Happy Mother's Day!

My focus this past week was on my feverish attempts to finish some Mother’s Day gifts in time to ship them out ASAP. As I mentioned in a previous post, Lucas and I spent a Saturday morning over at a do-it-yourself ceramic painting studio, where we painted three mugs: one for my mom in purple, one for Lucas’ mom in blue, and one for Lucas’ step mom in yellow and blue. Our moms will get quite the treat when the mugs arrive in the mail: each mug will contain a packet of tea (and coincidentally the teas we chose are packaged in wrapping that matches the color of the mug) and each mug will be hugged by a handknit coffee mug wrap by yours truly. It’s the same Coffee Mug Wrap pattern by DaniDo Crafty that I made recently for Lucas and I, only these have been made in (surprise!) coordinating colors to match the recipient’s mug, of course. Each have a little handmade tag attached to the handle (made from graphics I created myself in Photoshop) to let our moms know that we painted the mugs and knit the cozies for them to wish them a Happy Mother’s Day. I think the gifts will be well received :) They shipped out Tuesday, which was later than I wanted to get them out, so hopefully they’ll arrive soon.

We really had a fun time at the ceramic studio, even Lucas really loved the whole process and wanted to paint everything in sight. We saw lots of other people in the studio painting things for their moms and there were a lot of really neat painting techniques that we would’ve never thought of that produced some amazing results with the paint. One such technique was blowing bubbles! One person blew bubbles that were in a paint and bubble solution in a shallow bowl and the other person placed the ceramic piece against the bubbles as they were being blown, and when they popped they left a really neat painted effect on the side. Definitely something we want to try when we go back for other things. You can see all of the pictures we took of our fun afternoon at UB the Artist in Mackenzie Towne in our gallery. There you can also see more photos of the final mug sets all prettied up before they were shipped off earlier this week.

I recently realized that two of my co-workers knit, and so our conversations once we became aware of our kindred hobby have been most exciting. I was working this past week on  Daniella’s fabulous patterns for a Star Stitch Headband during one of my breaks at work, which brought us together. The headband turned out gorgeous, by the way! So gorgeous that I cast on another one last week for a friend’s upcoming birthday. One co-worker who really admired the star stitch has now encouraged me to try Fair Isle/stranding and cables — she swears each are much easier than I think! I’ve been itching to give both a try, but with Father’s Day (and Lucas and I’s wedding anniversary) gifts looming on the horizon with very real deadlines and knowing it may take us forever to complete our sock project, I may just hold off until they are finished. But you know how I am; the craft ADD will take over and I’ll find myself having to try just a little during a (hopefully) quick detour of finishing those projects. I haven’t even had time to play with my new drop spindle and roving kit yet! I’m sure I can sneak in a few minutes sometime soon ;) Hope you had a Happy Mother’s Day!

Lucas the Knitter

My handsome husband's first knitted swatch. Notice it contains garter AND stockinette stitching!

With Mother’s Day gifts finished up and shipped off earlier this week, I’m already thinking ahead to Father’s Day.  I’d been thinking that I’d love to knit up some socks for our dads this year, but I’m not the fastest knitter in the world so I’m not sure I can manage it in time.  I mentioned this time concern to Lucas on Thursday afternoon, who then suggested I teach him to knit so that he can help by knitting his dad’s socks while I knit my dad’s socks, and together we’d create knitted socks for our dads for Father’s Day.

My jaw dropped.

He then said, “If your new needles are there when we get home tonight, maybe we can spend the evening with them and you can teach me how to cast on, knit and purl.” (My KnitPicks interchangeable needles did arrive that night, woohoo!)

My jaw dropped again.

Not only does he want to spend the evening snuggled with me and my KP needles, he knew all of the basic terminology for the techniques he needs to know and wants to learn them!

swoon

Dare I say my husband may turn into a knitter?

My mind fast forwards to him having his own Ravelry account and uploading FO pictures and asking me what kind of yarn he should use for his next project. And shopping the LYS together. And how many more things we can knit for our future kiddos if there’s two of us knitting for them!

I think I just died and went to heaven.

Lucas knitting

When I came out of my daydreaming haze and picked up my jaw from the floor, I realized he was serious. Thursday evening I taught him the basics of knit and purl and he’s been doing really well!  We practiced again last night and I really think we’ll be able to attempt Father’s Day socks for our dads Magic Loop style. It’ll be a learning experience for both of us since I’ve only done socks with DPNs and only played with ML for the ribbed cuff of a sock before, but it can’t be that hard once I get to the heel, right?

Wish us luck! I don’t know about you, but I’m still in shock.

KnitPicks Giveaway!

This is one giveaway you won’t want to miss… over at the Things Moms Like blog they are giving away an entire KnitPicks Harmony (wood) interchangeable knitting needle set! And not only that, but four balls of the fabulous KnitPicks (organic!) Simply Cotton worsted weight yarn, too! You’ll get to try four different colors: Marshmallow, Malted Milk, Ginger and Toffee — a $90 value that cannot be beat. Get on over there and enter to win!

Speaking of KnitPicks, my order finally arrived today!! The squeals that came out of me when I realized it had come were not human. I am too excited — I can’t wait to go and play! And get this… Lucas asked me to teach him to knit today. But shhhh… don’t tell anyone. He’s going to learn so he can help work on Father’s Day presents :) Wish him luck!

Knitter's Geek Code

I’m a knitter. And I’m a geek. So of course when I realized there is a such thing as Knitter’s Geek Code, I was ecstatic. The Knitter’s Geek code is hosted over at Knitty and was written by Kate A. It’s adapted from and inspired by The Geek Code, invented by Robert Hayden in 1993.  This hilarious but functional bit of “programming” allows you to identify the kind of knitter you are in a standardized way with every other knitter. Anyone else who has gone through the Knitter’s Geek Code will be able to look at my code output and completely understand what type of knitter I am, what materials I enjoy (and dislike) working with, how experienced I am and a whole lot more. It’s fascinating! So without further ado, here is my current Knitter’s Geek Output:

KER+ Exp+ SPM->+ KP++@ Bam+(+) Wool+(+) Cot+(+) Syn+(+) Stash(+) Scale+ Fin-> Ent? FI-> Int? Tex-> Lace-> Felt+ Flat Circ++ DPN+ ML+ Swatch- KIP++ Blog+++ FO+ WIP(+) GaugeW++ ALTCr++Sw+(+)

If someone asked me on the street what kind of knitter I am and I was unable to display this beautiful work of art that is geek code, I would explain simlpy that I knit right handed, english style and have been for only a few short years, but I feel I’m at least somewhat intermediate at knitting, though I knit fairly slowly in my opinion, and I use KnitPicks metal needles most exclusively for everything with the occasional use/enjoyment of using bamboo needles when necessary or for certain situations/projects.  My favorite fiber to work with is wool, but at any time I may be using cotton or synthetics, as I have a lot of that in my stash from time to time as needed (and as a newbie).  I’ve knit things larger than a dishcloth and more than just squares but am not up to doing multiple huge projects in a year yet. (Too slow!) I dread the seaming and finishing up part but I strive to be better about weaving in ends as I go so it’s not so bad, because really… finishing is something that just has to be done so I need to get over it.  I have no idea what entrelac or intarsia is really, (well, how to do it) but when it comes to fair isle and cabling/texture I know what it is and the basics of how to do it, but lack experience and am aiming to try those soon. Same with lace. I have felted (successfully) before and think it’s good in moderation; I don’t do it often but can if the project requires it.  I knit flat but rarely use straights anymore as I prefer to knit everything on circulars… even flat pieces.  For small diameter knitting in the round I use both DPNs and Magic Loop method fairly equally. I dislike and rarely swatch, even though I know I should, and I love to knit in public and do so a lot. I also blog a lot (as you can see) about knitting and projects.  I have quite a few finished objects to speak of and try to keep my list of works in progress (WIP) short, though I have been known to be affected by project ADD and so it’s not unusual to have several WIPs going. I work mostly with worsted weight and in addition to knitting, my alternate fiber-related crafts include lots of crochet and some sewing.  WHEW!

Now of course a person’s Knitter’s Geek Code is subject to change; as we learn and grow as knitters and better hone our skills or our preferences change, so does our code. For example, you’ll notice I don’t have any fancy or expensive yarn on my preferences list… this isn’t because I don’t prefer it, it’s just because I’ve not experienced using those types of yarn yet due to my lack of knitting savvy. I’m sure once I do they’ll be my preferred yarn to work with, budget permitting of course. I also hope to add spinning to my alternate fiber-related crafts section, and of course I’d like to see + progress in the things I noted that I wish to improve/learn such as lace, fair isle and cables.

While figuring out and typing out my Knitter’s Geek Code was deliciously enjoyable in a guilty pleasure sort of way, its existance in simple black and white terms helps me to see where I want to improve myself in order to round out my knitting experience. It’s rather eye opening and I like the fact that it will grow and evolve as my knitting does. Maybe one day everything will have three + after it, indicating my awesome seasoned veteran status and abilities. Time and practice will only tell.  I can dream, right? ;)

And… though I know no one but me is on the edge of their seat stalking… erm, I mean, waiting for my KnitPicks nickel-plated interchangeables set to arrive, I am ECSTATIC to report that FINALLY the status message on the Canada Post tracking website has changed from “An order has been electronically submitted” to “Item out for delivery.” ITEM OUT FOR DELIVERY!!!!???!!?! That means it’s possible I will receive my order by the weekend. Now I’m really dreaming. Cross your fingers, toes and anything else you have available! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

And speaking of “squee”, you have to check out my latest post on our personal/everything-else-in-life blog, Look At Us Go — we had some baby geese hatch in a nest snuggled into a nook on a ledge of my office building this week. The photos and video are to die for. SO fuzzy and cute!  Check it out here. Have a great day! :)

Mmmm, Goodies!

Drop Spindle set by Maine Woods Yarn & Fiber!

No, my KnitPicks nickel-plated interchangeables haven’t arrived yet (trust me, I stalk the tracking number 800 times a day) BUT more goodies arrived today; my first wool roving and drop spindle kit! The kit comes from Maine Woods Yarn & Fiber, and I highly recommend ordering from them if you plan to learn spinning or if you need gorgeous (gorgeous handpainted!) roving to spin with. You can order from their website or check them out on eBay, where I originally found them. The customer service is absolutely fantastic and it was a pleasure working with the owner, Arlyne. I will definitely be ordering from them again — especially because I can’t help but drool over their yarn swift.  I ended up with a maple wood top whorl and bottom whorl drop spindle and have been scouring YouTube for good instructional videos to accompany the great booklets that came with the kit. (I’m a visual learner.) I think I’m going to work with the top whorl first, because this video by theartofmegan is very clear and easy to understand. With written instructions from Arlyne and the video to guide me, I think I can handle it! Once I spin some yarn I plan to give dyeing a try — this will be a very noobish, first time experience for me on many levels. I’m so excited! Not that I don’t have 100 other things I need to finish, like starting Father’s Day gifts, working on birthday presents for a couple friends and a wedding anniversary present for Lucas, all within the next two months or less. Ahhh! But how can I say no to getting started with these wonderful goodies sitting here in front of me, practically calling my name? What would YOU do?

Queen of ALLL Things AWE-SUMMM Award!

Queen of ALLL Things AWE-SUMMM!!! award

I was generously bestowed the honor of Queen of ALLL Things Awe-Summm, an award granted to me by my friend KnitPurlGurl!  To accept this award, I am required to abide by the terms and conditions that come with it: I must list 7 awesome things about myself, and then I must list 7 others who I think are awesome to pass the award on to.

1. I’m crafty. But you already knew that. I knit, crochet, sew, paint, handmake cards and everything else in between. If it’s crafty, I’ll try it. I’m constantly crafting something and always trying to figure out how to make things; I prefer to make something myself if I can, especially gifts for others. I can’t remember the last time I purchased a greeting card for someone. Being crafty means I understand, appreciate and respect others that handmake things, too: the process, the effort, the time investment, the heart and soul…
2. In my professional life, I am dedicated to helping others. I’m an elementary teacher by trade, and have known my entire life that I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. I’ve been teaching others for as long as I can remember and am proud to have a career where it’s my job to help others all of the time.
3. Along the same lines, in my personal life I am dedicated to helping others. I’ve melded my love for crafts and teaching together here, where I’ve made tutorials on the digital scrapbooking software, My Memories Suite, to help others get the most out of and figure out how to use the software.  My other pastime, gaming, has also been melded with my passion to help others as I write tutorial articles for various games, too.
4. I took a huge plunge and moved to another country in the summer of 2006. Moving so far away from family was hard, but it was the best decision I have ever made in my entire life and the best thing that I’ve done for myself, ever. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do so in a heartbeat.
5. That being said, Lucas and I have made the decision to move back to the states this summer (or ASAP) to be closer to family so we can start our own family soon. And while we’re moving back, which makes my family very happy, I’d still not change the three wonderful years in Canada nor change my decision to move here back in 2006.
6. I can multi-task. Seems boring, but I get a thrill out of having multiple things to do and managing them all at once. To be honest, I think I am more efficient when I’ve got a lot of things due and am up against a deadline. I think this is because I’m very organized and get excited about organization and prioritizing.
7. I can rollerblade. Don’t make fun, because not only can I rollerblade, I can do so without killing myself. While this may seem silly, rollerblading makes me FEEL awesome, and I can’t get enough of it when the weather is nice.

Whew! That was a bit challenging. Really, I thought about it for two days. However, it’s easy peasy to come up with 7 awesome people out there that I would consider Queen of All Things Awesome. In fact, the hardest part about listing 7 awesome people is limiting my list to only 7 people! Ugh! So here goes, in no particular order, the 7 awesome people I am passing this award on to:

1. Daniella of DaniDo Crafty! – fabulous patterns, owns a white mini schnauzer too, and an overall awesome person :)
2. Crazy Aunt Purl – love her writing style, humor, and perfect rolled brim hat recipe!
3. The Yarn Harlot – sure, this may be obvious, but it wasn’t until recently I started using Google Reader and actually following other peoples’ blogs more efficiently than just remembering to go down the list every week or so. Now that I’m on top of it and reading/following/stalking regularly, I can’t believe I’ve been missing out for so long. The Yarn Harlot’s blog leaves me in stitches! (See what I did there?)
4. Maria, creator and maintainer of the DigiFree digital scrapbooking freebie blog. I heart it.
5. Scrap Stuff with PSP – Shawna’s tutorials for PSP and PSD are my inspiration and where I learned most of my digital scrapbooking design techniques. I’d be nowhere without her!
6. Glamour Gals – My friend, Julia, is the director of program expansion for an amazing charity called Glamour Gals. Check her out!
7. Teresa Richardson’s Crochet Mania blog – I taught myself crochet via her YouTube videos. She has over 300 instructional crochet videos or something amazing like that. All I know is she is my top resource for all things crochet. She even has a Video Crochet group on Ravelry!

And there you have it! Special thanks to these lovely people for being blogs I enjoy following and for doing amazing work in your field. You’re all an inspiration! And thank you to KnitPurlGurl for thinking I’m AWE-SUMMM enough to deserve this award in the first place! I’d have included her in this list but since she just had to do it… I figured I can’t really send it back to her. But she’s definitely an AWE-SUMM crafter and overall fab person, and you simply have to pop in and check her out :) Have a great afternoon!

Tutorial: My Memories Suite Error Resolved

Let’s set the scene: You’ve recently added some new content that you’ve downloaded to the My Memories Suite program directories and you can’t wait to get in and make some fantastic new scrapbook pages with them.  You start up the software and rush in to browse in the new directory you’ve created where all the new content is stored. As soon as you do, an error message pops up. Something about a corrupted file. Annoyed, you click ‘OK’ and realize that you were able to “bypass” the error and still access the files after clicking ‘OK’, but the error keeps popping up and you have to click ‘OK’ for all of the errors before you can use anything in that directory. Every. Single. Time. Ouch.

Some of you have experienced this situation multiple times. And many of you have emailed me, asking about the error and how to fix it, or what was causing the problem. Was it the content you downloaded? The error used the term ‘corrupted’ in reference to a particular file as you were browsing content directories; was there a corrupted image file in your download? Rest assured, it’s not anything you’ve done wrong, and believe it or not, the actual image file in your download isn’t corrupted. (Which is why most of you realized you could just click “OK” and it would allow you access to those files.)

Thanks to a helpful Pink Toque Craft Blog reader, Cam, we now have a resolution straight from My Memories Suite customer service that fixes the problem.  And the answer is so simple I keep wondering why I never bothered to call them myself.

Apparently Windows Vista doesn’t like to play nice with My Memories Suite. (Wait, Vista isn’t 100% compatible with everything? NO WAI!) You know how when you go browsing for scrapbooking items such as backgrounds or embellishments within the software and you see various thumbnails there to choose from? The first time you browse new content to use within the software that My Memories Suite hasn’t accessed before, the program renders thumbnail versions of every single image file in the new directory when you browse in it right then and there — backgrounds, embellishemnts, etc. — so that when you are browsing your options you have a little preview thumbnail image of the items to choose from.  The error comes into play when you’ve added new content, go to browse it within MMS and you use Windows Vista, as Vista doesn’t like to render the thumbnails properly, hence the error message. The error is basically just letting you know that the thumbnail isn’t present and it can’t be rendered, but it forgets to mention that it’s all Vista’s fault.

The Solution?
I know you’re thinking, “Great, Lesley, but how do we FIX it?” Well, after adding new content to your My Memories Suite software, be it additional content you’ve created or you’ve downloaded from others, (See my tutorial on how to add additional content HERE) you need to right click on your shortcut to launch My Memories Suite and choose “Run as Administrator” from the popup menu. If you run MMS as an administrator and THEN go in and browse the new content you added, My Memories Suite will render the thumbnails properly. My Memories Suite only needs to render thumbnails once — the first time the program accesses the new stuff  — and then the thumbnails will always be there. So this is why right after adding new content you may get errors for certain embellishments. You will continue to get those errors every time you run My Memories Suite afterwards until those thumbnails are created properly.  Once the thumbnails are rendered, the errors will go away.

You will only need to run My Memories Suite as an administrator once after adding new content to your software directories.  If later on down the road you add more new content, be sure that the next time you run My Memories Suite that you run it as an administrator and then go browse to the new content so that the thumbnails for the new files are made correctly, and you’ll be good to go. If you ever run into the error while you’re working within the software, simply save what you’re working on, exit out of the program, and restart My Memories Suite, being sure to run it as an administrator. Then go back to the directory you were trying to access before and the errors should be gone.

The only part of this that still doesn’t make sense to me is how Vista decides which files it cannot render properly. Sometimes I get the error after adding new content but other times I don’t get any errors at all. Sometimes it’s not the entire contents of the new directory I’ve added, just a few select files among an entire folder of new stuff that produces the error. Previously I believed it affected files that were small in size or too small of a resolution to be used properly within MMS.  I was fairly regularly getting the error on tiny items or very thin ribbons, which tend to be a lot of pixels wide but only a few pixels tall and I thought that was the contributing factor.  Perhaps that is part of it; perhaps the reason Vista is having issues rendering these thumbnails has to do with file sizes, dimensions or resolutions. But the most important part to note is that it is not an error or problem with My Memories Suite; it is a Windows Vista problem.

Bottom line: If you’re getting errors about corrupted image files after adding new content, run My Memories Suite as an administrator (right click on your desktop/taskbar shortcut and choose “Run as Administrator” from the popup) and browse to the new directories to ensure thumbnails are rendered properly to alleviate errors. Special thanks to Cam for sharing this information with us :)

A Well Organized Saturday

My first KnitPicks order!

First, I want to squeal like a little girl… my very first KnitPicks order arrived (finally) yesterday. I yanked out the fingering weight sock yarn and got to work playing with my new sock-sized DPNs and even tried magic loop with the fixed 40″ circs (also sock-sized.) … and WOW, was I ever impressed. Like, really impressed. As a side note, I finally caught on to the magic loop method and was successful, and I truly believe it’s because of the great needles. I was trying magic loop on some cheapy no-name brand circs I bought a long time ago and the join just wasn’t smooth so I was getting frustrated, thinking I just couldn’t do it. Then the KnitPicks needles saunter in and suddenly I’m a magic loop pro. They are fantastic needles, and I finally understand what all of the fuss is about. I’m giddy with excitement that I’ve already placed an order for the complete nickel plated interchangeables set. WOOHOO!

Crafty tacklebox

This weekend Lucas and I did a little crafty shopping. After helping me put some supplies away earlier in the week he commented on my horrible (or lack thereof really) organizational tools, so we stopped by Michaels with a coupon I had to look at my options. Turns out that’s what a lot of other people did, too, and the giant craft tacklebox we had in mind was nowhere to be found in the store. That’s when we stopped in at Wal-Mart, because I needed buttons to finish my amazing Coffee Cup Wrap (which is finished! See below!) and lo and behold … there was the crafty tacklebox contraption we were looking for at Michaels. We snagged it and I spent a good hour organizing every little thing I could think of into this amazing device. I still have some leftover room in the thing, which is great since those interchangeables and other tiny accessories will be coming soon…

all opened up

I’ve got all of my needles in the top, with lots of leftover room. My mini netbook even fits up there with my needles, LOL! I’m thinking of making a needle roll to organize those better up there in the future. In the body of this gadget there are three tiers of plastic mini tackleboxes with do-it-yourself dividers to really personalize the space. In the top one I have my knitting notions, the middle one contains all of my sewing supplies, and the bottom one holds all of my general crafty/leftover and miscellaenous stuff. It’s so handy! I’ll keep the little needle case I’d sewn a few years back for in my carry-along knitting bag so that I can take the supplies I need for whatever WIP that’s with me, but this new organizational device will be perfect to have at home so all of my supplies are with me no matter where I am in the house, easily accessible. *happy sigh* I love being organized.

cozy coffee!

As mentioned, I finished my Coffee Mug Wrap, pattern by Danido Crafty! I loooooooooooooooooooove it, have I mentioned that yet? lol. Today Lucas and I spent the afternoon at a paint-your-own ceramic place and made mugs for our moms for Mother’s Day. As part of the whole package gift I plan to tuck some tea into the mugs along with making a suitable mug wrap for each. More about that whole fun crafty adventure painting ceramics together next weekend when we pick up the finished pieces and can show them off! It’s sure been a great day :) I plan to relax the rest of the evening and watch some playoff hockey soon and attempt some socks with my new KnitPicks needles. Hope everyone else is having a great weekend, too!

Cozy Coffee Despite Snow in April

Finishing touch includes buttons

I guess instead of blasting Calgary for this <sarcasm> fabulous </sarcasm> snowy weather I should look at it from a positive point of view: Lucas had a reason to wear the toque and scarf set I crocheted him for his birthday last fall, and I had a reason to wear my handknitted ribbed cuff (pink) toque and my handknitted pink and burgundy boucle scarf… plus it was the first day out in the wild for my crochet felted purse, which I put the finishing touches on last night. The button closure was a breeze, and to shorten the length of the handle I cut out a section and put the two ends back together using two buttons; this looked decorative and it was functional all at the same time. I adore it!

It’s a good thing I didn’t pack those winter accessories away yet, eh? Meh, Calgary.

Coffee Mug Wrap pattern by Danido Crafty!

The cold and the snow meant I was in search of something… well, warm this morning. But of course, as I was at work, it would have to be a small project.  Cue my shameless plug for today’s Knitting Under the Desk free pattern suggestion: Danido Crafty’s Coffee Mug Wrap! I think I’m in love. No, scratch that… I know I’m in love. This pattern (and Daniella, the creator) ROCKS! I’m stalking her now, because it seems we have more than just knitting in common… like me, she also enjoys mixing fitness and fun with the Wii AND she and her boyfriend have a white mini schnauzer just like we do! Too freaky!

Ecstatic, KPG's Contest, and Knitting Under the Desk?

Ecstatic
I haven’t even received my first KnitPicks order yet of a sock-sized DPN set and sock-sized 40″ fixed circular that I ordered a little while back (Still waiting on Canada Post!) BUT I did place my second order today already… and I ordered *takes a deep breath* the Nickel-Plated Options Interchangeable set! And here I thought I was excited about the DPN order… WOW I cannot wait for my interchangeables to arrive! I also threw in the ball winder for a little extra fun. I’m just ecstatic! This order cannot arrive fast enough, that’s for sure.

KPG’s Contest
My friend Karrie over at KnitPurlGurl is having a contest that started yesterday, and you won’t want to miss it! It’s a Curbing Bag Kit giveaway from ADHD Knitting/Straight Jacket Knitting, and it’s fabulous! The winner will receive the pattern for the Curbing bag, will get to choose the color scheme of yarn they want to have sent to make the bag with, and you’ll also receive some coordinating fabric and a pack of magnetic snaps. The contest is running from April 20 – May 4th, so be sure to get over there and enter! *drool*

Knitting Under the Desk?
Oh, and … do you knit under your desk at work or school? Regardless of whether or not you do so sneakily or not-so-sneakily, you’ll want to check out THIS blog: Knitting Under the Desk! There’s also a Knitting Under the Desk group on Ravelry which is growing quickly, so be sure to check it out! I am SO making the Blueberry Waffle Socks free pattern suggestion on today’s post. Awesome!

Have a great day!