Photo Friday

Oh Dear.
Meet Ruby and Bumbles, Chief's new pet gerbils. 

Knitting

I just finished Susan B. Anderson's Twister pattern. It's available for free from the Spud & Chloe website.  It's 2 skeins of Spud & Chloe Sweater.  Since I didn't have 2 of the same color, I took two of what I did have, pink and yellow!  I thought it might be fun and look like a variegated rose :)

Real Quick...

I'm still busy doing family stuff, but I thought I'd post this photo...

My brother, Ken, brought my book to our family gathering because he wanted me to sign it!  So sweet. 

And the Winner is....

The winner of the digital edition of Simply Crochet by Robyn Chachula is....

Ashley from Flint, MI

Yay! (confetti drop here)...

Ashley, please email me as soon as you can to  Ellen @ GoCrochet dot com

Here's a photo for your Friday:

Book Review and Giveaway: Simply Crochet

Ok, so it's not exactly fair that I'm reviewing this book... since I'm IN IT! It's Robyn Chachula's new book, Simply Crochet.  The book is now available in hardcopy and ebook formats from Interweave Press.

The book is based on the 1, 3, or 5 balls of yarn. My Dots and Dashes blanket, is 5 skeins of Caron Simply Soft.

Of Course Robyn has several of the 22 designs in the book, but she also included many designers you might also enjoy:  Rebecca Velasquez (the cover design! GO REBECCA!) Marly Bird, Linda Permann, Kristin Omdahl, Doris Chan, Margaret Hubert and several more.

All the designs are shown in both written and stitch diagram instructions. There are several accessories and several garments, a few kids garments, a few household items. All in all, there is a little something for everyone.

I love this little Natalie shrug by Megan Granholm, so SWEET!

Interweave Press is offering a prize for one lucky blog reader.  Leave a comment on this post by Thursday night at midnight Eastern, December 22nd with your first name and city. I'll randomly pull a name from the comments, and post it on Friday. The winner will need to email me ASAP, because you'll win a coupon for a DIGITAL copy of the book!  Which means the sooner you claim your book the faster you can start enjoying your prize. 

HAHA, I guess I didn't really talk about my blanket, did I? LOL.  I'm truly in love with ovals.  I just think they are so elegant and interesting.  Of course that means that they fit wonderfully into an oval box.  Paired with the circles in squares, it's almost like little exclamation points.

Dirty little secret

I'm going to let you in on a secret... I sold some projects that were supposed to be published, but then weren't.  And do you know what? It happens all the time. I think sometimes editors buy projects and then they later find out that the bought too much or that some patterns took up more space and so something had to be "bumped" or saved for another issue or offered in another way.  This has happened to me a few times lately and so while I was excited to be sharing a bunch of reveals with you, they'll have to wait.  It's disappointing, temporarily. Then it's all better when the check arrives and the project goes public and the disappointment will all be forgotten. There are still PLENTY of projects in the pipeline because 2011 was a record year for me.  It's a great time to start putting the finishing touches on my balance sheet for 2011, take an honest look at my 2011 business goals and set new ones for 2012!  I'm so very excited about what you are going to see in 2012! 

Photo Friday

Inspiration: Primrose Stole

Have I told you about this one yet? This is a rectangular stole made of Spud & Chloe Fine. It's a superwash wool and silk blend and it blocks beautifully.  The pattern is available through Tangled online magazine. What was I thinking?  One of my cousins, who lives out of state and I don't get to see often, and I re-connected on Facebook a while back.  Reading my posts and seeing my work, Stephanie made a comment about wanting a scarf.  At the time, I was so swamped that I thought to myself, "If the Divine Mother herself asked for a scarf, it would be hard to find the time".  That got me thinking, what could I make that would be worthy of the Mother of God?  (cue choirs of angels)  I designed this pattern to be light and airy. I love the wool/silk blend. The yarn also comes in lovely ecru and pale blue colors that I used for the proposal. They are join-as-you-go squares and I wanted something lacy. After the book, I'm all about join-as-you go ;) I think it turned out really well.  I wish I had a photo of the before and after blocking, because it is nothing short of spectacular.

Gift to YOU

So, yesterday I was telling you about Stefanie Japel's Craftsy class.  I've been taking the class on www.craftsy.com It's called Circular Knit Lab: Hats four ways.  It has been teaching me how to use circular and double pointed needles to make hats!  So far, at my own pace, I have made the Sweet Pea and Wheeler Hats (below). Well, Stefanie read my post and decided to offer YOU, my readers, a discount if you want to get into the action too!  Isn't that great?  I love taking classes. Probably nothing inspires me more than hearing people talk about the crafts I love.  The class is regularly $49.99 (totally worth it), but using THIS LINK to Craftsy, you can get the class for $29.99.  They have many other classes too and you can even GIFT a class to a friend. (what a great idea!)
Thanks Stefanie!

Knitting

Don't worry, knitting is not taking away from my crochet time.  This hat, is part of the Circular knitting class "Circular Knit Lab: Hats Four Ways" with Stefanie Japel on Craftsy.  I love the Craftsy class forum. This is the second hat in the class and it has taken me (cough, 3 months?) to finish?  Because of course, crochet has to come first.  But still I love learning and I love knitting and I'm thrilled to have a finished project. Though I did a gauge swatch, my hat is a little big, so I'm not sure who gets it :)

 Chickee started a new knit scarf, alternating rows of garter and stockinette, so I got inspired. I grabbed a beautiful little hank of Louet (uh oh, what was it....) Eastport? Alpaca. Lovely.

And when I say it was a little hank, I mean little!  This is the entire hank.  I'm going to have to get a little decorative broach to pin this scarf on. It's only about 18-20" (a guess) long. But, wow is it soft.

Photo Friday

Our Niece's dog, Lucy, dressed up for Halloween. That's a jockey on her back. They should have put some roses around her neck.

Inspiration: Carolyn's Cabled Purse

As seen in the Interweave Crochet's Accessories Issue, 2010, this little textured tote is made of Berroco Vintage yarn.  I love making purses and bags. I love working in the round. Purses and totes fit everyone. There is no "ease" issues.  With this bag I was really intrigued by the idea of wanting to do the cables on the surface and having a different background color. It is a "tapestry style" where one color is dropped and the next color picked up.  It is "Fair Isle" because not more than 2 colors are used in any row.  One color is all the Front Post stitches, creating the cable, and the other two colors are used for the "background".  So many bags are "flat" with no texture this was my early steps at adding texture to the surface.

Closure is always an issue for totes and bags. This bags closes with a sewn in snap.

The entire issue is available still in digital format here on Interweave's Website. Hardcopies are also available at Interweave here.

Did you see?

I have an Article in the new issue of Crochet Today!  January/February 2012. It's an article on the difference between clusters, bobbles and popcorns!  I got my nails done just for the article. (is that a business expense?) Those are MY hands in the photos :)

Funny, my hands are famous.

Check it out!

Photo Friday

Chickee plays volleyball, from Chief's perspective, with me, the assistant coach, in the background...

Kick off

Today, Rebecca Velasquez kick's off the Simply Crochet Blog tour, go visit her and see what she has to say about her cover project for Robyn Chachula's new book.