Sneak Peek from the Czech Republic

I am finally in the Czech Republic! I arrived the day before yesterday and I am glad to be finally here. It was a long trip as always, but luckily we got to sleep on the plane for about 4 hours and then on the bus for about 2 hours (they did not even wake us up on the borders between Austria and the Czech Rep. for passport control!), so we lasted through the day OK well to the evening hours and adjusted pretty quick to the time change (some 6 hours ahead of US East coast).

My mom and my sister with her 3 boys came to visit us the very first day of our arrival, so it was very nice to see my family after some 10 months. I managed to unpack pretty much all my luggage that day (and let me tell you it's a FEW pieces - one too many in accordance to some people). But I had some presents I wanted to give to my family and the way the airline restrictions are these days on the weight of each piece of luggage, I had to pack and repack and rearrange and weight and re-weight my luggage several times (it's a few day process!), so after all was packed I did not know what was where - there was no particular order to anything. And I used to have a good system for packing, since I've been doing it for many years now: I used to pack related things together for each person, so I knew where exactly to reach for things. Anyways, this way as it is now, I had to unpack everything in order to find all the presents I brought with me. But at least I have everything done and can finally relax. Well not exactly. I had brought 2 projects with me for 2 different publications and I will need to work on those while I am here, so I'd better get to it. I'd like to finish it before my husband comes here, so we can have nice vacation together without me having to knit, but I'm afraid that it's not going to happen; we'll see.

SNEAK PEEK

As I mentioned before, I have been working on my last project for Mission Falls DK Wool Booklet. I had been raving about how great it is to work with this yarn and how the colors are amazing. You can see a preview of a project #2. It will be available for release in Fall 2008, I believe. If you got a chance to go to TNNA you could have seen this and the other project there; for the rest you will have to wait till fall.

You can also see a sneak peak preview on Stefanie Japel's blog since she is also working on this booklet. Hers are worked from neck down, as far as I can tell from the pictures, so the booklet seems that it will be a great collection of patterns to knit for fall.

Leaving for the Czech Republic

Maybe some of you noticed that I have not been posting much in the past month. This was mainly due to the fact that I had many projects I had been working on and was trying to finish for 2 different publications before I was leaving for summer for the Czech Republic. I thought that I would manage to finish everything before I go, but it did not happen. Two of the projects I finished and sent off - some you could have possibly seen in TNNA as I was told they were there on display. But I still have 2 project I am taking with me because some of the yarn was not available for delivery in time for me to finish it, so I will be working on them in Europe.

Mission Falls DK Wool Booklet

I have been working on a new booklet for Mission Falls Yarns using their new DK Wool yarn. I feel privileged to work on this booklet together with Stefanie Japel and Galina Carroll. I love working with this yarn: it is a pleasure to work with because it is so soft and becomes even softer after washing. I did not know it was possible to have a wool so soft. If that was not enough, the colors are just amazing!

Strung Shells Top - Interweave Crochet Summer 2008

Today I have gotten my issue of Interweave Crochet Summer 2008 in the mail. I was very excited about getting this issue because it features my very first crochet garment design in this magazine. It's a great honor to be published next to Robyn Chachula, Amie Hirtes, and other great designers. You can see the preview of the patterns here.

The Strung Shells Top is a simple and easy design to work on. It is worked up in a vastly accessible yarn Patons Grace. This top is very versatile. Initially I designed this top as a "Falling Leaves" pattern just by using different color combination - see a swatch below. I like how just changing a color can change a garment from summer top to fall.