Bella Knitting

Tell Us a Story

Sarah

Thanks for your awesome response to the new Bella web site! I think Laura did a really great job. And thanks to all who participated in the website scavenger hunt! (We had two winners -- I guess Laura hid the third button too well!)
 

You may recall we've had another contest going on for a little while now -- and we've finally set a deadline. You have until midnight (Pacific time) this Sunday to enter our photo-story contest. Remember, to enter you must post a story using your knitting (or crochet, or other craftiness) in three or four photos. A couple people have emailed me to ask if they can use photos that are already on their blog, and the answer is yes -- but you need to put up a new post with the photos and a link back to the Bella Blog. Then just email me with a link to your post to enter. If you don't have a blog, just email me your photo story, and I'll put it up here on the Bella Blog for you!

Remember, the first prize winner gets a $50 Bella Knitting gift certificate! For inspiration, go check out Carol's entry, Miss Scarlett's entry, or the one below, which was emailed to me by Kate G -- it tells the story of her early adventures in knitting. I love Kate's pose in the last photo -- that's exactly how I feel when I finish a project!

Bella Web is Up and Running!

Laura

We are really (really) thrilled to announce the grand reopening of the Bella Knitting online shop! And while you might be rolling your eyes just a bit (wow, yet another yarn store) we hope to be so much more.  A place where designers can unleash their creativity and knitters can find and modify interesting projects conveniently.  That means unique projects with multiple options and if it calls for fabric, buttons or a magnetic snaps we'll find them for you so you don’t have to run down to the local craft shop or hunt all over the internet for them.  There is more about our philosophy in the About Us  and FAQs sections so just come on in and hang out with us for a bit.

It means we will be working with amazing blogger - designers like Anny Purls to bring her creations to life. We've even joined in her charity campaign to support Doctors Without Borders. We think (being totally and completely biased) that adding her projects to our own gives us one of the cutest baby collections around (and there is more on the way!).

This also means that finally the pattern for that ever popular and absolutely adorable baby Viking hat that Sarah designed is available for easy downloading. Can you believe that we have sold that hat to knitters on six continents!! I am not telling you which one is missing, I think you can figure it out. :)

Since there is just no possible way that we published hundreds of pages and thousands of files without some blips, typos and missing links we would love to hear from you when you find them.  Other types of feed back (helpful hints, things you like or would like to see more of) are totally welcome too. We've tried to make it warm and friendly - let us know what you think. Send to  laura@bellaknitting.com.

Scavenger Hunt!! We’ve hidden a few of these Bella Knitting buttons in the web site. The first person that sends a comment back here with the location gets a prize! There are three buttons so three winners – first one for each location. I’ll be sending out a Purse Hook (worth $20) to each winner. They are simply one of my favorite things to keep my purse and knitting bag off the floor.

The Stuff of Thought

Sarah

Just a quick weekend meme post here -- Yarnhog tagged me with the book meme that's been going around. The task is to open up the book you're currently reading to page 161 and copy out the fifth sentence on the page. Easy enough:

"But we don't see it in that manner, because the mind does not use color or surface markings as pegs to differentiate objects the way it uses location in space."

That's from The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker. It's a fascinating book about what language tells us about our brain structure -- the way we think. What are you reading? Consider yourself tagged, if you want to play along!

F.O. Friday

Sarah

Sorry I'm not posting to say that the new Bella web site is done...apparently the shopping cart isn't working for anyone with Internet Explorer, which is kind of a problem, so Laura is in the midst of another round of "I'm paying you to make this work, so please make it work now" with the shopping cart vendor. Fun! Except not really.

At least I do have a new F.O. to show you -- my Minimalist Cardigan! Sure, I started it way back when, but it's done now, and I like it. In fact, I was going to wear it today, but it's pouring rain, so I'll settle for posting about it. The pattern called for working the cardigan in moss stitch, my main modification was to work it in reverse stockinette instead. Since I didn't think to do the edge stitches in a stockinette stitch selvedge, sewing this thing up was a complete and total pain. Also, the yarn I used was a wee bit finer than what the pattern called for, so I used a smaller needle and followed the directions for a bust size a little larger than my own. Overall, I'm quite happy with it, and I think I'll be wearing it often, with a camisole and jeans. Now I just need to find a nice pin with which to close it -- for the photo, I just used a hair pin. It works, but it's not the most elegant solution.

By the way, don't you just love the big gob of drool hanging from Measure's chin in the photo? Classy. Thanks to Jason for taking the photos. You can see more here, on my Ravelry page.

Go Ahead, Make My Day...

Sarah

Obligatory reminder: enter the Bella Blogiversary contest! We only have a couple of entries so far, so your chances of winning a prize are excellent!

  Meanwhile, we've got a little award ourselves -- Suzanne of Yarnhog dubbed us "You Make My Day Award"-worthy. Thanks, Suzanne! According to the rules, it is now our duty to do the following: "Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."

Narrowing it down to just 10 is the hard part! I've got more than ten times that in my bloglines, making my day on a routine basis. But rules are rules, so here you go, in no particular order:

Lola and Ava of Two Black Sheep -- go congratulate Lola on her new arrival! He's a cutie.
Karen of Yarn is My Metier -- always a great read and a source of project inspiration!
Felicia of Fluffy Flowers -- you can't see her creatures and not smile.
Dave of Criminy Jickets -- among other excellent bloggerly qualities, dude cranks out socks like...well, like something you crank out pretty fast.
Maryese of Monster Yarn -- oy, the gorgeousness of the photos...
Teyani, the Intrepid Fiber Wizard -- a most talented fiberista and knitter!
Cindy of SnidKnits -- Cindy recently moved to Bangalore. Reading about her experiences there is a great vicarious travel experience!
Splatgirl at Splatgirl Creates -- Like food, interior design, craftiness in general, or an adorable gigantic greyhound? Splatgirl has it all.
Kim of Yarn Abuse -- aside from being an all-around pleasure to read, Kim has made me fall in love with Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns all over again, many times.
Oiyi of Oiyi's Crafts -- Hmm, I guess I'm bookending my list with bloggers who just had babies. Go congratulate Oiyi, too! I hope that even though she's had her baby, she'll still continue to use her cute little pooches as occasional knitwear models.

 

Are You Superstitious?

Laura

I ‘m not superstition and it is a good thing too! The NY Giants were playing the Green Bay Packers today. I am originally from NY and was raised by a father who is a fanatical NY Giant fan. My friends still have season tickets and only forgive me for also routing for the Chicago Bears because there was no NFL game day ticket when I lived there.  When faced with Bears football or nothing what is a girl to do?

Bella knitting has a line of projects for sports fans.  I have been working on a hat in NY Giants colors but since I finished it I started on a sweater for babies and kids.  It seems that sports fans are as fanatic about their teams as we are about our knitting (and for some of us it’s both) so what a great combination.

I needed good colors and a recognizable logo for the project I had in mind and so with  complete lack for foresight I started my Green Bay Packer's sweater earlier this week.  I laughed at stories of how the Green Bay fans were covering up street signs with New York links. Rolled my eyes when I heard they had stopped playing Seinfeld since it was based in NYC. Oh, pleeeease, I am so not superstitious. 

And so we proved today that knitting can not jinx a football game 2,000 miles away in sub-zero temperatures! But I will still make sure I am not knitting any new England Patriots stuff on February 3rd!!

I'm getting this ready for Stitches. I'll let you know more about it as soon as I read though all my chicken scratch design notes. If you have eagle eyes you might notice that 3-needle i-cord join I was playing with along the raglan sleeve!

p.s. New web site up in T minus 48 hours! :)

Twins

Sarah

First, a quick reminder: enter the Bella Blogiversary Contest! Details are here, and you can check out the cute entry from Carol of Knitting Knot here. (That cat looks so stoked, it cracks me up.)

So, last time I posted, I had just finished knitting one of my Death by Socks socks. It was hard on my fingers (and hands, and shoulders) but I completed the pair and got them sent off to my victim on Thursday, so I'm quite happy about that. For all I know, I'll receive the socks of my doom on Tuesday (in case you forgot, Monday is M.L.K. Day, a postal holiday) but I'm just happy I managed to complete a pair before being knocked out of the game. Any accomplishments beyond that will be icing on the cake, really.

After finishing those socks, my knitting suddenly felt so...free. All of my other needles seemed ridiculously large after handling size 1's exclusively for so many hours over the course of two-and-a-half days. I even finished my Minimalist Cardigan, and am working on the seaming! Bet you thought I'd forgotten that one, huh? I've been pretty good with my yarn diet (buying a new skein for the Death by Socks competition doesn't count, right?) of only buying one new skein after knitting three from my stash. In anticipation of a visit to one of my favorite LYS next Friday (yeah, avoiding the LYSes definitely has helped the diet), I've been happily knitting away at hats for Jason and Measure. I love how hats provide such near-instant knitterly gratification.

Since the Death by Socks socks were my first "real" (fine-gauge) socks in a while, I've been feeling the urge to cast on for another pair. Maybe do a little sock designing. Who knows? So of course I was excited to see my Seasons Yarn Club shipment from Sundara on my porch this afternoon. I opened it up, wondering what fabulous color the little box contained. Funnily enough, "Burnt Cranberry" was almost an exact match for another Sundara sock yarn in my stash, "Heirloom Tomato." The former is in the foreground of the photo, the latter is the one wound into a cake. In person, there's slightly more difference; the "Burnt Cranberry" has an ever-so-slightly orange-ish cast to it, but still, really close. They're definitely fraternal twins.

Speaking of which, I found out recently that a friend of mine is pregnant with fraternal twins. Any suggestions on what I should knit for them? She doesn't know the gender(s?) yet, but I can at least have some pattern ideas queued up and ready for when she finds out.

One Down...

Sarah

I knitted like a demon yesterday, and this morning I finished up the first of my Death by Socks socks! Well, the ends aren't woven in, but I'll do that on both socks at once if/when I finish the second. (See, if I get sent a pair of socks, I'll be dead, and I'll have to send these to my assassin, who will have to finish them and send them to my victim...) I've made a little progress on the second sock, so I'm hoping to have them finished and in the mail tomorrow. If I'm lucky.

Also, Measure got another new tooth yesterday -- little dude has four front teeth now, in addition to the two bottom ones! Teething days are not the happiest of days, but it's so neat watching him develop. A little scary sometimes (in an "oh my gosh, someday he's going to be DRIVING" kind of way), but neat.

Stitches, Web Site, and A Most Deadly Game...

Sarah

Quick reminder: enter our Blogiversary contest for a chance to win prizes! It'll be good times, people -- good times.

Right now, we're busy gearing up for Stitches West, which should be a lot of fun -- last year was our first time there as a vendor, and it went really well. Will you be there? Be sure to visit us! Our booth is #822/824. It'll be February 21-24, and just like last year it will be held in the convention center in Santa Clara. This is what our booth looked like last year, but we'll be changing things up for 2008 -- Laura has a plan for a very cute theme, so be sure to drop in and check it out. (If you can't make it, no worries, we'll be sure to blog about it when the time comes!)

Aside from Stitches, Laura is also working on the new Bella web site, which is very nearly done (assuming that the shopping cart software starts working the way it's supposed to!) and I'm busy with a few things of my own. A pattern of mine was accepted for publication (sorry, can't give details on the blog yet, but needless to say I am totally stoked) so I'm working on a sample. I'll have to set that aside tomorrow, though, for the start of Death by Socks! I decided to join after reading about it on Liz's blog. Hopefully I'll manage to take a few other knitters out before meeting my doom, but who knows? Even if I knit my socks super-speedily, I'm still at the mercy of the Post Office of Doom. Cross your fingers for me!

We're One!

Sarah & Laura

Wow, can you believe it? (You probably can.) The Bella Knitting blog is a year old today! During the past year, we've written something like 285 posts, and met all kinds of new blog-friends. It's been fun, and we're looking forward to next year!

We'll be celebrating our blogiversary for the next week or so with a little contest, a look back at the past year, and by introducing our new web site! Laura is working around the clock to finish it up, and it's quite close. But first things first: today we'd like to invite you to enter our Bella Blogiversary Contest!

Inspired by Bittersweet's recent contest, we're asking you to tell a story with your knitting (or crochet, or fiber, needles, hooks, etc -- you get the idea) in just three or four photos. Be creative! To enter, post your photo-story on your blog and email us a link to the post, or, if you don't have us a blog, send it to us in an email. Try to get your entries to us within 10 days -- that's January 20th -- and we'll announce the winners shortly after.

Oh, yeah, there will be prizes! The first-place winner will receive a $50 Bella Knitting gift certificate, the second-place winner will receive a purse hook, and the third-place winner will receive a knitting care kit. We're looking forward to your entries!