Pam D sent me a photo of her Fast Florida Footie! She writes:

…this was my first pair of socks ever. And my first time with dpns (I used circular needles, then changed to dpns for the heel flap and gusset.) …there are mistakes and some are noticeable, but I am so proud of that pair. When I get your pattern I am going to make them for Christmas presents for everyone. I want my yarn to be as wild as I can find it! I used Magic Stripes by Lion Brand for this sock . I am hooked now!!

I am so happy you enjoyed the pattern, Pam! Thanks for your photo, and many happy socknitting days ahead to you.

I’m in a learning-curve mode right now. We’re working on the production part of our upcoming CD. Brian is doing the musical part, mastering the sound, and I am doing the layout. Mind you, Brian has always done this, but we’ve always printed on our own lovely printer, at home. Now a print shop is doing the work, and they want the files in CorelDraw.

I own a copy of CorelDraw 7.0, which I bought because I needed a font it contained. I’ve had it for at least 3 years, and never installed the program. Fortunately, I did get a little spin around the features back in the late 1990’s when I was a computer consultant. Someone else taught the program but I could play with it during quiet times.

I’m used to making web graphics, using PhotoShop and ImageReady. I’ve only recently started even thinking about printing my digital images, mostly as illustrations for my self-published patterns. In the last few years I’ve been doing more of this, but the CD will be something like a midterm exam, and I’m cramming like crazy!

I have a friend in Working Women Artists who uses CorelDraw, so I asked her the most glaring questions and dove in. I’m very grateful I had this PhotoShop class this weekend, in between teaching knitting classes, because I learned a large handful of hints about printing digital images that I did not know before. And not one day too soon, as they say!

I had a great Wristwarmer class at Little Red Schoolhouse Sunday afternoon and took photos. I just do not have time to edit them today. Soon… hopefully tomorrow. However, here is the very first tray of polymer clay items that Tamsyn and Sarah made Saturday at Rae’s. The long cylinders are Bic Stic pens covered with clay (but the ink part of the pen has been removed to avert disaster… don’t ask how I know).

The second photo is a child’s hat I finally finished (my knit-waiting-in-line project last week), using my own Cushy ColorSport yarn in Silver Denim colorway. Here it is shown with a bead on the top, which is cute but I was afraid it would beg a child to chew on it. I then made a button and topped the hat with the button. It’s adorable and a little less likely to look like a chew toy. Maybe I’ll show a picture of that one time soon. After all my class photos are up, that is!