Archives for August 2014

Here’s a question: how many books can one author sign in 7 minutes?

Answer: 42 – a full case (and a cramped hand, but that’s another story).

And how do I know this? In preparation for book signings at Stitches Midwest this coming weekend, I signed lots (and lots) of copies of Knits That Breathe. Hope to see you there!

On another note, I can’t wait to share the details of this new design, coming for fall:

Meanwhile, summer in the city is in full swing, with all its most compelling distractions on display. For example, these new temporary sculpture exhibits at Millenium Park:

Concerts at the Pritzker Pavilion, the perfect picnic venue:

The “living” art fountain display at Millennium Park:

And the majesty of several spectacular summer storms, complete with dramatic cloud formations, lightning strikes on the tallest antennae in the city, and claps of thunder that send the cat scurrying for her “safe place” in the apartment, otherwise known as “under the dining room table.”

That is, when she’s not helping me knit:

Working on new swatches all week, in preparation for some fantastic surprises this fall:

Experimenting with new stitches and embellishments, which are always fun to audition before stitching them oh-so-carefully onto the final project. I was irrationally pleased to find a home for a cherished vintage button from the stash:

A little bit cross-eyed from this working up mini-landscape of cable crosses:

It’s always a challenge is finding the best foundation textures for a new project. Sometimes it falls into place quickly, when the *perfect* stitch pattern leaps out at me from the pages of one of my stitch dictionaries. More often, though, I’ll swatch four or five different stitches to discover the best one for a particular yarn. Here’s one example: