Knit Nation conference alongside such knitting powerhouses as Clara Parkes, Cookie A, Judith Mackenzie McCuin and Nancy Bush (among others). I managed to teach a number of folks from the far side of the pond (including several expats and one intrepid French student who spoke very little English) despite my extreme fatigue.

Knit Nation was held at Imperial College, which is in the heart of London, right next door to the Victoria & Albert museum. I didn't get a chance to visit the museum, but I walked by it daily and was particularly fascinated by this engraving:

The extent of the damage to the walls is quite incredible.

We got to stay in the dorms, which brought back some memories (except these were swanky dorms compared to the ones I lived in - all the rooms were singles, and they had their own bathrooms!). I taught my classes in the Physics building, which was a nondescript 70s building but almost directly across the street from this:

This being the famous Royal Albert Concert Hall. Pretty, isn't it? I also learned that "fanny" is a dirty word in Britain, and when I visited Buckingham Palace, the guards were NOT wearing their fancy red uniforms (how disappointing).

You can see one of the guards in a dark-colored police-looking uniform, standing near his little hut. It was a long walk, so I only had my iPhone with me and not my regular camera - apologies for the poor photo quality!

My classroom building was also next door to the Royal Academy of Music, and while exploring one of the little side streets, I found this building. Mom, this one's for you!

(Mom's an organist, in case anyone is wondering why this would get her all excited...)

For those of you who are into unicorns, I spotted this on the gates in front of Buckingham Palace:

For those of you who only care about yarn, I spotted these in the Marketplace, and they immediately demanded to come home with me. I'm seriously regretting not letting them bring a few more friends with them...

Yes, folks, that's the elusive Wollmeise (my always hilarious friend and colleague Janel Laidman, who was also in London, compares a Wollmeise sighting with spotting a unicorn - I just couldn't resist bringing a few skeins home, even though I have no idea when, if ever, I'll knit with it!). Claudia, the dyer, had the most amazing booth set up, with many samples of the yarn knit up, little birdhouses and almost every Wollmeise colorway under the rainbow. I didn't get a photo of the booth because it was a little scary in there (I didn't want to interfere with any shoppers, because oh, my goodness, Wollmeise is Serious Business). My cruddy photo doesn't begin to due the skeins I have in my hot little hands justice.

The green is going to go as a raffle prize to my lucky CSK members. The orange and purple are MINE!!!

My favorite memory of my London experience, besides hanging out with my fab students, of course, is of the morning I ran into Nancy Bush, Marjan Hammink and Judith Mackenzie McCuin on the street on my way to Starbucks and instead joined them for breakfast at the most lovely little French cafe. I had an almond croissant and a giant mocha served in a porcelain bowl while basking in the presence of these amazing women. Seriously, how lucky am I? How I managed to swing that one, I'll never know, but I will always count my blessings that I was invited to teach at the first Knit Nation (because I know there will be more, if Alice and Cookie haven't died of latent exhaustion).

In other news, summer is passing ridiculously quickly. I'm spending lots of time shuffling the kids to and from camps and lessons (they've both jumped a level in swimming lessons after FINALLY getting over their fear of putting their faces in the water), and also walking a lot. In fact, I'm walking so much that I decided to do something crazy and signed up to walk the Portland Marathon on 10/10.

Yes, folks, you heard it here. Because I don't have enough to do with running a pattern club, a wholesale pattern business and writing a book (along with trying to raise two reasonably well-behaved small people), I've decided to also train for a marathon. I'm going to be pushing it with a fairly compressed training schedule, but at least with walking I won't have to fight my horrible shin splints, which are the reason I've never successfully trained to *run* a marathon.

Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it!

Time for my monthly update...

2010-06-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

Even though I'm sure it has been more than a month since my last post. Such is life these days!

I have been busily working behind the scenes on my latest project, which I introduce to you now:

(Click on the graphic to go to the new website...)

This is the first public step towards publication of my next book, which is aiming for next summer. It's ever so handy that there will be a Sock Summit 2011 to prod me along (thanks, Tina & Stephanie!).

The book will have little profiles on around 25 hand dyers who make fabulous sock yarn. Yes, it was incredibly hard to narrow it down to 25. We tried to find a wide variety of styles and business size ranges from teeny tiny to relatively large (although even the "big" dyers still only have a few people working to produce ALL. THAT. YARN.). Each dyer sent me a yarn that they feels represents them well, and I'm designing a sock specifically for each yarn. I'll also sprinkle in some tidbits on my own creative process.

The CSK (Community Supported Knitting - many thanks to Bill for coming up with that one!) idea is a way for people to get involved in the actual production of the book, sort of how a CSA member helps a farmer to harvest by purchasing the veggies before they're harvested (often before they're even planted!). With the CSK, as with the CSA, members will get patterns as they're developed instead of having to wait until the book is actually on the market. CSK members will truly be partners in the publishing of Indie Socks, and I find that idea to be so very exciting!

Just to tantalize you a little more, here are some of the luscious yarn photos that my intrepid photographer Gail (you'll remember her work from Toe-Up! and her fabulous blog) has taken of the yarns so far. Aren't they good enough to eat?

My biggest regret is that I can't send a skein of each yarn out with each copy of the book. Now wouldn't THAT be sweet. Donna and I briefly considered a yarn club to go along with the CSK, but I decided that I'd end up dead or institutionalized if I tried to take that on. I will happily be telling you how you can get your hands on each yarn for yourself, though.

Exclusive goodie bags for the first 150 people! Free stuff! Whoo!

Knit Nation 2010!

2010-04-29T10:29:00.001-07:00

The post isn't up yet, but today is my day to be featured on the Knit Nation 2010 blog (in the meantime, you can read a great post about Clara Parkes). Somehow I managed to get myself invited to teach at this guaranteed-to-be-a-good-time new knitting festival happening in London this summer. Here's the official promotional blurb:

"Knit Nation is a knitting and spinning expo that will take place in London, England July 29-31. There will be yarn, classes, fiber, and festivities including a Ravelry talk and party. Centrally located at the Royal College next door to the renowned Victoria and Albert Museum, you can absorb the sites of London between classes, yarn shopping, and searching for the perfect skein of Wollmeise. Please come join us!"

Sounds like the perfect excuse to get your passport updated, eh?

I'll be teaching my basic toe-up sock class (which I've started to refer to as "boot camp for toe-up socks"), designed to get you on the path to knitting toe-up without fear. I'll also be teaching an intro to neck-down triangular lace shawls and two-at-once toe-up socks. You can view a complete list of classes from all the teachers (it's quite the line-up) here.

Come join us for loads of fibery (and touristy) fun! "Look, kids! Big Ben, Parliament." (Extra credit if you can tell me where that quote comes from...)

Yes, I'm still alive!

2010-04-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

Everything's fine here, just taking a little break from several things for the past month. I'm in the midst of reading The Happiness Project and have been working to focus on what's right in front of me (as in, playing a board game with Sydney when she asks me to rather than blowing her off because I'm busy surfing the Ravelry forums).

It's an interesting book, BTW. I'm trying really hard not to be too annoyed by the author, because I think anyone would be mildly annoying when laying all their faults bare for the world to see. When I get past that, she really has lots of great suggestions about how to improve your satisfaction with life. After a fall and spring of really struggling with fatigue and general grumpiness, this is something I really need. I'm hoping that not only will I put some joy back into my family life but also my work as well. It needs a little joy! Still trying to put burnout behind me here.

So what have I been up to in the past month? The quick run-down:

Drove to California for spring break and had a blast at Legoland/Disneyland with the kiddos.

Cut off all my hair (seriously - it's Winona-Ryder-in-Reality-Bites short).

Started Sydney in T-ball, which she LOVES (and is quite good at, unlike her mother). With 2 games per week, we have lots of chances to cheer her on. Her team sponsor is Voodoo Donuts, which is the icing on the cake, considering the number of donut fanatics in this house.

Taught Sydney how to ski (she's a natural - just like her mother). Still trying to get Owen up on the mountain.

Hired a house cleaning service to come in every other week. Realized that it's worth every penny, because if it didn't get spent on cleaning, I'd have to start spending it on therapy!

Took Sydney and my mother-in-law to see the Cirque du Soleil show in town. It was absolutely fantastic and so fun to see it through Sydney's 7-year-old eyes. She couldn't believe what she was seeing!

Celebrated Owen's 5th birthday. I can't believe he's so old - it seems like just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital.

Welcomed our first niece, Anna, into the world. I got to spend several hours with her and her mom at the hospital helping them through their slightly rocky start in the nursing department. Parents are now sleep-deprived but doing as well as any first-time parents do in their first month home!

I also got a few work-related things done, including a couple different pairs of socks for a couple different publications (which you'll see sometime in the next year or two). For Gardiner Yarn Works, I finally got my new summer sweater design released:

Three months after I first showed her to you, Valencia is finally finished! Click the button above to get your own pdf copy (this version includes the XS-XL sizes - the plus version is still a few months away due to my extreme procrastination issues and current inability to get excited about doing any more grading of anything right now...).

My latest goal? Not to let 6 weeks pass before posting again. I need to stop letting perfect be the enemy of good and realize that I don't have to have a bunch of pictures or something seriously enlightening to say in order to post. Photos have been an issue - I bought a great new pocket camera that gets me to take more photos, but it's having issues talking to my laptop. Sort of hard to post photos when they refuse to upload to my computer! I'll tackle that issue next week - right now, I'm off to tackle some deadline knitting and nurse my cold by watching The Celebrity Apprentice in bed. Good times!

The Mountain, She Is Mine!

2010-03-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

Before I dazzle you with every detail of my weekend activities, the blog tour is wrapping up with a few last posts and chances to win your own signed copy of Toe-Up! My friend Janet over at Musings On the Art of the Cable has a little interview and contest running. Next up, check out Nelkin Designs tomorrow and Independent Stitch on Friday. These are your last chances to score a free copy, so get thyself over there and enter to win!

I'm sure you all have been dying to know if I went skiing and, if so, am I currently in traction? I'm happy to say, I did go skiing last Thursday and enjoyed myself so much, I bought a spring pass to Mt Hood Meadows and went again this morning! It's unbelievably great to be back doing something I loved so much for so many years.

Here are my skis, getting ready to cross the parking lot and board that chairlift at Ski Bowl last week.

I'm frighteningly out of shape, although the skiing technique has come back to me much better than I expected. My main problems involve my feet cramping inside my boots and my thighs cramping due to the aforementioned out-of-shapedness. It doesn't help that Meadows has serious mountain skiing, which means the runs are looooong. So far I have managed not to crash and/or hurt myself (or others). I take that as a good sign.

Mt Hood is such a crazy thing. The area around Portland is relatively flat, but on a clear day, when you look to the east there's this giant snow-covered mountain sticking up out of the ground. If you look a bit further north, there's a similar mountain that doesn't stick up quite so high since it's missing its top (that would be Mt Saint Helens). It's not like Colorado or Wyoming where you have big mountain ranges stretching across the horizon - we've got these perfect little cone-shaped volcanoes poking up here and there. The effect is quite breathtaking.

I also managed survive the Weekend O' Parties in one piece. Saturday started with an 11 am showing of Walking with Dinosaurs, which is basically a huge narrated puppet show with impressive special effects. It was at the Rose Garden (where the Trailblazers play), and those were some big puppets! Sydney enjoyed it for the most part, and I absolutely loved it (former paleo geek that I am). Owen, however, had had enough at intermission and refused to go back in. He knew it wasn't real, but it was still too scary for him. Poor little guy! He's so generally fearless, it's easy to forget that he's only 4 and tends to get overwhelmed by large-scale events like that. He has no problems watching Jurassic Park on tv, though!

After the dinos, I headed to my mother-in-laws to help her throw a baby shower for my upcoming new niece. I was in charge of drinks (coffee and lemonade) and games. Since my sis-in-law isn't much of a game person, we only did one (my favorite from my baby shower). It involves taking the labels off of a bunch of jars of baby food, then passing them around for everyone to identify by color.

It's amazing how many different variations of orange food you can find in the baby food aisle! Squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, chicken noodle dinner, vegetable risotto w/ cheese (no, I'm not kidding)...

Yesterday involved a much crazier party, that being 17 first-graders at the bowling alley. Bill decorated the cake (Can you guess who's on it?):

The first-graders weren't bad at the bowling (here's the party girl decked out in her bowling shoes and fancy birthday dress):

Owen had a slightly different bowling style...

Everyone had a great time, but I was completely exhausted by the end. Getting everyone set up on a lane, showing them how to roll the ball, and dealing with computers that didn't want to register the soft rolls of a 6-lb ball thrown by a 4-year-old really wore me out. Sydney declared it a great success, though, so that's really all that matters. We decided that we're probably not going to have Owen's party there, though, even though he requested it. He bowled maybe 8 frames and spent the rest of the time begging for quarters to play video games.

I even got a little bit of knitting done! I've got deadline knitting up the wazoo, but I decided to start on a pair of Wavering Cables Socks for myself (and to use in new pattern photographs since the originals don't show the pattern very well). The yarn is from Simply Socks Yarn Co, one of their new line of solids.

I just didn't have the brain power to start charting stuff out over the weekend for new designs. I should've been doing that today instead of skiing, but what can I say - my boss gave me the day off! Isn't that one of the best benefits of working for yourself?

Wha? Where did the last 10 days go!

2010-02-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

I think I've been too obsessed with Twitter lately. Not that I haven't spent plenty of time neglecting my blog in the past, but Twitter kind of lets me get my chattiness out of my system. Not much left over for poor blog.

It has been an eventful week-and-a-half. My lovely girl turned 7 (can't hardly believe it!) on the 20th. We celebrated by going to see the Harlem Globetrotters.

The game was fun, but now that we've done it, I don't feel the need to ever do it again. Sydney was moderately entertained, but Owen was mostly interested in the junk food and trying to climb on the railings in the middle of the aisles. We had a moment of panic when we got there and discovered Bill had grabbed the wrong tickets (he brought our Walking With Dinosaurs tickets, which are for this coming weekend), but fortunately the kind folks at the box office were able to get us replacements. Whew!

In other fun non-work-related news, I signed myself up for an intro-to-curling class at the Lloyd Center Ice Rink. There's a curling league in Portland that practices there a few times a week, and my goal is to get myself into a novice league this spring. I have curled a few times, years ago, back in St. Paul (we went for work team-building events, the brilliant idea of one of our Canadian-born managers who rocked the special curling shoes with one slippery sole and one sticky sole). I'm really excited at the possibility of getting back into it. My grandfather used to curl in Duluth, MN, so it's in my blood!

I also stopped whining about never going skiing and decided to take the bull by the horns. I've realized that I'm an adult with a driver's license and can go skiing any time I want to, right? I bought a new pair of ski boots (something that I've been using as an excuse not to go skiing for years), got my edges tuned and bases waxed, and am ready to hit the slopes. I was going to head up to Timberline today, but they've been getting lots of snow up there and I'm not sure I'm ready to handle chaining up the van tires on my own. I'm thinking of heading to Ski Bowl this afternoon since their night skiing is closer and cheaper (no chains required). It seems silly to pay full fare at Timberline (over $50) when I'm probably only going to be able to handle a couple hours in my current state of out-of-shapeness. We'll see what happens!

As for work, I'm currently feeling over-scheduled and under-motivated. So what else is new? We made a big decision this past week to expand back into the retail pattern business instead of focusing on wholesale-only like we have been for the past few years. I love the idea of wholesale-only, and I like to do everything I can to support local yarn shops, but I'm getting totally overwhelmed with printing, packing and shipping. I need to get back to designing before I totally crash and burn. We'll still be offering patterns to shops who want them but won't be exhibiting at the trade shows anymore and hope to move much more to a digital-only, paperless existence. I'm so sick of ink emergencies and sheet protectors.

To that end, all Gardiner Yarn Works patterns designed by me are now available in the Ravelry pattern store (you'll need a Ravelry login to get there) and will soon be up (hopefully by next week) on the Gardiner Yarn Works website to purchase directly as downloads. It was a tough decision, but such a relief for me. I didn't start designing so I could spend all my time printing, sleeving, packing and shipping!

I'm trying to take a cue from Hot Rod, aka Relaxicat.

If you're still following the blog tour, we've got a few more stops and a few more opportunities to win a copy of Toe-Up! Check out Faina's interview with me over at The Designer's Studio, and visit the bluegirl knits blog later today for a guest post from me where I talk a bit about the stories behind a couple designs and how they got repurposed for the book.

I'm off to mentally prepare myself for skiing tonight. If you're up at Ski Bowl later, I'll be the one trying not to break a leg, make friends with a tree or destroy my ACL!

Winter Olympics, I love you so...

2010-02-15T08:06:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure how much more I could love the Winter Olympics. I enjoy the Summer Olympics as well, but as a former winter sports fanatic who grew up in snowy Northern Minnesota, my heart will always belong to the colder of the two Games.

I will admit that watching the Winter Olympics is always slightly bittersweet for me. You wouldn't know it to look at me now, but I was an expert skier in my teens and early twenties before life intervened and I stopped skiing every weekend. It was rare indeed that I found a slope I couldn't ski, even when my family took our twice-annual trips to the mountains (we'd generally alternate between Jackson, Wyoming, and Red Lodge/Bozeman, Montana - lucky me, right?). It was one of the few things in life I was really good at, and it's a huge regret of mine that I let it go. We live relatively close to good skiing now, but I'm so out of shape I'm a little afraid to try it again (and the rest of the family really isn't that interested).

It does make watching the alpine events (like the moguls) a lot more interesting because I know exactly what it takes to ski like that, and so I know exactly how incredible those performances really are! It's sheer insanity. I doubt I ever would've been competitive at that level (there was absolutely no opportunity to get any kind of elite-level training or even compete on a team where I lived), but I was good enough that I've always been sad that I never got the chance to really give it a try.

The kids are starting to show quite a bit of interest in watching the Games with us, which is really fun. They both want to be ski jumpers, which is going to be slightly difficult because the nearest jumping facility is in central Washington. Too bad we're not still in Minnesota where ski jumps are ridiculously prevalent (ironic, isn't it - you'd think ski jumping would be more common in the mountains). Must be the influence of all those Scandinavians who settled in the upper Midwest a few generations ago. We can always send them to live with Bill's family in Saranac Lake, NY, so they can train in Lake Placid! Or else I need to get them interested in Curling (I'm going to try to join a league next winter, so you never know...).

I'm ready to settle in for a long day of TV-watching and knitting - we're battling yet another cold bug here at Chez Gardiner, which I started to really feel last night. I've got two baby showers coming up this month, not to mention countless submission deadlines (and of course the next book to work on), so I've got plenty to do. I love having the excuse of the Olympics so I don't have to feel like such a bum for watching trash TV all day, even with the excuse of being sick.

Upcoming stops on the blog tour - check out my lovely tech co-editor Amy's interview with me on Tuesday, and I stop by The Designer's Studio on Thursday (in the meantime, stop by The Designer's Studio hostess's blog to enter to win your signed copy of Toe-Up!). We've added a few more dates, so if you still haven't nabbed your copy there will be more chances to win!

Knitspot!

2010-02-12T12:48:00.000-08:00

The latest stop in the blog tour is at Knitspot today. I had great fun writing a guest post for Anne that's all about the fun we had scaring the neighbors with our crazy photo sessions. Good times! There are also 2 more chances to win a signed copy if you comment over there by Sunday.

Visionary Round-Up

2010-02-11T21:01:00.000-08:00

What a week! I just spent 8 days in the company of other knitting-and-fiber-related book authors (and aspiring authors) up at Cat Bordhi's Visionary Retreat for self-publishers. It's always an exhausting, emotionally-draining, inspiring, crazy week and this year was no exception.

I adore the chance to head up to Friday Harbor, one of my favorite places on earth, and spend the week on-island. We got lucky on our drive up and snagged one of the last spots on the ferry deck. I love this shot of the cars separated from water by only a thin net fence. Hope their parking brakes are solid!

Once on the island, we settled into our cabins and the lodge at Lakedale, another gorgeous, inspiring spot.

I brought Donna with me this year for moral support (and because she's helping with the next book, including by standing by as the voice of sanity and organization amidst my perpetual chaos), which was really nice. I love hanging out surrounded by all that crazy creativity, but sometimes I just need to hide my introvert self and chill out. We had a little cabin to ourselves with a bedroom downstairs for Donna and a loft upstairs for me, and a living room and kitchen with fireplace and DVD player for the necessary chilling out. I got to wake up in the morning and look out the window to this view:

It was too cold to enjoy the fire pit but not too cold to enjoy the ducks and various other waterfowl. I took a few walks (the first steps in my pre-pre-marathon training) and generally enjoyed being out of the city. We also took a drive to the west side of the island one afternoon and stopped to see baby alpacas and eagles along the way. I didn't remember to grab my camera, so no alpaca photos (they were incredibly cute!).

I was lucky enough to spend two mornings learning about book design and typography from small press owner Deb Robson (she is just as delightful as you'd guess from this photo of us on the ferry).

It's amazing what a good time can be had talking about setting baseline grids in InDesign and selecting the perfect font for display text. I'm such a font novice, but after Deb's typography class, I was ready to spend the next three days surfing MyFonts.com! But first I need to get a little bit more of my next book written...

I'll save the rest for another post - I've got a little guy who's been missing me all week waiting upstairs for some before-bed snuggles. If you're following the book tour (and are still waiting to win your own copy of Toe-Up!), head over to my tech editor Amanda's blog for a fun little interview and to the Knot Another Hat blog for some Olympic knitting inspiration. Also, check out Knitspot over the weekend for a guest post involving wild tales of book photography.

Until next time, here's a final view of Friday Harbor. Can't wait to get back there!

Thursday's blog tour stop

2010-02-04T07:31:00.000-08:00

I have to say, honestly, today's blog book tour stop made me a little bit nervous. Grumperina, she calls it like she sees it, and while I am a big fan of brutal honesty...well, let's just say I needn't have worried.

Go to the amazing Grumperina blog for a fantastic review of the book and a chance to win your own signed copy. I'm totally a Midwestern-girl-of-Scandinavian-descent-who-can't-take-a-compliment, but I have to say this review made my morning. Thanks, G!

Stop back on Monday when I will be doing a guest post over at the Knot Another Hat blog. Until then, have a great weekend, y'all!

Where blog tours collide...

2010-02-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

Today we have a perfect storm of blog tours. My own Toe-Up! tour is off and running with a little q-and-a session over at We Heart Yarn (the blog of my fabulous photographer, who dug up some favorite shots that we just couldn't manage to squeeze into the book). My interview with the lovely Debby Accuardi of At The Kitchen Table should also be going up sometime today. Finally, I missed tweeting about our Friday stop due to much craziness (I was supposed to teach at Yarn Expressions in Huntsville, Alabama, over the weekend, but when I arrived at the airport on Friday all flights from Atlanta and Memphis into Huntsville had been canceled, meaning there was no way for me to get there that night...which was a good thing, since I ended up with a horrible cold and spent the weekend in bed). My Portland designer friend Larissa, author of the wonderful Knitalong, was our Friday hostess at her lovely blog Stitch Marker.

Now that that's out of the way, I've got a different tour, for another book that I was involved in that's coming out in May. This one's all about lace based on the stitch patterns of the late lace expert Dorothy Reade (who also happens to be an Oregonian, hailing from Eugene). It was written by Donna Druchunas, author of Arctic Lace and Ethnic Knitting Discovery (two of my favorite knitting history/culture books), and you can find additional stops on the blog tour and more info on the book at her blog. I had the good fortune of being invited to contribute a design to the new book, and I'm going to tell you a little bit about that design here today.

The book is called Successful Lace Knitting - Celebrating the Work of Dorothy Reade and features 25 patterns, each utilizing an original Dorothy Reade lace motif. I got to design a top in luscious Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb, using a lace pattern called "Inset Diamonds". Called the Diamond Swing Top, it's knit seamlessly and was originally designed as a maternity top. It turned out to be perfectly cute for the non-pregnant as well, so Donna decided not to limit its audience by labeling it as "maternity". I particularly love the length of this sweater, which covers my least-favorite body area (aka hips, love handles...the area that having kids really wreaks havoc on!).

This poor book has been through several iterations and several potential publishers, but it will be worth the wait. Back at the beginning, Donna sent all the designers a little questionnaire about their design - here are the designer notes for the Diamond Swing Top:

Please write a short description of your project, mentioning any
special inspiration and any special or unusual techniques that you used.

This is a scoop-necked top with a front opening to accommodate a pregnant belly through all stages of pregnancy and beyond. One of my goals with this project was to design a sweater that could be used beyond the nine months of pregnancy, since I was always sad to give up my favorite maternity clothes after each of my kids were born.

This top is knit completely seamlessly with sleeves knit from the armholes down for easy fit adjustment.

What stitch pattern did you use and why did you choose it?

I chose the Inset Diamonds pattern simply because I love diamonds! I was not disappointed - this was a very fun pattern to use.

Did you make any changes to the chart, or use different decreases than Dorothy Reade used? If so, please explain the changes you made and your reasons behind them.

I did not - I knit exactly as Dorothy charted them.

What yarn did you choose for your project? What made this yarn particularly well suited for this project specifically, and for lace
knitting in general?

I used Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb, which isn't necessarily the first yarn you'd think of for knitting lace. However, the lace pattern was beautifully defined and the knitter doesn't need to be intimidated by small yarn and needles. I think lace looks fantastic in heavier yarn weights, and this project proves that!

Do you have any special lace knitting tips related to your project?

Since the sweater's skirt is knit flat and the sleeves are knit in the round, the lace will be knit a bit differently so keep that in mind when reading the charts. You can also substitute SSK for the k2tog-tbl for the left-leaning decreases, although I didn't think this was necessary with this yarn.

What kind of knitting needles do you prefer for lace knitting and
what makes these needles work well for lace?

I use my Addi Turbo needles for just about everything. Some will prefer the sharper point of the Addi Lace needles for lace knitting, but I don't - the blunt tips of the Turbos work great for my particular style of (English) knitting.

Would you like to add any personal comments about designing this project? Perhaps you'd like to comment on any connection between Dorothy Reade's foundation and your own creative spirit.

One of the things I loved about working on this project was the strong feeling of being connected to the past and participating in the passing of these gorgeous lace patterns on to the next generation of knitters. The silhouette and techniques used in this sweater may be modern but the lace pattern is truly timeless.

You can pre-order Successful Lace Knitting from Amazon. The book will be released in May, while Donna is teaching on an envy-inducing Alaskan cruise. I think they still have room, if you're not doing anything in May and want to go to Alaska! (Bring me with you?)

Blog Tour, Stop #2 is up!

2010-01-28T08:41:00.001-08:00

Go visit Carol over at Go Knit In Your Hat for a great review of Toe-Up! and a chance to win your very own signed copy.

Twisted video interview is up!

2010-01-27T15:17:00.000-08:00

I really hate watching myself talk, but I actually had fun watching this - the kick-off post of my blog book tour. Thanks so much to Shannon & Emily from Twisted, our fab Portland sock-obsessed LYS, for hosting such a fun interview!

Hello, knitters!

2010-01-25T14:09:00.000-08:00

ETA more blog tour confirmed dates!

How ya been? I'm getting a bit loopy from ink fumes and plastic sheet protector residue. This past week has been all about sleeving patterns and getting them in the mail to shops who ordered at TNNA.

We're also gearing up for the Toe-Up! blog book tour, which is finally almost ready to commence. We've still got some unconfirmeds, but here's the lineup we've got so far:

Twisted - Jan 27th (video interview at the place where it all started)
Go Knit In Your Hat - Jan 28
Stitch Marker - Jan 29th
We Heart Yarn - Feb 1 (coincidentally, I will have Donna Druchunas' blog tour stopping by here on that same day with her upcoming lace book - it's blog tour-o-rama around here!)
Grumperina - Feb 4
Knot Another Hat - Feb 8
Bulldog Knits - Feb 10
Knitspot - Feb 13
Frottez - Feb 16
The Designer's Studio - Feb 18
Yarn Thing (podcast - live call-in show!) - Feb 23
Twist Blog - date TBA
Bee Bonnet Report - date TBA
At the Kitchen Table (podcast) - date TBA

There may be a couple more in the pot, so stay tuned. I will be tweeting each post when it goes up, so check there or on the GYW fan page on Facebook for up-to-the-minute announcements of tour happenings.

While I try to survive post-TNNA, book tour and pre-Visionary Retreat madness (yes, it's that time of year again for Cat Bordhi's awesome retreat for self-publishing authors), I am in fact getting some knitting done.

Here's a peek at the first sock design for my next book, which will feature profiles of and socks designed for indie dyer yarns.

I know, blurry and unspecific, but I'm trying to keep it mysterious. It's a lovely skein from Serendipitous Ewe, who's quickly becoming one of my new fave indie dyers. I'm kicking around the idea of releasing a few patterns from the book ahead of time as $5 downloads, like Janel Laidman does with her books. What do you all think? Would you be interested?

I'm also spending lots of time thinking about knitting - people often ask where I get my inspiration, and a lot of times I have it sitting on my desk! Here's what the top of my scanner looks like right now:

The front three are waiting for me to turn them into socks and a lacy something for Sandra Singh (these are exclusive vampire-inspired colorways, also from Serendipitous Ewe). The lovely dark yarn cake in the back is from Abstract Fiber and will also go in the new book, once I figure what in the world to do with it. It is unbelievably gorgeous, but the rich, saturated color is not necessarily the easiest to design with (or photograph!). I'm up for the challenge, though!

As I stare longingly at these lovelies, I'm working diligently to get the last couple TNNA-released patterns graded and to my tech editors. Wanna see my notes?

Such fun! This is what I go through to make sure everything's nicely centered on all sizes of Valencia. Don't you wish you could have that much fun? You can - volunteer to do this grading for me so I can go watch Season 3 of Nip/Tuck, which I just got from the library! The only thing that saves it from crazy-making is the fact that someday it means you all will be able to knit this for your own selves:

Lordy, lordy, look who's 40!

2010-01-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of my graphic designer brother-in-law...

Happy birthday, Bill! Love ya, honey!

Time for a blog post, perhaps? And fundraising for Haiti!

2010-01-16T12:07:00.000-08:00

Well, I survived TNNA. I tried to go into it with a really positive attitude, and even though it's the worst show we've had (although it's always hard to tell what will happen after the fact), I had fun and came out of it feeling good. I'm still not 100% sure we'll go to Columbus, but I'm leaning strongly in that direction.

It helped to go over my accounting for last year and realize that wholesale pattern sales were by far the biggest chunk of GYW's income. Sure I'd only have to sell 1/3 of the patterns at retail download to equal my wholesale sales, but at this point in time I'm nowhere near that. My download sales would have to grow by like 5,000% to match my wholesale revenue. That's a bit of a wake-up call, as is the fact that the little experiment I did with posting a pattern for sale on Ravely in early January has resulted in exactly 1 download - my whole marketing strategy would have to change dramatically to focus on downloads, and I'm not ready to do that. I'd rather be knitting!

I also can't help but think that if I keep on soldiering through this recession, I'll be in a good position to ride the crest of the wave once the next boom period hits. GYW is now self-sustaining (of course, that's with both Donna and I working basically for free, but at least it's not eating through cash like it was a few years ago), so for the moment, we're good to go for as long as we can stand it. I'm feeling refreshed and re-inspired, so we should be set to carry on for 2010.

Now I'm ready to move on with fun stuff, like the blog book tour which is finally getting off the ground! I'll post the schedule as soon as I have it, but we've got some great bloggers (and a couple podcasts) lined up! If any of you want to participate and have a good readership, please let me know - we've got a few slots left. There will be drawings and other fun stuff happening in conjunction with the tour, starting the last week in January.

We've also got the new designs unveiled, finally! You can go to the GYW website to see them all, but here are a few highlights.

This first one is Valencia, and I think it's the best sweater I've designed in ages, if not ever (Cannon Beach and Knotty Wrap are contenders also - why is it that all my favorites are summer tops?).

It's all in the round, and the cap sleeves don't require any special grafting or picking up of stitches - you just bind off the underarms and cast on for the sleeve right on top. So easy! I also put one of my favorite cables up the back.

I'm still working on getting it all graded (it will have regular (XS-XL) and plus (2X-6X) versions), so it won't be available until March 15.

Next we have the Cuddly Baby Cardi, which was designed by our friend Yvonne from Lavender Sheep. It's an easy top-down raglan, and Donna found the world's cutest baby to model it for us. Yvonne will have her own little model in a few months, but fortunately that little bun is still firmly in its oven!

Finally, we have Birch, which got loads of attention at TNNA. We had it on our dress form over a dark top, held in place by a copper Plover shawl pin.

We are going to rephotograph this weekend since it's really hard to see the detail. It's an entrelac pattern with a lace panel in the center of each rectangle. It comes in three different widths from scarf to wrap. Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern:

We've also got a long-sleeved sweater, a vest, fingerless gloves and a new earflap hat, so look for them at your LYS very soon!

Finally, we've all heard about the disaster in Haiti, right? Well, I'm trying to do my very small part to help. All proceeds from downloads of my Hurricane Socks via Ravelry will be going to disaster relief for Haiti. $3 will go to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and $3 to Heifer International. Click below the photo to buy the pattern and help the cause.

Since many of you probably bought this pattern after its initial release when proceeds were going to help victims of the hurricanes in the Gulf in 2008, I've got another way to help. Join the brand new Toe-Up! flickr pool and post a photo of a finished or in-progress sock from the book. For each sock posted, I'll donate $1 to Doctors Without Borders. Since I can't track sales of books directly, I figure this is a good way to do it indirectly.

Happy MLK birthday weekend, everyone!

Fun with business decisions...

2010-01-05T18:59:00.000-08:00

As I head off to TNNA tomorrow, I'm finding myself really struggling with the direction my business should take. It doesn't help that I hear designers who I consider to be very successful questioning where the industry is going and whether or not there will be a place for professional designers. Are magazines going to continue to exist, or will webzines like Knitty and Twist Collective become the norm? Will yarn companies keep buying patterns from independent designers or turn to staff designers? Will a ridiculous number of knitting books continue to be published each year, making it harder and harder for each individual book to be financially viable? Will yarn shops keep buying patterns?

Yarn shops are struggling through the recession. While on the one hand, it's inevitable that a time will come when the weaker members of the herd are picked off, leaving the strong shops even stronger, on the other hand it's difficult to know if I should continue to put all my eggs in the LYS basket. I've focused my business plan on selling wholesale only, and while my business grew a lot in 2009 (and I can't complain too much about sales of my book, either, and I relied mainly on shops and Amazon to get my book out there), I'm wondering if it's sustainable. There are so many pattern lines out there - how do shop owners make a choice to buy my patterns over the gajillion others vying for their attention? For that matter, how do knitters?

I'm also suffering terrible burnout this winter. Usually the January TNNA show is the turning point, and we'll see how I feel when I come back from Long Beach. If we have a great show, it will confirm I'm on the right track with my business and I'll keep doing what I'm doing for another year. If it's a bad show...well...then come the hard choices. Do I turn my focus to pdf downloads? Do I start selling retail from my website and/or Ravelry? I'm conducting a small experiment right now with a couple of my patterns, offering them for sale on Ravelry to see what happens. I'd love to get beyond all the printing and sleeving of hard copy patterns, but I have a feeling I'd miss out on a huge market segment by not doing it.

See what fun it is to be a small business owner? And I bet you thought I got to knit and come up with new designs all day! If only. I won't even start on my bookkeeping rant (except to say I hate it so) - I've got packing to do!

If you'll be in Long Beach this weekend, stop by Booth 348 to say hi! As for the rest of you, stop back next week to see the new designs we've got for spring. There are some good ones, if I do say so myself!

New family members!

2009-12-27T18:12:00.000-08:00

We've managed to increase our family by 4 over the past couple of weeks! Both Sydney and I requested new pets for Xmas, and Santa came through (with a couple extras thrown in for good measure).

First we added Hot Rod and Cupcake (thank you, Owen & Sydney, for the great names):

This brother-and-sister pair were dumped in the yard of someone who works at our vet's office. We discovered them there when we took Kika in for her checkup (Kika is NOT at all pleased with her new friends - she's spent the past week hiding from them in the basement even though they're not the least bit interested in her, poor girl!). They're delightful kitties and quite patient with being lugged around by the kids.

Today I got my present in the form of two lovely bunnies who are now keeping me company in my office. I present to you...Bella and Cocoa Puff! (Bill wants to change Cocoa Puff's name to Edward, but I'm not convinced we need a Bunnicula on our hands.)

These lovely buns came from the Humane Society and are my new BFFs. The kids are quite enamored with them, too, although they're not allowed to pick up the bunnies like they are the kitties... Bill was kind enough to put a lock on the outside of my office door so we won't have any issues with kiddos letting the bunnies out when I'm not looking!

My next task is to bunny-proof the office so I can let them hop around while I'm in here working. Even though they're on the small side for rabbits (around 4 lbs each), we're realizing that the cage we've got for them is way too small so they'll need to get out during the day.

Now that the holiday excitement is over, I've got to hustle my rump getting ready for TNNA. We leave next Wednesday - yikes!

Besides the bunnies, I got the book Baking With Julia Child and the complete Battlestar Galactica series on DVD for Xmas - exactly what I wanted. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

We've got winners!

2009-12-20T20:43:00.000-08:00

Congrats to our blog comment contest winners (I couldn't resist drawing three names instead of just two, so we've got one extra), chosen by random number generator: Karen, Margaret and Geek Knitter. Congrats, ladies!!! And thanks so much to all of you for playing. I loved hearing which socks were your faves and why!

I hope your holiday preparations are going well - it's sheer madness around here. Fortunately I'm not stupid enough to attempt any last-minute projects requiring me to stay up until the wee hours of the morning like I have the past couple of years - all the shopping is done, and other than a marathon wrapping session and lots of cookie baking, we're pretty much set.

Sydney got one of her presents early, and I'd love to show them to you, but the kids were playing swordfight with empty wrapping paper tubes and scared them into hiding before I could get a picture. I will tell you that our household has expanded by two (and will soon be expanding by two more once I get my present), and boy are they cute!

If I'm not back before Friday, and with my track record that's pretty likely, have a great Christmas (or at least a nice relaxing holiday from work if you don't celebrate)!

Looking forward...and a little contest!

2009-12-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

So I've obviously let a couple weeks slip by. Whoops! I was too busy enjoying my extended vacation (which has ended very abruptly with the stark realization that TNNA in Long Beach is a short month away...). My mom was here for Thanksgiving and we spent the week enjoying all that Portland has to offer. We walked over the downtown bridges, toured the submarine at OMSI, took the kids to the zoo and generally had a great time. We hosted Thanksgiving at our house and managed to fit our gigantic 23-lb turkey in the oven (nothing else went in until the bird came out - it was like a toddler in a roasting pan!).

The food was all spectacular, thanks to a little help from my mother-in-law and foodie friend Chris (who made the most amazing pinot cranberry sauce - I don't like cranberry sauce as a general rule, but I liked this!). The highlight of the day, besides the pastured heritage turkey (which was quite tasty), was unbelievably the brussel sprouts. Even Sydney liked them! I used the Alice Waters recipe from The Art of Simple Food, which calls for the sprouts to be blanched and then sauteed with onions and bacon. I'm not a huge brussel sprout fan myself, but these were outstanding.

Mom left on Friday and the kids went to my in-laws' for the night, freeing Bill and I up to go see New Moon at a great little neighborhood theater (the Roseway) that we've never been to before. It was no Citizen Kane, but it was quite entertaining and a fun way to spend a couple hours. I tried not to annoy Bill too much with my True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse comparisons...

I managed to finish a knitting project during all this madness (actually wove in the ends Saturday) - Owen's socks are done!

He put them on right away, then had to take them off again because he immediately slipped and fell on the wood floor in the kitchen and bonked his elbow. We decided they were socks better worn inside shoes. I also got the monster felt applique Advent calendar done, just in the nick of time. It turned out really well!

Here's a close-up of Santa's workshop:

And a project that may or may not be done in time for Christmas, a sparkly pink Pinecone Scarf for Sydney made with some crazy glitter yarn I picked up at The Naked Sheep:

I was going to make something new up for this yarn, but after I started I wasn't feeling inspired and decided Pinecone would make a fine sparkle scarf for an almost-7-year-old girl. I'd forgotten that the pattern is a little bit of a pain, as in, you need to pay attention or you will get lost.

Okay. Finally, let's get to the contest, for those of you patient enough to read this far. Here's how it goes - I'm looking to give away a couple copies of Toe-Up! in time for Xmas. Go to the Toe-Up! website and pick the pattern in the book you'd most like to knit, then leave a comment here as to what it is and why. I'll draw two winners from the comments the week of Dec 14. Woot!

And now for the lamest post ever...

2009-11-16T19:58:00.000-08:00

I've been under the weather all week, so I don't feel much like writing. I don't know what the deal is, but if I don't start feeling not crummy soon, I'm going to lose it!

Before I got the crummies, we had a pretty active week. I was booked to speak Tuesday night at the Snohomish Knitter's Guild, which is an amazing new guild up north of Seattle. Since Wed was President's Day and the kids didn't have school, we decided to make a mini-vacation of it and spend the night at Great Wolf Lodge. Donna and her family came with us, so hubbies and kids hung out and had fun while D & I went up to the guild meeting.

The guild was fabulous. They're very new (I think this was their 3rd meeting) but extremely well-organized. I blabbered about the book and the socks for a little while and then answered a bunch of questions. They then gave everyone about 15 minutes to buy books and patterns, which wasn't nearly long enough (my only complaint about my visit, although to be fair, they could've cut my talk short to give more time but they didn't - kind of like when I let my kids sleep until the last possible minute and then wonder why we can't quite make it to school on time...).

After the meeting wrapped up (they finished up with show-and-tell, which is always great fun when I'm not the one doing the showing/telling), we headed back to Great Wolf, where the kids and Bill were sound asleep after hours of fun at the water park and arcade. The next morning, we wore ourselves completely out in the wave pool. I couldn't talk Sydney into going on the big waterslides with me (poor Owen is still too short), but we had lots of fun in the little kid area. Poor Owen had a bit of a scare when he spotted Bill and started to run towards him, only to be hit with the full brunt of the 1,000 gallon bucket that spills over every 15 minutes or so. Of course I was safely under cover and didn't sacrifice myself for the boy. He was fine - just a little startled! Neither kid can really claim to be afraid of getting their faces wet at swimming lessons after that experience.

The rest of the week I've spent trying to recover from a stomach bug. I don't know if it was something I ate up in Washington or stress or what, but it's really annoying. I went to the doctor this afternoon and he said there's nothing serious wrong with me - I just have to wait it out. I'm happy not to have to medicate, but I'm also annoyed that it doesn't seem to want to go away! I'm also very annoyed to have missed my speaking gig at the Millstream Guild on Saturday. I was not ready to spend that much time standing (or in a place where I couldn't run to the bathroom without leaving behind a room full of people waiting for me to return), so Donna went in my place, bless her! Obviously she couldn't sign books, but she's heard me talk about the socks enough (and she knows the pattern line as well as I do) that I'm sure she was a great substitute.

Now I have to get myself back in action by Thursday for the Tigard Guild - the last of my November guilds. My mom arrives on Friday, and then we have a week of fun leading up to Thanksgiving. How is November half over already?!? Less than two months until TNNA and I am NOT prepared at all. Considering that I spend 50% of the time these days seriously considering shuttering GYW all together (just when it's starting to really cook - that would be smart, now, wouldn't it?), I need to take it one day at a time. If I don't have new designs for TNNA, so be it! Nobody's going to die, right? If it keeps me functional, we might just have to live with it for now.

And now I'm certain I'm not making any sense at all, so it's time to do my evening meditation (and try to talk my stomach into settling down) and go to bed! I will not watch the premiere of Chef Academy I will not watch the premiere of Chef Academy I will not watch the premiere of Chef Academy...

Yeeaaarrrrggggghhhh!

2009-11-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

I've got two kids who are on the tail end of being sick. They're still sick enough that we kept them home from school but not sick enough to slow down at all. Therefore, I've got two hyped-up crabby kids that have all this pent-up energy from being stuck in the house, constantly told to "take it easy" for the past week.

It's enough to drive even the most level-headed of moms completely nuts, and I most definitely am not the most level-headed of moms.

Fortunately Bill has been willing to tag-team, but he has the basement office with the door that locks (and clients who have to be called during business hours). I have no such escape. My office door closes, but I really need to install a lock on the inside because a closed door barely slows anyone in this family down.

Owen is driving us crazy taking food that he insists he wants, and then refuses to eat. Two seconds later, he's back, asking for something else.

Sydney has the personality of a wet cat, insists on stretching out across most of the couch and then throws a hissy fit when her brother dares take up more than the little corner where her stretched-out legs don't reach.

It's a good thing there's such a strong biological urge to love and protect your offspring, because otherwise these two would be at the bus station. I don't know how you homeschooling moms do it! Of course, life would be easier if we could actually be out doing things as opposed to staying at home, feeling crummy... I can't wait for this bug to pass.

I've been assuming that the kids have the swine flu. High fever, cough, sore throat... It has been making the rounds here in Portland. The vaccine is impossible to get, and if the kids have already gotten the bug, that's one less dose that could go to someone who's at high risk from complications. Of course, it's impossible to know because the kids haven't been sick enough to take to the doctor, so they haven't been tested. It's amazing how much more quickly Owen recovered than Sydney - we figure it must be due to the fact that he eats about 25 servings of fruits and veggies a day (okay, maybe not 25, but the kid eats a heckuva lot of fruit!).

While the kids recover, I've been doing some swatching for various project submissions. I've been out of the loop for so long (yeah, a month is a long time for me) that it's hard to get back into the habit of knitting several hours a day. Swatches that would normally take me a couple hours to knock out are taking multiple days. But they're getting done, and they're looking quite lovely. I'm taking my sweet time, but I am indeed climbing back into that saddle!

Waxing philosophical...

2009-11-07T11:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know it's not Monday, but I was reading the opinion page of today's paper and started to feel very philosophical. I've had that problem lately. Must be all the meditation I've been doing...

All the pundits are going on and on about the recent elections, and how the Republicans have gained on the Democrats because the economy sucks, the liberals don't think Obama's doing enough and of course the Republicans think he's doing way too much (and nothing good). The economy is indeed a little worrisome. Okay, a lot worrisome. I try not to think about it too much, because my little business is still in its growth phase and if I get too caught up in talk about what the economy's going to do, I may as well just give up and stay home.

I just ordered 4,000 copies of Toe-Up! It shipped from the printer yesterday. Of course, as soon as I placed the reorder, sales of the books I currently have seemed to come to a screeching halt. I've been mildly concerned about this, but since I was expecting it to take a year to sell out of my first printing, I'm figuring this second printing can last me through 2010 if it needs to. The first printing (the first 2/3rds of it, anyway) seemed to literally fly out the door.

Even if the book doesn't continue to sell as quickly, I like to remind myself of the whole supply chain of the book and all the little fingers it sends out into the world. It's my own little way of helping the economy - my tiny economic stimulus package, if you will. I chose to have the book printed in North America so that I could have a relatively high level of confidence that the people working in the printing press were being treated reasonably well and paid fairly (no sweatshop labor for this book). I chose to use FSC-certified paper for the cover and interior pages so that the environmental impact of the book could be slightly lower, not that that necessarily has anything to do with economic benefits (other than the fact that the paper is slightly more expensive in order to help cover the increased cost of sustainably managing the forests). The books are transported by truck from Canada, then delivered by a local freight receiver here in the Portland area. Then, they're sold to yarn shops across the country.

How many little roots does this send out? Well, the printing press keeps a number of people employed (it's a family business located in Manitoba), and my sales rep works out of a small office in California. Shipping the books helps out the trucker who drives them south, not to mention the gas stations, restaurants and other services the trucker uses on his trip. Once here, the freight company is busy for one morning delivering the boxes to our house. Then, Bill is busy for the rest of the day stashing boxes in various closets and out-of-the-way corners (although he doesn't get paid, other than in gratitude from me!).

Then, the books head back out the door, providing benefit to either the postal, FedEx or UPS workers who manage the shipping of the boxes. Once they reach the yarn store, the sale of those books help to provide a living to both the yarn shop owner and his/her employees. Since nearly every yarn shop that sells my books is a small local business, the dollars that knitters spend on those books (and the yarn that they inevitably will be tempted to buy along with it) stay in the local community to everyone's benefit.

Yes, that's sort of a long convoluted train of thought, but even if the books sit in my house for months, I can still feel good that I contributed to the first half of that chain of micro-economics. And every time you buy something at your LYS, you can feel good about the fact that you're helping to support many small businesses - not just the shop you're in, but all the small publishers, yarn companies, and the people they employ.

And on a totally unrelated note - Sydney's right top front tooth just fell out! Tooth fairy's going to be at our house tonight!

Because I'm lame about updating my website...

2009-11-03T16:52:00.000-08:00

I'm just going to do a blog post about my upcoming events. I was lax about updating the web page before, but since The Big Crash, I just don't have it in me to even think about it.

So here's what's happening in November!

This Saturday (Nov 7), from 1-2 pm at The Naked Sheep in N Portland, Toe-Up Bind-Off class followed by a book signing from 2 pm until ??? If there are people showing up, I'll stay until 3-3:30. If nobody comes (waaaayah!), I'll probably take off about 2:30. Sydney and I have a date to the symphony that night.

On Tuesday, Nov 10, I'll be speaking at the Snohomish Guild up north of Seattle starting at 7 pm.

On Saturday, Nov 14, I'll be speaking at the Millstream Guild down in Salem, OR, starting at 9:30 am.

On Thursday, Nov 19, I'll be at the Tigard Knitting Guild in good old Tigard, OR (one of my local guilds). At this meeting, in addition to talking about the book, I'll be doing a quick afterthought heel demo.

The Toe-Up! trunk show is going to be traveling to Haymarket, Virginia, where it will be on display at Needles in the Haymarket (15125 Washington St #316) from around Nov 10 to Dec 1.

Whew! That's a lot of guilds this month! Guilds rock - go join one if you haven't already.

It's Monday!

2009-11-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

And here I am, as promised! I know it's after 8 pm on the east coast, but I reserve the right to post anytime before midnight PST. I'm working away on my new laptop, nursing a kid with the flu and practicing my mindfulness while trying not to kill the other kid due to his extreme naughtiness. He's currently filling the sink in the bathroom, attempting to prove my theory that if the floor gets wet enough, the entire bathroom will fall into the basement. Sometimes I think that when I tell him a consequence like that he sees it as a challenge rather than a deterrent... Boys!

Still no knitting happening here. I've been working on Owen's stocking:

Here's a close-up:

It's even cuter now that Santa has a head. As soon as this is done, I'm starting on the felt Advent Calendar and then Sydney's Sugarplum Fairy stocking, which I may have to completely wing since the replacement instructions have not arrived in the mail as promised...

I also spent much of the week furiously sewing Halloween costumes. I managed to finish everything on time and both kids were adorable as could be.

Aren't they cute (and can you believe I made them)? Of course, it couldn't be Halloween without someone getting sick. Sydney went to bed with a fever on Friday night but managed to rally for trick-or-treating (fortunately, an activity that doesn't involve much spreading of germs - I made sure she didn't stick her hands into any bowls of candy). She's still really sick but at least doesn't seem to be getting worse. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Owen to get the fever. So far, so good, but it's always just a matter of time with these two (what one gets, so does the other).

The week was so hectic I didn't get a chance to do much interesting cooking or baking, but I did make cream scones from Alice Waters' Art of Simple Food for breakfast yesterday. They took literally 5 minutes to stir up and were really yummy. I also spent much of the afternoon yesterday jarring up and pressure canning a 10-lb tuna I got from a local fisherman a few weeks ago. My foodie friend Chris and her husband helped me through the process, thank goodness (Mike knows his way around a fish - something that I, having been raised vegetarian, most definitely do not). There's nothing more intimidating than a giant dead fish staring at you with its glassy little eye (in this case, the eye was bigger than a quarter - not so little!). I actually had two fish, but the second turned out to be too far gone. Mike buried it in their backyard, where hopefully it will turn into some awesome compost in a few years. It was sad to not be able to eat any of that gorgeous fish.

Interestingly, the subject of fish was the second topic on Fresh Air this afternoon on NPR. There was a sustainable fishing expert on as Teri's guest, talking about how incredibly devastating our current factory fishing industry is. They basically go out on these giant ships and locate the schools of fish using the same technology the navy uses to locate submarines. There's no guesswork or "Perfect Storm"-type marriage of fishermen and the sea - it's very precise and incredibly hard on the ocean ecosystem. I was reminded of how lucky we are to live here in the Pacific NW where we can go to the coast and get sustainably-caught seafood from local fisherman. Oregon has the only certified sustainable shrimpery in the world. Even better, our local grocery store, New Seasons, marks all their fish based on sustainability criteria (they have green - good to go, yellow - okay in moderation but with some potential health/sustainability issues, red - avoid), making it really easy to see at a quick glance what the best options are when you're at the meat counter. Have I mentioned before how much I adore New Seasons?

I had another interesting experience last night, when I attended my first Buddhist meditation session at a center in SE Portland. I didn't stay for the whole thing since I was worried about my sick girl (and Bill was nursing a pinched nerve in his neck all weekend - fortunately that seems to have dissipated), but I'm seeing so much possibility in meditation practice. A few weeks ago, on a whim, I checked The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buddhism out of the library. Several years ago, my mom went with us to Hawaii for a week and found a little orange book, like a Buddhist version of the Gideon Bible, in her hotel's nightstand. She read it and told me how fascinating and insightful she thought it was. I wasn't really at a place in my life where I was interested or ready, but I must've filed that thought away until something brought it to the surface recently (no idea what - I can't remember exactly why I was inspired to check that book out).

I haven't talked much about this, but I've suffered from depression off and on (pretty severely at times) since Sydney was born. I've been on and off of Zoloft, and for awhile I was resigned to the fact that I'd just be on it forever, like an insulin-dependent diabetic. Then, I read The Omega-3 Connection, which is by a researcher who has experienced great success treating psychological conditions like depression, anxiety, ADHD and even schizophrenia with fish oil. His theory is that our modern diet, which is extremely low in Omega-3 oils (in particular, DHA, which is almost exclusively available from oily fish), is to blame for much of the increase in these mental illnesses. He noted that pregnancy and breastfeeding in particular depletes the mother of Omega-3s because the baby takes what it needs. If the mother doesn't have an adequate reserve, the baby will totally drain her, resulting in issues like PPD (post-partum depression). When I read this, it made so much sense. I've been taking fish oil supplements for about a month now and I feel fantastic.

In looking around for other ways to feel better without Big Pharm, I stumbled across yoga (which I used to do all the time but haven't regularly since I was pregnant with sydney) and meditation. Meditation naturally led to Buddhism, and after I read a little bit about Buddhist philosophy, it made so much sense I had to check it out for myself. One of the things I really like about it is that it's more philosophy than religion. I'd always assumed it was some sort of mysticism with one or more deities, but in fact Buddhists don't really worship any higher power (beyond one's own mind and the natural Buddha nature therein). There's so much potential there for getting rid of the negative, harmful thinking that my depression and anxiety really feed off of. I'm still at the point where it doesn't all make perfect sense, but I'm ready to learn! I figure it can't hurt...

Check back next week, same time, same station, for more cooking, baking, sewing, mental health-improving (and maybe even knitting - !) fun with the Gardiner family. Happy November!

Fun with technology...and other good stuff

2009-10-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

So I was all set to post on Monday about how I'm going to try to discipline myself to blog every Monday. I figure if I set up a schedule, like I have with laundry, picking up CSA veggies (which I manage to do almost every week) and making sure Sydney gets to school with her library book on Thursdays, I might be less likely to neglect this poor blog.

What happens Monday? I spill a teensy little bit of juice on my laptop's touch pad, it seeps down around the buttons and shorts the #*$&@#( thing out. It's dead as a doornail. So, no blogging, and even better, no access to any of my work files. Usually if I'm going to be without a computer, it's better planned. Nope - I had two ad deadlines, an order to print and send, and various other things (including online shopping for Bob Dylan's new Christmas album which was reviewed on Fresh Air the other day and immediately went to the top of my list of things I must have). Sheesh!

As of this moment, I'm typing on my brand new shiny laptop. I wasn't prepared enough to make the switch to Mac in crisis mode, so I'm still in pc land. I just installed the Adobe Creative Suite so we'll see if I can actually have Illustrator and Photoshop open at the same time (the guys at the pc shop swore up and down that it would be no problem - they also had good things to say about Windows 7, which immediately put them under suspicion in my book...). So far so good, other than the fact that I still have to go through the backup I just restored and make sure things are pretty well in order. I'm so glad that I heeded the advice of other folks who have had computer disasters over the past year and got my backups in order. It's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when" as far as needing a good backup (or two - I have both an external hard drive and an online backup service).

So instead of hearing all about my lovely chocolate chip cookies (I found a great recipe in the book Cooking With Whole Grains that uses whole Buckwheat groats instead of nuts to add crunch to the cookies, and my kids actually love them! Score!) and adventures in stocking applique, you get stories of computer woe. I'll spare you too much detail - I've got to get back to making the head for Sydney's Halloween costume. I promised it would be ready for her to try on tomorrow morning when she got up. Photos will be coming - don't you worry!

In other news, if you're going to be in Port Townsend, WA, this weekend for the retreat at Fort Worden, be sure to pop into town and check out the Toe-Up! trunk show that's going to be spending the weekend at the Twisted Ewe. Kristine Brooks, who owns Curious Creek Fibers, is going to be hanging out in the shop with her lovely yarns (she's the dyer who did up the lovely red yarn featured on the cover of Toe-Up! - good stuff). I was supposed to go up and teach some classes and do a book signing, but alas, only a couple people signed up for one of the classes so we ended up canceling. Stupid economy! However, Suzanne has plenty of signed books, the socks and several of my best-selling Gardiner Yarn Works patterns in the shop so you won't even miss me. I'll be there in spirit!

Happy Halloween to all, and check back on Monday when, barring further disaster (like the house burning down or me breaking all my fingers) I will have another blog post. Discipline, you are mine!

Oh, hello! I have a blog!

2009-10-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry to be so neglectful. I think about you nearly every day, but the longer I go between postings, the more I feel like I have to come up with something profound to make it worthwhile to the masses who have been waiting with bated breath for my return. Okay, not really, but I do feel bad about never updating this blog. If it makes you feel better, dear blog, I've been ignoring Twitter and Facebook as well.

It's been one of those months, where we've been hit with one thing after another. My father-in-law just got out of the hospital, where he landed for a week with a subdural hematoma after passing out and hitting his head (at least, the doctors think the hematoma was caused by the fall and not the other way around - they don't know for sure). My mother-in-law was semi-stranded in upstate New York where she was visiting her parents and so us kids were on duty until she was able to get home. We were really thankful for our flexible schedules, but it was a stressful week to be sure.

I'm also suffering from my usual fall malaise. I haven't picked up my knitting for a good two weeks now, and I hate to say, it's pretty darn nice. That's what happens when one works 10-hours a day, 7 days a week - eventually, something's gotta give. I am thinking about knitting - I just don't feel like doing it right at the moment. I'll give myself until November, when I'll realize that TNNA is just around the corner and I've got to get my butt in gear if I want to have any new designs. I'm also receiving new yarn in the mail at a rapid pace for the next book, which is eventually going to inspire me to knit something.

In the meantime, I'm chilling out by doing lots of yoga and lots of cooking. A few weeks ago, I went with my knitting group to see Julie & Julia (fabulous movie, BTW), and it totally inspired me to increase my daring in the kitchen. It helps that our CSA is bursting with new and interesting things each week this time of year. I was slightly tempted to recreate the Julie & Julia experiment until I looked through the actual recipes in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". I'm sorry, but I'm just not going to be eating anything involving calf's brains. Bill probably would, but I don't see the point of learning to cook something that doesn't at least have the potential of being added to our family's menu.

On the other hand, I do have a few cookbooks I'd love to use to branch out a bit on our regular food routines. Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food is definitely a cookbook I'd like to make my way through. I've started to dabble, and haven't found a loser yet. I made the most incredible strawberry ice cream this summer using her recipe, and her buttermilk pancakes are to die for. I'm also rarely (if ever) disappointed in my all-time favorite cookbook, Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair. There are plenty of recipes in both these fabulous books to keep me busy for a very long time. My goal is to try something new from each of these cookbooks once a week.

Next up on my list? Making a sourdough starter. I just bought a book on traditional European breads that includes instructions for making a starter with "air yeast" (yeasts and microbes floating on the breeze). I'll let you know how it goes!

And now it's time to go to my in-laws' for sourdough pancakes. The kids haven't seen their grammy in two weeks, and boy are they anxious. I've got a couple other little projects that I'm working on, so I'll try to get back here with some photos before November rolls around. Promise!

Millions of pumpkins...

2009-09-23T11:26:00.001-07:00

We have a family tradition of throwing our pumpkins off our front porch when they start to get icky after Halloween. We usually get volunteer pumpkin plants in the spring, and this year I was delighted to see what I thought were sugar pumpkin plants growing in the corner of our asparagus bed. I transplanted a few of the shoots around the yard and they went crazy over the summer. Bill just harvested the crop, and I've finally had to admit to myself that what we have are not sugar pumpkins but mini-pumpkins. I guess we now know which tossed pumpkin sprouted in that spot!

I will say that those mini-pumpkin plants produce like you wouldn't believe. We've got about 22 mini-pumpkins lined up on our porch and a few still left on the vine. This is the harvest from 3 individual plants. If only everything was that productive! I will say that the cucumber vines have been crazy this summer - we get several big cucumbers every time we go out to look.

I've also been meaning to share the shoes that Sydney picked out for school this year. Of course they were the one pair we really didn't want her to get (seriously - high-tops?), but ultimately we left it up to her. I think I had something very similar when I was in 7th grade (although mine were Reebok, not Sketchers). Any other children of the late-80s think these look familiar?

Now I'm off to mail a pattern order out, clean (gasp!) the house and decide if I have the motivation to make some zucchini bread or if I'd rather knit. I've got several ideas for the Janurary 2010 pattern release and I've got to get going if they're going to be ready in time.

Those of you who will be at Oregon Flock & Fiber this weekend, be sure to stop by our booth out on the lawn. Keep your fingers crossed for the weather to hold - it sure is nice out right now!

When life gets in the way of itself...

2009-09-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else ever feel like they're being pulled in a gajillion different directions at once? Welcome to my life. When will I learn that I can not, in fact, do it all? Probably never.

Since I last posted, we've survived the start of school, a deluge of lovely bulk-purchased produce and the first nasty cold virus of the season. I've tried to get the house clean and organized, and I've tried without success to claw my way back up onto the FlyLady wagon. I've attempted to get inspired to start baking again... My attempts at domesticity have been limited to canning. And boy, have I been canning!

We got several boxes of produce in a bulk-buy arranged by a friend of a friend. Tomatoes (since the tomatoes on our own plant are still green, and the few that have ripened have had a terrible case of blossom-end rot), peaches and pears. Here's the result:

Canned peach slices, pear sauce, pear nectar, whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato juice, bbq sauce and ketchup. Whew! No wonder I haven't had the energy to bake bread.

I've also been doing quite a bit of knitting. I finished the second sock of a pair on our road trip, but with disastrous results. Silly me, I didn't bother to make sure that the gauge on my second sock matched the first (which was knit over a year ago). Oops!

My left foot is a little bit smaller than my right, but good grief. Now I need to decide if I'm going to rip and reknit on bigger needles, try to give it a good hard blocking, or just throw in the towel and decide it wasn't meant to be. The bigger sock is the original Sakura, designed for the Woolgirl sock club and then reknit in solid red for Toe-Up! I thought it would be nice to have my own pair to wear - silly me!

The other two pairs of socks that I knit recently turned out quite a bit better. The first pair are my road socks (knit on the long drive home from Billings, MT, in the Wild Purls yarn that I bought there).

I did these two-at-a-time toe-up on Magic Loop, which is my new favorite technique (I really don't like knitting two socks at once top-down on two circulars, so I'm over the moon about finding a technique that I like for doing two socks at once). The pattern is a variation of a design I did for an upcoming book, which is why the photo doesn't show it in too much detail. They're worsted-weight, so lightning fast, and I've got enough yarn left over to make a pair for one of the kids, too. I did promise to make them some socks once Toe-Up! was finished...

The final pair was my reward for surviving Sock Summit. All the teachers got goodie bags filled with yarn (I think I posted pics of it awhile ago - I'm too hopped up on cold medicine to remember exactly), and I decided to make myself a pair of Changing Lanes socks out of the lovely skein of Blue Moon Socks That Rock.

This is a design I did for the Twisted Single Skein club - it will be available to the general public in Feb of 2010. It was originally an anklet pattern to go along with the single skein in the club shipment, but I added an additional repeat of the back-of-heel pattern for these socks since I had plenty of yarn. Here's a close-up of the back (sorry for the blurry - my head feels like a giant cotton ball right now, which also explains the slightly incoherent writing. In the words of Ralph Wiggum..."Me fail English? Unpossible!").

Next up? I'm starting work on my next book project, working title "Indie Socks". It will feature a number of indie dyers of various scales and specialties, including stories about how they practice their art. I'll be designing a sock for each dyer's yarn and I'll talk a bit about how I came up with the idea for each one. Sort of an inside peek into the entire creative process. I got so inspired by Sock Summit and all the fabulous creativity going on, I decided that this had to be my next book. I'll still be working on a textured colorwork book, but that's more for the 2011-2012 timeframe.

My mother-in-law brought us some lemon cheesecake, so I'm off to eat dessert for breakfast. And I wonder why my pants don't fit me anymore!

Our family's health care story

2009-09-03T16:56:00.001-07:00

Wow, two posts, two days in a row! Can you stand it? Although this one's gonna get political, so if you're looking for yarn, you can leave now. :)

I've been meaning to blog about this for awhile. Health insurance was something I went for decades without ever thinking about. I got a good job right out of college and had great coverage for like $35 a month. After I got married and we had kids, I worked off and on but still had good coverage, either through my own employer or Bill's. Both of the kids were basically born for free. It was great. I've been treated for post-partum depression (still on regular medication) for years, basically for free. Fortunately, depression doesn't seem to be a pre-existing condition (or at least one insurers can deny coverage for) here in Oregon.

After Owen was born four years ago, I made the decision to start my own business (this little pattern company called Gardiner Yarn Works). Last year, we finally became profitable, to the tune of about $4000 for the year. This year we'll do a bit better, but we're not going to be eating caviar at the Christmas party. The business at this point is self-sustaining but not providing any kind of contribution to our household expenses.

Two years ago, Bill made the decision to take a new job with a company he'd previously worked for. It was a sales position, commission-only, but he was an employee and so we had the normal employer-provided benefits, like health insurance. A few months after he'd changed jobs, his employer suddenly informed all the sales consultants that their positions were being converted from employee to independent contractor. Guess what - no more health insurance. Suddenly, Bill was self-employed along with me, and since we're both extremely small operations, we're stuck finding individual insurance.

The kids and I had no trouble finding a decent plan. We had a couple to choose from, in fact, and the three of us are covered for around $350 a month (we do have high deductibles, which we discovered when we took Owen to the ER with a severe case of croup and got a $1100 bill for it). We don't have dental or vision coverage, but so far, we're fine with our coverage.

Bill, on the other hand, had seen a doctor a few times a couple of years ago (right before his employer-based insurance got yanked) for a knee problem. The doctor couldn't really diagnose anything and told him he'd just have to live with it. However, due to the fact that he'd been seen for this condition, he's uninsurable. Nobody will sell him private insurance. Fortunately, in Oregon, we have a state plan for people who can't get insurance anywhere else. Without this plan, he'd be out of luck. And it's expensive - he pays over $600 a month just for himself, making our family's insurance bill around $1000 a month.

We're lucky that we can handle $1000 for our insurance payments, although it's not terribly easy. We've given up our cable TV and shop the 2nd-hand stores. We grow a lot of our own vegetables and don't eat out very often. The kids don't have lots of expensive activities, like piano lessons or private ballet/gymnastics/soccer - it's Parks & Rec or nothing for them. Still, we have it pretty good, I know. For now.

One of the things that's so terrifying about the current health insurance system is that we could lose our coverage at any time. It's also very frustrating that so many decisions in life have to be made in order to keep your health insurance. My mom would like to retire next year, but she needs to figure out how to bridge the gap from her current age (62) to Medicare (65). She could go on my stepdad's insurance, but he's a contract academic and with public university budgets what they are right now, he has to worry every year about not getting renewed (and if he doesn't, there goes that health insurance option). I can't imagine how people wanting to start a small business manage if they're not in perfect health. Are we really all supposed to throw in the towel and go work for someone else, just because we need health care coverage? Aren't small businesses the backbone of the American economy?

So much of the debate about health care reform makes me livid. People who have good insurance through their employers don't want it messed with, and that I can understand. However, don't they realize that these days, employment is not a guarantee? What happens when you get laid off, despite your glowing performance reviews? Or your company goes bankrupt because the CFO has been embezzling funds? Or they decide to outsource your job to India, or Mexico? Absolutely nothing is guaranteed these days. Just because you have a good job and good insurance doesn't mean you will tomorrow.

Additionally, insurance just keeps getting more and more expensive. What happens when your current employer-sponsored plan gets chucked for something cheaper, because your employer just can't afford to pay 50% of your premiums anymore? Employer-sponsored health care has been around for so long, people take it for granted, but don't get too comfortable. The current system is unsustainable.

The thing that really makes me see red is the folks that somehow think that insurance reform is "socialist" (using socialist as a dirty word) or is requiring them to pay for people who are unwilling to buck up and support themselves. Guess what - low-income people already have coverage. It's called Medicaid. It's not perfect by any means, but if you're on welfare, you've probably got some health coverage. The people who really get worked over are the people who are working low to middle-income jobs with employers who are too small to afford employer-sponsored health care. Or those of us who are self-employed and have no choice but to get expensive, risky (as in, there's no guarantee you won't get kicked off at any moment, for any reason) individual plans.

Our family is definitely not looking for a handout, or any kind of support from other people. We work our butts off, but just happen to work for ourselves. I would much rather have our $1000 a month go into a tax pool with the rest of the country's taxpayers to make sure that we, and our parents, and our kids, and our neighbors' kids, all have the health care we/they need. I don't understand where all this selfishness comes from. Why is it so terrible to pool our resources to make sure that everybody gets a piece of the pie? Why is socialism such a dirty word? Quite frankly, I enjoy the socialist aspects of our society like my daughter's public elementary school, our local library, our interstate highway system (which we just enjoyed quite thoroughly), the myriad public city parks we stopped at to let the kids run off some energy, and our local police and fire departments. It would've been a bummer to have to go through a tollbooth every 5-10 miles all the way across the west because our interstate highway system had been privatized. Since we got rid of our cable TV and Netflix, our library's DVD section has seriously come in handy. And how much would it suck to have to pre-pay before the fire department would come to your house?

If you support health care reform, and particularly a public option (which would ideally work something like the insurance that Bill gets through the state of Oregon, enabling people who can't get coverage anywhere else to join a pool instead of trying to go it alone), please write your congresspeople and talk to everyone you know about it. The opponents are loud and well-armed with misinformation and lots and lots of money. If you're afraid that a public option will lead to the downfall of American civilization, do some research into Ronald Reagan's opinions of Medicare. And the things that were said about Social Security when it was first being proposed. Talk to some small business owners about their insurance situations.

It's sometimes hard to see the other side of an issue like this when you don't know anyone who lives it, which is why I wanted to share our family's story. I hope it was a least a little educational, and not too snippy! It's really hard for me to talk about this and stay rational since it hits so close to home here. I'm off to do some letter writing...

What I learned on my summer vacation...

2009-09-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

1. I will never get as much work done while on the road as I think I will.

2. Bring a calendar. Creeping deadlines are creepier when you forget about them because you're busy having fun!

3. Not having internet access regularly (except from your Blackberry) isn't conducive to productivity. No, apparently I don't know the definition of the word "vacation".

4. Never underestimate the ability of siblings to develop new ways of tormenting themselves (and their parents) when stuck in the car for several hours a day.

5. Don't be surprised that the kids would rather watch Spongebob Squarepants than those nice educational DVDs you were sure to pack for them.

6. Don't be surprised that the kids would rather play in the pool or play in the hotel's arcade than go sightseeing or to the museum (even the dinosaur museum).

7. Kids' menus seem to have only four selections wherever you go - chicken strips, cheeseburger, hot dog, grilled cheese sandwich. With the occasional corn dog or mac & cheese thrown in for good measure. My kids burn out on these selections within about four days. Not good for a 3-week road trip.

8. After 3 weeks of road food, my kids will actually squeal with delight when they're served some nice green broccoli! Never thought I'd see the day.

9. Buffalo are big. Even though I know they can be really dangerous, I still get the urge to run up and pet them, especially since I know how ridiculously soft buffalo yarn is.

10. When visiting Mt. Rushmore, small children will be most interested in looking up the presidents' noses.

11. 4- and 6-year olds would much rather run around the playground in the Medora city park than go for a hike in the North Dakota Badlands.

12. I could knit a pair of worsted-weight socks for myself in the time it takes to drive from Billings, MT, to Portland, OR, if I don't have to drive and we travel only during daylight hours. If I have to drive and we travel partly at night, I can get to just past the heel turns.

13. I actually like knitting two socks at once with Magic Loop! I really am not a big fan of two socks on two circulars because of the entanglement factor, and I don't tend to like doing a single sock on ML, but the two together I'm finding to be quite delightful. Go figure.

14. Lake Superior is still as cold as ever.

15. I'm a terrible photographer. I didn't take a single, solitary picture on this trip. I told Bill he's official family photographer from now on.

16. The innocuous-looking hot-air-balloon ride in the kids' area at Valleyfair in Shakopee, MN, is seriously vomit-inducing for those of us who don't like spinny rides. It doesn't look spinny, but believe me, it is!

17. Owen has inherited his mother's wimpy stomach. Sydney has inherited her father's guts of steel. We know who's going to be riding the carousel with me when Sydney and Bill are on the loopy roller coaster!

18. As much as I love Famous Dave's, there is a limit as to how many times I can enjoy eating there in a short period of time.

19. It's not a good idea to plan sightseeing adventures to Yellowstone and Grand Teton Nat'l Park on the drive home from your nearly-3-week vacation. Fortunately, we came to our senses before we left the interstate.

20. 3 weeks is the absolute outer limit of my patience and sanity when trapped in the car for hours with a 4-year-old and 6-year-old who are filled with infinite amounts of energy and get seriously naughty when they're at all bored.

21. It is possible for me to not bring enough knitting along. Usually I have 3 or 4 extra projects that never get touched. This time, I actually had to stop at a shop (the lovely Wild Purls in Billings, MT) to get a project for the drive home. That has never happened before! Either I'm getting faster, or I overcompensated for my ridiculous past packing habits...

22. I'm still on Central Time, and so it's past my bedtime even though it's not even 9 pm here in Portland!

Tomorrow will be all about shipping the orders that came in while I was gone. In the meantime, go check out the pattern I just finished up for Sandra Singh - it's in Malabrigo Sock! Yummy...

(click on pic to go to sandrasingh.com for deets)

We survived Sock Summit 2009!

2009-08-13T13:57:00.001-07:00

We managed to survive the most exhausting, exhilarating, crazy week I've experienced in a heckuva long time, if ever. Wanna hear all about it? I thought so!

SS09 started on the 5th for me, with the lovely pre-Summit yarn tasting luncheon hosted by the very gracious Deb Accuardi at Gino's in SE Portland. We got several lovely food courses along with a hand-dyed yarn from an indie dyer to go with each one.

From left to right that's CraftsMeow, Abstract Fiber (and don't we just adore them), Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks dyed by Stevanie Pico and Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks dyed by Larissa Brown. Nice, no? Although I have no idea what I'm going to do with all that yarn... I don't usually get to design with indies since retailers can't always easily stock their yarn, but the next book project that I'm pondering may change that (hint, hint - could it be an indie sock yarn book?).

In fact, I may start with this skein that just won't leave me alone - somehow it ends up following me around the house and stares at me from beside my computer (like the money with eyes in the Geico commercials). Even though there are other projects that should take precedence, I think this baby might be going on vacation with me.

This is called "Ladies that Lunch" and is dyed by Knitted Wit. I love it. It makes me think of chocolate covered cherry ice cream. This one, I must make something with.

After lunch, which was extremely fun and a great way to dip my toe into the Sock Summit crazy-water, I went home to stuff patterns into sleeves for a few hours before heading back to the Red Lion for the teacher's dinner. I was having mini-panic attacks all afternoon whenever I thought about who I'd be eating with... Fortunately, everyone there was just as nice as pretty much everyone I ran into all weekend. The highlight for me was the fact that Barbara Walker came in wearing a tuxedo t-shirt. She is just a doll, and quite distinguished in the world of knitting and beyond. Of course I didn't get any pictures (that's a common theme from the weekend), but here's the goodie bag the teachers got after dinner:

It also had yarn in it. So much yarn. Yarn from WEBS...

Yarn from Simply Sock Yarn and Blue Moon...

So much yarn. We also got our all-access super-special teachers' badges, which got us into anything and everything SS-related. They came with lovely fabric lanyards that were great for cluttering up with "flair".

We contributed to the problem with our nice big "Toe-Up!" buttons that everyone really seemed to want. We went through almost 300 of them (and would've given out the rest if not for the fact that they were buried in the bottom of my bag...).

Thursday morning started off bright and early with unloading of booth stuff from my van at 8 am, then running to teach my first class at 9. I was really nervous about teaching, but fortunately the general level of student at SS was very high (or else I'm just getting better at teaching). I had a great time with all my students, all weekend long (even the Sunday morning class, where we were all exhausted and pretty subdued). I thought I'd get a chance to kick back a bit Thursday afternoon and had signed up to audit another teacher's class, but the booth still needed much setting up and before I knew it, the market was opening for the student preview.

We were totally mobbed. A steady stream of people came through to pick up the books they'd pre-ordered from Lavender Sheep, and I had a delightful time playing celebrity author and signing all of them. It was great fun, although I got scolded several times over the course of the weekend for not being able to take compliments gracefully. It's my Midwestern upbringing - I can't help it! I spent lots of time practicing my "Thank you - I'm so glad you like the book!"

I won't bore you with every detail of every event, but here are a few more highlights. Friday afternoon was the mass book signing, and I got to sit at the table next to Meg Swansen's. Of course I hadn't brought any books for anyone to sign (and I am so kicking myself that I didn't at least bring Barbara Walker's books), but I offered a review copy of Toe-Up! to Meg. She was very sweet, took it and then asked if I'd sign it for her. Was I really going to say no to the sweetheart of American knitting? I'm pretty sure I wrote something stupid, but I did manage to spell my name right (unlike for one poor autograph recipient who caught me having a momentary brain fart - I signed her notebook using "Christine" instead of "Chrissy" because apparently I momentarily thought I was signing a check).

Saturday night was the Ravelry part, which Gardiner Yarn Works co-sponsored. Here's one of the few photos we have of us from the weekend with our Ravelry buddies and the big sponsor sign. (If you click on the photo, you'll see that I've got the Bob finger puppet under my control - please ignore our devilish red-eyes.)

I'm just noticing that we're missing Sarah, the newest member of the Rav team, but she must've been off playing the gracious hostess. We got a little sense of what life is like for Jess and Casey when we stood by the sign, expecting a single photo from the person holding Donna's camera, and flashes just started going off. Jess remarked under her breath "welcome to our world!" Crazy! It's amazing that they are all still so sweet after everything they've had to put up with since Ravelry's popularity took off. (ETA - by "put up with", I'm not talking about the mob scene at the party - they obviously love their fans - but rather the nastiness that has come about due to the forums, particularly after the last election...)

The first 350 people to show up got these cute little project bags. I love mine!

There were lots of friends to mingle with, and drinks, and snacks. I was so tired I was almost delirious but we managed to stay until 10 pm or so, after the door prizes were announced. I was so tired I'd forgotten to bring the door prizes to the party like I was supposed to, but fortunately the winners didn't seem to mind.

Sunday morning was another class, a little foggy at this point due to lack of sleep and an extremely hot classroom, but we managed to get ourselves knitting with two hands (or one hand, in a few cases of extra-cool super-duper colorwork technique, of which I am not the master...) and adding purls to our color changes. What fun! After class, there was about an hour and a half before the market closed for good and the luminary panel began. I think maybe I signed a couple books. I didn't get much shopping done. Fortunately, the one thing that I REALLY wanted was right across the aisle from us.

Yup - a hand-thrown ceramic sheep mug from Jennie the Potter. I am so in love with this cup.

I wish I could've picked up one of her fabulous bowls as well, but they are (with good reason) a little out of my price range at the moment. Next time! I also managed to chat a bit with Dianne from Creatively Dyed, which is always a treat, and she gave me some yarn.

Her dyeing process is fascinating, and her colorways knit up unlike any other. I think Owen might get some socks out of this skein. (Yeah, famous last words - my poor kids are like the shoemaker's barefoot children...)

The Luminary Panel was fabulous, of course, and it was great to just sit back, relax, and listen to these amazing women talk about knitting.

Unfortunately the sock I was knitting wasn't cooperating and had to be frogged and put away, but I managed to get through tear-down afterwards without falling over, falling asleep or strangling anyone, thanks in large part to our very helpful helpers, Colleen and Katrina. It has never been so good to get home after an event, even though I'd technically been home every night throughout.

Now I'm crazily trying to get everything nailed down before we leave for our trek east. Poor Bill has been stuck doing laundry and dishes while I frantically print and stuff patterns, mail books and write a last-minute article. In fact, it's time for me to get back to it. I can now cross "Sock Summit blog post" off the to-do list!

Two days until madness and mayhem!

2009-08-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

Although madness and mayhem sounds much too negative - it's going to be m&m of the best kind, heading to Portland this week. The event that I've been anticipating all summer is finally here - Sock Summit 2009 starts Thursday!

My fun actually starts tomorrow, with a pre-Summit luncheon and yarn tasting put on by the fabulous local chef and fiber enthusiast Deb Accuardi. We get to eat a multiple-course meal at her restaurant, Gino's, accompanied by yarn from various indie dyers. Yum! Tomorrow night the food continues with the Sock Summit teachers' dinner, which should be a great time but I have to admit is a little scary. Have you seen the teacher list? It makes my introverted little self weak in the knees, although it's not quite so scary since I already know a few of them.

Today is all about printing and sleeving patterns, interrupted by a trip to Staples and Costco for more paper, ink and sheet protectors... Good times! I'm also going to dig out all the booth samples and make sure they're in good working order, block some socks and generally try to stay busy so I don't freak out.

It helps that I've decided on my next book's topic - it's not what I was thinking it was going to be (textured colorwork is on the back burner, but it will happen one of these days), but I think it will be good. Does the world need yet another sock book? It must, and now you have a huge hint as to what the project will be (but it's not going to be just ANY sock book).

I hope to see many of you at Sock Summit - if you say hi to me and you're met with a blank stare, don't take it personally. I'm fully expecting to be in full-on zombie mode after about Thursday at 6 pm!

Hello, blog!

2009-07-31T09:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize it has been almost a month since I last visited you. Do you forgive me? We've been a little busy around here, what with the arrival of a book, knitting of new designs and preparation for the biggest sock knitting gathering ever attempted... But now I'm back for a bit, so pull up a chair and get comfy, because I've got a lot to tell you!

First announcement - Toe-Up! arrived here just over a week ago and the fun hasn't stopped since (fun as in drafting Bill to help me pack and ship box after box of books, which is not at all fun to do, but it is fun to think of all those books going out to all those yarn shops...). Here's what the living room looked like on arrival day:

That's only about half the boxes. Bill had a great time trying to figure out where to stash them all (there are still about 400 books in the living room, but the pile is considerably smaller than it was, thanks to everyone who's buying copies). We've got books in both our big closets downstairs, books in the hall, books in my office, books upstairs behind the bathroom door, books in our bedroom...books everywhere!

The book also has its own webpage now - toeupsockbook.com. You can see photos and materials lists of all the patterns.

Last weekend, Donna and I headed for the Northwest Needle Market in Seattle, where we exhibited and I taught my toe-up sock class to a very fun group of shop owners/employees. Three of them were from the Vashton Pharmacy, which is on an island in Puget Sound. The pharmacist is also an avid knitter, so she talked her husband and business partners into letting her sell yarn! How cool is that - a pharmacy/yarn store.

I was very excited to debut the book, but never expected to sell out of three whole cases of it! We sold every copy we took with us, including the one I'd given to Donna (but hadn't yet signed). Several shops in Portland now have copies, including Twisted, Dublin Bay, All About Yarn and Close Knit (well, they'll have them after I drop them off this afternoon...). I'll be doing an informal booksigning at All About Yarn on Monday morning at 11 am, if you happen to be in the area.

The needle market was the last remaining milepost between the beginning of summer and the craziness that is going to be Sock Summit. Portland doesn't know what's coming...although they might be getting a small inkling (the mayor's got one, anyway).

Are you going to be there? Be sure to stop by Booth 815 and say hi. I probably won't be there, since my schedule is beyond crazy all week. If you want to join me in doing some fun stuff, check out our Sock Summit happenings page. Also, be sure to join us at the Ravelry meetup on Saturday night - Gardiner Yarn Works is a sponsor!

Once Sock Summit is done, there's no rest for the weary. If I survive, we're planning to head out the very next week for our annual trek to the heartland. We're stopping in Kalispell, MT, on the 16th so I can teach a toe-up workshop. If anybody lives in Billings and wants to hang out the morning of the 18th, let me know! Then we're heading to the Black Hills/Badlands and on to MN. I'm teaching at The Yarnery in St. Paul on the 22nd and will be doing a booksigning at their Friday-night knitting on the 21st. Check out the Toe-Up! events page for all the details.

Whew! And now that the weather has cooled off a bit, the kids are insisting on going outside. Which means I get to sit on the front porch and watch them. Time to get some knitting done, and I hope to see many of you next week at the big socky wonderland!

Happy place...I'm in my happy place...

2009-07-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

So I thought maybe Twitter and Facebook would help me get things back under control. But no - I've gotten so overwhelmed that I've abandoned them AND this poor blog. I'm determined not to post yet again about how busy I am or what I have to get done. Instead, let's talk about fun stuff. Like the fact that I just planted a bunch of Russian Red Kale in the garden along with a Tarragon plant and spicy italian basil. And the fact that we have fennel coming out our ears. Boy can that stuff grow! If anyone has any great fennel recipes, please pass them along. We're totally overwhelmed. I asked our new neighbors if they liked fennel, and she was crazy enough to say "oh, yeah - I love it!" I immediately thrust two enormous plants at her with the admonition that she should be more careful about saying she'd take anything off our hands! Which reminds me...we need to bring them some eggs.

So we have new neighbors! Again. For the 4th time in 5 years (although technically the house was empty when we moved in - the kids of the former resident were fixing it up to sell it and they were in and out). These ones seem perfect - they've got 4 kids between them and the ages are really similar to Sydney & Owen. They're much more appropriate playmates than the 11-year-old who lived there before (she was very nice, but the age difference was just too much for kid play and she wasn't quite old enough to babysit...).

As summer moves right along (how in the world does time go by so fast these days?), I'm furiously working to finish up some new designs to release at Sock Summit. Ah, yes, Sock Summit, the source of so much stress and angst these past couple of weeks. The class handouts were due yesterday, and I managed to crank them out. Those slacker teachers with only one class got nothin' on me! And since you're here, reading this blog that has for all intents and purposes been abandoned, I'm going to give you a first glimpse at two of the new SS designs.

The first is truly a glimpse because I only had a toe done on the day I took photos. The stitch pattern on the foot is fun, but the crowning glory of this sock is its very unusual cuff. It's like the cuff on the Sydney sock taken to a whole 'nother level.

The yarn is the lovely tencel blend from Lavender Sheep. The colorway's going to be introduced at Sock Summit. I don't even know if I'm supposed to be showing it here, so don't tell her, okay? Be assured that it's 1000x more gorgeous in person!

Since I'm all about crazy cuffs these days and Sock Summit is all about crazy knitters, the other sock I'm going to show you is my cable coup de grace. It's called Butterfly Garden because of the butterfly cable running up the front. I adore this cable and have been trying for three years to work it into something. I finally broke down and put it on a sock (I was saving it for a sweater, but really, who am I kidding?).

So that the butterflies have something to keep them occupied, there are flowers on the back.

These are made in the very tasty Shalimar Yarns sock yarn. They'll have a booth at Sock Summit as well, and I was going to try to make a second sock so they could have a sample in their booth, but the top of the ball looks suspiciously like it has been Owenized (as in, Owen plus scissors plus yarn cake equals not fun for mommy when she suddenly finds her yarn has been cut into a gazillion pieces when she's halfway through the foot...). Plus there are only 24 hours in the day, and try as I might, I can't go without sleep.

Now I'm trying to decide if I should go upstairs and continue with the pulp novel I started last night, or if I should turn on the tv and do some knitting. It's really too late to start a movie and I hate watching network, so the novel may have it. I won't even consider continuing to sit at the computer so I can update my websites. That's just going to have to wait until tomorrow!

Mojo - are you back?

2009-06-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

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!

Gardening!

2009-06-06T14:44:00.000-07:00

Even though we've been eating take-out and fast-food nonstop for the past few weeks (and have thrown most of our CSA veggies to the chickens because we didn't manage to eat all that lettuce), we've been planting a ridiculous vegetable garden. Our entire front yard has pretty much been converted to garden, and we just added a bed to our parking strip. We've got popcorn, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers (although these seem to be struggling), blueberry bushes, strawberries, green beans, fennel, mint, sage, thyme, rosemary, asparagus, tomatoes, lettuce, peas, grapes, potatoes and zucchini. Oh, and artichokes. If a global food crisis hits, we'll be all set!

Here are a few pics, taken a few weeks ago (everything's bigger now after our recent hot spell).

Now I just need to find time to actually use/preserve all these veggies! At least they're still in the growing stage so I've got a month or two before I need to worry...

This weekend is all about finishing Breaking Dawn (I'm almost there!) and cleaning the house. The book files were uploaded to the printer yesterday, so I've got some respite from that before proofs come back for approval. Then, I just have to sit back and wait for August! Apart from all the pre-publication publicity I've been trying to do. I sent galleys off for review to Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly (that's about a one in a million shot, but I figured it was worth the $30 bucks in materials and postage, just in case!) and Booklist. I'm all set up with Unicorn Books, which is the distributor that nearly every yarn shop orders their books from. They're taking pre-orders on their website and will have an advance copy of the book in their booth at TNNA. I've also sent applications to a couple other distributors that deal with the library market.

If any of you are in Portland and want to see an advance copy of the book, they've got it at Twisted (they're taking preorders there as well). We'll also have it at Black Sheep in the Lavender Sheep booth.

And now, back to the vampires and werewolves.

Something old, something new...

2009-06-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

Even though it probably seems like my life is all about socks right now (and that wouldn't be too far from the truth), this spring has actually been pretty focused on lace. I'm just getting ready to release the new batch of June designs at TNNA next week, and most of them are lace. I had a bunch of single skeins that I couldn't resist any longer, so they somehow turned into lace scarves. And a stole. Oh, and I managed to knit a sweater in there somewhere. Don't worry...I had lots of help.

My first helper spent her spring reknitting two of my existing lace designs in new yarns. One of them was in a yarn that's not widely available enough, and the other was in a yarn that just didn't show the pattern off. I'm happy to say that they've both returned and are making me extremely happy.

Here's the new photograph of Kiwassa, knit in Schaefer Andrea:

But the REAL winner was this, the new Path of Flowers reknit in Mountain Colors Winter Lace, which Grumperina called one of her favorite lace projects ever. High praise, for sure!

Compare these to the original:

Quel difference, no? Of course, it helps that it's modeled by Bill's very photogenic cousin who was here for a visit over Memorial Day weekend. As much as I love that fuzzy orange Kidsilk Haze, it was just a bad original choice for the project. I started that orange sample three years ago, so I must admit that I've learned a lot since then...

And now, onto the new stuff. We've got a wrap:

We've got a buffalo-down scarf:

We've got a silk-and-cashmere cabled lace scarf:

We've got a fuzzy green mohair monster (I mean, sweater!):

And my personal favorite, fun-factor-wise, is an asymmetric granny square scarf!

Bill likes it, too...

And now I'd better get myself back to work. I need to send galleys of the book off to a bunch of reviewers and continue to get prepped for TNNA. I was woken up at 6 am this morning by poor Owen, who has a terrible cough (blasted springtime colds - it's June for goodness sakes!), after staying up until nearly midnight reading Breaking Dawn (which I finally got from the library after being in the hold queue for two months). When I get back from Columbus, I am going to sleep for a week straight!

Calling all PDX knitters...

2009-05-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

I know, I know - two blog posts in one day? It's crazy, but I wanted to mention this awesome sock club that's opening tomorrow morning with a very limited number of slots. It's local dyers and designers, and the coolest thing is that every other month, the dyer/designer for that month's project will meet with the folks in the club for lunch at Gino's in SE Portland (the awesome restaurant of sock-club organizer Deb Accuardi). It's called the Community Sock Club, because the members will be meeting in person and hopefully building a little sub-community of Portland-area knitters. Such a rad idea!

Just what I needed!

2009-05-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

So, after I have my little freak-outs, life almost always seems to turn the corner soon after. At the high point of the freak-out, it seems like things are completely unmanageable and will always be that way. Then, at some point, I tell myself that it's not worth it, and it's okay if I just walk away. Nobody's going to die if I suddenly stop writing patterns or tinkering with my website. People will still learn to knit socks if I'm not there to teach them. As soon as I think about quitting, and realize that I can, I mellow out and realize that I don't want to quit. And I re-admit to myself how lucky I am to be living this life. Positive thinking begets more positive thinking, and the sun comes back out.

Yesterday, after a mostly-sleepless night brought on by restless children and too-hot-to-sleep weather, I taught a 6-hour toe-up sock workshop to a fabulous, fun bunch of students and came home feeling fired-up again. There was a little box waiting for me, and inside it were 5 copies of this!

Even though I've printed out multiple book-like copies of the book, there's nothing like seeing a glossy bound copy to take your breath away. It's so cool. Here are a few shots from the inside:

And the back cover...

Of course, the actual book will look slightly different - it will be a little smaller (8" x 10" instead of 8-1/2" x 11") and have some additional edits, but all-in-all, I got to hold my book for the first time yesterday. It was pretty awesome.

Not to mention, I managed to score a couple great blurbs for the back, one from Clara Parkes and one from Cat Bordhi. Of course, I sort of have an "in" with Cat since she's my self-publishing mentor and role model, but I was still quite honored and delighted that she liked the book so much. Just because she was my teacher doesn't mean she'd automatically love my book... Here's what will be added to the back cover:

A veritable toe-up masterclass complete with helpful worksheets, well-illustrated technique tutorials, and 15 fresh and varied patterns from someone who is truly passionate about socks.
- Clara Parkes, KnittersReview.com, author of The Knitter’s Book of Yarn and The Knitter’s Book of Wool

Any knitter will succeed and thrive under Chrissy’s tutelage in this comprehensive and impeccably organized course in toe-up socks, with its generous menu of heels, toes, custom worksheets, and stunning original designs.
- Cat Bordhi, author of New Pathways for Sock Knitters and Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles

High praise from two of my idols! I'm starting to think that this little book might just do okay.

I've got to go get poor Bill some coffee - he was up all night with Owen, who is suffering from some mighty allergies and gushing bloody noses in the wee hours. Poor little guy wakes up looking like he's been in a boxing match. I'm so glad Sydney seems to have missed out on the allergy gene...

Freaking out!

2009-05-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

So I had a major meltdown this evening. I'm dealing with this giant pattern order, and of course I ran out of ink in the middle. Then, I've got the book to contend with, including the not-so-small problem of paying for printing. To top it all off, Sock Summit registration opened this morning (and pretty much sold out within the first hour). This is good, since I was totally worried that nobody would sign up for my classes (and that fear was totally unfounded - my classes sold out along with everyone else's). But it also means I have to get my butt in gear and get my class materials together.

If this knitting-related madness wasn't enough, I have to teach a recycling class to 30 preschoolers tomorrow morning, something for which I am completely unprepared. What am I doing to get ready? Downing a bottle of wine and listening to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones at much too high of a volume.

I have a bunch of garden pictures to blog, but they're stuck inside my camera. We worked almost all weekend on the front yard, and it's looking pretty darn good. The biggest issue is space - I've still got sage, basil, cucumbers and a couple of errant zucchini plants to fit in. We gave the neighbors some sugar pumpkin starts that had sprouted in our asparagus patch from the pumpkin I tossed off the front porch last fall. Aren't volunteer veggies the best?

In the all-consuming world that is book prep, I managed to spent this evening putting together the book website (go there and click on the cover thumbnail, and you can see some of the gorgeous pattern pics that will be in the book). I think it turned out okay - the best thing is that I did a final round of edits on the book today, and it's looking DARN good, if I do say so myself. Every bit of feedback that I've gotten has been over-the-top positive, so I'm slowly admitting to myself that it might actually be a winner. Yay!

Now I've got to stop typing because I know that too much wine and too-loose fingers are not the best combo. Time to go to bed and mentally prep for those 30 preschoolers, expecting to learn something about recycling... I'm going to take a handful of stuff from the worm bin and dazzle them with the squirmy wormies. Preschoolers are pretty easily amused, right? Wish me luck!

Who says triangular shawls are only for little old ladies?

2009-05-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, there's this perception out there that triangular lace shawls are something only a little old lady would wear. My girl Sarah from Knot Another Hat disagrees. At the TKGA show this past weekend, she was rockin' the Toe the Line shawl with her new purple hair. You can see photos on her blog (and enter a contest to win lace yarn and pattern of your choice).

Triangular shawls...they won't magically turn you into a little old lady. On the other hand, I would love to see a little old lady in a Toe the Line rockin' some purple hair!

PS - since I have such a hard time blogging these days, I'm going to give Twitter a try. You can follow me there at @knittinmom. Tweet tweet! Facebook is up next...in all my free time.

Eep! I'm on Amazon!

2009-05-15T20:21:00.000-07:00

My book is inching ever closer to reality. It's now available for pre-order on Amazon!

Crazy! We've got a booth at the TKGA show in Portland this weekend (if you're there, be sure to say hi!), so I've been able to show the proof to several of my friends. So far, the feedback is all good (but of course, they have to say nice things because they're my friends). I really hope that it will be a useful, happy-making book for many, many sock knitters. Woo-hoo!

Someone else's knitting...

2009-05-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

Since I don't have any knitting of my own to show you, I have to resort to showing other people's knitting. Namely, Grumperina, who is making new samples of a couple of my designs.

She's finished a new version of Kiwassa in Schaeffer Andrea, and she's currently knitting along on a new Path of Flowers in Mountain Colors Winter Lace. The Path of Flowers is going to photograph SO much better in the dark color than it did in the original fuzzy orange Kidsilk Haze. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

I'm currently in a sort of stupor - I don't know exactly what to do next, so I end up not doing anything. To help matters, I've gone cold turkey off caffeine, so my head feels like it's going to explode. Plus, Owen is home sick from school and making me crazy. He's too sick to go to school, but he doesn't feel bad enough to slow down much. This is his third day home, and it's really making me dread summer vacation!

Yes, I'm still alive!

2009-05-04T10:24:00.001-07:00

But just barely...and only through super-human effort. Does anyone else feel like April was only two weeks long? I can't believe how quickly this spring has gone. And yet, when I look back on all I've gotten done, I can't believe it wasn't longer. It's amazing what you can get done when the cable's turned off and you're actually applying yourself. I often wondered, back when I was a corporate slave and doing the bare minimum, what I could accomplish if I actually worked to my best ability (I estimated I probably did about 4 hours of actual full-on work per day, apart from the weeks where things were really cooking, and still managed to get glowing performance reviews which made me wonder what everyone else was doing!). Now that I'm working for myself, I'm discovering that it's quite a lot! I've discovered that I am one of those people who should not work for others if I want to realize my full potential...

Of course, now that I've blogged this, I'll never get another job in corporate America because my potential employers will be able to Google this and find out what a slacker I really am. On the other hand, I was able to perform beyond expectations in just 4 hours a day! I'm not planning on rejoining the wage slave racket anytime soon, so I guess it's a moot point. I'd rather sell the cars, plant more vegetables in our already overrun yard and homeschool the kids than go back to the office!

But I digress. I'm sure you're much more interested in pattern/book progress, which is chugging right along. Gail and I did the final (hopefully!) photo shoot for the book yesterday. I've spent countless hours tinkering with the formatting and have it in nearly-final shape to be sent off for a final proof. Review copies will go out soon. It will go up on Amazon for preorders in the next month or so. I'm starting to plan a few workshops - I'll be visiting Yarn Harbor in Duluth, MN for a toe-up workshop and book signing the last weekend of August, and I'll be doing a heel workshop and book signing sometime in early September at Knot Another Hat in Hood River. Everyone WILL be knitting toe-up socks by the time I've fully implemented my plan for toe-up world domination! (evil laugh here)

But seriously, things are going very well but are ridiculously busy. If you're at the Portland TKGA show next weekend, stop by our booth (61, right next to the knitting comic books). And forgive me if I'm totally glazed over - I find myself unable to complete a sentence on a regular basis these days. I won't be half surprised when smoke comes pouring out of my ears and the old brain just refuses to go any further. Whew!

Pita power!

2009-04-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

I made pita bread this week! I was totally afraid of it for the longest time, but I got sick of paying $3.50 for six pitas at the grocery store. I found this recipe and decided to give it a whirl. They actually turned out great, and I will definitely make them again. Even Sydney loved them (she spread butter on the top of hers and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar - how could she not love it?). Next time I will bake them a little longer and roll them out a little flatter. I had no idea what I was doing this time around, and they came out a little doughy and the pocket didn't form as well in the pitas that weren't rolled out quite as much. I felt like such a rock star in the kitchen, though, the day I made these!

To celebrate, I went to our local kitchen store and bought a Sauce Master (in preparation for this summer's tomato bounty). I am determined to can a gajillion tomatoes this year so I don't have to buy the cans next winter. The canned garden tomatoes are so much yummier! I was on the hunt for a pressure cooker for making rice and beans but the only on they had there was $350. I don't really want the $35 one from Target that's from a brand I've never heard of, but $350 is a bit too far in the other direction. Anyone have a reasonably-priced pressure cooker recommendation?

I also spent much of the day yesterday (it was nice out, at long last) weeding our front garden. It is such a mess, but I managed to make a bit of a dent. The garden's now in pretty good shape (apart from the strawberry patch, which needs some serious attention), but our front slope is just hopeless. The kids had fun playing in the long grass. I swear, we're going to be the family on the news whose neighbors have reported them to the city for yard neglect. I'm determined to get it into shape somehow, but it seems so daunting at the moment. I need to keep reminding myself that I can just do it a square yard at a time - I don't have to weed the whole slope in a single day! If only we didn't have blueberry bushes we wanted to save - I'd take a flame weeder to the whole thing and be done with it. It was heartening to see that we have both pea shoots and asparagus appearing. The asparagus is now 2 years old, so we'll be able to harvest a few shoots (and next year we should be able to go nuts on it at last).

Since I don't have any pictures for this post, I'll leave you with a preview of the neck warmer that will be debuting in the line in June. It's a "fauxbius", which means it uses a 360 degree twist in the cast-on (a true moebius is twisted only 180 degrees). It's made from a single skein of Lorna's Laces Pearl, their new silk-bamboo blend. Yummy!

And a close-up of the back of the neck and the stitch pattern...

Love that Gordian Knot cable! Right now I'm finishing the neckband on the lone sweater I'll be offering for the fall. It's an empire-waist design made from Schaefer Danya, which is one of those mohair yarns that looks skinny but knits up fat. It's really lovely and lightweight, and it doesn't shed like other mohair yarns I've knit with. I was kind of afraid to knit a whole mohair sweater but it has gone quickly and I've really enjoyed this yarn. It also smells dreamy. Bill thinks I'm completely nuts when I sniff the yarn, but I love that vinegary freshly-dyed smell and this yarn has it in spades.

I've managed to get lots of knitting done this week while watching the Masterpiece Theatre version of Anna Karenina (which I highly recommend - it was excellent). Good thing I didn't manage to get my hands on the 4th book in the Twilight series. We own the first three but I have to borrow Breaking Dawn from my brother-in-law. Otherwise, you know what I would've been doing this week instead of knitting...

Contest winner, birthdays, Easter and eagles!

2009-04-13T11:06:00.000-07:00

I know I was supposed to draw our Fiber Gathering winner on Friday, but I know it would've been too shocking if I wasn't a few days late. Our winner is...GreetingArts! Congrats! I already know where to find you, so I'll be getting your book in the mail to you shortly. Yay!

I had good reason for my distraction this week, though. I've been getting patterns ready for June TNNA (one of my tech editors e-mailed me and mentioned that she hadn't been expecting any patterns for June since, you know, I'm publishing a book this summer and all... I answered that, as a result of sheer stupidity, I've decided I can do it all), throwing a 4th birthday party for Owen, reading New Moon (the 2nd book in the Twilight series) and playing plenty of Rock Band with Bill. Such a hard life I lead!

Owen's class did a neat thing to celebrate his birthday last week - he brought in photos from each year of his life and the kids used them to make a birthday poster for him. It was so much fun going through all the pics - here are the ones I chose.

From 2005:

From 2006:

From 2007:

From 2008:

And from 2009:

What a kid! I can't believe he's 4 already. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital.

Owen's party on Saturday involved lots of treats, but nothing compared to Easter. We tried to tone it down a bit (Bill's family LOVES to do up Easter in a big way), but the kids were still hovering about 2" off the floor most of the day due to the huge amount of chocolate that was consumed. I didn't get any pictures yesterday, so I thought I'd post this photo that I dug up of the fateful day that the postman delivered the misdirected box of 40 chickies to our house:

Here's what our girls looked like at around that same time:

Aren't they cute?

And now it's time for me to get back to the pattern formatting grind (I will NOT start the next Twilight book... Oh, who am I kidding - my creativity needs a break sometimes, right?). I'll leave you with this video that I just put up on YouTube of the most amazing eagle sighting. When my mom, the kids and I were up on San Juan Island for the first book formatting session we happened upon this huge group of eagles flying around right next to the road. There must've been about 15-20 adults and 10 juveniles. We stopped and watched them for about half an hour, much to the kids' dismay, and mom shot this video from her digital camera. It's not great, but it'll give a hint of the coolness that we witnessed. It was crazy!

Nine years!

2009-04-08T09:31:00.000-07:00

Wow - nine years ago today, Bill and I were doing this:

Don't we look young? Two kids, four states and two new careers later, we're more in love than ever. Before I met Bill I'd always assumed I'd be one of the 50% of Americans who get divorced. These days, I'm quite confident we'll be rocking together on the porch with our great-grandkids someday. I count my blessings every day that I managed to get lucky enough to find the love of my life (and was smart enough not to let him get away).

Happy 9th anniversary, honey!

Quick - gather your fiber!

2009-04-06T09:38:00.001-07:00

Our internet is behaving very badly this morning, which is why this post isn't already up. I am having a really bad week with technology, it seems! My next project will be to fire up the old printer and pray that it still works after spending a year in the basement...

And now on to the tour!

The book is Fiber Gathering by Joanne Seiff (click on the cover to buy from Powell's, my local Portland bookstore, or pick it up at your LYS), and if you love going to fiber festivals (or if you're one of the poor souls who doesn't have one near you and you can only fantasize about going), this book is for you. With luscious photos and great attention to detail, this book will transport you around the country to some of the best fiber fests the US has to offer.

Joanne is somewhat of a triple threat (or rather a quadruple threat) - she designs, spins, dyes and writes, making this book a treat for those who appreciate all of those different skills. She did solicit patterns from other designers for the book, however, since she was busy traveling the country petting sheep and interviewing alpacas. Her husband took all of the photos in the book, and they are quite spectacular. They visited the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, OR, on their whirlwind tour and I tried (and failed, I can't remember why) to meet them there. It sure is fun reading about it from Joanne's perspective!

I had to take solace in designing my own little project for the book, which is one of the most adorable things I've designed, if I do say so myself. It helps that it's modeled by the cutest little peanut... Here are a few of the shots that didn't make the book:

Don't you just love those baby feet? It almost makes me want another. But not really (I can hear Bill downstairs having a heart attack when I say that).

I don't normally like working with thick-and-thin yarn, but this project seemed made for it (in keeping with the fiber festival theme, we wanted the pattern to be appropriate for handspun as well). It's a simple little hat and cardigan that uses a simple ridged rib pattern that works extremely well with the variegated yarn (Lorna's Laces Revelation in Child's Play). I'm telling you - if an extremely colorful variegated yarn isn't quite working for you, throw in some purl stitches. It can make all the difference!

The book isn't all about knitting, which particularly makes it a worthy addition to your bookshelf. My favorite is a section on making a drop spindle out of an old aluminum knitting needle and an apple. There are lots of great tutorials on spinning and dealing with raw fleece and although I am still resisting spinning like Jamie Lee Curtis resisted Mike Meyers, it's fun to read about the process! Maybe someday I'll succumb (it feels a bit inevitable, but first I want to get my sewing machine out of the box).

And now I'm going to publish this post before we lose connectivity again. Tomorrow the tour moves back to Joanne's blog, where her husband/photographer will talk about all the gorgeous pictures he took for the book. And before I forget - leave a comment to win your copy of the book! I'll draw randomly on Friday from commenters on this post. Blogger makes it so bleeping difficult to get commenters' e-mail addresses that I can't guarantee that I'll be able to find you if you win, so please check back on Friday to see if you got lucky. You might even get some yarn along with it...you never know!

Yarn, cream cheese and doom.

2009-04-05T15:53:00.000-07:00

What a week I've had! On Thursday, my printer had a meltdown (as in, one of the print heads failed and I can't print anything until it's fixed). I've been using an off-brand ink (Media Sciences) that has a good reputation for standing behind their product. When my printer failed, I first called my Xerox guy and desperately asked for help. The technician called back and basically said that ordering a replacement print head from Xerox would be more expensive than replacing the whole printer. This of course got me all ticked off about their scam of a "maintenance" plan that makes it impossible to fix your printer if you don't pay their hefty monthly fee.

I then called Media Sciences and was shocked and amazed to talk to someone who was actually friendly, helpful and who gave me hope that maybe my printer could be fixed instead of trashed. After a horrible unrelated service call with the fine people at QuickBooks (fine is used in the most sarcastic sense of the word there), it was so refreshing to talk to someone who wasn't trying to sell me a $79 service plan (and only $39.95 a month thereafter! What a bargain!). We'll see how it all plays out, but if Media Sciences comes through like they say they will, I will be a customer for life. I am so sick of companies making stuff that is designed to break, just so they can sell their profitable (for them) "maintenance or replacement" plans. What a scam. Our disposable society should be so ashamed of itself. But I digress...

After the printer fiasco, I needed some kitchen therapy. So I made 2 dozen snickerdoodles (which the kids sucked down in less than 24 hours), some sweet potato cookies, an apple cake and chocolate chip bread. I also decided to take a chance on cheese again, and whipped up a batch of cream cheese. It was totally fun, and it actually worked (unlike my mozzarella disaster of a few weeks ago)! Here it is hanging out in our kitchen, ridding itself of its whey:

I'm still not sure what happened to the mozzarella (it set up, but then when I tried to mix-and-heat, it just dissolved back into the whey again instead of turning into cheese - I'm suspicious that it might be our water), but the cream cheese was incredibly easy. If you want to learn how to make your own, there's another Lost Arts Kitchen cheese class coming up on April 17!

The book has been coming along nicely. Now that it's with the designer, I'm feeling at loose ends. We still have a few more photographs to do, but the writing, editing and knitting are pretty much done. Now that that's out of the way, I can start to panic about new patterns for Gardiner Yarn Works. I've got a bunch of yarn that is slated for June projects and I'm just starting to realize how freaking close June is to being here. What in the world happened to March? One day it's Sydney's birthday (late Feb), the next it's nearly Owen's (early April)! It's crazy!

Here are a couple of sneak peeks...the first is just yarn, waiting to be knitted:

Yes, that's a big old pile of Buffalo Gold. The socks that I designed for the book out of the Buffalo Gold sock yarn were so incredibly delicious that I can't wait to knit some lace out of these (although, sadly, I don't get to do the knitting - two of my very lucky sample knitters get that privilege!). The green is their Lux, which is bison, cashmere, silk and tencel. Yum! The natural-colored is laceweight 100% bison.

Next is a little project that I whipped up after realizing I needed something new and quick to go in an ad that's due on the 10th. Photography will be imminent (and better than this picture, of course). It's a single-skein neckwarmer made from Lorna's Laces Pearl (silk and bamboo). It is heaven to knit!

And now, it is a beautiful day here so although I have a to-do list that's longer than my arm, I'm going to go enjoy the sun. Don't forget to check back tomorrow when the Fiber Gathering blog book tour is stopping by here, and enter for a chance to win a copy of the book!

I love this woman!

2009-04-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

There were a host of April Fools jokes racing around the internets yesterday, but I didn't find my favorite until this morning when I opened Clara Parkes' Knitter's Review newsletter and found a story about a new "green" yarn made from recycled kitty litter. I've been lucky enough to spend some time with Clara in person and she's got an incredibly quick, smart sense of humor that doesn't often have a chance to shine through with such clarity in her more serious write-ups.

Cheers, Clara, for the day's clear winner!

I think we're having a book, folks!

2009-03-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

I've heard the comparison between writing a book and having a baby so many times and I have to admit, there's definitely a kernel of truth there. Writing the manuscript and polishing up the patterns felt like the first and second trimesters. A lot of work put in, but not a lot of certainty about what would come out. With my first book design session behind me, I feel like I've finally entered the third trimester and the end is in sight. Seeing the book format come together was sort of like the big ultrasound that happens around the sixth month (if memory serves...I can't remember the exact timing). It's starting to actually look like a book, and it has sunk in big-time that there's no turning back now!

I am quite delighted to present a couple of sneak peeks here, at long last. Here's our cover:

I'm really quite delighted with it! We also came up with a pattern intro page style (although it's definitely not final, it does give a sampling of the flavor of the inside):

We still need to work on the background color, but I really, really love the photos Gail has taken. It's so much fun to see them in context!

And, last but not least, the logo for my publishing company:

Now I need to get the websites for both Sydwillow Press and the book (toeupsockbook.com) up and running. No rest for the weary! To top it all off, I ended up with a horrible muscle spasm in my left shoulder (a reward for all my hard work on the book on Monday & Tuesday, I guess) that has left me unable to knit and, when it gets really bad, unable to do much of anything! I have so much knitting to do, so I pushed through the pain yesterday and was rewarded at 2:30 am with the inability to find any sort of comfortable position. I got up and read a Dean Koontz book of Bill's for a few hours until I could finally go back to sleep. I've got a renewed sympathy for people who live with chronic pain - it really does take over your life when you can't find relief. I hope it resolves itself soon or I might be looking for a new career!

Now that the whining portion of this broadcast is over, I want to give a heads-up that the blog book tour for my designer friend and author Joanne Seiff is coming here on April 6. Her new book, Fiber Gatherings, is hot off the presses and it is awesome. I've got a baby sweater and hat design in there, which you'll hear all about on the 6th. I've got an extra copy of the book, and I will hold a giveaway contest for it (details on that on the 6th as well). So, before I mention the 6th one more time, come back here on April 6th so you don't miss the fun. I'll try to make it back here before then myself, although my track record does speak for itself! If I don't, I'll see you on the 6th!

Somebody, please kill me...

2009-03-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

I thought I was going to get lucky and slide past this one, but no. Owen's horrible illness of last week has visited itself upon me and boy does it suck. I spent a miserable night trying not to gag every time I took a breath due to severe throat scratchiness, and when I wasn't doing that, I was waiting for the next gush to come forth from the nose. It's not enough to have a stuffy nose - no. I've got the kind that seems fine, and then all of a sudden opens like a faucet with absolutely no warning. I have to have a hanky in hand at all times.

The good news is that being sick gives me lots of knitting time. Bill takes care of the kids (although today they're going to my in-laws' after school because Bill's at the NCAA basketball tournament all day today - lucky guy!) and I get to sit in front of the TV and knit. The deadline is ticking down (book designer meeting is Monday), so I really need to get my butt in gear. The only problem is I've been almost too sick to knit. You know it's bad when I can't even work on a bulky stockinette slipper sock...

This afternoon I've drugged myself up and I'm going to try to finally get some of the book's technique photos knocked out. Wish me luck - all I really want to do is curl up in bed and watch Wedding Crashers for the 36th time!

This is what a crazy person looks like...

2009-03-15T11:17:00.000-07:00

What a month I'm having! I've been teaching toe-up sock classes and workshops, speaking at local guilds, trying to make mozzarella and failing miserably, furiously knitting the remaining samples for the book, trying to figure out how the heck I'm going to pay to have the book printed (I'm still hoping for a visit from the Money Fairy who will swoop in, just in time, with big bags of money - you know, the kind with the big "$" on the front?), and planting my vegetable starts. It's exhausting, I tell ya! Here's the status of a sock I was hoping to have done in time for my photo session this afternoon:

I don't think it's gonna happen. As I started to get the first pairs of sample socks done, I decided that it would be a good idea to show several pairs in different sizes and yarns. Yeah. The photography is supposed to be done by next weekend, and I've got at least three more pairs of socks that I'd *like* to knit, not to mention a slew of technique photos left to do. I know I always say I work best under pressure, but this is ridiculous!

In the meantime, the kids keep themselves mostly entertained playing Rock Band.

Sydney has gotten surprisingly good. Owen...not so much. He prefers to try to hit his sister with the drum sticks.

We're going to try to do the cover shoot for the book this afternoon. I'm a little nervous, but I know that Gail will do a fantastic job. It will be interesting to see how it turns out in the end. The guts of the book have come together nicely but I still don't know exactly how well it's going to clean up. The design process is going to be very interesting (hopefully in a good way).

And now...back to the knitting!

Hey, strangers!

2009-03-03T08:51:00.001-08:00

One problem with blogging so infrequently is that I forget what I've blogged about and what I haven't. I suppose I could go back and read my previous post, but that seems like too much trouble. Heh. I've got a few things to talk about today, the first of which is something I've been promising for a month now and have yet to deliver on - my review of the Addi Clicks!

I'll start with my one complaint, and that's the lack of extra cables. I'd love to have a few more cables in a few different lengths. But I'm guessing that's on the horizon and once they get production ramped up, I'm sure I'll be able to buy more cables. It's just because I want to have a project going on every set of needle tips...

Other than that, I love this set. I've got two Denise kits, which I love (but they don't work with every kind of yarn, I've found, because they're stickier than metal), and a Knit Picks Options kit which I never use because I hate the pointy needle tips (I'm a freak that way). The Addi Click set has the lovely blunt Addi Turbo tips and the cables go into the needle without requiring any special tiny equipment (like the Knit Picks set does) that I'd inevitably lose within two weeks of buying the set. It took me a few minutes to figure out exactly how to click the cable into the needle tip, but once I did manage, I was immediately convinced of its awesomeness.

The other great thing about this kit? The case. I was standing at the table switching needle tips and cables when Bill walked in and commented that I looked like a hit man with my weapons case. Considering all the pointy metal bits and cables, you could conceivably take someone out with the Clicks although that might negate the lifetime warranty...

Next topic! I'm going to be hustling myself and my samples around NW Oregon during the month of March, so if you're in the area, here's the haps:

March 7: "Toe-Up Socks Revealed" workshop in Hood River, details and registration here.

March 12: "Secrets of Getting Published" talk and trunk show, Portland Knitter's Guild, 7 pm at Cafe Pallino, SE 30th & Division.

March 14: Sock talk and trunk show, Millstream Knitting Guild in Salem, 9:30 am at Mission Mill Museum, 1313 Mill St SE.

And on March 19, my co-conspirator Donna will be doing a beginning lace workshop with some of our samples and patterns at the Tigard Knitting Guild meeting, 7 pm at the Tigard Senior Center.

In the midst of all this, I'm getting my book ready to go to the book designer. Whew! I won't mention the fact that we got a little box in the mail the other day, and that little box contained an extremely addictive little game, and we hooked that little game up last night and played for two hours, and it's virtually impossible for me to knit while playing the drums...although I could almost manage while wielding the microphone.

I feel like I'm back in college!

2009-02-22T15:31:00.000-08:00

I did it, but it just about killed me. I spent the past week whipping the book into shape. I didn't eat much, I didn't get dressed in the morning (except on the days when I absolutely had to because I wasn't quite at the point of dropping the kids off for school in my pj's), and towards the end I couldn't really hold up my end of a coherent conversation, but the first draft is off to the tech editors and proofers. Whew! What a job!

The nice thing is that it seemed to kind of take on a life of its own. Once I got past a certain point, it just kind of happened (and took me along for the ride). I still have a boat-load of work to do, but it's looking more and more like it could happen before Sock Summit. Yay!

I had several mini-freakouts this week. In addition to having the deadline of getting the book off to the editors so they had a reasonable amount of time to look at it before the book designer needs it, I had a huge order to ship out, a bunch of patterns to tweak slightly before I could ship said order, a sock design that's due at the end of the month and a birthday party to throw that involved hosting a dozen squealing five and six-year-old girls. Add to that the fact that I'd been completely neglecting the house in favor of the book and so needed to do some major cleaning before having a bunch of kids over (and then, of course, having to clean again after they all left), and I was in meltdown city around Thursday. I managed to survive (I always seem to time my meltdowns for the peak and then everything resolves itself less painfully than I'd imagined), and now I'm looking forward to a relatively relaxing week before things start to get crazy again.

Speaking of Sock Summit, have you seen the teacher list? I've resigned myself to working that weekend but boy would I like to be able to just take a bunch of classes. I'm pretty psyched that I made that list, though - I just hope that there are a few people out there who want to take my classes! I mean, I'm no Barbara Walker or Meg Swanson (or Anna Zilbourg, or Lucy Neatby, or Cat Bordhi, or Priscilla Gibson-Roberts...) but somehow I managed to fool somebody somewhere into thinking I might have something to add to the mix. If you're reading this and coming to Sock Summit, please take my class! Pretty please? I'll be your BFF!

Finding my name on a list with such august company makes me flail with total insecurity (what the heck are they thinking? I can't ever hope to compare to such greatness!), which is how I've been feeling about my book as well. I really, really hope that someone will buy it once I have it printed. It's such a huge leap of faith. People buy my patterns, sure, but there are so many great sock books out there (and more are flooding the market every day). Am I crazy to be putting out a surplus good in a bad economy? Of course, those other sock books won't have my designs in them, so I'm hoping that counts for something. But then I wonder who in the heck I think I am to think that people will buy a book for my designs (the book will have plenty of stuff in it besides designs, but I can't be sure that it's stuff that isn't concurrently being written about by someone else whose book will come out two months before mine...). Am I completely crazy? At least I know my mom will buy one (but I doubt she wants to pay $20k for it, so I'll have to sell a few to other people as well...). Does everyone feel this way before a book they've written comes out?

Now that I've totally revealed the depths of my insecurities, I wanted to mention something funny but totally unrelated to knitting. We've been watching Weeds on DVD and quickly realized during the first episode that the made-up suburb of Agrestic is actually the community that we lived in right before we moved to Oregon from So. Cal. It's a riot trying to spot places we recognize (like the park that I used to take Sydney to all the time when she was a baby, and the little shopping center that was down the hill from us). We keep trying to spot our house, but everything looks so similar that we can't always tell if it's our street or not. When we were driving to San Diego for TNNA we actually drove through the neighborhood and almost missed our house because the street looked so homogeneous. Boy do I not miss the suburbs!

Am I procrastinating?

2009-02-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

Of course! But I'm still not going to tell you about the Addi Clicks. Yesterday my life was changed - I still don't know if it's for the better or for the worse - by a little lunchtime field trip instigated by my husband. My brother-in-law was home from work yesterday and we headed over to his house to play a couple quick games of Rock Band. It's here that I discovered that I've missed my calling, and I really should be a drummer in a band. But definitely NOT a lead singer.

We were just going to go for 45 minutes or so, but before we knew it, it was 2:30 and time to pick up the kids. Talk about crazy addicting. I'm not a big video game person but I could play this one 24/7. Even though we're still on our spartan spend-nothing plan for the next few months, I'm trying to figure out how we can justify buying our own version. It's amazingly fun! If you get a chance to try it, do (or don't, depending on whether or not you want a new obsession in your life). I have decided, however, that I need to wait until the book is at the designer before we bring that monster into our house...

Knitterly Utopia

2009-02-12T16:07:00.000-08:00

So I've been fortunate enough to spend the last week in the intense company of some incredible knitters. Yes, folks, it was Cat Bordhi's Visionary Retreat and once again it was an amazing week. The difference this time is that I think I'm finally going to get a book out of it. I am officially drawing a line in the sand, and that line is that my book will be back from the printer to make its debut at Sock Summit in August.

I met with my book designer for an hour on Monday, and I thought it was promising that he didn't laugh at me when I told him my lofty goal. He was quite helpful in drawing up a plan with me that will enable my boxes of books to be in my dining room by early August. Now I've got some work to do...

I'd been procrastinating on the book project most of the fall, and it was really surprising to me when I sat down to look at everything I've done. I've still got plenty to do but for the most part, I've got a book! It's sort of shocking. My to-do list is drafted, my test knitters and proofreaders have been warned to expect a flurry of activity over the next month, and most importantly, I feel like I'm finally mentally prepared to git 'er done.

Of course, as soon as I say that I have to admit that I haven't done any writing today. Instead a purchased a block of ISBN numbers, registered the fictitious business name statement for my publishing company (Sydwillow Press), rented a PO box and sent a skein of Blue Moon Seduction off to my patient sample knitter for one of the remaining designs. One of the issues keeping me from book work is this pesky pattern business I'm trying to run! I've got two projects that needed my post-editing review, a couple orders to ship out and some other miscellaneous busywork. In fact, I should be getting that second pattern reviewed instead of blogging...

I know I promised a review of the Addi Clicks, but that's going to have to wait until next time. I've got a book to finish, folks!

Quickly, quickly...

2009-02-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Just a brief post tonight so as not to leave you all feeling too darn neglected (I know I have a tendency to do that)... I'm busily getting ready to head off to Cat Bordhi's self-publishing retreat (the party van leaves bright and early tomorrow morning, destination northern Washington) and thought I'd better check in before I leave.

I've managed to get all my post-TNNA work done, for the most part. Patterns have shipped and now various design obligations are being slowly knocked out. I've totally become a list fanatic recently in an effort to actually get done what needs to be done (rather than just what I feel like doing). The huge list of tasks that I made for myself after I got back from San Diego has been whittled down to just a few of the less urgent items (such as making up a design calendar for myself and putting together an "exclusive design" program for shops who want to pay a little more to get a design all to themselves for 6-12 months). I'm also working to get my patterns up on Patternfish (they're not all there yet because Julia, the PF mastermind, writes up such delightful descriptions of each pattern so she can't knock off two dozen in an afternoon).

One of the balancing acts I'm currently struggling with is the whole issue of electronic availability of patterns. I keep saying that I'm not going to add any more pdf vendors, but then another great one comes along and talks me into it. I worry that adding a new vendor is going to take sales away from my existing vendors, but when I look at the sales figures objectively I can't tell that that's actually happening. The sales are really all over the place for all of my online vendors. It's hard to say how many of those customers are going to a vendor's website from my retailer page (I know some of them are because I get e-mails from people looking to buy a certain pattern who don't have a shop near them), and how many are stumbling across my patterns while browsing the retailer's site with no relation to my website or advertising whatsoever. It's so hard to say, and so for now, I've decided to take the attitude of plenty rather than scarcity with my pdf vendors (as in, there are plenty of customers to go around, so I don't need to worry myself sick about taking sales from one vendor when I add another).

These are the exciting things I think about while I'm knitting, now that I don't have television to keep my brain occupied.

Speaking of television, our one-month experiment with no cable has gone swimmingly. I'm able to get so much more done! It's hard for me to sit down and knit without the tv to keep me company, but I just need to get into the habit of loading up my ipod with podcasts or turning on NPR. Tonight, for example, instead of plunking down in front of the television for the evening I instead cooked beans, baked bread, made an apple cake and tray of brownies (I'm bringing goodies for dinner tomorrow night up at the lodge), printed up a pattern order to send off, and read Sydney the second half of Bella the Bunny Fairy before Bill put the kids to bed. I also got all my retreat stuff packed up, including a bunch of kitchen stuff so I can take my food obsession on the road with me. I'm not going too crazy, but I am making quinoa chili for everyone for dinner tomorrow night and I'm bringing some popcorn and coconut oil to cook up for snacking. I've become completely enamored of popcorn cooked on the stovetop in coconut oil. It's a great arm workout!

The end of January also concluded our month of not spending on anything but necessities. All in all, we pretty much stuck to our budget (well, I was $200 over on food, but Bill's theory is that I set the original amount unattainably low). What's really surprising is when you keep track of everything and think that you're cutting way, way back, when you add it all up at the end of the month you realize that cutting way, way back means you get pretty close to your budget (as in, close but definitely not under). It makes me wonder how far we've been blowing our budget out of the water when we don't keep track. I know it kind of defeats the purpose of having a budget when you don't track it, but that's a topic for another day.

Today I went to Target to pick up a few things and was surprised at how difficult it is to control myself in that place, even after training myself for a month. I did pretty well (I escaped under $75, which is almost unheard of for me), but I still didn't turn around and walk out the door when I discovered that the pot I went there to buy was more expensive than I'd hoped. Ironically, if I would've just ponied up for the stupid pot and left, I would've gotten out of there for less than what I ended up spending. Instead I bought some Pyrex baking dishes that I've been wanting, a natural-bristle pot scrubber for our cast-iron, a birthday present for an upcoming party and some art supplies that Sydney has been asking for. I resisted buying the $7.99 waffle iron, the $15 knife sharpener, the Hello Kitty rain boots, the electronic version of Trivial Pursuit, the soft-sided cooler, the new coffee grinder and about a gajillion other things that I momentarily thought I "needed". All in all, I think my tightwaddery has been a success.

Now I'm off to clean up the kitchen (wouldn't want to leave a mess of dirty bowls in the sink for Bill to deal with, especially since I'm not leaving him the good stuff to eat while I'm gone!) and finish the last bits of packing. Next time I promise to finally get around to a review of my new Addi Click set - but I'll leave you with one hint: even Bill thinks it's cool! Have a great week!

Endless activity and irony

2009-01-28T09:44:00.000-08:00

So I'm currently reaping the rewards for slacking off most of the last half of 2008. I've been at my computer for what feels like a month straight (although it has actually only been a few days). It has been seriously cold out, so I haven't braved the bike. Not to mention, I totally jinxed myself by saying it wasn't going to snow again until next winter. The day after I posted that, this is what I woke up to:

How karmic! And yesterday, as I was feeling guilty about not wanting to bike Owen to school because it was too chilly for delicate little old me, fat flakes started to fall. By the time we pulled out of the driveway, there was a couple inches on the ground. It's all melted now, but we've seen more snow this winter than we did the previous four years we've been here combined. Love that global climate change! Portland might actually have to buy a few more plows if this keeps up...

Not that the snow has affected my activity much. These past few days have been all about pattern formatting, printing, putting more paper in the printer, printing, putting more ink in the printer, printing, putting patterns in sheet protectors for a couple hours, checking the printer to make sure it's still going, endlessly cropping photos in Photoshop for the website, coding and recoding the web pages (all the new designs are up now - yay!), discovering that my pdf versions of the patterns had "printed on 100% recycled paper" at the bottom and deciding that that wouldn't do, opening all 50+ InDesign pattern files so I could recreate the pdfs with a cute little line about not printing or printing on recycled paper (which I'm hoping is indeed cute rather than annoyingly preachy), then when on "Walk in the Woods Socks" (after working through the pattern list alphabetically) discovering that instead of "pattern" I had put "catalog" in the footer necessitating a revamp of all pdfs created so far to include the appropriate wording...

It goes on and on. I haven't showered or changed in days, I'm begging Bill to take the kids to school and cook dinner (we broke down and ordered Thai food last night because I didn't make either the split pea soup or quiche I was planning to - which reminds me, I need to get the split pea soup in the crock pot or we're going to have the same problem tonight...). I see the light at the end of the tunnel now, but it's still distant. Not to mention I still have the regular household maintenance tasks of cooking, baking and laundry, and I need to start planning my garden so I can get seeds ordered in anticipation of the fast-approaching "last frost" date on the calendar at the end of February...

This morning my list of tasks includes shipping a trunk show featuring 10 of our lace designs off to Sticks & Strings in Scarsdale, NY (it will be there for the first 3 weeks in Feb - if you're in the area, be sure to check it out!), after figuring out how to laminate hang tags for all the samples and getting the remaining patterns in sheet protectors. Then I need to reformat several patterns to say "Distributed by Cascade Yarns" and print out a *large* order to ship up to Cascade. Of course I've nearly run out of sheet protectors, so that means I'll need to make myself presentable and head over to Costco to pick up several more boxes. I'm also trying to get the rest of the website updated to talk about our trunk show program. It's not enough to just add a blurb about the trunk shows on my wholesale page - no, I somehow decided last night that I need a new page for prospective retailers as well as a new page only for trunk shows. And I'm probably going to feel the need to add a page on the consumer side so that knitters know where the trunk shows are going to be so they can go visit them. Whew! I need an assistant (know one who will work for free or for yarn?).

But enough of my whingeing. I've got split pea soup to make! Can you believe that my daughter who won't touch most healthy food with a 10-foot pole actually loves split pea soup? She's an odd duck, that one...

Naniboujou at Naniboujou!

2009-01-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to share these pics for awhile but it's hard to fit everything in when you only blog twice a month. Therefore, in keeping with my New Year's resolution to blog more, I've decided not to wait until weeks have passed before posting again.

My mom & step-dad visited Naniboujou Lodge over New Year's and Mark was kind enough to e-mail me these pictures of Mom modeling the socks (the very same socks pictured in Knitty) at their namesake lodge.

Don't you love that giant fireplace? Here's a great view of the incredible dining room ceiling:

And here's the beachfront that the lodge faces:

Isn't it delightfully grey and gloomy? I love the beach in the wintertime with the big dark waves and icy rocks. No sunbathing on that vacation, I'm sure! It has been such a delight to get so many e-mails from people who have a connection to Naniboujou Lodge. Mom showed the owners the pattern during their visit and they seemed quite delighted even though they are not knitters. If you ever have a reason to vacation in northern MN, it's a great place to stay!

I'm currently in the midst of a frenzy of pattern printing, editing, e-mailing, re-photographing and website updating. I know I promised to give some sneak peeks of the newest designs, so here are a few of my favorites.

From new GYW designer Leila Wice, these are Fancy Pants, modeled by the way-too-adorable Imogene.

This shot was SO cute it made the cover of our new catalog. We also started distributing a new line of felted crochet patterns from designer Sharon Braden who lives south of Portland. She's got four different animals, but I have to say the sheep is my favorite.

(You can also make it in black.)

Most of the new designs for this go-round were done by others since I was busy working on socks for the book and, let's face it, slacking off. I did manage to get a couple things into the pattern line. First for baby, the Entrelac Baby Sacque (thanks to my tech editor Amy for suggesting I spell "sacque" en francais):

This is a design I've had in my head for a couple of years but never got around to putting it down in yarn. After my obsession with the Garterlac Dishcloth, I decided to finally get off my duff and just do it already. It was, of course, pretty darn fast since babies are nice and compact.

The second design is one I started working on in the airport on the way home from TNNA in Columbus last June. I finished it and it sat on my office shelf (and sat, and sat) until I finally decided to just write it up (it took all of about half an hour - what was I waiting for?). I named it "Snow Day" since it was formatted right around the time we had our massive snowstorm. Unfortunately I didn't get around to photographing it in the snow - maybe next year because we're NOT going to have any more snow in Portland this year, right?

And now it's back to work with me. I'll let you know when I get the website updated with ALL the designs and a few new shops. I'll get it done one of these days, really!

New New Year's Resolution and TNNA post-mortem

2009-01-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

Having not blogged since Jan 12 (which Blogger so helpfully informs me when I log in), I've decided that another of my resolutions for 2009 is to BLOG MORE THAN TWICE A MONTH. I know that there are so many blogs out there (among other distractions *cough*Ravelry*cough*), if I'm not careful I really am only going to be writing to my mom! Not that I don't love my mom (and quite often I write as if I am only talking to her, which can be trouble), but I do adore people who tell me they read my blog. I still can't believe anyone does, besides Mom, and I know she mainly reads it for info on the grandkids. Here's to you, blog readers who aren't related to me by blood or marriage!

So the big event in the past week has, of course, been TNNA in San Diego. My intrepid business partner Donna and I headed south in the deluxe party van last Wednesday and didn't look back. We found ourselves in a very scary hotel in Sacramento (or, rather, Rancho Cordova, on the outskirts of Sac), right next door to a Hooters. We had a very nice dinner at Chipotle, which I never get to go to due to Bill's refusal to eat Mexican food with its generous lacing of onions and peppers. Fortunately, Donna is pro-salsa so we got to eat Mexican several times over the course of the week. After surviving the night with our door firmly dead-bolted, we had a lovely drive through the central valley of California and were enthusiastically welcoming the thought of hitting San Diego by dinnertime. And then we hit LA.

After driving by my old house in Stevenson Ranch (about 30 miles north of downtown LA) and gassing up the car, we stupidly headed down I-5 into the heart of the beast. I should've known to take the old shortcut (when we commuted from Stevenson Ranch to downtown, we had a longer-but-faster circle around the horrendous I-5 traffic) but for some reason it didn't click that traffic would be pretty bad at 4:30 on a Thursday. 5 hours later, we arrived exhausted at our hotel in San Diego. Needless to say, neither of us was dying to move back to southern California, even if the weather was lovely all weekend.

Friday was booth set-up, and as this is our third TNNA (along with the two retail shows we did last year), we felt like old pros. Everyone who'd seen us at previous shows said our booth looked fantastic this year. Here's a little peek (taken with my Blackberry, so forgive the dark blurriness - high-rez it is not!):

On Friday night, we watched the fashion show and were quite delighted at how wonderful our Kiwassa Shawl looked on the stage. There were some interesting entries in the show, including a gorgeous crocheted wedding dress and a pair of knitted boxers (about which the poor model was a very good sport - the sole male model at these shows gets LOTS of attention from the mostly-female crowd, especially when he appears on stage in knitted underwear and nothing else...). After the show, we decided to blow off all social engagements and went back to the hotel to crash. I was lucky enough to be comfortable sleeping with earplugs, but Donna got to listen to the partying Marines who set up shop right outside our door for several hours.

The rest of the weekend was spent manning the booth, peddling our wares, and connecting and reconnecting with shop owners, other designers, yarn company folk and various publishers. It was very fun (but exhausting) and I feel like I've got my design mojo back, finally. Cat Bordhi stopped by to check on book progress and I was able to show her the sock I was working on. Myrna Stahman (of shaped shawl and lace fame), who is another self-publishing mentor and design director at Buffalo Gold, brought me to the Buffalo Gold booth where she and the owners shoved a pile of lovely yarn at me (including their buffalo sock yarn which is incredibly soft and yummy!). However, the highlight of the weekend was when Iris Schreier of Artyarns (who happens to also be an incredible designer) came over to our booth to tell me she was a fan of my designs and she'd love for me to do some patterns with her yarns! I just about fell over. She took me back to the Artyarns booth where she managed to show me a few things before she was mobbed by shop owners (despite the bad economy, her booth was NEVER quiet - it's good stuff, that!). Of course the problem I have in a booth like that is I can't focus because everywhere I look is something I want to knit with. It's hard to zone in on one thing that I could actually do something with in a reasonable amount of time as opposed to saying "I'll take one of everything!" and then fantasizing about filling my living room with beaded silk and cashmere so I can roll around in it while the kids are at school.

The show was relatively successful for us, considering the state of the economy. We weren't mobbed by any stretch of the imagination, but we picked up several new shops and got good reorders from some of our favorite returning customers. Now I've got to get a bunch of work done, including finishing up the last touches on the new designs, updating the website and of course the giant task of printing and shipping the new orders. I also want to send out newsletters to both shops and knitters and create our budget for next year so I can figure out where we're going to advertise. Good thing we turned off cable - maybe I'll actually be able to get something done! We also sprang for a new adult-and-kid exercise machine - it's something to keep the kids busy while I'm doing all this work, anyway!

Next up...a preview of the new designs, including those adorable felted animal purses you can glimpse in the booth pictures. Crocheters, pay attention!

Eeep!

2009-01-12T20:56:00.001-08:00

Wow, has it really been 10 days? I have been in a TNNA-prep frenzy the past couple of weeks. I'm such a procrastinator that it only seems I can get things done when I have a deadline looming. Despite the odds, I think I've managed to pull it off yet again. Of course, I still have a couple patterns to format and get to the test knitters and tech editors, but those are just minor details, right? I've got the catalog done, the order forms back from the printer and all the samples but one, ready to travel to San Diego. I've got 100 copies of the catalog to staple and a few minor little signs and doo-dads to format and print up before we leave, but I'm feeling pretty good in general. Tomorrow will be all about baking up the road snacks.

My eating whole foods kick is still going strong. For the road, I've already made a pan of chocolate chip granola bars, and I've got a big pot of cooked quinoa on the stove with which I will make lemon-garlic quinoa salad (some to take with and some to leave here to feed the refugees/family) and quinoa herb bread. I'm planning to make some chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookies, a big batch of granola for the kids to eat while I'm gone, some crackers and hummus, and some black bean brownies. We'll see if I manage to get it all done...

We've had some sad news and some happy news here at the Gardiner house. The sad news is that my grandfather passed away two days ago from pneumonia. He has been suffering from Parkinson's and in a nursing home for the past 10 years, so his passing was not unexpected and it was certainly his time. My mom, aunt and uncle were all there with him, although he suffers from dementia and may not have known who they were. I'm very sad that I can't make it home for the funeral, but of course it's being held this weekend, the one weekend this month (or last, or next) that I absolutely can't make it. I will be with him and my family in thought and spirit, though, for sure.

On to the happy news...

Yup, Sydney lost her first tooth! It was quite the event - she was eating a pear and it just popped right out. I was worried at first that she'd swallowed it because we had some trouble finding it (but no worries - it was in her lap and the tooth fairy very generously left her $1 in quarters as a reward). I can't believe that my baby girl is old enough to be getting her grown-up teeth!

I also tried to get some shots of Sydney in her new Little Cable Hoodie that she got for Christmas. This is what passes for posing nicely in our house...

It's time for me to get back to my packing and stapling, but rest assured that new designs are forthcoming and I'll let you know when I get a chance to update the website with them. You never know...it could happen tomorrow (or it could be 3 weeks from now)!

New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-02T15:36:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year again - it's always fascinating to me to go back and look at the resolutions I made the previous year because my life often ends up changing so much that what I was focused on at the beginning of the year might be totally irrelevant by the start of the next. Case in point - at the start of 2004 I'd just finished reading the Rich Dad series of financial independence tomes. The focus heavily on real estate investment, so I became obsessed with figuring out how to buy a rental property. Several of my resolutions for that year involved taking steps towards that goal. Never mind that we lived in Southern California near the height of the real estate boom and didn't have an extra hundred grand sitting under our mattress... Needless to say, at the end of 2004, we were planning our move to Portland, I was six months pregnant with Owen, and priorities had shifted.

I don't remember making formal resolutions for 2008. For several years, Bill and I would sit down at the start of the year, make our 10 resolutions each (and another 10 family resolutions), and then he'd laminate a little card for each of us to carry in our wallet. He's out running errands (he made the mistake of asking me if I needed him to do anything while he was out and ended up with several boxes to drop off at Goodwill as well as library books to drop off/pick up) so I can't ask him if we ever did that last year. It would be interesting to see how much priorities have shifted in the past year. I'm thinking it might not be as much now that our lives are relatively stable. We've been in our house for 4 years now (a record for us, the couple who didn't live anywhere more than a year in our previous 5 years of togetherness), we're relatively content with our lifestyle and don't feel the need to do anything radically different (like start investing in real estate). Most of my resolutions for the next year involve a sharpening focus on home and health (of both my family and the planet).

1) Cook and eat whole foods almost exclusively (as in, don't buy it in a box if I can make it myself), which I've been doing already for the past couple months with great success.

2) Spend a minimum of two days per week without driving the car.

3) Limit purchases to essentials in all odd-numbered months, waiting a minimum of 2 weeks before making big purchases of non-essential durable goods in even-numbered months. This came about when listening to a financial expert on NPR the other day - she advised limiting purchases to things like food, electricity, gas, etc. for a month and keeping close track of what you do buy. I don't think I could do a whole year of not buying anything new, but I can probably do a month. The goal is to eliminate those impulse buys that I'm so very good at.

4) Find the joy in my knitting again. I think I made this one last year, too, and it the joy has certainly come and gone repeatedly during 2008. The most joyful things I've made this year have been gifts for family - slipper socks for Bill, mittens and a hat for Owen, a sweater for Sydney and socks for my mom. I need to make sure I take time to knit for pleasure as well as for my business. The favorite thing I made for myself? A crochet tawashi (a little circular dish scrubbie) that I whipped up in an evening as a replacement for my plastic sponge habit.

5) Watch a maximum of an hour of television a day and instead focus on books and radio. I've been reading a lot lately and realizing how much I've missed it. When my knitting obsession began, I pretty much stopped reading all together. Lately, I've been a library regular and have no trouble keeping my hold queue stocked up to the 15 item limit.

That's a few of the things I want to focus on for 2009, along with a pie-in-the-sky goal of walking the Portland Marathon this fall. Training to run the marathon didn't work very well, but I just might be able to walk it. We'll see how it goes - I might decide I want to do bike tours instead.

Happy 2009, y'all!

Happy New Year (almost!)

2008-12-30T12:13:00.000-08:00

Since I'm almost certain this will be my last post of 2008, Happy New Year to all of you! Thanks for sticking with me through my sporadic posting and talk of many things unrelated to knitting. It has been an interesting year, as they all are, and I'm definitely in a different place then I was at the start of 2008. Some big things that have changed:

1. We're no longer commuting 32 miles a day to take Sydney to her private school. Instead, she's walking/biking to the local elementary school and we all couldn't be happier.

2. Although I started out the year trying to eat healthier, the middle of 2008 was all about fast food, takeout and junk food. I've come full circle, though, cooking almost all of our meals at home over the past few months and feeding the family mainly with whole foods and avoiding processed foods.

3. I've quit my clothes dryer almost completely! I finally bought a folding laundry rack and had Bill install a retractable clothesline in our upstairs bathroom, and now I do a load of laundry almost every morning and then hang it to dry. I'd put off doing this because I thought it would be a huge hassle, but it's actually very easy (and the laundry actually gets put away because I can only hang one load at a time, meaning I don't let six loads pile up and get totally overwhelmed by it all).

4. I got back on my bike and have been trying to leave the car in the driveway as much as possible.

That's just a small sample of the stuff that has gone on over the course of 2008. What will 2009 bring? Who knows! I'm looking forward to finding out.

Our record snowfall has finally melted. For a few days right around Christmas it seemed like it would never stop snowing. Seriously! It was nutty. Here's a little taste of what our backyard looked like at the height of it:

Sydney & Owen got their first taste of sledding:

I went completely crazy with the baked goods (here's just a very small sample - imagine each of these cookies times 10 and you'll get an idea of how many cookies we had at the height of the baking madness):

And my Candy Cane Bread, which looked better than it tasted...

I used a recipe written for a bread machine and used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour (it was all I had left at the time). It didn't rise properly the first time, so it was a little bit too dense for my taste. It made good bread pudding, though!

Finally, here are some pictures for you, Mom! We had a fabulous Christmas Day in spite of all the snow. In fact, it was probably made better by the snow because I was kept out of Target and all those other big-box stores that we need to drive to and ended up doing all the kids' shopping at our local shops within walking distance. We also pared down quite a bit from previous years and the kids ended up actually enjoying and playing with most of their toys instead of getting totally overwhelmed by the volume. All in all, it was a success (and we managed to get to my brother-in-law's house and back home in our Jetta without getting stuck!).

The morning started out with stockings and lots of exclaiming that the cookies and milk left out for Santa had disappeared (we actually put the cookies back because we just couldn't eat any more).

Santa came through for Sydney in a big way and brought her the one thing she asked for - a Yoshi doll (which Santa miraculously found in the toy section at Goodwill in late November):

Here are the kiddos, itching to get their hands on all that loot behind them!

It was sort of a quiet Christmas due to the fact that my mother-in-law has slowly been sewing up a collection of cloth gift bags over the past few years and we have fewer and fewer gifts wrapped in paper. This year there were only a couple, so the usual sound of tearing paper has been replaced by the muffled shuffling of fabric. Our trash pile was a heck of a lot smaller than usual as well!

Now I'm going to pass the rest of '08 freezing beef broth made from the bones of our Christmas Prime Rib, trying out a new bread recipe using up some leftover brown rice, finishing up a sock design that will be released next month (I got invited to do one of those cool joint design projects that Lorna's Laces and Mountain Colors put out together), formatting the new patterns that will be released at TNNA next month, and listening to Sydney, who is becoming quite the little reader, sound out the new books I picked up for her at the library yesterday. I hope you all have had as wonderful a year as we have!

We are totally snowed in!

2008-12-22T17:57:00.000-08:00

So Portland has gotten record snowfall in the past few days (record since the 50s anyway) with a nice layer of freezing rain smack dab in the middle. So there are about 10" of lovely, fluffy snow covered in a 1/4" layer of ice, covered with another 4" or so of snow. We don't even own a snow shovel, so our driveway has remained smooth and pristine since last Thursday. I'm glad I stocked up on butter and toilet paper!

Here are some nice wintry pics:

That last one is of the front of our car out in the driveway. It's nutty!

I grew up in weather like this, but the problem with snow in Portland is that they don't have the capacity to handle it here. In Minnesota when it snows, it seems like the streets are all plowed and salted/sanded instantly. Portland has like four snowplows to cover the entire city, so side streets go untouched. I'm sure we'd be fine if we did venture out, but there's no pressing reason to so we've stayed in the house like good little snowbound folks.

I've been watching lots of movies, doing lots of knitting and baking up a storm. We've got a market within walking distance so I was able to send Bill on an emergency run for powdered sugar, butter and Hershey's Kisses. Here's the rundown, starting Saturday:

- 2 batches of sugar cookies using two different recipes (the first attempt was with white whole wheat flour and the Betty Crocker recipe, and they were impossible to roll out but tasted really good - the second attempt was with white flour and Bill's mom's recipe, and they rolled out much better and tasted very nice as well)

- chocolate chip bread
- cinnamon swirl bread
- peanut butter blossom cookies (with the Hershey's Kiss on top)
- russian teacakes
- gingerbread cookies with freshly ground flour (I finally got out the Kitchenaid mixer attachment Bill got me for Xmas last year...)

Next on the agenda:
- chocolate crinkle cookies
- pumpkin cookies
- coconut macaroons or quinoa chocolate chip cookies
- candy cane bread

My goal is to use up the rest of the white flour and sugar so that it's not taking up room in my fridge/cabinet anymore! I'm also hoping to cookie the kids out so that they don't act like heroin addicts looking for a fix every time there's a baked good in the house. So far it's not working - they can put away an amazing amount of junk food! The kids helped decorate the sugar cookies and the gingerbread men in addition to eating them. They had quite the festive time!

The decorating was quite skillful (well, Sydney's cookies, anyway - Owen still needs a bit more work on his motor skills):

Now we're going to spend the evening watching Christmas Vacation and eating spaghetti. I hope you're all staying warm and safe, wherever you are spending the holidays!

Snow Day!

2008-12-15T16:58:00.000-08:00

It is freezing cold here in Portland, and there's snow on the ground. This is relatively unusual, and a dusting of snow means no school. Sydney got to get a Hep A booster instead, lucky girl! I like snow, but I've definitely gotten out of practice. It's cold out there! I much prefer it 50 and rainy (and so do the kids - they kept wanting to go out and play in the white stuff but then would come back in crying about how cold they were two minutes later).

Here's our front porch with some poor blankets that were taken by surprise by the sudden storm:

We've also got some interlopers taking shelter in our basement temporarily...

They're probably just fine outside, but I'm not sure how cold hardy the Amerucana is (the other two are definitely cold-hardy and shouldn't have much trouble surviving cold weather inside their coop). She scared me yesterday when I saw her outside our basement window lying in a heap with her head down on the ground. I tapped on the glass and it took her a bit to get herself up and looking around. She was probably fine, but we decided not to take any chances and let them spend a little time inside. They're stinking up the place and getting increasingly cranky, though, so tomorrow we will be shopping for a new bulb for their heat lamp so we can get them back into their own house. It is fun to hear clucking chickens in the house, though!

I've been slowly climbing back on the work wagon (I actually got two patterns off to test knitters in the past couple of days and am almost through a sample from a new designer who will be putting a few patterns in the Gardiner Yarn Works line next year) but took a few hours off to crochet some dish scrubbies.

I'm trying to get away from plastic sponges all together and so I thought I'd try both cotton (the colored ones) and nettle (the brown scratchy-looking one). The nettle is a pain in the tuckus to work with but I think it will have great scrubbing power. We'll see how it holds up!

I also got three trays of persimmons sliced and drying away:

I decided not to go too crazy with the drying until we know if we like dried persimmons or not (Bill is on record as pretty much anti-persimmon, although I made some incredible persimmon-ginger cookies last weekend that he admitted were pretty good). I froze another five cups of pulp that I can use over the winter for sherbet or more baked goods. I've still got half a 5-gallon bucket full of these things and I'm just not sure I can take it anymore. They may end up feeding our tomatoes next summer. I should see if the chickens like them...

I'm hoping tomorrow will be another day as productive as this one. My plan is to make these (yes, I'm either totally crazy or stupidly brave). I'm really, really hoping they turn out to be amazing but I'm giving them about a 40% chance of edibility. I'll let you know how it goes!

The coolest Xmas gift ever...

2008-12-13T10:03:00.001-08:00

Check it out! I totally want one.

Procrastination...

2008-12-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

Ah, putting things off - how I love it. As you can probably tell from this flurry of blog posts, I'm using any excuse to keep from doing things that really need to get done. I had a flurry of design-related activity the other day, which included getting a bunch of test knitters lined up for the January patterns. I was hoping it would prod me into actually getting the patterns written up and sent out, but so far it hasn't been too effective. I got a scarf pattern formatted, but apparently it has some major problems. I haven't been back to look at it again. Thank god for test knitters, is all I can say! I love them all like my own children.

I should be formatting patterns right now. But it's almost lunchtime, so soon I'll be wandering in to see what's in the fridge (some of my Kitchen Sink Soup along with some hummus from last week that must get eaten...). Then I'll need to check on the new batch of apples that's in the dehydrator (which I spent last night chopping up instead of sitting in front of the computer). I'm trying out the fruit leather tray with some persimmon puree - we'll see how that goes! I've also got a full bucket of persimmons sitting outside my front door, waiting to be dealt with.

This morning I spent two hours as parent helper in Sydney's classroom, which involved supervising eight very hyper kindergarteners while they decorated gingerbread houses. They had to spread icing on the roof and decorate it with candy. They weren't supposed to eat the icing since it's made with raw egg whites, but of course they couldn't resist (particularly the boys, who told me that they loved to be sick and loved having tummy aches). The class also decorated gingerbread cookies, which we took to the cafeteria kitchen to be baked. The teacher then made the mistake of telling the kids that one of the gingerbread men escaped from the oven and was running around the school (they'd been reading the story of the gingerbread man), so of course the kids were almost impossible to keep in their seats because they wanted to run around and look for the missing gingerbread man... Sydney's teacher has the patience of ten saints, god bless her!

When I left the classroom, I was literally panting and sweating, it was such hard work monitoring that small group of kids! It's just amazing what those teachers do on a daily basis. It's pretty fun to watch, though, because in general they are all great kids - some are just better at sitting still and listening than others!

We're supposed to be getting snow this weekend here in Portland, which is a pretty rare occurrence. Snow is already falling in the mountains (we're getting rained on, which is quite normal for this time of year). Fortunately our molting chicken has gotten all her feathers back, so they should be able to weather the cold. I'm not so sure about the rest of us! And now I'm going to go find my lunch, and watch a little television, so I can spend the afternoon WORKING. I really will, I swear!

It's up!

2008-12-10T15:54:00.000-08:00

There's only one thing that could possibly get me to blog two days in a row, and that's my Knitty pattern going live. You can see it here, if you're lucky enough to get in (the server's being stretched to the max by gazillions of crazy knitters trying to see the new patterns all at the same time).

If you can't get in, here's a sneak peek for you:

They're modeled by Emily, co-owner of my fabulous LYS Twisted, and photographed by the very talented Gail, who is patiently doing the photos for my slow-as-molasses book project.

Things should quiet down in a few days for those of you who don't have the patience to deal with overloaded servers. The actual socks headed home with my mom on Thanksgiving. Mom, I hope they're keeping your feet warm in the snowy weather!

Mmm, soup...

2008-12-09T17:06:00.000-08:00

Heh, does anyone else remember the episode of Friends where Joey is auditioning for a commercial, and he's supposed to say the line "Mmm, soup." but just can't get it right? I watch way too much syndicated TV!

Anyway, the flurry of cooking continues. Right now, I've got a gorgeous pot of "kitchen sink" soup on the stove (basically broth and anything that I've had in the fridge all week that needs to be used up before it becomes compost). Onion, garlic, bok choy, sweet potato, carrot, celery, kale and spinach in a combo of beef and chicken broth. I also threw in 1/2 cup of cous cous as an experiment. I'm trying out how different grains do in soup - our post-Thanksgiving turkey soup had hulled barley, and it soaked up almost all the liquid. It was still really good, but it was more like a really thick stew than it was soup!

Want to know what else was on the menu this week? No? Too bad - here's the rundown:
- persimmon sherbet
- broccoli and ground turkey stir-fry
- chocolate chip and almond granola bars
- split pea soup with bacon from our pastured hog
- spinach and corn pizza
- dried apples
- the best brownies EVER from my new favorite cookbook, Feeding the Whole Family
- quinoa salad, also from FTWF
- pumpkin muffins, also from FTWF
- shrimp stew with canned tomatoes and tomato sauce from our garden tomatoes, also from FTWF
- mixed-grain pancakes, also from FTWF (can you tell I really, really like this cookbook?)
- homemade hummus, also from FTWF
- crockpot black beans and brown rice

That's all I can remember - it was a busy week! I just can't seem to keep myself out of the kitchen. I'm almost all the way through The Ethics of What We Eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason, which along with the recently-finished Omnivore's Dilemma, keeps me motivated to cook the family lots of minimally-processed foods with our freezer meat (from our pastured beef and hog, grown organically in west-central Oregon on a family farm).

Both of those books really made me take a long hard look at the meat that I've been eating and feeding the kids. I was raised by vegetarian parents, and I actually read Peter Singer's earlier book, Animal Liberation, in junior high and was a staunch vegetarian off and on through high school and college (although I can't really call it "staunch" since it came and went like the breeze, but when I was in a veg phase I was totally in it) before pretty much giving up any semblance of environmentally-friendly eating in my later years of school and after entering the work force. I was well aware of factory farming and how awful it is, but it's so easy to ignore when you get your meat nicely cut and pre-packaged on little styrofoam trays at the grocery store. There were other things to worry about, like bonuses and stock options, and what new car to buy next.

Again, I've come full-circle, heading back for my roots and the values I was raised with (which I alternately embraced and hated all through my childhood and teen years). I'm hoping that it's easier for my kids to be raised like this than it was for me since we're surrounded by people who share our values here in Portland (unlike the small town where I grew up, where we were basically the local family of freaks). Environmentalism is so much more mainstream now than when I was a kid - that can't hurt, either.

As I continue to wonder where my knit design business will take me, I'm really examining how to make what I do more sustainable. I use 100% recycled paper, but I cringe every time I have to open another box of plastic sheet protectors. Anyone have any ideas as to how to better protect and present patterns? I've considered going 100% digital, but it's hard to do that on a wholesale-only basis. Most shops aren't yet set up for any kind of digital pattern download, although I can see it moving that direction in the future. I could reopen my own pattern shop and sell only pdfs direct, but I don't really want to cut the shops out of the equation all together.

I'm also thinking that I need to choose the yarns I use more carefully. It would be great if someone would write a book or a blog or something on environmentally-friendly knitting (is there something out there that I just haven't stumbled upon yet? It's entirely possible...). It's hard to determine what's actually really sustainable, and what's just "greenwashed". I love the Lorna's Laces green line yarns, and I'm hoping to use more of them in the future. O-Wool is also fabulous. I really need to find an organic sock yarn!

But before I worry about any of that, I really need to get my tushie in gear and prepare for TNNA in January. I just keep getting distracted by that darn kitchen. I'm totally obsessed with food, and I'm not sure when I'm going to get over it! Hopefully never, but that will certainly put a damper on my knitting time. It doesn't help that Owen is sick yet again and has spent the past two days at home. He's ready to go back to school tomorrow, but I'm waiting for Sydney to come down with it now. It's inevitable. I sure wish these two would build their little immune systems up a bit faster!

Come make cheese with me!

2008-12-01T16:18:00.000-08:00

My fabulous homemaking homeschooling goddess of a friend Chris (who got me back into baking bread with her extremely helpful class in early October) has officially started her cooking school, Lost Arts Kitchen. She said that my blog post about the bread class inspired her business name (!) and I think it's perfect (and not just because I helped with the phrase "lost arts"). Go check out her classes page and if you're in the area (and looking to learn how to make some fabulous, healthy, home-cooked food while minimizing kitchen hassle), take a class or two and help get this fledgling business off the ground.

I'm taking the cheesemaking class on January 23 - wanna join me? I missed out on the "practice" session that she gave for friends because my mom had just arrived in town. I definitely need to figure out how to master mozarella so I can't wait to be a real student.

In the more immediate future, I'm trying to figure out what to do with my new (used) food dehydrator. First thing on the agenda is persimmons, since my in-laws have two extremely productive Fuyu persimmon trees in their backyard and I'd love to figure out how to dry them or do whatever else needs to be done in order to make use of this free fruit bounty. I also ordered another 20 lbs of Jonagold apples because we just can't get enough of them. I don't think I'm going to make any more applesauce (well, never say never...), but I'm definitely planning to dry a bunch for the kids' lunches and maybe try my hand at fruit leather.

I also need to figure out how to squeeze in some designing in the midst of all this kitchen time. I was supposed to go to Montana this weekend to hang out with my friend Janet and pick her brain about self-publishing, but I haven't made enough progress on my book to make it worthwhile. My main goal now is to have it out in time for Sock Summit. Think I can do it? My problem right now is I just don't feel like working. And I don't always do well without someone breathing down my neck. I'm hoping that taking a break and crocheting a bunch of presents for the kids for Christmas will help reinspire me. I've got a few patterns done that just need to be written up, and I've also got a couple new designers on board whose patterns I need to get formatted and ready for TNNA in January.

My goal is to do nothing but work this weekend (since I would've been in Montana anyway), but we'll see how that shakes out. I really need to find a good, quiet place to hang out that has free wi-fi. Unfortunately, the dining room only meets one of those two criteria...

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!

2008-11-27T20:55:00.000-08:00

I hope that everyone else who celebrates our American Holiday O' Gluttony is as stuffed with wonderful food as I am! We had a lovely heirloom turkey cooked with garlic, butter and fresh herbs; collard greens and red kale sauteed in olive oil with garlic and toasted pine nuts; oven-roasted brussel sprouts; ridiculously sweet sweet potato casserole (I tried to cut the sweetness a little bit by using barley malt and molasses in place of half the sugar, but it was still pretty darn sweet); mashed potatoes with sour cream; green bean casserole; cranberry dressing made with my ever-improving homemade bread; homemade cranberry sauce; homemade turkey gravy; chocolate cream pie; and pumpkin pie made from scratch using real pumpkin straight from the shell, topped with freshly whipped cream. Yum! I had more fun in the kitchen this year...

My cooking obsession continues unabated. My mom is visiting right now, and she's loving every bite. This week I've made lots of bread, rolls, breadsticks, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin soup (had to use up all that fresh pumpkin!), azuki bean and sweet potato salad, Chinese 5-Spice stir-fry, amazing from-scratch brownies (I don't remember the last time I made brownies not from a box), granola, Ancient Grain cereal, sauerkraut (this is still "cooking" in the basement), and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. We also opened up a jar of my pickled beets (remember them from the comedy-of-errors canning session?) and they turned out amazing.

I've also been doing some knitting, although it all seems to be for fun and function rather than work. We've been trying to keep our heat lower this winter to save some energy, so I decided I was finally going to make myself some felted clogs. The nice thing is I'm fast enough now that I could whip them up in an evening in front of the TV. They turned out great! I'd show you a picture but my browser is not cooperating tonight and the photo upload pop-up refuses to pop up. Sigh. My laptop needs some serious help!

In addition to the felted slippers, I also made Sydney a Little Cable Hoodie and pair of Ballerina Slippers of her very own. I realized that Owen doesn't have any mittens that fit him, so I knit him up a pair with a skein of Wool Ease Quick n' Thick that was sitting on my office shelf for some unknown reason. I decided to make him a hat, too, but I didn't start it until after he was asleep so it ended up waaaay too big. He has a big head, but not quite that big. Fortunately my mom loves it so I gave it to her (the only problem is that now she wants matching mittens, and she's leaving on Saturday - I'd better get busy!).

We'll see if this post will actually publish. And I'll try to get back in the next couple weeks (I'll try for days, but you know me - no promises!) with some pictures. I'll have to get the kids to sit still long enough to get photos of their stuff!

Obsess much?

2008-11-13T20:59:00.000-08:00

I had coffee with my new friend and fellow designer Leila (who hopefully will be adding her talent to the Gardiner Yarn Works pattern line very soon) yesterday and I sort of had a revelation about why I'm not feeling the design mojo so much lately. It's because of my obsessiveness. I get obsessive about stuff that I'm interested in, and I can really only obsess over one thing at a time.

When I first started to design knitting patterns, there were so many things to obsess about. When am I going to get published? When am I going to get published in Interweave? How do I start my own pattern line? How do I grow my pattern line without going broke? How do I set up my website? How do I set up a shopping cart? How do I lay out my patterns in InDesign? How do I do my own graphics in Illustrator? How do I get yarn shops to buy my patterns? How do I get knitters to make my patterns?

Lately, it seems like I've been running out of these types of questions with respect to knitting. I've even cracked the final frontier at long last (assuming I don't jinx myself and get cut from the winter issue)! Instead, my obsessive tendencies have focused on other things - mostly food. With my lack of cooking knowledge, I've got a lot to learn when it comes to food. My living green obsession has also started to rear its cute little head again (poor Bill is being driven nuts with all my fun little changes around the house in order to get us living "greener", like power strips that turn off our internet hub and upstairs cable box when we're not using them, which sucks when you crawl into bed, get all cozy and reach for the remote only to realize that the bleeping power strip, which is across the room, is off...).

Can I manage to get through the day without driving at all? (Today, the answer was yes!) How much Oregon produce can I get at the store this time of year? (Swiss chard, collard greens, cabbage, rainbow carrots, spinach, lots and lots of apples and pears, broccoli...) Can I shop only the bulk foods aisle, the produce section and the meat department at the store? (Almost...but I still have to get the kids their darn bunny crackers.) Do we like acorn squash? (Not so much, it seems.) What's quinoa and how do I use it? (Still TBD!) Can I compost this? And what do I do with compost once I have it? (Yeah, I know you're supposed to put it on the garden - I'm not daft!)

I have to say, my new obsession with biking and eating has really paid off. I've lost nearly 20 lbs, I can ride up the big hill below our house with Owen in the trailer and not feel like I'm going to have a heart attack, I'm not nearly as sweaty (and it occurs to me that I was sweating like a pig in late summer because my body was trying to get rid of all those toxins) and I'm not dead tired by 3 pm anymore.

The kids are also benefiting - they're eating a lot more variety than they used to (it's embarassing to think of how many meals of plain white rice they ate when we ordered in Thai food over the past couple of years), and Sydney actually admits to liking spinach! This is the girl who for the longest time refused to eat anything from a plant, even berries. She's making great progress (and Owen continues to eat just about anything as he has since the day he was born).

Now the question is, how do I get my designing obsession back? I'm still very happy to knit, but I'm just not as into all the rest of it. Where's my mojo? Have I finally burned out after working like a fiend for the past few years? I'm guessing that this too shall pass, and in the meantime my family's pretty happy with the homemade food and the clean house. I'll be delighted to get within kicking distance of my pre-pregnancy weight without actually going on a crazy diet! More veggies and more exercise - who knew that would actually work?

Let's try for some coherence this morning...

2008-11-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday was all about tears of joy and grinning like an idiot at any stupid little thing (I even cried during Bush's morning speech, which has never happened before - well, I've never cried tears of joy, anyway). And nagging adominal discomfort...but we won't go there. I suspect Owen picked this bug up when I took him to the doctor for his flu shot on Thursday morning and I am not pleased about it. Anyway, I realize yesterday's post was all over the place and didn't really express what I was feeling very well. Please forgive me - I haven't eaten in a week!

This clip from my favorite political show pretty much sums it up better than I ever could:

We're back, baby! America is back in business, showing herself to be a global force to be reckoned with instead of a bully to be scorned. I'm sorry to be so off the rails these days, but I am just so proud of all of us - each and every one, including the McCain supporters (apart from the ones who are blatantly racist and still insist that Obama is a Muslim terrorist...they can kiss my grits) - who turned out to vote in record numbers and showed that we haven't lost our idealism and fresh-faced optimism. And that white people will vote for a black candidate, even though we still have plenty of race issues to work through as a nation. And that smear campaigns and the politics of fear don't fool us anymore.

I know that we have a lot to work through over the next four years, and I'm sure Obama is going to screw up just like every president does. However, I am just so delighted that we've resoundingly decided to look to the future rather than clinging to what's familiar and seems safe but hasn't been working. I am so proud of us!

And now I have a little something for my mom, who has been waiting oh so patiently to see the kids' Halloween pictures. Here they are - my little dragon and mermaid!

Note that the dragon (who everyone thought was a frog until he turned around and showed them his wings) already has a chocolate-covered face... Our neighbor brought over goodie bags for the kids before we went out trick-or-treating and of course they immediately tore into them.

Sydney's school does a Halloween Parade every year, so we all went to see all the kiddos in their costumes. Here's our girl, looking frighteningly grown up!

And this has nothing to do with Halloween, but it does have to do with Bill's mad construction skillz. Check out the kids' new play structure which was designed on-the-fly and built by their dad!

Here it is being put to good use...

Now, keep your fingers crossed for us that we kick this stupid bug! I am so very ready to feel normal again!

Thank you, America!

2008-11-05T06:05:00.000-08:00

Last night, the cynicism that has been building in me over the past eight years finally flew the coop. My faith in the American people and their love of their country is restored. We decided against fear, suspicion and xenophobia and embraced our futures with open arms. We've got a lot of healing to do, no doubt, but we picked the right guy to do it, I have no doubt.

I know that Obama's victory, while sound, was not a total landslide. Many, many people voted for McCain and while I think that John McCain is a patriot and wants to do the right thing for his country, his campaign showed that he wasn't the right man for the job. He wasn't the McCain of 2000 - he let himself be molded and dragged around by the same people who worked so hard to destroy our democracy over the past 8 years. He didn't make the right decision about his running mate. His campaign took the low road while Obama's campaign for the most part stuck to their message and stayed out of the mud. They weren't perfect, but there were many, many things that the campaign could've gone after that they didn't touch. Even though Bush is on record as having been the Worst President Ever, McCain still ran his campaign straight from the Bush/Rove playbook. And he lost because of it.

Our country is still very much divided between red and blue. I don't think it ever will or should be any different. Even though I like the theoretical idea of a permanent Democratic majority, I think it would be very harmful to our democracy. We need people of all political stripes to keep us on our toes. What we don't need is a president like we've had for the past eight years, who systematically dismantles the controls that the founding fathers put in place to keep our democracy running. If I sound like a bit of a conspiracy theorist, it's because I started reading a little book called The End of America last week. I had to put it down until after the election because it was scaring the crap out of me. Everyone should read this book to see why Bush truly was the Worst President Ever. I don't think McCain would've necessarily wanted to follow in Bush's footsteps, but McCain has shown himself to be easily manipulated and brash in his decision making. We need someone who will clean up Bush's mess, and I'm so glad we've got him.

To any McCain supporters who've managed to read this far (kudos to you if you have!), I know it's hard to read things like this that you probably don't agree with at all. I know, because I've been reading concerns posted in various places by McCain supporters who think the world is going to end now that Obama has been elected. Let me try to reassure you. Obama is not going to tax you into oblivion. If you have a low or moderate income or a small business, you'll probably save money when Obama implements his tax plan. If you make over $250,000 per year, you can probably afford the extra $3000 or so you'll pay under his plan. I just ran our income through the Obama tax cut calculator, which you can find at his tax page, and our family will be paying over $1000 less in taxes under his plan. Go check out what you will save!

Of course, there are those with small businesses who "make" over $250,000 per year. The key terms here are "gross" vs "net". Obama is not going to suddenly start taxing businesses on gross, which is something that has been implied. If you net more than $250,000 from your business, congrats! That means you're probably grossing a couple million dollars and have a very successful business. There's this theory that taxing people a bit more on incomes over $250,000 is going to suddenly bring the economy to a halt and force people to stop hiring, but I would think that businesses would be encouraged to hire people, give them raises, etc. because that would mean they'd get a tax deduction for those employee expenses and wouldn't have to pay more taxes.

And now I'm going to stop rambling - why am I up posting this at 6:30 AM PST anyway? Stomach flu. Owen was the first to succumb and woke us up early Saturday morning with the barfies. We thought he'd just had too much Halloween candy until Sydney came down with the same thing on Sunday. Then I got hit with it and am still trying to recover. Both the kids are home from school because it just won't quit, and we're all quite miserable. I've been up since 4 because I just generally feel icky. It's going to be another fun day, I can feel it. The only good thing about it is that I slept most of the day on Monday, meaning I wasn't able to spend the day obsessing and predicting doom and gloom regarding the upcoming election. Aren't I lucky?

It's all uphill.

2008-10-28T14:28:00.001-07:00

We live in a great place in the event that Portland is flooded, but it means that in order to get to our house, you need to go uphill. From any direction. There's no way to head out from our house and have a downhill on the way home. The best you can do is head out along the ridge which will keep you at approximately the same elevation...

Why has this become a big deal lately? Because I've been doing my absolute best to minimize my car trips, and those hills sure are a bugger with a 35-lb preschooler trailing along behind my bike! It is fun to see my fitness improve by leaps and bounds, though - there's a huge hill on the ride home from Owen's preschool and the first few times I rode up it with him in back, I had to stop and walk the bike up the last half of the hill. Now I can get up it no problem. It's still a heck of a lot of work, but I don't feel like I'm going to barf when I get to the top anymore! I've gotten so that I really miss taking the bike on the days when I have to drive for whatever reason. Rainy season is going to be tough...

My knitting has lately been an uphill battle as well. I've been working on a few things, but I haven't started working on new designs to release at TNNA in January and if they're going to be ready, I've got to get my tushie in gear. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you're married to me), I've been too busy playing Little Susie Homemaker. I made another batch of applesauce yesterday AND an apple pie with a made-from-scratch crust. We went up to Hood River on Saturday and visited a bunch of apple farms so there are now about 30 lbs of apples and 20 lbs of pears in our kitchen waiting to be put to good use.

The pie crust was not at all pretty (I need plenty of practice rolling it out so it forms a nice circle that actually fits in the pie pan), but boy did it taste incredible. The recipe used butter and coconut oil - yummy! I remember when I was a kid, coconut oil used to be one of those evil oils, but it's actually quite good for you. We also made French Toast on Sunday and Bill used coconut oil instead of Crisco to grease the pan, and boy was that tasty. I am completely and totally obsessed with whole foods now. My next urge is to figure out how to make pasta! Maybe if Bill is reading this he'll note that I'd love a pasta-making attachment for my mixer for Christmas. Hint, hint! ;)

Tonight I'm having dinner with my friend Leslie and two other Portland participants in Cat Bordhi's Visionary Retreat - Marta McCall and Judy Becker. Unfortunately I'm going to have to drive, but I love getting together with my designer friends so it won't be too difficult to make an exception. Now it's time to get back on the bike and go pick up the kid!

OMG!!! You have to watch this video RIGHT NOW!!!

2008-10-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of all the flamethrowing that's going on right now, I've decided to pass around my own version of the viral video. I think that everyone who has not seen the entire exchange between Sen. Obama and the infamous Joe the Plumber needs to watch it in its entirety.

There has been so much distortion, rumor and innuendo surrounding this entire exchange that I was literally floored when I watched the whole thing. They are surprisingly nice to each other, and it's actually a very interesting exchange. The big accusation of the week is "OMG!!! Socialism!!!" but in reality, Obama's comment about "spread the wealth around" is about reversing the upward flow of money perpetuated over the last 8 years. Rather than continue to give tax breaks to those who need them the least, Obama wants to let the Bush tax cuts (which McCain originally voted against, BTW - is he a socialist too?) expire.

I sent my ballot off the other day (we in Oregon all vote by mail, which is a tad bit of a letdown but at the same time very convenient), and I was so thrilled to be able to vote for a president of color (although I don't think that white people have to worry about Obama representing "their" interests since he is half white and was raised by his white mother and grandparents) who is all about hope rather than the politics of fear and division. I personally can't wait for all this election hoo-hah to be over because it's really getting scary - the fact that people actually believe that a terrorist/terrorist associate could be running for President of the United States is just beyond belief. But then again, many of us fell for that whole "weapons of mass destruction" line, too, and you see where that got us...

As we come upon election day, please vote. And please consider voting on the issues rather than the soundbites, or the color of a particular candidate's skin, or the stylishness of their shoes. If you're still undecided, go to each candidate's website and read over their platform. Don't make assumptions. Don't fall for the lines fed to you by the opposing campaign's ads or the special interest groups. Think critically, and vote for the candidate who you think can bring this country through the next 4-8 years. It's not going to be an easy job, and we need someone who can git 'er done. Someone who makes good decisions when under the gun. Someone who plays well with others. Make your voice heard! VOTE!!!

Mmm!

2008-10-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems like I can only manage to post once a week these days. Last week was rough, with Sydney home sick most of the week and Bill out of town. Today Owen is home sick and I'm suffering as well, although I've dusted off my Neti pot and that's definitely helping. Right now my stomach is rumbling while I'm waiting for these beauties to cool enough to be eaten:

I'm reading a very interesting book right now, called In Defense of Food, and it is changing (or, I should say, re-energizing) my view of what our family should eat. It builds on what I learned from "The Book" (aka Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) last year and motivates me to bake that bread and pick those green tomatoes...

The motto of In Defense of Food is "Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants." I love it. He also debunks much of what we've been taught over the past several decades regarding low-fat and, recently, low-carb diets. He talks about how harmful hydrogenation of oil is to our health and how saturated fat isn't necessarily to blame for heart disease and diabetes (but refined white flour and sugar most certainly are). It's really making me think about everything we eat and how far it comes from the actual plant or animal. Baking bread at home allows me to control every single ingredient in that bread. I can use whole wheat flour, molasses instead of high-fructose corn syrup, butter instead of hydrogenated oil.

I've been doing plenty of knitting while nursing my cold, although nothing I can show you. I did get an exciting bit of news last week - you'll need to watch this space in early December to see what I'm talking about. We had the first book photo session this past weekend and had a great time - there were chickens, children and cherry tomatoes involved. It is motivating me to get back on track with the book projects and knit, knit, knit!

Yesterday I got together with my knitting guild friends Donna, Katrina and Amanda for a birthday breakfast for us late summer/fall babies (that would be me and Amanda), and look what I got!

This will become Flamethrower Socks.

Shawl pin!

And this is the coolest little bag with a weighted bottom (so you can put your yarn ball in it, pull away and the bag won't move):

I love my knitterly friends!

I think my bread is just about ready to eat (and I'm getting distracted by the author of In Defense of Food, who just happens to be on Fresh Air right now), so I'll leave you with the aroma of fresh bread floating in the air... Yum!

Wasting time...

2008-10-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

It seems like all I do lately is piddle away the day. You'd think that I'd be upset about this, but I'm actually quite enjoying myself. My design work is the main thing to suffer, but my family is more than happy to have home-cooked meals, freshly-baked bread and a clean house. This seems like a cycle I go through every fall - perhaps there's something about the shortening days that make me go into nesting mode?

Yesterday is a perfect example. Bill was gone most of the day, which normally fills me with dread. However, yesterday I decided to make the best of it. Instead of sitting the kids in front of the television, we baked cookies (although I couldn't let the little monsters help because they would bicker constantly about who got to do what, and how it wasn't fair if they didn't get to do exactly the same things, or sit on the taller chair, or mix with the bigger spoon...), took a long walk which was interrupted early-on when we ran into friends from down the block and had to stop and play for awhile, read a bunch of library books, made mud pies in the backyard, collected leaves and sticks and pressed the leaves in a book, yada yada yada. We topped the day off by making homemade noodles and watching the Simpsons Movie in our pjs and sleeping bags on the tv-room floor.

It was a great day, but I got very little knitting done. I've got the old design malaise back again and I'm hoping that it doesn't last too much longer. I've got a book to write, and new designs to work up for TNNA. I've got other designers lined up to add patterns to my line and test knitters waiting patiently for something new to come down the pipe. We're having a book photography session this coming weekend and I have at least one more pair of socks that need to be finished before then. But I just can't help myself - perhaps my creative spirit needs a bit of a break now and then to recharge, and it just so happens that the change of season brings it on.

I should be writing a knee-high pattern down to distribute to the test knitters, but instead I think I'm going to search for recipes to use up our green tomatoes that aren't going to ripen before they freeze off the vine. I caught a snippet of the Splendid Table radio show on NPR last weekend that was talking about making a pie out of green tomatoes that's better than apple pie. Sounds intriguing! Anyone have any favorite green tomato recipes (besides fried green tomatoes, which I've tried and am not crazy about)?

Wow, where did that week go?

2008-10-07T20:41:00.001-07:00

It's amazing how quickly time goes by here at the Gardiner house. I can't believe it's already been a week since my last post, even though I'd pledged to post more often. I have been keeping myself busy, though! I've been biking Owen to school at least one way most days, along with keeping the house clean (still on my FlyLady kick) and making healthy meals for the family almost every night. I signed up for menu mailers from the FlyLady's cohort at Saving Dinner, and let me tell you, I am a believer. Even Bill, who was extremely skeptical at first, has to admit that he's been eating pretty well lately.

The way Saving Dinner works is you sign up for a particular menu (she has several different types - I've been doing the low-carb/body clutter since I'm determined to get my butt back in shape this year), and then every week you download the new menu. It provides a coded shopping list (so you can easily see which ingredients go with which meal in case you want to substitute) and recipes for six meals along with a soup to make for lunches. While there are definitely meals we've liked better than others, we haven't had any real stinkers.

I love that she mostly uses whole ingredients rather than packaged stuff - I've found myself shopping around the outside of the grocery store (as in, hitting the deli & meat, dairy case and produce section and avoiding all the processed-food aisles) for the most part and we are all eating so much better. I really wanted to shop the farmer's market heavily this summer but we've only gone a couple times. However, we do have our freezer filled with local, pasture-fed beef and pork, we've got our backyard eggs, we've got a ton of green beans and a fair number of tomatoes from the garden (all the carrots have, sadly, been eaten and the watermelons and zucchini just aren't going to make it - they're still flowering), and I just signed up to have local dairy delivered to our door every Thursday. In glass bottles. How cool is that? When I told him, Bill immediately had to dig out Skeleton Crew by Stephen King and make me read the short story about the milkman...

I've also been on a total canning tear. In addition to the pickled beets I posted about a couple weeks ago, I've made dilly beans, diced tomatoes and today was all about the apple butter. Tomorrow is applesauce day to use up the rest of the 20-lb box of apples we bought, and after that I'm thinking of making some green tomato relish to use up the poor tomatoes that aren't going to make it past the first frost. I decided to stop using recipes from the internet and bought the Ball Blue Book. Canning is so much easier with that book in front of me - they detail everything to do (and not to do) very nicely.

In a final spasm of domesticity, today I got back on the bread-baking wagon and whipped up a loaf and a half dozen dinner rolls. My friend Chris is starting sort of a "lost arts" cooking school, and last Friday night a bunch of us got together for her to practice her teaching on. She taught us all of her tricks for bread and bagels (bagels will be made later this week - I love cinnamon sugar bagels with a filthy passion but they don't have them at the bagel place around the corner from us), and her tips and tricks really helped. Sort of like taking a knitting class from a really good teacher - even if you already know the technique covered by the class, sometimes it's worth it just to get those little tidbits that are inside the teacher's head (Joan Schrouder classes are like this). I must've done something right because the kids fell on those rolls like a pack of wild dogs. Chris is going to teach us all how to make yogurt and cream cheese next.

I also spent a fair amount of time packing up samples and patterns to send to various shops. Yarn Harbor in Duluth, Minnesota is going to have a trunk show of Gardiner Yarn Works patterns for the rest of October and November, along with A Good Yarn, which is a new yarn shop up in Port Orchard, Washington (yes, it's named after the Debbie Macomber book and yes, she's involved in the shop). Locally, Dublin Bay Knitting Co, the source for enough Handmaiden and Fleece Artist to fill up your bathtub and roll around in, has several samples of ours as well including the fabulous Amethyst Wrap which was the hit of our booth at both TKGA and OFFF.

At the moment, I'm trying to decide if I want to watch the rest of the presidential debate, which I have Tivoed, or if it's too frustrating since I already love one of the candidates and despise the other... I might watch the last half hour of Michael Clayton instead. I'm working on a crochet design, of all things, and it is very, very fun! I'll let you all know if it turns into anything, other than a pain in my left wrist!

Clarification and pretty stuff

2008-10-01T20:11:00.000-07:00

Knifty Knitter brought up a good point in her comments to my last post - not all rich people are exploitative and it's not necessary to exploit others in order to have plenty yourself. I was railing against those who DO exploit others in order to have more money/stuff than any human really needs. I'm sure that there are plenty of people who would find my family's lifestyle lavish, what with expensive private preschools, numerous vacations and me able to stay home with the kids and work at a career that I really love but, let's face it, has been a financial drain until this year where I am FINALLY turning the corner towards profitability. There are many different levels of rich, and many different ways to get there. I got an e-mail from the Obama campaign today that summed up my feelings on the so-called American Dream quite nicely:

"We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job -- an economy that honors the dignity of work."

That's what I was trying to express rather awkwardly in my last post. When I first graduated from college, I worked at a start-up software company that grew extremely quickly during my first few years there. The executives got quite rich, but they also offered us great benefits and decent salaries, recognizing that they weren't the only ones working hard to ensure the company's success. I didn't and don't begrudge them their wealth for one second. I worked there when offshoring became all the rage, and they kept all the work in-house even though offshoring promised an easy way to increase profitability by getting rid of higher-paid workers. Anyway, enough about me. Let's look at some yarn.

I've pulled together some gorgeous yarns for the socks in my book. Here are just a few samples...

Mt Colors Bearfoot in Marigold (love that orange!):

Handmaiden Casbah (so very, very yummy):

Dream In Color Smooshy (yum, yum, yum):

And my current fave (which just arrived in the mail today), this gorgeous red (the photograph does NOT do it justice) from Curious Creek Fibers:

It's the same color as the strawberries I just bought and made into more freezer jam! Tasty!

Now I've got to stop procrastinating and get a few different patterns written up (my Knit-Purl sock club pattern is due today, and I just finished the last pattern repeat on the second sock this morning while watching the Nicholas Cage remake of The Wicker Man). I can't seem to say no to anything new that comes along, which is really making book work difficult! How do you say no to Kate Gilbert and the Twist Collective, though? (Stay tuned in November for more on what I've been doing there...)

There's nothing erotic about errata...

2008-09-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

The title of this post really has nothing to do with the content, but Bill and I had a funny little exchange about errata and erotica, since the two terms sound so very similar. He was complaining about a little work screw-up he was kicking himself over, and I was sympathizing by telling him I had many sleepless nights fretting about my errata. He said, "your erotica?" To which I responded "I wish! There's nothing erotic about errata." Those may be the truest words I've ever spoken...

But I digress. What I want to talk about is the fabulous weekend I spent in my booth at OFFF! I love this little festival more and more each year. I didn't bring my camera and neglected to snap any shots with my Blackberry (I am the worst photographer EVER), but you can see a nice shot of my booth over at Lavender Sheep. Yvonne and her hubby were our booth neighbors and we all had a great time out on the lawn, listening to the sheep and goat chatter drifting over from the barns behind us and being tortured by the wonderful smells of the barbeque and kettle corn booths that were our neighbors on the other side.

The show was CROWDED this year and people were in the mood to buy yarn and patterns! I guess when the economy starts to go, knitting looks like a better and better hobby - compare a scarf knit with a $30 skein of Sea Silk, providing hours of entertainment and then hours of practical use to a movie for a family of four, at $9 a pop for the tickets plus the ridiculous cost of concessions...the scarf looks like a pretty good deal! Socks are even better, since you can get a damn nice skein of sock yarn for around $20 and keep yourself entertained for a good long time knitting them up.

It was a nice break from the endless coverage of the current financial crisis. Since Bill works in the financial sector, he's waiting very impatiently for the bail-out package to be hammered out. He gets very frustrated with the news coverage, particularly people who comment on the situation who really don't know what they're talking about. It's such a complicated problem, and people rely so heavily on sound-bites and form their opinions based on others' opinions rather than taking the time to sort out the actual facts of the situation. Of course, without knowing exactly what's in the bill, we're all in that same boat. Bill's opinion is that we'll all be better off if there's more liquidity in the market, and that the bail-out could turn out well for both people who are in foreclosure and for the taxpayers, if it's structured well.

It's easy to see the bail-out as a parachute for wealthy executives who screwed things up, but it's so much more complicated than that - the plan needs to be structured to help people on the verge of foreclosure restructure their loans. Our current economy is based on the principle that the rich should get richer on the backs of the working class. While I think that it's ridiculous that CEOs get huge salaries and bonuses even when they fail, I find it more ridiculous that CEOs and executives are rewarded for short-term gains as opposed to working to make companies viable and strong over the long term. This short-term profit obsession is incredibly damaging, I think, and it encourages companies to continually come up with ways to increase profitability without any regard for their employees or even the quality of their products. Sometimes government regulation and controls are a good thing, even though free-market purists scream at that idea at the top of their lungs. Without any kind of controls, the pirates of high-finance reign (anyone seen Wall Street lately?).

Wal-Mart, aka the evil empire, is continually profitable because they're very aggressive in seeking out the best possible deals on their merchandise, abusing their suppliers and relying on foreign sweat-shop workers rather than quality goods made by Americans who are paid fair wages and get good benefits. I remember when Wal-Mart was all about "Made in the USA". How far they've fallen from that worthy goal. They also make their record profits on the backs of their employees, who aren't paid fair wages and are continually discouraged from unionizing in order to lobby for fair treatment. Instead of providing health benefits for their workers, Wal-Mart encourages them to go on Medicaid so that taxpayers provide their benefits and Wal-Mart gets off scot-free. Their employees, who continue to get paid poverty-level wages, have no choice but to shop at places like Wal-Mart because they offer such low prices (or so they think), completing the vicious cycle. Small businesses who pay their employees good wages, invest in their communities and provide benefits are forced out of business because they can't compete. Their employees than have to go work at Wal-Mart because it's the only game left in town.

Can you tell I don't like Wal-Mart? I just find it to be such a classic example of how the rich are getting richer on the backs of the working class. Why is it that Wal-Mart gets all these tax breaks even though they're rolling in dough already? Why are communities expected to subsidize Wal-Mart in this way, just because Wal-Mart will supposedly bring jobs to town? Never mind that they'll take away better-paying jobs by driving local businesses out of business... This cycle has got to stop if we want our society to become more equitable. Trickle-down economics just don't work, unless you happen to be one of the rich elite and don't care what happens to the rest of society.

SCREECH! All right, back up, I've been listening to too much NPR! I think I need to go knit something. Sheesh!

Bountiful Harvest

2008-09-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy all week...in the kitchen, of all places! Every fall, I get the itch to can stuff. My mom canned and froze a ton of stuff every fall when I was a kid, so it's in my blood. This year I finally broke down and got myself a water bath canner at the hardware store and a big bag of beets from a local farm. On Wednesday, I managed to turn them into this!

8 pints of pickled beets! I managed to get all the jars to seal (yay!) but the canning process itself was a bit of a comedy of errors. It didn't help that I got called to Owen's school that morning to pick him up because he was running a 102 degree fever... He was asleep on the couch for most of this process, and let me tell you, it was a process!

First, the beets have to cook for about 35-45 minutes until they're nice and soft. Then, you have to dunk them in cold water and peel them (when they hit the cold water, the peels slide off relatively easily). Then you have to slice them. At this point, between all the beet water, the beet peelings and the juice from the sliced beets, the kitchen was looking a little bit like a crime scene.

Next step is to make the pickling solution, which involved lots of vinegar, sugar and spices in a little cheesecloth sack. I didn't have any cheesecloth so I used an old diaper (one that had never been used for its original purpose, BTW), which seemed to work. The pickling solution cooked for a little while, then the beets were added and cooked with the pickling solution for a few minutes. In the meantime, the jars and lids had to be sterilized and the water bath set to boiling. The sterile jars were filled, lids placed and rings screwed on, and then they were set into the boiling bath.

Everything up to this point went relatively well, but boy did I have issues with the water bath! I'm hoping that none of the little problems added up to botulism-laden beets...if any experienced canners are reading this, let me know if I did anything particularly damaging, please! First problem - the jars I was using and the wire rack from the canner didn't seem to be compatible. The jars kept tipping over as I tried to set them in the rack, and there was a leak somewhere because the water bath water turned pink. I perservered, though, and crammed six jars into the six spaces on the rack - they were a bit tight but I went with it.

Next the jars were lowered into the boiling water where they were to boil for 30 minutes. Of course I managed to fill the pot up too full, so the first few minutes of boiling involved me desperately scooping water out of the bath so that it would stop boiling over and putting the burner flame out. I finally got the water to a reasonable level and things were quiet until the timer went off. I couldn't nicely lift the jars out of the rack because they were so crammed in there (note to self - next time, skip the wide-mouth jars unless you buy a bigger canner), so I took the whole rack over to the counter and got the jars unstuck.

I had two lonely pints still waiting for their stint in the hot tub, so I put them in the rack and lowered them into the water. Of course, with all the water I'd removed to make the batch of 6 fit, the two little jars weren't even covered. I had to make several trips between the sink and the pot, and then wait for the water to reboil. I didn't start the timer again until the water was boiling, although the jars sat in the pot while it was heating up. Again, hopefully not a fatal mistake. I need to do a little research on canning safety before we crack these babies open...

Lessons learned -
1. Don't start heating the lids up until the jars are almost ready for them. My poor lids cooked for a couple hours while waiting for their jars, which I'm sure was not the most efficient use of gas.

2. Make sure your jars actually fit in your canner before the water is boiling and the jars are filled. My canner does not really like the wide-mouth pint jars.

3. Plan for the whole process to take about three times as long as you thought it would. Don't tell yourself that it will be no problem to get to the bus stop in time to pick up your kid because based on total processing/cooking times, this whole scenario should only last a couple hours. If you decide not to heed this advice, make sure there is a responsible adult on-call to fetch kid when process inevitably runs way over estimated time to complete.

4. Beware the urge to immediately order pounds and pounds of produce to can based on your small success. Baby steps, people!

I am really fighting with #4 right now - I want to make applesauce, and pickles, and dilly beans, and tomato sauce... There's something so satisfying about putting up food. While the beets were definitely the most involved thing I've done this fall, we've also managed to make a few pints of strawberry freezer jam and froze some sweet corn.

I also spent an hour yesterday making some great vegetable-and-chicken soup which included beans, carrots and tomatoes from our little garden.

It's not much, but it's way too fun growing our own food! And we live in a great area for fresh produce. I just know I'm not going to be able to resist sending Bill to the farmer's market this weekend to get some more stuff to can. I really should be knitting socks, but with the failing economy and global food shortages, I just can't resist the urge to feather the nest a bit.

Speaking of the economy, I got a shocker yesterday when I went to fill up the VW with gas - biodiesel is now...wait for it...$5.50 a gallon here in Portland. Yowza! It cost $72 to fill our puny little 13-gallon tank, and I was immediately inspired to dust off my bike and hitch up the trailer. I've been thinking about biking Owen to school instead of driving, but I thought it might be a bit too much for me. Yesterday I mapped it out, and it's only 2 miles down there! I can easily bike to my in-laws' and back, and they're 2.5 miles away, so school should be no problem. I might actually be able to lose this pesky baby weight (yeah, I know, Owen's in preschool so he's really not a valid excuse anymore) and get in shape for ski season. Not that we'll be able to afford to go skiing the way things are going, but if we can, I'll be ready!

Now I'm off to get ready for Oregon Flock and Fiber. We'll have a booth on the lawn, so if you'll be there this weekend, please stop by and say hello. I'll have Knitters for Obama stickers and voter registration forms! But of course you're welcome (and I'm happy to register you to vote) no matter what your political affiliation. I'll have Hurricane Socks patterns as well!