Babys and Puppies

It's pretty hard not to love baby animals of any kind but even HARDER not to when they have faces like these!!

A few weeks ago I flew the coop for Michigan. Favoring $11 pitchers of my favorite beer and some cute cute faces all around. The fact that everyone drives 70 in Michigan? Just icing on the cake.

It was great to relax and get out of the city and away from real life problems for awhile. There's nothing quite like sitting on the front porch of a log cabin and knitting your worries away.

and it's even better if it includes some great lady friends. 

possibly the best when you match without meaning to.

Interuptions

As you may have noticed, I haven't really been around recently. Lots of things have been happening in my life. Some of them, like my recent move - I've talked about here. Some of them are going to take longer to process. Needless to say, I've been having a rough time of it recently. It doesn't help that much of my life has looked like this:

It's been difficult to focus on the projects on my needles and get excited about much of anything these days. But I've slowly but surely been picking some projects up, and I've got some great ideas and plans for the future. So, as hard as it's been recently. I'm committed to making an effort to be here more. See you soon!

Sunday Snapshot

Miss "I never knit shawls" knits a shawl. 

We Have a Winner!

We have a winner for the romper pattern giveaway!
Congrats to Thisgirlsaysno!

It has been such a pleasure to be part of this blog tour and I can't wait to see the finished projects of my patterns (and knit some of the patterns myself! but more on that later)

Belated Sunday Snapshot & Some Surprises!!

I've been MIA around here but I have some really good reasons. I promise!

I spent all last weekend moving into a new apartment. Someday I will hire movers to move (I dream of those days!) but for now, it's just some brute strength and a hatchback.

this is what most of my life looks like right now

I honestly though I'd be able to keep it all together through all of this, but it's been enough to try and show up to work in clean clothes and on time. my bad! I'll be back in full swing soon. 

In the meantime, head on over to Fiberstory TV to check out my DESIGNER INTERVIEW. (!!!!!!!!) It's part of the Holla Knits Blog Tour. Tomorrow is my last day to enter my pattern give away so be sure to comment! 

and that Knitting and Crochet Blog Week-- I haven't forgotten about that just yet.

Romp Around the Clock Pattern GIVEAWAY!

I never would have thought joking in a knitting class that I wanted to knit a romper would end up here two years later.

I feel so incredibly lucky to have been able to participate in the first issue of Holla Knits. All of the garments are exactly what I'm looking for when I chose my own projects, fun, forward and engaging.

Allyson modeling my romper in the rain. 

It has been such a pleasure to be able to share this experience with two other fledgling designers. Emma Welford's Holla Back Tank is a beautiful and versatile tank with a great lace back.

Katie Canavan's Finishing School is an adorable Retro Sailor styled sleeveless top. ( I may or may not have placed a knit picks order for this yarn a few days ago- Watch out Sailors!)

Allyson, being an old hat at this design stuff had three patterns in this collection.

Umbre Lovre

a three color umbre striped loose tunic with great stitch detail on the bottom and top.

In A While Crocodile

a fitted short sleeve top with crocheted crocodile stitch on the sleeves. You can also opt to leave the crocodile detail off for a modern and fun tee.

and last but not least, Put a Belt On It

a vest with construction starting at the belt and gorgeous cables and shaping along the back.

Any guess as to which one of those I'll be knitting? (oh HEY mustard and gray) 

This is such a great set of patterns and I am so excited to have even a small part in all of this. This is just the first issue of Holla Knits, with another issue slated for Fall/Winter and an accessory collection sometime this year. For 5 more days (until May 1st) the subscription price is only $18, which breaks down to $1/pattern (MADNESS.) After that it's $36, which is still a great deal! 

In celebration of all of this I'm giving away a free copy of my Romp Around the Clock pattern. To enter simply leave  comment below (be sure to include an email or ravelry id so I can reach you.) For an additional entry "like" The Owl and The Bee on Facebook or tweet a link to this blog post (don't forget to leave a comment for each action so you get your extra entry!) The giveaway will run until May 3rd at Midnight CST. Good luck!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Holla Knits Blog Tour. There are great giveaways and goodies!!

April 16th: Holla Knits Blog - Collection debut
April 17th: The Sweatshop of Love - Review and pattern giveaway
April 18th: FiberStory.tv - Interview with designer Emma Welford
April 19th: Emma Welford/Kangaroo Dyer - Review and yarn giveaway
April 20th: Knits in Class - Review and subscriber exclusive yarn giveaway, discounts
April 23rd: Under the Red Umbrella - Review and pattern giveaway, subscriber exclusive yarn giveaway
April 24th: Skacel - Review and yarn, pattern, and needles giveaway, additional subscriber exclusive yarn and needles giveaway
April 25th: Knit Darling - Review and pattern giveaway
April 26th: The Owl and the Bee - Review and pattern giveaway
April 27th: Dirty Water DyeWorks - Review and subscriber exclusive yarn giveaway, discounts
April 30th: Wooly Wonka Fiber Arts - Review and subscriber exclusive yarn giveaway
May 1st: Knitted Bliss - Review and pattern giveaway
May 2nd: FiberStory.tv - Interview with designer Lily Ubbelohde
May 3rd: Knit Picks Blog Stash - Review, podcast interview with designer Allyson Dykhuizen, and pattern giveaway
May 4th: Subway Knitter - Review and pattern giveaway

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day Two

Photography Challenge Day!
Today challenges you to be creative with your photography, and get yourself in with the chance to win the photography prize. Taking interesting photographs in this instance isn't about flashy cameras or a great deal of technical know-how, it's about setting up a story or scene in a photograph and capturing something imaginative. Your photograph(s) should feature something related to your craft, so that might be either a knitted or crocheted item, yarn, or one of your craft tools. One example of setting a scene would be to photograph a girl in a knitted red cape walking through the woodlands with a basket of goodies, as in the Red Riding Hood tale, or you might photograph a knitted gnome hiding among the flowers in your garden. Photo editing is permitted for competition photos. Here are a few examples of my own photographs to illustrate an imaginative use of photography, but you can do much better than these...

Mulling over today's prompt I realized that although I'd call myself creative in many ways, staged photography isn't really one of my strong suits.

Instead I'll show you this adorable "scene" from many months ago.

teeny tiny mochi. This was taken at a lovely wine included knit night right before the holidays. and thus I present you. The nativity scene with a chicken as baby Jesus and two gnomes as Joesph and Mary. If that isn't creative photography, then I just don't know what is.