...Knitting Up A Storm

Announcements

2013-06-04T22:37:00.000-05:00

Hey guys. I know it's been a long while.
I do have two exciting **knitting** announcements for you guys.

1. $5 in Paris has been generously translated in FRENCH by Milla Ray, who is part of ”Traductions de Ravelry”, a French-English bilingual group that translates patterns, articles and other pieces of the site.
I only have a pdf version so far of the translation, but if you are interested (or know someone who is in need of a French translation) feel free to email me.

$5 in Paris is also translated into Spanish!

2. FIVE free KUAS patterns will be featured on Knitting Superstar: Cut Out + Keep in the near future. They've been emailing me for weeks now requesting some of my patterns, and with all of the renovations and piano accompaniment I've been doing all May, I JUST got around to emailing them today with it. If you are unfamiliar with that site, they feature one knitter a week, and every day of the week has a new free pattern from that designer. It's a cool site, you should check it out.

By the way... does anyone watch the show Fringe? I have something funny to share. This freaked the crud out of me and my husband while watching the 4th season. The boy on the left was a guest on the show, and the boy on the right is one of my toddler twins 6 months ago:

Creepy, or is it creepy?!?! In daylight, his eyes look exactly the same, they have the same face shape, same hair, same eyebrow shape, same lips and chin...

AMM Sheet Music

2013-04-14T10:24:00.000-05:00

Hey All,
I'm very excited and happy to announce that my sheet music made it "live" on Sheetmusicplus.com and is available for the whole world to see/play! They can be instantly downloaded and printed out on your computer.

If you have kids that play piano, or know of someone that plays, you would be doing me a huge favor sending them to my My Music Publishing Website to test out the audio clips of all of the pieces that are available. Although all of them are my "babies" and I love each of them, my favorite in the Adult section is "Spirit" (second to it is "Guitar Dance") and the simple children's piece "Gypsy Fair" (which by the way was hard to top for a while in my husband's opinion!!) . "Pirate's Shanty" has lyrics that the audio clip doesn't show, but you can preview some of the lyrics on the actual sample page. I'll post the funny/cheesy lyrics that the pirates sing sometime.

You can find me in the "Publisher" finder (although I don't know why I'm not also in the Composer section as well):

They have like 500 "Spirit" songs, so unless you are clicking on it from my website, you might want to look me up on Sheetmusicplus.com that way.

Here's a couple of cutsie ads:

Thanks so much! It's going to be a long road going self-published...doing all the advertising myself, but I hope that pianists will find these pieces to be fulfilling and educational (especially under my "children's section.")

P.s- We are re-paining our house (no more green next to red or green next to purple-grey...and no more green running all up our staircase and ceiling). You'll all gasp at me mentioning "knitting" lately...cause who'd think I'd mention THAT on my knitting blog, but I have a children's rug project that is waiting for me to begin. It's fabric strips that I need to sew together first before I knit it. Hopefully soon I can actually begin this project!

Processing

2013-04-06T11:35:00.005-05:00

This is exciting! All ten that I have uploaded to www.sheetmusicplus.com has been reviewed, accepted and undergoing processing for being live in under a week! (Audio music sampling of these pieces.)

A.M.M Publications

2013-04-02T23:51:00.002-05:00

Remember me telling you guys that I was dabbling into composing piano pieces (mostly for my piano students, and maybe formulate a children's book some day)? Well, since December, I've composed nearly 17 piano pieces. I'm just as shocked. I guess you never know what you are capable of, until you try! It was a lot of work-work-work every second of my children's nap/bedtime. Let's just say I "stayed up so late and woke soo early I almost crossed myself in the hallway" many nights.

Head over to my site: www.annamaliszewski.webs.com to check out the audio samples of some of my compositions almost ready for the public. I've submitted 4 pieces already to www.sheetmusicplus.com. Cross your fingers! This is really exciting! It can take up to 10 days to know whether they will release it on their site. Let me know what you think of them.

Song Writing

2013-02-26T17:52:00.001-06:00

I was inspired yesterday to compose "Gypsy Fair" for the Early Elementary Level pianist. It's in C minor. (I love minors, weird me.) Today, while the boys were napping and it was snowing-storming like no one's business, I also composed "Hop Frog Pond!" (for the Intermediate Level pianist). Everyone at the house really loved the first one, so I imagine "Hop Frog Pond" will be hard to compete for affection, but I think it's an official start to writing my own Children's Piano Literature Book for beginners. Or, at least I have two cute ones. Let me know what you think. Oh, and if you are wondering why I am being more random than usual on my knitting blog with this video...I'm a mother by day and piano teacher by evening. This could be a start of something big (or at least something cool) if I keep at it. :)

P.S- it's all computerized instrumental voicing. Nothing live, or fancy...I literally just finished writing it! Double :)

Become a Character!

2013-02-18T15:18:00.001-06:00

"Become A Character In Better Off Dead!

Become a Character in H.P Mallory's Better Off Dead, the first book in the Lily Harper Series!

Here are the contest parameters:

Enter to be written as a character in my book, Better Off Dead. I'll create your character using your name, description and personality (I'll send over a questionnaire, etc. to find out all about you!)

The winner will get:

* A written part in Better Off Dead
* The ability to read Better Off Dead before it's released to the public
* Added to the Acknowledgments page

To enter, you can simply comment on this blog post. To get more entries, you can do the following:

* Leave a comment on this blog post (+ 1 point)
* Follow my blog (+ 1 point)
* Follow me on Twitter (+ 1 point) (Link: https://twitter.com/HPMallory)
* Tweet about the contest (+ 1 point)
* Friend me on Facebook (+ 1 point) (Link: www.facebook.com/hpmalloryauthor)
* Like me on Facebook (+ 1 point) (Link: https://www.facebook.com/hpmallory?ref=hl)
* Mention the contest on Facebook (+ 1 point)
* Mention the contest on your blog (+ 1 point)
* Add Better Off Dead to your list of Goodreads books (+1 point) (Link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15962381-better-off-dead)

Do all of the above and you'll get even more chances to win with a total of 9 possible points. Just mention in your blog comment how many points you earned (and how you earned those points). And please also remember to include your full name so I'm able to reach you if you are the winner! A sample comment could look like this:

Hey, HP, enter me (Jane Doe) in your ninth awesomest contest ever! I have a total of 3 points for commenting on your blog, friending you on facebook, and tweeting about your contest!

This contest is open until February 28th with the winner announced on March 1st!

Contest Rules:

* Total your points in the comments field of this blog and tell me how you earned your points.
* The winner will be drawn at random (the more points you have, the more entries you'll get)

Good luck!!!!

HP"

New Routine

2013-02-01T14:53:00.001-06:00

Hey All,
I'm just checking in to show you a few things that are going on at the moment: fitness/wellness and reading. Oh yeah, we just "derailed" one side of the boys' cribs and are transitioning to their "Big Boy Beds." It's a pretty tough transition, not to mention throwing "twins" into the equation. The nighttime has been pretty successful (there was playing around for a long while, of course) but the daytime nap is the tricky one. Just to show you how ~~crazy~~ courageous I am, I did this with my husband out of town for the week! *sigh* I know, nothing knitty to show you (the real reason why you came). Any spare bit of time I have had has been so focused on preparing lighter meals (and documenting recipes to share with you all), excercising despite my physical or mental fatigue, and reading a really good series called "Dulcie O'Neil" by H.P Mallory (the Jolie Wilkins series was amazing as well) on my Kindle while exercising or in a vegetative state on the couch. And now that we are in the transitioning phase with the boys, my spare time amounts to maybe an hour a night. And that's with me going to bed very late! I can't knit during the day because the boys see fit to attack me and/or pull on the yarn or run away with the skein, etc.

Jolie Wilkins Series

If you haven't discovered these really inexpensive yet amazing paranormal romances, look them up! The first ones in the series are FREE and will hook you. The rest of the books are only $3.99 and are just as great! This author was self-published and used online services like Kindle to jump-start her career...and was so darn successful right off the bat that now they publish and sell her books in stores. I think her books are close to numero-uno on most bought kindle books. She's quite an inspiration to us amateurs that would love to write mysteries or romances, or...erm...knitting books and get "found." It's also cool to see other online places that give you the option to "self-publish" your book in hardcover for next to nothing (maybe four bucks), if you simply don't want to wait forever for the "big guy" to accept you. I wish I could remember the name of that site!

Here's some lighter meals that your family will love (from yours truly) with veggies, veggies and more veggies!:

Gourmet-looking Cucumber Snack Poppers

Three Little Bears Finger Sandwiches

Eat Your Veggies Omlette

Dinosour Finger Sandwiches

Beef Stew

Southwestern Breakfast Burrito

You can get all of those recipes at: The Adventures of Raising Twins (blog)!

My scale is out of batteries, and I've been too lazy to get a screwdriver and check what it needs to change it out, but I should be at around 6-7 pounds down since Dec. 28th! Just a zillion left to go. Just kidding. It feels that way though.

Taylor Swift & Knitting Wallpaper

2013-01-15T21:38:00.001-06:00

I know I've already posted today, and I'm not a Taylor Swift fan, but I was forced to see a preview of one of her videos while watching On Demand. I couldn't believe my eyes! Knit cables wallpaper! Neat! I might be last to know about this, as I don't watch any music videos anymore. My TV mostly plays children's shows. ;) Where can I find me some of that action for my spare room? Heck, maybe for the front room too!

Taylor Swift Wanted 'Never Ever' Video 'To Look As Quirky As The Song Sounds'

Resolutions

2013-01-15T08:34:00.004-06:00

I know I've been awful lately at posting about knitting things. That's because I haven't been knitting at all for a month or so. Besides last week's drama of being filled with our family getting sick one-by-one, I've been focused on getting more fit and making healthy foods for my family with more fruits and veggies. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, and started on a while back, but didn't follow through as much as I hoped.

This is what I started, to document our crazy lives with multiple toddlers. I know, it's another blog. It's mostly my healthy recipes right now, but if this blog is a snooze-fest at the moment, go take a peek and tell me what you think!

www.theadventuresofraisingtwins.blogspot.com

However, I should finish up the two 80% and 95% done sweaters for the boys before they render themselves useless...and I am planning on knitting them buttoned-up cowl scarves for this winter!

Happy New Year!

2012-12-28T15:57:00.000-06:00

If I don't make back here in time for the 'ol switcheroo...Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Many blessings, adventures and great joy to you and your family.

Here's a parade of the "BEST of 2012" craftiness from this blog:

(in no particular order)

I won an award!

2012-12-26T21:02:00.001-06:00

I was just notified through www.allfreeknitting.com that I am one of their top 100 free patterns that they offer! That just made my day! The most popular patterns that I've given them are: "$5 in Paris," (the top-down raglan) the "Dummy Clap Shawl," "Lightning-Fast Slippers" and the "Double Looped Scarf."

I spotted the "Dummy Clap" there while going through the top patterns list!

I'm very honored to receive this award and to display it proudly on my blog! All of this has made me curious to see the statistics of who's coming into my blog from THAT specific website since blogger started offering this ability to track audiences (I'm not sure if this is since 2011(?), or if it really is since 2008):

It's a little creepy in a way to see what devices are being used, but it's fascinating nonetheless...

Merry Christmas, 2012!

2012-12-22T22:49:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, I know,... I haven't posted a darn thing since Cyber Monday...and I can only say that we were busy making Merry (or preparing to Make Merry) this month for Christmas, and any extra time I've had I spent playing piano, studying a Music Composition Book and even composing original piano pieces. Don't get too exited...one's half done and the other that is pretty much done still needs to be tweaked. I also plan on working with my husband who (occasionally) plays guitar, so that we can record a guitar (him) and piano/vocal (me) recording of a few songs like "Thousand Years," "Cold" and "Fields of Gold." It will be fun. It's something that I've always wanted to try. Who better to do it with, than my own husband?

But, in hopes that you forgive me, here's some rather cute photos of my boys helping me cut out sugar cookies, and some scrumptious pictures of my homemade kalachkie cookies.

Jake rolling out....flour.

Sam touching the rolling pin, but who is just actively eating the flour. Guilty as charged, dude.

Oh the mess! Flour, flour everywhere!

Oh mon dear!

Delish.

One lucky family. Kalchkies (strawberry, apricot and even almond) dusted with a snow of powdered sugar.

Do you remember these little guys? That was only two years ago!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas filled with joy, laughter and love. I will see you after the New Years. The world didn't end, so now you can feel okay about picking up those needles and finishing those WIPS for your gift recipients.! ;)

Happy Cyber Monday!

2012-11-26T10:39:00.000-06:00

The KUAS shop is back, after a long hiatus!
To kick off cyber Monday, I am running a 15% off sale on ALL merchandise! That's huge!!!! That includes hand-knits too! Just use the coupon code "KUASWINTER" at the checkout. This sale will run until Sunday.

Check out the shop to see hand-knits from this blog, KUAS yarn, stitch-markers, and more! I think you'll find that most of the yarn and hand-knits are affordable, for being handmade. Do you have any knitter friends or family? Maybe some of these would make great gifts!

Twilight Themed Yarns (what are left after the Craft Show):
-Twilight (lace, fingering, worsted, bulky)
-Bella ( alpaca fingering)
-Alice Cullen (worsted)
-Renesmee Cullen (lace, worsted)
-In the Meadow (alpaca fingering)
-On the beach with Jacob (bulky)

P.s, I'm "Knittyknitter" at www.knittyknitter.etsy.com.

Thanksgiving

2012-11-23T23:17:00.003-06:00

Our family is grateful for many things: a supportive and helpful family that lives very close, that helps play or watch the boys while I teach, a home with heat (our furnace broke a couple of weeks ago! Right when it started getting cold) and a father (mine) that knows how to save us hundreds by installing the part himself, healthy boys, daily comforts and love...

I am also thankful for YOU, dear readers. I enjoy hearing how your projects turned out, or if you enjoyed a post or photo. It always makes me smile. I am very grateful for all of your support and interest in my work and blogging. I may not be the best at keeping up with blogging nowadays, and so I am happy to know that people return to visit when a post eventually makes it way into cyberville.

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving at both of our parents houses. I didn't think to capture any photos, but here is what I did with the boys (well, mostly me just tracing their hands and doing everything else myself because I personally am not ready to clean up a bottle of sprinkles all over the floor!): HAND TURKEY COOKIES! Yumm!


MATERIALS: sugar cookie dough or mix, sugar sprinkles, sugar dots, pen & cardstock paper.


Trace hand. One of my toddlers is a lefty, so I drew each hand in their writing preference. I know, I know, I had to straighten mine out as I cut!

After the dough is rolled out, cut out the template with a sharp knife.

Sprinkle each feather with a new color. Add eye dots. Sprinkle body with black or brown.

The Craft Show went fine. Ok, it was slow. VERY, painfully slow! I only had 1 customer (a lot of lurkers though!) at the beginning, and I am very grateful that she bought several skeins from me. Thank you, thank you!! It at least payed for the booth cost and some of the 5 hours of my Saturday staring at the other booths around me getting decent sale action. Most of my conversation consisted of "Oh, that actually belongs to my neighbor, and it's $5..." when they inquired about the half crocheted towels that sat next to my merchandise (despite the fact that we had different table cloths, our tables were pushed next to eachother by the craft show committee and it was confusing to some). Those towels sold like hotcakes.
It really was hard to see people around me with constant sales while I stood there doing my best to smile while people glanced at the table and walked right on. I did prepare myself for not having a lot of action, but really, I thought there would be at least a few costumers. I really low-balled the prices, but I had to face the fact that this isn't the place were it is appreciated. One lady actually told me that her granddaughter knit socks and she couldn't see why anyone would take the time to do that when they could but it. Walk on, lady.
Yours truly needs to buy silk scarves to dye...obviously that's what the people want, and it doesn't take hours of hand-knitting. I've already found an online venue to purchase the blank scarves. It seems like a lot of fun!

Oh, and I'm planning on resurrecting the 'ol "KUAS Shop" on Etsy to sell what was at craft show. FYI, there will be Twilight themed yarns and also the hand knits as well. All yarns come with a free stitch-marker.

Something just got off the press. Care to venture a guess? It's fairly obvious, I guess.

Craft Show Saturday!

2012-11-16T21:12:00.000-06:00

After hours and hours and hours and hours...and more hours of prepping for this, the Craft Show has finally arrived! If you live in the Chicagoland area, please head on over and visit me at my KUAS booth sometime between 9am-2pm.

WHAT'S BEING SOLD:
-Dozens of Hand-knits that you've seen from this blog (the previous post "Sashay Shawl" will be among them)
-LOTS and lots of yarn! Almost half is TWILIGHT THEMED, and I gotta say, I'm in love with the Bella alpaca blends that I have. If those don't sell, I might just save them for myself...
-Patterns
-Stitch Markers
-Owl Jewelry
-A few mini-cards

I would take a picture of the lot, but some of it is separated, and between working every second of today, and teaching and the extra stress of managing the boys all week with my husband out of the country...my stomach is in knots and I'll just have to take the photo tomorrow at the booth. I don't even think I'll eat dinner. Maybe just tea. I just have some more stitch markers to make. Maybe.

Spiral Sashay Shawlette

2012-11-08T11:50:00.000-06:00

The Spiral Sashay Shawlette is complete! It came out beautifully and I plan on selling this as one of the showstoppers at my KUAS knitting booth Nov. 17 at the Craft Show. This pattern was inspired by Karinknits' Kelp Forest Shawlette, that really is nothing more than knitting with the Sashay Yarn in a circle (or spiral). I took some liberties of changing how to start the beginning of the spiral because my yarn brand was different and it formed more of a "basketball hoop" than a shawl when following her instructions to a "T." I spaced out which holes to knit in and which yarn loops to use as the spiral grew.

Pattern: Modified Forest Kelp Shawlette.

Needles: US 11's (but the size is not crucial to the shawl, so much as to which loops you use from the yarn).

Yarn: 2 skeins of Red Heart's Sashay Yarn.

If you really like this yarn, and plan to use the Sashay Yarn rather than the "Katia Triana," here's what I jotted down on my Ravelry page:

"Using Sashay instead of the designer’s yarn throws the pattern off a bit, and can land you with a narrow tube for the beginning, even following the pattern/video tutorial to a “T.” Here’s my hints, after dozens of failed “tube” attempts:

At the beginning, spread open the lacey yarn and fold the beginning of the yarn in half lengthwise (hotdog style) so that the “wide band” edge is to the left. Only cast on 3 sts along the frayed edge of the eyelet fold to reduce bulk. Make sure you don’t cast on right at the frayed edge, but along the row under it…you don’t want to have those stitches ripped out by over-fraying. Then do your bind-offs to reduce it to one stitch, like the pattern asks you to.

IMPORTANT: For Sashay yarn, don’t use the very next “thin lacey loop” as working yarn. Use the second loop and later the third loop once your diameter is larger (about the 3rd bind off ring) This helps reduce rufflage. At least for my shawl. Also, bind off very loosely.

To start, I completed 13 sts worth of skipping every other “wide band” hole (if you have no clue what I'm talking about, one side is "lacey," the other side is a thicker "wide band") instead of doing that for 10sts of every other hole.

Then I worked in the 3rd “wide band” hole for 26 sts.

Then I worked in the 4th “wide band” hole for 52 sts.

Then I worked in the 4th-5th “wide band” hole and started using the 3rd “thin lacey” loop (working yarn). Continue working the 5th "wide band" hole and 3rd "lacey loop" until you run out of yarn. "

The effect is beautiful. It's a bit of an "acquired taste," what with all of the ruffles...but even if you don't wear it, it looks beautiful drapped over something in your room (or craft room, if you're that lucky)!

BSJ 4: Halloween

2012-11-05T11:56:00.001-06:00

Good news: the BSJ 4 is finally finished!
Bad news: Halloween is over, I only have one of these, and it fits perfectly this year!

So, it looks like I might throw this in with the other Craft Show goodies that I plan on selling. That makes around 12 hand knit items that I plan on selling!

It's a little bittersweet because I've been saving this colorway for a while and I couldn't seem to find any more of it when I went to the store a couple of years later. It really does look striking on a toddler.

Pattern: EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket (slightly tweaked)

Needles: US5 circular needles

Yarn: almost 2 skeins of Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Yarn: Ombres" in the "Halloween" colorway.

Mod's: sleeve extension. 20 rows of 36 (next time: 38) stitches.

I also did some rows of solid black, but they were useless in the end. To sew the sleeves and shoulder together, I crocheted along the top (which I usually do to finish my BSJ's). It gave it this sharp black edge that's a little different than just sewing it invisibly.
Call me weird, but I think it looks kind of cool on a baby or kid.

Front View

Back View

Extended Sleeve View

My camera is much too slow, and my kids much to resistant to take a nice photo shot of mommy's hard work. Figures. Sam's pose below is actually him throwing himself on the floor in protest, in a toddler tantrum fashion. Hey, it you're down and still, mommy is going to take a shot with or without a smile!

Model: Sam

Hmm, mommy sneaks around to take a shot of Mr. Sammie playing nicely or sitting still on the couch. Quick, take a shot!

Mr. Jacob No Pants wants to get into view.

Where is Jacob in all of this? Well, Mr. No Pants would have non of this sweater-photo shoot action. If he's not going to wear any bottoms, he's not going to put an extra layer on top. I'm just lucky he isn't trying to remove the onesie at the moment...We've been having a lot of "accidents" lately.

Jake: Mmm...good enough to eat!

Maybe I should just use a pumpkin head as my model next time. Mr. Pumpkin doesn't move, doesn't whine and makes for a nice shot! :)

Craft Show Vendor

2012-11-04T10:11:00.004-06:00

Saturday, November 17th, I will be one of the vendors at St. Paul's Annual Craft Show (Gurnee, IL). If you live near the Chicagoland Area, come check us out! It runs from 9am-2pm. And guess what, a lot of items that you have seen on this blog will be for sale! I'm deciding that it's time to make room for future items, and since I haven't used these...I might as well give them to a good home (I usually just keep them around unused just in case I need to get specs on gauge or such for the pattern).

Modular Vest front: view

I plan on adding two barrel-like buttons on the top half to close the vest.

Modular Vest View: back

Sweet as Candy Baby Cardigan--I had boys. Enough said.

Wedding Shawl that I planned on wearing for my own wedding, but never did. Blog post on this from 2009.

Winter Princess Shawl (Youth to young adult size) with Kid Mohair and Malabrigo Lace.

NY Wrap featured from a 2008 KUAS club (KUAS "NY" colorway, Fingering weight yarn in Merino Wool).

Doubled Loop Scarf- brown

Doubled Looped Scarf- off white/light blue hue

Stitch Markers in various shades and shapes.

USA colors in Fingering weight (Merino and Peruvian Wool).

Most yarn will be at a discounted rate of $18, and should be 440yds or more.

Lace Skeins (100% Merino Wool) in Spring, Twilight Book theme, Mocha, etc.

Fingering Weight Blends of Merino/nylon or Merino/silk and Merino/alpaca in all sorts of shades, including Bella Swan and Twilight Book theme color.

There are many more items for sale that I have not listed, and the yarns being sold probably equate to 30 or so. There's also other Twilight themed yarn skeins and bulky & worsted weight skeins that I haven't shown that I was planning on selling a long, long while back.

I've got a long way to go labeling and figuring out how much this stuff is worth, let alone what I should price it at so that some one will walk home with them. They will probaby be a steal!

Look at what I bought so that I don't just accept cash only: a Square Card Reader for my android phone. Don't you just love technology? They do take something like 2.73 percentage off your profit, but sales should be up because you're not limiting payment to only cash. And it's hard to trust checks not bouncing around this season.

Give me a shout if you live close and think you might be able to make it. It would be cool to see a blog friend there. :)

KUAS' Fall through the years

2012-10-31T13:39:00.002-05:00

Happy Halloween! I'm a little bummed that I am literally rows away from finishing the Halloween BSJ (before adding buttons and extending the sleeves afterwards), but I'm hoping that because I only made one, it will still be large enough for next year, when I'll make another toddler BSJ for Halloween. I used larger needles and worsted weight yarn, and it seems to be in the 2T size. I've been soo busy cleaning for 5 days straight for the boys' 2nd birthday party last Sunday, that I didn't really have time to touch the darn thing. I've been knitting here and there still, but haven't really gotten my hands
deep into it to finish it, considering that they probably won't end up wearing it at all this season. We'll just pretend that this little unfortunate circumstance never happened...

To celebrate Halloween, let's have a look at all of the Fall/Halloween themed photos from this blog throughout the years!

Coiled Cables & Ribs Socks, Fall 2007

"Hawkeye" Socks, 2008

Pumpkin Colorway, 2008

A Grey Tunic (never finished)-bathing in the Fall golden sunset, 2008

Harvest Bowls, 2008

Autumn Rush Hat & Gloves, 2008

Doubled Looped Scarves, 2009

Creature from the Black Lagoon Socks, 2009

Current- The BSJ that I will unfortunately will not finish in time before the end of today. I am at the very end, the button holes...but I still have to extend the sleeves.

Smoky Mountains this Fall.

Smoky Mountains, 2012

Krolls' Farm, 2012

Have fun and stay safe, to those of you who are trick-or-treating today!

a String of Notes

2012-10-20T22:57:00.000-05:00

This is totally not knitting related, but it still has to do with art. Well, performing art.
I've been really getting into practicing more piano lately to improve my own skills. I've just discovered New Age Artist David Lanz (his most famous work is "Cristofori's Dream" on Pure Moods III), and his "Dark Horse" piano solo is addicting!
But anyway, I am a piano teacher three days a week, and I've been researching creative ways to teach because things have been getting stale, and students just aren't inspired to practice (which creates a problem). I was floored by how many blogs are dedicated to sharing with piano teachers lesson and game ideas, as well as an array of worksheets that you can print off. I can't even believe how much information is out there. I've been reading up about quarterly group piano parties that do games, learn a little music history, fill out composer worksheets, etc. It's making the wheels in my head turn at the possibilities of how to engage and inspire the students more in music besides the normal cookie-cutter-lesson.

It all started when I was came across Joy's Color In My Piano blog and saw the DIY Silent Keyboards made of wooden slats and black foam. Ingenious. I didn't even think to use my crafty skills on musical learning tools! These are great for note reading, intervals, 5-finger scales, etc.

That was when I decided to create my own blog to link all of those amazing sites to share with other teachers. Hey, maybe one day I will fill up a sidebar of links of ~~knifty~~ nifty ideas. If you're curious, it's called "A String of Notes."

Don't worry, this blog isn't going anywhere. I was amazed and blessed at all of the support of fellow readers and designers from my previous post. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to me, understanding where I am coming from, and letting me know that you support me. Just like the piano blogs, we are a community of knitters who exchange ideas, patterns and knowledge. We love doing it, and can't help doing it, but especially love to be appreciated from time to time with comments and thanks. It lets us know that others are out there reading us, using our patterns, (hopefully) liking them, and have been helped, touched or inspired in some way.

I want to liven the mood up again after a sour taste from the last post, so here are some cute photos of the boys from today before I had to head off to my student's Fall Recital. The boys turn two in a week.

Jake. I just love the "septia" option for photos during bad lighting times.

This is why he's a monkey for Halloween. This should come as no surprise to those who know him.

Sam. He likes to roar, so he's a dragon this year. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw he had claws instead of fingers. Confused!

P.S, the Halloween BSJ is almost done. That's the good news. The bad news is that after searching for months there are no Halloween themed colorways that I could find in my area (just Christmas), so there will only be one BSJ this year. *sigh*

I know, I know, I could have stripe black & orange.

Sour note.

2012-10-17T21:30:00.000-05:00

I wasn't sure if I should just wait until people found out, or if I just voice it in this post before the onslaught of emails. Today I made a bold decision: I deleted 16 of the 24 free patterns offered at my blog & Ravelry shop. Although it seems rash, it's been a long dwelled upon choice that was initiated upon reading the last few emails. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

The most clear-headed reason was that some of them were less popular than others; they are older, probably have a few errors in them, and being from 2007, I have a harder time remembering exactly what I did if an occasional question does pop up. Hey, I can barely remember what I ate yesterday (God, what does having kids do to you!). The writing is not as clear as I write today because they were the first patterns I published as a college-knitting-novice myself.

The stronger of the reasons are emotional. The heart can withstand so much. Let's face it... Knitting takes time. Much longer if you plan on turning it into a public pattern, thus having to write down every step along the way. Writing patterns, especially clear, concise and as error-free as possible takes hours. Many hours. Unless you've tried it, you might be surprised as to how much longer the whole process takes than just knitting it for one's own pleasure. I offer "customer service" on all of my patterns for all questions running through the blog comment page, Ravelry page and my own personal email address, and I really do my best at answering them as fast as I can as stay-at-home mom of twins & piano teacher. For the past 2-3 years now (probably more so this year because my free patterns are on Ravelry and other websites), I have gotten dozens and dozens of hurtful emails that have completely thrown me through a loop. Sometimes, I can't even believe my eyes when I read them. My pulse rushes and my blood almost boils at the boldly rude comments. I have written blog posts with the intention of venting in hopes that it would happen less in the future, but deleted them before publishing because I didn't want to seems as "petty." but I guess now's the time, because people are going to wonder why they no longer have access to 2/3 of the patterns.

I get dozens of downloads A DAY through just Ravelry alone, an I've only recalled several emails just to say "thanks" (And I let it known how much it means to me that they like it, and are thankful, and it made my day because I hardly ever hear it).

I've long forgotten most of the emails beyond 2011-2012, but in a nutshell here's a jist of the emails comments/questions (from only the freebies) that I receive ALL of the time, and why I can no longer offer them freely for my own sanity's sake:

-"Why didn't you answer my question fast enough, I would have thought that you would want to maintain some sort of professionalism in your blog!?!?" [My thoughts: I've been extremely busy lately and hey, this is not a business, this is a blog done on my spare time.]
-"It's your DUTY to us to answer in a timely fashion on any of your patterns."
-"Why aren't ALL of your free patterns PDF'e'd???? I feel like I am wasting all of my computer ink trying to print off your patterns." [My Answer: Copy & paste?]
-"I like your Beach Bum Skirt, but make the belt longer."
-"I don't crochet. Make the Dummy Clap crochet-free."
-[and when I do...] "I liked the crochet. Add it back to the pattern for us crocheters."
-"Your blog font is too designer-y. Consider changing it so I can read your pattern."
-You don't list the size that I am. Please modify them to suite larger persons out there!!
-[In a size not listed in the pattern] "Give me the yarn & needle details on a size such as this"
-"I'm using this (not recommended sized) yarn and this (not recommended sized) needle and want this item half the size. Tell me how to do this."
-"What is this abbreviation???????????????????????????????????????????????"
-"I don't get this portion of the pattern. Please rewrite the entire pattern so I can understand it."

Gosh, there were more.. but my memory is so bad. A lot of them are about the "Dummy Clap Shawl" because it is linked to so many sites now, and I really wished I never posted that stupid thing because at one point I was getting a relentless onslaught of questions about the same exact thing when it got to the crochet edge. Multiple a day. When I retyped the entire thing, fixed it to be crochet free and made a tutorial video, I was getting the reverse comments that they didn't like the change...and I realized after the fact that in the newer version, I clipped off part of the instructions,...and we all know about my hard-drive crashing (it's still a sour subject), I'm unable to fix it easily and so I get comments looking for the errata that's posted on my blog and on Ravelry. [Just forget that was a run-on.]

Oh the venting. I know. There's just been too much time of this sitting in my veins and not doing anything about it. It's just that I can't even fathom why someone offering 2 dozen freebies should get soo much beef and treated so poorly as if the people using the patterns were charged. Where is the gratitude? I have to blink twice when I read some of them. I really took the time to write them up hoping someone would be like, "hey, that's useful...or hey, I really like to make that...and it's FREE. Neat!" Is it just me that feels this way??

Call me sensitive (and I do admit that I am, I can't help it), but it almost drove me to the point were I almost deleted this entire blog to be free of this several months ago. I may tweak the deleted ones & their look later on in the year and just offer them up as stinking cheap deals ($1.99). My husband calls this sort of thing "bullshit tax." Horrible to say, but it was funny enough to make me laugh. God, I'm gonna pay for that one.

I am very grateful for the very nice people out there in blog-land who come to my knitting blog, read some of the posts, comment occasionally, use my patterns, and send me a quick text saying that they enjoyed it/them. It really does make my day. After a long day of telling my relentless 2 year old toddlers to not climb on the stove-top, or play with the oven buttons, open the dish-washer despite the safety lock and run around with steak knives or stand on the counter and fish through the glass cabinets, or just having them throw tantrums about next-to-nothing...it puts a smile on my face to read such kind words.

Thanks for letting me vent. You're the best. I should go get myself a glass of wine because I know I'm gonna regret this.

Sincerely,
Your (should be) Knitting Up a Storm lady.

KUAS PATTERN SALE!

2012-09-24T12:58:00.000-05:00

Let's celebrate "fall" with a lovely pattern sale!
Use the "KUASFALL" coupon code in my Ravelry store to get the following fall-themed patterns 15% off from now until September 30th!

Coiled Cables & Ribs cabin socks

add to cart

Autumn Rush hat & wrist-warmers

add to cart UPCOMING October SALE: "Creature from the Black Lagoon Socks" will also have a 1-week 15% off sale to celebrate Halloween! Hurry then to add some creepy scales and fright to your Halloween costume!

Pumpkin Spice and Rustling Leaves...

2012-09-18T12:23:00.002-05:00

It's that time again: a time for cooler weather, burning wood, rustling leaves of every color, pumpkin spice latte, muffins, pies and even pumpkin cream cheese (Einstein Bagels). And more pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins. Once again, it's time for my annual "ode to the soothing season" kick-off of Fall.

Went to Michael's and couldn't help myself. I HAD to get my hands dirty with a hot glue gun and a wreath. Do you ever get those feelings? This was my first actual wreath (and I say that because the last one was a Christmas wreath that had knitted glitter balls, so it doesn't really count). Not too shabby, huh? Of course my eyes catch ways to improve, but I'm pretty proud of my little creation. So much that I went back to Micheal's to get materials for the Halloween one.

Yesterday, the boys and I had an amazing stroller ride. Picture this: Cool Fall-like breezes, turned leaves rustling, yellow ones falling all around you, light and dark stormy clouds and thunder in the distance. Ah...for the soul! Fortunately, we made it inside in time. It rained less than 2 minutes later.

I've been extremely busy lately resurrecting some Fall-like patterns of mine to sell this week (hopefully). I'm done with two of the three, and I only have one little section left to edit. These patterns were tweaked a little bit to be clearer and to have the same "KUAS Pattern" feel. I've also been busy getting my KUAS shop ready for a Craft Fair at my church in November. It seems like a long time away, but I don't want to be ripping my hair out 1 or 2 weeks before to knit up some booties, make more stitch markers and slap on price tags and labels onto everything. I plan on selling some items from this blog, like the "Modular Vest," the "Princess Shawl," "double looped scarves," "Sweet As Candy" baby sweater, etc, that I don't think I'll be depressed to part with. I'd be happy freeing up some room and making some money in the process. A girl's gotta feed her addiction to craft some how. I'm even selling yarn from my Etsy shop (back in the day) and yarn never released, like Twilight themed yarn.

Come back soon to see the re-release of three patterns: "August Rush Cap & Gloves," "Coiled Cables & Ribs Socks," "Creature From the Black Lagoon Socks!" The first couple of days will have a sale on them.

Quick Fix: fanlight cord

2012-09-12T13:21:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but if you're like us, you might have a high ceiling fan with an itsy bitsy cord and haven't done anything beyond pulling up a chair every time you want to change a light or fan setting. Well, today was the day I remedied that, crafter style. And it couldn't have been more "instant gratification" or easier...it's just a crochet chain!

This project is so quick, you can whip one (or two) up in under 5 minutes and change it out as many times as you'd like. The silver wire is so light that you can barely see the chain at all, so choose your beads wisely. I like mine, even though this was the beta version, but I really just grabbed the first beads I found in my craft closet because one of the twins runs to climb in the sink or on top of the oven as soon as I am out of sight. And lo and behold, he was about to turn the faucet on as I was coming down. (But hey, maybe I'll just keep them. They've got some spunk.)

If you are wondering if it's durable enough to pull on from that height, it is surprisingly durable with a 28 gauge for being so "airy" or delicate looking. The crocheted chain should not break. At least not for a good long while. You also need to make sure you secure the tail well enough around the original ball-chain the light came with. However, if you still have concerns, you can always up the gauge to the next size, and maybe that's a good idea for anyone starting this project, but be forewarned that it will be a little harder to chain stitch.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
-10 yards or less of silver beading wire, 28 or 30 gauge.
-Crochet hook, size US I9 (5.50mm).
-Decorative beads for the bottom of the chain. Amount, size, color depends on your taste. I find it handy to choose two different colors or styles to differentiate easily between the "light" and "fan" cords.

Click on "menu" to download the pattern via Acrobat.com

PATTERN DIRECTIONS:
String on your bead(s)onto your wire. About 3 inches from the end of the wire, create a loop by folding the wire and twisting it tight a couple of times (it should resemble a slip-knot). Begin chaining, sliding your bead(s) down by your hook and locking it into place with a chain stitch, and continue chaining your fanlight cord very uniformly (so it falls as straight as possible) until the desired length, when your hand can just reach up and pull on the bead to turn the light/fan on comfortably. Cut the wire, leaving a tail of 2-3 inches, secure a knot in the end of your crocheted wire chain and then secure that same end to the last, or second to last ball on the ceiling fanlight's original metal ball-cord. After wrapping your tail around the original cord several times, snip off the remaining tail. As for the tail by the bead(s), wrap it around the bead and cut the remains off. Straighten out the cord as best as you can, and test it out!

I've added this project to Ravelry, so add it to your queue or WIP if you are in the same situation as I was about that darn short ball-chain. The pattern can be downloaded from there as well. Let me know how it worked for you! This leaves a lot of room for your own embellishments and ideas. You can even create one for your shorter pull-string table lights. :)

The Last Remnants of Summer

2012-09-07T12:43:00.000-05:00

This is an ode to the final days of summer. Although there are plenty of things to do when the heat hits, it was much too hot this year to enjoy. I am embracing this Fall much more than usual (which is normally a lot anyways).

These are pictures of late Spring, when things were in first bloom. Little did they know that they would endure such heat, and that the only water they would receive until these past couple of weeks were from my water hose.

My cherry tomatoes are still producing, but my beefier tomatoes have been ugly, insect infested, and I really have only eaten a couple of its fruit this whole summer.

My "Lazy Susan's" are pretty much dead now, and the leaves are turning spotty brown.

I'm going to research how to dry and store some of my herbs, and see what I can do about bringing them indoors during the cold season. It's going to be a bit of a challenge with little curious hands around me.

So let's fast-forward to this past week. My husband and I went to Apple Holler, an apple orchard, for breakfast (not successful for eating, thanks to Jake's temper). The boys enjoyed running around and seeing the goats.


It took me many minutes to capture this little guy on camera. He refused to stop running around the bridge.

We also went to the Renaissance Faire on Labor Day with their grandma & grandpa. It was the last day that they were open and so it was crowded and hard to navigate around with an XL stroller. I don't regret the choice though, what with the gravel and exposed tree roots; this stroller can take a beating of a dirt bike. It was hot and miserable until the very end of our visit when it finally started to cloud over. Any guesses on who threw a fit because he was sitting "too long?"

Lady Jester.

Grandpa and Jake

Jake, Sam

Grandma & Sam

Jake and Daddy. Jake, I'm not going to give you the camera...

Finally, here is what's on the needles besides the "Sashay Shawl" from the last post. It's not much, but I have been trying to work at it little by little so that I don't have to whip up two Halloween BSJ's in one month. It's about halfway done.

Happy Fall knitting,
Anna