Obsession

     I haven't worked on my designs and have been knitting very little.  The reason being, I'm obsessed with a quilt I'm doing.
     I've never done a quilt before and like some of the knowledge I have, it was purely theoretical until I started sewing this quilt.  Since I'm crazy and ambitious, this quilt has complex blocks, some of which are paper pieced.  I've learned a lot from it (and I've only done 3 blocks so far) and am hoping some of the techniques can be crossed over into knitting.
     The obsession was so bad, that the other night, I got out of bed to sketch a block that would go between the main blocks...sigh.  This is something I avoid like the plague, as that's the way to (complete) madness.

     There was a lot of things going on in my life since I released Dorothy and the combination of stress, figurative headaches and fatigue managed to shut the ideas on the design front.  The good news is that things are slowly going back to normal and the ideas are coming back.
     I need to finish writing down the pattern for Linda (and knit it again) and re-chart, write and re-knit Maria.  I also have an idea of making some of my already published designs into different shapes and release them as e-books.  Note to self: start writing down your new ideas already!
     I could have used the time when the ideas were quiet to re-knit the two shawls, but, in my defense, it was too hot to knit (and I'm working on the quilt!).  So, I'll have to wait until I run out of fabric - very likely since this will be a queen size quilt and I made many mistakes - to go back to knitting and designing.

     I've also done some dyeing - a new idea that had occurred to me that will yield a yarn with long color runs.  I've done one skein in shades of blue that needs to be steamed and have another one that still needs some more colors.  We'll see how they work out.
     It's odd, though.  One of the reasons for buying a house with a basement was so that I could have a smoke-free environment to do my dyeing.  Now that I have the free space, I don't use it.  Again, I have a good excuse: the basement is still cluttered with moving boxes and we don't have enough surfaces to work on down there.

     Well, now that I've laid out all the excuses, I'll go back to life - and the quilt.

So...

     since the increases for the toes on the socks I'm doing on straight needles worked so well, I began thinking that it might be possible to knit a circular shawl too.  Granted, it won't be elaborate as far as stitch patterns go, but it is entirely possible it can be done.

     I'll keep you posted if I decided to try. (Evil grin) Ah...the possibilities...

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.

Celebrating

     Next month (April) we'll be celebrating two years of the Mawelucky Love group over at Ravelry.  As a thank you to all the wonderful people I met over there I've created (well...am creating) a new design which will be done as a KAL.
     The Birthday Pi is my gift to all the amazing folks who took a chance on me and were adventurous enough to try my patterns.

I want a coat

     It's not like I don't have enough coats - I do.  It's not that the ones I have aren't warm enough - they are (for the most part).  I want a coat, not any coat, but The Coat - the one I've been dreaming of, and perfecting in my head, ever since I began to have any interest in fashion and clothing.