Guest Room

Dear Mom,

What was once a cute little girls bedroom with flowers, bees, dragonflies and butterflies painted on the wall (and even a curly red-headed fairy) has been transformed into a serene guest room.
Almost everything is moved in. I still have some yarn storage issues and fear that a giant yarn purge is in my future.
I did a little book purging to make room on the shelves for my knitting library. I found myself over thinking the placement of the books on the shelves....should Elizabeth Zimmermann, Meg Swansen, and Barbara Walker share shelf space with Sally Melville and Nicky Epstein?.... in the end it was book height and shelf space that dictated placement and not the author's sentimental status. Good information is good information and all mostof  the books on my shelves have earned their places there.
Another dilemma is the magazines. I do have space for them right now, and they are organized and contained in those plastic holders you can get, but I am wondering if they are occupying space for no purpose. There are some magazines -like my old Vogue Knitting- that I will probably hang onto forever, but I am giving serious consideration to weeding out some of my Knitters and Interweave Knits magazines. Do I go through them issue by issue and only keep the ones that have patterns or articles that interest me? I don't want to do something I'll regret. But honestly, with only a few exceptions, I couldn't tell you what was in any of those magazines. And at this point I am running out of space to put the next great book that might come along. And what if I decide to subscribe to Spin Off magazine? And the yarn.....I have to be tough and realistic about all of this.

It is a rainy day, but I'll share a couple of pictures to give you an idea of how the room looks.

This room is so clean and orderly right now that I am looking for excuses to walk in!
I'll take better pictures on the next bright sunny day, but this is the best I can do for now.

Love,
Kim

It's Here!

Dear Mom,

The Winter 2011 issue of Kiki Magazine arrived in our mailbox this afternoon, and I put this sign on the frontdoor to great the Young Lady when she gets off the bus.I am trying to wait for her to get home before I devour the magazine, but after taking a quick peak on the inside I am thankful that the editors sent us an extra copy. There is a lot of stuff in there that I am interested in reading.

Here is a link to stores that carry the magazine.

Love,
Kim

Another Cover Girl

Dear Mom,
I can't sit on the news any longer. It has been posted on Facebook and I know that this blog gets nowhere near the traffic that Facebook does, so I think it is safe for me to make the announcement....

The Young Lady will be the Cover Girl on the winter issue of Kiki magazine, due to be released in early November!!!

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If you are a friend of Kiki magazine on facebook, you can see some more photos, I think. (I don't do facebook.) I have some more behind the scenes photos, too, but I will wait until the magazine in on the newstands before I share them.


This all came about almost effortlessly, after I filled out a "Would you daughter like to participate in the magazine" questionnaire quite some time ago and had pretty much forgotten. An email in August asked if she was still interested and a photo shoot was scheduled.
I cannot say enough really good things about the women we met at the photo shoot and their kindness, energy, and honest concern for the girls. The Creative Director, Abigail Carlin, the Marketing Director, Amy Mauch and Photographer Trish Knapke are genuine ladies. It was their friendliness and demeanor that set the tone and they are excellent examples of creative women in business. I am thrilled that the Young Lady had the opportunity to see women like that at work.

The only requests made were that the Young Lady wear No Makeup (which she does not), and do nothing that made her uncomfortable.

When I learned that the Young Lady has been chosen as the cover girl I think I stopped breathing and my heart skipped a few beats. And as exciting as it was to have a cover of my own, this is waaaayyyyy better. I couldn't wait for her to get off the bus, and shouted at her in a most undignified manner to RUN!! I covered her eys and sat her down in front of the computer screen with the image of the magazine cover displayed. We shrieked like girls and did a happy dance.

This is from the Kiki magazine website:

"Kiki is a magazine for girls who love life, appreciate creativity, and recognize good ideas. A Kiki reader thinks for herself, has her own look, and is on her way to being a confident, strong, and smart young woman. She's a girl with style and substance! "

The experience we had and the women we met support that statement. I am thankful she had this opportunity, that Kiki magazine gave a positive life experience, an affirmation of her individual beauty and an esteem booster to a girl who's kind heart remains steadfast - a true Young Lady.

Love,
Kim

Cover Girl

Dear Mom,
I interrupt my regularly scheduled  vacuuming to let you know that the September issue of Creative Knitting Magazine has arrived on my doorstep and yes, let me shout it our far and wide....THAT IS MY SWEATER DESIGN ON THE COVER!!!!!

For real.
Pinch me.
Lord, help me not to share the news with complete strangers in the grocery store, or camp out in the magazine section at Barnes and Noble. Amen.

Love,
Kim

In Yesterday's Mail

Dear Mom,

Yesterday's mail brought me some very nice things.

The first was the July issue of Creative Knitting magazine, which has my fun little Hopscotch skirt in it on page 28.

It also shows my friend Carol showing off the changes she made to her "Walk in the Parka" in the letters to the editor on page 5!!!!

The other thing that arrived was this!

This is the bag o'wool, which I washed and picked to the best of my ability, and then sent off to Ohio Valley Natural Fibers to be carded into roving that I can now spin. I am amazed at how much roving that the wool became and I am now anxious to spin it and see how much yarn I can make. I wonder if there is an entire sweater in that box?  I was also pleasantly surprised at the very reasonable processing cost. I have a second bag o'wool waiting in the garage. I guess it is time to start washing and picking raw material out of it and send it on its way!  And THEN I can start playing with some of the dyeing techniques I learned at that workshop a few weeks ago!!!

Love,

Kim

March issue is out

Dear Mom,
The March issue of Creative Knitting magazine arrived yesterday, and in it on page 34 is my Spring Break sweater.

And last night, after a birthday dinner and some DQ ice cream cake, I finished this while knitting beside the fire.

Hot Water Bottle Cozy #2.

This one is for the Young Lady.

Love,

Kim

Toppled Socks

Dear Mom,
It looks like the January 2010 issue of Creative Knitting magazine is on the newsstands. If you click on that link and scroll down you will see that my Toppled Socks design is in this issue. You can click on the sock picture to get a better look. Toppled is an easy, good-for-a-beginner sock. The sock knits up fairly quickly and has become my basic, go-to sock pattern.
This is the issue that I got to watch a bit of the photo shoot, so it will be fun to see how the actual magazine shots look and to compare them wth the amateur photos I took.
Love,
Kim

Wool windings

Dear Mom,
Last week I met with Barb, Creative Knitting Magazine's editor, so that I could give her a to-be-published knitted item and the instructions for it. She and I bonded several years ago when we met at a local yarn shop and realized that we could speak fluent knitting to each other and be understood. OH! My heart leaped in joy!

Barb had a beautiful pair of socks in progress and showed me the new (to me, at least) sock yarn she was using. You can kind of see the sock in the background. I was enchanted with the actual ball of yarn and not thinking clearly when I snapped the photo. In fact, I commented on how pretty the yarn was wound ( I know- knitter knerd) and wondered out loud if that is how the yarn is sold.
Well, it was a good thing I did, because not only is Barb a wonderful editor, expert knitter, patient teacher and generous friend, she is a human wool winder! All these many years I have been using this to wind skeins of wool into center-pull balls of yarn:

Barb taught me a new trick and now I can create lovely center pull balls of yarn by hand, too! OK, I know. Knitter knerd. But a happy contented one.

Yesterday I gave the first batch of raw wool a bath.

  I put a small bundle into a mesh laundry bag and let it soak in hot water with Orvus WA Paste (my favorite sweater wash, by the way). The initial bath water was caramel colored. I gave it several soaking rinses until the water was mostly clear, then the wool took a ride in the washing machine's spin cycle. It is now upstairs air drying, out of reach of Bumper Joseph, who seems to think I brought the sheepy smelling stuff home for him to tear into.

When I figure out what my next step is, I'll let you know, but in the meantime I am liking this wooly fluff and all the promising possibilities.

Love,

Kim

Photo Shoot

Dear Mom,

Having finished a pair of socks for the May 2010 issue of Creative Knitting magazine, and needing to deliver them along with my pattern instructions, I was invited by the editor, Barb, to meet her at a photo shoot yesterday.
The location was only about 15 minutes away, but I felt like I was in another world for a little while.

The models were breathtakingly beautiful, as you would expect, but read that again. I didn't just say beautiful. I said Breathtaking. Stunning. Photogenic has a whole new meaning for me now. And the models were polite and friendly. I was equally struck by their poise while being photographed and STARED AT as I was by their looks.

Fascinated, I asked if I could take photos of them taking photos.

Here is Editor Barb, writing down an identification number and the sweater's name on a dry erase board. After the photos are taken, the model will hold this board and have another photo taken. She will also take an additional shot holding a color board. This is Liz:

Liz was fluffed and styled, special attention taken to showing the sweater to its best advantage.

And Liz's legs were probably ended at the height of my waist.

This photo shoot is for the January 2010 issue. Special care was taken that the backgrounds won't look too summery, and those models, wearing wool sweaters in August didn't even appear to be overheating.
In addition to the photographer and the hair and make up professional, there was also a stylist who coordinates the sweater, clothes and accessories for the models. She would pick up the models when they were done, whisk them away in her van and return with them wearing a new look.

This is Brittany, a former Miss Indiana. Make up touched up.

And beautiful.

Love,

Kim