UFO Update

(I have to apologize in advance for the formatting. Blogger makes me crazy. Editing is a pain in the ass and "Preview" is a total joke. So the layout here is kind of clunky, and I don't really understand why it's so freaking narrow. I'm sure it's fixable but quite frankly, I don't have the patience.)

I went to KnitNight at Clever Knits on Tuesday. (linked to their website, which has been having some problems lately, so don't blame me if the link doesn't work!)

I'm trying to be slightly more social and get out around other knitters. Otherwise I tend to get a little bit into my own head too much. The place was PACKED and it was kind of nice to sit quietly and listen to everyone talk.

I tried to resist, but I couldn't help but buy some of the gorgeous O-Wool in a scrumptious turqoise shade.

Then I signed up for their crochet class - I've been trying to teach myself to crochet but for some reason it is just not happening for me! I've never taken a knitting or crochet class, so this will be interesting! Of course I had to buy materials for the class - I wouldn't dream of using something I already have, that would make too much sense. I bought Cascade 220 in that delicious green you see on the left - (you can never have too much Cascade 220) - and a beautiful Brittany Crochet Hook. (note - Brittany needles and hooks are exquisitely beautiful. I can't get enough of them! They trade places with Lantern Moon as my favorite knitting needles. Well, and the Addi Turbos for lace. But that goes without saying.)

I only spent $40, which, considering my track record at yarn stores, is NOT BAD AT ALL.

The problem is, I have umpteen-dozen UnFinishedObjects (UFO's) on the needles that are dragging me down! So the goal here is to finish them in some kind of timely manner so that I can justify starting something new. Here's what I have.

SchoolTeacher Tie:



This is for my brother Robbie, who is starts (TEACHING!) school this fall. This is the skinny tie that will never end. I think I've been knitting on this for months! I only have about 3" to go, but those three inches of teeny-tiny stockinette stitches in the round seem like 3 miles. I tend to work on this in the car on the way to work. (and no, I'm not driving! That's just one of the many benefits of carpooling.)




Next on the list is a scarf for an unnamed SIL who loves anthropologie. Don't ask me how I know this, it could be because she mentions it on her blog on a regular basis. So I was looking and looking for a scarf pattern that would be anthropologistic. I think I downloaded about a dozen scarf patterns before deciding on this one. I chose it because the pattern was supposed to be fast, fun, and it used bulky yarn, which means done faster!!! Unless you run out of yarn. Which I did.



And here's another mystery project for another family member. This was going to be a Christmas present LAST year, but you can see how well that's going:



I have another half-dozen or so almost-finished, finished but I want to rip them out, finished except for the blocking, and finished but I hate it and don't know what to do with it project. (okay, now that I think about it, it's closer to two dozen.)

Before I go, (likely to start a new project entirely, let's be realistic here) I leave you with a gratuitous cat pic of Bugatti, caught in a rare moment when she's NOT trying to kill someone (she just looks like she wants to.)

Working working working

Wow, I have been BUSY! I got a full-time job recently and it's amazing how much of a shift it is to go from working about 20 hours a week to working 40 hours a week. I also get up at 4am to be at work by 5:30 and I think my body is still rebelling. The last few nights I haven't gotten much sleep, and I'm baking frantically for the Susan G. Komen bake sale tomorrow at work. I only have about 6 dozen cookies done - and I feel like a slacker!!

In other news, I've been knitting and stuffing madly. I have so many things to finish and so many things to photograph!

Here's a bit of what I've been working on.

I just finished this Boheme for a friends baby:




And I've been working on this for another baby:



And here's a sneak peek of things to come in my etsy shop:



Wondering what it is? You'll just have to wait and see...

Ravel and Rave

Right before we left for the Grand Canyon, I got this BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL package from my secret swapper. I have already dispersed and absorbed everything into my daily life, but just to show you how wonderful it is I have gathered it back together for a reunion show.



WOW. And I do mean wow. An accessory bag that matches the boxy bag she got me last month - EXACTLY what I needed, especially right before a trip! A little pin from the Loopy Ewe, which I put on the accessory bag, some awesome stitch markers (one of which is already in play on the socks I'm knitting for my dad) and a keychain retracting tape measure, also from the Loopy Ewe. (A tape measure in your knitting bag!?! Who comes up with these things???!!!)

Oh, and of course the chocolate, which, naturally, is already gone. (Peanut M&M's? PERFECT in trail mix! And caramel kisses... sighhhhh... I will be spending the next three hours at the gym.)

The yarn. Can we just talk about this for a minute? I love it. It's a yarn I've never used and it's SO AWESOME. She even included a sock pattern with it! Socks for me, HOORAY! Of course I have three birthday presents I'm working on right now, so socks for me are going to have to wait a while, but they'll be so cute with my new Merrell Mary Janes that I got from my mom over the holidays (and I've been looking for the perfect socks for them, too!)



The sock blocker keychain -- SOCK BLOCKER KEYCHAIN, y'all! -- is too adorable for words, and even better: it came with a teeny-tiny little pattern so the sock blocker doesn't have to go barefoot.

The lotion is simply lovely, the perfect scent, not overpowering, and absorbs quickly and makes my hands feel soft. The incense is HEAVENLY. I must know where she got it because I've burned 3 -- make that 5 -- sticks already and I'm about to light up a fourth -- make that sixth. I love it! The candle too! Such a wonderful scent. And check out the "Sheep" hangy placard thingie. AWESOME. And it all comes together just as I'm putting up my cutting table again for the first time in years. It's just the perfect thing to make this a wonderful, peaceful, creative space so that I can get my groove back and kick my etsy shop into high gear.

Thank you. SO much.


And now it's time for the Ravelry Warm Ewe Up Winter Swap Bi-Weekly Question:

What knitting/crochet pattern have you worked that you could see yourself making over and over and never get tired of?

Hmm. This is tough. I tend to not EVER want to make the same thing again. I get bored easily, and I like to create my own patterns. So my first thought is: "Socks." Does "socks" count as one pattern? I'm working on the Stalwart Left Right Socks from Heartstrings Fiber Arts for my dad. It's an awesome pattern (and I'm knitting from a chart again! egads!)

So if I wanted to narrow even further, I could say baby socks. I love knitting up these tiny little bits of wonderful. They're so quick, they use up those little leftover bits of yarn in my stash, and the results are too twee even for me.

mmmmm.... socks....

No work! More working!

My seasonal gig has ended for the... well, season, naturally, which means more time to focus on the stuff that I live for, which is designing.

The last few days have been busy. I finally got my cutting table out of storage and pulled everything out of my workspace/office/studio. Let's just call it a studio, I like calling it a studio. It makes me feel all designery, and not like someone who just can't get a "real" job.

So I'm completely reorganizing to make room for the cutting table, and right now things in here are just plain chaotic. I've been working on it for three days, and for quite a while there it looked worse than when I began, but things are finally starting to come together, just in time for me to go out of town for a few days. Sigh.

I can't complain though -- my roommate Jules just got an exciting (well, if you're a geek it's exciting, I barely understand half the things that come out of her mouth) new job, and wanted to take a break between her old job and the new one, so we're leaving for the Grand Canyon early tomorrow morning! I'm so excited; I've never been, plus Jules is going to drive most of the way which means I get to work on the Clapotis, which I finally cast on for yesterday! I'm using the gorgeous ella rae lace merino from my yarn swap, and I just love the way it's knitting up. Plus it's a very simple knit, which makes it perfect for travel. And I just LOVE the way this knits up. From far away it looks almost grey, and then you get close and it's this wonderful mix of purpley auburney hues.



YUMMY!

In a related, but sadder note, I (almost) finished the baby socks I was knitting, and I RAN OUT OF YARN! Know anybody who can send me about 3 yards of Trekking? I'm thinking about ripping back the toe on the finished one and then redoing both toes in a contrast color, but I don't ahve one in my stash, so I may end up buying more Trekking anyway. Which I sort of ok, I guess, because I do love the colors, but -- ARGH.

Of course, I could also knit a matching cap out of it. hmmm... Ideas? Anyone?



And while I try not to post too many cat pics, this one is irresistable. This is the Xander-mouse, who was pretty content with all the rearranging bustle yesterday, because he found the perfect vantage point from which to watch:



That's all for now!

Babies, babies, babies! oh, and pricing

It seems that everyone I know is having babies! Aside from being crazy jealous, (what's THAT? Is this the biological clock thing I hear so much about on the TV machine?) I am in knitting - well, heaven or hell, depending on how you look at it. So many babies! So many cute things to knit for them! So few hours in the day!

I haven't posted anything new to my shop on etsy for a while. It's not just the aforementioned job but also realizing that I'm not charging enough for what I'm selling there.

The struggle I'm having is, as always, a complex one, one I think other artisans understand, and that's Perceived Value. First, we tend to undervalue ourselves, secondly many buyers don't value handmade when they can get "the same thing" for one-tenth the price at Wal-Mart, and third, we are often competing with OTHER sellers who undervalue THEMselves. I'm pretty sure I've blogged about this before.

So I tend to price things for "what I think they'll sell for" instead of what I think they're WORTH, and as a consequence I frequently find myself packing something up to ship and then, after paying postage and PayPal and etsy and looking at what's left in my account, I get this sick feeling.

At the same time, no matter how long it takes me to knit a cover for a tin can pencil cup, no matter how beautiful it is, and no matter what the yarn cost, I still can't comprehend anyone paying $45 for a pencil cup. (No, you haven't seen any pencil cups in my etsy shop and you never will, but I do love the way my paintbrushes look in it.)

There is a point to all this, and babies do figure into it, and I'm fairly certain I'm about bring it all together and make my point. Stay with me!

For several months I've been searching for the "perfect" argyle vest pattern for my nephews, and I've been unable to find anything that fits my exacting specifications. Having never knitted a vest at all, I kept searching and searching and searching.

Then I got some great stuff for Christmas, and started playing around with all the patterns in the stitch dictionary. When I found the argyle pattern, I started playing around with it, and suddenly realized that I am completely capable of DESIGNING MY OWN PATTERNS.

This isn't a HUGE revelation, as I've been making up my own patterns since I started knitting, and I've done draping and patterning with cloth for years, and in general I don't like following patterns anyway (and let's not start making assumptions about what that says about my character, even if those assumptions might be right!)

So I start in on the argyle sweater vest. Yes, I used the stitch dictionary, but naturally I needed to make some modifications to the classic.

Two days later I was STILL plotting out the pattern just for the argyle. I started knitting it, made more adjustments, and now it's been a week, I'm 6" into it and this isn't going to fit either of my nephews for about two years.

I am incapable of ripping this out. I can't do it. I HAVE TO SEE HOW IT ENDS! But I also can't justify spending every spare minute knitting adorable things for my adorable nieces and nephews and adorable friends and THEIR adorable kids (oh, and the rest of y'all fit in there somewhere, you know that) if I want to make my etsy shop a success, even if all I WANT to do every spare minute is knit adorable things for my nieces and nephews.

So then I think about selling the way-too-large vest in my etsy shop, but with all the work that's going in to it, there's simply no way to make it profitable. Of course I could always knit several dozen more so the patterning cost gets spread out over the knitting, but I'm really more interested in the "figuring-things-out" part than I am in the "making-the-same-thing-over-and-over-again" part.

Some of you have figured this out already, right? No?

I'm going to start selling the patterns for my original designs.

DUH!

I'll start small, with a simple pattern that I will post here on my blog for free. (I already have several in mind)

Once I finish the argyle sweater pattern, I'll want to grade it (customize it for different sizes) and I'll need pattern testers!

So all my knittery friends, if you are interested in testing some patterns for me, watch this space!

p.s. I've had to edit this something like five times because I used the word "that" approximately 45 times in the original post, and occasionally as many as three times in the same sentence. I wish I was exaggerating.

Ravelry "Warm Ewe Up" Winter Swap Question

Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this; I just got back from a nice long visit to Utah where I spent 2 1/2 weeks visiting my family. It was 23 and snowing in Utah when I left. I landed in San Diego yesterday to a balmy 62˚afternoon.

Hopefully I'll be back on a semi-regular blogging schedule soon. In the meantime, here's the Ravelry Warm Ewe Up Yarn Swap Question of the Moment:

Why did you learn to knit?

I didn't have a beloved family member teach me how to knit. My dad's mom used to crochet, although I've never actually seen her do it, and she says she stopped because she got the "Carpal Punishment" (we don't know if she is making a joke or if she is confused. Regardless, it's funny!)

My mom's mom sewed, and my mom even remembers her sewing on a treadle sewing machine (which, fair warning to my siblings and cousins, I'm going to fight tooth and nail for when it comes time for it to be passed on).

I was definitely inspired by my maternal Grandmother's ability to "make stuff." One year she made my sister and I these wonderfully cozy flannel nightgowns and gave them to us on Christmas Eve, thus inspiring a lasting tradition of pajamas on Christmas Eve in my family. I remember mine had worn through the upper back - I don't know where she got the flannel, or how that happened -- but she just sewed another piece of flannel behind the worn-out part. I kind of loved that. Maybe she didn't have a big enough piece to cut out the entire back, and she just made it work the best way she could. That's always inspired me. (plus it made the back extra-cozy) I wish I'd been old enough to learn more from her before she died, but every time I sew, I feel like I'm paying tribute to her.

--side note: on cold winter mornings, we'd stand over the heater in those nightgowns, and when the heat went on, they would fill up with warm air and poof out. I still remember how soft and warm they were.

Anyway, it didn't take me long in college to gravitate from the stage to the costume shop. There was this AMAZING woman who worked in the costume shop. She was so much fun, and she seemed to me to be able t do anything. She was married to one of my profs, and she also knitted him sweaters. I remember being in awe of those sweaters. It seemed like such a miracle to me, the ability to create fabric and clothing in one fell swoop. I wish I'd had the courage to ask her to teach me, but I didn't. She died of cancer many years ago, and I always regretted not getting to know her better, or not forcing her to teach me to knit.

Finally, two years ago, I was at a Target and saw a knitting kit. It was on clearance, and it claimed to teach you how to knit a poncho. It came with the grossest acrylic yarn, in brown and pink, and some very stiff, very slippery aluminum circular needles. So I snatched it up, the directions were awful, and I never did learn to knit that damn capelet. I ended up getting online and finding much better directions, and then I bought a bunch of Lion Brand Wool-Ease and "Knitting for Dummies" and started knitting swatches, which I fully intend to make into some kind of afghan someday. Really.

Then I was on a bulletin board, asking if it would be possible to cut up old jeans and knit with them, because I was broke and I was bitten. An incredibly generous woman on that board sent me an assortment of yarn from her stash, and I discovered the joy of knitting with pure wool. And it was HEAVEN.

And I've been knitting ever since.

This is your brain...

This is your brain on yarn:



That's the yarn I think I want to take with me tomorrow when I go to visit my family for 2 1/2 weeks. And that's AFTER paring it down.

You can also take that to be a metaphor (hmm, or a simile) for what my mind feels like right now.

I don't travel well. I like to think that I do, I sometimes pretend that I do, but I obsess over packing for a trip to visit my parents the way some people would obsess over packing for a three-month trek to Nepal. And I'll still wind up forgetting three or four things. The top four things I forget, every time? Toothbrush, deodorant, contact case, meds. You know, the stuff you use EVERY DAY.

That, and instead of knitting Christmas presents for the last month and a half, I've been trying to update and promote my shop on etsy, so I'm trying to bring yarn for every gift I think I might have time to start, as well as all the UFO's. Not to mention all my knitting needles. So after that, there's room for a couple of pairs of socks and whatever I happen to wear on the plane, assuming I remember to get dressed at all.

So that's my excuse, albeit not a very good one, for not updating y'all about the winner of the drawing. And the winner is:

Marie of Knitted Gems!

She'll win these:




Plus a few things that are just not going to get photographed, the way I'm going! ARGH!

I think I need to lie down.

Works in progress

Can't stay. I'm working on this:




and this:



and this:



and this:



and this:

How not to knit a sock

Flew to Seattle this past weekend to see my new, one-month-old nephew, among other things. In my mind I had a pair of socks and a hat finished before I landed. I started the first sock in the airport in San Diego, waiting for the plane.

Don't laugh! This is totally realistic, considering that I had an hour-plus flight, a three-hour layover in Salt Lake City, and another hour and a half flight. Besides, baby socks are tiny and I was knitting on size three needles with Regia sock yarn.

I cast on in the car on the way to the airport. The pattern called for 24 stitches. After knitting a few rounds in 2x2 rib, I thought they looked awfully small, frogged back, and cast on an additional 12 stitches.

I had the cuff and heel flap knitted before we landed. Three hours of waiting for the next plane, and I figure I'll turn the heel, finish the foot, graft the toe, and cast on for the second sock before boarding.

But I cast on 36 stitches instead of 24, and the pattern is frustratingly unclear about the heel-turning algorithm, and this is only my third pair of socks, and for the life of me I cannot turn this heel! I understand short rows, have no problem with short rows, I love short rows! But I'm getting some of the weirdest shapes from whatever it is I come up with to turn the heel.

Three hours later we're boarding the plane. I've knit and frogged four times, stopping in between each one and trying to figure out WHAT this pattern is telling me. Do I work a total of ten stitches, or do I work to 2 stitches away from the end of the row? Do I then turn and work four stitches, or do I turn and purl 3 stitches from the end on the other side? I'm doing math, praying to the Sock Goddess, knitting with my eyes closed in the hopes that muscle memory will kick in, I vaguely recall something about SSK and K2tog and slipping and something about three stitches from the end and...

It's no use. I put it aside and work on the other sock I have with me, the one where I am actually FOLLOWING the pattern. We land, have some rental car hell, and get to the hotel after midnight.

I awake the next day refreshed, but we're in a hurry to get going, so I don't have time to get online and figure this out. We finally make it to a coffee shop midafternoon and I find this.

I turn the heel in under ten minutes.

The rest of the day was full, got to my brothers and SIL's house late that night, with babies and mom asleep already. Richie stayed up and we talked for a couple of hours. It's weird to see little brother all grown up and talking about wiring switches and replacing windows. We were able to see Sara, etc., only briefly the next morning but it was great!!! Unfortunately we all had to go in different directions, and I left with an unfinished sock and a threat to return for a week-long visit.

Finished the first sock on the plane on the way back. Did Kitchener stitch FROM MEMORY.

It should fit him perfectly. In two years.



Above, the BIG SOCK and two smaller ones.