Who Wants to Knit a Giraffe?

Hi Knitters,

I've been wanting to do this forever and now that I am home for a good stretch, I am. I have enough brand new, untouched yarn sitting in my studio for someone to make another Giraffe from Itty-Bitty Toys. It's the same yarn I used to knit the original Giraffe. The Giraffe calls for two skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash in Daffodil. Got it. Plus you need one skein of Orange in the same. Check. It's all here and ready to go.

I have no plans to knit another Giraffe anytime soon so I want you to take it off my hands!
You all know the drill. Leave me a comment. Say hello or whatever you'd like (within reason, of course:). I will randomly select a winner in a day or two or a few days, I don't know exactly when. I'll see how it goes. Please leave some identifying something like your name, location, anything you feel comfortable with. Only enter once, please. After I select a winner I will post the winning comment. The winner will have a few days to send me their mailing address through my email (on the sidebar). If I don't hear anything I will pick a new winner at that time.
Have fun! Let's make this one fast and furious.

I may even play a little Secret Santa and sweeten the pot with some added prizes!!! You never know what you might get. I've got stuff, Knitters, good stuff. And I like to give it away.

fyi: One thing that won't be included in the surprise pot is a copy of Itty-Bitty Toys since I only have one copy in my possession at this point. I have given away every copy I had, which was maybe 15-20 copies, can't remember exactly. I need to get some more books for sure but right now I need to hang onto the only copy I have.

Okay, Knitters, go for it!

best, susie

Tulsa & Loops

Hi Knitters,

Well, what a week that was. I am home after an adventurous four days on the road. The time in Tulsa started with an extremely late arrival on Thursday night. I think I got to my hotel around 1am, which for me is not good. I am an early bird not a night owl. The next morning I was picked up around 7am for a live tv segment on a local news show. When I awoke the next morning after a few hours of restless sleep, I went to take a shower only to find that the shower in my room did not work. I had a newly remodeled room and there was something wrong with the shower lever. I called the front desk and they sent up a hotel engineer and a security guard. They couldn't get it to work either. They offered me another room to take a shower in (not to move, just to shower in, kind of like a dorm or something, wonderful). By this time it was 6:30 and there was no time left. I whipped my hair into a ponytail and grabbed my trunk show suitcase and headed out the door. Only me.
The tv went great. The producer said they would put the clip up online but they didn't so I don't have a link to share. I would have liked to have seen the segment. When I returned to the hotel there was a lot of shuffling around but eventually the shower was fixed.

The owner of Loops, Shelley, kindly drove me around and I appreciated that so much. She is a firecracker and fun and nice to be around. She took me out for lunch with a few of her staff members and a lovely Itty-Bitty fan and blog reader, Lee Ann. It was wonderful company and fantastic food. I had a great time.
Let me tell you a little about Loops. The shop is located in an upscale outdoor mall that is just gorgeous. It has character and a good mix of local and national stores and restaurants and bakeries. It is spectacular. Shelley's yarn shop has been open for 5 years and is a bubbling, energetic, community of knitters. The shop is fashion-oriented, featuring the hottest trends going on in the knitting world. The staff is simply incredible. I know this because on Friday I spent time in the busy shop just kind of soaking it in. The shop is fully staffed with plenty of hands on deck. They were amazingly kind, helpful, friendly and upbeat. They were working so hard when I was there. It was a great sight. All is well in the knitting world in Tulsa, that's for sure.
The store has enormous picture/display windows which lend themselves to the light and fresh interior of the shop. The shop inside has a great energy and an easy bustle that is enjoyable and inspiring.
Every detail is looked to when you get inside. The main focus is customer service and ease through organization. The inventory is ample, inventive and unique but also includes every staple yarn you could possibly want. It is truly a beautiful treat inside. Shelley, the owner, is trained in marketing because she also owns a successful advertising firm and you can tell. Shelley is full of ideas and is a true knitter down to her soul. She knows her store and products through and through and she is always thinking of new ways to improve and keep things interesting. She could talk about yarn and knitting and patterns for days. She is full of information that is keen and in-tune with what is going on in the current knitting world both online and locally. Tulsa is very lucky to have this innovative shop with Shelley leading the way. Wow, it is all impressive.This wall is one of the best features in the shop, it is called Hot Loops. The shop features its own "hot" pattern picks and I think it is changed out 2-3 times a year. This is about the best idea for a yarn shop I have ever seen.
The top box is a big photo of the featured project. Here is where it gets really good and easy for the customer. Underneath the photo you can reach in grab the knitted sample to hold and get the pattern right there. Then directly under that you can reach in and grab the suggested yarn. How great is that? What an ingenious set up! I love that. Great job, Shelley!!
The store is warm and urban looking at the same time. Everything is so well done and attractive, inviting and appealing. Samples are pouring out of every corner. You cannot come out of there without a million new ideas for your knitting. Inspiration abounds.
The friendly staff is constantly cleaning up the shelves, winding yarn, chatting. It is really homey and comfortable. Everyone is welcome. The staff is incredibly knowledgeable and friendly and willing to help. They make the shop.
To make things even more inviting for mommies and grandmas, there is a gigantic play area with French doors so you can see in but keep the kids contained at the same time. That Shelley's always thinking.
It is well-stocked to boot. Shelley, being the mom to three, is really thinking about how moms love to knit but it can be difficult to go to a yarn shop with little ones in tow. I thought this was fantastic and I would have absolutely loved this when I had little ones with me years ago.
The store room is even fun to look at. It is so good in every nook and cranny of the shop.On Saturday, I had my event at the shop. When I got to the shop, there was a stack of books that people had already bought for me to sign so that was nice. It was a meet and greet and book signing. Although the turn out wasn't big in numbers, the knitters who did take the time to come were truly special and I had so much fun meeting them. One woman brought her Ribbit and a wonderful hat she had just knitted from the hat book to share. She was adorable and excited (I wish I had a photo).

This little sweetheart really enjoyed the toys. I loved seeing her peek over the table at the toys.
This isn't a great photo, but this little girl focused in on Wrap Me Up Puppies, which are becoming a favorite from the book. She kept passing them back and forth to these kind knitters who happily played along. This went on for a long time. Her mom bought the book and the yarn to make the puppies right away. I think the girl's name is Lily. She was so cute.
It was fun to see her enjoying the toys so much.
These two were so much fun. Ginny is on the left and Keitha is on the right. They drove in from Oklahoma City for the event and sat next to me and knitted for a long time. I loved this because we could chat. I really enjoyed them, they were so sweet. Ginny had me sign her books and her Itty-Bitty Hat book was nearly worn right out. She also had almost every page tabbed. That warmed my heart, I do that same thing with the books I love.
That is Shelley chatting with a customer. Shelley is really amazing and I can't say enough good things about her. Her energy and love of knitting drives the shop. She was a wonderful host.
Here are some more fun Itty-Bitty fans. Ginny and Keitha are on my left and Cathey is on my right and Julie is next to her. These ladies were awesome. I really enjoyed meeting them. Thanks for stopping by!
This is Lee Ann who took the day off of work on Friday to join the Loops team and me for lunch and to hang out in the store. It was a pleasure to meet Lee Ann. She knew every blog post I have ever written by heart. I thank her for her support and fun-loving nature. She is a gem.
Cathey is a newish knitter. This is her version of the Braided scarf from my Spud & Chloë blog (it's a free pattern). It is made out of Outer. Here is the link to the pattern if you are interested. Instead of the I-cords, Cathey knit garter stitch strips and braided those. I loved the look!
Here is another little girls who just loved the toys. She, too, was at the perfect height to look over the edge of the table and reach the toys. Her mom works at the shop, too. They hung out for a bit. She also liked the nesting dolls.
Here is Lee Ann in her Braided scarf and she also wore her Taiyo Reversible scarf to lunch the day before. She is so cute, everything looks good on her.
See, the puppies again! Little girls love putting the puppies to bed with their blankies.

Well, it was a wonderful time at Loops. If you are in the area, please stop by. They also have an online shop, classes, a blog and loads of ideas for every level of knitting. You can find all of this on their site here. I signed a ton of books that are currently available at the shop so if you couldn't make the event but want a signed book give them a call or stop by to get one!

Thanks for hosting me! You are the best and most generous hosts and your shop is really special. I loved my time at Loops.

Be sure to take a look at Shelley's blog post, too. She writes an excellent blog you may want to follow.

On a quick side note, I finished the Tiny Elf Knitalong and it turned out so cute! It is a free pattern and is up in parts right now. Next week I will put up the complete pattern for download. It knits up super slick in one piece from the bottom of the body to the top of the hat. The elf ears, arms and legs are picked right up. The only thing stitched on are the excellent and pointy elf shoes. I love this pattern!

It is good, good, good to be home! I am home for awhile now so that feels nice.

Love you, Knitters!

best, susie

Little Rock & Knitting for Noggins

Hi Knitters,

I want to share with you the wonderful time I had in Little Rock, Arkansas yesterday. It was a fast and furious event. Here are the toys sitting quietly before the storm of knitters arrived.There were even hat cookies for the taking. They were yummy, I had a green one.

The main purpose of the Knitting for Noggins event at the Arkansas Children's Hospital was for the knitters to drop off their donated hats. Boy, did they ever drop off the hats. On Thursday while I was there the hospital collected 8,099 hats! That's in about 2 hours.

Let me give you some interesting statistics about this hat drive, in 2006 there were 32,000 hats collected, in 2007 there were 38,000 hats collected and in 2009 there were 39,000 hats collected. This year from June 1st to the present the hospital has collected 14,388 hats. It is incredible. The hospital distributes all of these hats locally through the families and patients that come to the hospital and clinics. The entire drive is run by Robin Armstrong and her amazing team of workers, Melissa and Sandy. They work so hard for Knitting for Noggins and all of the volunteer services of the hospital. It is an impressive group. I am honored to get to be a tiny part of this fun day.

This year (this is my third time attending the event) the set up was a little different. In the past it was more of a knit-in or knitathon type thing. This year it was a hat drop off , cookie eating and Itty-Bitty Toys event kind of day. I had a great time. There were around 100 knitters and crocheters in attendance and they were a fun and lively group.

I kept thinking how it was like at church where no one wants to sit in the front row. Those two chairs sat empty the entire time. Front rows are scary, I guess. I don't like the front row either.
The room was a board room, with a magnificent view, so there was an enormous conference table equipped with microphones at each seat. I loved seeing all of the knitters around that humongous table. I talked and shared and gave some tips and tricks for toy knitting. It was fun!
I met knitters from all around the area. The lady in the red sweatshirt, Nancy, was such a dear. She is a big Itty-Bitty fan and blog fan. We had a great time meeting in person.
Everyone enjoyed the trunk show. I am telling you, the adults love the toys. Okay, Judy Johnson in the pink shirt is a wonderful woman who I keep in touch with since I sat on a crazy plane ride with her daughter, Jill, the second time I came to Little Rock. Jill is a physician at the hospital and somehow through getting on and off a plane and having the plane reboot several times while we were on board, we made it through. We chatted and she told me her mom, Jill, knits for the charity. Jill ended up coming to the event with Judy that year. One other fun fact is that Judy's uncle owns the Octopus Car Wash in Madison. (All you old-time Madisonians definitely know what I am talking about.)

Judy's group, the El Dorado Connections, donated 1, 335 hats yesterday to Knitting for Noggins. She was so proud of her group of knitters and I don't blame her. She thought there were about 15 knitters in the group. Great work! Even better to see you again.I signed and signed and many brought their other Itty-Bitty books for me to sign as well. Don't hesitate to do that if I am ever signing anywhere. People are always apologetic for bringing all three books but I love it! One woman has all three books and she was laughing because she doesn't even knit. She just likes the books, so cute.
That's Robin Armstrong to my right. Robin is an avid knitter with a three -year-old granddaughter to knit for. Robin is full of spunk and ideas. She loves to talk knitting with me.
This is Carol who is a staff member at the hospital. She was excited to get her books signed and I was excited to meet her.
Little Rock is filled with knitters who love baby knitting and children and family. I am forever impressed by the outpouring of generosity these knitters show every year.
The trunk show table was literally mobbed. Toys were flying everywhere. I loved it!
This group showed up right at the end of the event. I have met them before and they came after school got out. The group is called the Nutty Knitters and they are all around middle school age. What a fun group of girls. Good to see you again and thanks for coming after your school day let out.
The Nutty Knitters really enjoyed the trunk show.
More hands-on action...
It was such a pleasure to meet all of these wonderful knitters.
Here is the entire Nutty Knitter group and their leader on the far right. Love them.
This is another group of knitters, some I have met before. Opal on the left I know I met last time. This group of knitters meets every month and knits together. Their group has grown and they have a healthy number involved now and they have such a good time together. They are called, The Yarn Dolls. They have a blog here.
This young and handsome group is Americorps. They are volunteers that travel around the country staying in different cities where their help is needed. They are currently helping at the Children's Hospital and were an enormous help to Robin and her team while gathering and transporting the thousands of hats. They helped count and organize, too. They all knit, even the young men. It was great to meet such a positive energetic group.
This is one hardworking group of women. Left is Sandy (maybe spelled Sandee?), Robin, Melissa and Jill (my generous driver for the day!). Thank you, ladies, for a wonderful event! Check out those coordinating outfits!
Here are the hats! The main event of the day. What a treat. I looked through and there are loads of well-crafted cute hats. The hospital is always in need of larger-sized hats if you are interested in donating to their cause. They give hats to entire families and siblings, not just babies.

Robin also said they are teaming up with a coat charity for the Christmas season so the recipients get a hat and a coat for the winter. She is always thinking for the good of others.
This is how it looked as I left and that is not even all of the hats from the day.

What a day to remember.

best, susie

Driven to Make

Hi Knitters,

The Collector was on a major crafting jag over last weekend. It is hard to describe the mode she gets in and frankly, it makes me so excited and happy to see. The girl is absolutely driven to be maker. It is almost all she can think about until she deems her current project complete. I don't want to say she is in a trance but maybe more like a crafting trance. She puts me to shame. She likes to take a simple concept and change and adapt it to the extreme.

Her little friend around the corner turned seven and The Collector wanted to make some dolls for her. These little dolls are so simple. You wrap fabric strips around pipe cleaners that are formed into a body with arms and legs. She used fabric glue to tack down the ends. Then you leave a long part of the pipe cleaner at the top. You put a wooden bead on for the head and the pipe cleaner that sticks out the top is the looped end and then she pulls yarn through the loop for hair. T.C. went crazy on the hair. We had been to Jo Ann's earlier for something else but she wanted to get some hair yarn, too.
The Collector worked for hours and hours on these dolls. She started with 5 larger size dolls and they are elaborate with painstaking details. Then she decided that each larger doll needed a smaller "sister" doll or baby doll to match. She ended up making 10 dolls. The dolls that had babies also were equipped with a fabric sling to carry the baby. You could take the sling on and off as it is simply tied around the back. She used a fine tip Sharpie pen to make the faces on the wooden bead.She braided a headful of braids on the bigger doll and made pony-tails for the smaller one. This pair actually has Rowan Big Wool for hair. She didn't end up with the right number of pieces for the braids so she separated one of the strands to make the number come out right. She told me later and I was impressed at her quiet problem solving.
Yes, that's Colinette Point 5 for the scarf! T.C. likes to root around in my stuff and I don't mind a bit.
These two are my favorite in the group. They look so happy and like they are in motion and dancing. I love the flower petals she used for the skirts on most all of the dolls, too.
This doll has a baby in a sling....
... as does this one. I love the way she bent the arms on both of these dolls to cradle the babies.

Here is one of the babies she made when the sling is removed and opened up. What a fun project for my sweet Collector. She quietly occupies herself for hours and hours with her crafting. It is awesome to witness.

I am writing this post from my hotel room in Little Rock, Arkansas. It has been a long day of work and travel but I did quickly want to remind anyone in the area that I will be at the Knitting for Noggins Event tomorrow, Dec 3rd starting at 2:00. The event is being held at the Arkansas Children's Hospital. It is a wonderful charity knitting event and it is huge! I am not kidding you when I say that people show up with THOUSANDS of hand knit and crocheted hats to donate to the hospital. It is amazing and I can't believe I was invited back for the third time! I love this event so much. I will try to get good photos but it is difficult because I am working the whole time.

The Collector knitted three hats that I am donating to the charity event for her. She is very excited about it.
She made this one out of Blue Sky Dyed Cotton and she whipped it up pretty fast. Awhile ago she made a fuzzy hat with pom-pom ears and another Blue Sky Dyed cotton Bunny hat from IBH and I think I posted photos of those earlier.

Okay, I need to organize my trunk show and go over some things for tomorrow. Mainly, I need to go to bed! I am a tired knitter tonight.

best, susie

p.s. Do you all know that I am having a knitalong on the Spud & Chloë blog? I am making a little Tiny Elf and I am posting the pattern for free as I work along. I have posted two parts of the pattern so far. Maybe you'd like to join me. The pattern will be available for free in its entirety when I finish the knitalong.