It's been a really busy few last few months at work. Cecily Glowik MacDonald, Carrie Bostick Hoge and I have all been busy little bees working to get the Fall 2009 booklets tech edited, proofed and layed out. Finally, they're back from the warehouse and have begun to ship. I'm more than relieved to finally have that season completed and on its way into stores. It was a challenge.

There were close to 90 patterns throughout the 7 new booklets. Fall always has more patterns than Spring, but in the five years I've worked at CEY, I don't ever recall their being over 70 Fall patterns. I think we all learned a lot this season, and the future will hopefully run more smoothly and be less stressful because of it. I like to think that anyway, only time will tell.

Looking at the photos above, of the three designs I have in the fall collection, I'm reminded of the design process for one of them. The Miracle V-Neck Cardigan, pictured on the left, was conceived while sitting by a campfire, while on a weekend camping trip with James. I was swatching with some burgundy Miracle. There were some pencil scribbles, and erase marks covering a sheet of graph paper, which I interpreted as the stitch pattern. I love working in ribs with Miracle—it really pulls together, even after blocking and washing. I remember enjoying the process of figuring out how to get the 1 x 1 ribbing to flow evenly into the wheat pattern, while not decreasing too many, or too few stitches. If you've ever worked with Miracle, you may know that frogging it is nearly impossible—similar to trying to frog mohair—so more than one swatch, and ball of yarn was necessary to get this figured out.

That time spent swatching on this camping trip wasn't about designing the sweater, it was about learning how to make the sweater design work. I love technique. I love to challenge myself to use different techniques. While this design doesn't have anything terribly complex in it, it's certainly a fun collection of little things I enjoy doing—working without side seams; lace stitch patterns; ribbing in Miracle; and a cable trim around the neck edge.

Lately, I've been challenging myself to come up with simple things. It's a lot more difficult for me than you might imagine. Even if it begins as something simple, I often think of little ways of making it *better*—like, we could just add some short rows in there to make it flare...

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Crochet Craze

July 25th, 2009

It's hard for me to believe that it's only Saturday. I feel like I've gotten a lot done this weekend. Two patterns have been completed, I've crocheted a few model accessories for Classic Elite and I've continued working on this yoga mat bag. It began a few months ago, and I had something pretty spectacular in mind for it—however, it wasn't coming out the way I had anticipated. So, into hiding it went. I just pulled it out of hiding to give it another look and I've fallen in love with it.

I'm noticing lately that crochet has really become a comforting act. I recently designed something for an upcoming book that had to be designed, written and crocheted in about a week. Luckily I have some great knitters/crocheters around who are willing to take on such an endevour... but I found myself drawn to this design so much that I began crocheting one for myself too. It was very comforting to have a project to work on. I can't tell you how long it's been since I've had an actual crochet *project* to keep me company.

Now that I've finished my version of that design, I found myself seeking another crochet project. I'm thinking that this yoga mat bag will be my newest travel companion. I'm using Classic Elite's Allegoro, and I'm about half way through the first ball. I'm surprised by how far along it has come with such a small amount of yarn. I don't anticipate the whole bag using more than 2 balls of yarn.

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Alternate Plans

July 23rd, 2009

So, it seems as though the Martin House (our Plan A) has indeed been sold. I'm pretty bummed about that... but with each closed door, another opens—I'm keeping myself optimistic. We're not exactly sure which of our other plans we will actually be going with yet... it all depends on which one works out the soonest.

James has talked with his uncle about building us something to match the Martin House, or something very similar. His uncle is in the process of finding out if he can purchase the materials for the amount we'd like to spend, so we're waiting to hear back from him. Once we hear back—yay or nay—then we can move forward with deciding which direction we're planning on going.

If he cannot build one for the amount we have to spend, then we're considering the Sonoma Shanty. This will give us a bunch of options.

• We could get the whole house built for somewhere around $25,000 (I believe, I can't recall the exact price)—that would take about 4 weeks for them to build.

• We could get the house, with the floor, walls and roof mounted on the trailer for $9000—that would take only a week for them to build. Then we'd have to finish building ourselves... while we live in it.

• We could get the kit, and see if James' uncle could build it up to a livable point before August 31st. Then we could finish it while we live in it.

I'm pretty sure all the Sonoma Shanty options mean James and I will be flying to California, renting a 1-ton truck and towing it back across the country. Building one here would save us that hastle, that's for sure.

In the mean-time, I've been working on lots of patterns, and keeping my knitters & crocherers pretty busy. I've even had the time to crochet myself up a little shawl from CEY's Moorland—my new favorite crochet yarn!

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Little Houses!

July 16th, 2009

I was reading through the Tiny House Blog, and came across a post about a fellow knitter, Katie from Duo Fiberworks, who has a similar dream—to live in a tiny house. This is such a cute little cottage, and there's a gnome inside! Click on the photo to see more pictures.

The pattern is available in an 18 page booklet—yes, 18 pages.

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So… what am I doing?

July 15th, 2009

In my last post I mentioned that James and I are working on downsizing... so, what does that entail?

Well, the lease for our apartment is up pretty soon, and our landlord has increased our rent by $50 a month if we decide to renew for 1 year. Frankly, that sucks. This landlord has already increased our rent $25—we were originally told one price by the real estate office, then when we were in the process of sigining the lease, we learned that it had been increased $25 because he had installed a washer and dryer for us to use... Personally, I think that he should have taken that into consideration when he originally decided on how much to ask for rent. But no. We're not going to continue living like this.

I recently went to a chakra-cleansing yoga workshop (which you can read about here), and for the 2 weeks following I have been having a hard time justifying the typical society in which we find ourselves—one of working 40 hours a week to send away a large check each month to some guy. That's not living, it's slavery—slavery to our stuff. I can't continue to live like this.

Then what are we going to do? James and I have formulated a very flexible plan, which involves us living in a tiny house... on wheels. It's not exactly a trailer, but it does hook up to a truck and can be pulled. Take a look.

This little house is the last one by this company, and there has been one buyer who's already beaten us to it. Fortunately for us, we've been informed by Julie, the woman selling it, that she's not confident that the sale will go through, and it will likely become available for us... it's a long story... and yes, we do have a plan B, and a plan C. This is the one I hope most-of-all to work out.

It's 8 feet wide by 20 feet long—yes, that mean's there is only 160 square feet of living space. I'm really excited about the idea of really lightening the amount of stuff I have, and working with only the necessities. I've packed up 3 trash bags worth of clothes, and I'm already starting to feel better. Deciding what to wear in the morning has become so easy. I'll be selling my desktop, my crappy laptop, and printers, and purchasing a refurbished MacBook Pro. I'm hoping to bring along most, if not all of my yarn stash... we'll see how well that goes over with James... If I have to, I'll store some of it at my parents until it's needed.

Today we gave the notice to the landlord, and I felt so relieved to finally know that in less than 2 months, we'll be moving out of his clutches. I do love this place, but some things, even nice ones, just aren't worth being chained down to have. I only hope that the rest of this process works out as smoothly as possible.

If you'd like to help us along on our journey toward financial independence, and happen to know someone who invests in Lending Club, please refer them to our loan, or pass along the word any way you know how! It's in the process of being funded, and there are only 6 days remaining for it to become completely funded. If it doesn't become funded, then we don't get it, which would make things quite a bit more challenging.

These next few months are going to be somewhat of a challenge, emotionally and physically, but I'm really excited about this goal and am willing to whole-heartedly perservere toward making it happen. I'll be sure to keep you updated.

(amusingly, James is playing some really bizzare triumphant music right now which feels very appropriate)

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Down-sizing

July 11th, 2009

My boyfriend and I are in the process of downsizing... which means, I'm getting rid of a LOT of my things. When I began knitting, about 4 years ago, for some reason or another, I decided to keep all the swatches I've ever made. I guess lots of knitters do that sort of thing. I had hoped that someday I might be able to make a quilt out of them, or unravel them and reuse the yarn in something like this. But the time has come for me to realize that it's not something I have the time for right now, and we just won't have the space to continue hanging onto things that *might someday* become useful.

There are a lot of great stitch patterns, made in great, high quality yarns—lots of Classic Elite.

Do you want them? If you're curious to see what kinds of swatches I've collected, and have the ambition to possibly do something with them, then you're welcome to them! I can no longer keep them. Please just leave a comment here with what you might like to do with them, and on July 20th I'll decide who gets them! Be sure to include your e-mail address when commmenting so I can contact you back if you're chosen.

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Color fun!

July 4th, 2009

I don't play too much with color, so this little accident was a pleasant surprise. I've been working a lot lately... It's crunch time for me at CEY, so every breathing second that I'm there, I'm working hard. At home too, I have plenty to do—between tech editing and pattern writing, I'm a busy gal. Yesterday, I enjoyed my time away from the office by writing a pattern. One of my knitters/crochers, Jessica, is leaving for a very well-deserved vacation, and wanted to bring this project with her.

During the process of writing the pattern, I had to do a lot of swatching, to be sure that things would work out the way I envisioned them. Whenever I swatch like this, I don't really care what yarns or colors I use... I just pick up whatever's handy. In this case, it was some yellow Fresco. The orange part was a swatch worked up by Jessica, and the yellow was what I had on hand. The buttons—well, they were just sitting there on my desk...

When they were all put together, I thought the color combo was rather vibrant and fun... so I figured I'd share :)

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My Raw journey

Patterns for Sale

Tweed Beret

Violet, the Slouchy Head Friend

Lush Woven Scarf

Petal Socks

River of Life Socks

Crochet Motif Cardigan

Beatrice Ribbed Tie Coat