Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting

Designer Lorna Miser's new book

Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting

Does the name Lorna sound familiar? If you're a knitter and love yarn, I know it does!

Yes, Lorna is Lorna Miser knitwear designer and the founder/original owner of Lorna's Laces, luxurious hand dyed yarns. She eventually sold Lorna's Laces in 2003 to focus on being exclusivley a knitwear designer.

Lorna wears many hats these days. She is a Designer, Teacher, Creative Director for Aurora Yarns, President of The Camellia Stockinettes (my TKGA local chapter knitting guild) and now a published author with her first book just out; Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting.

Lorna is also a local knitting celebrity around town (Sacramento region, where we both live) and wherever she travels and teaches!

Three Cozy Kittens

(Inspired by 3 Kittens Yarn Shoppe in St. Paul Minnesota)

My LYS Knitique hosted Lorna's first book signing and trunk show last night. Danielle the owner of Knitique has known Lorna for years. What a treat to have Lorna appear at Knitique for her very first book signing.

It was also Knit and Nosh night at Knitique so everyone brought delicious food and desserts. Since I have been on a cupcake roll, I made cupcakes iced in purple (Lorna's favorite color) and a special "Congratulations Lorna" cupcake for Lorna.

Sweet Baby Sweaters

Lorna's new book is so much more than just knitting patterns. It is filled with heart warming stories of the people and friends Lorna has met knitting through life.

There are 24 patterns and each pattern has a name and a special story about the person who inspired the pattern. I especially love Grandma Helen's lace shawl named after her Grandmother Helen.

Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting

In chatting with Lorna at Knitique, 

I asked her how long it took to write her first book. She told me it took her about a year to write it and then another full year to edit it. She is already hard at work on her second book. I can't wait!

For the record...Lorna's first official book signing party was a huge success! Knitique sold out all their books in just one night!

Cupcakes

Knit cupcakes by members of the

Camelllia City Stockinettes

I recently joined my local Knitting Guild the Camellia City Stockinettes. It is a wonderful group of talented and experienced knitters (plus a few crocheters). We have a meeting once a month. Each month there is a fun challenge project to knit. The finished projects are then brought to the following month's meeting for everyone to see. Tonight we got to see knitted cupcakes!

I missed last month's meeting so I did not knit a cupcake. I did however make over 50 cupcakes...the good old fashioned way!

Edible cupcakes by me!

My cupcakes were the edible type and not knitted. My knitting friend Catherine and I were the volunteers for tonight's refreshments. I was also urged on by my Guild friend Nina to make cupcakes due to the cupcake theme!

I love to bake. I make fabulous muffins nearly every weekend yet I hadn't made cupcakes since high school. Well, I figured cupcakes are kind of like muffins so this should be "a piece of cake"!

I purchased some adorable decorated cupcake liners by Wilton. I thought they would be perfect for the "cupcake theme". Well, my first batch of white cupcakes were a disaster. The liners burned and turned black.

In despair, instead of calling my Mother or even Martha Stewart...I called Danielle at Knitique. I knew she and her daughter make a lot of cupcakes and she used to even decorate cakes.

Well, it turns out that Danielle can teach me other things besides just knitting. She diagnosed the problem immediately. It was my fancy decorator paper cups. She told me just to use the ones (Reynolds brand) from the grocery store. Well, she was right. My next four dozen cupcakes turned out fine.

So I know have a few of my own cupcake secrets plus a few from Danielle. Here they are:

1) Duncan Hines Package mix is convenient and taste home-made! (Dark Chocolate Fudge and Yellow Cake were my favorites. I didn't like the White mix.)

2) Wilton's Buttercream Icing tastes delicious and pipes beautifully with a 1M star tip!

3) Bake only one pan at a time.

4) Use Reynolds baking cups and oil the top of the pan for when the cupcake top bakes up over the cup. (This prevents sticking and burning)

5) Danielle says "bake and frost the cupcakes the day before". They really do taste better!

There you have it. Now I just have to get Danielle to teach me how to make a cute knitted cupcake! I want to a make a cupcake pin cushion holder!

The Knitter Issue Two

The Knitter Issue Two

I've always loved British magazines. My favorites are the UK's Country Living, BBC's Homes and Antiques, The English Home, Red and Good Food. I can now add another great British magazine to my list, The Knitter.

The Knitter magazine is my new favorite knitting magazine. Issue Two has just hit the US newstands. I picked mine up today and love all the spring knitting inspiration!

Here is a sneak peak of my favorite patterns in this issue:

Meg Lace Dress by Louisa Harding

I love this lacey little number by my favorite designer Louisa Harding! The pattern is from her Summer Classics book and is knit in her Mariposa yarn.

Rosie Posy Tea Cozy

I think tea and knitting make a perfect pair so I can't wait to knit this gorgeous Rosie Posy Tea Cozy by Loani Prior. It is knit in DK yarn and designed to fit a round 6 cup tea pot. Hmmm...I'm sure I have a teapot in my collection that will work!

Chic Spring Beret

I have a thing for berets...so I love this Chic Spring Beret by Jane Crowfoot. It is knit in four colors of Paton's Smoothie DK. It says it is a great introduction to fair isle in the round since it has only three stitches between every color change. This knitter is ready to give fair isle a try!
Issue Two is filled with so many other great projects and designers including the cover cardigan by Jean Moss.
I would love to hear what your favorite pattterns are from Issue Two of The Knitter!

Happy Birthday Barbie!

Happy Birthday Barbie!

Barbie is turning 50 today!

Perhaps Barbie needs to wear this French Court Dress (so, Marie Antoinette) from a vintage crochet pattern to her gala birthday bash!

Go ahead Barbie...have your cake and eat it, too!

The Knitter Magazine

The Knitter

Ideas For Creative Knitting

Have you seen The Knitter?

The Knitter is a brand new knitting magazine from the UK. It caters to the skilled knitter who has been knitting for awhile. I hope I qualify after a year of knitting lessons?

Issue One is filled with 15 collectible patterns on classy glossy paper. Many popular designers are featured, including my favorite Louisa Harding. Louisa's adorable Buchanan cable jumper (sweater) from her Wildspur book is included in this issue.

This knitter loves The Knitter. I am sure you will, too, whether you live in England or the US!

If you want to purchase this premier issue you'd better hurry. Just the other night at Barnes & Noble a fellow knitter grabbed their last copy right before me. A few days later though I snagged the last issue from my local Jo-Ann's Crafts.

When you pick up your copy of The Knitter...drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Cha Cha Cha With Louisa Harding!

Cha Cha Cha Bag by Louisa Harding

A girl can never have, too, many purses!

I adore this "snazzy" new flapper-inspired bag by Louisa Harding. She named it Cha Cha Cha . I can't wait to knit it!

Last month when I met Louisa, I was very lucky to see the mock-ups of her new Spring/Summer 2009 books called Nouveau and Deco. The Cha Cha Cha bag is from her Deco book. I hope my local yarn store gets it in soon!

Cha Cha Cha Bag

The Cha Cha Cha bag is knit in Louisa's Cinnabar and Nautical Cotton yarns. I love her color combination for this bag! (Yes, my favorite colors are Turquoise and Lime Green.) I can't wait to shop for some colorful ribbon and a "glitzy" vintage broach for it, too.

Deco Book

Louisa's new Deco book is filled with fabulous "flirty" patterns influenced by her Grandmother's era.

When Louisa spoke about her inspiration for her new books she told a cute story about her Grandmother. She said "it was quite shocking the day her Grandmother chopped off her long hair into a "bob". Back in the 1920's, my Grandma Margaret wore an adorable "bob", too. The "bob" hair style caused quite a stir in it's day. I love our free-spirited Grandmother's stories and how they helped us become the women we are today!

The Deco book should be hitting the stores anytime now. When you see it...you just may want to chop your hair off into a "bob", too!

As in all her books, the models, styling and photographs are gorgeous! All the photography is done by Louisa's husband, photograhper Stephen Jessup. What a talented duo!

All photographs shown here are by Stephen Jessup from the Deco Book at Knitting Fever.

Happy Hearts Week at Knitique

Valentine Heart Cookies

In honor of Valentine's Day, it was a heart-theme week at Knitique (my local yarn store) this week.

Fellow knitter Diane made these adorable heart sugar cookies and brought them in to share. They were as impressive of cookies that I have admired in Martha Stewart Living magazine!

Diane's cookies not only looked great but they tasted great, too. I asked her if she used a silpat on her cookie sheet and surprisingly she said "no". I thought for sure she did since they were baked so perfectly! Thanks for sharing your delicious cookies with us Diane!

Knit Heart Pillow

Diane not only bakes hearts, she collects them and knits them, too. She also brought in her cute heart pillow to show us. She knit the pillow in a lofty red yarn and seamed it in a pink blanket stitch along with a pink tassel. I am not sure which book the pattern is from???

Heart Sachet

I took the Heart Sachet class at Knitique this week. This was the first time I have ever knit with sock yarn and small needles (#3's). I also learned how to knit a mitered square for the first time, too.

I was challenged at first by the small needles and the small squares. As always, Danielle (owner/teacher) makes a pattern much easier to understand. Before I knew it, I was on my way to finishing this adorable heart just in time for Valentine's Day.

I filled my heart with drived lavender buds from my garden. I added an i-cord and made it into a hanging sachet for our French armoire. I am so glad I took this class!

I hope you had a happy hearts week, too!

Happy Valentine's Day!