a giveaway!

This is my girl, Kara. She is currently living in NYC and studying at Pratt. She's insanely creative and talented and funny and wise. And she was sweet enough to let me give away a spot in her newest online class. Check this out.

Out of the Blue is a mini-class/workshop created to inspire and bring a dash of color into your art journals and scrapbook pages. All rolled into one 20+ page printable PDF document are 7 original art journaling prompts/ideas and a printable embellishment page for only $10.

The class is designed so you can work at your own pace. Out of the Blue is perfect for a weekend of journaling and, being a PDF, something you can start or end whenever. As an added bonus, use coupon code BLOGLOVIN to get 20% off any of Kara's other online classes, which you can find here. (If you're having trouble deciding, this one is my personal favorite!)

To enter to win a spot in Out of the Blue, just leave a comment here. I'll pick a winner on Saturday, March 19th. Good luck!

Hostile Takeover II

I fully expect to start seeing these dudes hanging out on the driveway very soon, because spring is almost here. And warm weather around here brings the buzz of the scooters. It's not springtime unless there's a tiny fleet of Vespas in front of our house.

These guys – and by 'these guys,' I mean our local scooter club, The Corporation – are planning the Hostile Takeover II Scooter Rally, happening Memorial Day weekend. It's going to be insane.

You might remember seeing this story about Hostile Takeover last year in Juice (yup, there's Bo on the left.) And this year, the rally is going to be even bigger and better.

The weekend kicks off with an Iowa Pork chop dinner and a night out at local dive, The Fremont, where you can check out Omaha ska legends, The Bishops. Saturday will start off with brunch, followed by a 'top secret scooter ride.' Yes, top secret. (Too many details would give it away, but this ride will be something. If the Scooter Cannonball Run and the World Series of Gymkhana shacked up in Iowa, this would be their unholy love child. Throw in some geocaching with a pinch of jackassery and you have a pretty sweet afternoon.)

Saturday night is Pressure Drop! An all vinyl dance party and music celebration with DJ Eight Ten spinning the finest in Motown, Jamaica Ska, Northern Soul, Rare Funk, Roots Rock, Raw Rhythm n Blues and Reggae. Sunday starts off with an optional brunch at The Fremont and then a scooter show, slow race, raffle and time to check out the vendors. (Or just ride.)

And finally, the weekend will end with the Corporate Retreat. This is going to be big. You'll get to check out several area and regional bands, including: Spin Spin Coupling, EGO, Moon Chaplin and the Magic Men, Rumble Seat Riot, Pinebox Rhythm, The Muck Savages, The Prizefighters and more, TBA.

Scooter clubs from several surrounding states are making the trip to lovely Des Moines, so if you're within riding distance, you really need to hit up this rally. Check out all of the details and register here. (It's only $30, and you get a rally shirt, rally pin, scooter badge, patch, swag bag, admission to both The Bishops and the 'big' show, plus two brunches and the Iowa pork chop dinner. Umm, awesome.)

Pressure Drop III from yellowsandwichstudios on Vimeo.
To give you a taste of what you're in for, here's a rad little video made at the last Pressure Drop by some of the dudes. Fun times ahead! Don't miss this.

to Japan, with love

Wearing something you've knitted using Noro yarn is like wearing a work of art. If you're unfamiliar with Noro, they are a Japanese yarn producer, famous for their beautiful hand-dyed color compositions and natural fibers. And since all of our hearts and minds have been focused on the earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan this past week, I've been looking at this project even more. Thinking about the people there, friends in the military who are stationed there, fellow bloggers that I 'know' online who live there, the horrifying potential nuclear crisis, the people who are still unaccounted for. The people who have lost everything.

It quickly became obvious to me that I needed to give back to the place that made this beautiful yarn, so I am going to be putting this Noro wrap/scarf up for auction and donating the proceeds to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami disaster relief efforts.

If you're wondering more about the details of this wrap, it is very lightweight and was hand-knit by me using two skeins of Noro Taiyo, which is a gorgeously soft silk and cotton blend. It can be worn as a wrap (which would look amazing over a black dress) or a scarf, shown here.  e.t.a. For those who have asked about the pattern, this is a modified Clapotis of sorts … I cast on a smaller number of stitches, dropped a different number of stitches and didn’t do the tapered edges (mine are just square.)

The colors are beyond fantastic in person and this colorway is just plain rad. There's a little bit of black, blue, gray, red, pink, orange, golden yellow and fuchsia in this baby.

The 'To Japan, With Love' wrap/scarf is up for sale here. Go bid! Once again, proceeds from this auction will go to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami efforts. Pass it on. And feel free to re-blog this and use any of the images in this post. (Thank you so much.)

lovely love my family

I saw these awesome prints on the GabbaFriends site this week, and then discovered the amazing story behind them. If you're a YGG fan, you recognize these lyrics from the song Lovely, Love My Family, written by Amos Watene and performed by the Roots on the show. For only $20, you can score one of these rad prints and all proceeds go to Davy, daughter of Yo Gabba Gabba co-creator Scott Schultz. (You should also check out his wife Ruth's blog – the mom. Good stuff.)

better than the movies

If you haven't seen this yet, you must watch part one and part two (well, part three) of this amazing story.


A Brooklyn man (Todd Bieber) found a lost roll of film in 2010, developed the photos, and then vowed to find their owner. His search ultimately led him to a European adventure and a reunion with the photographer in Paris.

"We sat and drank tea and awkwardly talked," Todd says in the video. "I threw her in this situation and posted photos of her family that ended up all over the internet." She joked with him that her family had started calling him the "boy Amelie," after the character in the French movie who decides to change the lives of strangers around her. You've just gotta see this.


This made me so happy today. I want to have an adventure like that.

now i'm feeling so fly ... like a yarn swift

This past Christmas, I asked for a yarn swift. Not an exciting thing for some people, I realize, but I love this thing. Life changing, I tell you. I had been looking at swifts for awhile, and decided on a wooden Amish swift instead of the umbrella type. This one is super simple to take apart and store, and the pegs are easy and fast to adjust. Love it.

So I've been winding all of those abandoned hanks lying in my yarn bins into pretty little cakes like these! Hooray!

So yeah, if you're not a fiber enthusiast and you're like ... 'what?' ... right now, lots of yarn actually comes in these twisted skeins, called hanks. And you cannot knit or crochet straight from a hank. Or you'll end up with a huge tangled pile of endless knots that you may never be able to untangle. Ever. Been there. It has the potential to make a girl cry. So when you purchase yarn in a hank, you usually have to gently untwist it into a loop and throw it over the back of a chair.

And then wind it, by hand, into a ball. You can knit from a ball, like these, or a cake wound from a swift (like the green and blue in the pics at the beginning of this post) without making a huge tangled mess. Understandably, this can take a very, very long time, especially if you're working with a thinner yarn. Even worsted weight stuff takes forever to wind by hand. So yes, I'll take the yarn swift. So much more fun.  :)

e.t.a. My yarn swift is the Chiao Goo Amish Design Wooden Yarn Swift from JoAnn Fabrics. They don't carry these in the stores, but for $40 it's a good deal and it works great.  (They're actually on sale right now for only $27.99!! So grab one!) They also sell handmade swifts on Etsy, so be sure to check there as well.

for my friends

These are my sweet and beautiful friends Shana and Jared, holding their tiny boy wonder, Atticus. Atticus was delivered 4 months premature in January and weighed just 1 pound, 10.4 ounces. For insurance purposes, Shana and Jared got married 5 days later by a judge with little family present. And, sadly, 25 days later, Atticus passed. This little family has been through a lot. To say they're strong is an understatement.

In their own words: 'So much has happened in the last two months in the wrong order and the wrong way, but the one perfect part was our time with our little Atticus. We'd like to honor his life as we finally get to celebrate how happy and strong we are as a couple.'

Shana and Jared's friends have nominated them to win an ultimate wedding from Crate and Barrel. And I cannot think of two people who deserve it more.

If you have a second, please vote for them here. You don't have to register or sign up for anything. Just click the pink 'vote' button for my friends. Thanks.

Margot

This is my new friend, Margot. I know it's March and I should be thinking springier thoughts, but truth is that it's still in the 30s. (And, well ... I know this will keep me warm next winter, too.)

Anyway, I put this pattern together for the party at Knitted Together, and today it's available on Ravelry. I used two skeins of Marisol Ushya in platinum gray, double stranded. This pattern is fantastically easy (but has quite a bit of detail) and I finished knitting mine in less than two hours. I like it a lot, and I hope you will, too.

adventures in FNKC

This girl had a fun Friday night at Knitted Together's FNKC (Friday Night Knit Club) Ravelry party. We each got our own Ravelry 'my name is' buttons so we could put screen names together with real life knitters. (I've always wanted one of these buttons! Yes, I am that nerdy!)

There were about 30 knitters who came out to work on their projects (and enjoy the delicious appetizers and desserts.) It was fantastic to meet so many fun ladies and I loved chatting with everyone.

Nancy and Megan prepared an awesome overview of the ins and outs of Ravelry, offering lots of really useful tips and advice. They also shared a list of some of their favorite designers.

And I talked for a bit about how I got started knitting, designing, what inspires me, and the whole craft fair thing. (I am terrible at speaking in front of people, so this totally freaked me out but I survived!)

We also had my newest cowl, 'Margot', on display with the pattern and yarn that I used (gorgeous Mirasol Ushya!) so that anyone who liked it could make their own.

And I've said it before, but these guys are pretty great. Tim and Nancy own Knitted Together and have been so fantastically cool to me ever since the first time I shopped there. I've always been fascinated by how talented these people are. Nancy has an impressive background in publishing and was the senior editor of magazines for Better Homes and Gardens Creative Collection, where she wrote Knit It and Simply Creative Crochet. She's a true knitting expert and needle artist and can help you through any snag you might encounter. Tim is a designer and architect; he designed the shop himself! He also knows quite a bit about yarn ... and he's recently taken up knitting, too. Megan (in the middle) manages the store's web and marketing stuff. She has a background in fashion design, previously lived and worked in NYC, plus she's a knitter and a mom to two little boys so I just thought she was amazing right off the bat. 

Thank you, Knitted Together ... for your kindness, for providing the tools and materials we all use to create, for always being open when I want to stop by and pet the yarn for an hour or so, and for the space where knitters can come together. (For knitting us all together!)

Friday Night Knit Club

 This is my local yarn shop, Knitted Together. I pretty much love hanging out there.

Walls and walls of color and texture in every fiber content a girl could wish for.

And the owners are super great. Nancy and Tim have always been beyond helpful and friendly, and they're the kind of people who always remember your name. Even Lotus feels at home there, hanging out on the couch while I shop around. (Or chasing me around the store, telling me what colors she thinks I should buy.)  :)

And tonight, Knitted Together is hosting a special Friday Night Knit Club Ravelry party. (This is so exciting!) If you haven't heard of Ravelry, it's sort of like Facebook for knitters/crocheters. It's an enormous, fantastic resource for patterns and project ideas, and it's also a great place to connect with knitters from all over the world.

And okay, so here's the sort of embarrassing part. You might remember that last month, I mentioned that my cowl pattern was the 2nd most popular pattern on Ravelry.

If you come to Friday Night Knit Club tonight, you can meet/come hang out with me as I reveal my newest cowl pattern (pictured above) at Knitted Together, before it's released Ravelry. There will be yarn kits available in several different colors so you can knit your very own. So come out and hang with us, if you can! Email webmail [at] knittedtogether [dot] com to rsvp. They'll have Ravelry buttons so we can all meet the people behind the usernames, and there will be a short Ravelry discussion/q&a for anyone who is new to Ravelry and wants to learn more about how it all works. Sounds cool, huh? It's going to be fun.

Hope you have a great weekend!