Silence

Not a whole lot to share going on here at Chez Emma. I've sent off several garments into the world to await their publishing fate, but mum's the word so I have to wait to share them with you. Some smaller accessories are on my needles right now, those too remaining secret. In other, more general news:

• If you follow me on Twitter you've noticed that I'm single and beginning to explore the world of online dating. It's interesting, to say the least! With the exception of being catfished once, I've had a pretty good success rate (of at least having non-boring first dates) and there are a few great guys I am now getting to know.
• I painted my bathroom this Sunday, quelle excitement! Whoever previously painted it chose a disgusting booger yellow color, and painted the trim to match. We now have more appropriate cool blue walls with white trim.
• Hungering for some stylish, fiber-y goodness to read? I have a piece on neon knits over at the Webs blog (also features my new haircut) and a Wallpaper Cowl styling post for Holla Knits. Ch-ch-check 'em out!

Handmade Holidays

So I'm a little late on this one--sorry! Things have been crazy over here, both in the designing and personal sense. Here's a quick round-up of the few handmade gifts I made this past holiday season.

A pair of Corseted Mitts for my little sister, in Dream in Color Classy.

A bunny nugget for my Secret Santa at work

The manicure prize pack from the HK Holiday KAL--crocheted the amigurumi nail polish and sewed the clutch bag behind it all

I also did some crafty work in the kitchen! I made coffee infused bourbon and lavender rosemary infused vodka for my parents. It was my first time playing with infusing alcohol, sooo easy! I followed 'recipes' for the first time since I was afraid of screwing it up, but next time I think I'll make up some combinations of my own. In the sweets department, I made peanut butter cups, apple cider caramels, and dark chocolate almond coffee sea salt bark. These went to my parents and I brought the extras into work where they were well-received.

All in all, pretty pleased with myself! I was happy to be able to give some great handmade gifts without stressing myself out.

December Photo-A-Day Challenge

I did it! To see the prompt for each day, check out Fat Mum Slim's original post explaining the challenge.

As silly of a goal as this was, I'm pleased with myself that I managed to complete it. I think I only posted one day late! This was a great exercise in creativity--it encouraged me to take photos of subjects I wouldn't normally and encouraged me to take more Instagram photos overall. I tried to mix it up and use as many filters as possible but I don't think I caught them all. I'd like to do more photo-a-day challenges in the future and hopefully will accrue enough photos to steal Katie's idea of making an Instagram wall.

2012 In Review

Top Row, L-R: Holla Back Tank, Little Whiskers, Erquy, Portico, Wavy Gravy Mittens Bottom Row, L-R: Wallpaper Cowl, Holla Back Pullover, Dreamer's Braided Cardigan, Striated, Scallop of the Sea

Goodbye 2012, it's been a blast! Above are my projects finished this year (I technically started my Holla Back Tank in the end of 2011 but finished it in January.) 10 total, 5 of which are my own designs--very cool! I started designing in the fall of 2011 so I really took off this year. I already have designs lined up for 2013 and can't wait until I can share them all with you!

Some other great moments of 2012:

• Started this blog and joined Twitter, both of which have helped me make new awesome online friends and develop my relationship with existing ones. I love knowing that I'm connecting with people all over!
• Continued to grow my animal herd by taking in Tsuki, our second cat, and Josie, a lady bunny friend for Mr T.
• Discovered the paleo/primal food community. I'm not always 100% with it but I'm really happy that it's helped me be more mindful about what I eat and it's increased my creativity in the kitchen.
• Shot the Shit Knitters Say video with work, which was SO MUCH FUN and snowballed into a much bigger hit than I had expected.

See ya next year, world! And watch out, I'm planning to OWN THAT MOTHER.

Experimentation

I decided to try something different and fun this month--the December Photo a Day Challenge! I don't consider myself a photographer, though I did take it in high school and have fond memories of developing my own film. For this, I'm simply using my phone camera as an exercise in dedication (completing a task I said I will), memory (remembering to take a photo each day), and to see a month's worth of photos come together! I'm posting them to Twitter and Instagram tagged with #fmsphotoaday if you'd like to follow along, but I'll post them all here at the end of the month in a photo roundup post. I've been working on a little selfish knitting with some sparkly holiday-themed self-striping yarn by Gynx Yarns.

It's Glitz Sock in Party Dress. As soon as Laura posted it to Twitter I knew I HAD to have it. Immediately started singing "Silver & Gold" from Rudolph in my head! I'm doing toe-up stockinette socks with an afterthought heel, perfect veg-out knitting before the designing grind starts up again (hint: it will very soon!)

I also managed to snag 2 1/4yds of fabric on Friday that I've had my eye on for months.

It looks just like knitting (I think) and it's in such perfect bright colors. Original price was $12.99/yd, which is too pricey for my tastes for jersey fabric--no matter how cool the print! But time was on my side and my total for those 2 1/4yds was $12 and change, SCORE! I have just enough to squeak out a Furstenberg-esque classic wrap dress. I need more work appropriate dresses since a lot of mine are tight and/or short, so this will perfectly fill that niche. (What can I say, I have a weakness for clubby clothing.)

In a few weeks I can share some handmade holiday gifts I've been working on--and they're not all knitting or sewing related. Stay tuned! Looking to squeeze in some last-minute handmade gifts yourself? The Holla Knits Holiday KALs are going strong and if you're ambitious there's still time to jump in, especially for Black Swan.

Halloween Party Photo Post

Our Halloween party was Saturday night and it was a smashing success!

I was Fionna from the gender-swapped episode of Adventure Time. Super easy costume, just had to make the skirt and the hat (which has two ears, one is folded down in the photo.) I also helped make Erik's costume:

He was a dead version of Nibbler from Futurama, hence the limp eyestalk. I helped him make his headpiece and made the cape and shirt. I have to say, I was probably more excited than one should be about their boyfriend wearing a diaper. I was happy that he went all the way and got into character! Halloween is important, yo!

We had a bevy of jello shots, including ones that glowed under black light thanks to this awesome site.

The night also included: homemade cupcakes, mini tacos, a bonfire with s'mores, face painting and lots of music and dancing! It was the perfect mix of new friends and old, everyone mingled with ease and there were no cliques. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I'm glad we celebrated it with style! Now the weather just needs to behave so I can go to another party tomorrow night!

Rhinebeck Recap

Saturday was my first time ever at Rhinebeck! I went as part of the Webs bus trip and I'm glad I got to FINALLY see what everyone raves about each fall. Want to see what I scored?

A sweater's worth of Miss Bab's Yowza Whatta Skein in Coral

Gorgeous porcelain buttons from Melissa Jean

I gave myself a decent (but strict) budget since I'm trying to keep my stash under control. Especially with designing, I don't get as much time to knit for myself so I feel a little guilty whenever I bring more yarn home! I've been a fan of Miss Bab's yarn for a while and wanted to see it in person and decided it was worth a splurge. I am IN. LOVE. with those buttons, I think they look like little waffle cones! I also got a nice brick of Emmentaler cheese. All in all, I stayed under my budget including buying food there so I was a happy camper. I hit the artichoke stand as soon as we arrived since I had heard about it on Ravelry and that was the best thing I ate there! I got to meet several lovely Ravelry/twitter friends which was really cool. And I got to see this guy:

Giant bunneh!!!!

I used my time on the bus wisely and knit this hat out of Berroco Lodge:

I made up the pattern on the fly and I'm pleased with how it turned out! It has a cabled brim and some tucks in the back to encourage slouchy-ness. I've been a little preoccupied with Lodge after seeing Crosstrail and actually bought two balls of it during Stitches East from our own booth. I loved seeing the color changes in action and it knits up fast--even with ripping out my progress I still managed to finish the hat before we got back home. Erik tried it on and it looks good on him too, so it might wind up being a shared hat!

Quick links

Just a little drive-by linkage here. I have a Tuesday's Tip on the Webs blog about converting flat patterns to knitting in the round, check it out!

And I will be at the Valley Yarns Trunk Show tomorrow night (9/20, 6-8pm at Webs), more details are here. I'll be talking about two of my designs, one of which is a never-before-seen sweater for the upcoming Holiday catalog!

Mysterious

That right there is 9 skeins of a gorgeous grey mystery yarn! We had a staff party in the warehouse after work on Friday and it was tons of fun. Leslie Ann, one of the retail store managers, came up with a scavenger hunt game for us--so picture 30 adults running around a yarn store like little kids! Kids drinking beer. There was also a raffle, where I acquired the above mystery yarn. Anyone have an idea what it could be? It's 6-ply, looks bulky to me and I think it has some alpaca or other fiber content in addition to merino since it's a little hairy, but super soft. The label on the bag is the most helpful clue, assuming someone who works in a yarn store that carries this yarn sees my post! I'm 99.9% sure it's not anything that Webs already carries so that knocks out a bunch of contenders.

I also bought some gorgeous yarn this week: the new Valley Yarns BFL Fingering Hand Dyed.

Gail has done it again! That woman has magic in her dyepot, I swear. ;) I have an idea in mind for that pair but nothing concrete yet--still in the swatching stage, and I'm trying to buckle down and focus on my KAL pullover. Of course, now the design ideas are flowing thick and fast! I even woke up in the middle of the night and thought of a few more touches to add to a concept I had a few months ago. I wrote myself a quick memo on my phone in case I forgot my additions when I woke up this morning!

Old and new

What better way to say goodbye to summer than to finish up a lingering tank top? This is Heather Dixon's Erquy--I started it in May and used my extra knitting time to finish it up a few weeks ago. The pattern calls for knitted straps, but after reading that others found they stretched out over time, I opted to buy ribbon and lingerie strap adjusters to make adjustable straps. I love the fit and the effect of this yarn! Especially now as a designer, I like knitting other people's patterns and seeing how they think. I think it's really clever how a classic chevron stitch pattern is enlarged to create the shaping of the tank.

Does the old-tymey photo effect look familiar? I jumped on the Instagram bandwagon this weekend. I don't completely understand the concept of 'followers' yet, but if you're interested my username is emmawelford. This is my wait-summer-can't-be-over-yet! project and my first crochet garment. I'm loving the colors of Charlemont and the rhythm of crochet is a welcome change to my fiber life.

In the personal department, I'm on Day 8 of my Whole30. I've been primal for a few months but decided I wanted to push myself further for a few reasons. Though I didn't eat a lot of junk food previously, I noticed my sugar cravings more after turning primal and realized that it doesn't matter how much or little you eat--addiction is still addiction, and I felt addicted! I'd like to get to a place where I don't feel like I NEED sugar on a daily basis, and where treating myself to something reasonable doesn't start a landslide effect.  I discovered I like willpower exercises (feels good in a slightly sadistic way!) Not to mention I'm excited to see at the end of it how my attitudes towards food will have changed. I've already tried and liked so many more new foods since becoming primal--sardines, chicken liver, kombucha, goat's milk yogurt--and I know the list can only continue to grow!

Orange you glad...

(from top left: new hair, neon nails, rainbow knitting, some sewing) Decided to join in on the Tangerine Tango (Pantone's color of the year) fun with some orange streaks and a new nail polish! I've always been an orange fan so it's nice to see it getting some lovin' this year. This is my first neon polish--I attempted to accent my ring finger with a coral holo polish layer on top but it the neon underneath interrupts the holo effect. Still looks pretty!

I'm currently between design projects so I'm enjoying some personal knitting time, which I haven't had in months. I'm working on a summery top in this cool ombre-shifting rainbow yarn that was a freebie, and it's so relaxing to work from someone else's pattern for a change. Also using my design break to bust out a friend's birthday present on my sewing machine. He chose the fabrics and while I'm not sold on the combo it doesn't matter as long as he loves it!

Older (but not necessarily wiser)

Life has been good lately. Here are the highlights of the past two weeks: Celebrated my birthday, my two best friends' birthdays AND my boyfriend's birthday! I have somehow unintentionally surrounded myself with fellow Aries for the past few years. In contrast to what popular culture espouses, I really like getting older. I also like the ease of adult birthdays. Since I don't find them requiring/encouraging as much to-do as when I was younger, it's pretty much like just waking up in a good mood. You get to feel a little special, people wish you happy birthday, that's that. We did have a party at my house but it was really just a no-pressure excuse to have my closest friends over.

I jumped on the bandwagon and read The Hunger Games trilogy. Someone had left the first book in the break room at work as a freebie, and since I knew I had no chance of getting it from a library anytime in the next year I took it home with me. Read it that night, promptly ordered the other books off Amazon and then read those back to back the night they arrived. I really liked it, though parts fell into that brain fluff category of reading (Twilight, I'm looking at you.)

I'm working on a little something-something for the next Valley Yarns catalog. It's in Northampton Bulky, one of my favorite Valley Yarns--so much so that I reviewed it in a video for the store. (Want a hint? Check out the two colors I hold up to the camera about 20 seconds in. I was showing an example of how well solid and heathered colors play together and fell in love with that combination!) Best thing about designing in a bulky yarn is that no matter how many times I have to rip that sucker out I still feel like I'm making progress!

The premiere issue of Holla Knits debuts April 16th! I am SO. FREAKING. EXCITED.  This will be my first non-Valley pattern release and I can't wait to see the reception. Allyson's method of blogging sneak peeks is genius, and has made me excited to see the other designer's patterns. I did an interview with Johnny of Fiberstory TV last month that will be released as part of the blog tour, and maybe....a giveaway on here? Shhh, you  didn't hear it from me!

I leave you with this:

Kitteh in a bag. For your snorgleing convenience, of course.

The Beginning

Hello everyone! Welcome to my new home on the web. It's a little sparse now, but I promise some furnishings in the near future--a comfy pillow or a cozy throw? Metaphorically speaking of course! Want to find out All About Me? Stick around! There will be some designing, a lot of knitting, a splash of kitty pictures and more than a few peeks into my life. It's okay, I'm cool with voyeurs.

Substance will be attempted, but not guaranteed.

Check out my designer interview over at Holla Knits to learn how I started knitting and designing!