Alaskan Purl Designs

It's the new year...a few days late.

2012-01-11T21:38:00.000-09:00

I feel like my new year started today. Yes, I realize it's the 11th day of the year. But I've been working on secret deadline knitting for over two months now (three separate projects) and I carried one particularly intense and stressful deadline into the new year with me. But I sent it off to its destination yesterday morning and I awoke this morning finally letting out a sigh of relief that was a long time coming.

It's a funny predicament I find myself in. I'm incredibly grateful that my work has been accepted to well-known and well-liked publications. It's very exciting to me that someone wants to publish my designs. But with it comes a lot of pressure....my inner obsessive perfectionist comes out with a vengeance and I put everything else in my life aside and put all my focus on the design. Couple this with a stressful and time-consuming day job and you've got a recipe for a burned out, bitchy, unfocused, and downright cranky knitter. That was me most of November, all of December and most definitely the first few days of January.

So, my goal for the new year is balance. Balance in knitting, balance in work, and balance in life. How about you?

Thanksgiving Eve

2011-11-23T15:17:00.000-09:00

....It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Someone around these parts might be very excited for the holiday weekend. I don't usually feel as in the holiday spirit as I do this year...not sure what's gotten in to me, but I like it.

I absolutely love the palpable excitement, anticipation, and, well, for lack of a better word, magic of the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving. We always get out at noon (I mean, really, not much work would get done in the afternoon anyway, so it's good we're turned loose early) and then it's a flurry of activity as I run around town getting last minute things.

There's a very specific kind of panic that sets in in Skagway right before the holidays because our one main grocery store closes down for Thanksgiving and the day after. And for some reason, faced with eating the things that are already in my kitchen for two whole days with no way of buying anything else, I kind of freak out and go to the grocery store with no list in mind, but just the need to make sure that I have everything I could possibly want while they are closed.

This is what happened to me today. I did all of my Thanksgiving dinner shopping yesterday and I truly had all I needed and more (there is, after all, just the two of us and I could realistically feed about 20). So, in theory, I really had no reason to stop by the store when I got off work.

But I did...and this is what I walked out with:

Because you never know when you're gonna need a pomegranate, right? I did actually need the cranberry sauce, because I had forgotten it yesterday, but the other stuff just somehow magically landed in my cart. Hmmmm....guess I was hungry for junk food.

And now I am happily ensconced at my kitchen table getting a head start on some pattern writing that is due soon, eating a yummy cheese sandwich on a fresh baked roll from the local bakery, watching a funny movie and drinking some coffee nog. Lovely! (Just wish I hadn't eaten those jalapeno Combos...hello, indigestion.)

I am so thankful for so many things this year...and I've never been more thankful for a long weekend of knitting while curled up on the couch by the fire, watching the snow fall.

I'm working on secret deadline knitting this weekend....what are you all working on? Whatever it is, I hope you enjoy!

Random thoughts on a blustery morning...

2011-11-22T09:00:00.001-09:00

I'm really really having trouble concentrating at work this week...like, really. It would be easier if I wasn't doing something so fantastically boring. (No, data entry is not what I'd call a good time.)

I think my lack of concentration can be blamed on a combination of things:

1. It's a 4-day weekend coming up and I can't wait to knit my way through it. I have a to-do list a mile long, but knitting takes precedence over all on a long weekend. (And, no, that's not really any different from a regular weekend.)

2. There is no one in the office right now. Everyone is either gone on vacation or working remotely. We have a year-round staff of about 17 and there are only 5 of us in the building right now. It's too damn quiet! I miss my boss singing Chaka Khan in the hallways.

3. I'm a week and a half away from leaving for a month: work conference in Vegas, visit with a dear old friend in Montana, and then Christmas in Ohio. Too much travel excitement to think straight!

4. I have three secret knitting projects I'm working on for upcoming projects and they all have the same deadline that is swiftly approaching...yikes. I can't rest until they are blocked and on their way!

5. Thanksgiving Eve is one of my favorite nights of the year. No lie. I've always loved the anticipation of a holiday more than the holiday itself. And apparently, because I'm so looking forward to Wednesday night, the time between now and then will move at the speed of slugs.

6. And as if being stuck in my office wasn't torture enough this week, we've been plunged into a deep freeze and it's super blustery, snowy, and so damn cold that I don't want to leave the couch, let alone the house. Perfect knitting weather but, then again, what isn't?

I've been trying super hard to combat this sudden onset of ADD, but I've come to realize that I'm defenseless. Today I remembered that I had a bag of yarn in my office that I had not taken home yet from my trip to Juneau in early October...so I proceeded to take each and every skein out of the bag and admire/pet/drool over each one. So much yarny goodness!

Don't mind me....I'm just doing all I can to avoid doing actual work.

Thankfully, my days have been repeatedly brightened this week (and every week) by frequent texts from my sister. She knows if she doesn't send me pics/videos of my nieces and nephew daily that I will bug the shit out of her until she does. I've got her trained pretty well. ;) Some days my sanity is literally saved by these little nuggets of cuteness.

This is one of the gems that came in yesterday. Seriously. I can't handle the cuteness some days.

She really knows how to get me through my day. How can you not smile at that?! Consider my sanity preserved...at least for today.

Stitch and Bitch, Skagway style

2011-11-21T19:24:00.001-09:00

For awhile now I've wondered what it would be like to have a knitting community in my immediate vicinity. For so long I've been a solitary knitter and I prefer that, for the most part. Knitting is intensely personal for me: a time to really be still with my thoughts while I mull over every topic under the sun, from what I'm going to eat for dinner to what my life's purpose is (deep, I know).

I've grown in my craft for the most part by myself, with no one around to tell me that I'm doing something wrong, or that I'm doing something right. I kind of vaguely knew that there were others here in Skagway who knit, but it was never anyone who I felt like I would or could hang out with. So my stitch and bitch nights consisted of me, myself and I. And I really started to wonder what it would be like to not have to bitch to myself.

So, to solve my problem of having no one to stitch and bitch with, I've been casually pushing my friends to learn how to knit. A couple weeks ago, a lady in town offered a beginning knitting class and I oh-so-discreetly texted my friend Sarah and told her about it. Sarah has been on the receiving end of some of my handiwork, so I knew she was at least semi-interested in knittery things. I was so excited when she decided to go!

She learned the basics in the class and then came shopping in my stash last week for a suitable yarn for her first project (she chose a gorgeous blue alpaca blend yarn, by the way...a girl after my own heart). We then had our first stitch and bitch the following night at a local bar.

We numbered only three but I'm encouraged that we'll have another very soon and hopefully our numbers will grow. It was surprisingly nice to knit in the presence of others...and I felt only a little bit self-conscious (mostly because of the curious looks we were getting from fellow barflies), but I'm hoping that will wear off in time. And I'm hoping that I can encourage even more of my friends to pick up sticks! Yeah!

Winter IK 2011 Preview

2011-11-19T13:08:00.000-09:00

Be still my knitting heart.

I have been obsessively going to Interweave's website to see when the Winter IK preview photos would be uploaded.

I guess maybe I haven't checked in a day or so, but this morning I went to see if anything new had been put up and....it has!

My Offset Cable Mittens are included in this issue...my very first print publication!

Here's are some links you should follow right now!

Winter IK 2011 Projects Preview
Offset Cable Mittens - Extra Photos

I'll give these mittens a proper post soon, but I just had to shout this from the rooftops as soon as I could. You understand, right? Right.

Twist Collective Winter - Swansea...New Design!

2011-11-15T21:17:00.001-09:00

Okay, so the Winter 2011 edition of Twist Collective has been out a little over 24 hours now and I'm still not coming down from the high I got from leafing through the virtual pages. What an amazing collection! A couple of my favorites are Yukimi by Maureen Hefti and Bellevue by Robin Melanson. But my jaw literally dropped when I saw Voluta by Rachel Erin. One word: Stunning. But you really can't go wrong with any of the designs in this edition. I might choose to knit them all if I had the chance! You definitely have to appreciate the amazing talent that goes into creating these unique gems.

Considering the caliber of talent in this issue, I'm so honored and excited to have a design included!

Meet Swansea:

Photo by Jamie Dixon...Courtesy of Twist Collective

Swansea is a hat/mitten combo that combines twisted stitches and nupps, two of my hugest obsessions right now. I liked the idea of the twisted stitch rib coming from different directions and then interlacing, ending in a cute little bobbly nupp...here's my original vision in the submission swatch, knit in KP Wool of the Andes.

Taking that idea and adding in some Quince & Co Lark in a vibrant green and you get the finished product below! While the stitch pattern covers the back of the hand, the palm and thumb are worked in the simple but lovely reverse stockinette.

Photo by Jamie Dixon...Courtesy of Twist Collective

Now, my original submission was just for mittens, but Kate asked me if I could come up with a complementary hat. An idea had been already bouncing around in my brain, so I naturally said I would and the resulting topper turned out just as I had pictured.

Photo by Jamie Dixon...Courtesy of Twist Collective

Although I had envisioned these designs knit up in a heathered yarn (when DON'T I envision something in a heather?!), I thought the solid effect turned out great and was a perfect fit for their Bright Spots feature.

Photo by Jamie Dixon...Courtesy of Twist Collective

Let's get down to details, shall we?

Finished measurements:
Mittens:
Mitten circumference: 7 ¾ (8 ½)" / 19.5 (21.5) cm
Length: 9 ½ (10 ½)" / 24 (26.5) cm
Shown in size 7 ¾" / 19.5 cm

Hat:
Head circumference: 18 ½ (19 ¾, 21, 22 ¼)" / 47 (50, 53.5, 56.5) cm
Hat height: 8 (8 ½, 9, 9 ½)" / 20.5 (21.5, 23, 24) cm
Shown in size 18 ½" / 47 cm
Intended to be worn with 2" / 5 cm of negative ease.

Yarn:
3 skeins Quince & Co. Lark (134 yds / 123 m per 1 ¾ oz / 50 g hank; 100% American Wool ) in Parsley
Two skeins of yarn will make either the hat or the pair of mittens.

Needles & Notions:
Size 5 US / 3.75 mm needles in style preferred for small circumference knitting in the round and 16" / 40 cm circular needle.

Two stitch markers, tapestry needle, waste yarn

Gauge:
26 sts and 34 rows = 4" / 10 cm in p3, k1 tbl ribbing in the round
24 sts and 34 rows = 4" / 10 cm in Stockinette stitch in the round

Construction Notes: The mittens are worked from cuff to tip, and the hat is worked from the bottom up. The twisted rib and bobble patterns are presented in both charts and row-by-row instructions.

To purchase Swansea, please follow this link to the Twist Collective website. Thanks very much for your interest!

Alluvia of a different color

2011-10-30T09:50:00.001-08:00

When Alluvia was released last year, I really had no idea how it would do. It had been rejected from a couple print publications but it finally found a home in the Knit Picks IDP. Once released, it earned its advance back pretty quickly and sales were fairly brisk. And then it was included in a Knit Picks email newsletter as the featured pattern and...well...things just completely exploded after that.

I've been so encouraged by the response to this design and it's been so fun to see new projects pop up on Ravelry and on other blogs. I especially love seeing what color combinations people come up with. I'm a color whore when it comes to knitting so some of the color selections that people have used have really made my heart squeal.

There have been a couple of the bags completed in the last few days that have really caught my attention... check out this Alluvia bag that Talitha Kuomi created. Isn't it so effing lovely?! She used KP Wool of the Andes as the original pattern calls for, but instead of having each ruffle be a different color, she just striped the yarn any which way she wanted as she worked through the ruffles and I positively love the effect. She also didn't felt it and instead of i-cord she added a really cool belt as the strap, all of which contributed to a really unique Alluvia. Love it!

As I was browsing through Rav this morning, I also saw this Alluvia from pansylane. How cool is that? She used KP Palette instead of Wool of the Andes and the result is a perfectly beautiful and lighter weight Alluvia. I love how she styled her FO pictures as well.

Hmmm....I might have to order some Palette today and try that out for myself. But Palette comes in so many lovely colors, I wouldn't even know where to begin. And let's be honest...I have more than enough on my knitting plate right now.

Have you created an Alluvia that hasn't been posted on Ravelry yet? If so, head on over there right now - HURRY! - and upload some photos...I'd love to see them!

It's good to be home...

2011-10-29T22:14:00.000-08:00

...as I was driving down the street today after running errands (the usual post office-grocery store-coffee shop triangle), it hit me how truly glad I was to be back home in Skagway. Although I was only gone about a month, I realized it had been much longer than that since I had really looked at my surroundings and enjoyed what I saw.

It was a rough summer. Nothing truly awful happened to me, for which I am very grateful. But it was very intense and stressful and my job ate up way more of my personal time than it ever has. This not only made me very cranky and not very fun to be around, but also robbed me of my ability to be a good friend and girlfriend. I don't want this to ever happen again. I don't like who I was this summer.

So, to quickly catch you up from all that has been happening over the last few months: the summer sucked and then it was over. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

So, needless to say, it was with great excitement that I headed out of town for a few weeks to shake off the negativity that seemed to be clinging to me for dear life.

First off, I spent a week in Juneau attending a conference for work. It's only a 100-mile ferry ride down the canal, but it's worlds away in terms of things to do, places to go, etc.

One of my first stops was Seaside Yarns, a new yarn shop in Juneau and what I now consider to be my LYS (since there isn't one in Skagway). The owner, Melissa, and I have been Rav/blog friends for awhile and I was so very excited to finally get to visit her new store.

She had already adopted her winter hours and wasn't going to be officially open during the time I was in Juneau, but she told me to call her and we'd pick a time and I could come in to see the shop even though it was closed....UMMMMM, WHAT?! My own private yarn store shopping experience? Yes please.

You're not going to believe this, but I forgot my camera when I visited the store. I know, I know. So I have no pictures of the awesome space and my time there. But you can imagine that it was glorious. I made about 50 rounds of the store, just looking at everything. It's not very often that I get to see yarns in person, so it was a treat just to check out the different brands that I only ever see on the computer screen.

And I might have spent upwards of *cough*a couple hundred dollars*cough* on new stash yarn. I don't know what got into me....just doing my part to support the arts, I guess. ;) I also picked up some of Melissa's A Tree Hugger's Wife hand-dyed and am designing a hat and cowl pattern to sell in her shop. Super excited to work with her! She's so awesome.

After Juneau, I flew to Ohio for a long overdue visit with my family. I was super pumped to meet my sister's latest little one, Halle. She is truly a little sweetie and such a cuddler. Well, not that a 3 week old has much choice when it comes to cuddling. They're basically stuck with whoever picks them up....and I picked her up a lot.

Nothing too crazy happened while I was home, which is just the way I like it. Light on the plans, heavy on just hanging out.

Here are some shots of my visit....and, no, you won't find any of me. I like to be firmly planted behind the camera. :)

Zillsman and his mama at the Fall Festival of Leaves

Zills shows off his obsession with wooly worms.

Sassy being...sassy.

HalleBear showing off her new shirt.

We were trying to get a good shot of all the kids but...well... this is about as good as it got.

It was equally as crazy trying to get one with GG Ginny.

We went on a snake hunt...and found some! Just little guys though.

Sassy enjoying a beautiful fall morning on the porch.

Jackson playing with a creepy antique fox fur that we found in the closet.

I think he was sick of me taking pictures of him.

We didn't know of any good hayrides going on, so we made one for ourselves with the four-wheeler and wagon.

Heading out for a walk in the woods.

Sassy loves Bapa.

So that's what I've been up to the last couple months of non-blogging. I'm very excited to get back in the swing. And next time, I promise more knitting content!

What have you all been up to the last couple months? Fill me in!

I've been away...but I'll be back soon!

2011-10-28T18:30:00.000-08:00

I'm currently enroute from a vacation to see my family, but I wanted to say that I will be back to blogging again soon. We have lots to catch up on! Many exciting things on the horizon for Alaskan Purl Designs and I can't wait to share them all with you.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of 3 really cute humans who have filled my time the past couple weeks. I can't wait to see them again at Christmas!

Jackson, aka Zillsman. Poor little guy had to get his tooth pulled a few weeks ago. (He's a rough and tumble guy and he bumped his tooth in a fall about a year ago and it eventually died and then recently became infected. So he got a visit from the tooth fairy a couple years earlier than usual.)

Adelyn, aka Sassy. She's our little charmer, always with smile on her face.

Halle Elizabeth, born just a few weeks ago...she does not have a nickname yet. ;)

Knitting in bed

2011-08-18T22:51:00.002-08:00

It's been a rough last couple weeks. Work continues to be super stressful and unrelenting. And I was on a doubly intense knitting deadline for two different upcoming secret projects that coincidentally (and unfortunately) were due on the same day. But I can happily say that everything was successfully shipped off and submitted, which means I no longer have to stay up until 3 AM every night knitting until my contacts are so dry that my eyes gum shut. Yeah! It's the little things...

I've gone through a bit of limbo the last few days since the big deadline where I literally had an intense negative physical reaction when I thought about knitting. Just the thought of needles and yarn made me cringe and get a little dry heave-y. I've drained all the fun out of knitting over the last couple weeks by having to set aside everything else in my life in order to get things finished in time. But now that that strange (and unfamiliar) feeling has passed, I'm ready to dig in again!

Ahhhhh, this is my view tonight:

I'm laying in bed curled up with my favorite blanket, charting out some fresh designs and playing around with some stitches. I LOVE this stage of designing...when everything is possible and the design has the ability to take on a life of its own.

Knitting in bed isn't the most comfortable thing, but I'm willing to give up some comfort for the luxury of being cozied up with my laptop, some yarn and a movie. I've tried a few different knitting-in-bed positions, but my favorite is on my stomach with pillows underneath my chest so that I'm propped up enough knit in front of my face. Weird, huh? It makes my neck hurt after a while though.

Anyways...I feel a change in the air the last couple days. Have you felt it too? Maybe I feel like I've turned a corner in the summer and feel the relative calm of fall moving in. Whatever it is, I feel like exciting things are on the horizon, both knitting and otherwise.

There's this song that has been stuck in my head the last few days, which I think has only heightened my feelings of change in the near future...This is by far my favorite verse of the song:

...Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen

Keep your eyes wide, the chance won't come again.

Don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'.

For the loser now will be later to win

For the times, they are a-changin'....

A stitch for your thoughts

2011-08-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

I've got nothing truly knitting-related to post today and yet I felt compelled to say something.

All weekend I've felt like I was ready to snap. I've not been sleeping well, which makes me super cranky. I'm in ultra-crunch time for two different deadlines coming up on the same day and I won't be sleeping anytime soon until both samples are finished. I've been knitting so much for the deadlines that my hands are aching. And to top it off, work is still super stressful at this point in the year and I'm still working 70+ hours/week, when generally this is the time I can let my guard down a bit and relax and actually enjoy a weekend. I'm stuck in the tunnel with no light in sight.

So, yeah. I'll admit I was feeling a bit sorry for myself today.

And then I heard the news that the father of a former roommate, good friend, & fellow knitter had passed away this morning after a very short battle with a previously undiagnosed cancer. And everything snapped into perspective. Yes, the knitting deadlines and my day job are important to me, but nothing about them is life and death. Needless to say, I'm feeling a little humbled.

So, if you've got a few stitches to spare tonight, knit a few for a fellow knitter who could use some good thoughts as she grieves over the loss of her father.

As for me, I'm going to be sending some stitches, love, and positive thoughts across the miles to her too.

And I'll also be daydreaming of the fall when things are less stressful and I can play around with this gorgeous fiber from Blue Moon that came in the mail not long ago. Those colors are enough to even bring a smile to my cranky face.

Twist Collective Fall 2011 - Footsie

2011-08-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

The Twist Collective Fall 2011 issue went live last night....and I am so in love with absolutely every pattern in this issue. There are 38 designs (!) and a pattern by yours truly just happens to be one of them!

Meet Footsie.

Photo courtesy of Twist Collective

Footsie is a his-and-hers sock pattern that was worked up in two different yarns from the amazing and gorgeous Sweet Georgia Yarns. The men's version (on the left above) was worked in BFL Sock in the Cypress colorway and the women's version (on the right) was knit up in CashLuxe Fine in Botanical. Meandering twisted stitches surround a simple central cable panel that is mirrored on the opposite sock. The central cable is repeated on the heel and up the back of the sock, with twisted rib on either side.

I had to knit up both of these pairs of socks in just about two and a half weeks back in April. Now that might be a piece of cake to some of you, but I'm a fairly slow knitter (well, more than anything, I'm a distracted knitter) so I literally spent every waking moment during those couple of weeks knitting these socks. I probably got about 3 hours of sleep each night because I knew I had to use up every spare moment to get them finished by the deadline.

And use up every spare moment I did...I finished knitting both pairs the morning that I absolutely had to get them in the mail in order for them to arrive on time via 2nd Day Air. I almost didn't have time to block them, but I wanted them to look their best, so I quickly dunked them in some hot water and then used the triple-threat method to dry them: a combination of ironing, tumbling in the dryer and my hairdryer. I was still trying to dry them 10 minutes before I had to be at the post office...it was a real nail biter but I pulled it off!

Both yarns were amazing to work with, but CashLuxe Fine has captured a special place in my heart. In fact, last night when I couldn't sleep because of the excitement, I did a little retail therapy and purchased some of my very own in the Raspberry, Orchid, and Black Plum colorways! I'm thinking some stripey socks are in my future.

Pattern Details:

Design: Footsie (Rav link)
Yarn: Sweet Georgia Yarns in CashLuxe Fine (Botanical) and BFL Sock (Cypress)
Construction: Worked from the toe up; The twisted stitch and cable panel is both charted and written row-by-row.
Sizes: Foot Circumference: 7 ¼ (8, 8 ¾, 9 ½)" / 18.5 (20.5, 22, 24) cm, (unstretched)
Gauge: 36 sts and 52 rows = 4" / 10 cm in Stockinette in the round
Needles: Size 1 (2.25 mm) circular, or size needed to obtain gauge.

You can purchase this design directly on Twist Collective's website by clicking here.

P.S. Can you feel fall in the air? I can!

Editing...or what I should have been doing on Sunday afternoon

2011-07-19T22:03:00.002-08:00

I've been under a deadline the last couple of days...and not the fun kind. To clarify, the fun kind would be where I get to play with yarn and knit up a sample. No, this is the kind of deadline I dread: editing the written pattern for publication.

Now, people who know me in my everyday life know that I have the attention span of a squirrel on crack. It's rare that I can focus on one thing for longer than a few minutes. In my day job, this is a great trait, as for most of the day I have to be in several places at once, or at least my mind does. But in my knitting life, this (self-diagnosed) ADD can be a real problem.

You see, just when I need to buckle down and edit 12 pages of charts and line-by-line instructions (gah, the horror!), I decide I want to organize my sock drawer. I mean, I can't possibly move on with my day until all my socks have found their mates, right? Right.

It's also a struggle for me to edit because my computer has to be nearby, which means that I will inevitably wander off onto the internet and get distracted by anything and everything in my path. And I do have a few good ol' tried and true sites that can always eat up half my day if I let them. Let's take a look at my distracted afternoon, shall we?

Of course, I always start out with a little iTunes to keep me focused. I will neither confirm nor deny that I purchased the Dirty Dancing soundtrack to rock out to while I proofread. And, no, it did not help me have the time of my life.

Then of course I have to check the news (I use the term extremely loosely), because I can't go another minute without learning what Tori Spelling considers her best kept motherhood secret (nannies and lots of money) or what Angelina's kids eat for a snack (apparently crickets). Oh, look, I also acquired a cup of tea along the way.

And then, to counteract all the brain cells I lost by consuming the drivel on UsWeekly, I take in a little NPR. But only for about two minutes before I get really depressed at the state of the world and move on.

Then, because all of the yarn in my stash will never be enough, I head over to ogle the deliciousness on my favorite yarn sites, starting with Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Pictured here is my new favorite BMFA colorway, LL Cool Sock. I've already acquired two skeins of it and then also 1 skein of each of the solid colors that comprise the multi-colorway. Someday, when I have the time to devote, I WILL make the most colorful pair of kneesocks you've ever seen. Someday...

And then - surprise, surprise - I am drawn to Tanis Fiber Arts like a moth to a flame. I am so completely in love/obsessed with her colorways. I could buy one of each...and if I'm not careful, one of these nights of insomnia I just might be driven to that act of ~~insanity~~ pure genius. I just love how she organizes her colorways.

Oh look, I'm checking my work email. Something I do about a gazillion times a day, even when I'm not in my office. Check out that clean inbox! That's the result of years of hard work in cultivating an obsessive email ritual where I have to respond to/file/or categorize an email within the first 10 seconds of it reaching my inbox. Don't ask me why I do it...I really have no idea. I'm in therapy for it though.

Hmmm....I wonder what's going on on Ravelry....Am I the only one who compulsively checks out what their friends have favorited? I find the best stuff that way. What can I say? My friends have great taste!

Oh, yes, back to editing...sigh. Yeah yeah yeah. I know, it's got to be done.

So, there you have it. That was my minimally productive Sunday afternoon. What about you? What are your favorite sites to visit to pass the time? Do tell!

By the way, I DID get all of my editing done, thank you very much.

{this moment}

2011-07-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Nicknames and birthdays

2011-07-14T19:51:00.005-08:00

Since welcoming my nephew into the world two and a half years ago, my family has really taken up the habit of bestowing strange nicknames on all the little people running around at our feet. My sister is searching for the perfect name for my littlest niece that is baking in her oven, but I told her that it really doesn't matter what they name her since we'll never call the baby by its real name anyway. Jackson is better known as Zillsman, or just plain Zills. And little Adelyn Grace is known to everyone around her as Frassy, or sometimes just Frass. I can't remember the last time that I called my niece and nephew by their real names. Somehow their nicknames just fit them perfectly, even more so than their given names.

And yesterday my sweet little Frassypants celebrated her first birthday! I can't believe how quickly this year has flown. Zillsman's first year seemed to drag on (mostly because I had an agonizing 10 month wait before I could get to Ohio to meet him), but Frassy seems to have just sprouted up before our eyes. She's gone from the very sweet and soft-spoken little 4 month old I last saw in the fall (seen here stuffed into the lamb costume I knit her for Halloween) to a crazy little screeching wildcat that gets into everything.

Happy birthday to the most beautiful little girl with the absolute cutest laugh in the world! (Play the video if you don't believe me!)

A new look!

2011-07-13T22:01:00.003-08:00

I'm so excited to roll out my brand new logo today! I contacted Jill Zielinski of Jill Zielinski Designs (also of Kniterella fame!) back in March about creating a logo for yours truly. I had a pretty good idea in my brain about what I wanted to convey....I wanted to combine my love for my surroundings here in Alaska with my passion for knitting.

While there are many things that come to mind when I dream of knitting in Alaska, the themes that kept coming back to me were mountains and yarn.....wait for it....MOUNTAINS OF YARN! Of course.

Initially I had pictured small balls of yarn that were piled up in the shape of mountain peaks...literally mountains made of yarn. It seemed to make sense in my brain but it just didn't translate well on paper. Jill, being the awesome graphic designer that she is, helped lead me away from that ~~hare-brained~~ ~~well-intentioned~~ ~~really kind of strange~~ idea and towards the awesome final product that you see today.

I think what I like most about the logo is that the ball of yarn seems to be writing the mountain peaks in cursive. Such a unique (and much better) way to depict mountains made of yarn. I can't even tell you how much I love my new look.

Ahhhhhh. It feels like a new beginning. So many cool things coming up in my design realm....and you can add another one to the list...just got another acceptance today!

It only gets darker from here...

2011-06-25T15:09:00.001-08:00

...and by that, I mean daylight, of course! The summer solstice has passed us by, which always makes me breathe a little sigh of relief because that means the summer is on the downhill slope and the wonderful embrace of autumn is that much closer. The days get a little shorter as we march towards October and I can already envision how the crisp and beautiful fall weather will feel after a long and stressful summer. It actually kind of even feels like fall today, with it being cold and rainy, and I'm almost tempted to start a fire in the fireplace...hmmmm, what a lovely thought.

After the intensity of my job the last few months, I was really in need of something that I could knit relatively easily (my mind has been picked clean of all creativity and motivation), had a purpose (my boss's birthday), and that I would actually finish in a short period of time, because I so very much needed a sense of accomplishing something...anything, really. This hat fit the bill perfectly.

To celebrate the summer solstice, I quickly whipped up a hat that was named in its honor ~ my Litha that was in the Summer edition of Knitcircus! I had been sitting on some absolutely stunning yarn from Tanis Fiber Arts that I very desperately have been wanting to play with, so last weekend I plowed through the pattern in just one single day. Of course, it helps that I designed it, which made it go very quickly, but the pattern is incredibly easy to memorize and is done in no time at all. I made this one less slouchy than the original, but I think it will look great on her all the same.

It's made from Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Aran Weight Yarn in Teal. You can check out her other amazing colorways HERE. Just one skein did the job!

All that was left over after I finished was this cute little ball of yarn yumminess. If my love affair with Tanis' yarn goes on for as long as I think it will, I'll have lots of these lovely little remnants hanging around my yarn basket for years to come.

I still have two more skeins of the Green Label that are just waiting for me to create something with them....I'm really into bright, bold, and saturated colors right now, can you tell?!

Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Aran in Royal Flush

Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Aran in Peacock

I'm sure I'll be making something with these soon but until that time, they will be perched on my knitting couch as I pour myself into some really exciting knitting and design work that I have on the horizon. I've been unable to work on them for far too long and I'm really excited to get back in the swing!

Happy knitting, everyone! What fun things are you doing this weekend?

Coming out of the tunnel

2011-06-18T15:37:00.000-08:00

Well, today did not start out well. I woke up with a migraine, which is not surprising, as they usually like to strike hardest when I let my guard down after a particularly prolonged period of stress and/or lack of sleep. It just so happens that today is my first true day off in about a month and a half. I was so excited to sleep in, but amid my very early morning tossing and turning, I could feel the unmistakeable lightning bolt of pain searing through the right side of my head anytime I moved. Great.

I groggily hopped out of bed and made a beeline for the medicine cabinet. I popped a couple Excedrin and flopped back in bed, hoping to fall back asleep and wake up miraculously healed. I spent the next few hours in "twilight" sleep, as I like to call it: halfway in between full sleep and wakefulness, but fully aware of the giant headache attacking my brain. Finally I felt well enough to peel myself out of bed and start my day.

Even though I wasn't feeling 100%, I still decided to try to do everything I had planned because, darn it, I've freaking earned a good day. These last couple months have been frustrating, completely soul sucking, physically and mentally draining, and have seemed to drag on and go by in a flash, all at the same time. Yes, it's summer season startup time in Skagway and this year it hit me hard.

Between working very long hours, having some unexpected bumps in the road, not seeing my boyfriend much at all, and not having any knitting time, I've been quite the crankypants. Yesterday, it finally hit me like a ton of bricks: I had reached my absolute limit. Fighting back tears, I told my boss that if I had to work today, I would probably rapidly descend into my annual midseason meltdown (and sadly, it's not even midseason yet) and that would not be a good scene. So, I knew that I just had to not step foot in the Depot for a couple days so that I could hopefully gather up some of the pieces of myself that have scattered everywhere these last couple months.

Recently I was able to spend an afternoon out of the office to take one of our agents on a train ride. It was exactly what I needed that particular day. I snapped a few shots with my cell phone as we rode up in the cupola, which offers a very unique view of the train journey to the Summit.

Going through my photos on my phone today, I realized how a particular series of photos I took that day really describe my progression over the last couple months from being completely drowning in work to today when I'm finally able to take a breath and do something for myself.

1. In the middle of the tunnel....mostly in darkness, but light in the far distance....this was me from late April to late May.

2. Getting closer to the light....this was my mental state from late May to early June....

3. Just about to exit the tunnel and let the light hit my face...this was me earlier this week...so close I could feel it!

4. And, finally, where I am today. Finally able to take some time for myself and enjoy the view!....At least for a day or two.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is: Sorry I went missing for awhile. This is a knitting blog, after all, and you probably expect a certain amount of actual blogging. But as of today, I will be taking more time for myself. And more time for my knitting. I've got lots of really exciting things on the horizon that I'm about two months behind on, so it's time to get cracking! More to come in the very near future...

What all have you been up to in my absence? Do tell!

And the Knitcircus Summer Giveaway winners are...

2011-05-11T11:52:00.000-08:00

...well, before I tell you, I want to apologize for not announcing this a couple days ago! Been working crazy long hours at work and I did not even realize that today was the 11th already! And I only realized it because I'm laid up on the couch unable to work because my lower back decided to take a crap on me and cause a LOT of pain. So, I guess that's what I get for working those crazy long hours and forgetting to announce the winner on the 9th. ;)

Okay, drumrooooollllllllll.......consulting with the random number generator..........

The winner of the year-long subscription to Knitcircus is...comment #24: Debbie! A fellow Alaskan. :)

And the 2nd place winner of a Knitcircus Summer 2011 Pattern Collection is....comment #3: Paula!

Debbie and Paula, please contact me at allison@alaskanpurl.com with your email addresses so that I can coordinate getting your prizes to you!

Thanks to all for participating! Expect some more giveaways, fun surprises, and big announcements from me within the next few months. I have lots of secret projects I'm working on and can't wait to share with you all!

New Pattern in Knitcircus Summer! And a GIVEAWAY!

2011-05-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

The new Summer 2011 edition of Knitcircus went live today and I'm SO excited to have a design featured in it!

Meet Litha:

Litha is a midsummer festival centered around the summer solstice that celebrates the warmth, abundance, and light of the long summer days. Named for this festival, this slightly slouchy hat is worked from brim to crown.The simple eyelet lace and twisted stitch cable repeat lends a breezy and casual air to any summer wardrobe. The yarn used for this piece provides excellent stitch definition and shows off an amazing shade of blue, the exact color of the summer sky.

It was a last minute opportunity to be apart of this issue and I’m so glad I was able to do it. This was a hat I had whipped up for myself and planned to eventually self-publish but it turns out the universe had other plans for it!

Pattern Details:

Knitcircus Magazine, Issue #14, Summer 2011

Craft

Knitting

Knitcircus Summer 2011 - Sneak Peek!

2011-05-01T19:31:00.000-08:00

Hey! Remember me? No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth....it's just been a very stressful last few weeks working under an intense knitting deadline for an upcoming fall publication. And I have literally dropped everything to get it done and that is why you have not heard a peep from me in almost a month! But the deadline has passed, everything got accomplished (barely!), and I'm taking a bit of a knitting break for a few days to give my hands a rest.

BUT....I do have some very exciting news! The Summer 2011 edition of Knitcircus will be going live on May 4th and I have a design featured in the magazine!

Here is a sneak peek of my design:

Stay tuned on Wednesday May 4th for a Knitcircus giveaway!

1,000 stitches

2011-04-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

So, lately I've been feeling really really overwhelmed and unfocused. This is a normal feeling for this time of year, as things are getting more and more crazy at work as the tourist season draws ever closer. However, things are compounded this year because I feel like I've bitten off way more than I can chew in my knitting world.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing. The deadlines I'm working on are for really exciting things (that I can't share with you just yet!) and I wouldn't trade my involvement with them for anything. So, this huge pressure I'm feeling right now will turn into pride and satisfaction at some point in the future, but right now it's about ready to make my head explode. I've got one design down and one more to go before I can relax a little bit...for at least a week or two anyway. ;)

It's just funny that the tables have turned and I'm now looking forward to going to my day job tomorrow as a respite from the knitting stress, when usually it's the other way around.

In the meantime, this is what it looks like on the couch beside me after a weekend of sitting in my knitting nook and knitting my little heart out. (I'm too lazy to get my camera so all you get are iphone pics tonight.)

Empty snack bags, needles, DVDs, cell phone, yarn, pineapple lace book...these are the necessities of any good knitting weekend...

I've been trying to put in a little time on my pineapple lace project for the W's. This is also weighing heavily on my brain right now, as I feel waaaaay behind on it and I should have been finished with it by now! It's self-imposed stress, as there was never a deadline on this, but I really wanted to have it finished before the season starts, otherwise it would just get lost in the summer craziness.

I think what was keeping me from working on it was the fact that I was at the stage where I would be picking up stitches all around the body and beginning to work the pineapple lace border. This is what I've been looking forward to all along, when I would finally get to do something besides yo, k2tog, not to mention no more purling.

Here is the massive mound of lacy stitches sitting on its familiar perch on my laptop. And a movie to keep me company...(I heart Jason Segel.)

Initially I thought it would be smooth sailing once I got to the border and that the body of the piece would be the bulk of the knitting work. I think somewhere in the back of my brain I must have known the horror that awaited, which is why it took me over a week to make myself do it. But I knew that it had to be done, so I sat down this afternoon to begin the pickup process. Three hours later - yes, three hours! - I finally had all the stitches picked up and evenly distributed on the circs.

And after it was all said and done, there were 1,000 stitches on my needles. Yikes.

I then went to look at the pineapple border instructions....33 rounds total. Any wind I had in my sails was completely gone at that point. That's 33,000 stitches that I have to go until I can bind off.

Oooof.

It will be worth it in the end, right? Right.

Pineapple Progress

2011-03-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

Even with all the spinning hysteria going on around here, I am still making progress on my Pineapple Lace project for the W’s. I am a little over halfway through the body of the work and thought I would have more finished by now, but I got a bit sidetracked last week with a couple of submission deadlines. I’m back on track now and hope to be to the pineapple lace border by this coming weekend!

In other news, I ate another 1/4 pound of the salted caramels yesterday. What the hell is wrong with me? Since Saturday, that’s a half pound total of butter, sugar, & heavy whipping cream all widening my ass as I type. Ugh.

But I also started a new workout program today, which I’m hoping will kick start some weight loss. I’ve been doing cardio 4-6 days a week since late December, but haven’t seen the scales move much. I’m feeling much better and much stronger (which is always good), but I’d really like to shed some of the lbs that keep hanging around.

So, I’ll continue to keep you all updated with the progress on both the pineapple lace knitting AND weight loss fronts! Just have to stay away from those damn caramels.

Let the games begin.

2011-03-13T21:12:00.001-08:00

So, on Friday I got an email from the company from whom I bought my spinning wheel. They wanted to let me know that the distributor had accidentally drop shipped a Kromski Sonata to me instead of the Kromski Fantasia that I had ordered.

They told me that I had three choices:

When the wheel came, I could refuse it and it would be sent back to the distributor. Once they got it back, they would then send the correct wheel. (In the meantime, I would have to exhibit patience of epic proportions.)

I could refuse the wheel when it came and in the meantime they would send me the Fantasia right away, but they would have to charge me for it and then they would refund my money once they got the wrong wheel back. (Initially thought this would be the way I would go, but then what if something happened to the wrong wheel on the way back to the distributor and it never made it? I would then be on the hook for two wheels. No thanks.)

I could keep the Sonata (a $600 value) but only pay the Fantasia price ($478).

My mind immediately began to race. This third choice intrigued me. The Sonata wasn’t even on my short list, but could it be that someone was trying to tell me something? That the Sonata was actually the wheel I was supposed to get in the first place? Or should I really be second guessing myself, since I had done quite a bit of research before finally deciding on the Fantasia.

My gut instinct was that I would refuse the wheel and just wait for the Fantasia, and I even emailed the company to tell them so. But in the meantime I posted about my dilemma in the Kromski Owners group on Ravelry to see what others might think.

The overwhelming response was to keep the Sonata! So, after a little more thought, I wrote the company again and asked if it was too late to change my mind. Luckily, they said it wasn’t too late, so I told them I would be keeping the Sonata. I felt good about the decision! It’s amazing what the universe will tell us when we open up and listen. (Okay, that might be a tad dramatic for this particular situation, but it’s good advice nonetheless.)

And I didn’t have long to wait, because yesterday I went to the post office in hopes that the salted caramels I had ordered had arrived (from Be Sweet: go ahead and order some. You seriously won’t be sorry, but you’ll be addicted.) I DID get my caramels (I ate 1/4 lb of them while I was setting up my wheel and immediately went into a shame spiral about it), but I also got a slip in my box that had ‘LA’ written on it.

My pulse began to quicken. I knew what those letters meant. LA stands for Loading Area, which means that the package waiting for me is too large to pass over the counter and you have to drive your car around back to pick it up. This could only mean one thing: my wheel was here!

I practically skipped out to my car, whipped around into the alley, and pulled up to the back loading doors. I handed the slip to the lady and happily took into my possession my very own spinning wheel!

I got it home and immediately ripped into the box. I was a little nervous because there were some pretty big puncture holes in the box, so I photographed everything just in case something inside had been damaged, god forbid.

But I was pleasantly surprised that everything was just as it should be!

I savored every moment of meeting my new wheel, and I even took a couple shots along the way. It’s such a beautiful piece of work. Even the bobbins are pretty!

You know what was a bonus about keeping the Sonata? It comes with its very own carrying/storage case. It's really nice and will certainly come in handy when I need to pack the wheel away for a bit (although I can't even imagine I'd want to do that in the near or distant future!)

Everything came fully assembled, so it was a quick set-up after reading through the simple and thorough instructions. The actual spinning, on the other hand, was not quite as easy. In fact, it was really freaking hard. I'm sort of used to picking things up right away and I kind of had a bit of an idea in my head that spinning would come easy to me. Think again.

After some difficulty and much cursing (and some almost crying), I was finally able to make something that resembled yarn. But it was way overspun (I think).

Do you want to see a picture? Are you sure you won’t laugh? Positive? Well, okay, I guess you're trustworthy:

I think I know that I’m doing wrong. I think I’m treadling too quickly and things just kind of get away from me. I need to remember when I start to get all panicky and can’t keep up with what’s going on with my hands that I really am truly in control and just have to stop moving my feet to make it stop!

I really don’t have any scrap roving I could use to practice, so I’m using this really pretty red BFL (seen here waiting to be pre-drafted).

I’m sure I’ll be able to make something out of the yarn once I’m finished, or maybe I’ll just hold on to it and put it someplace where I can look at it in the future and ~~laugh at myself~~ see how far I’ve come.

I’m excited to keep trying and getting better. But I’ll definitely hold off on spinning up my FiberOptic and Blue Moon stuff until I get decent, because they’re way too pretty to waste!

Okay, that’s it for me for this weekend. Hope your spring forward didn’t mess you all up too much!

New Design - Pennington Mittens!

2011-03-10T18:56:00.003-09:00

I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am that this pattern finally gets to be out in the open! I have had this design pretty much finished since October, but for some reason I just could not seem to find it in me to finish it.

Perhaps my reluctance to get it out there had something to do with the long road I took to finally fall in love with the finished product. I knit and reknit the sample 3 times before I came to love the final version on the 4th try.

And now I can't get enough of them!

I only wish I had knit the sample in my size, because the small/medium version will definitely not fit my giant hands. :)

Details:

Pattern: Pennington Mittens (KP IDP) (Ravelry link)

Suggested Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll or Stroll Tonal; 1 hank (both sizes) Shown in Stroll Tonal Golden Glow

Suggested Needles: US Size 1 (2.25 mm) circular (32” or long enough for Magic Loop), or size necessary to obtain gauge. Pattern was written for Magic Loop. However, dpns may be substituted if you prefer.

Sizes:

Women’s Adult Small/Med: 4.25” in Width x 9” in Length from tip to cuff

Women’s Adult Large/XL:4.75” in Width by 10” in Length from tip to cuff

Gauge: 9.5 stitches and 15.5 rows = 1” in Stockinette in the round

Techniques Used: Cables, Increasing, Toe-Up Construction, Judy’s Magic Cast-On, Bobbles, Magic Loop Method

Notions: Tapestry needle, stitch markers (optional)

Special thanks as always to my beautiful friend, Trish, for being my model! And also to Stephannie Tallent for being THE best tech editor ever. This pattern would never have seen the light of day without you.

Oh, Crap.

2011-03-05T15:49:00.000-09:00

Ummmmm. I've done a very bad thing. (Or, depending on how you look at it, a very good thing.) I might have bought a spinning wheel late last night. And a crapload of roving to go with it.

Yikes.

All you spinners out there, will this be the nail in my fibery coffin? Will this be the fiber hobby that will completely consume me and never let me out of its clutches, ensuring that I really will grow old and have 500 cats?

Buying a wheel is something that I've been thinking about for a couple years now. I dipped my toes in the water last year when I bought a spindle and I really loved watching the roving turn itself magically into yarn. I knew that while I could continue to play around with the spindle and make some cool stuff with it, I wouldn't be satisfied until I had a wheel in my possession.

But while it's something that I've been thinking about for a long time, I had no idea that all of a sudden last night, after months of reading review after review of the various models that I had narrowed my search down to, that I would actually hit the Buy Now button and have that sweet puppy begin its journey to my home.

What did I get, you ask? Well, I had narrowed my choices down to the Ashford Joy and the Kromski Fantasia. Nearly everything I read said that you really should try out different wheels in person, since it's a completely personal thing. Well, the nearest place that I can do this is really really far away (think 16 hour drive OR a flight/ferry ride), so I had decided that sifting through the mountains of information and opinions and making an informed decision was going to have to be good enough for me.

I'd rather not go into the reasons I chose the wheel I chose (because it's boring and I'm over it), so let's just say I'm ecstatic to welcome a Kromski Fantasia into my fibery world! The price was right and after watching all the videos on it, I decided it looked easy enough to work that even I could pick it up.

I can't wait!

And after I took the plunge with the wheel, I scoured the web for some roving (because all the roving I already have in my stash needed some company) and came away with some beautiful BFL/silk from FiberOptic and some Polwarth and BFL/Tussah from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.

I'll be sure to show it all off when it comes!

Happy Weekend, everyone!

What are you all doing to celebrate the increased daylight? I cleaned out my car!

Update on the DESTASH!

2011-02-27T10:27:00.000-09:00

Okay, so remember how much yarn I initially had up for sale in my DESTASH?

Well, all that’s left is just the blue container in front! Things have gone better than I ever imagined they would and, in the process, I have a lot more space in my crafty area, the yarn has many new homes where it will live a happy and productive life, and I have a nice balance in my Paypal account ~~for future yarn purposes~~ to redecorate my crafty area. ;)

I just wanted to point out that all of the destash yarns are on one page for easier shopping!

And I have extended the free shipping timeline to....forever! All yarns now include free USPS shipping to the US! International people should contact me about additional shipping outside of the US.

Happy shopping!

Pineapple Lace

2011-02-22T06:11:00.000-09:00

Back in December, two local residents, Mr. & Mrs. W, contacted me about commissioning me to knit a piece of lace that would decorate the top of a new-to-them antique sideboard. Now, what the heck is a sideboard, you ask? Well, before they sent me pictures, I had no idea what it was either. But I quickly learned that it's a very large piece of furniture and this particular sideboard in the W's home is incredibly ornate and very, very old.

Photo courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. W

Mr. & Mrs. W are huge supporters of the local arts, so I was really flattered that they thought of me when it came to finding someone to create the piece of lace that they envisioned. And then as soon as I got over the flattery, I became nearly paralyzed with doubt that I could make something that would be good enough to reside in their home. You see, their house is adorned with so many amazing pieces of art from local artists as well as artists from elsewhere in Alaska, and I was afraid that my lace just wouldn't measure up.

But I quickly snapped out of it, grew some confidence, and reasoned that if they didn't think that I could do it then they wouldn't have asked. And then I immediately set out to find the perfect yarn to work with for this piece.

After much perusing of all my favorite online yarn haunts, I finally settled on something that was already in my stash (perfect, right?)....Knit Picks Bare sock yarn. Mrs. W had told me that she wanted something white or off-white, so it was perfect. And with the added nylon in the yarn, I felt that this would help make the piece more durable.

After settling on the yarn, I grabbed my many stitch dictionaries and settled in for a fun-filled afternoon of looking over the lace sections of the different reference guides and deciding on which stitch patterns to include in the work. This was my absolute favorite part of the project to date. (I'm assuming that ultimately my favorite part of the project will be unpinning the finished work after blocking, but I don't want to put the cart before the horse at this point!)

I made a few swatches so that I would have something to show Mrs. W when I met with her to go over what she liked and, more importantly, what she didn't like. Mrs. W's family is from Hawaii and she had told me that she liked pineapple shapes, so I had this helpful clue to guide me in the right direction. I ended up purchasing a pineapple lace book on ebay and this handy guide lead me to what will be the border of the work (shown here in its unblocked glory):

The swatches below were whipped up to show her some possible stitches that could make up the body of the piece. In addition, I came up with a few different sketches and was ready to include multiple panels of lace and make it super duper fancy. But, in the end, Mrs. W chose the simple eyelet lace in the lower right corner, with the reasoning that the sideboard is already so ornate that the lace should be simple and understated. I couldn't agree more!

Basically, the piece is going to be one long rectangle of the eyelet lace and then I'll pick up stitches all around and work the pineapple lace border in the round and finish it off with a crocheted bind off and edging. I'm excited!

I've cast on for it and am slogging my way through the eyelet lace. The good thing about this is that it's mindless knitting (yo, k2tog...easy as pie!), and I can always go for that.

Stay tuned for some updates on the sideboard lace over the next few weeks. I've already gotten a bit of a late start on it, but my aim is to be finished with the body in the next couple weeks. I've set a goal of 3 inches a day...let's see if I can stick to it!

Strawberries and Snow...and a Destash Sale

2011-02-21T21:44:00.000-09:00

I’m so excited to report that we got our first big snow! And then after the big overnight dumping of the white stuff, we awoke to this bluebird day. This is the view from my knitting chair!

Check out our driveway...Jeff shoveled that all by hand! I think he was going a little bit stir crazy and probably was just looking for an excuse to get away from me for a bit, but seriously, that’s a lot of work!

In addition to the beautiful (but still very chilly) weather, the grocery store had the most beautiful strawberries I’ve ever seen here in Skagway. You see, beautiful fruit is incredibly hard to come by here in rural southeast Alaska...not only in the winter, but also the summer.

So when something as tasty-looking as these berries jumped out at me on the produce shelves, I did what any normal Skagwegian in their winter-loving mind would do: I bought up every last container of them. Stomach-aches be damned!

Let’s just say that I’ll be eating more than my fair share of strawberries for the next few days. Hey, when something this good comes along, I’ve learned that you have to snatch it up quickly before the next person comes along. So, in keeping with my all-strawberry diet, I had sliced strawberries with homemade whipped cream for breakfast & lunch today. Aren’t you jealous? You should be.

In honor of the fact that I was able to eat fruit today that wasn't already rotten when I bought it, I'm having a sale on my DESTASH yarn. Until 2/28, all shipping to the US is included in the price of the yarn. No shipping costs! Go check out the yarn that's still available HERE and HERE. Thanks for looking!

DESTASH - Round 3!

2011-02-10T14:39:00.001-09:00

Okay, so it's been a rough couple days. Thanks to everyone for your patience! I'm finally able to stand up with out throwing up. I don't recall ever being that sick, even in childhood. I throw up very rarely with my migraines, but nothing compared to the hours and hours of nausea, fever, and intense body aches that I experienced over the last couple days. Last night I attempted to choke down 1/2 a boiled plain potato and today so far I've had some tea and pudding. Slowly getting better and stronger, but to top it all off, I woke up today with a killer migraine, probably due to the fact that I'm uber-dehydrated. Yah, I've seen better days.

Needless to say, I've been home from work the last two days and I haven't really left my bed. Sucks to be so sick that I can't even knit, let alone form a coherent thought! But, I'm feeling okay enough to put up the last round of destash!

Same rules apply:

1. I will list each yarn with the following information:
   a. Yarn brand and name
   b. How many skeins are included
   c. Colorway
   d. Retail price (average from several different online sites)
   e. My price
   f. Shipping cost (I have estimated. If total actual shipping cost is higher than originally quoted, I will absorb the difference. If total shipping cost is lower than quoted, I will refund you the difference.)

2. Payment is by Paypal only. Payment must be completed within 3 days of receipt of invoice. If payment is not made within 3 days, purchaser forfeits rights to purchase and the opportunity will be given to the next person in line.

3. If you would like to purchase a lot or lots of yarn, please email at allison@alaskanpurl.com and let me know which yarn you'd like to purchase.

The first person to email me about a specific yarn lot will have first right to purchase. The second person to email about a yarn lot will have second rights, and so on. If for some reason the 1st person is not able to complete the sale within 3 days, I will then turn to the 2nd person, and so on.

4. If a sale is pending, I will note this in big letters under the description. However, you can still email me about it to put your name on the list in case the first person does not end up buying it.

5. If a sale has been made, I will take the yarn lot off the destash page altogether, to keep things looking neat and clean.

6. Shipping costs:
   a. If you purchase more than one yarn lot, please email me about combining shipping. I am happy to help you save a little bit of money and combine packaging.
   b. All shipping estimates are for US Shipping only. If you would like me to ship internationally, please contact me before purchase to see about rates.
   c. Shipment will be from my home in Alaska. Things take a little bit longer to ship from up here, so please don't freak out if something doesn't get to you in the time it normally takes in the lower 48. :)
   d. All shipping quotes include delivery confirmation.

7. If you'd like to earn a discount on the already low prices, all you have to do is post a link to my destash page on Twitter or write up a quick blog post telling all your followers about the big destash and you'll get an extra 10% off your yarn purchase! When you make your purchase, just email me the link to the tweet or post so that I can verify.

I will keep the yarn up on the Destash pages for as long as they are for sale.

Okay, I think that's it! All of these yarns can be found on my DESTASH - Round 3 PAGE (click the link to the left or click on the tab up at the top of the page). Thanks for looking!

We Interrupt This Program...

2011-02-08T18:33:00.000-09:00

...I know many of you were looking forward to the third and final installment of Destash Bash 2011, but I have very quickly come down with what can only be described as the pukey flu. It's going around town and I have definitely been bitten by the bug.

So, I am going to go to bed and I will hopefully be bringing you destashy goodness tomorrow. So sorry for the delay, everyone, but I can't barely hold my head up right now. Ugh. I hate nausea.

In the meantime, there's still plenty of destash left on the DESTASH - Round 1 page. Thanks to all who made Destash - Round 2 a resounding success...it's all gone!

DESTASH - Round 2! All Knit Picks!

2011-02-07T18:03:00.003-09:00

ETA: All Round 2 destash yarns have been sold, so I took down that particular destash page. Thanks for making it a success!

So, today's destash installment (2 of 3) is a bit smaller than yesterday's, but it's no less awesome! I've decided to group this one as all Knit Picks yarns for easier browsing!

Since KP yarns are already discounted, I'm not able to discount these yarns as much as I did on the other destash yarns yesterday, but I did discount a smidge to make it worth your while! AND, shipping to the US is included for all Knit Picks destash yarns! How about them apples?

All the same rules apply:

1. I will list each yarn with the following information:
   a. Yarn brand and name
   b. How many skeins are included
   c. Colorway
   d. Retail price (average from several different online sites)
   e. My price

2. Payment is by Paypal only. Payment must be completed within 3 days of receipt of invoice. If payment is not made within 3 days, purchaser forfeits rights to purchase and the opportunity will be given to the next person in line.

3. If you would like to purchase a lot or lots of yarn, please email at allison@alaskanpurl.com and let me know which yarn you'd like to purchase.

The first person to email me about a specific yarn lot will have first right to purchase. The second person to email about a yarn lot will have second rights, and so on. If for some reason the 1st person is not able to complete the sale within 3 days, I will then turn to the 2nd person, and so on.

4. If a sale is pending, I will note this in big letters under the description. However, you can still email me about it to put your name on the list in case the first person does not end up buying it.

5. If a sale has been made, I will take the yarn lot off the destash page altogether, to keep things looking neat and clean.

6. Shipping costs:
   a. Included in all Knit Picks Destash Yarns!

7. If you'd like to earn a discount on the already low prices, all you have to do is post a link to my destash page on Twitter or write up a quick blog post telling all your followers about the big destash and you'll get an extra 10% off your yarn purchase! When you make your purchase, just email me the link to the tweet or post so that I can verify.

I will keep the yarn up on the Destash pages for as long as they are for sale.

Okay, I think that's it! All of my KP yarns can be found on my DESTASH - Round 2 PAGE (click the link to the left or click on the tab up at the top of the page). Thanks for looking!

Oh, and don't forget about all the yarns still for sale on the DESTASH - Round 1 page!

And.....DESTASH!

2011-02-06T18:31:00.000-09:00

A few fun facts about my destash:
1. The retail value of the yarn I'm destashing is nearly $2500.00. That's two thousand, five hundred American dollars. And I'm destashing about 1/3 of my stash, which really is eye-opening to me and makes me realize how much of a yarn hoarder I've become.
2. There will be a total of 328 balls/skeins/hanks/knots of yarn for sale over the next few days. Yikes. That frees up a lot of space in my tiny house, which was one of the main goals of all of this. :)

Okay, on to the DESTASH rules:

1. I will list each yarn with the following information:
   a. Yarn brand and name
   b. How many skeins are included
   c. Colorway
   d. Retail price (average from several different online sites)
   e. My price
   f. Shipping cost (I have estimated. If total actual shipping cost is higher than originally quoted, I will absorb the difference. If total shipping cost is lower than quoted, I will refund you the difference.)

2. Payment is by Paypal only. Payment must be completed within 3 days of receipt of invoice. If payment is not made within 3 days, purchaser forfeits rights to purchase and the opportunity will be given to the next person in line.

3. If you would like to purchase a lot or lots of yarn, please email at allison@alaskanpurl.com and let me know which yarn you'd like to purchase.

The first person to email me about a specific yarn lot will have first right to purchase. The second person to email about a yarn lot will have second rights, and so on. If for some reason the 1st person is not able to complete the sale within 3 days, I will then turn to the 2nd person, and so on.

4. If a sale is pending, I will note this in big letters under the description. However, you can still email me about it to put your name on the list in case the first person does not end up buying it.

5. If a sale has been made, I will take the yarn lot off the destash page altogether, to keep things looking neat and clean.

6. Shipping costs:
   a. If you purchase more than one yarn lot, please email me about combining shipping. I am happy to help you save a little bit of money and combine packaging.
   b. All shipping estimates are for US Shipping only. If you would like me to ship internationally, please contact me before purchase to see about rates.
   c. Shipment will be from my home in Alaska. Things take a little bit longer to ship from up here, so please don't freak out if something doesn't get to you in the time it normally takes in the lower 48. :)
   d. All shipping quotes include delivery confirmation.

7. If you'd like to earn a discount on the already low prices, all you have to do is post a link to my destash page on Twitter or write up a quick blog post telling all your followers about the big destash and you'll get an extra 10% off your yarn purchase! When you make your purchase, just email me the link to the tweet or post so that I can verify.

I will be doing 3 different phases of the Destash. I will put more yarn up on Monday 2/7 for the second round and Tuesday 2/8 for the third and final round. I will keep separate tabs at the top of the page for each day (so, today is Destash - Round 1, tomorrow Destash - Round 2, and then Destash - Round 3) for ease of browsing.

I will keep the yarn up on the Destash pages for as long as they are for sale.

Okay, I think that's it! All of my yarns can be found on my DESTASH PAGE (click the link to the left or click on the tab up at the top of the page). Thanks for looking!

Sneak peek of a new design...

2011-02-03T17:21:00.000-09:00

So, although I've been a bit negligent about posting actual knitting content as of late, that does not mean that no knitting is happening.

Here is a sneak peek of a design that has been in my head since last May and really should have been released in September, as it's been so very nearly finished since then. I have no excuse for the tardiness of the release, other than sometimes designs need time to ferment in my brain for awhile until the image that I see in my mind matches what I see real life. This is finally the case with this design.

It involves cables, flowers, and some lovely sock yarn. The pattern is receiving its final edits as I type and then the finished piece will be shipped off for final approval. With any luck, it will go live in the next couple weeks.

I can't wait to reveal the whole picture and share more details with you all!

Update on the destash process...

2011-02-03T15:19:00.000-09:00

...to answer some of your questions about my huge destash in progress...

1. Haven't I gotten my act in gear and taken photos/blogged about some of the yarn to be for sale YET?
Short answer: no. This week has been incredibly busy and last weekend I chose to hang out with a good friend that I never get to hang out with instead of readying for the destash, so I have not yet had the chance to begin the HUGE process of cataloging it all, taking photos of it, and getting the descriptions/prices up on the blog. I will definitely be working on it this weekend though and am aiming to have the first big batch up by Sunday evening!

2. Where will I be posting the destash?
For the time being, it will all be up on my blog. I will more than likely create a separate Destash page within my site and then post when I've added more stuff to it. If I'm not selling the stuff as quickly as I'd like, I may put up some postings on Rav, but we'll see.

I'll post a photo & description of the yarn and how much I'm asking for it and then the first person to email me about it will be the person who gets to take it off my hands!

Payment will be by Paypal only.

3. Will there be opportunities for a discount on my pricing?
Why, yes! I'll have more details on this later, but if you blog or tweet about my destash, you'll get a bit of a discount on your purchase. :)

Ok, be on the lookout for more destash details on Sunday February 6th! It will be bigger than the Super Bowl! ...or not. ;)

A Work in Progress...

2011-01-26T19:20:00.000-09:00

I made some significant headway on my crafty nook over the weekend, which I would have blogged about sooner had I not been hit with a thankfully short bout of the flu.

It looks basically the same as it did when I started, but things got hairy there for a while because I knew that it would have to get worse before it got better.

In the end, I didn't get a shot of the current state of the room, but rest assured that it was put through the ringer, being torn apart and then put back together again. Here is a shot of the middle of all the organization, from my perch on the sofa:

This weekend Jeff and I will be headed to the hardware store to pick out some lumber so that he can build me some yarn shelves...the kind that will let me arrange it by color and have it on display for show and inspiration! I'll definitely keep you all in the loop as we move along with the room.

Now, I had kind of given myself a pep talk about how as I went through and organized the stash that I would weed out some of the yarn that I absolutely knew I wouldn't ever use so that I could destash it here on the blog or on Ravelry.

But what I wasn't prepared for was the ease at which I threw yarn into the destash pile! I've been feeling too bogged down in "stuff" lately and I guess that carried through to my destash process. I've flashed my stash before (see here...funny that it was almost a year to the day that I did this!), so you know how much yarn I've hoarded over the years. But I've finally come to the point where I know that some of it needs to go to a home where it will be loved, appreciated, and used within the next 20 years.

Drum roll please....dadadadadadadadadada.....(yes, that's a drumroll noise....)

Here is all the yarn that I have decided to part with! Four tubs and one laundry basket full!

Ranging from laceweight to bulky, the yarn pictured here will one day soon be headed to new homes! I will be photographing it all over the next few days and will be releasing it in small batches, because if I posted it all at once, I think I'd crash the blog with too many photos. ;)

So, keep an eye out soon for some smokin' hot deals on some really great yarn that is looking for new owners! It's DestashFest 2011!

The time has come...

2011-01-22T13:21:00.000-09:00

...to get rid of some of this sh*t that surrounds me every day.

While I've been feeling much better since starting an amazing new workout routine (3 weeks and counting...) and am thisclose to finishing two designs that should have been done months ago, I just felt like I could not go on without first cleaning out some of the dusty corners in my life, both literal and figurative.

So, I'm starting with my stash and all of the baggage that comes with it.

For starters, I'm moving my knitting corner from the downstairs living area to a new crafty area upstairs in our loft. Here is all of the crap that I dragged out of my downstairs corner:

And then I just about popped a gasket lugging all of it up our tiny metal spiral staircase (hence the need to keep on with the workout routine).

And now here is the view in my new lofty craft area:

SO, I've settled into my comfy blue couch to start the beginning stages of organizing this area...which is just the tip of the iceberg. Here is a series of photos that depict the overwhelming view from my blue perch:

Yes, my craft area currently doubles as my workout area...hence the erg.

And now the hard part begins. At least I've got a few seasons of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia to keep me company throughout this ordeal.

One of the big things I plan to accomplish today is pulling out yarn that I plan to destash, so be on the lookout for some good deals in the next week or so!

What are you all doing on this lovely January afternoon?

A Good Day

2010-12-17T23:25:00.002-09:00

I think a good day is when you put on a coat you haven't worn in a year and you find $11, a fortune, a sucker and an old macaroon that's hard as a rock.

What's even better is the fact that I found that $11 allowed me to purchase a really unique fused glass ornament made by a local artisan. Isn't it cool?

Someone on my Christmas list is getting it as a gift...but can't say who since I'm pretty sure they read my blog, when they're not chasing around two of the cutest kids on the planet.

Thus began last Saturday, when I pulled a coat off the rack to head out to the Annual Santa Train, which my company puts on every year. Now, it's a pretty rare occasion that I wear a coat (it's genetic...I'm looking at you, Mom), but on this day it was pretty freaking cold (go figure) so I decided I would suck it up and wear one. In the craziness of that act (and the fact that I was running late, as always), my brain got swirly and I neglected to snag my camera off its hook, so the only pictures I have of the day are from my iPhone.

Here's the Depot, before ~~all hell broke loose~~ we were descended upon by a record-breaking number of people, mostly Yukoners. We had 458 people who rode the train, which is about 100 more than our previous record. We were not prepared for the flood of people, which resulted in a standing room only situation. But people piled on anyway and everyone seemed to have a blast, just like every year.

My good friend and co-worker, Blaine, is the decorating guru. I take no credit for any of this.

Here is the train pulling back into the station...I kind of like how the letters are blurry, even though it's just creeping in...

And here was just before that, with someone's big fat finger in the shot.

For a much better write-up (and more photos) from one of our resident foamers, click here for the my friend Allyson's blog post on the day.

Oh, I almost forgot...Santa came early to our house! I came home yesterday to this wonderful surprise from Jeff!

Our old recliner was super skank and my knitting corner was starting to get really sad and unusable. So Jeff decided to get me a brand new plush and oh-so-comfy chair for Christmas! I'm in love...with both Jeff and the recliner. ;)

Thanks for bearing with me for this post full of grainy photos...Oh, I almost forgot...What did that fortune say that I found in my pocket?

Focus on the color purple this week to bring you luck.

A much needed break...and the cutest little lamb you've ever seen.

2010-12-09T23:57:00.001-09:00

Whew. It's been a helluva fall. I know it's been so long since I've posted, but I really did need to take a much needed break.

I was more burned out than I have ever been and was truly just worn down to a nub and had nothing left after what was a very very emotionally draining summer. Not only was my day job stressful (and that's an understatement), I was putting way too much pressure on myself in the knitting realm as well. And after a long day at work, I was coming home and forcing myself to knit so that I could finish up some designs that needed to be finished and I finally had just had enough.

So, knitting and I broke up for awhile. During my time away I had time to examine my relationship with knitting and how it can sometimes border on the unhealthy. While it has always been my passionate pastime, during this time of discontent it became my crutch, and many things in my life suffered because of it. I used it to shut out the frustrating parts of my life, but in the meantime I also shut out the good things as well. I could go on....but I won't. Who wants to rehash all the gory details? I sure don't. I'm in a better place now and that's all that matters.

So, now that I'm back, I'm slowly easing myself into things. And I'm reminding myself that knitting is supposed to be fun. And if I'm not having fun, what's the point?

Okay, so, before knitting and I took our break, I made a cute little lamb costume for my new niece for Halloween. I didn't follow a pattern per se, but I did take a look at the Child's Lamb Costume by Margot Stevens (Rav it) for inspiration.

And I think it turned out freaking adorable, if I do say so myself...

I used Knit Picks Swish Bulky held triple stranded on size 17 needles...and afterward my hands hurt so much I wanted to cry. But it was all worth it after seeing that cute little face all bundled up in handmade wooly goodness!

I think my most favorite part was the tail...

*sigh* I miss my little lambie.

Getting reacquainted...

2010-10-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

So, I feel like I've lost touch with many of you over these last 5 months. I certainly didn't have anything left at the end of the day most days to even cook dinner, take a shower, turn on the tv....no energy for even the smallest things. So, I definitely didn't have the energy to blog, or even read other people's blogs on a regular basis.

How can my job be THAT draining, you ask? Well, consider that my quiet little town has about 700 year-round residents. And then consider that the average cruise ship that calls on Skagway has about 3,000 people on it (approx. 2,000 guests and 1,000 crew). Now, imagine having at least one of those ships visit EVERY DAY for five months. Most days there are at least two ships in port and throughout the busiest days of the week (Monday-Thursday) there are 3 to 4 ships in a day. An additional 10,000 people in town can really wear on a person.

Now, this is the nature of being a tourist town and working for a tourist attraction. I have made peace with it as much as I can. But it doesn't make it any less frustrating that I can't go to the post office, grocery store, or restaurant without being bombarded by people and being constantly "on". You have no idea how much pressure it is to be always aware that you can ruin someone's Alaskan experience just by having a bad day, even if that crankiness is exhibited on your day off.

SO, you can maybe see why after a long grueling 12-14 hour day in the visitor industry that I just didn't have anything left in me for you all. Which made me incredibly sad most days!

Because of this, I feel like we need to get reacquainted. The thought of trying to recap the last few months in a long wordy blog post just doesn't sound appealing (for me or for you!), so I thought I'd throw out the top ten things that have happened or I have learned and we'll just leave it at that...okay?

Here goes:

1. I've become a master at writing blog posts in my head. And then never sharing them with you! No offense...just didn't have the energy to type.

2. Having a windowless office really sucks when we actually have a nice Alaskan summer. It also sucks in the winter. Suckage all around. Note to self: Must purchase SAD lamp.

3. Having a new niece can make you suddenly dream of knitting frilly ruffly pink things. Sorry, Adelyn. You've got some girly stuff headed your way in the coming months.

4. Knitting can seem like a huge chore when you have to get a sample/design finished even when you don't have time or don't feel like it. And staying up all night to get it done is no fun.

5. A good train ride through some of the most amazing country can really lift a mood.

6. Plants will shrivel up and die if you don't water them for months. This is why I don't have a pet or a baby.

7. Class reunions are a pain in the ass to plan from 3,000 miles away, even if it is an unofficial & informal BBQ style gathering. What was I thinking?

8. Sleeping really CAN be considered a hobby.

9. Okay, maybe I can think of only 8 things...

Whew. Okay, all caught up? Good.

Tomorrow I head to Whitehorse, Yukon, for a 3 day conference. They have a yarn store there. And a grocery store with produce that isn't already rotten. I'm excited!

Feeling pretty proud of myself tonight...

2010-09-28T23:17:00.002-08:00

Okay, okay. Yes, it's been a really long time since I posted. No, I don't have a really good excuse, other than Skagway summers suck out my soul and leave me with no brainpower, willpower, or any other sort of power, for that matter. In other words, I lost all forms of mojo.

BUT, dear friends, tomorrow is the very last ship day of the season. Tomorrow the NCL Star will sail in, invade our town, and then sail away. And I won't have to talk to another tourist until May 6, 2011. Well, except for on the phone throughout the winter, but let's not think of that right now.

Let's just envision what it will feel like tomorrow evening when the twinkling lights of the last cruise ship of the season begin to fade away down northern tip of the Inside Passage, leaving behind it a very difficult and exhausting summer. And then I'll begin to pick up the pieces of myself that have been scattered about and slowly pull myself back together.

Oh, yes. It's my favorite time of year. This is when I feel most alive and ready to tackle new things.

I have high hopes for this winter and what the world of knitting has in store for me. Two new designs will be out soon and I have many more in the pipeline. I am beyond excited. It's the first time I've felt alive in months.

Oh, and why, you ask, am I feeling so proud of myself? I made my very own blog button. With the assistance of this lovely website, of course. I'm not that smart to pull off something like that on my own. :) Feel free to grab one for your own blog...spread the Alaskan Purl love around!

Fall Hat Pattern Review at Peacefully Knitting in Arizona!

2010-08-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

Tina at Peacefully Knitting in Arizona just posted a fall hat pattern review, complete with a really great slideshow of some wonderful hat patterns. Cables, lace, tams, berets...there's something for everyone!

I'm flattered that the Forget-Me-Not Hat was one of the patterns that she included in the review!

If you haven't already, you should head on over there and check it out!

Ripping back before moving forward.

2010-08-08T19:03:00.000-08:00

"I don't know what's happening to me. I seemed to be unraveling." ~ Clarissa Vaughan, The Hours

Do you ever have a project that seemed so cool and interesting at first and you poured a lot of thought and energy into it but then, for some reason, it lost its luster and began a life of obscurity in the farthest corner of your UFO drawer?

And just the knowledge that it's there bugs you because you had such high hopes for it in the beginning and you know the yarn still has great potential if it only had been made into something entirely different?

Well, I actually have several of those projects, but the one that has been on my mind the most lately is my knee high Nutkins that I blogged about way back when. Even then I was having second thoughts about them! After that post, I tucked them away in a little box that sits on the shelf. The little box also holds random things like spare keys, packs of gum, and semi-important receipts. (Don't ask me why I decided to stash this UFO there...I have no idea.) I lost my notes on these socks a long time ago and it would take so much work now to rip back and remember how many stitches I cast on and how many I rows I did before I increased, etc. in order to begin again and make its mate.

Every time I have to dig into that box, I see the lone unfinished Nutkin and I pet it and sigh. But today, when I was dashing out the door to have lunch with a friend, I decided to grab the sock and skein and take it with me.

Maybe I needed some color in my day? Possibly. Or maybe I thought I would have time to finally, after all these months, work on it? Not likely. (It's probably best not to try to psychoanalyze the fact that I took a skein of yarn with me for company. Let's just leave it at that.)

I think that I knew in the back of my brain that its time as a UFO was getting short. That I had subconsciously made a decision that something finally had to be done with it. And that something was to rip it back to nothing and begin again.

Because if I had continued to let it hide in the junk box, it would have kept nagging at my brain to do something with it. And I have enough of those little things nagging at my brain right now and I guess today I unknowingly made moves toward the decision of frogging it and starting fresh.

And it felt delicious to hook up the loose end to the ball winder and just crank the handle. I saw hours of work slipping away, but I also got excited at the prospect of having a nice full cake of yarn again, ready and full of promise for whatever comes its way. Which will more than likely be another sock, and maybe even the same pattern, but I just needed it to be a fresh start.

Halfway through...second thoughts? Nah.

Ahhhhh, feel it? It's a sense of possibility...a very crimpy sense of possibility, but possibility nonetheless...

"I remember one morning getting up at dawn, there was such a sense of possibility. You know, that feeling? And I remember thinking to myself: So, this is the beginning of happiness. This is where it starts. And of course there will always be more. It never occurred to me it wasn't the beginning. It was happiness. It was the moment. Right then." ~ Clarissa Vaughan, The Hours

Forget-Me-Not Hat

2010-08-04T10:20:00.002-08:00

Back in April when the opportunity arose to create a design for a new Knit Picks yarn, I jumped at the chance without a second thought. Never mind that I was on the brink of tourist season and I would barely have a chance to think of anything other than trains in the upcoming months, let alone pull something creative and worthwhile from my brain. It was a great opportunity, so I snapped it up immediately!

The new yarn that I would have the chance to work with is Capra, KP's new merino/cashmere blend that is oh-so-buttery soft. At the time, there had been an idea in my head that I quickly jotted down on paper and sent off to the wonderful KP Stacey for evaluation. After I got the go ahead, I spent the next couple months swatching with similar yarns and sketching, waiting on the Capra to arrive on my doorstep.

In the best possible scenario, I would have had about a month to knit up the sample and work out the kinks in the pattern, once I received the yarn. Hmmm...now that's the key phrase there: once I received the yarn. While KP sent out the two lovely skeins of Capra on June 22 and the yarn was scanned into my local post office on June 25 (thanks, delivery confirmation!), our wonderful post office apparently didn't think that I needed to have that package put into my box until July 6th!

So, I had just two weeks to do everything, which can be fairly standard in the design world, but in the middle of summer when I'm working insane hours keeping tourists happy, this was not the ideal situation.

But being apart of the Capra yarn launch was totally worth it! This yarn is amazing...it is so soft and wonderful to work with. And the great thing is, it gets softer as it's knitted up and even softer (can you believe it?!) after blocking. I chose the color Sea Spray to work with and it's a beautiful icy light teal blue. I can't wait to order some more of this stuff!

Back to the design...

Building on the concept of the Mayflowers sock, I decided to continue with the cables-in-bloom theme and create a hat in the same vein.

And the Forget-Me-Not hat was born!

Worked from the bottom up, this hat shows off the wonderful cables that radiate from the crown and blossom into flowers as the cables move down the cap. Since this is a pic heavy post, I'm going to let the photos do the talking!

The Capra yarn has a very slight halo, which makes the hat all the more comfy and beautiful. I seriously can't wait to get my hands on more of this stuff and make a Forget-Me-Not hat in my own size!

Pattern Details:

Name: Forget-Me-Not Hat {KP link}{Rav link} by Allison Haas

Yarn: Knit Picks Capra (2 skeins)

Needles: Size 5 circular or dpns

Sizes available: Women's Adult S(M,L)

Techniques Used: Cables, Decreasing, Bottom-Up Construction, Knit flowers

Notions: Tapestry needle, cable needle, 4 stitch markers, 12 size 6 seed beads

Special thanks to my model, Trish...isn't she lovely?

And we have a winner...

2010-07-30T21:21:00.001-08:00

After completely spacing the fact that I had to draw the Alluvia giveaway winner tonight (hey, it's been a long week!), we now have a very lucky winner!

There were 41 entrants (after weeding out a couple duplicate comments) and so I asked Jeff to pick a number between 1 and 41. He chose 11. For some reason I didn't like that number (he was a little hurt that I didn't like his choice), so I decided to consult the Random Number Generator for a second opinion.

And wouldn't you know it? It gave me 11 as well. So, apparently, the 11th commenter was just destined to win!

The winner of the Alluvia giveaway is none other than Gail Litter (GLitter-knitter on Rav)!

Gail is my old roommate and married to one of my oldest childhood friends. We used to knit together and obsessively watch all three seasons of Arrested Development over and over (and over) back in my early knitting days (she can attest to how far I've come!) How I miss knitting together during the long, dark winters!

I swear this wasn't rigged...apparently since both Jeff and the RNG both picked 11, it was just meant to be!

So, Gail, you better start picking your fave flavors of Wool of the Andes! I'll ship them right to you, just in time for some Colorado fall knitting! Email me at allison@alaskanpurl.com with your choices...better yet, you should call me....we need to catch up!

Thanks to all for entering! I've got some exciting things that I'll be able to share very soon in the next few weeks. And I might even have another giveaway or two to celebrate! Stay tuned....

Reminder - Alluvia Giveaway!

2010-07-30T08:31:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter the Alluvia giveaway for a copy of the Alluvia pattern and enough Wool of the Andes to create your own unique bag. You get to choose your own colors! And with Knit Picks releasing some new Wool of the Andes colors, you have even more wonderful shades from which to choose!

Enter by 8 PM Alaska Time tonight to be eligible to win!

Good luck!

An Alluvia Giveaway!

2010-07-25T22:53:00.010-08:00

Lately my mind has been turning to thoughts of fall...mostly because it feels like fall has already come to Southeast Alaska! We had a very warm May, which served as our "summer", and then there was termination dust (aka SNOW) on the peaks by mid-June. Ever since, it's been rainy, cold, gray, and very very windy.

I am absolutely giddy about this! I'm watching the fireweed blooms slowly travel up the stalk, meaning they are moving closer and closer to the time when they will turn to cotton and summer will soon be forgotten, as the saying goes.

I just love living in a cold weather climate, mostly because it means that I get to work with wool year round without getting sweaty and itchy!

So, to celebrate this wonderful fall weather in July, I've decided to do another giveaway. The real fall will be here before we know it, and wouldn't you like to have a great fall accessory ready to use when it gets here?!

Here are the giveaway details:

1. What am I giving away?

A copy of the Alluvia Felted Tote pattern and 8 skeins of Wool of the Andes Worsted in the colors of your choice! You could go with muted tones or vibrant shades...the possibilities are endless!

2. How can you enter?

Just leave a comment on this post letting me know what your favorite shade of Wool of the Andes is!

3. Is there a deadline to enter?

Yep, you must leave a comment by Friday July 30 at 8 PM Alaska Time. I'll use the random number generator to choose the lucky winner and will announce it soon after that!

4. Can I enter more than once?

Yes, if you'd like a second chance to enter, just blog about my giveaway on your blog and then leave a comment letting me know that you did so!

******************************************************************

Good luck, everyone! Looking forward to hearing your favorite shade of WotA...mine's a tie between Firecracker Heather and Tidepool Heather!

Alluvia

2010-07-16T00:15:00.003-08:00

Do you ever have a project or design that lurks around for what seems like forever? And then just when you think you will never finish it, somewhere in the depths you find the strength to power through and just get it done? Well, then you know how I feel about Alluvia. (Rav it)

I began this bag about a year and a half ago. It was my first ever design submission and, with hindsight being 20/20, I can see now why it was not at first accepted to any publications. The colors I initially used were all wrong (I went stash diving and worked up the oddest color combinations of Cascade 220 ever) and the submission itself...well, let's just say a five year old could have done a better job.

But with that first rejection came a fresh perspective on the design and over the next few months, a better (and actually a little bigger) version took shape and morphed into the beautiful pattern I present to you today!

I was so excited for this design to be apart of the Knit Picks IDP, because it meant that I could choose any shades of Wool of the Andes that I wanted! But, it turns out, I got shy about choosing the colors (too much pressure!), so Stacey at KP (who is so wonderful, by the way) picked them out for me. And she couldn't have done a better job!

She thought working from the bottom to the top and going from darkest to lightest would be a cool concept and I say I have to agree.

She sent along the black and then the various shades of purple for me to use. But I thought it needed something extra, so I threw in the red from my own stash, just for fun!

Named for the interesting ridges that form in the sand at the mouths of glaciers, the Alluvia Felted Tote is the perfect accessory for fall!

{Shown here unfelted...don't you love the colors?!}

Worked in the round from the bottom up, this tote utilizes an exaggerated pleat stitch that forms the folds of material that become the felted ruffles. With so many shades of Wool of the Andes Worsted from which to choose, the possibilities are endless to create a colorful and unique accessory!

Details:

Pattern: Alluvia Felted Tote (Knit Picks link, Rav link)
Suggested Yarn: Wool of the Andes Worsted (Shown in (from the bottom up) Coal, Cobblestone Heather, Black Cherry Heather, Claret Heather, Amethyst Heather, Lullaby, and Iris Heather)
Needles: 32" size 8 circulars and size 8 dpns
Techniques Used: Working in the round; Magic Loop; i-cord, decreasing, felting

I'm so glad that this design is finally available! I've loved watching the transition it has undergone and I'm actually glad that the first version of it was rejected....it would never have morphed into the unique piece it is today!

Please do not hesitate to ask if you'd like to know more details about this pattern. Happy knitting, everyone!

Um, I'm a little behind...

2010-06-22T22:48:00.000-08:00

Way back in April, Kathy at A Beautiful Ramble bestowed upon me a happy blogger award. And, being the huge procrastinator/slacker that I am (I prefer the term procrastislackinator myself), I never publicly acknowledged it or paid it forward.

Well, Kathy, I owe you an apology for being so slow to respond...and a thank you for the award! And I owe everyone else 10 things that make me happy, so here goes:

1. Yarn. Um, was this ever in question?
2. My new MacBook Pro. Happiness in a slim silvery shell.
3. My nephew, Jackson. Even though he's half a world away, I still think he's the coolest little guy on the planet.
4. Google. Seriously. I would have some major problems getting through my day if I couldn't Google something that I didn't know the answer to.
5. Wind. It's my favorite element of nature. Luckily I live in Skagway, "Home of the North Wind".
6. My boss. We may drive each other crazy some days, but I couldn't do my job if she wasn't there to guide me.
7. Ravelry. What sucked all my time before Rav was around?
8. Making up new words. Like procrastislackinator.
9. Interesting product packaging. I'm a sucker for it. I am a marketing team's dream consumer.
10. Having absolutely no plans. I love the feeling of waking up and having nothing pressing on the horizon.

Okay, so now it's my turn to nominate 10 blogs that make ME happy:

1. SpillyJane
2. Adventures of a Sisu Girl
3. Cloudberry
4. NieNie Dialogues
5. PDXKnitterati
6. Tanis Fiber Arts
7. Cake Wrecks
8. Dropped Stitches
9. indigodragonfly
10. Fat Cat Quilts

A couple of them aren't knitting blogs, but they make me happy all the same. Okay, so who makes YOU happy? Do tell!

Sic transit gloria mundi

2010-06-13T10:50:00.001-08:00

So passes the glory of the world.

Today is just one of those days. No, not bad at all. It's a good day. A feeling of effortlessness is floating through the air. Do you know that feeling? For me, that feeling comes with a brisk ocean breeze that has an snippet of autumn in it. And fresh snow on the mountain peaks in June. Reminding me that there is light at the end of the tunnel and fall will come soon enough and the too-busy tourist season will be over and my peaceful town will once again be here.

After two months of working every day, I have finally gotten some time off this weekend. My insides have been like a pressure cooker these last couple months. Each day the pressure builds a little more and a little more until the steam starts to leak out the top, whistling loudly. And then, at a certain point, the steam has nowhere else to go, but to explode.

That was my Wednesday. After two months of working every day at a job that sucks my soul and every last little bit of creative energy I have left, I snapped.

It wasn't a major event that caused the pressure to instantly release. It was many many small things that chipped away at my resolve. I had become a robot, going through the motions on auto-pilot, because it's easier than dealing with all the stress that comes with my demanding job.

But Wednesday, without proper warning, my brain had had enough and I had a complete meltdown in front of my employees. Tears. More tears. Head down on my desk. Talking incoherently. I had reached my limit of bullshit, stress, and needy tourists.

I generally have a meltdown every year at this time, due to be overworked, overstressed, and overtired. But this year was different.

I really let my job take up too much of my life this time. We all are guilty of doing it from time to time, but this year it got to the point where it was really unhealthy.

I'm sure you've noticed the lack of posting here. I really wish that I could have had something to tell you about these last couple months. But unless you are interested in hearing all about trains, reservations, bus schedules, etc., then you probably don't want to hear what I have to say.

I knew I had really gone off the deep end when I started dreaming in train whistles and ticket times. Kind of like in college when I dreamed in algorithms and chemistry symbols.

Anyway, I'm saying all that to say this: I'm back. I can't promise anything exciting. But I can promise that I will be more fully engaged in what makes me happy....connecting with you all.

Because life is too short to focus on things that bring on unhappiness.

So, what have you all been up to since April? Do tell!

Mayflowers Sock

2010-05-15T23:28:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I've finally gotten my act together and finalized the pattern for Mayflowers, my sock design entry in the Socks Revived Design Contest.

(Ravelry link to purchase)

The idea of cables breaking out of their routine and blossoming into flowers has been in my mind for awhile now. And I'm so grateful for the process of moving the concept from my mind to the page to a living and breathing creation. It was truly challenging but, in the end, it turned out way better than I ever could have expected.

Here are some more shots of the work...makes you want to grab your size 1's and get to knitting, doesn't it? Such a cozy sock knit in the Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine...the Pea Soup Mix is to die for! Such lovely shades of green wrapped up in a single skein.

I hope you'll love knitting Mayflowers as much as I've enjoyed creating it!

Remember me?

2010-05-15T22:45:00.000-08:00

Hi there...remember me? I used to blog around these parts. Only I've become completely consumed by work in the last month and, prior to last night, hadn't even picked up a knitting needle in, oh, I'd say about a month. Which, if you know my level of knitting insanity, is REALLY out of character.

It's not that I didn't want to...in fact, many moments there was nothing I wanted more than to be at home in my cozy chair with my mister on the couch across the room. And my most recent knitting project on my lap...or maybe a few projects...one can never have too many UFOs nearby!

But, no, I've been working contantly - haven't had a day off in nearly 3 weeks and probably won't get one for another 6 weeks - and I've also thrown a baby shower for my friend, Trish, and traveled to Winnipeg for a week for a work conference.

Yes, lots has happened in the last month, but none of it has been knitting related. While knitting was never far from my mind, at the end of the day it was just too much for me to pick up and do even the most simple of projects.

However, I'm back in the groove...and, in fact, I'll be back in just a few minutes with the release of my latest pattern, the Mayflowers Sock!

And the legs arrive...just in time for my birthday!

2010-04-13T22:45:00.000-08:00

Yes, today is my birthday. I've never particularly cared for my birthday. I don't hate it, but I don't look forward to it either. As far back as I can remember, I've always felt this immense pressure to make this day so special and exciting and nothing I could ever do seemed to live up to the hype. Kind of like New Year's Eve, but much more personal.

I remember on my 5th birthday my mom had this big campfire party for me, complete with a super cool caterpillar cupcake cake that had Twizzlers for legs. All my friends were there and it was a beautiful evening and I got a big box of pop beads (remember those?!) so it should have been a pretty great night, right? Well, I got so freaked out that all these people were there for me and I didn't like that the focus of attention was all on me. Too much pressure! So I went into the house and cried my little eyes out. My mom came in and asked me if I was having fun and I point blank told her no. Even all these years later, I can still see the hurt on my mom's face after she had done all that work to try to make me happy. (Sorry about that, Mom. You know I'm your most ungrateful child, don't you?)

So, yeah....me and my birthday have a long and rocky history. There's not a birthday that goes by that I haven't cried at least once. I haven't had my cry yet today though. Looks like I better get the tears worked up soon, because I'm headed to bed. ;)

Anyway, the point of my story (and I think I MIGHT have one), is that my mannequin legs arrived! I stopped by the post office on my way home and there they were.

I immediately raced home and tore into the package to find the calf-length legs creepily tucked in between some bubble wrap.

I grabbed my camera and my mayflowers sock and went upstairs where the good light is so that I could finally snap some shots of the new sock design. So excited!

All in all, it's been a decent birthday. I had dinner with good friends and I got a pair of mannequin legs. What more could a girl ask for?

Tagish Mitts

2010-04-12T16:00:00.001-08:00

Wow, I have no idea where the last week went! I had planned to introduce this pattern last week, but I seem to have blinked and about 8 days disappeared.

This is the third and last pattern that went live on Knit Picks on April 1. The Tagish Mitts (Rav it) were created to be a complementary accessory to the Tagish Cowl, or they can be perfect on their own.

This is a super simple project that can most definitely be finished in an evening or two. Perfect for a last minute gift!

Details

Pattern: Tagish Mitts (Knit Picks link)
Yarn used: Knit Picks Swish Bulky in Merlot Heather, 1 hank
Notions: Tapestry needle, three 1/2 in buttons
Thanks to my test knitter, Allison H (yes, another Allison H lives in my tiny little town!)

Waiting on some mannequin legs...

2010-04-11T20:12:00.000-08:00

...are words I never thought I'd utter. But I am waiting on them nonetheless! I ordered some mannequin legs a couple weeks ago off ebay and even though I paid extra to get them here quickly, they still have not arrived. After about 4 days of me obsessively checking my PO box twice a day, so sure that they would get here any minute, I got an email last Thursday from the guy I bought them from saying that he had accidentally sent them to Alabama instead of Alaska. Grrrrrr....

I've been really wanting to take some good shots of my Socks Revived Design Contest sock design, but I stupidly made the sample size too small for any of my big-footed friends to model! And they are surely too small for me. I wanted to make them in the smallest size to get them finished more quickly and off to the test knitters (thank you Heather and Hege!) and tech editor, and if I had made them in my size, well, let's just say my feet are so big I'd still be knitting them.

So I continue to wait for the legs....but here's a sneak peek of the sock off the foot. It could still use some blocking, but I'm otherwise I'm happy with how it turned out. Cables in bloom...perfect for spring!

As soon as I have the feet, I'll be taking some better shots and I'll give the design a proper introduction. Until then, I'll be enjoying this wonderful Alaskan spring weather!

And we have a winner! Or two...

2010-04-08T00:32:00.001-08:00

Can I say that I love giveaways? I love the fact that you get to make new connections and find new blogs to read, which leads to more inspiration and great ideas. I think I'll have a giveaway more often. :)

I was so overwhelmed with the amount of entries that I decided to pick two winners! The first number drawn will get the three skeins of green sock yarn as advertised and then the second number drawn will get to choose 1 skein of the three green yarns (I have more than 1 skein of each in my stash so I'm covered!).

Okay, I'll stop blabbering and get to the point! I used the random number generator and....

Here are your random numbers:

83 153

Timestamp: 2010-04-08 08:11:18 UTC

So, #83 Jolene (JoboDesigns on Rav) is the first number drawn and wins the 3 skeins and #153 SisuGirl is the second number drawn and wins 1 skein of her choice of the three green yarns!

I'll be contacting each of you for your mailing address so that I can get the lovely yarn in the mail to you right away!

Thanks to everyone who participated in helping me celebrate 100 posts! I truly enjoyed reading all about your favorite springtime sight and sounds. And I look forward to enjoying all the new blog friendships I've made over the last week!

My long lost love...Grape Hyacinths!

2010-04-03T09:48:00.001-08:00

Let me tell you, I have LOVED reading all of the comments on my giveaway post. It made me forget about all of the signs of spring that I remember from my childhood. Spring here in Alaska is definitely not the same as it is in Ohio.

The one thing that a few of you commenters have reminded me of is my love of Grape Hyacinths!

birdsandblooms.com

I remember I got so excited when these things would shoot up through the earth and I would pick them just as fast. I was so in awe that they smelled just like grapes and I would practically inhale the entire flower in trying to get more of that smell.

*sigh* I do love my life here in Alaska, but there are certain things I do miss about growing up in my parents' house in Ohio. Grape Hyacinths are definitely one of these things.

While I've loved reading each and every one of your comments, I'd have to say the comment that made me laugh the most came from Amybel:

My favorite sign of spring is when you get that first really warm day outside. At first you're all crossed up because you started the day wearing a sweater and a coat, but now desperately need to change into your shorts and you have NO IDEA WHERE THEY ARE!!! So instead you send the kids outside in their underwear and turn on the hose for them, and roll up sleeves and pants to sit and soak up the beautiful warm sunshine! Ahhh. (In case you're wondering, we did that today and it was awesome.)

Thanks for bringing the humor, Amybel! And keep the comments coming, everyone! Only 4 more days left in the giveaway.

Tagish Cowl

2010-04-02T22:27:00.001-08:00

As promised, here is another of the patterns that were released yesterday in Knit Picks Independent Design Program. I give you Tagish Cowl. (Rav it here)

I've been admiring this lovely shade of Swish Bulky for awhile now, and searching for the perfect cowl pattern to create with it. But that cowl pattern never surfaced, so I took it upon myself to make one of my own!

As discussed in yesterday's post regarding the Taiya Scarf, I've been on a bit of an all-things-brioche kick lately. I just love how the stitch is so light and airy. And having it wrapped around your neck is a little piece of heaven.

I knew that I wanted to incorporate buttons somehow, and in the prototype of this pattern I had initially had 7 buttons/buttonholes all the way down the closure. But that seems a little bit much, plus it had already been done, so decided to cut out a few buttons and make it an asymmetrical closure instead.

The top of one end of the cowl is buttoned to the bottom of the other end. This created less bulk around the neck and I also like how on one side the cowl flips over at the top and on the other side it flips up on the bottom. A cute little detail that keeps things interesting!

Details
Tagish Cowl via Knit Picks IDP
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Bulky in Garnet Heather
Needles: Size 9 and 10 straights

This is such a quick knit...great for last minute gifts or just some mindless movie knitting! I hope you'll check it out.

Taiya Scarf

2010-04-01T20:06:00.002-08:00

Thanks so much for the overwhelming response to my giveaway! It's been inspiring to read all of the comments...makes me wish spring in Alaska would get here already!

Well, I thought I had another week to get my blogging act together before my new patterns went live in the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program, but *surprise* they went live today!

I'm so excited to debut Taiya Scarf (Rav it), Tagish Mitts (Rav it), and Tagish Cowl (Rav it). These are the stealth projects I've been working on these last few weeks. I'm so glad to finally be able to reveal them to you!

I'm going to profile each of them over the next couple days, and today I'll start with Taiya Scarf.

I've been on a bit of a brioche kick lately (in this case, I used a variant of brioche, Fisherman's Rib) and I was hoping to combine my love of that squishy soft stitch with my obsession of lace knit in bulky weight yarn. And this is how Taiya Scarf was born.

As I draw inspiration from my Alaskan environment on a daily basis, I found it was only fitting that I name my patterns after locations or places here in the North that inspire me. The mighty Taiya River flows just east of my Alaskan town and every summer there are vast amounts of wild irises that bloom at the mouth of the river where it meets the sea. When I was working on this scarf, the purple hue of the yarn reminded me of the color of the irises, hence the name.

I love the fact that the squishiness of the Fisherman's Rib is the part that wraps around the neck. It's like wearing a cloud! And the diamond lace at either end of the scarf keeps things interesting.

Details:

Pattern: Taiya Scarf (Knit Picks link)

Yarn: Knit Picks Cadena, 3 hanks in Blackberry

Needles: Size 11 straights

Model: My good friend, Trish. The best model/friend/spin drive companion a girl could ask for.

Stay tuned over the next couple days where I'll be showing off the Tagish Cowl and the Tagish Mitts!

100th Post...and a giveaway, of course!

2010-03-31T17:45:00.002-08:00

When I started this blog over a year ago I really didn't think that I would ever make it to 100 posts. That seemed like such a high number and I really never thought that I'd find anything to write about and my interest would trail off, as it usually does with most projects I start (um, hello, have you seen my WIP basket?!).

Well, there have certainly been times (such as the last couple weeks!) when I've completely fallen off the face of earth, when I haven't had the physical or mental energy to put words onto the page. But overall, I've come to rely on this blogging experience as a way of connecting to a community of people who I wouldn't have otherwise known existed. It's been so great knowing that I'm not the only yarn hoarder out there or knowing I'm not the only person who thinks about knitting 24 hours a day...that's right, even when I'm asleep.

As a thank you for being faithful readers of my little ol' blog and for also providing me with wonderful blogs to read every day, I'm having a giveaway to celebrate my 100th post.

In honor of spring, I've chosen three different sock yarns in various shades of green. I noticed little buds on the trees just today and the sun is shining...so I felt the need to celebrate by giving away some spring-inspired yarn! They're all in shades of green, a color I hope to be seeing a lot more of in the coming weeks.

The first yarn is Valley Yarns Franklin Hand-Dyed in a colorway whose name escapes me at the moment. The colors range from bright kelly green to a blue-ish teal....mmmmm, lovely.

The next skein is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in the Pea Soup Mix colorway. I'm currently in love with this yarn, as it's my chosen shade for the Socks Revived Contest that I've entered. I had an extra skein hanging around, so I thought I would share my obsession for this particular shade of green.

And the final skein is Rabbit Ridge Super Soxx in the Leaves colorway from Rabbit Ridge Designs, a local Alaskan dyer out of Anchorage. It varies in hue from very light celery green to a forest green.

And here they are all snuggled up together. Don't you just want to take them home?

Well....you can! Or at least you can enter for the chance to take them home. ;)

There are three ways to enter my 100th post yarn giveaway:

1. Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite sign of spring is and you'll receive your first contest entry.

2. Become a follower of my blog and let me know this in a separate comment and earn a second entry.

3. Blog about my giveaway on your own blog and then come back and tell me about it in a comment and you'll receive a third entry.

**DEADLINE to enter is April 7 at midnight Alaska Time.**

I do hope you'll enter. Thanks for sticking with me through 100 posts....and here's to 100 more!

An Actual Bloggable Project

2010-03-17T23:31:00.000-08:00

I feel like I've been away from the blog for awhile, but I actually have something to blog about today and I'm happy to be back! All the work I've been doing is on secret projects, but this one I can actually show you! Or at least a small piece of it anyway...I don't want to give it all away right this instant!

And, coincidentally, it's a project in a green yarn. Just in time for St. Patty's Day. (I really didn't even realize that until just now!)

So, this is just a snippet of the design in progress. Like I said, I don't want to give it all away, but I'll be able to reveal it soon enough. It's a sock design for the contest on Elinor's blog, Exercise Before Knitting. Truth be told, I've never even finished a sock, let alone thought about designing one, but this contest called to me and I got started on it right away.

I had a thought rattling around in my brain for awhile: Cables Meet Spring. And then this opportunity came along to get it down on paper and then, after that, translated with needles and yarn into a sock. I'm just about finished with it and then I'll be sending it off to be test knit and will be releasing the pattern just in time for the April 19 contest deadline. Speaking of....anyone interested in test knitting a sock for me? Send me an email at allison@alaskanpurl.com and let me know!

Oh, and I just might be blogging from my very own brand new laptop!

I caved and bought myself a MacBook Pro last week. I know, I know. I was trying so hard to be patient and wait until the summer, but I just couldn't hold off any longer. It got here today and I immediately got it out of the box and began playing with it. You have no idea how excited I am to be blogging from my recliner!

My next post will be numero 100...be on the lookout for a 100th post giveaway in the next few days!

Haas Family Photo Shoot

2010-03-09T06:59:00.001-09:00

Back in December when I was home in Ohio for the holidays, we got our family photos taken by the wonderful Cassidy of Cassidy Dawn Photography.

She blogged about our shoot today over on her blog and you can see some of the great shots. She does such an amazing job at putting everyone at ease. It's no small feat to get my dad in front of the camera...and he was actually smiling too!

The third shot from the bottom is of me and my brother and sister (I'm the one on the left). I think it's my favorite! Well, it's hard to say that with all the cuteness of my nephew going on. He's such a ham.

You can read all about it here. Enjoy!

Mother Nature is mocking me...

2010-03-05T17:10:00.000-09:00

Remember the other day when I wrote about spring being in the air and how I was excited about it? Well, Mother Nature must read my blog and want to contradict me, because today it is snowing upwards. And sideways. And in swirls. And there is a blizzard warning. And it's supposed to snow/rain through Wednesday. Awesome.

I wish I could get a picture of it, but now that I'm safely inside after coming home from work, there's no way I'm going back out there for a photo! And the windows are smeared with the sleet, so I can't even take a photo through them. You'll just have to picture the blizzard in your mind's eye. For those of you in the Midwest or Northeast, this should be no problem. ;) It's not quite the Snowpocalypse here, but nasty all the same.

So, I guess that means I'll have to hunker down by the fire and knit the weekend away. *sigh* My life is so hard. ;)

Still working on the samples I need to get done (the process is absolutely dragging on), so I have no FOs to show, but I have been spinning up some of the Pink Cocoa batts from Corgi Hill Farms when I need a break from knitting. I've gotten through one of the two 4 oz batts and, if I say so myself, my spinning is getting more and more consistent. There are a few thicker spots, but it's already so much better than my first and second tries.

This photo doesn't really do it justice...

(Pardon the awful yellow light in my bathroom. It's so dark in the house with the wintry weather going on outside and I"m certainly not taking any photos outdoors today!)

I did, however, take some photos yesterday (when it wasn't a blizzard outside) of some new fiber I have acquired. I tried really hard to get some colors that I normally would not be drawn to. I know, I know, the second photo has some purplish hues, which I usually buy, but the yellow is definitely not a color I go to. And it seems that yellow is in both! Hmmm...I may have just added a new color to my 'usual' color palette.

Both are Hedgehog Fibres Silk/Merino Top. I'm so excited to see how they spin up! I'm going to have a lot of handspun hanging out here soon. I'll have to find a good use for it all...I'm sure it won't be a problem. ;) I've got lots of babies to knit for here very soon, and yarn is small quantities is perfect for baby knits!

Gray, gray, go away...

2010-03-03T11:41:00.000-09:00

We actually saw the sun yesterday! It made a much welcomed reappearance in the sky. It took my eyes forever to adjust to the drastic change in scenery!

You may have noticed that (with the exception of yesterday) my postings have been few and far between in the last few weeks. I think it was the gray of February sucking the life force out of me. I just had no desire to do anything crafty. There were 5 days last week in which absolutely no knitting was done in this house. Do you know how rare of an event that is?! That only happens once in a blue moon, in the case of vacations or serious stomach flus. I've been feeling so down and exhausted and crabby that I couldn't even eke out a few rows of stockinette on one of the samples I'm working on. Stockinette. In the round. Should be practically mindless, right? Well, not if you had a serious case of the Februaries like I apparently had.

Each winter here in Skagway gets harder and harder for me. The first couple were great. The novelty of the darkness in the middle of the day really made it easy to not see the sun all that much. The sun is setting at 2 pm? How cool! Now, in my seventh winter, the lack of sunlight has really become unbearable. And no matter how much liquid vitamin D I chug or how much I sit underneath my sad lamp, I still get so lethargic that some days it's painful to get out of bed.

But then spring comes, as it always does, and I start to get overly excited that it's still light out when I'm leaving work...And then when it's still light out when I go to bed...and still light when I wake up at 2 a.m. to go to the bathroom. Luckily we've not really had any truly bad weather this winter. It makes it a bit easier to get through.

Spring is definitely in the air here. Everything is melting! This is what our front yard looks like. This is pretty much what it's looked like the entire winter. With the exception of the foot and a half of snow we got back in early January (which melted almost as quickly as it came), our yard has been pretty bare. What little snow we got drifted to the right there in the photo and has compacted into ice. And now it's disappearing with our 40 degree temps. We now have a yard full of really slick ice and pools of mud. Why, yes, it is as awesome as it sounds. ;)

And with the spring temps come some much needed blue sky. This was the view from my knitting chair (aka Alaskan Purl Designs central!).

Speaking of my knitting corner, things are looking a little bit cluttered, huh?

I'm thinking that I need to set up a desk to keep track of my designs, submissions, etc. I have a design ideas notebook and some folders for each of my designs, but I feel like I need to move out of my comfort zone and into a more professional space, even if that space is just a small table in the corner of the spare room upstairs!

I'm muddling through the process of setting up a small business (it's kind of freaking me out to do something so adult-like!) for my designs and (possibly!) an etsy shop, so I think a little bit of organization is in the works. That's what spring is for, right?

Well, I'd better get to bed. I've been going to the gym at 4:30 AM all week to get into the habit for the summer months and my wake-up time of 4 AM comes around really quickly. Pretty soon it will look like this at that time of the morning! Just a couple more months... sigh....

An old (but recently discovered!) FO: Foliage

2010-03-02T17:39:00.000-09:00

As I was digging through a bunch of knitting stuff the other day, I happened upon a hat I completed a couple years ago. It was so nice to see it after such a long time! I don't know that I ever wore it at all. It somehow got sucked into the knitting void without ever seeing the light of day!

It's Foliage by Emily Mooney from the Fall 2007 Knitty (Rav it). I can't remember many details, but I do believe I used Knit Picks Risata sock yarn in Marionberry held double throughout. I'm pretty sure I used a little over a skein.

It's so sproingy and comfy...and the yarn is stretchy enough that it fits comfortably over my big head.

As usual, I take my blog photos right after work to catch the nice light. Well, that, and I do it when I'm alone so that I don't have to hear the incessant teasing I would hear if Jeff were home. He thinks its weird I take so many photos of yarn and yarn-related things. I think he buys way too many power tools. We agree to disagree on these points. ;)

However, the one bad thing about trying to take pictures while I'm here by myself is that I always struggle with taking decent shots of myself modeling FOs. I do have a tripod and a remote control for my camera, but I find it very difficult to get the good angles I want when I'm in front of the lens. Add in the fact that my house has such poor lighting and you see why I hardly ever have any decent photos of myself on here.

Until today. I figured out that if I crouch down just right in our downstairs bathroom that I can take advantage of the natural light coming through the window while balancing my camera on the toilet. Certainly not ideal, but it sort of worked!

Apparently taking toilet pictures is very serious business. This is my the-camera-went-off-before-I-was-ready look. No smiles just yet.

Okay, here we go. I finally got a smile out at just the right moment before the shutter snapped. And then a split second after that I had to lunge for my camera as it toppled ever-so-precariously near the edge of the back of the toilet.

That was a close call. Note to self: Shut toilet lid before next photo session. That really should go without saying, but I thought I'd throw that out there. ;)

Kate's Having a Giveaway

2010-02-17T08:04:00.000-09:00

Kate over at Lazy Kate Creates is having a giveaway on her blog to celebrate her 100th post. It's some of her delicious handspun, so go on over and check it out!

A little Allison Time

2010-02-15T12:50:00.001-09:00

I'm sadly on day four of a four day weekend. I REALLY don't want to go back to work tomorrow. But, I guess I can't complain, as this last day of the long weekend is pretty great so far.

In our house we have an inside joke about the fact that both Jeff and I really like to have absolutely need our alone time in order to stay sane and functioning as a couple. (Affectionately termed AT for Allison Time and JT for Jeff Time.) Now, Jeff gets his JT every week on Fridays, as I work a five day week and he works four 10 hour days. He gets all of Friday to do what he wants, which is usually a mixture of video games, laundry, chopping wood, and watching ESPN.

I, on the other hand, get maybe 30 minutes a day of AT that I have to sneak in in between the end of my work day and the end of his. And those 30 minutes are such a teaser and totally not fulfilling because I truly don't get to unwind in that amount of time. I barely get the channel turned to trash tv before he walks in the door and I start to feel judged at the fact that I am watching the same episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians for the tenth twentieth time.

But, today I am reveling in the fact that I get a full day of AT. I get to go a whole day without someone else being here to remind me that walking around the house with a blanket wrapped around my lower half is not a good substitution for wearing regular pants. So, right now I'm lounging on the couch blogging and stalking surfing Ravelry while seeing what god-awful tv and I can find to rot my brain.

*sigh* Life is good.

I've spent the majority of the weekend knitting away on the samples for Knit Picks and also working out the design for a piece I'll be submitting to another publication soon.

BUT, all this knitting under a deadline has gotten me a little cranky, so I've decided to work on something for myself.

Until recently, I've been very anti-colorwork and stranded knitting. For some reason, I have had absolutely no interest in learning how to do it nor have I even had an appreciation for it. But, as with anything, my tastes change over time and my interest has been piqued.

I have been admiring the Fiddlehead Mittens by Adrian Bizilia (Rav it) for some time now and after some thought I realized that I needed to try these.

I know, I KNOW. I have way to many UFOs in my basket to start another project. I get teased nightly about the fact that a certain boyfriend of mine still has not received his knitted Mexican wrestling mask. I have a problem and I'm working on it. For now, I will continue to cast on project after project with reckless abandon.

Anyway, I recently had to break my cold sheep pledge and put in a WEBS order. I had to have a specific yarn for a design I'm working on and so I threw a few other skeins of yarn into the cart so that I could qualify for that amazing discount.

I decided to get a few different shades of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light to complete my quest. I hope to have a pair of mittens by the end of the week. And if I don't, well then they have probably disappeared into the black hole that is my knitting basket. It happens.

This could be a problem...

2010-02-10T22:16:00.000-09:00

So, I think it's safe to say that I may have a spinning problem. I know, I know. I've only been doing it for a little over a week, but I already know that I am fully ready to bring on yet another obsessive hobby.

Here is my second attempt at spinning. I have to admit that I don't like it as much as my first attempt, but it was still so fun all the same.

I wanted to try a bulkier yarn this time, however I don't think my spindle has enough heft to do this properly. While some of it spun just fine, for the most part I think it looks woefully underspun, but I'm excited to knit up a nice bulky hat with it anyway. At least this time I didn't have to go through the entire skein twice to unspin where I had spun too much. I like this especially because it's outside of my color comfort zone. Well, it does have some purple in there, but green is definitely a rarity for me.

Here is what my first handspun is up to. I've gotten as far as a twisted rib band on an as-yet-to-be-determined hat. I'm just so stuck on how to proceed. It's a lot of pressure for my first handspun. It's got to be special! I'm sure a stitch pattern will call to me soon. Until then, it sits on the table next to my knitting chair so that I can pet it every once in a while.

Well, as with any new obsession, I need fuel to add to the fire. Cue a fiber sale at Corgi Hill Farm on etsy and I am swimming in enough fiber to last me awhile.

I fell in love with this fiber as soon as I saw it. It's merino and tussah silk in the Pink Cocoa colorway. Go ahead. Click on the link. I'll wait while you go order it for yourself. It's seriously like butter and I am almost too afraid to spin it up for fear it will never live up to the potential of its current state. Almost too afraid. It will most certainly be the next thing I spin.

Never one to resist a red hued fiber, I'm also excited at what this next fiber might turn into. Plus, with Valentine's Day around the corner, I couldn't resist buying some fiber in the color of love. This is mixed BFL top in Crimson Poppy.

And where the sale enters into all of this is right here. Corgi Hill Farm was destashing a bunch of superwash fiber, so of course I snapped up 6 different colorways in 8 oz bundles. I chose three shades of blue and three of pink. I'm excited to have some fun with mixing colors. I'm a little nervous about superwash fiber...does it spin up the same as non-superwash? Hmmm...well, there's only one way to find out.

Now, I'm sure we're all a fan of free stuff, myself included. What I love about buying from etsy and independent shopkeepers is that they personalize the package that they send. I love it when there's a handwritten note with my purchase. Or a piece of candy. Or a mini skein of yarn. You get the idea.

In my box from Corgi Hill Farm there were mini batts! Batt Bites, to be exact. Aren't they adorable?!

Yes, you can say it was a good day. And did you notice that I took my photos outside?! It's finally light enough after work so that I can do that. I no longer have to take my knitting to work with me so that I can shoot some pics during my lunch break. I love almost-spring!

Oh, and to top it all off, I made the most delicious chicken fried rice for dinner. It was certainly labor intensive, but worth it in the end.

Stay tuned for an update on the Adventures in Lace KAL and more spinning...

I'm still here...and I have some good news...

2010-02-06T20:06:00.000-09:00

I had hoped to get a blog in at some point this past week, but every evening when I got home from work, I had no mental energy left to construct a post. So, it's been nearly a week since I last posted and I feel like I have so much to chat about!

First off, this past week I submitted four designs to the Knit Picks Independent Designer Partnership Program. I've been working hard on getting the submissions together and it's been so hard not to share these designs with you all. I've heard that Knit Picks has been super fast at getting back to people, but I still thought that it would take at least a week to get back to me. (This, of course, did not stop me from checking my email every 20 minutes.)

I was super surprised to find an email from them on Friday afternoon saying that they were really interested in all four designs! I was crossing my fingers for them accepting maybe 1 or 2, but I was floored when they wanted all of them. So, now I have to get the samples and patterns ready to send off for the final review. Two of the designs are already knit in Knit Picks yarn, but I have to re-knit the other two. So, I'll be receiving a big box of KP yarn very soon to do just that! It's my understanding that the designs will go through one more round of judging once they receive the samples before getting the final acceptance, but I'm still so excited that I made the first cut!

So, that's my good news. It was a great way to start the weekend and a much needed ego boost in this time of winter blues.

In other knitterly news, I'm plugging away on my Maplewing for the Adventures in Lace KAL. I've finally finished Chart B and will now move on to the decreases in Chart C. FINALLY! Don't get me wrong, this pattern is really well written and I know I'm going to feel a major sense of accomplishment upon finishing it, but I'm so over the wrong side rows. I wouldn't mind if it was all purling, but I actually have to think because it's some purling and some p2togging. I don't want to have to count! I want to space out and take a break after all the counting on the right side!

Here's a couple shots of it. Don't mind the awful photography. Our house has horrible lighting.

As you can see in the 2nd photo, there are currently 9 edgey pointy things (yes, that's the technical term). And from what I can tell from some of Anne Hanson's photos of the finished Maplewing, there are at least 30 pointies in the finished piece. *Sigh* Hey, at least I'm on the decreasing charts, so hopefully things will progress a lot more quickly now.

So, I guess I'll be working on my Maplewing until my box of yarn from Knit Picks arrives. And then I'll be knitting until my fingers fall off to get the samples done as quickly as possible. I can't wait until I get to share my stealth projects with all of you!

My First Handspun!

2010-01-31T12:49:00.001-09:00

I initially thought it would take me forever to get through those 4 oz. of beautiful fiber that I blogged about yesterday. But then the obsessive side of me came out and I had it all spun by the end of the night last night!

Before I got too far in, I decided to search on YouTube for a tutorial on drop spinning. There were several choices, but the one I found most helpful was from Megan LaCore, from The Art of Megan. I watched it once all the way through (it's about 10 minutes long) and then once more as I was learning how to do everything.

And that's all it took to get me rolling. I was so excited to see the yarn taking shape. I was even more excited that I could do it as I was sitting watching tv. (I get a little stir crazy when I have to do things without any distractions in the background. Blame it on my ADD.)

I was just spinning along, not paying attention to how much fiber I had used. When I went to reach for another piece, I couldn't find any. I didn't even realize I had gone through the entire amount!

I then unwound the yarn from the spindle onto the back of a chair (following the instructions from another one of Megan's videos) and then soaked it to set the twist. Then I hung it up to dry overnight.

This morning I was so excited to wake up and see how it turned out. (Not as excited as a child on Christmas morning, but almost...) I was a little bit disappointed to see that I had waaayyyy overspun it. It was crimpy and I knew that I would not be able to use it.

So, I set out to see if I could salvage it. I went through the entire skein and pulled out the extra twist. I just went along and spread the twist down the yarn. Luckily, there were some parts that I had underspun, so it worked itself out. The yarn was still slightly damp, so that helped out a lot too. I did have to cut the yarn once, as it had become so twisted upon itself that it had gotten really tangled. But I just tied it together and continued on my merry way.

After a couple hours, I had gotten all the kinks out and the yarn looked much better. I was going to soak it again, but the yarn was laying flat on its own with no crimps, so I'm going to forgo that extra step. It doesn't have to be perfect! I'll have plenty more chances to get it right.

Okay, enough chit chat. You're here to see the yarn, right? Well, here are a couple photos of the finished product. I couldn't get the light just right, so the color is slightly off, but it's the best I can do with the daylight I'm working with right now.

I stupidly forgot to measure out about how much yardage I had produced, so I have no idea how much is there. But I love it! It reminds me a lot of Noro Iro, with the same twist and bulky weight. Of course, there are sections where it got too thin and other sections where it's too bulky, but overall I think I did fairly well for a first try.

I think I'll be making a hat for myself out of it. I hope there'll be enough...otherwise, some lucky person with a smaller noggin than my own will be gifted with a very special FO.

I'm off to get my Maplewing Shawl in order for the Adventures in Lace KAL that begins tomorrow!

Somebody Stop Me

2010-01-30T14:08:00.003-09:00

In the spirit of reinvigorating myself in this time of uninspiredness, I have been dreaming of learning to spin. I have been researching spinning wheels but, as you all may know, this is not an everyday purchase. In addition to the higher price, there are so many different types of wheels out there that it can overwhelm a girl. Most of the sites I've been checking out strongly recommend trying out a few different wheels so that you can get a feel for what you want.

However, living way the hell up here in Alaska, I don't really have that option without a spendy trip to Juneau or Anchorage. While for most people a trip to a big city in their state might cost a tank of gas, getting out of my tiny town is quite the process. I'd either have to take an 8 hour ferry ride to Juneau with my car and spend a couple nights in a hotel there until the next ferry back to Skagway; or I would have to drive two solid days (or one VERY long day) to get to the big city of Anchorage and also spend a couple nights in a hotel. And this is even saying that any place in either of those cities even has a LYS that carries spinning wheels, of which I'm not at all sure.

So trying out a wheel is a little out of the question for me. Now you can see why this is such a difficult decision. I have encountered a few people who bought their wheel sight unseen based upon the recommendations of others. It appears I will more than likely have to fall into this category.

And the next big hurdle is the price. Last year I would have thrown the wheel on my credit card and paid for it later. But this year I'm trying really hard to be a little more financially responsible, and teaching myself some patience along the way. So, I'm setting aside a little bit of money each month until I have enough to buy a wheel...hopefully sometime this summer. This is no easy feat for the girl who in childhood used to spend birthday money even before it was in my hot little hand. I need to take a cue from my sister, who would have 5 or 6 years of birthday money saved up and still not want to spend it!

If any of you have any spinning wheel advice, I'm all ears.

In the meantime, I decided to spend about $20 on a spindle and bought some beautiful fiber to try my hand at drop spinning.

The spindle itself is made of wood from the buckeye tree, which will always have a place in this OSU grad's heart. :)

And the fiber I got from Wool Gatherings on etsy. It's absolutely delicious. Here are some gratuitous fiber shots for you.

So, now you know what I'll be working on this weekend! What about you all? What knitterly things are you working on?

Oh, and I've also been trying my hand at a little baking lately. I had a bunch of apples that I needed to get rid of, so I decided to bake a pie for Jeff, since apple is his favorite. And I added a bit of my own design to the top. What you do you think? ;)

Adventures in Lace KAL

2010-01-26T17:30:00.002-09:00

Thanks to all the kind notes and comments regarding my uninspiredness. I think it's just a case of the mid-winter ho-hums. I took an evening off from knitting last night (it was bowling night) and today I feel much better about things.

One thing I am getting excited about is for the Adventures in Lace KAL, organized by my blogfriend, Kate, of Lazy Kate Creates. It starts in February and I'm excited at the prospects of what pattern I'll choose. I've been meaning to write about it before now, but I'm a bit blog-illiterate and couldn't figure out how to add the KAL button to my sidebar. (I still haven't figured it out, but I'm working on it. ;) )

ETA: Check out my sidebar. I grew some brain cells and figured it out. Well, it was actually a simple Google search. Who knew?

I'm currently torn between using my Maplewing Shawl (yipes! I did not realize that I cast on for this way back in September.) and choosing a new and exciting project.

On one hand, having the Maplewing be my KAL project, I'll be sure to steadily work on it and maybe-possibly-there's-a-chance-but-it's-a-shot-in-the-dark it might get finished before I turn 40. (um, that's in 9 years for all of you keeping track.)

OR, I could choose something that's not in my pile of UFOs! Before cold-sheeping it beginning the first of the year, I put in a last order at Webs and got a delicious hank of Madeline Tosh Prairie in the Clematis colorway. I'm dying to use it and so I think this just might be the perfect situation.

I am in lurve with Haruni by Emily Ross (Rav it) or one of Anne Hanson's amazing designs, such as the Twinings Stole, the Autumn Arbor Stole, or the Birnam Wood Wrap?

Decisions, decisions....which would you choose?