Looking for the Sun

I have to admit I've been pretty sad lately. The loss of my friend has been very hard on me. My children are heartbroken and very sad. We all feel as though the sun won't shine here again. I even saw the Schwan's man today and this wonderfully kind man knew who my friend was because he used to see her every other week when she worked in our home. He too was saddened by her passing. He said she was such a sweet lady.

In order to pull myself out of my grief, I've been working on lots of patterns. I am tossing around the idea of making them into a book. I even checked into self publishing them with a company called Trafford Publishing. Their publishing packages are definately doable and it is definately a dream of mine to be a published author. I even have several children's books I could publish with this company too. I would need to illustrate them myself, of course, since I couldn't afford to hire out an illustrator.


I have also have been needle knitting to try out new techniques to convert over to my looms. I fell in love with the reverse stockinette and regular stockinette to create patterns on my cloths rather than using stockinette with purls to get pictures. It creates what looks like an embossed image and I just love the look of it.


One of my goals for this year was to learn cables on both my looms and the needles. I posted a picture of my success story on my loom (thanks to Isela's wonderful Cabled Mittens pattern) a while back. I sat down and started working on the Inspired AllOver Spa Cabled Cloth in the March 2008 issue of Creative Knitting Magazine, and finished around the time of my friend's death. Other than a few small (barely noticable) mistakes, it went fairly well. I of course had to go out and find a book with more cables for knitting needles onces I finished it. I checked out a book at the library called The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches from Reader's Digest, with lots of cables for me to try :D

I must be getting better with my needles since they have been what I reach for lately. My March Loom Along pattern is still sitting on my loom and I don't have much desire to finish it! I will be heading to the doctor today so maybe I'll bring it along and work on it while I wait.

I am the designer for the May Loom Along on the Loomin' Dishcloths group over on Ravelry. I have the pattern picture designed, I am just working out the technique for the loom (it is a needle knitting technique). I am crossing my fingers it works out! If not, I'll think of something so it is super fun to knit up! Hope to see you over there!