I'm Moving!

Come on over to see what's happening on my NEW WEBSITE

(I'm still working on the design. If anyone has any inside knowledge on how to customize Wordpress I'd really appreciate it.)

New Site is LIVE!!!

Go check it out:

http://www.armyofknitters.com

So excited!

The photo shoot for my new, 6 piece collection, La Bretagne, is being shot today.  I can't wait to see my designs professionally photographed!

I gave the photographer this image for the kind of attitude I wanted but seeing as that it's women's wear, I hope it will be just a little bit more feminine!

Still working on the website/pattern layouts etc. and launch is now expected to be in early April.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

In and Out

We've had a lot of snow lately. So much so that our power went out a few times, the longest period without electricity for us was 24hrs but a lot of places around here were without for a whole week.

We made use of the snow buy burying the contents of our fridge-freezer in it. We also put a pan of snow on the woodstove to melt and heat for washing and a bucket of snow by the fire to melt and flush the toilet with. When it get dark I put down my knitting and wound up our emergency radio. It was fun for us - sort of like indoor camping but I'm sure the novelty would've worn off if it had lasted much longer!

Now that it's March I'm willing it to warm up a bit more. I'm excited about sunning myself and taking a dip in the pond but those days are still far off.

While snapping a few snowy shots, the fella was practicing his snowballing techniques - he's pretty good - this one hit me squarely in the chest - Oouch!

After a good romp around in the snow it was time to shed the thick cardi and woolly socks and settle down for a well-earned nap - but whose are those feet poking out from the bottom of the blanket?

It's Lady Muck, making good use of that cozy cushion!

The fella has been working his magic in the kitchen with some delicious country fare - any guesses as to what this concoction turned out to be?

While he's been busy in the kitchen I've been knitting my chubby little fingers into a frenzy! Over the past 5 weeks I've completed 6 items that will be featured in the launch of my new line for Summer 2010. I'm revamping AoK and am aiming for the new website to be online by the end of this month, (fingers and toes tightly crossed!)

Here's the moment that I discovered a mistake in one of my designs - there's almost been as much unravelling as there has knitting! I blame it on Mcleod's Daughters - I'm completely hooked and don't look down at my knitting enough when there's so much drama happening on Drover's Run. I'm daydreaming about running away to the Aussie Outback, riding horses and getting up to mischief with the other sheilas.

Back in the real world... the fella and I celebrated being together for 3 wonderful years.

How did we celebrate? With a cream tea of course! We ate here and it was yummy, although I did need to be rolled out when we had finished because I had eaten so much!

Yesterday the clouds parted, an unfamiliar golden orb hung in a clear blue sky and the fresh air beckoned us to spend a day at the Ashokan Maplefest!

It was so much fun to be out in the sunshine - I had forgotten what my legs were for!!

Lucky would've loved this waterfall but sadly for her dogs weren't allowed.

There were guided walks where we learned about the old mills that used to operate there, (don't ask me anything though because I was too busy kicking through the leaves!)

I love covered bridges and this one was a fine example of wood workmanship.

Here's the fella modeling his new birthday hat, (I plan to steal this hat for myself so I can play at being one of Mcleods Daughters - shush, don't tell him that's why I bought it!)

And here he is playing at blacksmith. Where he fashioned a wonderful bracket from which will hang a sign for The Hutch, (when he's made the sign, that is).

Here is yours truly sitting on a schnitzelbank, wielding a sharp object for hacking away on a branch. Why? Because that's how you start to make a broom, of course!

I love my new broom! It'll look great hanging on the wall. (Me? Sweep? Noooooooooo!)

My broom-making teacher was the lovely Clarence. I love his hat which his friend made for him on a hike. Knitted on the way up the mountain and worn on the way down - Fabulous!

Help for Haiti.

90% of all profits received for the sale of the following patterns, through to the end of March 2010, will go to Oxfam for it's "Help for Haiti" disaster fund:

Thank you for all of your help.

The secret is out!

WOW! Two blog posts in one day - somebody pass me my pills!

It was an honor to be asked by the almighty Ms Debbie Stoller for help in designing patterns to launch Stitch Nation. I've known Debbie for a while and have patterns in three of her books so I took the project willingly. The timing was awful as I was already swamped and she was very sick, (I hope you're feeling better, Deb!) But you never know when you'll be asked again to do a big project so I had to agree :o)

She sent me three boxes containing the colours for the three different yarns and a brief of what kind of look the manufacturers were after. I sketched and I swatched. I knitted and I crocheted. I sent my approved swatches, sketches and measurements to the lovely Marly, who wrote up the patterns and had a team of quick and nibble knitters churn out the samples at a furious pace!

Here are a few of my finished designs:

And a few designs that I worked on for colour combos:

I think they look really great and I'm sure the yarn will sell like hot cakes!

Well done Debbie, Marly and everyone else involved :o)

I DID IT!!

After over two years of designing for Urban Outfitters in Philadelphia, I decided that I needed to move to somewhere beautiful where I could be inspired to work for myself.

This is where I live now:

A tiny little converted barn that I have nicknamed, The Hutch.

This is the view from one of my new windows:

Versus the view from my old 5th floor loft in Philly:

I have new neighbours. Here are Jack, Rocky and Little Louie:

Rocky close-up:

Louie follows Rocky around the paddocks. It's lovely to watch them trotting around together from my kitchen window.

Lucky loves it up here. She runs around all day chewing sticks and sniffing at the animals. Yesterday we took a walk down to our closest shop and found this wonderful group of place names:

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset:

and settled down for a nice cup of tea:

I made the cozy from a hat that was part of a secret project I was doing at the end of last year. (It's not a secret anymore, so I'll blog about it when I finish this one!) I hand-felted the hat, chopped the bottom off, (which may become another hat), cut holes for the handle and spout, crocheted around the raw edges, then embroidered a few simple flower/cactus things onto it. I think it looks rather grand and will get in a lot of use around here, I'm sure.

First knitting project of 2010 has been a huge cushion cover:

I "won" a gorgeous leather couch from a silent auction for a bargin price way back in August. (It still doesn't have any legs!) It's been sitting in storage since I bought it so it's wonderful to be able to sit on it now in our new home. (although for the first day that it arrived here, I just sat and looked at it from across the room to admire it's beauty!!)

All the cushions that I owned didn't look right on it, they were much too small. I went into the closest city on a search for a big, beautiful cushion that would deserve a seat on my gorgeous new couch but nothing took my fancy. I realized that I would have to make something so I bought a 26" square cushion pad and set to work on designing a cover.

Digging through my stash, I found a recent-ish purchase from our trip to the NY Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck.

I knew that I would only have enough of this gorgeous yarn for one side of the cushion cover, so I drew up a flower chart and used some Knit Picks Andean Treasure for the motif, (using two ends of this yarn held together.)

The back of the cushion is made of the remainder of these two yarns with some unlabeled stash yarn:

I think that it looks fab and it is so squishy-soft and cozy. To think that I was going to buy something - Ha! (If anyone is interested in the charts that I used, give me a shout and I'll post them on here - at some point!)

After over three weeks without internet, phone or TV, I'm back on the grid again! (It was quite nice, actually and I didn't miss the telly one bit but it's good to have to watch DVD's on!)

I listened to a lot of NPR, which I haven't tuned into since I painted pottery for Jill Rosenwald many moons ago! I'm a big fan of Prairie Home Companion now. Jill A, do you remember when saw the film? I never thought that I would be living in the country, listening to Garrison Keillor's dulcet tones while snuggled by a wood-burning stove when we went to see that in Manhattan!!

So now I'm here. I've got my country home and I'm fixed up communication-wise. No excuses now, I have to start working to pay for it all! I'm going to buckle down and design my little heart out. The plan is to have a brand-spanking new look to Army of Knitters by the Spring. I'll try to blog as much as I can and tease you with glimpses off all the new, juicey knits ;o)

Thanks for all the support and well-wishes - you all mean so much to me :o)

Hey! Soft Jack, did you know about this?: