New Coat Design

Last summer when I went to Manchester, NH to the crochet conference I met a lot of people. It was so refreshing to be around people that get the whole fiber thing. While at the market I walked into a booth and I honestly felt like I walked into my parents house. There were antique benches and large wooden troughs filled with yarns and these adorable needle felted crafts all over the place. I instantly felt at home and bought felting kits (I had never done that before). I left my card and I had some conversations with the ladies of Decadent Fibers hoping that some day I could design for them.

Last week this arrived from Pat and Christine of Decadent Fibers!!!! I will be designing a coat for them and I can't wait to get started!!!! 

Airdrie

This weekend the Yarnharlot suggests in her tear away calendar that you air out your stash and take stock of what you have. I have several locations in my house where the stash is located, but this weekend I cleaned out the cabinet in my knitting room. It was so wonderful to see what I have, projects I wish to complete and wonderful yarn that will be making it's way to our local assisted living facility (I donate all of my unused stash to them).

While going through everything, I noticed that I have certain skeins of yarn that I just can't part with. They represent a time in my life or a total luxury buy..... places I have visited and so on. In 2003 Mr. Fantastic and I went on a trip to Scotland to visit our nephew who was attending the University of Edinburgh for a semester. It was such a wonderful trip and I have such great memories of being there with other members of our family. Mr. Fantastic's father was born in Scotland and came over here when he was young. While on our trip, we visited with cousins of my father in-law, saw the town where he was born, Airdrie, and even visited the street where the house stood (it is gone now). While in Airdrie,  I was fortunate enough to see a yarn shop and my sister in-law and niece and I went into it. I bought some yarn and a pattern with the intention to knit a vest for my beloved Father In-law. 

I never finished it.... and now he is gone. I know it would have made me feel so proud to have given him a vest made out of yarn from his home town, and I have learned a very valuable lesson in procrastination. My Airdrie yarn has had a special place in my stash for a few years now, I never knew what I would do with it..... until a visit from our wonderful Kelly. 

Kelly is the daughter every woman would want. She is kind, beautiful, patient, sweet, smart, caring and did I say beautiful? She is the daughter of Mr. Fantastic's oldest brother and she was on the trip to Scotland (her oldest brother was attending the college) and was with me when we bought the yarn. She picked out the pattern she wanted from one of my books  (a new favorite I might add) and I set out to work. I had the best time making this sweater/dress. I thought of our wonderful trip, our sweet Kelly, my father in-law that I loved fiercely, and the bittersweet act of giving up something I love. I was so happy during the making of this that I didn't want it to end....

I can't think of anyone else I would rather give this very special yarn to.....I am just as proud to give it to you Kelly, as I would have been if I'd given it to Papa Steve. 

A Note To A Fan, OK My Sister!

Dear Katherine-

How are you? I am doing OK, not as good as yesterday when we spoke on the phone. I hope you are having a good day at work, here is the latest since we spoke (yesterday afternoon, when you asked me to update my blog)

Dinner was fantastic! I made soft tacos for the family and I made myself chicken chili with tomatilloes and it was sooooo good. I will send you the recipe for the chicken chili if you want (it takes about 1/2 hour to make from start to finish - easy)

After dinner I made myself a decaf latte in my rockin' new (well Christmas) espresso machine. We were getting ready to watch American Idol and I was looking forward to spending some crochet time on the couch when Son #2 informed me that he wasn't feeling well. We (that would be Son#2 and me) spent the next hour listening to American Idol while he was throwing up the tacos (not a good smell). I then started to relax as he fell asleep on the couch everyone was asleep at Chez Fantastic and I started a crochet shawl for my friend. I almost went to sleep; I was finishing that last row, when my poor little guy got sick again - this time in his sleep, all over the couch the blankets and himself. Fast forward 3 more hours 2 loads of laundry 4 very long crochet rows.... I finally hit the sheets.

I am tired, I am cranky and I cannot think of anything funny, witty, or clever to say. All I can say is I am so glad I got to go to my LYS and got some Fiber Love yesterday afternoon! Here is what I bought.

It is such a great yarn and I am going to make this. (Ravelry link) I bought enough so I can make a matching one for Dumplin'. I am going to take a nap now!

Love You, talk to you later this afternoon-

Kimberly

PS In the back of the first picture you can see that I am almost finished with Kelly's Dress..... it is going to ROCK! I will post pictures after it is blocked.

No Love for St. Valentine

If I had to get rid of one Holiday on the calendar it would be Valentines Day. It's not that I don't like Valentines day, it's just the WORK that goes into it. My children always want to MAKE their Valentines, and while it is nice (it's important to keep the crafty gene going) the process of making the Valentines is, in a word: Torture. They did turn out lovely, though!

I stress about the cards, whom do I send one to? Will someone feel bad if they don't get one? How about the preteen and teen and let's face it adult years when you didn't have a Valentine to give? That day stunk many times for me.... how many Valentines Days did you think you were getting engaged, only to feel the crushing blow that evening when you got flowers (that will die) and chocolate (that will make you fat, or break out, or in my case... both)! This year I asked Mr. Fantastic to not get me anything, no card, no gift, nothing..... if he does, then I get to feel guilt (because I am not getting him anything), nice... add that to the list of reasons why I don't really care for the holiday.

OK enough of that, I do have some knitting I can show you! This is going to be for my niece that we are going to see this weekend. I started it on Saturday, made a huge mistake that I noticed at 5:00 yesterday, and started again last night. We shall she if I get it done in time!

Silence on the Blog

You know when you haven't heard from me for a whole week straight I'm usually working pretty close to a deadline, right? I usually start getting calls from my family around Thursday, "everything alright?" I simply have to say deadlines and they pretty much know the design process takes up my entire mind for a while.

I finished my deadline on Saturday, and I just have to show you what my knitting room looked like on Saturday as I was trying to finish.....

I know! It was very distracting! How cute are my children all sitting and knitting with me (in retrospect it was cute, during it wasn't so cute when someone had a problem or question, it was quite irritating - I'm trying to FINISH!!!!!!)

It was so warm yesterday, the boys were out playing during Sunday Dinner:

While the boys were outside, the ladies were knitting. This is my future sister-in-law, she just learned how to knit that afternoon!  She was one of the quickest to learn.... she was a natural!

Yep, that's right..... changing the world, one knitter at a time!