Friday, May 27, 2011

Storm-zilla

IMG_1569

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.

IMG_1577

IMG_1564

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!

IMG_1563
IMG_1591

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.

IMG_1575

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!

IMG_1574

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!

IMG_1598

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

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Socks Afire!


IMG_1550

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.

IMG_1549

Jazz!

IMG_1543

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!

IMG_1545

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.

IMG_1553

Monday, May 23, 2011

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
Rachael from Rachael's Knits
Annette from Knotrune
Jordan from In It To Knit It
Toby from Gizmometer
Sherry from A Written Life

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

Saturday, May 21, 2011

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

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The World Needs More Knitted Hedghogs

IMG_1423

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!

IMG_1437

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.

IMG_1431

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.)

IMG_1435

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?

Sunday, May 15, 2011

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.

IMG_1468

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 :)

Friday, May 13, 2011

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!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...