Hat Kits' debut

Mrs Knitter display in the Mannings booth at Knitters' Day Out

It's been a great week!  We debuted our kits in The Mannings booth at Knitters' Day Out in Summerdale PA.  For years I've enjoyed manning that booth with Ron and Carol, but it was extra fun this year since I had some of my own creations to sell.  At the show for sale we had the Pansy Tam, the Celtic Owl hat, the Chickadee Tam, the Lobster hat, and the Anchor hat.  Also we offered the 2 downloadable free patterns: the Breast Cancer Awareness hat and the Support Our Troops hat.  (All the hats can be viewed on the Mrs Knitter Designs Facebook page).

Then when we got home to Maine after the trip to PA, we found an order from Halcyon Yarn - a store in Bath, ME that stocks our kits!  We had just enough kits left from the show to send to Halcyon, so now we need to make some more to get ready for Stitches East in Connecticut in October.
The new patterns we have ready for Stitches East are the Lobster-on-the-Rocks hat, the Fruit of the Spirit hat and the Blue Willow tam.

Blue Willow tam

Lobster on the Rocks hat

Fruit of the Spirit hat

Raveling - the work of a designer

Well, I guess we all ravel sometimes - tink, frog, whatever you like to call it.  I started another Lobster hat in a different colorway.  Maybe this looks more like the rocky Maine coast, we'll see.  But, oops!  I didn't realize until after I tried to increase from the ribbing stitch count to the hat body stitch count...  I cast on 20 too many stitches orignally.  Rrrrip-it, rrrrip-it!  Start over, work a couple of inches and put it down for the night.
Next morning - started thinking of a different way to arrange the design so that there are 8 lobsters rather than 7....  Rrrrip-it, rrrrip-it!  Starting again, alternating lobsters with their heads up and lobsters with their tails up...
As Carol Woolcock would say, "twice as much fun with the same yarn!"  (Or as my dear old grandmother used to say - "Do and undo, keeps fools busy!")

Thank you Jagger Spun!!

Rejoicing!!  My yarn manufacturer has posted a sweet little blurb about Mrs Knitter Designs on her website!!  Go to  http://www.jaggeryarn.com/jagger-ragg.htm and see.  I really love the Jagger Maine Line 2/8 wool.  I love that it's such a soft, smooth wool and I love the color selection for my hats.  I also love that it's made in Maine!   

Waiting for new little Ritchie

Rambling...  Stan and I traveled to Pennsylvania yesterday, and are here caring for the two grandchildren while their Mom is in the hospital....  we haven't heard that the new little sister is born yet...  maybe during the night...  Maybe tomorrow...  We wait.

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