sneak peeks at a coming attraction

  

a new pattern for MagKnits in Rowan Calmer provided by Kangaroo

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This week the boys helped daddy put the new yarn cabinet together.

what does this do?

daddy, you ready for the door?

Yup, I got me the super-fantabulous, mega-popular Kämpe storage system. We've got slanted ceilings in this room, so I couldn't get anything tall, and what I really wanted was cubbyholes like in a real yarn store. So I got the Kämpe boxes. Love them!

The boys were eager to help me put all my yarn in the cabinet, but after I watched them toss an entire storage box of yarn in random cubbyholes, I decided to wait until they were otherwise occupied to finish the job. And as I stood back admiring my half empty cabinet, I didn't even feel bad about the new yarn that the postman had just brought.

for a future Magknits pattern

Color me happy.

A sneak peek at a design in progress. My Magknits project in the Calmer yarn I received a couple of weeks ago. Stay tuned this month for more peeks!

Another peek at my Magknits design, now getting some color.

More color! Now this is getting fun.

please pardon the blurry, 2:00 am photography

Magknit overload. Too. . . much. . . to. . . do.

I'm drowning in design duty here! Sorry if I've been a bit missing-in-action in comments here and elsewhere. I've got about 100 updates on Bloglines waiting for me. Aaaack! I appreciate you all still stopping by even though I haven't been able to go out visting in the blog ring recently.

One step forward, two steps back. The joys of designing.

Why, it's my boys, who gave up afternoon naps at least a year ago, passed out on the sofa in the middle of the day! Must have been all the doughnut hockey. As you can see, I wasted no time pulling out the needles and made good use of the quiet moment to work on my magknit design.

Got sleeves?

Down to the paperwork: math and charts (and a few loose ends), oh my!

I got a question in the comments about sweater design software. I have to admit that I don't even know what's out there. Does anyone have any experience using these programs that they want to share? All I know I learned from studying other patterns and reading Maggie Rigetti's Sweater Design in Plain English and Cheryl Brunett's Sweater 101 workshop. And if you're looking for a sleeve tutorial, you've got to check out Jenna Wilson's awesome Knitty articles on sleeve design here and here!

I can't believe it myself, but l'm already done with the knitting on january! Here are the sleeves, just finished blocking and ready for seaming.

(note: finished magknits project on the desk!)

And add to the list of things you don't want to overhear your children saying to each other in the other room: "hey, you want to make the fire?" Whaaaaaaat?! Luckily, the boys were making a pretend fire out of Legos. And now all together in our best Tom Hanks "Cast Away" impersonation:

"I have made Fire!"

Aw, it's nothin' but a t-shirt.