Renovations

     If you came by yesterday, you might have noticed that I added a page to the blog.  It's still a WIP, but I hope to add content to it on the next few days.
     The idea is to gather information about each one of my designs in a single page (stuff like what kind of yarn, needles etc..).  I thought that since we're doing renovations to the house, I'd do some to my virtual house too.

     On other news, my two awesome test knitters finished knitting Dorothy and I'm hoping to release the pattern early next week.  I'll check and edit the files today (after I'm done procrastinating around here) and then send it to my also amazing tech editor.

     I've also knit another design since I needed something simpler after doing Dorothy.  Turns out, it wasn't as simple as I thought - mainly because I'm not used to the construction method.  So, it will eventually be knit again to get everything to work well together.  It will take a while until I get back to it, though, as I've started two other projects - a triangular shawl from the neck down and a circular one.

     Right now I'm in desperate need of at least another set of arms, another brain and a driver so I can do everything I need to do.  After knitting the two shawls OTN, I need to chart them, re-knit and chart the one already done so I can move on to the next three ideas that are keeping me up at night.  Oh, yeah, add to my list of needs more hours in the day. ;)
     On the bright side, if I manage to design/knit everything I want to, I'll be able to achieve my goals on the 11 shawls in 2011.

Yet another design

The problem with new ideas is that they pop up at the most inconvenient times - like in the middle of another design, when I'm trying to figure out a good edging...

This is how Mari came to be.  I needed something to distract me while waiting for a good idea(TM) to slap me in the face; so I went digging inside one of my yarn bins and came out with this "swatch" I've knit a long, long time ago.
I became, once again, obsessed with that particular stitch pattern and had to use it somehow (I've already written about this here).  Around the same time, some talk came about on Ravelry with the idea of doing lace with cables.

Eureka!

I thought I had my brains figured out, but even I was surprised by my latest idea.  How I got to it is beyond me...:P

I've been faithfully avoiding to work on Linda by knitting on Paola, but I got bored with it and there were a few ideas screaming to be put in yarn.

I tried, again, to cast on for this modular knitting I'm thinking of, but never got past joining in the round.  The reason?  That "net" stitch I talked about a few posts ago.

Two days ago, I sat down with needles and yarn on hand, began casting on for a 'knit in the round from the outside in' hexagon and stopped short of a bunch of stitches.  It was like my hands had a mind of their own and they began creating (yet) another triangular shawl.

I'm enjoying this new knitting very much and am probably halfway done, although I know I'll slow down since I haven't figured out a good edging for it.

Edgings - the things that keep me going when the knitting gets boring and the reason why I stopped knitting Paola...So, like I said in the beginning of this post, I got an idea a few moments ago that surprised me.  I thought I wasn't thinking about Paola, because I'm so into the new design right now - trying to come up with a good edging for it.
I was browsing Ravelry, looking at what my friends had marked as favorites, when out of the blue the idea for an edging for Paola popped up in my head.  If it works in real life it will make an awesome edging that goes perfectly together with the stole.

I guess my new design will be put on hold for a while...

P.S.:  Sibilum, Hobbes is a cat - we don't have enough room for a dog :(  He's a funny, clumbsy cat in many way, but an amazing hunter - most of the stuff he brings home is unharmed.  The first rabbit he brought home had two huge cuts, though.
And Dorothy, you're the best!  Thank you so much.

Dyeing and spinning

Now that the weather is warm enough that I can put yarn and rovings outside with no risk of them freezing, I'm back to my wheel and crock pot.

I had to dye and spin one skein to replace another one that got lost in the mail :(. The first roving I dyed didn't come out quite the way I wanted, so I dyed a second.
Since I'm a very thrifty frugal cheap person, I decided to spin both rovings using different plying techniques. Turns out, I liked both yarns.

The first one is a two ply, lace weight yarn. The second is a n-ply, heavier lace weight (me thinks):
Right now they are both reserved for the person who bought the missing skein.
As soon as she picks one of them, I'll make the other one available to the general public.


Although the spinning is coming along just fine, I'm having an awful time with my knitting.
I'm working on a new design, knit a sample, didn't like how it came out and decided to chart it first.
For this new design to work as a pattern so people (other than me) can actually knit it, I'll have to do some serious mods to the stitches I choose. Problem is, I'm tired of starting this over and over again...sigh.
There is another design idea that has been haunting my nights and I know there is no way I can knit this one without charting it out first. Oddly enough, the knitting itself will be less complicated than the one I'm working on now.
I also have an almost finished (as in knit by me and another person) triangular shawl design that only needs an edging and the (dreaded) writing. I might release this one before the other two I talked about above.

On other news, we bought a new toy and had to take some money out of our down payment account to get it. Also, today I had to turn a comission down. I really don't like doing that, but the job was awfully labor intensive and would take time away from my test knit and the designs I'm working on. Oh, well...