Bubbles has been shedding lately so I'm collecting her fur and spinning it. Fortunately she doesn't mind being combed unlike my previous 6 rabbits. It isn't long enough to make a great yarn, maybe 1 1/4" to 1 1/2", but I do think it will be fun to use. The second photo shows the yarn plied and knitted up. I think perhaps I'll have enough to use for some fluffy mitten cuffs.

Mondays are for...

Today was a really rainy day, which after the absolutely glorious weather we had last week, made everyone in the house pretty unhappy. The kids spent the afternoon staring at the windows. The boys finally gave up waiting for the weather to improve and took the dog for a long walk anyway.
Homeschooling was great this morning. PH zoomed through his equation solving, Sh through his angle measurements and S through her divisions. Reading was great, science perfect, writing went smoothly, spelling was a breeze, and we had a great discussion on the nature and history of anti-semitism. Why am I telling you all this? Because when everything goes smoothly, I get a lot of knitting done. Remember yesterday's picture of the Sophia sweater for S., well the back is done, and I am half way done with the left front!
The pattern (Ella Rae Book 4, Sophia Pattern) is so far really nice. I made a slight change for the last 6 rows of the back piece. I knit in plain stockinette instead of continuing the eyelet stitch pattern. I thought that the eyelets at the shoulder seam might gape a little, so no more eyelets!
I should get a lot more done tonight... Only one load of laundry stands between me and my knitting!

Crazy Life of a Knitter...

Crazy, there is really no other word to describe my life over the last week and a half.You probably all noticed that I did not make my usual Sunday post about the new colorways. I was sick, so sick that it took every bit of energy I had left to upload the new colorways to the website. I remained sick for part of the week, and so spent a lot of time in bed, reading about water gardens, dreaming of all the yard work awaiting me, knitting very little, as I was too tired to do even that.
I looked at so many pictures of gorgeous water gardens, that they became the inspiration for this week's colorways. This week, my colorways are Water Lily, Koi, Waterfall... I hope will enjoy the Water Garden Collection . Above is a picture of the Lotus Colorway.




I made some progress on the promised new sock pattern. I really like its simplicity, and yet very beautiful texture. I am half way down the second sock, checking my notes. The pattern will be available as a free pattern on the blog. I really like playing with 2 colors, without any fairisle, just a pleasant game of slipped stitches!



I have also started working on a summer cotton jacket for my baby girl. I am using an Ella Rae pattern. It is called Sophia, and can be found in her book 4 of patterns for Women and Children. I am not using her yarn. I had 8 skeins of Saucy Cotton in a great turquoise colorway. I know she will like it. I love the simple lace pattern, and keep wanting to complete "just" one more repeat, which is a pretty good sign that I will enjoy knitting the jacket. The pattern does not include any edging, and I know that I will be adding one, as I prefer the edges not to roll. I will probably crochet it, but I am not there yet. It is my goal to have the jacket ready before my little one leaves for France with my parents, so that she can wear it on the beach. The departure is on May 12. That leaves me about 2 weeks. I am making the size 7-8 years. I hope this is not one of my crazy unrealistic ideas...



I mentioned earlier in my post that I had been looking at a lot of books on water gardens. We live in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, which used to be a suburb of Boston. The large Victorian homes that can be found here, also have large city gardens. Ours may have had some plants at one point, but is now just a plot of underused land. I have been dreaming of transforming it. The transformation will not be easy. The previous owner of the house must have been a squirrel, or somehow related to one. He did not burry nuts, but rather he burried bricks. Each time I dig, and try to turn the soil, I hit a brick. They are not burried as if they had once been a patio, but rather randomely! I must have dug more than a hundred, in one corner of the yard only. All these bricks gave me an idea though. I like the idea of recycling materials, and so the idea for a central brick patio area was born. Even though I liked the idea, I felt there was still something missing. Which brings me to the topic of water gardens. While I was sick, I was browsing some magazines, in bed feeling pretty miserable when a picture of a bricked patio, with a square pond in the center caught my eye (May 2008, Country Home). I fell in love. So this summer, apart from designing new colorways, homeschooling the kids (which is pretty much a year long thing for us), knitting, painting the inside of the house, I will also be digging hundreds of bricks out the ground, digging a hole for a pond, setting up a pond, building a brick patio, putting up a fence, and planting zillions of seeds that will hopefully grow and bloom to transform my abandoned garden , into a little city paradise, where I can sit, and knit while the children play around me...

First of all, we're having another Rabbit Adoptathon at Albuquerque's westside Petco on 3601 Old Airport Road. The Adoptathon will be on May 10th between 10 am and 2pm. All the rabbits available have been rescued from the Albuquerque and Santa Fe city shelters and are spayed or neutered and litterbox trained. Come check out some wonderful bunnies and talk to some experienced rabbit people! We should have lots of baby bunnies as well this time.

I don't have an FO for you this week which is just as well because Blogger won't let me upload photos today. I do have a few links though.

Amaryllis Mittens - Aren't these just beautiful? You can buy either the kit using Baby Ull or the pattern.

DIY Mitten Blocker - Speaking of mittens, here's a really cool homemade mitten blocker you can make yourself from Kathryn Ivy.

Inches to Centimeters - I am trying to add metric measurements to my patterns and this calculator will be extremely helpful.

Apartment Therapy Small Cool 2008 - Our little rented casita is about 100 square feet too large for this contest but the AT designs and storage solutions for small spaces are always inspirational. There are a ton of contestants so expect to spend some time looking through them all.

Alamosa Mitts

Here is my latest design - the Alamosa Mitts. (The pattern is HERE ) They use 3 skeins of sport weight alpaca (Knitpicks' Andean Treasure is used for these) and size 3 (US) or 4 dpns or circs depending on which size you're making. The one in the middle is the Women's Large size - the others are the small size.


I'm also planning on using some alpaca to make a men's chullo-type hat and a pair of mittens. I just bought some of Elann's alpaca yarns to use for these projects - the colors are just gorgeous but it is less soft than Andean Treasure. So far I'm enjoying using alpaca for colorwork - I just have to remember to weave in my yarn ends for a lot longer because they're so much more slippery.


And yes - in that first photo it is actually snowing! When the desert heat does finally arrive it will be a great shock here.

Knitters that Rock My World

"Knitters that Rock my World" is the name for this coming Sunday's SockPixie Collection. You have guessed it, each colorway will be inspired by a marvelous knitter. There will be an EZ colorway, a Kaffe Fassett colorway, a Yarn Harlot colorway, to name only a few. I have picked knitters which have had a great influence on my work, from knittingg technique to color.
Won't that be fun?

About your comments and Questions

I have a problem and I need your help. Because of the way Blogger handles comments, when you leave a comment asking for help about a pattern I do not know which pattern it corresponds to. Could you include the name of the pattern with your questions?
I apologize for not answering some of your questions but at times I just could not find which pattern the question corresponded to.
Thanks for your help!