Permission or Forgiveness?
This Sunday we went on a bit of a scouting excursion. I've been wanting to do this for the better part of a year. Whenever I drive home from our primary grocery store, I catch sight of an abandoned (and charmingly decrepit) greenhouse. It looked exactly like the sort of place that would lend itself well to serving as a backdrop for knitting photos. Turns out yeah, it sort of is. We'll start with an establishing shot of the greenhouse itself. Yes that is a tree resting on the roof. It's been there at least a year. When you get [...]
On the Value of Following Instructions
You know how that last instruction in most every pattern is something to do with blocking? And you know how you may occasionally want to blatantly ignore that instruction? Mmmm, yes. Next time you're tempted to do that? Remember this picture. Same yarn, same needles, same knitter, worked the same week. One blocked and one not (yet) blocked. Which do you think will look better on? The goal is to have these blocked and dry for Sunday morning so The Boy and I can go traipsing around this neat half-collapsed greenhouse and take some pictures. Should be cool, if we [...]
And So It Begins
I am a big fans of systems. I truly deeply believe big projects are easier to get through if you have a system. Books are big projects, so I have a system for them. I'm starting the next book (the one that comes after KCC2), and that means the book yarn containment system has been reactivated. It's pretty basic...one bin for sock yarn, one bin for non-sock yarn, and one bin for swatches, labels, notes, and other important bits that must not be lost. The yarn bins are starting to fill up (yay), but the extra bit is still empty. [...]
Sing me a Song
Sunday evening found us in a most unusual state. Instead of being tucked up safely at home in our pajamas, we actually got up, got dressed and left the house. This is especially impressive as The Boy was just getting over a nasty cold and I seemed to have accidentally encouraged some sort of alien parasite to take up residence on my tonsils and stab me each time I did anything so injudicious as breathe. But, Jukebox The Ghost was playing right in our very own town. We regularly leave the state to hear them play (and we drove down [...]
And in Other News
The lovely blue socks I took off to the retreat are done (and have been for a while now, I just didn't quite manage to get them outside and snap a picture). We'll start with proof of concept. See that, two legs, two heels, two toes, all tidy and done. And then lets take a closer look at the top of the feet. Left and right mirrored (though it would be just as cute to put a left-leaning leaf and a right-leaning leaf together on the same sock). It's Vice (and yes, I am trying to irritate Lizzy into finishing [...]
Actual Knitting
Between the reading and rereading and rerereading of the proofs, there has only been a bit of time and energy for knitting. But that little bit has been quite pleasant. Here's the first of the redone mitts finished and blocked. I switched the thumb gusset out to the style I like better these days. It fits well and is easy to knit. I think it looks nifty too, but I could be biased. The second one is on the needles and might even be finished this weekend. Or maybe I'll nap. Depends on how cross-eyed I end up after the [...]
Proofs
This is what the last day or two has looked like (with the cup of tea being refreshed as needed...I'm not still on the one from Tuesday). These are the proofs for the book. Proofs are sort of a trial run for the finished thing. I send the files off to the printer, the printer runs off a version of the files using their printers and their inks and their paper, and then they send them back to me. I look them over to make sure what seemed like a lovely golden yellow on my screen didn't turn out to [...]
Character Building
The proofs of Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet, Volume II have arrived from the printer. They are sitting on my desk. Unopened. It feels wrong to open them by myself, so I'm waiting 'til The Boy is home from work. Just for context, they arrived at 9:00am. It's going to be a long wait. I'm considering calling with some sort of terrible emergency (ninja rodent invasion? attack tarantulas? kitten spirit possession?) that would require him to come home immediately, but that seems against the spirit of the thing. So I wait. But folks...this means the book is almost ready for you.
Updated
I know more about knitting, designing, and pattern writing now than I did a few years ago. That's actually a good thing. If I hadn't learned something in the last several years, I'd be terribly disappointed in myself. The tricky bit, though, is that when I look back at my early work, I sometimes get twitchy. I see all sorts of things I'd like to improve. Not correct...correcting is for wrong things...just improve. Different yarns, different directions, different charts, different photos. Alas, making these changes is generally not practical. There are only so many hours in the day, and updating [...]
Mailing List
Want to hear when a new pattern comes out or something fun is going on? Sign up below!
Patreon
Want to support the content I create, get nifty bonus material for some of my favorite patterns, or get every new release delivered right to your inbox? Head over to patreon and sign up!
