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 :)

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?