A bit of today

It's good for me to take a minute and reflect on my day. Since I have a freelance business and a yarn company my days are usually one big to-do list that spills into the next day and the next day and the next day. This keeps happening until the weekend when I sit around thinking about the list of things that needs to be done. It's not a good cycle and one that I'm trying very hard to break. A good way for me to do that is to stop for a minute and reflect on what I actually HAVE accomplished in a day instead of what still needs to be done.

So here's a look at my day today how I like to think of it. There's my keyboard in the background, my pen tablet for design, my planner, the knitting pattern I designed, wrote and photographed and last by not least, my iPhone which is never more than 3 feet away. I crossed 10 things off my list today! I think what I need to come to terms with is that my list will never get smaller so I just need to embrace the chaos and learn to love it. It's a GOOD thing that the list doesn't get smaller because that means I get to keep working!

Hi cutie!

I had the pleasure of hitting a few yarn stores in San Diego today and found one of my new designs in the wild. Graphic design surprise! Whitney by Plymouth Yarn is a really nice blend of cotton and nylon. It's soft and washable...and doesn't it look adorable? Yarning for You in San Marcos has a huge supply With tons of colors. I might have to get a few myself!

Ewe Ewe Yarns, my new bff

I started a yarn company! I have trouble believing I can say that but I can say it because I've done it. I have a product with a label and a website and even better, I have orders for that product! I picked the colors and developed the yarn. I have a stock of sheet knitting patterns and also some free knitting patterns. There's tons of ideas swirling around in this brain of mine and I can't wait to get it all out there and on paper or pixels.



Ewe Ewe Yarns is my new venture/adventure and I'm excited about it like nothing else I've done before. So, please take a minute and check out my new fun over at www.eweewe.com.

Knitting Needle Packaging {Designs by Heather Walpole}

Here's a fun photo I forgot to post from TNNA 2011. This is Dick Power, the owner of Plymouth Yarn, and your favorite graphic designer! I had the opportunity to create a fun package design for their new line of Japanese bamboo knitting needles. This is the first time I had seen the finished product and I seem pretty happy with the outcome!

Gypsy Garden Collection {Designs by Heather Walpole}

Remember when I showed you this sneak peek?

Well here it is, the Knit Collage Gypsy Garden Collection pattern booklet and I had the pleasure of designing it!



I worked with Knit Collage to design a line of six fun and easy patterns using their Gypsy Garden yarns. The booklet debuted at TNNA 2011 and will be in yarn stores very soon! Here's the Tinkerbell Mobius Scarf worked up in the stardust garland colorway and Kinari Bolero in kinari bazaar.



And here in the trade show booth you can spot the Secret Garden Pillow knit in color bubblegum twist and the Bundled Up Beanie Hat crocheted using mermaid café.



Tucked into the left corner is the Sweet Pea Baby Sweater knit in emerald rainforest. Knit Collage yarns are handspun in India and each skein is a beautiful work of art making each knitted piece unique. The project ideas are endless!





I had so much fun creating this booklet, I can't wait to get my hands on some new yarn!



Click here to visit knitcollage.com and see all their amazing yarns and a list of retailers. Happy knitting!

TNNA Long Beach 2011

We had a good time this year at TNNA, the National Needle Arts trade show. I had a really fun day with Marsha, our cruise director and tour guide, and my sister Nancy, the world famous kung-fu master of the credit card.



Be Sweet yarns had tons of eye candy, as usual. This year Nadine seems to be bringing in a natural color palette next to her candy store brights.











We had a lot of fun checking out Imperial Yarns. These yarns are grown, sheered, spun and dyed in Oregon and are gorgeous.





Helen Hamann's booth was a color feast, so many beautiful brights!







Of course, Manos del Uruguay didn't let us down. They're launching a new line of colors that can be seen from space!



But don't worry, they still have our old favorites!



I think it's time to stop here, I still have more but let's save it for tomorrow! If you want more right now you can hop over to Nancy's recap at the beautifully redesigned NobleKnits.com blog.

A feast for the eyes

Look at all that yarn! Woohoo! This past weekend was the big yarn trade show called TNNA and I'm still trying to digest all the things I saw, people I met, and new ideas that came to mind. I'm excited to have some fun stuff to blab about for a while, I'll start with this photo of my sister and me. Have you met her? She's NobleKnits.com.

Sensing a trend: Sock Monkey!

Sock monkeys seem to be a big hit these days. We had three Christmas gifts in our little house alone. My friend Sue (Hi, Susan!) sent us the Fred & Friends Wine Monkey Wine Caddy. Hello, adorable! I shall call you Ferdinand.

And, my sister-in-law Emily, who writes a great blog over here, sent us a pair of these completely adorable sock monkey egg cups with matching monkey spoons from PG Tips. I kind of like eating breakfast with a cute smiling face staring back at me. I think they need names! What are some good twin names?



And Santa brought Lola got the third sock monkey present. A silly monkey creature that she cuddled to death. With her teeth.





It's great to see knitting winding it's way through popular culture. Knitting is a huge trend in my mind, but it seems all kinds of people really enjoy handknits right now. Is it that people are turning toward simpler times because of the economic downturn? Or, are knitting designers following trends more closely? Or, is knitting just that cool, come on... you know it is.

Sneak Peek!

I am over the moon with excitement about my newest project. This is just a little preview of what's been on my mind and on my needles for the last few months. I'll have the finished pieces in hand by the end of the week, and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you!

An evening at home

Watch out, world. I won a Flip MinoHD Video Cameraat my office Christmas party... Stay tuned for lots of scenes from my fairly average life! Here's a sped up video of last night, I'm knitting, having a glass of wine and watching tv. Make sure you watch for Henry, the world's most annoyingly adorable dog.

Baby Janes

I feel like every time I sneeze a baby shower invitation shows up in the mail. These little socks with built in mary janes were the perfect little gift for my friend Amy. I can't wait to see that little baby rocking these!

The Cuddlebug {free baby hat knitting pattern}

Finished dimensions: 5"h x 15"circ.

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Refashion
68% recycled wool, 5% recycled cashmere, 23% nylon, 4% rayon
Color: 804

Needles: US size 10.5, double-pointed needles

Gauge: 12 sts over 4 inches

: :: ::: :: :

Begin:
Cast on 44 sts. Join in the round and begin ribbing. Work *K1, P1* repeat from *to* around. Work ribbing pattern for 1 inch.

Next round: K all sts. Continue working in this manner until hat measures 4" from CO edge.

Begin decrease: K1, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K1, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K1, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K1, K2tog. 32 sts remaining.

Next row: *K2, K2tog* repeat from *to* around. 24 sts remaining.
Next row: *K1, K2tog* repeat from *to* around. 16 sts remaining.
Next row: K2tog around. 8 sts remaining.
Next row: K2tog around. 4 sts remaining.

Finish off remaining sts and weave in all yarn ends. Hand deliver immediately to the cutest baby you know.

New look, better shopping

Can I say that NobleKnits launched my career? It very well may have. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I went to college, I was about to sign up for Business Administration. My sister sat there with me at orientation and gave me this stare that could have frozen the sun. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Business Administration?

LOOK AT THIS MAJOR!
Graphic Design & Illustration

Um, ok? Should I take that instead? I mean it sounds fun, but what will I do?

You get to buy art supplies! Look at this list: erasers, paint, tracing paper, markers... you LOVE that stuff!

Do I?

Yes! That's your major.

I am a graphic designer through and through and my sister knew it before I did. And she's used that knowledge to the fullest. When Nancy started NobleKnits in 1999 who was the starving college student she bribed with dinner and clean laundry facilities to design her first logo? Who cropped her photos? Who did the pattern layout?

Me. The budding graphic designer. Here's what we made and we loved it.



So here I sit on my MacBook Pro with the full Adobe suite surrounded by sketchbooks, Pantone swatches and inspiration, many years after my college orientation and many NobleKnits logos later launching a brand new website. Look at this!



We've come a long way, baby. A small pattern company that started in a condo is now a mulit-person operation that sells yarn, patterns, needles and a love of knitting. My first client, my favorite client. Cheers to you and all your hard work not only on your website but on me!

WIPs

I go to a weekly knitting group called Knit Wits hosted by my friend Marsha, the Head Knit Wit. We are just getting back into the swing of things right in time for the big knitting season and this year she's challenged us to finish a project a month. The idea is to drag out all your unfinished knitting that is stuffed in a basket just waiting to be finished and finish them while you also do your normal knitting. Can we do it? Can we finish stuff?

Hello, have you met me?

I am the master of the unfinished project. Tha Masta. I love to start projects but I consistently do not complete them. So here's four projects I pulled out of my knitting bag, I didn't even look in the basket stuffed in the corner of my studio. This is all from my knitting tote.



Four projects. Right there is a project a month through the end of the year, we'll get to the basket in January.

Option 1. An open cardigan for me. I started this project when I had my yarn store and I've always loved the sweater and would love even more to wear it one day. It's made with a Jo Sharp Alpaca Kid Lustre which is a combo of alpaca, kid mohair and merino wool. I've already completed the back, one side and one arm, this is the second arm on the needles.

Option 2. A baby sweater sample knit for my Baby Boo Cardigan pattern. It's knit in Plymouth Baby Boutique, a super soft yarn that is a pleasure to knit. All that needs to be done is knit the sleeve cuffs and add buttons, I've already sewn in the yarn ends!

Option 3. Another baby sweater. It's in Coffee Beenz by Plymouth Yarn and I'm really hoping it will only require one skein because that's all I have. This is for my new nephew but it's 12m size so I have a little time since he was just born in July.

Option 4. A pair of socks for me or someone with big feet. These are knit in a corn fiber yarn called Maizy. It's a nice yarn and an interesting pattern but the Monkey pattern does not work up fast for me.

What do you think? Which work in progress (WIP) should I conquer? Option 2 will be fast, #1 I really want to wear, #3 will be adorable, and #4 would make a nice Christmas gift. Help!

Do you knit and tweet?

Do you follow Plymouth Yarn on Twitter? You should! They're always doling out cute free patterns and helpful knitting advice. This week I had the very fun project of photographing a new Twitter background for them. This photo features Taria Tweed, Covington, Coffee Beenz, Zino, and Boku. It just looks like a big basket of fun, doesn't it?

New hat pattern coming soon!

Here's a new crochet work in progress for Knit Collage. Isn't that yarn (and the hat) adorable?

Friday Night Knitting

Here it is Friday night again. I love winding down my work week with a skein of yarn and a glass of wine. It's delightful. I'm not sure what I'm going to work on tonight – it's not as though I don't have anything on the needles, there's always something on the needles – but this little gem spoke to me from across the room. This yarn was sent to me as a gift. As I've mentioned before, my sister Nancy owns nobleknits.com and there's no complaining from this knitter when a giant box of new yarn is unexpectedly delivered to my home. This yarn that I'm loving tonight was actually creamy white before Nancy and her daughter dyed it with Kool-Aid. You can read about that process here on her blog. See mine hanging there on the left? Pretty cool.



Plymouth Yarn developed this really fun family of yarns called Dye For Me that is meant to be dyed by you in whatever colorway you choose. Want green yarn? You can do it. Purple and orange? It's yours. What color would I want? Nancy and Hadley got it just right. I think I'll take my wine and my yarn out to the deck and unwind.

Free Knitting Pattern: Quirky Quick Knit Scarf

Hello there, adorable scarf. I love you. This is the newest yarn into NobleKnits and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a skein. Knit Collage is straight up awesome. The yarn is designed by Amy Small, and she mixes Australian wool, South African mohair, and adorable embellishments from Hong Kong into one fun skein. I knit up this quick scarf as soon as the yarn fell off the boat!

Quirky Quick Knit Scarf

Finished size: 4" x 33"
Yarn: Knit Collage, colorway purple haze, 1 skein
Needles: US 19
Gauge: BIG

Pattern:
Cast on 7 sts. Knit every row. Bind off.

Weave in all yarn ends and enjoy. I think the gold tinsel is my favorite part. I can't wait to wear this little gem!

Friday Night Knitting

Here we are on Friday night again and I'm anxious to pick up my knitting. Knitting is the perfect way to unwind from the stress of a busy work week. There's something about the feeling of the yarn moving through my hands that soothes my mind. Ahh.

Although drinks at the bar might have a similar effect.

New Pattern: Scrumptious Mitts

Ah, I love these fingerless mittens. My hands are always cold and with these mitts I can still type or dig in the garden or whatever else I get myself into, because there's always something. These mitts work up quickly on size 8 needles and I love fast knitting projects. The yarn I used is called Scrumptious and it's delightful blend of angora and silk. The angora makes them so soft and the silk gives them a gentle drape.

As for techniques there's two different increases to learn, one that slants left and one that slants right and they give the illusion that the thumb gusset is growing from the palm. Give them a try!

The pattern is available on Etsy from Heather Ink. Happy knitting!