Its a very exciting time now, and stressful too. I’ve finished all of the sketches and swatches for the book (aside from one I have to felt, ohhhhh felt! Now I’ve got you wondering huh?) Now I’m knitting all the final samples for the models to wear and I can’t tell you how exciting that is to be knee deep in that process! Once each pattern is written I’ll work on having them test knit, and the math tech edited. Then later, another tech editor will be going through everything. Very happy to know it they will be reviewed twice by two different tech editors.

About 90% of the yarn is here as well and it’s all so excited to look out, I’ve been working on organizing the yarn into see-thru document sized bins by project each with notes on needle size, yarn name and amount of skeins within each box. This way I can check and double check that I don’t somehow mis-count how many skeins is used in each project. So for example it’s important to ask for a bit more yarn then you need when doing something like this so I may have 6 balls in my box, and wind up using 5. If I somehow mis-placed that last ball i could wind up thinking I used it and the knit item needed more yarn then it did so it’s very important to be organized.

I’ve never worked on such a large scale before, it’s very different to know I have SO many design ideas to work on and knit up. It feels very exciting to know I came up with so many different designs, all at once!

I worked up a pretty cream pair of the Serendipity Mittens (Free!) pattern to get ahead of winter this year. Every winter I am left thinking “I should knit some mittens” and then I don’t and it snows or is super cold and I think “gah yesterday I should have knit some” and never get around to it. So I knit LG Up a quick pair (only used like half a ball of yarn) and plan to make her a matching hat, and then knit a pair for BG as well and pop them in the closet to wait for the cold weather. The girls really love the Serendipity hat and mittens. Traditionally the kids could not give a hoot about what I knit for them but I think they like the pom poms on the hat, and then there must just be the sock-like-nature of the mittens they like that is easy to put on.

I have knit up so many versions of these two patterns it’s just crazy but I can’t get enough of them.

Off to knit!!

The last month of my life is one gigantic blur, actually the last two months. My husband traveled out of town a lot, I had a car accident which resulted in my waiting a month to get a new car, and I had to do a heck of a lot of work on the latest Petite Purls to get the new design and issue up (with my partner in crime Allegra).

I had a wonderful time at TNNA, I don’t remember half of it but the parts where I didn’t spend it on my computer coding (hrmm maybe 40% I was not coding?) I really enjoyed.

Here we are with Amy Singer, whom I always like to make a point of saying hi to (sad not to see Jill this year with her!) as she’s an incredibly nice person to talk to.

Here is what everyone saw me do all weekend, kinda lame I know but honestly it was easier to code there then at home with the kids and husbeast.

Trying on my very favorite new Ysolda pattern, which I will most definitely be making (when the kids are 18) and the 34″ fit me perfectly. It’s always fun to chat about camera’s with Ysolda. I could nerd out on that for hours…. and she’s one of the few who humor me!

Allegra, with her eyes closed… best I got gf!! We are TOO lame for not getting better pics of us together and in our cute outfits.

Joanna Johnson knitting, she was smart and brought her knitting TO the knit in. I brought my computer.

Susan B. Anderson with her animals

Just realized I did not get a photo of us hanging out with Susan B. Anderson. Doh. That’s what I get for getting no sleep and not having my brain on. I also didn’t get a pic of Merri, who is the sweetest women on earth and seriously patient with me as a designer when I make stuff for Spud & Chloe.

Speaking of, it was so fun to see the big poster of my latest pattern and then they had a wee little adorable version of my sideways sweater.

I saw a lot of toys at TNNA in booths etc. It felt like our issue was very timely and appropriate. Summer is a wonderful time to make toys!

I got to chat briefly with the wonderful Raverly crew, but I really didn’t get to talk to half the people I wanted too, though many of them said hi to me while I coded and in turn I zombied back into my code in desperation to finish so that I COULD talk to someone.

At the booths I had a really wonderful Conversation with Denies from Denise of Denise Interchangeable Needles about the phenomenal work they have done in their raising money for Breastcancer, with the pink needle sets (over $150,000 thousand so far!). The DMC booth was HUGE and they had fun little bags with thread samples, and I had to stop by the Addi booth of course. I was pleased to find the Dale of Norway booth because I’ve always loved their yarn, and then way in the back (which was a shame really) I found the fleece artist booth. We got to speak with a very cool guy who is their silk supplier from  Sweden, and the silk in Fleece Artist yarn is the same silk in a Hermes scarf. I now need a Hermes scarf.

I new when he said he was a silk supplier for fashion that they must be supplying to someone big, and my guess was right. They are a 5th generation family business and we got to see photos of the mill, which was just really amazing. They also sent us home with a bunch of silk cocoons because they could not take the cocoons back out of the country for some reason. TNNA should really think about either mixing the knitting in with the needle work evenly, or keep it separate. It was not mixed enough to even be obvious that there would be another yarn booth back there in that corner.

I wish I had more time to see all the booths, I was trying to find out if Amy Butler had a booth this year but did not see it.

So I brought my good camera and didn’t take any pictures with that. I blame it on Petite Purls and all the coding I had to do. Next year, no coding (wishful thinking??).

I got to see my Editor at the Potter Craft booth, and chat with other Potter Craft authors which was a lot of fun. The book is taking on more speed and I’m working as hard and as fast as I can, very happy to have the latest issue out of the way so I can get back down to business!

I am so excited to share my latest pattern with you, the “School Colors” hoodie, which is simple and fun to knit, with a fitted modern silhouette in that wonderfully bold Spud & Chloe pallet. I used a simple crochet stitch to border the fronts and hood (applied i-cord is another option but takes longer!) and then popped in a zipper (the green one features a fun brass zipper which I loved, but it’s too small to see in the photo).

I had a wonderful time knitting them, and I love them both so much. It looks like they added some really cute and funky zipper pulls to them for the photos and I just love that! It’s sized from 25 to 44, so you can knit it for the young tween in your life, or knit one for yourself! They are both knit top down in one piece, with the red one there is a very simple trick to twisting the yarn on each row, so that you can knit with two colors. It’s like a very simple form of intarsia (and I don’t generally like intarsia, this is so much easier but technically the same thing, stripped down). So no seaming in pesky sleeves later, very little finishing!

I can’t wait to see my samples again in person at TNNA, and get to see the lovely crew from Blue Sky Alpacas and Spud & Chloe again!

SCHOOL COLORS HOODIE
Designed by Brandy Fortune

Published in Spud & Chloë Leaflet no 9519

EXPERIENCE LEVEL
• Intermediate

MATERIALS
• Color Block Version: Spud & Chloë Sweater (100g/160yds): 2 (3, 3, 4, 5, 5) hanks MC; 3 (4, 4, 4, 5, 5) hanks CC
• Striped Version: Spud & Chloë Sweater (100g/160yds): 4 (5, 5, 6, 7, 7) hanks MC; 2 (2, 3, 3, 4, 4) hanks CC
• Size 7 (4.5mm) 32″ long or longer circular needle, or size needed to obtain gauge
• Size 7 (4.5mm) set of double pointed needles, or size needed to obtain gauge
• Stitch markers
• Waste yarn
• Size F (3.75mm) crochet hook, or 1 size smaller than needle size
• Tapestry needle
• 16 (18, 20, 22, 22, 24)” separating zipper
• Sewing needle and thread to match zipper

SIZES
• Girl’s L/Women’s XXS (Girl’s XL/Women’s XS, S, M, L, XL)

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
• Chest: 25¾ (28¼, 31¾, 35½, 39¾, 44¼)”, including zipper
• Length: 18¼ (19¾, 21¾, 22¾, 24½, 25)”

GAUGE
• In Stockinette stitch, 18 sts and 25 rows = 4″

DESCRIPTION
• You’ve got spirit; yes you do! Show it off in this top down raglan cardigan, with instructions for both the color-block and striped versions.

It’s been crazy over here, my husband was out of town for three entire weeks, first to Canada and then on a business trip in a closer state. I am exhausted. I totaled my car that first week he was gone (and in Canada with no way to help me). Then my computer died (my new one, hah!) and apple told me it was a bad hard drive (aka their fault) and I lost THREE MONTHS worth of photos of my kids and anything else I photographed for my online stuff. Seriously sad stuff. I had last backed up everything in February, and I did not expect a new computer to die on me. Apple is still a far superior product to windows but I am disappointed in how getting bigger has, as always started to chip away at a wonderful company. The bigger companies get, the worse they get, seems to always be pretty reliable an assumption. SOME things do get better, but quality always seems to suffer for success.

I’ve begun prop hunting these last few weeks, preparing for the big Petite Purls photoshoot (which had to be delayed due to my husband being out of town and is due to take place next week) and just to have on hand as various photography props. I really enjoy antique shopping, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and it’s nice to have an excuse that made me finally go out and do it. I’ve done most of the shopping with BG, so while I have enjoyed it on some level it’s not exactly the same as doing it sans kid. She certainly enjoys touching all the stuff and giving me heart attacks. I take it as a opportunity to work on listening skills, hah.

We had a fun melt down over a tiny metal toy grocery cart (which was rusty and I know you can get new ones for the same price) and man was that ever drama. Almost four year olds know how to bring on the drama, big time.

I’ve had some stuff happen with my book over the last few months which delayed me up a bit so I’m feeling stress there in wanting to get more items finished and ready to go,  but everything is planned out and even if it’s coming along at a slower pace then I would wish, it’s all coming out adorable and exactly the way I had dreamed it in my head. I can’t wait to share it with you all next spring. I am VERY excited that next week (I hope) that I’ll be able to share with you my first pattern that will be available in adult sizes. My wonderful friend Claudia knit up 1 of them for me to wear at TNNA (I had already knit 2 for the publication) and I’m going to get some really great pix of me in it, but more importantly I should be able to show you the final photos for it next week (not from me, but from the company whom the pattern is being released with). I am so excited that I’ll have something in women’s sizes! It’s a super cute design, very simple with a tiny twist and very classic silhouette. Okay I better stop talking about that until I can show you it! This will be my 3rd professionally published design. I’ve been very selective about where I submit and what I produce, so I am sorry I don’t come out with patterns more often but after the book comes out there will be TONS to knit!

I had to put both the girls into daycare 3 days a week so I could get more done on the book, it was just hard at the sketch/swatch stage to have BG around. Once I’m knitting and writing full time and out of the research phase (very soon) then it will be much easier to work with them around. LG is now for the first time being exposed to germs and she’s on her second dose of anti-biotics, which I hate (but she needed them). It stresses me out a bit because if it doesn’t get any better I’ll have to pull her out because I’m not going through 6 months of anti-biotics and then ear tubes like I had to when I was working full time with BG, but if I have to pull her out it will be hard to work on the book, so if we all can make it through the next 2 months I think I’ll be in the clear to do whatever. Crossing my fingers.

TNNA is in just a few short weeks, and Allegra and I are extremely excited to get to see each other (for the second time!) We have a big re-design coming up for the Magazine so get ready for some amazing stuff if you follow Petite Purls. For those who aren’t familiar TNNA is a large needle arts market which all the yarn store owners come to, and all the yarn companies etc showcase at. Lots of buyers coming to view the latest yarn collections and pattern offerings and order stuff for this fall. Loads of authors and designers gather and socialize and network. TNNA was how I was able to pitch my book idea directly to the publisher itself. I showed up at TNNA last year and walked up to the Potter Craft booth and showed them my proposal. It’s pretty much the most exciting knitting event of the year for most designers and publishers (they do have 1 or 2 other shows but the summer one seems to be the biggest). Petite Purls will be celebrating it’s 2nd birthday, and I think I’m going into my 3rd year designing patterns. So much exciting stuff, thank you for following me on my crazy journey!

TNNA was just as much fun as I imagined it to be, maybe even more! I had to take little LG with me, which is not exactly something I would advise (brining a baby to TNNA) however it is allowed, and I can tell you I am extremely happy I went, and at this juncture I simply could not have gone without her. Next year however, margarita’s on me, because I’ll be coming alone! Everyone was so kind about having the baby along, I am going to attempt to thank a few of the people who helped me with her, allthough I am sure I’ll miss a few.

First and foremost thank you to Allegra for wearing her and watching her many times. Thank you to Kate for wearing her while we went off the interview Debbie Bliss, I really didn’t want to miss that opportunity! Thank you to Theresa for entertaining the baby and Stefanie for the moral support, and thank you to everyone else who smiled at her or offered to hold her (despite the fact she wouldn’t let anyone!).

Just a few of the people I got to meet in person (finally!) Boone Marie Burns, Stefanie Japel, Marly Bird, Olga (Olgajazzy), Melynda (FrenchPressKnits) Debbie Bliss, Amy Singer, Ysolda, and about 500 other people!!!

Everyone was so amazing, and so nice. I am just all filled up with goodness from the knit/crochet community. Oh wait, how can I forget about Amy Butler, who was just about the sweetest person ever. She has a new line of yarns out that are amazing, and don’t forget about her wonderful fabric (how could you?). I keep thinking of more names, it’s insane crazy how many talented and wonderful people are at TNNA, it’s an amazing opportunity so many thanks to TNNA for putting together such a great show, and how fun was the @hellotnna twitter stream (from the ever wonderful Ravelry team).

The first night we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning print screening some project bags to give away on the show room floor. I have a print Gocco and I burnt a screen and brought it with me, along with ink and a cloth stamping kit.

Allegra and I met for the first time EVER, and that of course was amazing, in many ways it felt totally normal like we have been buddies forever. I guess all those late night phone calls and google-chats can do that to you! I am flat out exhausted, and sad I never had any ice cream, but there will always be next year. Now off I go, to code up the last bits of the Petite Purls summer edition.

I just had a revelation this week, that I started my Knitwear Design business exactly 1 year ago this month. It was April 12th that I launched my first pattern, “Country Kiddie” when BG was just 7 months old. I think I worked on it for about a month before getting it out the door. I hit some sort of stride being home when BG was 6 months old. I was settled in, happy with things and ready to “get to work” on something fulfilling and fun without too much stress behind it.

BG modeling a Country Kiddie, size 18 Months – Knit for Stitches South, Cast on Cottage

In the past year I met both of my beginning goals, the first goal being I wanted release 4 patterns in the first year (Done! 3 purchasable and 1 free) and then I had my dollar amount that I wanted to reach, and that goal was also met. My patterns are in several yarn shops around the country, all of whom have re-ordered more patterns from me. I was asked to speak at the Atlanta Knitting Guild (how totally fun was that?) and then later asked if I would be interested in being “featured” at a booth at stitches south, complete with 5 samples on display and kits being sold. I am so very proud of my accomplishments for this first year being in business. It has honestly been very hard to focus as much on things as I have wanted to these last 6 months. I work full time now, and the part that really has derailed me is how sick BG has been, and then I have been and then of course being pregnant again is a huge energy and time suck.

With all that going on I still met my goals and I could not be happier. Now entering the second year of my business I have of course set up another set of goals. I want to triple my income, and I have a marketing plan for how to reach that goal. I still have been considering submitting to a magazine. I have to pick which magazine to submit too, and which design I am willing to submit. That design of course would only be available via a magazine that once that season is over is more or less gone and that idea doesn’t sit so well with me. There is the whole nasty business of making sure you retain copyright and working out at which point you get the rights back to once again sell your pattern and if so in what manor. That all makes me a bit nervous, but it really would be lovely to be printed up in a national magazine or even better a worldwide magazine. So I may or may not do that in this second year, and of course you have to submit the design several seasons ahead and there are much longer wait times when publishing that way vs self publishing. I would like to learn more about that whole process and make some more decisions around that.

BG modeling a Country Kiddie, size 18 Months – Knit for Stitches South, Cast on Cottage

The most pressing goal for my second year is to get more organized from a taxes/legal perspective, and to make at least 4 more designs (4 being more conservative knowing I’ll have a newborn and then be learning to handle 2 children, I would like to say 6 but I want to be realistic). So basically beefing up my line and getting more creative and learning more about garment construction is the focus. All of this comes with time and patience so I just have to “keep on keeping on” and really this is a business I know very little about. I know about self-publishing, I know about self-marketing and online marketing and how to create a pretty PDF template but there is lot I don’t know and I am excited to learn.

I haven’t blogged much the last few months because as usual around this house there is a lot of illness. It’s not fun to blog about unhappy stuff so I prefer to just not blog. Also I can’t knit a lot when sick, I have a thing about holding the needles and yarn when I know I am covered in germs and on top of that who has the energy when sick to do anything but lay in bed, drink water and sleep. I had a sore throat/sinus thing 2 weeks ago and then last week BG and I had the worst stomach bug ever, it lasted 7 days for me. But I was happy, because I had just released Preschool and when I have had a pattern some out recently I am always happy and feeling accomplished. I have another free pattern to knit and write up in the next 2 months, 2 more samples to finish knitting for Stitches South, and a tank top pattern ideal I have wanted to knit for a while which would be a perfect summer pattern release.

Free Knitting Patterns

I have held off publishing a free pattern for a multitude of reasons. 1) Money & Time. Each pattern takes me a lot of time and a decent amount of cash to create. I have to buy yarn and sometimes I buy yarn I don’t want to end up using. I also have the pattern tech edited which can run me upwards of $150, depending on the complexity and how well I prepared the pattern myself. It’s just never been worth it to make the pattern available for free. Also I have heard from more than 1 designer that free patterns have way more overhead then the others. First off you get more downloads, so you server needs to be set up to support this without incurring any extra charges. On my website alone there has been over 170 downloads, and that doesn’t include Ravelry (which luckily does not use my bandwidth). Then you have way more people reading and knitting your pattern, which means more support e-mails.

So your going to get more e-mails for a free pattern then you would for a paid-for pattern. It’s just the nature of the beast, everyone can download and knit a free pattern, but a mere fraction of those people will pay for a pattern and then knit it. I have purchased patterns before that I still have not knit (or finished knitting, ehem). Go look at your FO’s, how many did you purchase the pattern to and how many did you get free? I would be interested in hearing the ratio.

So for this pattern there were a few factors going on, the pattern itself was absurdly simply. No seaming, no picking up stitches. Just a few stitches cast on under the arms. So the pattern was super easy to grade by the tech editor and my math I believe was correct from the start as well which helped. I didn’t create a schematic, which can be a big time suck. It was very cheap to tech edited, my cheapest one to date, and in all honesty there was a few things about it that I wasn’t happy with and wanted to re-knit and alter but with all the sickness etc I just didn’t have it in me. I thought it was still very cute and very wearable and why not just put it out there. I was of course thinking that a free pattern at this point in my business would be a good point for marketing/advertisement, word of mouth etc. So this for me is a part of my “business” plan. I do not currently envision offering any more free patterns on my own site, at least not for a while. I do however have a free pattern in the works for online publication but that’s about all I can say about that for the moment. So in-turn there will be more free Pixie Purls patterns but in that case I will be supporting an online knitting magazine which is a little bit different and has some different motivating factors behind it which I can explain once it has been published.

Setting up shop

I have been very slowly preparing my house for baby #2, VERY slowly. In turn I am going to need to set up some of my own space to work on my knitting pattern wholesale-sales and of course my yarn and supplies. Right now everything lives in a bassinette, the bassinette that BG slept in when she was little. I never moved it from besides the bed and window. It just slowly filled up with yarn. The underneath is filled, the top is filled, and then there is a basket and tote bag next to it also filled, and a pile of knitting design books under the little lamp table next to the head of the bed. I am going to have to go shopping and find some sort of small but tall cabinet to put in the corner. I want something meant to sit in a corner (angled) and that possibly looks like a little china cabinet, but I can re-use for yarn and a few books.

I thought the yarn would look nice through glass doors and would be easier for me to remember/see. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. I am also getting frustrated from having yarn and needles on the floor and then when we bring BG into our room she wants to go through everything which is always a problem, so because of this I don’t like her in our bedroom at all, but we have to go through that room to get to the big bathtub, so getting a new cabinet will solve both problems. After all I DO need that bassinette back!

So then I have all of my wholesale supplies. Up until now our dining room has been a repository of all things not-baby-safe, stacks of oddments. I made half an effort to clean it last weekend. The goal is to empty the room out (this week we will be moving my sewing cabinet into the garage, so sad!) and turn it into the “play room” as we have a small house and right now the living room is the play room. I have a nice dining table in that room, so I plan to move this from the center of the room instead to press against the back corner of the room. Larger baby items can live underneath in bins or until needed (like the baby swing that is waiting to be used again) and then on top of the table is going to be my central location for pattern fulfillment. This way I can sit at that table and work while BG and #2 are underfoot and happy with their toys, maybe I can even sit there and knit!

Right now as far as supplies I have my return address stamp, “paid” stamp for when people pre-pay for orders, a big box of oversized mailing envelopes, a big box of velum sleeves (I buy in bulk to reduce my cost). A stack of copies of patterns still needing to be placed into the velum sleeves, and binders filled with color prints of my patterns, ready to be sorted and shipped out when needed. I actually oddly enough enjoy this process. It feels really good to see a large stack of patterns disappear and be sent out, the feeling of “wow, people are buying these from me AND reselling them to people, and people are out there buying them and knitting them!” It’s a wild feeling. The shop in the North West ordered from me a 4th time and this time it was a big order (8 copies of each pattern, 24 patterns total – to me that’s a big order!). I simply can’t believe they needed to re-order so many times; it’s so amazing and fun. I did ask if they had shop samples up, and they do have two which of course makes a huge difference. I actual have offered to knit samples for shops as long as they provide the yarn. So far only 1 shop has taken me up on it and it is more for Stitches South then anything but I know after Stitches, having those samples in their shop will help boost sales a lot!

So the basic gist is I have a lot of work to do to set up my home to be more efficient for sales and give me a more comfortable space for knitting. I don’t like having the yarn spread out and all dis-organize next to my bed, but I have no other means of storage and bins are good for when you don’t need to access something regularly. I need a permanent spot for my other notions, otherwise I keep losing them, not remembering which tote or project bag I left them in last.

In my last entry in “from the studio” I talked about my issues with this design, how I had tried to solve a problem with my “end of round” switching from one place to another and how that in trying to solve that I had some stockinette rounds prior to my fair isle. I have sense solved that (sort of!) and I also mentioned how my Kauni yarn was messed up in that one of the balls had a “color break” where the color simply changed from blue to red without any warning. Very lame. It’s supposed to be a gradual change and having that 25% into the ball was very disappointing.

I had not knit on this sense December. I picked it up this week determined I would finish it out, or at the very least get back on the train. I have sense ripped 2″ of fair isle out twice again. I had to rip a bit when I trying to solve my end of round issues, and then when I cast on the fair isle again with the same color contrast, I quickly realized that even though I was knitting from the same end on two separate balls, one of those balls had been wound the opposite direction, so in turn I would have eventually ran into a color issue.
Stripe Sequences in Fair Isle
Imagine the stripe sequence RED, WHITE, BLUE. So if you knit two balls that had been wound OPPOSITE from each other then your first stripes would be RED/BLUE (last and first) fair isle together, then after that you would wind up with WHITE/WHITE which would be a problem because the fair isle wouldn’t show up, the last part would be BLUE/RED (first and last again on opposite ends).
So to avoid this problem you knit two balls of the same sequence of colors, you knit them from the SAME end, and you start at different parts. So again with RED, WHITE, BLUE, you have two balls of this sequnce. You make sure they are wound the exact same way and you start one ball with RED and one ball with WHITE. It will go like this: First stripe seqence: RED/WHITE, second: WHITE/BLUE, third, BLUE/RED. As you can see, there is no blending issue here or any chanse of having two colors “cross”.
So I ripped it all out (AGAIN!) and started over this time from the outside of one ball and the inside of another, meaning the same end of both balls because one was wound the opposite of the other (thanks Kauni, how nice of you). But then disaster struck, as I was knitting from the center I had to keep pulling a bunch of yarn out, ya know how a whole lot can sometimes be squished in the center. Well talk about SHOCK when I pulled on it after about an inch of knitting and it simply CAME OUT, attached to NOTHING. Thanks again Kauni. You rock (not).
Can you hear me sighing? So now I will have to splice it together, and unwind one of the balls a heck of a lot to get to the point in the ball that has the blue where it broke off, I have no idea why that was stuck in the center, as after that the center is a totally different color (red). So then I also have to double make sure the balls are each going in the “same” direction. This knit has proven to my husband that knitting can be very complicated. I am always telling him how it is sometimes like bug testing HTML code.
Here it is last night, the fair isle is nice and snug against the garter stitch:

This was before I realized the red was turning to blue and the blue to red and at some-point it would cross and the fair isle would be invisible. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the colors at this point and I am a glass half full kinda girl so it looks like it all worked out for the best, even though I’ve had SO MUCH fun the last 4 nights, and stayed up until midnight (it’s 11:45 right now) and I am supposed to be asleep by 10pm in order to be more pleasant to all those who are in my life.
Here is the new version, after a bunch of frogging at lunch and then knitting at night:

I like the more consistent coloring a lot better, and even though knitting with Kauni is a lot of fun, I am just a bit disappointed in them. Knitters should be worried about not dropping stitches, not broken or unprofessionally prepared yarn.