New York Minute

Hi Knitters,
It seemed like a minute anyway. The trio above was the highlight of my short time in New York. I got to see my beloved editor, Trent Duffy, at Artisan Books for the first time in person. I know I have said this before but it is strange to work with someone for almost 2 years and never meet them in person or even know what they look like for that matter. Well, it was a fun meeting. I met with Trent first and he is so warm, friendly and welcoming. We chatted in his office for a bit then he took me around the office and introduced me to the Artisan staff, a few I had met before. Everyone asked me if I was done with my new book yet and I had to keep saying not quite. Oh well.

The office is really nice, they recently moved to this current building. It was great meeting Trent face to face. Trent is the kind of editor any author dreams of working with. He treats me in an incredibly kind way. He's very respectful and sweet and the best thing is he respects my knitting. I love that so much. Every day he jumps from historical topics and authors, to dealing with the top chefs, artists and photographers in the world, celebrities and news people of all sorts, all the way to me and my toy and baby knitting. I feel like he sincerely includes me and my chubby bunny-like projects right in the same category as his other authors and that is truly wonderful. It actually makes me tear up a bit to think about my good fortune in Trent. I feel pretty lucky about the whole thing. He likes things to be done right and well and it shows in the books Artisan publishes. Plus he's a nice looking man in person to boot!

That's Danielle Costa in the middle. Do you remember me talking about her awhile ago. She was my publicist for Itty-Bitty Hats. She set up my first book tour and led me by the hand while I experienced being an author for the first time. What a job she did, the girl was 25 years old at the time and she literally filled me with her confidence. I loved working with Danielle and I actually cried after I hung up the phone when she told me she was switching jobs at Artisan. She is in the sales department now and is doing a fantastic job. I really feel like I owe Danielle a ton of gratitude. She has been so supportive and caring. I can't tell you enough about the type of support she offered along the way and in every situation. I even called her one night before my first tour stop in Minneapolis where I had several tv appearances scheduled. I asked her the silliest question about what I should wear. I called her on her cell phone so I asked where she was at the moment. I could have died, here she was at the publisher, Ann Bramson's apartment for an after-work gathering and there I am calling about which skirt to wear. She couldn't have been any kinder. I miss Danielle but I still get to see her every once in awhile which is good. We will always be friends, I hope.

Lastly, you all know the wonder-publicist Jaime on the right. She is my current book publicist at Artisan and the brains and organizer behind the current Itty-Bitty Nursery trunk show tour. Well, she continues to be a bright light in my life. Jaime has a lot going on right now and I hope and pray that I get to continue to work with her. Jaime's in love and her love just happened to get in Harvard Law School. Guess who's moving to Boston? I would do the same thing. I am hoping it works out that she gets to do the publicity for my next book in a freelance type of way, that is my dream. It could really work out that way. Maybe we'll even get to go to TNNA together again. Jaime is a knitter and we just have a good time together. I am sure all of her author's say that but it is true. I love Jaime. She has done a wonderful job and she has a lot left to do in the world. I can't wait to see what happens next with her. The world is Jaime's oyster.

These three took me to lunch just across the way from their office at a place called The Blue Ribbon. It was a wonderful leisurely lunch. I loved chatting with them, they are a funny, entertaining group. I had the most delicious salad too, one of the best ever in fact. I had looked forward to this lunch for a long time and it was better than I had ever imagined. I smile when I think about it. Gorgeous, all of them.
Here I am outside the door of Artisan with my daughter. I was surprised by her height or my lack of, rather. I wish I was tall like that. My family walked me to the door and then when I went in to push the elevator button I looked back and they were all in the doorway waving at me. It was a pretty funny sight. They got to meet Jaime, Danielle and Trent after lunch. That was a good moment. My life is so different than their lives it is fun to see the two worlds collide.
I Spy: my head and my daughter's pony tail.
My sons love The Office. Here is a wall of Dwight bobble-heads on display at the NBC studio store. We came home with a Michael and a Dwight bobble-head. I like that show, too, but it makes me so uncomfortable sometimes that I can't watch.
We spent a ton of time at FAO Schwartz. That was fun. What can I say about the tootsie pop photo? Teenage boys are just funny characters.
All of the kids tried the massive piano keys from the movie Big. You can get one for your house for only $250,000.
We went to Central Park and climbed humongous rocks. We went up and down a lot. There are climbing rocks everywhere you turn.
We called Jaime from the park for a dinner recommendation and we ended up here:
The Carnegie Deli. Here is my matzoh ball soup with noodles. Have you ever?
Here is my son's sandwich called, "Bacon Whoopee." I only cringed a little when he ordered it, pretty funny. They ate half at dinner, took the other half in a doggy bag and polished it off while watching the Olympics later that night.
We went to Battery Park to view the Statue of Liberty.
She looked beautiful as ever.
best, susie
p.s. We stayed at the best hotel in Secaucus, NJ. It is an Embassy Suites, the room rates were very reasonable and it was a 15 minute bus ride to Times Square. The bus stop was right out of our door, $3 a piece for a ride. The best part was each morning they had a huge complimentary made-to-order breakfast spread. For a family of 6 this was ideal and saved us a lot of time and money. The hotel was clean with a friendly, helpful staff. I highly recommend this spot if you are headed out that way.

Boston Times and Stuff

Hi Knitters,
First I'd like to share with you something straight from my fridge...
and my kitchen table...
directly to the pages of....
Parents magazine, September 2008 issue!

I found this in my pile of mail yesterday. The wonderful Amanda Kingloff, the lifestyle editor at Parents magazine, is so kind to remember to send me issues that have my stuff in the pages. Otherwise I would probably forget and it is nice to see the results in the end. In every issue of Parents they have a quick one page craft for kids called Make It! Many months ago I sent Amanda a few of these flower magnets I had made using bottle caps as the base of the flower. They loved them and with a few modifications made for more accessible materials here is how it turned out:
This is such a quick, cute little craft project that is good for any age group young to old. In the project that made the pages I used felt and pom-poms from the craft store. They look great but I have to tell you that the original samples I made were a little different (seen in the top three pictures) and you, as fiber people, might enjoy the materials I used. I had some wool felt ovals and some felted balls in my stash that I put to use. The flowers made in the felt were gorgeous and if you have any of these items around this is a great use. A fun and easy project for kids and adults is always good.
Well, we sure did a ton of this last week. We started out the week in Boston. I love this city, so historical and interesting. We walked all over, up and down, side to side. We hit just about every Boston spot you could think of in our short stop over.
My kids took most of the photos from our trip and it is fun to see what they see through the camera. It is always creative and funny at times. We really enjoyed Newbury Street, of course. One of the spots my girls loved was Lush. This store is a franchise but we don't have one in Madison yet. They have all of this handmade soap in all different forms and smells. We tried everything in the store and we even had a hand treatment. The staff was so much fun and there was even a young woman working who is from Chicago and her family was in Madison at that time. She liked that we were from Madison, it was cute.
This beautiful young woman was really fun. She had that water pouring into buckets and bowls and we sampled to our hearts content. I asked if I could take a picture of her hair for my blog. I think she thought I was a bit nutty but what's new? She had taken roving and braided it into her hair and then left long ends to wind up in that spectacular roving bun. If I were twenty I would do that. Anyway, stop in to the Lush shop if you get a chance.

We also went to Newbury Yarns where the woman working in the tiny upstairs shop was so helpful and friendly. She made our visit incredibly pleasant. I bought a few fun items here that I'll share at some point including some needles that look like candy on the ends (my daughter picked those out).
We ended up at Sugar Heaven for some treats. It turned out to be an expensive candy stop much to my husband's chagrin. That's the whole crew taking a sugar break.
It was beautiful in Boston, what a great walking city. The eating was fun, too. You can't miss.

Change of subject, you know the silk ribbon I used for this cover project? A friendly reader sent me the link to this ribbon. I get so many emails about where to get this exact ribbon and now I know. Thank you, Allison.

Okay, more later. Oh, and Robbie aka washmom responded yesterday to the giveaway so she is the official winner for sure. Congrats again.

I am already gathering my next giveaway. It may be smaller but it will be just as good. I have no idea when I will do the next one, it will be when the feeling strikes. Those are pretty fun.

Have a great Tuesday, Knitters.
best, susie

Hey, You Won!

Hi Knitters,
I returned from my holiday last night so early this morning I charged up the random number generator to come up with the winning post. Included in the total number were 13 email entries, I just can't exclude anybody who bothers to write me to enter. If you emailed me don't worry, you really were entered in the giveaway.

So here it goes, this is the winning post:

washmom said...

I just finished knitting the frog pacifier holder to send to my grandbaby in South Africa. It is adorable! I own your two Itty books and have enjoyed them so much. Thanks for your talent, and I hope I win those goodies! What a treat! Robbie(:

August 08, 2008

Yay to washmom!! Now washmom, your job is to email me your mailing address within the next three days. My email address is on the sidebar, just click on it. If I don't hear from you by noon, central time, Wednesday, Aug. 20th I will pick a new winner. Congratulations.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to enter and had such positive friendly things to say. You are all so good and true and I appreciate you.
Well, you may have noticed that I was gone for awhile. We went on a road trip out east starting in Boston, then NYC, then Washington D.C. I have lots of fun stuff to share from the trip but today I am just going to show you some of the knitting I worked on while riding in the car, bus rides and train travel.

So I finished the pom-pom peds I started a short while ago. I used my pom tree (see sidebar to order one) to make the pom-poms this morning. I had to add that finishing touch. Love them and they are made out of Nature's Palette. This is good, vibrant yarn that I will definitely use again.
You have to add the poms on the back or they aren't quite right. Now I will do the reverse pair with the main part in the yellow. What a great, quick project.
I finished the Anne scarf in Lorna's Laces worsted weight. I can't get enough of this scarf because it is beautiful, quick (you could finish one in an evening if you tried) and it takes only one skein of worsted weight yarn, under 200 yards. You can't get any better than that.
Right at the last long hours of our car ride last night I pulled out this ball of Opal sock yarn to start a ribbed sock. I am crazy for these stripes. I especially love how they threw in the gray stripe in the midst of the brights, it adds. I haven't knit with Opal before and I have to say I have a thing for a good manufactured sock yarn like Opal, Regia or Trekking. They have that crunchier wool feeling that I love. They soften up with washing and wearing, of course.
Last but not least, I lugged along a big bag of Julia. These rectangles are for a book project I am working on and what a perfect project for car knitting. After completing ten 5 by 7 inch rectangles I felt pretty good. Originally I was going to do a felted toy in Julia but this project isn't going to be felted. I may still add another felted Julia toy project if I have time. You can see the beauty of this yarn just by looking at the deep, saturated colors and the softness and stitch definition it provides. It is glorious yarn and in my head this is going to be a spectacular project. I'll try my hardest to bring it to life.

I'll be back with more details about my trip and my yarn stops along the way. It was a good, fun vacation to say the least. Stay tuned....

Have a relaxing Sunday, Knitters. I missed you.
best, susie
p.s. The itty-bitty nursery trunk show tour is now here:

Knitting Sisters, LC

Kat England

1915 Pocahontas Trail

Williamsburg, VA 23185

info@knittingsisters.com

757.258.5005

Arrive: August 7

Depart: August 19

Be sure to stop by if you are in the area and if not check out their site, it is pretty cool. This looks like a fun shop.

Come and Get It Part 2 (giveaway!)

Hi Knitters,
Here it is, another giant giveaway. See all of that cleaning pays off for you and me. Here is a quick list of the items I am including in this gift-o-rama package:
1. A Sew Bendy bag that Melissa sent to me as a prototype sample. It is a little different design with a tapered top and it doesn't have the interfacing. It is a cute little gem of a bag. I keep giving my SewBendy bags away to people so it looks like I will just have to order some more:)

2. My first Apple Cozy I knitted awhile ago. You can use it to hold your yarn cakes, too.

3. 7 skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic in rainbow colors. I was thinking about the Rainbow Marley Hat from Itty-Bitty Hats, you could make many, many hats with this bunch of yarn. You can use it for whatever you'd like, maybe even some granny squares.

4. A handmade wool pincushion adorned with my knitted embellishments. This is a beauty with a mohair flower and Noro squiggles on the corners, a beautiful button and several lovely beads.

5. A set of carrots that were made for Itty-Bitty Nursery. Then I knitted another set in a different shade of orange for photography. These are just as good and yummy made out of cotton chenille.

6. A pair of Blah-Blah knit booties, I guess they are little tigers. Cute, cute.

7. The tiny skeins of yarn on the left are handfuls of Koigu I was given at TNNA. The tiny skeins on the right are the luscious O-Wool from TNNA as well. Gorgeous and fun, all of it.
Carrots for you.
Yummy yarn for you.
Lovely bag and cozy for you.
I will stuff it all in this wonderful tweed bag from In the Bag and send it off your way. I love this bag, it has two pockets and a wonderful natural linen lining and the wooden handles can't be beat. It is absolutely like new, rarely used by me, maybe once or twice.
Here's what you need to do to enter and be the winner of this jackpot:

Send me a comment and say hi. That's it. (Please enter one time only and please comment instead of emailing me.) Again like last time, I will be shipping to US and Canada mailing addresses only due to shipping expenses.

Just so you know I will be in and out much of the upcoming week. If you don't see your comment posted right away it is just because I haven't gotten to posting it yet. Don't worry, I will be checking in sporadically to post the the entries. They will all be posted, I promise.

I will be keeping the comments open right up until I pick a random number with the random number generator. I will be selecting one winner sometime on the weekend of August 16th. At that time I will post the winning comment and then that person will need to email me with their mailing address. If the winner doesn't contact me within three days I will select a new winner.

Go to it, Knitters. You always make my day and I'd like to make the day for one of you.
best, susie

I've Met My Match

Hi Knitters,
Well, it has happened. I have met my match. Let me tell you a little story. At about 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon my youngest daughter and I started a craft project. We were completely inspired at Anthology when looking into a couple of altered book projects that were on the shelf. When we got home we found a couple of old hardcover books that had already been read. We decided to use these to make our own altered books. After pulling out tons of supplies I innocently sat down with my daughter to start.
We both started with the covers, front and back. (The book I am sharing today is my altered book, I will share her book when she is done.) Next we dug into those inner pages with a vengeance. We stapled, mod podged, painted, punched, tied ribbons, braided, fringed, wove, cut, glued, drew, stuck, wrote, and ric-racked. The hours started flying by.
I suddenly realized that my husband was home from work. We were so entranced that no dinner plan had even crossed my mind. My daughter showed no sign of slowing down, not even slightly. I didn't even have a hint at the kind of brutal crafting night that was in store for me.
Here she is looking all cute and sweet but lurking inside this little body is the crafting strength, endurance and attention span that could rival any serious crafter out there. My husband found a frozen baked ziti and quickly popped it in the oven when he saw the shear determination of this mother/daughter crafting team at work on the kitchen table. He knew there was no stopping either of us.
I knew I needed to finish my book last night and I wouldn't stop until it was done. I shouldn't even be doing anything else but knitting and writing but how can I resist a request from a crafter of this caliber. It was about 7pm when she stopped for a quick serving of baked ziti. I plugged straight through, skipping dinner. It was a marathon or more like the iron man.
I became dehydrated and starving at about 10pm and I had to call it quits. It had become truly rough at this point. When I told her she was one brutal crafter, she just laughed. I made a quick grilled cheese and chugged down a big glass of water before crawling off to bed. I left behind my crafting partner in crime still working away at the kitchen table. I walked up the stairs thinking that I have finally been beat. I have crazy stamina when I get going on a project. In fact, I have not met many who can keep up with me purely in the endurance department when it comes to crafting.

My day has come.
I am officially passing the torch.

Pssst, I am having another giveaway starting at the end of the week. Check back to enter if you are interested. It's going to be a good one:)

Now, I gotta go rest up for my next challenge. This is going to be an interesting one, this girl of mine. Phew.

best, susie
p.s. Altered books are really cool and fun. You should give it a try.

Sunshine Day

Hi Knitters,
Good Monday morning to you. I think today feels like the first real day of summer. Summer swim team is over and now the kids get to sleep in beyond 6am. It all feels a little slower and lazier right about now. Unfortunately for me everything is closing in a bit more as far as deadlines go but I am determined to enjoy this slowdown in activity as much as possible.

At the final day of the swim meet I started another pair of pom-pom peds using Nature's Palette. Oooh la la, this is dreamy yarn. Two skeins makes two pairs in reverse, that's pretty good. They are just so simple and fast. What fun. You should really try a pair.

Yesterday we hung out on State Street for awhile kind of meandering about and stopping for little treats here and there. It was a perfect finish to a hectic weekend. We ended up in a new sliver of a shop snuggled between the old Orpheum theater and Goodman's Jewelers (where my husband bought my engagement ring). You could miss it entirely if you blink your eyes but it is worth keeping your eyes open. It is called Anthology and be sure to click on their site for some inspiration.

The shop is owned by two creative sisters. Anthology is difficult to describe other than it is filled with handmade items, things for you to make like buttons and magnets, sewing creations and patterns, paper products, altered books, aprons, felted creations, tons of featured Madison artists, mosaic work, etc. It is a burst of imagination, an explosion of sorts. We stayed in there a loooong time and could have stayed much longer. I hope and pray this little shop can sustain itself and I think the owners are being smart by having a large crafting table and offering classes and spur of the moment making opportunities at all times. If you are in town be sure to check it out and buy a little something if you are able, it is a super fun spot.

Betz again (love her!) sent me this link. This is about the coolest thing I have seen in a long time. Love it and I will definitely be supporting this amazing new venture. Listen to this to learn more about it. One of my favorite designers is behind the entire thing.

I have some more sunny news. Itty-Bitty Hats has just gone into its 4th printing. That is pretty cool, too. Thank you.

We'll talk again soon:)
best, susie

Half

Hi Knitters,
Granny update: 90
Last update: 84
I am officially halfway to being done with my granny square afghan. That feels pretty good. I whipped out 6 squares at a swim meet yesterday. That's why there are so many solid squares, all that cutting and working in ends while sitting on bleachers is never easy.
I don't know when I will ever finish but I am determined that I will at some point. If you are just catching on to this project I used the tutorial from here and this yarn. I am working on a size H hook. Still love it and think it is fun.

My friend Betz sent me this wonderful link from the same site, it's too cute for words.
I got this fantastic new rug for my studio. The floor in here is kind of funny. When I started using the tiny office at the front of the house as my studio many years ago it had this awful carpet on the floor. I ripped out the carpet and pulled out all of the staples and tacking boards, which was not fun. We had no extra money for new flooring at that time so I had to be creative. I went and got some paint that is normally used for garage floors, it is extra thick. I bought it in black. I went to town painting the sub-floor. It looked pretty cool, seams and all. Next I took some large swirl stamps in different sizes and I stamped a few colorful swirls around the room.

I grew to like this floor and have never changed it. The black has become worn off in the high traffic areas which makes me like it even more. When I saw this rug I just thought it would go so well under my footstool/work holder and it really works. It only covers a small section of the floor so the black is still visible.
I have a few more quick things to share with you. I know my feet are looking pretty banged up here (ouch) but I want to tell you about these new flip flops I just bought. If your feet hurt at all or you just need some cushy comfort, run and get a pair of these. My sister and I both have trouble with our heels and she clued me in on these. You actually bake them in the oven for a few minutes to warm them up and then you stand on them with your full weight for 2 minutes. They actually mold to your feet. I love them so much that I immediately slide them on when I crawl out of bed in the morning on the way to get my coffee. They feel that good.

Okay, Tracey has some great projects I want to share with you here and here (the ponytail holders, not the fish). I love the shells she added and the scarf is fantastic. Her blog is one to watch for beautiful scenic photos and project ideas because she travels and knits a ton. She does beautiful work all of the time plus she does a ton of charity knitting for babies.

We are in the midst of a three day all-city swim meet so I've run out of time.
Take care, Knitters.
best, susie

A Fine Book

Hi Knitters,
Oh, what a book. A Fine Fleece, Knitting with Handspun Yarns, by Lisa Lloyd, is a book I have to share with you. I happened upon it at B&N one day and was immediately enamored. If you don't spin, which I don't, it doesn't make any difference. Lisa smartly knitted double samples for every project, one out of handspun and the other out of easily available commercial yarns. So smart. Don't let the title scare you off. The foreward in the book is written by Clara Parkes and the photography is exquisite.
What attracted me most in the book are the sweaters. These are my kind of sweaters for sure. The designs are classic, gorgeous, cable-y, tweedy, textured and comfy looking. The variety of sweaters is fantastic including drop shoulder, saddle shoulder, inset shoulder, cardigans and vests. I really could knit every sweater in here, every page being better than the last. The work is breath-taking.
I want to curl up and wear all of them. There are five chapters, how to use the book, the world of handspinning, light and shadow: studies in contrast, the forest and the trees: scale and perspective and conceptual stitches and emotive design. I counted 26 designs total and each is a winner. That is rare.
The book has a couple sock patterns and the commercial yarn used is Lorna's Laces. I have a couple of skeins of Lorna's sock yarn in green. These socks could be pretty for that yarn I am thinking.
How about a beautiful lacey scarf? These are so lovely and airy.
As are these.
There are a couple of adorable vest patterns, each of which I would love to make and wear. I have been thinking about vests a lot lately. I have never knitted a vest that I can remember. That seems strange. I think these are so cute and I love them worn with short sleeves.

Well, I would cast on a sweater or vest or two today but I already have three sweaters on the needles as I write. I need some big blocks of time to get those done first. Maybe after my book is done I can take on some larger scale projects. I am dreaming about it. Go check this book out, I highly recommend it.
My daughters did some easy mosaic pots yesterday. They filled my mosaic longing for me. We had a Klutz kit for making bottle cap designs by putting a circle of paper in the center and adding a trinket and then pouring a glaze into the cap for a clear acrylic seal. They are pretty cool and I love all of the Klutz craft kits. After they made the bottle caps we were trying to think of something to do with them. I pulled out a couple of terra cotta pots, mastic and some tiny tiles and they went to town.
Crafting of any sort reveals personality traits. I can tell in an instant who did what here. I always think that is so funny. The left pot will be planted with a cactus and the right pot is a gum holder. Imagine that.

Congratulations to brooklyn tweed for this. How exciting and well-deserved and I am totally making those. The cover is a big deal.

One more thing, my daughter, who is 9, had an exciting swim meet last weekend. She had a tooth that was very loose. During her race while she was swimming her tooth actually fell out. She had to swim four lengths of the pool. While swimming she tucked the tooth in her cheek and still had it at the end of the race. That may be a first in some book. We got a good chuckle out of that.

Okay, I'm off to work.
best, susie