Sunny days...Knitting the clouds away*

I've been quiet, but I'm still here. And I've been knitting some. Not a lot, but some. Josephine is coming along.

This is a joy to knit. It's so bright and springy (the color is lighter in person, not quite as turquoisey. Do you like how I just invent adjectives?). Plus, it's knit top-down, in the round - what's not to like? And oh, did I mention I get to work with yummy Calmer goodness? Yeah, that may or may not have something to do with why I'm loving this knit. Besides, there's the most compelling reason- there's enough going on to hold my interest, but it's uncomplicated enough that I don't have to think too hard. ;) This balance, I've found, is just what I need when it comes to knitting projects in general, but this rings especially true these days, as my brain is rather fried. It has been a busy couple of weeks, and this week will be no different. Thanks, Cap Time! Everyone at The Firm has been working overtime, trying to get hundreds of cases filed by April 1st. April Fools, indeed. Poor Dis has been working her patootie off.

Gratefully, my weekends have provided me with some much needed play time. Two weekends ago, I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in my dear friend HSG's wedding. Now, I won't don a bridesmaid dress for just anyone, so that should tell you how much I adore this girl (= a lot). She was a gorgeous and beaming bride, the wedding ceremony was beautiful (the cantor was amazing!), and the reception was one of the most fun I've ever attended. All in all, a very busy weekend, but very fun. Last weekend, after an extra long week at work, I was able to unwind with some hilariously fun and talented goils over a couple glasses of wine, some delish eggplant-mushroom pizza, many chicken wings, and some spectacular blackberry-cabernet sorbet. Great food, great conversation and great company- it was the best way I could think of to end a hectic week. And this weekend, I have a date with my sister to look forward to. We're going to see Wicked, courtesy of B. Fun! I should also be able to get in some quality knitting time, so I'm looking forward to that as well.

Okay. This has been a nice distraction but now- back to work! The insanity will soon subside, but until then, we'll just have to hold our breath and dive back into the stacks of files on our desks. Ready Dis? One, two, three, jump!

* Dee, like what I did there?

March Wrap-Up

I know it's not exactly the end of the month yet, but since I have today off, I figure I better take care of a few of March's loose ends will I have the chance. Next week is going to be extraordinarily busy at work.

First up is the UFO Resurrection Challenge. I'll admit it, this month was hard for me. A lot of my knitting time was taken up with my Design Class and my favorite distraction (I'll admit it), Under the Hoodie. However, I had made a goal for this month to finish my brother's sweater and since I have really been working on this sweater more than 8 months, I think it is safe to call it a UFO. I NEED it done. But, I just couldn't get to it and I KNOW I won't get to it next week. So, I decided (when all else fails make up new rules, right?) that my brother's sweater gets two months toward the Resurrection Challenge. March is the prep-month, where I get my motivation ready to work on it. And April, will be devoted (not entirely, of course!) to finishing it up. Now, I know I am violating the official rules, but I also don't have a full 12 UFO projects, so I was going to need to straddle a couple over two months anyway. Oh well. I still feel like a cheater, so that should count for something right?

Next up is Project Spectrum. Since the first two month period concludes at the end of March, I wanted to share my progress towards my Manos blanket. Since the colors for February and March where blue, gray and white, I only made one square since there will be no gray or white in my blanket. The light in my place is either too bright or too dark, so unfortunately, it leads to some very poor Manos photography. This block is Mallard (36), which is a wonderfully rich blue which reminds me of deep, dark Caribbean Sea water. I had some real trouble trying to capture the beauty of this fabric, but I figure it is just one of many squares to come, I'll pay more attention to the lighting when it comes time to photograph the final blanket.

I haven't blocked it yet, but I pinned it out so you can see what it will look like. Each block will be approximately 14X14 inches. In the pattern, they have you work three strips of four squares each, so you only have two seams. However, I am starting to wonder if I will have any trouble with bleeding. As this is the first time I have actually worked with Manos, what have your experiences been? I like the minimized seaming, but if bleeding is going to be a problem, I'd rather block each separately and then seam a bit more.

The pattern I worked for this square was "Stripe," which is a rib of regular rib and all purl stitches. It's really fun to pick the square pattern for each piece and I'm trying to keep each choice in mind when picking out the next.

Speaking of the blanket and the colors of Project Spectrum to come...I was able to pick up the following at the 25% off sale at Knitting in La Jolla yesterday:

left to right: Bing Cherry (M), Thrush (37), and Cinnamon (V)

One thing that was very interesting, is that by looking at the color selection of the Manos at both Knitting in La Jolla and the Black Sheep, you got a feel for the color preferences of the owners. Both stores had a very nice color selection. However, Black Sheep had more of the cool, deep saturated colors I want for my blanket, while Knitting in La Jolla had more of the light, summery colors. This was a good thing for my wallet as I wasn't tempted to buy more than I needed at this point because of the sale. (Each was less than $10!)

Finally, this is how I spent my Sunday afternoon. While B was reading, Jenny and I took a bit of a cat-nap in Balboa Park. It was heavenly.

I'm going to try and keep this feeling with me while I work my way through Cap hell next week. I apologize in advance for being absent from the blog world next week. See you all soon!

The Apple of My Eye

K and I went up to the Bay Area this past weekend to see his brother's family. Inspired by Nonnah's fruit caps, I knit an apple hat using Knit Picks' Swish for their upcoming new addition to their family. And the proud big brother is absolutely adorable!! The boy's got rhythm...he doesn't just jiggle to music, but he actually moves his body to the beat. Unfortunately, we didn't bring a video camera to document the beginnings of the next boy-band-member-wonder.

10 things for Thursday

1. In the employment immigration world this time of year is effectionately refered to as Cap Time.
2. Cap Time sucks.
3. I was home (and awake) for 2 hours last night and I clocked in this morning at 5:54 am. :-(
4. My brother's sweater is crushing my soul. It must get finished...ASAP!
5. People if you aren't subscribing to Cute Overload yet, you need to do so now! It seriously saves my day. Case in point: this video.
6. I may or may not be getting Jenny stitch markers made from Wee Ones.
7. And no, that doesn't make me crazy-pet-owner. I am already ;-)
8. I am almost finished with my first Manos blanket square and I LOVE IT! This is going to be the best blanket ever!
9. I may just have to pick up a couple more "squares" of Manos at the Knitting in La Jolla sale on Saturday.
10. The back of my Ann Taylor top is coming along nicely, but slowly. Hopefully I'll be able to have it done for class on the 31st. Oh wait, that's right, I'll be working. Stupid Cap.

Not Exactly Quitting

When thinking about writing this post, all these old saying kept coming to my mind, such as “if at first you don’t succeed....” and the one about the “best laid plans”. So, yeah, basically, sometimes no matter how hard you try to make something work or attempt to fix what is wrong, you get to the point where your skill level is maxed out…especially under time constraints. Basically, B’s sweater just doesn’t work. I tried so many things between the week of my first sweater design class and the second but just couldn't get the cable re-gauging to work. The cables in cotton-ease looked gross. And even after returning to the original TLC yarn and adding several increases to compensate for the pull of the cables, I couldn’t get rid of the stupid pleat that it was making at the edge. It was ugly.

However, it was also 10:30 pm the night before my second class…for which I was supposed to have all of my revised swatches completed and ready to go. I talked to B and basically came to the decision that if I was going to make the yarn work, I needed more time to settle on a different pattern or be able to try and work out the cable 'physics'. And if I was going to make the pattern work, I needed more time to settle on a different yarn, one more appropriately gauged. I was very disappointed. But I’ve also knit long enough to know when the towel needed to be thrown in…even if just temporarily.

This also meant I had that night to come up with a new concept for my design class the next morning...and for the remaining 3 months. It also had to be something that I already had the yarn for, since I had to swatch and block that night. Fortunately, I had already had a glass of wine by that time, which served to keep me from completely freaking out. I looked through my stitch dictionaries and my Knitting on the Edge and came up with a couple options. I had a couple particular stash yarns in mind when I happened to look across my living room and see the Rowan Wool Cotton in Still (964 - aka "baby poop") that I happen to pick up at a 50% off sale. Perfect!

I picked out the Gazebo lace panel from Knitting on the Edge, knit it up, blocked it that night and then roughly sketched out my idea. Basically, I am making a fancy t-shirt. I’ve come to dub it my “Ann Taylor” top because I am thinking it will end up looking like one of those knit tops that tend to be so popular at Ann Taylor during the spring. The Gazebo lace will edge the bottom and the columns will continue up to below my bust line. The rest of the top will be in solid stockinette stitch so that I can properly camouflage a bra. The sleeves will most likely be entirely in the lace pattern, but may also feature a stockinette sleeve cap depending on how things look when I get to that point.

Close up of the lace panel

Current status

The next day in class, I was able to run the calculations for my waist decreases and increases as well as the arm shaping. My teacher then helped me walk through calculating the neck to achieve the look I was going for. Since then, I’ve been working on my back (which is due in two weeks) in between bouts of hoodie knitting (which has now progressed to the hood!). I am really excited about seeing my top transform and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will turn out as planned! Wish me luck!!

Next up, she will try her hand at designing!

It wasn’t too long after I started knitting when I realized I would want to design one day. I envisioned that day being a little further in my future, but then Julia and Marnie (both inspirational to me already) started the Create Along, so it seems the time is now! I’ve made minor modifications to patterns I’ve knit in the past, but this will be my first foray into designing from the ground up, and I’m really looking forward to it.

The CAL forum is fabulous. Knitters/designers of all skill and experience levels are encouraged to ask questions, offer advise, and share ideas. I find it so interesting to see how designers go about their process, to see how ideas evolve and how problems are solved. I've already learned so much from the CAL and I haven't even started working on my own project yet.

For said project, I’m starting off small (literally) and simple. My projects will be two semi-matching dresses for the Peanuts.

Peanutty Inspiration: A & K

The Peanuts usually don coordinating outfits (as opposed to dressing exactly alike), and my goal is to create dresses along those lines. What I have in mind are simple, coordinating a-line dresses with straps that tie up top at the shoulders. Besides the fact that I think the straps will look cute, my thought is that they will also allow for adjustment, as the girls grow. My hope is that they will able to wear these garments as dresses initially and as tops later on. (I try to be practical.) I have the general shape in mind, but want to wait until I have my yarn in hand, to see how I will be inspired when it comes to other design elements.

So, my yarn. One of the CAL rules is to use one of five specified yarns as the main yarn in our design. I will be using Classic Elite Premiere. Reason? I haven’t used it yet, and I’ve heard great things. Calmer would have been my first instinct otherwise, because I love it so, but I’m already knitting with it currently and I also have another project waiting in the wings that the rest of the Calmer in my stash is earmarked for (Hi, Deciduous!). Besides, I’ve wanted to work with Premiere, and this seems to be the perfect opportunity to try it!

I'm really looking forward to trying my hand at designing for the first time. This first attempt should provide much entertainment value, if nothing else, so stay tuned! ;)

Another Knit-In-Action

I missed a phone call from my sister-in-law, the Stitchin' Sheep Sunday morning in which she teased me with the prospects of seeing my newest niece in the sweater I made her (via web-cam). I was very disappointed but, fortunately she followed it up with a photo and a post. Yay!

I just love little Lambchop #3 in her "grandpa" sweater! And I'm super glad she is able to wear it as the newborn/6 month wool sweater I made was too small by the time she got it for Christmas. Oh well, I guess there will just have to be a Lambchop #4 to compensate! (Good thing there's a big 'ol continent and ginormous ocean between the Stitchin' Sheep and me right now because I'm pretty sure she'd clobber me if there wasn't.)

Good Business

As a person who grew up in a family with self-employed parents, I've always had an appreciation for good business. I do business with companies who operate with the customer in mind and look to the customer's needs first before their profit margin. And avoid, or even boycott (I'm a big fan of boycotting :-) those that don't. I also feel that supporting small business is paramount in a world of mega-stores and conglomerates. Additionally, with the growth and ease of the Internet, it is now possible to support small businesses regardless of their geographic locations.

The growth of internet marketplaces has also served to help numerous individuals with an idea or innovative product to have an outlet and reach customers regardless of the size of their operations. And because supporting these businesses are so important, I thought I would share a couple with you that I have had positive to amazing experiences with in the past.

First up, is Queen Bee Creations part of the BuyOlympia.com group:

I get a lot of comments on my bag and wallet. They are completely handmade and custom made when you order them. Because of this, it takes about 4 weeks to receive your order, but boy are they worth it! The wallet is one of the best organized wallets I have ever seen or used. Inside there are 6 clear pockets for your ID and cards, as well as a pouch for your check book and a zipper pouch for change. The bag is also a nice combination of casual and dressy, so it works great during the work week and on the weekend.

Next, I wanted to share with you the art of Ashley G. She has an Etsy store and you can follow her creative endeavors through her blog, Kitty Genius.

The prints through her Etsy shop are printed on canvas and the quality is unbelievable for the price. At the time I purchased this print, I also picked up her button pack because I had a hard time choosing just one print! Also, each month she sells a special print and a portion of the proceeds go to a charity of her choice. Plus, she is super nice and everything was shipped well and fast. One of these days, I will pick up one of her original paintings, but for now, I'm happy gazing at my print.

Also part of the BuyOlympia.com group is Sarah Utter.

Now, this was one of those things that I just couldn't resist when the email notification came in my inbox. The price was right, the shipping was fast and this is just too cute! Also, for you readers out there, she also carries a "Reading is Sexy" t-shirt that is awesome!

Finally, I heard about Tiny Meats through Ashley G as they are now carrying a wallet featuring some of her art.

I picked up this wallet for B since his old wallet was breaking off the tops of his cards. And I just couldn't resist the artwork. I'm pretty sure his sister and his mom will appreciate the significance of this particular 'theme' given his history of speeding violations. Inside there are 4 pockets for cards as well as a pocket for money. The only problem B has had is that the plastic that the pockets are made out of sometimes grabs his cards. But other than that, he loves it.

So, please check out these sellers. I'm sure you will enjoy doing business with them as much as I have!

The opposite of black

Yup when I'm not planning and swatching for the world's biggest blackest sweater (this is my world after all), I am knitting away on the most colorful, mindless knit. Rows and rows of stockinette are properly soothing my gauge-calculating, cable-modifying brain. The only one who is suffereing is my brother. I told myself that this was his sweater's week. I am so close to finishing...or at least getting to the point where he can try it on again before I make the final adjustments to the collar and the waist...but it's gray. And this, well, this isn't...

I've finished both sleeves, the majority of which was knit at Stitches and on the plane rides, and at the time these pictures were taken, I had literally knit as far as I could until the rest of my yarn arrives. I ended up not having enough green for the hoodie as originally planned. In fact, there was only a walnut sized ball left over when I finished the sleeves (including the green I had to steal from the back piece to finish the sleeves). I tried to get a hold of both the green and the blue on WEBS (they had the yarn on discountable close-out), but only the blue was still available. I quickly put together a group WEBS order in order to reach the discount minimum as well as ease the shipping costs. However, I got an email when they shipped saying they were sorry by my blue yarn was not out of stock. Ugh! Well at least my friends got a chance to take advantage of the discount.

So, back to the internet again. I ended up finding the green on Ebay and the blue from a little shop in Connecticut, I think. Both colors turned out to be a little difficult to come by...at least at a price I wanted to pay for them. See the issue is that I got the original yarn at 70% off. So IF I had had enough yarn to make the sweater to begin with it would have cost me less than $40, which in my sale induced haze, I thought was actually possible. Now it looks like I'll be spending almost that same amount to get the remaining odd balls I need to finish.

But this sweater is going to be wonderful. I can feel it. And as recently pointed out by Theresa (by the way, go wish her a 'congrats'...she has some great news!), it doesn't look quite to bright and child-like in person. In the right (best) light, the colors have an 'inner light' that makes them look like they are glowing, but in normal (usual) light, they are just a really pretty green and blue.

I got to the pocket last Sunday which amused me to no end. It was one of those things in knitting where you know it's going to work out, you see how it will work out, yet when it does, it still manages to blow your mind. I mean, HOW is it possible that you can make a pocket out of nowhere? The front starts...then there's a pocket...then there's the front again. Like magic!!

Seamless, seamless, magic.

When Gifted Knits Are Worn

I love knitting gifts for others. Especially for babies, my soft spot. You never really know, though, if the items you gift will ever be worn or, for that matter, how they will wear. This is why I was thrilled to hear from my friend that the booties I made for her baby girl are getting much use, and even more thrilled to see photos of the booties being modeled by little Camilla. As if baby feet aren't cute enough bare, in all their puffy glory. I'm dying.

Below are the Erika Knight booties, as depicted in their official FO portrait shot back in August.

Yeah. Not nearly the same effect as when they're being worn on tiny feet. I know. I don't take it personally. ;) Although the pattern was written with cashmere or cotton in mind, I knit the booties using Aurora 8- partly because I had some on hand, and partly because I figured its yummy softness would be a nice, comfy alternative, and warm enough to handle the winter climate in New York. I also knew that C would appreciate its 100% merino goodness. Camilla looks so warm and snuggly- I couldn't be more thrilled!

Now speaking of warm and snuggly, I thought I would just share another picture with you, seeing as the Peanuts haven't made an appearance in a while. Here they are, chillin' on the sofa, at 7 months...

The things we do for the ones we love

This Saturday we had our first sweater design class in a 6 class series at a local San Diego LYS. The purpose of the class is to go from swatch to sweater. We could use anything for inspiration - a favorite garment, another knitting item, whatever. For me it was a fairly easy choice: B’s sweater. Ever since he got his socks, he’s been hinting about a sweater. In fact, he often says I should hurry up and finish my brother’s sweater (yes, it still isn’t done), so I can start on his! Now, his enthusiasm threw me for a loop at the beginning because, well, B has hand issues. His sister talked about it here (see the bit right below weird #6) and it is definitely something that runs in the family. Because of this, he is super sensitive to the way fibers feel…especially knitted fibers (even holding my hand when I am wearing a sweater drives him crazy). And until the success of the socks, I don’t think he thought there would ever be a knitting item that would or could work for him, so he never said anything about it.

When I first stated knitting, I thought it was a softness thing. But after repeatedly see him recoil after having him feel the softest things I could find, I realized it wasn’t an issue of what the fiber was, but more of how it was spun. If the fibers are tightly spun so there is no fluff, he can deal. This is why the Socks That Rock work and why organic cotton does not. It also means, that most sweater wool is out. So, the fiber choice was going to play a key role in this project.

Also, B is a furnace. So, the type of sweater was going to be a challenge. I knew that pull-overs were out. I started showing him photos of sweater jackets with full zippers because he often wears light jackets throughout the year. He kept coming back to the photo of the Urban Aran that Brooklyn Tweed made. I started to think that despite the gauge being drastically different, this sweater would be wonderful in Cotton-Ease. It would hold the cables nicely and be very wearable in both feel and temperature control for B. And don’t get me even started on the ease of care! Shoot, no brainer here.

Finally, came color. Although, B isn’t super particular about the colors he wears, I figured he would want something that could be more or less worn with everything. I assumed that charcoal gray would be the obvious choice and planned to pick up the new Charcoal Cotton-Ease. But then B came right out and said he didn’t want charcoal. Ugh. So after talking about it and knowing that his current jacket is black, we settled on black yarn. It would be a nightmare to knit, but I would have the class schedule to keep me on track, so I knew I could do it.

I ended up picking out TLC Cotton Plus in black. Although clearly not Cotton-Ease, it had basically the same properties and was more in the budget than some of the other options out there. In fact, it is probably the cheapest sweater quantity of yarn I’ve ever purchased (~$25). I knit up all my swatches for class on Saturday, but I because increasingly dissatisfied with the way the yarn looked. B felt the swatches and like them, and my knitting teacher re-enforced that it was a very "guy fabric", so I knew I needed to get over it. But, the Cotton-Ease kept calling my name…even so far as to encourage me to order the Charcoal last week when it got back into stock at Joanne’s…you know, "just in case".

Well, its call became even stronger, when it turned out I would have to re-swatch to account for some scaling changes I’m going to make to the sweater. So, if I’m re-swatching for design anyway...I may as well re-swatch for different yarn, too. Right? So, the plan is to make B’s sweater in Cotton-Ease after all. After discussing the color and yarn issue, he says he would be happy with the Charcoal. However, in the event that it just doesn’t do it for him, Knitzalot has kindly offered to trade some of her stash of discontinued Licorice for my batch of Charcoal.

So, wish me luck! This is going to be an interesting endeavor for me. But I am really excited about the changes and modifications that I will be making to the sweater in order to get the yarn to work while keeping the overall theme and elements intact. I was concerned that I wasn’t doing enough to justify using this project for my design class, since it isn’t really a design from scratch. However, given what the original pattern looks like (being a woman's pullover and all) and the gauge change (which is leading to some interesting cable and element modifications), quite a bit of work is needed to get everything to come together. Fortunately, my teacher alleviated my feelings of doubt by being as excited about my project as I am! Now I can’t wait to get started!!

I've got the blues...kind of, but not really

Such a bad blogger. No posts in a while means a lot to show and tell. First off, I've been spinning again! Well, a little bit. A little bit of Spunky Eclectic Moon Flower Almost Solid Merino. A little bit of Merino, on my new little Greensleeves spindle!

That cute little thing marked my first purchase at Stitches. It's so cute, I love it! I think it needs a name. Anyway, I'm not fully into the spinning groove yet, but it's coming. I know it will take practice, but I've been trying to devote some time to spinning, along with my knitting.

I started knitting French Girl's Fifi pattern, which shall be named Josephine, in a bright blue shade of Calmer that I wasn't able to capture very well in these photos. Lighting challenges aside, I still had to give you a taste of the cabley goodness anyway.

Josephine is coming along well, in spite of a minor frogging session (thanks, Knitzalot, for your help!) and a slightly more intensive ripping session this past weekend. But I am not deterred. We're back on track now, and am having a lot of fun knitting her up.

Speaking of cabley goodness, we took a class on Celtic Cables with Melissa Leapman at Stitches. Given my affection for cables already, I was happy to learn more about the Celtic variety, since I haven't had the opportunity to work with them yet. This is sure to change soon, you can count on that.

If I were a good blogger, I would have a bunch of photos to show you my Stitches haul, but as it is, I didn't come away with much of one to begin with, relatively speaking. However, don't let the lack of photos fool you; we had fun again this year. As Dis previously mentioned, it was a bit of a different experience than last year, but still good times, except for the fact that Nasus was feeling under the weather.

On a personal note, I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with friends- old and new alike. Besides the time spent with Dis and Nasus, I had a great time hanging out with and getting to know Knitzalot...especially once I realized the luggage and sweater blocking on the desk when I checked into the room belonged to her, and not some random stranger! On Friday, I had the pleasure of bumping into Jillian and Madge (and some of their friends), who I first ran into in person at the fiber festival in Torrance last summer (ladies, we should actually plan to meet up sometime). After a full day, we met up with Marisa and Kris (who, I discovered, also grew up in Hawaii), for dinner on Friday night. We must have been a pretty sad sight, yawning throughout dinner, a stark contrast to the (older) women around us, who were hootin' n hollerin' up and down the halls of the hotel. They put us to shame, but I don't think any of us cared at that point. ;) On Saturday, Dis and I met up with Jennifer for a quick lunch. Jennifer and I then offered each other moral support (or some may call it mutual enabling) at the Interlacements booth, whereupon the 5th or so time I visited this gorgeous handyed Merino, I finally succumbed. I couldn't help it- the green - it's incredible! I couldn't get a photo that would do this color any justice, so I decided to leave it out altogether. I will, however, show you a picture of this, because oh my...

Blue Moon handpainted 50% Mulberry Silk and 50% Superfine Merino roving in Puck's Mischief. Are you drooling yet? I'm sure I will have to build up my skills before I attempt to spin this, but I'm also certain it will be well worth the wait! Yesterday Kat commented that this colorway looks like a fairy tale, and that's exactly what reminded me of when I first saw it. Love.
And, as if I didn't spend enough money at Stitches and then more on a couple of online purchases last week, I spent yet more yesterday at Edna Hart. Not on yarn, however, though that orangey Blue Sky Alpaca sportweight was mighty tempting...I managed to escape yarn and purse-free (this time!), but I bought a pretty yellow cuff instead. As if I need a pretty yellow cuff, but what does "need" have to do with anything, and who could resist cute jewelry anyway? Right, Julia? Edna has way, way too many cute pieces of jewelry in her shop, not to mention the adorable baby section! Julia warned me ahead of time that I would be in trouble in there, and always, she was right. Dangit! Still, numerous temptations aside, it was great to meet Edna and Irene, and knit with Julia and Kat again. A perfect end to a great weekend, if you ask me! Now...jury duty at some point this week...let's hope this good juju can carry over for several more days...