Last sneak peek

Closeup
Originally uploaded by rchach

Here's the last preview of the new book until next spring or summer.

I am really hopeful that everyone will enjoy the concept of the book. It was really close to my heart and I certainly use the techniques in all of my stuff. It may kill me not spill the beans to you all sooner, so I better stop thinking about it and get moving on those other 2 books.

Case of the OOooooh's

Yarn for next book
Originally uploaded by rchach

I have a case of the oooh and ahh's with the yarn for the next book. Well, the next next book I guess. Are you totally confused?

I finished the one before the holidays. I started another one while finishing the last. And I am starting yet another this month. So if you are keeping track, that is 3 books. One I will be editing while designing and writing the other two at the same time. Yes, I am out of my mind. But I am getting LOTS of help from some incredibly talented people.

I am in the honeymoon phase right now. Where it is all sunshine and roses, just looking at the pretty colors and soft fibers. We'll see how long this lasts with my first deadline in 2 weeks.

Direct from Cutting Room Floor to You!

Want to check out the writing of Baby Blueprint Crochet before you buy it? Well, thanks to Lion Brand now you can!

As it happens with all of my books, I try to pack in as many patterns as I can and some just can't fit in. This is one of those patterns. I was pretty upset that this one did not make it into the book, since it is my hands down favorite of the collection. It was named after our nephew Severin who is just this brilliant lovable kid. This would be a perfect sweater for him or his little sister.

Instead of having to wait and let it get published months and months from now in one of the crochet magazines, we teamed up with Lion Brand to release it now! Merry Christmas! I am so excited about this. Now we can have tons of little Severins everywhere!

I had CJ model my version. It was made for a 24mth model, babe is only 15mth and little at that. Still you can get the idea of how it will fit, you can see her in my flickr set.

Hope you enjoy! Here's the link.

BBC Tour Stop: The Hook and I

We are headed to Alaska today to stop in with Amy ONeill Houck.

Amy and I are good friends and she couldn't be more passionate about crocheting and yarn. She is always researching deeper and deeper into fibers and processing that just makes you excited about yarn as well. You know that she will always tell you the honest truth about everything from great recipes to new techniques.

I can't wait to hear what she has to say about Baby Blueprint. She will give us an honest take on her impression of the book. I think that is so valuable in a friend.

Looking at this picture makes me sad though. We were in Long Beach when we took this, and this year I will be in CA without her in a few weeks.

Another Peek

Here's another peek into the book.

It is all boxed up and waiting for great pictures. I laugh at how bad my photos of the projects are. I can tell you no one would buy a book from my photography skills.

BBC Tour Stop: Styled by Kristin

Today we are heading south to stop in Kristin Omdahl's studio.

Kristin's crochet and knitting design make me so excited at the incredible beauty of the crafts. She blends mathematical and organic designs so seamlessly it makes it look easy, while I sit and go "wow I never thought of that, man that is amazing"!

Luckily, Kristin and I got friendly after all the conferences we get to attend. I can tell you that she is as friendly or more then what you see on Knitting Daily. She is just someone you want by your side whether you are stitching or having a drink.

Kristin has 2 new books out. Both are incredibly beautiful. Crochet so Fine with romantic designs, and A Knitting Wrapsody with fantastic wraps and shawls. I think my favorite thing with Kristin is that she breaks all notions of both arts. She can make incredible lace motifs in knitting and flowing solid fabric in crochet. No matter what, she just makes you to want to take up your yarn and do something cool.

BBC Tour Stop: The Crochet Dude

Our final stop this week is hanging out with Drew.

Drew and I have been friends for quite a while. We actually met in person at one of my first CGOA conferences where I had a booth selling patterns with another friend (hi Lisa!). Drew is so warm and lovable you just want to hang out and crochet with him. The other nice thing about Drew and I is our careers started about the same time, our first books came out around the same time (that's us signing each other

's books at Yarntopia together), and we got to tape Knit and Crochet Now together.

I love watching his empire grow, especially since I can say I knew him when... Like when he didn't have his own line of hooks... Or like when he didn't have his own line of booklets in Michaels... Or like when he didn't have any books out and just published is first pattern.

Be sure to stop by his blog and stay a while. You will fall in love with his cats, garden, humor, and crochet.

D U N

Withstanding a few buttons, the next book is D U N (done for those not used to pittsburgh-ease).

The weight being lifted is great. Now the magic will happen with photography, editing, and book layouts. I am so lucky to be able to work with such talented people at Interweave that really do make my ramblings look incredible. (I mean, just look at BBC- it would not have nearly looked as amazing without them.)

I only have 3 sneak peaks on this book. I also need to keep super quiet on the subject too. It is something I hold really dear though, and I think the topic will surprise when it comes out next fall. (yes, we have to wait 9 mths for the magic to happen). I was lucky enough to finally have a live model for at least one of the projects though. Nice how that happens. Now to hop on the next 2 books....

BBC Tour Stop: The Crochet Doctor

Today we are heading to the doctor, the crochet doctor, of course.

Marty and I became friendly through CGOA (the crochet guild of america). While I was the professional development chair, she was my board liaison; and together with our committee we put on 2 professional development days. As you can imagine, putting together a program that encourages new professional designers and keeps veterans entertained can be challenging and Marty was always there to help me and the committee through.

Marty now is CGOA's president and has a great outlook for the future of crochet. Besides her own design work, you can find her teaching, and coming up with new and exciting ways to use crochet.

Be sure to stop by, the crochet doctor, you never know what you might find!

BBC Tour Stop: Petite Purls

Today we are hanging out with Brandy and Allegra the moms behind Petite Purls. I have mentioned a number of times how much I like their magazine, and they just keep getting better and better. They are all baby focused on projects, then the articles are all supporting to that. Like their renaissance mom series on crafty working moms and how they juggle kids and creative work.

They were nice enough to review the book in their latest issue, so you can check that out while you see the great projects they also have in the issue.

Interweave Crochet Winter 2010 Preview

A nice surprise came through the email while I was away, the preview of Interweave Crochet Winter 2010. My projects in here are pretty special, since I designed them before our move and put the finishing touches on the first week in the house. Which means, I had no mannequins to style or sewing needles (I had to buy new ones), and had to keep CJ from crawling on them since I had to work on the floor (we had no furniture).

Belcarra Cardigan

This projects is a classic comfy cardigan. It is worked in one piece from the bottom around the shoulders to the front. The yarn is the heavenly Road to China LT by the Fiber Company, an alpaca cashmere blend. Ginny did the heavy lifting crocheting this. I crocheted the ribbing only, I think. Thank goodness for her since our new house does not have A/C and it was over 85 in the house that week.

Bristlecone Pullover

This pullover is asymmetrical cable design. The majority of the piece is really simple to crochet in hdc stitches. The front is the only part with the cable. The cable part itself is not challenging with a diagram, you just need to keep a marker where you are on the pattern. Diane did the beautiful crochet work on this for me, since she is an ace at crochet cables. I originally proposed it in a charcoal gray background with a light gray cable, and if I ever have time I think I will make one in those grays for Mr CBF. It is definitely his kind of style.

I can't wait to see the magazine and get to look at all the other great projects in there!

BBC Tour Stop: ModeKnit

Today we are stopping in snowy MN, to chat a bit with Annie Modesitt.

Annie is a good friend and an incredible knitting and crocheting guru, besides being mom to 2 amazing kids. I first "met" Annie at one of the classes she was teaching, and immediately felt like we were kindred spirits. She is a fabulous teacher that can explain difficult concepts like cabling while cracking jokes and keeping the classroom fun. I truly try to emulate her style of teaching while I am teaching. I think there is nothing tougher then to try to learn\ new skills in a serious quiet room, but when you are having fun you don't even realize how much you have already learned.

You can see where she will be teaching next, her patterns, her books, and her fantastic blog; all over at Modeknit.

BBC Tour Stop: Getting Loopy Podcast

Come see me tonight at 9pm (EST) over at Getting Loopy. Mary Beth has many many irons in the fire of the crochet world. She's got Getting Loopy the podcast, Hooked For Life (her pattern line), plus her books. Check her out when you get a chance, you will definitely find something new.

I will say upfront that I will be completely hyped up on the show. See as I write this I am in beautiful and sunny Phoenix. My flight back from Phoenix to Pittsburgh gets in at 7pm, so hope for clear skies! What is funnier is that it is 20 and snowing in the burgh currently. If the flight is good, I will get to shovel out my car and race home to be on the show. So hope for clear skies and roads!

Side note: On this trip (all of 3 days) I brought 5 projects and was worried I would not have enough. I have worked on 2. I am such a nut, especially since I flew out to spend time with my best friend's newborn. And there is nothing I rather do then crochet, except for cuddling a newborn.

If today does not work out, you can always catch Mary Beth and I in person. I think I forgot to mention that before. We both will be teaching at DFW Fiber Fest in Texas this April. It should be a complete blast.

Hope you can join us!

BBC Tour Stop: Lindamade

Linda and I (at least I feel) are kindred spirits. While chatting one day over twitter, we both realized that we were writing crochet baby books at the same time. At TNNA we got to look at galleys of both of our books together and chuckled.

See, I love Linda's work. Her sense of color and whimsy I strive to do in my work. When I was paging through her preview copy, I thought this is like an extention of my book. How cool right? We keep hoping our books will be paired on Amazon, as buy with this book for even more savings. B/c our books just naturally feel like they should go together.

Her book, Little Crochet, does not come out till this Spring. (I know, bummer- I am so excited) It will be worth the wait though. It has super cute projects in it. I can't wait to see her baby mantra, I know she has one too.

Till then you can check out what she is up to over at Lindamade.

BBC Tour Stop: Manhattan Craft Room

Today we are stopping at my good friend, Brett Bara's studio.

Brett and I met at a CGOA conference years ago and quickly found out that we had tons in common. Like she is a Pittsburgher, like Mr CBF and now me too; and she was good friends with my next door neighbor at my Dad's house. Weird stuff like that. Besides we both love crochet, knitting, and crafts in general.

I was lucky enough to tape a season of Knit and Crochet Today with Brett and it was a blast. Being on camera was so easy, because I was just talking to Brett like I normally do but cameras were rolling. We had so much fun that week, it was like summer camp.

Brett has recently left Crochet Today to do some freelance. Her first book comes out this summer and looks fantastic. If you have been following her blog, her sewing projects are adorable; so I can only imagine that her book will be ten times as fun.

BBC Tour Stop: Crocheting with Dee

When I first got into crocheting, I would spend my lunch hour hunting around the web looking for patterns and anything to do with crocheting and yarn. I happened to Dee's blog naturally, and stayed a follower from her warm and infectious personality. Her title of the cheerleader of crochet is so appropriate. Dee is constantly looking for and researching new and creative ways crochet is used or stitches can be combined. If you are ever close enough to take one of her classes, you will learn a ton more about stitches then you ever thought possible.

Dee was kind enough to review Baby Blueprint today, and you can ask her too first hand about the writing of patterns too. You can see she made the dino applica from the Callam sweater as a bookmark for her son. I think that is fabulous! I can't wait to see what all of you do with the patterns too.

Pop Jumper then and now

When I designed the Pop Jumper, I definitely knew I would have CJ wear it for a while. I never thought we would get this much use out of it though.

Here is the babe in it when I first made it. She is 5 mths in the picture. She fit perfectly into 6mth clothes and thus I made her the 6mth size of the jumper.

Here is the babe last week. She is now 14mth and wears 12-18mth clothes, but that jumper is still 6mth in size.

Pretty perfect right? From dress to tunic. Could not ask for a better fit for her! We may even get the entire winter season if I switch out the 18 mth collar onto this size. Crazy! You never can get that much wear with baby clothes.

I will also say that the Zara I used is great. I did nothing special when washing to the dress. Literally just tossed it in the washing machine and dryer. It still looks great and is super comfy for cold days like we have here in PA.

BBC Tour Stop: Yarncraft

We are rolling over to Lion Brand today and chatting with Zontee at Yarncraft.

We talked about Baby Blueprint as well as my 5 top gifts for babies. Listen close and you can hear CJ in the background. No matter how well I timed nap time, I could have bet she would have been up for our interview. So if I sound distracted, I was. I was feeding CJ her lunch while Faye stood at attention for leftovers. If you only could be a fly on the wall, it was a comedy routine with food flying everywhere. Me trying not to trip over Faye while she dived for food. All while trying to sound normal. Zontee did a great job making me sound human instead of the crazy that I was. (Can we all say thank goodness it was not Skyped!)

Needless to say those washcloths I mentioned. Yeah, I was using one at the time. While stripping CJ out of her little cardi and into a new clean one.

Hope you enjoy! And stay tuned to their newsletter to get a pattern for free that was cut from the book. It was my favorite in the book, and I can't wait to show it to you!

BBC Tour Stop: Loop De Doo

Today Baby Blueprint is popping up over at Megan Granholm's website, Loop-De-Doo.

Megan is not only a designer but is one of my crocheters. She made all the Tunisian projects in the book, unfortunately all but one was cut from the book. Good news is that she just finished another version of one of the cut ones for me, that will be popping up in a few months in a magazine.

She is definitely a great person to ask about the way the patterns in the book are written. You can ask her everything you are dying to know about my writing style and she will give you solid advice on how she gets gauge or reads my charts.

Keep an eye out for Megan's name too. She designs some beautiful garments, and you never know where she will pop up next.

BBC Tour Stop: Susan Anderson

I am blushing ear to ear from today's stop on the blog tour for Baby Blueprint Crochet.

Susan Anderson is definitely a woman in the industry that I admire. We got to meet while I (and Marly) were helping Candi prep guests for interviews in the Season 3 of Knit and Crochet Today. I was super pregnant at the time and I knew that I would never be able to be on camera (they were not taping the demos for a few months); but I love the

show so much I wanted to help out. We were just being assistants for the day, and throughout the day we got to me so many idols it was amazing. But I never imagined that any of them would remember who I was!

Susan was one of them. I am sure you have seen her work. The Itty Bitty series of books she does is fantastic. Knitted baby toys, hats, etc that are not only adorable but fun too. What you may not know is she is the woman behind the Spud and Chloe line of yarn. That yarn that I have been talking about non stop since I got my hand on some at a TNNA a few years ago. It is a totally washable kid friendly yarn that comes in sock, worsted, and chunky weight. The colors are anything but baby as they are bright and just what you would expect from Blue Sky Alpaca. Not only that, but the marketing of the yarn is genius. From the patterns, to labels, to ads, to packages, all make you adore how special the yarn and company are. If you haven't seen it at your local yarn store, ask them to check them out. They will not be disappointed.

As you can see, I totally have a crush on everything Susan does. And this is what is so funny about the industry, she is so nice to not only post a review and giveaway on her website. But she actually loved the book. Which I take so personally since I think it was partially her yarn for why some of the projects came out so great. Go read her review and try to snag a copy, you will see why I am blushing and need to give her a huge hug the next time I see her!

BBC Tour Stop: Yarnthing

Today the blog tour trolley is heading to CO with Marly at Yarnthing.

Specifically at 9pm (EST) today.

You can catch Marly and I chatting away about the book. Warning their will be a LOT of giggling. Marly cracks me up and I just can't help myself.

Marly has been a SUPER busy designer. Not only is she heading up the designs over at Bijou Basin, she is designing for magazines and books, doing the podcast, teaching at Knit Knack, but is also a work from home mom of 3! She is amazing. Through all that work she is so enthusiastic that you just want to dive into knitting and crocheting more and more.

Hope you can join us! I promise it will be fun and you might even be able to win a copy of the book too!

BBC Tour Stop: Go Crochet

First up on our tour of the blogosphere is Go Crochet with Ellen Gormley.

Ellen and I both were crochet designers in Cincinnati. Funny in the 5 years we were there I think Ellen and I only managed to get to together twice. Which is such a shame, since I love Ellen. Besides having great advice for small business women, she is a working from home mom as well (also married to an architect). Which is actually how we met, not through the crochet world but through architecture. (Co-workers of Mr CBF were good friends with them- weird how it all can happen).

Anyway, Ellen and I share a love of motifs. Her motifs are beautiful incorporating both amazing style and stitch work with great color palettes. Her new book coming out in May will let us peek into her design studio of motifs. I know I can't wait!

Be sure to stop on by her blog today and see what else she has been up to. She is giving away a copy of the book, too!