Grab your knitting needles and come relax with me.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Fin
The Tulip Blanket was finished on Wednesday and has made its way to the B&M shop.
It was a fun knit and I am sure faster knitters (most every one knitter besides me) it can be done in just a few days....took me three weeks of non-monogamous knitting (which probably explains me knitting so slow ;-) ).
Details- Pattern: Lacy Tulip Blanket Yarn: Three Skeins Yarn Bee Angel Fleece. Needle: US size 15 circulars Size: About 36 inches square
I used just under three skeins and even had enough to almost knit an entire baby hat. I forgot to take a picture of it today...I'll update this post with it tomorrow (hopefully). Lookee a picture!
I have a love/hate relationship with Ravelry. It's always opened in a tab on my browser. It's easy and fun to find patterns for yarns I buy, see what others have done, keep track of my projects, and my patterns. And then there's the community....whoa...it's great. But then again, sometimes I can't sleep because of a post I want to write in a forum that I know won't be as articulate as I would like and won't be received well because for some reason every vocal person on it tends to be an ultra liberal socialist that thinks stripping is empowering to women and think USA sucks hairy goat balls. (Oops I am going off on a tangent--FULL STOP). Most times: a pattern will hook me and I will want to start it right now, but I can't; I got Knitting Bunnies chomping on my grey matter.
Right now the is one particular pattern that is my siren: Isobel (Rav link) (non Rav link). Happens to be the yarn I have and it looks lovely! I don't think my super secret idea will work with the Debbie Bliss silk I bought. So enter Isobel!
I am almost done with the Lacy Tulip Blanket. A reward? Thunk. I still have the lacy skinny scarves to finish up for the shop. And the knitting bunnies have to be dealt with...I keep putting them off...soon instead of me blogging you'll have fully formed knitting bunnies with blood dripping from their mouths (a la Monty Python) rampaging the blogosphere.
Okay back to the blanket--this baby needs to be finished! I am almost there.
It's May! And I am a bad knit blogger. Sorry 'bout that. This week was one of those weeks were I had stuff going on every single day and no time to sit down and write any thing. But I did get to knit.
I am about half way done with the Lacey Tulip Blanket.
However, I still have a ways to go in the scarf department. But it is progressing...
These are at a foot now...if I match them to my orginal scarf--I have 5 more feet to go. And of course detail shots--this is a really really simple pattern--easy to memorise.
This week I also had time to knit the tiger sock-this particular shot was taken at the zoo! Very apropos--next time though I will take a picture of it in front of the tiger enclosure.
I had to do some pattern re-writing/editing for a friend who loves designing but hates actually writing out the pattern. Totally understandable. I would much rather watch the design in my head grow under my finger tips than write out the pattern itself (it's fraught with headache and anxiety--what if it makes no sense to any one but me!?! What if it's riddled with errors?). But it's part of being a designer really....you just gotta do it. While I complain about how slow I knit and how many Knitting Bunnies I have yet to knit up, it's been suggested I just write the pattern and hand it over to a test knitter. But then I won't get the treat of knitting up my creation. It might be more productive, but no fun and if I am not going to have fun well I might as well get an office job if my goal is to make money but have no fun. And to further summarize: I am a terrific friend.
I am hoping to treat myself after I finish the scarves and blanket for the shop, with some design time. Especially since in about a month we are going to Virginia, design time would be a rare find.
On Row 23 instead of end k5; it ought to read ending rep. with k6.
I also clarified some little things in the pattern. This has been cleared up as of May 1, but if you have a pattern that does not say Updated May 1, 2008 on the lower left corner, please contact me for a download if you are finding the original pattern...un-clarified.
Sometimes being a knitting designer is just plain wearying. Especially when I am constantly doubting my ability to count.
Someone just bought my Tulip Blanket (Thank You!!) and because I just read an post on Ravelry about how some folks just plain HATE, DETEST, and HAVE NO RESPECT FOR those patterns that have errors in them--especially when they pay for the pattern.
Way to play into my latent (okay sometimes not so latent) insecurities!
So now I am convinced the Tulip Blanket is full of errors and makes no sense. However, at the state I am in now if I try to "fix it" I may just create an error where none exists.
I finished hand sewing Anne's Garter for her. Took me about one and a half days to complete the weaving in of ribbons, sewing the bias tape to the back, sewing the garter ends together and making and attaching the decoration.
I am quite proud of all that hand stitching. And I really like how the finished garter came out.
I just hope everyone ELSE likes it.
Now that Lorelei's socks are done (and the garter), I have more "free" time. Ha! Mostly I am knitting for the shop right now.
I started knitting the Samara again. I am trying out a different (and cheaper) yarn. Paton's SWS: it has the exact fiber content, but a bit thicker. I tried using the same needle size I used for the first one (which was knitted in Rowan Tapestry).
"Tried" is the opperative word here. I wasn't happy with the density of thefabric (and neither was Wendy)--so I decided to go up to a size 10. I haven't progressed far enough to show you a decent picture, because...
I started knitting something else. I found some really cute yarn (read ON SALE) to knit a new Lacey Tulip Blanket (link to pattern page)! The plan is to sell it at my little B&M shop. The color is a nice gender neutral fun baby colour. It bumped the Samara since it's more likely to sell now than a scarf (babies are always being born and soon it'll be 90 here in San Antonio). I am hoping that this will be a quick knit, but I won't hold my breath. I "bragged" that I would finish Lorelei's socks in a week--and it took 2 months.
The knitting bunnies are still gnawing on grey matter. Sigh--it's like a twitch--it's really aggravating me. BUT, I can't do much about it. I tend to design on the fly. But to appease these bunnies I might need to do some serious sketching instead.
