Scaley, Fiery cuteness!

When I was a kid, I always had to either read a story, have my mom
read to me, or listen to stories on tape before going to sleep. My
favorites were always those that contained either a really solid moral,
or DRAGONS! (better if there’s both, but well, what can you do.) In
fact, there was one tape that was something along the lines of ‘Medieval
Tales’ that I loved so much I wore out the tape itself. I really,
really didn’t like the stereotypical characters in it, but it had
DRAGONS. I mean, like, DRAGONS! Lots of them! And they roared! But, at
the end of the stories, the fearless knight would always do away with
the dragon. So not fair, because dragons are awesome! I tend to root for
the underdog, so I developed a bit of a kinship with that dragon. I
felt like he deserved to be left alone to live a long, scaly life!

Anyway, that’s a really long way of saying that when Nina and I were
charged with the honorable duty of coming up with Hobby-Horse-like toys,
I HAD to do a Dragon!

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Next Lace class is tomorrow! But in the meantime…

Your questions are answered!

Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be
posting the videos for Demystifying Lace, class 2. This class will be
all about how to prepare and handle the yarn, and it’ll be in three
segments. It’s a long one this time!

Before then, I wanted to go over some questions that have been in the
comments. This class has had such a great response that I’ve been
answering the questions in emails – if you asked a question on the last
class post, check your email! I get pretty confused trying to read
through a thread of comments that long to find answers, and I don’t
expect you to wade through either 🙂

But, for the benefit of everyone here, these are some of the
questions I recieved in the comments and my answers to them!

Elenor asked:
Q: I have a question about blocking. When
you block an object and then wash it for
the first time, do you have to block it on the blocking boards again or
just
spread it out to dry like normal?

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My Desk Menagerie Grows…

As I’ve stated before, toys are one of my favorite things to knit. 
So I was excited to learn to crochet to make the very cute crochet
amigurumi I see everywhere!

And I went a little crazy – they are so quick!

My desk already has quite a collection of toys, (you can see some of
them in Kerin’s post about Carl)
but these guys made a nice addition!

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Summer Sweaters!

This has been my year of sweaters – I’ve finished 3 so far and have
yarn and patterns picked out for at least 5 more.  (My sock knitting has
seriously suffering during this obsession with sweaters – I have not
finished one pair yet this year!)  Now that it’s finally getting warmer
here in the Pacific Northwest, what’s a sweater knitter to do?  I still
want to make them but having a lap full of wool or alpaca doesn’t sound
appealing.

My IDP designers came through for me!

Brittany Tyler’s
recently released a second pattern with us (her first, the Embossed
Argyle Sweater Vest
is one of my sweaters I already have yarn
picked out for)

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and I absolutly adore it.  And it’s in Simply
Cotton Worsted
– perfect!

Her
April
Cardigan!
  I really love the back detail

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Demystifying Lace, Class 1 – What is Lace, anyway?

Welcome to the first lace class! In this introduction, I go over the very basics: what is lace, what is lace yarn, and how to select the right yarn for a project.

A new video will be posted each Thursday. Next week: How to handle lace yarn – winding, storing, working with lace yarns, and more.
I’m incorporating answers to your questions in each video – so keep asking!

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