Updates

My fingers have not had the time to blog lately, due to some fast and furious knitting of store samples. I will be teaching my Kaleidoscope Tote in January at Three Kittens Needle Arts, and that tote is the project I'm working on finishing now. They have my original, and I am desperate without it...soooo...I need to get another one to them to display in the store and to sell my class!!

I'm also teaching the open knitting on Tuesdays for 3 Kittens, and the cool thing is that we set up class at the local coffee shop just three stores down. The coffee shop is called TK's, and it does NOT stand for Three Kittens, as my daughter thought. It stands for the shop owner, Tony K.

As SOON as I get my new Adobe Acrobat 8 to load and work, then my patterns will be available online, most likely through the 3 Kittens' website, at least for now. I may even start to have t-shirts of my power knitchique girl that says, "I'm a friend of Knitchique!" Stay tuned!

Giddy doesn't begin to describe it...

I can not and will not contain my excitement and the thrilling feeling I have!! In the words of the Pointer Sisters, "I'm so excited and I just can't hide it!" What am I so excited about, you ask? Since four of my designs were displayed at the Quilting and Sewing Expo (Thrusday thru Saturday), I have sold 140 copies of my patterns and I am aware that many more are requested!

These are the patterns that I had displayed there:

Kaleidoscope Tote

Scraptabulous 2

Stained Glass Bag

Mondrian Scarf

This shows both the colorful version and the three color version. My 14 year old son wears the black, grey, and white scarf to school every day, and several students want one...

The Kaleidoscope tote was in the fashion show every few hours, and after each showing, the booth was swarming with people wanting the pattern!!

Vivian Hoxbro (Author of Domino Knitting) was there signing her books and teaching some classes. I heard that she loved my colorful designs, and I attempted to get into her class on Friday. Sadly it was sold out. I did meet her at the end of the day, and she signed my book, and gave wonderful encouragement and inspiration to me. When she heard that I could not get into her class, she responded,"Oh! You could have been my Angel and helped me with the class." HOW COOL IS THAT?!?

I am seeing the realization of my dream to be a designer, and a rockstar status one at that. I can handle it. My designs are even going to be sold in Chicago, and possibly soon in Wisconson. I'm INTER-STATEional!! ROCK ON!

News

My newest project that I have started is the Menorah Pillow from Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays. It is going really well, and fairly quickly due to the cables. I love doing cables! It is to be a combination holiday and thank you gift.

I am still working on the shrug. I will refrain from calling it names like shrug from hell or some other nasty thing...I just have to work it through.

Still working on my dear daughter's Skull hoodie that we designed together...

I have been making little wristlettes for my family...we are all branded now.

The best news of all is that I have hooked up with another local yarn shop here in town. They are giddy over my designs, and are going to sell my patterns both in their store and online at their website. This coming weekend, they are going to be at the Quilting and Sewing Expo, and they took samples of my designs to show off. They are not the only ones who are giddy! Once all details are set, I will have the info here on my blog as to where you can get the patterns if you so desire.

Oh...and why Ann Margrock? Why NOT Ann Margrock!

It's not a mistake, it's an opportunity!

You know when you are knitting along like mad and excited about the outcome, and then...you suspiciously look at what you are making and it looks totally wrong to you? That is what happened to my shrug out of the Shaeffer yarn . It
was supposed to be 21 inches across, after the ribbing. As you can see here in
these photos, it is not 21 inches!



It is sadly 32 inches!!!
I honestly don't know what went wrong, beacuse I did take time to check my gauge!


I contemplated what to do with a little help from my friend Newcastle, and decided to start over...from the very beginning!I revamped the pattern, and I decided to make it all in one piece, rather than seam two together. I also decided to change the stitch for the body section of the shrug...yes I checked gauge...and as a result, I now have 354 stitches on my needle that I need to make 7 inches long with a K2 P2 ribbing...it is taking a while, but I believe that this time it will work out! I know, I know, is a shrug really worth it? Well, this one will be. It WILL be!






I recently added some Noro to my "collection" and here is the proof.


One skein of Noro Silk Mountain in color 2...65% Wool, 25% Silk, 10% Kid Mohair
Two skeins of Noro Sakura, one in color 3, and one in color 5...36% Rayon, 28% Polyester, 18% Nylon, 11% Silk, 7% Lambs Wool
One ball of Noro Kureon in color 182...100% Wool...isn't that a fabulous color?!?

I also purchased a bottle of SOAK woolen wash, and I've only experimented with it once, but I can tell I'm going to like it, there is no need to rinse!

Last Sunday, I traveled to Madison WI to hear Meg Swanson speak, and to view the beautiful sweaters that she, and her mother Elizabeth Zimmerman, as well as several others, have knit. I will show photos later and go into my overall take on the exhibit when I get the CD with photos on it...(I forgot my camera and didn't discover it until we were halfway there, so a disposable camera was purchased) So...stay tuned!