Aloha-hai, until we meet again

View from the hotel just before sunrise - Kohala coast

Photo Album at the Big Island of Hawaii

Coconuts on our way to Hilo

Koi pond at the hotel

Yay! Glorious Kona coffee cherries

Even chickens like good coffee

Akaka falls plunge 400 ft in a lush tropical garden

Falls in the even lusher World Botanical Gardens

Giant Heliconia plants and their alienspawn flower

What's Shakin' has the best smoothies from homegrown fruit

 Kilalua Volcano in Volcano National Park. Ollie was disappointed with the lack of fireballs

The real Tiki room - at the National Refuge

Honu (the protected Hawaiian green turtle) were a frequent sight

A few photos of the fabulous orchids and exotic flowers. I probably brought back over 50 pictures of orchids, all different!

Cliffrose KAL kickoff!!!
Just like that, the Cliffrose KAL is upon us! After being inspired by the Hawaiian orchids and lush gardens, I fully expected to come up with a glorious pink or purple for my choice of shawl. However, once I was ankle-deep on lace stash, I had a change of heart. I thought I would make a shawl as a Christmas gift to my mother. With practical eye, I picked up two lace samples on the brown range, which should go great with the Autumn and Winter favorite color this year, the Camel, and I made up for the lack of color with drop-dead softness.

 Rowan's Kidsilk Haze in Goldenrod should give a nice punch of color to a camel sweater or coat.

I am also quite partial to this Gaia Lace DK from Sanguine Gryphon. It is a one-off color, a taupe with highlights of green, which is supremely soft and has a lovely, silky sheen.I believe SG does not carry DK any more, but the lace weight is available.
The Kidsilk however was the winner of the Husband Petting Test, so I will probably start with this one. However, time permitting, I would like to use up the Gaia as well, and make two shawlettes. Pretty ambitious, considering that my FO drawer overflows with unfinished stuff again.

Sock-bsession!
I feel like a dolt. After packing my knitting bag carefully for the trip, I forgot the needles for one project and the other project needed needles two sizes smaller. So I ended up working exclusively on the Cuban Cockroach Bugga! wrestling it into socks. I was hooked. Grab the basic stitch of the Talinay gloves, mix in some of the September clue, and give it a twist, and out came the most gorgeous sock. I was so obsessed I had to knit it all the way to the tip even though it was too big, just because I HAD to see how the pattern unfolded. Then, (anathema!) frogged back to the heel and fixed the size, refined the flow of the pattern... I am an inch from the toes, and I MUST finish it, because I have it in my head I need to have this entered for a submission. I am even going to buy me a sock blocker for the occasion!
So between the sock, and giving my just-finished secret project the last finishing and packing, the poor KAL is a bit abandoned. But - an idea has already caught fire, coming from one of your suggestions. As soon as the sock-bsession is over, I vow to commit myself to getting this clue out on time.

And just a parting thought... just when I thought I had more projects I could manage, along comes this fabulous Blue Moon Fiber Arts Traveling Sweater. Just the most interesting construction and it would show off a variegated yarn so beautifully. I bought the pattern immediately, but darn it, I don't have just the right yarn... there goes the yarn diet again!

September Leaves

Embossed Leaves

Maple Leaves

September clue is out! We made it through another month. We are arriving to the final stretch of our shawl. How exciting it is to see it grow month to month! I feel such pride when I look at the intricate, delicate openwork, and such joy to know I am sharing it with so many people.
For this month, I challenge you to walk in my shoes: put together the clue using a few elements. When you think how many combinations and permutations you can create out of just two patterns and a few filler stitches, it is mind-boggling. It feels a bit like a Sudoku game, trying to make all the math fit together. I really hope you all have loads of fun with it.
You may recognize one of the patterns - the Maple Leaf is based on Maple Leaf Socks by Heartstrings, a pattern proposed by Raveler Lizavietta. I am sure our Canadian neighbours will be amused!. The Embossed Leaf is a classic Barbara Walker pattern, which shares commonalities with many embossed patterns. It seemed to fit well in size and nature with the maple leaves. Both have a textural, tridimensional quality. Also, each leaf runs in a different direction, which makes the pattern non-directional - no upside or downside. Once I had the patterns, I found I could combine them in so many ways I could not make my mind up. I remembered how much fun you all had combining the "hard" and "soft" love features, and I decided to let you all play with the patterns again.
And reading all your suggestions for October has been enlightening - I think I have a definite direction on the clue for next month. However, keep the suggestions coming, since I can just as easily change my mind!

Heartache from Vogue Knitting
I did promise to tell you about a little designer fit I had reviewing the last VK issue. I usually love reading VK, though some of the last issues have been disappointing. I look at it as an aspirational magazine. The garments are usually not practical or wearable by most regular people, and they can be fussy and hard to knit. Not to mention you'd spent a small fortune knitting some of them - lush, expensive yarns. The styling is very haute-couture-ish, which is nice but does not always show the garment to its best advantage (good thing they have the 360 feature!). However, it often has a few daring, cleverly constructed, inspirational garments. This issue is full of such - things I would NOT wear but I just love how they are constructed. 
Unfortunately, one of the sweaters is almost a distillation of a design idea I was actually working on - I mean, bought yarn, worked on swatches, made charts. So close, I could see there is no way to use my original idea without it looking like a ripoff. I almost cried, specially because it is the one idea my sister had been very sold on, even to the point of working the charts with me. WAAAAAHHHH!
(A good illustration of the evolutionary law called the Red Queen Effect (for Alice in Wonderland) - sometimes, you have to keep running faster just to stay on the same place, as everybody around you evolves and gets better). 
At least I can tell my sis her idea was good enough for Vogue. It is a consolation. 
And once I get over it, I can probably use the kernel of the idea for something different.
Go ahead and browse VK. I loved the article on Project Runway winner Irina Shabayeva ("Head of the Class"). I just love her concept of movement and texture. 

Travel Companions
Already busy packing for Hawaii!!! And before I even pack my clothes, I pack my knitting bag. I have assembled a few kits for small items, and for the first time I am actually bringing design work with me. I can totally see myself feeling inspired by the beautiful nature around the island and working away in the lanai with the sound of waves crashing. Reality check, there will be two children staging Lego robot fights in the background.

Taking my sunglasses...

This project is so much fun I could not wait to get started. I was immediately in cute overload. I love colorwork! . KP Palette is a great yarn for that, but is a wee bit rough to the touch, which worries me because it will be a baby item. Hopefully it softens with wash. Expect some calls for test knitting soon!

A cockroach that I actually like

After the whole pink-monster-cockroach incident, I decided to put a positive spin on cockroaches. This Cuban Cockroach Bugga! skein is going to become a sock version of the Talinay gloves. Lush greenness, perfect for island knitting.

This here is Dragonflyfibers Dragon Sock in Dark Star colorway. I dug it out of my stash a while ago when the husband suggested he would like some manly fingerless gloves. Of course he shot straight for the darkest yarn he could find. I have a good idea of how to take the best advantage of the flashes of color in the yarn, and I really would like a very architectural quality for the gloves, but otherwise this one is still pretty much up in the air.
Naturally, some Dumb Knitting and UFO that Never Dies will go into the bag as well.

And to keep track of it all - Barnes and Noble recycled version of the Moleskine notebook. I have a full sized version with graph paper pages, where all my design babble goes, but I got this small sized one for the travel bag. Bright enough I won't overlook it!. I would die if I lose that notebook, seriously!
Test knitters wanted!
My submission project is moving along at an amazingly fast pace. Due to a sudden and uncharacteristic attack of neatness, my pattern is almost fully written. The release schedule probably won't let me enough time for full test knitting, but there is a small portion that I really feel i need tested just to make sure it makes sense. It is this:

  Confused? don't worry, it will all become clear. Here is the deal: you work two small pieces that look approximately like this (you need just scraps of worsted weight yarn, it takes an hour or two to make) and i will send you the full copy of the pattern pre-release, which you can choose to test or not. I can tell you it is a fun garment for boys age 3-8. 
I really just need a couple of people, so email me at neverfrog@aol.com if you are interested and I can give you more information, including an approximate picture of the finished garment. You will have to be sworn to secrecy, LOL!

Now... get those needles clicking for September 

October Earth

Elemental Animals by Shadow Wolf

It is time to unveil the October theme.... Kudos to Susan, who guessed it!
November is the last of the "officially beaded" clues. If you track back those months with beads in the clue, March represented Wind. June, Water. August, Fire. And therefore, October represents the element of Earth.
I know this clue is very vague clue, and possibly a hard to represent. So think hard!

Here is another little bit of inspiration. The most "earthy" place I have visited, Yellowstone park. It has some of the most gorgeous formations that earth, water, fire and wind can create - mountains, prairies, streams, geysers, "paint pots" - a fantastic place. I hope it inspires a fantastic clue. I have absolutely no preconceived idea of what to do yet!.

Happily,  September is all done, and in the mod's mailboxes waiting to be proofread. Right on track for release  September, 1st. Whatever you may think of this clue, it promises to be interesting and I am fully looking forward to see what you make with it.

Physics phenomenons applied to everyday life
Do you know that there are many phenomenons of physics that apply to daily life? For instance, the Black Hole of the domestic appliances. Once one appliance breaks down, it seems to create a well of gravity that causes all other appliances to fall apart under its pull. Example in point: as soon as we came back from our trip, the caulking of the guest shower collapsed and caused a massive leak which ruined part of the floor of the kids room next door. The black hole effect immediately caused the pool pump to quit working, the car radiator to spring a leak, and my husband's phone to spontaneously crack across the screen. Odd, uh?

Let's move on to the Butterfly effect, where apparently small events have wide and unforeseen consequences. After the shower leaked, the whole place smelled rank and damp, and my husband had to rip this full-sized wall ceramic plates that form the shower enclosure so it would not mold out. High fashion in the 80's, mind you - real imitation marble. Of course, he went at it with gleeful , primeval glint in his eye  that every woman has learned to fear: the larval stages of the House Remodeling Project.

My sadly gutted bathroom

uh yeah baby, you know you want this wallpaper...

We thought things were under control, gutted bathroom notwithstanding, until my eldest son Ollie came pelting into the living room with his eyes big as saucers to announce that there was "a pink animal" in the bathroom. Boastfully we marched, thinking it would be one of the baby geckos that scurry around the house. Nope. It was a gigantic, nasty, flying sewer cockroach, the kind that lurks behind bathroom walls. Battle ensued, husband emerged victorious, monster roach squashed, but we had to dig Ollie from under the pillows. It soon was obvious that Ollie was so traumatized by the incident that he refused to use the bathroom. Instead, he would go in his clothes, then find creative ways to hide the soiled clothes, which we would find by scent. We hit rock bottom when he desperately tried to hide a rather large, um, poop, and instead succeeded in fingerpainting all over the computer room. Heck, even I was traumatized. It has taken a lot of bribing to retrain him, but he still wants to use the master bathroom all the time. There goes the privacy.

Which takes us to the nuclear fusion effect. Where a small explosion causes things to collide around creating a huge explosive force. Really, this was just supposed to be a small remodel. Get a new shower head, re tile, some painting. We dutifully visited Home Depot. Checked the supplies. Then made the mistake of visiting a designer fixture store. I never knew before people is willing to pay upwards of 5K for a new shower!!! and of course they are so gorgeous... And tiles??? We went to One World Tile and spent two hours shuffling and reshuffling the most gorgeous hand painted Mexican tiles. And oh, you should see their painted sinks. To die for. We came home with a loot of little tile pieces to play with

Even before we start the little remodel, I know we are going to bust the budget. Stay tuned.
So finally, the Fight or Flight reaction. When facing a lenghty bathroom remodel, choose to fight (and face the remodel) or flight (and use the money you saved in the honeymoon trip it was intended for). Guess what I chose. Aloha Hawaii!!!!! We bought the tickets before we could succumb to the instinct of sensibly spending the money on the remodel.

And yes, knitting happened too
Soon after the last update, I got this on the mail:

King Cole Merino Aran

  My long awaited yarn for the secret submission project! I had to drop everything to get working on the sample, so most of my other "personal" knitting is hibernating while I power through this one. This is a very soft and supple yet hardy superwash merino, with excellent stitch definition, and it knits like buttah. Excellent workhorse yarn and moderately priced. A bit short in the color range though.

I have a few ideas prickling in my head for a while. I knew I had an unused Cascade skein with the receipt still in the bag, so I headed to my favorite LYS, Tempe Yarn and Fiber, just to exchange it for another color. I should know better. Fred and his minions are so evil. I walked out of the store with:

DIC Smooshy in Lunar Zazzle

Crystal Palace Kid Merino in pure white

Shepherd's Wool in Hot Pink

And a spiffy 30-pocket Nantucket Bagg. For my travel, you understand. I am absolutely in love with this bag!!! Stylish enough to carry as a handbag, it can be unzipped totally flat, and you can cram a LOT of knitting there.
As much as I love to shop for yarn online, there is no doubt that yarn shopping is a highly tactile experience. Nothing compares to being able to pet the yarn. Then it follows you home.
My, erm, excuse is that i have a pattern projected for each of this yarns... good luck guessing what, because my sister's visit seems to have awaken my inner corky.

Stay tuned... sharpen your needles...
And learn why the latest Vogue Knitting issue reduced me to tears. Real tears with sniffling.

Through the Eyes of a Child

We are back from our wedding-family reunion-vacation trip! Exhausted, but all in one piece.
As I was toggling through the camera looking for some good snapshots of the momentous event, I realized two things: One, you don't take pictures in your own wedding. Since I was too cheap to hire a photographer, I am stuck waiting for a kind family member to collect pictures from all the guests to make an album. Second, my tech-savvy 4-year old had commandeered mom's camera, and he took to the job of photographing everything with gusto. I have spent most of the afternoon culling over 400 snapshots. Many pictures of the floor, the sky, random people we don't even know (some apparently mugged and posed for the camera), critters and rocks, but some of them are truly amazing. Thus, the trip through the eyes of a child.

It rained a lot. It seems odd to get rained out in Arizona in August, but it is monsoon time, and apparently more so on the mountains. The day of the wedding was gray and misty, which lend the Canyon an eerie light and a decidedly mysterious air. It did not rain, until about the time I stepped out of the caravan in wedding regalia. My guests took it in great spirits, humming the Wedding March while wearing an assortment of plastic ponchos, rain gear and umbrellas. The minister, who showed up on hiking gear and changed later, quoted a Native American poem : " I shall feel no rain, for you are my refuge...". It did get a chuckle out of the guests.
The reception was wonderful, the cake was a looker and just so yummy, and we had a wonderful time. I will not bore you with the stories of the wedding, though I promise to share more pictures soon!

Here is the scary moment of the trip. We rented a private RV, which apparently was not very well maintained, and the battery went flat on us. Thankfully one of my brother in laws is a mechanic, and CPR'd it back to life. But for the first hour of the trip home, we had no headlights, no blinkers, no wipers, and no dashboard lights. And believe me, it was scary to negotiate those tight mountain roads on a monster RV in the middle of a driving rain!

Grand Canyon Lodge dining room windows... lovely stone work!

Another "rocky road"

A lovely mountain flower

Ground squirrels and chipmunks at the Lodge are incredibly bold!

Hi grandpa!

The Ghost of the Dirty Fingernails

After the wedding, we made a short stopover at home to wash a mountain of dirty laundry, and off to Disneyland. Not my favorite place in the world, and the kids did not seem to get it either, but the grandparents had a complete blast!. I have never been one for crowds, and waiting in line for an hour, no matter how great the ride is, just does not seem worth it. DH swore we would not come back until the kids were at least 40 inches tall and could go to all the good rides. Sounds like a plan.

And on with the knits...
I had a pleasant surprise on my return home - My one and only submission to a magazine up to now had been accepted for publication! wee! I do not like much to work with submissions because of all the waiting involved, and now I am stuck waiting for the support yarn and not able really to talk much about it... all I can say is that it is going to be a fun piece!

Meanwhile all my other knitting seems to be at the "black hole" stage, where you knit and knit and it just does not seem to grow. Here is the Sylvar sweater. I was a victim of the Gauge Fairy, and as soon as I started the actual sweater, my gauge dropped by at least a half stitch per inch, and I had to go a size up. Good think it is a bottom-down piece. I am also planning some modifications, such as running the pattern to the lower edge and making some increases after the waist to accommodate my, ahem, pear shape. 
And I have managed to get to the second panel of the red frost-flower shawl (aka Most Boring Knit Evah). I am actually excited about this, and seems like I will have a whole skein of the gorgeous Malabrigo Lace in  Sealing Wax left over - so I am open to trades.
I did mention that my sister was a bit of a fashion freak. She actually gave me the most elegant pair of silicone shoes I have ever seen. We pored over a dozen couture magazines. She loved This Ferragamo cabled sweater  which in close look is actually incredibly difficult to master - they are not cables, but individual "ropes" plaited together. She also fell in love with a certain intarsia design and we spent many hours bent over graphic paper with my huge case of Prismacolor pencils making our version of the design.

I found out that swatching for colorwork is incredibly expensive. I did order a half a dozen KnitPicks Palette to work with, and found out that I really wanted one or two different colors. Palette is very inexpensive and they have around 100 shades, but it is very hard to choose from just a monitor picture. I will definitely post updates as the sample unfold, though I am still not even sure what I am going to use it for.
September approaches!
It is getting more and more difficult to find clues that still challenge your skill levels! September has not been a walk in the park. I was, for once, quite defeated when the swatches did not turn out like I wanted them. Then it was "Back to the Walkers" time, and I had a little aha moment - finally things seem to be clicking together, and I have managed to find something fun, challenging, and hopefully beautiful. I got tired of swatching and started today on my own piece, and so far I am really liking it! I am hoping to get it whipped up in shape and kinks worked out by the very first days of September.
I know that there was some (gentle) grumbling about September being to early for falling leaves. Unfortunately October has a sort of an obligatory theme, being the last of the four beaded clues. I can't believe nobody figured out yet the theme underlying those four clues!!! March, July and August, and now October, have a common thread to them. 
Missing clues?
With all the accumulated and backed up stuff at home, I am afraid i am having trouble sending missing clues timely. If you are missing clues from the first six months, specially if you are missing more than one, you should consider buying the 6-month cumulative pattern. This has been edited and condensed.

For single missing clues after July, I can still step up to send copies, or maybe we can get started a "missing clue angels" section.
 It is great coming back home... except for the part about going back to the day job! 

The beginning of the Spanish Invasion

And so we arrive to August!
(I still haven't figured out how to flip the pictures on the blog! so sorry)
August clue has beads, multiple increases, and as a new technique feature, some twisted/crossed stitches. I do explain some techniques to make some of them, but lucky me, the new issue of Interweave Knits  has an extensive article in techniques to work them - and soon some how-to videos will be available. I just got my issue yesterday and my queue is full again :(  - check the preview!
So, with extra time to work on it and some unexpected and welcome help, you will have this mastered by the time I come back all married and legal.

6 month pattern is ready too!
and so we are ready to take in some new players for the second half of our KAL. That also means that I will not be sending any missing clues for January to June. July and August clues will remain there for a little longer so new joiners can catch up. The pattern has a whopping 27 pages, and it looks great thanks to layout artist and tech ed Kate Vanover. The last page has all the individual clue pictures from our contest winners, with credits and all, so people can use them for reference. 

And we are invaded by the Spaniards...
All of the sudden, my house seems very full with my sister and parents and their stuff in every nook and cranny. They came bearing large amounts of soccer memorabilia from the recent World Cup win - complete outfits for the boys, shirts, hats and wristlets for everybody else. Talk about a swell of national pride...
My wedding outfit also came, yay! The initial dress they bought and send over the mail got sadly routed to Moscow, then back to Europe, and finally to USA. By the time it arrived, it was clear they had overestimated  my chest size by a fair bit and I was swimming in the top, and it was too late for corrections Bummer. But the "backup outfit" they bought was absolutely smashing and it fitted well. So today we have a lengthy marathon of modelling and matching colors and tops and bottoms, followed by makeup shopping, flower ordering and the like. I was hoping the DH-to be would save my poor father from the femme carnage by taking him somewhere manly, like the golf course, but the sly dog went off to straighten the reservations, which required a long drive to Scottsdale...   
I am over the moon about having my sister here. She is an incredibly fashion-forward person who always inspires me to design. I am really hoping to draw her into helping with some designs. She is also my most enthusiastic knitwear appropriator - and she just took over a somewhat undersized Whisper Cardigan in Lorna Lace's Helen lace that was pooling in the most delightful way. Just too small for me.
Pretty uncharacteristic for me, I spent the last two days grooming to become a real bride. I had a moment of panic at the hairdresser. I had made a point of making an appointment with a girl that did a great job of taming my tresses a couple of months back. Halfway through the color-and-cut two hour torture, I asked her what happened to her bubble-gum pink hair, which was looking a pretty tame caramel color now. "Ah, you are talking about Ashley. Everybody confuses us because of the tattoos!" Argh. I had had one of those Ashley-Amber-Tiffany-Madison name confusions. I had the wrong hairstylist! I crossed my eyes, and she came through with a great job in the end.
We will not talk about the wax job that followed. I had trouble sitting for a while.
Good travel companions

 Skuld Shawl is growing steadily, but working only during the daylight hours. Read Anna Dalvi's great description!It is a really enjoyable knit.

Sylvar is also coming along great! I love the texture of the stitch pattern and I may continue it all the way down to the waist. The yarn is a dream! - Madeline Tosh Merino

And just finishing the second glove on my pair of Talinay Gloves in Malabrigo Sock. It is a color I will probably never wear, so I will probably will send the finished pair on the Etsy store. Which I really have to rebuild when I come back from vacation.
Expect some good progress pictures next time!
I totally slipped off my yarn diet

Not my fault, really.
This is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Geisha - A blend of silk and kid mohair so soft you just want to hug it, pet it, take it home and call it Harry. It was the limited colorway for the 2010 Year of Lace club ( I signed up last year so it does not count as skipping the diet). I did not much care for the pattern that came with it, so I am thinking this shall become a large Cliffrose. By the way, I just added "her" to Patternfish - it is a fun place to buy patterns, as their search engine allows for so much tweaking. But I digress...

Wollmeise Sockenwolle Merino in colorways Kuken and Jeton. Two quick snags in the WM feeding frenzy that I would not have bought in a more calm environment. But I do quite like them. Kuken (the yellow one) actually harmonizes well with Sonne, a "wear your sunglasses when you look at it" color. I am still ruminating what they will become. Maybe nothing, as I already have SOLE (Stash Over Life Expectancy).