*moonkoosa boots*

*moonkoosa boots!* fringy felted kicks that will help you bramble through the wild bracken with ease! they come in mini, short, mid & tall for women and kids the kids ones are SO CUTE. so ive made another rambly video about them.  its long but the second half is a sorta felting tips and hints section.  i blanket stitched some flipflop soles to the bottom of the tall boots so i can wear them anywhere! they are light and fluffy and dont slouch down too much.  happy fringing sweet sweet ones!  lots of love your way. xoxoxo

lil kids sizes oooooooooooooooh! (size medium doubles perfectly as a drink cozy. LOL!)

tiny owl meet & greet

♥ hiya knittens! just wanted to let yall know that i will be at fancy tiger crafts in denver CO friday may 3rd at 7pm for a wee meet and greet…….. and a local brewery is bringing beer ♥ http://fancytiger.com/tinyowlknits.html… i know most of everybody lives too far to come over…. but just in case anyone is in the area id love to see you! ♥
(here i am above with stephen west the greatest when he was at fancy tiger last week!) look at his pants!!! he made them out of a sweater.  stephen IS sweet genius-ness.

ruby and i are working reeeeeally hard on new patterns right now. we just finished our knitting book (due out this autumn!) so excited to get things moving along again. also, in case you missed the tweets, the woodsy association is now available in the TOK shop.

*spirit of the birch*

hoot! now presenting a new pattern called *spirit of the birch*.  its a felted scarf and cuff!  the birch tree represents birth and new beginnings.  it also is the celtic tree for the new year and for starting over fresh.  cant you just feel the amazing energy of this new year?
my grandmother used to have lots of birch trees in her front garden. she told me to write my wishes on the little bits of bark that naturally fell from the trees onto the ground.

i have always loved birch trees. i got the idea for this scarf almost a year ago, and began working on it 9 months ago. for some reason it just took a long time in the labyrinth of creation before it was ready to be born.  sometimes we just have to trust the process.

the scarf is knitted in the round like a tube & then felted in the washing machine. i added some wispy spirit fringe at the ends to represent the dryad (the tree spirit inside.)
the best surprise about this project was the little cuff! i knitted it as a gauge and promptly put it on my wrist where it has stayed pretty much all year! i wear it with everything. even in the summer. (im wearing it in the mollie makes photoshoot heh heh) its kind of tough dont you think? yes. yes it is tough to wear a birch tree on your wrist. it kind of looks like maybe you punched through the middle? no thats sillyness. anyway, its cute.
the year has turned another corner and i have so much to do and share. my needles are on the move.. and im heading back to england for the second half of the photo shoot for my knitting book soon!  also, i seem to be doing some embroidery? what is that all about!? oh also if you want to check out this page i just found… it is so magical and full of some beautiful birch lore. if not, heres a rambly brambly video where i talk about portkeys etc.
ps. want the pattern? ie: do you want to wear a tree?  *click here.*
pps. thank you so much to my kind and talented new photographer and neighbor (how convenient!) freddie ochoa.

faeries & ghosts

we woke up this morning with 4 inches of snow! we dusted off the pumpkins and the baby juniper tree just in time.  the horses across the field are busy blowing ghosty smoke rings.

speaking of ghosts my sweet friend teresa gregorio from canary knits just put out a spooooooooky e-book of yummy ghosty knits just in time for the most bestest holiday ever, halloweeeeen! the e-book is a history buff’s dream.  tons of facts, tidbits, tales and lore lace the book of 11 earthy & ghosty knits. first on my list to knit? that yummy cream sweater on the right called galoshans. i need one in every color so guess i’d better get to it. click the pic to see more!

the woodsy association

we’re the woodsy association, we fight crime we scale the highest building. we give out promotional chocolates. book us for your birthday party!  introducing a raucous band of woodsy wrist-ees that i designed for knit picks. the pattern is up now *here* whee!  if you are scared of color-work, which lots of us are, these can also be done with duplicate stitch after the mitts are finished. (thats what i did.) just remember, they are worked top down from the fingers, so be sure to do duplicate stitch the same way! (upside down)  each woodsy has a power charm attached with a 9mm jump ring at the wrist. dangle-cute!
i hope you guys will have fun stitching these guys up! i made a video of incessant rambling discussing the murky method to my madness.  and after i went to bed, the woodsies made their own video for their fight song which is lots shorter (its the second video below.)

the fight song:

gypsy petticoat

last year i made a gypsy petticoat with lots of ruffles. i thought it would be the perfect thing to wear over some lacy slips… sometimes i even put a loose cardigan over the top!

i got the idea from an old vintage petticoat i found at a thrift store in london a few years ago.  here is a picture of me wearing it with the woodland hoodlet…  for the life of me i cant find this thing!  i thought i packed it when i moved back to america, but alas, it must belong to someone else now.  im sure they are happy about it, and im fine too because i made myself a gypsy version with gauzy recycled fabric and lovely muted colors.

the pattern is available in the fall issue of knitscene 2012.  here is the dreamy photo shoot they did.  as you can see that model is mega-gorgeous and mega-tall!  im really thrilled to be in knitscene.  it feels like a young dream come true… we used to pour over the mag in the knit shop i used to work in every time a new issue came out.  you can get your own copy *here*.   hehe,  that “here” looks like a cheerleader with pom poms doesnt it?
yeah thats right. im walkin.

you didnt see enough of me walkin? well here’s some more just for you. walkin walkin crunch crunch crunch. (thats the leaves, not me eating doritos… mmmm doriiiitooossss)

i made giant chunky tassels to tie the coat together. they kind of remind me of the tassels on the sides of some turkish poufs.  anyway, i never mind looking like the furniture. thanks to my sweet dad who took these photos in our neck of the south carolina woods before i moved to colorado.  he was ever so patient when i was trying to walk in slo-mo.

im working reeeealllly hard right now to finish up samples for my book. the photo shoot is scheduled in england next month, (which means actual production is still scheduled at least a year out!) in the meanwhile ive got a yummy e-book scheduled to appear soon. hope all of your knitting dreams are coming true knittens! love love and hoot hoot!

mollie makes & annie

recently my friend annie watts and i did a fun photo shoot for mollie makes magazine. here we are spread out on a beekeeper’s quilt.  (the quilt in the photo was actually a GIFT from lots of lovely owlies around the world!  i was glad to be able to get it on some real display in such a lovely magazine.  i know some folks have spotted their own cute puff!  :)our friend katy-jane took our photos & we had such fun, ive posted some of the cutting room floor ones. we hula-hooped like wild things! we used “water hoops”.  have you ever tried those? they have water in them to weigh them down… so when you hoop its LOADS easier.  no wonder i could never hoop before!   i love you water hoop.  you are so so rad. i’ve been practicing the vortex trick where it spirals up over your head and then back down.  yes i often get smacked in the face but its fun to try.  so, in other news… ive have had a very BUSY summer so far.  i’ve just returned from a wee trip to england to do some singing and recording.  then somehow we planned a fairly impromptu trip to iceland!!!! there i met up with some other designers and we took photos near the ocean and climbed magic rocks. LOTS more details and photos to follow on that i promise.  except for the ones where we swam in the blue lagoon. i promise swimsuit photos will never surface! SO if’n you wanna take a peek at mollie makes click here to subscribe.  ipad version here. and if you wanna meet my friend annie i highly recommend it!  you can see her designs on raverly here.  if you dont know her already youll probably freak out over her cute stuff!!!

♥ tnna ♥

we had such a fun time at TNNA! here i am with alex tinsley sitting back in our cozy den!

we had fun playing dress up in each others knits…  i want alex to model all of my designs and kept forcing her to put things on and prance around!  she just makes stuff look good.

i had little coupons inside the magic owl so folks could try their luck.  FIVE people won motherloads!  we also put bindis on people whenever they would let us near their faces.
here i am with the amazing antonio of malabrigo, and the generous & lovely erika knight!
we made lots of good friends like sweet hilary from the yarniad, & darling lee of leethal!

aw how much do we LOVE jess & casey!? answer: LOTS!  didnt get a pic with jess tho and in the 2nd picture with zany and sweet french press knits and knitterella! we are getting kind of cuddly with the beekeeper’s quilt… but it didnt seem to mind too much.

i cant resist hugging a big ol’ bale of manos.  cant help it.  its like a giant heavy teddy bear.  so when i ask the magic yarn ball we made, ”dear yarn ball, did i get to meet so many brilliant people, and touch every kind of yarn i wanted, and have lots of margaritas at lunch when i probably should have been at my booth, and make lots of new friends (so many of which i didnt get pics with!), and get so much inspiration, and to top it off meet a definite hero, the champion and possible inventress of the concept of magical knitting none other than the wild and wonderful and everything i thought she’d be cat bordhi!?”

i think we already know the answer to that, but you can tell us anyway just for fun

ps. dear katyjane! my sweet friend & assistant all weekend we got NO pictures of you! terrible! you were behind the camera all weekend… ill get you next time my lil cheeky
also special thanks to donna & crew at deep south fibers for giving us all a cozy home. and hugs to all the people we hung out with that for some reason didnt get pictures of!

pps. just popped over to twitter to see that jimmy beans wool is selling beekeeper’s quilt KITS! how super crazy fantastic is that! wish i couldve had one when i was making mine!

the narnia wardrobe & the new fae digs

whew! after moving 3 times in 7 months im finally unpacking all of my boxes for good!  ive been in colorado for a few months but finding a place to rent has been super hard… magically, due to a mistake with the rental listing, we were the only ones to even see this sweet little house right on the edge of a lake and bird sanctuary!  luckily we snapped it up right away.  there are horses outside our bedroom window and they swish their tails back and forth all day long.  i cant wait to go down and pet the white one with brown spots.  i feel so so lucky to finally have all of my things under one roof in a sweet house filled with love and light.  typical me, i set up my bookshelves (and foolishly attempted to put all of my yarn in the narnia wardrobe) before even considering cups, bowls and spoons. so far ive filled the kitchen cabinets up with candles, beads, letters and handy-man tools. this morning when mr. owl was looking for a cereal bowl i had to suggest that he may possibly have to use ruby’s… that. did not work. he did not like… ill be going out today to procure some wares for making food or things like that in that place people call “the kitchen.”(here is a picture of ruby lou soaking in the faerie vibes in her little reading nook.)
so all of this settling in happens just in time to unpack my samples and go to TNNA!  im sharing a booth in the deep south fibers section with alex tinsley. i hope lots of people will stop in and pet the fox and say hello. im so looking forward to meeting lots of folks!

*elves in sasha’s garden*

late last year before i left england i went to ally pally (a needlework convention in london) and got a chance to have a little chat with sasha kagan.  ok so i stalked her around the corner of her booth and pounced on her the second she was alone. what?
i think i was speaking elf language to her for a while.  but she seemed to understand.  i know i look like about to smack her or something. plus my mouth is open like im hissing like a cat.  but i promise i was just telling her how much ive been inspired by her designs. 
(i like how our ears are pointing out of our hair in this picture.  FAIRY POWER!)

so midway through our conversation she decided i should meet her daughter who was in a booth across the convention center.  she grabbed my hand and beelined it out of the booth high tail!  now the convention center was PACKED. and i mean STUFFED.  you could not even WALK in it.  but sasha didnt care.  she was on such a mission that she was just booking it full speed and saying “excuse me” at every back we encountered.  people just parted for us as we hustled in record speed.  i was in AWE.  id been shuffling my feet all day not able to really get anywhere!  i mean… she meant BUSINESS and she wasnt going to just go with the flow.  she needed to part that sea of people and she just DID it.   so besides gawping at her designs in person, the 2 things i learned from sasha kagan are:
1.  designing colorwork is NOT as easy as it looks, it takes a genius. and ive a lot to learn. and number 2.  sometimes when you want something done, you just gotta bust a little ass.