Knitting in a certain yarn...

I got an email from Knit Picks recently, asking if I'd be interested in coming up with a design for a new yarn colorway. Free yarn is free yarn, so naturally, I said yes. The yarn arrived, and it was beautiful. I've converted all my photos to black and white, since the colorway has to stay secret until it's released. I immediately dived in; I had already come up with a design that I thought would work... but it didn't.

The tiny-cables stitch pattern I wanted to use was completely obscured by the color variations. So I frogged it and started over. And frogged it and started over. And frogged it and started over. Finally, I came up with a design I liked; the cables and lace showed up well enough. But when it was about halfway done, it was clear that it was going to be enormous and not fit anyone with a normal-sized head (did I mention it was a hat?)... so I frogged it and started over. Again. I made some more adjustments to the cable pattern, to make it fit into a smaller stitch count, but I forgot to take into consideration that eight-stitch cables pull in much more than four-stitch cables do. Long story short, the hat I was designing to fit me ended up fitting my six-month-old niece almost perfectly.

 She's adorable, and she knows it.

 I like how it turned out, and may make another one, with the intention of having her model for me. But for now, I've abandoned that hat design. A friend of mine suggested that the stitch pattern would look nice in a cowl, which I thought was a great idea. Since a cowl wouldn't have any decreases or increases to worry about, I wouldn't have to figure out how to fit them into the design, as I had with the hat.

Three days later, I had a finished cowl, and almost no leftovers. My friends suggested 10 inches for the width. I was running out of yarn, so I only did 8 inches, which is fine for me, because I have a really short neck.

So I went through all that stress and ripping, to come up with a super-simple cable-and-lace cowl(and a hat idea for another day). And next time I'm asked to "come up with something" for a new yarn, I'll only agree if it's a solid color.

Exercise and knitting

Just for fun, I did this yesterday:

I put on the shirt I'd worn in my January 1 "before" photo, and took a new picture and put them side by side. Nice change for only three months of work!

And my friends and I started a new exercise challenge. We're doing the Hundred Pushups Challenge. The goal is to be able to do one hundred consecutive pushups six weeks from now. When I did the initial test, I was able to do 12, so I have a long way to go. Yesterday was day 1...and my chest and ab muscles are incredibly sore today. Today is a rest day, and I'm hoping the soreness wears off by tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to the benefits of this program; it should make a big difference in my arm strength, and I'm hoping it'll firm up the saggy "girls" as I continue losing weight.

In other news...

I've finally settled on a design for the hat I'm making for Knit Picks. The colorway is still a secret, so I've converted the photo to black-and-white. But you can get an idea of how the hat will look. I'm knitting it top-down, and instead of columns of purls between the cables, I'm using columns of lace. The way it kind of swirls out from the center reminds me of a spiral galaxy. So I'm thinking of giving it a name that has something to do with the stars...

Bayerische Progress and a FO

I've gotten the first repeat done on my Bayerische sock! The trickiest part so far was the increase round after the ribbing. The cables aren't any harder than ones I've done before. ☻

And I finished my Unconventional Hood samples! Here's the cabled version:

 And the simple version:

And the pattern has been sent in to Knit Picks. Hopefully it'll be up on the site soon, before knitters turn to summer projects...

Lace and Weight Loss

I'm designing a scarf. I came up with the fish lace motif a few years ago, when I made my Ichthus Shawl. I never did publish the pattern, so I decided to take the motif and put it into a scarf instead.

I'm using KP Alpaca Cloud laceweight yarn, which is incredibly soft. I really like how it's turning out. It's a pretty simple design, which is a nice diversion after the hood and glittens I designed recently. I'm already planning the photo shoot for this one....I'm going to need a white sundress...and a warm day.

I'm so ready for winter to be over. This past week, there were several days when the temperature didn't reach zero. And it snows every day. And it's cold. And windy.

♥

In other news, I've been working out since the beginning of January. It's a secret, though. Well, not a total secret. But the fact that I've lost 13 pounds since New Years is. It would have been more if I hadn't taken a week and a half off from my intensive workouts because of injury(did yoga instead). I'm keeping my progress a secret from my family until I go visit them. I'm hoping to get time in March to do that. By that time, I should have lost enough for them to see the difference and be shocked. Hubby hasn't noticed yet...and I'm not pointing it out to him either. I'm waiting for him to notice. He's going to be traveling this next week, so I'm hoping that I can reach my first goal of 20 pounds while he's gone. 

It's not easy; I'm working out every day(using the PACE system), and eating less than I used to. And I'm drinking water almost exclusively. I allow myself one soda on Friday nights, and alcohol is only for very special occasions. I discovered a day-spa water recipe...I know, that sounds goofy, but it's good! I slice an apple and put it and a cinnamon stick in a pitcher, fill the pitcher halfway with ice, and fill the rest of the way with water. I put it in the fridge for an hour before drinking it. I'm up to almost a gallon a day, which is huge, because I never used to drink water! I'm adding in green tea now; I've heard that it's great for weight loss. My problem with tea is that I hate unsweetened tea, and I detest fake sugar. I usually use two teaspoons of sugar to a cup of tea; I'm cutting it down to one. 

I'm not using any faddish gluten-free/carb-free/all-liquid/protein-shake diets, and no diet pills of any kind. Just the good old-fashioned exercise-more-eat-less diet. No alcohol, no caffeine(well, almost), and I'm allowed to eat what I want as long as it's only a little bit. If I want chocolate, I have one. If I want chips and queso for lunch, I get a very small dish of queso, and only as many chips as it takes to eat up the queso. We had spaghetti tonight, and I really wanted seconds, but I let Hubby have it instead. If I want a cookie, I have one. I've learned that when I refuse to allow myself a little splurge now and then, the craving gets so bad that I end up having a big splurge, and then feel so guilty I give up. Not letting that happen this time.

13 pounds down, 47 to go...

And once I've lost this weight, I'm going to look terrific in my as-of-now non-existent white sundress and Ichthus Scarf...

Hunter Socks!

I finished Hubby's Hunter Socks! And we had a little photo shoot today. ☻

Hubby's socks...

Me on Hubby's lap...

Us...

With Sarah, my shotgun (which was unloaded and pointed in a safe direction, with the safety on)...

Totally off-topic: OMG, I need to go on a diet after Christmas! Yikes!

Knittin'

Check out my new socks! These are the sockweight version of my Hunter Socks. I'm working on another pair of worsted weight ones for my Hubby. And I'm writing the pattern as I go. 

 And I took a three-day break from the Hunter Socks, to make this!

It's not my own design, though I did alter the pattern considerably. My mother-in-law made beautiful Christmas stockings for everyone in the family; Hubby and me, our kids, Hubby's sister and brother. But she passed away five years ago. Well, Hubby's sis just had her first baby in September. Since Grandma isn't around to make it, and every baby needs her own special handmade stocking, I made this one for her. 

R and R Shawl

I finished my R&R Shawl sample!

 It took one intensive week of knitting, and seven skeins of KP Galileo, which I raved about in the previous post. I am in love with this yarn; it is so silky and soft and warm.

And the color is true in these photos; this is what "Luminous" really looks like. On KP's website, it looks much lighter. Not that I'm complaining; it's a gorgeous color. It just wasn't what I expected. I can't wait to see some of the other colors in person.

Oh, and again, these photos were taken by Angel. Her photography skills are really coming along. She managed to not cut my head off, and to get a few good shots as well. ☻

The election is only a week away! Get out there and vote for R&R!

Cathie is done!

I finally finished my Cathie scarf! 

 I decided to make it a bit shorter than I usually do for scarves. It was supposed to be done three months ago. Now the pattern is finished, and in the hands of Knit Picks.

Here's a closeup:

And now I'm on to other designs. I'm almost halfway done with my R&R Shawl sample; and should have yarn waiting for me when I get home, to make Hunter Socks. I've got a friend proofreading my Willow Carroldine pattern before I send it in. 

If I knit fast enough, can I count it as exercise?

Hunter Socks

Hubby was a little jealous that I'm always making stuff for other people. He wanted me to knit him something. Specifically, socks. For hunting. Now, Hubby has enormous feet, which is why I hadn't made him any socks previously. But since they're for hunting, he wanted them thick. I decided I could use worsted-weight yarn and knit them at a very tight gauge. I asked Hubby what color he wanted. Orange, of course! As if you would use any other color for hunting socks! And he wanted them to be long enough to reach to the top of his boots. He didn't want them to be too fancy. He would probably have been satisfied with plain stockinette socks. But I wouldn't.

I have made one pair of "boring"(aka stockinette) socks. They took for.e.ver. I didn't enjoy working on them. I set them aside several times, in favor of more interesting projects. But patterns for worsted-weight men's-size socks are hard to find. I found one, on Knit Picks. It was a free pattern, and I discovered why after downloading it. It was a basic sock recipe, more of a tutorial than a pattern. It left all the math up to the knitter. I get that some people like patterns like that, but I don't. If I'm going to have to do all the math myself, I might as well design my own pattern. So I did.

I came up with a single-color argyle design, and designed Hubby's socks. Each sock took two skeins of Knit Picks Swish Worsted yarn. They turned out a little goofy-looking, as I adjusted the argyle design halfway through, but they'll do for the design proposal.

Now I'm working on tweaking the design and writing up the proposal. I'm going to write it for both worsted-weight in men's size, and sock-weight in women's size. I think I'll request green yarns, since they don't have anything that looks like camouflage...

R and R

I've recently found my knitting mojo, which had been on a little hiatus. I'm hanging on tight to it, so it doesn't go walkabout again. I had a design idea that had been bouncing around in my brain for a while, and I finally decided to put it into yarn. I used Caron Spa, which is a bamboo/acrylic blend. I love Spa; it's so silky and comfy. I had five skeins of the colorway "Ocean Spray", which is a gorgeous light turquoise. Now I have one and a half...and a big, silky, warm shawl.

It's perfect for those chilly autumn days when you want to just curl up with a shawl and a book.

  I used similar construction to a triangular shawl, but made it with three sections instead of two. It stays on my shoulders much better, and has a lot more fabric to wrap around myself.

I designed this with Knit Picks' new bamboo blend in mind. I think it will look amazing in Galileo Yarn. The name of the pattern is R&R Shawl, and I sent in a design proposal to Knit Picks yesterday.

Now I'm back to working on my Cathie scarf, and my unnamed baby blanket. I need to get those two projects done before I start any more. I have chronic start-itis.

Photo Shoot

We finally got a warm enough day for a photo shoot. After an early false spring, we got a couple weeks of cold, windy weather.  Anyway, here's a few of the pics we took today...

Princess, wearing "Grace Irene". I am aware that her tank is a bit low in front. I think I'm going to shorten the straps, then take some more pics.

 Here are Princess and Kitty, each wearing "Grace Irene". I wanted a shot that showed both the front and the back at once, so I made tanks for both of them.

 And last but not least, here's Angel, wearing "Theresa Nichole". This tank looks so great on her. 

I still need to decide what other sizes to include in the pattern. I don't want to go much smaller, since the hibiscus motif is so large. If I wrote the pattern for a size 2 or even a 4, the flower would be too big to be clearly seen.  So I'm considering going larger with the pattern, maybe including a 12 and 14.

A peek into my designing process

I'm working on my pattern "Grace Irene". 

It's a cabled tank top for little girls. I actually designed it a couple of years ago, but didn't keep notes, or do more than one size.  So I'm figuring that out now. 

I had to swatch, because I made the original in worsted weight and decided to change the pattern to work with DK weight. I wanted to use Knit Picks CotLin yarn, which is a nice cotton/linen blend DK yarn. So that was the first obstacle. 

Second obstacle: this yarn has no elastic whatsoever, so it doesn't respond like the cotton/acrylic I had used the last time I made one of these. So instead of being form-fitting, it's loose and drapey. Which is fine; I just had to adjust my expectations.  

Next hurdle: figuring out the different sizes. I had to choose a cast-on number that was divisible by 6, because I wanted to use a 4x2 ribbing. Then I had to figure out where exactly I wanted the cable columns for each size. I couldn't just pick at random, because I wanted them to go up the straps and connect in the back by grafting in pattern. If done right, the front and back should be identical.

I didn't do it right. I forgot an important detail regarding which way to cross the cables. They don't match up how I wanted them to. So this one definitely has a front and a back. I'm going to make another one so I can get this problem rectified. Fortunately, my test-knitter hadn't started yet by the time I discovered the issue, so hers will be right.

Even with the mistake, this turned out pretty cute, if I do say so. 

And now I'm also working on my next design "Theresa Nichole"...maybe I'll give y'all a glimpse in another post. I just had to frog and start over on this one, so I'm thinking it's going to give me a few problems too.

Blanket in progress, and other projects

I'm currently working on another baby blanket. This one is a Knit Picks sample. I've written the pattern, and I just have to finish the blanket so I can take pictures. In the meantime, here's an in-progress pic:

It's the same design as the purple one: Sisterhood. It's my tribute to the Bunker Babes. I don't know who will be getting the blanket when it's done; maybe my sister-in-law, or my half-sister-in-law, if one of them has a girl. The yarn is Knit Picks Swish Tonal worsted. The colorway is "Queen Anne", which is a really pretty blend of pinks, peaches and light oranges. Reminds me of a sunrise. I promise I'll get some better pics to show off the color when it's done. 

It's about halfway done now. I just finished the second skein of yarn. Due to the cables and the shape, this blanket takes a lot of yarn: 4 100gram skeins of worsted wool. The Knit Picks people asked if I'd like to try their new acrylic (Brava) for this, but I declined. I really don't enjoy working with acrylics, so I only use them when I have to, and only on small projects. I told them I'd be glad to design something smaller for Brava.

Meanwhile, I'm working on two summer designs: a tank top with a lace hibiscus on the front and back, and a tank top with cables that run up the front, over the straps, and down the back. Both will be for children, though I may eventually adapt the ideas for adult sizes. I'm planning on using KP CotLin DK yarn for both; it sounds like a perfect yarn for summer clothes.

Baby blanket in progress

As promised, here's a pic of my newest design!

It's about halfway done.  It's going to be about 40 inches wide at the points, since it's a hexagon.  It's close to 30 now, which is about the width of the other baby blankets I've designed, but they were squares.  This one looks like it's for a doll at 30 inches, so I must keep knitting.  I really like how it's turning out.  It's a pretty simple design, at least in my head... I started with the braided cable in the center of each panel.  As it grew, I added the rope cable that twists toward the braid, then another rope that twists away from the other one...then another braid, and more ropes....etc.  I think writing this one up is going to be trickier than knitting it.  It doesn't have a name yet.  I thought of naming it after the baby it's going to be for, but the baby isn't born yet, and doesn't have a name.  Unless this blanket takes another five months to make, I'm going to have to come up with another idea.

In other knitting news, I've been dealing with my UFOs.  I frogged the original swatch for the above blanket; it was a square, in a yarn that I didn't have enough of to make a blanket anyway.  I was just swatching, about a year ago, and hadn't ever done anything with the swatch.  So now I have a reclaimed ball of green wool, and an empty needle. ☻  

And I dug out an eyelash yarn monstrosity that I'd started three years ago.  Angel wanted a fun fur blanket in pink and purple stripes.  I had gotten three stripes done, and my hands said "NO MORE!" so I put it away for three years.  Finally, I told Angel the other day that I wasn't going to finish it, and it wouldn't coordinate with her new turquoise and brown bedroom anyway.  Fun fur does not like to be frogged, so I just bound it off.  I suggested it could be a doll blanket, but she decided to add a button or pin and make it a capelet.  Silly girl looks like a Yeti that someone threw koolaid on.  But it's out of my UFO bin!    And I gave her the leftover yarn.  

And sadly, I discovered that my white lace stole-in-progress was full of holes.  Apparently some evil insect found it very yummy.  I frogged most of it, but only recovered a small ball of yarn, as most of it came off in short, unusable pieces.  Fortunately, I hadn't gotten very far on it, and the balls of yarn in the ziploc didn't look like they'd been touched, so I should still have enough of that lovely laceweight to make a small shawl.  And I've started charting for that design...

Frost Cowl and Kindle Cover

Here are pictures of my Frost Cowl!

And here's a pic of a new project. I whipped up this Kindle cover yesterday.  We're giving Angel a Kindle for Christmas, and I felt it needed a cover to protect it.

Woohooo!

I finally have something to post that isn't about the house!  I finished my Frost Cowl.  It took forever, because my knitting mojo decided to take a vacation.  But I think it's back now.  I'm thinking of starting another baby blanket pattern; I have an idea already, and I'd started a swatch ages ago, but I think it's in storage with the rest of my life.  So I need to start over.  Or maybe a good sketch will work for submitting the design to Knit Picks, so that I don't have to make it twice...

And I'm also going to teach Angel to knit socks.  She picked out some sock yarn, and I got her her own set of DPNs.  She was a little disappointed when I told her she needed to learn with DPNs first.  She thought she'd be able to use a circular, not understanding that they don't make circulars short enough for child-size socks.  I told her that once she has a good grasp of knitting with DPNs, I'll teach her to do Magic Loop.  First I need to teach her to do ribbing.  She still doesn't understand purling, but that's because she gets tired of it too quickly.  Maybe she'll be able to tolerate it as ribbing.  We're going to use Silver's Sock Class, but adjust the numbers to fit a child-size foot.

A little update on the house: we're getting very close to being able to move in.  We have electricity, and water, and heat.  So now we need to get the finish work done, and the kitchen floor in, and the carpet in.  And the appliances in.  And...I think that'll be it.  Then we can finally get all our stuff out of storage and into our new place.  It's been a long four months.  I am so ready to be in our own place.

Hey, check this out!

My patterns and I were featured on the Knit Picks blog yesterday!  They've introduced Freebie Fridays, in which they will release a new free pattern each Friday, with a blog post about the designer. ☻And they started with mine!

Freebie Friday

Wooooohooooooooooooo!

And another pattern!

I have another pattern up today!  It's a freebie, on Knit Picks, called Lacy KiP Bag.  It's perfect size to hold your 100g ball of yarn when you Knit in Public, and way cuter than a ziploc bag!

The pattern can be found for FREE here.

Little Sweetheart Knee Socks!

My latest pattern is up!

The pattern can be found here.  These socks are knit toe-up, and are sized for little girls.  The hearts are on both the front and back of the socks.

Progress...

The footings for the basement have been poured.  They'll pour the walls next, then the plumber can come in and get everything roughed in.  The floor will be poured after that.

 Over Labor Day weekend, we went to South Dakota for some family time.  Which meant lots of driving time...also known as knitting time!  I made a lot of progress on my BBSweKniMo project(no picture, sorry); the raglan increases are done, and I've separated for the sleeves, and done several inches on the body.  When my hands were tired of working with bulky yarn, I switched to sock yarn.  I finished this sock:

I haven't cast on the second yet.  I need to do that today.  These will be some of my favorite socks this winter!  I'm using Malabrigo, which is going to make my feet very happy.

Oh, and by the way....Knit Picks likes both my "Little Sweetheart Socks" and my "Frost Cowl"!  Still need to make adjustments to the cowl pattern; the yarn support should be arriving any day now.  And I need to hunt up my notes from the socks!  I think they're in my old computer, which is in the process of dying.