A Look Back and a Look Ahead to the New Year!

First off, happy new year everyone!!!!!!! It's New Year's eve and I hope you all have a fun and SAFE time celebrating the start of 2012. We have a pretty quiet night on tap, but I think after our trip, we're happy for it.

I wanted to write a year end post to thank you all of you for being so awesome. You've not only supported the blog through the past year and a half, you have encouraged me not only to improve (and take up) knitting, but you've also been a huge part of Candy Skein. Without all of you, I would have never dreamed that I could have opened up my own hand dyed yarn shop and been successful. You've let me live my dream, and I thank you for that.

As you can imagine, it's been a crazy year for me. A year ago, almost to the day, my husband and I were sitting in the Trader Vic's restaurant in San Francisco trying to think of a cleaver name for my company. That's when and where Candy Skein was born. Since then, he's done all of the artwork for me, I built the website, dyed a LOT of yarn (I was trying to figure out how much I've dyed, but that's pretty hard. Let's just say 100s of skeins) and opened my virtual doors to you. I've done two shows/fairs and will be doing at least 2-3 more next year. Candy Skein is growing each month, as all of you spread the word loud and wide. I can never thank you all enough for that. I have great plans for Candy Skein in the next year, and I hope that you will join the wild ride with me.

A year ago this month, I learned how to knit, thanks to all of you. You were amazing sending me videos and tips, as well as projects for me to try. Not only did I learn to knit, I love it way more than I could ever imagine. Sadly, though I still love crochet, I can't remember the last time I picked up a hook to do something other than catch a falling stitch. Knitting has become a part of me and my life, and because of it, I've met amazing people. I went out seeking a knitting group in my local area and found a group of amazing ladies that I thank my lucky stars for each day. They've not only become close friends, but I think of them as part of my family. Each Monday night, we sit around a table for three hours and laugh while (kind of) knitting. I never seem to get a ton done (this past week, I knit a total of 1 row), but I wouldn't give up that time to anything else. They've taught me so much about knitting, yarn and even life and I can't repay them enough.

I've come so far in my fiber arts endeavor in 2011 it's remarkable. I completed 25 projects this year, and have another few that will be finished in the next few weeks of 2012. I bought and used a LOT of yarn (though, not as much as I'd have liked) and survived a yarn diet. I have so many projects dancing in my head for 2012, I can't even believe it. I have a few 2012 knitting resolutions I'd love to share with all of you! I hope you make me stick to them, and it will be fun to look back in a year from now to see how many I've accomplished.

2012 Knitting Resolutions

1. To use at least 40-50 skeins of yarn from my stash. I know that will be hard, but I think I can at least come close!

2. To finish my first sweater, and make at least one more in the next year.

3. To learn how to make cables and how to do stranded/colorwork knitting.

4. To finish all the socks in my knitting group's Harry Potter sock challenge (one pair each month of the Harry Potter sock patterns on Rav by Erica Lueder.

5. To keep track of my stash better on Ravelry so I have some kind of idea of all that I own.

6. To sell at least three times as much Candy Skein yarn as I did in 2011.

7. To be better about blogging. I know I'm pretty good about WIPW and FO Friday, but I hope to have more regular posts, much like this one. I want to start doing knitting book and podcast reviews and more! Make sure you really keep me to this one.

8. Finish at least 10 more projects than I did in '11.


That's about it really. Oh, I know I haven't posted in awhile about A Year of Projects, but I am still following it! So far I've finished 7 of my 21 projects listed. A few I've changed to other projects/yarn as I've worked. I know that's not a ton, but I'm going to keep knocking them off. I have about half the year to do it in. Wish me luck!

Again, I hope you have a very happy and SAFE new year. Let's all toast to our knitting and crochet!!!!

Love, Tami

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 22

My life is passing me by. How is it another Wednesday? How is it 2011? Scary, isn't it? I don't have a ton of WIPs to show you (okay, I actually have 3, so that's something, right?) because I've been busy completing projects, which is a good thing I guess. I still have Christmas presents to finish and ship off. My sickness and vacation sure turned that upside down. I feel bad, but then again, we never seem to send gifts to my in-laws on time for some reason. It's so much easier when family lives close and you have the stress of having to give their gifts in person. In the end, it's the thought that counts, right? Who cares if it's a little late. Let's hope they don't. LOL

Another piece of news that I wanted to share. I got a message on Ravelry the other day, Lion Brand wanted to use my reindeer I made last year as one of the pictures on the pattern page for Ravelry! I was SOOOO excited (and still am), maybe a little more excited than that warranted, but LOOK! They used my picture as the second one, right below THEIRS! Cool, right? I always wondered how they picked the pictures for the front pages of patterns. Now I know!

Now on to WIPW 22:



First off, sorry for the crappy picture, but I worked a little on it at my crochet meetup, so I couldn't take the pic until tonight with no lighting! Yep, here's the corgi (even though it doesn't look like one yet)! I haven't done much to it, but still wanted to add it to my WIPs since I'm still working on it. It's coming along good, though not fast since I have to keep changing colors. Normally that doesn't slow me down as much, but it's so small, that it's hard to get my fingers in there to swap the yarn, etc. I hope to have this finished by the weekend so that we can package them up and send them off with the other gifts going to my in-laws in Illinois.



After I finished the first fingerless glove, I didn't work on the second right away because I had all of the Christmas gifts to worry about. Now, I still have Christmas gifts to worry about but the stress has been taken away with them, so I thought it would be nice to have a mate for the first one. I decided to go up a needle size as the first one is a little snug at the finger area where I casted off and in the squishy part of my thumb. I can already see the difference in size, so that's a good thing! I think this one will fit perfect. At least one of my hands will be happy when wearing them. I'm still in love with this yarn color. I wish I could duplicate it again exactly, but unfortunately, with hand-dyed, that's not really possible. That's the blessing and the curse of it, right?



In last week's WIPW, I said I'd hoped to have both dishcloths finished by that post. I didn't get as much knitting done as I thought or wanted to on the trip, so I didn't finish this guy (pattern here). I hope to finish it this week, but we'll see. I don't have THAT much more to go, so if I just sit and concentrate on it, I can probably finish in an afternoon or evening.


For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 18

Wednesday, again. Can you believe it?? It is already the 8th of this month, and that has me pretty much hyperventilating. Yikes! Luckily, to take off some of the sting, I was able to order a few bought gifts online yesterday. Now I just need to worry if they will make it here in time. As far as the crochet/knitting presents are concerned, I'm running out of time. There are a few that can be mailed a day or two late, so I am putting those on the back burner. We'll see how it goes. My days are pretty much devoted to crocheting/knitting. Needless to say, I'm getting a LOT of TV time in.

Just a side note, I plan to have a few fun things happening on the blog coming up, including a yarn giveaway, a CAL/KAL (patterns haven't been chosen yet, so if you have any suggests please let me know!) and a yarn diet challenge for the new year (gasp!). So stay tuned for that!

As far as WIPs are concerned, this is what I have on my plate.



The dragonfly washcloth turned out sooo great (will share pictures on FO Friday), that I wanted to do another one. This will be a gift and will look like this. I don't want to say too much about it, but I hope to finish it quickly so that I can get to another one and make them a little set. We'll see. This wasn't originally in my holiday gift making plans, so I can't add too many items at this point or I will simply run out of time...or just not sleep leading up to the holiday.

Sorry for the picture, it's hard to get a good picture of the black yarn doubled over.

I've been dreading making this. I started way back when and then stopped and ripped it out. I love the way that the purse looks in the end, and use the one I made as a test purse a bit! The problem is, the pattern isn't written very clearly and so I have to look at a breakdown someone did on Ravelry with pictures (thank god for that person). Once I get out of the flow of making it, I can't really restart again for some reason. So, here I am starting it again. I have to make two more by Christmas. This one (obviously black) is going to be the worst because it's so hard to work with black, IMO. The next one I think I'm going to do a tan color, so that should go much faster. Luckily, when I stop whining about it and just do it, I'll be fine. It's a fast pattern to do once you get into the flow of things.



For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 17

First off, I'm sorry that I've been quiet since last WIPW. It's been a crazy week with Thanksgiving, being gone for four full days and the end of NaNoWriMo...which leads me to something I'd like to share. I know it's not craft related, but I can't help myself.

That's right, I hit 50,000 words. It's not the first time I've "won" NaNo. Actually, just the opposite. Each time I attempt it, I hit 50k, but this year felt better than most, with also trying to work on a lot of crochet Christmas presents and going away for the holiday, things got a little hectic. In fact, I didn't hit my word count goal until yesterday morning! Now back to craftiness.

I had a great time up in Los Angeles visiting family. I bought a lot of good yarn, as well as a few books, but I'll share them in another post! I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday in the US, and for those of you who participated in FO Friday this past week, I promise I'll get to commenting on your posts now that my life isn't all about furiously typing on my NaNo project.

I don't have anything new to share, but I did make some progress on the two projects from last week:


I was able to work on the market bag on the way to and from Los Angeles, thanks to my husband who drove both ways! I really like the way it's coming out. My gauge seemed a little small, so I added two extra rows of increase before starting my way up the sides of the bag. This is going to be a great size for supermarket and farmer's market shopping! I can't wait to give it to the recipient! I hope to finish this week, so I better get hooking!



I wasn't able to work on my washcloth much more, but you can see I've just started to hit the point of where the first (or second, depending on how you look at it) set of wings starts for the dragonfly washcloth. I'm still super stoked about the way it's coming out and LOVE knitting. I actually bought more cotton so that I can make more of these. They're fun, quick projects (when you actually have time to knit) and are actually useable! I hope to finish this one soon too, but the market bag takes precedence since it's a Christmas gift and the washcloth is just for fun.

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 16

Happy almost Thanksgiving to the WIPW peeps who live in the US! Have a great time with friends, family and eat TONS of turkey, pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes. YUM! Also, don't forget, a lot of LYS and craft big box stores have Black Friday sales, so don't forget to check all of the ads.

As I mentioned last week, I will be posting a FO Friday for everyone to take part in, but will not have a FO to share. It's been a crazy week, which is why I haven't posted anything since last Friday. It's the last real week of NaNoWriMo and I'm having to write my little fingers off since we will be away for the last four out of six days remaining in the month. Next month I'll probably be posting so much, you'll all be sick of me.

Now onto WIPW 16!


Yes, this is a different knitting project than I shared last week. Last week it was the scarf, but I screwed up and decided to start it over again. In the meantime, I wanted to try something I could make fast and really master the knit and purl stitches. Oh yeah, and getting these beautiful new KnitPicks needles kind of talked me into being used as well. The pattern is a dragonfly washcloth. Depending on how it goes from here, I may keep it or gift it out. How do cotton knitted washcloths/dishcloths hold up in the washer and dryer? I'm using Sugar 'n Cream, which I'm not crazy about for crochet (or any cotton for that matter, which makes this whole WIPW kind of odd since both new projects are cotton), but adore with knitting. I may have to buy a few more skeins on Friday since they're on mega sale to go crazy on making dishcloths and washcloths!



This is a gift for someone (and I'm not going to mention who, because they may read this blog) for Christmas. I wanted a practical gift, and this is one for sure. It's a market bag. Originally I started a different bag, but then decided to do one in the round because it was easier and worked up a lot quicker. I increased a few more rows, so that it would be nice and wide at the bottom for maximum holding. I'm using Bernat Handicraft Cotton that I got on clearance on Labor Day weekend. So nice to have a project for this finally. When I bought it, I couldn't pass it up. It was on clearance for $4.97 and then I got another 20% on top of that. Not bad considering it 710 yrds worth! The colors are fun without being too obnoxious (you should have seen my other choices!), so I thought it would be perfect for this project.


For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday Meme!

I was thinking of different weekly posts for this blog and and I had a great idea (or I think it's great!). I want to start a Work-in-Progress Wednesdays (WIPW) meme. The idea behind it: Every Wednesday I post what I'm working on and/or how far I've progressed (if it's a project that stretches beyond one week). It will keep me crocheting and blogging, two things I love.

Here's what I'm most excited about. I would love if we could get a group of craft/crochet/amigurumi bloggers together to do the same. Anyone is welcome to participate, as long as your WIP is a craft project. It doesn't even have to be crochet! Using Mr Linky here on my blog, we can each post the links to our WIPW posts (it can be a description of your WIP, video or pictures). It will bring traffic to everyone's blogs and there will be a central place for all the links, so it's easy to check out all the projects. I love looking at what others are working on, it's a great source of inspiration and fun.

Who's up for trying it this coming Wednesday?

(I got the idea for a WIPW meme from two blogs that I read that host a weekly post similar to this. I want to give credit, where credit is due: Alea's blog, Pop Culture Junkie and Kristi's blog, The Story Siren, inspired this idea. Thanks girls!)

Welcome to Tami's Amis and Other Crochet!

Welcome to my crochet and amigurumi blog, Tami's Amis and Other Crochet! I started crocheting around December of 2009. It wasn't the first time I attempted to learn the craft. I was interested in crochet when my mom took it up around 2002, but there was one small problem...I'm left-handed and my mom is right-handed. Each time she tried to teach me, I could never figure it out.

This past winter, the craft itch held tight as I struggled with my first creative outlet, writing. I ran to Michaels, bought a skein of Red Heart Yarn and a cheap plastic crochet hook (size J). Sidling up to my computer, I searched youtube and found great videos for left-handed crocheters! I've been a crocheting fool ever since. I can't walk through a craft store-or for that matter any store that carries yarn-without running my hands along the skeins and usually I can't resist buying a few.

I decided to start this blog as a way to share my projects and gab about all things crochet. Please come back to see what fun things I'm cooking up as I learn how to design my own amigurumis, work on projects for friends and family and more! I'm a member of Twitter and Ravelry, so feel free to click the links in the left sidebar to follow me!

In the coming days, I will be posting recently finished amis I've worked on, including the patterns I used to make them. I hope you drop by again soon!