I Love This Friday's Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O.

A quick shot of the blocks during
the making of La Peinture

 I have been waiting ages to announce this latest
 project - and now I can, yippee, yippee, yippee
 (can you see me doing the happy dance?)!

 This design is a colorful blanket, and is based
 on one of my paintings:



Photo courtesy of Annie's

The La Peinture Blanket will be published in the summer issue of Crochet! Magazine, which should be available electronically sometime today, 5/10. The print magazine is scheduled to hit newsstands around June 4th.

I absolutely loved making this blanket. Choosing the yarn colorways took a little time - it was a treat, though, to be certain. (And, since it's been so long since I created the design and sample, one of original colorways has been discontinued and we've come up with a replacement. It's only one skein - a minor change that will not take anything away from the rest of the glorious color.)

I do really like how the magazine styled the blanket - a simple, neutral backdrop and little pops of color on the side to bring out the colors in the blanket. I also need to let everyone know that there's an actual article on the blanket in the magazine! I am beside myself. Really. I cannot wait to read it since I really have no idea what's written; additionally, I think there might be one or two other things up the magazine (and my) respective sleeves in connection with this design. You have no idea how excited I am.


Getting the pieces of
the blanket all together

 I hope this will be a project upon which
 crafters will put their own color stamp. I
 had a ready template - my own painting!
 But trust me, if you can single and double
 crochet, and love color, this is definitely
 the project for you.

 Now head on over to Andrea (the Wonder
 Why Gal) at Wisdom Begins in Wonder 
 and let everyone know what yarny colorful
 things you've been up to.

 And to all the moms out there - happy Mother's Day weekend (in the U.S.)!

I'm Pinning ... I Think

Voie de Vie now has an official Pinterest presence! See the button just to the right?

I've set up a few boards, all pinned with my photos. I'm still a little leery about pinning lots of images that I didn't create. It's one thing for me to put my photos out there and have them repinned, but quite another to pin someone else's images. There are some exceptions to this - retail sites mostly; definitely museum sites as well, and I'm certain I can think of more.

I'd love to hear how everyone uses their Pinterest boards (and, of course, whether or not you actually use Pinterest). What might you find interesting to see on a designer's board?

Is It About the Journey, She Asked Rhetorically?

"The world is full of people who will go their whole lives and not actually live one day. She did not intend on being one of them."

I have a refrigerator magnet with the above quote. Below the quote is a woman on a red Vespa-like bike, scarf blowing behind her, clearly enjoying piloting her very own path.

In my imagination, she hasn't figured out the destination, but the fact that she's making her own driving decisions is what really matters. 

If someone would have told me I would be designing for publication way back in 2009 when I joined Ravelry, I'd not have believed it. Between 2009 and today, I've presented a paper in Pittsburgh, found some painting mojo, walked the Champs Elysee, harvested grapes in Provence, photographed amazing tulip fields, volunteered at the first Vogue Knitting Live in New York City, moderated a shawl group and made more shawls for myself and others than I can keep track of, started my own wee business, and published my first designs collection. Some things haven't always felt perfect (there were those grape vines on a sweltering late summer afternoon with no water to be had - I consider it my grapey Waterloo), but it's always been exactly where I was supposed to be.

Throughout, I have never thought about where the journey was taking me, but far more about about the free-ish spirit on the red Vespa. In real bee fashion, I may have flitted from one place here to another project there, but I've remained true to my core, and I've received valuable and cumulative information along the way.

This bee has no desire to prognosticate concerning where I'll be in 2014 (although it will probably include participating in the 5th Annual KniCroBlo week). I do expect that I'll still be inspired by the scarf blowing in the breeze behind the woman charting her own course on that red Vespa.

And if anyone would like to donate a Vespa to let me ride in style along the way, I'm game. Preferably a red one, please.