Joanne Yordanou

Alina is almost finished knitting the Bren Cardigan and waiting on me for the button bands and collar. I said I have to research what is happening for Fall 2010, as the collar I have in mind is cowl-ish in nature and will next winter's fashions support that? Happily, it will. Here are some finds from Style.com, a source I often venture to:

I could personally wear these two and can imagine some great knitwear designs inspired by them. But the cowl lives on!!!!!!!!

One more sleeve to go and then making up. The To Sir With Love Cardigan is almost available. It s a chunky, quick to knit delight and after yesterday's snow storm; totally wearable now! But, I still have to finish the last chapter of Outliers (our book for tonight's book club meeting) and it is almost noon!!! Better get motoring! I leave you with something more stimulating than a longer blog entry. Enjoy the day!:

I love this animated film! And as I am too busy knitting to blog, it bears watching again. Have a great weekend everyone! Oh, the Lucky Penny Hat is getting posted to Freebies and Ravelry tomorrow!!!! Watch for it!

I visited my birth country's hand-knitting association site: UKknitting.com and discovered the cutest Ipod cover by Aneeta Patel. I wish I thought of it. You can get the free pattern here.

My blogging has slowed down a bit, as I am knitting furiously. I have 5 designs on the go: 4 for this site and  Ravelry and one for the Baby book. As they are all wool patterns, I was in a panic last week when the warm front rolled in. Luckily (???), we are in another cold snap (what was I thinking? It's January in Canada!) and we have another 2-3 months of wearing woolies. The lovely warmish weather serve to shock me into thinking about Spring /Summer designs and the new page I am adding to the site. Mmmm, what could it be?????

Keep warm those in the north and to all, have a great day!

Well, sort of clean. As clean as I can get it right now. I love my little office/studio my husband carved out for me, when we added a family room to the back of the house. I have reduced my stash so it all fits in here (which is saying something!). I love the view from my one window, which looks out onto the garden and the bird bath, bird feeder, etc (I love birdwatching). The other window that looks out onto my neighbour back patio....not so much, but I have plans for that! The only problem is in the winter, it is very chilly sitting here. So, I have a heater beneath the desk and will often roll up a WIP to act as a draft block against the right side window where my mousepad lays.


I can see now from my pics, I need to do more tidying and editing - agh! My idea board needs a definite spring clean, as do my window sills. And a new chair perhaps. But for now, I have been on a designing run. Make hay, as they say. Four patterns in a week and a half! Samples to knit now and, oh, I just found a dress form (Judy) on Ebay that is on its way here! I keep getting UPS notice via email letting me know where it is! Where is she going to go???? I am so excited about this because it will be so much easier to fit a garment with out having to try it on all the time.
Well, back to knitting! Have a fab day everyone!

If you haven't discovered it, Etsy is a wonderful online shopping feature for the handmade item. Artists and crafters abound, it truly is filled with treasures. I have opened my own etsy shop at: www.etsy.com/shop/Jolouis
I am selling my samples as I really have no more room to house them. It's all about organizing for January!

http://knittingrobin.blogspot.com/2009/12/interview-withjoanne-yordanou.html

I can safely say I'm ready, but realize many are not. We hosted my side of the family's christmas party yesterday and, instead of the usual gift exchange (picking names out of a hat, Xmas Scrooge, etc) that was tired, I decided to do a non-monetary gift exchange. Names of the 32 (soon to move to 33) attending family members were arranged alphabetically in Excel, side by side (so that an A name, might match up with an L name). The gift would have to be made or performed by the giver. I baked Cowboy Cookies and knit sweater ornaments and cotton washcloths (love those!). 

I happened on another site that had even cuter ornaments that I wish I'd found earlier. Aside from these adorable stockings, Julie offers many other cute freebies and a great blog. Great for last minute Christmas knitting. I love the image here - similar to Purl's. She offer them as Christmas cards. Great idea for next year!

The 33rd attending was my niece, Amanda, who printed out sheets of Amazing Grace - a family favorite - and listed who was to join her singing after every couple stanzas. It was her gift to my Dad. It was a special moment that left everyone teary-eyed and smiling and one not likely to be forgotten.

I received an email from Jillian who who like to give a gift of knitting lessons, needles and my Adirondack Lap Blanket pattern as a gift for Christmas. The blanket is in my book (to the right) but wasn't available to individual sale. Well, now it is...
Best of the season to all.
Joanne