Va-va-voom!

And finally, here are pictures of the finished Intolerable Cruelty:

Reading is sexy!

Kickin’ it

Love the way the color moves

I have worn this skirt three or four times now, and I feel like the sexiest thing on two legs every time I do. I love the way the patterning worked out, I love the wide ribbon in the back, I love the length and the way it clings to my curves…I really just adore this skirt. The only change I need to make is to tighten up the elastic a skosh, but that’s a quick and easy thing (if I ever get 5 spare minutes again).

One more angle for the road

Stepping outside

There are a lot of things that I’m moderately good at, and even a few things that I’m really, really good at. But there are also things I’m horrible at. One of those things is self-promotion. It makes me really, painfully uncomfortable to talk about myself and my accomplishments. And there’s this one really awesome thing that happened that I should tell you about, because this is, after all, ostensibly where I am to feature my professional design work. So here goes:

Last year, I decided to really buckle down and get this whole “pattern design” thing going. I’m comfortable with self-publication, but since I’m not great at self-promotion, my patterns tend to just sit there. I do actually know all of the things I should be doing differently…I just have a really hard time implementing them. So I decided to take a different tack, one I’d avoided before because of the fear of rejection. Turns out my fear of rejection is not as strong as my aversion to saying nice things about myself (yes, you read that correctly: I would actually rather hear other people say not-nice things about my work than to say nice things about it myself. I gots me some Issues™.). I started reading calls for submissions on Ravelry, did some sketching and swatching, and submitted a little bolero to Knitscene.

This little bolero, in fact. Which you can find in the Summer 2012 issue of Knitscene, available on newstands and in your local yarn store now, or directly from them here. (The protoype is pictured above in a black sparkly cotton that’s just gorgeous in person. ETA: It’s 2nd Time Cotton by K1C2)

Leaf lace detail — I think my favorite thing about this sweater is the way the insets create lovely big scallops along the neckline.

Since then I’ve been sending out submissions pretty regularly, and have had a couple of others picked up (which is why there’s been a dearth of content here lately — I’ve been spending every spare moment knitting my widdle pingers to the bone), so those will be out soon-ish. And I will be sure to tell you all about them when they’re available. Because you know what? I’m really proud of them, and me, and I think you’re going to like them.

Fighting the Common Cold*

Pattern: Vitamin C by Ruth Garcia-Alcantud (aka @rockandpurl) Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky in Pumpkin

Back in November, this totally gorgeous pattern came across my Twitters. Since I was headed up to a friend’s house that very weekend for a stitch’n'bitch, I grabbed the pattern and some yarn and started when I got to the s’n'b. This pattern is definitely going to get made again…it’s got a ton of variety in the stitches, but each row is consistent and simple enough that you can work around while paying minimal attention to the actual stitches you’re making. The combination of variety and simplicity is absolutely perfect for a project to work on while hanging out and chatting with friends, or sitting in waiting rooms, or really, just about anything. Best of all, if you’re a bit distracted like I’ve been for the past few months, you can miss a couple rows and still end up with a great looking final project!

Get your own copy of the pattern here! And while you’re there, check out the rest of Ruth’s patterns and read some of her blogs…as I mentioned on Twitter the other day, she’s totally my knitter-crush.

Becky wanted in on the photoshoot.

*See, this would be really funny if we’d been having a cold winter. 

I Can’t Think of a Clever Title for This Post

As I mentioned a few days ago (and you already know if you have a calendar/access to the internet/contact with other people), ’tis the season for resolutions (or not), and reflections on the year gone past,  and goal-setting for the coming year and beyond. I had an interesting conversation about this last point the other day. An article came across my interwebs that suggested that if one wanted to be a serious writer, one needed to make that a top priority in one’s life.  Conversation ensued about whether that was realistic for someone who isn’t — and can’t be — a full-time writer.

The conversation isn’t really important — this isn’t a blog about being an author, after all — but as we were having the conversation, I realized that much of what we were talking about pertained to the design career I’m working so hard on launching, and I needed to think about what “prioritizing” that actually meant to me. I have a full-time job (that I actually quite like and don’t want to give up, even if I do become a successful designer), a family that requires quite a bit of my time and attention, and a number of hobbies that I quite enjoy. I don’t believe that I should — or do — have to undermine any of those things to be successful with knitting design. That’s not prioritizing; that’s just unhealthy.

What I do have to do is make sure that I have concrete (small) goals set out every month, every week, every day. For instance, the other day my goal was to establish the stitch patterns and choose the yarn I want to use in a couple of submissions that are done at the end of the month. There’s a ton of other stuff that needs to be done for those submissions: sketches need to be drawn, swatches need to be knit, descriptions need to be written, etc. But that night, the goal was to figure out the stitch patterns and pick the yarn. And I got that done. Meeting that small goal has done a number of things for me: It has moved me forward on the list o’ things to do for those submissions…now I’m ready to start making those swatches. It has given me a feeling of accomplishment — I got something done! And it has put me in a position to feel comfortable enough with where I am on those deadlines that I can take some time and work on other stuff, like writing up a one-off pattern for a friend, and knit a little on my current “relaxing” project: Rock and Purl’s Vitamin C Cowl.

Mmmmm...zen

I am truly enjoying working this pattern up. I chose to do it in Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky in the Pumpkin colorway, because orange seemed like an appropriate color for this pattern (I considered Tweed Stripes in the Wildfire colorway, but I was afraid the striping would obscure the lovely stitch patterns). There is just enough going on with the stitching to keep me from feeling that “oh dear god how am I not done with this already” feeling that I get with miles of stockinette/seed/ribbing, but not nearly enough that I feel the need to constantly check the pattern. Just a few minutes of working gets me to that very relaxed, zen place that really good knitting can deliver you to. I’m enjoying it enough that I’m going to be a little sad when I’m done with it, I think. For now, though, I’ll just enjoy the moments.

FREE Pattern! Sangria Swirl

The other day, I came upon this delicious, unlabeled yarn. The colors were beautiful, the yarn was nice and chunky so I knew it would work up fast, and it felt just lovely in my hands. I did some measuring and weighing and figured out that I had about 450yds total. Perfect for a scarfy-shawl-thingie! What I wanted was another Clapotis but I knew it wasn’t nearly enough yarn for that. Then I thought maybe I’d just do another drop-wrap shawl, but I didn’t really want another big triangle, and so I thought I could do a rectangular one. And then…then I thought about doing a rectangle on the bias, similar to how the Clapotis is shaped.

So I sat down, cast on a couple stitches, and started to play with it.  Love. It. It spirals and stretches and you don’t really have to think much about what you’re doing. It can be worn as a scarf (doubled — it’s really long) or stretched out and worn as a wrap. Best of all, even for slow knitter me it was a crazy fast knit. I think it took me <20 hours all told, and I was figuring out the pattern as I went. Without further ado, I give you the Sangria Swirl:

It's a shawl!

No, wait! It's a scarf!

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Measurements:

72″ x 12″

Materials:

• App. 450 yds bulky yarn
• Size 11(8mm) needles

Instructions:

CO 3.
Increase section:
Row 1: kfb, k to end
Row 2: purl
Row 3: kfb, k to end
Row 4: purl
Row 5: kfb, k to end
Row 6: purl, wrapping yarn twice around needle for each stitch (drop extra wrap when working next row)

Repeat these 6 rows a total of 14 times (84 rows, 45 stitches) Note: if you want to make your project wider, work more repeats of this section, and then work the same number of repeats of the decrease section, below

Work even section (no net increase or decrease):
Row 1: kfb, k to last 2, k2tog
Row 2: purl
Row 3: kfb, k to last 2, k2tog
Row 4: purl
Row 5: kfb, k to last 2, k2tog
Row 6: purl, wrapping yarn twice around needle for each stitch (drop extra wrap when working next row)

Repeat these 6 rows a total of 22 times (216 rows, 45 stitches) Note: if you want your project to be longer or shorter, work more or fewer repeats of this section

Decrease section:
Row 1: k to last 2, k2tog
Row 2: purl
Row 3: k to last 2, k2tog
Row 4: purl
Row 5: k to last 2, k2tog
Row 6: purl, wrapping yarn twice around needle for each stitch (drop extra wrap when working next row)

Repeat these 6 rows a total of 14 times (300 rows, 3 stitches)

Bind off remaining 3 sts. Weave in ends.

It’s a Real Live Knitted FO! For Serious!

Looky what I made! Free pattern is Bicycle Wheels from Sew Knit Me, yarn is Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Charcoal. The pattern is very conversational, maybe a little more than I like, but there were no errors and I absolutely love the tip on merging down your purl stitches on the last row of rib. What a great, finished look that one extra little row gives! I also really like the way it fits after being pulled together in the back…nice and slouchy without that feeling that it’s going to fall off any second. Best part? As slow as I am, this hat only took be about two and half hours of actual knitting time to work up. I feel some Generic Winter Holiday gifts coming on…

Yes, there's also one from the front. Unfortunately, it is an incredibly unflattering picture of me (the hat still looks cute). So you'll have to settle for this one.

 

And this is what’s on my needles now:

I really wish I knew what this yarn is...it's got a great hand and just look how gorgeous the colors are!

It’s a little scarf-shawl, à la Clapotis…I’m hoping to have it done by the weekend for party-wearing (and also I have another project that I Absolutely Must be working on over the weekend, so it would be nice to have this off the needles). I started it Tuesday night just to play with the yarn (which is, naturally, unlabeled ) because it is pretty and soft, and like the way it’s turning out so well that I scribbled out the pattern and will publish it as a freebie as soon as I have the project finished.

Sugar/Spice/Everything Nice

When I noticed in the spring that Becky was outgrowing the last sweater I made her, we picked out yarn and a pattern for another one. A couple of weeks ago, we picked out buttons. And now, the munchkin has a new sweater:

Yes, she's adorable.

Hood up, still adorable

It’s a modified version of ChildHood from Knitty made with KnitPicks Shine Worsted in Crocus. The modifications consisted of no striping (obviously), lengthening the body and sleeves (Becky’s a beanpole) and working the buttonband differently (I didn’t do the thing with leaving the extra width on the bottom band; I just worked the fronts all the way across and then picked up from the bottom edge and worked around, skipping every 3rd stitch). Oh, and I did a crocheted button loop for the top button, which is larger than the others.

And Becky absolutely loves it, which is the only really important thing about it.

Next up, one for Zacky. Same pattern, different mods — there’re going to be stripes all over! And we’re going to roll dice (a d10 for the color and probably a d6 for the number of rows) to determine distribution.

Going Backwards

No, wait, that’s not what I meant. So back in the day (and even now lots of times) cardigan patterns are written such that you only have instructions for one front and are told to make the second one the same way, just reversing the shaping. But what the hell does that mean? I explain it all over on the Lion Brand blog.

Inspiration

You may have noticed that I’ve been absent from this space for a while. Frankly, I’ve had a lot going on. I’ve been sick in a couple of different ways; I’ve got some Very Awesome but also Very Secret projects going on that I can’t post about (yet); and then I was away at Otherworld, which was more magical this year than ever before, which is a pretty tall order. More about that in a later post, because today I want to talk about someone else.

Yesterday, I followed a link from a tweet to Gregory Patrick’s blog. I read a little bit, and then I read a little more, and then I kept reading. This man’s story — no, this man — is amazing. When he found himself unemployed and eventually homeless, he used his knitting skills to make teddy bears, which he sold/sells to keep himself and his cat fed. He is slowly rebuilding his life, step by step, and the things he’s gone through and gotten himself past are just incredible. I’ll let you read his story for yourself, in his own words, but I’ll tell you what touched me: the strength and dignity and courage with which he has faced down the challenges he has been given. Add to that the kindness that shines through both in his blog posts and his policies (for instance, if you buy his three-bear set and give one to charity, he gives a pretty hefty discount on the set…read his story and you’ll see what a big sacrifice that must be for him, but that seems to be just the kind of guy he is).

All that I’ve been going through lately is nothing compared to what Gregory has and is going through. He has inspired me to pull myself up out of my funk, to strive to be a better person, to throw myself into trying to make making my dreams coming true.

I was making a what now?

I’m usually pretty good at learning from past mistakes. One of the few that I just seem doomed to repeat is putting a project aside “just for a bit — certainly not long enough to forget where I am” and picking it up 3 months years later only to discover that I have no freaking clue what is going on with the pattern. If I even still have the pattern. If you’re like me (please tell me I’m not the only one who does this), you might find these nifty tips I wrote about for the Lion Brand Notebook helpful.