I'm excited to announce I'll be interviewed on Natalie Redding's Blogtalk Radio on 2/28/2013 at 6pm.  Check out the episode page HERE.

We will talk about all kinds of things including learning about my move to San Francisco, some of my recent designs, and what's coming in the next months.  Natalie is an amazing soul and she has worked hard the past few weeks taking care of my friend Janice Rosema in her last days.  Since Janice's death on February 13, Natalie has worked to raise money for the final expenses by selling many of Janice's amazing works.

I hope you'll join Natalie, Kimberly, and me, as we chat.  Natalie will be giving away something very special from Janice's estate during the show!

Natalie is owner and head shepardess at Namaste Farms.  Visit her website http://namastefarms.com where you'll have the opportunity to learn more about this energetic woman.

I'm happy to share with you my latest hat pattern!  This time it's a design inspired by old quilt patterns.  Using a number of different colors throughout the hat, it's fun to knit... and the pattern would be a great opportunity to use scrap yarn (perhaps some leftover sock yarn?) 

What's involved in this pattern?  It starts with a provisional cast on and a lining worked in the round using a main color and smaller needles.  Once a turning row is completed, the stranded knitting begins.  I worked most of this hat on circular needles, switching to double points for crown shaping.  (Some people would use magic loop at this point.)

Once the project was complete, it was time to find a place to do photography.  I did a lot of research, looking for an exterior location that would offer the right feeling.  I settled on the Palace of Fine Arts.  San Francisco is an amazing city for photography - lots of hills, water everywhere... and even the fog can make things interesting.  Anyway, The Palace of Fine Arts was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Expo. Built out of paper mache,  It was only meant to exist for a few years and actually fell into disrepair until the 1960s.  After some generous contributions, it was re-created out of concrete and lasted for a good while.  The past few years brought a re-furbishing of the monument and visiting it was truly a magical experience.  I look forward to discovering more places in my hometown for photoshoots!

We took photos in a few different spots at this location.  The doors in the background of this photo are used in a lot of wedding photography.  I thought it was really interesting how the pattern in the door is almost identical to the motif in the hat!

Knitting this pattern went pretty quickly.  The chart is easy to follow, and the color changes encouraged me as I worked.  I am excited to see the color combinations others come up with!!

I'll leave you with a few images of the architecture around the Palace of Fine Arts.  I hope you like the new hat!

Knitting is my "go-to" activity whenever I have a few free minutes.  I knit on my lunch break at work, I knit during down time when volunteering, I knit when riding with friends places... at the beach, at the movies... it's the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning (after checking email and ravelry) and the last thing I do usually before going to bed every night. 

Recently, I have been doing some design work for publication and it has taken a lot of my time away from some of the other things I like to do (like my goal of posting more frequently on the blog about knitting).

Those who have designed for publication know what it's like... coming up with an idea, swatching, swatching, swatching and then swatching some more... figuring out what the stitch pattern wants to be, then spending hours and hours knitting, ripping, knitting, ripping and knitting some more until a knitted item is born.  LOTS of notes are made and revised, and once the piece is complete, knitting becomes a sort of math "word problem" where the goal is to calculate the various sizing requirements for the project.

All of this takes so much time, and the publication process takes  a few months more... so in the end, there's LOTS of knitting that becomes secret and takes up time and can't be talked about... what that means is sometimes I am working like crazy on projects and while I want to post about them I can't. 

I have also been working on a commission project that I prefer not to talk about until it's complete... (It's a fun knitting project and I can't wait to share the finished item with you!)

I have to get back to knitting - but that's what's going on right now.  Thanks for reading, subscribing to the newsletter, adding my blog to your blog reader of choice, and for sharing my website and link on your blog!

Have a fantastic week!

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The Rialta scarf is an easy-to-knit, fun project that takes full advantage of the gorgeous color changes in Noro Silk Garden.  Download the pattern and get a headstart on Holiday knitting!  Based on the ripple or wave stitch seen in many, many stitch libraries, this scarf is easy to make with one row of pattern followed by 3 rows of plain knitting heaven!  Alternating between two skeins of delicious color-changing Noro makes for an unexpected treat.  You'll find yourself knitting on projects like this for hours on end; working to see what color combination will be next to appear.

Click the "Download Now" button to download your FREE copy of the RIALTA Scarf pattern!

Here's a helpful hint: 

When knitting projects such as this using various colors of yarn that changes color, I am careful to alternate the joins in yarn.  While working, continue alternating between the two skeins until approximately ½ of each of the skeins are used.  Break the yarn of Color A and spit splice a new skein to the yarn tail, reserving the remaining yarn.  Continue knitting until the end of your project, adding skeins of yarn as needed.  When finishing the project, as you come to the end of Color A's yarn, spit splice the remaining ½ skein previously removed.  Using this trick will make the joins almost impossible to detect.  If the yarn ends that are spliced are similarly colored, the join will be invisible.  I used this technique when making Technicolor (the sweater pictured below) - and used 12 different colors of Noro Kureyon for that project.

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