Hello, All! It's a lovely fall day in the Ozarks...the colors are gee-orgeous!!! Last Wednesday my daughter-in-law, grandson and I went to one of the local cemetaries to look at the leaves. Now...you might be thinking, "a cemetary?" Yes, a cemetary. It is a very old cemetary where the keepers have planted sugar maples all over the place (in case you don't know, sugar maples are not exactly indigenous to the Ozarks). It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We even went and had Chinese food for lunch, which was good, except for the fortune cookies....we went out the car and I tried to break my cookie open, but it wouldn't break! No lie, I really had to work to get it to break open; the DIL said, "I wonder if I can get my fortune out without breaking my cookie?" She was in fact, able to do that! Needless to say, we didn't eat the cookies!

For those of you who are keeping up with my "design career", you might like to know that I am now a cover girl! Well, I'm not, but my hat is! I designed the Angora Baby Bunny hat that is featured on the cover of "Luxury Yarns One Skein Wonders". If you look this book up on Amazon, the hat on the cover is NOT mine. That was how the cover was originally supposed to look. When my copy came in the mail last week, I didn't even look at the cover, but dove inside to find my design. DIL starts jumping up and down, shouting, "It's on the cover, it's on the cover!!!" You might say I was a little excited, as I have never had anything on a cover before! I also had another design show up in print last week, my Ring Around the Rosie Afghan is in "Heirloom Afghans" edited by Judy Crow. To see a picture of all of my designs, check out my website: http://www.crochetrenee.com/ . The only one not on there yet is the Baby Bunny Hat, as I am awaiting permission from the publisher to use the image on the website. If that doesn't work out, I will just have to take my own picture, I guess! I am working on a couple of book-signings with a couple of local yarn shops...I will keep you posted on those!

Future upcoming designs include a wrap and a throw for Caron Yarn International, a necklace and a shawl in two different issues of Crochet World next year and a purse in a late issue of Crochet! magazine next year. I am also working on a book of my own designs. Whether that will be with an actual publisher, or whether I will have to self-publish remains to be seen. My sisters and I are talking about doing it ourselves, along with some other publishing projects under the moniker of Three Sisters Publishing. We are all pretty much super-busy gals, so we'll just have to see how to budget our time.

Just off the knitting needles are two chemo caps for a friend's mother who is fighting breast cancer. Dear old Dad requests a beret made from some of the wool off of his own Jacob sheep. I have spun up a few skeins and got on Ravelry to find a neat pattern that wasn't too boring for me to work, yet still not too fou-fou for Dad to wear. I found a really neat one that is offered by DC Stitch. You can check out Marie Connely's blog at http://www.stitchdcblog.blogspot.com/ . She has some wonderful original knitted designs. I do some knit design, but my design brain is so focused on what's on my plate right now, I didn't want to have to think too hard about what to make for Dad. I showed him the pattern last night, and recieved his approval...now if I could just find my US size 4 circular needles....

I taught a drop spindle spinning class last week. I thought it went very well. Everyone present made pretty decent yarn before the class was over. We made a singles, then plied it back with itself. I would say most everyone had 3-4 yards or so of 2-ply yarn and a good beginning working knowledge of how to spin wool with a spindle. At the end of the class, I showed them my spinning wheel, and several "OOOOh's and AAAAAh's" were noted. I did tell them that if enough people got wheels, that I would be happy to teach a class on the feeding and care of a spinning wheel. I also left them all with the notion that when they spin all their wool into yarn, if they would like to do a dyeing class, we could do that as well.

I am working on getting my application together to join The National Needlearts Association. I have my letter of recommendation from a wholesale yarn member and my application, just have to get some nice color copies of my work printed out. Sounds like a trip to Staples is in order, since I don't have a scanner....

By the way, since I mentioned Ravelry above...for those of you who don't know what Ravelry is, it is a website devoted to all things fiberarts related: spinning, weaving, knitting, crochet, felting, dyeing, etc....if you can relate it to fiber, it's on Ravelry. It is still in beta testing, but if you sign up for an account and wait patiently, you will get an invitation to join. It's a really neat site, and you can use it as your own online journal of your fiber related pursuits, right down to inventory of your yarn, needle and hook stash! You can also join different groups (I am a proud member of the Crochet Liberation Front, just to mention one....). If you join or are already a member, you can find me...I am Crochet Renee' on Ravelry. In the meantime, keep those hooks and needles busy and as Captain Will Turner said,"Keep a weather eye on the horizon" and watch for my upcoming designs at a magazine stand near you!!! Happy hooking!

Crochet Renee'

visit me at www.crochetrenee.com