Hey Look Over Here.....

.......the summer issue of Knitty is up ........

.....the smile on my face right now is nowhere near as beautiful as Marnel's...I'm looking more like the Cheshire Cat !

Had to put up a couple more shots of my gorgeous model who was such a sport with her posing...strutting her stuff around the streets of Fresno in her bare feet and summer whites......thank you again Marnel, you're fab and stunning and have the best hair!

Cropped Coraline

Pattern: Coraline by Ysolda
Yarn: Elsabeth Lavold Hempathy( in black)
Modifications: Made the body and sleeves shorter. Also did a folded cuff at sleeves same as the hem. Only used one button at neck.
New Skills: Smocking, first round yoked anything, slipped stitched edging and sewn button loop. (Told you I'd be learning new things)!
Thoughts: Love it!! Perfect use of my leftover Hempathy.....great pattern...thanks Ysolda this is most definitely one of my most favourite knits....and it's mine to keep!
(and yes I did muck around with the photo editing again...hard to photograph black)!

Designer Of The Month

No..it's not an award I've received!!....after having so much fun knitting Norah's Anais I've decided to knit something each month from a designer I admire.

I'm sure this will be a great learning curve for me as I try and expand on my design skills.... it also allows me to switch my brain off a little ....and I get to add to my knitted wardrobe which is sadly lacking as I give away so much of what I knit!

So Norah was April and May is going to be Ysolda!
I have knit one of her toys before but not a garment. I've admired Coraline for a while now and I had the impulse to use my stash of leftover black Hempathy to make a cropped version of this cardi.
....yes black...even when Fresno will be hitting the 100's this week temp-wise.....there is some sense to this though as I'm going to be living in Shetland for 3 months as of August!! ....more on that later.

Here is my Coraline progress so far:(that's water btw.....)
....and just to include some colour...here is Maya's latest original artwork....

PS: Also working on a design for knitonthenet in Habu silk ........that stuff is gorgeous!

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!