Free Pattern: Mr. Hoo

Whenever my husband and I travel an owl follows us home. It started during our honeymoon and for the last 5 years it has continued. One of my son’s favorite toys is the shelf where the owls are kept. Needless to say some rearranging was done so only the study wood ones are in toddler reach. He grabs the 2 wood owls and a wooden sun from that shelf and drags them all over the house. After a few incidences of him trying to take the owls to bed with him I decided he needed a soft owl toy of his own.

So I designed this guy. Mr. Hoo is really quick to make – I was even able to make mine in one nap. The pattern is available as a free ravelry download here. I hope you enjoy.

Craft: Crochet Type: Toys Published: March 2011 Yarns suggested:Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton

Yarn weight: Worsted Gauge: 20 stitches = 4 inches in single crochet Needle size: 4 mm (F)

Stay tuned next week. A second free pattern is coming out – this one knit.

Christmas

My husband and I always seem to get very stressed before Christmas as we anticipate the mad rush from one place to another. But when Christmas Eve and Christmas Day roll around we always find ourselves more relaxed than we thought and savoring the moments between dashing.

As as special treat this year is snowed on Christmas day – something I can’t remember ever happening in my life. So we ran around like mad men in the falling snow as the sun went down. Then today we played some in the morning where my son showed that he could throw a snowball. Thanks for teaching him that Daddy.

Vintage filters feel right for Christmas don’t they? The hat is An Unoriginal Hat by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee made from Malabrigo chunky. Thanks for taking the picture hun.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.

BOGO!

While it may not feel like it there is still time to knit a great gift this year. To help you out I am offering my patterns BUY ONE GET ONE FREE until December 5, 2010 – including my new Barn Door Pullover. No coupon code needed. Just add two patterns to your cart on my ravelry store and check out.

Note: Due to some technical issue I was having if you want to buy 4 patterns and get 2 free you will have to check out twice. I am very sorry for the inconvenience.

SAFF 2010

For years I have been hearing my friends around the yarn shops talking about SAFF this and SAFF that. I had always wanted to go but it seemed a little silly for a woman who breaks out into a rash while wearing wool to go to a fiber fair. But after yammering on twitter with Kate (Tot Toppers) and Brandy (PixiePurls) I decided to jump in head first and skip the visiting the fair step and go right to vending.

Sadly Brandy ended up not being able to join us in vending, but Kate and I had a great time. Set up was the hardest part because both Kate and I are sticklers for presentation. I think it took us twice as long as any other booth but it was well worth it. I only seemed to have taken the one photo but Kate has more on her blog.

The first night in the hotel was crazy as Kate and I did some last minute upgrades to our booth. At one point Kate was sewing table clothes wile I was making a spread sheet to track sales. Then we changed out strings on bag until midnight. But after making a huge mess in the room we final got to sleep.

After the mad dash of the initial setup it was relatively smooth sailing. We had great weather of cold mornings but mild afternoons. And I loved the fresh air and the incredible fall light. They were the perfect touch to the already wonderful atmosphere created by the friendliness and passion of everyone who attended. I met some really great people and I hope to see them next year.

Also on the good new front: I spent a good portion of the weekend wearing a wool hats with no signs of a rash. Maybe it is time to try knitting with wool again. I have a skein of Spud and Chloë sweater calling to me.

Paper and Printing

Lately my life seems to be filled with paper and printing. Paper from my skecthbook, paper from my business cards, and most importantly paper printouts of my patterns. About 6 weeks ago I started selling printed copies of my patterns in my favorite local yarn store Knitch. The arrangement has been working out well and I love that I can now visit during lunch breaks guilt free. I have also been gearing up for the South Eastern Fiber Fair (SAFF). So I now have 350 copies of my patterns printed, folded and bagged – and a sore back.

This much paper feels strange in my life. I have always thought of myself more of a digital girl. I grew up with a computer in my house from a young age and for a living I work as a web designer. My new business cards even only list my email and social networking contacts.

But there is something about paper. I love going to the book store and smelling the freshly printed books and leafing through the brightly printed pages. It is tactile experience – just like yarn. While the work of printing, folding, bagging and stacking has been out of the ordinary and not something I would want to do every day there has been a pleasure in seeing my work on paper and not just on screen.

You can find me at SAFF in the Sales Arena sharing a booth with the lovely and talented Kate Oates (Tot Toppers).

If you are a yarn shop and interested in selling my pattern contact me at carey[at]fulloffluff.com

A Taste of Fall

Here in Georgia if you have a few days under 90 degrees everyone starts talking about fall. Appropriately this Labor Day weekend the weather thought a small taste of fall was in order. The slight dip in temperature got me in the mood to finish the sweater I have been working on on-and-off for the last month or so for the boy.

The pattern is my original and still unnamed design that I plan to release as soon as I can write the pattern. The yarn is rowan calmer, a cotton acrylic blend that has a good amount of elasticity that works great for ribbing. I also like that this yarn is warm without being too warm, great for fall and most of the mild winters we have here. For cooler places it would be easy to find a nice wool substation.

The taste was nice but it looks like it is over for now. We are back into the 90s today. But now my sweater mojo is flowing and my hands are itching to work on a sweater for myself. I started a February Lady about a week back. Every knitter has to make one sometime right?

Pattern – Dakk

Meet my new favorite robot – Dakk. He, or at least parts of him, have been hanging around for a very long time. I first doodled of him almost 2 years ago during an all day meeting at work. On the page was about 20 other robots. While digging in my notebook this winter I found the pages or robots and posted a poll to see what robot my blog readers wanted me to make “for my next pattern.”

Yeah so he was not my next pattern. I got a little distracted by this, this and this. But always in my knitting bag a few robot parts where hanging out.

Finally after crocheting each part at least 2-5 times I had him the way I wanted him. I hope you enjoy him. And I promise it should not take you 8 months to make.

Craft: Crochet Type: Toy Published: August 2010 Yarns suggested: Dark Horse Yarns Fantasy

Yarn weight: Aran / 10ply (8 wpi) Gauge: 20 stitches = 4 inches in single crochet Hook size: 3.5 mm (E)

Available for $5.00 via ravelry.

~ {this moment} ~ The Pointer

~ {this moment} ~ A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

~ {this moment} ~ Sidewalk Chalk

{this moment} – A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

A Year in the Making

A little over a year ago had a baby. For the first month of his life he was in the NICU and breastfeeding was a very public affair. So I thought making a nursing shawl would be a good “simple fast project” to get me back in the knitting grove.

I picked the Prefect Pie Shall patten from Weekend Knitting because the lace pattern was simple and I have even done it before. The only modification was replacing the twisted m1 with a yo because I was working with cotton and I wanted the lace to look like lace unblocked.

Well it took quite a while to make the shall and it is full of mistakes, many of them due to knitting in low light at 2am. But I am now done and I have a lovely nursing shall just in time for weaning. Yay?