I'm Published! (sorta)

Was just in Hobby Lobby and saw my very first project for them, Cabled Tunic. I received this pattern from them and was asked to rewrite it, so it's technically not my design, but I changed about 60% of it and feel like it's "my baby." The pattern was originally written in Chinese and had been translated by someone, but was lacking the customary knitting information and directions, and it had been written in one size for a different yarn. So, I rewrote the pattern to use Hobby Lobby's Yarn Bee Snowflake yarn, and to add sizing for small, medium and large. I was so excited to finally see the pattern in print that I came straight home and added it to Ravelry's pattern database, created a project for it, and uploaded my own pictures. I've also discovered the pattern online (since it's free, anyway). It's on Hobby Lobby's Project Inspiration tab of their website.

A Visit From the Stupidity Fairy

I received a set of interchangeable knitting needles for Christmas from The Gourmet Yarn Company and have really enjoyed them. (Okay, the truth is: I told my husband what I wanted, he got a glazed look in his eyes, I received a gift card. Whatever works. ;)

I am working on a contract project for Hobby Lobby that I've mentioned before. (It's drying on the blocking board right now, and I'm squeaking with pride, I LOVE it!). But, a tragedy occured during the washing process. I left the shoulder stitches of the sweater's back side on one of the interchangeable cables with stops on the end. The picture above shows my woe -- the cable ends snapped off inside the stops. Waaah!

When I wash a sweater by hand, I gently wring the water out of it, then spread it out flat on a dry towel, roll the sweater up in the towel like a sausage, and then place it on the floor and walk up and down it to wring out more water. Then, I unroll it and repeat with another dry towel. Sweaters dry in record time without fear of mildew in my humid climate. However, little plastic discs are no match for a zealous knitter stomping the water out of her creation. I used a couple of spare Addi's for the fronts. ;)

Catching Up, Hobby Lobby and Bobbles

I have discovered an interesting thing about bobbles while knitting a project for Hobby Lobby (more on that later). You can push them through to the back side of your knitting if you want to. They (the bobbles) don't like it much, but, as Elizabeth Zimmermann says, "you are the boss of your knitting." Now, why would anyone go to the trouble of knitting a bobble only to push it to the wrong side? Why, button placement, of course. Some of the bobbles on this project are to be omitted for a button. So, if I screw up and make a bobble where a button should be, I have recourse. Always good to have options.

I began a contract relationship with Hobby Lobby last fall and have really enjoyed it. They tell me what yarn to use and what object they want knitted and some guidelines, and let me do the rest. So far I haven't seen anything in print that I've done. As soon as I see it in print, I'll post pictures here and on Ravelry and (hopefully) drum up some interest. So far, I've done a woman's tunic, baby/toddler tunics with matching headbands and coordinating blankets, and am now working on a hooded duster. The downside is, once I turn in the article and pattern to them, I never see it again. I don't have copyrights or even any final editing review. Since this is my first "gig", I didn't want to blow it by making a bunch of demands up front.

We'll see what happens when these first few items are published. If there are editing errors, I will ask for final review. I'm not at all meaning to imply that they're a bunch of screwups, they are in fact a great group of creative, non-ego, truly nice people. My concern is that a non-knitter will make pattern changes for the sake of print brevity and not realize the implications. Hopefully my fears are unfounded.

What have I been doing since November of 2010? I dunno, it's all a blur. See Ravelry for a list of my knitted items, good and bad. ha.

Comment Lingers on and another baby blanket

Comment by Norah Gaughin

Comment refuses to be done.  I am sick of it.  If I didn't want to wear it so badly (next summer, of course by now), I would toss it.  (It was frogged out of the uber-expensive Berroco Bonsai because that yarn sucks and is way too heavy for a summer top.)  I reknit using Caron Spa (hey, I was broke after the damn Bonsai) in taupe color.  After a shitload of assembling various smaller pieces, and edging miles of surfaces, I washed it and lightly blocked it (too much acrylic to apply heat to it) and hung it up to finish drying hoping that gravity would make the stupid garter stitch border lay down and play nice.  (It still flips up at the front point despite frogging it and picking up the stitches around the point with a larger needle.)  But a more aggregious problem has reared its head:  the armholes are too long -- the entire side of my bra is showing, you can practically read the label.

Theory:  cheap yarn is stretching from the weight of the long heavy front apron and pulling the whole thing down, or cheap yarn row gauge has bit me in the ass.  Checked the pattern, it is knit by the vertical inch, so I should have gotten my 8" armhole, instead of my 11" armhole.  Also, the armhole was showing a little too much of my armpit roll, so the armhole shaping needed tweaking.

What to do?  This thing took several evenings in front of the television to assemble together and add edging.  I carefully pulled out the neck and armhole edging, then undid the side seams just enough to be able to get to the armhole bindoffs.  Unravelled from the top the front and back separately, and am presently reknitting, adding 3" before binding off for the armhole, and doing the armhole shaping decreases every other row instead of every row in the hopes that it will better hide the aforementioned armpit rolls.  Time will tell.  I'll probably end up with armholes sized to fit a 5-year old.  Sigh.



Diagonal Baby Blanket

While I was cooling off from hating Comment, I dashed off another Diagonal baby blanket for fertile friends.

Laced Leaves

 Finally finished Laced Leaves using the Berroco Bonsai that I originally invested in bought for Comment. It took forever to sew on 8 buttons with backers (clear plastic on the wrong side). It's a little snug, but that also stretches out the lace and it's really pretty. Only drawback is the buttons. I upsized them to 1/2", but that's still not enough, they're popping out. Sigh.  Maybe I'll pretend I want to wear it unbuttoned at the bottom.  Or pin the darn thing closed, lol.

 

Catching Up

Whew, I thought I'd get back in the groove of posting once my boys were back in school, but no such luck! Here are some finished projects that I never got around to blogging about.

Princess Squares Blanket (for a Prince!)

Princess Squares Blanket was knit for a neighbor with a new baby boy, using ALL STASH yarn!   Yay!  And that is why the color pattern is not, um, uniform, because I ran out of the old discontinued cotton-ease baby blue color.  It's a design feature.  All the latest babys are rocking it.  Lol.  The pattern was published in Vogue Knitting Fall 2010.

Another Summerbelle

Another hockey mom who works for a bank in Dallas as their PR director asked if I would knit something for a charity auction they were holding.  So, I did some stash-diving and came up with enough of this yellow Plymouth Jeannee cotton yarn to make a Summerbelle in the 1-2 year old size range.  This is an absolutely lousy picture, it was a cloudy day and I had to drop it in the mail that day so I rushed.

Penguin Hat

In that same envelope went this penguin hat for her son.  The short version of the story is, the dad was transferred to OKC with his company, but their Dallas house hadn't sold, so the son and Dad moved to OKC while the mom stayed in Dallas waiting for the house to sell.  Then, the Dad gets offered an even better job in Dallas, and now the family is all under the same roof again.  The son is now playing for the Dallas Penguins, so I made this for him out of stash yarns in the Dallas Penguin team colors.  Those are iron-on letters from Hancock's.

I still have three other projects going, the Giraffe Jacket, which is getting ready for it's separating zipper, and the Laced Leaves cardigan, which is going to get it's buttons, and the aforementioned Comment top, which is being reknit in Caron Spa, a bamboo/acrylic blend, and is now out of season.  :(

Comment Continues to Confound

Came to a skidding halt again on Comment by Nora Gaughan (Berroco Vol. 6). (The previous halt was due to the old nemesis, Gauge.) The yarn, Berroco Bonsai, actually arrived mid-July, but I was wrapped up in other stuff and couldn't get to it. Now, I'm in a hurry to finish it because it's a summer tank and it's still warm and I could get one wearing out of it before Fall and, oh yeah, I'm chomping at the bit to start Fall stuff, but I can't. I hate it. I like the pattern, it looks cool and breezy, but the yarn is anything but cool and breezy.



It's 97% bamboo and 3% nylon which you think would be nice and cool, but it's a tape yarn and it just doesn't feel like a summer yarn, it feels heavy and potentially sweat-inducing. This is a pic of the finished fabric before I rip it out (dammit). This yarn was a splurge, so tossing it back into the stash is not an option, financial guilt demands it be used and used now.



Enter Laced Leaves. I think the openwork will be beautiful in the gold Bonsai. I might be griping in a week about how heavy the Bonsai makes the ribbing. And yes, I feel like I have the attention span of a gnat. Because I'm starting on this instead of driving to the LYS for a linen/cotton blend to make Comment with. I'm bad. Very bad.