This is for all the Mums out there!

A wee song about being a mama ....take a listen.... it's beautiful...



....and here are two of my favourite mums (my mum and my sister)!
Happy Mother's day....miss you and love you!

10 Years Ago.....

Seeing as all I'm knitting right now are submission swatches I don't have any thing to show you...however Rosemary has helpfully supplied me with some blog content by tagging me with this meme:

"The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer."

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was a freshly married lassie transplanted from Scotland and working for a whitewater rafting company in northern California with my new husband..he raft guided and I organized the food for the trips and tagged along when I could!

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
Well I'm not much of a to-do list kind of person but things I may or may not accomplish today are- getting my submissions together, starting to pack up the house a wee bit (we're moving into a new rental), homeschooling the kids, putting some beans in the sprouter (easy you may say but for some reason I haven't got around to it all week)...and perhaps packing up the car for a wee cheeky last minute mother's day camping trip!

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Chocolate has to be first, robusto cheese and fig sauce on crackers, baguette dipped in really good olive oil, my husband's salsa with tortilla chips and.....watermelon when it's baking hot (the weather not the watermelon)!

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
This is a weird concept!! First off I think I'd move back to Scotland and buy a lovely detached georgian house in Edinburgh...and also a farmhouse in France that all my family and friends could use....stow some money away and give the rest to charity.

5) Places I have lived:
Eek...I think I'll round mine down as it's a pretty extensive list- Shetland, Brighton (England), The Isle of Rum (west coast Scotland), Edinburgh, London, Dunkeld (Scotland), Annapolis (MD), Eugene (OR), Portland (OR), Coloma (CA), Albertville (France), Lake Tahoe (CA), Western Massachusetts ( 3 different houses one of which we still own), Colorado (twice) and now Fresno (CA)!

7) 6 peeps I wanna know more about:
Kat
Rachel
Ruby
Connie
Mel
Gryphon

ME...ME....ME!

I honestly can't remember the last time I did so much knitting for myself......

ANAIS: Berroco-Norah Gaughan Vol 1

My first Norah G knit!! (Sort of ashamed to admit that as I really have been a huge fan for ages)...as you can tell I went a bit crazy with the photo editing but actually quite like my dramatic results (my face was showing the effects of wearing alpaca on an 80 degree day).
What can I say...great pattern...only mods were knitting in the round and a little math modification as I fell between chest sizes.
Only dislike was seaming in the webby parts...I'm a terrible seamer!

...and yes I finally finished my 2nd Pomatomus sock...it was really slow going with all the p1,ktbl and boy you really wanted to avoid messing up because ripping back was not an attractive option!....two months to knit a pair of socks...clearly I'm not one of those sock knitting addicts (although it should be noted that I did complete 3 and a half sweaters during that time also)!
Anyway they are rather superior socks and I love them...especially the heathery Scottish colours of Gryphon's yarn.

Here's both feet just incase you thought I was pulling the wool over your eyes!

....OK time to get design ideas flowing.....there are two simultaneous submission deadlines coming up and I need to get cracking!

Blog Celebration!

Well it was roughly about a year ago that I began this wee blog and I truly can't believe what a great outlet it has been during a year of living far from friends and family. I've connected with so many fiber loving folks out there and come across some wonderful sources of knitting related reading. Thanks to all who stop by ......

The thing that got this blog going was having a design accepted by Amy Singer over at Knitty.com.....well guess what....to add to the excitement of reaching a year of blogging here on the Shetland Trader she has accepted another of my designs for the Summer 08 issue....couldn't ask for a better gift than that!

Modifying One's Own Pattern

Well here she is, "Slipped Hours", a short-sleeved, cowl-less version of her former self!
I realized a good way into knitting this that I didn't infact have as much yarn as I had thought. So mods needed to be made. After a quick eyeball of my quantities in relation to what was left to knit, it was apparent that I'd need to shorten the sleeves and do without the cowl.
Turns out my estimation was spot on and I have a teensy ball of yarn left!

I'm really happy with how it came out and I even got to finally use one of my lovely tagua nut buttons (they've been wanting to adorn something for a while now)

Pattern: Slipped Hours- By me!
Yarn: Dance, from the Sanguine Gryphon (in Merengue)
Needles: US #4

Mods: Shortened the sleeves. I cast on the number of stitches needed at the top of the sleeve thus eliminating any shaping and knit for approx 5 inches before joining to body. I also worked 4 repeats of the cording stitch pattern for the collar/neck with 12 extra stitches cast on to create a flap for a button. Button hole shaping from Maggie Righetti's book "Knitting in Plain English"- This was the first time using the directions from her book and it really does produce a superior button hole, you must try it!

Other things: I discovered an error in the pattern and got to practice using my camera's self timer!

March Sweater Madness

As we head into Spring (well technically I don't think we actually had what could be classed as a winter) here in Fresno and I don my flip flops (which makes it hard to finish those Pomatomus socks-they're slow knitting) a crazy voice inside is persuading me to spend time working on sweaters....perhaps crazy or possibly intentionally organized....you see if I work on these now then they'll be all ready for selling when cooler weather is on the horizon again!
First up is the aforementioned design that I withdrew from publication and which I can now reveal here: (No Name Yet)!

YARN: Jaggerspun Zephyr Wool-Silk DK weight in "Ice Blue" (50% Tussah Silk/50% wool)
Took 1 cone (1120 yards) to knit ......great value, an amazing range of colours...love this yarn!

CONSTRUCTION: This is a bottom up raglan using an all over Shetland lace (Same as I used for the Unst Cap).
The shaping was created by changing needle size so as not to disturb the lace pattern to much. Definitely intended to be close fitting-negative ease means the lace pattern opens out when worn.

Some of the pictures have pretty intense colour issues going on - taken before I got my new camera- sorry about that!
I originally designed this for my sister (who now has it and loves it) and right now only have the pattern written up in rough. So I need to get some test knitting done (I'll be contacting you soon Christy), write up the pattern properly.....tech edit it and all that good stuff....shouldn't take too long right?.....I'm so impatient!

(removed the part about a sweater design I'm working on)

and....I decided to knit myself a "Slipped Hours"...(is it weird to knit one of your own patterns?)...I really loved how the original turned out but wasn't able to keep it....and I had the same yarn (but in this gorgeous burnt golden colour)...and I'm hoping by knitting another in a different size and colour I may inspire some of those folks on Ravelry who have this in their queue!

Then there's the other stack of Malabrigo that may arrive on my doorstep today destined to be a sweater (not sure which one yet) for a friend in Scotland......told you it was madness!

Sugar and Spice and I Need some Advice!

The sugar and spice refers of course to little girls.....and things girly that they enjoy...like these fairy wings ("Woodland Fairy Wings"- from Boho Baby Knits by Kat Coyle)....destined for my soon to be 4 year old niece in New Zealand.
These were a fun knit and actually didn't take too long even with my painfully slow crochet...took me an hour to do one row (well one of the ties was 300 sts).....

Crystal Palace Yarns Kid Merino:Strawberries and Limes/Tulips
Crystal Palace Yarns Deco Stardust: Gold

I had planned on having Maya model them for me but ...well...she isn't 4 anymore and her wingspan outstretches this pair of wings....instead here she is looking very grown up, sophisticated and art studenty, modeling my latest Bousta Beret (my 5th) which will be going to my Mum (if you live in a house in Shetland called Muckle Bousta then you've got to have a Bousta Beret one would think)!

BTW that's a lizard Maya is working on for her brother's birthday...and yes she now wants a beret too!

Edited: I decided to remove this section of text about my submission issue and instead to finish dealing with it "off blog" and to just put it down to experience and move on! I appreciate all the words of advice both on here and privately.