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 :)

Testing 1... 2... 3...

So, I learned a valuable lesson this week.  That lesson: the power of the test knitting. 

It all started when I got a message from a user on ravelry asked me a question about Dino.  Of course! I'm always happy to clear up questions about my patterns! Let's take a look.

(Ten minutes later)

"What?"

(Thirty minutes with an open notebook in front of me later...)

"No. Seriously.  What!?"

I have no idea why I wrote down what I did in that pattern.  The set up round before the neck is supposed to be there, it provides a taper that I like... but the entire rest of the body is written completely ignoring the number of stitches after the set up round, not before.

I feel horrible for not catching this mistake, but I feel even worse because people have KNIT Dino. They have encountered this problem, and, god bless them, they haven't said anything.  Thanks for suffering in silence!  

I have learned my lesson, though.  From now on, all of my patterns that qualify are going to be tested. I'm really sorry to everyone that knit Dino and got frustrated! It really bums me out, and I hope that it doesn't happen again...

Once again, really sorry!

Public Service Announcement

It is my birthday.

That is all!

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*