Live and Learn... Proceed wisely

Lobster-on-the-Rocks

Today I learned a lesson....  I was photographing the latest, the Lobster-on-the-Rocks hat, with seaweed crown.  The best bowl I had to shape it over was a glass one.  The photos on a blue background weren't right, so I set the hat-on-bowl aside to change the background and....

Seaweed Crown

smash!  Opps!  Even with a wool hat around it, the glass bowl didn't stand a chance against the cement basement floor. Sigh!  We really need to invest in a head to photograph the hats.    So this hat is not sellable, but I will knit it again, and write the pattern.

Cut!  

Mended

  And the cut is mendable - I just "happen to have" some of the same yarn it was knit from.  Just like the cookies you bake for a party, and eat the ones that didn't turn out so pretty....  I'll keep this hat for myself.

Mrs Knitters Designs - a new business!!

Stan, Dear Hubby, is so impressive!!  He has been creating patterns from my pattern ideas and sending them off to Staples to be published.  So far we have the "Pansy Garden Tam" printed, and the Anchor hat, Lobster hat, Chickadee tam and the Celtic Owl hat have been sent to the printer.

Right now I'm almost finished another version of the lobster I'm calling "Lobster on the Rocks" with a brown and green (seaweed) background.
My test knitters are working on four other hats to be sure the patterns work well.  Nancy is working on the Fruit of the Spirit, Nora is working on the Blue Willow Plate, Ruth is knitting the Morning Mermaid, and I will deliver the Walnut Street Snowflake tam kit to Diana this week.  Thank you test knitters!!!

Etsy Shop is open!

Today is the big day.  Today we opened my Etsy shop, listing 20 beautiful, soft handknit hats for sale.  Come on over and have a look!  http://www.etsy.com/shop/MrsKnitterDesigns

A Month in Pennsylvania

Rambling - well, we've been rambling for a month and are glad to be back home.  We enjoyed the fellowship of friends and family in Pennsylvania so very much, but not so much that we regretted coming back to Maine!  Mom is such a dear to live with, and it is abundantly clear that Maine is where we belong now.

While in PA we met with various friends for meals and fellowship, celebrated a son's birthday (Seth), attended a Mark Lowery concert at CLA, enjoyed a "Christmas party" with our bicycle club IC3, dog-sat for a friend, moved a daughter (Ruth) from OCH apartment to condo, visited grandchildren - and their parents (Josiah & Rachel), made a pie with Ruth on PI day - March 14th, shopped at The Manning's and visited with my dear friends there, attended a children's concert at CBC, knitted seven hats, went GeoCaching with Seth, Miriam and Ruth, took Miriam to Dulles airport to see her off to South Africa where she will work a few months with WOLSA, volunteered at ABWE candidate seminar to prepare new missionaries, and attended the opening Sunday gathering at York LCBC.    I'm sure I've forgotten something, but yes, we kept busy.  Wouldn't have wanted to miss a bit of it.

Designing Hats

Since moving to Maine, I've been designing and knitting hats again.  My favorite yarn is fingering weight wool, especially 2/8 Maine Line from JaggerSpun, or Palette from KnitPicks.  The prototypes for a pine cone and tassel hat and a chickadee hat are completed.  Also, a Breast Cancer Awareness hat is finished for a friend who asked for one after looking at my Facebook album.  Now I've begun working on another one of my Spider hats in black, red and gray.  On Wednesday we'll be taking a trip to PA for a few weeks, and I find I want to take along my whole stash of fingering weight wool to knit from.  What painter would travel with only half of her colors?!  Or at the very least, I must go find my colored pencils...

Moving to Maine!

Well, this is the Rambling part...  Stan is retiring from his job in Pennsylvania so that we can move to Maine to be near (with) my mother!!  I am looking forward to visiting with my friends there - so many that I've reconnected with because of Facebook!!  And the yarn stores near my mom - String Theory, Blue Hill yarn store and One Lupine Fiber Arts for instance - I can't wait to get to know them better.  It's going to be great!

Craft Cruises! Yay!

Stan and I just got home from a wonderful 9-day cruise. Melissa Gower-Pence, with Craft Cruises http://www.craftcruises.com/, did a wonderful job of organizing the Knitters' cruise and identifying yarn store and spots of fiber interest in the ports along the way. We cruised from Bayonne NJ to Portland ME (with a stop in Bath and Halcyon Yarn Store), Bar Harbor ME, St Johns NB, Halifax NS and Boston MA. I've been on cruises before, but never felt so "at home" among the poeple as I did this time. Somehow, knowing that there are knitters to hang out with, just makes you feel like you're all already friends!
Stan came along and brought his spinning wheel ( a Lendrum) and improved his spinning skills while I took knitters' classes on the at-sea days. I learned about Andean knitting and how to read Japanese patterns and charts, along with a lot of other very helpful information. The teachers were Joan Schrouder and Donna Druchanus. I enjoyed every minute of the cruise and am SO GLAD we did it! Thank you, Stan!!