Oh hi!  I have been busybusy, and obviously not with blogging, but hey, let me tell you what’s up!  Well, first though, I want to make sure you know that if you’re in Portland, you can take a class with me on Thursday to learn how to self-publish patterns!  Head to Twisted’s class schedule (click the pdf link on that page) for details – the class is on 4/21 5-8pm and costs $30.  Sign up now if you want to join us!!  (It’s mostly just on digital self-publishing, but my print patterns are much more photogenic.)

I have been working on a bunch of designs, but some are supersecret so I can’t show you yet… I can show you a couple though… this is my first example of a pattern I’m working on for self-publishing through me and through Knit Picks (which is why it’s in KP yarn) – it looks super simple, but it’s a squishy reversible fabric which will look crazy cool when striping between 2 yarns (several more samples will be knit before release)… plus, it’s any gauge and can be worn a ton of different ways:

And then… I have my first little bit to show you from my upcoming ebook that I’ve been working on a little here and there whenever I can squeeze it in.  The ebook will be on how to make different kinds of recycled yarns, and patterns to go with them – below is the first thing I’ve knit up for a book design from recycled spun yarn!  I’m working on a couple other designs, and have many more sketched out… Once I have a bit more to show you, and you can see some actual finished items, I plan to start selling pre-orders for the book, probably with some kind of bonus extra something since the release date will be uncertain and probably not till late this year.  Anyway, I’m so happy to finally show you something at least!

What else has been taking up all my time, you may wonder?  I’ve been busy with some fun freelance product photography gigs!  I shot 13 of these incredible felt scarves by LeBrie of PenFelt:

It’s the best when I get to shoot items that I love; doesn’t even feel like work!  Aren’t these scarves gorgeous?

These are just a small assortment of my favorite shots… head to PenFelt’s etsy shop to find what’s for sale at the moment.

There are also a few more of my choice shots in my product photography set on flickr…

And then, just before that bunch, I shot a huge batch of product photos for Trillium, which meant tons of different products by all kinds of different crafters and artists, all made from mostly recycled materials!  These tops were probably my most favorite items to shoot, made from reclaimed skateboards!  By Board Games:

Again, these are just a few of my favorite shots, out of 64 items total…

Of course I have to include this one!

So, if you want to check out Trillium products, there’s the etsy shop, but the Ebay World of Good shop has even more items and is a little more up to date.

Of course, if you happen to be in Portland, I highly recommend stopping by the brick+mortar shop!  It’s a bit out there if you live close-in, or North/NE/West (it’s actually super close to me) – it’s on SE Foster at 91st, right near the 205 freeway, worth a stop if you’re in the area.  Tons (like, maybe literally tons!) of super cheap recycled fabric pieces!  (Upholstery fabric sample squares and stuff like that, $1 per pound if I’m remembering correctly.)

Fun stuff!

So that’s what I’ve been up to… lots of shooting and knitting – and movie-watching while knitting, of course!  I’m doing well on my 365 movies in 2011 project so far!  (Watched my 121st film last night, on the 107th day of the year.)  Which is great, since we’re planning a trip for later in the year, which will mean probably about 2 weeks with few or no movies watched, so yay for being ahead!

I’ve finally done a theme I had wanted to do forever – music!  I had planned to do a music themed club back in my first generation of the quick knits club, but it never happened, and I hadn’t been able to figure out all the parts until last week, super last minute.  I’d actually been planning a different theme, and then I brainstormed this up and was much more excited about it so I went for it, though I put a little too much effort into making the ebook awesome so it was released a couple days late.  I think it’s worth it though!

First, Listen Up! includes a pattern for this guitar pick keyring pouch:

It’s a simple little pattern that looks pretty cool when it’s done, but it’s an easy in-the-round construction with nothing but increases and decreases – so it’s good for someone new to DPNs or an adventurous beginner.

The sample was knit in a DK-ish weight, tightly on size US 2 needles, making the pattern written for a gauge of 8 sts/inch, but there are notes on working it in different gauges and it’s very easy to modify if you want to use a different weight.

The second pattern is this CD gift case, which can be made to look like an LP (sort of) when knit in the right colors.  I didn’t have time to try it out, but I think it would be awesome to embroider “mix” or “to you” or something on the label (red) part.  If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know how obsessive I am about my mixes, so a special case for a special mix was a fun thing to design!  Especially as I am also extremely into vinyl…

And here’s the back (or front, actually, it could go either way), the tricky part…  It was tough to design and make it work, and it’s a wee bit hard to button around the disc until you get the hang of it, but it totally functions and I think it looks pretty cool!  Of course, the mix gift will be made better if you take a sharpie (or many in different colors) to the top side of the mix and give it some custom art, which will show – or you could write the track list directly onto the disc so it’s readable while in the case.

For the tutorial, I show you how I made these vintage lace doily covered speakers!  All you need is a speaker, a doily, and some yarn:

Here they are in action in my studio:

And then the final extra ebook item… the one that probably took me the most time of all and is my personal favorite part of this ebook… I made 6 album cover artwork connect-the-dots puzzles!

I’ll treat this set how I treat my stitch set puzzles, and I’ll show you one so you can get an idea of how they look, but then you can click over to my spoilers page and scroll to the bottom to find links to see all 6 of the puzzles, along with the art that inspired each one!

This sample is not the best, and definitely not my favorite of the 6, but it is the most recognizable album cover of them all, and one of the easiest to tell what it is in dot puzzle form.  The 6 albums range from 1969 to 2009 and are a variety of music types, though all 6 are albums I like.  I had a ton of nerdy fun making these, and I hope many of you have tons of fun doing them!

So that’s April’s club ebook.  The usual info:  head to the club page to subscribe and get this ebook plus the last 2 months ($10 for 3 ebooks), head to the ravelry page to grab this ebook alone, and hey, if you knit any patterns from this set (or any quick knits ebooks, for that matter), it would be very very cool if you added them to your ravelry projects!  Just sayin’…  Oh yeah, that reminds me, I’ve gotten the quick knits patterns page up to date, so you can see alllll my under-20-yards patterns together there.

Ok that’s all I’ve got.  Sorry about the blog absence lately; oh life, it is busy.  I’ve finished making some delicious liqueurs, so hopefully you’ll be hearing about those soon!  Happy weekend!