Rebecca Danger

Purls Of Wisdom

Well, Thanksgiving weekend officially kicked my butt and I'm still not recovered. We had Mr Danger's family over to my mom's for a total of 12 people. I am an only child, so my holidays were rather small until I married Mr Danger, and though we have been married 5 years and together nearly 7, I am still not used to large holidays. I managed to get our Christmas decorations up after thursday, but that's about it. Hope you all had a lovely holiday!

I got something very cool in the mail before Thanksgiving though.....

Jenny Lord asked me to write a pattern for her book last year, right as I was starting to write my book. I almost said no, since I was writing my own book, but she caught me early enough in writing that I still thought I had time to knit my Christmas presents and of course do 30,000 other things at the same time, so she was in luck. I am so glad I did, not only is my Mortimer Mutt on the cover, but I am incredibly pleased to be a part of such a neato book!

Not only is it full of cool illustrations like this, it is the best beginning knitting book I have seen. I wish this book had been around when I started knitting 14 years ago! There is a whole section on the history of knitting, which I find fascinating. When the book came, Mr Danger asked to look through it and ended up sitting down and reading the whole history section, stopping and saying, "Did you know, blah blah blah....." about 4 times a page as he read it. Though I had the highlights, I did have to sit down and read it myself after that!

Plus, there are lots of great beginning projects, including these, plus a cool baby blanket I think I am going to have to make for baby Danger:

Yeah Mortimer!

If you are looking for a good basic knitting book, or need a gift for a friend who is just beginning to knit, I say this is the book. Here is the Amazon page for it: http://www.amazon.com/Purls

AND, I just happen to have a copy to giveaway, yeah! Just leave a comment here and I will pick a winner at random next Wednesday, 12/8/10.  A little early Christmas pressie is always nice! 

 

Presenting Ursula and Uma

Yeah! I have my second kit-only pattern up for sale in my shop! Earlier this year I worked with the Scarlet Fleece to do a pattern exclusively for their lovely hand-dyed yarns!

It's Ursula and Uma the Understanding Monsters! Another two-cute mom and baby two-some!

Right now I have 4 different colored kits in the shop. Plus, they're just in time for all of your holiday gift-knitting needs, or even your knitter gift-giving needs! 

I am just so pleased with how fun their long arms are! They are great for typing onto each other or just to be dragged around by. And the yarn is so soft and lovely to work with, especially in such fun colors. Grab a kit today!

5 Years!

Today Mr Danger and I celebrate our 5th anniversary! We are off to celebrate with a fun day by heading to the nearest Babies r Us down in Seattle.

I love you sweetie!

Sneak Preview

Guess what.....the advance copy of my book came last Friday! 

Oh my goodness, I can't even tell you how cool it is! I have been working with the page layouts thus far, which felt very exciting, but there is something so much cooler about actually holding the real thing in your hands. I am so excited now! And, not only did the book come, but my publisher sent me the most beautiful flowers, too!

They even came in a cute little pumpkin bowl. So exciting, it makes this whole book writing thing feel so real. I can't wait until January!

Discount Yarn!

So even though I am on yarn restriction I managed to wander on over to the neighboring city of Lynden and check out a yarn shop there this morning. I was good though and didn't buy anything.

But, this week I also managed to find Mr Yarn, a new website with discount Malabrigo, which is proving to be much harder to resist!

Malabrigo is just about my favorite yarn on the planet, in particular the Sock is pretty much tops of my favorite yarns list right now. I actually, in many ways, would sort of like to knit with solely Malabrigo yarns (at least for myself). This summer I did a cute sweater out of the Worsted, which I wear all the time, and a Clapotis out of sock, and I have done several other projects in the past. It seems like the knits I do with Malabrigo are the knits that I tend to wear the most. Not only do they feel heavenly when you wear them, but I swear Malabrigo makes my stitches look better and me look like a better knitter. Which is what we all want, right?

So, when I found Mr Yarn I was completely elated, since they have absolutely fantastic prices. So, I think the reward for getting through my yarn stash here will be to pick a Malabrigo project (or two), so I can get my Malabrigo fix in. Hmmm, I am thinking maybe this in Sock or Silky Merino.....

I've gotta stop typing and start knitting so I can be off yarn restriction!

 

Fun Find

It is a well known fact that I absolutely adore Anthropologie, so I hopped on their website this morning while re-listing a couple patterns on etsy to see what was new. I was very pleased to find this:

Image from Anthropologie.com

How funny is that?! I have seen several knitted fox scarf patterns before, but I just thought this one was particularly well done. Now to find a pattern for one this cute. Oh wait, I am on restriction until I get through some knitting! But maybe I could write a pattern and then it would be work knitting..........

Alright, enough internet shopping and knit-plotting, I must get back to the pile of work in front of me!

Early New Year's Resolutions

I put myself on restriction this week. I keep looking at yarn and patterns and wanting to buy everything I see. I got to the point the other day where I was knitting and thinking how much I would like to be knitting something else and as I ran through the other options of projects and available yarns I have at home I realized I needed an intervention. So, I am on a self-inflicted, "I am only allowed to knit projects that I have here until I get through everything I have been meaning to knit."

And I felt worse this morning as I looked at my Ravelry favorites and realized I have knit half of them and not posted projects for them! Whew, bad knitter.

I mean seriously, it is getting ridiculous around here. Especially since I have a bunch of projects piling up and I seem to be having a hard time starting any of them.

That is all. I knew you would all understand when you start feeling like you don't actually like to knit, you just like to think about, plan, and buy yarn for projects.

A Holiday Kinda Feeling

Is anyone else in total shock that it is November (and now a third of the way through) already? I swear I spend the whole year getting mentally prepared for Christmas and then it somehow still sneaks up on me every year. 

This year though I am feeling very excited for the holidays to be here. When I had my retail store it was so tough, we'd start planning and building stock for Christmas in August, or September in a late year, that's all we would talk about until November when we would decorate the shop and holiday shopping was the only thing we'd discuss with our customers. Plus the Christmas music, it would be non-stop open to close starting about this time each year and going until Demember 24th when we would end the retail holiday season. It made it really hard to get excited about the holidays, in particular at home. Most years we worked retail, Mr Danger and I wouldn't even put up a tree at home, and would take great pleasure in playing something other than Christmas music once we walked in the door. And then Christmas with our families felt so after-the-fact since our holiday season ended the 24th when we shut down shop and knew the numbers for the year. 

But, I am happy to report this year I am feeling very holiday-y indeed, and already this early (which is great since it is giving me time to plan!). My mom's birthday was last week and we went down to Wight's Nursery in Lynwood which truly is a magical Christmas Wonderland. I bought some cute little paper houses which I am very excited about(I'll put a picture up once they are in their full with-snow-and-trees decorated glory). Mr Danger and I only have a little tree that we used to use in the retail shop and I was considering actually buying a full-size tree this year. Oh, and I have big Christmas cookie baking plans (but I think that is just the pregnant-hormones talking there).

So why all this talk of Christmas? Well, you know how I just put out a Christmas ornament pattern? I was inspired to do one after Knit Purl approached me about writing them a couple Christmas ornament patterns this summer for their holiday kits. Those holiday kits which I am very pleased are out now:

Image from Knit Purl's Website

Image from Knit Purl's Website

How fun are these guys?! This is Olive and Owen and they are sold as kits for only $12 each, which is a great deal. I adore Olive, and I love how Owen sort of looks like a traditional globe ornament, but monsterized. So, as if you didn't have enough Christmas knitting to do already, go onto Knit Purl's website and grab these guys (and check out their other cool ornaments too!).