Benjamin did state that they want to do an event in Southern California.  I’m hoping it’s sooner rather than later.  I’m hoping (fingers crossed) maybe as early as November or early December.  I know that November is hard on the heels of Stitches East, but seeing as they wanted to do a smaller event here, perhaps it’s doable.

Now I’m off to emailing the vendor coordinator for Vogue Knitting Live!  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.  I hope my blog didn’t jinx it!

Don’t get me wrong, we have several retreat events: Griffin Dyeworks Fiber Retreat and the Studio 66 Fiber Retreat (both of which I someday hope to attend) as well as a few small, localized events like Griffin Dyeworks Fiber Frolic (which are held 3 or 4 times a year), and WeFF but nothing on the scale of, say,  Maryland Sheep & Wool, Rhinebeck or Stitches.  It’s enough to make a SoCal knitter travel the country, and I have.

Well, that MAY be about the change!  Earlier this week I stumbled on some exciting news:

STITCHES MAY BE COMING TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!

Sorry for the all-caps, but I am so excited about the prospect that all I can do is shout it.  Read all about it here, and definitely leave a comment to let XRX Knitting Universe know that there’s not only a market for a Stitches event here, we are STARVED for some larger-scale fiber festivals here.  If you’re shy about leaving comments on blogs, not to worry.  There are several threads on Ravelry (okay, so some of them I started) that you can voice your resounding “oh hell yes” on the subject, but the main one is here.

If this Happily Ever After DOES come true, expect to see me there at Dizzy Blonde Studios in the marketplace having a great time pimping our wares!  In the meantime, I plan to keep a sharp eye on the turn of events, and keep you all posted, and you should go tell Benjamin Levisay, in any form you can, (he’s on Facebook, Twitter & Ravelry and very friendly on all three) that yes, we need Stitches in our region!

However, I have completed one pattern, and it’s ready for it’s debut!

Full Tilt

(I’m having a hard time deciding which is cuter, the model or the hat. Okay, I admit it. The adorable model wins, but just by a smidge… )

If some of you are saying “hey, that looks kinda familiar,” you’d be right.  I took a page from Hollywood’s book and decided to reinvent a pattern I had previously written and submitted to a design contest.  I re-engineered it to use my Dirty Blonde line of yarn instead of a discontinued yarn.   Also, I took the slant of the cables and lace in a different, more pleasing direction. And now it fits a wee head much better than the original did.

Pattern Stats:

Skill Set:

→Basic Chart Reading
→Basic Cable Knitting
→Basic Lace Knitting
→Ability or Willingness to Knit in the Round
Needles: US size 5 [3.75mm]
Yarn: Less than 1 skein [260 yds/238m; 4oz./100g.] Dizzy Blonde Studios: Dirty Blonde DK Superwash Merino; Martha colorway
Gauge: 24 sts/30 rows in 4 inches, stockinette
Finished Dimensions: 16.5” circumference; 6.5” fitted height

The pattern is selling at the introductory price of just $1.49, and you can find it on Ravelry, at  Dizzy Blonde Studios, and eventually here in the sidebar.

BTW, the adorable model is  my darling 3-yo step granddaughter, Little Miss M.  Yes.  She’s already 3.

That being said….hello again!  It is my theory that I was suffering from summer ennui, compounded on not having a whole hell of a lot, fiber-wise, to talk about, having spent the last couple of months helping my husband (and by helping, I mean, suppressing the urge to smack him around a little) pull his new Roman reenactment group together in time for our first event ever:  Old Fort MacArthur Days.

So as not to bore you with my utter Rometardedness, the fiber-applicable picture I left large, the rest are thumbnails that you can enbiggen by clicking.

(Go ahead and click on the gladiator picture, you know you wanna cuz they’re hawt!)

Shiny hubby’s hard work payed off.  We won the Esprit de Corps award!  The highest award this event bestows and a fete that is practically unheard of for a small, first-year group such as ours.

So now that I have my life back, I have been knitting and have the evidence to prove it!

May found me cranking out a couple of Noodle Cozy (Rav link) for my nephews.  The first one was for 10-year-old Michael who needed it for his portrayal of Paul Bunyan in his school play.  So, of course, the minute I gave it to him, his little brother, Joey just had to have one too!

The Red is knit out of Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice with the original stitch count and gauge to accommodate all those brains Mikey must be encompassing in that melon of his.  Joey’s is knit out of Lion Brand Wool Ease and finishes off his “radical skater dude” look perfectly!  Dang my brother sure makes some cute kids!

June was a dye fest for the first installment of the Mean Girls Yarn Club: The Mean Girl Strikes Back which was due to ship in July.  (You can find the “big reveal” here)

July had me back to the drawing board working on 4 new designs.  Well, okay, that’s a lie.   1 old design which I am reengineering to be knit in my Dirty Blonde yarn; 1 finished design that I just need to stop dragging my feet on and finish writing up so I can publish it; and 2 more old design that had been sent off to be published in a book, only to have the book deal fall through for the author, returning the licensing of that pattern to me. (psssssssst, this means you may be seeing some new patterns coming your way in the very near future!)

Even with all that going on, I was able to whip out a February Baby Sweater, aka Baby Sweater on Two Needles (rav link) from Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman.

The entire baby cardi took 1 ball of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.  1 ball!  That’s it!!!!  Granted, Meilena was 3 weeks premature and a petite little thing, so I used a sport weight instead of the DK that is recommended using US size 6 (4.0mm) needles, but she was still swimming in it.

However, despite the 100+ degree temps, the minute we put it on her for the picture, she stopped fussing, calming right down.  A few seconds later, she was thoroughly engrossed with the daisy buttons, and decided the cardi was good enough to eat!  I believe she has extremely good taste!

First, the release of Annie Modesitt’s new book:  1000 Fabulous Knit Hats.  Even though none of my hats were amongst the winning ones, I have 4 of them in there.  I know!  I contributed a whole .04% of that book.  I only wish I knew which of my hats are featured.  I think I submitted pictures of at least 6 of them.  I guess I’ll have to buy the book to find out.  Just think, I can now include the sentence “As Featured in 1000 Fabulous Knit Hats” to the pattern of those selected!

And as if that isn’t enough, one of my patterns has been selected to be featured in the 2011 Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar.  My Clamber cap is Miss February 21, 2011!  She is all a-twitter…see?

And last, but certainly not least, I’m getting published in a honest-t0-goodness magazine:  I will have a pattern in a upcoming issue of Yarn Forward.  I’m not quite sure yet which issue the pattern will be in, so if anyone subscribes to Yarn Forward and sees an Eton Cap pattern by Laura Wilson-Martos, please let me know!

Also, if anyone has any extra pattern-writing mojo, can they send it my way?  I’ve got 2 patterns I need to transfer from my head and scrawled notes into charts and written instructions, and also test knit 2 more sock patterns before publishing them.  But, it seems like all I want to do is knit on the February Baby Sweater for my newest little niece, Meilena.

Look at the hands on her!  She’s a natural-born knitter if ever I saw one!  You’d be hard-pressed not to go all melty at the adorableness!

Don’t know what the Mean Girls Yarn Club is?  Find all the details you could ever ask for here!

See you tomorrow!

In addition  to listing some of our most popular yarns, I will have 2 new limited edition/limited quantities colorways in a new fiber content, a merino/bamboo blend.  Wanna sneak peak?

60% superwash merino / 30% bamboo / 10% nylon

Sock weight (18 wpi 7sts/1 inch on US size 1-2)

440yd/110 g. skein

These colorways are one-offs, but gorgeous nonetheless. The reason that they are one-offs is that I a while ago I bought up some base stock from a dyer who was going in a new direction.  If these prove to be popular and there is a demand for it, I’ll see about adding these to the inventory.

So mark your calendars, update at Dizzy Blonde Studios scheduled for tomorrow morning!

Well, today’s is gonna be a quicky, just to check in to let everyone know that I am still around, just up to my eyeballs in current and soon-to-be-current projects and “ideas”.

I’m just wrapping up this year’s Mean Girls Yarn Club, shipments will be going out today and tomorrow, so all you Mean Girls, better get your asses out and wait by your mailboxes. But while the wrap-up is going on, the ramp-up for MGYC part Deux is under way. Almost all the ducks are in their proverbial row, and just waiting to give MGYC v.1.0 its proper send-off, before I start making grand announcements about its sequel.

I’m dyeing like a madwoman so that I’ll have enough stock (hopefully what I consider “enough” is actually enough) for Estes Park Wool Market. This is a juried event (you gotta compete with other vendors to even get in), and every vendor has to submit an application along with a booth and product description in the hopes of getting in. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I’m working on a new design, one that is the feminine compliment to my Washburne Scarf.  I have only 12 more rows of knitting, and then the drafting begins.  At least the charts are already done, that’s 60% of the work.  I’ve really enjoyed working on this pattern.  So much so, that I have knit the cabled motif 5 friggin times.  Which reminds me…I need to book an appointment with my adorable model as well!

Also, I just booked my flight to NC in October. Yes, I do realize that it is only April, but dude, round trip airfare was cheap cheap cheap! I couldn’t resist. So, I will be attending SAFF this year as a vendor, sharing a booth with my good friend Aimee (aka FunFairieGirl) of Fairie Knits.

I just did the coolest thing yesterday; the Lime and Violet Live on Facebook.  It’s a webcam’d chat room where they host virtual S & B’s every Wednesday & Saturday.  I did it yesterday, and I gotta say that it was a lot of fun, even though I was a major spaaz.  Apparently when I get nervous I chatter along faster than a dolphin.  Gotta get working on that, because, you see, they want me to do a trunk show some time this month.  I know!  So, I’ll be getting more details as to the details on the trunk show.  I’d sure love to showcase some of the gorgeous things you all have knit from my yarn!

And on the non-fibery side of life, we’re getting ready for a wedding at Casa de Martos.  Yup, Junior’s tying the knot to a wonderful crocheter in 6 weeks.  The wedding activities are really beginning to ramp up now.  Come May, we’ll have a house full of nephews, nieces, daughters and granddaughters (yay, we get the young crowd) for a few days of non-stop wedding hubbabaloo.  I think by then I will welcome a break from my all-dye-all-weekend-long-every-weekend-until-I-dye…errrrr, DIE, schedule.  Constant comings and goings will be a nice rest.

I know, I know, the neglect I’ve shown my etsy store is criminal.  Therefore, I will be doing a mini update next week; most likely Tuesday, but it could possibly even be Wednesday.  I always have every intention of blogging/updating/emailing/tweeting, but somehow it doesn’t always get done.  Must be age.  They say the memory’s the first to go.

What was I saying?

I love knitting socks, but whenever I knit a pair for me, they’d go ignored, unloved, neglected, carefully folded in my sock drawer.  Unfortunately, when I wear hand-knit socks all day, the bottoms of my feet would feel like they were on fire from walking on the nubs of the purl stitches the entire time.

So this design features the sole of the foot knit in such a way that the smoother, knit side is against the skin, thus making it more bearable for this or any other tenderfoot to wear their beautiful hand-knit socks, and it’s engineered in such a way that this fete is achieved while never purling a single sole stitch!

This sock is knitted toe-up with a short-row heel.  The top of the foot is knitted in a 2 x 2 rib which then transforms into a very pleasing collection of 4 x 4 intertwining cables up the leg, ending in a simple 2×2 cuff.  The pattern uses 1 skein of Dizzy Blonde Studios Superwash Sock (go figure), size 2 needles, and either a working knowledge of cable knitting, or the desire to acquire such knowledge.  The ribbing on top of the foot makes it so that they can fit a wider size-range.  Knit in gauge, they fit woman’s size 7.5 – 9 feet.

The pattern is now available on Ravelry.  If you’re not a member of Ravelry (which poses the question:  huh???!) You can purchase the pattern  at Dizzy Blonde Studios.  And if for some reason you forget where either of those are, I have links to both, not only on my sidebar, but on my pattern page as well.  Enjoy!

One of my problems is that I have all these wonderful ideas for knit designs…some of them even using Dizzy Blonde Studios yarn.  Unfortunately, I don’t have enough hours in the day, arms on my bodies, hands on my arms, or brain cells, to accomplish it all in what I consider a timely manner…which is to say…I want it done YESTERDAY!  Thank goodness that there are others picking up the slack, and some amazing patterns are beginning to surface, using DBS yarns.  Here are 2 of my favorites.

La Cumparsita is a wonderfully designed shawl by Marnie MacLean.  Yes, THAT Marnie MacLean…the Marnie of  Marnie, speak! and Twist Collective fame.  La Cumparsita uses just 1 skein of DBS, Dizzy Blonde Superwash Sock!  Even thought the finished product is deceptively intricate thing of beauty, the pattern is written so well that it’s relatively simple to follow.  I knitted my first one in Veronica/Lac Noir and added some beading in the “eyes” of the oriel lace.

Some day, I’ll do a second one, probably in Scarlett/Tragic Cherry, beading that one as well.  I highly recommend checking gauge on this pattern.  I didn’t, and ended up with something a little smaller than I would have liked.  For the next one, I’ll go up a needle size or 2.  This pattern is available on both Marnie’s website (linked above) or on Ravelry.  I cannot recommend it enough!

The second design was released at the end of 2008, but I don’t know if I ever showcased it here, and it’s well worth it.

These are the first pair mitts/gloves/mittens/wristers I have ever knit.  Actually, to date, they are the ONLY pair I have ever knit.  Again, I was astonished with how easy a knit they really were, which can only be attributed to the ingenuity of the designer.  Also?  You could probably get 2 pairs of Mo Autumn Mitts out of a single skein of Dizzy Blonde Studios Superwash Sock.  Celia knit hers out of the Woecake colorway, which is an infinitely better yarn choice than mine for showing off the pretty lace panels going up the back of the hand.

I knit mine in a custom-dyed colorway I call “Momoze”…a tribute to my little 4-legged, bewhiskered, bottle-cap-batting companion who is no longer with me.  This way, whenever I wear them (and I still do, and quite often especially this winter), I keep his memory immediately at hand.

If you’re looking for a quick, simple, beautiful knit, I highly recommend Missouri Autumn Mitts.  Celia-Anne blogs too:  CeliaAnne Knits.  You can find this and all her other patterns at Art Fire, Etsy or on Ravelry.

Tenderfoot is just about to be published.  I found a major engineering error in the pattern, and it’s taken me a while to work it out.  Prototype has been reknit, the pattern is completed, along with charts and photos with my new official Dizzy Blonde Studios model, all that’s required is about a 30-45 minutes of uninterrupted, non-dumb-question-of-the-day-answering, silence in which I can concentrate on uploading the pattern, writing copy and then creating the button and all the links necessary to get this pattern self-published and done…so probably next year.  (I kid…I kid).  Actually, probably next week.

So, the first ever Mean Girls Yarn Club year is coming to a close.  Our members are receiving their awesome February installment as I type.  It sounds like my partner in meanitude, Bobbie, of House of Awesome, with dyeing assistance from Anne, the talent behind Alpha B Yarn did a smash-up job this month.  Hopefully I’ll be able to judge for myself once I get home.  Hell, I may even blow off the gym for this.

We have one more installment going out in April, and the Mean Girls Yarn Club, virgin run will have come to a close.  But fret now, my fellow meanies, I’m happy to announce that sign-ups will begin in May for Mean Girls Yarn Club, Part Deux!  The theme and Mean Girls have already been chosen, indy vendors have been contacted, and I’m brushing up on my nom-making skills!  Again, membership will be limited to 50-ish members, and again we have 2 payment options.

Also, I’ve have decided to have a booth at 2 fiber festivals this year:  Estes Park Wool Market, in Estes Park Colorado, June 10-13 and Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair, aka SAFF, October 22-24. Yes, because I have so much spare time, that I’m not stressing over dyeing up enough stock for these events.  Nope, not one bit.   GAAAAAAAAH!