The Pitter Patter

So, last week I found out that W's sister is going to be having a little boy or girl! I'm super, super excited for her, but also a little nervous, because I really want to knit something amazing for W's new niece or nephew.

I browsed Ravelry and looked all over for cute things. When I asked W's sis what she wanted she just said "Surprise Me."

I feel like I'm going to be getting into a Knit Princess situation (read the story here if you don't follow the comic) wherein I will end up with a huge box of baby things that will be incredibly ridiculous and embarrass the entire family.

So, I'm going to try and not flip out and make a truckload of baby items. I'm going to make a list. I'm going to come back to the list and make one thing at a time. I'm not going to knit solely baby items for three months. Promise. For real.  Mostly because I have other things to knit for people!

Anyway, here's the list!

Bunny by Jess Hutchinson: I think that this will be super cute, and definitely gender neutral :) Who doesn't want a bunny!

A Log Cabin Baby Blanket: A good idea, but I want to make sure I have a TON of time to make this. It could be very mindless. (I would follow the tutorial here)

Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan: Okay, I admit, I saw this on another blog, (Grumperina) and it's super cute! It's kind of girly, though.

Converse Baby Booties: Defintely gender-neutral :) And totally adorable!

Cleo Kitten Slippers : I showed these to W, and he said that it was too feminine. But I really want to make them! I guess I can always start if I find out it's a girl :)

Also, Down Cloverlaine has some AWESOME Bib Patterns, my favorite though is this one:  (You may remember her for her sweet mod of my kitten mittens.)

When I went to the yarn shop today after lunch with Ash and Rebecca, I couldn't help but look at the yarn and think about baby stuff! I picked out two skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash :) I think that these two colors are very neutral, and they'll make a cute set!

I think maybe the converse baby booties and this cardigan, called Little Coffee Bean.

I can't wait to make these! First, though, I need to finish up my projects that I've promised off to people. *sigh* Oh, knitting!

Remember this?

Hey internet! A while back I test knit these fingerless gloves and had an awesome time doing so. Well, the pattern is here!

The great photoshopped picture.

It's available as a free ravelry download, so if you're interested but don't have ravelry, click here to get yourself a copy of the .pdf :)

Posing with what I was reading.

I want to say that I didn't design these gloves or write the pattern, but I have a place in my heart for them and for the totally adorable designer, Ara.

A not so good picture of the super comfy gusseted thumb!

Enjoy!

(Oh, yes, I'm posting on this blog instead of my shiny new blog because this one still gets more pageviews... fickle, I know, but that's the way the world turns? Make sure to join me on Alyoops! for more about Lotus, my designing, and non-amigurumi knits!)

What I'm Doing Wrong in my Life (aka How Not to Design a Knit Toy)

I'm having one of those days where I'm thinking - WTF. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why do I keep doing what I'm doing? It works, but it's stressful. Not fun.

Classes are starting soon, and I'm having a lot of fun cooking delicious things for anyone that shows up at my apartment ;) I have all the textbooks I need, know where my classrooms are, and all-in-all don't need to worry about anything in my life.

Except knitting.

**Here are a few lessons for those of you who may ever decide to design a knit toy. These tips will absolutely, positively maximize your stress during the design process.

1.  When writing a pattern, be sure to write as much as you can in completely different places.  Make sure that you use different colored pens, different sized papers, and do NOT number your sheets.  That way, when you drop them on the floor, you will get to put your notes together like a puzzle! This will be a welcome break from knitting.

Find above: Notebook A, Notebook B, Field Sketchbook, and the back of a Vogue Magazine.

2.  When you need to pick up multiple sets of stitches (for arms or legs) make sure NOT to look ahead to see if you have enough room for that last pair of legs.  One side will work out perfectly the same as the other, of course, always.

If you can guess what I'm making... I'll be seriously impressed, then a little annoyed.

(2.1  When in the early stages of the design process, make sure you add as many repeat parts as possible.  Tentacles, legs, arms, antennae, wings, leaves, and flowers are good examples.)

3.  Make sure that you design this toy on a deadline, as part of a swap.  If you stress out about deadlines, you will stress out 100 times more at the thought of some person awaiting for your package to arrive, in vain, since you aren't done yet.

4. Also, make sure that person lives as far away as possible to you.  Like, maybe, Alaska.

5. Then make that person really, really nice and understanding. Guilt multiplier!

6. Then, decide that you really need to knit a hat.

But it's so mindless! And someone asked me to make it! And I was supposed to make it weeks ago!

... So, if you take everything from the double asterisk (**) to here, you have how to design, the Alyssa way! Now I need to get back to work... =_=

Have a good weekend though, really, seriously, do!

My Random Monday - O-Week.

1. O is for oreintation, not for something else. Get your minds out of the gutter!

2. I am super tired, and have made knitting progress but none I can show off because it's supposed to be SECRET.

3. Everyone that has seen me knitting today knows the secret.

4. During my move, my basil plant got knocked over.  I was hoping that it would be okay, but today my hopes were dashed.  Look at it!!

5. I also tried to start a new WIP, but this happened.

6. Also, my favorite 50 cent pants have been ruined.

Thanks, mom, for having an angry and vengeful cat with a full bladder.

7. My feet feel really swollen and hurt :(

8. Other than all that, today went pretty awesome!! I met a lot of people and got a lot of bug bites.  And I'm pretty tired... Good night :)

My Weekend in Photos (so far)

Today has been super jam-packed with action! For one, my brother dearest goes off to college this week, so we had a family get-together with hotdogs, hamburgers, and brats.  Also involved were about 8 dozen assorted cupcakes.

My aunt got these gorgeous cupcake displays!

Vases with fresh cut flowers :)

Besides awesome food, I finished something last night! I can't show pictures because it's going into a swap, but I can give a teaser photo:

Also, I got to start another swap project! I can't wait to make this, since it's going to be... AWESOME.  Already, the more I talk about it, the more tempted I am to reveal.  So no more of that! I'm still chugging along on the factory.  The main body is done, and so are the things that go in and out of the factory. All that's left is a replacement panel on the side of the body of the machine.  Whoo hoo!

We also let Lotus run free in one of our garden boxes.  It was a closely supervised freedom, of course, with photos. I had visions of my cute little hedgie among the flowers, but she had different ideas.  She rolled in the dirt and anointed herself with it, which was still cute! Then she hid under the lilies, digging and chasing bugs.  She got one at one point!

She was so dirty afterwards though! I'm happy my mom and aunt don't use fertilizers or any other additives in their soil, so my happy hedgie can roll in it.  She was super excited to get dirty... dunno how she'll feel about a bath that's coming though! This picture illustrates half the horror.

It was hard to get good ones, she was running around so!

And then when we picked her up, she was grumpy again.

Maybe next time I'll get some pics with flowers and some lovely grass! I can dream.

Oh, also... I finally took pictures of the owls! My plan is to start test knitting sometime this week. I have to get in touch with the few people that have mentioned test knitting to me, but I think that it's the more the merrier.  If you're interested, let me know :)

The Last Week of W.

So, this weekend W is packing up and leaving! He's doing some excellent things for an excellent theatre production, but I'm going to miss him. That said, we're making the most of the week and having every night be something special! Last night we drove to Wal*mart and ate at Applebees.  Tonight, we're going to have a roast chicken dinner with green bean casserole.

I'm going to miss my boyfriend for so many reasons. He's my best friend, and having him stay with me has been the best part of a pretty already awesome summer. Also, who else washes my dishes and gives my hedgehog a bath!?

Erm... that sounded like a euphemism, but wasn't.

Anyway, I want to finish my tiny factory by Friday at the latest! It's already looking more factory-esque.

It needs a panel and a gauge on the front still, which is going to be crazy.  Plus, all the little things that come out of it! We have decided that it's going to make penguins... Yikes! Wish me luck! :X

Oh, by the way... I was in a KAL!

Um, I know I'm going to kick myself for this, because I didn't blog about it (which is strange, since it's me...) but, I was in a KAL.  It lasted the whole month of July, and I finished the mystery doll last night at an ungodly hour.

So I took pictures.

And I'm done.  The pattern was a mystery, written up by Pheony (rav link) and hosted by the Knit Toys Group (rav link) on Ravelry.  It was exciting to work with a bunch of other knitters on the same project (erm, hello, that's the definition of KAL?) and I waited excitedly for each clue to come out... but nothing in this went right. 

My arms are way too long, my head is too big, etc etc etc... I don't want to talk about it any more.  I was at the point where I told myself I would write about what I was doing, but everything I wrote about was ranty and ill-tempered, so I didn't hit post.  As I was sewing the ears on, W commented that it looked like a pig.  I wanted to cry. I don't think that there was anything wrong with the pattern, just, there are certain patterns (*cough* like the socks I made for Ashley *cough*) that I just can't make correctly.  I've come to the conclusion that a power greater than my own refuses to let me make them correctly.  Sure, I could take apart the pieces, re-knit with the end product in mind, and be happier with it, but frankly I'm too lazy! Maybe if it was a sweater or a sock.

Anyway, that's water under the bridge.  It's done, finished and there's nothing I can do about it or it's hump-back! W snapped it up (like he likes to do with stuff I make) and I thought that it would disappear at the end of this weekend, stuffed away in the attic of his mother's house or something... but I came home and he was stuffing armature wires into it.

 I'm gunna be a star?

GREAT. My boyfriend wants to animate what I consider the most shoddily knit stuffie I made this year! That's Alanis Morisette irony for you.

And, if you want to make your own sheep, leave a comment and I'll e-mail you the PDFs! They're probably still up on Google, but knowing my luck, someone will be interested in making this two years from now and they'll be gone... so, drop me a line :)

Clearing the Plate

My knitting- and non-knitting stress has been continuing this week.  W volunteered to cook (which he has, kind of, all week!) but today he was feeling sick.  So I make chicken and rolled it in tiny tortillas with salsa and cheese, and it was something like an enchilada, or a burrito... I don't really know. They were delicious.

Point is, while I was cooking, I was thinking.  Why have I been so stressed out? I've got a million ideas in my head, a thousand half-written proposals to a dozen calls I saw on Ravelry.

I came home at lunch and cast on for a washcloth.  A WASHCLOTH! In Lion Brand Cotton. On my Disney Princess needles.  Don't believe me? I have photographic evidence!

Then when I came home and frogged the Free-Form Socks. As if sensing the end was near, they knotted themselves up.

So I firmly decided.  No more projects are going on the plate until I clear something off it! I'm not even going to look at calls online.  I'm going to work on what's in front of me, and not try and start a million things at once! I'm still working full time, which means, with sleep, I only have 6 hours a day for knitting.  So I'm going to enjoy it, and not feel flustered by the mountain of stuff I keep taking on!

So, I'm working hard on this machine that W wants to animate.  The deadline: 2 weeks from now, before he leaves to work on a theatre performance.

Tall order, since I only have about 10% done.

Great Minds Think Alike

Yesterday, as I was packing* my bags to head out for the weekend (*read as: going around the apartment and shoving useful-looking things in my bag) I made a decision.  I decided that W would drive.  Why? So I could knit, of course!  

Then another decision faced me.  What would I knit? I've got a few projects on the needles right now.  One is a KAL which I am doing horribly on, I must say (that's a post in itself.) That one would never do: I need my computer to read the pattern!  The other is on hold, awaiting a yarn needle (since my cheap plastic one snapped in half - twice! - on Thursday.) The third option was to work on the sample of Borneo, but that also required my computer to take notes on.

Which option did I choose? Of course, I made up my own! I tossed a size 2 circular into my purse, a measuring tape, and some mystery varigated yarn (if anyone recognizes this, let me know!) and went to town! I think that after a week of knitting and non-knitting stress, I needed a bit of seat-of-the-pants knitting, and this project really helped! I worked the whole hour drive yesterday... casting on, not being satisfied with my cast on, and ripping out. 

Normally, this would be frustrating for me, but yesterday it was extremely satisfying.  There wasn't a pattern for me to follow to the T; I didn't have to write down any notes to refer to when writing up the pattern; I didn't even take measurements.  I think that this sock is a spur of the moment sock.  Later, I'll measure it and find an owner Cinderella-style. If it fits, and they like it, the prince or princess can keep it!

Then, when we reached our destination, I put the knitting away. After a lovely dinner and a peaceful sleep, I woke up at 6:14. I had a cup of coffee and some toast and made this! It's the very first picot edging I've ever done. I sort of winged it.  I cast on 64 stitches and knit for a while, then did a round where I just K2tog, then yarn over... over and over! Then I knit until both sides were equal, then I slipped the purl bumps onto the needle and knit them together to make a kind of hem.

I have no idea if I did things the right way, but after the last crumb of toast was gone, I started on the pattern of the sock, which I decided would be a kind of free-form. I thought of doing a variation on the armwarmers that I test knit, only picking up just one lag at a time, to make a more checkerboard-like shape.

I worked until I went to my first ever formal yoga class. (I may have done yoga during gym class in high school, but that doesn't count.) Then, I knit on the ride home with my brother and father.

 

Then I got home, proud of my work thus far, and decided to blog about it. Hmm, maybe I'll look through my feed and see what everyone else is doing...

... Then I saw this post by the Yarn Harlot. I thought perhaps through some sort of psychic act, I plagarized the Yarn Harlot.  She did post this yesterday at 1:10 PM. Have I been on my feed since? No. Also, the post was unread.  Did I have a conversation about the Yarn Harlot's blog since 1:10 PM yesterday? No, definitely not. (Not that her posts aren't worth discussing... it's just, I don't know anyone IRL that follows Steph as religiously as me.)

Eventually, I gave up on the investigation and just decided that great knitting minds do, in fact, think alike. I'll think I'll go get some festival food from the Church Festival down the street, sip some lemonade, and marvel at the fact that I'm channeling the Yarn Harlot.

(P.S. She's working from a pattern, the Leyburn Sock, and after reading her post I'm wondering if I should buy the pattern, rip back, then work from it...)

(P.P.S. - The reason I'm thinking about changing mine is that I think hers is better. In every way.  Better yarn, better pattern, toe up... But this ball is rolling. Maybe if it loses momentum, I'll frog back and make some Jaywalker Socks. Whenever I see varigated yarn I want to make Jaywalker Socks.)

Time Waster

Yesterday I lost my size 5 rosewoods.

Instead of the usual actions (read as: Flipping out and tearing the house apart in attempts to find them, crying, finding them in a crazy place, like the fridge.) I calmly sewed up my current owl, took some yarn, and worked on different needles!

Was a working on a project on my laundry list? Was I cleaning my plate?

No, but I did make this cutie.  Then I watched the end of Gurren Lagaan with W. (There may have been crying then.) Then I finished this cutie.  Then W and I played with it and talked about animating my toys, and listened to music.

Then, when I went to write in my journal, I found one of the lost boys in my bag! Without even looking!

As for the other two... well, I can work with just two needles today! They'll come back when they're ready, I'm sure.

As they say, never put off for tomorrow what you can put off today... or something like that.  

Dear Me... Learn to Embroider

Other than that, the prototype for my next pattern is done!!

It's called Borneo, and it's a knit owl stuffie. 

There are a few adjustments between this critter and the final pattern.  The ears will be shorter, and the tail won't taper as fast, and of course, no wonky embroidery! I think button eyes are in order. Also, it will be a lot better knit :P This little guy feels rushed, but I WAS rushing to mail him to a friend from college, sooo...

I'm currently finished with a portion of the pattern-writing.  I'm planning on the pattern including instructions to make the doll in the round and flat with seams.  There will also be a "frankenowl" section on how to modify the pattern to make your own unique version.  It's a lot of work, test knitting, and designing, but in the end you will REALLY get your money's worth for this thing! It ain't no Dino.

I'm really excited to release this pattern, but it's probably not going to come out until September.  I'm going to aim to have the pattern written and tech edited by the end of the month, then give the world a month to test knit it, then release it September 1st. That's the TENTATIVE schedule, since I'm doing a million other knitting things at the moment. (Okay, maybe more like 4, but it sure feels like a million. I will most likely blog about all of them.)

OMG! That's me!

Can you spot Little Alyssa in these pictures?

SQUEE! I'm too excited to see she made it, in one piece, and got to be part of the exhibit.  I'll make sure to post up when she gets her five minutes of fame on the Stitch London Blog.

For now, you can see the posts about the exhibit here, and here :) 

Pattern Testing!

So, in order to fully understand the trials and tribulations of pattern testing, I decided to try and test a pattern myself. My own pattern? Yeah, none of that.  I wanted to try the free pattern testers group on Ravelry, but before I got to that, I noticed a post in another group that I'm in. 

That led me to create this glorious, glorious set of fingerless gloves!

The pattern doesn't have a name yet, but when it goes live I'll definitely post something up to tell everyone. I think that I helped the designer a lot.  I made the gloves in a smaller size, and I'm really happy how they stretch to fit my hands.  I centered the pattern on the back between two purl stitches to ... I dunno, just because. 

Taking photos of the two gloves together by myself was tough.  W was in Pennsylvania all this week, and I was left to take photos with a timer, balancing the camera under my chin.

 This one turned out ok.

 This one is photoshopped! (Evil me!) I took a picture of one hand, then the other, then over-layed the two layers. 

But, lo, I was also on the receiving end of pattern testing! I saw my mystery pattern come to life at the needles of some Ravelry users today, as well! I'm super, super excited.  

So this week, I got to give a new designer the chance to see their design made by someone else - and then I got that chance myself! I am definitely going to have all of my patterns tested from now on.  I also think that, if I get the chance, I'm going to test knit myself.  I think that test knitting can make me an even better designer :)

Guess what?

I finished these! Erm, yes, I really didn't give up brown, but, I also finished my blue stealth project and I'm partaway done on my neckwarmer. So, it's okay. I think I'm out of my brown stage.

 

Words cannot describe how I feel about these socks.  I'm an happy I finished them.  I bear no ill will against the Yarn, Knitpicks Stroll Kettle Dyed, from Ash. I have a little left over, which I plan to use in a design in the future.  I bear no grudge against the pattern, which I really didn't follow at all, so if I DID bear a grudge, it would be my own fault.

I'm just happy to have these socks out of my life.  BYE BYE! I think that 3-4 months is too long to knit a pair of socks.

Oh, guess what else?

Sunday's my birthday.

Almost Done with Color

Last night, I was about to give up on this thing.  Seriously.  I felt like it was to long, weird colors, and I was lazy.  The yarn was tangled, the stitches have clogged my circular, and it was an altogether uninviting thing.

Then, I tried to take a picture of it on me and realized that it's not so bad.  It could be worse.  It could be Mike's Socks (which only have an inch left of the pattern before the cuff! GAH!)

Then Lotus ran through my photo shoot, and I forgot about curses and went to take pictures of her.

So, my will to knit did not in fact leave... but that's only the first part of the curse.  The other parts are: (1) Not giving it away after I make it and (2) actually using it.   We'll see, we'll see.

Look at Lotus's buggy eyes! Is she just terrified of being held?

A Sea of Brown

You know what I realized this week? I am so over brown.  My two major projects, Mike's Socks and my stealth project, are both brown, a similar tone of brown, and both of them are causing me problems.  I'm not usually the type of knitter that gets frustrated with a project, but I am frustrated with brown!

It must've started on Tuesday, when I hit a bump in my stealth project.  I put it down and looked at what other project I could pick up.  Mike's socks? Erm... thanks, but no thanks, socks. I can't knit you right now.  

 I really wanted to start on a pair of fingerless gloves for one of my friend(?)s from college, I even have the colorwork all charted out, so I thought that was a worthy cause.  I got the yarn out and... brown! One of the colors is BROWN!

So, right now, I'm raging against brown and neutral tones and pulling out the color stops on these two projects.  I can't describe them in detail because one is going to be my first actually self-published .pdf (gak! Nerves!) and the other is going to be sent out and possibly published a year from now.

I can tell you the yarn, though! The two balls are Caron simply soft in seafoam (!) and Caron Simply Soft Brites in pink.  I'm double knitting them and from my experience with the afghan square, CSS gets very warm and soft when double knit, which I like.  The skein is Cascade 220 in a blue, the same yarn I made W's skinny bird with.

Hopefully these two projects will satisfy my urge for some color! Who knows, maybe next week I'll be frustrated with them and run right back to brown.

Yours is the Hat That WIll Pierce the Heavens!

After I made W that raspberry hat, he wore it a lot, but his only complaint was that the bulky yarn was so warm.  What's a girlfriend to do? I vowed to make him another to add to his collection of knit things.

We looked far and we looked wide.... Well, mostly I looked, on Ravelry.  I ran things by him, of course! When we came across Hurricane Hat by Strings in Motion, I commented on how it looked kind of like a drill.

"What! Yes! I could have... a hat that will pierce the heavens!"

"Uhwhaaaat?"

And then W made the comment that I should watch Gurren Lagann, and that I should also make that hat out of some gray that I have on tap from my grandmother.  So I made the hat, and now I'm watching the anime, and I really love it. 

The hat pattern itself is great, too! It's a simple pattern that you can seriously memorize in the time it takes you to read it.   I was working the set-up round and I thought "What...? Why didn't I think of that!? Jeez!!"   It really is a cute and easy pattern! I love the yarn, as well: Kraemer Yarns Tatami Tweed... with all sorts of color speckled in.  I'm not so sure about the material though: it's cotton-acrylic blend.  I'm not quite sure how it will stretch out with time (and W's noggin.)  He's very happy with it, especially since he can wear it in the hot, humid, icky weather.

Well, if it does become a misshapen mess, then I can always make another one!

Time to knit more things! *Dances off*