Class Samples

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm super psyched to have 2 new crochet classes on my June class schedule. So to "advertise" for the classes, I made samples to have in the shop and pique people's interest. Of course, that's not fair for you out-of-town readers (do I have *any* readers?) so I'm posting pictures here!

First up, the Garden Tie-Backs. A super cute way to hold back curtains and add a little floral happiness to a room. I really love the unique construction of these--its not just a solid band with flowers on it. The thick part has a neat pseudo-ribbing and the hanging flower bits are actually multiple chains that join where the flowers attach. It makes it more fun to make and gives it a much more full appearance.

Next is the awesome Black Lacy Triangles necklace. Its a great combination of crochet lace and an introduction to crochet jewelry. The actual beads & sequins on mine is more of a fuchsia color, but somehow turned out looking purple in the photo. I kind of wish it was actually purple--I think that looks much cooler! I think I will make myself one of these necklaces with different bead work.

Now I need to write a pattern for an amigurumi pony. I put it on the class schedule but have no pattern. eek! I've looked up a few online and found some cuties, but none were free patterns. So I'll just take the features that I like best from each one and make my own. Lets hope that works out!

Speaking of classes, I got my first Student's Choice sign up--and they want to learn to read patterns & charts. I can do both, but still working out how to teach it. I think it'll be best to just go through some textures in a book and make the item while following along in the written pattern and chart. I'm open to suggestions, so if you have a better idea, please share!

On non-class news I broke my "no-new-projects-till-I-finish-all-UFOs" pledge (as part of Spring Cleaning the shop has a "finish your UFOs" theme for April) to cast-on a lacy shawl for the MIL. Only 2 weeks till Mother's Day so I had to start now if I want a chance to finish by then. It'll be a focus for a little bit, but then back to finishing!

June Crochet Classes

I'm so excited! I contacted Sandra from Cherry Heart about her Garden Tie Backs pattern and Fatima from Crochetology.net about her Black Lacy Triangles pattern, and both have given me permission to use them for classes! I'm so excited!! :D I love both of these patterns and hopefully they'll bring in some more students to the shop.

Both classes will be in June, with the Garden Ties being on June 3 from 6-8pm and the Black Triangles on June 12 from 2:30-4:30. Squee!

Now to advertise out the wazoo :)

I should probably take photos of my finished objects from these patterns to help advertise... on the To Do list for today!

MIA

Wow, I was gone for quite a bit there.

I lost some momentum with all blogging, and really I stopped when I found out I was getting laid off (about a month after my last post). I'm still unemployed, and while the extra time has been kind of good for crafting, its been a tough & depressing time.

But things are looking up! Sun is shining! I'm now the Crochet instructor at Natural Stitches! I'm interviewing for jobs, and trying to make the most of the time left (I'm *really* hoping I get a job soon).

So back to updates! I'll probably make some notes about my thoughts on teaching (so far had two classes, both with great students, and I've already learned a bunch about how & what to teach), and talk a bit more about my current projects (yarn & otherwise).

disappointment

The Ravelympics have come & gone and I completely failed them. I had originally planned to focus on finishing projects & get a bunch of things done during the 2 weeks of the olympics. Did I? Nope. Didn't finish a damn thing. I did succeed in not starting anything new, but didn't finish anything yarn-related either. :-/

Sock #4 of the Sock Knitting Pentathlon was posted yesterday morning, and I was a bit saddened by it as well. Its Ziggy, a pattern that while cute is one I've already seen and already had in my queue. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to make them, but so far the SKP patterns have been ones that are new to me so this was a little disappointing since this one's not. Also, it seems almost cheap to use a pattern from Knitty--its a *very* commonly read site and a major source of many patterns. I mean, anyone could have done these. Sure, the point of this is speed, but I dunno. I'm plodding along with my Ziggies and will hopefully have them done in about a week.

I have a slew of things I want to do for the holidays, and part of me is already freaking out that I won't finish in time. The major issue is that damn lace shawl. The completist in me wants to finish it before doing anything else lace. But given how long it takes to do (about 4 rounds in an hour. I have about 45 more rounds to go before the edging--so I'm guessing about 20+ hours more of work) it seems like I should really focus on the holiday presents first since they have more of a time restriction. Blargh. Just don't know what to do. Thoughts?

Thoughts on Lace

I've reached an interesting point in my knitting.

wait, lemme back track this:

I'm a big stickler for finishing things. I hate to leave projects unfinished. Even if I'm sick of it by the end, I want it done so I can be completely over and done with something and not having it lingering about in its semi-done state.

So I started doing that mystery shawl lace knit-along. And its awesome. Its nice to have others knitting along with you, its neat to see the other combinations and shawls that are being created in all the various colors. But damn if lace isn't the most anti-social knitting. Its not hard, you just have to pay attention. So for a lot of it you can't really talk, you can't really listen, you just have to focus on the knitting itself. Which means I can't bring it along to knitting nights since, well, I'd be pretty boring and would probably make oodles of mistakes by being distracted. And that also means I have to have at least one other "portable" project going so I can take it to knitting nights. To have more than one project going at a time is just crazy for me.

And this is my interesting point that I've reached. I'm so close to being finished with the shawl. I'm on the last major clue and then its the edging. I want to be done. I'm so excited to block it and see what it *really* looks like. I want to make other shawls in other colors. Lace is fun, dispite being anti-social. I like the challenge of it and how delicate & pretty it is.

I'm running out of portable projects that need to be finished. I don't want to start new ones--I just want to finish the lace! It's driving me nuts to start something else when I have something already on the needles. argh!

Hopefully soon, soon I will be done. This week won't be a big knitting week because of preparations for company and the birthday party this weekend. But next week? oh, how I hope next week can be a crazy lace-filled week and I can move on!

I'm still alive!

Wow, 2 months since an update. Man, I suck!

I do have good reason--life just got in the way. I was so busy with school, and vacation, and summer school, and all the rest of life's craziness that I just didn't blog. whoops.

But I was crafty! :)

Lets see...

I finished Valerie's bag but never submitted it to Knitty. I lost track of time & missed the deadline. part of me thinks I should just publish it myself here (and I just might) or to at least try and send it there. I'll have to ponder it some more.

The 2nd pair of socks from the SKP2008 was posted May 1, and by May 7 I had a lovely pair of Berlin Muster socks!

Yarn is Micro Bamboo in Aqua, which was a joy to work with. The Berlin Muster pattern was nice. It was a little bit frustrating at first since the English translation of it (and the chart!) was wrong and it took some figuring out and help to get it right. Luckily, since its a world-wide knit-along there was lots of help and everything was figured out. I'm really looking forward to the next pattern--just 4 more days! squee!

I also made my 2nd hat for my nephew, a Little Devil Hat. Super quick knit, easy pattern, can be made with scrap yarn. I can't wait to see little Oskar in it!! :)


I've been on a big "make for Oskar" kick lately (and probably will be for a while. baby things are so cute, soft, and fast to make!!) so I also made him a "cuddle blanket." Its too small to be a real blanket, but is a great size to carry around and just cuddle with.

The yarn is Plymouth Oh My! and OMG is it soft. I will *definitely* be getting more of this to make more baby things with. The yarn was originally purchased while on vacation so I'll be doing some internet searching to get some more. mmmm... so squishy soft. Fantastic!

Oskar is also getting a Fishie Washcloth and another spiral scrubby.



Finally, I made a Baby Bear Hoodie. I think it turned out well, but I'm very disappointed in the pattern. First, I had to use nearly 1.5 skeins of yarn *more* than the amount listed, and I had to go down 2 needle sizes to get the gauge right, which hurt my hands a ton. This was a royal pain in the butt. The yarn is kind of neat, but I don't forsee doing much with it in the future (I do have enough to make another jacket in black, so I just might. but not for a while.)


On the needles now: nearly finished with a diaper cover, working on a hooded baby blanket, and some yoga socks. Also participating in a mystery shawl lace project, where each "clue" is posted every week. So far 2 clues posted and I think I'm doing okay. Lace isn't as hard as it was made out to be. Or maybe this isn't a super advanced pattern. Or maybe I just rule so much now that this isn't a challenge ;)
Clue 3 goes up tomorrow! I'm enjoying this lace stuff--I really want to do more!

Now that classes are over I'm psyched to do some origami and hopefully get started with the jewelry making I wanted to do for months now.

Photo-Free post

Life is getting in the way of life yet again, so my progress on crafty projects has been minimal lately.

I have done a lot with Valerie's bag, but have removed all photos of it so that I might have a chance to get it published in Knitty. I have no idea if they'll select it since its a pretty simple pattern and they get TONS of submissions, but I figure what they hey, why not? I'll find out sometime around June if its accepted, and if not I'll be posting the pattern on my "official site." The main bag portion is done, now just have to finish the mat bag, pockets, straps, and put it all together. Should be done in a week or so.

Last year I had planned to make a knit bikini & sarong for our beach vacation. The bikini pattern proved to be obnoxious since the yarn used has been discontinued and using different yarn resulted in a top that was either way too big or way too small. I never got to finish the sarong either. So I found new bikini patterns and have decided to re-start the sarong. Unfortunately, its lace and half of it fell off the needles in the year it was sitting, so I had to frog it all and start over. Luckily I wasn't that far along so its not a huge waste. Once Valerie's bag is finished I'm going to focus on the bikini & sarong so they can be done by May 23 (the day we leave for the beach). or at least have the sarong done since it will need to be blocked and I'm not bringing all that stuff with me.

In other crafty news I came up with a great plan for the origami flowers for my wedding centerpieces. I had originally wanted red metallic flowers, but the fiancee vetoed that idea, thinking it looked cheesy. It also had the problem of the outside being white and looking bad. So I got some spray glue and red tissue paper and glued the tissue paper to both sides of the metallic paper. This not only makes it a matte color, and 2-sided, but gives the inside a subtle sparkle. It also means I can use any of the light-colored origami paper for the flowers, not just the red. Yay! Its one more step in the process, but well worth it. If I ever find a good vase I'll be sure to make a sample & post it here...

Progress

The dreaded baby blanket is finally finished! Yay!



This was a big pain in my butt. I'm glad to have it done. It wasn't difficult, just time consuming and soooo boring!

Also, in time for Easter I whipped up a cute little sheep:

.

After the blanket I decided it was time to pull something off the queue for me, so I did a super-fast crochet tank top:

Its a little bit revealing--good for a beach cover-up but I don't know that I'll wear it much beyond that. Maybe after I lose a few more pounds ;)

After the tank I started on a special bag/yoga mat bag combo for Valerie. All the yoga mat bag patterns I've found are only for the mat, which means you have to carry a 2nd bag for a change of clothes. annoying! So I'm making her a customized combo bag that'll have lots of little pockets & a drawstring and a special compartment for clothing & another for the mat. Its gonna look awesome. Very excited for this one. If it turns out well I'll submit it to Knitty (and if they don't like it I'll post it myself).

Sunday there was a special rare yarn-only sale at Natural Stitches so I broke the yarn diet for this one occasion. I did only buy yarn for specific projects, and decided thats how the diet will be for this month--even if its a great deal can't buy it unless its for something specific.

This week: Start on the fancy dress I got the yarn for at the yarn sale, continue to work on Val's bag. Whee!

Queue is raging out of control

Pretty low-key week in craft world.

photo of the cute egg warmers:

Dad loved them.

Went to both knitting groups again, and this time KT came along to both as well. I had a good time, and I think she did too.

Worked a ton more on the baby blanket. Its nearly done--I'll hopefully finish this week. I'm so tired of it. Its just boring and taking soooo long. I know it will be appreciated, but I think I need to take a break and do some "me" projects for a little while. Or at least concurrently.

Have a ton of new books now, 3 of which arrived today. I do believe I now own all of the Stitch n' Bitch knitting & crochet books, and also got an awesome origami jewelry one as a surprise random gift. Went through the stitch n' bitches and went nuts adding projects to my queue. The list of things to make has probably doubled now, but there are so many neat designs! Gah! I wonder if I'll ever actually go through the whole list or if it will be a never ending list of things to create.

The origami jewelry book is really cool--most of the patterns themselves aren't anything new, but the ideas on preserving and using the paper as beads is very neat. Its given me the idea of making the flower corsage things for our moms/g-moms to wear for the wedding.

Plans for the week ahead: going to go to both knitting groups again, finish the baby blanket, crochet a cute tank/swimsuit cover, prep some origami paper for flower samples and see what preservation methods work best. Looks like a productive but fun week ahead!

Mama's a Yarn Ho

Not a big week in the world of craftiness...

Things I did:

• Worked more on Ada's baby blanket. This is taking a lot longer than I thought--next time I'll properly check gauge (by not checking this is 3" wider than anticipated) and use bigger needles to speed up the process. I'd like to hurry this up so I only have 1 daunting task (Bonnie's scarf) and can move on to more fun & exciting things.


• Cute little Egg Warmers for Dad's Birthday. I don't usually give Dad gifts, but since its on Easter this year and these were too cute I decided to send him a little something. I don't have a photo yet, expect that in the next posting.


• Ordered 20 packs of metallic origami paper and got a surprise Origami Jewelry book from Chuck. Looking forward to starting on some wedding paper stuff and think I'll make Origami Jewelry for the mom's to wear at the wedding :)

The big thing (which is so big its beyond the bullets) was I cataloged my yarn. All of it. Or, well, nearly all of it, as I know of a few balls of yarn that have gone missing but must be lurking somewhere in the apartment. Grand total? 370 skeins of yarn. 209 different types/colors. 6 categories for sorting/storing (including one "To Do" bag for yarn specifically purchased for a project in the queue). Wow. It took me a bit to realize the Ravlery total in their Stash is for the different types/colors of yarn, not total # of balls. Luckily a quick sum function in excel later I knew. Wow. What sucks is I had originally planned to really sort through and donate a good chunk of it to some of the charity knits around. 95% of it I don't want to, and most of the last 5% is just yarn remnants. I do have maybe 5-10 skeins I could part with. After sorting it all I realized most I *had* bought for a someday project (like, this would make a great sweater. Since its on sale I'll get it now) or had intended for a project but turned out not to work out so I had to get something else. Very little of it is completely random. I guess I'm just an addict :P I did learn that my stash is minuscule compared to the people at the knitting group's stashes. Doesn't make me feel any better. I think my new plan will be for the next x months I can only buy yarn for a specific project, and for each one I buy yarn for I have to make one of equivalent size using what I have. So when I get yarn for that dress I want to make I'll probably be making a whole bunch of egg warmers and do-knits ;)

Plans for this week: do as much baby blanket as possible, start doing sample origami flowers and animals.

updates & quizzes

Beth posted a fun quiz so of course I had to take it:

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Merino Wool.You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to keep you close because you are so softhearted. You love to be comfortable and warm from your head to your toes.
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

I was hoping for something a bit more exciting, but I guess I'm not a very exciting person :P

The SKP2008 socks are finally finished!

(You can see a bit more of the detail here and here)

My co-worker also commissioned me to make her a baby blanket. Her 2 year old daughter has 2 knitted blankets that she adores, but a 3rd would be handy so there is always one available while the others are being washed. Co-worker's mom crocheted a blanket and the girl just hates it! The theory is its something about the feel of knitting that she likes, and since I knit I was recruited! So I picked up some pink yarn (as I have none in the house) and started on that after finishing my socks. Its going much slower going than I had hoped (thats what I get for being cheap and not getting the larger size needles to make this a little faster).


Hopefully I can go to both Tuesday & Thursday knitting groups this week. Its Spring Break for class so I should have the time. Woo! Now if it would only warm up & stop snowing I could go back to biking...

"I suffer the dreams of a world gone mad"

When we last left our intrepid explorer she was wandering the paths of a yarn jungle...

I only made small things the past few days so I'd be able to focus on the Sock Pentathlon.

I whipped up the Urchin beret:


and some dough-knits:


March is "Yarn Diet" and "Yarn Catalog" month. I will not buy any new yarn and I will try to add all the yarn I currently own to my Ravelry stash.

This week brought with it 2 yarn orders (that were placed in February): one with a ton of stuff from Knit Picks and one with just a few things to take advantage of the yarn sale at Joann. I was sad to discover the yarn I had specifically purchased for the sock contest has gotten horrible reviews as a sock yarn (it apparently wears out after only 7 or 8 wears!) This saddened me, so I had to get some new sock yarn. Its a nice blue, but not as pretty or soft as the other stuff. I guess I'll find some non-sock purpose for it. I ordered 2 new books so that should help.

The socks for the pentathlon have been started. The pattern went up at Midnight Friday/Saturday March 1. I had thought about staying up and at least starting the socks, but after a week of work I was too tired. By the time I got up at 9am on Saturday someone had already finished the pair! Wow! I've finished one sock and started on the second. I realized I made a mistake in the pattern on the second one so I'll probably go back and re-do it (luckily I haven't made too much progress on it). The bind-off on the first sock is a little tight so I'm going to go back & do a crochet bind-off to make it looser. Photos will be posted when they're finished ;)

I did go to both the knit-alongs at Knit One and Natural Stitches. Both have pros and cons. KO is within walking distance and on Thursdays (when Chuck has a game), but while the people were nice I felt they were a little cliquey and we didn't have much in common. NS is an annoying drive away (but not far) and on Tuesdays (one night when Chuck's free), but was very friendly and easy to talk with and instantly made me feel welcome. I plan to keep going to both for a while and may just do one or the other some weeks. It was my first visit to Natural Stitches and wow is it a great store. The prices were very reasonable and the selection--lots of practical but neat yarn. Not too much uber fancy or $50 skein stuff. More my kind of yarn. I can't wait till my March yarn diet is over so I can go crazy there! :D

This week I hope to finish the 2nd sock and then start (and hopefully finish) 2 water-bottle containers for Steph. Next up is a clothing/yoga mat bag for Valerie and then who knows what! Maybe inspiration will strike while sorting the stash.

In non-yarn news I've come up with a concrete idea of what origami to do for the wedding and ordered some basic paper to get sizing ideas for when I make the big order and go nuts with the folding. Woo!

Productive little weekend

In an effort to prepare for the Sock Pentathlon coming up I didn't want to start any new projects, but needed something to do while on breaks from Bonnie's scarf. So I made lots of little things this weekend.

First I whipped up a little Baby Bunny Hat:

for my sister's upcoming baby. Of course, it'll be nearly a year before the baby can wear it, but I just couldn't resist!

Then I made some bath poofs:

which are super easy and fast. Not as nice in the shower as I was hoping, but still nice. I might modify the pattern slightly (mainly use a bigger hook) to make it poofier and better for making good soap lather.

Jim mentioned he needed a scarf to go with his not-super-warm-but-neat-looking coat so I took it as an opportunity to deplete some of the stash and whipped up a simple double-crochet stitch scarf:

Its not super long, but is thick & warm and does the trick. Jim is pleased :)

Finally, I decided I was tired of my current winter hat and needed a new one. This resulted in creation of the Urchin Beret:

I screwed up a bit in the beginning of the hat, having misunderstood the pattern. Luckily the yarn style and the stitch used made it pretty well masked so I just continued on making the rest of the hat the right way. Its a little lumpy and asymmetrical but still looks fine when worn and is nice & warm.

Tonight I'm going to go to Natural Stitches for the Ravelry knit-along, and Thursday going with KT to the Knit One knit-along. Lots of social knitting for me! woo!

Sock pentathlon starts Saturday--can't wait!! :D