Someone Reads This Blog! and Sheep in the City

I just enjoyed a nice weekend at Sheep in The City. It's funny how every one of these fiber festival/retreat things that I go to are different. Sheep in the City definitely wins the prize for being the most social. Jan, owner of Just 4 Ewe yarn shop and the organizer of SITC, knows how to network and create fun, and she has a loyal crowd of followers coming to this event for the classes, cakewalk and comedy!

I registered late and was lucky to get a table. Despite my cramped and less than optimal location, I had good sales, so I'm not complaining. The only thing that was not so great about this weekend was that I taught 2 classes, and I felt they didn't go as well as my knitting classes usually do. We were pressed for time and I was overtired from just 3 hours sleep the night before. It was Ok, but not great . . . I know I can revise and make it better.

I think that what I enjoyed most this weekend were conversations with customers. A couple of my customers told me that they first found me online. One mentioned that she bought a couple of kits online, and had no problem following the directions and making the bracelets without having taken a class on knit with wire. (That's always good to hear) Another told me she had downloaded my Tallinn Twist--the free pattern I have on my website and on Ravelry. I was especially tickled when a last minute customer on Sunday told me she likes my blog and that is actually how she found out about Sheep in The City. So hello loyal fan(s)! Thanks for the complements, it's what keeps me going.

Stonehenge

Color and texture, that's what its all about. Whether it's yarn or wire and beads, I love making new combinations. Here's the latest new jewelry idea. I thought I'd call it Stonehenge because of the stone circle. I will have kits in sodalite/navy, brecciated jasper/brown, and snow quartz/silver. Love it! These kits will make their debut at Sheep in the City in 2 weeks. Can't wait, can't wait!

Heart of Stone for a Cause

I knitted up a few more necklaces over the weekend. I wanted to make a Heart of Stone necklace in pink because the heart is so different from the jasper one that I made first. The pendant is a bit smaller with a much larger hole. I could have done this in silver wire, but I want to offer something with pink wire with a percentage of sales going to ABCD - After Breast Cancer Diagnosis. This is a wonderful breast cancer support group in my community. I don't know if its that I've reached a certain age where these things seem to happen, or if its simply that we are poisoning ourselves, but lately every time I turn around someone I know is diagnosed with breast cancer. Currently, 5 women at work, 1 relative, and 2 good friends are battling the disease.So I hope by donating 2% of sales to ABCD for every pink wire kit sold that I can do some small part to help women deal with this disease. I suppose the large hole in the heart is appropriate for association to this cause. Of course, I've made this second necklace and I still haven't written it up. It isn't difficult though and should get done soon if other tasks don't get in the way (which of course they always do). I think by Valentine's day will be an appropriate goal.

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.