Knitwith Homespun

Remember the BFF coverups? I’ll refresh your memory:
Now, Bella’s didn’t turn out as nicely mostly because she won’t stop growing. Darn kids and food! What a combination! If only you could stop feeding them all would stay status quo! But no, you have to feed them or they arrest you! But I digress. Bella’s turned out a bit snug so either I will make a new one or she will stretch and this one will fit her (which is what I expect will happen). However, this coverup has been so popular with those who have seen and Catrina’s family that I decided to write up the pattern. If you are interested, please let me know. I may post it for free or put it on Ravelry for just a few dollars. The girls love it for the slit in the side. They feel so grown up with that that they get too excited to wear it. Also, Catrina has a petite Aunt who apparently would like to steel it. She took it at a pool party and tried it on and loves it. She has asked Catrina if she can have it and Catrina said no she could not. I have an out of town guest coming to visit with my father in a couple of weeks. This is my step niece and her mother. She is 5 or 6 now and I think she would love to have a coverup like the big girls so I went and picked some yarn in her favorite colors and I cast on her coverup today. Here are the day-glow colors we chose: It should be done within a couple of days given the fact that I am frogging my shawl! That’s right, it’s over.

This is a shawl I am currently working on. It’s called the Seraphim Shawl and I love it. The link is a Ravelry link and is beautiful. My problem is that I have run out of my yarn. The pattern calls for 800-1000 yards of yarn and my yarn is the proper weight. I am in the middle of the second chart and I have about 50 more rows and two charts left to knit. I was going to use some of my two ply alpaca that I was selling on Etsy to finish but I don’t think that’s enough either. This yarn for the shawl is handspun and I don’t have any fiber left to spin more yarn. The brown alpaca is the same fiber that I spun with the silk alpaca I am using for this shawl. I am seriously considering frogging this shawl and choosing another pattern to use this yarn. I really want a shawl for this yarn and I have really enjoyed knitting it but if I continue with the alpaca and I run I may end up frogging anyway. Does anyone have any other suggestions for me? Any other ideas? Please help me out! I could really use the input!

First practice this summer. Cracks me up.

Spring Forward done!

This time I made a real effort to take a pretty finished object picture.  This is my favorite shot from the bunch.  It’s very very hard to photograph your own foot.  I put a ball where my foot was supposed to go and focused, pushed the button and placed my foot and hoped all went well.  Well, it didn’t go well but I like the result.  This shot has a bit too much lens flare and glare but it makes the photo look misty and magical which I do like.  The focus is a bit off but the depth of field is nice.  Most of the shots were out of focus and yucky but I have a few that show enough detail to do a finished object post.

As I said before, these socks were the easiest thing ever to knit.  It was so fun and quick.  I love the color and the fit.  I went through all the details of these socks in my previous post about them so I won’t bore you with that here.  It took me so long to finish them because I had too many other projects on the needles (who knows about that?).  I will do other finished object posts about that other stuff later.  Here are some of the other shots that are acceptable but not great.

You know I could say that I planned that long pretty piece of grass (weed) between my ankles there but you know I didn’t.

The next item up for discussion is free fiber from Diva Knitting. I got second prize in her 4 year blogiversary contest and received 5 ounces of hand dyed fiber which happens to be in my favorite colors ever! Thanks Cheryl! I believe this is destined to be a self striping single for a pair of socks for me. I never had a fiber tell me so quickly what I should do with it before but this stuff screamed self striping socks for me and noone else! I am very excited and I hope I can get to it soon. Now for the excuses: The photos seem muted but when I was editing them up in Lightroom they were spot on a beautifully saturated with accurate color. I don’t know what happened and I even calibrated my monitor again to see if that would do it. It didn’t. What’s a girl to do. Here’s the beautiful optim:

Every other Friday night I meet with a group of ladies for Craft Night.  Craft night can consist of knitting, spinning, crocheting, weaving, tatting, embroidery, and other assorted boxed crafts.  Sometimes, people don’t even craft, but we frown on that.  There are between 5 and 8 of us typically.  Here are a few of us:

First from the left is Heather sporting her very own handknit beanie.  She found the pattern on Ravelry and made it her very own self.  She is a scientist and can’t handle knitting on the fly or even knitting loosely.  She cracks me up!  Next in the lineup is Stacy.  She is embroidering in this shot but most of the time she crochets at Craft Night and it is always held at her house.  She wants to learn to knit so I think we are going to teach her.  Next in the lineup here is Sandi.  Anyone who has read my blog before knows Sandi.  She is my sister-in-law and she has branched out so much that she currently is working on three projects right now!  Can you believe it!?

Last night was our regular craft night and there is a new yarn store opening up in Costa Mesa called Knit Schtick.  We decided to get together today and go down there when the store opened at 11 and then have lunch across the street at a Peruvian restaurant called Inca Grill.  Well the yarn store doesn’t officially open until tomorrow so this was called a pre-sale.  It really was a lovely store.  There are two large tables set up with about 8 chairs each set up around them to knit at with coasters for your drinks and holders for your patterns if you bring one.  There were two love seats in the front of the store with coffee tables loaded with magazines and books to browse.  Don’t even get me started on the yarns!  They were all beautiful and in some gorgeous colorways.  The owners were not only knowledgeable but they were helpful and wonderfully kind and obliging.  Heather wanted to buy yarn for a sweater and they spent a good 10-15 minutes helping her determine what to buy and how much and they are even going to make a special effort to get her a pattern from a sample in the store.  Don’t get me wrong, this place was packed with people.  When we got there, there was a line out the door waiting to get in!  The place was packed and I don’t think anyone there had any trouble getting their questions answered.  Heather got some beautiful Malibrigo in a brown and purple and gold colorway that is amazing.  She has never made a sweater before so I am very excited for her.

Now, on to what I got!  I never bought Malibrigo before so this is my first skein ever.  Isn’t it so pretty!?

I have no idea what I am going to do with it.  I love how the blue runs into the gold and the purple.  I got the extra skein of just the blue to really pull that out in the project that I make that is yet to be determined.

The prices at Knit Schtick were really quite reasonable.  I wouldn’t think they are high or particularly low but right where you might expect them to be.  I would certainly make the trip down here for any project.

I am open to ideas for this yarn.  I have two skeins of the Mariposa which has the green, brown, tan, blue, and purple and one of the blue totally about 600 yards of worsted.

After we left the store we went and had a lovely lunch.  We then dropped Stacy off at home and dropped by Joghurt for a refreshing treat.  This lovely yogurt place has a Tuesday Morning in the same parking lot so who were we to not go in?  That’s where I found this:

Which I got for $3.99.  Can you even believe it?  So after I got back and I was talking to Stacy on the phone, she wants to go there.  I may end up back there tomorrow!  Well to top off the weekend, I didn’t go through all my mail yesterday and I found this that I still haven’t looked at:

I have never knit anything from this magazine but I surely will.  These are always some of the most beautiful and fashion forward patterns I have ever seen and I love to get it whenever it arrives.  I can’t wait to finish this blog so I can look through this magazine!

There you have it.  All the news that’s fit to print and boring enough to share with you all.  That’s what you get when you don’t blog for a year and a day (or a couple weeks anyway).

Done coverup 1.  I know you may find this hard to believe, but Bella is almost a year younger than Catrina.  She is the youngest and the tallest in her entire class.  Moving on.  Catina’s coverup is done.  You can see from this shot the jogless stripes (haha) on the edge.  The girls love the slit up the side of this coverup.  Bella’s is going to be a challenge because the sizes are so different.  She also wants hers to have only one tank strap looking more “caveman”.  Bella’s will have orange at the bottom moving into yellow at the top.  After blocking, I had to shorten the straps a bit for Catrina cause she is much shorter than I had measured.  This will eventually work out alright because as she gets taller, we can just take the straps down and she can still wear it. I think the eyelets at the bottom turned out just like I wanted them.  Catrina loves it!

Postscript from the other day:

For those of you who read my previous rant and plea for advice here is an update.  Bella and I met with the Girl Scout troop leader and it went very well.  The leader had spoken with the girls and the girls assured Dawn that noone had said or would say something like that about Bella.  The girl who said it voluntarily confessed to saying it and the other girls chimed in that it wasn’t true.  Dawn explained this to Bella.  Dawn went on the ask the other girls what Bella could do to make better friends in the troop.  The troop made a few suggestions for Bella to hear and Dawn told Bella what those were and they were good ideas.  We took them to heart and will apply them where necessary.  Overall, I think it was a good meeting with her and Bella was pleased with the outcome.  The bottom line is this troop has been together since kindergarten and Bella just joined this year.  This was part of the problem since they don’t know her as well.  I think everything is going to go well from here on out as the girls have promised to make a better effort with her.  Alls well that ends well.  Keep your fingers crossed.

This is Bella and Catrina.  They are BFFs (I think).  I don’t get it but this is them last Friday at the park after school.  They played together and had a blast.  They love to dress up together because Bella has a bunch of dressy dresses that we have bought at thrift stores and relatives have bought for her because she is such a princess.  Therefore, Catrina likes to come over and wear these things.  One of the things that they like to wear is Bella’s coverup from a couple of years ago.  They like it because it’s strapless and cool.  I told them I would make them a coverup for their summer season that matched.  This is my project for this blog.

I told them it would have a slit up the side.  They loved this idea.  The rest is my idea.  I would design Catrina’s as a tank dress and Bella wants hers to be a caveman dress with the tank strap over on one side.  Here is my project so far.  I will be writing this pattern up and we will see if there is any interest.  I might sell this one for a buck or two.

There is some minor shaping at the waist.  I am having trouble trying to figure out the tank straps in a circular knit but everything else is going well.  I love the eyelets at the bottom and the rounded shape of the slit.  The gradation of colors will play into the pair of dresses.  Bella’s will be orange at the bottom and graduate to yellow at the top.  The slit in this dress is about 6 inches but for these girls, it’s from the knee almost to the hip.  They are very excited about that.  Any other ideas you all have to help me out with this would be greatly appreciated.

Contest link: http://www.divaknitting.com/blog/2009/05/15/4-year-blogiversary-must-be-time-for-a-contest

Yesterday, as you all know, was Mother’s Day.  Since Bella was born, I love mother’s day more than any other time.  She always gets me a card or a present or something nice.  But this year, she totally outdid herself.  This year wins all years for now and in the future.  As a mom, you want your kids to be safe, happy, healthy, and wonderful.  However, as kids, they don’t really know how you do it or what you are doing.  Bella is 8.  I can’t believe at this young age, she gets it.  This card is amazing and I will keep in forever and ever.  Thank you Isabella, for the best Mother’s Day present and card I can ever get.  This is truly amazing and wonderful!

Kitty.  This is Kitty.  I have talked about her before.  She spends her LIFE on the bed she sits on in this picture.  I took this picture this morning for the purposes of this post because this post deserves a new picture of this cat.  Why?  Because this is a interesting story.  I hope I can do it justice.

Kitty and I have spent a lot of time together this week.  I have been sick for several days.  I would say since Monday (and it’s Saturday today), I have spent half of my life in bed with Kitty watching TV and sleeping.  I suspected that Kitty enjoyed this time with me.  She likes for us to pet her when we are in bed.  She puts her head in our hand.  She loves us, right?

Kitty has to be close to 20 years old.  When we got her, the vet told us she was 5-6 years old and that was in 1997.  She looks good, no?

This is our hallway.  Along the left side of this hallway are several doors.  I explain this to tell you how long this hallway is.  First, is my yarn and fiber room.  Next is the linen closet, followed by Isabella’s bedroom, then her bathroom, then another linen closet where we keep the blankets for the guests and the door all the way at the end is the guest bedroom.  We have a four bedroom house and a very very long hallway.  This hallway is 30 feet long.  I have often joked about bowling down this hall.

The carpet is trashed in this hallway so we bought this runner that you see here.  We will replace all the carpet but not until Lucy (our dog) leaves us because that would be a waste of money.  She has a leaky bladder and she is 14 years old.  The runner creates an interesting noise for those that walk on it.  The dog makes a unique noise, the people are quiet, and the cat only makes noise on this runner in very particular circumstances.  This is where our story begins (thank God the background is done).

I woke up this morning at 6:55am.  I heard a noise.  It sounded like a herd of animals running in the hallway.  Before I could listen to figure it out, something landed on my bed, whacked my leg under the covers and was gone.  Then I heard the herd of animals again running down the hall.  The noise was coming back towards me.  Brace myself, here it comes, Kitty lands on my bed, whacks me on the leg and takes off down the hall again.  So from what I can determine, she did this three times.  Once while I was sleeping but this first time must have woken me up a bit, the second time when I was able to hear what was coming, and the last time when I was fully awake and aware of these brutal attacks.

Is she irritated with me spending so much time in HER bed?  Is she playing with me because we bonded this week?  We may never know the answers to these burning questions.  We only know I survived these brutal assaults and I can tell the story.  I think that top picture has a little attitude, don’t you think?

Turns out, Savvy has a gown she is borrowing for her baptism.  She also has a shawl, but as her Godmother, I’m pulling rank.  Both the gown and the shawl are borrowed.  I am knitting her a shawl that she can keep and hand down to her children for their baptisms or wear at her wedding.  I decided to design it myself after perusing a bunch of patterns on the internet.  What I intend to do it knit a square for the center, pick up the stitches on each of the sides and knit lace panels from there.  The next panel for each side will be a little more than lace and have some more detail and more coverage then the second panels.  Then, I will knit an edge with some lovely detailed design.  Should be fun.  Now, I started this yesterday and I thought I would make a cabled X for the center piece.  I hate it.  Not only does the cable not show up well enough or in enough detail, my X is not symetrical.  Please also note that my square is a rectangle.  I knew this would happen after I got to the center but I thought I would compensate for that later in the second level of panels.

The next step will be to frog this, cast on a few number of stitches, graph it out on some knitters graph paper, and use eyelets instead of cables for the center square.  It will be an X again but I think it will look much better than the cable.  I think if I were knitting at a tighter gauge, the cable would have looked much better.  The concept here is a lacy, airy, pretty little shawl and knitting a tight cable was a wrong turn.  Frogging now and posting other designs as soon as possible.

I was asked in Plurk if I would put any handspun into my Etsy shop so I went a lookin and what do you know, there was some.

	This is Icelandic wool from Spunky Club and is 376 yards of 2 ply and 12 wpi..
	100% Alpaca buttery soft goodness and 112 yards 2 ply 16 wpi.
	Superwash merino in Sunshine of your Love Colorway, 82.5 yards, 16 wpi, and 2 ply
	Singles called Deep Blue Sea, 24 wpi, 158 yards.

I have to say, of course, that I haven’t sold anything yet.  However, I am pleased with one thing that has happened.  A plurk bud, Illiane, informed me that I may need permission to sell other designers finished objects as a condition of the license provided with each pattern that I used.  I hadn’t thought of that and I try to be lawful in every respect.  I wrote each of the designers of the objects I am selling that I didn’t design.  I am very very pleased with the outcome.  So far, only one person has asked that I take their item off my Etsy page because she sells them on her Etsy page.  I took it dowm immediately.  The other two that I have heard from have granted me permission as long as I mention their name in my listing.  I have done this.  I am still waiting for one more response.  I am so pleased wtih people being so nice.  However, I think I am going to try to avoid this problem in the future and either design my own stuff to sell, or ask permission before I pull the trigger.

This is one of the designs that I have permission to sell (thanks Cosymakes) that I didn’t design.  I did, however, design and make the model and I grant permission to myself to use my daughters likeness here and on my Etsy page.

You know Savvy Rose, right?  This is her.  She is beautiful and she is being baptized at the end of May (hopefully).  I am going to knit her gown for the ceremony but I can’t find a good pattern.  Do any of you have one or know of one?  I want something long and lacey but with good coverage.  I don’t know why but once I figured out I was going to do this, I can’t seem to find anything.  There was a good one I liked in Leisure Arts Beautiful Baby book but I can’t find that either.  Ravelry has a few but nothing that pops.  If you know of one, please direct me.  Thanks!

Yep, I finally did it.  I 0pened an Etsy shop to sell some stuff so I can buy more yarn!  Ha!  That’s all she wrote.

Please visit:  Loopykd’s Etsy Shop