This has been a week for finishing things. It’s not every day that I get to prop my feet up on my desk, take a photo of them and call it work!
Pattern: Two at Once, Toe Up, Magic Loop Socks
Yarn: superwash Merino/nylon Sock Blank
Dye: turquoise Jacquard Acid dye
Needles: US size 0 40″ nickel plated fixed circular

Pattern: Apres Surf Hoodie from Interweave Knits Summer 2008
Yarn: Shine Sport Sand (discontinued color from my stash)
Needles: Knit Picks US 1 (2.50mm) 32″ nickel plated fixed circular for the body and two 24″ nickel plated fixed circulars for the sleeves <

Well, there was popcorn…that makes it a premiere, right?

I just finished our first set of video tutorials, and we had a little viewing party before putting them up on the website. Each video has been embedded in its related tutorial, including two new introductory tutorials for new knitters (“How to Knit a Scarf” and “How to Knit a Hat“). You can view all of our new tutorial videos in one place right here.
We have a YouTube channel set up, too. If you’d like to get a notification each time we add a new video to our channel, all you have to do is get yourself a YouTube account and then, in the upper left of our Channel page, click on the big yellow “Subscribe” button.
Here’s our intro scarf video:
And here’s the hat video:
…

I’m really excited to finally get to share with you a yarn line that we’ve been working on for 9 months! Imagination is a hand-painted Superwash Merino and Alpaca blend sock yarn. It’s machine washable (we weren’t sure if it would be, but it passed the machine washing tests with flying colors), and it knits up to be slightly thicker than our existing sock yarns, probably because the Alpaca content makes it a little fuzzier and lofty. The photo on the right is my ad photo, so you can see the names (click for bigger).
I thought I would give you a behind the scenes look at how we picked colors for this yarn, which has up to 7 colors in each colorway. At our fall color choosing meeting, Tina and Kelley approached Katie and me and asked that we come up with …

I just finished another ribbed hat. This one a 4 x 4 rib in Comfy Blackberry. I showed the two pictures to show how small it is, then stretches into a great hat.
Comfy is SO soft and with the touch of acrylic it is a little stretchy, so works well as a hat.
We decided in the office that a hat out of Comfy is really very practical. It’s not so much to keep your head warm as to cover up bad hair after two days of camping, bad hair when you ride your bike to the coffee shop and take your helmet off, bad hair when you stop for lunch after a morning hike–are you seeing the pattern here? The super soft cotton makes it the perfect summer accessory.
I wanted a really wide “brim” to my hat, so …

Bob will still be traveling over the 3-day weekend so I am going to indulge in a creative retreat. And, I’m going to use my Flip Mino to document a few things.
I have a tripod and I’m going to try to capture spinning with my fragrant drop spindle. I am so in love with this spindle. I can’t tell how much of it is because of the aromatherapy or because it seems so easy for me to use. You can see the little “cage” that holds a bit of cotton ball. Then you drip a few drops of aromatherapy oil on it. The fans of the spindle blow the fragrance around you.
By Friday morning I will be ready to add the i-cord border to Parker’s baby blanket. I think the attached cord would make an excellent little tutorial video.
The rest of the weekend will …

Parker’s Baby Blanket is finished! And, I used my Flip Mino to record a little lesson on applied I-cord borders.

Here is the blanket without the border.

And, here are my little videos! The first one covers getting the applied I-Cord started.

Now I show you how to turn a corner!

Now join the ends with Kitchener Stitch!

Here is the Moderne Baby Blanket with the border! Notice how I have enough yarn left over to make a Baby Surprise Jacket? I always get 9 balls of each color so be sure I don’t run out. I figure that I can always use up the extra Swish Worsted yarn in a sweater, or something! <

Now that I’ve become comfortable with drop spindling, it seems like I am spinning all the time! I completely understand those spinners who prefer drop spindles to spinning wheels. Or, at least have a couple of drop spindles besides their spinning wheels. It is so easy to drop spindle during small bits of time much like I’m used to getting in a few stitches on a pair of socks. I may even take one of my tiny drop spindles out to dinner tonight.
I used my Flip Mino to capture a bit of my enthusiasm.
The spindle in the video is a Golding Aromatherapy with a 2 3/4″ cherry whorl. <