Good Morning All,
After returning home from TNNA, I had a very unproductive week. I just could not get it together, but finally back on track.
While I was away, a car rammed our mailboxes, which are almost a mile away from my house. I did not know till yesterday, that because of the damage, the post office was not delivering our mail, and we had to go collect it at the post office (which is 6 miles away). Needless to say, I had a stack of mail waiting.
The nice surprise was that my copy of the new 365 CROCHET STITCHES A YEAR calendar, by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss, was in that stack.
It is a perpetual calendar, so you can use it forever on your desktop, and there is a stitch for every day of the year. Close up color photos, lots of innovative use of multi color stitches, which I love, and clear instructions.
I'm planning on testing a ton of these stitches, then I'll donate the test squares to Warm Up America or some other worthy charity.
Have a great day!
Margaret
Good Morning Everyone,
More snow this morning, 3rd time since Sunday, looks
wonderful, not great for driving, especially where I live.
On my first full day in CA, I took a bus ride to Alamitos
Bay Yarn Company at the Marina in Long Beach. The ride along Ocean Blvd was a great change from the landscape that I left at home. Palm trees, sunshine glistening on the water and blue skies.
Great shop, friendly owner and staff. I met the representative
from Dale of Norway, preparing to give a workshop, that morning.
The shop was a beehive of activity. They were
expecting Kaffe Fasset, Barry Klein and a host of other
yarn celebs to visit while attending TNNA.
Linda Neubauer, Acquisition editor for CPI Lifestyles Books,
me, Myra Wood, a very talented designer and author of
Creative Crochet Lace, a brand new beautiful book http://myrawood.com Stefi Girard,http://craftside.blogspot.com/
My book signing at the "HOW TO" book booth
One of the first things that you see when entering TNNA
is the great wall of yarn.
Stefanie standing in front of the "Great Wall"
Every yarn company attending the show
has skeins of their yarn represented.
There are booklets provided with each
company listed in alphabetical order, and their
yarns listed below. You are encouraged to
snip a little piece of yarn, tape it in its proper
place, so that you can remember all that you
have seen once back home. It is such fun to
see all the yarns and a great way to keep track
of it all. I love the Great Wall.
When the market is about to open its doors there
is a ribbon cutting ceremony. I managed to pull
myself away from the Great Wall to get a picture
of the event.
Its done, and the doors open to the huge crowds
waiting in the lobby.
Have a great day!
Margaret
Good Morning Everyone,
I finally got some photos of my trip into the computer and I would like to share some adventures with you.
Just before I left for California, there was an invitation extended to any designers coming to TNNA, who would like to attend a meeting of the Stitch and Beach group in Seal Beach. I saw the invitation on Ravelry, which by the way, is an amazing site, which I have not totally learned to navigate yet, but it sure is fun. If you have not joined yet, go to http://ravelry.com
and check it out.
I accepted the invitation, and after a few e-mails back and forth and a few phone calls, one of the members offered to pick me up at my hotel.
I had a ball at the meeting. What a great group, they have close to 200 members, they meet every week. All 200 do not go every time, but they average about 25 a week.
Angela, on the right, is the one who issued the invitation
Me and Jennifer Baylis, founder of the group.
Jennifer is involved in a special project, check it out, I plan to contribute.http://www.thenippleproject.com
Susan picked me up at the hotel and got me safely to the meeting.
Becky took me back, but unfortunately, I did not get a picture with Becky. Thank you both.
Angela and me, thanks for inviting me Angela!
Have a great day everyone, more pictures from California tomorrow, I must get some work done now.
Margaret
Hi Everyone,
I arrived home from TNNA just as the first snow flakes were falling. Woke up this morning to a winter wonder land, buried in about 8 to 10 inches of the beautiful white stuff.
I have pictures from TNNA to share, and lots of fun stuff, but I have to get organized first.
One of the most exciting things that happened is that I had a preview of my newest book, KNITS FOR MEN. Unicorn books had an advance picture of the cover, http://unicornbooks.com
It was very exciting for me, because I have not
done an all knitting book in awhile.
I really love how the book looks and I hope that all of you will like it too.
Have a great day.
Margaret
Good Morning Everyone,
It is frigid in NY this morning, hovering around 7 degrees, and the ice and snow from last week is still not melting. Great weather to stay in, light a fire, and get some knitting and crocheting done.
I mailed off another proposal this morning, which is due Jan 8th, nothing like cutting those deadlines pretty close :-).
I leave on Tuesday morning for California and TNNA, temperatures are supposed to go into the fifties by next week, so hopefully I will get there without too many delays.
My dear friend, Myra Wood, has just written a wonderful book,
CREATIVE CROCHET LACE, and I have the privilege of being represented in the gallery pages. Myra has given me permission to tell you about the book, even though it is not quite ready for shipping. It is available for pre-order on http://myrawood.com or http://amazon.com
You can also see more of Myra's amazing work by clicking on her site.
Have a wonderful day!
Margaret
Good Afternoon Everyone,
In my last post, I have been praising, yet again, the wonderful world of the Internet. I did mention my network of friends from around the world, and the fun that I am having with it all.
I forgot to mention, in addition to my son, I have a very strong Internet guru. Dee from http://crochetwithdee.com who has held my hand more than once, as I tried to conquer yet another
learning experience. Besides, Dee lives closer :-).
Dee is responsible for my blog. Without her, I would never have even tried it. When she first brought the subject up, the word blog, was not even in my vocabulary. With patience, and "stick-to-itiveness" and through many an e-mail, back and forth, Dee got me blogging.
For those of you who may live on another planet, and do not know Dee, please check out her web site. In addition to being my personal "go-to" person, Dee is such an advocate in promoting the art of crochet, one of the founders of the Happily Hooked On Crochet chapter of CGOA, charity worker extraordinaire, a designer, and has a winning smile to boot.
There is a mini-Dee following in her footsteps, and with a natural talent and a mom like Dee, all of us older designers
beware.
Have a great day
Margaret
