Everything Old is New Again

When trumpets were mellow
And ev'ry gal only had one fellow
No need to remember when
'Cause ev'ry thing old is new again

-from the Boy from Oz

We've had a long overdue "makeover" here at Sunflower Designs/a few stitches short. I was in the mood for something a little more sophisticated - cleaner.

The sunflower picture was taken by a new (but already dear) friend I met while teaching on retreat last month. Take a bow, Trish!

You will notice a new feature at the top of the sidebar: a separate page just for the Lord of the Rings Collection. In the next few days, you will see more pages for errata, shawls, scarves, the Garden Variety Collection, cowls, mitts/gloves, etc...

Unfortunately, the buttons to purchase the patterns remain on the sidebar for now, but I am thinking about putting the older patterns into alphabetical order for ease in ordering. Will see what blogger will let me (or my everlovin computer nerd dh) do to make navigation easier for you.

Leave a comment and let me know if you like the new look or have any suggestions to make it better.

I know that nature begins new things in the spring: flowers, trees, lambs...but I always feel like autumn is the time for new endeavors. Must have had that drummed into me during my school years, when fall meant new pencils, new teachers, & new things to learn.

I have been learning new things as well. I made my first appearance as a guest speaker in July for the Indianapolis Knitting Guild and my teaching debut in North Carolina last month at the Unique Sheep retreat. I have another class coming up in Michigan next month and am investigating additional teaching opportunities. So email me if you would like me to come to your LYS...

Now it is time to get back to something old: Lothlorien (which has morphed from a stole to a cape - sneaky little sucker) and Argonath (which is entering test knit later this week). Galadriel's Mirror is inches away from completion - soon...

Who says, "You can't teach an old knitter, new tricks"?

Bag End

Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

Over snow by winter sown,

And through the merry flowers of June,

Over grass and over stone,

And under mountains in the moon.

- Tolkien

BAG END
A FELTED MUSHROOM BAG FOR EXCELLENT HOBBITS

Materials:
Unique Sheep Anna’s Yarn
250 yds each: Amber Ale, Fire Thorn, Stout, Golden Ale, Lager
Or equivalent yardage other DK weight yarn
size 8 (US) needles
Gauge: not important

You get a bonus pattern with your Bag End mushroom bag. I have included a second pattern: some fun accessories I designed for the Unique Sheep Retreat. They are a good way to try out the mosaic knitting on a smaller scale, before tackling the large tote.

THERE & BACK AGAIN
FELTED MOSAIC KNITS FOR EXCELLENT HOBBITS

Materials:
100 g Unique Sheep
Green Sheep Sport (or other sport weight yarn) in four contrasting colors
size 6 (US) needles
Gauge: not important for these pieces

Mosaic knitting is a two-color technique. You begin EVERY Right-side row from a NEW color.

• Work first right-side row and wrong-side row with color A.
• Drop Color A and pick up Color B. Work two rows with Color B.
• Drop Color B and pick up Color A. Work two rows with Color A - and so on.

The pattern occurs from the slipped stitches within the pattern. Looks hard, but it's not!

Pattern pieces for all three projects are knit in one main piece and folded to form the finished object. Both patterns include directions for assembly and felting as well as guidelines for color experimentation.

Check over at Unique Sheep for kits; they have kits for the smaller projects as well as the mushroom bag

Ev'rythin's Up to Date

Ev'rythin's up to date in Kansas City
They've gone about as fur as they c'n go!
They went and built a skyscraper seven stories high,
About as high as a buildin' orta grow.
Ev'rythin's like a dream in Kansas City,
It's better than a magic lantern show!
Y' c'n turn the radiator on whenever you want some heat.
With ev'ry kind o' comfort ev'ry house is all complete.
You c'n walk to privies in the rain and never wet your feet!
They've gone about as fur as they c'n go,
(Yes sir!)
They've gone about as fur as they c'n go!

- Rogers & Hammerstein

If you are wa-a-a-a-ay more observant than me, you might notice the "Add to Cart" Buttons look a wee bit different today. That is because I have added direct download capabilities.

No more waiting for me to get the notification from PayPal and email your pattern. Now you will get a download link, along with an email that includes the link in its text. Each link is good for 5 tries. Instant gratification...

The only exception is the $4 version of Rivendell for FotR subscribers. I still have to do that one manually so I can cross check with the database.

Yes, I have joined the twenty-first century!

I am instant oatmeal! I am microwaves! I am the Ipod (at least version one anyway!)

I am digital. Hear me roar!

Yep, ev'rythin's up to date all right. but as to the "gone about as fur as they c'n go" part?

Not even close.

Over the next week or so, I will be revamping the site with separate pages for each pattern. No more sidebar clicking. YAY!

Oh! And those privies? Extra charges may apply...

Filthy Lucre

Money makes the world go around
The world go around
The world go around
Money makes the world go around
It makes the world go 'round.

- from Cabaret

I have revamped my pricing structure to both simplify and allow sales of all my non-exclusive patterns by both on line and traditional retailers.

I have reduced my prices to three levels: $8, $6, and $4.

Some of the aperitifs have been raised to $6 which would be an appropriate price at the retail level. This price increase reflects the fact that I receive only half that amount at the wholesale level. So I am actually losing a dollar by making these patterns available to retailers.

I hope you feel you are receiving a fair return on your investment in my patterns. If this is not the case, please drop me a comment and I will take all into consideration.

I am not in this for the money, but at $2 a pattern, I barely cover my printing costs.

Some of the aperitifs will remain at $4. Thank you for your understanding and patronage. I would not be in the enviable position of expanding my business to more retail outlets were it not for your support.

And if you order before I get all the prices changed, you'll get a bargain!!

Except for Magic Carpet Ride. That one is actually going down!

NEW PRICES

Aspenglo
$4

Avalon
$6

Blue Gentian
$6

Byzantine
$6

Cherry Country
$8

Festivus
$6

Flowers
$8

Gotham
$6

Hearts
$8

Hydrangea
$8

Icicle
$4

Jazzed Up
$4

Leaves of Grass
$6

Magic Carpet Ride$6

Magnolia Mitts
$6

Mantra
$6

Mehndi
$8

Moroccan Days/ Arabian Nights
$8

Namaste
$6

Protopopov
$6

Pumpkin Patch
$6

Rainbow Connection
$4

Rosebuddy
$4

Rustica
$4

Sherwood
$8

Snowdrift
$8

Sprout
$4

Taize
$4

Tilt-a-Whirl
$4

Triad
$6

Vinyasa
$6

Rustica

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

- Wendell Berry

RUSTICA SCARF
PERFECT FOR ANY HANDSPUN OR RUSTIC YARN
$4

SIZE:
12 inches wide by 84 inches long

MATERIALS:
450 yds. worsted weight yarn
Model knit with Filatura di Crosa Dusk, color 3
Size 8 (US) needles or to obtain gauge


GAUGE:
4.5 stitches = 1 inch when pulled out to blocked width
Suitable for Beginning Lace Knitter
Written Directions

Looking for a quick and easy scarf for the fall? How about an easy-peasy Christmas gift?

Then this aperitif is right up your alley. Long enough to wrap several times around your neck. It would be great for handspun. You could also use Noro Silk Garden or Kureyon. It would be very nice in Malabrigo as well.

The pattern is simple enough not to compete with your yarn, but just interesting enough to lend a little flair. A nifty little twisted stitch separates the pattern repeats nicely.

Sometimes simple is all you need.

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...

Namaste

I honor you...
I honor the place within you where the entire universe resides.
I honor the place within you of love and light, of peace and truth.
I honor the place within you where,
When you are in that place in you,
And I am in that place in me,
There is only one of us.
"Namaste"

It looks good right side up...


And upside down...

It looks good close up...

And from afar...


It looks good from the front...


And from the back...

It is equally at home inside...

Or out...

In the sun...

Or in the shade...

I think I'll keep her...

NAMASTE
the zen collection
$6
SIZE:
14 inches wide by 60 inches long
MATERIALS:
4 balls (720 yds.) Rowan Purelife Organic Cotton 4-Ply
Color: Rhubarb
Size 3 (US) needles
GAUGE:
6 stitches = 1 inch (blocked)

written and charted directions
knit in one piece - no grafting
double sided lace
beginning lace knitter

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!!

Potato Peels

"Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes."
- Alan W. Watts

The idea of spirituality being one with our everyday life really resonates with me.

One of the things that bothered me about my life B.K. (before knitting) and B.T. (before therapy) was its fragmentation.

• I was a mother with concerns about her children.
• I was an Executive Director with responsibilities to her organization.
• I was a child of God with a yearning to learn more.
• I was a wife who found herself unable to put aside her other concerns and focus on her marriage.
• I was a friend who lacked the time and energy required to keep up with her buddies.
• I was a writer and knitter who stole moments for her "hobbies."

I was a multi-tasking mess.

And I knew, deep down, that there had to be a better way to live.

When I began this blog two years ago, (OMG! Has it really been that long?) people asked me what the blog was about.

Was it about knitting or writing? Was it about family or friends? Was it about me or about the vast world beyond the singular? Was it about religion or life? Was it about my hobby or my life's passion?

YES!

It is about all of that and more. Because all of that is life. All of that is spiritual. All of that is a gift.

And all of that is one.

Finding God in the everyday events of our lives turns out to be much easier than looking for him/her in church on Sunday. Yet, all too often, we divide our lives. Six days for us and one for God.

For many of us, the only time we invite God into our daily lives is when we need him/her most. We relegate God to the church and then wonder at the amount of time it takes for him/her to reach us.

Better to keep God close at hand, the closer the better, within rather than without...

I find that the more I can find God in every morning (even Monday) the better adjusted my life becomes. To say nothing of happier.

It is a remarkably peaceful way to live.

In this life, we have to peel a LOT of potatoes. We might as well make the most of them.

*****

Pampas, the first design in 2009's Garden Variety Collection, is on the blocking boards. Look for her release on Monday. And remember, only one week left to lock in presale savings. Click on the sidebar picture for all the details.



Last week, I introduced Vinyasa, the first in my Zen series. And I realized I had not talked much about these creations.

The Zen collection is a series of designs using Rowan's Purelife Organic Cotton 4-ply. the patterns are easily memorized and the yarn is not splitty, or sticky, or fine, or any of those other things that slow our knitting down. No beads either.

Nothing to break the enjoyable flow of our work. They are peaceful knits, along the line of Taize. Knits that allow us to move into a simple space with our handwork.



Next up is Namaste, in a lovely celery green. She spotlights a twining leaf design that is much easier than it looks. In fact, the repeat is only 8 rows.

After that, you can look forward to:

Om in a restful sky blue

Mantra in a natural beige linen color

Lotus in a lovely plum tone

Karma in warm sandwashed sienna

Asana in minty bluish green

and Sanskrit in soft dove gray.

And I have also managed to put a few more rows onto Mendhi, which many are eagerly anticipating. She requires a lot of attention, so she is relegated strictly to my home knitting basket, for times when I can really concentrate. Probably looking at a June release.

HUMONGOUS SATURDAY STASH SALE TOMORROW
LAST ONE FOR THREE WEEKS
!!DON'T MISS OUT!!

Vinyasa

“Some think it's holding on that makes one strong; sometimes it's letting go"
- Sylvia Robinson

When I was a little girl, I loved to climb trees. I would raise my arms, search for purchase on the rough bark of the trunk, flip my legs up and haul myself onto the lowest branch.

Then I would begin again with the next layer of branches.

On the day of my mother's second wedding, right in the middle of her reception, I climbed a tree in my grandmother's front yard, clad in pink silk and my very first pair of grown up sheer pantyhose.

Mom was not amused.

I loved the idea of climbing towards the sky. It felt like freedom. I still smile as I write this.

Going down?

That was a lot harder.

The first time, I resolutely refused to come down, hugging the trunk with my eyes squeezed shut tightly and screaming for my brother David to, "GO GET DAD!"

Eventually I learned how to dangle my legs from the upper branches and search for the next lower tier with my toes, sliding down the tree in manageable increments.

I learned to let go.

I don't know about you, but I often want to hold onto things longer than I should.

I cling to my familiar habits, opinions, and beliefs, because they seem to form a safe haven in an often confusing and sometimes dangerous world.

But life is like the monkey bars; you can't move forward unless you let go of the first rung.

The trick is to grab onto the next one, before you fall, establishing a rhythm of hold and release that carries you across the breadth: of space, of time, of life itself.

The reward of sure footing await us only at the end of our perilous journey. Solid ground must be gained through ongoing effort.

Vinyasa is a form of yoga that uses sequential movement to interlink postures, forming a continuous flow.

This moving meditation reveals all forms as being impermanent and for this reason not to be held onto.

Is it any wonder, I chose that name for the first creation in a new collection of organic cotton wraps and scarves?

VINYASA
the zen collection
$6

add to cart

SIZE:
18 inches wide by 72 inches long

MATERIALS:
6 balls (1080 yds.) Rowan Purelife Organic Cotton 4-Ply
Color: Natural
Size 3 (US) needles

GAUGE:

5 stitches = 1 inch (blocked)

Written Directions
Knit in One Piece - End to End
Suitable for Beginning Lace Knitter

This design uses twisted stitches to wonderful effect, creating a sinous rope like pattern. Dropped stitches add to the texture.

No matter what twists and turns your life may take this weekend, remember to both reach out and let go, Only then will we move steadily towards our ultimate home ground.

BIG STASH SALE TOMORROW.
SEE YOU THEN...

Wait-y Matters

"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."
-Abraham Lincoln

Y'know, I am STILL getting email messages from Saturday's stash sale! Three days later...

Ah, the wonders of modern technology - all of a sudden snail mail and the phone look a whole lot better, don't they?

I hate the fact that some of you missed all the fun because Comcast had brain farts. So here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna post a Wild Wednesday stash sale, just for those of you who didn't get anything on Saturday. (If you did get lucky on Saturday, don't be a piggy pig. Let someone else in to the trough.) Will post tomorrow at noon, Eastern Daylight Time.

Vinyasa, the first scarf in the Zen collection, will be released on Friday, the 10th. Will share pics and details then.

So, what about today?

Today I'll share more progress pics of the Pampas Stole, which is perking right along...


I included the last picture, even though the pattern is all scrunched up, because you can see the beading.

Pampas should be ready week after next.

If you want more details on the Garden Variety Collection, click the pic on the sidebar. And don't forget to lock in your savings, through April 24th.

Think I'll take ol' Abe's advice and go hustle up some lunch grub.

Later...