Working like Elves

Hi, Knitters,

Wow, it always seems like the holiday season trots by so fast, like a speeded-up jingle sleigh. We’ve been working like elves in the Lair, trying to go as fast as possible to fill everyone’s orders. We bought in a new person, Lena, to do wet processing (rinsing, steaming, etc) and that’s helped us speed up dyeing significantly. If you’ve ordered dyed-to-order yarn, please know that we are doing everything we can to get it to you soon.

Christmas Home

Last weekend, our family went to Summer’s Christmas Tree Farm to find our lovely tree. Belle was under the weather, so we chose a precut fir, but still got to let Sasha sniff all around and have our traditional cider donut and brats cooked al fresco by the Appleberry Farm folks. You can see decoration in progress in the pic above.

Mulberry Street

About the my new patterns,the Mulberry Street Hat and Cowl; I apologize, at first the Mulberry Street Cowl pdf hadn’t loaded properly, but it’s up there now, so please click over to Ravelry and download it you haven’t yet! I hope these quick knits will help you through your last-minute gift list. 🙂

Holiday Fun

 

The kids have been stumbling out first thing in the morning (and it is early, because middle school around here starts at 7:20) to find the little treats I stash in the pocket for the Advent Calendar. My cool friends had one similar when I was young and I swore I would one day make one for my own kids. I actually created this felt one when they were little (maybe three and four?). It’s so fun to see that The Yarn Harlot made one this year! Of course, her ornaments are way more beautiful and complicated than mine.

Lil Buddy already put the pickle ornament in the last pocket for Christmas Eve. We’ve adopted the tradition of the finder getting a special treat on Christmas morning after hearing about it at a relatives’ house.

A little treat I’m doing for my family is a new holiday desktop for our living room computer each day. Above is today’s, from Wallpapers in HD.

Every year for the last few, we’ve had fun putting our photos (including cats and now dog, of course!) into Elf Yourself and laughing along as the velvet-clad cancers jump and jig away.

Have a happy weekend, everyone!

Purl’s Giveaway Winners & Winter Fun

Thanks to everyone who commented and messaged about our little baby kitty. The vet said that she was even younger than we thought, probably seven weeks. She's on meds to get rid of the nasty wormies and is acting more playful every day. She's even tiny next to our small cat, who's seven pounds of pure fluff!

 

And the three winners of Purl's giveaway are:

prpltrtl946

Fiberbabble

Niki V!

If you haven't already gotten a message from me, please shoot an email to:jaala@knitcircus.com and we'll get your Winter Pattern Collection out for you right away.

Delmont Cap, by Allison Harding

If you'd like another chance to win a Winter Pattern Collection pdf, designer extraordinaire Allison Harding  is holding a giveaway at the Allison Harding Design blog.

In more fun news,  friend-of-the-magazine Heather of Craftlit Podcast is part of the Dickens of a Christmas blog hop , so hop on over and check out her Special Edition podcast and see what the other Dickensian bloggers are dishing up.

 

 

 

Corn, Flowers, Love & Shelter

 

We experienced crazy-warm fall weather last weekend, so it was an easy group decision to head out to Eugster's Farm for pumpkins, kittens, goats, fresh caramel apples, the Haunted Silo and the corn maze.

In previous year's we've had cold and muddy Eugster's visits, to this was a welcome change. There was even a farmer handing out warm (free) cider doughnuts!

In knitting news, Hogwarts projects  proceed apace:

House hat for my young Gryffindor, with a badge from the party. We printed the graphic on cardstock, then cut out a matching cardboard backing, punched two holes in it and sandwiched the two together with a safety pin end sticking out each hole for fastening.

In Knitting Guild news, last night the place was packed for Jared Flood's talk. Creative Director Tracy, book reviewer Cindy and I carpooled because we knew it'd be wacky with knitters, and forty-five minutes before the talk, we still parked pretty far away. We had plenty of time to scope out the handknits while we waited and knit. My chosen Guild project was my orange One Scarf, and I knit away on my big needles while we laughed, met Webmaster Cindy and chickened out of having Jared sign our books.

Finally, the big moment arrived and Jared took the stage, after an impressive show-of-hands by Brooklyn Tweed blog readers. He appeared a bit shy in front of the 300+ crowd at first, so dove right into shoing us gorgeous slides of Washington State and NYC; he got more relaxed when talking about starting his blog and then downright confident telling us about his book and launching Shelter, his new yarn line.

He was everything you'd hope Jared Flood would be; intelligent, well-traveled, funny, a little shy, very knitting-knowledgeable and equipped with lush photos of buildings in Italy and many-hued wools.

Afterwards, Tracy and I plucked up our courage and got to have a couple of moments to speak with Jared. A little-known fact is that, when Knitcircus was tiny and still being printed out and handsewn, Jared graciously allowed us to reprint his famous Noro scarf tutorial, complete with original photos. I figured he was probably embarrased about that now, or had forgotten, but he said, "It was hand-bound with yarn! I still have it at home!"

He'd even seen Knitcircus online and congratulated us. Tim Gunn's got nothing on this guy for saying the right thing, I tell you.

Jared confessed that the response to his new yarn line was, "More….passionate than we expected," so I felt relieved and a little bit smug to have ordered mine earler in the week while supplies lasted. He didn't bring yarn with him, but did bring knitted samples. The mittens knitted at a denser gauge definitely had a bit of an old-fashioned wool texture to them, but the scarf felt softer, and the yarn has an airy, springy loft. Of course, the colors looked like they'd melt in your mouth.

This has never happened to me before, but I was just chugging along on my big needles, and while we still had a fair amount of Show and Tell left, my scarf was done! I couldn't believe it. I bound off the last row, and literally found myself in a Guild meeting with nothing to knit!

Let this be a lesson to you knitters out there–always bring two projects, even if your family laughs at you. I didn't know what to do with myself while they picked the door prizes, it was quite disorienting! The second lesson here is, if you want a quick gift knit, the One Scarf fits the bill perfectly.

 This One Scarf still needs One Long Fringe.

.

 

 

 

Corn, Flowers, Love & Shelter

 

We experienced crazy-warm fall weather last weekend, so it was an easy group decision to head out to Eugster's Farm for pumpkins, kittens, goats, fresh caramel apples, the Haunted Silo and the corn maze.

In previous year's we've had cold and muddy Eugster's visits, to this was a welcome change. There was even a farmer handing out warm (free) cider doughnuts!

In knitting news, Hogwarts projects  proceed apace:

House hat for my young Gryffindor, with a badge from the party. We printed the graphic on cardstock, then cut out a matching cardboard backing, punched two holes in it and sandwiched the two together with a safety pin end sticking out each hole for fastening.

In Knitting Guild news, last night the place was packed for Jared Flood's talk. Creative Director Tracy, book reviewer Cindy and I carpooled because we knew it'd be wacky with knitters, and forty-five minutes before the talk, we still parked pretty far away. We had plenty of time to scope out the handknits while we waited and knit. My chosen Guild project was my orange One Scarf, and I knit away on my big needles while we laughed, met Webmaster Cindy and chickened out of having Jared sign our books.

Finally, the big moment arrived and Jared took the stage, after an impressive show-of-hands by Brooklyn Tweed blog readers. He appeared a bit shy in front of the 300+ crowd at first, so dove right into shoing us gorgeous slides of Washington State and NYC; he got more relaxed when talking about starting his blog and then downright confident telling us about his book and launching Shelter, his new yarn line.

He was everything you'd hope Jared Flood would be; intelligent, well-traveled, funny, a little shy, very knitting-knowledgeable and equipped with lush photos of buildings in Italy and many-hued wools.

Afterwards, Tracy and I plucked up our courage and got to have a couple of moments to speak with Jared. A little-known fact is that, when Knitcircus was tiny and still being printed out and handsewn, Jared graciously allowed us to reprint his famous Noro scarf tutorial, complete with original photos. I figured he was probably embarrased about that now, or had forgotten, but he said, "It was hand-bound with yarn! I still have it at home!"

He'd even seen Knitcircus online and congratulated us. Tim Gunn's got nothing on this guy for saying the right thing, I tell you.

Jared confessed that the response to his new yarn line was, "More….passionate than we expected," so I felt relieved and a little bit smug to have ordered mine earler in the week while supplies lasted. He didn't bring yarn with him, but did bring knitted samples. The mittens knitted at a denser gauge definitely had a bit of an old-fashioned wool texture to them, but the scarf felt softer, and the yarn has an airy, springy loft. Of course, the colors looked like they'd melt in your mouth.

This has never happened to me before, but I was just chugging along on my big needles, and while we still had a fair amount of Show and Tell left, my scarf was done! I couldn't believe it. I bound off the last row, and literally found myself in a Guild meeting with nothing to knit!

Let this be a lesson to you knitters out there–always bring two projects, even if your family laughs at you. I didn't know what to do with myself while they picked the door prizes, it was quite disorienting! The second lesson here is, if you want a quick gift knit, the One Scarf fits the bill perfectly.

 This One Scarf still needs One Long Fringe.

.

 

 

 

Miss Megan and Hat Circus

Hey, if you all enjoy food as much as I do (and I think you do…) please help my friend Miss Megan by voting for her Chocolate Caramel Cake post in the Project Food Blog contest! Miss Megan's a fun-loving and foodloving mama with incredible spirit and determination; nothing dampens this gal's zest for life! It's a fun all-around contest, where foodbloggies post certain entries and you get to vote to keep them in; besides Miss Megan, you get to vote for lots more foodies and poke into entries about basmati rice, coconut and other exotic and down-home dishes. You can see more of Miss Megan's foodie goodness at Foodalution. The chocolate salted caramels she just made had my mouth watering…

In other good news, we received our first Hat Circus donations from an enterprising knitter going by the handle Knitrelaxsmile:

Yay! Thanks so much for sending those, some kids are going to be happier and warmer this winter. Remember, you can submit any sewn, knit or crocheted kid-sized hats until October 31!

Simple Style Giveaway Winner

A big-top round up of fun things today:

Finally got links on the blog to the free current issue of Knitcircus and to purchase the pattern collection. Whew!

A knitting friend tipped me off to the CogKNITive Podcast yesterday. Knitting and psychology from the warm and dynamic Dr. Gemma; how did I not find it before?! I'm listening to Episode 76 right now; Dr. G's heading to Stitches West with more than 100 bears for the Mother Bear Project from generous listeners. Go, generous listeners!

My mom's brownie recipe. Find it in the Knitcircus Newsletter; some of you already have this in your inboxes. Its my childhood brownie (only I tweaked it with even more chocolate), chocolate-y, cakey and delicious. If you'd like to try my mom's brownies and see reviews of Cookie A's Sock Innovation and the book Doggie Knits, please sign up for the Mailing List at the bottom of the blog and I'll send it out for you next week. we only use the list for our monthly newsletters and magazine go-live notifications; no selling, no sharing, no worries.

The first designs off my needles were hats, and they remain one of my all-time favorite things to knit, so if you'd like to make up your own pattern or fit one to your own measurements, check out CosyMakesfor her excellent head-and-hat measuring tutorial.

And now, without further ado, let's give this book a good home!

The high quality you always expect from Interweave and Ann Budd, these designs may be simple, but not boring; designers like Mags Kandis, Veronik Avery and Cecily Glowik  make sweater knitting approachable with styles to flatter many body types.

Please leave a comment or sign up for the mailing list to enter the drawing; either or both will be counted, so if you do both, you get two chances. Yay!

I'll draw a winner on  Saturday morning (the 27th) to give people plenty of time.

ETA:  2 pm.

We have a winner! Marlene's the lucky knitter who'll receive the Simple Style book, but for everyone who signed up for the mailing list, look for the newsletter with recipes and reviews in your inbox on Monday.

Good luck and craft on,

Jaala

Blog Tour–Kids Knitting Ahoy!

First, thanks so much to Joanne for her stop over at Rhythm of the Needles ! If you ever want to book yourself a knitting tour, Joanne's your woman….

There's lots of fun in store on our stop today; I get to talk kids' knitting projects with designer Marie Grace on her blog, Marie Grace Designs. There's another free pattern cookie waiting over there, too, so you won't want to miss it!

Speaking of missing things and people,though, just wanted to let everyone know that the incredibly competent and talented Ms SABLE will no longer be Knitcircus' Creative Director. She's working on a big family move and is ready to focus on some other projects. We'll really miss her, but she'll still take pictures for some of our photoshoots and write her Independent Fiber Mills series for us, so that's some comfort.

A million thanks to Elizabeth for all of her hard work, good humor and aesthetics.  Best wishes in your new digs, and if you end up finding a place with a pool or sauna, expect visitors!

Jaala