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.

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.

It's cold. No! It's hot.

     When autumn officially began (September 22th?) we actually felt a difference in temperature, which I found odd, then it got warm again, then cold, then hot... 
     The first two years I was here fall went somewhat like this: hot (as in who left the door to hell open), a few days of turning and falling leaves (one week at most), then freezing (literally) cold.  Joel told me that this is the way it is, I was disappointed, but what could I do?
     Then, last year we had a real autumn, the temperature went down gradually, the trees kept their lovely colors for a long time, I had time to put my lacey knits away and knit the heavier stuff in time for Christmas; and Joel said this is normal for Kansas too...o_O
     This year, although fall began when it should, we've been switching from AC to heat almost on a daily basis, and Joel?  Still says it's normal.  Apparently when it comes to fall, anything goes around here.

     What does that have to do with knitting, you ask?  Well, it messes up with my knitting - big time.

There and back again

Last weekend I went to my first fiber festival (in Kellyville,OK).  Albeit small, this fiber fest was chock full with fiber goodness and I just had to bring somethings back home with me ;).

I got some fiber to spin, of course - Shetland, BFL, a few ounces of an alpaca/bamboo mix, some firestar, latte and tencel.  My goal was to buy un-dyed fiber, but some of what they had had such beautiful colors, I couldn't resist.

My shopping spree didn't stop there.  I also got some amazing dyes - browns (which I didn't have any of), greens (because the one I have was too light for my taste), black and grey.  There was a vendor with natural dyes, so I got some madder and logwood to try out.

I'm probably good for the next two years, as far as fibers and dyes go, but there was this one yarn that I couldn't resist - sockweight, cashmere blend, with the most amazing fall colors.  Now, I have to come up with a pattern for it.

With so many cool new toys, I couldn't wait to get back home and try them out.  One of the alpaca rovings is already on the wheel.
The trip back took us some 5 hours and was uneventful, aside from the armadillo we saw (I think it was a stuffed one), and as soon as I got some rest, I started playing with the dyes.  By Sunday I had a 4 oz roving of superwash dyed in fall colors, 2 oz of silk in a deep shade of grey and another 2 oz of mohair is a very nice silvery grey.  I'll put them in the shop later this week.

Funny how in a short period of time I went from not having (as in not wanting to do) anything to do to way too much stuff to play with.

For now, I'm counting on your imagination.  I will, eventually post photos of my adventure.

I think my brain is finally back on

Or so I hope.

I rely heavily on the internet for inspirations and I have to say that for the last few months most of the things I've seen are luke-warm at best.
Mind you, I'm not saying the things I've seen are ugly, but they are...obvious(?).  "Been there, done that" kind of projects, nice stitch patterns used in such a way that if I tried to knit I'd poke my eyes out with the needles out of boredom - or kill someone (not good).

Yesterday I was browsing the new patterns and my friends favorites, like I do every time I log in, out of routine, when this showed up.  My first thought, when seeing the thumbnail was "interesting...Too bad it's color work, but I'll check it out anyway".
When I got to the project page I was blown away by it!  This scarf is one of the most intelligent uses of empty spaces I've seen in a looooooooooooong time.
With no envy or jealousy involved I can honestly say that I wish I had designed that.
As I looked at that project (can't wait until it gets published - I'll be the first to buy it), like magic - or a cork being removed from a hole in a dam, my creativity started flowing again.  Thank you Jeri Lea!

I also found a few other projects that gave me some ideas I might use in the future, amazingly, the majority is crochet.  (No, I won't start doing crochet patterns ;P).

Anyway, the things I saw yesterday were enough to get me going again.  I picked up Paola - a new stole design I'm knitting on and off (more off than on) and am set to finish it already so I can start with the new ideas I have in mind.

On a side note I'd like to say a big thank you to my awesome test knitters who are patiently waiting for me to finish the files for Linda.  You guys rock!

I have no life...

...which isn't really news, as this is how it's been for the most part throughout my life.  The fact that I'm saying, or rather, writing it out loud only means I'm aimless as of now.

There are many things I want to do, many I have to do.  Yet I sit here, in front of the TV (for white noise) with the laptop on my lap and surf the web, pretending to live other peoples' lives, by reading their blogs.

This post is not because I'm seeking pity, it's just a realization, one I've come to many times before in my life and usually it means I'm bored.

I've lead a very interesting life so far, seen and done things most people wouldn't believe or do.  But there are down times.  This is one of them.

I need organization but I loath routine, which makes me pretty hard to please.  A few examples?  Sure.  I'm procrastinating releasing a new pattern, because, among other things, I'll have to deal with it for a few months afterwards and I don't much care for that.  I want to solve a problem and move on.  As a consequence, new ideas are getting jam packed in my head - which makes for a very confusing environment.  If I try to knit on one of the many UFOs, those ideas jump in front of me and I'm caught in a crazy dichotomy: I need to finish what I'm doing so I can move on, but can't because the new idea gets so loud I can't think about what I'm doing at the moment.

Did I mentioned I don't like doing the same thing over and over again?  Yeah.  I've been dyeing and spinning the Arco Iris yarn for more than a year now.  To me, it's a problem I've solved a long time ago.  I keep on doing it, though, because I keep on getting requests for it. 
As I spun this last one I decided this is it.  I'm done with it - at least for now.  I don't want to do it anymore.  When I first did it, there were so many ideas in my head about dyeing and spinning, but they had to be kept silent, as I had to dye and spin yet another skein...I can't remember any of them anymore.
If I kept on doing this same yarn, I know I'd eventually give up on dyeing and spinning all together.  So, I won't do this yarn again.

This post was interrupted to rescue a baby bunny that Hobbes brought home - the second one in 3 weeks. (See, I do have an interesting life - every now and then).  Anyway, I don't remember where I was going with the rant above, so ...meh!

I'll leave you with a few pics I forgot to post on my last entry and cute photos of the bunny (which, btw is now safely outside - the first one had me running around town to find a place where they would take care of it - Hobbes hurt that one).

A bath rug done in crochet and an awful looking yarn (what was I thinking when I bought this kinda yarn):

One of those let's see if I can do this things - It may or may not become a rug or an afgan at some point (if I ever get interested in it again):


Some fiber that I dyed a long time ago and felted during the process.  For some reason I couldn't throw it away and when I got the drum carder decided to run it through it.  Turns out felted fiber makes for a very soft yarn:


The Arco-iris yarn - the last one I'll do for now:


And the bunny that made me forget what I was about to write, which wasn't a bad thing, after all:
The poor thing was so scared that when I put it outside it didn't know what to do and just stood there.  I hope it will be ok and will wise up about other furry creatures.

Hello World!

Due to some small details and prohibitions, I'll start to blog from here. If everything goes well and I have some spare time, I'll transfer all the content from the old blog here.
Wordpress is a wonderful host, but some of it's limitations have forced me to seek other options.