How to block Dorothy

     Dorothy might be a bit of a problem when it comes to blocking, so I decided to write a tutorial showing the most important steps.  This is a very image heavy post, so I decided to go with smaller pics here.  The photos are all linked to my Flickr, so if you need to see more details, just click on them.

   


     First of all, we need a flat, "pin-able" surface, a bunch of pins and a spray bottle.  Since I knit from a cone, I soaked the shawl in very hot water with some shampoo in it (to take the sizing off the yarn) over night.  I then put Dorothy through the spin cycle of my washer to take the excess water out and placed it over my surface in the approximate shape it would have after blocked:

WIPs

I have two new designs on the needles right now - a triangular shawl from the neck down and a circular one. I also have one finished new idea that needs to be written down. All three of them use the same design element, used in different ways and I'm having a lot of fun creating them.
I needed to stop working on those new designs because I got another commission to knit a sample :). I can't go into details, but it's a cute, fast knit and I'm almost done.

The biggest WIP at the moment is the house. Joel finished all the kitchen cabinets and I painted almost all of them (which gave me white hairs - from the paint). The construction crew is fantastic and are working very fast. We can walk in the kitchen and bathroom area without fears of falling through the floor and when we left on Monday, the electrician was installing lights in the basement.
When we were discussing lights and outlets position in the basement I got the funniest looks from the crew. I kept on telling them I needed this or that because I'll be dyeing in there. Every time I said that, they would look away from me and change subjects really fast :P.

Dorothy is done!

    I just released the pattern for Dorothy a few minutes ago :D.

     Whenever I publish a new design I get all worried that I'm going to do something wrong.  My heart starts beating fast and it takes me a few hours to wind down afterward.  I always feel like I'm going to push the wrong button and delete the entire Ravelry.
     After that comes the doubt about the file: did I upload the right one?  Does it have mistakes?  What if people start buying it and then demand their money back???
     I know it's silly and if something goes wrong I can fix it - eventually, but every single time I add a new pattern and then upload the file I have the same doubts and fears.  The craziest part?  I think I'm enjoying it.  But you knew I was crazy already, right?

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.

Random

...facts that aren't worth blogging separately.

• Yesterday I partially felted the lavender Dorothy while attempting to spin it in the washer (so I could block it again and do a photo tutorial),
  
• a few months ago the folks on Ravelry came up with a way for us to sell our designs on yarn shops throughout the planet. I don't know yet how well it will work, but I'll keep you posted,
  
• after adding borders to one of Dorothy's charts, finding out they were in the wrong place and wasting time editing the image on another software, I found out I can erase the borders by holding down the right button of my mouse as I trace over the border,
  
• for the last week or so I've been knitting a new shawl pattern and am thinking about trying my hand at all the different construction methods I come across (which will, hopefully, lead to a bunch of new designs),
  
• the ghosts of ideas are haunting me again. They've been keeping me up at night for 3 or 4 nights already. And now they're coming in pairs!
  
• I really, really want to start working on these ghost ideas, but need to put the final touches on the pattern for Dorothy and finish the new design that is OTN,
  
• I've redone the charts for Linda using Intwined and was amazed at how fast it went. Now, I need to re-write it.

Finished, full Pi

Warning:  spoiler photo after the jump.

     All clues are posted and a lot of people are already knitting the 4th clue.  This is my second shawl for 2011 and also my second design for that challenge.  I finished my prototype on 24/03.  My calculations were a bit off, I ended up using 1518.98 meters or 1715.625 yards of fingering weight yarn.  The shawl, blocked slightly (because I didn't have enough space) is 96in (243.84cm) in diameter, which is way too big, so I also released a smaller 4th clue.

     When I started this KAL, I had plans of posting every time I released a clue, wait a few days and then post pics of my progress, but in the middle of this project there was a house :D.  We closed on a house on the very day the last clue was posted, but I was busy working in the background so we could buy the house.  These things got in my way and I wasn't able to post as often as I'd planned (and wanted).

     The photo you see here is of when we first saw the house.  After the jump you'll see a photo of the finished shawl - because this is a knitting blog, after all.