Can you believe it? It also came in these great shades of purple.
I really want to make something out of it, but I have no idea what. So maybe you guys can help. 100 grams, DK weight, angora. 7 balls lavender and 3 ball dark violet. I tried the ravelry search, but I don’t know… I guess I just need some help. I’ve been toying with the idea of using it as an accent for a larger product as well.
So here’s your mission if you choose to accept it: tell me what I should make with the yarn. If you know of a specific pattern, please tell me about it, but if you just have a general idea, I’d love to hear that too!
Alright, so I’ve been crazy this week, but I do have one confession:
I am beyond behind on my NaNoWriMo novel. Mostly because I interrupted one book to start the “new” novel off, and I keep getting ideas for the interrupted book. Hmm… maybe that tells me something…
My current work in progress is a whole night-time outfit for a bear. I am in the Long Island Knitting and Crochet Guild, and last meeting they handed out stuffed bears, the deal was that we would dress them, and there would be a contest for cutest outfit, then all of the resulting bears would go to charity.
Now, I think it’s great to donate the bears to a charity, but the contest does make it more interesting. So now I am finishing off the nightshirt, and then I’ll work on a nightcap, a robe and slippers and finally I want to make the bear his own (yes he’s a boy) stuffed bear to cuddle with.
I will post pictures as the items actually get finished- hopefully the nightshirt will be done sometime today!
I also want to play around with yarn dyes later, which should be lots of fun! I have a new group of colors I want to try to create- the Poisonous Plants line. Lots of deadly names, with the colors coming from the flowers. We’ll see how that comes out.
Okay, I hate to pull the birthday card, but as it is my birthday (yay….24) I am going to postpone the pattern I was going to post this morning until noon.
Umm… just as a little hint: I hope you like the pattern!
Okay so it has been a long week. I am getting a lot of stuff done this week, mostly items for the Fluffy Stuff East End Fiber Fest. I am planning on being a vendor there, so it should be fun.
For those of you who are interested but aren’t close enough to come, I will post whatever’s left on my (brand new) etsy store. Don’t bother looking for it now, the Grand Opening is August 23rd.
So things are going slow, and I fully admit to missing a couple of posts this week, but big changes are coming. I am planning on giving the theme a good update, but as of right now, I’m still trying to find a good theme to use or a good designer to help me (if if can’t be done in “Paint” then it’s beyond my skills.) So if you know a designer or proficient internet-type-person looking for some extra work, send them my way! 🙂
So for the crochet project this week, well, right now it’s a giant amigurumi penguin (10″ and counting). I am also working on dressable dolls both knit and crochet, and a few cute, mostly conceptual things (i.e. a litterbug).
That is just the yarn-type stuff, I am also brushing off my very rusty sewing skills and playing with a bunch of adorable fabrics. It shouldn’t take too long to get back into the groove (I used to re-size jeans for friends) I have a few sewing projects to tackle too.
I want to make a few project bags and crocheter/knitter accessories; and I just got this fabulous 3 tone organza fabric that I plan on making a gown for my sister out of. I know, I could begin with plans to tackle a small project but no…. I want to create a drapey gown. Sadly enough, this is a recurring theme with me.
(Don’t believe me? Just wait until November when I brush off my noveling skills!)
Bless me reader for I have sneezed– I mean sinned.
In the past week I have:
-started waaayy more projects than I have hope of finishing shortly (7 at last count)
-purchased so much sugar and cream, I then had to purchase a tote to hold it all, and it still won’t all fit. (is excessive yarn-buying ever really a sin?)
-have been wracked with indecision on which KnitPicks interchangeables set I should get. I like wood normally, but would it be too sticky? Maybe the nickle, but what about the new Zephyrs?
-have spent almost as much time reading as I have creating.
-have debated starting my novel again. (because the reading apparently shows that I have too much free time!)
-have spent more money on safety eyes and buttons than I spent on the whole bag of sugar and cream,which was the whole of my yarn purchase this week.
Despite the slightly conflicting sins of buying too much yarn and spending too much money on accessories, there are some doozies here. I think I have to have a giveaway as penance.
Give me a day or two to come up with a good prize and we will have some fun! 🙂
So I have been quite busy for the last week or so. I finally got Photoshop open (try troubleshooting a program that won’t open!) So the Thursday pattern pictures are now up and running.
For next week, I am working on a couple of hats. I was originally going to provide instructions for the colorwork/ without colorwork hat as I did with the knit hat, but I might end up adding the crochet version of the fish hat.
As for the shrug that I spoke about last Sunday, it has now become a short- sleeved lacy cardigan. Mostly because after getting 2/3 of the way done with the shrug, I was still on the first ball of yarn and I had bought 4. (Besides I think it would be cool to have a cute summer cardigan.)
The only problem with this is that I planned the shrug as a one piece so I started it in the middle of my back. Now I have a full front and half a back.
To make it look ‘on purpose’ rather than ‘oh yeah-that part’ I am considering making a row of eyelets and threading an I-cord through them. A cute little tie off that could work beautifully considering the “bottom” hits right at waist level right now.
So one more day and the main part will be done, then all I have to do is add button bands and other cute trimmings.
Okay, so as some of you may have read, I won a $500 giftcard in a local contest, which, to be honest, I entered so long ago that I forgot about it. I swear, when I got the e-mail, I almost deleted it, thinking it was spam!
So I called straight away, and was told that they are going to make a photo op out of me and the other person picking up the card. Excellent, but I am not exactly known for my patience. In order to keep myself from utter impatience and to display just how thrilled I am, I decided to knit something for the occasion.
Nothing says excitement like sitting still for hours on end plying a pair of needles; well except maybe using a hook….. 😉
What oh what shall I knit? It has to be light and airy as someone has finally reminded the powers-that-be that it is summer on Long Island and I want it to be a middle ground of classy and casual so I can wear it wherever….
I’m thinking a lacy shrug/cropped cardigan deal. I even have inspiration; as I watched Prince Caspian a few days ago. No, the movie didn’t inspire me to any great fiber feats, but the song in the credits did. (I get more songs out of the end of kids movies- Wall-E, Mathilda, Meet the Robinsons, and now Prince Caspian; Ha!)
So, after listening to this song (and some of the songs from the above listed movies) I came up with a tentative pattern; and knit myself a swatch (one of those big kahuna swatches I mentioned previously.)
This is all the lovely Wool in the Woods Cameo I bought, and the swatch I knit, about 8 1/2 x 7″ before I ripped it.
Here’s the swatch off the needles (please excuse the poor photo quality- Photoshop decided to stop working just as I was uploading these). You can see that the upper, lacier part is also wider. I’m going to try to use this to shape the shrug without any increasing or decreasing (I’m trying to get a fairly simple pattern out of this.)
Okay, it took me quite a while, but I finally created the breakdown of all the responses (over 300!) that I received from the giveaway. Before I share that, however, I would like to re-post a poll. I am debating having the patterns for the next week or two be men’s hats because that is what Knits for Needs has requested. I have only had 3 responses as of yet and I would like a little big of a larger response, so I changed the poll a bit.
Please vote!!
Okay, now on to the break down. These are the trends, so single requests are not here, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t do them, and I myself have a complete breakdown. However, as anyone can see the comments on the site, I thought a ‘patterns by the numbers’ list would be rather interesting; I know I was a bit surprised at parts.
27 requests for a lacy shawl or stole pattern
20 requests for sock patterns
16 requests for wearables for children of various ages (I will honor these as best as I can, but I will have to dig around for some modles/sizing persons)
13 requests for plus sizes (This surprised me, and that made me feel like an idiot. For some reason I never thought that others might share my plus size woes)
11 requests for purses or handbags (this suits my purse obsession quite well :))
11 requests for shrugs (I never contemplated making a shrug before, but I’m working on my first one now, a simple crochet one, with more to come)
10 requests for items (not socks) with sock yarn
7 requests for amigurumi or knit toys
6 requests for various mens patterns (this I have been working on, it will be a while yet, mens patterns can take a while to knit up!)
5 requests for patterns that have sizing for women with a bit more chest (see my comment on the plus sizes above for my reaction to this ;))
5 requests for fingerless gloves
5 requests for messenger bags
5 requests for knit/crochet hybrid patterns
4 requests for WIP bags
So… for some of these I just have to find where I put the pattern notes, other suggestions brought my mind in a whole new direction (which was the point of the whole thing) and all in all I had a lot of fun.
As for the site suggestions, some of them I have already altered, but most of them I am working on. I have sitting next to me right now a list a half a page long of changes to make to the site. The problem is that my programming experience is limited to BASIC and eXcel. Neither of which is very useful on a modern website. I promise you that I will catch up though.
Okay, so as I know you’re all curious, with no further ado, the winners:
Lauria and Marsha- I sent out the emails last night (or very early this morning, depending on what you want to call it.) So if you think this is you, then check your email!
I would also like to wish a Happy Birthday to both Lauria and Marie. Click on their names to go to their blogs and wish them a happy b-day. I’m very impressed that the random number generator chose a birthday girl. It obviously has good judgement.
I am still going through all the comments and right now I’m trying to make a table to go through all the great feedback I got.
As you might have seen, I’ve been making a few small changes to the site based on the comment. Right now I’m putting myself through a crash course on CSS so I can change the important things like the width of the blog and the background color.
As for the patterns right now I am brainstorming on a bunch of them but two repeated comments that caught my attention were requests for shrugs, specifically long sleeved shrugs, and plus sizes. One of the patterns I’m refining now is a shrug, and as to plus sizes, and larger cup sizes…
I understand, on a very personal level what that’s like, so you can be sure that I will never put up a wearable that was not also sized for us curvy girls.
I’m off to work on all my feedback and categorize it. As soon as I do, I’ll post the breakdown. In the mean time, please keep the comments coming!
Okay, so to celebrate both the first month of my blog and passing the 10,000 hits mark I am hosting a giveaway. I am making each entry a comment because I really want to make sure that all my readers are getting what they want.
There will be two winners, each of which will win: 1 “Pretty Cheep” project bag, 1 skein of sock yarn either Malabrigo or Araucania, 1 travel size tube of ‘Udder Cream’ (a fabulous moisturizer), 2 iron on customizable ‘handmade’ labels, 1 lantern moon notebook and 4 knit and crochet stitch markers. All of these things with the exception of the stitch markers I made are purchased from my LYS The Village Knitter. (Thank you, Karen!)
Here’s a picture of both prize kits
(click to enlarge)
What do you have to do? Leave me a comment, anywhere on the site telling me one of two things:
1.) A pattern you would like to see me make. I will soon be putting some not-free patterns up so this one comes with a bonus. If you tell me an idea that I then use, I will send you a copy of the pattern, even if I am not posting it free. So come on, make me your own personal knit/crochet designer; I dare you!
2.) Tell me about what you like or dislike about my blog, what you would keep, what you would change. Please use some tact, but I really do have a thick skin and I love constructive criticism. My sister just got Dreamweaver and she will be helping me overhaul the whole site, so let me know!
Now, if you happen to be in a chatty mood, and would like to comment on both these things, then you have made 2 entries and I will count it as such. I will announce both winners next Sunday July 5th, so you have a week to enter.
To recap:
Leave a comment anywhere on my site to get a chance at one of the goodie bags pictured above. Comment on the site or on a pattern idea for one entry and comment on both for 2 entries. The winner will be announced July 5th.
Thank you all again, and I can’t wait to see what you have to say.
Hook and Needle Girl 