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?

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.

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?

Hope You Had a Great Easter!

And, if you don't do that sort of thing, a good weekend in general.

W and I spent most of Easter hunting for our eggs on his sister's property this year - thankfully, it was only about an hour and 45 minutes in the cold rain and mud.  Who started this tradition, anyway!?

We also got to meet Booker T, the cutest puppy ever.  I never thought I could like a dog, but I love Pugs.

Speaking of cute, we got to see our nephew! He's the recipient of the sweater I made a while back, though it's still a little small.

On a knitting note, I decided that my punishment for going a month without releasing a design was that I had to submit to a call on Ravelry.  So, today I did! I hope it gets accepted, but if not, the pattern is pretty much written - all I need is yarn support, so I could easily submit it somewhere else, or, spend the thirty bucks on yarn and self publish it.

New Free Pattern: Blueberry Chocolate Wrist Warmers

This weekend, I just felt like making something easy! So, I took a few minutes and whipped up this.

I used some leftover yarn from different projects, and I only ended up using about 75 yards total - and that's a conservative estimate.  They're very snug fitting, and can be easily modified by adding stitches two at a time!

I'm going to try to find someone to wear them, because my curse set in with this - the cuff is too tight, and the whole thing stretches just enough to irritate my perfectionism.  Who has wrists smaller than me?

Anyway, I think I may be on a roll again! 11 Designs in 2011? I might be able to do that.

As always, this is a free download from Ravelry, but please don't pass of my work as your own, and don't sell my work as if it's your own!

Just click the link below to download it!

download now

2KCBWDAY3 - Stash Organization

 How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

Living in a small space, I don't have the luxury of the awesome crafting studios and cupboards I've seen today from other bloggers.  Nope.  My stash is in a tupperware in my closet.



There are a few skeins around the house, but unless it's on the needles, it's probably in this box.  I like to keep things neat.  A few years ago, I heard horror stories about moths, and a girl at club had a bedbug infestation and we lost all of our charity yarn - so, now, I keep all my "nice" yarn sealed up in ziploc bags.  Yarn for specific projects is tied up in plastic bags. Cheap charity yarn/acrylic goes in a shopping bag all in a jumble.

To organize projects, I mostly use Ravelry and this blog to keep things sane.  I don't normally work on more than two or three projects at a time, so that kind of stuff isn't that hard.  I really love the queue and the stash organizer on Rav - I use them obsessively to plan out projects, see if I have enough yarn, etc. 

Oh, and another thing.  I have a secret stash of yarn.





Hehe.  Don't tell W!

One Down, One to Go!

Last night I finished 50% of W's socks. I'm pretty proud to have finished one so quickly, especially with all the other WIPs I have going on right now. (So... Many...)

Anyway, for posterity, I feel like I should write down what I did.  I don't feel like anyone else will want to know my particular manly sock formula, but I need to know it, to make the second sock!

So, here's the knit code:

72 Stitches. Work in a 3x3 rib for 11 rounds.  Work half a round, then start heel flap over 50% of the stitches.  Heel flap is 23 rows long, with a slipped stitch edge. Heel is a half kercheif heel with 7 stitches in the middle.  Pick up 15 stitches from either side of the heel flap. Decrease 7 times on each side for the gusset. Should be back to 72 stitches. Work 12 cm, then decrease four stitches every other round until there are 26 stitches. Kitchner off.

Free Pattern: Slouchy Ridges Hat

It is finished! It, being me. I'm finished compiling data from my awesome testers, sifting through photos of my sorry mug, tweaking pixels on the PDF... and now, I present my first pattern of 2011.

Pattern Name: Slouchy Ridges Hat

Difficulty: Easy

Yardage: 200 yards

Techniques: Knitting in the round, Working stripes (if you want a multicolored hat), and another technique explained in the pattern.

My goal this year is to publish 11 patterns. The ones I self-publish will be free all year long, and on January first of 2012 they'll go up for sale, so download this one while you can!

What I like about this hat is that it's stockinette stitch in the round, making it a good zone-out project, but every so often there's the pick-up round, where you have to pay attention.  It's hard to find knitting projects that have that duality.

Anyway, I hope you like it, too! You can download your own free copy here: download now

New Year, New Design

All crafters get requests from friends and families, but knitters more so. Whether it's a hat for a sibling, mittens for a guy on a bus, or dolls for who knows who, I've done a ton of knitting for others (all of my knitting). Last year, I even got a request to make someone a mer-horse.

Usually, when someone asks me to make them something, I assume they're serious. I ask for measurements, yarn support, what color they want, and if they want to pay me (usually all I ask is that the person buy yarn before the project, and after the project they can "tip" however much they want.) I admit, not a sensible business model but I'm not in the knitting business.

I've had requests for gloves, hats, and even a Barbie sweater "of the finest silk." Often, after the serious talk starts, the person blinks, suprised, asks "You'll seriously do it?" and then needs some "time to think."  Usually I don't hear back from them, the subject is dropped, and they never mention it.  But this time that didn't happen.

My friend asked me to knit her cat a sweater.  Now, my cat experience has told me that cats might not like sweaters, but this cat does.  Zucchi loves wearing her sweater, and by golly, if she wants to wear sweaters I should provide a variety for her.  What are friends for?

So tonight at club I'm going to cast on for my second WIP of the year.  The first sweater will be red, with embroidered white flowers on the back, and the second sweater will be faux argyle on the back and plain in the front.  I'm going to improvise the second sweater based on the measurements I took from Zucchi's current sweater, and the first sweater is going to be the Kitty Cat Argyle Sweater from Eat Sleep Knit.

You may say that all the stress from my vacation has warped my mind.  I will neither confirm nor deny that statement.

Exciting News and Ideas!

Several good things are happening to me lately!

1.  It seems that I WON'T kill myself this Christmas with handmade gifts.  Assuming that I can finish the final pair of slippers before Thursday of next week... this might all work out!

2.  I want to start a pattern collection.  Lately I've been thinking of nothing but knit pencil cases for some creepy, strange reason... so, I'm going to challenge myself next year! Put out a pattern every month!  January will be the slouchy hat that I'm currently having test knit, but after that it will be pencil cases :) A set of 11 pencil cases for your knitting pleasure.

3.  And I'm making English muffins from scratch today, that can't go wrong.

A Glimpse into the Design Notebooks

Lots of fun things are happening around here, which I'll be able to blog about later in the week, but for now I thought I'd share something very personal... my design notebooks.

This book was started when I was still in high school (over 4 years ago!) The title of the book became the title of my old knitting blog. It has some great ideas...

Kitten mittens and a not so bad hat.

;)

My current book is a bit smaller.

It also has some great ideas... but some of them are in progress, or I looked them up and there are patterns that do the same durn thing... or I just don't feel like making them.

Yes, my original owl design had colorwork... but it didn't look good at all!

Moustache Mittens! Teehee.

I also do a lot of doodling on papers... in class...

Trying to figure out mittens for W... but they're all girly.

Pokemon schematics! My mom really wants a Meowth...

Pikachu schematics :)

Sometimes I'll draw the same thing obsessively...

There are also some horrible, horrible ideas.

Can you imagine how terrifying these would look? Baklavas are scary enough.

This sweater turned out HORRIBLY.

And then there are doodles of the cats that lived in my neighborhood in Sidney.

I have so many pages and pages of ideas... I think if I dropped out of school and just knit, I'd be 100 before I made them all!

How to Draw an Owl

Yes. Another one of these? I don't know, I thought I'd share my madness method.  Also, I would like to post something but am rather depressed and stressed and super-over-worked.  But the quarter is half way over, only 5 more weeks, and next quarter I'm taking less credits (or my parents will cut me off.)

These are, of course, based on the 1,000,000,000,000 doodles I did before I even started working on the owls pattern. I tend to get things in my head, and think about them over and over again, and when they don't go according to plan (as in, I don't see anyone make them, don't have any test knitters, no one says they like them, blah blah) I get rather glum and down on myself. I won't say I'm a perfectionist, just an expectionist, I guess.  

Anyway, here's the little how-to, I'm going to get some cheese for my whine.

(There's a jump, so if you don't want to draw an owl, you don't have to ;P)

Just Say NO to Knitting Without Paying Attention!

Another day, another mistake on my Spring Pools Socks.

Yes, I did. I knit from the wrong skein! I blame the television, since I was watching it and knitting.

Also, I'm starting another project... a secret sock project, in this yarn.

All I can say is that I've been wanting to design these socks for a LONG time! They were originally meant for W, but look what I noticed when I read the label on the yarn.

100% Merino wool. That explains why this yarn is SO delicious feeling... but, that's not a W yarn. I love him to pieces, but I don't know if he's ready to take the step to 100%, non-washable, can't-just-throw-in-the-machine socks. He IS a guy, and it's not like I do his laundry all the time. Just some of the time. I'm not going to risk it.

So, maybe these socks will be me socks. Or, maybe I'll give them away to someone ;)

While I was sniffling over my stupid mistakes, I figured I would take some time to photograph Lotus.  While I was cleaning out her cage I snapped some photos of her.

Lotus always brightens my day. Or, at least, punishes me for being gloomy. I like to lie in bed and read while she rummages around the covers, playing cave explorer, I assume. Today she crawled up my pillow and attempted to eat my hair.

It's pretty hard to get good photos of Lotus, because she's happiest in the dark. I use my drafting lamp to give light, but direct it away from her so that she notices it less.

But I love looking at pictures of her :)

Borneo Test Knit - Carla

I absolutely love, love, love Carla's Borneo :)

What do you think? Adorable? YES.

Carla is known as OkamiShoujo on Ravelry, and her project page is here. You should definitely check out Carla's blog, Tiny.Angry.Crafter, which is an awesome read, and her etsy shop, Tiny Angry Crafts! :)

The photos are taken by her, pattern by yours truly!

Oh, about the pattern... It is now up and ready for sale! You can buy it from Ravelry.com for US$2.50! This is my first for-sale pattern, and I'm super, super excited to bring it to you.  I can't wait to see people make my doll :)

If you'd like to buy Borneo, you can click here or follow the link below!