Author Archives: Talitha

combos

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when i am cold

i feel the most motivated

to knit something for myself.

the other night, feeling quite chilly,

i ran into holly priestley‘s ‘nomadic night’s slouch’.

ooh, i love how much personality this hat has

and how much room it gives

each of us individual

knitters to

express ourselves in color and yarn combinations.

in true antiestablishmentarian style,nomad yarns collagei chose three different yarns altogether.

it’s a big ol’ hat, so matching up exact gauge is optional, right?

i almost never would think that,

but in this case

i did and it’s working.

holly’s version is much more colorful than mine,

which in a different mood i might have wanted,IMG_8710upbut right now, all the neutrals and mixed textures sing to me

of varied experiences and how they’ve

shaped me, made me

who i am.

i have worked through the corrugated rib,

and found the colorwork chart to be fabulously simple.

nothing like clarity to make a project feel like it’s flying off the needles!

if i juggle things right today (ie: get the necessary stuff done),

i could have my ‘nomad’ ready

before the storm hits

tomorrow afternoon.

that’s my goal.  we’ll see if i hit it.

‘nomads’ taken from 13:20 of isaiah.

yarns in top photo: (left) hudson valley fiber farm ‘farmstead’ from a local market,

(center) malabrigo ‘twist’ in terron, and (right) classic elite yarns ‘blackthorn’ in alabaster.

it continues

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the snow

just won’t stop.

flakes have been gently falling for two days

with a big 50 mph wind storm due to hit day after tomorrow

IMG_8701cropand drop over a foot more snow.

it was fun at first,

but has long since lost its charm.

so what do i do when

grey skies and blizzard warnings are

imminent?

i block knit things.  truth.

because this weather gets my forced hot air furnace

in full swing and things soaked and pinned today will be ready to go tomorrow.

IMG_8696crop

that kind of progress makes me feel

like taking a look out the windows

and still seeing

white snow on the roof of my neighbor’s white painted house under the grey white sky,

might just be bear-able.

(although it does make me growl a bit.)

‘truth’ taken from 13:6 in first corinthians.

 ‘allure fiber wash‘ courtesy of bijou basin ranch.

note: you know me and the strength of my convictions.

i am not one to be swayed by a little free bottle of fiber wash.

end result?  i really did like this stuff.  a lot.

flowery

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she begins like this,

‘music has been a part of my life forever’

hey, that’s me, too!  the things we have in common continue with

“chords grab a hold of you and fill you from the inside out”.

oh yeah.  they so do.

then there’s knitting, which melissa and i also have in common.

her stuff is classic in the coolest way.melissa sch collageif you don’t know it,check it out.

but, i digress. in the quotes above, she is writing a review

of my book ‘artistic differences’.

today i added a link to her site, along with other links

to other reviews and book signing date and places to buy the book.

it now has its own page on my website thanks to helene.

when i was updating it today i realized that

i hadn’t even told you it was there.

now i have.

photos courtesy of dandilion girl designs.

‘common’ taken from 10:13 of first corinthians.

rapping it up

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kater tater knits does not disappoint.

katertaterknits urbi asked if she’d take a look at

my new book, ‘artistic differences‘,

and (if she liked it)

to give it some love.

in true katie style,

she made a video and wrote a rap.

yup, ‘artistic differences’

has inspired a rap

(now that i never saw coming).

thanks katie! with another foot and a half of snow

predicted here over the next two days,

a fun, catchy video is

just the ticket.

you rock!

‘coming’ taken from 36:33 of job.

this, that and the other

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i seem to have nothing to say

that will cohesively hold this post together.

still, there are these tangent things to be said like:

congratulations to katie lynn

who won the pdf

for julia farwell-clay’s ‘lanesville pullover’.

next up tangentially, this quote from steve jobs is really hitting home today:

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”

and lastly for now,

with another big storm heading our way

(it’s supposed to snow for three days straight)

it’s easy to start to feel like the grey of winter will always be

sitting here on top of us making it

hard to breathe.

then here’s grandma and gramp’s house, all warm and inviting.IMG_8072satyou can see the fresh green grass

illuminated by the welcoming light over the garage doors.

i remember very well standing just there

taking this particular photo one night.

it was not that long ago at all

and it reminds me

that the change to spring, and new inspiration

will come.

soon.

‘green’ taken from 39:8 of job.

some things about julia

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althoughFFC-8030_medium2

i had seen her work

here, there and everywhere,

i had never met julia until this year

when our paths crossed

as we both were working on

our new books

in collaboration with classic elite yarns.

you know those people who

always have

an interesting story to tell?

that’s julia.

and you know the ones whose infectious laughs

can fill a room with something that just wasn’t there

before they arrived? that’s her, too.

she’s also

a fabulous designer.

she has this way of throwing in a twist

that makes a pattern oh so much more than it would have been without her.

do you know what i mean?

i love patterns that teach me something new.

especially the ones where that ‘new’ is so cleverly done

that i’ve learned something before i even have time to be

concerned that maybe i won’t be able to master the technique.FFC-7676_medium2like how in the lanesville pullover she takes stripes,

then nonchalantly adds slipped stitches and i-cord,

so before you have time to trip over the idea of something new,

you’ve already done it and it looks great.

that’s clever.

julia’s mind works like that

because she’s clever in the very best kind of way.

‘from folly cove‘ is available in hardcopy form on-line at webs

and at local yarn stores just about everywhere.

use the code FFC10

on ravelry to get 10% off the individual pdfs

between now and this friday, the 6th of february.

leave a comment below for the chance to win a free copy of

FFC-8078_medium2the lanesville pullover pattern

before thursday the 5th,

and be sure to

check out

the other stops

on this blog tour

especially kristin nicolas’ blog

tomorrow afternoon.

pics courtesy of classic elite yarns.

‘paths’ taken from 3:17 of proverbs.

so very, very close

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i am not one to underestimate.

i have no intention of running out of yarn. ever.

i buy the extra skein. if i don’t need it, it will become a hat later on.

no frantic calculations at the end. no wondering if there will be enough.

all good.

but, when you’re knitting for a contract

often the company sends the yarn

that they’ve estimated you might need.

usually they’re right.

i’m always amazed that they are,

since i have so much trouble getting it just right myself, but right they are.IMG_8017this time, however, it was close.  really, really close.

forty-six narrow inches from not having enough.

less than a yard

and i admit to sweating

it out more than a little  bit right near the end.

but all’s well the ends well, and this one did.

‘close’ taken from 13:8 of genesis.