Here is the button for my blog from a request by Ivys from Brazil.

Also, I wanted to include a link to an incredible dress made by Uli Herzner, a contestant from Project Runway. The way she uses colors and prints is just amazing, isn't it? I've never seen anything like it. I'm hoping she makes it to the final 3 so we can see her fabric stash. It must be awesome.

We've had massive quantities of rain in NM and it is so beautifully green here with lots of flowers as you can see in the photos of our front and back yard.

I made a second Christmas mitten - can you see what I did wrong? In the top part of the left mitten I held the white yarn in my left hand (making it dominant) and in the right mitten I held the white yarn in my right hand. Quite the difference, eh?



Massive preparations are beginning for the party of the year. Yes, it is Peaches' 4th birthday on Labor Day. (I actually don't know her birth date since she was a rescue but I did some calculations and picked the nearest holiday.) Peaches says everyone is invited for carrot cake and fruit punch.

Christmas Booklet

I found some batteries so here is another photo of the knitted Christmas lights and a bulb up close. The top is reverse stockinette stitch but it is hard to see. If I had it to do over again, I'd make sure and measure between the bulbs to space them perfectly and use a dark green for the I-cord. Oh and I'd secure the bulbs better since one of the gold ones fell off before I took the photo.






My next goal is to see if I can knit a poinsettia.

Here are the knitted Christmas lights all smooshed up in the scanner. They're really easy to do. I guess you could wear them as a scarf but I'm including them in the holiday pattern booklet as a decoration. I'm on track to finish by the end of August - I have one more hat to do and possibly a pair of socks.

I had heard that Nicky Epstein was doing a book on knitted flowers a year ago and was terribly excited. She has incredible technical skills and I imagined perfect elaborate reproductions of lilies and orchids and sunflowers. Maybe I'm too picky but do these even look like flowers to you?

The flowers in the first photo are done by winding a thin strip of garter stitch into a ball. Ironically there is a comment on Amazon that the flowers in the book are too hard to knit. My favorite flowers in the book aren't really knit - they're made from knitted felt that is cut into flower shapes.

Still, in the Nicky Epstein vein, I'm going to play with I-cord today to see if I can knit some Christmas lights. Yes, you heard right.

DH and I went to the other side of the mountain to check out neighborhoods this weekend and it was a bit stressful. We both are so used to living in the middle of nowhere doing our own thing being free spirits so suburban life may prove a bit tricky. The move makes sense on many levels - we'd probably save several hundred dollars a month just on gas and DH would save 2 hours of city driving per day - but we both need some serious attitude adjustments. I did finally figure out why so many of the neighborhoods had a "Stepford" like feel - they all have homeowner's associations who maintain all the xeriscaped front yards so everything looks similar. Hmmm - this home search may take longer than I initially thought.

I just ordered Nicky Epstein's new book on knitted flowers and am looking forward to testing it out upon arrival. I'm still doing boring things like typing up patterns and configuring color charts so nothing to show today.

Today's rabbit photo is Rusty, the one who got away. I had heard about his availability for adoption and his incredible rescue from a feed store where he was near death. I had also heard about Peaches and decided to adopt her instead because I wasn't up to any rabbits with health issues at that time. I met Rusty a few weeks later at an adoptathon (yes he was adopted by a great couple) and he was a total love muffin. So on those frequent occasions when Peaches is giving me some attitude (we call it the royal bunny butt) I do occasionally think about sweetie pie Rusty, the one who got away.

Anne kindly gave me permission to share the photos of the Menorah pillow she made from Handknit Holidays. Isn't it beautiful? The yarn is Elann’s Filatura Di Crosa 501 Tweed in color 010, Ecru. She did a crochet edge instead of the I-Cord edge specified in the pattern.







I really need to make this pattern myself one of these days.

The Teaching Company has a free lecture you can listen to on Mozart.

I've abandoned the Knitty Manresa socks. I wasn't in the mood to deal with all those really long floats although I do think the end result would have been pretty.

One of the things I love about stranded color knitting (and why I think it is faster knitting for me) is because of the wonderful feeling of flow you get when you have a rhythm going - kind of like cruising on the interstate. I can weave in floats while keeping the flow but when there are over 20 stitches in one color it interrupts the flow for me - more like stop and go traffic. How's that for the strangest knitting analogy you've ever heard?

I think I'll spend this month working on the two pattern booklets and getting my paperwork organized. I know I wrote down the pattern for this kid's hat now I just need to find it. I think it would be fun with some simple knitted flowers added. I donated the hat to the homeless shelter so this photo is currently all I have.




Well on to the cleaning and paperwork if I can tear myself away from the forums with endless Project Runway speculation about who gets kicked off the show tomorrow night.