Remember This?

Haul out the holly;
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again.
Fill up the stocking,
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now.
For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute,
Candles in the window,
Carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute.
It hasn't snowed a single flurry,
But Santa, dear, we're in a hurry;
So climb down the chimney;
Put up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen.
Slice up the fruitcake;
It's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough.
For I've grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older,
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder,
Need a little Christmas now.

- Jerry Herman

Note: this contest announcement originally ran last December, before 2010 got hijacked by the juggernaut that is Lord of the Rings. Today I am happy to announce that:

• it's on!
• the game is afoot
• go for it
• I'm sheepishly acknowledging my own procrastination (oops!)
• AND FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE PATTERN IS AVAILABLE FOR INDIVIDUAL PURCHASE OVER THERE>>>ON THE RIGHT>>> (also on Ravelry & thru Knitty Noddy, my partner for the Garden Variety Collection)
  

A couple changes worth noting:

1. deadline for entry is now December 25th (natch!)
2. Entry photos will be posted on the blog as they come in, with a separate page for all of them.
3. Winner will be decided by reader vote, instead of judging
4. Prize is a full set of Two Towers patterns, including the "In Dreams" mystery shawl KAL that will kick off the next leg of our journey in January.
5. You don't have to finish the scarf, just finish enough of one side that you can get a decent picture.

I think it will be lots of fun to see what everybody can do with this pattern. You can find the RAV KAL here.

How do YOU decorate for the holidays? Traditional? Avant Garde? (sp?) Red & Green bursting out everywhere? Tastefully understated?

Well, now's your chance to shine! One of my readers had a great idea!

I'm going to run a contest next December for the best "decorated" Spruce scarf.

I'm going to set up a KAL on Ravelry for the contest where we can all share ideas and links for beads & charms & such.

But you can't win if you don't play - Spruce is only available through December 25th


I love December - too much fun!

SPRUCE

Size:
16 in wide by 60 in long

Materials:
1300 yds. seasilk or other fingering weight yarn
1500 size 8 seed beads
110 star or other accent beads/charms
size 4 needles
crochet hook for beading

Gauge :
5 st = 1 inch (blocked)

Charted Design
Intermediate level

On your mark...Get set...GO!

what are you doing still here reading? I said GO! NOW! TIME'S A-WASTING...lol

OH YES! ONE OTHER THING : AM ALSO MAKING ENTIRE 2009 SERIES AVAILABLE FOR LAST TIME THRU END OF OCTOBER - STILL AVAILABLE INDIVIDUALLY AND ALSO UNTIL THE END OF THE MONTH - ALL 5 PATTERNS (PAMPAS, DELPHIMIUM, ROSE, CHRYSANTHEMUM & SPRUCE) FOR $30 - SPECIAL DEAL AVAILABLE HERE ON THE BLOG OR THRU KNITTY NODDY

Everything's Coming Up Roses

You'll be swell! You'll be great!
Gonna have the whole world on the plate!
Starting here, starting now,
honey, everything's coming up roses!

-Gypsy

Actually finished this one up on Thursday night, but we had a little visitor over the weekend, which made it tough to get anything done. Pattern has been available at Knitty Noddy and Ravelry since Friday, but is just now posting here...

Well, not exactly here...

Over there>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

We had lots of fun with the grandson, but...

WHEW...I'm bushed!

So today, Grandma goes back on the shelf and Pandosu makes her reappearance...

I know what you want, so here she is!

ROSE
a garden variety pattern
$8


SIZE:
18 inches wide by 72 inches long

MATERIALS:
2 skeins (874 yds.) Handmaiden Sea Silk or Mini Maiden in color: Rose
6500 size 8 Miyuke seed beads
#0367 – garnet lined ruby
Size 3 (US) needles
Cable Needle, Size 12 Crochet Hook

GAUGE:
rose lace panel = 2 and 1/2 inches wide (blocked)

EXPERIENCED LACE KNITTER - CHARTED DESIGN

This one is time consuming. I won't lie to you. She is incredibly detailed, with a 36 row repeat. The detail is difficult to see in these pictures. I recommend clicking on the pics to view full size.

The pattern features a combination of rose leaf lace with a twisted stitch rosebud motif. Each panel alternates between the two.

Stole is edged in a beaded chevron panel that repeats at the center back. Rose is knitted in two pieces and grafted at the back.


A rose by any other name might be as sweet, but she wouldn't be a Garden Variety pattern...

Lame - I know, but this is one tired Grandma talking writing...

Typos & Christmas in July

"There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous. "
- Napoleon Bonaparte

I will let you decide which is which!
MEHNDI ERRATA:

In the "Legend", the +\ symbol says on the wrong side to "purl 3 tog tbl twist". Should be "purl 2 tog tbl twist".

CHRISTMAS IN JULY SALE

For those who missed out in 2008, Evelyn at Knitty Noddy and I are having a Christmas in July sale!

For four weeks, July 3rd through the 31st, we will make the 2008 patterns - Crocus Pocus, Iris, Hydrangea, Zinnia shawl, and even Poinsettia scarf - available for the single purchase price of $8 each.

Why?

Because we just hate to see unhappy knitters!

So help us spread the word to any of your friends who may have inquired…

Merry Xmas! hohoho…

Rose goes out tomorrow. Here's a sneak peek...

Keep it simple

"Simplicity is nature's first step, and the last of art."
-Philip James Bailey

Think of it as a very LARGE swatch...

I used a yarnover/SSK pattern with a zigzag built in.


Wanted to keep the pattern simple so it doesn't overwhelm the color change.

Wanted it to have strong enough lines that the yarn didn't obscure the pattern.

We'll see how it looks once it is off the blocking board...

Mendhi comes out next week, and Rose the week after.

Busy,busy, busy...

!!STASH SALE TOMORROW!!

Round and Round

"Like warmed-up cabbage served at each repast
The repetition kills the wretch at last."

- Decimus Junius Juvenalis) Juvenal

"Repetition is the reality and the seriousness of life."

- Soren Kierkegaard

Whether you agree with Juvenal or Kierkegaard, you must admit:

Repetition is reality, folks.

Especially in knitting.

And I really don't mind it, as long as I can see progress. It is both soothing and exhilarating to watch something grow under your care, whether that something is a plant, a child, or a work of art.

What gets me is the feeling of spinning my wheels; of much effort with little to show for it.

That sinking realization that...

Wait a minute! Haven't I been here before?

It is frustrating to go round and round a problem, an issue, a piece of knitting only to realize you are back where you started.

I live in a northern suburb of Indianapolis: the racing capitol of the world. Especially this weekend.

This weekend, 33 cars will go round a round a two and a half mile oval 200 times. And at the end of those exhilarating 500 miles...

Finish up right where they started.

And for this, they get paid obscene amounts of money.

Because the point of a race isn't where you wind up, but how soon you get there.

We all go round and round things in our lives (some more than others.) I don't know about you, but I often have to take a few laps.

I study the situation, adjust my balance, figure out the proper approach and then...

Full speed ahead!

Even when we think we are back in the same place, we aren't. The situation may seem all too familiar, but the time is not. We are changed; we are tempered by the experience of having done it before.

And often that means the difference between circling the drain...

And pulling into Victory Lane.

Finished up the design for Rose - third try was the charm.

I like the rosebuds.


I like the dainty leaves.


I like the balance.


Maria, the wonder knitter, is on vacation. Anyone else want to test knit? You must be able to read charts, be an experienced lace knitter (this one is way more challenging than Pampas) and be able to complete at least this much in the next two weeks.


Don't everybody push at once...

Mantra is on the blocking board. Look for this one on Tuesday. Won't get her up this busy holiday weekend, but will have the stash sale up by 11:00 tomorrow, at the latest. Got to get it taken care of, before my honored guest arrives...

I'm babysitting my newly mobile and "into-everything" grandson this weekend.

What are YOU doing?

(R)evolution

"You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right..."

-The Beatles

You know, sometimes I really wish I wasn't so darn picky.

I wish I could let designs slide.

Like I do housekeeping.

But I can't.

I look at my work and I don't see what's right. I see what could be better.

I thought this was a great design...



Then I worked it up a couple inches and decided the contrast between the openness of the rose leaf section and the twisted stitch bud was too great.

So I added a yarn over along the edges of the twisted stitch segment to correspond with the yarnovers on the leaf.



Better...

That was last weekend.

Rip...redo...

Worked all day yesterday. Got it back up to here...


And decided the area outside the bud needed to be completely open.

Back to the drawing charting board computer...

While I was at it, I changed the stem to make it wider. Maybe that will save me another change.

Then again, maybe I will wish I had left the stem as is.

You know what's coming, don't you?

Yep.

Rip...

Redo...

Talk about destruction!

Maybe it's time to block Mantra or put a few more repeats on Mendhi. Less stressful.

The problem is...

We all want to change the world.

Or at least our little part of it.

I do like the beads I ordered all the way from China!


So far...

Sigh...

DRAGGED TWO MORE BOXES OUT OF THE STORAGE ROOM.
!!BIG STASH SALE SATURDAY!!
MY LOSS IS YOUR GAIN...
NORO
DREAM IN COLOR
MISSION FALLS
COLINETTE
WHO KNOWS WHAT OTHER GOODIES AWAIT?

The Bigger Picture

"A frog living at the bottom of the well thinks that the sky is as small as a cooking pot lid."

-Vietnamese Proverb

My husband has become frustrated with many of my pictures. What looks good, or at least passable in a thumbnail all too often looks blurry in a larger size.

See what I mean?

My natural inclination is to put the camera right up on whatever I want to focus on. I have struggled with using the close up setting on my camera. All too often, I waver and the picture turns out fuzzier than Fuzzy Wuzzy (who was a bear.)


He has since introduced me to the wonders of the crop function.

Which turns this picture of Rose...


Into this...


And this...


Into this.


See how well that works?

I have to fight my natural tendency to narrow my focus.

That is what I did on my vacation.

I stepped back from Sunflower Designs enough to see the bigger picture.

Much as I love my work, much as you may love yours, we all need to step away on occasion in order to gain perspective.

In my design process, I work from small motifs to large wholes and back again.

I begin with a big idea, then look for small bits & pieces to work into a harmonious overall pattern.

I step back and try to see with fresh eyes, and then I go back to the particulate and tweak the parts that don;t flow. I figure out how to make it better.

This creative tension between the large picture and the small details is what makes the design sing.

So too, in our lives. If we are always, like the Vietnamese frog, looking at the world from the deep well of our own perceptions and ideas...

The infinite sky looks small.

Sometimes, we need to take a break, climb out of our holes, and look around at the bigger picture, lest we lose our focus.


We can always crop the picture later.


I am off to visit my family in Leland Michigan for a long weekend and will have limited internet access . I will check messages and fill orders once a day from the local coffeehouse. I will NOT be having a stash sale this Saturday.

If you cannot wait on a pattern, I recommend you order on Ravelry.

I appreciate your patience and beg your understanding.

After all, family is a vital part of the bigger picture of life...

Lonely

Crazy...
Crazy for feeling so lonely.
I'm crazy,
Crazy for feeling so blue.

I knew
You'd love me as long as you wanted.
And then someday
You'd leave me for somebody new.

Worry...
Why do I let myself worry?
Wondrin'
What in the world did I do?

Crazy
For thinking that my love

could hold you...
I'm crazy for tryin',
Crazy for cryin'...
And I'm crazy
For lovin' you.

-Willie Nelson

It seems my blocking board was feeling lonely. She felt neglected.

You see, I went away and left her.

I embarked on a cruise and not only did I completely forget about her,

I didn't even bring anything back for her.

So sad to be all alone in the world...

But this week, I am doing my best to make up for it.

This is Namaste: the second in the Zen collection of organic cotton scarves for summer (pattern out on Monday.) She's all blocked out and lookin' mighty fine with all the kinks stretched out of her.


And this is my swatch for Rose: the June installment of the Garden Variety Collection.

Want a closer look?

Of course you do...


The design alternates traditional rose leaf lace with a twisted stitch pattern that resembles an opening rose bud. Scarf is rectangular with five floral motif panels, divided by right twisting mock cables, and bracketed on the ends by a simple beaded diagonal chevron design.

The beads you see are not knitted in, but rather scattered across, the swatch to determine proper placement and color. I thought I wanted one of the lighter rose colors, but I really like the contrast in the darker crimson. It pops.

I originally planned to put the beads along the twisted stitches, but in playing around with it, have decided to use them between the lines to accent the graphic nature of the design.

So...

Now that my blocking board is feeling useful to society again, it is time to cast on for Rose, write up Namaste, and sell y'all some yarn tomorrow.

It's so good to be back! I love my work.

PS. Thank you all for the many messages of condolence received about our elder cat's demise. She was a sturdy old cat whose time had come, but we will miss her. Pippin keeps wandering around like he is looking for her. He has been sticking to us like glue...

SUSAN'S SATURDAY STASH SALE RESUMES TOMORROW
!!BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!!