Monthly Archives: February 2014

Washington’s Headquarters …

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Ford Mansion -George Washington’s headquarters – Morristown, New Jersey

- by Joan -

(CLICK HERE for information)


G. Washington Slept Here …

In honor of Presidents Day I thought I’d write about our first president.

I don’t know if George Washington ever slept on Martha’s Vineyard but he certainly slept his way around New Jersey.

He arrived at Ford Mansion in Morristown, NJ in Dec of 1779 and stayed until June of 1780.  His troops of 10,000 men were encamped at nearby Jockey Hollow during the harshest winter of the war.

Morristown, New Jersey

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This description of the mansion is from Wikipedia:

‘The Ford Mansion has a Georgian style exterior, but the interior kitchen and framing shows evidence of Dutch influence. The mansion was made with palladian window above the door and a stylish cornice. The fancy architecture was not created to look appealing, but to showcase the wealth of the family who owned the building.’
My creation

Built between 1772 and 1774 it was the home of Jacob and Theodosia Ford.  The following description is from Wikipeida:

‘The headmaster’s section of the house was built with symmetrical rooms on both side of the foyer. The office is across from the library and the parlor is across from the dining room. On the second floor there are symmetrical bedrooms for each side of the hallway. The servant’s section of the house was near the kitchen  and the pantry  on the east side. The grand hall and the parlor are what categorized the house as a mansion. Unlike most mansions at the time, the Ford Mansion did not use bricks for the exterior, but painted flush board and clapboards.’

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Front door of main part of house

My creation

Door to servant’s quarters

My creation

Fireplace and back of house

My creation

Across the road is this statue of George Washington by Frederick Roth (1927-28)

My creation

Sometimes it’s fun to play tourist in and around where you live.   Morristown in particular is rich in American Revolutionary War history and Morris County is known as  The Military Capital of the American Revolution.

LINKS:

Ford Mansion – Wikipedia

Revolutionary War New Jersey

Washington’s Headquarters – National Park Traveler


Moonshine Patterns as PDFs!

We were so thrilled when we heard from KFI that our Moonshine pattern booklet was sold out in the warehouse. Why? Because it means that we can now offer these patterns directly to you as pdfs! Of course it is much more economical to buy the pattern booklet, so check with your LYS to see if they might have a booklet left. And, all of our digital patterns are available to purchase through your yarn store if they participate in Ravelry’s In Store Sales program, which more and more shops are participating in.

Anyway, back to the task at hand… showing you which Moonshine patterns are now available digitally AND announcing our pattern sale to celebrate!

We’re offering 12 of our 14 Moonshine patterns by Ruth Garcia-Alcantud as pdfs. She knocked our socks off with this collection and we’re trilled to make these designs more accessible to you, gentle knitter.

Our most popular Moonshine patterns are:

the Carme sweater

Moonshine Carme

the effortlessly stylish Dione top

Dione

and the cover-girl of patterns, Phoebe sweater

Pheobe

But my personal favorites include:

The playful and unisex Mathilde hat

Mathilde

the Calliope vest has been in my queue since I first saw it, but I haven’t tackled it yet.

Calliope Vest

and I have a fondness for the not frequently practical, but absolutely whimsical Eugenia capelet

Eugenia Capelet

However, there are plenty of other great patterns in the collection like:

the Goddess-worthy Iocaste top

Iocaste

the easy and popular Amalthea cowl

Amalthea cowl

the gorgeous Elara kimono

Elara

the cozy Anthe shawl

Anthe Hero

the playful Calista top

Calista Laugh

and the darling Ida mitts

Ida Mitts

You can find more info about the pattern of your choice by clicking through the picture, or you can look at all of the Moonshine patterns.

To celebrate this pattern release and because it’s President’s Day, we’re putting all of our patterns on sale! If you purchase two or more patterns on our website, you will automatically receive 50% off of all of your patterns. Now is the time to stock up! The discount will be applied automatically during checkout and cannot be combined with any other discounts. Sale is this week only and expires 11:59p Eastern on Sunday, February 23rd.

All of these patterns will look great in our new Moonshine colorways. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Check back later this week for the start of the official unveiling of our Spring/Summer 2014 yarn lines, which are arriving in yarn stores now!

Olympic Winter Knitting

We’ve been thrilled around here to once again have the Winter Olympics on tv to enjoy.  Even better, we’ve had actual winter weather to go along with it!

And so, there has been much knitting.

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This is the Cypress Cowl from the JMF Marlowe pattern book.  I also knitted the matching hat for my friend Julianne, but sadly forgot to take pictures because I was in such a hurry to get it sent off to her.

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I also knitted up the Amalthea Cowl from the JMF Moonshine pattern book.

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This is the Cypress Cowl again to show detail – I just love how it looks, and the yarn (Marlowe) might be my new favorite silky soft yarn to knit with.  I want to make a massive blanket from it with which to wrap myself up!

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I’m also spending a lot of Olympic viewing time working on my Shepherd sweater.  There’s a knit-a-long going on on Ravelry and seeing everyone’s progress has really pushed me to try and get further along.

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I just love the cables.  It might be slow going for me, but it’s incredibly enjoyable in the meantime!
I’m hoping to be able to wear it at least once before winter is totally over, but I am not counting on it.  I’m just thrilled we’ve actually finally HAD a winter this year!  We’re trying to enjoy every moment of it.

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Tagged: Knitting, Pets, Seasons

Sunday Snooze

Enjoy Cosmo and Gnocchi, snoozing in the sunny hay this afternoon.

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Shop Update

I know it’s been about a million years since I updated the Tiny Dino Studios etsy shop, but the long wait for new product is finally over! You can find all of these new items and many more sale items in the shop now.

Happy Tie Dye Lace Yarn 4
Happy in Oviraptor Lace

Madame Soothsayer Tie Dye Lace Yarn 3
Madame Soothesayer in Oviraptor Lace

Fire Flower Tie Dye Sock Yarn 3
Fire Flower Tie Dye in T-Rex Sock

Jelly Bean Tie Dye Sock Yarn 3
Jelly Bean in T-Rex Sock

Happy Tie Dye Sock Yarn 3
Happy in T-Rex Sock

Handspun Wensleydale 4
Handspun Wensleydale

Easter Eggs Falkland 3
Easter Eggs 100g Falkland Top

Gobstopper Wool Top 2
Gobstopper in 181g of Wool Top

Fun fact, everything but the handspun was dyed with food safe dyes! I haven’t played with food coloring in ages. It was a blast. I love how it enables me to mix colors on the yarn. Which is your favorite?

Icicle Attachment …

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- by Joan -


Review: Cozy Knits

Review: Cozy Knits post image

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First, the facts:

Title: Cozy Knits: 50 Fast & Easy Projects from Top Designers

Author: Tanis Gray

Published by: Interweave Press, 2013

Pages: 183

Type: Accessory patterns

Chapters:

1. Heartfelt Hats
2. Warm and Wonderful Mittens
3. Cuddly Cowls & Scarves
4. Snuggly Sweaters, Shawls and Shrugs
5. Quick and Clever Gifts

KS: Cozy Knits

The In-Depth Look:

I have no excuse for having let this charming book sit, unreviewed, on my desk for over a month.

As explained in the introduction, Tanis Gray’s “…first love is creating knits that are simple and fun to knit and just as much fun to wear. To put together the ultimate collection of quick and cozy projects to knit, I reached out to some of my favorite designers … Among these fifty projects, you’ll find dozens of mittens, hats, and other accessories; sumtuous sweaters, scarves, shawls, and cowls; colorful accents for the home; and lots of ideas for quick and clever gifts for everyone on your list, including little ones and the hard-to-knit-for.”

Really, it’s a great book. Fifty patterns, first of all, which is a lot. Most of them are quick patterns, easy to make quickly so you can wear them. The range of difficulty, too, covers the full range from new knitters to those with more experience. In fact, my best friend just finished the Weekend Away gaiter/cowl as her second-ever knitting project, complete with lace pattern and chart-reading, and all.

Honestly, my only regret is that it took me so long to point you in the direction of this lovely book.

You can get your own copy at your local yarn shop or at Amazon.com.
Want to see bigger pictures? Click here.

This review copy was kindly donated by Interweave Press. Thank you!

My Gush: Too good to have left sitting on my desk.

Other posts for this author:

Plot Holes …

While out browsing with Deb we saw these books…

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 we were curious so we of course took pictures of them… and opened them… Deb said ‘plot holes’ would make a great blog title… so I’m using it …

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I don’t know how I feel about carving books into letters… you obviously can’t read them so what would you do with them?  Conversation starters.  Paperweights. Book ends, which sounds like I mean the end for the books but I meant book ends !!!! I think.

What do you think about them ?


Flowers On Display …

My creation

- by Joan -