Thanks, guys!  You all make me feel so good. 

Seattle's interesting.  Every morning it was gorgeous--clear, blue sky and lots of sun--but by 2pm it's all rain.

Thanks!  You guys make me feel good!

I was in Seattle for a week, visiting my parents, and my hands felt restless.  After digging around in my mother's stash, finding only acrylics and novelty yarns, I came up with a thistle hat with earflaps.  The shape is based on Knitty's Cross-Country Chullo, though I didn't actually read the pattern--I just looked at the picture.









There are more details on my flickr set if you're interested.

I'm out in Seattle visiting my parents for Christmas (I'm from Chicago).  While walking around in the rain, I decided I needed a hat.  My mom brought out her stash and I just started messing around.  I love crocheting hats because it goes so quickly--it's a matter of hours as opposed to a matter of days for knitting.  Anyway, this is what I came up with:

Inside
Outside
Back
Front
(You never realize how dirty your bathroom mirror is until you start taking pictures with the flash...)

It's incredibly warm because it's so thick.  I alternated popcorn stitch (5 dcs) with one sc, and then every odd-numbered row was just sc all around.  Very easy!  It took over one skein of Wool Ease Chunky, which is why there's a band of light grey.

I love Asphyxiation.  And the condom is hilarious--the perfect application of stockinette's natural tendency to roll up.

PM means you put a marker in a new place on the work.  A lot of times when you first start a piece, it'll tell you to PM, meaning you introduce a marker into the work (usually to mark the end of a round).  SM means you keep the marker where it is in terms of where the stitches, increases/decreases, and patterns are; it's just a way of keeping track of where you are.  SM has nothing to do with a stitch; the pattern should give directions up to the last stitch before the marker, then it'll tell you to SM, meaning you transfer the marker from the left needle to the right, and then it should give instructions for all of the stitches after the marker. 

Very cute!  I just did a project yesterday with Caché and I love how it stripes subtly.  Your button is great--the purse just wouldn't be complete without it.

Knitty or MagKnits would provide you with possibly more exposure than your blog or ebay shop, so more people would start recognizing your name.  If either one decides to publish your pattern, you'd get around $75-100 for Knitty or $36-90 for MagKnits.  (Plus you get the warm fuzzy feeling in your heart when you know that knitters now have access to your fabulous free pattern!)  If you publish it on your own, you have to decide if enough people will buy your pattern to match or beat the amount of money you'd receive from an online publication.

You also might want to browse the Knitty and MagKnits archives to see if something like what you're making has already been published--that might discourage you from going that route, since they're probably less likely to publish something very similar to what they've already done.  I found Satchel on Knitty, which sounds somewhat similar to what you described, but on the other hand yours could be completely different.  (I dislike the way the MagKnits archives are set up, so I'll leave the browsing to you.)

When it all comes down to it, if it were me, I'd go for Knitty or MagKnits (or even The AntiCraft, although it looks like they don't pay for submissions) for my first couple of designs in order to get the large readership and the consequent publicity and name recognition.  You can always pimp your blog in the little bio they give you, so people who like your work will click over and find more of your designs.

ETA: I have not published any patterns, so you can take all this advice for what it's worth.

Hee, I just read the copy for Swell, and I wish I lived in San Jose...

Was there any warning that this issue was going to be a socks/wintery hat type issue?

If you look up the submission guidelines, it tells you what kind of patterns they're looking for for future issues.  I always check that so I know what to expect.  I'm sneaky like that.

I love RPM, Manresa, and the calla lilies.  RPM might have to be my first sock project.