*****

I’m sure that by now you’ve heard of the dreaded Snowtober that rocked the East Coast this weekend. Our home was thankfully spared incident, but things were messy enough that we decided to postpone my Sunday class at Knit Wit in Portland, ME. We’ve rescheduled for Sunday, 20 November, and there are now a couple of spots open if you’d like to join us! After hearing from my dad about the situation in Maine, I’m glad we postponed, though it was a tough call to make before a single flake of snow had flown.

The freezing temperatures sent my kids scurrying for their hand knits. And guess what fits now!

He wore it out all day on Sunday and proclaimed it the “best ever”. And then requested to go to Peru to visit the alpacas. I told him we’d get right on that.

*****

Finally, I present to you the best. mail. day. ever.

A new pair of shoes, a sweater’s worth of the aptly-named ‘Breathless’, and a t-shirt memento of my Rhinebeck weekend. Nothing better.

Although a fruit bat and his brother Mario come within spitting distance.

Happy Halloween!

Now, I’m designing all over the place, I’m teaching, I’m working on some projects for the fall that I cannot wait to tell you about. Somehow, “stash knit repeat” seems to fall short in capturing what I’m trying to do with my knitting these days. I expect that will only get more true as time goes on–as my projects get more varied, as my interests broaden.

So, I’m bidding stash, knit, repeat a fond farewell and moving here, under my own name, with a new look that I hope better communicates my passions and design sense. Please, take a few moments, click through to the actual blog if you’re reading from a feed reader, and see what you can find. I’m tremendously excited about it, and hope you are too.

The new looks are courtesy Carrie, who is not only talented but is also a perfect joy to work with. If you have web design needs, I would recommend her wholeheartedly.

It’s going to be an amazing fall, and I’m just so pleased to be sharing it with you from here. Welcome!

My best friend/maid of honor needs this book. Her confidence in her knitting skills as well as her shape aren’t nearly as strong as they should be, and I think this book could really help her with both. Thank you for the fantastic review!

Congrats!

And thanks for all the lovely comments and great response to Sebasco too, I’m so glad you like it. Of course, I’m already hard at work on the next design–I’d like to get one more out before the depths of summer crush us all.

Isn’t the color just lovely?

Also, my class schedule for my upcoming trip to California is full! Please, if you’re in the Bay Area, consider taking one of my three classes there:

• May 20, 6-9pm: Purlescence Yarns
• May 21, 1-5pm: Piedmont Yarn (though I think the class is actually being held at someone’s home, for space requirements)
• May 22, 4:15-7:15pm: ImagiKnit

As far as I know, all three of these classes still have space left. I’m not likely to get back to the Bay Area soon, so if you’d like to take a class here’s your chance!

Though I am going to be in Portland, OR for Sock Summit. I’m considering trying to teach a class either before the event on Wednesday or after the event on Sunday night / Monday, if there’s interest. If you might be interested in such a class, could you please let me know your time preference and any location suggestions you have?

Hope the spring is all treating you well!

I plan on blogging the knitting process destined for this yarn, though casting on will have to wait a week or two. It’ll be a sweet little cardigan that you can throw on over a tank when you need to be somewhere air-conditioned this summer, and then wear over something more substantial for the fall/winter. It’s killing me not to abandon my current project and bring the yellow with me to Delaware this weekend for another round of Fit to Flatter classes, but deadlines are deadlines after all. (By the way, there is one spot left open in Saturday’s class; if you’re within the Philly or Baltimore areas, this is a good chance to get hands-on experience with what sweaters will flatter your shape!)

I’m still enjoying the new hair cut, and in fact was thrilled to discover that I can wear it pulled back from my face, still:

And this afternoon, photographer extraordinaire Caro and I are headed to the beach to shoot my latest self-publish design: A great vest for chilly nights.

I’m calling it “Sebasco”, after a beach in the town I grew up in, so it seemed fitting to shoot it near the water.

And, be sure to check back here next Wednesday, when I’m participating in the blog tour for Lisa Shroyer’s great new book, Knitting Plus!

Exciting times around here, for sure!

Including my new haircut, so you’ll just have to make do with an out-of-focus one!

I haven’t had my hair this short… well, ever, really. But I love it. It’s spunky and confident and sassy, a much better fit for my personality than the lovely-but-somehow-more-romantic-than-I-really-am locks.

I’ll probably wait until the fall to release this, now–everyone’s thoughts have definitely turned to spring–but before I can do any kind of releasing, I need to do everyone’s single least-favorite part of designing: Name the pattern. I had no idea how difficult this was before I started designing. The name must be related to the pattern in some way, not be too popular (so that people searching on ravelry will find your pattern quickly), easy to pronounce, and easy to spell when heard. Yikes! I’ll let you know when I come up with something.

I’ve really enjoyed talking about the design process over the last month; I’d love to share bits and pieces of my self-published sweaters in the future, too.

There are more important things than designing, though. I know we’ve all been watching the news with horror over the past days. I urge you to join me in sending an extra donation to either the Red Cross or Doctors without Borders/MSF. I always feel pretty lucky with my lot in life, but at times like this “lucky” doesn’t even begin to come close to what I feel.

I also wanted to draw your attention to a more local injustice–representative of so many going on in the US right now–in the hopes that you might be able to help. I’m sure many of you read Ann’s blog, but for those of you who missed it, she has set up a fundraiser for her best friend’s sister Emily. Emily, a young school teacher, has liver cancer. The medical bills are overwhelming. Let’s just stop there for a minute and think about how injust it is that someone doing the important work of fighting CANCER needs to worry about paying for medical bills. But wait, there’s more.

Most of you probably don’t know this, but my mother passed away from cancer that had spread to her liver when I was in college. Luckily for us, she had good medical insurance and we didn’t have to deal with financial stress on top of everything else. Emily doesn’t have great medical insurance–hers doesn’t cover prescriptions. The thing is, Emily has a spouse with great medical insurance. Just like my mom. Only, Emily can’t qualify under her spouse’s medical plan because they happen to share a gender.

(Yeah. Let’s be outraged about that for a minute, too.)

How can you help? Well, you can read all the details in Ann’s post (as well as see all of the amazing prizes), but the short version is: Please, go ahead and donate what you can to Emily’s medical fund. Cancer is a terrible, terrible disease. I know this intimately. Let’s make it suck a little less, and give Emily the ability to fight the disease with everything she’s got–instead of worrying about how many decades of financial hardship will result from her taking the medicine she needs to get well.

Progress continues on the second Rhinebeck sweater–I hope to have both sweaters debuted and patterns out the week before Rhinebeck. It’s still (barely) doable, although I spent much of the beginning of this week picking apart the seams on my first Rhinebeck sweater, ripping out the sleeve caps, and re-doing them after deciding that I’ve been making them all too snug. (If you’ve purchased one of my sweater patterns, be looking for an update soon!)

While zooming along in the easy part of sweater 2, I’ve been flirting with a number of other ideas.

And I have more classes to tell you about! First, a little detail on the two (!) classes I’m now offering:

The first Fit to Flatter class, noted “F2F #1″ below, covers the basics and offers personalized shape analysis. We cover the basic body shapes and principles for dressing to flatter those body shapes, take photos and walk through a personalized shape analysis for every student, including discussion and try-ons, and help you apply the principles to knitting for your particular shape. It’s most helpful if you come dressed in form-fitting clothes (particularly the shirt), and bring along a sweater or two that fit you really well (they needn’t be hand-knit). Much of the class involves trying on different sweaters to get a real hands-on understanding of the modifications you should be making when you knit sweaters for yourself. This is all about getting the basics down and really learning about your own personal shape.

The second, noted “F2F #2″ below, offers you guidance through the natural next step after the first class: Knitting yourself a sweater with the modifications we discussed in installment one. You bring your measurements from the first installment and a sweater pattern you want to modify, and we’ll step through all of the math.

You’ll walk away with both knowledge and substantial hand-out material from each class. I’ve written the handout material to minimize the need for note-taking; the classes are a better experience if you can be fully engaged. These are much more participatory classes than lecture classes.

I have four classes currently on the schedule. Click on the links to visit the yarn store’s registration or information page; don’t forget to mention it to your own LYS if you’d like me to bring the class to your area. I’m especially excited to be offering my first Boston-area class on the 6th of November. It will be nice to teach so close to home!

• October 9, Purl Diva, Brunswick ME: F2F #1, 9-11am, $40, max 6 students.
• October 10, Purl Diva, Brunswick ME: F2F #2, 9-11am, $40, max 6 students. Prereq: F2F #1.
• November 6, The Creative Stitch, Hingham MA: F2F #1, 9am-1pm, $65, max 10 students.
• November 13, KnitWit, Portland, ME: F2F #1, 9am-12pm, $50, max 8 students.

I’m pretty excited to start meeting more of you, either at classes or at Rhinebeck!

To here:

Without too much trouble, even. We’re very grateful to have such enjoyable children.

Knitting-wise, my mosaic looks a lot less impressive than my knitting year actually was.

Let’s go in order, shall we? First up, some socks for Jacob. Then, a a cowl for me. A sweater for Jacob, followed quickly by a sweater for Daniel. I test-knit some mittens, knit another sweater for Jacob… and then the secret knitting started, the designing bug bit, the secret knitting continued, and… well, there went the blog. I’ve been working steadily, and managed to finish a sweater for Beth and some socks for Danielle, and a sweater for me. Very recently I cast off on some socks I started in March.

I was able to share one piece of secret knitting, and will soon share another (that last photo in the mosaic). But let me tell you, my needles have been flying this year. There are three more entire sweaters that I’ve designed and knit this year, and another that’s designed and halfway knit. It’s nuts.

The design process is reminding me a little of the academic publishing cycle. You get a good idea, and it can anywhere from a few months to a year or two after the work is done for the work to actually see the light of day. It’s sometimes frustrating, but now that my “pipeline” of projects is full, I hope to see a more steady stream of content around these parts.

Speaking of which, I finished some socks.

Pattern: Cookie A’s Devon socks, from her book

Yarn: Sundara sock, Deadly Nightshade

Time Elapsed: Something like 9 months.

Notes/Modifications: None. These socks are perfect.

Happy new year! May 2010 shine brightly and happily on all of you and yours.

Lucky for me, the lovely wry punster thoughtfully suggested that I do some sharing!

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was six months into my first “real” job (at the company I work for still, actually). Jon and I were living in a lovely apartment in a pretty terrible town, and generally enjoying being grown-up.

The big news was that we were just starting to plan our wedding, having been engaged for a couple of years at that point. We planned the date around our photographer’s availability. She was a dear friend and former colleague of Jon’s (he worked in an independent photo lab during high school), and if you’re in the Maine area I would recommend her without reservations.

(Image copyright Leigh Kelly-Monroe and the Unforgettable Moment. Don’t copy it, hoser.) It’s a little bittersweet to post that photo, actually. We were so young! Not that we’re old farts now, of course… but life sure was different.

2) What are five things on my to-do list for today?

1. Play with Jacob at the awesome playground next to the preschool building before summer camp starts. Check.
2. Get an ultrasound to make sure the baby is simply large, not godzilla-sized. Check. (Everything’s fine.)
3. Pick up our first meat CSA at the farmer’s market this afternoon.
4. Manage to get organic fruit & veggie box off of the porch before it either (a) gets drowned by another round of freak thunderstorms or (b) all of the chard wilts into nothingness. (Mmmm. Chard.)
5. Watch the Sox get trounced again by the Rays. While trying to knit and keep my hand from going too numb. SIGH.

You know, writing that list, I’m realizing that none of those things would really have been possible in Monterey (though I loved Jacob’s Montessori school there with the heat of a thousand suns). Pregnant or no, depressing Sox games or no, I’m so happy to be back here.

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Right now?

*cough*

More generally, though, here’s a sampling.

Um, yeah. What can I say? I love good food. And vinegar. Don’t forget the vinegar.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I’m far too pedantic for a question like this. But I’ll try not to be too irritating about my answer. I think, aside from changing careers and doing something like getting a degree part-time in food science or nutritional anthropology, our lives would look much the same. There’d be no mortgage for me or my fam, of course, and there’d probably be more travel. But I like our life, and wouldn’t want to change much about it.

So where would the money go? A foundation of some kind, I expect.

5) Places I have lived:

Small-town Maine

Claremont, CA. This was our dorm. I think the architecture is called “neo-brutalist”. Not the most photogenic place, I know. Scripps was much more beautiful.

Lowell, MA. Okay, okay. This is Ingonish, Nova Scotia. I never lived in Nova Scotia, but trust me. You’d rather look at this picture.

The Camberville area, MA. Yay! We’re back!

Monterey Peninsula, CA. Ties with Maine for the most beautiful place I’ve lived. Too bad my experience wasn’t great there.

6) Jobs I have had:

I’ve worked since I was 12, at one thing or another. So this is far from exhaustive. But it tells an interesting story about my life, I think.

1. Maid in a coastal Maine resort
2. Dairy Queen countergirl and snarker extraordinaire.
3. Mathematics research assistant
4. Information security engineer specializing in formal methods
5. System administrator
6. Manager of information security engineers and director of security research program
7. Mother

Cliche of the day: Guess which job is the most difficult?

Please do play along if the mood strikes you. I love reading stuff like this.

First of all, the wee beastie is doing just fine. Unfortunately, the swelling that plagued me for so much of my pregnancy with Jacob is back with a vengeance (good-bye, wedding ring!). I don’t think I’ll ever actually enjoy being pregnant. But all in all, 22 weeks isn’t as bad as it could be. At least I’m able to stomach coffee again.

Both my knitting and my yarn-buying are going well. Faced with the prospect of at least a year without practical sweater-for-myself opportunities, I’ve gone a little crazy with the cheez whizyarn clubs. After another shipment of Sundara’s club, and a general diminishing of the raging hormones, I’ve decided the club is both enjoyable and good for me. Unable to decide which season appealed to me most, I chose both Summer and Autumn this time around. As if that weren’t yarn enough, Madelinetosh came out with a club of her own. Her yarn is definitely a contender for #1 favorite, so I joined up. I guess my needles will be plenty busy, and hopefully I’ll be too focused on the luscious yarn to notice the lack of sweaters!

My secret knitting du jour involves what is probably my most favorite cable ever.

Also, it’s purple. How could purple be bad?

And finally, things seem to have gotten settled enough for me to share that we’re making a big move back to our house in the Boston area this summer. We have lots of good reasons to leave CA, most of them boiling down to family and culture. I’m so excited to go back that I can hardly stand it. We’ve been renting out our place, and I love the thought of being in my very own house again–although I’m daunted by the toddler-proofing challenges! The last time we were there, Jacob looked like this:

Now, things are a little different.

(Yes, he’s hiding something in my shoe.) What do you all like most about the place you’re living?