adventures in FNKC

This girl had a fun Friday night at Knitted Together's FNKC (Friday Night Knit Club) Ravelry party. We each got our own Ravelry 'my name is' buttons so we could put screen names together with real life knitters. (I've always wanted one of these buttons! Yes, I am that nerdy!)

There were about 30 knitters who came out to work on their projects (and enjoy the delicious appetizers and desserts.) It was fantastic to meet so many fun ladies and I loved chatting with everyone.

Nancy and Megan prepared an awesome overview of the ins and outs of Ravelry, offering lots of really useful tips and advice. They also shared a list of some of their favorite designers.

And I talked for a bit about how I got started knitting, designing, what inspires me, and the whole craft fair thing. (I am terrible at speaking in front of people, so this totally freaked me out but I survived!)

We also had my newest cowl, 'Margot', on display with the pattern and yarn that I used (gorgeous Mirasol Ushya!) so that anyone who liked it could make their own.

And I've said it before, but these guys are pretty great. Tim and Nancy own Knitted Together and have been so fantastically cool to me ever since the first time I shopped there. I've always been fascinated by how talented these people are. Nancy has an impressive background in publishing and was the senior editor of magazines for Better Homes and Gardens Creative Collection, where she wrote Knit It and Simply Creative Crochet. She's a true knitting expert and needle artist and can help you through any snag you might encounter. Tim is a designer and architect; he designed the shop himself! He also knows quite a bit about yarn ... and he's recently taken up knitting, too. Megan (in the middle) manages the store's web and marketing stuff. She has a background in fashion design, previously lived and worked in NYC, plus she's a knitter and a mom to two little boys so I just thought she was amazing right off the bat. 

Thank you, Knitted Together ... for your kindness, for providing the tools and materials we all use to create, for always being open when I want to stop by and pet the yarn for an hour or so, and for the space where knitters can come together. (For knitting us all together!)

Friday Night Knit Club

 This is my local yarn shop, Knitted Together. I pretty much love hanging out there.

Walls and walls of color and texture in every fiber content a girl could wish for.

And the owners are super great. Nancy and Tim have always been beyond helpful and friendly, and they're the kind of people who always remember your name. Even Lotus feels at home there, hanging out on the couch while I shop around. (Or chasing me around the store, telling me what colors she thinks I should buy.)  :)

And tonight, Knitted Together is hosting a special Friday Night Knit Club Ravelry party. (This is so exciting!) If you haven't heard of Ravelry, it's sort of like Facebook for knitters/crocheters. It's an enormous, fantastic resource for patterns and project ideas, and it's also a great place to connect with knitters from all over the world.

And okay, so here's the sort of embarrassing part. You might remember that last month, I mentioned that my cowl pattern was the 2nd most popular pattern on Ravelry.

If you come to Friday Night Knit Club tonight, you can meet/come hang out with me as I reveal my newest cowl pattern (pictured above) at Knitted Together, before it's released Ravelry. There will be yarn kits available in several different colors so you can knit your very own. So come out and hang with us, if you can! Email webmail [at] knittedtogether [dot] com to rsvp. They'll have Ravelry buttons so we can all meet the people behind the usernames, and there will be a short Ravelry discussion/q&a for anyone who is new to Ravelry and wants to learn more about how it all works. Sounds cool, huh? It's going to be fun.

Hope you have a great weekend!

music for your friday

A few weeks ago, I made a mix for my friend Laura's mixtape exchange. I never got one back from the person who was supposed to send me one, but I don't mind because making your own is quite fun.

Anyway, thought I'd share ... in case you needed some music to get your brain going today. Hope your Friday is pretty great!

welcome to the dungeon

New Dare is up! This week, we posted pics of our individual work spaces. The places where we make stuff.

It's kind of fascinating (I think) to see where your friends hang out and work on things, espesh when your friends live far, far away. My little work room is in our basement and it's home to my yarn stash, a super ancient Mac, paints, sewing machine, magazines, books, fabric, paper ... everything. I trash it and then clean it up. Over and over again. It's my hideout where I can stay up late and work without disturbing the rest of the household with my music and/or crafty noise-making. It's also a crazy conglomeration of the weirdest reject furniture from the rest of our house ... college dorm style.

Where do you hang out to work ... or play? (I showed you mine, now show me yours.)

crochet a rainbow

You may remember me talking about Sarah London's Crochet a Rainbow project last month after the devastating floods in Australia. Sarah is collecting granny squares from crocheters all over the world and joining them to make blankets for families affected by the floods as they begin to rebuild their lives. (And I know, I know ... I'm a knitter. But I do know how to crochet grannies. They're a great way to get my color fix.)

So I finally got around to making some grannies and sent them off to Sarah last week. I decided to use Stitch Nation's Full O'Sheep yarn, which is 100% wool and comes in several awesomely bright colors.

And then, I made a couple more squares. Because I discovered that they would make awesome 'afghans' for the beds in Lo's doll house.

(I mean ... this is kind of brilliant, right?) Anyway, there's still plenty of time to participate in Crochet a Rainbow. Find all of the information right here.

warhol print winner

Hey, lucky number 7!

Which makes Alex H. the winner!

Just email your name and address to jgeigley [at] gmail [dot] com and Stephanie from livingroomfloor will send you your Warhol print. YAY – thanks to everyone who commented!

all you need is love ...

This is kind of how V-day looked around our house. My mother-in-law found us this awesome mid-century tiered serving tray. (Such a cool Valentine for Bo and I!)

And my friend Beth made us these amazing cookies. She's seriously talented. Look at the teeny-tiny heart cookies! (If you're local, let me know if you ever need some rad cookies for a party or what-have-you. I can hook you up with her info.)

 There were all kinds of hand-made Valentines from the kid.

 Pretty roses for us girls.

 High-flying adventures into Lo's new Sumo that we got her for her birthday.
(Our whole family is getting quite a bit of use out of this thing.)

Colorful puzzles from grandma.

And we even squeezed in a much-needed date night for us. Keeping it real. And simple. And showing the love to each other every day, as best we can.

andy knows best

Hey hey! My friend Stephanie from livingroomfloor has some pretty rad new art prints in her shop. And it's your lucky day – just leave a comment here for a chance to win your very own print of this Warhol quote. Printed in mustard yellow with reverse white text on 100# matte stock. (I'll be picking a winner on Friday, Feb. 18th. Good luck!)

for the love of Malabrigo

 You know how it goes. You get a couple of insanely cool hand-dyed super soft hanks of Malabrigo that look something like this.

 Wind them into a ball like this.

And then you have to pick out and knit the most perfect cowl pattern, like this. 

Which is the Honey Cowl by Ann Maria for Madelinetosh. Which you probably already have figured out by now, as it's quite popular. I used two skeins of Malabrigo worsted merino in Mariposa. I hung onto this colorway for a million years because I loved it so much.

I made the longer version (using two skeins) that can be worn long or doubled up and wrapped around your neck twice. I kind of love it.

And then, I had to make something out of the other skein I had been holding onto for far too long; this cowl was made out of Malabrigo chunky in this crazy Brillante colorway that I just drooled over when I first saw it. I am a huge sucker for the weird colors!

So I knitted up this quick and easy Delores Park cowl by Parikha Mehta while we watched 'Inception' last night and wow, I just might keep going. Spring is almost here and I need to bust out a few more projects before, you know, it's July and I'll be hanging poolside or something. (Oooh, that sounds nice!) So, what's on your needles right now?

Valentimes

We've been hard at work making 'Valentimes' this past week for this kid's preschool pals. I was surprised at how particular she was about the colors she picked for girls vs. boys in her class. I tried to tell her that it didn't really matter, but she had some pretty strong opinions about her color choices. Especially when it came to a special boy (or three) in her class. Which brought back all sorts of fun memories from simpler times (okay, the 80s) when I was in elementary school.

You know, when handfuls of unwrapped candy conversation hearts could be thrown in a Valentine envelope with wild abandon. Although you'd make sure to read them first if you were giving them to a boy because it would be embarrassing if they got one that said something like 'my cutie' or 'luv you.' (Ewww, boys.) So you'd pick out the more neutral ones to give them so they wouldn't think you liked them. Even if you really did. The 80s equivalent of today's 'LOL' or 'email me.' Ahhhh, young love. (Apparently it can start in preschool.) Happy hearts day.  <3

ORK des moines

Today, you can get your very own Des Moines neighborhood Ork poster as Raygun brings Ork to D.M. on a Legendary Tour of Iowa. (You know that Bo and I are both graphic designers. And maps + typography = heaven, right? So you know we're all over this.)

 (Ummm, this is awesome.)

So, Lo and I stopped by today to snag a Des Moines print (and a t-shirt, too. Because why not.) Our adorable pal Lucy was at Raygun today, which made our shopping experience even more lovely. Lucy is the best.

And I even got to hang out for a bit with Jenny from Ork, who was super cool to talk with. I had no idea she was an Iowa native. (She grew up in Bettendorf!)

Raygun is printing Des Moines shirts while you wait today, so stop in and pick your color, like I did. They also have lots of other city neighborhood posters to pick from, along with Ork's awesome heart print. (Perfect for V-day.)

Ork will be at Raygun until 7:00 p.m. tonight so make sure you don't miss this! Word is that some of the prints available there will be for sale online after the event, if you can't make it. (But if you can stop by, you most definitely should!)

Happy Friday.  :)

holy crap, what is this ... paper?

The Effers are back today. New Dare is up. Dare 174. Find it here. And yes, it's been awhile. But the Dare girls have been busy. And our beloved Tina had a baby! But yeah, I haven't done any real paper/photo/glue business in quite awhile. I knew it was getting bad when Jamaica told me on Twitter that I needed to put down my knitting needles and do something with my pics from NYC already. I was shocked at how good it felt to bust out my page last night. Like, whew! I missed that. I kind of needed that. So here's my Dare. Dare 174. I'm back at it. It feels good.

hello sweetness

As I was looking around online for Hello Kitty party ideas last month, I came across Bakerella's Hello Kitty cake pops. Seriously cute. And I knew I had to try to make some. I am definitely not an expert dipper or candy maker, but we had lots of fun making these.

I used lemon cake inside and Wilton white candy melts on the outside, along with the Wilton pink heart sprinkles for the bows and small yellow circle sprinkles for the noses. I wasn't exactly sure how I'd display them (because they're pretty top-heavy!) So I used a H.K. box container from Target's Dollar Spot, put a styrofoam block inside and then covered that with tulle. A whole box of kitties!

The birthday girl was seriously into these sweet treats.

They were so extremely delicious. I wish we had more left over from the party. (We'll just have to make them again.)  ;)

And then, I fell in love with Bakerella's ice cream cone cake pops. They're just too amazingly cute and tiny. So I had to make these, too.

I used cherry sours on top and the cake inside was chocolate. The tiny 'kid cones' are from Target.

These were a hit with the kids, especially when they'd try to figure out if they were going to be eating ice cream or cake. It was so much fun to watch them take their first bite. Tricky, tricky!

So, yes – that was my first adventure with cake pops. I did practice before the party to hone my candy dipping skills, and that was probably smart. I also prepped the actual cake balls a week ahead and froze them in plastic containers, so all I had to do the night before the party was dip and decorate them. A couple of things I learned: Cake balls turn out better if you trim off the darker edges off the sides and top of the 9x13 cake before you crumble it into a bowl. And, the Wilton Food Writers I used for H.K's eyes kind of sucked for this project. The candy coating was too slick for them to write on. (Next time I'd definitely try these instead.) But, cake pops (Bakerella style) were definitely super fun and if you haven't made them before, you really really should. Yum.