Catching Up

Edited to add: I just made these mittens available in my shop right now! Click here for information. I will do a full post on the back story tomorrow.

Hi Knitters,

I have such a backlog of things I want to share with you. The photo above is my latest pattern for my pattern shop. It is all set to go, I just have to get it up and available for purchase on my shop. Maybe even later today or tomorrow. I've had the yarn to design these for at least a year so it feels good to get them done.

I will do a full write up with more information when the the pattern is ready to go. I am pretty excited about these simple and super fast mittens, knitted on size 10 double-pointed needles. I think you'll love them for your holiday/winter knitting projects. You could make a million pairs in a jiffy. The pattern is called, Molly's Mittens. Look for it soon...
I need to tell you that Alana Dakos (Did you listen to her 3 year old daughter here? It's only about 30 seconds long.) is hosting a giveaway for a signed (by me:) copy of Itty-Bitty Toys. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post to enter. That's it. She is leaving the contest open until November 1st! Now hop on over and enter so you don't miss out. I'd love to send you a book.

The wonderful Guido Stein, released his latest podcast episode #71 for It's a Purl Man, where he interviewed me about Itty-Bitty Toys and Spud & Chloë. It is a great chat. I love the way he cares for the sound quality and his interviewing style can't be beat. I am a big fan. This is about a 30 minute interview. Click here to listen or go to itunes to download it there, if you are interested, of course. This is one of my most favorite interviews to date. Thanks for having me, Guido.
Here is my beloved, cute sister in our last quilting class. Did I tell you that we made matching fall-themed quilts? I may have but there you go. We sat across from each other on two large tables pushed together. It was really fun. I made sure to include the incredible quilt behind her so you could get a glimpse of it. Stitcher's Crossing has the most amazing quilts sprinkled throughout the shop.
We took the class at Stitcher's Crossing, which I know I have mentioned before, and I'll say it again, this is a fantastic quilt/yarn shop that is a must see if you are in town. My lovely (and tall:) instructor, Anne Smith, did a beautiful job of guiding our beginning group of quilters and sewers. All eight students walked away with huge amounts of new knowledge, confidence and a mostly completed quilt. That's pretty good.

The binding on my quilt in the photo wasn't done but now my quilt is completely finished. I hand stitched the binding on right after the last class and tossed it in the washer and dryer (per directions) to soften it up. Now The Collector is wrapping her baby up in it and my older kids are using it as a lap quilt to snuggle with on the couch. It makes me feel so good. In fact, I can't even believe I sewed that quilt at all. Amazing.

Check out Anne's website here. Her daughter did all of the design work for the site. Anne offers quilting services, too. She is very talented. As a teacher, she did the best job of making everyone feel good and at ease by telling us about her mistakes and how she has made every mistake in the book and how there is nothing that can't be fixed. Anne has been teaching quilting for about 15 years and you can tell that she is a seasoned teacher. That's the best. She offered in-class ripping out services and would walk around with her seam ripper at the ready to help:)

It was a great time and I plan to squeeze in a couple more of her classes in the future (my fingers are crossed that I'll have time). I learned an incredible amount of information in a short few weeks. Plus, it was just good and simple practice for me. Everyone needs lots of that. I highly recommend taking this class if you are in the area. Thanks to Anne for a fun time and for helping me on my sewing journey! I love to sew and stitch.

Like I said, I have so much more to tell you. I hosted The Collector's girl scout troop for some fall crafting last week and we had a bountiful session. I have lots of fun photos to share of the wonderful girl scouts coming up. You may want to steal a couple of the crafts I did with them for your own kids.

I will get that mitten pattern up shortly. I will see if I can do it or whether my son will have to help me out or maybe I will just have him do it for me!

Have a good Monday, Knitters.

best, susie