Wednesday, July 29, 2009

I hope you have a fiber filled summer!

I have been knitting up a storm and working in my garden too! I don't have any pictures for you, as I loaned my camera to my son Chris, who is on the most amazing adventure in the Middle East! My husband and Chris have been gone almost 2 weeks and counting, wow! They have been to Jordan, Egypt, Israel, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Petra, the Dead Sea, um and several other places that I can't remember. I can't wait to see the pictures and hear the tales! They will be in Palestine for the end of the trip with some friends and I think that Chris (16) is getting a glimpse of the world that will help him have some perspective on his own life. It's always good to see how the other half lives. I miss them and will have them back next Tuesday, so while they have been gone I have been organizing my stash, phew! I am sort of glad I don't have a camera, or I would be compelled to post pictures for you and it is kind of embarrassing! I am going to be working on a que method for my knitting now, hmmmm, we will see how that works for me. Stay tuned and have a great summer with lots of fiber in your diet :)

Happy Knitting! Jeanne

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Going on a road trip....


I hope everyone's summer is getting off to the perfect start. Mine is fantastic, I am leaving on a road trip on Thursday and am planning out my knitting for the road. I hope to have some significant progress on a new pattern for 2 Askew Designs and may also be able to finish up my latest sock pattern which is a pretty basic lace pattern. We will be meeting our daughter and her boyfriend in Utah and having a bit of family fun. They are riding their bikes on a summer tour, phew, a couple of tough cookies for sure! Aren't they cute with all their gear and just ready to roll. They are already in on their ride and we are hoping to meet up with them in Escalante.

Stay tuned to this Askew channel for more to come. I will be gone about 10 days, but will check in when I get back!

Knit on! Jeanne

Saturday, June 6, 2009

We really haven't fallen off the edge of the earth



Hi all, contrary to popular belief we haven't fallen off the edge of the earth, we have just been busy, busy, busy! However, with that said we will start stopping in here to update you more often (weekly is the goal) on our new designs and just us in general. I have updated our website and you can check in there too!

I have just released two new patterns and am currently finishing up another one for your knitting pleasure. My Picot Ribbed Socks were inspired by Lorna's Laces shepherd sock yarn and the yarn just seemed to want to become those socks. Funny how that can work :) I also knit up a Picot Lace Scarf, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite designs and is selling as fast as I can print them up, blush, blush! If you are interested in purchasing either of these patterns you can get in touch with one of our wonderful retailers and cast on your own for a bit of summer knitting.

Both Allison and I have been gardening up a storm and speaking of storms, it has been raining here in Reno for going on 7 days straight. This is very unusual for our little high desert community and I feel like I am on a vacation at the coast! It is so neat and my garden is just happpy, happy, happy!

Well that's it for now, I have to run off to teach some knitting and as always wish you happy knitting!

Jeanne :)

Friday, December 5, 2008

A little abashed

Carolyn has been emailing us - she was not happy paying for shipping from one of our vendors for just one pattern. This is definitely a dilema - pay several dollars for the shipping of just one pattern?


Ultimately she did order the pattern and tells us she was really happy with it. She's going to make this hat for as many family and friends as she can before Christmas. Yay! We don't know if she ordered other products from our vendor - but these days we have found that you can find deals with online yarn shops that can make it extreemly attractive to do business over the internet - be it one pattern plus a shipping coupon, or shipping discounts for x amount of dollars spent. We all love to touch the yarns and it's frustrating to have to trust that what you order is what you want. A reliable shop will spell out their terms so that you know, before you press that CONFIRM key, what your options are if you are not happy with what you receive. Carolyn has come away as a happy camper!


So far, our vendors have proven to be most obliging. But you can understand a policy of No Returns on patterns. After all, there are some folks out there who will order a pattern and copy it, then want to return it.


At 2Askew, we fully support our vendors' terms of sale.


However - if you find a flaw in one of our patterns, please address your concerns to us. We do our best to publish complete, understandible and accurate patterns. If you find errors (Carolyn received an older version of a pattern that has since been updated, and was quick to tell us so! We're truly grateful for her input!) or omissions we will happily try to explain/correct/or do whatever necessary for you to be able to complete your project. We've all been there with trying to understand a pattern! Jeanne and I have lots of experience with communicating with knitters - sometimes one word will make all the difference in comprehension. We promise to keep the "errata" part of our site as current as we possibly can.


Happy Knitting, Happy Holidays, and please help to keep us on our chameleon toes!


Ciao!


Allison

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Back from Italy

Buon giorno!








We had such a marvelous trip to Italy. I was inspired by all the knitted hats and scarves I saw. Also inspirational were the fall colors and textures of the countryside and cities. A surprise not to see one knitter, though! I wonder if they are all knitting at home, not out in public as you'll see in the U.S. on busses, trains, planes, cars and in restaurants and parks. I also never saw a knitting store, but we were in the older cities, looking at cathedrals and museums.

Brought plenty of yarn along with me, however, and got some knitting done on the plane to Milan and while we were driving on the Autostrada. The check-in guy at the Malpenza Airport (Milan) suggested that I would not be allowed through security with my knitting, so the flight home was knitless...so sad for me! But I'm reading a great book and they showed us plenty of movies on the 10 hr flight to Atlanta. Check out the pictures of the Alps from our plane once we took off - snow in Milano on Monday, 11/24, and once we got above the clouds, the view of the peaks of the Alps was so stunning!



Here are some pictures of the wonderful sights of Florence,




Tuscany




and San Gimingnano (I would move there in a heart beat!) It's also part of the Tuscan area, near Siena.


Happy knitting! Enjoy these pictures and look for my latest designs - washcloths in lace and cable patterns to be knit as gifts and/or to work up as samplers. The lace cloths will be a separate pattern from the cabled ones, and I'm working on 6 cloths per pattern.


Ciao!


Allison

Monday, November 17, 2008

At last!!!

At last the new 2 Askew Designs site is up and available! I still have things to learn, but it is looking so much better! Thank you Amber, of Never Ender for your help on this project; you have been great to work with and your creative ideas are amazing!

Our front page is going to have the most current designs and we are also working on a Free Patterns page. It will be at the bottom of the patterns page and the first pattern is going to be the Fair Isle leg warmers, WAHOO! Our logo is also up and running and I am currently working (while Allison is in Italy visiting Katie) on our business cards and brochures with the new logo. We chose the Chameleon for his/her versatility in design and adaptation. Of course the knitting needle is self explanatory.

Please let us know what you think and stay tuned for more of 2 Askew Designs. Thanks for your support!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Inspiration!


Well, I love to knit, of course it isn't obvious or anything :) I also, love to be at work, Jimmy Beans Wool and I really have it rough, touching all the amazing yarn we carry; what a tough life I have. On Wednesday of this last week, Allison, was doing her Drop Ins class at the shop and one of her students wanted to learn to knit up some leg warmers, and then Victoria my coworker decided to get on the leg warmer band wagon too! So of course I just can't stand to be on the side lines and I picked some worsted weight yarn in a variegated color and a contrasting solid and went to work. What do you think of the result?






Of course now I have to do the second warmer, but this knit up so quickly I think it will be a breeze.