Awhile back, Susan blogged about a blanket she made with scraps from the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store, I thought it was fabulous, and Pete completely fell in love with it.  He’s been a bit Pendleton obsessed since he started getting really into men’s fashion a couple years ago… So we started taking trips over to the store and grabbing good looking scraps whenever we found them.  And then when the holiday season started, I took a couple secret trips by myself and gathered enough material for a giant blanket gift!

I never scored like Susan did, with the super cheap precut sample cards, but I got mostly the thick, blanket quality wool pieces, so our double layered wool blanket is thick and heavy and WARM!  My blanket ended up costing more like $40-50, with all the by-the-pound thick scraps (as opposed to Susan’s amazing $12 creation, which is more what I was hoping for when I decided to go ahead with the project), and it took several days of work, with my limited sewing experience, but it was so super worth it all!  Once of my favorite things I’ve ever made!

Of course, most of you don’t have access to Pendleton wool scraps, but this same basic project can be done with recycled wool clothing (like plaid shirts and skirts) from thrift stores, or with felted sweaters!  So, I’ll tell you how I made mine…

I started by cutting all the pieces in blocks to make strips of all different widths.  I cleared my living room floor to spread the project out and plan out the blocks as I cut.  After I took the above photo, I decided to make it a bit bigger, so I added more blocks to each strip.  Then I stacked each strip in order, and lined them up so I’d know how they were meant to be sewn together:

I sewed each pile together into the strips, just as I’d laid them all out before, with a basic straight stitch, right sides facing.  As I finished sewing each one, I laid it back out on the floor, to keep everything in order:

Then I ironed all those seams open on the back of each strip:

I used the wool setting, with maximum steam…  Here are the seams before and after ironing:

The strips after ironing:

So then I sewed all the strips to each other.  Starting at one end, the first to the second, then the second to the third, and so on, until the whole thing was one big piece.  Careful to keep the ironed seams flat when sewing over them:

Here’s the whole thing after that step:

The next step, of course, was to iron all those seams, completing the top layer of my blanket:

Then I made my lining layer.  I didn’t have any one piece large enough for the lining, but I did set aside a few of the largest scraps to piece together for the back side.  Once the top layer was complete and I measured it, I figured out exactly how to put the large pieces together to make a block of exactly the same size…  There’s a screenshot of my iPad app where I worked out the measurements, just for fun:

(All those numbers are inches; after it was finished, the final blanket measurements ended up being a bit over 6 feet by a bit over 5 feet.)  I sewed those together and ironed the seams, and then I had my lining:

I laid out the lining with the top layer on top, right sides facing…

…got the layers all smoothed out the best I could, and pinned the edges together:

Then I sewed all around the edges, leaving about a foot open to turn it back right-side out.

After sewing, I trimmed some parts where the edges didn’t line up perfectly, and clipped the corners to minimize bulk.  Then I turned it right-side out, ironed the edges well, and hand-sewed the part that was left open.

Lastly, I sewed around the whole thing, about 1 1/2 inches in from the edge:

I thought about different options for connecting the layers – tying or quilting or something – but with my lack of experience with this kind of crafting, and with how much I loved the blanket as it was, I didn’t want to risk messing it up.  It functions perfectly as is, so I don’t see any reason why the layers need to be attached…

So there it is!  Pete’s giant Pendleton blanket!  I made it for him, but it happens to be huge enough to keep both of us warm at the same time – I’m sneaky like that!

Some more beauty shots…

It’s hard to tell the thickness and weight of it by the photos, so just trust me, it’s big and heavy!  I love it so much!

And then, there’s more!  With some of the extra scraps, I made a pillow to match, before I started sewing the blanket, to kind of practice.  I wanted to make sure I knew the best way to sew and iron the seams before starting the blanket, so I cut these extra scraps, to fit a cheap Ikea pillow…

…sewed them together…

…ironed the seams…

…and sewed on the two overlapping pieces for the back:

And tah dah!  Pillowcase!  This project took about a half hour, so I definitely plan on making more of these!

On the pillow:

And the back side:

So that’s everything, except for one last note.  Throughout all the steps…

…Banzo had to claim the wool as her new spot.  And now, of course, it’s her blanket.  I may have made it for Pete, but we all know who it really belongs to!

I’d love to see if anyone uses my process to make a blanket from recycled clothing fabrics!  Just be careful if you make one with sweater pieces – the stretchiness will make the seams buckle if you don’t figure out how to best sew them (I know from experience as a self-taught sewer, and have never really figured out the best way to avoid buckling).  Sewing with the woven wool was still tricky, as the different scraps had varying amounts of stretchiness.  I had to figure out how to hold the 2 pieces with different tensions to make the seams even… But I made it work in the end.  Yay!

And just so you know, I’m writing this post curled up on the couch with the blanket over my legs, and the kitty curled up at my feet.  We are both very snuggly and warm!

I spent about 3 weeks in late December / early January hanging with my family in California, meaning to get lots of knitting done, but that didn’t really happen.  What did happen was lots of game playing, movie watching, eating, and exploring different parts of southern California…  Here are highlights from the trip in photos (mostly taken with my phone or iPad)…

We had a couple massive game marathon days with my whole family – on one of those days we even made our own personalized version of Apples to Apples (that pile of paper scraps is our “card” stack… the poker chips were from earlier).  For xmas eve dinner, we had our traditional appetizer trays (crackers, cheeses, meats for the meat eaters, veggies, etc) and I made my homemade pickles!

And then for xmas morning breakfast, I made these sticky buns!  So good!

My mom and I did some wandering around different parts of Orange and LA counties, including a day spent in Long Beach, where I used to live for a couple years before Portland.  My old favorite record store, Fingerprints, moved to a new neighborhood (from beach-y Belmont Shore, where we’d only ever go to go record shopping, to the downtown arts district, much closer to our old ‘hood), into an awesome space, so that was cool!  California record prices, however, not so cool… I am so spoiled by Portland!

My mom and I also played lots of games, and took walks around my parents’ new neighborhood, which has great character (and parrots!)…

One excellent highlight for me was discovering that Santa Ana has flavors (colors!) of Kool-Aid that I can’t find in Portland – most importantly, mango!  My local Food-4-Less used to have this one, and it was my favorite color for yarn dyeing!  The golden orangey yellow shade was perfect for mixing with other colors to tone them down and make new shades.  Anyway, they stopped carrying it a couple years ago and I’d never been able to track it down, until now!  I bought up a ton of it, plus piña (which I’ve never had before, so I’m excited to see how it dyes!) and jamaica (which I’ve also never used, but it just looks like yet another shade of red); now when I run out, my parents can ship me more!  Yay!

The other photo up there is our old Long Beach neighborhood taqueria, Holé Molé, where I got to grab a burrito on my last day, before flying out of the Long Beach airport.  A huge highlight of spending time in California – food I can’t get in Portland!  I got to have In-n-Out a couple times, Wahoo’s (blackened mushrooms, yummmm!), my favorite pizza in the world – Pizza Bakery (where I worked in high school)… nomnomnom!

Another highlight was hanging with my old kitties!  Bobby, who will be turning 19 this year, is looking much different than she did in her younger years, but is super sweet, despite her snarly old-lady face and clumsiness.  Sybil is also getting old, 13 or 14 I think, and is more aloof than Bobby, but when she feels like attention, she is a crazy purr machine and is very sweet!  I have no new photos of Sybil, but a video of a silly habit she has, of cleaning her face by licking the wall then rubbing her cheek on it – weirdo!  I don’t know if this embedding is working, so you can watch it on flickr here if it’s not showing up.

The third little beast living there is Muffin the dog, with whom I didn’t get along well when she was younger (my family got her after I moved away to college, so we never had a chance to bond), but now that she’s getting older and calmer (and doesn’t terrorize the cats so much), she’s not so bad…  and her toothy underbite is darn charming:

And then I got to spend lots of time with my brother Paul, which was great!!  He was in the middle of a move, so he was staying with our parents for a couple days, and then I helped him with the move a little, to this great old apartment building in LA.  During the time we were both at the house, he introduced me to some awful television and I introduced him to some bizarre film, we went grocery shopping, where somehow this unicorn ended up in my cart, we played a bunch of Scene It? comedy edition… fun times!

And then I spent a few days here and there in LA, where all three of my brothers live (sort of… Santa Monica kind of doesn’t count as living in LA, since it takes Matt as long to drive from there to Hollywood as it does for him to drive to Orange County).  I’m so glad I never had to drive, holy crap you guys!  I grew up in that area, but after a few years in Portland, you couldn’t pay me to drive around in LA!

My mom and Paul and I got to take a tour of Ben’s new office in the downtown LA arts district – he works at Cornerstone Promotion, and the office totally reminds me of Entertainment 720, except it’s awesome and not a parody.  (Yes, that is a DJ station set up in front of that massive Sonic Youth poster.  More shots here.)

Below are the outside of his office building, which is owned by Crazy Gideon (who once came into their office trying to sell them a refrigerator), and part of the wall of ghetto blasters.  Awesome!  On the night of that LA day, I got to hang with my bros and I talked them into a karaoke bar, where I sang 4 Non-Blondes to a cramped and intimidating LA crowd, and none of them sang, but it was still fun… no photos of that though…

And on another LA day, my parents and Paul and I went to the LA Zoo!  Fun!!  So now, to finish off this rambly post, I’ll even things out with a few of my favorite zoo photos.  There are many more on flickr, here here and the bottom half of here…

Pensive gorilla.

Dramatic chimp show.

Obese beast.

The cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.  (I highly encourage you to check out more tiger kitten playing photos.)

So that was some of what I was up to during my leethal absence.  Not much work got done (here’s a glimpse at the only thing I completed) but I missed my family, so I’m glad I got to spend that time with them.  When I got home, Pete had a surprise for me:

Green bathroom!  So that’s all about my trip… Now that I’m slowly getting back on track, you can look forward to a big tutorial post next week!  Woo!

How’s your 2012 going so far?  Mine is off to a slooooow start, but I feel like it’s just about to start taking off!  I wanted to jump in here after my long delay with kind of a catch-up post, with some stuff I’ve been up to so far this year, and random bits and news and things I wanted to share with you.

First, Portlanders: I’ll be teaching a couple of free Library classes on making my no-sew recycled t-shirt bags, plus other things with the t-shirt leftover scraps (like the cuffs above), which you can see some more photos of over here.  The first class is this Saturday (the 21st) at the Capitol Hill branch, and the next one will be on February 18th at the Albina branch – check out my info page here for details and library links.

And then a bit of leethal news – I wanted to let you know how much I ended up raising for Heifer… $110!!  Thanks to all who bought stuff in December, you are awesome!

And now moving on to what I’ve been up to… One thing I did on an impulse a few days ago, a kind of mixing things up for the new year new project-ish thing…. I started a tumblr!  I figure, I’ve always been terrible at little posts here on do stuff! – I’ve gone through phases of trying to regularly post small things like recipes, thrifty scores, mixes, etc… but it never sticks and I always go back to my long posts.

So, I thought, how about I break it up?  Keep this blog as it is, but really try to do more tutorials and valuable content, and stick all that little content over on the tumblr.  I’m thinking of it as a halfway point between this blog and twitter – the posts will be more permanent than tweets, but much less of a big deal than the leethal blog.  My plan is to rarely even mention knit design over there, or even crafts in general – all valuable crafty content will be for here on do stuff! (so if that’s all you care about, you don’t need to follow both) – and to just use tumblr for silly personal stuff, assorted photos of things I’m doing, movies, books, music, food… we’ll just see where it goes, I don’t even know what to expect!

And now speaking of movies and music… I have a couple long term project updates.  Remember a year ago, when I decided to try to watch 365 movies in 2011?  Well, I did it!  JUST!  I watched my 364th and 365th movies on New Year’s Eve and just barely succeeded.  The list is a little embarrassing, but remember, I watch most movies while working, so I can’t give 100% attention to the screen, meaning I make silly choices a lot of the time, especially if I know I’m working on a pattern that needs some focus.  The questionable movies on the list weren’t really watched, they were just kind of background noise.  You understand, hehe.  Anyway, it was a fun project, but I’m happy to not have to count movies anymore and be more free to get sucked into TV shows whenever I want.  (So much TV to catch up with!  First up, probably Downton Abbey!  Not that I didn’t watch TV shows in 2011, but I just had to space them out and couldn’t keep up with everything.)

And my other project… well, you probably remember back in the summer when I went through that massive record organization project.  Chronological order!  Damn, it was a ton of work, and it was nerdy fun to do, but it was so not practical.  Cataloging and sorting our collection like that made Pete and I much more active about collecting records, like too much so, but hey, Portland has amazing shops that need our support, right?

So, once they were all organized, the collection started rapidly growing larger, and it became overwhelming, the thought of adding all the new LPs in their chronological spots.  So they just accumulated, and at the beginning of this year, the motivation kicked us and we spent a couple days immersed in re-organizing once again.

This time, alphabetical!  Sigh of relief!  So much easier to add new stacks where they belong and keep it all in order!  And, if you compare the photos of our collection from July and the current shots, you’ll notice how vinyl has almost completely taken over our shelving unit.  Love it!

Another random fun thing I wanted to mention is that Pete has gotten suuuuper into Pinterest since joining a couple days ago.  If you have any interest in men’s fashion, or neat nature/science photos, you may want to follow his boards.

And then the last thing I wanted to mention… even though it annoys me that there’s no iPad app or functioning website and everything is through the iPhone app, I still like the idea of instagram and I’ve started using it a bit more.  I’m _leethal_ over there if you’re an instagrammer (instagrammar?)…

Okay I think those are all the things I wanted to mention.  Happy 2012 all!

Hope you are having a good holiday-ish week!  I am hanging at my parents’ house in Orange County for a couple weeks, hoping to get tons of knitting and ebook photo editing done, between silly times with my brothers and California adventures with my parents…  Just wanted to kind of check in here since not much leethal stuff is going on, but will be in the near future!

Remixed pattern #6 is basically done – just needs to be tested once I finished laying out the pdf.  Giving my testers a break for now, for gift knitting times, so it’ll go out to them next week, then be out to Remixers in another week or so, beginning of January:

It can be super extra terrifying if you choose:

But it can also be folded up into a hat for normal everyday use.  See more photos of the stripy one and the bulky one on ravelry.  It’s for any weight yarn, worked top down, to get the eye and mouth placement just right.

And then the seventh pattern is just about done as well!  Gentle on My Mind is a bonnet style hat, which can be made with or without i-cord tails, and works excellently with stripes…

This is my first prototype, and was made with normal short row wraps.  After completing it, I discovered Socktopus’s shadow wraps method, which is so freaking awesome and a perfect fit for this pattern!  So my other samples are using that, and that will be the recommended technique in this pattern…

Below is my second sample, in several different handspun mini-skeins and leftover bits (plus a couple stripes of Malabrigo Twist thrown in there)… I love the front part, and I like the back of the head, but the middle is kinda weird, oh well.  It’s a sample without the i-cords (more photos are on ravelry).

Right now I’m working on another striped sample – 2 contrasting recycled solids – which I am super loving!  So, this design should be ready for testing in a couple weeks, and then just one Remixed pattern left in the collection!

Besides the designing and knitting, I’ve been making lots of recycled yarns for the ebook.  This one is the yarn used in the stripy mask – a striped wool unraveled sweater yarn, plied with thread:

Here are a couple of navajo plied recycled striped yarns – the left is cotton, the right is wool:

And from the same sweater as that wool navajo plied, a sleeve became this stripy yarn, plied with an angora blend:

So that’s what I’ve been working on – well, the work work I’ve been doing… I’ve also spent lots of time working on gift projects, or one main gift project, which you can see a peek at through my twitter.  It will be blogged at some point soon!

A couple other things I wanted to mention here…  I’ve been saving all my coffee cans for the last couple years, since I made this cubby, in case I might want to make another one, but now I have something like 16 or 18 saved up, and nowhere in my house to put another one, so I’d love to give all the cans to a crafter who doesn’t drink coffee and wants to make a cubby.  Anyone in the Portland area want them??  Comment if you’re interested and I’ll email you…

And this one last thing – thought there might be some readers out there who might be interested in this:

The casting agent happens to be an old co-worker from my day job in California many years ago… weird connection to my current world (that day job had nothing to do with craftiness).  So I just wanted to throw that up here… not exactly my thing (I don’t have that necessary tv personality) but it sounds pretty awesome!

Oh my, it’s already December!  I have a bunch of leethal shop news!  The main thing is that (as you know if you follow my blog) I have pretty much transitioned completely to knit design, and away from all the old stuff I used to make and sell.  I have tons of things in my shop from the old days which I would really love to clear out, so I’ve discounted lots of the items, and I’m also adding an extra big incentive:

Through December 18th, 25-40% of all leethal shop sales will be donated to Heifer!  You can learn more about this organization on their website; their “mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth. … With gifts of livestock and training, [they] help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways.”

The exact percentage depends on the item – at the top of each category page within my shop, you’ll see whether those items are 25% or 40%.  I’ve also added a bunch of new items to the shop and made some other updates…

This isn’t new, but it is relevant to the season – I have a bunch of these connect-the-dots holiday cards available:

I have added a bunch of photo greeting cards for the first time – these are all made from 100% recycled/reclaimed materials (reclaimed blank greeting cards and envelopes, and 100% recycled high quality matte photo paper).  There are a few different single cards:

And two different sets of 3 cards – crafty photos and flower photos:

I’ve also added two buttoning cowls to the accessories – these are both made from recycled sweaters (one is 100% cashmere), vintage buttons, and other recycled/vintage materials, and they are both discounted from their original prices (they were originally for sale through Trillium):

And more old items that have been newly added – knit kits!  Some ninja mitts kits, 2-color hat kits, and one spiraling stripes hat kit; all include hand-dyed recycled yarn, and the pattern(s), and the spiraling hat kit also includes a couple of recycled paperclip stitch markers.

These were all made for Trillium also, long ago – most of the kits I made back then (pictured below) sold, but these few that didn’t are now discounted for you!

I also had made a skein of handspun awhile back that never made it up for sale, but now it’s there!  I named it Soft as Chalk (a Joanna Newsom song title) because it’s made from all super soft wool, spun into a smooth single.  I also discounted the skein of handspun art yarn that’s been there for awhile, Rainbow in the Dark.

And the last newly added items – buttons are back!  They are the same buttons that used to be there, but I had to take them down when I ran out of button-making supplies… Portland map buttons, respect the needles / tame the yarn, and shoot film / shoot polaroid / shoot medium format sets.

Some things that haven’t changed, but you know, they might make good gifts… recycled printed shirts – for knitters:

…and other designs.  All printed onto reclaimed shirts, in professional screen printing inks, totally washable.  There are a couple of kids size shirts as well!

And in the accessories category, there are a few cuffs remaining, like this velcro one, all made from recycled fabrics…

…and several hats!  Some kids sizes, some adult sizes, all made from recycled materials, at discounted prices!

Percentages of sales of connect-the-dots stitch sets, clock kits, and photo prints all go to Heifer as well!  I’m leaving town to visit family for the holidays, so orders must be placed by December 18th… not only will the charity donations end then, but the shop will be significantly changing and many items will be gone for good!

____

A quick unrelated note – the fifth Remixed pattern went up today!  I probably won’t be blogging it till next week, so I just wanted to tell you now!

Happy Buy Nothing Day!  Or, if you’re not observing that one, happy holidays!  To kick off the season on this day after Thanksgiving, I’m having some big giveaways!  First, all Remixers (everyone who has already pre-ordered the ebook) are automatically entered into a raffle today – I’ll be picking five winners total: three win a $10 off coupon code for my knitting patterns, and two win a prize package of goodies!  I’ll comment here, post in the ravelry forums, and email the winners once I do the drawing, which will be around 8pm today.

The second giveaway is for all who have not pre-ordered Remixed, who may be thinking about it or wanting to in the future, and it’s just this one day only, so enter now!

I’ll be picking FIVE winners from the comments for Remixed giveaways:  four will win 1 Remixed pattern of their choice, and a $5 off coupon code for the ebook in case you do decide you want to buy it later – kind of like testing out the one pattern to make sure you’re going to like it before you get the whole collection… And then one lucky winner will get the whole thing!  (meaning, the ebook pre-order, so these 4 patterns now, and the remaining 4 patterns as they are finished, and then the whole book later)

So, to enter the drawing, comment on this post with your favorite out of these four Remixed patterns that are out so far, and/or tell us about something you’ve made with recycled yarn, or something else Remixed-related… At the end of the day (midnight, west coast time, on Buy Nothing Day/Black Friday) I’ll choose the winners at random.

And here’s a (badly lit) peek at the fifth Remixed pattern!  It’s by far the simplest of all the designs so far, and totally beginner-friendly, but using all your bits of leftover yarn scraps makes it look awesome!  It’s called Slanted & Enchanted, and it’ll probably be out to Remixers by the end of next week, if all goes well…

The fourth (out of 8 total) Remixed pattern is now out to pre-orderers!  Rumours fingerless mitts:

Before I go on, I just want to say now, so it doesn’t get buried in the post – now that half the patterns are out, I thought it would be a good time to start a Remixed knit-a-long!  Head over to the ravelry forums to vote on which pattern you’d like to knit along (or for a more casual any-pattern Remixed knit-a-long) and to share your knitting progress!

Okay so, Rumours!  They can be made with any weight yarn, and are custom fit to your hands.  Above is my pair in recycled sport(ish) weight yarn, and below in bulky weight:

There are a few different options and variations you can choose from – like the 2-color version:

And there are two different top hand designs.  The lace chevron design (below) is a bit too complex to work with bulky yarn, as it takes too many rows and stitches for a heavy weight gauge, so there’s a second, simpler hand design which you can see on the mitts above.

They are made top down, starting by working the top hand part sideways (using the sideways edge cast-on) and stopping when it fits perfectly around your hand.  Then the thumb is started separately, joined with the hand, and the rest of the mitt is worked down through the wrist, using color coded stitch markers to keep track of the different twirling stitch designs and yarn-over lines:

There’s no one thing that’s hard or really complicated, but there are a lot of twisted stitches, decreases, yarn-overs, and triangles of garter stitch texture, all kind of swirling and flowing into each other… as long as you pay attention to what you’re doing and read the pattern well, they knit up pretty quickly.

One little detail I like – the twirling stitches turn into the bind-off in a nice flowing way:

And a cool thing for iPad users (which isn’t specific to this pattern or anything, I just got excited because the iPad is still new and exciting to me)… There’s a box in the pattern for filling in your numbers (row counts, stitch counts, etc) while making your first mitt, so the second in the pair will be identical – I used the Goodreader app to make an annotated copy and fill in all the spaces on the pdf, so cool!  I know, iPad nerding out, doesn’t really have to do with this pattern or anything, but whatever, I just wanted to share…

Want to see my design process for these?  I started out with some serious swatching, trying to reach a top hand part design that I was happy with… finally all my sketchy swatching led to the lace chevron design:

So then I cast on to turn that design into the top of a mitt, with my only plans for the rest of the piece being some kind of garter stitch thumb part, and some kind of swirling, yarn-over holes, and garter stitch element for the wrist.  And then I wanted to finish it off with a sideways edge bind-off cuff bit… Here’s what that whole thing turned into:

So then I moved on to my second attempt, giving it an actual thumb piece, and making the swirls more extreme, designing the whole wrist part as I knit it… and sticking with that sideways cuff bottom bit:

After that was done, I decided to let that cuff bottom part go, it just wasn’t working – but the design I used on that bit in my second prototype ended up turning into the second hand design of the final pattern, so I think it worked out well!  And then the final design stayed pretty similar to the wrist in that second prototype, just a few changes made to which bits are garter vs. stockinette.  The final change was that I brought the garter thumb gusset over into the hand a bit instead of being a straight line… And the final design was born:

Yay!  I’m super happy with it, I hope you like it too!

(For readers who don’t know – this pattern is part of my Remixed collection, which is available for pre-order now.  It’s $16, there are 4 patterns so far, and there will be 8 total, plus yarn-making tutorials.  Order it now to get the first 4, and then each of the remaining as they are finished – see the webpage for more details.)

If you follow me on twitter, you may have noticed I started posting a new round of trivia questions, most weekdays sometime between noon and 1 (west coast time) – like I’ve done in the past, I’m sending the winner of each question (first to reply with the correct answer) a $2 coupon code for my knitting patterns.  These are trivia questions I wrote to host trivia night at Zach’s Shack here in Portland.

These twitter questions are the 3rd time I hosted – the first batch of questions were blogged here, and now that I’m twittering the third batch, it’s about time I blog the second!  These questions, from the second time I hosted, were twittered back in the summer, so they may be familiar to some of you.  Like I did last time, I’ll just post the questions right now, and you can have fun trying to answer, and then I’ll post the answers in comments in a week or so…

Ten Degrees of Television: I’ll describe a tv show which connects through an actor to the next and previous ones – just name the show.

1.  Bob Odenkirk plays the recurring role of Saul Goodman in this AMC drama set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which began in 2008; Bryan Cranston stars as chemistry teacher Walter White.

 

2.  Bryan Cranston was father Hal in this Fox comedy which aired from 2000-2006; Grandma Ida was played by Cloris Leachman.

 

3.  Cloris Leachman played neighbor Phyllis Lindstrom throughout the first five seasons of this CBS comedy which aired from 1970-77, before moving on to her own spinoff series; Ed Asner plays a main character who also got his own spinoff after this show ended.

 

4.  Ed Asner made a few appearances as Wilson White on this NBC series created by Aaron Sorkin, which only lasted 22 episodes in 2006-07; Merritt Wever played production assistant Suzanne.

 

5.  Merritt Wever plays Zoey Barkow in Showtime’s New York City based black comedy series which began in 2009; Swoozie Kurtz plays Mrs. Scheinhorn, one of Dr. Cooper’s two moms.

 

6.  Swoozie Kurtz was eyepatch-sporting Lily Charles, formerly half of synchronized swimming duo the Darling Mermaid Darlings, in this ABC comedy-drama which lasted from 2007-09; Lee Pace played main character Ned.

 

7.  Lee Pace was Aaron Tyler, brother to the lead character in this Fox series which ran for one season in 2004 and took place in Niagara Falls; Jewel Staite was Heidi Gotts in a few episodes, wife of the love interest of the lead.

 

8.  Jewel Staite was Kaylee Frye in Fox’s space western series which only ran in 2002-03 and took place in the year 2517; Summer Glau and Alan Tudyk were main characters River Tam and Wash.

 

9.  Summer Glau and Alan Tudyk were somewhat minor parts Bennett Halverson and Alpha in this Fox sci-fi series which ran in 2009-10; Patton Oswalt appeared in 2 episodes as Joel Mynor.

 

10.  Patton Oswalt was one of many comedians who made appearances as himself on this Adult Swim show which ran on the Cartoon Network from 2004-06 and took place in the town of Jefferton; Bob Odenkirk was a writer and producer of the show and appeared in most episodes as different characters, including Mr. Sandleman.

Ten Degrees of Movies:  Each answer is the name of a movie – each movie is connected through an actor to the previous and the following movie.  Name the actors that connect the movies for extra bonus awesome points.

1.  John Carpenter’s 1986 cult classic about Jack Burton, “a tough-talking, wisecracking truck driver whose hum-drum life on the road takes a sudden supernatural tailspin when his best friend’s fiancee is kidnapped”, to quote IMDB.

 

2.  Quentin Tarantino’s 2007 version of a 70’s exploitation film follows stuntman Mike through Austin, Texas and Tennessee.

 

3.  Billy Ray’s 2003 film based on the true story of a young journalist at The New Republic in the 1990’s who fabricated over half of his articles.

 

4.  Lars von Trier’s 2003 Brechtian parable about a small mountain town, the first in von Trier’s projected “USA – Land of Opportunities” trilogy.

 

5.  Gus Van Sant’s 1995 dark comedy, based on the novel by Joyce Maynard, about Suzanne Stone Maretto, a determined aspiring newscaster.

 

6.  This 1999 comedy with a big ensemble cast follows twenty-somethings around New York City on New Year’s Eve, 1981.

 

7.  Jerry Bruckheimer produced this 1997 action-packed thriller about an ex-con and former US Ranger, which was nominated for a best song Oscar, for “How Do I Live” performed by Trisha Yearwood, and won a Golden Raspberry award for “Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property”.

 

8.  Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1987 comedy about Hi and Ed, with lines like “We figured there was too much happiness here for just the two of us, so we figured the next logical step was to have us a critter.”

 

9.  Danny Boyle’s 1997 black comedy about a janitor who writes trash novels on the side, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy businessman, and a pair of angels who pose as bounty hunters, who have adventures involving kidnapping, karaoke, car chasing, bank robbing, and a claymation epilogue.

 

10.  Roman Polanski’s 2010 political thriller, based on a novel by Robert Harris, about dangerous secrets involving a former British prime minister.

Colorful Mashups:  I will describe some kind of imaginary movie remake or other kind of project, which mashes up two different elements as pop-culture-mashups, or before+after.  Here’s an example of one in which both are music-related: “The Swedish indie rock band well known for their 2006 hit single Young Folks time travels to open for the legendary singer from The Beatles, who plays some of his solo songs like Imagine” – the answer would be Peter Bjorn and John Lennon.

1.  Frontman of The Pixies uses the name he goes by when playing with the Catholics when he decides to branch away from his alternative rock background and try some hip hop, joining up with Sacramento rapper duo Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel.

 

2.  The R&B and soul singer most famous for her 1999 hit single “I Try” stars in an experimental musical version of the cult classic documentary from 1975 about the Beales, mother and daughter Big Edie and Little Edie, reclusive socialites in East Hampton.

 

3.  A terrible casting decision is made when beloved 89 year-old actress and comedian best known for her sitcom roles as Sue Ann Nivens and Rose Nylund in the 70’s and 80’s is set to star in a remake of Ridley Scott’s 1996 disaster drama in the part that was originally played by Jeff Bridges; the actors to fill the shoes of Scott Wolf, Jeremy Sisto, and Ryan Phillippe are still to be decided.

 

4.  John Hughes’s 1986 teen comedy-drama about Andie, Blane, and Duckie, is grossed up by John Waters when he replaces Molly Ringwald with Divine and causes some big controversy, getting the new version banned in some countries.

 

5.  A long lost original version of Stephen King’s 2002 miniseries is discovered, about a Seattle mansion investigated by a parapsychologist and a team of psychics, made first decades earlier as a comedy starring John Elroy Sanford, under his stage name.

 

6.  Members of the english band biggest in the late 60’s through mid-70’s with singles like “Hush” and “Smoke on the Water” decide to make a rock musical version of Woody Allen’s 1985 film in which a movie character walks off the screen and into the real world in 1930’s New Jersey.

 

7.  A new police show set on the water is developed when creators of the Manhattan based drama series which ran from 1993-2005 decide to combine elements of that show with their favorite film, a surfer flick from 2002 starring Kate Bosworth and Michelle Rodriguez.

 

8.  In a remake of the 1973 dystopian sci-fi classic, people are informed about their evil food rations not by a heroic Charlton Heston, but by an actual superhero, one with a power ring who has been around in different comic forms since 1940.

 

9.  The Coca-Cola Company is rebranding their caffeinated citrus-flavored soda pop, first introduced in 1979, and hard to find outside the midwest and south parts of the country, to appeal to pop-punk loving kids, by hiring the band responsible for songs “Ocean Avenue” and “Lights and Sounds” to rock out on the new commercials.

 

10.  Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel is made into a new film much different from the Stanley Kubrick version; this adaptation is written by Mike White, stars Colin Hanks and Jack Black, and is set in a futuristic Southern California instead of London.

Name That Song: When I did this trivia live, this last round was an audio round – I played the first 30 seconds or so of each song, and players wrote down the artists and the song names.  There’s a mystery theme for the artists throughout this category – so, for this written version, I’ll just list the song names and if you want to try to play, you can see if you can figure out the artists by figuring out what the theme is.

1.  The Killing Moon

2.  For What It’s Worth

3.  He War

4.  Digging Your Scene

5.  Angels of the Silences

6.  Pink Houses

7.  Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)

8.  Heretic Pride

9.  All I Want

10.  I Came As A Rat

Did you have a good Halloween?!

I did!!

My buddies and I didn’t have a plan till the last minute, but then it came together awesomely!  I was Andy Warhol, Pete was Banksy…

…and Star was Frida Kahlo:

I took Polaroids and drew sketches of people all night…

…at dinner and at the taphouse where we played trivia…

…and where we won trivia!!  It was my team’s first win at that particular trivia night, and it was a great night to win since they had some extra bonus Halloween prizes:

Before I poofed out my hair to be crazy-haired Warhol for the night, I had Pete take my photo as smooth-haired Warhol and used it to photoshop this:

I bleached my hair for the costume (I was going to anyway, to dye it colors, the timing just happened to work out perfectly) but it didn’t bleach out totally white – I was bad at getting the back of my hair.  But I think it worked out pretty well, lots of people knew who we all were, which is a lot more than I can say for many Halloweens!  Anyway, fun time.

I’m trying to blog more silly posts like this, but need to get in the habit – I had this one almost completely written and ready to post a couple days after Halloween, and then got distracted with my designing and forgot about it!  I have several old handmade gifts to blog about, now that it’s time to start figuring out gifts…  and maybe a few recipes as well… I’ll try to make it happen, really I will!

This one sure took awhile to get perfect, but oh boy, I think it was a success!

Freewheelin’, the third pattern in my Remixed ebook collection (out to pre-orderers now, and to be available individually once the ebook is complete, next year), is a cable-tastic rounded shawl, and can be knit up in any gauge from around DK weight up to a super bulky (down to sport weight should work, for a smaller shawl).

It can be made pretty much any size you want, by just stopping when it’s as big as you like, or when your yarn runs out.  The blue one, in a worsted-ish recycled yarn, is knit all the way through all 6 sections of the pattern (so it’s as large as you can get in worsted); the bulky red one was bound off before the third section was complete, for just a few cable repeats.  The more sections you make, the more it’ll curve around and inwards:

The big blue one is so curved that it can be easily worn wrapped about with no shawl pin (like in the top photo)…

…and because it’s so big and the fabric is so drapey, it can be tied around as well, which I quite like:

You can see how with fewer sections worked, it’s still curved, but in just a U-shape.  This red one was made with a light worsted-ish weight angora blend recycled yarn, held triple stranded, making it a super bulky weight, knit pretty densely on size US 11 needles.

My favorite way to wear this one is twisted around, or wrapped and closed with a shawl pin, though it can be worn in cape-like styles as pictured above.

I have a third sample as well, though it was an earlier prototype and has some major differences from the final design.  There are a different number of increases per section, making it a not-as-curved shape, and making the cables run into each other differently in some parts.  But it can still serve to show you how Freewheelin’ will look in a chunky weight commercial yarn (Cascade 128), worked almost all the way through section 5 for a large size:

Optionally, you can bind off in a contrasting color for a simple slightly-decorative edging.  This option allows you to work right up through the last possible row in your main yarn, and not have to worry about leaving enough yardage for the bind-off.  The bind-off recommended (and explained) in the pattern is Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off, which makes for a nice squishy edge row in the contrasting yarn.

The pattern is made up of repeating cable segment patterns, which travel and twist into each other as you move from one section to the next.  Most cable segment patterns have yarn-over increases built into them, making the shape of the shawl.  You keep track of all segments as you work by using a color-coded stitch marker system.

All pattern parts are both written and charted.  Personally, I think it’s a lot easier to make using the charts, but I had testers work successfully from both formats.  The pdf also includes photo tutorials for cabling without a cable needle, a 4-page essentials-only section for printing, if needed, and all cable charts together on one easily printable page.

(A tester, Sadie, pointed out something cool about the cable chart page: Did you know that if you print it on standard sheet of paper and then fold it in half, you can read all the cables you need for the first half of the shawl on one side, then turn the halved sheet over and read the other side for the yellow-middle section and the rest of the other side?! It’s ingenious. It meant I could take this reasonably complicated knitting pattern on the move and even knit on the bus with it.  I didn’t even think of that folding feature while laying out the page!  Perfect!)

If you are intimidated by the look of this complex piece, well, one of my testers did recommend I include a disclaimer “not for the faint hearted,” but really, they all agreed that after the first couple of sections and getting used to the cables, with the stitch markers keeping track of everything, this pattern gets pretty darn addictive and hard to put down!  There’s a bit of discussion in the leethal ravelry forums about this pattern being “a highway to divorce” haha!

I want to give a HUGE thank you to my fabulous testers for this one – I gave them a ridiculously tight knitting deadline (one week!), since I wanted to get this pattern out to Remixers asap, and they all got their shawls knit on time with excellent feedback for me.  Monica, Sadie, Carole, and Kristin, you are all truly awesome!  (They are also proof that you can totally get this knit in plenty of time for holiday gifting, hah!)

And lastly, I’ll show you my very first prototype of this design, which is super different from the final design; though the individual cable patterns are pretty much the same, the shape is all different (it doesn’t curve up, it’s just kind of a half-oval shape).  It was made with exactly one skein of Manos del Uruguay worsted weight wool (138 yards), and can be worn as a cowl (or neck warmer, or whatever you want to call it), closed with a shawl pin.  If you want to see a sample of Freewheelin’ made with exactly one skein of Berroco Ultra Alpaca worsted weight yarn (215 yards), check out Kristin’s project page.  See, this can be a one-skein project if you want it to be!

Check out Freewheelin’ on ravelry, or on my Remixed webpage to pre-order your copy of the ebook and get your hands on this pattern right now!  In case you haven’t yet read it elsewhere – the Remixed ebook is $16 and will include 8 accessory patterns total, all either for any weight yarn or with very flexible gauge requirements, starting with Parallel Lines, Wild is the Wind, and this one.  Pre-orderers will receive each of the remaining 5 as I finish them (working on a pair of fingerless mitts at the moment!), and then the final ebook, with lots of tutorials on making your own recycled yarns, will be released next year (no official release date, just as soon as I finish it and it’s the best it can be).

Follow me on twitter for glimpses into Remixed designs as I work on them, and follow this blog and/or the ravelry group for updates whenever new patterns are released!

Oh gosh, stuff has been piling up.  First, for Portlanders, I’m teaching a class on my sideways edge cast-on, and sideways bind-off (used in Betiko and Wild is the Wind), at Twisted on Tuesday November 29th.  See all Twisted class info here.  If you like the idea of the technique, but can’t wrap your head around it, here’s your chance for some hands-on help!

Complete info from the Twisted schedule:

Sideways edge cast-on and bind-off workshop
$30 With Lee Meredith
Learn how to knit a sideways edging (perfect for a brim or cuff) while casting on stitches along the edge at the same time, avoiding the need to pick up stitches or sew seams later.  Then learn the reverse – add a knitted on sideways edge to a piece while binding off the stitches at the same time.
Date/Time: Tuesday, Nov 29, 5-8pm
Materials:  Any yarn of your choice (a weight that you like working with best, something smooth and easy to work with), needles sized to match – a circular needle is recommended (everything will be worked flat, but the flexible cord will make it easier to see what’s happening), and a stitch marker.

So that’s that, now onto non-Portland-specific stuff.  A couple things from awhile back that never made it to the blog (till now!)…  I was interviewed for the Knit Picks podcast, for their ebooks episode, about Game Knitting and also about how I started designing, etc.

I also did a blog interview over on je suis une monstre - head over there to read all about how I quit my day job to be a designer, my design process, and lots more…

Tara of Blonde Chicken finished her Betiko knit-a-long and blogged the gorgeous finished Betikos – love them all!

And now to let you know what I’m currently up to – I know the next Remixed pattern, Freewheelin’, is supposed to be due soon, but it’s taking more redesigning and reknitting than planned… The yellow bulky sample which was supposed to be the final (or close to final) version of the pattern just wasn’t good enough and I ended up working out yet another new update (I’ve redesigned this pattern so many times, ohmygoodness the hours I’ve spent, sigh).  So then I tried a super bulky sample of the new version…

…and I’m super happy with it!  So now I’m on the final step of knitting up a worsted-ish weight sample, my last test and my main sample piece, and when that’s done the pattern will go out to testers and then finally out to Remixers.  So that’s what’s going on there.  This pattern really got away from me and took on a life of its own… the other Remixed patterns I’m in the beginning stages on should be quicker, fingers crossed.

And lastly, a heads up that I’m planning on starting another round of twitter trivia soon!  If you follow me on twitter, look out for daily trivia questions for a chance to win a pattern coupon code each day!  Yay!

My heater’s turned on and I’m wearing a wool sweater as I write this, which means, of course, the time for lots of knit accessories is here!  So I bring you a fun new pattern – Flippable!  (on ravelry)

This is super beginner-friendly (you only need to know how to knit, purl, cast-on, and bind-off!) but it’s totally an enjoyable quick knit for the experienced knitter as well.  It will work with any weight yarn, from sock to bulky, and depending on what yarn(s) you choose and how you stripe (or not), you can get all kinds of cool designs, many of which look like stranded colorwork!

The easy slip-stitch pattern is identical on both sides, making the finished squishy, stretchy, warm buttoning cowl wearable in tons of different ways!

For ultimate beginner-knitter non-intimidation, you can make one without the buttonholes if you want, and close it up with a shawl pin or brooch, etc:

The pattern pdf is 10 pages long, with every detail you may need about techniques used and all the different color patterns shown in all the sample pieces.  The actual pattern itself is on 2 photo-less pages for easy printing.

That above piece shows a few simple striping patterns, and how the stitch pattern can look like stranded colorwork, but reversible.  Below is a 3-yarn striping pattern – grey and yellow strands of Imperial Yarn Columbia striped, and dots of a Knit Picks Chroma self-striping yarn (same yarn as the above piece), scattered throughout, adding blue and white accents to the grellow stripes:

I made a gradient version in Dream in Color Groovy bulky weight yarn (ohmygosh love this yarn!) – starting with the Strange Harvest colorway and Purple Rain dots, and ending with the opposite on the other side:

The sample below was made with an amazing yarn by Black Trillium - Moryx in aqua & gold, 60% merino, 40% silk, worsted weight.  The stitch pattern gave the natural pooling all kinds of awesome vertical striping!

And then I made a swatch in a variegated sock yarn – Black Trillium Merilon Sock light fingering weight in the Hazel colorway – to show how a yarn that’s maybe too crazy for a lot of stitch patterns can look really cool in this pattern!  Check out how the colors make bits of vertical stripes:

You can see lots more photos of all the sample cowls on ravelry, to see different ways it can be worn – aqua & gold, gradient, grellow, self-striping.

The pattern is $3, on ravelry or my website.  In case you’re wondering, this stand-alone pattern has been in the works for a long time, as I just needed to get all these sample pieces knit up, fitting them in between all the ebook projects.  Now that this is done, my full focus is on Remixed!  And, oh goodness, I am so excited about the patterns currently in the works!

My second Remixed pattern is out!  To all who pre-order the ebook, Wild is the Wind, a customizable, any-gauge hat:

Knit it with any weight yarn, fitted or beret style, slouchy or not, buttons or none, pointy or smooth-topped, custom fit to your head, worked top-down with a modular sideways brim.  (Here it is on Ravelry)

It’s not hard, but by the end you’ll be an expert at twisted stitches!  The body is simple and addictive (I could knit the swirly top part over and over and never get bored with it!) and while the brim is definitely trickier (or slower at least), testers have agreed that once you make it through one chart repeat it clicks and gets much quicker and easier as you continue on.

The custom stitch counts and measurements are calculated using your gauge (which is measured directly on the hat after you’ve knit the top part), the brim design is charted, and the pattern includes photo tutorials for my favorite way of doing twisted stitches, detailed instructions for all steps, and a 3 page condensed printable pattern section with a black and white version of the chart.

Notes are included for adding slouch to either style of hat, so you can make a hat fitted in front and long and slouched in the back, or a smaller beret style, or pretty much whatever shape you want.  The garter stitch brim bottom is nice and stretchy for a well fitting brim.

My three samples were all knit with recycled yarns.  The grey is a strand of worsted-ish weight wool/rayon/angora/cashmere blend, in the beret style with a bit of slouch, no point, no buttons.  The blue is a merino/nylon blend worsted weight held triple stranded (using this method), fitted style with no point and buttons.  And the yellow is a spun recycled yarn I made - a wool reclaimed sweater yarn, an unknown green yarn, and 2 strands of thread, all plied together for around an aran weight – in the fitted style with a pointed top and buttons.

One note included in the pattern that I wanted to give more details about here – I mention that for the beret style you shouldn’t use yarn heavier than about a worsted weight.  Well, I learned that from first attempting to turn that super bulky blue into a beret and ending up with this:

Hah!  The brim is 10 stitches wide no matter what your gauge, so a heavier yarn equals a wider brim, and a heavy weight beret with a super wide brim equals ridiculous looking.  So that’s the thing about that.  But then I just frogged it all back to the top part and made it into a fitted style and the super bulky worked great for that.

My musical backdrop isn’t very visible in the hat photos, maybe it wasn’t a great idea, kinda pointlessly busy, but oh well.  I’m trying different music-themed backgrounds for all the Remixed patterns… but I may end up just reshooting everything together for the final ebook, we’ll see.  Anyway, this is the background for my Wild is the Wind hats:

A big thanks to my test knitters for all their help with this one!  Check out their versions in the ravelry projects to see more style options – slouch, different weights, contrasting color brim, etc.  I really love how the design turned out, and I’m super happy with the final pattern – I hope some of you have fun knitting it!  Yay!

You know how I’ve been mentioning since the beginning of the year that I’m working on an ebook?  Well, it’s a long process but there’s finally something ready to put out there into the world!  In the spirit of kickstarter campaigns, and other community supported projects, and because the knitting community is awesome, I’ve released the ebook for pre-sale.  Pre-order the book, get each individual pattern as it’s finished, starting with Parallel Lines right now!

Your pre-orders will help me to be able to focus on the ebook and get it out as soon as I can, and I think it’ll be fun for all to get each pattern, one every few weeks, like little gifts in your inbox, right?

The ebook is called Remixed, and it will be all about knitting with recycled yarns – how to make your own yarns, using thrifted/unwanted sweaters, and patterns that will work excellently with these yarns.  The reason the patterns work well with recycled yarns is that they are all super versatile, making them great for yarns of weird weights, or limited yardage, etc, which makes them perfect also for using up random single skeins or any other yarns you might have that are looking for a project.  Because of the flexibility, you can make the patterns over and over, differently each time, by changing up the yarn type and choosing different optional elements.  By remixing the designs, you might say.

There will be 8 accessory patterns – the ebook is $16 and after the complete book is out, each pattern will be available individually for about $4 (some may be $1 more or less).  All the yarn-making tutorials will be exclusive to the ebook, which is sure to be long and packed with info, and will of course be formatted for easy reading on your computer screen or ebook-reading device.

Parallel Lines is the first pattern, which you’ll get right now when you pre-order (through my site or through ravelry) – it’s a moebius loop scarf, with a simple reversible slip-stitch pattern, some easy short rows, for any yarn weight and any width you like.  A quick thank you to my awesome test knitters for all their helpful feedback on this one!

In about 10 days you’ll get the second pattern – Wild is the Wind hat (one, two, three on rav), which is currently being tested in all different yarn weights, sizes, and styles.

A couple weeks after that, Freewheelin’ will be the third pattern – below are glimpses at my first and second (in-progress) prototypes, but I’m still making changes.  The final design will be differently shaped, and a wee simpler than the blue one, for easier (more enjoyable) knitting/pattern following.  It can be made with any weight yarn, and as big as you want it; the blue one shows the size it is when made with 1 skein of worsted weight yarn (Manos del Uruguay wool), but if you keep knitting, it’ll turn into a full size shawl.

And then, as they are ready – I’m aiming for every 2 weeks, but some may take longer – you’ll get each of the remaining patterns.  One of them may be free for a limited time, but besides that, and perhaps the occasional twitter giveaway, the only way to get the patterns before the book is out will be by pre-ordering.

Without giving too much away, here’s a super vague list of the other 5 patterns:

• fingerless mitts
• a scarf which is meant for using up lots of bitsy yarn scraps
• a crazy mystery accessory
• a not so crazy mystery accessory
• something meant for wild art yarns

So, that gives you a little bit of an idea of what you’ll be getting; if you like these designs that you can see now, that probably means you’ll like most of the Remixed patterns.

I can’t give you a date for when the final ebook will be released, but I can tell you that I doubt it will be possible to get it out before the end of the year.  But, the good news: these patterns are great for gift knitting, and you’ll for sure be getting several of them in plenty of time to get them knit up by holiday season.  Most, if not all, of the individual patterns should be out to pre-orderers before the end of the year, and the complete book, tutorials and all, will be out as soon as I can complete it.  My top priority with this project is quality, so I hope you’ll understand if it takes me longer than you would like it to – it should all be worth it in the end!

Throughout the pre-sale period (from now until the final book is released) I will be doing random giveaways for pre-orderers, whom I’ll call Remixers because that’s easier and more fun.  The giveaways will average around one every 2 weeks, I’ll be posting about them in the ravelry forums, and giveaway prizes will vary.  Winners may get a skein of recycled yarn, or other crafty goodies, or a free pattern, or their choice of something from my shop… Or other fun ideas I come up with!

Also in the leethal ravelry group, I’ll be posting regular updates about new patterns and all Remixed-related news.  It would be awesome if Remixers want to share their projects from the ebook patterns, and post anything else you want to about Remixed.  I’m crazy super excited to be finally putting this out there, and I hope you have fun with the way I’m doing it one pattern at a time.

I first starting brainstorming and outlining this ebook concept well over a year ago, made definite plans which I announced on the blog in February, which is also when I started the prototypes for both of the first two designs (Parallel Lines in handspun and Wild is the Wind in an unknown commercial yarn), but I’d planned to include all kinds of recycled yarns – “yarn” made from sheets, t-shirts, plastic bags, etc.  Now that I’ve been finalizing everything, my plan has changed so that this book will be only recycled sweater yarns, and (if all goes well) it will be followed by a second book with all those crazy yarns, and then after that, a third volume with hand-dyed recycled yarns.

So, that’s the plan.  If you are into it, awesome, and I hope you’re able to pre-order Remixed, because each and every order will really help me to make this ebook the best it can be, and get the patterns done as quickly as I’m able to.  So far, I love absolutely everything about this project – the recycley-ness, the musical aesthetic, the any-gauge accessories… it’s all really close to my heart and I hope that my love for it shows through in the work I put out to you!  And I hope you love it, too!