I'm still here.....

Yes, I'm still here, though extremely busy being a mom.... checking homework (and helping when needed), driving to ballet classes, rehearsals and shows, sitting in a gymnastics studio watching four year olds jump around, playing with my own four year old - ok, that part is fun, most of the time - and knitting for my sanity while doing some of this.
To be honest, I did take some time to go to a yarn shop with my friend. I had a great time! We even had lunch together, something I don't do very often without the kids. In the yarn store I felt like a little kid in a candy store.... we were touching everything we saw, and ended up with some wonderful mohair yarn... for mohair it is very soft and its colors really impressed me. I picked a dark blue haze with purple undertones..... it will look wonderful no matter what I'll make from it.... it calls for a very lacy, wisper light something - yes, for me..... I wanted to get way more, it was hard to walk out of there with just a few skeins, but I do need to downsize some of my stash before I can do that..... it also helped that we were together and talked things over before jumping to buy everything soft that we touched. I know I'll be back there though - my days of shopping for yarn at Joann's are over...
I did manage to knit/design a new hat and matching fingerless gloves, I'll try to post them soon, though learning from my past mistakes, I asked one of my friends to test knit them for me before I'll publish them. I learned in the meantime that this is what real designers do - and they also have a technical editor..... I wouldn't need one for a hat or gloves, but for a more complicated sweater it might help.... there is quite a bit of math - algebra, to be exact - involved in figuring out all the different sizes for a sweater... I should have my kids do it, they need the practice....
so... I'm still here, but I'll go to bed soon, and hope to post just a little bit more often.

more good news....

Knitcircus has accepted one of my sweater designs for publication.
"Cables and Stripes" (ok, not very original, I admit, but I couldn't come up with anything more sophisticated before their deadline) will be published in their fall issue, coming out in November. I think this makes me an official, "real" knitwear designer???.... It was the first pattern I ever tried to write down; after a few tries I did it.... but then I had to do more math, to figure it out for at least two more sizes..... that part is definitely not as much fun as knitting and making it all up..... but it still made me feel good to realize that I could actually do the math!!! I didn't loose all my brainpower (yet)....
I need to get working more now.... I have lots of projects waiting for my time; but kids come first!..... so at the moment all this is still just hobby/part-time fun. As the kids get older though, I'll get to it a bit more often; and yes, I will update this blog a bit more often, too..... I hope...