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?: