Blogging Backlog

Well, once again, time has passed, and I haven't blogged. I was certainly busy up through Christmas. Grad school is over! Hoorah! Holiday entertaining kept me quite busy too. But now, that is all done, and I have been relishing having my evenings and weekends back to myself. I have been having fun knitting, knitting, and knitting.

I completed quite a number of projects that I haven't posted. These pictures aren't the best and I will need to retake some that I wish to make into patterns or kits for sale, but I just felt an urgent need to post something here, so I'm not going to be too fussy about the photography.

So here we go. This is what I've been up to:




1. The Buttonless many Buttoned Vest. This is a Cheryl Oberle pattern that I actually completed in August, but I didn't post a picture because I planned to get buttons and finish it before blogging. I haven't been eager to finish because, quite frankly, it's an UGH! Not that I don't like the pattern, but the yarn is totally blah! Blah color and a stiff texture. It is a silk/wool blend that I received in a stash swap. Now I know why it was swapped. The yarn has no elasticity and the vest doesn't hug the body. I will find buttons and finish it, but I'm not sure I'll ever wear it because I feel like a chunk in it.


2. This next item is another UFO. I started these mittens a few years ago. I call them my Baltic Mittens because they have a Latvian scalloped border combined with some Estonian braids. They are not quit an Ugh!, I do like the pattern and colors, but I knit them at too tight a guage and I wish I had made a gusset thumb instead of a waste yarn thumb. For whatever reason, I made many mistakes while knitting these and reknit several times. Now the yarn looks lumpy. One mitten is done, but I don't have the courage to start the other right now--too time consuming, and other projects are pressing to get done. Back to the yarn basket for you!



3. Adult sized All American Baby Hat Finally got around to figuring the size adjustments to my All-American Baby Hat pattern. I have the new pattern with baby, child, adult sizing for sale on my website. I'm not sure what to do about the pattern on Ravelry. Do I replace the original or post this additionally?


4. Heart of Stone Necklace This will be a new kit for Knitter's Journey. I still have to write up the pattern, but I will have this for sale by Sheep in the City at the end of February.


5. Ribbon Winner Mittens -- This is a child sized version of the mittens I knit that took 1st place at the Wisconsin State Fair a few years back. I really made these as examples for the Mitten class that I will be teaching at Sheep in the City and Hands on 2010. My knitting buddies are urging me to write this up as an individual pattern and offer it for sale. I suppose I should. The problem is, I used old yarn and I don't know if I can find similar ribbon yarn. If I can find the same or similar I may make kits.




6. Baubled Rib Aran Mitts -- I started making these as a sample for the mitten class, but I may also write this up as a separate pattern. I really do love these. I can see making a variation for gloves and fingerless gloves. They need a name though. Something Irish, I think. Ideas anyone?

Hmmmmm . . . looking back on this post, I see a theme here. Knit now, write later? So, now instead of a blogging backlog, I have a writing backlog. It may be a while before you hear from me again.

Tallinn Twist

Just an update. I decided to call the nameless easy Estonian rib hat the Tallinn Twist and posted it on Ravelry a week ago. While I must admit, Kathrow's suggestion to called it "Screwy" was catchy, "Tallinn Twist" fits my Knitter's Journey Travel inspiration theme. (For those of you who don't know, Tallinn is the capitol of Estonia.) To date, 184 people have downloaded the pattern,it has received 93 hearts, is in 14 queues,and there are 5 projects already underway. I guess that's what happens when you offer something free. I'll be posting it to my Knitter's Journey site soon to see if that helps generate a little traffic there. My website needs so much work, it's a bit overwhelming--which I suppose is why it never gets done. Requesting your patience please. It will get done. Eventually.

Experimental Charity Hats

Well my annual Mitten Tree gig is just around the corner, and I hardly knit anything for this worthwhile charity project, so I got busy this week and knit a few hats and mittens. Here are the hats. Always easily bored, I decided to experiment with something new. I grabbed some Noro Silk Garden that I had in my stash and created this hat using an Estonian spiral ribbing. This first hat came out smaller than I thought it would, but it is for charity and it will fit someone, probably a 2 or 3 year old, I would guess. I tried to maintain the spiral pattern up to the top, but had difficulty seeing it in the lumpy Noro yarn, although I liked the color changes combined with the spiral pattern. I decided I needed to try this pattern with a less lumpy, long colorway yarn.

Now, like any good knitter I have lots of stash. I have dozens and dozens of skeins of lovely wool, much of it handpainted and beautiful, but other than the Silk Garden, how much of it do you suppose I had on hand in a long colorway? You guessed it, zero, zip, nada. So of course,like any good knitter, I had to run to my LYS to purchase new yarn rather than use up any more of the dozens and dozens of skeins in my stash. (Did I mention this is for a charity project?) I bought one skein of Universal Yarns' Shades and one skein of Wisdom Yarns' Poems to continue my experiments in hats with Estonian ribbing.

Here is my second hat, sized for an elementary school age child, it used approximately 1/2 of the Shades skein. As you can see, I decided to add corkscrew tassles. I love it! The pattern is so ridiculously easy that I'm thinking of offering it as a free pattern on Ravelry. It will be interesting to see how many people will want to knit it up.

For my third and final experiment, I decided to try combining the Estonian ribbing with a patchwork top to create a flat top tocque. I used the Poems yarn in a rainbow mix, and this is pretty darn cute as well, although my picture doesn't do it justice because you can't see the tocque shape when it is not on someone's head. The hat is just a bit small for me because I made it child sized for the charity project, so that's why you don't see me modeling it. I tried it on the cat, but she isn't a very good model either. While I like this hat, I prefer the corkscrew topped experiment number 2. Also, I had to use every bit of the yarn to make the child sized version 3 tocque, while the Shades yarn used in version 2 has enough yardage to make 2 child size hats or an adult hat with a good amount of leftovers. I can't wait to post experimental hat #2 on Ravelry. I'd love to see how many fans it gets! My only dilemna--what to call it?? Corkscrew Cap seems appropriate, but I try to name my knitting patterns with travel related names (All American Baby Hat, Eiffel Tower Gloves, etc.) to promote the Knitter's Journey theme. Perhaps I should call it Estonian Rib hat, but that sounds blah. Any suggestions out there?

Eiffel Tower Gloves

Ooh la la, Do I love these gloves! They are soft and luxurious and just that little bit glitzy. Tres Chic! As the name implies, I was inspired by the famous icon of the fashion center of the world, Le Tour Eiffel. Can you see the little Eiffel Towers? I used the same Angora that I used in my Dust Bunny sweater and I love the feel of them.

I am not sure my pictures do them justice. I'm not that good at closeup photography. I'll try taking a few more pictures and see if I come up with something better. I will be posting the pattern on Ravelry soon.

Chicago, Chicago that Toddlin' Town

I seem to be spending a lot of time in the Chicago area. I was there yesterday for YarnCon, and I'll be there again in May when I teach and vend at the new Hands On Retreat.

YarnCon was fun, easy and interesting. So fun to see the crowd skewed towards younger knitters. You know, we knitters always tend to wear our wares at these events. At Stitches and other established knitting events, you tend to see age 50 and older women wearing lovely shawls and fair isle sweaters that show off their years of knitting experience. But at YarnCon, you see 20 and 30 somethings wearing funky hats and colorful scarves made in wild handpainted yarns and with innovative stitches or quirky patterns (like space invader scarves and guassian hats).

The event was easy for me because it was just one day and not far to travel. It's certainly a lot easier to do than the typical 2 or 3 day fiber festival, although it was a bit of a challenge to unpack the car and be set up in an hour. My husband tagged along to help. He's a trooper, but it would have been more fun if one of my knitting buddies could have come along. . . They would have appreciated the booths of the other vendors. There was handpaint everywhere. I didn't shop though. Too busy. That's a good thing.

I have not yet blogged the other Chicago event that's coming up for me. I am so excited! I'm going to be both an instructor and a vendor at Hands On, which takes place in near Midway airport in May. I will be teaching both knit with wire bracelets and "Mitten Masterplan." I really love knitting mittens. I've developed a class on designing your own mittens that I've taught at my local yarn shop and now I will be teaching at this new retreat. Although it is a brand new event, Hands On is a mitten maker's answer to the Sock Summit, and I feel so lucky to be teaching there!

I tend to give away as gifts or donate most of the mittens I make, so I don't have many mittens on hand for Hands On,but I've got until May to make some more. I'd like to have a variety to show my students--super simple to difficult, colorwork, texture work, children's and adults. I'm very, very excited about a pair of gloves I just designed. I have just one glove done, so I'll hold off from posting pictures, but they are going to be beautiful. They are made with leftover angora from my Dust Bunny sweater, so they are soft and elegant as well. I can't wait to finish them and show them off.

Well, this is a bit of a rambling post. If you have any interest in mitten knitting. Check out the Hands On site. If you are interested in attending, sign up now! Registration began Friday night and some classes are already sold out. They are not maintaining a waiting list, so book now!

Pictures - Finally

I got some pictures from my sister from Wisconsin Sheep and Wool (See September's post) Here you see: 1) Me in my booth - and my cousin who stopped by to say Hi.
2) Like I said, it was sheepy.
3) My puppy love, Winston. I hope he found a new home.

Wooly Headed

This is just a quick post to explain what I've been up to. Busy, busy, busy is all. Too busy to blog. I was at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend. It was my first time as a vendor at this event. It's definitely the sheep-iest of all the fiber shows I do. I loved the sheep and the sheep dog trials. In fact, I fell in love with a border collie puppy named Winston who was looking for a home. He looked at me with his big brown eyes and snuggled in my arms and fell asleep. I knew it was never going to happen, but I did actually call the DH to see if I could bring him home. Of course, we would never get a dog. We are cat people and our cat is not dog friendly (or other cat friendly for that matter). I must have been under the influence of all those sheep at WI Sheep and wool because I was certainly being wooly headed.

No pictures from Sheep and Wool, sad to say, I still haven't found my camera charger. I may need to buy a new one. My sis was at the fair to help me (Yes,the same one who helped me in Madison--proof that she still loves me after that little sisterly adventure). She took a few pictures. If she sends me photos, I'll post them here.

I do have other things I should be posting pictures of. I have a rather large finished object, The Many Buttoned Vest from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Vests was started and finished since my State Fair post. Well, it's 99% finished because I don't have any buttons for my Many Buttoned vest. I'm envisioning some celtic looking brass buttons, but I have yet to find them.

I have been crazy busy with school (i.e. my job) and school (i.e. grad school). The only reason I'm writing now is because I'm taking a 5 minute a break from writing lesson plans. (Uhm, okay, 20 minute break, and yes, it's because I'm procrastinating on writing those lesson plans.) Sigh . . .better get back to it.