Kristen TenDyke

I'm planning on participating in the 20 mile Walk for Hunger again this year on May 4th. My friend M who I went with last year and I are DEFINITELY going, and James is considering coming with us too! I'm pretty excited about it again. Last year we had to stop at the 13.5 mile marker because something was up with my foot. The sneakers I was wearing didn't have proper arch support or something, so I HAD to stop. I have better sneakers this year, and I'm planning on walking the whole thing.

I'm beginning earlier this year to raise money to help feed the hungry. My goal is to raise $300 before May 4th. I've set up a way to accept payments online. If you would like to support my walk and bring food to the tables of hungry people around the country. Please donate.

Life Uncommon

March 28th 2008

The other day, I was driving and it was dark… I wanted to put in a CD, so I reached into my consoul where I have many CD's floating without cases, and randomly chose one and plugged it into the player. It was Jewel's Spirit album—one I haven't listened to in a LONG time.

This morning I was really touched by the Life Uncommon song, so I want to share the lyrics with you. It's absolutely beautiful and brings a sense of hope for humanity. If you have the album, or have the ability to somehow hear the song, I highly recommend you give it a listen, and be fully engrossed in it's beauty! (just a suggestion)

Don't worry mother
It'll be alright
And don't worry sister
Say your prayers and sleep tight
And it'll be fine
Lover of mine
It'll be just fine

And lend your voices only
To sounds of freedom
No longer lend your strength
To that which you wish
To be free from
Fill your lives
With love and bravery
And you shall lead
A life uncommon

I've heard your anguish
I've heard your hearts cry out
We are tired, we are weary
But we aren't worn out
Set down your chains
Until only faith remains
Set down your chains

And lend your voices only
To sounds of freedom
No longer lend your strength
To that which you wish
To be free from
Fill your lives
With love and bravery
And we shall lead
A life uncommon

There are plenty of people
Who pray for peace
But if praying were enough
It would've come to be
Let your words enslave no one
And the heavens will hush themselves
To hear our voices ring out clear
With sounds of freedom
Sounds of freedom

Come on you unbelievers
Move out of the way
There is a new army coming
And we are armed with faith
To live, we must give
To live

And lend our voices only
To sounds of freedom
No longer lend our strength
To that which we wish
To be free from
Fill your lives
With love and bravery
And we shall lead...

And lend our voices only
To sounds of freedom
No longer lend our strength
To that which we wish
To be free from
Fill your lives
With love and bravery
And we shall lead
A life uncommon

Garfield minus Garfield

March 27th 2008

Not yarn related in any way, but entirely too amusing. I have to share!

Garfield minus Garfield

Puzzle; Cozy.

March 25th 2008

For my birthday my boyfriend gave me this puzzle. At first I was like, "hmm, a puzzle... never really done one of these before". So I wasn't super sure I would be able to pull myself away from yarn long enough to finish it. Fortunately (for the puzzle) the pain from the kidney stone made it so I couldn't move very much. Even the simple repetitve motions of knitting or crocheting was too painful to bear for very long. All I could really do was sit. So, I sat or laid down and worked on this puzzle.

Now it's finished, and the pain seems to be gone for the most part, so I've started (and finished) next weeks Web-Letter project. Next Tuesday is April Fools day, so we want to do something a little more fun than our usual practical projects. While these are still pretty practical, I think they're more fun... I may be the only one, but that's okay with me. Can you figure out what they may be? Ironically, when I looked at the photo, I saw a clue on the crochet hook I used. Totally didn't see it there before now.

Kidney Stone!

March 22nd 2008

So, the doctor's say it has been a kidney stone spelunking its way through my body, causing me horrible horrible pain. I do not wish this feeling on anyone. I guess it's a pretty small stone (it certainly doesn't FEEL small!) so, they told me it should pass by itself within the next 2 or 3 days. So, now I just sit and wait... and eat Tylenol. At least I know what it is now, which is comforting.

When I came home on Thursday there was a box from Zamuta.com waiting for me. "Odd" I thought, "I didn't order any more soapnuts." Upon opening the box, there was a note from George at Zamuta Soapnuts thanking me for writing about and linking to his soapnut webpage, as well as a few soapnut gifts from the site. I was really floored by their thankfulness, so I wanted to pass on the thanks to all of you who went to visit the site and/or purchased the soapnuts. It's wonderful to think that there are so many people who are interested in adjusting the way we live to help preserve our environment. I sincerely thank you.

Blech...

March 20th, 2008

What an unpleasant week. That pain that I woke up with on Saturday has been haunting me daily since then. Obviously it is not exactly the same problem as before, antibiotics cured that in just a few days. Not this time. I've been living on the max dosage of extra strength Tylenol for the past 6 days. My Dr's office finally scheduled a test to be run tomorrow, so I'm hoping that will tell me exactly what is going on. I have my suspicions, but don't know anything for certain yet. Despite being home alot this week, I really haven't gotten very much knitting or crocheting done. When the pain is there, that's ALL that is there. It completely disables me. I have started reading Mindful Knitting, and realized that there is already the perfect 15 minutes in my day for meditation and/or mindful knitting. I used it in this manner for the first time this morning... then the pain attacked—ROAR! I tried to meditate through it, but it's not that type of pain… at least not for me. So, I'll try again tomorrow if I'm feeling up to it.

Home from the Mindful Knitting Retreat

March 17th, 2008

What an adventure! I went into this weekend not knowing what to expect, and boy am I glad I did! Of course, there was knitting, meditation, mindful knitting, yoga, and massages available, but I totally wasn't expecting to test the Vermont medical system too. I suppose I'll get this story out of the way first. Saturday around 5am, I woke with really bad back pain, and at first I figured it was from the yoga I had done the day before, combined with sleeping in an unfamiliar bed. But as I rolled around trying to find a comfortable position, I slowly realized that this pain was a familiar one, and it wasn't going to go away on its own. A few years ago, I had taken a trip to Texas to visit a friend, and look for an apartment, but 2 days into the trip, my back started hurting. I took an absorbetent amount of pain killers that week, figuring it was just that... pain. But toward the end of the week, I felt really sick. 103º temperature, vomiting... the whole nine yards. The pain I felt this past Saturday was that pain, and I was NOT going to let it ruin the rest of my retreat, or hinder my ability to drive 4 hours home alone the next day. When my roomate (Diane) woke, I asked for some advil to ease the pain while I found my way to a hospital or medical center to get some antibiotics. She offered to drive me, saying that I looked very pale and that I shouldn't go alone, with a dead cell phone. I really thank her for this. I realized while on the way there that I probably could not have driven myself. The hospital we went to was amazing. I was in and out in 20 minutes with an antibiotic prescription and peace of mind, ready to head back to knit mindfully. We returned before 11am, so we didn't miss TOO much. I guess that during the meditation session everyone sent healing energy my way, which I truly appreciate. When Diane and I walked back into the lodge, we were greeted with a round of applause. Talk about feeling loved. My theory for why this happened is this: Whenever I get the urge to want to move someplace, I first visit. During the visit, my body must take it as an opportunity to test the medical system of that area. TX failed this test. VT on the other hand... what a magical place!
So, now, here's the fun stuff! There was LOTS of knitting going on. And crocheting too. I wasn't the only one who brought some crocheting with me. That was nice to see. This weekend had a lot of "firsts" in it for me. • Guided group meditation • Knitting together with a lot of people • Yoga with an instructor and not in my kitchen • Visiting Vermont (and their medical system) • Meeting Tara Jon Manning, Amy R. Singer, Margaret Klein Wilson, and many other fabulous knitters • Learning directly from someone who owns sheep (I've always wanted a sheep. Margaret's got 17!)	Becky (back), Lynne (left), Amy R. Singer (right) Yeah, I got to hang out with Amy!
Margaret Klein Wilson with her Mostly Merino stash		Here is Margaret with her yarns and sweaters. She's the founder of Mostly Merino, out of Vermont. She raises the sheep, which are sheered once a year. The fleece is spun into yarn at Green Mountain Spinnery, then returned to Margaret, who then dyes it, and winds it into their beautiful hanks. That description totally does not do the process justice. There is so much more involved, but many of the details escape me, and I wouldn't want to describe anything incorrectly! I absolutely love this yarn. Design ideas have been running through my head since I laid eyes on it.
The retreat was held in the Highland Lodge in Greensboro Vermont. All the meals there were so well organized, and tasted fantastic. They offered a vegetarian option for each meal, and even if I didn't really know what it was, I chose that every time. Each was very unique, and tasted great. I wish I could have enjoyed more of my meal on Saturday, but I just wasn't feeling up to eating a whole lot.	Amy R. Singer with Tara Jon Manning
my birthday "cake"		Speaking of Saturday meals… A little birdie named Pam Allen told Tara that I was attending this retreat as my birthday celebration. Phil, Amy's husband was also celebrating his birthday this weekend. Let me first say that each night for dessert I chose to skip the heavy chocolate, the cakes, the ice cream, etc... and I asked if they had fruit. So, Saturday night after dinner everyone begins singing happy birthday, and I expected that I would be eating cake that night. I was planning to allow myself one cake-like dessert while I was there. BUT, Ann was sweet enough to make up a fruit cocktail for me with a candle. How thoughtful is that? Phil got to blow out the 12 or so candles on the cake, while I blew out the one in the fruit. So, I ate fruit that night. Which is much better for my recovering body than cake anyway :)
Over-all this was a fabulous weekend where many great friendships have begun. I hope everyone has made it home safely, with all their yarn in-tact. Believe it or not, one woman, mailed her dirty clothes back home, and carried her yarn in her suitcase. I love it!	Everyone.
The beginning of my drive home.		My drive home lasted only about four hours, which seemed to fly by. It was fascinating to watch the landscape change as I drove from Vermont, through New Hampsire and back home to Massachusetts. The snow slowly disappeared, and more and more civilization became visible. While it's great to take a vacation. It's always nice to return home again too.

Soap Nut Vessel

March 11th, 2008

Since St. Patricks Day is coming up next week, I've been thinking of something "Green" to post about.

I had a pretty big realization a few months ago, and slowly I've been working on adjusting my lifestyle to make myself feel better about it. 60% of what we put onto our skin absorbs into our bloodstream, and thus pumps through our heart and entire body. This lead into an investigation of soaps, which lead to learning more about eco-friendly washing solutions.

One of which doesn't directly effect the body, but it does effect the environment. There are certain laundry detergents that were created with the intention of being more earth friendly than other detergents, but I think this solution has got to take the cake, as it was created by nature herself.

Believe it or not, these little nuts make soap when they're agitated in warm water.

I don't enjoy paraphrasing things, so you can read more about them here.

I purchased mine from Zamuta.com. They claim to be the only place in the U.S. who sells them, but I'm pretty sure you could find them at Whole Foods or other online vendors.

After using the little cotton bag that was supplied with the nuts for over 10 washings the cord has become completely shredded and it's no longer possible to tie it closed. I decided it was time for the nuts to have a new vessel.

This whipped up in about an hour. I want to make tons of them, in all sorts of colors and fibers, to hold all sorts of things… like herbs, or stones, or other little treasures… but who knows what time will allow.

Here's the pattern.

Ravel It.

If you're going to use the bag for soap nuts, be sure to use a machine washable yarn, and remember to take the bag of nuts out of the wash before moving the clothes into the dryer.

Tunisian Tutorial

March 8th, 2008

A little while ago I received an e-mail requesting more information on how to work the left and right slanting decreases in the Wool Bam Boo Tunisian Cardigan from last Fall's issue of Interweave Crochet. This inspired me to come up with something visual that hopefully might ease some confusion… plus, it's National Crochet Month… so, here you go.

	Let's begin with the basic Tunisian crochet "Knit Stitch". Chain for as many stitches as indicated in your pattern. First row: Insert your hook into the back loop of the second chain from the hook, pull up a loop. Continue working across the chains keeping all loops on the hook.

	To begin working back across these loops, yarn over and pull it through the first loop on the hook.

	To continue across, yarn over and pull it through the loop you just made in the previous step and the next loop on the hook—2 loops total. Repeat this step all the way across until there is only 1 loop remaining on your hook

	There is no need to work a chain stitch when changing from one row to the next. For the second row, and all future rows, insert your hook from the front to the back into the next loop, yarn over and pull through. Continue working across keeping all loops on the hook. Work back across the loops as described above. Rinse and repeat.

	Left Slanting Decrease This stitch is supposed to replicate the ssk or slip slip knit stitch worked when decreasing a knitted piece. Insert your hook into the next loop from the right to the left pulling the front strand forward, then into the next loop from the front to the back.

	Yarn over and pull through a loop. It should look something like this.

	When working back, work as you normally would, as described above. A few rows later, this is what your left slanting decrease stitch will look like.

	Right Slanting Decrease This stitch is designed to look like the k2tog or Knit 2 together knit decrease stitch. This one's a bit more tricky than the Left Slanting decrease. Working with the second loop from your hook first, and then into the first loop, insert your hook from the left to the right into the right (or back) strand of the second loop pulling it forward, then into the first loop from the front to the back. I hope the green arrow helps you understand this. It's hard to describe with words.

	Yarn over and pull up a loop

	A few rows later, this is what your Right Slanting decrease stitch should look like… hopefully yours comes out more tidy than this one.

P.G. and Crochet Month

March 7th, 2008

I'm so happy to be able to finally say that the booklet with the P.G. pattern is back from the printer and is being shipped to stores! Yay! That's what P.G. looks like to the right.

Ravel it.
See the rest of the garments in this booklet

Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to work on this lately, but I do plan on still continuing it as soon as I do have time. However, not just yet... I just found out that March is National Crochet Month. So, I'm going to concentrate on crochet this month whenever possible. I'm planning on dedicating my "free time" to crochet projects and designing.

Wednesday night I began working on the front piece of the crochet raglan that has been on-going since November. I haven't had much free time, but at least it's started! The pieces for this garment have been working up pretty quickly, so hopefully I'll be able to get quite a bit finished this month. I'm also planning on bringing this with me to the knitting retreat next weekend. Yes, it's coming to a KNITTING retreat even though it's crochet. That's not a big deal to me. It's the retreats fault for being scheduled during Crochet month. :P

I'm bringing knitting too, but the crochet is just in case I have time to do something other than "Mindful Knitting" Tee hee, I'm really excited about this retreat!

PDD!

March 5th, 2008

I just read here that the course information for CGOA's national conference is available! I had such an inspiring time last year, that I'm totally planning on attending again this year. With another year of designing under my belt I think that this year will even be better than last year. I may even plan on attending more than just the PDD. I'll have to give it a closer look when I'm not at work… But I KNOW I'll be there for the PDD. Here's why:

Mary Beth Temple will be teaching a break-out group on how to create book proposals. Yay! I could use some advice with that. Vashti Braha is going to speak about "trendy crochet" which is super important to me. I really am not into so many crochet designs. I think it's so important to stay on-top of trends when it comes to crochet. Robyn Chachula will also be there explaining her process of joining the "in crowd" of designers. I'd also love to meet her. She's really inspiring to me.

Speaking of Robyn. I just finished tech editing one of her upcoming projects, and OH MY GOD is that girl thurough! I have never experienced such a well written and thought out crochet pattern. Well, at least, not directly from the designer. I really don't know how she does it—I'm beginning to wonder if she sleeps.

Spring is on its way!

March 4th, 2008

You'll find the pattern for this super easy pullover in the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Knit Simple. I love the way the seed stitch on the sleeve complements the broken stockinette stitch on the body... although, I do wish I had done the point in the V-neck a little pointier, but it is what it is.

Enjoy!

Do you know what this is?

March 3rd, 2008

I was asked to design this for one of CEY's upcoming web-letters. At first I wasn't super thrilled about the whole idea. I think it appeared to be something with which I couldn't really express too much creativity. As I began swatching, and visualizing what the outcome would be, I enjoyed the process more. Then I started knitting, and I must say that it's really growing on me. I'm loving it, and I really can't wait to display it in my home. I attribute my love for it to the Feather and Fan pattern. This relatively simple stitch pattern really gives the design a little more flair, plus it's fun to knit and it works up really fast. Bonus!

Can you guess what it is?

This design will be featured in CEY's web-letter on March 11. Sign-up here to receive it in your e-mail box.

Start-itus!

March 2nd, 2008

The creativity of the universe has been flowing though me quite a bit these past few days/weeks... and while that is all well and good, it's difficult to get it all out onto paper and swatched before the next one pops up.

The design that came to me on Friday just would not leave me be. While I was at work, tech editing other patterns, this one just kept popping into mind, until finally at lunch I decided to open up a Barbara Walker stitch treasury to see if the lacy diamond pattern that I was envisioning existed somewhere in there. I did find something similar, but I altered it to fit what I saw. Yesterday I spent about 4 hours charting out the whole sweater and knitting swatches for it. This isn't a design that will go quietly into the good night. It wants to be created and enjoyed in all it's wholeness! Not just as a swatch and drawing that sits and waits for a magazine to say "Ooh, I like that". The pattern is being written, and I really need to make this, or pay someone to knit it.

Above is the first swatch I made. The diamond pattern was tweaked a bit since then, but you get the general idea.

To the right is somewhat of a representation of what the front of the sweater would look like. It's not blocked yet, as it's still on the needles. The neck shaping was changed, and some more ribbing is added in, but again, that's the idea.

The pattern for the medium is almost completed. I don't see myself having time to knit this one, especially since it's on size 4 needles, but it needs to be made. I'll just keep plugging away at the pattern.

March 2008

Walk for Hunger #2

Life Uncommon

Garfield minus Garfield

Puzzle; Cozy.

Kidney Stone!

Blech...

Home from the Mindful Knitting Retreat

Soap Nut Vessel

Tunisian Tutorial

P.G. and Crochet Month

PDD!

Spring is on its way!

Do you know what this is?

Start-itus!