Yarngerie

Each year for Christmas, I make my boys' teachers an ornament.  It's just a little something to help make their season brighter and show them how much I appreciate everything they do.  I've made stars, wreaths, caged glass ornaments, you name it.  But last year's ornament is, by far, my favorite, and even more exciting, it was my own design!

At the urging of many friends, I've put it together in a brand new pattern that I've creatively named Beaded Christmas Tree Ornament (really had to stretch myself on that one...haha!).  

When I choose an ornament pattern,...

As some of you may have heard, September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.  If your life or the life of someone you know has been touched by a pediatric cancer, you know how difficult and and devastating it can be.  It's the equivalent of having your head crashed between cymbals and yet, as a parent, you still have to hold it together and take care of your little one during a most difficult time.

Our family is one of of those families.

My youngest son, Nick, was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis just before his 4th birthday.  It is a rare cancer where...

In this wonderful age of electronics and Ravelry, there are loads of ways to purchase crochet and knit patterns.  Heck, I have my own here on this site!  And yet, I love cracking open a pattern book.  There's nothing like it.  The pages and that new book smell...it's all intoxicating and has me motivated to try new patterns.  There are a handful of books coming out soon that I'm insanely excited about and just had to spread the word to all of you.  These 4 books are definitely on my wish list.

Top-Down Crochet Sweaters: Fabulous Patterns with P...

Last week played out just as I expected.  Much of my time was used prepping for back to school and very little time was spent with my yarn.  But fear not...progress was made on some projects.  Both my crochet test and shawl collar with a basket pattern projects are still on my hooks almost finished and a few more have made their way into my queue.  But all will be completed this week because this week is Retreat Week!

Every year, the Crocheters of the Lakes chapter of the Crochet Guild of America has a retreat for its members where we croc...

I've extended this week's Monday into Tuesday because Monday didn't allow me nearly enough time to check everything off my to do list.  It makes me wish I had Evie's powers from Out of this World where I could just stop time for a bit and then start it up again.  

Yes...out of all the super powers I could ask for, this would be it.

Although...I'd totally be down for Samantha Stevens' nose wiggle powers and would dig having Doc Brown's DeLorean.  But having a little extra time may help me bust through my stash!

I have been all sorts of productive this week.  Cowls ha...

Yes, Stitches Midwest was such a blast that it's taking me 3 days to talk about it!  A couple days ago, I talked about some of the new dyers I met.  Today, let's chat about some of my favorites that I like to visit year after year and show after show.

ModeKnit

Oh Annie Modesitt and Kathleen Pascuzzi...how I adore you both!!  Their happiness about all things yarn and color is ever apparent in their ModeKnit booth.  And the yarns...ohhhhh the yarns...I changed my mind about four or five times trying to decide which color and which base to choose.  I finally walked aw...

If only I could pick up a little something from every single dyer at Stitches.  Ah...what a dream!  But given the limited space I have in my house because of my ocean deep stash, that's just not prudent.  

But I did manage to pick up yarn from four dyers whose yarns I have not yet tried.  Two are gradients, one set came as a kit, and one is qiviut.  

That's right.  I said it.  

Qiviut is now in my stash.  (Insert girlish rock concert squealing here)

But first...the gradients...

Fresh from the Cauldron

Fresh from the Cauldron owner and designer Jen Mu...

I can't begin to tell you how much I adore going to Stitches events.  There is so much love around yarn and patterns and designers and all the little accessories that enhance crocheting and knitting.  While I walked away with many great yarn additions, I also acquired a few fabulous accessories as well as the hope of other items that I'd love to receive as gifts (hint..hint).

So let's talk about project bags.  

I could easily spend a small fortune in the Erin.Lane booth.  Project bags, totes, buckets, organizers and even stitch markers in such fun prints.  For...

Over the past nine days, I visited 15 local yarn shops, went to Stitches Midwest 3 times, saw a wonderful and educational presentation by Franklin Habit, took a class with the amazing Marly Bird, and shopped my little heart out.  My stash is thousands of yards deeper, my queue is longer with yarns matched up to projects, and I have all these wonderful new skeins to adore and work up.  The blissful euphoria of the weekend got me drunk on yards and yards of wools and cashmere and silk and quiviut...yes...I said quiviut.  I'm gloriously hungover by it all!
 

I h...

Holy cow!  What a weekend!!  The Chicago Yarn Crawl began on Saturday and I made a very ambitious schedule for myself.  There were several shops I walked into for the first time and a few favorites I gleefully visited.  I'll get into more details later in the week but between visiting 13 shops over two days, wrangling little boys, and getting this week's ducks in a row, there wasn't much room for stitching.

But I have several lovely new skeins that I'm petting and many others I'm dreaming about because the budget just wouldn't allow for such purchases.
 

Thi...