And she can bake too . . .

You already know I'm a big fan of Dawn Brocco's designs but what you didn't know is that I'm a big fan of her cookies too!

This is what remains of my wonderful Christmas 2009 surprise package:


Sweet, spicy, chewy, glittery . . . just plain delicious. THANK YOU, Dawn! Now, in the interest of full disclosure among knitting friends, I need the cookies' official names and--umm--maybe a recipe or two?? xoxo

Sneak peek: chapter two is posted

Yes, this is shameless huckstering but I promise to make it up to you with some knitting content. (I'm too lazy weave in the ends and photograph my completed Irish Hiking Scarf, (designer: Adrian Bazilia) but I will very very shortly. Honestly. I promise. You have my word . . . )

There are new two chapters of CASTING SPELLS available for you to read on my website. They're in the Sneak Peek section but I'll make it easy for you. Just click here and you'll be whisked away. The book won't be out until somewhere around Halloween (official pub date is 11/4 -- Election Day!!) but my first review popped up in my inbox this afternoon and I'm grinning from ear to ear. "Excellent read," says Susan Randall from ARMCHAIR INTERVIEWS.

And I'm very excited to announce that THE WENDY (aka Wendy D. Johnson of Wendy Knits) and Dawn Brocco (Dawn Brocco Designs and blog)

both contributed some wonderful knitting tips that appear in the book. In fact their hints were so good that the ARMCHAIR INTERVIEW review took note:

Although I am not a knitter myself, the 10 things you need to know about knitting in
general are quite funny as well as the 10 things you need to know
about knitting lace and knitting socks in the back of the book are a keeper.

So here's a big loud heartfelt "Thank you!" to Dawn and Wendy for their help. I owe you one.

And while I have your attention, Fran mentioned Nancy Herkness's fabulous book MUSIC OF THE NIGHT in comments and I have to say I second, third, and fourth her praise. Nancy wrote a taut, sexy, witty, intelligent mystery that swept me up into the very different worlds of music and police work and held me captive until the last page. This comes highly recommended!

One more thing: we'll be adding another writing knitter/knitting writer to the roster in the next few weeks. Caroline Leavitt, whose talent leaves me literally speechless, will be joining us here at Romancing the Yarn. I first discovered Caroline's work around 1982 when I devoured her first novel (I think it was her first) MEETING ROZZY HALFWAY. It's twenty-six years later and I can still remember scenes and passages. That's how good a book it is. I hope you'll take time to visit Caroline's website and get to know her. And check out her blog. I think you'll love her.

And here I thought I had nothing to say tonight.

Having Way Too Much Fun

I started assembling gifts today: matching the present with the packaging, ferreting out addresses, all the annoying little details you can't help wishing someone else would take care of for you so you could do the fun stuff.

If you were around last year you might remember that I was bitten by the felted bowl bug. Well, it got me again. I started out knitting them but I'm a way faster crocheter so I switched over to crochet and once it's felted you can't tell the difference. I made up a method that seems to work and will translate it into a pattern this week for my sister crocheters out there.

The pink bowl was crocheted with Rowan Fusion, a pure wool sale yarn I scored at Elann a few weeks ago. The scarf is a slight variation on one of Dawn Brocco's Undulating Cables--slightly shorter, slightly wider. I was trying to find a pretty way to present the scarf for gift-giving when I noticed the pink bowl drying in the living room. Hmm. Maybe if I rolled up the scarf and popped it in the bowl . . . who knew it would look like a lovely cream-colored rose? I'm delighted! Three cheers for serendipity!

Yes, the black mitts are Fetching. Yes, they were knitted with Debbie Bliss's Cashmerino Aran. The black is 100% right for the recipient but it seemed a little . . . blah. Out came the trusty beads and the equally trusty needle and ten minutes later the mitts had a wee bit of well-needed pizzazz. (How many Zs are in pizzazz pizaz pizazz pizzaz anyway?) They'll be shipped out in a red felted bowl that's currently drying in the other room.

Remember when I was dithering over the Kata/Felicity scarf from Tara Jon Manning's Mindful Knitting? I didn't like the way the bind-off edge looked next to the cast-on edge. They didn't really match. So I decided to knit it in two sections, Kitchener it together, and be terribly terribly proud of myself. Well, the knitting went well and so did the grafting but I hadn't taken one little bit of information into account: the left and right sides didn't match up and it made a little rippley bump and a disturbing visual break. What to do? I futzed around with a few ideas then decided to thread a tapestry needle with the purple cashmere and lazy-daisy across the grafted seam. I mean, if your eye is going to be drawn to the flaw anyway, why not give it something to admire? Then I attached an amethyst-colored glass bead in the center of each daisy. And, thanks once again to Dawn Brocco's cleverness, I added beads at either end for a little interest. Now I'm happy with it and it's zippy enough for the extremely zippy and wonderful friend I made it for.

And I didn't forget about the contest. I just haven't been able to take a decent photo of the prize. Gimme another day or two, okay? It's a Tulip Baby kit and I want to do it justice.

So what are you working on? Any photos you want to share?