It's often the little things ....

.... that REALLY make my day. But this one was so exciting I just had to share with everyone/anyone who reads my blog ....

Amazon has my book listed!

Yep, thanks to the hard-work of my publisher, Margot at Hillside Education, my book Great Yarns for the Close-Knit Family is now officially available on Amazon.

Now this might not be a big deal to some .... but since I'm VERY OFTEN on Amazon, building up their stock by buying books every month, it's nice to know they're selling my book.

Online -- Free Knitting Patterns

OK, I'm cheap -- and I love seeing other's knitting patterns, not so much to make them as written, but to see new techniques or get ideas that I can then adapt to something else.

WELL, have I got a great site for y'all today: Free Knitting Patterns from Julie at "Little Cotton Rabbits". Here's an example of today's posting -- gorgeous, knitted Easter eggs to fill baskets! She has also posted the charts and blank graph paper so you can chart your own! Aren't these cute? She has you knit them flat, seam them and stuff them .... I'll probably make some, but I'll do them in-the-round so I don't have to seam (I HATE seaming!) ... also, I might make them with a bulky and fill them and use a drawstring at one end as "easter baskets" this year!

I love knitting and love thinking of knitting -- oh, if I only had more time TO KNIT!

Accessories: Norwegian Mail Bag

Hey y'all -- it's been a while since I posted a FO (finished object), but here is one upon which I just put the finishing touches and submitted for potential publication.

This WAS going to be a Norwegian sweater for KAL over at Ethnic Knitting -- but as I knit, the yarn told me to make it into a "mail bag" ... so I did.

This is actually knit upside-down -- the CO edge is the bag opening while the bottom is mitered to give a 4x10 square base (I cut a piece of cardboard to give it shape).I really like the way it turned out! It's a solid bit of knitting -- so won't stretch out of shape as it's used and the whole thing just looks way cool.

The strap is done like a really wide i-cord -- which I do by using three dpns and working round and round as if I were using 4 or 5 needles, on the 16 sts for the strap ... this makes a flat, double-faced strap without ever having to turn it. To keep the strap from stretching, I did a running stitch in the green to either side of the strap .... easy to keep the running stitches even by going thru every 3rd st! So, what do YOU think?

BTW, the yarn is my favorite -- Dale of Norway's Heilo in a dark charcoal grey, dark olive green, and a really nice cream. I used #3s for the knitting, which gave quite a nice fabric!