I am just in seventh heaven.

PBS is having a Jane Austen extravaganza that has me completely blissed.

I’ve been a Jane Austen fanatic since I was 11 years old, and still have my first copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ that  started my addiction.

I’ve been working madly to deadline on new design work, so haven’t had time to get to the Jane Austen spool knitters that I have been languishing to start.

I met a pile of deadlines this week, so I took a breather, and finished up this first Homage to Jane Austen spool knitter.

I made a Jane Austen crochet hook a week or two back and posted about her

Ah, PBS…. thank you thank you!

Some things are just so good, you want to share them.

I’ve posted about support spindles before, but I just have to list them high on my ‘Neato’ list! I love my Royale Hare, and have had it for ages. I am assuming that they still make them, because I found them on the internet, and saw them at the Knit and Crochet show a year or so ago.

I think of it as being the

world’s smallest spinning wheel.

neato? yes.

affiliations? no.

Clever Linda Diak at Grafton Fibers in Vermont has given a tutorial on

how to felt a handle for your steel crochet hook.

Definitely neato.

My husband, Jim, just sent me a link. A friend who’s a photographer just sent it to him.  It’s of pics of Jim’s trio playing on Valentine’s day….. Jim’s trio

)

Oh man!

I can’t believe how long it took me to knit this pair of socks!
I am calling them ‘the forever socks’

That’s how long it took to knit them.

Just plain ole, ‘let your yarn make your pattern’ socks for my darlin’. Because I loves him.

  And, everybody knows that handknitted socks beat the bejabbers off store bought ones, so of course, you want your beloved to wear sockies that you made for him with your own little paws, right?

Well….. life sometimes gets in the way of getting sockies done.  People who can ACTUALLY count their unfinished projects astonish me. I have enough ‘UFO’s’ to occupy several lifetimes. Far too many to be able to count them!

So, sometimes, socks languish on the needles for months.

and months.

and months…..

So….. lately, I have taken to knitting my honeypie’s socks while we are driving in and out of the city. (We live on a small farm outside a city in Western Canada).

Um… he drives. I knit. 

And, because I can knit socks in the dark, but can’t crochet or weave in the dark, I can knit my honey’s socks while we drive home from things that kept us out after dark.

Are the socks absolutely poifeck? Nah. But, at least, these knitted in the dark socks are DONE.

Wait a minute…. I have to finish off that toe….

Oh rats.  Here I was, thrilling to the thought of them being done, and the toe’s still open to the breezes.

Oh NO!…. now I have to find the mate (knitted months and months and months ago)  to this ~almost~ done sock………

That could take FOREVER!

On one of the lists that I am on, we’ve been talking about the design process.

My most favorite way of designing garments is to start with fabric and create a template for the new garment. I then use the template to build the design for the crocheted, woven, or knitted garment.

I’ll be teaching the technique of creating templates and designing from them in my

Crochet in motion!
Fabulous and fanciful crocheted shawls, shrugs, wraps, scarves and stoles for belly dance and workouts.

workshop in Portland in September at the Knit and Crochet show.

I’ve posted all seven workshops that I’ll be teaching.       I am only teaching at the one conference this summer because of a whole lot of other stuff that is going on this summer.

I am so pleased! I have just learned what workshops I will be teaching
at the Knit and Crochet Show in Portland, Oregon in Sept of 2008.

I’ll be teaching:

1]

  Sept 11 @ 2 pm – Butterfly Shawl pin

Sept 13 @ 9 am – Building Butterflies: How to make one of a kind
butterflies with crochet, knitting, etc

  Sept 14 @ 9 am – Sculptural Crochet Boxes Baskets and Bowls

You can see the pics and full descriptions that go with the workshops by clicking on my website: workshops

For information about the Knit and crochet conference go to:

The Knit and Crochet website

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I grew up making paper dolls and all their accessories and accouterments, so was delighted to see that that was an influence on Lia Griffiths, who is doing fabulous things with paper.
Her website is REALLY wonderful….. it’s Papier Couture and she and her design partner, Sean Moran, are making art dresses and accessories that are truly glorious!

My dear friend, Arlee, is a FABULOUS teacher (and wonderful person).

She started a knitting club at her school, and has 46 kids knitting up a storm.

We were chatting the other evening, and she said:

‘Oooh… getting knitting needles for all those kids is  expensive !’

And I responded: ‘Why not MAKE them knitting needles? !’  (I love ‘GREEN’ eco friendly/recycling projects)

Just take a set of used, clean chopsticks, some beads and a nail file….

Wash the chopsticks. File any rough spots on the chopsticks, and shape the ends into a softly rounded point:

Glue (or wedge firmly) the  beads onto the blunt ends:

And – Voila! you’ve got a fine set of cheap and cheerful, excellent knitting needles that you can knit your noodles with!

And, you have kept them out of the landfill! Yay!

I used these knitting needles to knit the world’s easiest teddy bear:

A friend sent me a fun link this morning….

Martha Stewart blogged about puppy fuzz being spun into chiengora.

Her ChowChow, Paw Paw, got a haircut. She asked what she should use Paw Paw’s fuzz for…..

Well…. I have been spinning our dog’s fuzzies up for years.

I’ve knitted, crocheted, spool knitted and woven all kinds of teddy bears with dog yarn (aka: chiengora), as well as making little fluffy puppies.

And, I’ve crocheted lots of hats with our dear old late Newfoundland’s fuzz, too….

The other day, he was wearing his ‘Gnome Dome Eco hat’

And a guy said to him:

‘Hey, Dude! Whatcha wearing on your head? ‘

Angus responded: ‘My dog.’

Which left the guy speechless.

Even though our dear old Newfoundland-Chow cross pupster crossed the rainbow bridge last year, he still warms our hearts, and our heads, bless him.