Sheldon’s been out of the office and on a whole slew of adventures since he got back from Japan. He made this slideshow of his latest travels so you could see what he’s been up to.
On a more serious note, I know a few of you have noticed that the Sheldon career and animal outfit kits are no longer available, and are probably wondering where he went. We sold out!!!
But don’t worry, all of the patterns from both kits will be available as free downloads by the end of April. We posted the first one, along with the pattern for his body (with permission from Sheldon’s designer, Ruth) on our patterns page. If you’d like to be notified every time we add a new free Sheldon pattern, become our fan on Facebook to get our updates.
And for those of you in the Sheldon …

Truthfully, I think I prefer cables to lace, but I surprised myself this week by picking out a lace pattern and figuring it out on my own!
I’ve been intending to give lace a shot for a couple of months now, and the eyelet hearts that were Vogue’s Stitch of the Week pattern last week were so sweet and innocent-looking, I thought to myself, “Why not try to knit a few hearts for Valentine’s Day?” Four tries later, I have a soft scrap of Comfy fabric that’s about 2 1/2 by 6 inches with three little hearts on it. And I’m so excited about it!!!! I don’t think I’d be any happier if I’d managed a whole sweater!
Now what do you do with a piece of knitting 1 1/2″ by 6″? Frame it? Use it as a bookmark? Knit another one and stitch them together …

I thought it’d be fun to start a UFO knitalong so we can all encourage each other to keep plugging away and finish up some projects. Here is what is on my knitting “to do” list:
Pattern: Sylvi Jacket by Mari Muinonen
Yarn: Cadena in Tree Frog (I said Leap Frog in the video – oops!)
Needles: US Size 8 nickel plated circulars
Pattern: Lady’s Circular Cape from Victorian Lace Today (except I am only doing 9 repeats instead of 12 hoping that it will not turn out quite so full and ruffly)
Yarn: Shadow in Spring Green Heather
Needles: US Size 5 Harmony Wood circular
Pattern: Positano Tote from Interweave Knits Winter 2009 issue
Yarn: Wool of the Andes in Avocado, double stranded
Needles: US Size 7 nickel plated circulars
Pattern: Herringbone Scarf (I’m using the herringbone pattern from the Positano Tote)
Yarn: Oregon Worsted from Interlacements
Needles: US Size 7 Harmony Wood circulars
Pattern: Flip Mino felted case – making it …

It took me so long to post about this project because I lost the page with the pattern on it. I cleaned out my craft room this week and found it! I pulled the pattern out of a “Crafts ‘n Things” magazine, though all I have is the page that I pulled out and it doesn’t list the issue date. I’d guess the issue was last summer.
The original pattern was for mittens and scarf and this hat and all had a red cherry on top. I changed it to have pink sprinkles instead of a cherry.
I used Comfy worsted in Flamingo, Ivory and Fedora. The pink edging is crocheted, which I’d never done before–Kim showed me how. I was so pleased with how it turned out. <

My friend in Maine received her gloves, and the name of the photo album she sent me was “In which I try to make you a thank you card for the gloves and Sadie tries to eat the note.”



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(drum roll please)…Stroll!
Captain just won a $50 gift certificate for suggesting Stroll first.
We’re also going to give Pfinarffle a $25 gift certificate for making us laugh with the suggestion “Copyright Infringement”!!!
I’ll be sending both winners an e-mail to get their addresses.
Thank you for all of your wonderful suggestions! You are such a creative bunch!! <

Click here to join the Mr. Foster knitalong! <

Here’s the hat I just finished for my brother-in-law:

He’s always cold, everywhere he goes, all the time – for his birthday, we got him an electric blanket for his bed. His knitting request was for a hat, a Very Warm Hat, that was similar to the pirate hat (Ravelry link) that I had made for my husband. I chose Swish DK because it’s superwash merino – he’s a little itch-sensitive, so I wanted something super soft, and there was a good chance of the hat getting less-than-attentive treatment in the laundry.

I used the free We Call Them Pirates pattern (Ravelry link) for the shape of the hat, but I used a chart from a different free pattern to use classic Space Invaders in the two-color stranded knitting. The hat also has a sewn hem at the brim, and …

Don’t worry, I’m not wandering away from knitting and spinning! But, the gang in Connecting Threads has become obsessed with English Paper Piecing. It is a fast, easy and fun way to hand piece an entire quilt! No sewing machine necessary! And, it’s portable because you are working on little pieces!
It also turns out to be a perfect baby shower project. As you can see, even a complete quilting novice (me) can stitch together a little piece of the quilt. This is for Teri who is expecting her first baby. Stars and Hexagons have been distributed to people throughout the company – decorative painters, knitters and the quilters. I have to say that is was very soothing to work on my little star. I did the whole thing on the craft night before we left on vacation.

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This classic, Elizabeth Zimmermann project has been on my “Really Need to Knit Some Time” list. Thanks to Bob’s son, Adam, I finally got to make one!! It is absolutely fantastic on every level –
1 – Fast to knit
2 – Easy to knit
3 – Every guy in the office likes it. A couple even tried it on and I was a bit concerned I wasn’t going to get it back.
4 – It looks good on me!!! I am going to make one in “my” colors ASAP. No, I DO NOT want to hear from any of my friends in Tina’s UFO group. If you had just finished knitting this hat, you would have more compassion.
5 – It’s reversible
6 – With one end tucked into the other there are two layers on your head and four layers over your ears.
It’s heading off to Princeton this morning. I suspect Adam still has …