Blurb - turn your blog into a book

So, I had to let you know about a great site I just used to get a book made from my blog. I'm sure there are others out there, but Blurb was great to use. It imports your blog entries from the dates you choose and puts them into book format. I had to go through and upload higher-res pictures for many of the entries, but you would want to go through and tweak the book anyway. So it wasn't totally a seamless import, but it allowed me to make some edits and get the book looking exactly like I wanted. I made one for 2010 and I might go back and make one for 2009. Now each year I can have a physical copy of my online 'journal.' It's pretty great. And if you click here to check it out and order a book, you get 15% off :) They also offer other photo books and printing services, too. Hope you enjoy!

Happy ♥ Day!

Here's what I've been up to today, celebrating some l-o-v-e...

 I made whoopie pies this afternoon for me and my sweetie. They are my new favorite food.

You can find the recipe on my friend Taylor's blog. Taylor Made

Here is the Valentine I made for Pinky :) I hope he likes it.

I've always handmade his cards and Valentines since we've been together. I plan to continue! It's so fun. Here's the one from last year.

And our 6 month anniversary card made it into our engagement photo shoot ♥

Happy ♥ Day everyone! Make something for someone you love.

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Double-knitting and what I've learned

So, somehow I was on the ball yesterday and after recently posting about double-knitting, I went ahead and tackled the new-to-me technique. Here are a few things I learned about it and about the process. 

1. It's a bit tricky, but really cool to see how the fabric is created on both sides!

2. It's a slow going process.

3. I did not find the way she holds her yarn in the tutorial helpful (even though it is explained very well! It's just not what works for me).

4. I can learn to purl the continental way AND learn double knitting all at once!

I've always wanted to master continental knitting because so many of my friends knit that way. I hear it's faster and I do appreciate the economy of motion versus the English or 'throwing' style of knitting. Because I've done some fair isle knitting and other color work, I am pretty comfortable with the knit stitch in the continental style. BUT, purling has always slowed me down and kept me from becoming a continental knitter. 

Yesterday as I was going through the tutorial on double knitting, I realized that I could just hold the 'back' color in my left hand, using the continental style of purling to work those stitches. It's great! I'm learning two new skills at once and I'm starting to really get this style of purling down. I know after I make this scarf for my husband I will have had enough practice with it to feel confident about starting a new project knit all in the continental style.

So, the method I'm using for my double knitting is this. Hold the FRONT color (meaning for that row, the first color of the row) in your RIGHT hand, and knit those stitches as usual, wrapping the yarn around the stitch in the English knitting style. Hold the BACK color (the second stitch of the row will be in this color) in your LEFT hand (you will probably want to wrap it around your pinky finger for some tension). When you go to knit the second or back color, bring BOTH yarns to the front (as described in the previous tutorial). Purl this stitch with the color in your left hand in the continental style. Then move both yarns between the needles, back to the back of your knitting and continue to the next knit stitch. This is the rhythm you will work in for the rest of your row.

Here is a photo of me knitting the FRONT stitch.

And here is a photo of me purling the BACK stitch. Notice, both yarns are in front.

I hope this helps if you are going to try out the double knitting technique along with me. It isn't the fastest technique around, but I think this scarf will be really wonderful and double sided and lovely for my husband. It's always fun to learn something new and that's what I love about knitting. I've been knitting for 9 years now and there's still so much to learn! Good luck and let me know if you try out this technique. I'd love to hear about it!

Leaving Mexico and a fun new knitting technique

Well, in 2 hours we leave this beautiful place for the airport. What a wonderful winter vacation it has been. I am so fortunate to have family who LOVES Mexico. What an incredibly gorgeous place with delicious food and kind people. I am always sad to go! I sure am excited to see my Mattie-girl though and to get back to get some stuff done. Lace*Paper*Flowers has a bridal show coming up in March, so I've got to get back and get to work! I need to make a book for my sample invitations/paper goods and we need to gather items for our table displays. It'll be a fun exciting show, I hope! It's at the Factory in Franklin, TN which is a really cool, interesting location. (Not a random, nasty-carpeted convention center, yay!) I'm looking forward to seeing what happens from the show and whether we get some additional brides to work with. 

In knitting news, I just found a tutorial through Ravelry that teaches the double knitting technique. I've always been curious about this and sort of had an idea of how it worked, but I've never seen it explained this clearly. It really makes me want to try it! Heidi Bears does a lovely job of explaining it on her blog.

I've looked up a couple of patterns that use the double knitting technique. Here is a really interesting folk style blanket and below, a cute elephant pot holder. Double knitting makes a great scarf as well that is double sided, always a plus for a scarf. 

I hope you'll try the technique, too! I think it looks like the tricky part is just holding onto both yarns and getting a good rhythm of going back and forth between knitting and purling. A simple two color scarf or potholder would be good to start with to get the feel for it before trying the color work, but it would be easy to jump into these lovely designs after that. Good luck and Happy Friday!!

Update on Red Ribbon Fox Design site

Hi all! I wanted to share the updates I made today on my business site, www.redribbonfox.com. I added some invitations, thank you notes, programs, and save the date cards that I have designed. I'm ramping up the wedding business, so if you know of anyone needing wedding design, send them my way! I do custom designs and can do anything that needs to be printed on paper for your wedding.

This is a wedding program I designed for Hunter & Terrah. We used real frames to display their silhouettes. It added a really neat touch!

I also work with some spectacular gals who do wedding decor/coordination (Jessica at Love Bird Style) and amazing floral design (Jasmin at Artisan Flowers). We have collaborated to create Lace*Paper*Flowers, a wedding cooperative where we come together to ensure a consistent theme throughout your wedding. We did a lovely photo shoot in November themed "Apple of My Eye." We worked with Souder Photography to create a really nice display of all of our work. Our shoot has been featured on both Style Me Pretty and The Ebury Collection wedding blogs. Here are a few examples from that shoot.

It's fun working with other spectacularly creative people to get amazing results! I hope our business continues to grow so we can do more and more fun stuff like this :)