New Knits

Things having been going a mile a minute around here, and I'm just desperately trying to stay afloat!  Once Easter hits it feels like go, go, go until that first day of school in September!

Since Easter, we've/I've gone on a weekend away to Long Beach for Mother's day (pictures forthcoming), had a school field trip to Whidbey Island, went on a women's retreat with my church, had our pastor's family over for dinner, and celebrated multiple birthdays, weddings, baby showers, and more with friends.  It's been CRAZY!!!!

Oh yeah - and in the mean time I'm still designing new knitting patterns, and trying to get my inventory stocked for the Edmonds Summer Market (which starts the first Saturday in July).  :)

Here's the baby poncho all done (FINALLY).  I wish I had better colors to knit it up in, but this yarn was all I had in stock.  It reminds me of pistachio, chocolate and vanilla ice cream.  I'm still thinking of a name for it.  I think I may design a matching skirt - but in cuter colors.  LOL...

I also started a new pattern design last night.  Here's my progress then, and this morning.  Can you guess what it will be???  :)

What's On My Needles

Every week brings me closer to the start of market season!  AHHHH!  Where did my time go?  I am not nearly where I feel I should be - and that means LOTS of knitting is going on here during nap time, and into the wee hours of the night.

Here are a few things I was working on this past week:

First, I got some new yarn from Blue Moon (this is "Twisted" in Lagoon).  I love this color-way, but I've had the dickens of a time getting these gloves sized right.  I ended up ripping them out and starting over about 3 times.  Finally, I've just left them as is and am calling them a size Adult Small or Child Large.  

Also in Blue Moon yarn (this time "Socks that Rock"), this is one of the simple ribbed socks that I designed for an "easy" pattern for my monthly sock club.  The pattern this month is a real doozey, so my less experienced members wanted an easy pattern too. 

These are several pairs of my "Freya Gauntlets" in progress.  The green ones are Berroco Vintage, the rest are Knit Picks Andean Silk.

Knit up two pairs of Montmartre last week too - sorry the picture is so terribly blurry..  The beige ones are knit in Berroco Vintage, and the blue ones are Knit Picks Capra

At the beginning of the year, I was THIIIIIS close (imagine my thumb and pointer finger squeezing a mere centimeter apart) to signing up for the Socks that Rock sock club.  Cookie A is one of their designers (and one of my designer idols.  But after only completing 2 of the 6 projects from the knit-along club I joined last year, I couldn't quite stomach the $280 price tag of the sock club.  To make up for the disappointment of missing out, I bought Cookies' new book "knit. sock. love." and it is AWESOME.

I started the infamous "monkey socks" and I can't put them down!!!!  I'll knit a repeat of the pattern on each sock, then go back to market knitting.  But all the while I'm thinking about the monkeys.  :)  I'm using Knit Picks Felici (Afternoon colorway) for them. 

Wendi's Shawl

I started this shawl/scarf a LOOOOONG time ago, but haven't been able to post because it was for my best friend Wendi's birthday.

I knit it using the Mizzle pattern (free on Ravelry) by Patricia Clift Martin.  I used Hazel Knits Sock Yarn.  It was a very fast, simple knit (when one reads and follows the directions), and after blocking it came out so beautifully!

I didn't take a bunch of pictures of the process, but here's a few of the knitting progression (and regression):

one hour in:

 three hours in, one hour out.

(turns out that some of the eyelets are purely DECORATIVE, meaning that I had increased by double about 9 rows too soon.  OOPS!  Yes, reading the pattern is a fantastic idea.  I recommend it.)

Center section done.  Starting the edging:

I thought I had a picture of the "pre-blocked" finished shawl, but I don't.  So I'll show you the blocking process (for those that don't know what blocking is).

First, you gently wash your knitted item in warm (or cold) water with a touch of wool soap.  Mmmm... the small of wet wool is delightfully GROSS!  Think of the smell of a wet sheep (or dog).  Blechh.  Maybe that's why I don't like blocking?!?!  ;)

Then you make a knitting towel wrap - and roll out the excess water.  You should never wring knitting.  A towel larger than the one I'm using is better.  I was being lazy.

Then on blocking squares, or a nice bedspread, or ???  you pin your knitting to the shape you want it to have, and let it dry.  Sometimes it takes a few hours, sometimes DAYS.  Do not try and rush the drying process.

Sometimes you have to re-pin and re-pin and re-pin until you get the shape JUST right.  This took me an hour to get perfect.

This was "pre-perfection", but the best shot of the finished shawl.

Now I just need a picture of Wendi wearing it!  :)

What's On My Needles

Just poppin' in to show you What's On My Needles this week (and last).

The Edmonds Summer Market will be here before I know it, so last week I "turbo knit" 8 infant hats.

I picked up 5 skeins of Malabrigo Chunky yarn in these delicious colors (plus one more)and was able to get 2 hats out of each skein!  I did half in seed stitch and half in straight stockinette with a ribbed brim.

Additionally, I've been working on a new design.  I'm not quite sure if it will be a hit or a bust, but I'm just going to keep knitting.  Hopefully I can get it done in the next few days and make the final tweaks.  (And after ripping it out and starting over once, I'm praying I won't have to reknit the entire thing again!)

This was progress as of late last week:

And this is where I finished up with it tonight:

Finally, I finished a very special Ollie Owl hat.  Dave's second cousin is having her 2nd birthday party on Saturday and it's an owl theme.  While we can't be there, we wanted her to have an Owl Hat in custom colors for her party. While I was in a sewing mood, I added eyes to another owl hat that had been sitting in my project bin for the last six months.  :)

Sock Heels - Trying Something New

I recently received an order from my favorite yarn store, Twisted!  I purchased 3 skeins of Hazel Knits sock yarn, one I'd not used before, but was extremely excited to try out.  

This is the colorway "Stick-O-Butter" getting wound into loveliness...  It is so bright and cheerful - the perfect yarn to knit spring socks with!

My sock club is working our way through the sock book "Knitted Socks East and West" by Judy Sumner.  This month's pattern is Tatami.  I decided to knit both socks at the same time, so that what happened to my last sock project wouldn't be repeated. 

Did you know that it is possible to knit two socks from one skein?  The sock on the left is pulling yarn from the center of the ball, and the sock on the right is pulling yarn from the outside.  These cuffs are done!

I had a little bit too much fun stacking the socks for this picture...

These photos were taken over a period of a few days.  I would work 8 rows on each sock (one full pattern repeat), then work several rows on other projects. 

The socks were now ready for heels.  I decided to be adventurous, however, and forgo the standard short row heel in place of an "after-thought" heel.

Basically, I knit 1/2 of the stitches with a piece of waste yarn (leaving the working yarn at the beginning of the row).  Then I went back to that working yarn, and started knitting in stockinette.  I guessed - yes guessed - where the toe should go, but left them open so I could go back and increase or decrease depending on need after trying them on.  

The next step was to rip out the waste yarn, and place the loose stitches back on needles.  There were 30 loose stitches above the waste yarn and 30 stitches below, so I placed them evenly on 4 needles (15 sts per needle), then proceeded to bind off exactly the same way as the toe.  Once there were 4 sts/needle left, I grafted them the same as I would a toe.  I tried it on, declared the toe to be correct (whew!!!) and grafted the toe.  Voila!

The heel "seam" is a little thicker than I would have liked.  It's the exact same on the toe, but up there it looks better.  So I may play around with it more.  However, not having to do a short row heel, pick up a ton of extra stitches, and then decrease all those extra stitches is sure a time saver!  I did miss turning the heel though.  That's one of my favorite parts.  

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the socks!  Finally a pair that actually fits me well.  :)  I've taken notes so that I can repeat this success again and again.   

A little something lovely, in yellow

There's always something wonderful about winding a new skein of yarn.  I've kept this lovely shade (Sunny) of Berroco Vintage in my knitting bowl for the last week, both as inspiration to finish up some knit for hire projects (since I promised myself I would NOT start another new project until those were complete) and just to brighten my day.  It's been especially rainy in Seattle the past week, and my mood has been on the gloomy side as well.  But just looking at this yarn made me cheerful, hopeful, and inspired.

I wound the yarn into two equal balls, so I could maximize the yardage for what was to come.  My vision - gauntlets.  Long, ornate, lovely, cabled gauntlets that would induce gasps of wonder and amazement.

Just the cuffs did that for me...

In design, it's always wonderful with what you envision in your mind actually comes out in the final product.  There have been projects that I've torn out again, and again, and again.  Not these babies...  it was sheer bliss from the first stitch.  

When this prototype was finished I texted my best friend Wendi, and told her I felt like a teenie bopper who'd shaken hands with Justin Bieber.  I was giddy - and after the crappy week I'd endured, giddy was needed.

I still have some adjusting to do on these.  Thinking of removing the eyelet section, widening the wrist, and tightening the upper arm.  Otherwise, this puppy is about done.  Pattern to come soon.  :)

What's On My Needles

I'm working on some new patterns and can't wait to share them. In the meantime, here's what's been on my needles the last week or so.

I'm a little backlogged and don't remember the dates for the pictures. Facebook messed up my nice and tidy system with their new photo albums. I can longer easily copy/paste photos from without it being a huge "process". So I started a flickr account instead and I'm back to smooth sailing, except for remembering to date the photos. :)

Anyway - here we go...

Here are some fingerless gloves (boyfriend) I knit up while at CU. I added the thumbs last night, now just have to sew in the ends.

These are some lovely green gloves (Montmartre) that I knit at CU. I've already sewn in the ends of these. :)

You may remember this one. This is a headband/ear warmer prototype for a new pattern. Unfortunately the pleats made it smaller than I anticipated, so it fits Samantha great. However, it was supposed to fit me. Back to the drawing board!

This is another new pattern/prototype. It still needs a little tweaking as this one has the opposite problem as the previous one - too big. :) Someday I'll get it right. And by someday I mean this weekend, as it's on my to do list of things that need "fiddling".

These are dino mits without the spines. I've since finished them. They were not knit at CU, but were ordered by a friend that attended CU with me. She also got cupcake gloves for her daughter.

Speaking of cupcakes, this hat is an ADULT sized cupcake hat. Ordered with matching mittens for a friend at CU. Finished the hat last night, and now I'm working on the mits!

And now that I'm thinking about cupcakes, I'm realizing that the cupcake mitten pattern never got posted to my etsy and rav sites, and I never added more knitting stuff on etsy either. Oops! I'll try to get on that. :)

Why Knitting Socks 2 at a Time is a Good Idea...

In November, I knit the first sock in a pair. Then with the craziness of life, I set it aside, with some needles.

Then I knit a bunch of other stuff, and I used those needles, and put them away.

Then I knit 2 more pairs of socks, and stuffed those needles into the bag with my lonely sock.

Can you see where this is going?

So last week I sat down to finish the second sock in the pair and all seemed to be going great!

I finished my sock, and boy was it a beauty...

...until I set it next to the the first sock.

No... there is no optical illusion. The sock on the right is indeed larger than the sock on the left.

Unfortunately, the difference in 2.5mm and 2.75mm (yes, millimeters) needles is such that a sock knit on the former will end up several INCHES shorter than a sock knit on the later.

Sigh...

So what did I do? I promptly went to knit picks and ordered duplicates of my favorite sock needles, so I can cast on and knit my sock at the same time!

One other good thing did come out of all of this. I'd been promising Samantha a new pair of socks. And she has unusually large feet for a little girl. And she could care less if one sock is bigger than the other. Voila... a happy little darling.

Gettin' Ready

Creative University (a scrapbooking/craft retreat put on yearly by the incredible Tresa Black) is just around the corner, and I can't wait!  I shipped off my class kits this morning - whew!  All that's left is to pack my bags and I'll be ready for 4 fantastic days of creativity, classes, and relaxation.  Next Thursday could not come soon enough.

I'm teaching again this year, and we've got the largest group ever - almost 60 ladies will be in attendance!  That meant 60 two paged 12x12 layouts for me to prep:

And 60 baggies of embellishments to put together:

But hopefully that will also mean 60x the fun.  :)

In other news... I was up uber late last night working on a sleeve to my sweater!  Take a look at my progress throughout the day...

Just about to start the first sleeve:

Sleeve 1/2 done:

About to start the leaf pattern...

All done!