This post will be dedicated to socks – my personal favorite knitting project.

Last Fall KnitPicks.com asked if I would be interested in having them sell one of my sock patterns as part of a kit for their May 2013 catalog. I was completely floored they would ask so of course I said, Heck Yes!

The catalog and kit was released last week. Here are some photos from their site.

This was on the kits & sampler page:

This was on the main page:

And on page 27 of the May 2013 catalog:

Very exciting! The funny part is that I always wanted to own a pair of these socks but never got around to making one! Perhaps I should think about it now. My most favorite color combination is one my Aunt Tina choose for her mom, in purple and black:

I’ve also been trying to find a little time for some pattern testing. Here’s a work-in-progress colorwork pattern using 3 fingering weight yarns. I hand-dyed the main blue/green variegated yarn, while the light green is KP’s Stroll Tonal in Springtime and regular undyed yarn for the white. This is ATRIUM FLOOR SOCKS, inspired by the 3-toned floor pattern on the upcoming Princess Cruiselines ship, the Royal Princess – due to launch in June 2013.

I still have to finish the second sock and this pair will be mine!

Here is a screen grab of the atrium (computer graphics model) with a view of the floor. You can find the entire video here.

DESIREE DIAMOND SOCKS is a pattern I created with simple bead work in mind. Every diamond on the front of the socks has a center glass bead, while the foot and the back of the leg have a solid-outline-solid 3-diamond pattern. These socks were inspired by my childhood best friend, Desiree, who I met at afternoon day care at age 8 and remains to this day, one of my beloved and dearest friends.

More testing, colorwork, yarn and fiber to come!

Enjoy!

Boy this year is flying by for us! Both hubby and I have been working long days and into the nights as we try to finish up our respective projects. Still having fun and my movie project, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 is looking pretty awesome!  Hubby’s next project was just announced to the public last week, it is Call of Duty Ghosts. Hubby created the skeleton head image they are using the the marketing so that’s very cool.

Here are the colors for Weeks 16 and 17.

The first is a new colorway! BOX OF CHOCOLATES was inspired by yes, a box of chocolates that hubby gave me for Valentine’s Day. The box itself was beautiful and the candies inside were so pretty that I didn’t really want to eat them. Well, got over that idea quickly and devoured them . . . after I took about a dozen photos for reference.

Here’s the outcome of my dye session: sw merino fingering yarn and mixed BFL roving.

And the inspirational photo of the box of chocolates (do you see what I mean about them being too pretty to eat?). In case you’re interested in getting a box for yourself, you can find them at  ladychocolatier.com.

I got a new yarn base that I’m adding to the shoppe and it’s 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk lace yarn (gasp!). The yarn came on a 2 lb cone so I had to skein them into separate pieces, which was kind of time consuming but cool at the same time since I could decide how much yardage to give each skein.  This is VENETIAN THUNDERSTORM in 930 yards! (double gasp!!)

And I dyed up some Shetland roving in the same colorway.

Enjoy!

Here are the colors for Weeks 14 and 15.

VENETIAN LAUNDRY in Superwash BFL/Nylon Fingering Weight Yarn and Merino/Silk Roving

based on a photo I took of Venetian life . . .

DIAMOND HEAD SUNSET in Superwash Falkland British Merino and Tencel Fingering Yarn, Cotton Roving, and Alpaca/Merino/Silk Roving

based on the photo I took on Oahu

I’m also test knitting a sock pattern so hopefully I can post a photo next time!

Enjoy!

We’ve been missing ‘home’ again so I thought I’d dye up some reminders from the island.

This is WAIMANALO FLOWERS in sw merino/tencel roving and merino/cashmere/nylon fingering yarn:

I think I’ve only dyed up this colorway one other time and seeing how I’m now in LOVE with the color orange . . . again . . . this was great fun to dye up. ORANGE HIBISCUS in sparkle lace yarn and sw merino/tencel roving:

And the inspirational photo that I took years ago when I had potted hibiscus plants. Most of the time, pink flowers would bloom and only one per season would be this beautiful orange color!

A quick story about the color orange. . . When I was about 8 years old and a Girl Scout with Troop 124 (yes, I still remember that troop number), we once went on a camping trip to Camp Whites Landing which is located on Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles. We had to pack a sleeping bag, and back then orange was my favorite color. Mom and Dad bought me this super warm, super big, bright orange sleeping bag and it was so slippery on the outside that my 8-year-old self could not roll it up. My greatest memory of that trip was watching my troop leader and another adult try to roll up that slippery sleeping bag before the ferry came to take up back up to the mainland! We kept the bag for many years, but eventually it was given away. Luckily, we still have my Care Bear slumber bag which is much easier to roll up. . .

Now, back to yarn. I finished up a custom sock order this week for a bride whose wedding is later this year. She picked out the colors herself and they will be shipped off to her as soon as I print out the postage label.

I had forgotten that I also made 3 pairs of custom socks last year for a customer who wanted to give them to her sisters as Christmas gifts. The one on the left is the customer and the middle and right are her sisters’ socks.

Last month I also finished testing a new pattern, WAHINE SOCKS, to complement my Kane Socks. Wahine in Hawaiian means woman or female, Kane means man or male, and the found the inspirational Hawaiian designs while visiting Disney’s Aulani Resort on Oahu.

This is WAHINE SOCKS in Knitpicks Stroll in Merlot Heather and Sunset Multi:

And for fun, here are last year’s testing of KANE SOCKS in Knitpicks Stroll in Midnight Heather and Blue Topaz:

enjoy!

A new colorway! PEGGY’S COVE in alpaca lace yarn and Mixed BFL/Silk roving:

Inspired by the photo I took while visiting Peggy’s Cove @ Halifax, Nova Scotia:

DARK UNIVERSE in merino/silk lace yarn and black alpaca/silk roving:

Cloudy2-Inspired FLAMANGOES in superwash merino worsted weight yarn:

FIESTA handspun and Navajo-plied merino/bamboo/silk DK weight yarn:

I wanted to try supported spindling again and took out my pear tahkli spindle and tried spinning a small amount of pink merino/silk wool. It was great fun to use a small wooden bowl for the base. I know you’re supposed to use a ceramic bowl so I’ll try that next. Here’s a work in progress photo:

And the final 2-ply yarn. I think it’s somewhere between lace and fingering weight:

Of course now I want a Russian supported spindle! (Will the wanting ever end?? LOL!)

enjoy!

Here’s another colorway inspired by our movie, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 2. This is WATERMELOPHANTS (yup, cross between a watermelon and elephant) in 64 ct merino wool and sw merino fingering yarn:

Our trailer came out this week and we are pretty excited it about! Check it out:

Our team did a little fun spoof animation that features our cast and food creatures. My favorite is Sam (in the back with the glasses):

Another new colorway: OWL BUTTERFLY in merino/silk fingering yarn and Mixed BFL wool:

And the inspirational photo I took at a butterfly farm on St. Maarten. Our guide told us that the butterfly’s ‘owl-eye’ pattern on his wing was to keep predators at bay. Fascinating!

DANDELION Batt in merino, wool and banana fibers:

Purple/blue ounce of Targhee roving (I sooo want to spin this up myself, but am trying to be patience and spin up my black alpaca first) . . .

Here are a couple more skeins of SUNSET IN GALLIPOLIS. This first one is a variation in alpaca lace yarn:

In merino/silk/stellina (sparkle) lace yarn:

and a vibrant version in sw merino lace yarn:

I also posted a pretty dark pink ballet/pointe shoe bag:

I thought I’d also share a few projects I’ve been working on. First, is some spinning I completed! I spun about 2.4 ounces of beautiful black alpaca into 268 yards of a 2-ply lace weight skein. I want to make a lace scarf so I need about 2-3 more skeins before I can start knitting.

One final photo. . . I finally completed my first lace project, a scarf using KnitPick’s Shadow Tonal merino lace yarn. For me, it was a challenging pattern just because I’m not used to doing lace work and took me over a year to complete it. It is being gifted to a family member who likes to get my ‘first’ projects (mistakes and all), and hope she likes it.

enjoy!

I’ll start with a new colorway inspired by the upcoming movie, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 2. We had a write-up last month in USA Today and it talked a bit about our food creatures. This colorway is called FLAMANGOES (cross between a flamingo and a mango), in corriedale cross roving and merino/nylon fingering yarn:

Based on the inspirational photo created by the many talented artists I get the privilege of working with. The flamangoes are on the bottom right corner.

For Christmas last year, I dyed up some silk & velvet cut scarves and gave them away as gifts. Of course, I made one for myself first to test the process .  I loved how the scarves turned out so I made more for the shoppe:

This scarf has a rose motif in raspberry:

This floral scarf is in pretty blue/teal:

I love how the daisies pop on this bright orange scarf with a black background:

And my favorite combination of color – this is a bouquet motif scarf in purple with a black background:

I also dyed up this skein of merino/bamboo/nylon fingering weight:

Another LIGURE SUNSET 2 in merino/tencel roving:

And some bamboo roving in blue-green, lavender/blue-green and light blue-green :

enjoy!

BARE NAKED TREE is a new colorway in polwarth/silk roving and sw merino lace yarn.

Based on the photo I took while in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Another new colorway is SUNSET IN GALLIPOLIS in BFL/silk roving and baby alpaca lace yarn.

This inspirational photo was taken by Bryan Blair, owner of Nybble Cafe in Gallipolis, Ohio who snapped the beautiful photo  outside their cafe at sunset. I am told their cafe serves wonderful food and showcases work from local artists. Check them out at www.facebook.com/nybblecafe, or stop by for a bite. Photo was used by permission by the artist (thank you Bryan!)

Next up is HONOLULU COFFEE COMPANY in BFL roving, merino/tencel roving and sparkle fingering yarn.

This colorway was based on the logo from my favorite Hawaiian coffee company:

I wanted to dye up some camouflage variations and came up with BRIGHT CAMO roving in Shetland wool, DARK CAMO in merino/nylon fingering yarn, CAMO and PASTEL CAMO in Shetland wool batts.

enjoy!

OHIO SNOW in mixed bfl/silk roving and sw merino/bamboo/nylon fingering yarn:

Based on the photo I took over the holidays whilst visiting in-laws

HAWAIIAN PINEAPPLE in sw merino lambswool roving and sw merino/tencel fingering yarn:

Based on the photo I took on Oahu:

 VERANDA CEILING in merino/silk roving and alpaca lace yarn:

Based on a photo of a painted veranda ceiling from The Breakers mansion, built by one of the Vanderbilt families, in Newport, Rhode Island.

And some finished socks.

ROMAN FORUM SOCKS

STRIPED SOCKS

I’ll end with the “First Look” into the animated feature I’m currently working on, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2. This image was released last week in USA Today.

Our amazing creative team of artists designed this environment and these creatures including the Wild Scallions, Cantalope, Wildebeets, Bananostrich, Hippotatomus, Fruit Cockateil and Watermelophants. Looking at all these food creatures everyday does make us hungry, so we tend to eat a lot (and often!) at work. Luckily I love to eat More on Cloudy 2 as we get closer to release, which is set for September 27, 2013.

enjoy!

After spending the Christmas holiday with our family in Ohio, we are back in California ready for what 2013 will bring. Speaking of Ohio, we did get snow the day after Christmas and it stayed on the ground for the remainder of the week. The sun did peek out most days and the wind was calm so all in all, good weather. Here’s a photo through the car window of the Ohio Snow:

I thought I’d post some photos from our New England cruise, which was back in October 2012, since I have yet to do so. This first one is from Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse in Nova Scotia. The clouds were literally rolling in as we arrived and soon it was overcast, but I was able to snap this photo just before it became completely cloudy.

I’m going out of order, but we actually started the trip in Brooklyn and I had to get Lady Liberty before we launched. The sun was just going down and I was able to get this ferry in front of the statue as well.

One of our stops was the beautiful state of Maine. We docked in Bar Harbor, had lunch in town – what a great town! – then took a tour up to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. Since it was Fall, the trees were turning color and was just beautiful.

Another beautiful stop was Newport, Rhode Island where our ship had to dock on the water and we took little boats (tenders) to shore. You can see our ship, the Caribbean Princess, on the bottom right corner of the photo. Dad, Hubby and I took a shoreline walk and came across this magnificent bare tree. I thought it shape and color was a great foreground element against the sky and sea. I had to wait for others to step away from the tree before I could snap the photo, but it was worth the wait!

Some things I’m looking forward to this year . . .

I’m excited to be working with an incredible group of folks on our next movie project, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2, which is scheduled for release this September. We’ve got a facebook page that has photos of our voice talent and some fun info on our show. Check it out next time you’re on FB.

As far as knitting is concerned, I’m hoping to finish some UFO (UnFinished Objects) . This includes my first lace project. I started it last year and was challenged by it, but am determined to finish! I also started a needlepoint project back in 2011, Mom’s sweater started in 2010 (shame on me for taking so long to finish, I know) and I’ll be making Mom a new felt Christmas stocking since hers needs to be updated. Not sure she knows yet that I’m making her one . . .

I also want to learn a new technique and started entrelac this week. I’m slowing getting the hang of it, but have great motivation to keep going. My friend Debra gifted me a beautiful skein of merino/silk  yarn for Christmas and I want to make an entrelac cowl with it so I’m practicing!

Lastly, I’m hoping to put more sock patterns on paper and hopefully get them on the shoppe as well as new yarn/wool colorways.

Hope you all had a lovely holiday season and wish you a wonderful 2013!