The newly designed site has been up and running for a week now and I have to say that I’m so pleased with how things are working out. The new shopping cart is working well and I haven’t had any complaints yet!
I’ve been hard at work designing a big pile of new patterns. I have had a pile of designs that have been in half finished states for a long time. Some of them have been nearly finished for over a year! One of them has been half test knitted and still on the needles for that long. I don’t even know where it is. I’ve spent the week sorting them out, getting them all into some state of organization and then realized I had quite a large pile of designs that were nearly done. I might need to call on some test knitters soon!
I’ve also been spending a significant amount of time working to redesign the Dishcloth Calendar website. I not only contributed a pattern to this year’s Calendar, but I help out Janet by maintaining the website. I love this new shopping cart that I’m using on my website that I want to switch over the Calendar website as well. And at the same time I’m trying to design a funky new look for it too. We’ll see what I can come up with. If you haven’t checked out the Dishcloth Calendar, you might want to head over to the site and take a peek. It’s a wonderful collection of dishcloth patterns. We’re already beginning to think about the calendar for next year!
I am very excited to announce that the newest Dishcloth Calendar has been released for sale today!!
Every year for the last several years, Janet Nogle has gathered together patterns from dishcloth designers and has put together a wonderful calendar devoted mostly to dishcloths, and including other patterns for the home.
I was very pleased to contribute a pattern to this year’s calendar. The pattern is called Diamond Panels Dishcloth and it is a bit different than anything else that I have designed before. Here is a photo of it:
As you can see, I did not take this photo! Anyone who knows my work, knows that I just slap the cloths on the scanner. Janet is a complete wonder when it comes to photographing dishcloths and she did a fabulous job making my cloth look very fancy indeed!
This cloth is a little lacy, but simple. It just has k2tog, SSK, and yo for the lace stitches. So long as you are careful with your counting, you’ll be able to do it. It also has a simple crochet border.
The 2010 Dishcloth Calendar is called Gifts from the Heart…Back to Basics. It is available for purchase from this site: www.dishclothcalendar.com. You can purchase a digital copy to download for $16, or a printed copy to be mailed to you for $18 plus $5 shipping.
The calendar has an incredible number of patterns this year. Many of the patterns are contained in sets, which will be perfect for gift giving. The Dishcloth Calendar this year also contains many patterns for the home besides dishcloths. There are sets with placemats and potholders, soap sacks, baby bibs and even a doggie/kitty bed! So, head on over to www.dishclothcalendar.com and check it out!
Well, it was one crazy week last week. I managed to finish the shrug and it turned out beautifully! That was after frantically ripping out and reknitting several times because I kept making mistakes while trying to knit so fast. Then the clincher was on Friday morning, about an hour after I finished sewing up the sleeve seams and about 2 minutes before I had to leave to work, my adorable 19 month old decided to help me out. I heard him say, “Mama, Mama,” and I looked over to see him holding my coffee cup by the edge of the lid and toddling over to me. I reached out and just as I touched the cup, the lid let go and coffee flies all over my new white shrug. Fifteen minutes later, I’ve used quite a bit of oxyclean and managed to get all the coffee out. I tossed it in the dryer, dashed off to work and later that evening got lots of compliments on the outfit, complete with shrug.
Currently, I’m working on some dishcloths to get caught up with the KALs in the Monthly Dishcloth KAL Challenge. I’ve only done the January cloths, and I’ve almost finished the first February one. I figure by the weekend I should be all caught up.
I’ve been knitting like crazy since yesterday evening working on a shrug. We have a wedding on Saturday with the rehearsal on Friday evening. For Friday, I have a pretty yellow sleeveless dress to wear, but it really needs a little cover up for it. So, I’m knitting as fast as I can to finish the shrug by then. I’m knitting it in TLC Plus yarn in white. So far it’s turning out really pretty. I’m very pleased with the pattern.
I’ll let you know how it turns out!
