My latest design; pattern will be available online mid-summer.

I have to admit, I feel bad for the tease of the rose tote posts from last month. If you didn’t read them….check them out. I still don’t have the final photo of the tote and the Knitting Today issue featuring it doesn’t come out ’til fall.  In the meantime…I worked up a similar project for my new Pick Up Sticks line, being released at TNNA June 11-15. I adapted the rose tote into a peony-inspired pillow. And for this one, you WILL get both before and after shots

Check back throughout June for sneak peeks of the new line. All five designs will be available on my website for sale as PDF downloads starting in mid-July.

The Dali Rose Tote felted perfectly. I was so shocked, I forgot to document it. After the bag dried, I popped it in the mail and sent it off to my editor without even thinking about photographing it. Where was my head? I’ll post when the story comes out in Knitting Today.

The Dali Rose tote, unfelted.

Could be 35 hours of knitting down the drain; I just don’t know. Will it look like a rose? Or will all the short-row petals and tiers fold in on themselves creating a matted mess? Only 20 minutes in the washing machine will tell…

I have a confession. Because I’ve been felting for so long, I often skip swatching. I have the deluded notion that by touching a fiber, I can tell how it will felt. I was reminded of how silly this idea is while working on a project for Knitting Today magazine’s upcoming spring issue. The article is called Felting 101, and in it, I detail the importance of swatching. You never know how a fiber will felt, I wrote, until you knit and shrink it up. Blatantly disregarding own advice, I knit a whole makeup bag out of Nashua’s Creative Focus Worsted Wool in yellow. When it came out of the washer, it looked more like a Jim Henson creation than the hip little tote I had envisioned. I then swatched the same yarn in two different colors. They both turned out beautifully. I was reminded of a lesson I learned when I first began felting: different colors — even from the same manufacturer and in the same line — sometimes felt differently. So there you have it. Now I just need to figure out where to sew on the googly eyes to the failed project. Perhaps I’ll discover a market for a Muppet makeup bag.

A customer from Stitches Midwest bought our Learn to Knit kit and used it to teach three new knitters at her Knitting Boot Camp / Fiber weekend. Check out Paula’s podcast about how the newbies did with their first knitting projects!

I love so much about this:

1. There’s nothing more gratifying than designing a kit and having people use it just the way you envisioned.

2. The birth of a new knitter is a special thing, especially one who says, “This is EASY!”

3. Check out the *almost* finished products. They started with my design as an inspiration, then gave it their own spin.

Coin purses in progress ...

I received an email from a customer the other day who was nervous about how her Fiona (Benji’s blonde friend) doll was turning out. She thought the doll didn’t look felted enough and that her seams were funky. She sent me photos to show me, and the doll looked perfect! I realize that she isn’t the only one who might need a little reassurance, so I’m posting images of the dolls in progress so ya’all can see what they look like before they get all, um, dolled up.

Hair
Also, if Benji’s curls aren’t holding, try dampening her yarn while it’s wrapped around the needle, then spraying with hair spray. Let dry completely before pulling the yarn off the needle. It should be in ringlets.

Sweater

Some patterns went out without the first line of Benji’s sweater pattern. The line that was omitted was this:

Cast on 40 sts in sweater color and work three rows in a k1, p1 rib.