Back, with some updates.

I never really thought I would miss this blog. It had become a burden in a lot of respects, and it wasn't paying off in any way emotionally or mentally. Then, I took a look around at the piles of knitting I had been doing over the past few months and thought, "I am pleased." So I thought I would share some updates. You may also have noticed I fooled around with a new look. My blog hadn't been updated since 2006--it was time for a new look.
Kelbourne Woolens has been a success thus far and Kate and I have been busy. We are expecting 700kgs of yarn to arrive on our doorstep in a couple of weeks and my emotional state vacillates from 'about to vomit' to 'very happy.' I think that's normal. And no, I'm not pregnant again. I think the nausea is due to the very grown up steps my life is taking, though a shockingly similar reaction to last years grown up adventures of childbirth. I published a new pattern, Lucille, which is available on the Kelbourne Woolens website as a FREE download. Kate designed our website (it is so lovely) and she has done all the pretty pattern formatting. Grace has been doing our tech editing. I love working with so many amazing women--and women that I have know for so long and gush gush gush. I'll stop. You know where that was heading.

Lucille is a vintage inspired cardigan and bonnet set knit (shockingly) from the top down with eyelet yoke shaping reminiscent of The Half Pi Shawl, which also has a new home, finally. More about that in a minute.
Yarn: 2 skeins of Canopy Fingering from The Fibre Company, distributed by Kelbourne Woolens
Size: 0-3 months and 6-9 months
Gauge: 32 sts/10cms in lace pattern BLOCKED
My Estimation: a-freakin'-dorable.
Ravel it!
The Half Pi Shawl had a bit of a cult following but after I moved to the island and Grace moved to New Mexico we had to retool the way it was sold, and it needed a new format as a downloadable pdf file. The Half Pi, if you don't know it, will quickly become a perennial favorite. 2 skeins of Anne, some eyelet rows that increase like Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl, but as a half circle. Ah, math. This one is great. There are 2 versions, Grace's version shown below uses just one skein of Anne and a large needle (I think she used a 10). It has eyelet increase rows with plain non increasing eyelets set at equal distances in between. Courtney's version (that's me!) uses 2 skeins of Anne, alternating 2 rows of one skein and 2 rows of another to blend the colors, and smaller needles (I used a 5 or 6) and has bands of plain stockinette between the eyelet rows so that you can improvise any lace pattern you want in each of the sections. There are two bind off options for decorative finishes as well.

Yarn: Shaefer Yarns Anne
Size: Variable
Gauge: Grace's Version 14 sts/10cms; Courtney's Version 22 sts/10cms
Ravel It!
The ravelry page says it's a Rosie Knits pattern but it isn't. It's just ours, but I can't get Ravelry to unlink to Rosies.
Part of my issue with maintaining this blog is that a lot of the things I would blog about here I would also blog about on Rosie's blog, like this hat I knit. The lines started to get too blurry between what went on Rosie's blog and what went on my blog; ravelry seemed like it killed all birds with many vast coded stones; and the thought of a third blog, the Kelbourne Woolens blog (which isn't up yet) sent me whirling into self promotion overload. But, I suppose I knit for my own website, for Rosie's Yarn Cellar's Rosie Knits patterns, for Manos del Uruguay, for Kelbourne Woolens and then the occasional submission to something else--and I manage to keep all of that organized. I suppose it's all still up in the air. I don't know how frequently I will post here, but I decided to keep it going. It's homey here.