wow, it’s been a long time, no? i was supposed to come back here and let you know about the last knit i finished, ishbel, but i never checked back in! i have no real excuses except that i really have not felt like blogging. it’s been tough watching a lot of my favorite people give up blogging, and i’ve thought about giving it up too. but i always come back because i really do have stuff to say, i just have to find the time to say it.

in the meantime, i have not given up on my other pursuit, popknits. i changed the format to publish it twice per year instead of four times. i think that this will give me the time to find submissions and advertisers, so i’m glad i made the decision! to start things off, today i published the preview for the fall/winter issue which will be out on september 16th. jump on over and check it out!

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hi everyone! been a while, no? first thing’s first, if you haven’t already seen it, the summer issue of popknits is online and available now! definitely check it out when you get a chance.

i know that there’s been a lack of knitting on the blog lately and a lot of hooping. well, i’m glad that there’s been hooping because i had been doing a lot of secret knitting. i spent most of my time working on my first real design for popknits and now it’s available and i can finally talk about it! i present, the lido west wrap!

i had this fabulous yarn, blue heron rayon metallic, that i bought at the point several years ago and really wanted to use. for a while, that yarn was in the slinky garter stitch wrap but i frogged that because it was always getting snagged on stuff. so it sat around and i looked at patterns on ravelry but nothing really clicked so i decided to design something to accommodate it.

i fished around in my 1960s vogue knitting magazines for some inspiration and came across a really sweet, little cardigan that used a columnar lace pattern that really appealed to me. after futzing with the numbers for the stitch pattern, i found a complimenting lace pattern in one of my stitch dictionaries to use on the ends. i sandwiched it all between garter stitch and started knitting!

this yarn is so nice! i love slinkyness of the rayon and the subtle sparkle from the metallic thread. it’s really affordable too if you buy just the one skein. it makes a light and cool wrap perfect for the summer.

so that’s what i’ve been up to! i also cast-on and finished an ishbel too which i’ll update you on early this coming week.

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the summer issue submission deadline is today so i hope that if you had something for me to look at, you sent it over. i’m actually planning on publishing one of my own designs in this issue and i’m pretty excited about it! more on that to come. the summer issue will be a light one since most of the northern hemisphere (and the majority of popknits readers) pares down their knitting during the hot, humid months. regardless, i think that there will be some fun things to cast-on for!

stay tuned for more site announcements. since i posted about gleek.net changes, i’ve had a hard think about what i like to post here and what i don’t. i’ll be doing away with some things and keeping others. thanks for being faithful readers through it all!

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get it while it’s hot! i’m off to watch LOST

view the preview now!

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it’s been a crazy day but the winter issue is live and i’m thoroughly happy with it. now if only my newsletter had gone out to every subscriber! i think that it missed the last 150 people on the list when the DB decided to go buh-bye on me. no matter, i took it as a sign to pay for a company to do the newsletter for me. next time, everything should go as planned.

without further ado, i hope you all enjoy the issue!

view issue #02: winter 2008 on popknits

i’ll be back tomorrow with the weekly recap and then later this week with my latest FO.

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it’s been a while since i’ve blogged, i know. in my defense, i’ve had a lot going on!

packing and moving

if you’ve been following me on flickr then you know that we made our move to our new apartment this week. it’s really been the week from hell, to be sure. living out of boxes, barely eating, and cranky toddlers do not a happy mommy make.

i tried to keep my sanity with beer but it didn’t always work. the good news is two-fold here.

#1. popknits is live! in case you didn’t already know. went live on the 1st and despite a small hiccup the first day when all the rabid knitters brought down the site, the launch went really well. i blame time warner for many of my headaches that day. the cable modem went down repeatedly during the 3+ hours that i needed it and i thought that i would have an anxiety attack but i made it through.

#2. we’re in our new place and i like it a lot. it’s far out in brooklyn which definitely makes it harder to see my friends, but the it’s big! three bedrooms, eat-in-kitchen! wow. and yeah, i did mention that we’re saving a lot of cash each month on rent.

this third bedroom is what we refer to as the “popknits home office”. it’s going to take a while to unpack all those boxes and actually use the room but i think that i’ll be in there by the end of october.

speaking of which, i’m going to rhinebeck for sure! i’ll be there on saturday with peanut and my mom. i hope to have some popknits magnets or bookmarks (not sure which yet) to hand out. hope to see you there!

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no, not the gymnastics, which i haven’t watched from last night yet (don’t say anything!) but this golden moment is the preview of the fall issue of popknits going live!

check it out!

i wish i had ravelympics news for you all but i don’t. my progress has faltered greatly because of popknits AND we’re finally moving! yes, we signed a lease yesterday on a new home for casa gleek. it’s almost $800/month cheaper and i’m going to have my own craft room/office! popknits world headquarters! we’re really excited, of course, but here’s the catch. we’re due to move in two weeks. i haven’t packed a thing yet! AND i’m due to launch popknits the same week. can we say ulcer? my hands are shaking just thinking about it.

so, knitting for the olympics is not happening. i AM knitting here and there and mostly on my frock camisole which leaves little for me to think about. wish me luck!

eating with her fork!

here’s an image of the peanut because i’ve got nothing else to show you right now. enjoy!

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this post is brought to you by grand theft auto 4 which arrived on our doorstep this afternoon. hallelujah!

thanks to everyone for your warm wishes and support for the launch of popknits. it’s been a labor of love for some time now and i’m really excited and especially nervous to see it live online and getting pattern proposals already! haven’t seen any sock proposals yet, hint hint, but you never know what’s going to come in the door in june.

anyway, let’s get back to blog business. i have a small amount of progress to report.

mmmm, i love this fabric

flair is coming along nicely. i had one hiccup and had to frog back a little but not much. i did end up putting short row bust shaping in…

and i think it was a good idea! it fits well and will be even better once it’s blocked (everything’s a little tight right now.) i’m feeling positive about it.

one leg done, the other started

the peanut pants are creeping along slowly. i was on leg island there for a while, but i feel a renewed energy to knit them. they seem HUGE right now but according to the swatch they will shrink considerably.

garter stitch cuff

i opted for an easy peasy garter stitch cuff. nothing big here.

in other crafty news, i hope to sew this weekend! i’ve been meaning to drag out my sewing machine for over a week now but it just hasn’t happened yet. i got some great fabric for skirts at brooklyn general.

new fabric

and i also have one from the stash that i’m using (sorry no pic.) tonight, i’m casting on for elijah (ravelry) as well. there’s a certain baby being born right now that will be lonely without it. hopefully i’ll have some pics later this week.

here are a few peanut pics to end the post.. i love shots of her eating!

cheesy!

this is what she looks like after eating mac & cheese. the hair! yuck. i can never give her mac & cheese for lunch. it always has to be dinner so that she can be bathed afterward.

messy

i gave her lentils recently. she sorta liked them but they ended up everywhere. next time, they will be mashed.

books!

and she could spend hours looking at her books. it’s one of her favorite activities!

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sorry about all the silence around here the last week or so. i’ve been sooooo busy getting my big secret project ready to go! and guess what? i’m ready to talk about it today!

i’m nervous about it so let’s just come right to the point. i’ve decided to start my own online knitting magazine, Popknits. it’s a little different than some of the other knitting mags in that it will specialize in vintage knitting, vintage knitting revived, so to speak.

i’ve been looking longingly at the vintage vogue knitting magazines i’ve had lying around for years now. so many ideas have been swirling through my mind on how to update some of the styles i see in them that i just couldn’t get them out. then with the popularity of nancy bush, elizabeth zimmerman, and the amazing thrift store finds (cool and fun pattern books and magazines) i’ve been seeing on other blogs, an idea started to brew. sarah pope pushed me in the right direction and i found focus.

you can read more details over on the site but i’d like to mention a few things here.

1. i’ll probably end up extending the pattern submission deadline for the first issue because it’s closing in on us so fast, but the sooner you submit the better! i have to tech edit most of the patterns myself so i need as much time as i can get. that and i still have to develop the patterns and articles templates in my CMS so i have a lot of work to do.
2. yes, i did the design and build all on my own (which is why i seem to get nothing else done.)
3. seems like my timing is good with the demise of magknits (though i swear [and you can ask the spiders] i’ve been working on this for close to two years now!] i just want you to know that i read all the forums on ravelry concerning magknits and have hopefully learned from them.
4. i’m timing my issue launches a little late for a reason. i don’t want to interfere with the launches of my big sisters, knitty and knotions. hopefully by staggering my launches a little later we can all get good traffic.

i’m sure i’ll think of more to say in the next few weeks but i’ll save it for the Popknits News blog. if you subscribe to the feed you’ll get all the information as fast as i can post it!

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