Callahan Cabled Blanket

I'm sure you're wondering what I've been up to?

Well, let me just share with you a little something...



The Callahan Cable Blanket was inspired by my cousin's first born son, Finnegan David Callahan. I've always wanted to do a big cable design and when I heard she was with child I knew it was time.



There are so many kinds of cables to choose from, but there were certain ones that I knew had to be in the blanket. These cables had meaning and in a way had a story to tell. You have hugging ropes guarding each side that lead to textured honeycomb panels. There are twists and turns going in and out leading to the X and O cables that represent hugs and kisses. The hillsides mirror each other with intertwining trees that show two families coming together. Then in the center you have an infinity knot that means eternal love.



The lovely little model is Martha, my niece. She was only 4 weeks old the day of the shoot. Born just days after little Finnegan and was a trooper through our all day photo shoot.

FO: SSMS

I had just realized that I never showed my finished project for the Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl Knit-along!

I finished so quickly that I almost forgot I actually knit the thing.

Here are the spec's from the project:

Pattern: Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl Knit-along! by Wendy Johnson

Yarn: Ella Rae Lace Merino in Lime Green or other wise known as Color 3

Needles: US 7 circular needle

Started: June 20, 2012

Finished: July 22, 2012

The pattern had called for a US 5 needle, but since I've had experience with Wendy's shawl patterns before I knew I'd have to increase that size. It turned out perfectly. The piece definitely needs a closure as it seems like it wanted to fly away, so that was easily fixed by attaching a button to one end. I use a yarn-over hole as a way to secure it.



I did do some modifications...added all the extra repeats suggested except for the last set in part E of the pattern. I was running out of yarn fast and knew I had to make a choice. The skein has 460 yards and the pattern calls for 420-450 in order to make the smallest size. I knew I wanted length, so I went for it. I ended up with only 5g of yarn left. Enough to add another mitered square to my Left Over Sock Yarn Blanket. Talk about using every inch!!

Winner!

And the winner is....

The second comment is: Miryam. I'll be gifting you the Woobie Pattern Collection Series 2 through Ravelry!

Thank you all for your awesome comments. I love to hear stories of celebration. It's always been a fascinating subject for me.

Blogiversary 6.0

Can you believe I completely forgot to celebrate my blogiversary? I correlates along with my own birthday... and I'll tell you what. I never forget to celebrate that one!

So in celebration of blogging for 6 years, I'm running a little contest. I'm going to gift the random winner my newest ebook: Woobie Pattern Collection Series 2. You have until midnight September 25th to reply to this thread. All you have to do is tell me how you celebrate a birthday in style!

I'm pretty simple. I like to eat out, go to the show and possible hang with my knitting friends for the day. This past weekend I did all those. I even made cheese cake. Not just any cheese cake, but New York Style with cherries. Oh, it's so good and there is so much of it that it last all weekend.

Friday was my birthday and if my day-job wasn't on super-killer-stress-toxic-level-breakdown-mode then I would have taken the day off. After work we headed to Asian Harbor in Homewood. They serve all the classics but we wanted to partake in sushi. With tummies filled we had our son drive out to the grandparents house to drop Miss Mac for the weekend. The boy is getting better at driving, but still so much more to learn.

Saturday then was filled with fiber and friends. What a blast we had. Couldn't have asked for a better time. Thank you ladies for making my day special! We headed out to Morris IL where there is a yarn store called Le Mouton Rouge, which basically means Red Sheep. Just the most adorable shop. Owner is fantastic and the selection is extensive.

We then had a lovely lunch at Letty Mae's Tea Room... people, there was strawberry soup. Oh Yeah Baby! After that I came home and crashed. I love getting nap attached;)

So how do you like to spend you special day?

Woobie Pattern Collection Series #2

I'm really excited to announce that the Woobie Pattern Collection Series #2 is now live and ready to download. The ebook contains 8 Woobie patterns filled with whimsy and delight.



Completing this second ebook series was like being 42 weeks pregnant. Just ready to be done. Love the end product, even if my schedule was off by 4 weeks. That's alright. It turned out awesome anyway!!

Stitches Midwest 2012 Haul

Just some goodies I picked up while at Stitches Midwest.



Do you think I like lime green? Not at all;)

Left to Right: 10 skeins Cascaded Pure Alpaca, the Beekeepers Quilt pattern... because I believe in torturing myself with mini skeins for another 4 years, 1 Skein of Three Irish Girls, 1 purple skein of Pure Alpaca (won this at the pajama party!), Erin Lane large bag, 1 size 3 Signature needle, 1 cone of Vally Yarns Alpaca Silk, a sweater stone, Color Affection shawl pattern, Miss Babs Color Affection Kit in Yet which is a lace weight.

All yummy goodies! And then guess what? Do you know what else I saw...

My pattern (Tourbillon) in the "wild" at the Plucky Knitters booth.

Going For Gold

When last we left off I was showing you the blanket and it looked something like this:




It then grew...




And grew a little bit more...



And it kept growing and growing...




And then when all the pieces were laid out it looked like this:



And then came the seaming. Oh the seaming... and then what happened? It turned into one of the most amazing knits I've ever accomplished.



Its permanent home is now The Knit Zone. Just makes you want to curl up on loveseat and catch a few zzz's huh?

Just to give you an idea of how many hours this undertaking took...I've calculated the time.
It look me roughly 101 hours to completely finish this project. Knitting on the train to work and back. Knitting and seaming during lunch breaks. Then once home I would make dinner and knit from 7pm-12 if not till 1am. Get up and do it all over again. Labor or love is and understatement. I then wore it all day Sunday at Stitches Midwest. It was like a badge of honor to wear that sucker. It was my flag. My Olympics. And I won Gold.

Down to the Wire

I'm exhausted. I can't believe how much energy this blanket is taken from me. As I type this, all the squares are done. All the seaming is done. A few tails need to be woven it, but people. Seriously. I've started adding an I-cord edge....in lime green of course!





Heading to Stitches Midwest this weekend and I can't express the sheer excitement I feel right now. I will be dragging the blanket with me and hoping to win Gold! And I'll be chillin with the girls as we rock one of the best knit weekends of the year!

Ravellenic Finish Line Here I Come!!

Do you see that wonderful blanket?

Oh, Yes people, I've been a mitered square knitting fool. As of right now I only need 11 more squares and I can fill in the hole on this blanket.

The games end on August 12th, which I know I can do. Finishing 8 to 12 squares a day was the way to success...doing 4 a day was not a realistic goal.

The only thing I'm thinking I should do is to add an i-cord edge. I know you're probably screaming at me to just shut-up, but in all honesty I think it needs it. I'll be testing those waters tonight and make a decision. The hardest part would be to pick a color.  My gut says green.

Woobie Owl

I'm saving the best for last. I'll tell you I was not feeling this Woobie Owl at all while knitting the head. It looked like a bug. It also didn't help when I added the cream circles for the eyes. It made it completely worse.



It wasn't until I added the yellow beak that I just sighed and awwww'd about this little guy. He's also slightly different since I added wings, but I don't think having just the head would have sufficed. He is my winner. Love him so much!

Woobie Dragon

How could I not do a fire breathing Woobie Dragon?



A dragon with scales no less and more Stripes! I'm also leaning on adding nostrils to this little guy. It would seem the proper thing to do!

Woobie Unicorn

If I was going to go down that road of frog prince and princess... then you know I had to add the Woobie Unicorn to the list. It just seemed proper.



The Woobie Series collection #2 was starting to fill it's slots of 8 very quickly. The direction of the series is fun and exciting and only 2 more to go...

Woobie Princess

So after coming up with the Woobie Froggy, I then had this idea about a Princess... come on, a frog prince totally needs a princess!!



I didn't want to do a pink dress... we already have the Piggy in pink. I then was thinking of all the Disney characters and what colors did they use. I then knew blue was the perfect fit. A yellow crown would then show off better on contrasting hair, so a brunette she became. This one was the most challenging designs of all because it's all about the hair. I've never done doll hair before and just kind of winged it. Ultimately I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

I've Lost My Mind...

Just a little bit. I signed up to participate in the Ravellenic Games of 2012. It's basically the Olympics for Knitter! With the opening ceremonies starting today, I had to pick a project that would be challenging. For the next 16 days I'll try to complete the project.

Since my Leftover Sock Yarn Blanket has been on go since circa 2008, that had to be it. I pulled it out of its sleepy chamber and counted and measured.




There are 247 squares so far assembled (big squares count as 4). I have 94 squares to add to the blanket and if I want the blanket to be as long as it is wide I have to knit 80 more squares.

Holy-Squares-Batman! I know. I know. It is a challenge after all. I'm going for the gold people! Wish me luck.

Woobie Froggy

How could I NOT do a Woobie Froggy?



He makes a fine addition to the second series of Woobies. I was also very close to making this one stripy too. I mean seriously? Can't you see this little guy with light and dark green stripes?!

Woobie Ducky

The Woobie Ducky was another must have in the second series!



I didn't intentionally cross-eye the face, but had to leave it because it makes me smile every time I see this picture!

Woobie Piggy

Another in Woobie Collection Series #2 is the Piggy.



I love the striped Woobies! And when this little piggy came to mind I knew he was going to have stripes. One of my awesome testers just finished her little piggy... Click Here to Check out the thread!

The Woobie that started the second series.

After the first Woobie series was released I was amazed at how popular they became. I knew I liked them. Family and friends say they liked them... I just kind of shrugged and assumed they were humoring me. Yet the popularity of these fun knits is growing. I then knew I should consider designing more.

The problem with designing more Woobies is packaging it properly to fit the market. Everyone loves a bargain, so ideally it would also have to be another ebook. That means another 8 Woobies. Right away the sketch book comes out and I looked up my inishial design and there was the one Woobie I knew I wouldn't be able to withstand.

The Elephant.



Completely sweet and gentle. Perfect trunk for little hands to grab on to... or chew on;) And how can you not resist the ears??

I'm in the midst of the testing phase for all 8 Woobies. I'm hoping by the beginning of August I'll be sending my patterns to my tech editor for review and then they'll be ready for everyone to enjoy!

TNNA Sunday Day 3

Here are some random things I've learned over the past couple of days of travel:

• Someone on Twitter had said TNNA is like a Marathon. That is so true.

• I'm actually grateful that I didn't go out to the bar on Saturday night because Sunday morning I felt like I had been run over by a truck. Thus the reason to train for this Marathon.
  
• There was this crazy event called ComFest happening in Columbus during the TNNA convention. Apparently, there is a court decision in Columbus making it legal for women to go topless in public. This makes going to dinner very interesting;)
  
• Everyone was talking about knitting pasties to pass out on the streets next year:P
  
• Having Jeni's Ice Cream three times a day will make you go through withdrawal upon coming home.
  
• Carry a big purse/bag. You'll need it for catalogs, brochures, book signings and samples.
  
• Take plenty go snacks for the long haul on the Megabus and no matter what, wait until the bus stops at a rest stop. Do not under any circumstances use the facilities on the bus.
  
• Wear comfortable shoes. Cute doesn't matter if your feet are dead to the world halfway through the day.
  
• Everyone is friendly. Don't play shy. Deep breath, say Hi and pass out those business cards!

So? How many more days until the next TNNA? Not soon enough. Thank you to all those who said Hi, and took the time to talk to me.
Hugs all around!

TNNA Saturday Day 2

Saturday is the official opening day for TNNA. The exhibitors have spent the previous two days setting up their booths and getting jazzed about opening day. I know a lot of energy goes into assembling a booth and if you're coming from across the country or over an ocean I can't image the challenges that brings.

All of the booths looks so pretty and each had their own unique style. I wish photos could have been taken, but that's not allowed. I know, bummer.

Being that TNNA is a members only event, there is no buying. It's whole sale ordering for yarn stores and other vendors. Me going as a designer, I had to play it cool. The exhibitors are there to make money and talking with a designer is not high on their list. Not that they aren't open to it, everyone was completely awesome and amazingly friendly... you just need to respect the sales process. Allow them to do their thing and they'll love you for in return.

After walking around the floor for hours, I saw that it was lunch time so I headed to the best place in Ohio... North Market. They've got everything. You want Belgium Waffles? got it. You have a taste for a BBQ pork sandwich? totally got it. What they also have is Jeni's Ice Cream. I started collecting the little sampling spoons and then realized that was a little odd....but OhMyGod, I think I took it a bit far, because every time someone said "I'm heading to Jeni's, wanna come?" Like, I'm going to say no. Hello? It's completely awesome!!

By late afternoon I was spent. I headed back to the Hotel to recharge my battery because I was going to dinner at Haiku with the ladies from Knit Picks. What a fun bunch and Stacey is super sweet. It was a real treat and a highlight of my trip. We ended up stopping by Jeni's afterwards for another scoop or two:P But like I said, it's soooo good.

From there I headed back to the Hotel to chill out. If I had know that the biggest party was happening at the Hyatt Bar that night, I might have stopped off to have a drink or two. And from what I heard it was the place to be. It's kinda like Vegas...what happens at TNNA stays at TNNA;)

TNNA Friday Day 1

Last night was awesome! After taking a 6 hour bus ride to Columbus Ohio, I checked in to my hotel to freshen up for the Yarn Thing Designer Dinner. The wonderful host Marly Bird put on a fantastic party. One of the cleaver things about this party was it was a masquerade. From cute and clever to beautiful and funny...it was something to break the ice and a conversation starter. Which was huge for me because this party was way out of my comfort zone.

I got whiplash from seeing all the top designers I admired over time. I was now among them... And not on my computer screen.

Another incredible thing about this gathering of 125 designers is the swag. Sponsors really poured the hearts out and I'm still amazed at what I'm discovering I this bag.





I'm just now coming down from my Jeni's ice cream high of the day, but I'm hoping I'll be able to share more of my first TNNA experiences with you.

Peace my knitters!

TNNA Here I Come!

As I type this, I'm on a train headed into the city of Chicago. From there I'll take a cab to Union Station. With ticket in hand I'll then board the Mega Bus to Columbus Ohio and all for what? TNNA! The National Needle Arts Association.

It's a members only event and I've worked my knitting needle raw to get accepted. It's hard to believe that when I set this
goal over a year ago that it would actually come true. Yet here I am with my name badge. Someone pinch me.

I'm hoping to recap my days adventures... And at least describe the Jeni's ice cream flavor of the day;)

I leave you with a glimpse of my mask for tonight's masquerade.

Woobie Series #2 - Call for Testing!

I know I've been a little MIA lately, but I have a good reason...



SEE? Yes, the next set of Woobies are in the last stages of finishing. Just needs some faces and final pattern writing. I'm hoping to showcase each Woobie as the testing goes on through July.

It kills me because each one has such personality already that I can imagine that faces will do nothing short but make them come to life.

Interested in testing? Sign-ups are on going on in the Woobie Series #2 - Call for Testers thread if you'd like to join.

Box Bags

One the greatest things that I've come to love more then my knitting is the bags I carry my knitting in. I've bought several well known bags and love them dearly. Yet the one thing that is always in the back of my mind is why can't I just make my own. I come to realize that I can be a bit picky when it comes to fabric designs.

So, while in a little fabric store called the Needle Shop on the North Side of Chicago, I was introduced to some lovely fabrics. Fabric is another slippery slope people...just sayin'. I then hit the sewing machine this weekend and look what I did:



Oh Yeah Baby! I totally made my own project bags! I don't think I'll be opening up my own etsy store or anything, but gosh that was fun and I love how they turned out.



So tell me, have you fallen down other rabbit holes besides yarn? I think I'll have to make some room in the stash for fabric now.

My Latest FO and Contest Winners!

In my latest Finished Object... I took some of this:



Turned into this:



What is that you ask? A Swiffer Re-Usable Cloth of course.



Knitters, seriously... I've got 371g of this cone left. That means I can knit another 10 covers out of this cone. Whoo-hoo!!


Enough of that...
You came for the winner of these two lovely skeins of Simpliworsed.



So, lets get to it...
There were 15 comments on the post and because I like to do this the old fashioned way...



I then had Miss Mac pick a number out of hat. She got a kick out of this.



And the Winner is number 12.



The 12th comment was from SameOldKnit! Congratulations! Thanks everyone for all your comments, it was great to read them all and to see that some people still read this little blog of mine:P

Don't forget you can still get the Gannon pattern for just one dollar until the end of May.

Frost Sleeves

It might be slow going, but the journey is wonderful.



I've finished the sleeves on my October Frost cardigan and now it's time to cast-on for the fronts. Looking back at the projects page... eeek! I started this when? January 21st?? Seriously? Wow. Now, I know I've been busy and believe me being busy is a good thing...

Because...

I have exciting news... I'm officially a member of TNNA. Yep, you read that right! I'm so geeked about the whole thing that if I think about it for too long I get nauseous. I'll be attending the June show and hoping that this leads to big things. If nothing else I'm hoping to at least have cocktails with other fellow knitters and designers! And how can I not talk about Jeni's Ice Cream.

Oh, and before I forget! Did you comment on the Gannon Contest post? You can win two skeins of Skacel Similiworsted. Just leave a comment before midnight on Thursday, May 17th.

Up to my elbows...

I'm kinda teasing here, but wanted to get the word out that Woobie Series #2 is in production. Hoping to share more soon! Don't forget to Enter the Contest and pick up the Gannon Pattern for just a buck till the end of May!

Gannon Pattern & Contest

I hold a special place in my heart for my Grandma Pat. A teacher of Irish decent who loved a Manhattan and a Kit-Kat for happy hour. Gotta love that!

I bear the middle name Patricia, which comes from her. Yet everyone called her Pat. She was kind and always had a smile. I think happy hour had a lot to do with it.



While in the design process of making these cables pieces, I thought to myself, she would have really like these. It then seemed a perfect fit to make them blue, in her favorite color of course.



I'm really excited to launch this pattern set and just in time for my Grandma's birthday Month. So in honor of her and the month of May, I'm running a contest and a discount on the pattern. You can purchase the pattern for just a buck by clicking the link which will take you to Ravelry.

I'm also giving away two skeins of the Simpliworsted yarn to a random commenter on this post. You have until May 17th at midnight to enter to win. I'll pick a name by the random number generator and post the winner that Friday (May 18th).



The yarn is super fabulous to work with and you can get any one of the pieces completed with these two skeins.

Cheers Grandma! Here's to you!!