...pioneer...

I've just spent the past two days at A Verb For Keeping Warm in Oakland, California where the owner, Kristine, has launched her new yarn. Pioneer is a beautiful, soft 100% organic merino that you can read all about here.

natural colors

some of the beautiful, naturally dyed colors from Kristine

This project is really as wonderful as the finished yarn is. I was lucky enough to meet and visit with the farmer, Sally Fox. She is delightful and has so much knowledge to share.

I'm so proud of Kristine for doing this. And it seems to me that Kristine and Sally are a true match made in heaven.
            
I did buy a few skeins of Pioneer.   They were just too beautiful to resist.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope that your 2012 was great and that your 2013 will be even better!

We ended the year at our Sunriver home celebrating with family and friends.  We started with a family Christmas and it was pretty great!  Here's some fun things we did:

               ~walks through the snow to the local coffee shop~



                                    ~sledding~

                        ~more walks in the snow~

                          ~Breakfast with Santa~

                  ~Christmas Eve family dinner ~

                                                ~ a lot of time with these two~

The holidays have always been my favorite time of the year and this year was no exception.  It was really the best to have all of us together.  Now it's back to life, back to reality.....

                                 I wish you a wonderful new year from my family to yours!

...months and months...

Hey!  Here I am.  Boy has this year been a blur.  Six months since my last post!  An awful lot going on here.  New grand baby, wonderful trip to Italy, youngest daughter's wedding, and BAM!  Now it is a week until Christmas.

I know that I owe you a whole whack of posts and believe me I have a lot to tell you.  But those stories are for another day.  (Probably after the 1st of the year).

I did want to share something though that happened this past weekend.  It really warmed my heart.

Every other year we have a Christmas party in our barn.  It's a really fun, relaxed afternoon with many friends and family members.  It's a casual thing, people dress in jeans and warm coats.  The barn has heat but it's a big barn and it takes a long time to heat it up!

Each year that we have this party we ask everyone to bring a toy to be donated to kids in our community that are in need.  This year we chose to work with Tuality Hospital.

They specifically asked for games and toys for kids ages 9-12.  This age range seems to get less donations than other ages.  So when we sent out our invites we asked for game and toys for them and boy did the gifts roll in!

Legos, Sorry, Monopoly, Scrabble!  I think we got 9 Apples to Apples games!  I am so thankful for our friends and family and am especially thankful that they are so generous.  I packed up all of the toys and games yesterday morning and headed to the hospital with them. (My car was jammed!)  The hospital was really happy to see me!  They were so appreciative and it felt so good to deliver this gift.  

In a matter of days we will be heading to our house at Sunriver for the holidays with the entire family.  I am really excited about this!   Can't wait to celebrate the season with the grandkids! I think there will be some sledding in my near future...

 I leave you with a little gift~

Elliet and her first Christmas tree.

Until next year, happy holidays!

...here she is...

Let me introduce to you EllietHarper Cook!





She arrived on June 13th, weighing in at 8 lbs. 13 oz. She is beautiful and we can't wait to get home and hold her! Our daughter is recovering at home now from the c-section and we are so happy for her and her family! And we know that Paytan will be a wonderful big sister!

Welcome to our family, Elliet! You are already loved more than you can even imagine.

...waiting...

We are in Rome and having a wonderful time. The city really is amazing. We've just scratched the surface! Today we made our way to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Both are spectacular.








And of course we stopped at a sidewalk cafe for a glass of wine!




We are still on baby watch as our daughter is in labor in the hospital at home. We're getting text updates from her sister so as soon as we know anything, you'll hear about it.
-ciao!
- Posted from my iPad

...traveling and then some...

I'm off to Italy in the morning for a much anticipated vacation with the husband. We've been planning this trip for about two years.  Little did we know when we were making our plans that not only would our youngest daughter be getting married two months after we got back but our oldest daughter would be having baby #2 any day. So wedding plans are rolling along and there will be another granddaughter when we get back.  What is that quote by John Lennon from the song "Beautiful boy"?  Oh yes.... "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."  That my friends, is a very true story.  

...a long time coming...

Needless to say!  It's been way too long since I've been here.  Too much going on, too many place to go, to many people to see.  And somewhere in all of that there have been deadlines.  A deadline for this, and a deadline for this, and also a deadline for this.....



which is still in the works.

Along with all of these deadlines there has been sock camp, wedding plans and a new granddaughter that should be here in the next 6 weeks.  Oh, and did I mention that my husband and I are leaving for Italy next week?  Yup, we love to cram as much fun into a year as we can.

So my intention is to blog along the way in Italy and get back to regular posts when I get home.  There are some things coming off of the design table soon and I'm really excited for you to see them.

Anyway, thanks for hanging in there and I promise there will be more words and pictures coming soon!

Ciao~

...crawling...

The Rose City Yarn Crawl starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday.  This is an annual event in Portland and if you are within driving distance of Portland you won't want to miss it.  There are 19 stores and 50 sponsors participating in the crawl and they are all great!  There are wonderful gift baskets at each store with some beautiful prizes in them.  Each store has a pattern that has been especially written just for the yarn crawl, and a whole bunch of special events happening throughout the weekend.

The event that I am most excited about is happening at All About Yarn on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  That's because they are hosting me and my trunk show!  I am really honored and can't wait to see all of the knitters and talk with them about their projects and answer questions about my designs!  If you are in the area on Saturday, stop by and say hello.  I'd love to see you!!

...another shout out...

February 17th, 2012

Valley Yarns on Ravelry #14 – Northfield

Valley Yarns Northfield is a customer and staff favorite. Soft enough to wear against the skin, great stitch definition for cable work, and 22 lovely colors to choose from. These nine Northfield projects on Ravelry are excellent examples of why we love Northfield so much.

Erin’s Mittens and Hat by Debbi Stone
(pattern available for purchase on Ravelry)

Hey everybody!  Erin's Hat and Erin's Mittens were featured in the Webs blog post yesterday!  How lucky am I?  You can go here to read all about it!

The post highlights designs using Webs Valley Yarn - Northfield which is a yummy yarn made up of merino, baby alpaca and silk.  What's not to love about that?  Northfield is really wonderful to knit with, has great stitch definition and feels so good next to your skin.

The Webs blog post is just another example of what I love about this fiber industry;  people helping each other.  Thanks again to Webs for featuring my patterns.  You guys are the best!!

...featured...

Back in July I published my Lucy pattern, featuring Valley Yarn ~ Charlemont from Webs and just recently they featured my Lucy pattern in their February 4th blog post!   I am really proud and very excited to be included in this post along with some other pretty great designers!

I really loved working with Charlemont, actually it's the second time I have used this yarn in my design work.  Barbara is also designed using it.  The yarn has beautiful stitch definition and drape.  I know I will use more of it in the future.

Thanks Steve and Kathy for the shout out!  You guys are the best!!

...official business...

This just in:

Welcome to the Club!

Hello Debbi! And welcome to the second year of Twisted's Shawlette Club! It's all about the small shawls in this club: one skein of gorgeous, hand-dyed yarn partnered with a fantastic designer. What more could a knitter want? KITS Every other month, starting in March 2012, you will receive: a special skein of sock yarn, dyed exclusively for the club by an exciting indie dyer an all-new, exclusive pattern for a shawlette or other neck warming type device written by an equally exciting knit wear designer a lil’ extra gifty! We're starting off with the fabulous pairing of Debbi Stone + Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Debbi and Tina are always a great team, and this design is extra-special. Our test-knitter is having the best time with the lovely and interesting knit, and has been waxing poetic about Seduction, the base Debbi and Tina chose.

I am pretty proud of this!  If you have joined the club I can't wait for you to get your first shipment!  It's going to be a really fun year!!!