My Pumpkins Are Colonizing The Garden

Setting out from their wee pumpkin seed mound, four strong and fearless seeds bravely took on the new territory of soil surrounding their land.

The pumpkin(g)s are now Emperors of the Garden, and have renamed it their Patch¹.

The new colony of Patch, this, the Patch of the Pumpkin(g)s, has a very few subjects, including the Purple Pod Bush Beans, the struggling Tabasco Peppers, and the young but rugged Broccoli. The beautiful flowers of Marigold and Hollyhock are attempting their own uprisings, but the might and power of the Pumpkin(g)s appears to be blotting out their efforts.

I must try my best to keep these Kings in check; they aren't satisfied with the Patch, and appear to be enamoured with development outside the garden bed.

But lo, we shall see who laughs last. The hour of October draws nearer every day, and the prophesy of the sage pumpkins, those horror stories they tell their young sprouts of vicious humans plucking them from their vines, heartlessly scooping out their delicious innards and placing (of all things!) candles in their bodies, just may come to be fulfilled.



Muhahahaa!

But no, really, I'm way stoked about how healthy my pumpkins seem to be. I hate to count my pumpkins before they hatch, but methinks a collection of sweet, sweet pumpkin recipes may have to be collected!

____________
¹ I have to apologize for the colonialist metaphor here. Perhaps I've been doing a touch too much research at work regarding those centuries of European empire building.

So I Can Sew a Salad

I'll tell you what I've had luck with, and that's my lettuce!

The photo you see here is a couple weeks old, when my salad green garden was very happy. The current oppressive heat has pretty much done in any remaining bits, but I'm quite happy with the bit of harvest that I was able to obtain from my first sprouty endeavours (incidentally, so are the birds! They quite appreciate lettuce, as their green-stained beaks will attest!)

I've also recently learned that I've let my spinach, which I was very much looking forward to eating, bolt.
Well then, a gardener lives and learns.

Giveaway Winner

Hi all!

I closed the contest for the Larry Crowne giveaway last night, and have just asked the Random Number Generator to tell me the winner....

Congratulations neferatowen! The generator said number 5, and that's you.

Thanks to everyone who entered.
Have a very happy Tuesday :)

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Preita Salyer
Blog: Mr Poopers Day Out
Rav ID: Preita
Some Great Designs: Preita's Rav Designer Page

You'd think I'd be used to this experience: I trawl around Rav, looking for great designs and designers who haven't received the notice I think they deserve.

Today's designer, Preita, is even more astonishing. She has a wealth of patterns; so many different types of knits, all so pretty, knittable and wearable.

Not only that, she has a beautiful blog. It's illustrated with gorgeous photographs, many of which are the personality-filled animals from her farm. It's fantastic. Really, go check it out nows.

Well, maybe take a peek at these three designs first:

Pictured is the Fall Plumage Hat, a great example of her design style. That texture is so enticing. Makes me want that yarn, hat and pattern!

The pretty Pix Shawl is a play with texture (and colour) in a simple way to create a versatile garment.

Lastly, there's Sweet Corn Shawl, which does that magic shawl thing where it looks lovely laid out flat, but almost even lovelier when it's gathered up and draped around your neck.

Don't stop here! Preita is a prolific, talented designer. Check out her projects page on Rav :)

Made Me Laugh

Quick postie today:

I was informed about this funny video about a knitting prank pulled on Julia Roberts. It's really kind of cute.

It's from the set of her latest movie, Larry Crowne.

I've also been contacted for a giveaway! Anyone who'd like to get in on the following prizes can just leave me a message on this post. I'll select a randomly generated winner on Monday July 18.

One (1) winner will receive:

· $25 Fandango Gift Card to see Larry Crowne
· Larry Crowne t-shirt & notebook

Prizing courtesy of Universal Pictures

Good Luck all :)

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Andrea Marquis
Blog: Yarn Superhero LLC
Rav ID: greedy
Some Great Designs: greedy's Rav Designer Page

The shapes. Ohhh, the shapes! The structure, the whimsy, the romantic historicism, all found in the knits of this week's designer!

Pictured is the lovely and unique Rivulet. I've picked this piece because I think it's a very good example of her wonderful, creative vision. I love the melding of historic and contemporary fashion elements; together, they create a whole new fashion sensibility that (more than a little) reminds me of one of my favourite fashion designers, Alexander McQueen.

Sett Road Stole shows off this designer's ability to play with shape in a very interesting and attractive way. This stole is a traditional stole shape, but the pattern's photographs demonstrate the designer's creativity in manipulating that shape into wonderfully wearable, and entirely varying, garments.

Of course, there are many other wonderful pieces by greedy - make sure to check out her Rav designer page! But for now, I'll leave you with one final lovely, the Cobblestone Neckwarmer. Just check out the hardware on this piece!

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

I've been planning something big.

Come September, I'll begin publishing a planned 12-month project in eBook form. I'm calling it the YearLong YarnSong.

It's very exciting to be putting this project together; it's been so much fun already, and I'm looking forward to a whole year full of lovely projects, deadlines and more than a little bit of hard work!

The image below is a sneak peak at some of the yarn I'm using for the September issue.

I can't wait to share it with you!

Shortly, I'll be putting out some requests for testers. If you're interested in getting in on these super secret projects, check back at this here bloggy in just a few weeks.

Indie Designer Revisited

Designer: Kristen Hanley Cardozo
Blog: Knitting Kninja
Rav ID: Jejune
Some Great Designs: Jejune's Rav Designer Page
Original Indie Designer Post: October 3, 2008


Over the past (almost) three years, Jejune has published a great number of consistently wonderful designs, all of which have the great, wearable style that I think is her trademark.

Take for instance the beautiful Laetiporus, a scarf from a recently published eBook titled Understory. Understory is a collection of patterns designed by Kristen Hanley Cardozo in cooperation with Malabrigo Yarn.

Laetiporus is a genus of edible mushrooms that grow in brackets from living trees. The shelf like construction and bright yellow color make for a spectacular sight in the damp woods. The Laetiporus scarf mimics, with a wide and gentle garter ruffle, the broad ripples of Laetiporus mushrooms.

This eBook has a number of lovely patterns; I can't help but also point out the Woodpigeon Mitts!

Jejune has published her patterns in various other places:

You may remember one of her designs, Pamela Cowl, from 2010's Knitting Pattern A Day Calendar.

Popknits has featured two of her designs, Day's Eye Hat, a pretty, cabled tam and Verde, an astonishingly expandable mesh market bag.

It's difficult for me to choose a favourite, but I think if pressed I'd have to say Pauline. This pattern is sweet, quick, unique and pretty. It was selected as one of the winners in the Malabrigo Junkies One Skein Design Contest from Stockpile 08. A seamless design (yes! another thing I love!), this wee bonnet has certainly won my heart.

There's so much more to talk about, but I'll restrict myself to pointing out one more lovely, the Clothilde shawl. This pattern was published in Jejune's Two Ladies eBook, which contains another beautiful lace shawl, Arabella. I truly admire these lace designs!

All of Jejune's designs are solid. Well designed, thoughtful, attractive and wearable. I can't wait to see what comes next!

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Toby MacNutt
Blog: gizmometer
Rav ID: gizmometer
Some Great Designs: gizmomoeter's Rav Designer Page

Look at this lovely shawl, Regrowth. It's designed and published (for free!) by gizmometer, who has great taste and exciting beginnings as a designer. I love the way this shawl does seem to grow out of the upper central triangle, from sprouts into leaves and into delicate flowers.

Taking a perusal of her projects page on Rav will give you an idea of her style. The shawls (even though some are in progress) are clearly beautiful knits, wearable and appearing enticing to the touch.

I'm eagerly awaiting the publication of the lovely Aloft shawl, (available later this summer). Oh, please click that linky and check it out :) This talented designer has other patterns in the works, including a bigger version of Aloft, Owl.

I'm keeping my eyes open for her work. Looking forward to seeing more!

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Joyce (YuLian) Yu
Blog: YuLianKnits...
Rav ID: YuLian
Some Great Designs: YuLian's Rav Designer Page

You'll find this quote on YuLian's rav designer page,

I’m not a particularly clever designer, but I just love playing with different ideas, so if you find re-iterations of something similar, it’s because I wanted to expand the idea some more. Or it was just too much fun to pass up.

This quote is great - designing should always be fun!

Pictured here is Bǎoshí, a beautifully delicate lace shawl. Shown fantastically against that bright brick wall, the word Bǎoshí means “precious stone” in Chinese. I love a great name!

Geoui is a very cool crocheted lace shawl. The motifs along the edges make for a very interesting, eye-catching look. I'm always impressed by beautiful crochet, and this is certainly one of those pieces.

Chou-gok is a play with colour and simplicity. It comes in scarf and shawl sizes, and was inspired by scallops. And, I couldn't resist quoting some background on the name of this knit too:
"The shawl is named for the little daisies in the edging. A literal translation of “Chou-gok” is “little chrysanthemum,” which I shortened down to “little mum,” and that’s exactly how a daisy looks."

Lastely there's YuLian's Honeycomb Twist Mitts. Not only can she design lovely shawls in knitting and crochet, she's adept at mitt designing too! These are very pretty, with delicately dancing cables and lace throughout.

There's plenty more to see on her designer page - check it out!

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Britt Schmiesing
Blog: Sneezerville
Rav ID: brittsneezer
Some Great Designs: brittsneezer's Rav Designer Page

Believe it or not, all the shawls I'll be talking about today are free patterns!

Generously design and posted by the talented brittsneezer, each of these shawl are sweet and wearable little knits.

Sencillo Shawlette is pictured right. I really dig the simple stripes and pretty lace edging. This is a shawl I can really get behind!

Chevrolette is another great piece; I love the use of texture and lace. This looks like a warm piece, something I'd easily and often just wrap around my shoulders in the cooler weather.

Finally I'd like to point out The Watcher, which is very gear for a few reasons (that's right, gear. I've been watching too much Hard Day's Night, and have decided to revive some slang).
This shawl has a basic construction, but uses texture masterfully to create a knit that has distinctive shape; this is using the elements and principles of design to the max!

Summer Little Seasonals!

Back in February, Hannah, aka Mousewife and I published the first in our four-part eBook collaboration, Little Seasonals.

I'm here to announce the unveiling of issue two,
Summer Little Seasonals!

(click on this link to download now)

We're both very keen on this issue; I went in thinking it would be rather challenging to design for the warm weather, and have come out very impressed with the results.

Hannah and I had some kind of mind-meld going on: we spontaneously and entirely serendipitously came up with the same mesh lace stitch pattern for our separate patterns.

OoooooOOOooooo! (spooky mind-meld noise...)

Pattern: Beach Bailado

Source: Little Seasonals Summer eBook
Yarn: Butterfly Mercerized Cotton
Needles: 5 mm circs

This cute little wrap is done entirely in one piece and in one mesh pattern; it was based on my ballet wrap, which I love and wish I could just wear around.
So, this is my summertime, beachy solution to that wish!

Pattern: Beach Bailado Footies
Source: Little Seasonals Summer eBook
Yarn: Butterfly Mercerized Cotton
Needles: 5 mm circs

And here be my second contribution to the eBook, footies to match the Beach Bailado wrap. They're really kind of cool; I need to produce numerous reasons to sport these decorative pieces. They are (incredibly) fast to knit, and take up very little yarn - the perfect "what do I do with these ends?!" kind of project!

You'll also be getting two mousewife patterns in this eBook; both of them rule school. They're a matching mesh bag/cell phone case set, which also, as it happily happens, match the Beach Bailado set. You could be the coolest kid on the waterfront!

The Chicken, the Bustle and Me

My local museum's olde-timey dress up day is fast becoming an annual event for me!
Remember that dress I referenced back in this here posty?
The day for the gown has come and gone, and it was a fantastic one!

Here's photographic evidence of the fun:

First of all, chickens. Very friendly chickens, very chill too. I made friends with both of them. You'll see in a pic below :)


Here we have Tic Tac the mixed breed sheep. Born in February, this babe was sweet and very single-minded. It was all about grass (and somewhat about my knitting basket!)


Here be me and Spot the chicken. She was so relaxed that, as you may be able to see, she fell asleep on my lap. I also had a bit of fun playing with the photo editor!


And here's the final product! What you can't see are all the pins I have holding the jacket in (with my minimal sewing experience, I didn't realize the pattern was about 2" too big for me!), nor can you see the craptastic hemming job I did along the bottom edge of the skirt.
I am rather happy with the (21!!!) buttons on the jacket. As was Spot, incidentally. She had a great time pecking away at them.

Now that the major sewing project has been completed, I'm hoping to be able to share with you some of the loads of knitting I've been working on!

Indie Designer Revisited

Designer: Heidi Kirrmaier
Rav ID: PiPiBird
Some Great Designs: PiPiBird's Rav Designer Page
Original Indie Designer Post: June 12, 2009

A lot can happen in two years. So many great designs, and I wonder where to start!

Pictured is one of PiPiBird's latest designs, Vitamin D. As many of you may know, I'm a big proponent of negative ease; and so my admiration of PiPiBird's designs may surprise you, as she proclaims that she is a proponent of postitive ease! I love her note, here:

I generally like positive ease, and many of my current designs are intended to fit somewhat loosely. It has become apparent to me that I may be in the minority in this regard - we seem to be in an era of ‘fitted’ knits, which in part I believe is a reaction to wanting to avoid repeating some of the ill-fitting knits of the past. Fair enough :) However, when I look at today’s fashions, I see a lot of loose fitting pieces, and personally find that a flattering fit does not need to equate to form fitting. Skimming a few body parts rather than hugging every curve is still fitted to me. The nature of the yarn also has to work, and a fabric with a little drape tends to work best and avoids bulkiness when there is some positive ease. Of course the ideal amount of ease varies by design as well.

Big quote - but I love it! And there's more to read on her designer page, linked in the list above.

Now, onto some more of her beautiful work!

Here's a pretty pocketed cardigan, Atelier. Worked from the top-down in one piece, not only does its wearability make my heart flutter, the seamlessness makes my fingers want to knit it now now now!

Igloo is a dress - a nice, simple one, with the wonderful functionality of keeping you good and warm in the cold months, but also with the added bonus of pockets (not sure I've mentioned this, but I'm a wayhugebig fan of pocketed dresses. It's one of the unexplainable bits and bobs about my fashion crushes).

See next Space Girl, a variable top-down constructed sweater (instructions included for both long- and short-sleeved versions). I love PiPiBird's use of texture in this piece.

Finally I'll point out a cardigan she's designed for my recent beloved yarn company, madelinetosh. Check out fall away cardigan, done in a beautiful blue shade of pashmina. This piece has all the hallmarks of a PiPiBird design, with lovely, simple construction and that fantastic use of positive ease.

Please check out her designer page - there's so much more there to see!

I'm Interviewed!

Hey all!
Just a quick howdy, hello and check-out-this-link today: it's an interview the talented WorstedKnitt asked me to be a part of on her blog. She does a designer of the month feature. Very cool :)

Also, this picture, right here? That's me garden. Not much right now, but whoo boy, I have plans! This past weekend was the traditional go-ahead herald for garden-sewing in this here part of the planet, and I'll be putting in my seeds and wee started plants directly.