Coolest Shoes Ever!

Holy cow! I found the coolest shoes ever! I just about freaked out in the store. The clerk probably thought I was insane. They actually fit my double-wide trailer feet (seriously, DD width, I've got great balance).



Reminiscent of those wonderful 80's Jelly Shoes.

I am going to be so cool walking around showing off my awesome handknit, hand-dyed socks.

I'm a loser, baby...

Oy! As I was getting my things together this morning for the Beginner's Knitting class, I came to the realization that I am a loser. I like to bring in the project/s that I've been working on to show my students so I collected all the things I made over the last week. In just one week, I started and completed all this:



Admit it, your first thought was, "Does she do anything besides knit?" No, I don't, I'm a loser.

Swimming in a Sea of Bamboo

Woohoo! I got some soft silky mail today. I've got bamboo coming out of my ears. I must resist rolling around in it. Once I get it all wound into skeins, I'm going to have a dyeing fest! For all you dyers out there, I'm going to be stocking some nekked bamboo on the website so I can share the joy of bamboo dyeing.

Now that I have the tripod again, maybe I can do some dyeing tutorials as well.

I once was lost...

but now am found! Squirt found the missing tripod piece!!! I still have no idea where it was hiding all these months. He was just sitting by the front door playing with it. You know what that means...

More videos!!!

Hmmm, what to do first? Japanese short rows in action? My favorite stretchy k1 p1 bind off method? Provisional cast on?

It even almost warm enough to do them outside where the light is the best.

Woohoo!!

AAHHHH!!!

I'm so excited, I can hardly think! One of my designs is going to be featured on a TV show!!! Until I know all the details, I can't say much else. I'm just going out of my mind with excitement that I had to share.

I'm obsessed!

Like you didn't know that already :-) Holy cow, I love these Turtle Butts. I got a whole bunch of brightly colored yarn and some pastels and have been knitting up a storm. I'm trying to see if I can make 1 a day. I can't wait until it's warm enough for munchkin to actually wear them. It's getting close, almost 60 degrees yesterday but the wind was also almost 60 mph. Yes, I'm serious. We were worried the house was going to blow down.

I also got some squishy mail yesterday, a whole box full of natural undyed-unbleached organic merino. I am in love with this yarn. It is soooo soft and yummy. I love it. I'm hoping I'll be able to get more of it.
Oatmeal:

Marle (I like this one, I may have to keep all of it for myself):



New bamboo is on it's way as well. I'll be stocking naked bamboo for you dye-ers out there, woohoo!

Nanny wanted

I need a nanny and a housekeeper and a professional organizer.

I've missed doing custom work so decided to start up again and the response has been awesome. Enough work to keep me busy/happy. I love sitting down with my knitting and saying, "Mommy has to work now." Now the task of organizing the rest of my life :-)

I'm casting on a pair of shorties today using this yummy yarn hand dyed by me.



I will also be working on the pattern for Turtle Butt. Pulling this one out of my brain in a discernible fashion is proving to be a challenge. I just love these soakers though. They crack me up!

Going sleeveless.

Now that it is finally starting to warm up a little here, I'm starting to think spring! I finished up the Persephone's Tunic sleeveless version and am happy with the results. Now I'm just waiting for my testers to give me their feedback (thank you so much for helping me with this rush project!).

Small one was not so happy modeling it for me. The little bugger was determined to hold the camera. Finally daddy stepped in to help me out. Asa will take pictures just fine as long as it's not me taking it. I have to leave the room whenever we get professional pictures done. Momma's boy!

Sleeveless Persephone

I was just thinking today that it would pretty easy to make the Persephone Tunic sleeveless like the mommy version for the summer. I'm working on that now and will hopefully have it ready by next week.

Any takers on testing? I only need a couple since the pattern is pretty well tested, just need to make sure the armhole directions work.

New Store!

I am so incredibly excited. I finally have a pattern store on Ravelry! Why is this so exciting? Many reasons. First, I get to help support Ravelry through pattern sales. Second, it makes purchasing patterns much much easier. Find the pattern you want on Ravelry, click "Buy Now" and you'll get a link to the PDF file where you can download and print the pattern. No waiting on me to check my email and send you the pattern. Lastly, hopefully more sales for me :-)

I'm now motivated to complete the long list of patterns I've been putting off.

http://www.ravelry.com/stores/melanie-hoffman-designs

Spring Fever

It's warm enough to rain and melt all the snow, but not warm enough to actually do anything. I can just feel spring coming and I want to go explore our land and plant my garden. I'm a sissy though, still too cold for me to enjoy the outdoors.

Now if only the spring cleaning bug would come visit me...

A rare pic of hubbie and I together.



Goofy Viking Baby



"Camping" in the living room



This is what Asa does when we want to take his picture now. Cute, no?

Busy Bee

I've been a busy bee today. No work done on any patterns, but I got a bunch of bamboo orders. I'll have to place an order for more blank bamboo soon. When I do, I'm going to offer some blanks in my store so I can share the joy of dyeing bamboo with others.

I also made laundry detergent today. Yes, you heard me right. How cool is that? Since I wanted to try it out, I got a ton of laundry done today. How's that for motivation?!

Here is the website with the recipe I used. It makes 2 gallons (about 64 loads) of detergent for under $1.

http://thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm

I'm going to try this recipe next:

http://www.sunshinediapers.com/cloth-diaper-university/choosing-a-detergent/

I'm back

I've been sick all week. My house is trashed, but I got caught up on a lot of knitting and am almost caught up on all the Lost episodes (gotta love online TV access).
We are having a somewhat warm day. Not enough to melt the snow, but the sun is shining and spring fever is really hitting me. I'm so excited to be able to have a garden this year. I have big plans, probably too big for what I can actually accomplish, but I'll try. Luckily the kiddos are old enough to help out and they are excited about having a garden. My dream is to have a fiber farm someday, angora goats, sheep, rabbits and alpaca maybe. For the time being though, I'll be planting flax and maybe by next spring we'll be ready to get some animals. I'm a city girl who wants to be a country girl and I have no idea what I'm doing. I have a lot to learn and I don't really know where to start :-)

Sick Days, yeah!

Is is pathetic that I love sick days? No better excuse to sit and knit all day than to be sick. Here is a peek at what I'm working on now. This is just a swatch, I'm playing with doily designs hoping to turn this into a garment. So far so good, I love how it is coming together.



Now back to the couch :-)