I've been doing nothing but weaving in ends lately. Not much to talk about there.

So, I thought I would distract you with photos of Christian.

The new Crochet World magazine has hit the stands and just look at who made the cover! Woo hoo!


If you don't have a subscription to this magazine, I've also noticed that you can get a downloadable version at e-patternscentral.com.

Yay!

Would you just look at that! We made it all the way to 2009! I remember when I was a kid, I did the math to see how old I would be when we finally hit the year 2000. And, now look at us. We're all the way to 2009. Here's to an exciting, wonderful and prosperous new year to everyone!

Did you make black-eyed peas today? I know that it's traditional to make black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. I forgot to buy some this year. But, I did make some white northern beans which will have to do.

Yesterday, I cooked up a ham in the crock pot. It wasn't a really huge ham, by any sense of the word. But, it turned out to be a really good buy. I added some cut-up ham to the beans. The rest was put in the food processor for ham salad. As it turned out, I put half of the processed up ham in a freezer bag and put it in the freezer for later. So, we'll have ham salad for now and, the next time we want ham salad, there will already be some ham in the freezer.

And, let me tell you, we love ham salad around here! Brianna and I can't seem to get enough of it. I've discovered that there is a key to terrific ham salad and it starts with the ham. I've made ham salad with sweet ham, boiled ham and smoked ham. By far, the smoked ham is really the way to go. No doubt about it.

My ham salad is really very simple. Ham that's been run through the food processor/chopper, mayonnaise, finely chopped dill pickle, finely chopped boiled eggs and a bit of pepper. (You don't need any salt because of the pickle and smoked ham.) It's so easy, but oh so tasty.

I plan on spending today weaving in ends of my latest project. I had planned to do it yesterday or the day before. I think I got caught up in the holiday. I so rarely take any time off. It was a little strange, but I really didn't find myself doing any kind of crocheting yesterday.

I didn't completely take off work, though. In the last two days, I spent a LOT of time doing some Ravelry editing. A lot of the sooper editors and other volunteer editors pooled together and we did some massive editing. It was fun because Casey, the owner of Ravelry, helped us out and let us know about some fun new things that will soon be available on Ravelry to make our lives easier. I can hardly wait to see these new upgrades.

Also, on Ravelry, I started a discussion about sizing I'd like to provide in my future patterns for my website. For those of you able to access Ravelry, you can see the topic here.

For those not on Ravelry, (oh, please sign up for Ravelry...You'll love it!) this discussion is about my available options when providing sizing in my patterns.

Scenario 1: For magazine and book publication, it's necessary that I follow a format of 6 sizes: Small, Medium, Large, 1X, 2X and 3X. This gives me a broader range of sizes, but it's necessary for the crocheter/knitter to tweak the pattern for sizes in between since a size Small is about a size 4/6, Medium is about an 8/10, etc. With there being a possibility of two different sizes in there, it will certainly mean some tweaking of the pattern for those who have a pattern closer to an 8 when they're a 10. However, it would be easier to tweak a pattern between these sizes than try to, say, tweak a pattern that's only written up to size 16 when they really want a 2X.

Scenario 2: Since I plan on self-publishing, I have the opportunity to provide different sizing, if I like. So, it would be possible for me to provide sizing that is more closely aligned to actual ready-to-wear. So, if I still stick to providing 6 sizes, that would mean sizes 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16. You see the problem immediately with this scenario. The plus sizes are excluded because of my need to stick to 6 sizes.

After reading the responses in the group, I'm really leaning toward Scenario 1. I truly want to provide the plus sizes. So, I would rather have that range and sometimes the individual crocheter/knitter will have to tweak the sizes in between a little. For me, I think that is the way to go.

Other very important requests, which I already provide were:

• provide the suggested ease amount
• provide schematics of the finished garment, with measurements

These are very important and I already provide this information. Nothing will change in that regard for 2009.

Something else came up in the discussion and that is of the photography of the finished model. My impression was that a lot of people would like to see the finished garments modeled on someone other than an ultra-thin model. And, I was given some very good advice in the group: If I design something that I feel would specifically flatter my ultra-thin skinny mini of a daughter, make it in the size for her. If I design something specifically to flatter myself, make it in my size and model it myself. It's so simple and was staring me right in the face! And, it makes perfect sense. Thank you, Deb!

I hope that people will continue discussions for awhile on this topic because I've really been learning a lot and it's making me excited to get started on my New Year plans!

Brianna and I love brownies. A. Lot. Last night, I decided to be creative and here is what I've come up with.

Blonde Caramel Brownies

• Box Yellow Cake Mix
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup margarine, melted
• 1 egg
• 2 T. water
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 4 Caramello candy bars

Preheat oven to 350º. Mix dry ingredients together by hand, add margarine, egg and water, mix thoroughly. Add pecans. Spray 9 x 13" pan with Pam. Pour in batter, spreading evenly. Break Caramello candy bars into 4 individual pieces (16 total). Place evenly on top of batter, pressing slighly. You don't need to completely cover them. The batter will rise over them. Bake for approximately 30-34 minutes. Do not overbake.

This is best served warm with some whipped topping or vanilla ice cream. And, trust me, you won't even miss that they aren't "chocolate" brownies.

Woo hoo! My book is now available for sale!

What a terrific Christmas present!  

Click here to go to the book at Annie's Attic.

Yikes! The last couple of days, it's been pretty difficult to keep it warm inside. It's just so COLD! Fortunately, I've got piles of crochet I can cover myself with.

Where we last left off in my designing schedule saga, I had two projects to finish this week and then one more project before the end of the month. I have indeed finished the two projects and the patterns are written. The postman will pick them up tomorrow and I will start working on that final project tomorrow as well.

Then, there is one in January and one in February. That leaves me very open and, in fact, for right now, there is NOTHING else due at all. Nothing! I plan several days of swatching and sketching in order to get more projects planned. This will also involve writing to several magazine editors to obtain their design guidelines. It looks like we are going to start the new year with a pretty clean slate.

That also means that I'll have time to add new items to my websites. And, really, I haven't been able to do that for a couple of months now. I'm pretty excited to be able to crochet/design to my heart's content.

Today, I'm really just doing some relaxing before I get to work on that last December project. I'm just glad I was able to get back on schedule!

Please visit Crochetville to see the new line-up of classes. I am teaching the following:

---

Teacher: CrochetKim (Kim Guzman), CrochetKim website

Class Cost: $10.00, 1-week class

Registration Dates: Registration is now open. Click here to register.

Class Begins: Friday, January 9, 2009.

Skill Level: Beginner--Student should be comfortable with single crochet and double crochet. No prior Tunisian crochet experience necessary.



Description: Here is your chance to learn (or practice) Tunisian crochet on a beautiful felted bag. This is an easy project and you can have a bag crocheted and felted in just two days! This class will be like two classes in one -- first, you'll learn and practice Tunisian crochet, then you'll get a step-by-step process in felting by hand. You may be intimidated about felting in a washing machine, like me. So, I've been felting in my kitchen sink! Be careful, though! You probably won't want to stop at just one! As you can see, I made three!

Supplies Needed:

• Three skeins Patons Classic Merino wool. (Three different colors gives you a nice array. I started off with four skeins in four different colors. I was able to get all three of these bags out of those four skeins. You can also pick other feltable wools for your project. I just prefer Patons Classic Merino because of the large color choices and I like the way it felts up.)
• K afghan hook and K regular crochet hook. A K hook is my preferred afghan hook size for most projects. However, since some of you may not have a K afghan hook, and you may have a different size, I stitched one of these bags with an N afghan hook. I'll bet you can't tell the difference! So, I'm going to say that any afghan hook in the range of K through N is suitable. A cro-hook can also be used on this project simply by attaching a rubber band to one end.
• Yarn needle. This project has minimal seaming
• Felting. Hot water is needed. Liquid dish detergent. A kitchen sink or pail or bucket, bath tub. Anything at all where you can put hot water. (Not boiling! Just hot out of the tap.) Rubber gloves are optional. And, I used a wooden spoon for agitating.
• SPECIAL NOTE: Please use care when picking the wool for your project. Do not choose superwash wool as this wool is specially treated so that it will not felt.

Class Policies: Click here to read our Online Class Policies for students. Please read these policies prior to registering for a class.

Maximum Number of Students Accepted: Approximately 45

Lesson Posted: Friday, January 9, 2009

---

Teacher: CrochetKim (Kim Guzman), CrochetKim website

Class Cost: $10.00, 1-week class

Registration Dates: Registration is now open. Click here to register.

Class Begins: Friday, January 16, 2009.

Skill Level: Beginner--Student should be comfortable with single crochet.



Description: Learn a special lace stitch pattern in Tunisian crochet to form a beautiful lacy afghan. Students are welcome and encouraged to use the same lace stitch pattern in other projects, such as a scarf or shawl, should they be interested in something other than an afghan.

The stitches and stitch pattern used have been designed to rid you of that annoying curling that is so easily found when learning Tunisian crochet. Like my Tunisian Pillows class, I'll show you yet another way to avoid that curl!

Two separate texts will be posted on the first day of class. The first will be an individual tutorial for the stitches. The second will be the pattern itself. (Yes, a full pattern designed by Kim Guzman will be included in your class fee!)

Supplies Needed:

• The pattern uses Patons Decor which is an acrylic/wool blend. Worsted weight is recommended, although I would definitely consider this to be a smaller worsted. Something more the size of Caron Simply Soft. The afghan is made in all one color, although I'm sure stripes would look nice as well.
• An afghan hook two or three sizes larger than the recommended size for your yarn. For instance, with Red Heart Super Saver, I usually use an H or I hook. However, when I'm using Red Heart Super Saver for Tunisian work, I will use a J or a K. Since you'll be making an afghan, you'll want one of the 14" afghan hooks (rather than the 10" hook) or you can also get one with an extension nylon to accommodate the Tunisian loops.
• A regular crochet hook in the size recommended for your yarn.

Class Policies: Click here to read our Online Class Policies for students. Please read these policies prior to registering for a class.

Maximum Number of Students Accepted: Approximately 45

Lesson Posted: Friday, January 16, 2009

Honestly, it's almost the end of the year, isn't it? Christmas is right around the corner and I'm busier than ever right now.

If you've been following my progress, I had 5 projects which needed to be completed and mailed by the end of December. Two of them hit the road yesterday. And, I'm hard at work on two more right now which I hope to ship on Monday. Then, there will be one more for a different editor. Whew! What a month!

I put everything aside for awhile and submitted some class proposals for the Knit & Crochet Show in Buffalo, New York. It will be in August 2009. It took me all morning, but I've submitted 21-27 hours of teaching. This is actually the first time I've ever submitted anything for a national conference of this sort. I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time. We'll be able to check the website in a few months to see whether any of my classes were accepted. Wish me luck!

Christian STILL has not bothered any of those presents under the Christmas tree! Of course, once he gets it all figured out, I'll probably have more of a problem next year. But, this year will be so funny when he finally DOES figure out that those presents are actually for opening. Hopefully I will get some photos.

Yesterday, I had my heart set on making some Squash Pie. For anyone who likes pumpkin pie, I'll bet you would like squash pie as well. I bought about 7 or 8 large yellow squash, which was far too much. It's really easy to make squash pie. You don't even have to peel or seed the squash. Just slice it up and boil it. But, I used 3 cups of squash for two deep dish pie shells and still had about 3 cups remaining.

With all the crocheting and making of squash pies, by the time it was time for dinner, I realized that I hadn't planned anything at all to eat. Then, wait a minute! I had 3 more cups of squash, already cooked and just sitting there. So, what did I do? I made the most delicious squash soup! I had never even heard of squash soup before. But, I figured that it must be good, right?

I had actually already drained the cooked squash so I put a carton of chicken stock in the pan, added some chopped onions, garlic, salt/pepper and the squash. I brought it back up to a boil to make sure the onions were cooked. Once it cooled a bit, I put it in the blender for a bit. I poured it into a bowl and added about 8 ounces of evaporated milk and stirred. Wow! Easy, quick and very tasty! (Brianna loved it but I was careful not to tell her it was squash before she tasted it.)

Okay, I took the plunge and opened the box from Santa. (Fortunately, Brianna put up the tree on Sunday while I was out buying groceries. That was a really nice surprise too!)

I showed Christian that we put the packages under the tree. He doesn't have a single clue that these packages are to be opened later! It's so funny. He's not bothering them at all. Not shaking them. Not messing with them. Not begging that they be opened in his cute little way of clasping his hands together and putting them under his chin and saying "pweeeeze?" Just neatly stacked them under the tree. Of course, all unwrapped items in the box were quickly confiscated! hahahahaha

And, Santa is sooooo smart! There was a stocking included with his name on it. I didn't have any stockings at all, so it's wonderful! It's now hanging on the wall next to the tree.

And, for the rest of the day, I shall be singing "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...." And, perhaps now, you will be too!

Yay! My UPS driver brought us a package from Santa Claus today! It's a really BIG box! I haven't opened it yet, though. But, I kid you not! The return address says "Santa Claus, North Pole." How exciting!

When I DO open it, I'll be sure to let you know what's inside.

I was thinking about some of the cute things Christian is learning to say. And, I thought I would write a couple here (if I remember them once I start writing LOL).

I think that, by far, the cutest thing he said was when I was putting him to sleep one night. Now, almost every night, when I put Christian to bed, once he settles down, I'll say "I love you". He'll say "I love you too, Mommy." That, in itself, is really cute. But, the other night, just as he was drifting off to sleep, he said "I love you too, Mommy". Awwwww. It was his way of saying "I love you" since he's never said it first. He's only said the response. So, so cute!

The other day, he was playing one of his video games. And, as with all kids this age, he gets frustrated when he can't play some of them. I've been trying very hard to get him to handle the frustration better, giving him words to say and things. So, he'll yell out "Mommy, game is too hard". I'll say "Try a different game." "Different game? Ohhhh!" One day, I said "It's not too hard." "Yes, it is." And, I said "It's not too hard, you're silly". He said, "No, you're silly." hahahaha I couldn't even respond back with some banter because I was laughing too hard.

Christian calls me Mommy now. It was always just Mom. I think it was because Brianna calls me Mom. Sometime in the last 6 months, though, I think there was a transition to Mommy. I don't know exactly when it occurred or WHY occurred. I don't have any problems with it, of course. Just something interesting.

Now, Brianna, on the other hand. She WILL call me Mommy occasionally, but only when she's batting her eyelashes and looking at me with big puppy dog eyes because she wants something.

I don't remember when Brianna stopped calling me Mommy and opted for Mom. But, I DO remember when I went through the dilemna of what to call my mother when I was growing up. A lot of kids go through a change at some point when they stop calling their mother Mommy, I suppose. But, I remember it very clearly.

I mean, honestly, I couldn't be seen in public, calling my mother Mommy, now could I? She calls her mother, Mama. No, I didn't want that. And, somehow, Mom just seemed too informal for my mother. So, what do I call her?

As she will attest, sometimes I will say "Hey, you!" hahahahahahaha Yes, while I definitely DO that, especially in public, when we're standing in line at a grocery store and will start telling her to hurry up just so that I can see the look on the clerk's face before she realizes that we're together (mean, aren't I?), the truth is that I call my mother, Mother. It is really helpful, especially when I want to say Mo-theerrrrr with loads of sarcasm. So, my dear mother, now you know why I started calling you Mother when I was a teenager and well, it stuck.

Pay no attention to the longest run-on sentence in the history of the world located in the above paragraph.

Yay! One of the leaflets I worked on right before the 2008 Knit & Crochet Show is now posted on the Annie's Attic site!

I introduce "Tunisian Around the Home".

It appears that it's not yet ready to purchase. But, nevertheless, I can FINALLY show it to you! And, yes, I really DID do a toilet seat cover in Tunisian. And, what? A ROUND Tunisian pillow? Oh, yes you can!  

I know how many of you have been patiently waiting for a new book on Tunisian crochet! So, please feel free to submit the "notify me" section to let Annie's Attic know just how much you want this book. Woo hoo! Happy dancing all around.

Well, my knit project is now complete! I'm very excited about it. It looks terrific. But, like my last knit design for publishing, I was absolutely scared to death the entire time. Of course, there was the fear that Christian would spill something on it again.   But, truly, I was also scared of any little problem at all that would force me to start again.

In the end, I spent 4 days knitting on the first one before it received its Diet Dr. Pepper bath. I spent 1 day knitting on the second attempt before I decided that I wanted to change it slightly. Then, a total of 6 days knitting to complete the third and final attempt. Today, I wove in ends and basically did nothing on it at all. Tomorrow, I will do the sizing and write the first draft of the pattern from my spreadsheet.

It will, unfortunately, arrive one week past the deadline. Fortunately, though, the editor is very understanding about this tardiness. It is the first time I've ever been late. Very unprofessional of me. Hopefully the finished project will be so wonderfully received that everyone will forget immediately that it's a week late.

And, what is that? An entire 2 weeks. I NEVER take 2 weeks for a project. Yikes! It's worth it, though. I love it and can't wait until I can show it to you!

This means that I won't be able to start my five December projects until Friday and two of them are due on December 15! Yowzah! I'm going to be hard-pressed to get back on schedule after this little mishap. But, I'm sure I can do it. It will just be pretty tough.

And, you know what? I believe I may even go to bed early tonight to try to catch up on some much-needed sleep.

I know that I've dropped out of sight since posting the Scavenger Hunt. But, I've been so busy, trying desperately to get this project started and finished. You remember the one? The one that I had almost finished when Christian spilled an entire can of Diet Dr. Pepper on it? Yep, that one.

In response to questions about the Scavenger Hunt, here are the details.

My website, KimaneDesigns.net, contains 44 pages. The little elves were on 4 of the pages as follows:

Nautical Waves Afghan
Holy Mother Filet Shawl
Circulos Scarf
Childs Four Color Pullover

I removed the elves a little over 24 hours after the game started so you won't be able to see them there any longer. If anyone was unable to find the elves, I'm not sure. Perhaps you didn't visit the correct pages or perhaps you didn't scroll down to see them. They were about midway on the page.

Once everyone found the elves, they were presented with these anagrams:

shuntsect
tangosir
non a
freon pie

These anagrams needed to be unscrambled and made into a sentence. The correct completed sentence is "chestnuts roasting on an open fire".

Thank you to everyone for playing! It was great fun!

Due to my emailing the patterns and my constant work on this project, I'm several days behind in email. I hope to be able to go through them tonight. So, if you are expecting an email from me, please know that I haven't forgotten you. I've just been busy.

ETA: Time is up! 24 hours have passed and I'm thrilled with the number of people participating and submitting their response to the game! We have had lots of winners and congratulations to all!

I hope everyone is ready for a little fun. As you may know, I have a game planned for the day after Thanksgiving, better known as Black Friday. The game will go on for 24 hours, starting now.

The rules are:

• Visit my website, Kimane Designs, and try to locate four little guys who look like this.

• Below each of these little guys are a series of letters. These letters will need to be re-arranged to form words.

• Next, take those words and form a sentence. Your sentence will be six words long.
  

• Lastly, email me at kimane@kimanedesigns.net with a subject line of "Scavenger Hunt" and, in the body of the message, put in the sentence you have made. If your sentence is the correct sentence, you win!
  

Pretty easy, right? When I receive your email, I will email you four free patterns from my website in celebration of my fourth year of blogging.

I know that I originally said that I would be having these available as an automatic download. Unfortunately, I've checked my bandwidth usage for the month and, if I were to do that, my website would become overloaded and would actually go offline. So, I'm not going to be able to be all fancy schmancy.

Keep in mind that you will be receiving four patterns in email. Make certain that the email account you are using will allow attachments. Please remember that this email could easily go into your Spam folder. So, be sure to check it. And, don't be alarmed if you don't get an email immediately. A girl's gotta sleep sometimes. 

Have fun!

ETA: Please remember not to post the answer in comments here or anywhere else! Email the answer to me at the above email address. Posting of the answer will cause the game to be forfeit and won't be fun for anyone. Let's keep it fun, k?

Well, I'm still knitting and knitting and knitting. And, last night, when I went to bed, I was about 2/3 of the way to the finish line.

This morning, there was a knock at the door. When I went to answer it, Christian jumped onto the couch and immediately started moving the window blinds so that he could see who had come to the door and watch them leave. The blinds moved and he pushed over my entire glass of soda onto my project! You should all be proud of me, though. I did not cry. 

But, I did start working on the project again. WAY back at the very beginning. I can't take any chances with the one that had the soda spilled on it. Even if I didn't see anything on it after it dried, that doesn't mean that a camera wouldn't see it. Hopefully, this time around will go a little quicker since I'm obviously much more accustomed to the stitch pattern.

Since this is definitely setting me back about a week in my schedule (4 projects are due in December), I may not be around much between now and then. But, I'll be poking my head in a bit on Friday for sure. Scavenger Hunt time, remember??!!