Patterns are so hard to name. Sometimes I come up with names that are inspired and awesome. So awesome in fact that umpteen million other designers have already used them. Somedays I think it would be better just to number them. Actually I do number them. But I don’t think that PK0031 has any oomph to it.

I’m hoping that my photographer extraordinaire will be able to capture how pretty it is in person. It’s this gorgeous silk/merino blend that kind of glows. (Note to self: Must learn how to use new camera!)

These however were easy to name. And they have already been tested and partially edited. So they will be coming out real soon.

Again I need the help of my photographer. Due to my need for cozy slippers, these will be the Mother Necessity Slippers. Everyone who has tested them so far says they are fast and fun. I’m finishing up some in kid and man sizes so they will be good for the entire family!

I think I need to start up a new notebook. Instead of design sketches and notes, it will be a name book. All kinds of names for all sorts of patterns. I’m starting to get desperate!

I’m kind of in love with some of these new Malabrigo colorways that kind of defy description. First it was the Liquid Ambar in the Malabrigo Twist, and now this:

It’s Malabrigo Silky Merino in Archangel and it’s for a new shawl/shawlette pattern. I’ve already started the design and it’s coming out really lovely. The way it looks in the skein or the ball does not convey how gorgeous it is knitted up.

But you’ll have to be patient for the knitted pictures. And I will try to knit really fast so I can show them to you!

I am now (officially even) a published designer. I’ve been self publishing for awhile. And I love it. And it’s going well for me. But I really want to expand to get into magazines and online publications. And I did!!! Yarn Forward – page 86 baby!

It’s my Frosted Goblet Shawl, and it’s made of the softest, prettiest alpaca yarn. You can even see the halo in the pictures. It’s crazy soft.

So I’m excited, and I’m basking, and I’ll even be in the next issue of the magazine. Conquering the knitting world one tiny step at a time…

I looked. And now everything in my pattern store is in the Help for Haiti category. Actually I didn’t even mean to look. I just saw some ads. With the pictures. Oh my Lord the pictures.

So to recap, if you buy anything in my Ravelry Store between now and the end of January, I will donate 50% of the purchase price to Doctors Without Borders.

I’m not looking, but I know it’s happening. I can’t watch the coverage on Haiti. I can’t listen to the stories. I was reduced to a sobbing heap the other day reading a news story about a cop who was killed here locally in a head-on collision. I am that person that is nearly incapacitated by hearing about tragedy. I don’t know why. I guess it’s a bad thing. It doesn’t mean I’m not compassionate – I think I’m too compassionate. I don’t know. But enough about me. This is about them.

Even though I’m not watching or listening, I know. I get little bits and bobs. And they are horrifying. Ravelry is doing something good though. That I can read about. They are doing a “Help for Haiti” designation where you can designate percentages of your pattern sales to go to relief. Tons of designers have already signed up. Right now all of my hat patterns are in the mix. If you buy any for sale hat pattern, I will send 50% of the sale price to Doctors Without Borders. They were in Haiti when the quake struck. Their hospital was destroyed – so they set up tents in the rubble and kept working. They’ve lost many of their own.

And hey, if you’re knitting hats, they are fast, yes? Think about knitting some up for some of the folks at home that are homeless and cold right now. Other bad things haven’t stopped happening because Haiti happened.

Oh and one more thing. If you were going to buy patterns, try to buy ones that have the “Help for Haiti” designation. But if you weren’t… well just send that $5 or so straight to Haiti. That way 100% of that money goes straight to the people that need it most. And $5 does a heckuva lot more there than it does here.

I wanted to call these Frippery socks. But I always search for names on Rav before naming stuff, and frippery was used multiple times. So Finery Socks it is. I love these socks. Chris wanted to make some socks out of her most popular colorway, Toe Curling ‘O’. Um yes, the O stands for what you think it does and on her site it is spelled out. But I don’t want to attract any more weirdos than I already do.

When I whipped up the pattern I thought it would look lovely. But Chris did the sample knitting, so I had no idea how lovely it would look until she brought the in-progress sample up to the yarn shop on Wednesday. Lovely is an understatement. And the color is rich, so evocative, dare I say it? So aptly named. It really is just that fabulous of a color.

I think this stitch pattern would look lovely in handpainted or variegated yarns as well. The stitch pattern has a lot of movement that would break up pooling. It starts off with 2×1 ribbing and has a slip-stitch short-row heel for durability.

Needles: Size 2.5 needles (3.0 mm)

Yarn: Politically Incorrect Yarns & Fibers Merino-Cashmere-Nylon (MCN), 100g, 435 yards

Sizes: S/M and M/L Women’s

Gauge: 30 stitches and 40 rows = 4 inches in stockinette in the round

Notes: This sock is worked top down magic loop style with a heel flap. It is offered in 64 and 72-stitch counts, with written and charted instructions for the lovely lace pattern.

For sale on Ravelry. Only $5.50.

Katara is a shaped shawl worked side-to-side with the main body worked in garter stitch. The neck shaping allows it to gracefully sit on your shoulders without a pin.

This shawl includes working short-rows at the same time as a lace edging. The instructions are available in written and charted form in a 15-page pdf. The charted instructions are listed separately so that you can only print out the pages you need.

The shawl uses one skein of SugarbeeStudios’ Politically Incorrect MCN Fingering Weight yarn in the Frigid colorway. The Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend blocks out beautifully. The finished shawl measures 60” wide and 22” deep.

The lovely model in the photograph is SugarbeeStudios’ daughter.The shawl is named after a character in The Last Airbender cartoon series. We’ve been having marathon sessions at home. Katara is a waterbender who hails from the South Pole, so the icy/watery colorway is perfect.

Needles: Size 6 needles (4.0 mm)

Yarn: Politically Incorrect Yarns & Fibers Merino-Cashmere-Nylon (MCN), 100g, 435 yards

Size: Blocked to 60″ wide and 22″ deep

Gauge: 20 stitches and 30 rows = 4 inches in Blocked Garter

Notes: Worked side to side with knitted on border worked as you go along. Includes short-row shaping. Entire pattern is available in written *and* charted form.

For sale on Ravelry. Only $6.00.

I really have some of the loveliest people in my life. Today I went over to SugarbeeStudios’ house so that she could help me take pictures of the shawl. She happens to have a breathtakingly gorgeous daughter who was happy to model. (I paid her in chicken wings!) I really couldn’t be more pleased with the pictures.

Barring a “snow day” tomorrow, I plan on publishing the pattern tomorrow afternoon. If they cancel school it will be monkey wrangling and that could put a wrench in the works. I don’t think we’ll actually see snow – the temps seem to be rising, but wouldn’t that be something?

I think I might be in love with my new camera. Seriously. Like leave my husband kind of love. I need to play with it more, but just now I was messing around and look up there – you can see the bubbles. Bubbles are good.

I’ve been working. Really, I have. I have a new shawl design that’s about to come out. And I’ve sent out two finished samples to a magazine in the past 6 weeks or so. And I have ideas just falling out of my brain. I’ve just got to commit them to yarn and pdf.

But the beauty above? Knit up in SugarbeeStudios‘ beautiful Merino/Cashmere/Nylon fingering base in a custom colorway just for this shawl. I asked her for something icy, but with a springlike feel. Just wait til you see it all blocked out. Just wait.

Well my dear friends would say something else. Something that has to do with donkeys. But I try not to curse (even mildly) on my happy little space on the internet. I would say I’ve been oh so very busy, but so has everyone else. And I seem to be able to find more time to plurk and twitter than I can to blog. The sad thing, I find blogging way more rewarding. Again with the things I should do.

Christmas was nothing less than fabulous. We went to a Christmas Eve party and had an amazing time. Good friends, Santa came for the little ones, and a fun gift exchange (complete with lots of fancy bottles of hooch!) for the big ones. Christmas morning we woke up and had presents with the family. The boys are old enough that they don’t wake us at the buttcrack of dawn, which is just fine and dandy by me. We settled in, opened stockings, and I spiffed up a simple breakfast with cinnamon rolls, sausage, and hash browns. Then we opened presents. My husband totally spoiled me and the boys.

I got the camera I’ve been wanting, some new casual pearl jewelry from the boys, some new Fiesta Ware and some beautiful mixing bowls for the kitchen. Plus I got the HP6 DVD. The boys’ big presents were Rock Band (and the lego version of it) and cell phones. We were trying to wait until they were 12, but the man wanted a fancy phone for his b-day, so we went in a whole family plan. I’ve never seen those boys so excited in my life.

Later in the day we headed over to SugarbeeStudios house and had Christmas dinner with the families of three other of my dearest friends. The boys got more gifts and then the ladies exchanged their gifts. I will just tell you right now I do not deserve my friends. They spoiled me rotten as well. All kinds of fabulousness and thoughtful stuff that I really adore. You should be so lucky as to have friends like this. Oh and yeah. My best friend. Made me do the ugly cry, because her present was that great. Which was totally her goal. And if I didn’t love her so much, I would be very upset that she chose a present for me that she knew would make me weep.

We have a small group, a Fiber Mafia if you will, of amazingly talented and artsy ladies. All of us knit. And then we all have other things we do – artsy/fibery business ventures. All of us spin. Well the rest of the ladies spin on their wheels. I spin on my drop spindle. A wheel was not in the anywhere near future budget for me. You see where I’m going with this, yes? Last night I learned to spin on a wheel. My wheel.

Yeah. You would have cried too. Thank you Chris.