Thanks, Alison, for the fun interview!

Alison Lee recently interviewed me for her Craftcast podcast, and I had such a great time talking to her. The podcast is up now and you can check it out. Please visit Alison's website where you can download the podcast, or check out (and even subscribe) her podcast at Itunes. She's interviewed some amazing crafters, and it is such an honor to be included among them.

Thanks, Alison! What fun it was chatting with you!

And for those who wonder how to find Knit and Chat at Delphi Forums . . . here's a link for that. Tell Carol Ann I sent you!

My interview . . .

Recently, I was very honored to be interviewed by Kim Stevens who has a podcast called Knit Therapy. We met at the Charlevoix Fiber Festival several weeks ago and recorded the interview, which is now available from Itunes and also from her podcast website. Kim also blogs, so check her out there as well.

Kim is a great person and another Michigander. The interview was fun and Kim made it easy to chat with her about my knitting and my book. I didn't come off looking like nearly the idiot I thought I might. Thanks, Kim, for being such a great interviewer!

I've also done another interview for a podcast called Craftcast, hosted by Alison Lee, and that was a lot of fun too. That one should be available soon as well, and I'll post information about it when it's out.

So, if you'd like to take a listen at me chatting about my knitting, visit Kim's podcast site and download the MP3 file or go check out the episode at Itunes.

School Bus Scarf, the pattern . . .

For those of you checking here as a result of my friend Jules's blog entry about the school bus scarf she knitted, here's the link to the pattern. I hope you'll enjoy knitting this for your little ones!

Just click here to go to my Free Patterns page, and then scroll down until you see the school bus scarf picture. Click the photo to download the .pdf file for the pattern.

Edit: The school bus scarf pattern has been removed from the free pattern page.

The end is in sight . . .

The end of my Knitting To Do List, that is. Well, at least the end of the immediate short range To Do list. I cast on last night for the last CPY project that is hanging fire. After it's knitted, felted, and finished, I can finalize all the photos and patterns and get this batch out to Susan. Then, I can regroup and think through what needs to be done next.

I'm excited about this current pattern for Crystal Palace. It's one they'll offer for free download. The pattern is done in two colorways -- a dressier one and a more casual one. I can't wait to show them to you when they are done. If you haven't done so yet, hop over there and take a look at my Margarita! bag that's been put up on the website recently. It's definitely a cool summer refresher.

Weather here is a bit cool today, but gorgeously sunny. This is the time of year in northeastern Michigan when you can just begin to feel autumn in the air, and see the first streakings of color in the maple leaves. School will start on Tuesday after Labor Day, and by then, it's definitely jacket weather here.

I love this time of year, with the bit of coolness in the air and the promise of the rush of summer slowing to a more manageable pace. The pull of that urge to pick up some soft squshy wool and just knit for hours grows stronger and stronger as the days become cooler.

My Montego Bay scarf is cast on and moving right along. I'm about a third of the way done with it. I've decided to incorporate some beads in the trim at each end. I think it'll be really pretty when it's done. I'm using Socka Colori Disco yarn, which has a bit of silver glitter in it. I haven't worked on the Moonlight Sonata Shawl in a few days, but I'll get back to it. I'm enjoying having a few projects to switch back and forth as I work on them.

I'm still deliberating about what to do with that Diamond Fantasy Shawl. Gift it? Or keep it and wear it myself and gift a different project? Or gift it along with another (more perfect) project as a sort of "sorry I'm human" apology gift? I think I'm leaning toward Option #3. What would you do?

Did I mention that I have two completely potty trained little girls? YAAAAAYY! Even through the night, both Abby and Emma are staying dry. It's big girl panties all around here at the Ross home! Or, as Abby and Emma call them, "pretty panties".

Now, that's cause to celebrate!

What do you do when . . .

You get something all knitted up, finished, and start blocking it and then discover that the black yarn you used, all the same yarn from the same company was apparently from different dye lots? Last week, I finished the Diamond Fantasy Shawl by Sivia Harding. It's gorgeous! Of course, being black and having been knit mostly at night after the kids were asleep, I wasn't even thinking about there being the possibility of the last 2 inches being a more bluish black than the more brownish black that the rest of the shawl is. You can almost notice it in the photo, but you can definitely see it in person in full sunlight or under fluorescent lighting.

Disheartening, to say the least. I had planned this as a gift, but now, unless someone can tell me an easy way to overdye this so the black color evens out, I may have to just keep it for myself and go to Plan B for the gift. Draped in the right way, and particularly in less than full sunlight, the color difference isn't apparent, but still, I don't feel I can gift someone with less than perfection. Are any of you that way?

I finished some other projects since my last blog entry, and started some others. I got more bags done for Crystal Palace, but haven't got hardware, etc. installed yet. So I need to do that, photo them, and then get the patterns written up and the whole shebang mailed out. I have one more bag to knit and felt for them, which is an alternate colorway of one of the just completed ones.

I designed some Golf Club Covers for my father-in-law. They turned out well. I used 2 strands of some leftover Lion Brand Wool. And then as I was looking them over, discovered on the 5-wood cover, a purl in the ribbing where there should have been a knit. He won't care, probably won't even notice, and if he did wouldn't think anything about it, but I know. Dang, dang, dang! The most maddening part about these recent knitting boo-boos is that I don't usually do stuff like that. This must be a sign of having too much going on all at once, which is certainly the case around here these days.

Another project I got underway is the Moonlight Sonata Shawl by Shui Kuen Kozinski which I downloaded from Elann. This is going well in Briar Rose Sea Pearl. What a treat this yarn is -- merino and tencel. Gorgeous hand, lovely color, and great to knit up. Here's a photo of the work in progress. I've worked through three more pattern repeats since that photo, and have 5 more to go, for a total of 10 in all, unless I decide to make it longer.

I'm getting that itchy urge to cast on a pair of socks. I'm thinking about doing one of Gigi Silva's designs, either the Carolina, Last Queen of Naples or the Kaylee. Anyone made either of these? What do you think? And I'm also wanting to cast on for Amy Singer's Montego Bay Scarf from the Summer 2007 Interweave Knits.

Decisions, decisions, decisions! And much procrastination about finishing up those handbags!