Welcome to the Open House of a Crochet Designer: Kristin Omdahl

Click on Thumbnail for Full Size ImageWelcome to my virtual Open House! This is a collaborative effort of many Interweave authors and you can visit all of the blogs from here: STUDIO Magazines Open House

First of all, I live in Bonita Springs, Florida. My home is 10 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico and the climate is tropical. I have the pleasure of crocheting and knitting outdoors most of the year! Today, I want to take you on a tour of some of my favorite outdoor crochet and knitting locations, and then finishing our Open House Tour with my home office.

I have a vertical orchid garden in my backyard. My good friend Diane taught me how to plant orchids into the boots of my palmetto trees last year. I sit out here almost every morning throughout the year with my jasmine tea and whatever crochet or knit project I am working on that day. It is very quite and peaceful out here. I work here from after dropping my son off at the bus stop until around 9:30 or 10:00 when the sun starts getting hot.  Here are some photos of my orchids:

Click on ThumbnailThere are a few local cafes with beautiful outdoor areas that I frequent regularly. One is The Coffee Mill in an outdoor mall called The Promenade. The outdoor seating is next to a waterfall! Although it is a bit loud, it is surprisingly soothing and helps me focus. I have made many, many sweaters and shawls at this table:

Survey CafeThe other local cafe is really beautiful, too. They serve organic coffee and tea, and have a really healthy menu including flax seed, fruit and nut bars for breakfast and vegetarian brown rice for lunch. The building is a historic home that has been refurbished for the cafe. It has really wide, original hardwood floors and a stained glass window in the bathroom. I love to sit on the front porch with A/C in the summer, our on the outside deck the rest of the year. Across the street is a very old and beautiful cypress tree that I just love.

Sometimes, I work at the beach. It can be a bit messy, but if I have a deadline and can't help it, I take work to the beach anyways. I made a crochet blanket just for taking to the beach, and an umbrella is a must if you are going to work with yarn at the beach!! Here are some of my locations:

I am always home by the time the school bus returns, help my Shark Hunter with his homework, and we head back outdoors. I have been seen on many occasions at the large community pool with my yarn, but there won't be any photos of that here today.However, when we do a little skateboarding behind the house, I often bring yarn and sit on this bench.

Unfortunately, there are fire ants around the cement beneath the bench. I have to spray around it every now and then, or pay the price with bites. Fire ant bites are nothing to joke about!

This is where I take a lot of pictures of finished garments on my dressform, before shipping them out to publishers. When you see a photo of one of my designs with palms in the background, this is the photo location.

At the end of the day, I invariably end up in my home office. It is light, bright and very peaceful for me. Besides my beautiful orchids, I leave color to the yarn. The rest of my workspace is white, white, white. The desk with the computer on it actuallly has a slide out second desktop surface. I use this when I am sketching new designs and laying out patterns. The armoire behind the desk is where I charge my computer and phone. It has a lot of storage, and has a separate slideout keyboard tray. I do a lot of writing at that desk. Don't be fooled by the small selection of books on the bookshelf! That is only my reference library. The rest of my incredibly large book collection is stored in the closet(s)! The corkboards have swatches on them. But, I rotate the swatches so that ONLY projects I am currently working on are on that board. I have several boxes and draws FULL of swatches. It amazes me how many swatches I have, and I STILL have to make swatches for every new project. I should make them into a blanket one day...

Thank you for visiting my virtual Open House today! I made pumpkin muffins with cinnamon glaze last night. If you were really here, I would be offering you one of them right now!!

Ok, back to my yarn. I have deadlines to make! Click on any of the thumbnails to see larger images.