Totally Simple Crochet

A new crochet book by Norwegian designer Tove Fevang was recently published by Trafalgar Square Books. Tove is the author of a few books in different crafts including quilting, applique, embroidery, and crochet. Her choices of colors, yarns, and interesting stitch patterns make her designs very appealing, stylish, and comfy.  As it says on the cover there are more than 30 projects for all levels and for all ages. Read more here.

My favorite way to organize circular needles

I love tools and gadgets that make my life easier. This is one of them.
I have  Della Q hanging organizer for about a year now and I am still in love with it.  All needles are in their compartments according to their size and I there is no need to bend cord of the needle.

Since I do not have that much of wall space in  my studio, I tied the organizer to a small hanger and hung it on a dresser rack. 

 

Since I have almost googol needles, it works for me wonderfully. In each slot I can place multiple number of needles of different lengths.

 

It is crazy to think that I am actually using all of these needles and not just buying them to impress the world. Hah...

Keeping sane while working on a huge project

I find  it difficult to keep quite about the project that took over my life for a few months. I am drawing, swatching, choosing yarn, thinking about it day and night. When I get closer to the finish line, I will be able to say so much more. In the meantime, I can tell you that I am making the Ormond for me. I do not have many garments that I own made by me. I just have no time for that. In Russian we say that the shoemaker is always without the shoes. I find it to be very true in my case. Strangely now, when I am so busy with this big project, I have some non-deadline knitting time. Go figure! I am using Anna Blatt yarn I had for ages and it is just perfect for Ormond. I am so glad I have time to do it. I wanted to make it since I was working on the sample for Twist Collective.
I am almost done with the body and started both sleeves. Knitting both Fronts at the same time and I the same for sleeves. saves me a headache of remembering where I do increases or decreases. Hoping to finish it before the crazy time begins. 

 

One of the coming projects  will be made from Venezia Sport by Cascade. The color will be different, but I have this one to play with for swatches, thanks to nice people in Cascade Yarns. It is delicious.

 Skacel yarns have a new line called HiKoo and they send me these two skeins of Simplicity to swatch. I am loving this. They also have tons of colors, so it is perfect.

 

These skeins looks kind of matchy, but it is a coincidence.

 Despite of all this craziness with the "huge project" I find time to meet with friends and it is wonderful. My husband's department (I used to work as a part-time lecturer for many years there as well) had a party for one of the colleagues who is retiring and the crowd at her party was mainly consisting of people whom I knew at the time I worked there. It felt like old times. Great stress release! It was so much fun! A group of us knitted an afghan for the guest of honor using a mathematical pattern. She is a great knitter herself and planning to open her own yarn shop very soon in the new town where she is retiring with her husband. Yay, another shop!!

Last thing. I keep forgetting to show this fabulous flan that I had in our favorite French restaurant in San Francisco called Jeanne D'Arc. Always terrific and affordable food. You can taste it by looking, right? The coffee is always great there as well.