caffaknitted

Wine to Water

This Saturday evening, Espresso News will be hosting a charity event for Wine to Water, an amazing non-profit organization devoted to providing clean water and sanitation to needy people around the world.  There will be wine and beer, food, and local art for sale including some of my own work, that of sculptor Sean Matthews

And work from my friend Jeff Martin, a super-talented ceramacist...

Jeff is organizing the event, and is working on a series of very cool wine goblets. 

Now I'm off to go finish my own work...

You can read more about the Wine to Water event here .

Petite Purls

I have been lucky enough to have been asked to participate in an exciting new venture.  Petite Purls, a new knitting webzine launched yesterday.  It is a wonderful new website featuring FREE knitting patterns for children.  And my Jacques Crusteau made the front page!  So exciting.  Anyway, you should check it out.  The designs are wonderful and the site is beautifully designed.  Can we ever have enough free knitting patterns?

Voodoo Katie

A knitted self-portrait....  I used some antique hat pins I found in town.  

I've been extraordinarily productive during the past couple of weeks.  Summer does that to me.  Something about the sunshine, and long daylight hours...  Look for more new projects coming soon!

Off the Hook!

Finally!  A new pattern!  

I'm pretty pleased with myself at the moment.  I very much love this plush phone.  I knitted it to scale from one I found at the antique mall.  It is quite fun to play with.  I find it very interesting the way obsolete technology sometimes becomes interesting as simply an object once it's usefullness is gone.  The pattern for the phone can be purchased from Etsy or downloaded for a small fee from Ravelry!

My other love (crafty love, not people love. I love a lot of people)

So everyone who's ever met me knows that I love knitting more than air, but it's not my only crafty passion, actually.  I love embroidery. I do quite a bit of embroidery myself, but I don't post much of it on here, mostly because I find it very difficult to photograph.  This post, however, is devoted to some crafty individuals who are taking the craft to a whole new level.  This is a very small sampling of what's out there....  

Megan Ileana

at Threadbare

Nicole Wolfersberger

She is the genius behind Embloggery, which I love!

Floresita

Things I've made

Johnny Murder

of Manbroidery.  Bad. Ass.

My rejection is your reward!!

Some of you may remember that 10 months ago I submitted my first pattern to Knitty Fall '08, and anxiously waited a reply. Amy Singer decided to hold that pattern for consideration for the Summer '09 issue.  Well, many months I have finally gotten my first Knitty rejection.  It was a very kind rejection.  But lucky for you, I'm giving all of you the pattern for free, as promised.

So here is my Rocket Ship.  I knit this for my brother as a graduation gift.  Last spring he finished his graduate degree in rocket science.  He seemed to like it well enough, though I suspect he was a little miffed I finished my first rocket before he did...  Enjoy!

Spring is the season for ninjas

I've been terribly busy with work and other projects.  I've barely been able to finish anything knit-wise since Christmas...which only adds to my misery.  But I have recently finished new ninjas!  

I'm currently re-knitting new versions of old projects as part of a potential book deal.  It's an exciting prospect, and it's also pretty fun knitting from my own patterns.  It helps to give me an idea of the difficulty level, and my ability to convey instructions.  More new-old projects coming soon, and then I'll be moving on to new projects and patterns!  

Taxes are done...it's knitting time!

Fibers Mafia

Last weekend at the nth gallery, we had a show titled Fibers Mafia.  The show was put together relatively last minute, but it turned out pretty amazing!  The majority of the work was by some of the fibers students at Appstate, along with myself, and a few of my knitters.  The nunchucks above were a gift from myself to my friend Sean for his birthday. Here are a few more images from the show.

I've been working on some Valentine's knitting, but just haven't been able to make much in the way of progress.  I'm sure I'll finish soon though, hopefully this weekend.  I figure it can't hurt to post it a little late.  Afterall, love is seasonless, right?

A brief summary of January

I've been absent from my blog for nearly a month, thanks to hectic days at work.  The beginning of the year is always like this, due to bookkeeping for tax season, new semester, and this year I've come back to working the counter full time.  So instead of boring you with all the details, I'll just try to summarize January with a few pictures....

1) Work.

2) Snow.

3) "Quality time" with the kids, due to an absurd # of snow days.

I'm going to write a second "knitting" post.  We had a fibers show at the nth gallery worthy of it's own entry.

I love small things

Lately, I've been longing for a new pincushion.  I'm notoriously bad about losing my sewing needles.  I constantly use needles while making my toys, and I only need two at any given time...one yarn needle, one embroidery needle.  I don't need a big pin cushion, and hate carrying one in my knitting bag when I go out for knitting night.  Wrist cushions are cute, but get in the way while I'm knitting.  So I normally just keep them in a little ziplock bag, and lose them before night's end.  (I often lose the sewing needles I borrow from my knitting friends as well)  So this necklace seemed like a good solution!  I ordered it from Octopus Parlour on Etsy.  It is so cute, and functional, perfect for wearing while I'm working!

And while we're talking about cute, small things, are you familiar with Wool Pets? 

I'm always looking for new skills in regards to making toys.  I've been wanting to learn needle-felting for a while now.  For Christmas, my mom gave me a bunch of wonderful needle-felting supplies.  And my friend Jamie gave me this kit, for the Wool Pet owls.  Aren't they the cutest?  There are lots of amazing kits to choose from, and they come with all the supplies you'll need, roving, needles, instructions, etc. There's a book too! Jamie's working on the elephant kit, and I have to say, she is a needle-felting natural.  She's picking it up much more quickly then I am. 

Anyway, as soon as I "master" this needle-felting business, I'm hoping to design some tiny creations of my own, and maybe use this to add some of the felt details to my toys.  

Thanks for all the well wishes regarding my new schedule.  I think I'm adjusting pretty well.  Last night I felt awake enough to actually pick up the needles and knit through a movie. I also have plenty of time to knit this weekend.  I have several deadlines coming up in the next month or so, so there's plenty to do.  I can't promise I'll be sharing a lot of what I'm working on, as most of them will be submitted to one publication or another, but hopefully I'll have something new and public to share very soon.