Bloc Party: note on handspun

Just a quick note to give you some more information on approximately how much handspun you will need for the yoke of Bloc Party, since the original pattern information provided skein quantities (and everyone's handspun skein is different):

Approximate CC quantities: 208, 252, 300, 352, 408, 468, 532yds fingering weight yarn or 2.3, 2.8, 3.4, 3.9, 4.6, 5.3, 5.9oz. fiber

Those are, of course, calculated amounts based upon my gauge using Wooly Wonka's lovely handspun, so YMMV.

And in case I forgot to mention it in my last post, in addition to roving + yarn kits (see link above), Anne is also offering all yarn kits for those of us who are not yet spinners. (If I didn't already have two of these cardigans, I would be sorely tempted to pair two more of Anne's amazing colorways and knit another!)

I'll leave you with a shot from the first photo shoot - I was obsessed with doing a jump shot and nearly re-broke my big toe bouncing up and down in those shoes :)

The crazy awesome glitter platform heels!

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

Pattern: Bloc Party cardigan, Knitty, First Fall 2014

Today is a frabjuous day, calloo callay: I have a new pattern to share with you in the First Fall 2014 issue of Knitty (or, more accurately, KnittySpin)! Bloc Party cardigan is a fingering-weight button-up with a sideways yoke knit in the most divine handspun (courtesy of my talented friend Anne of Wooly Wonka).

There's some clever short-row action in the yoke to shape it up over the shoulders, but don't worry if you've never done short rows: in this garter stitch yoke you don't even have to wrap the stitches! The body is knit simply (no shaping, but you could add your own; however, the Wooly Wonka Artio Sock with its gleaming silk content drapes so beautifully that you don't really need it), and the sleeves, as written, are 3/4 to add a little femininity (again, you could make the sleeves longer - up to you).

So, you start with the sleeves and body at the lower hems and knit your way up to join them. There's an integrated button band.

Then the yoke is worked sideways, nipping off a body stitch every other row. Your finishing work consists of sleeve seams (if I'm working a cardigan flat, I work the sleeves flat, too, to make sure my gauge is consistent), weaving underarm stitches, and putting on some fabulous buttons.

Can you believe those buttons?! They are a perfect, sparkly, purple match for this sweater. I found them on one of my button hunts early this spring at M&J Trimming. The purple sparklers don't seem to be available online, but lots of other options are (and check out my vintage and handmade button treasuries on Etsy. If you want to go on a button hunt with me sometime, let me know. I'd be happy to put together a little tour of my favorites (check in later this week for my newest discovery).

And then you'll be ready to party!

Anne has created kits if you want to spin and knit your own. She's even been kind enough to offer a kit with commercially spun yarn for the yoke, if you're not a handspinner (and aren't lucky enough to convince your bud to spin some for you :)

Backstory
I showed a version of Bloc Party to Anne back when it was in commercial yarn (Jaggerspun Maine Line in Pewter and Madeline Tosh Sock in the Rhubarb colorway, which was the impetus for this design - how could I best show off this beautiful and highly variegated yarn?!). As a talented dyer and spinner, her mind immediately jumped to how great this design would work with handspun. I'd submitted it to Knitty in it's colorful iteration, but Amy thought it might have more appeal in a more moderate version. So, Anne, Amy, KnittySpin editor extraordinaire Jillian, and I put our heads together and came up with this. I love my original, but there is something so special about this version with it's beautiful color and luscious silk - party shoes are definitely required!

Spring has sprung

Monday was such a beautiful day that I took my walk/trot/run/wheeze up to 125th then down along the river and back through Riverside Park. Apparently, the cool weather has kept the pollen down (for the moment), so I am trying to take advantage of the low pollen counts to get out and get this body moving. Thanks to all the knitting I do my hands are very strong, but the rest of me could use some work :)

Here are some pics that you may have seen on Monday of a few highlights along my route...

ready to run in my Team Wilson shirt

 
memorial to the 18th century amiable child along my running route

 
Clearwater sloop on the Hudson - one of the things that makes running along the river awesome

 
cherry blossom graffiti along the Cherry Walk

 
blooming tree along the Cherry Walk

 
violets in Riverside Park

 
stripes cut with a bit of sequined polka dots (putting away laundry happens after the run - there may be a Deckhand mixed in with the store-bought stripes!)

Hap-py blanket

A dear friend recently lost her father quite suddenly. I pondered what to do for her until I remembered this bag of Louet Riverstone that had been sitting in my stash for quite a while. Why had I bought it? The color isn't me at all. Well, clearly I bought it for this friend. Now, what do to with it? 

I started to look at shawl and blanket patterns  when I realized that I could adapt my Hap-py shawl (phone blogging - you can find a link to the pattern on my patterns page) into a comfort blanket that would be perfect: some garter stitch simplicity + eyelet rows for excitement. I would increase until the first skein ran out (center square is worked diagonally), then use another skein to complete the center. After that I would keep track of how many lace repeats I got out of the next two skeins to get an idea of how far I could go with the last one. Funnily enough I did the same number of lace edging rows as the original shawl. 

Working on the center in the sunshine

Finished egg carton lace

Blocking glory

Ready for giving (I'm wearing it folded in half since I couldn't figure out how to take a selfie of me wrapped up in the blanket :)

The finished blanket took about 4.5 skeins (900 yds) of worsted wool, and I was able to start the lace edging with seven repeats on each side. It was such a pleasurable knit that I may need to make one to keep (two colors, perhaps?). 

This was a fairly quick, cosy, comforting knit, and I hope it will provide some comfort for my friends loss. 

Now that I'm finished with this I'm hard at work pattern writing, grading, and reviewing tech edits with nary a stitch to knit. Hopefully I can clear all the work and number stuff off my plate and get clicking tomorrow...

What are you working on the moment?

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen 

Button Hunt

Yesterday I went on a button hunt!

If you follow me on Instagram, Twitter (I post most Instagram pictures to Twitter, too, in case you're not interested in joining Instagram), or Facebook (all tweets get posted to FB, if that's more your social media speed), you already saw my adventures, but I thought I'd share some pictures (and a little video) of how the button hunt went. I had grand plans to visit both M&J Trimming and Mood Fabrics but ended up finding some beauties at M&J first. Don't worry, Mood, I'll always need more buttons and come visit you soon. (And there are even more little shops with buttons and other findings in the area that I had "in my pocket" just in case.)

Beautiful Springtime in New York

 

M&J Trimming's fabulous window display

 

Choices, choices!

 

A little something I picked up for myself at Kinokuniya NYC, which is up the street from M&J and across from Bryant Park. I've been to five of the Old Time places on the list, so I have a fair bit of work to do!


Since I was so button-obsessed yesterday, I also did some hunting on Etsy, creating two treasuries in the process: Handmade and Vintage. Though I have yet to shop with the vendors in the treasuries, many of them have thousands of sales and five-star reviews, and even the new vendors seem highly regarded by their customers. I may start designing sweaters just to go with some of those handmade buttons!!!

I hope Spring is treating you well (even if you got some snow like we did here in NYC) and that all your projects are clicking along. I'm working on magazine sample #3 (of 4, if you're keeping track) so am keeping very busy.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

Pattern: Upon the Spanish Main

Whew! This one has been in the works for a long time. But a beautiful Spring day seems like the perfect time to release a lovely, lacy shawl, don't you think?

Upon the Spanish Main
Wrap yourself in a luscious shawl dripping with Spanish Lace before heading out onto the deck of your galleon.  A little stockinette over your shoulders, and then the written and charted Spanish Lace flows down your back. This worked-on-both-sides lace is so spectacular, it doesn’t need a separate edging, though it will require your concentration. You will have pride of place on the treasure fleet in this extra-wide triangle shawl!

Knit with one skein of Jill Draper Makes Stuff Splendor sock yarn (or any luscious fingering weight yarn). Two-sided lace pattern provided in both charted and written formats.

Size/Finished Measurements
Width: 64 inches Depth: 19 inches

Materials
Jill Draper Makes Stuff Splendor Sock Yarn [80% Merino, 10% Nylon, 10% Cashmere; 435 yards/398 meters per 100 gram skein]; color: Glacier; 1 skein
US6/4.0mm 29-inch circular needle
Stitch markers
Tapestry needle

Gauge
20 stitches x 30 rows = 4 inches in Stockinette Stitch

Skills Needed
Casting on
Binding off
Knitting
Purling
Increasing
Decreasing
Reading charts(written instructions also provided)
Lace

What I'm watching (while I'm knitting)

At the moment I seem to have gotten myself into a big sample production cycle (three of six done for the first half of the year, and I'm about 2/3 of the way through the fourth). All this means a lot of knitting, which for me means a lot of TV watching, and I can only watch my 30 Rock DVDs so many times before I become insufferable (I may already be there).

Thanks to my Entertainment Weekly subscription, I checked out Vikings - a scripted drama on the History channel. It is probably safe to say that I have never watched anything on the History channel before. No offense! Up to this point it hasn't really aired my kind of stuff. But Vikings is quite good, if you can get past the really bloody axe battles. The women are strong (and beautiful, of course), the men handsome (and burly - duh, vikings!), there are even a few handknits (check out Ragnar and his blanket below), and I've been intrigued by the Pagan vs. Christian thread that runs through it. I was able to watch the first season on Amazon Prime and the second on my cable provider's On Demand service, though it looks like you can watch all the episodes via the Vikings link above.

Ragnar in his blanket

The funny thing about Vikings is that it clarified a little something for me and Nick. We have similar taste in comedies, but when it comes to drama we diverge quite strongly. Give him something slow-moving, preferably European, and he's a happy camper, and I will take a nap. Give me action, adventure, pirates or aliens, and I'm sold while he finds something else to do. Pretty funny.

For a little whiplash I DVRed all the Alien movies, since IFC decided to run them last week. It's amazing how good Alien and Aliens are (super scary and gory but sooooo good, and I don't even like scary movies - plus, Alien passes the Bechdel Test), and how bad Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection are (unless you are some sort of crazy complete-ist like me, don't bother)! Again there is a fair bit of gore, but Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley kicks so much butt that I don't mind. She is an amazingly strong character without ever pretending to be a man. It was interesting in reading the trivia and critics's reviews (mostly Roger Ebert) that Weaver was the only female action hero who could "open a movie". I really wish there were more female heroes and superheroes in the movies these days. There was an interesting article about this problem over on The Week's website:

Girls on Film: Hollywood, stop pretending it's hard to make a female superhero movie! http://t.co/Qw2ay3AdAE via @theweek #femalesuperhero
— Kathleen Dames (@kathleendames) April 4, 2014

If you watched Girls but didn't think it was funny enough, be sure to catch up on Broad City (only the final episode of the season is on Comedy Central's website, but maybe your provider's On Demand has it). Totally raunchy and heavy on the smoke, it is so funny that it made me (and Nick) cry with laughter, particularly The Lockout (the bit on the subway). Again, this definitely comes with a warning and will certainly not be everyone's cup of tea, but Amy Poehler exec produces and the friendship between the two young women (man, I'm old) is great.

Ooh, were you alive in the 80s? Have you watched The Americans? It's really engrossing. We may have started watching it because they filmed quite a bit in our neighborhood, but Nick and I were totally sucked in. Russian spies in the 80s - sexy and suspenseful without going, well, I guess you would say "full monty", since it's on FX, not premium cable. Generally, I'm not a big fan of the hourlong drama (I just say "No" to procedurals and soapy hospital dramas), but this is good. Just wish they could have kept up the musical intensity that they created in the first episode with Fleetwood Mac's Tusk.

There's more, like I occasionally watch an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show with the girls, which they love and has inspired the kids to play "newscast", but I'd better get back to my knitting.

Do you watch movies and shows while knitting? What's your favorite? I have two more samples to go after this one, so I could use some suggestions :)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

#cantabrigianweekend

We spent the last weekend of the kids' two-week Spring Break up in Cambridge, which was such a treat for me. To make it a treat for the girls we stayed at the Hyatt, which has a pool. And the real fun was that we got to see some of my dear friends and their kids: a playground with one family, and Drumlin Farms' Woolapalooza with the other.

Though I did not acquire any yarn, we got to see some shorn, spun, and dyed (before it started to rain). I did do a fair bit of knitting, but it's for Jane Austen Knits, so you will have to wait a bit to see it. I hope you will find it worth the wait! And then you will have to wait a bit longer for a couple more of my designs, which have been accepted for Interweave Knits Winter 2015. Whoohoo!

I posted a few of these photos on Instagram throughout the weekend, but I'm getting to know my 50mm lens (and working on editing RAW files) on my Nikon, so the other pictures are from there.

The Charles River with Fenway (the Citgo sign) and
Back Bay (the Prudential Building) across the way

The Charles River looking at Boston University

Swan on the Charles

Have you any wool?

Shorn and unshorn

Lamb

Watching the shearing

The Shearing

Sheepdog doing its job

Harvard Square's Out of Town News in the rain

Adieu, Citgo

testing testing

In anticipation of some projects in the pipeline, I've just created an email list for pattern testers. You can join the list here.

What's a pattern tester?
Someone who knits up a project with their own yarn from my unpublished pattern. Generally, you will help me make sure the instructions are clear and that your finished project closely approximates mine (unless we've agreed to any modifications). You keep your finished project and post a pattern page on Ravelry with basic information (yarn brand and amount, needles used, finished size) and photos, which I may included on the pattern page. Bonus points if you blog about your project, post on the social media of your choice, or gush about it on a Ravelry forum :)

Generally, testing takes place after I have created the pattern, knitted my own sample, and crunched all the numbers for various sizes. Depending upon how things are going I may or may not have photographed the beauty shots and given the pattern to the tech editor, but the pattern should be pretty tight (I don't want to waste anyone's time!).

I strive to write clear, user-friendly patterns, but if you've never knit a ____ (sweater/lace triangle shawl/you name it) before, a test may not be the best way to begin. You may want to try one of my published patterns first in said category. I love newer knitters and want to support you, but tests are for making sure a pattern is clear, and I wouldn't want you to start your ____-knitting adventures with something not quite perfect.

What's in it for me?

• First crack at new designs
• A chance to get to know other testers, as I usually run tests kind of like KALs in my group on Ravelry
• Credit in the finished pattern and on the Ravelry pattern page
• A copy of the finished pattern in your Ravelry library upon publication
• One pattern of your choice from my Ravelry store (recently published magazine patterns not included until one year after publication)
• My eternal gratitude

What do I have to do?

1. Sign up!
2. Respond to a call for testers. I will include size options and yarn information, so will need to know which size you want to test and what yarn you would like to use. I will also give a somewhat-flexible deadline.
3. Post your progress in the testing thread in my group, as well as any questions and concerns you may have.
4. Once the pattern is published (you'll know because you will receive a copy of the finished pattern as a gift in your Ravelry library), link up your project to the pattern page. Be sure to include project information, like yarn and needle used, and a great photo, so I can feature your project on the pattern page.
5. Revel in the fact that you were one of the first to knit a hot new pattern :)

Hope you're having a good day out there. It's unseasonably cold here in NYC, so I'm happy to be knitting away on a new pattern for the next Jane Austen Knits (and nearing the end of my kids' eternal Spring Break -- don't forget that if you sign up for my regular mailing list, there's a Spring Break BOGO coupon in it for you until the end of March!). 

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen

Notice anything different?

Well, if you follow this blog with a reader*, you probably won't, but I've given the ol' girl a new coat of paint.

What do you think?

The "dynamic view" from Blogger was nice looking but didn't give me the ability to do some of the things I wanted to do on the blog. There are still a few things that I'm wrestling with (back in my day -- oh, so long ago -- I would just hard code everything and use tables to put everything in its place, but that is frowned upon these days), but I think this works for now.

While I was at it, I went ahead and updated the rest of my online presence:

• twitter
• ravelry
• google+
• youtube
• etsy
• facebook
• instagram
• pinterest

Oof! Now, I'm tired (it doesn't help that I seem to have come down with something: terrible sore throat in the morning, super runny nose and sneezing all day long). Sometimes it feels like being online is a full-time job, but now I need to get back to working on some future designs. And order business cards and get all my IRL identity ducks in a row. A designer's work is never done :)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen

*If you use a reader, which one do you use? I'd pretty happy with feedly but am curious to know what else is out there these days.

Pinterest: KNIT yourself a cardigan (women's)

I love Pinterest! As a visual person (I'm also quite tactile, hence the fiber arts), Pinterest is one of my favorite social media sites. It's great for collecting images for inspiration. The best part for me is seeing what like-minded (and not-so-like-minded) pinners are pinning. It can take you off in a whole different direction or just make you feel warm and fuzzy.

A couple of weeks ago I started some new boards focused on creating *good* pins for knitting patterns in different categories. And by good I mean pins that link directly to patterns and have some basic information to help other pinners decide if they are interested. This includes

• pattern name
• designer
• category
• yarn weight
• yarn content

I decided not to include price information since it can change, nor did I include suggested yarn since these pins are about the possibilities inherent in the patterns. These boards will probably never have thousands of pins, since they are what *I* like.  I've added a page with my latest pins, as well as links to the KNIT boards, but feel free to check out all my boards -- you'll see some of the inspiration for all sorts of things I'm interested in.

Going forward I'll let you know about other boards as they get robust enough (six pins isn't sufficient, to my mind, but it takes me some time to create those good pins -- feel free to check them out).

Follow Kathleen Dames's board KNIT yourself a cardigan (women's) on Pinterest.

I'd love to see what you're pinning, so let me know your username (mine is kathleendames) or send me a pin.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting/pinnning!
xoxo, Kathleen

March Newsletter (sign up - it has a great coupon!)

Have you signed up for my newsletter yet? I only send it out once a month and often include a coupon. This month it's a biggie: Buy One Get One FREE on all my Ravelry store patterns. Sign up today, and you'll get the latest newsletter with this great coupon. I'm "celebrating" my kids' two-week Spring Break stay-cation, but you get the prize :)

Thinking about cranking out one more cozy sweater before Spring arrives? An Aran for Frederick is full of cable-y goodness and exciting yoke shaping techniques. Or Sailor's Valentine - same-but-different cables and yoke PLUS the fun of the turned-heel hood. So. Much. FUN. I want to go design another one (just as soon as I finish, um, four other projects)!

An Aran for Frederick

Sailor's Valentine

If you're ready for Spring, perhaps Mermaid's Cardigan with it's lace sleeves and i-cord edges. Or Wavelette in fingering weight yarn with a lacey front - I wear mine all the time! With a long-sleeve tee in the winter and over a camisole in the warmer months.

Mermaid's Cardigan

Wavelette

Maybe you're heading out for Spring Break soon. Shawls make the best travel knitting! 1 skein of lace or fingering weight yarn + 1 needle = projects that will keep you busy while you wait (or relax) and don't take up all the room in your carry-on (that's for souvenir yarn, dontcha know). Hap-py (it may have started out with Grandma's dishcloth, but it sure didn't end up like that!), Castaway (dropping those stitches is so much fun!), and In the Shallows (start with your prettiest tonal sock yarn and end up with your new favorite shawlette!) are some of my favorites. They are interesting knits without being too complicated. And I love how the memories of a trip get bound up in the finished item.

Hap-py

Castaway

In the Shallows

So, the choice is yours! Be sure to sign up for the newsletter and take your pick from my 25 patterns before the month is up.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

Interweave Sale

30% off patterns at the Interweave site! This means you can purchase downloads of the original patterns for $4.20 (regular price $6):

An Aran for Anne
An Aran for Frederick
Bixby
Sotherton

A Vest for Charles and Benwick are not yet available, but I'll let you know when they are.

The kids are off school for two (2!) weeks of Spring Break. Sadly, the weather is decidedly wintry. Work is slower than usual due to wrangling said children, but I keep plugging away :)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

Sweater fix

If you don't follow me on Instagram (you should! I'm @kathleendames of course), you didn't see the little problem I discovered today:

Can you see it? I did an extra round without twisting. Must have been an intense moment in Small Island (love when my dvr records Masterpiece Classics for me that I might have otherwise missed - if you get the chance to watch it, it's pretty good: Benedict Cumberbatch and thought-provoking views on race relations post-WWII in the UK). Anyway, I debated for a few minutes about fixing it. Most likely such a thing would pass the galloping horse test; however, I'm me, and it is front and center on this pullover. My knitting bestie/enabler Annie reminded me that as a Virgo it would drive me bonkers. 

Rather than tinking back the seven rounds, I grabbed some DPNs and decided to see if I could fix them in situ. Pulling the working needle out of the stitches in question, I then pulled the ends of the circular tight (and let them hang to the back of the work) to keep all the other stitches safe from harm. 

I pulled the working strand out of each row until I was a row below the error, at which point I slipped the stitches in question onto a DPN. With a second DPN I used the lowest thread to rework the stitches properly. After a couple of rows I realized that the tension was off (really tight at the right end and loose on the left), which led to dropping back down and doing it again, adjusting the stitches on each row before proceeding wih the next thread. 

Above you can see me working across the row and that the stitches on the left are loose. 

And here it is, all better (although it looks a little wonky a few rows down from my thumb, but that should settle down when the sweater is blocked)!

Forgive the state of my mani. Who knew I was going to be documenting my knitting today?!

BTW, this yarn from The Spinning Mill in Greenville NY is amazing! Undyed merino. I bought it at Rhinebeck. No website info that I have been able to find yet, but I'm pretty sure they are there every year, since Kay Gardiner (Mason Dixon knitter extraordinaire) recently knit a beautiful baby blanket with some that she'd gotten from them at Rhinebeck a few years ago. 

This is what my two skeins looked like when I bought them. Each one is almost 500yds of undyed beautiful squishiness. I can't wait to finish this design and share it with you, but at least now you know how to repair a twist error if you make one like me ;)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen 

Housekeeping

Not the "fun" kind of housekeeping for which I made a chart, since that got blown out of the water last week as I sketched and swatched and wordsmithed my way through a pile of submissions. No, I'm talking about some business housekeeping. Whee!

I updated the patterns page here on the blog so it's easier to see the multitude of patterns I have already published. At first this seemed like it would be a breeze, but the coding that makes it easier to blog here on Blogger made it harder to edit and streamline the page. It kind of made me want to tear my all-brown hair out, but eventually I got it straightened out, and I hope it will be useful. Patterns are in alphabetical order. Let me know if there is another sorting scheme you'd prefer.

I'm also in the process of adding schematics to all the pattern pages on Ravelry and Etsy (I would like to do Craftsy, but they don't support wide graphics), as well as thumbnails of the pattern pages so you can get an idea of what my patterns look like before you purchase them. I love seeing the cable patterns shrunk down, as you get a really good idea of how they look IRL. That's kind of an ongoing project, so I will get to them as I'm able (with the goal to have them finished before the kids go on Spring Break for the second half of the month - sigh). An Aran for Anne, An Aran for Frederick, Hap-py, Sotherton, and Wavelette are up, so you can see what I'm talking about (Rav links, but they're on Etsy, too).

In exciting pattern publishing news, my samples for A Vest for Charles and Benwick have returned. Now I just have to wait for one of my girls to grow big enough to wear Benwick, since the lovely model is smaller all around than me, and definitely less endowed ;) I'm still waiting to hear when those patterns will be available as individual downloads from Interweave but will let you know ASAP. It's on their radar.

And in more exciting news, I'll be contributing to the next issue of Jane Austen Knits due out this Fall! I am always thrilled to work with them and see what Jane Austen inspires other designers to create. There are a couple of other patterns in process for publications, and I am really close to sharing a shawl with you.

If you are on Pinterest, join me over there as I pin knitting patterns I think are fantastic. I'm curating boards of cardigans, pullovers, shawls, and mittens at the moment and plan to add more as time allows, including some boards for men. I'm trying to make sure they are good pins that lead to the patterns themselves, so it will take me a little longer than some other pinners, but I think it will be worth it.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

Fake-it-'til-you Make It Monday

Can you tell what's fake in this photo? I hope not or I did a bad job! It's the hair. "Naturally", I've got a lot of greys, but almost all hard dyes these days seem to have propylene glycol in their formulas now, even ones that didn't previously. Sigh. I don't want to look like an old lady (even if I act as crotchety as one), but I don't want to break out in a rash on a regular basis. So, I finally found a brand (Revlon Colorsilk, which also surprisingly cheap yet inexpensive) that hasn't yet bunged up its formula as far as I'm concerned. What do you think?

With spring coming it seemed like the time was ripe to start sprucing things up, especially since I have to snap some beauty shots in the next week for a pattern. I'm even contemplating a haircut (crazy, I know)! 

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I'm getting a little tired of winter:

There is a car under there!

Footwear option for when it's not absolutely frigid but still cold and messy. I love my Hunter boots but would like to reacquaint myself with my shoes. 

There is nothing better than these llbean boots in the winter. The shearling lining almost makes you think you can go sockless. But it's time for these beauties to go away!

The good thing about the cold is all my sweaters. Some of these beauties haven't been written up yet, so you have something to look forward to. Eventually :)

Alright, back to the grindstone. Lots of time with spreadsheets and layout software. I will fake it 'til I make it in regards to enjoying the pattern writing portion of my job, too. I love having written a pattern and love knitting but sometimes the number wrangling is hard. 

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo,

Kathleen