Happy Friday!...

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Hello Friday...when did you get here?...that seems to be the way of things lately.  Where does the time go?...all of a sudden I am so aware of how fleeting these days are.


This afternoon I am taking off with my girl for the first on our list of fall college visits...how can that be?  This is such an exciting time full of anticipation and  joy and, of course, a little bittersweet too—we aren't even going to get into how much I am going to miss having her around next year.  No, I am not going to go into that—not now anyway.


Before I head out the door, I thought I would leave a little something for your viewing pleasure...a link to a wonderful video (for some reason they've disabled the embed link on YouTube) about the gorgeous knits of Oleana and designer Solveig Hisdal.  I have long loved Hisdal's book of, Poetry in Stitches—a collection of hand knitting designs, sadly out of print.
 



The video is about the work of Oleana, how the company was founded, what their ethos and aesthetic is, their designers and workers, and it is full of color and inspiration.  The scenery is jaw-droppingly gorgeous—I want to go—and music and the Norwegian make for lovely listening.  This short film gives me a lot to think about, both about knitting and about business practices in this country and beyond.  I could watch it over and over, trying to soak up every little detail—beautiful!  I hope you enjoy it!

Have a relaxing and restorative weekend!  I'll be thinking about you!...Alison



A quick reminder...the drawing for the book and yarn give-away will remain open until next Wednesday, September 9th!...Just leave a comment on the post from Thursday, September 3rd to enter! 

A walk in the woods and a basket of goodies...

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Thanks so much to all of you who left comments yesterday! I can't tell you how much I appreciate your warm wishes and how very much each and every comment means to me—thank you. In addition, I am thrilled to hear that there is interest in a book/yarn give away!...yay!

I just got back from a short walk. It is truly beautiful here right now...love all the shades of green and how the light filters through the trees...

So to celebrate this beautiful day, the waning of summer, and the roses that are still gracing my garden, I would like to share this basket of goodies with you...


This gift will include yarn for the Flower Fairy Cloche and a signed copy of Fairy Tale Knits (to view a gallery of patterns included in the book click on the image of the Cinderella dress in the side bar). This is the hat that Alana and I discussed on Episode 23 of the Never Not Knitting podcast. This hat is knit in the round, has an I-cord hat band and is festooned with roses and leaves.


The Details ~
If you are interested in this offering, please leave a comment to this post by Wednesday, September 9th. On Thursday, September 10th, we will choose a winner at random and send the package!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

ps—If you commented on yesterday's post, you will automatically be included in this drawing : )

Unraveled...

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Over the last few days I have gotten to play with two things that most knitters I know have been loving for a long time...Ravelry and Malabrigo...oh what I've been missing.
Raveling...I joined Raverly awhile ago, but I was in the middle of writing my book and just generally busy with the doings of family and such, so I didn't really do much exploring. Plus I'm a little fearful of social media in general. You see I am a bit of a luddite and spending time in front of a computer when I could be knitting just didn't make sense to me, also I was afraid that it might just "take over my life." I'll explain...I'm the girl who had a Facebook account for exactly three minutes. At the urging of friends and family, my dear husband walked me through the process joining Facebook. Within 60 seconds (literally), I had a friend request from a far-flung friend. I absolutely panicked. I think I said something like, "I don't have time for this...this is going to be one more thing I'll have to do and that I'll feel guilty about when I don't...no, no, no...take me off!...now...and tell Nick I'm sorry and I'll call him later!" And so my husband graciously (if laughingly) obliged. And so, I have been wary of Ravelry and protective of the time that it might suck out of my life. But now I am eating my words. Recently I have spent a little time there and I have seen some amazing, truly inspiring things and had some wonderful interactions with knitters (old friends and new) that I am treasuring. I know—duh, it's what everyone has been talking about all this time—but it's new for me and I am loving it! So thank you, thank you dear Ravelers. I look forward to meeting many more of you and playing in the future!

And for now this...
Oh my goodness...be still my heart. I love you, Malabrigo Merino Worsted...love the colors, the texture, the fabric it produces, all of it. Of course, this yarn is not a Johnny-come-lately. I've seen it before and have been hearing about it for ages, but it just never made it into my knitting basket. All that is changed! This yarn is gorgeous in the hank, on the needles and knitted up. There is definitely so much more of this in my future. Right now I am working on a little jacket—a button will figure prominently in this design—and am loving it, so quick, so fun and so soft! I will try to get the pics for this and a pattern up by the middle of the month. Have a great Monday!

Sunday scavenger hunt...

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Okay, I know that my post should really look like this...

Alas, today's post has much more to do with creating family memories than it does with crafting or making, but I really wanted to share this with you because it so much fun! Recently my husband and kids discovered Geocaching. Have any of you done this? It is terrific!..

It's essentially a scavenger hunt. It turns out that there are little caches or containers (some of them very tiny), containing a register and sometimes little items that people place in them, stashed all over the place. In fact, according to their site, there are some 886, 671 active geocaches stashed all around the world—who knew?! We have found them at parks, metro stations, roadside rest stops, in the country and in downtown urban areas—too much fun!

Here's how it works...
You access information about the caches in your area using various types of gps devices (we use our phones). You enter your postal code or address at the Geocache site and click "go" to find the caches near you. There are clues that lead you to the cache's whereabouts. Some are easy to find and some are really tricky (you can choose your level). Once you find a cache, you sign the register in the cache and then later put it in your register on the Geocache site on your computer.
We have found that this is the perfect diversion for both adults and kids, and accessing the caches can be as strenuous or as laid back as you want it to be. There have been times when we went out specifically to find a cache—where hiking and some real active hunting was involved, and there have been other times, like when were driving cross country or when my husband was waiting for a train, where we just took a few minutes to check for and find a cache. How cool is that?
Have a great end to the weekend and if you want to give this a try...

happy hunting!

Driven to distraction...

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That's what I have been. You know how you can get an idea in your head and it just wriggles around in there, nagging and itching until you do something about it? Well these buttons have been like that for me.

First of all let me say that I love buttons, old buttons, new buttons, handmade, store-bought—I love them all and always have. I can spend hours (yes, hours) in the button isle at the fabric store. And I love to knit...you can see where this is going...

It was really just a matter of time before those two got together and demanded that I make something—kind of like that old Reese's commercial—you got your knitting in my buttons, you got your buttons in my knitting—wait for it...mmmmmm.


Now, I have made buttons before , so that's not really anything new, but this is the first time that I have made this kind of button and it was sooo much fun. I loved it and I love the end product! And there we are...I've been making buttons and planning projects around these little gems all week (my daughter reports that I might be a little "little obsessed"...as if). My current distraction is coming up with a project that is truly button worthy—so much pressure.

Sometimes, actually more often than not, it is little things that make me happy and bring joy...laughter from the other room, the smell of the coffee that I wake up to each morning, the comfort of the sweet corgi always at my feet, wool in my hands, the notes that drift downstairs from my daughter's harp and my husband's banjo, the backward waves and thrown kisses that my children send my way as they head out the door, and making pretty things just because...the list goes on and on. These buttons definitely fall into the category of something pretty made just because. I'm happy making them and once made they make me happy—a real win, win.

I will try to post a pattern and tutorial for making these soon. Until then I'm off. Have a great weekend, full of happy moments and happy making—just because.

Can we talk?...

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My recent knitting has been plagued by a series of false starts lately. Does that ever happen to anyone else? Sometimes the idea is there, the swatches are worked and the yarn is beautiful, but somewhere along the way the project just isn't quite right. That has been the case with a number of projects for me lately. What I've realized is that for some reason in this one area of my life, I'm okay with that. It feels like it is just part of the creative process. Sure I get disappointed and even discouraged when a project seems ill-fated, but it doesn't really bum me out like set-backs in other areas of my life do. I never see the time spent as wasted because, even if nothing comes from it, I have to admit that I enjoyed the knitting while I was doing it, and that's a good thing! I guess that for me the design process is sort of like a conversation. Sometimes I get on with someone right off and the connection and communion is immediate, sometimes it takes a little longer to get to a place of understanding, or the connection is great but some new piece of the puzzle enters in and changes everything, or somewhere along the way I get introduced to something else that alters the course of things. Knitting is like that for me, and the thing that I love about it is that I almost always enjoy the conversation. I wish that I could say that I am this easy going in every area of my life, but it just isn't true. Maybe even the realization of this will help remedy that, but if it doesn't do the job entirely, I know for a fact that knitting needles and yarn in my hands will get me a lot closer to a peaceful place.
I am on my way out the door to my lys—an hour drive away :( —but will return home with new yarn and the beginning of new conversaiton—love that. Here's hoping your day is full of happy knitting, peace within and peace without.

welcome to my world...

in

Week one of school down! This has been one busy week, full on new experiences, last minute errands, adjustment to the return of a schedule, some real highs and a few minor set backs. Everyone is surviving the end of summer nicely and all seem to be relatively happy...and after all what more could a mother ask for?
For me, the dip that my mood usually takes when the summer ends and I have to send my babes back to school has been greatly lessened by the arrival of my book and the wonderful moments I have been privileged to enjoy with friends and family seeing it for the first time. It has been so much fun—I really am a lucky, lucky girl. I can't wait to share more of the book, but today I thought I'd give you a glimpse into my world...
The bump in the road this week has been my back. I have some off-again, on-again issues there and just when I was gearing up to get back into my own routine—a dozen projects at once and me running around like a crazy woman—my back said no, and so I have been a little sidelined these past few days—not something I'm good at—it is easy for me to get very frustrated very fast when this happens. But today, for now, I am having a moment of grace. Maybe it was Gratitude Friday over at waldorf mama, but this morning when I came downstairs and saw this (all in just the first two rooms that I entered—I'll let you imagine what the rest of the house looks like)....


and this...

and this...

and this...

and even this...

I didn't go ballistic, instead I thought aren't I so fortunate to be living with such talented, interested, and interesting people. Musicians, fly fishermen, a juggler, makers, bakers, and readers who are interested in so many things. Okay, I have to be honest here, I am not a neatnik, I can live with considerable chaos, but I do get to a point where it's just too much (we are there now) and then I'm likely to say something like, "This house is at sixes and sevens!...we can't live like this!" and then everyone else feels lousy. So I love it when grace tiptoes in and I can see the forest and the trees...a rare and special thing. I will take this moment of gratitude and enjoy it and after breakfast—my little guy wants to make the waffles "by myself" today for the first time—we will attend to this mess with full tummies and happy hearts (before mom goes to the bad place). Hope your day is filled with a happy tummy, a happy heart and grateful moments.