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Baby Stuff

I have been working for what seems like an interminable about of time on a very large baby order for someone.  Normally, baby stuff is fun, quick, and well, adorable.  I think I’m past all that and on to the annoyed and impatient.  Can you imagine?

Picture yourself knitting 12 baby sets + six pair of the exact same leg warmers in different colors.  Wait!  Let’s make that 9 pair of the exact same leg warmers.  All this should be ready for next Friday, September 15th.  I’m half way. What do you think the chances are that I’ll be done?  Slim to none.  I wonder how she’ll take that.

Honestly, I’m SO over baby booties that it may be years before I agree to make another set.

Here’s a peek at what I’m talking about:

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Cute right?  Not really!!!

Dear socks:  I miss you so much.

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Sophisticate:  I know you’re missing buttons…  I’m so sorry.  I promise that on the 16th, you’ll get buttons.

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Felted Slippers (they have no name yet):  I wrote out your pattern yesterday.  I promise you’ll have your moment in the spotlight at my workshop on September 22nd.

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In the meantime, back to my booties!  Grrr.

Summer 2016

It’s summer.  I love it and all that comes with it – except the grass cutting.  Hahahaha.

Summer for me always starts when the spinning guild ladies get together for our annual spinning weekend at White Lake.  We rent a bunch of cottages and hang outside, go for walks, eat, drink wine and spin/knit/crochet.  It’s really wonderful.

Spinning

It came to me a few weeks ago that I hadn’t received a knitting/crochet order in months.  Honestly, I’m thrilled.  This means I’ve had more time than usual to work on things I want to work on.  This also means that I get to start using up my stash – which is really getting out of hand.  (What I should do is have a little sale.  I could probably pay for a trip.  That is not a joke.)

The workshops are going really well.  Oddly, the crochet classes are more popular than the knitting classes.  I never would have guessed.  I’ve always preferred knitting.  But crochet definitely has some perks.  I’ll be starting over in the fall with beginner workshops and then some more advanced workshops for the girls who have been coming since the beginning.  I’m already planning.  🙂

Did I mention in my previous posts that my friend Bonnie and I are working on our Master Handknitter certification?  It’s been very interesting.  Trying to get a perfectly even rib really sucks – my ribbing sucks.

I finished my Icelandic sweater and then tackled Still Light and the X-Stitch Shrug.  That’s three sweaters so far this year.

I did, however, get a few orders this week after someone posted the Azel Pullover by Velvet Acorn Designs.  It’s a super fun and pretty little knit.  And I had no projects on the go or waiting in the wings.

These days though, for some reason, I’m feeling really really inspired.  My creative juices, bla bla bla.  I always want to be making something.  I get annoyed when I can’t knit or crochet.  Someone will say “can you do that” and the wheels start turning.

I purchased this course from Craftsy:  Professional Yarn Dyeing at Home by Sarah Eyre.  It’s so fun.  I need a crockpot and some acid dyes.  Now I want to dye everything.

I’m really frustrated that I don’t have more time.  I want time to design and knit.  I want time to spin (yarn).  I want time to work on my Master certification. I want time to dye yarn.  I want time to read books. I want time to do more yoga and to study things related to yoga so I can become a better teacher.

Somehow, my summer schedule is looking pretty ok though.  I’m hopeful that there will be more Creative Time in my immediate future.  I’m doing a few private lessons this month.  How fun.  I’m excited.  I never thought…

Life is good.

The Sweater, Continued…

Working on this Icelandic sweater has become a very humbling experience for me.

First it was the tension in the sleeves.  Then it was the oopsie with the reading of the chart.  Most recently, as I was trying on the sweater to make sure the neck wasn’t too tight, I realized that I put one of the sleeves on wrong – my increases were displaying on the outside of the sleeve rather than on the inside, along the inside of the arm.  At this point, I was a cast-off edge and underarm grafting away from being finished.

What to do?  What to do?

I figured I had two options:

  1. Rip back all of the yoke to where I joined the sleeves.  (No thanks!)
  2. Secure a couple of rows and cut out the sleeve.  (Best option.)

So yesterday, I executed option #2.  I was so nervous!

Icelandic 1

icelandic 2

Icelandic 3

Icelandic 4

Icelandic 5

Everything is secure now and ready for grafting.  Let’s see how well I do at this.  A toe on a sock is a piece of cake compared to this.  If I don’t do it properly, it’ll look ridiculous!

Fingers crossed for me please.