Baking Day!

Festive Felted Chain Garland Pattern

Let's decorate!

Izzy and Brown Bear are getting ready to decorate for a birthday party ... and Snowman and Gingerbread Man already have the Christmas spirit! Whether you want to decorate for Christmas or anytime of year, the knitted/felted festive garland pattern will be just right! I also used a very thin, lace-weight yarn held together with some Gold Rush sparkle and came up with little links perfect for a small garland or even a fashionable necklace!

Each link in the garland chain is knit within the next, so there are no seams to worry about and nothing to come apart! Give it a try! You can find it at the Pattern Box in the holiday section. Go there now!

Fall at the Cemetery ... My Mom's Grave ... and the BENCH

My Mom's grave in the Fall ...

Here is the rather expensive bench that everybody thought everybody else really wanted ... but, in the end, nobody really did. But by the time we realized this, it was too late to cancel! So here it is.

View from Our Back Yard and Visitors!

Look at this! This is a tiny flower on the flowering almond shrub a friend from my swimming class gave me last April after my Mom died. She said it would bloom every April. I guess it decided to bloom now that my Dad has moved in! It's probably just a coincidence, but it feels like my Mom is sending us her love and approval.

Meanwhile, two of my brothers came for the weekend a couple of weeks ago and we had a great time! They were able to see my Dad's addition for the first time ... and we had fabulous weather.

My brother Chris loves to cook ... so the first night he was here, he made shrimp scampi.

The second night he was here, he made a pork roast with apple, currant and hard apple cider stuffing. See the sage sprigs on top? Here it is going into the oven.

And ... VOILA ... here it is, finished. It was perfect. It tasted fabulous, but it took him all day to chop the fruits, saute various things at various times, cook the stuffing until the hard cider was absorbed, butterfly the pork roast, pound it flat, stuff it and roll and tie it up. PHEW! I was feeling pretty guilty by the time we sat down to eat. He had been cooking for two days straight and then had to drive back 8 hours the next day. We all decided that, next time, we'll order take out! (But it was delicious, I have to say ... he really needs his own tv show: Cookin' with Chris!)

Dad and I in front of the koi pond. (Pay no attention to the beverages on the pond wall!)

Here's a photo of part of the stone patio and path.

It's really great having my Dad here. It feels like he's finally home.

My Chow Hand Puppet Is on Knitty!

Sometimes, it seems, mouths have minds of their own! In this case, it's true! Chow is knit in the round, then felted in your washing machine. The teeth are I-cord and shaped by dental-floss stitching.
I hope you'll visit Knitty's Deep Fall 2010 issue, now LIVE! and give my free Chow pattern a try and, as always, if you run into any trouble spots, or just want to say, "hi," please email me!

My Walkabout Dolls Are Going to Be PUBLISHED!

I am so excited to finally let it be known: My Walkabout dolls are going to be published by Leisure Arts in April, 2011. It's been hard to keep quiet about this project the last year and a half ... so I can finally breathe a wonderful sigh and let you know what I've been working on!!! You can even pre-order it from Amazon.com! Here is the link: Storybook Dolls to Knit

You can also read more about it here: Midpoint Trade Books

All of the walking dolls are knit with wool yarn on double-pointed needles and then ... yes! You guessed it! Felted in your washing machine! The felted dolls are perfect little canvases for embroidering great details and faces, etc.

The patterns include The Gingerbread Man; Hansel and Gretel and the Witch; The Three Little Pigs (and the Wolf, of course!); Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf; Mary and her Lamb; Humpty Dumpty; and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They were so much fun to design and I hope you'll want to try them! And, as an extra bonus, there's an audio cd of the fairy tales and nursery rhymes included!

Izzy Wellington pattern is up!

Izzy and Old Bear love the koi pond!


Don't fall in!

Wow! It's been a hectic couple of weeks! But my father is all moved into the addition! and I've even had time to put the Izzy Wellington doll pattern up for sale on my website and on Ravelry, too. The 8-page pattern comes with the directions to knit and felt Izzy, her separate dress and her shoes (or dancing slippers, as she likes to call them). I've even detailed how to make her hair using a circle loom as a starting point. And you can have all this in a moment's download for a modest $2.50!!! Plus, don't forget, I'm always here if you have any questions or concerns about any of my patterns.