yarn snobbery
Uh…
I’ve been sitting here staring at a blank screen for over an hour thinking about what I could possibly write. I’m bored, but not for lack of things to do. I’m feeling listless…impatient….like I am waiting for something to happen.
I have creator’s block.
The thing with blocks such as this, regardless of how it started, it seems that it can only be resolved with time. I’m impatient though, so I push through.
So, what am I doing? Well, I’ve cut fabric for one project and am halfway through crocheting another. I finished the actual writing of a pattern yesterday…but that object has been done for a couple of months now…so there was no actual thinking involved.
I finished a knitted hat on Friday night! A real FO! I asked the guy that works at our local hangout for advice on the accent color. He went with the lime green…I decided on the orange. I have a bad track record when it comes to agreeing with men regarding color choices for projects.
The orange stands out more.
Of course, this hat was knit and blocked long before Friday night…so the only thing I really worked on was weaving that orange yarn though. Yup…that’s all I worked on.
Photo of my goofy head compliments of Courtney.
I wore it the rest of the night…and Court and I were approached later that night by two guys who offered to buy it from me. I can’t part with it.
I am not a machine…
Would it be so terribly bad to say I haven’t been doing very much knitting? I went about a week without any knitting at all. I’ve mostly been spending my time on other things. I’ve been pinning and repinning fabric like some crazy seamstress with a bad case of OCD. I’ve done some pattern writing and a little sketching. I even took a day, much to the surprise of anyone that knows me, to read a book…FICTION even. How very unlike me.
The truth is, even when it comes to hobbies, everyone needs a break once in awhile. I took it while I could.
Yesterday, I decided to return to it. I’m not going full tilt…just a little here and a little there. I’m making a Wale and Course hat with my Miss Babs Yummy Superwash Sport in “You’re The Only One”. I assure you that the yarn is greener than my picture. I bought a little skein of Yummy Toes “Ghoulish” in a lime green color to go with it…but I feel like I may change my mind about that being the accent color…because I still have scraps of all sorts of colors hiding in my toy box.
Stitches West 2013, The Haul
I almost forgot to post a picture of the haul from Stitches this year! This picture represents *most* of what we purchased during our weekend.
The Haul.
And a few other pics of our weekend, just because.
Dr. Gemma interviewing folks for her podcast.
The wheels at the Carolina Homespun Booth.
I showed restraint. I am no longer allowed to bring dirty fleece into the house after that last incident. But…look! It has my name!
Court and I…with some cheese.
Getting things done!
I have been a busy girl! Between looking for “real work” and doing…”freelance” work, I haven’t had too much time to do my own thing.
I finished my sample knit for Miss Babs and it is packaged and ready to be shipped. I was really happy with the finished dimensions. I have been toying with the idea of taking that yarn I bought for weaving and use it to make another one of these Merging Ripples Shawls. Apparently, I can’t have just one.
I also used my needles to pry in a little time to finish a hat. I stayed up late this past weekend to work on my Varia. I knit it completely out of leftover yarn. I used the leftover Cephalopod Bugga! yarn from my Merging Ripples Shawl and some Anzula Cricket from the Hermione Hearts Ron hat.
I know things are happening with my own things too…even if I am not seeing them. I still have patterns out to testers and I am waiting to get this last wave of feedback before tweaking things and then, hopefully, releasing something! I am chomping at the bit to get stuff moving! I need to keep reminding myself to be patient!
If you look closely…
…You might actually see my brain melt.
One of the hardest things for me as a fiber artist has been figuring out what I am worth. Here is where I find out.
Quick and dirty craft pricing…
The night before the League of Extraordinary Ladies Craftacularganza, my friends and I got together to talk about how to price our work.
It’s raining Baby Blankets!
Yeah, I am piling on.
Let’s be honest, I need another project like I need a hole in my head. I just can’t say no to cute little baby faces…even if some of them haven’t arrived yet.
It was actually my husband who egged me on to start this. A family friend and his wife just had a baby boy this weekend. I am fairly certain they don’t read my blog, so I can get away with blabbing about what I am doing. Soon I will have more baby projects that I will have to keep on the DL. That is going to be very hard for me…
Picking the right colored yarn is always the most agonizing part of the process for me. I am not a fan of traditional baby colors. When I had my twins, I tried to avoid the traditional blue/pink every chance I got. I had *strongly* suggested aqua and lavender, mostly because my favorite colors are teal and purple. Plus, I am not a huge fan of yellow. I just don’t like it.
My husband had suggested I look for yarn in the colors of the Phoenix Suns (because our friend B is a fan). Do you even know how hard that is?
Really?
I have to admit, I started looking at Michael’s first. I know my yarn snob friends are turning their noses up to this post right now…but just hear me out. The folks I am knitting this for have a brand new baby and are NOT KNITTERS. If any of you out there has knit a gift for a non-knitter, only to find out they accidentally felted whatever it was you knit them and now their pet is wearing it, know what I am talking about. I believe everything has a purpose in this world…even acrylic.
My explanation means nothing anyway though, because I couldn’t find the right color purpley-blue to get that whole Phoenix color scheme working anyway and ended up at my LYS. I couldn’t find the right yarn there either, but I decided to call the audible.
Orange and Gray
I decided to hand wind it so I could start right away.
It’s a 50/50 cotton/acrylic. The colors and the pattern are sporty and not traditional baby colors. It can be washed in a machine and should remain in good condition while getting softer. I think I did a pretty good job.
Stripes!
Some brand new Madelintosh…
I completely forgot to mention that I decided to buy some yarn at the shop this past Friday. I know I haven’t done much talking about acquiring new yarn recently. Quite frankly, it is because I was on a self-imposed yarn buying fast. I feel like my stash is a little out of control recently. I’m starting to panic that my stash might exceed my life expectancy. That is never a good feeling. Especially when combined with the feeling of not getting a whole hell of a lot accomplished project-wise.
Madelinetosh Prairie in Lettuce Leaf. It wants to be a sweater...
And don’t even get me started on my fiber stash…
A busy Friday Night…
Woohoo! Holiday weekends mean we get out of work early generally. This holiday weekend was no exception. It was a good thing because I had some errands to run.
Since I was out, I figured I would take care of my medical refferral stuff before heading to the shop. Now, I am kind of a ditz…I know this…but I am not quite sure how I thought I would be going to get these tests done and get off without having to give blood. I guess I just wasn’t thinking. It’s probably a good thing though…I have been a big freaking baby about all this stuff lately.
I got to the shop hungry and a little woozy. It was pretty darn hot out and the shop AC was acting funny. Ash and I decided to order in Thai food. We weren’t going to try and walk down to our usual spot.
Progress on The Mountain View Cardigan
I started off the night working on my Mountain View Cardi. I feel like I have been so “off again, on again” with this one, but I am sure it is just because I am distracted with other things on the horizon.
While I worked on my knitting, Vera had asked Mallory to help her daughter learn to needle felt. She bought Teddy a frog kit while they were in Albuquerque on Vera’s Knit Shop tour to promote her patterns.
Mallory helping Teddy out with her needle felting
And there she goes!
I was feeling ansty and decided I should cake up my yarn for The Unique Sheep Mystery Lace KAL. I actually have the first day of this KAL off because I have to go in for more tests, but once that is done, I have the rest of the day to be a total lump on the couch. Michelle tells me that they normally release the first clue at midnight, so I have my yarn prepared and I’ll have the entire day to knit the first clue! Hooray!
My Unique Sheep yarn.
We also were trying to help Ashley out with her Hanna Cardigan. So far it looks absolutely gorgeous! I hope they bring back this colorway at some point, because I would love to knit a sweater in this color!! I just love Sanguine Gryphon!
Ash's lovely Hanna Cardigan
Mallory spent most of the evening helping Teddy out with her felting. Teddy even stabbed herself at one point, so she is officially a needle felter! She was having a little trouble with her symmetry, but Mallory guided her. At the end of the night, she had nearly completed her frog!
The "right" leg.
And something else...
Looking good!
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