Just Looking Around

Hi Knitters,
It's one of those mornings where I am looking around my house and I'm seeing all of the work that needs to be done. I need to spend a lot of time cleaning and touching up paint. Ugh! We are hard on things around here. There is much wear and tear. One thing I didn't think about before having four kids is how much work I would be doing just to maintain daily life. Of course that wouldn't have changed my mind a bit but it can be daunting at times. I did find some fun things to share, too. It's not all bad over here.

The blue background is knit in Rowan Polar, which I think has been sadly discontinued. Luckily I have ten skeins of chocolate Polar in my stash just waiting to become a sweater of some sort. The flowers are knit in mohair and I think it is La Gran, maybe?

Here is the full shot. This is an old organ bench that was snagged from St. Vincent DePaul's. It was filled with old music that I saved for a future decoupage project. I painted it with left over paint from my kitchen, it is the Summer Pear color I mentioned earlier. This sweet little bench used to sit in my old yarn shop haunt, Alphabet Soup. It is so simple to take retired furniture and completely turn it into something new and fresh. We had such fun creating "new" furniture for that shop and I loved adding the knitted element to the pieces we picked. You should try it sometime!

As I was working in my studio early this morning I grabbed my camera. This is some of the chaos I look at daily. The pattern for those chenille carrots are in itty bitty nursery. I think I used a darker shade of orange for the carrots in the book. The ballerina has been following me around forever. I would feel lost without her. Someday soon I am going to properly photograph that mosaic mirror with the knitting needles for you. That is one of my favorite creations ever and it is a great combo of knitting and mosaic. That used to hang in Alphabet Soup, too.

Note my deluxe filing system to the right. Impressive, no? Do you have a favorite coffee mug? I do and there it sits. I am always trying to make sure it is clean and ready for my morning coffee.

This is a new book project I am working on. It doesn't look too exciting right now but I have big things in store for this knitted fabric. I'll cross my fingers that it will work. See those wooden things sticking out? I did order some sock blockers from here. They make your socks look so good.

Darn you, Stacey! Now I have already placed and received an order from Cider Moon because of you. Oh my goodness, I'll be back there soon. Those are the samples they sent along with my order. That Blue Sky Alpaca white cotton is waiting to be knit into a new toy I am working on. Can't wait to get that going, it is next in line.

When I was in Holland, Michigan last fall for the itty bitty book tour a lovely woman, who owns a yarn shop called Lizzie Ann's Wool Company, brought me these beautiful tulip needles as a gift. She was so sweet and that street in Holland is even sweeter. I was at Tree House Books and I had the best time at that tour stop. What a fun and lively group. Apparently Holland has a tulip festival every year, and thus the tulip needles were given. I love them and it is a great memento of that fun time.

You know how some people are so organized and their studios look like they should be in a magazine, well that's just not me. I need a little chaos mixed in and that's exactly what I have. I remember looking at a Kaffe Fassett book and seeing his chaos of color and texture in his home and I couldn't take my eyes off of that page for a long time. I fell in love with that smorgasbord. Just to soak that all in is too much to take. I like that at my house, it makes me feel good like there is creative work going on. Some may say messy, I say oh yeah!

Now for some fun links I was looking at this morning. These are the sweetest little booties and you could make these with left over sock yarn. I found them here. Really, if you aren't looking at this blog you are missing out. Jared is amazing. I am going to make these booties right away, for what baby I don't know but I'll find one. I have another project for left over sock yarn I will share as soon as I get it knitted up.

For a beautiful look at some fabric from Purl, crocheted flower squares, fun movie recommendations and some toes, yes toes, look here. Finally, for some fun sock viewing look here.

Are you on ravelry yet? Being the slow mover that I am sometimes I didn't sign up until very recently. I am still waiting for my invite. It looks really slick and I can't wait to explore. I'll let you know when I get in. I hear there are thousands and thousands on the list for an invite so it could be awhile.

One final note, I had some comments that I published recently and they didn't show up on the blog. I am sorry about that if it was you. Please write again and don't think I didn't try to get your comments posted. I have been having some weird glitches lately with my blog. Again, sorry about that.

This post was all over the place but that's how it is some days!

best, susie