Easter Weekend

Even though deadlines are fast approaching, this weekend was one I took a break from knitting and crocheting to spend time with my family. I really needed the break since this past couple of months had been little crazy. This is what we were up to.

My youngest daughter and I baked babovka, a Czech sweet bread. I used a recipe found in a magazine called Apetit, a magazine I bought in the Czech Republic a few years ago. The recipe we used is called Grandma's babovka (a type of bunt cake) and indeed it was the same as my Grandma used to make when I was little. We used to make it pretty much every Sunday, so I got some practice in this. To make this one takes several steps and it's rather time consuming; but it was worth the effort. It was sooo good.  I do not bake sweets very much these days because I can't stop eating them; but it was nice to share this experience with my daughter. 

Later in a day my daughters and I decorated eggs. We used bee's wax that we warmed up and pin head pinned into a pencil to draw designs on the eggs. It is an old Czech technique used mainly in South Bohemia, a part of the Czech Republic. We used simple 2-color technique; but it can be done multicolored. I learned this technique when I was little at the folklore ensemble I belong to. Again, it felt really good to share these skills and techniques with my daughters and they really enjoyed the process and results.

 I hope you all enjoyed your Easter weekend. Happy spring!

Secret book by Robyn Chachula was revealed

Robyn Chachula's new book Simply Crochet was revealed on the Interweave Press website. I have contributed a couple of projects to this book; and I absolutely love the way they were photographed. And, as always, the whole style of the book is really lovely.

The book features projects that can be made on a budget, with a few balls of yarn. It offers tips and tricks on how to crochet economically. 

You can see preview here or below.

Simply Crochet BLAD

Get Ready for Spring

The weather is still playing games with us. The calendar says it's spring and we are couple days away from April but the temperatures linger around freezing point out here. Brr. By now we usually have temps at least in the 50s.What's going on? I AM ready for spring! At least we can warm up with some spring knit or crochet projects while we wait for the warmer weather to arrive and be ready in style.

Interweave Crochet, Spring 2011

Have you seen the preview of the newest Spring issue of the Interweave Crochet magazine? I got my issue a few days ago, and I absolutely adore the Chamomile Cardigan by Doris Chan and the Petal Pullover by Robyn Chachula. If I had unlimited time on my hands (looking forward to that one day :)), i would also love to make the Bluebell Cardigan by Edie Eckman; it looks like a lovely cardi for spring. It uses very interesting method to start the project, make sure to check it out.

Hialeah Bag

Since we still need to wait for some flowers to come up, in meanwhile you can  make my new Hialeah bag that you can nicely pair with any of the cardigans or pullover in the issue. The bag is fun, chic and a bit retro to cheer you up. I loved the flowers "blooming" under my fingers when making it. This projects can be made in any color combination you like. Hope you will enjoy it too!

The bag is lined with double lining - the light yellow inside to insure an easy search for things in the bag; and the light silver one that nicely matched with the bag's main color. Though if you like, you might make a single lining that will work just as well if it's sturdy enough.

The Tahki Cotton Classic Lite was very nice to work with; it's smooth with a light sheen and does not split. It also produces fabric that will not stretch dramatically on you. I will definitely consider this yarn for my other crochet projects. Loved it!!

Project Requirements:


Finished Size: About 11" wide, 7½" long, and 3" deep. 

Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic Lite (100% mercerized cotton; 146 yd [135 m]/1¾ oz [50 g]): #4017 steel gray (MC), 4 skeins; #4532 pale lemon yellow (CC1), 3 skeins; #4807 dark turquoise (CC2), 1 skein. 

Hook: Sizes E/4 (3.5 mm) and D/3 (3.25 mm). Adjust hook size if necessary to obtain correct gauge. 

Notions: Stitch markers (m); yarn needle; bag handles 7" in diameter; two pieces of fabric for lining measuring 15 × 19" (including ½" seam allowance); sewing needle, matching thread. 

Gauge: 6-petal motif = 3" in diameter with larger hook. 

Vogue Knitting, Holiday 2010

I'm sorry for the once-again long break in my posts. I've been long back from the Czech Republic, of course. I came back late August and have been busy ever since.  While on the summer break, I had a great time and traveled quite a bit. I visited not only my native Brno, but went to visit my very good friend near Pelhrimov, went to Olomouc, visited a friend in Prague and my cousin in Karlovy Vary. I really love showing my girls where their roots are coming from now when they are older. They speak Czech fluently, so they easily fit in. It's fun to show them places that they only know from movies or books.  Though, let me save more details from the trip for a later post.

I just wanted to quickly drop in to say that you can see two of my latest designs in the Holiday 2010 issue of Vogue Knitting magazine.  I just learned from Ravelry, that the same magazine is also published as a Designer Knitting magazine for European market. Hmm, interesting. Here are the designs:

Bow Neck Cardigan
Yarn: Bergère de France Eclair

Gauge: 23 stitches and 25 rows = 4 inches in start stitch patt

Needle size: US 7 - 4.5 mm

Yardage:  800 - 1380 yards (732 - 1262 m)

Sizes available:  XS - L 

Photo by Paul Amato.

This cardigan is worked top-down cardigan, in a virtually no-sew construction. The construction allows for easy modifications. Any knitter can be easily adjust the sleeve length to long sleeve or longer length if desired.   

Vine Lace Scarf

Yarn:  Debbie Bliss Rialto 4 ply

Gauge:  32 stitches and 37 rows = 4 inches in over chart lace pattern

Needle size:  US 3 - 3.25 mm

Size:  6" x 83" 

Photo by Paul Amato.

This scarf is worked in a vine lace pattern that  shows very nicely in the Debbie Bliss Rialto 4 ply yarn. I very much enjoyed working with it. It is very soft and gives beautiful stitch definition.

The scarf is worked in two pieces that are joined with 3-needle bind-off at the center. It is worked that way so that the lace pattern shows in the same direction for both halves. This construction also makes it for a faster knit if you work both halves at the same time. I like to knit that way because you have both halves finished at the same and both halves have the exact same length achieved without any measuring,  counting rows or pattern repeats to check the lengths.

Arrived to Czech

I had arrived with the girls to Czech last week. The travel is always tiring, but we know what to expect - the tiredness really is the hardest thing when coming here. The packing of our suitcases, though, is much worse. But now we are happily here; time-wise converted to local time and enjoying nice "cool" 70 - 80 degree F summer weather with zero humidity.  :)

This is us waiting at the Vienna airport for the bus to Czech. The girls are doing remarkably good after two plane changes and 1 - 2 hour night sleep (It's 3:30 am of Eastern time!).


This past week I had

• been spending my time with my kids, my Mom, my sister and my sister's three boys. 
• experienced quite a noise being around 6 kids nearly 24/7 
• had already hosted couple sleepovers!
• hosted a small birthday party for my 2 nephews with my Mom. 
• made a cake, had to improvise because the ingredients I use in the US are not available here.
• to take cold showers for 2 days!
• to have a water-heater repaired.
• to do without Internet connection
• sent a book contribution submission after deadline (!)

So little time

Past couple of weeks had been really hectic. Ever since I got back from TNNA, I've been going nonstop.  I have many things I am trying to finish before I go to the Czech Republic for the summer and the days do not seem to have enough hours in day.

1.  There are several submissions I want to send some proposals to but I am seriously running out of time. I have to prioritize and let some go.

2. I am finishing a class on-line. Tomorrow is the last class and over the weekend I am hoping to do the final, since I don't want to do it while traveling.

3. I need to pack; and I have not started yet at all!

4. I need to pick suitable yarns and stitch patterns for multiple design proposal to take with me to work on while in Czech.

5. I had been finishing  two projects for a holiday magazine. Luckily, they are ready to be sent off tomorrow. I was hoping to send it off today, but was unable to have it all done until evening.

Having my kids out of school for over a week now makes me to have a bit less time during the day. But they help me. My oldest daughter helped me rewind the new hanks of yarn I got at TNNA into balls today. By the time she was done, she was a pro. My six year old also wanted to try it, so she did some of the tiny yarn samples I had.

6. I have to finish proofreading of several patterns that had been tech edited.

Oh my, the list is growing. I better go to bed to get an early start tomorrow.  I have only three days.

TNNA 2010 - part 3

So here is more on TNNA goodies.

Gadgets

I had gotten a chance to stop by dellaQ booth and buy their awesome circular needle case. I don't know about you, but I have my Addi circs still in their original packaging stored in a gallon Ziploc. I am always searching for the correct size like a mad woman. So finally I decided enough is enough and I bought this case. I had bought a similar case for my crochet hooks (crochet roll) last year and absolutely love it! I never have to search for anything and I can always grab it and go.  It goes well with my favorite large knitting bag from the same company. That bag is very cool.

Then I stopped by Lantern Moon. Faina and I had a very nice talk with the owner. She was offering some new needles and had great plans for their future products. I can't wait. I had shared with her that the small silk taffeta knitting bags she sells are absolute hit with my girls. The colors the bags come in are just sensational. I ordered those bags for my kids last year, and they just loved it. The girls feel inspired to knit when they have these beautiful bags to store their knitting in; they are just like Mommy.  Sometimes they even use these bags as purses when we go out!

This year the girls got clam shell cases. They come in sets of three. You can use them for your little notions we all carry around.

More on Yarn

I took a class at TNNA on dyeing yarn. I have long admired hand-dyed yarn and wanted to learn how to do it myself. I am not a huge fan of the variegated yarn, but I love the monochromatic yarns. The class I took was good -- hands on. Though my results were not necessarily what I had imagined. I wanted to dye my yarn in a "happy" orange, but it turned out to be more golden, fall looking orange. It still looks OK, but it was not what I was going for. I guess I cannot expect to be an expert at my first try! Here is the result.

It has a golden orange and a bit of apple candy color in it. Eventually, I'd like to make a shawl out of it.

The second dyeing attempt was a bit worse.  My daughter called it a tie-dye (!), even though it was just painted flat on the knitted fabric. Hmm. Maybe I stick with designing. But the yarn dyeing in a hanks I might try again. This flat knitted fabric is machine knitted with two yarns held together, so if one wants to make socks out of yarn dyed this way, you will end up with matching socks. And that's nice.

TNNA 2010 - Part 2

TNNA is an international trade organization representing retailers, manufacturers, distributors, designers, manufacturers' representatives, publishers,... and twice a year they have a trade show where buyers and sellers are brought together. Sellers are representing the best in the business. Buyers are busy snapping up the latest and most exciting new products.

Since nobody is allowed to buy anything on the market floor, people might get samples of various products to help them decide if they want to make order or not. For us, designers, the best samples we can get is yarn. These are all my goodies packed in Lantern Moon's silk bag. 

I have seen many new yarns offered by veterans like Cascade, Berroco, Blue Sky Alpacas, Bijou Basin Ranch, Plymouth, and many others, but also discovered several new yarn companies that had amazing yarn. Those new companies might not be necessarily new in business, but they were either exhibiting for the first time or they are new to me.

One of my favorite new yarns I discovered was yarn of Abuelita Yarns.  Abuelita yarns is a well-established Uruguayan company (I was told they've been in business over 35 years) and they produce very fine, heavenly soft hand dyed yarns. Their specialty is merino, but they offer some merino and silk blends, and organic cotton.

In the picture you can see from left to right:: Abuelita Three Ply (New) - 100% merino, 420 yd in 3.5oz/100g per skein, and the other two are Abuelita Thick and Thin - 100% merino, 136 yd in 3.5oz/100g skein. I can't wait to rewind them into balls and swatch them. Both these yarns are so very soft. Ahhh.  You can see their whole line of yarns here.


Another yarn that yarn I got magically drawn to whole weekend was yarn offered by Anzula luxury fibers. They offer hand dyed luxury yarn and incredible choice of spinning fiber. They carry wide variety of yarn weight from lace weight to worsted in semi-solids (my favorite) and variegated colorways. For those who enjoy variegated yarn, you can request any combination of their 40+ colors they offer. All the colors are very unique and really beautiful.

Here you can see Oasis (70% silk, 30% camel, 375 yd, 6sts/inch on US #5), Cricket (80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon; 250yd, 5sts/inch on US#5 - here you can see only a half skein), Mermaid (60% sea cell, 40% silk, lace weightt +/-700yd), For Better or Worsted (80% superwash merino, 10% cashemere, 10% nylon, +/-200yd, 4 sts/inch) - this yarn is incredibly soft and pleasure to knit with.

Another yarn I really liked was yarn by Pear Tree Yarn. It is an Australian based company that offers natural Australian luxury yarn. I have seen them at the previous shows and I always love coming to see them at their booth. Their yarns have beautiful natural colors that I am drawn to.

Last, but not least Fibre-Isle Fine Yarns. It is a company that is specializing in bison and bison-blend yarns. The owner, Sylvie Toupin, is a spinner and incredible lace designer.

Here you can see from in front Kami Bison DK (60% bamboo, 30% merino, 10% bison, US #6-7 needles) and in the back Kami Bison (60% bamboo, 30% merino, 10% bison, US #1-2 needles).

The scale you see in these pictures belonged to my beloved Grandmother. She was a great baker and used it all the time. The scale is very special to me because it reminds me of her everyday. I lived with her for most of my childhood. She passed away 9 months ago and I miss her terribly.

On a lighter note, next time let's talk some more yarn, new designs and gadgets.

TNNA 2010 - part 1

This TNNA was awesome! I hung out with old friends and made new ones. I had seen some yummy new yarn from veteran yarn companies, but also some wonderful new yarn companies.  I had seen new gadgets for the season. I had conducted some good networking and established new work relationships. Overall, it was a great, fun and productive weekend.

So much happened that I will need more than one post to report it all. Let me start with all the wonderful designers I met.  They always make the visit of TNNA market the most fun. So here we go.

I had met with Marlaina "Marly" Bird (Yarn Thing and Blog Radio) who I am always looking forward to seeing. She seems always happy and is extremely funny! She always hangs out with Kristin Omdahl who I met last TNNA. She is very talented and always stylishly dressed in her beautiful crochet creations. Kristin has a new book coming out Crochet so Fine that was revealed at the show.

My friend Faina Goberstein arrived on Sunday, so I did only have a day and half to spend with her. It's always a pleasure to be around her; we have always tons things to talk about. If you have not heard yet, Faina is running a very popular site Designer's Studio where you can read interviews of all the finest knit and crochet designers. Faina has  a great oversight of what's going on in the designing world and knows everyone!

I briefly talked with Stefanie Japel who arrived with her baby daughter Olive and her hubby. It was nice to see Mary Beth Temple.

I also met new designers whose work I had been admiring for long time. I met Ellen Gormley at Raverly's Ice Cream party that was held after the fashion show on Friday.

Saturday I met Linda Permann, who I also met for coffee and coke break on Monday. We talked all stuff designing and I clicked with her right away.

At the Stitch Cooperative party on Saturday I met Robyn Chachula - a crochet design genius. I had dinner with Dora Oherstein - a stylish crochet designer who runs an on-line crochet magazine Crochet Insider.

At the Designer's dinner at Buca di Peppo I met among others Amy Polcyn - we've known each other through e-mails a good while since we work on projects for Mission Falls together, but we never met before in person. I sat across a table not even knowing that it was her until we introduced ourselves. She looked much younger in person than I saw her on the Internet. Good for her.

By mere accident, Faina and I had bumped into Nancy Marchant, brioche stitch mastermind, in Einstein Bagels and ended up having a nice breakfast together. She has also a new coming out, Knitting Brioche - it's really cool.

The list can go on and on. I met Kate Oates, Allegra Wermuth, Cecily Glowik MacDonald, Veronik Avery, Teva Durham, Anne Kuo Lukito, Ysolda Teague, and many, many others.

Next time, let's talk yarn.

Help for Haiti

I added several of my patterns to Help-for-Haiti cause. 50% of sales from my select patterns will go to American Red Cross. You can find all the patterns here. The ones in this side bar are included in this special sale as well.