Butterflies have gone.

And I thank all of you that reassured me NOT to be nervous. The wonderful comments that were sent my way made the process a LOT easier and by the end of the day I was giddy to call myself an official 'DESIGNER' as Kathy Norris told me to say that I was. :D YEAH, Kathy Norris was the very first person to e-mail me and congratulate me, give me a pat on the back, and tell me that she is still nervous putting patterns up for sale and for GOODNESS SAKES she just had a book come out for sale! I was like star-struck. LOL! Then the next two people were Karen and Bethany and I look up to these two like they are the wiser, more experienced big sisters and it just made my day that everyone was so supportive. I had about 10 messages in all, congratulating me and telling me that I had done a great job. :D As of 3pm yesterday afternoon I had 45 downloads of the Woven Ribbon Hat. Chris, my hubby, was just like, "WOW!" I am happy that you guys like it.
My plans for the future are hopefully to put up a new pattern every few weeks. And I want to keep just as many patterns for free as I have for sale. That is my plan, at least. And maybe someday, in my wildest dreams, you guys will see me writing up my own book of patterns and being well known in the looming community like Isela Phelps, Denise Layman, Anne Bipes, and Kathy Norris! That would be awesome to be able to add my name to the list! But I am not the only crafty 'designer' out there. There are others all over such as Bethany and Karen that should get their names on the list before me. Other designers are all over out there! :D

Oh, and you guys need to run over to Dawn's site and check out her cupcake hat! It was her first project ever and she finished the soaker last night so hopefully she will have HER pics of the soaker up soon.
And Penny made a post about all her charity hats that she has made. Ya'll give her some encouragement to move beyond hats and to flat panel knitting! :D

Totally and completely nervous

I just posted my very first free pattern and my very first 'for sale' pattern. I am absolutely, completely a nervous wreck since these are the very first patterns I have posted. I have more to come in the future, so let's hope that I did everything right and that I did a good job typing them up.
Whew, butterflies PLEASE go away!
The patterns can both be found here: Rockin' the Loom Patterns

What is on my looms:
Right now, on my red KK I have a waist band for longies (or shorties) b/c down here in the Mississippi summer heat I let the kids run around naked (meaning in underwear or diapers) but Lady Tru likes to pull at the tabs of her diapers if it is exposed and next thing you know...the child is actually naked and lovin' it! LOL! If she has anything covering the diaper she forgets about the tabs (until she gets smarter, I am sure) so I wanted to knit up something to cover it up in the hot summer months. :D (For those interested, pattern will be available...eventually. :P)
On my pink long KK I have another initial scarf. Same pattern as the first one except initials are JMK and the main color is black and the contrasting color is light pink. I would say that I am 1/4 to 1/3 finished with it at this very moment.
And on Monday, I sat down and made another Woven Ribbon Hat. This one is for a friend of mine that is in the hospital. She has cystic fibrosis and seems to be in and out of the hospital frequently. I hate that she has to do that and I feel like it depresses her. She was asking questions about the Woven Ribbon Hat, but was wanting it in black (instead of the original cream). Her coat is black. I tried really hard to get her to buy her own looms (seeing as that many of the looming community uses them while in and out of the hospital and at doctor appointments), but I think she was admitted back into the hospital before she had a chance to purchase any. I will suck her into this world one way or another! LOL! But for now, since I can't send flowers and she doesn't live here (she lives in Indiana) I will send her that hat she wants so badly. :D

Blown away

It is so silly, but I get totally blown away when people like Karen, Bethany, and Brenda comment on MY BLOG! I bow down to these women, so when they comment to me instead of the other way around, and they give me a pat on the back or thumbs up, I am just flabbergasted and am left with my mouth open in shock! They commented to ME!!!!!! Ok, I know I am silly, but let me be giddy for a minute. :D

Chris said that I can order THIS when we get our income tax refunds back this year. I started out just wanting the combo needed for the Loom Class on the Baby Items done with the Kiss Looms. But the longer and longer I wait, and the more I read on the Kiss-Looms group, the more and more I want to order! I gotta have it all! I can't wait!!!!!!!!!

Speaking of Loom Classes, here is the Shellie I made for this weekend's class! The teacher and creator of such a cute little turtle is Jenny. I named him Scooter and then Little Miss Tru snatched him and I don't think she will be giving him back. LOL! I will be making another one today in a red, orange, and yellow variegated Red Heart for Sir Thade. We are naming that one Speedy. :D I love these little Shellies so much that I think I will make a whole family of varying sizes. Haha! And guess what Little Miss Tru surprised me with this morning? When she held him up I told her, "Yep, that is your turtle. His name is Scooter." And she said, "Tuhtul." Ok, proud Mom-O Moment that few will understand I am sure, so quit rolling your eyes at me! LOL!

I am so proud of myself at this moment!

So, I got the scarf and hat delivered and Stephanie is so in love with it that she wants me to make one for her sister as well. She also said that her sister has 'babies' (meaning dogs) that she might want me to design some sweaters for. Looks like I am gonna be quite a busy girl.
I have been out of my mind designing a diaper soaker. A lady named Dawn was desperately seeking some loom knit diaper soaker patterns, but could only find one and it had no picture. This couldn't be just a diaper cover, b/c she cloth diapers. It had to be functional. So, since she was in need of this and seemed pretty near her wits' end, I offered to try to convert any crochet or needle knitting patterns she might have for what she wanted. I might have skimmed through both patterns once before realizing that I don't know how to read crochet or needle knit patterns. I didn't know them from Chinese. But I looked at the pics for them and figured that I could come up with something with the same shape and function. (I believe there shouldn't be any copyright infringement b/c I didn't follow any part of the patterns. Not even stitch used or anything. I just used Dawn's daughter's measurements (soooo close to my own dd's so I had a model!) and made the thing up as I went.
This was my first prototype:

The flaps came up too high on the hip and the rise from belly button, through crotch, to about the same place as belly button on the back) was to low. I figured there must be an easy fix for this.
So, I started on a new one. This one started out w/a ribbed waist band that follows a slightly wierd pattern b/c of the fact that it is done on an even number or pegs but needed to start and end with the same type of stitch. It then switches to double stitch so that it is a very tight knit. She had the idea of two rows of buttons so that it is nice and secure and by placing more and more buttons to each side, then you can adjust it. Brilliant. She also has other ideas bouncing around in her busy head at the moment that she is gonna try with the pattern when she gets to knit it up.
But here is the pay off for my OCD perfectionist complex. (Present me with a challenge and see if I can say 'no'! It is impossible.)
Oh, and we know that the butt is baggy (taking off an inch in the pattern will fix that) and I needed to sew on the buttons closer together (side to side wise).





We haven't quite decided what we are going to do with the pattern yet. Since it is a collaboration it is hard for just one of us to claim the glory, but hard to share it since she lives in NY and I live in MS.
Now I can get started on my Shellies for the Loom Class. :D YAY!

And without further delay

Here is the initial scarf that will be delivered to hubby's employee tomorrow. I still had leftover yarn and wanted to thank her for her patience (I was finishing up late Christmas gifts and then got the sinus infection...AND DANGED IF I DIDN'T MAIL OFF THE BEARS W/OUT GETTING A PIC!!!!) so I made her a matching hat w/out initials. I really hope she likes it. She said that she LOVES Cody's hat and that he wears it everyday. He is only 5 or 6 and loves the fact that his initials are on his hat. :D


And these little guys are for preemies.....though I don't know yet if they will even fit. I sure hope they do. But if not, I can always frog them or give them to a poor little deserving baby doll (b/c you know, Little Miss Tru didn't have enough in the first place and so she recieved 7 regular sized ones and 7 mini ones for Christmas. :P)

In other news, I purchased the Knitting Pattern a Day calendar from Books-A-Million on sale for half off. EXCITING!!!!
I also found the grippy for my hooks that I have been searching for everywhere (pics will be in next post). It is called 'The Pencil Grip' and I had originally purchased one in college, had it for several years, used it last about a week before buying my first KK loom set, and POOF! It has disappeared off the radar. You can imagine how I freaked at the checkout counter at Books-A-Million when I saw a container of them!!!! Cashier thought I was crazy. I only got one at that moment.....but I am thinking I need ten more. They are only $.25 so it isn't that expensive and they make my pick sooooooo comfy. Big smiles and happiness here (and over a stupid grippy). LOL!
And quick question for all who have or had small children......do your kids eat yarn? I caught Little Miss Tru eating, YES EATING, pink yarn the other day. It was soaked with spit. EEEeeeeEEEEeeeEEEeeEEEWWWW! Sir Thade hasn't ever put it in his mouth, but then again, he is almost 3 (TURNS 3 ON THE LAST DAY OF THIS MONTH!!!!!)
Well, hubby is beckoning me to go to bed.....I am so tired.
Rock those looms!

No more initial hats for me....at least for now.

I bet doing fair isle is different from trying to do initials, but I totally stressed myself out over making this hat for one of hubby's employees. It was for her son and she wanted initials on it. This is the finished product:



All the weaving and making sure floats weren't too long and all that jazz. GEEZ! Not fun!
Now I am working on an initial scarf for the employee, herself. This seems much easir since I am using the pink long KK as a board BUT it would have been beneficial if I had figured out that using cream yarn on a light pink background wouldn't show up. Easy fix, I didn't even frog what I had done. Just took it off the loom and started all over again using the leftover red from her son's hat instead of cream in the pattern. I hope that she likes it. I really am putting a lot of effort into them.

Well, I got to meet Penny and her family, in person, last night. We had hamburgers and hotdogs at her place (good food, mmmmmmm). And they are such a nice and friendly family. I really enjoyed my visit (most of all Chris enjoyed himself and he is always uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations!). It would have been perfect had Little Miss Tru not run around the ENTIRE time getting into this and that. I am not saying that Thade was an angel, himself, but at least he wasn't into EVERYTHING. I am seriously thinking the pack'n'play would be a must the next time I visit with them. LOL! Penny and I will be taking a trip to the Women's Hospital this week to get specifics on what they need for us to make the preemies and newborns. :D

OMG, I just had a heart attack! I look at the kids and see that Little Miss Tru had the pink long KK with 'scarf in progress' attached and she was attempting to wrap the whole 12 inches of it around her neck. Talk about Mom-O jumping up and racing across the house fast and Stephanie trying her hardest to put it back before I reached her. Silly how she always thinks that if she puts something back before I get to her then it is like she never touched it. LOL! 'Scarf in progress' is undamaged and Little Miss Tru now has HER scarf and wrapping that around her neck. WHEW!
Ok, well I am off to try to get as much done as I possibly can on that scarf. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Stupid Sinus Infection!

It is succeeding in keeping me from finishing a silly hat! I just want to finish a HAT!!!!! For goodness sakes. When I take medicine it knocks me out (even non-drowsy) and I am totally oblivious to the world. Chris said that, as I was sleeping on the couch, Thade came up and basically had his nose touching mine and was staring at me, waiting for me to wake up. He made Thade leave me alone......but I was totally not even there! Had no clue. LOL!
I had really wanted to make some bread today.....and that hat should have been finished 2 days ago. I did get the dishes done though. SCORE! 1 point for Robin!
Well, since I don't have anything Loomy to talk about I guess I will leave you guys with
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!