Monthly Archives: January 2014

Gazette Parody …

Posted on January 8, 2014 by | Comments Off on Gazette Parody …

Long ago and far away in the year 1984, a staff of very clever, creative and whimsical people put out a parody issue of the Vineyard Gazette ingeniously titled ~ “Not The Vineyard Gazette”. I, collector of all things Vineyard actually have a copy of this one-time parody edition.

One of the articles on the front page is about the discovery of a baby Vineyard named Arthur’s Vineyard, which was named after the helicopter pilot who accidentally found it. There were several theories of how the baby Vineyard came to be, one of which was that it was the baby of MV and Nantucket and that a recent rain storm had been the baby shower. So funny.

Another article on the front page is “Oak Bluffs Changes Name to Oaks Bluffs.” Apparently the name change was due in part to the fact that too much time was being taken correcting people who were getting Oak Bluffs wrong and it was decided to just not fight it anymore. Of course that would never ever ever happen.

An amusing article about Edgartown hiring fashion police. Apparently a glitch in getting the fashion police out on the streets is the inability to agree on a color scheme for their uniforms. Tawny brown and mocha versus cranberry and puce. I would think they’d have trouble recruiting anyone if they had to wear those combinations of colors.

Take your pick of a Vineyard themed movie.

This was an actual drink on the Vineyard. It was grape flavored water and it was delicious. I wonder whatever happened to it… I wonder why I didn’t keep a bottle of it, or the label at least. Here’s to the memory of Vine… sigh.

Clever real estate ads…or are they un-real estate !

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It’s been 30 years, wonder if they’ll ever be another parody edition :)


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Yarned by You: Hat Edition

Posted on January 8, 2014 by | Comments Off on Yarned by You: Hat Edition

Today’s Yarned by  You looks at hats. Maybe you’re still feeling a bit burnt out from Christmas knitting, but need something quick to get your mojo back. Or maybe you have (or someone you love has) a chilly noggin. A hat is the perfect solution! It knits fast! One size fits many! Even if it doesn’t fit its recipient, it will likely fit someone, unless you make it big enough for a giant. (Well, I don’t know. Maybe you actually have some friends that are giants.)

Here’s a quick look at various hats that people are knitting. Click the picture to be taken to the Ravelry page where you can learn what about the pattern and the yarn they’re knitting with. (I like to play “Guess the Yarn” while looking these up.)

choosingchair's Gentian

cosmosisknits' alfalfa baby hat

dldurkee's insulate hat

DSlane's Snowtracks cap

MoffetRoad's eon ski bonnet

Olivia's Owlie Hat

rachellauren's Bray cap

ridgebackmama's Amanda Hat

shoshanadove's berry baby hat

Which hat is your favorite? What hats do you want to knit?

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Missed Connection: Flight 57

Posted on January 7, 2014 by | Comments Off on Missed Connection: Flight 57

We were on JetBlue Flight 57 Boston to Dulles at 6:27am Monday, January 6th. Bleary-eyed, I sat with my knitting, trying to keep calm while we took off. By the time I noticed you, half of our 1 hour 30 minute flight was over, you had headphones in and there was a sleeping man and an aisle between us. You were wearing black, had your ipad out and were knitting on what looked like a shawl made of a blue variegated Kid Silk Haze, using a bamboo circular. I was knitting on metal Quicksilver needles with black Juniper Moon Farm Sabine yarn, wearing a hand-knit sweater and bags under my eyes.

Had the fates not been against us I would have loved to talk knitting, pattern, and yarns. But alas, by the time my seatmate removed himself from his chair, you were long gone, nor did I see you by baggage claim. (Although to be fair, I was focusing on getting my checked bag which contained some of the samples for our upcoming photo shoot, anxious that it wouldn’t come around the carousel. I needn’t have worried; it was the fourth bag out.)

May the knitting gods with be with you, lady in black.

 

PS – Something is up with the sock club yarn inventory. I’ll need to check it out and see if we’re out of stock or not yet. So if you’ve emailed me in the last few days, I’ll get back to you later today. Yesterday was a doozy of a day!

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Chappy By The Fire …

Posted on January 6, 2014 by | Comments Off on Chappy By The Fire …

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- by Joan -


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The 2014 Blanket Block-A-Long

Posted on January 6, 2014 by | Comments Off on The 2014 Blanket Block-A-Long

When I saw Cris’ fantastic first blanket square, I implored her to share her progress on the blog. Despite that she’s already sharing the progress of her Moonshine sweater, she agreed. I think that you’ll like what you see. And if you check out the thread on Ravelry specifically for knitting blankets, I think you’ll be just as impressed! We’ve got some great blankets being made! I would love to see someone knit blocks out of the sock club yarn. Wouldn’t that be amazing?- Lauria

I am not so much for New Years resolutions.  In most cases, I find that my enthusiasm for whatever resolution I have set for myself peters out some time around Valentine’s Day (hello chocolate, my old friend).  Instead, this year I set myself some goals.  The goals should be a challenge, things I have to put effort into, but at the same time tangible and attainable.

One of my goals for 2014 is to design and knit an afghan block each month, which I will then stitch together at the end of the year into one snuggly blanket.  The design aspect of this is the real challenge for me. I have improvised a few small knit and crochet items, but I have never officially designed anything.  Especially not anything as large as a blanket.

After perusing my stash (another one of my goals is to knit from stash as much as possible), I decided to knit my blocks in Yearling.  It is super soft and squishy, and the bulky weight yarn knits up quickly.  Primarily, I’ll be using the Hot Chocolate, Chili Pepper, Mermaid, and Butternut colorways, with a few other colors sprinkled in  as accents here and there.

I am aiming for a patchwork sort of look. Some of my blocks will be solid color blocks with stitch patterns.  Others will be colorwork designs of some sort. The only hard and fast rules are that the blocks should be 12 inches square (for easy seaming), and no two blocks will be exactly alike.  For my January block, I used the Chili Pepper colorway to knit a block that I consider to be a scaled up version of the cabled owl motif featured in Kate Davies‘ owls sweater.  I have always loved the little owls and the way they are created by an ingenious use of simple cables.  My block also uses cables, but on a much larger scale, to create the owl design.  Later, I’ll add eyes and a beak using duplicate stitch.

Each month, I’ll be sharing my progress and pictures of the new block here on the blog and in the JMF group on Ravelry.  There are several of us in the JMF group knitting blankets of assorted designs this year, and we would love to have you join us in the blanket block-a-long.  (If you are interested in knitting up one of my block designs, I’ll be sharing the designs on Ravelry.)  If you have your own blanket in progress or would like to start a blanket for the new year, please stop by the group and share your blanket ambitions with us.  Hope to see you there!

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Twenty-Nine

Posted on January 6, 2014 by | Comments Off on Twenty-Nine

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Today, I am twenty-nine. It’s my new year, the day I start afresh.

Today, I woke up with a cold, so I haven’t been doing much in the way of celebrating, mostly sleeping and reading and sitting on the sofa drinking all the fluids. I am also not going to work tomorrow, which is pretty exciting.

Thinking outside the sickness, which will only be a memory in a few days, lets talk about goals.

2013 was one of those years that got away from me. I moved twice, I got married, and I worked really hard on a big project at the day job. All of this really overshadowed all of the Big Plans I talked about, but never named in a blog post, because all of those other things took up way more time and energy than I expected.

Now though, I am married, settled, and Big Work Project is launched, so I am more optimistic about what I can get done this year–I even have goals written down!

1. Have a happy and healthy baby.
I’m on the cusp of my third trimester, and am so excited for April. And it might sounds a little crazy, but I cannot wait until baby is ready to come, and it’s time to give birth. When the time comes, I am so ready to face that challenge. Plus, at the end, there’s a baby to love and take care of, and that’s so worth it. Since this comes first, it might have an effect on some of the ones listed below, but that’s just the way of things when there’s a new one around.

2. Blog more often.
During all those months in 2013 when I was not blogging, or not able to blog, I was preparing blog posts to you, dear reader, in my head nearly every day. It’s a habit I’ve formed mentally, even if it’s not one that’s been put into practice all that well. I’ve even written myself up a schedule and everything. I hope to make tinydinostudios.com lot more active in 29th year.

3. Publish more patterns
I have a few patterns I released for free up on Ravelry. While they haven’t gone viral or anything, I have received nothing but compliments on them. I haven’t written a new pattern in almost ten months, but it’s something I really love doing.

4.Grow more of my own food (and preserve it).
Our second, and hopefully last move for a very long time, came with a yard. One of the first things we did when we moved in, leaving most of the boxes unpacked, was mulch five small garden beds for planting in the spring. We want to do the usual variety of summer vegetables we’ve done in the past,but I also really want try my hand at growing some blackberries, strawberries, and more leafy greens like kale and chard.

5.Rehab my etsy store.
I’m working on a new shop update as we speak, as it’s been too many months since I’ve done anything with my store. I’m not quite sure when it will be ready, but I’ll let you know when it is.

6.Use my sewing machine more.
I used to sew a lot. I know how to do it, and I know how use my machine–I just don’t. Included in this is learning more about fabric and learning how to print on it, dye it, and paint it.

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Cold Snap

Posted on January 4, 2014 by | Comments Off on Cold Snap

While the northeast has been getting hammered with snow, we’ve been dealing with rain, sleet, wind and cold.  Normally here in central Virginia we don’t get a lot of the arctic temperatures I was accustomed to growing up in northern New York State, but occasionally it gets down into the twenties, and even more rarely, the teens.  After a full two days of rain, which made the ground a muddy, sodden mess, we got sleet, which made it an icy, sodden mess, followed by cold and wind, which froze everything solid.

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See how the mud froze?  The deep ruts from the tractor are pretty bad.  It caused a lot of problems trying to get the gates open, as the mud around the bottom is frozen in this very uneven pattern.

Fortunately, we have a tank heater in the water trough for the flock, so their water never freezes, as long as it is full.

Unfortunately, the water lines out to the trough are frozen.  But, the flock needs water, frozen lines or no, so Paul came up with the solution to fill up buckets up at the house, put lids on them, and drive them down to the flock in the tractor.

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It took ten buckets to fill the trough and the water bucket for Lucy and Orzo (who are in a separate pen they can’t escape from and terrorize the neighborhood).  We’ll have to do this at least once, if not twice, a day until the temperatures come back up.

The water in the pig pen has not frozen because it sits up against the house and the faucet there has (so far) been fine.  We’ve put the littlest lambs up there with the pigs (both for extra grain, extra shelter in the pig shed, and so that Mr Francis doesn’t breed any little girls that aren’t ready yet).

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They’ve been getting square bales of hay inside the shed, and the pigs have spread it all around in there to make a nest for everyone.

Did you know pigs make nests?  I never did.

As for the rest of the flock, I hadn’t spent much time before worrying about shelter because adult sheep and goats can generally handle the cold fairly well.  It’s the ice rain we’ve been plagued with that’s been the trouble.  The Angora goats aren’t tolerating it all that well, so Susan decided to order some calf hutches for them.

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They’re pretty large; several goats can fit in it at a time, with room to spare.

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Milkshakes and Adelaide still prefer the dog house.

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Roquefort and Martin have claimed one for themselves!

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The sheep have shown no interest in them at all.

I feel a lot better about the flock’s situation now, especially as we’re expecting more sleet tomorrow. Is it any wonder I’ve been feeling unwell?

Once the flock was squared away today I made a big pot of Susan’s Garlic Chicken Soup. That’ll keep us warm for the night.


Tagged: Farm, Pets

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Repeating Words …

Posted on January 3, 2014 by | Comments Off on Repeating Words …

I’m repeating this post from last January because it did inspire and encourage me.

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Everywhere you look this time of year there are words of encouragement, hope, and inspiration to help you along with those pesky new year’s resolutions so many of us fail to keep. We all know the sayings and catch phrases and remember them at least for awhile.

And then the other day I saw this card… it jumped right out at me… I read it… liked what it said and put it back. Then picked it up again. Put it back and walked away. It pulled me back and it was obvious I wasn’t leaving the store without it.

It’s not just the words, I like the colors, the contented look on the woman’s face.. peaceful and all knowing without being all preachy about it.

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Some of these things will be easy to embrace, others not so much.

*Embrace change –- Never an easy thing for me, I usually like things the way they are and fight against too much change… some would say all change but I disagree, I’m trying to accept some change.

*Take the journey back to yourself –- Ahhh, it’s so easy to lose the ‘self’ we are, the one that is inside our heads talking to us. We lose ourselves and become someones mother, wife, sister, friend… the essence of our inner self gets overshadowed. I am definitely encouraging my inner self to stand out and up more often.

*Speak of gratitude –- I am grateful and do speak of it often and hope that it comes through to those I am grateful to, and for.

*Wear yellow shoes — Here’s one I’m looking forward to. I used to have yellow heels and yellow patent leather flats and they made me happy. They say you should always have a pair of red shoes and I agree with that, but yellow, now there’s a pair of shoes to dance among the stars in.  (Never got yellow shoes but I got ones with stars on them)

*Unleash your creative spirit –I do unleash my creative spirit… here are two examples… this blog…and my photography blog

http://throughjerseyeyes.com/

*be positive – I’m not generally, I am a pessimist with optimistic leanings but I shall endeavor to switch that around. Really, I’m positive about that !

*Believe in healing — Definitely, no doubt about it…mentally, physically and spiritually.. we can heal.

*Share your inner light — I try to do that,  a smile here, a smile there, it’s amazing how many people react positively to that… see, I’m being positive :)

*Surprise yourself and do things you didn’t think you could do — I’m always surprised at what I do that I didn’t think I could… I usually need a gentle push from loved ones..okay sometimes a shove.

*Live as if you only have one chance –We definitely only have one chance at the life we’re living now.

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Fabric Friday

Posted on January 3, 2014 by | Comments Off on Fabric Friday

Christmas ended, and I realized that I have less than four months until the baby gets here. For some reason, instead of unpacking the rest of the house and cleaning everything from top to bottom (though I am sure that will come), I am feeling compelled to sew everything for the baby we don’t have yet. When I can’t sleep at night, I browse sewing patterns online for babies: diapers, blankets, clothes.

While I have conceded that since I don’t really sew very often, it might be better for me to buy my cloth diapers. And while I might make a small garment or two for the babe, I really am not willing to put the time commitment in to sew everything a little one will need. But I have found a few projects I think I can tackle.

First, Brock and I really want a ring sling each. I had a Maya Wrap with Athrun that I really liked, but don’t have any more. Since those wraps run around $70 each, I figured it could tackle the project for the both of us. I happened across this pattern, put together by Maya Wrap. They even recommend where to buy the rings! I’m very excited to try this out. I found some osnaburg fabric from fabric.com, which I read is a good choice for this type of project, though to be honest, I know nothing about it.

I also bought some muslin, mostly to experiment with the printing I keep talking about doing. (I was thinking about making a light weight scarf for myself with hot pink sheep on it, actually.) Since my nesting instincts seems to require a lot of browsing on pinterest, I came across a baby blanket DIY the other night.

Gauzy Baby Blankets

So now I have something to do with the large swathes of fabric I was planning on covering with sheep prints, you know, for practice.

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2014 Knitting & Designing Plans

Posted on January 3, 2014 by | Comments Off on 2014 Knitting & Designing Plans

Okay, now for the 2014 knitting & designing plans!

This is the year I get grounded, in a good way. I don’t know if that’s my word of the year.  I don’t know if I want to pick a word of the year, or a phrase, or even a theme.  But getting grounded, to me, includes getting caught up, being able to prioritize (and being able to say no), and reassessing what I want to do as a designer.

First step in getting caught up is finishing up the next collection. Last year my plan was for Fall 2013, and I obviously missed that.

Folks, I sourced yarn for a lot of this at the last Sock Summit (2011). Yes, CRK wasn’t yet published at that time, and I was still working on that, so that took up 2012, and then Hitch took over for 2013, but now, this collection is getting DONE.

The majority of the patterns are done and tech edited. All but one of the big projects (a cabled vest, which is currently in the works) are done. I’m planning on doing the photoshoot in two sessions. I’m working with an awesome graphic designer (same as did my logo!) on layout.

I noted last year that this collection is very similar in some ways to CRK: a variety of projects (garments, hats, mitts, stoles, shawls, cowls & socks) and techniques (cables, lace, stranding, intarsia, beading), with yarn sourced from indie dyers and small yarn companies.

Based on feedback for CRK, I’m going to be releasing this collection as a series of five eBooks, grouped by technique (Lace 1, Cables, Stranded, Lace 2, and Texture), each with 4-6 patterns.  I’m planning on releasing them roughly one per month beginning in February or March.

I’m still debating the option of printed booklets.  Do you prefer print? or eBooks?  I know that while I still like some things in hard copy (stitch dictionaries) I prefer to work patterns off of PDFs on my iPad.  If you like print, do you like books, or booklets?

I’ll be following up with a big post about it in the next week or two!

Other designing stuff, mainly for after this collection gets out:

I’m going to do a couple yarn club patterns, a single yarn company small collection, and a Malabrigo quickie.  I love doing this sort of thing — I get to work with friends, with gorgeous yarn.  I’ve not been able to do it as much as I would’ve liked, recently, because of all the big projects (Hitch, next collection, etc).  This year I will.

I’m also redoing a few patterns for the Knit Picks IDP.

I also love designing collections around a theme.  I’m leaning towards the idea of designing two smaller (say 5-7 patterns each) collections per year: Early Fall and Late Winter, most likely.

Shows

I’m going to have a half booth at TNNA in San Diego through Deep South. I’ll have a ton of samples, including some from the upcoming collection.

Every TNNA I’ve gone to I’ve been letting people know I’m not really looking for yarn, because I had all the yarn I needed for the next collection.  This time I’ll be able to touch base with folks about actually setting up yarn support, which will be fun.

I’m teaching mini classes at Madrona this year (I think they’ll be posted soon! I’ll post here when they are).

Right after Madrona, I’ll be at Stitches West, mostly in the Bijou Basin booth and the Dragonfly Fiber booth.

I’m planning on doing a booth at the Torrance show in the fall again — that was fun!

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