There are days... and then there are DAYS.

Sometimes, you feel like nothing is going right.  You wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you stub your toe on the way to the shower, maybe nothing goes horrendously wrong but the sum of the parts doesn't exactly make a beautiful, sunshiney day.

Then, there are the days where everything goes right.  You make new friends, you nap in the sun, you play in the pool.  You spend most of your day knitting a sock.

And then, just as you're about to start the ribbing for the top of the leg, you go to try it on to show your grandmother how good it looks on your foot.

And it just doesn't fit.

And that is the moment, at a memorial day picnic, as you struggle to get the skinny sock leg over your bony little heel, when you realize that that whole good day was fate/God/someone upstairs softening the blow that this sock is not working for you. 

And later, when the party is over, you frog back the sock all the way (even though you could have stopped at the toe, you just weren't paying attention.)

And the next morning, you cast on for it again, because it's only the right thing to do.

Free Pattern - The Pinwheel Square

I'm in a group on Ravelry called KAL weekly square, and I'm the designer for the second square!  Whoo hoo! After some trial and error, I made this baby! I'm pretty proud of it :)  The goal of the group is to have a finished blanket by the end of the summer by making a different square each week.  Designers can make an original square, or squares can be nominated that are already around.  Anyway, this square can also be used as a dishcloth, potholder, plant coaster, etc.  It's very fun and calming to make, and it's reversible - a must for my blanket!

It measures 10''x10'', and full instructions are after the jump.

Storm-zilla

Yesterday afternoon, a huge hailstorm flew through the neighborhood.  It destroyed most of my seedlings and cut off the phone, Internet, and cable! The yard was littered with hailstones, almost as if someone had decided to dump a metric ton of ice across it.

I'm pretty young, and I've only seen hail once - that's right, once.  That hail was about the size of small peas.  This was MUCH bigger.  It was pretty cool to see the wet growth and dry growth of the hailstones - it was like seeing sixth grade weather science in action!

Then, power got cut off after a massive storm that lasted from 8 PM until around 9:30.  The lightning was beautiful, branching across the sky, and it was very eerie watching the clouds roll in. My parents are blessed that they chose to live in a naturally disaster-free area - the rolling hills prevent tornadoes from forming, there are measures in place to prevent flooding, and there are naturally no earthquakes or hurricanes, so we may not see a storm like this for another ten years.

It's too bad about my seedlings, though! I managed to save my big tray of veggies, but my cosmos took a beating an my alyssum plants are nothing but a puddle - hopefully some the seeds survived to grow where they washed away too!

I also started a new sock - back to toe-up, of course.  This pattern is my own design :) It's just an alternating row of mock-cables, and it's really easy to memorize and knit up.  When I put the socks on, the cables remind me of little pink lemons!

Like the mug? It was under the sink when my mom moved in - I may have to steal it!

Socks Afire!

I finally had a spare moment to dig out my yarn needle and finish up these socks! I was ready to stitch the toes shut after riding shotgun to NH and back this weekend to look at apartments.

Jazz!

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A.

Yarn: On Your Toes Sock Yarn

Pattern Modifications: Did only two pattern repeats before the heel flap to make the leg shorter - I think they make my feet seem kinda stubby, but they are SOO comfy!

I love these socks so much more than the Jaywalker socks I finished before.  I may be converted to the top-down sock camp - I didn't have to worry about a too-tight cuff cutting off the circulation to a perfectly good sock.  While I still wear the Jaywalkers once and awhile, I will wear these WAY more! And, I love the pattern.  I want to make a sweater for myself in this pattern! :B  Of maybe a stole? So many possibilities.

Mood Boards for the First Round of DAL

 

 

Click on each photo for a larger image!

Thanks so everyone who participated and gave a photo to add! For those of you who are new to this thing I've been posting about, the idea is that you design an item based on this mood board.   If you post up your sketch on your blog (and email me that you do) or on the Ravelry Group AND have a completely finished design for sale or free by August 25th, 2011.  Each design will be entered into a drawing, and there will be prizes - I should have that all figured out by August 1st.  

Thanks again to everyone that put up a picture! (In no particular order):

Rebecca from The Sculpted Stitch

Linda from Tiny Knit

Melissa from Melissa J Leavitt Designs

Ryan from Joe d'Arc Crochet

Rachael from Rachael's Knits

Meg from Fuzz to Finish

Mary from By Hand, With Heart

Angela from Revelations of A Delusional Knitter

Annette from Knotrune

Jordan from In It To Knit It

Toby from Gizmometer

Sherry from A Written Life

Sarah from Apply Blossom & More

And everyone else who I couldn't stalk find the blog address of!

DAL Mood Board submissions are done tomorrow!

Hey guys! Just a head's up if you want to contribute to Design Along, the mood board submissions are due tomorrow.  You can submit a photo on the thread in the Rav group or by emailing me.  I'm going to post the mood boards up late tonight/early Monday morning, and then the floor is open to submit designs! The design can be for free, for sale, or for submission - the only requirements are that you post up a photo/scan of the sketch, a photo of the FO, and a link to the pattern on Ravelry.  Once you do, you're entered into a prize and I'll put a roundup of all the designs and posts up here :)

To entice you, here are some pictures that have gone up on the group that I find inspiring! 

P.S. - If you post up your design ideas in your blog, leave a comment saying so here and I'll follow you - just make sure to tag your posts "DAL" - in case I get behind :P

The World Needs More Knitted Hedghogs

This post is brought to you by the Hampton Inn, where I'm staying while traveling for work.  I'm really tired but I thought I'd finally blog about this, because I've been keeping him in my bag to give me a smile every now and then!

I took these pictures last week, when it was sunny and nice out - can you tell?  Can we get back to that, please! It seems like the whole Northeast is covered with a cloud.

Anyway, I was thinking of making a few of these in different colors and selling them on Artfire.  Or just keeping them as my hoarde of hedgehogs! (I'm just kidding - a group of hedgehogs is called an array.)

I have the notes for him written up, but I'm thinking of having it tested and selling the pattern - but there are so many free hedgehog patterns out there that do really well, so there's a lot of competition! Maybe free for now?

A Little Color In Rochester

First off, the theme for the Design Along is Garden! So, get on down to this thread and post a photo for the mood board by next Sunday if you want to contribute - it should be a lot of fun.



And speaking of fun (and gardens) - the Lilac festival is in full bloom (excuse the pun) and yesterday W and I braved the rain to go on a triple date and see some of the gorgeous flowers.  Last year, the festival was kind of a downer because warm weather had brought the flowers weeks before, so all we got to view were the remnants of flowers! But this year, some of the blooms had only just begun to open.  If we can overcome this gloomy, rainy weather then things will be gorgeous - of course, I will have moved out by then :(

But here are some photos anyway :)

Design-a-long!

A while back I had this super cool idea - to have something like a knit-a-long (KAL) but based around design! I started a thread in the Budding Designers Group on Ravelry, and the DAL - Design-A-Long was born!

Here's the premise:  Four times a year, I'll post a theme up here and on Ravelry.  If you want to participate, you sign up here or on Ravelry, and post a picture that is related to the theme that inspires you.  After one week, the pictures are compiled and I'll post up a mood board - from that mood board, participants each design and knit an original piece.

The ultimate goal of this is to give new designers a body of work and get used to the design process, and to flex the creativity of established designers.  Unlike other challenges out there, the timeline is a longer one, which means that your work can be as big as you want.

Anyway, if you're interested, drop me a line and check out the group on Ravelry! I'm trying to figure out how to make a button do-hickey thing... and writing the rules.

Also, you can vote for the upcoming theme in this thread.

I'm going to compile a list of participants and try to figure out prizes, graphics, etc.  If anyone wants to donate prizes let me know!

My latest FO! Yay?

I finished my psuedo-mystery project last night, but I'm not very happy with him.  In fact, I'm kind of creeped out.



Is that the point, you may ask?  Uh, well, I guess.  It's supposed to be Pedobear.  I'm thinking of burning him - it's better than having him stare at me all day.  W has offered to take him (like he takes all of my misfit toys.)



Just goes to show what bad embroidery can do, I guess.

May TUSAL

Whoops.  I forgot to post April's post! No prizes for me - oh well.  Maybe extenuating circumstances will allow me to not count that new moon, since I was pretty sick.

I expect my jar to grow quite a bit this month, since I want to finish a few projects but I'm also cleaning out my apartment before the move, and will doubtless find lots of little ORTs to plop in the jar.

The Clock is Winding Down...

I'm a little freaked out that I have a little more than two weeks before I'm outta here, and trying to find an apartment in my new temporary home.  It's very crazy, and I've got a lot of things on my checklist before I move out... besides the regular, school stuff I'm trying to finish up all the food we have in the pantry, and of course, knitting goals.

Number one is the moose puppet for W.  I have a sinking feeling if this isn't done... it will never get done! It will be hard to work together when we're so far apart!

Second is to write up and compile my notes for the Cat Bus.  I barely have them all in one place, and I feel like they're another project that won't survive the move - something will get shuffled around, or misplaced, or accidentally thrown out.

In the spirit of all that makes sense, I've simultaneously cast on two new projects.  One is a doll that's lying in pieces on my counter - It'll be a free pattern, and I'm a little nervous about releasing it.  Well, you'll see.

And the other is an Estonian lace shawl... ette? I haven't decided yet.  I saw a gorgeous pattern on the internet, and decided I wanted half of one.  So this project was conceived... not sure how well it will go, especially considering there's a crochet edging *gulp*.  I'm sure I can design it out.

Anyway, that's what I'm up to... how about you?