The Peeves Project

I'm progressing on the hat for Peeves the Poltergeist.  The ribbing is done, and the section where I hope to attach i-cord dangles if time permits.

Alas, this morning I saw that I had gained an extra stictch somewhere along the line and it messed up the row of p3, k3.  I toyed with leaving it.  What does a poltergeist care about a little mistake anyway?  Then again, why make something any shoddier than it has to be?  I dropped down to the mistake, fixed it, and knitted back up again.  Thank goodness for Elizabeth Zimmerman, may she rest in peace.  Without her idea, I would have had to frog every bit of the hat back to the mistake, rather than raveling just the 9 stitches in question.

Spent some time this morning checking out the bios of the Ravelers in the Ravenclaw forum.  It seems like every one of them has cats and blogs.  Then again, maybe everyone on Ravelry is so afflicted.  Am I home at last?  Cats, knitting, and blogging.  Love it!

Knitting at Hogwarts

Yesterday I started a hat for Peeves the Poltergeist.  Yep, I'm knitting for a ghost, as it were.  The last hat I did was crocheted and I had to re-work the pattern.  The original might have fit a house elf, but not a grown Muggle.

This project fits perfectly with my hope of busting my Wool Shop stash down to size.  I have (had!) two string bags full of yarn.  Most of it was Macauslan Shetland, but some of it was odd bits of doubtful parentage.  Some of these bits were quite odd indeed, being anywhere from four inches to four feet long.

This piece could also be called Kaffe Fasset Does Phrygian.  It will be random stripes of various colors and blends of colors combined with a Michelin Man stitch.  Right now I'm considering a frieze of blue eyes in one of the bands.  Weird is good for this project.

And I have until the end of September to finish, or I'm liable to land in detention.

Fun in Ravelry

I've been scouting out the Ravelry site.  There is more knitting stuff there than you can shake a needle at, yet is so organized that even I am not overwhelmed.  I've joined a stash busting group and a Harry Potter group.  Go figure, I'm nuts about a kid's book.  Guess in my heart of hearts I always wanted to go to Hogwarts, I just never knew it.  Maybe because knitting is such a witchly craft.  Take string and turn it into clothing, toys, whatever.  Magic

Took the log cabin afghan to the race track this past weekend.  Got a bit done, though would have gotten more if I hadn't partied so hard.  We go early and stay late and I am flat wiped out by the time we get home.  But my husband loves to watch the cars go round.  I like to knit and watch the wildlife go by.

The afghan traveled well, though.  Good ol' Red Heart, nothing can destroy that.  I love the way this pattern works up so quickly!  The colors change often enough to keep from boring.  The only downside is all the loose ends.  The trouble with color is...loose ends!  Hate weaving them all in, but also hate the dangling threads!

Taking the week off to prepare for a craft show.  I'll get to knit while wax is melting...if I can stay off of the computer.  Speaking of wax, it is back to the cauldron and the fumes of Mulberry.  Candles are another witchly craft.  Maybe there is a theme here.

Never thought I'd be back

After my feeble attempt to design a sock, I decided that designing was like writing a novel. Weeks spent (months...years...) only to receive a polite rejection: "This was a lot of fun, but not suitable for Knitty." Yeah, I know it comes with the territory, but I didn't have the heart to try again.

Yet, I still love to knit and will always need a place to yap about it. Joined Ravelers.com the other day and saw...imagine...a place to link up your blog. Readers! So here I am! Maybe no longer a madwoman talking to herself in the woods...

Lately I've had a jones for working with the really cheap acrylic yarns of my youth. I've crocheted two afghans since my last visit here, one in Red Heart Supersaver and the other in Simply Soft. I especially like the Supersaver...7 oz. for less than $3.00. The Simply Soft knitted up like a wet blanket and the broomstick lace catches on everything.

Back to Ravelers, that seems a cool place. You can itemize you stash...not sure if it is for convenience or bragging rights...and keep track of works in progress. Dare I list older projects, like the lace stocking that fizzled right around the ankle? Or the Boobalicious sweater? That's a cheeky project for a woman my age. To make it worse, I'm adding the Molly Weasely sleeves to it since I would rather not show my pale flabby upper arms in public if I can help it.

Well, off to tweak the site a bit, then snoot around Ravelers for a while

And it's all for me blog...

Me jolly jolly blog...

Hope everyone had a fine St. Paddy's! We listened to the music all weekend, IRA grousing and all. The leprechaun lanterns glowed and we remembered the days before we moved to the wildwood.

Haven't designed much these days, I'm too caught up in just the joy of knitting. I've completed a string bag and have started another. Have always wanted to do one, but never could find a pattern. Patternworks sells Louet Sales linen and the pattern came with it. Knitting with linen is like knitting with itty bitty bailing twine, but I'm sure the bag will last forever. The second bag I'm doing with the crochet thread available at A.C. Moore...much less expensive!

Still plugging away at the baby afghan and the socks for The Shuj. Have also started back in on dishcloth knitting with the Dishcloth KAL on Yahoo. Maybe I'll join the knitting ring through them and hopefully not hear snarky comments about pictures. I'll supply them when I can...and when I can take a decent photo.

St. Brendan's Fair Isle just grows and grows in my imagination. It now has a dragon on the back in addition to crosses, anchors, and maybe a shilleleagh or two. This will be fun if I ever get it nailed down!

Silk gauntlets

Silk gauntlets
Originally uploaded by rubyyarn.

Here they are...the red gauntlets! Looks like Flickr will send the picture right here. Saves remembering or copy & paste a URL. Can't see a lot of detail, but maybe that comes with practice.

Is a picture worth...

Saw a note in another blog from a gal who stated if a blog didn't have pictures she didn't bother with it. So I rushed to grab The Shuj's camera to add photos here. Got some beauties too. My favorite is a sock viewed through an eerie blue haze...though me dressed up as Caesar in red gauntlets is a close second. None of them displayed much detail in the knitting, so what is the point?

A blog is a diary, a record of things as they occur. Pictures are good, but not if they don't show anything.

So I'm over my sulk and back to the knitting. UFOs are piling up everywhere. Latest is an afghan for the latest grandneice/nephew in the family. I've found the yarn, Lion Brand's Wool Ease in a heather rose color. The last 100% wool baby afghan I knit got put through the wash (hot water, regular) and was in the dryer before mom realized you can't do that to wool! This latest offering has enough acrylic to put up with that sort of thing.

Did a schematic for Sir Walter and learned there isn't much room to play around with patterns in a gauntlet made with Silk Dreams. By the time I've finished drawing and testing, I may as well just knit the durn things and be done with it!

Good thing I'm not doing pictures since the image button doesn't seem to be working...

Snagged a Button!!!

Finally got the Vintage KAL button into my blog! It's rather big, but it is there! The site isn't as busy as it used to be, but there are some cool patterns there if you like the 1940s. It was a different time period then, not just the knitting, but everything. Imagine how rationing would fly now? Makes me have a little patience with a slow loading computer...

UFOs and other things

There are enough unfinished objects around to make me want to sit down and organize them. The oldest are the Morale Builders stockings. I'm down to the first ankle and uninterested in progressing further at this point. I've started another sample swatch with an eye to the Miz Marple Jacket and the Sir Walter gauntlets. I've finished one sock for The Shuj, just need to graft the toe and start on the other one. He made some comment about being able to wear them in the spring. Funny man.

Figured out how to capture a button from another blog, but not how to insert it into this one. The new Blogger is coded differently from the old one. So I can drag the tables around, big deal. I want to know how to put stuff in them! Then I see other bloggers with all kinds of neat stuff...in Blogger, mind you, and wonder how they did it. Maybe I should look for a blog that talks about computer geeky stuff as these questions seem out of place in a knitting blog.

Schematics

After looking at my drawing of Sir Walter, I realize that I need to hold my nose and draw. I don't draw easily or well, especially on the fly. I need to sit with my tongue between my teeth and consider every line. Pencil works, not ink.

Which leads me to schematics. That I think I can do. One square for every inch of knitting. The foot of a sock is 10 squares, the cuff 7.5. Do I do a side view that looks like Christmas is coming? Or lay the sock on its face with the heel sticking up like this ________ ?

Then there are the charts for lace and cables. Arrgh! Let me out of here! Stop me before I OCD again!

Sleeted in

First bad weather we have had this winter. Got enough sleet to glaze everything with ice and keep me home from work today. Love it! Spent the day working on The Shuj's socks. Got past the heel of the first one hooray hooray! First successful traditional heel I've done in 20 years! Slowly the fingers are remembering their skill.

Spent yesterday doing a long swatch of samples, looking for the patterns that will go into the Sir Walter gauntlets. So many patterns, so little time... Brioche stitch is so cool. With the ends of the sample held in with the other patterns, it puffed out like a Renaissance sleeve. Don't know if I can use it in the gauntlets, but I have it captured for another day.

So for two days I have been knitting my brains out and feel great! After so many years maybe, just maybe I have found the work that I'm supposed to be doing. The world has yet to beat a path to my door...or even my blog, but a learning curve has to start somewhere.

The Knitting Universe

Finished the red gauntlets except for half a seam. They are too short and tight for my taste, but maybe someone with smaller hands will like them. Now I can take the concept and do my own thing with them like knit them in the round, change the cuff and maybe even do a gusset for the thumb. Though, if I start from the finger end I'll have to retain the hole-in-the-wall thumb.

Perused the Knitting Universe site to see if they might enjoy the Michelin Man socks. Their designs seem tradition-based, but there is usually a twist, either with yarn or technique. No miles of K1P1 ribbing for them. On second thought, maybe Michelin Man is too simple except maybe for beach knitting. I'm too late for the summer issue, alas.

One interesting thing, all they require is a swatch and a drawing of the idea. I guess if they like the idea, the designer has 3-4 weeks to come up with the finished object. That sounds like some hard core production knitting. Imagine cranking out an afghan in 3-4 weeks! But it would save knitting the item only to hear no, no, NO!

I think this is the way real designers do it, and I must give it a try...but what if the design improves in the knitting? That would make me nuts, though I could add the variations at the end of the pattern...

Let's get one accepted first, then worry about it :)

Piggin' out

On knitting magazines, that is. Vogue Knitting has a couple of derivatives out there, and there is Knitters and Interweave Knits. Saw a pattern for wrist warmers in Knitters and almost passed it by until I realized that this would be the perfect use for the Silk Dreams wool/silk blend I bought last summer. It is a two needle pattern featuring bobbles, lace, and fun fur. I omitted the fun fur trim and am slipping the first stitch rather than keeping it in garter stitch, but mostly I am following the instructions.

When I do it for real, I think I will start from the fingers and work back. It will give me a chance to try a banded ribbing pattern I found, and a lace bind-off for the cuff. If that one works out, I may pound on Knitty's door again.

So far the pattern goes quickly. Finished the first yesterday and started the second, but had to frog the cuff when I noticed I had left out two rows of the pattern. Beer, knitting, Sinbad movies and a late night really do not make for clear thinking. Should finish today if I behave myself.

The Cat

Cat Bordhi's technique with two circular needles left me cold at first, leaving me with molehills in my socks and a tangle of clanking needles. But other than that the technique was easy and fast and I decided to try it again with the Shuj socks. So I sprung for a couple of #2 Addi-Turbos and set off. Maybe because both needles were the same length, maybe because moles can't root under k2p2 ribbing or maybe because I'm so fed up with dpns...anyhow things seem to be going well. The blue alpaca I'm using shows well against the silver needles and so far the circs show no tendancy to drop out of the fabric. This is a good thing.

I've also learned that Cat self-published her book. Another good thing or this technique might be lost to us. Many people can design patterns; how many ever come up with a new and better way of knitting?

...and back to the drawing board

Checked out Chiagu yesterday only to find that they aren't currently accepting submissions. Bummer. And Knitting Vault might be accepting submissions, but apparently they aren't looking for newbies. Questions like: How many patterns do you have for sale? How many do you want to sell here?

Well...one and one...

Then they want 60% of whatever I think the pattern is worth. So designers are charging $6.00 for a pattern that might be worth $2.00. Are there people out there that will do that? For six bucks you can get a copy of Vogue Knitting and get dozens of patterns.

Guess I'm in the mindset that if I can design, then anyone can design. And it's true. Thank you Elizabeth Zimmerman!

Chiagu might not be accepting designs right now, but they have a lovely blog and an opportunity to join a Web Ring of other knitting blogs. The main catch is that I'd have to post at least once a week...which is what a blog is all about after all.

Meanwhile I've got a personal project on the needles, a pair of socks for The Shuj. It's time to knit from the top down and re-master the old-fashioned heel. Might even show pictures of this one :)

First rejection

Last weekend I learned that Knitty didn't want the Michelin Man sock. They said it was a lot of fun, but not for them. Seems I remember doing this when I was trying to get a novel published...a pleasant little note that gives as little feedback as possible. They liked it, I think. Was the whole idea too simple? Was it something technical, like the guage being too loose? Was the pattern badly written? Were the photographs boring? I may never know.

Fortunately I have a couple more patterns in the works...the Viking Formal stocking and the Miz Marple jacket. That Simply Soft acrylic looks shinier all the time, but it will be good for making a prototype. Then I'll knit it up in alpaca or something that fits the modern trend for luxury yarns.

As for the Michelin Man... Chiagu? Will the public actually pay for such a simple pattern? I think I'll just mosey on over there and check them out.

Weird Yarn

Lately yarns seem comprised of a bit of this and a bit of that and doled out in 100 yard (or fewer) skeins. Then you pay $10.00 or more per skein. I am amazed that so many people are willing to pay $50.00 for a pair of socks...in self-striping yarn, no less. The technology is amazing, but please! We did ugly back in the '60s, why is it fashionable again?

I was crawling through the latest issue of Vogue Knitting when I spied an ad for a yarn called Tofutsies. SWTC makes the yarn which explains where the tofu comes from. They are the makers of Soy Silk...which is made from the stuff left over from making tofu. They put it through a chemical process and out comes the 21st century version of rayon!

Back to Tofutsies, it is a sock yarn made of 50% Superwash wool, 25% Soy Silk, 22.5% cotton, and 2.5% chitin. Chitin??? Isn't that what bugs are made of? You know, the stuff that goes crunch when you step on one? eeeYuck! Then they explain that the chitin comes from shrimp and crab shells. Oh, that's better. Does this mean your feet are guaranteed to smell like a fish market at high noon?

After all this I should probably try the stuff, if only for the reaction at the yarn shop when I ask for some of that crab shell yarn. But my first reaction was to visit A.C. Moore for a couple skeins of honest 100% acrylic. It is soft, it is shiney, and sells for $2.19 per 315 yard skein. I can swatch till I drop for a Miz Marple jacket I have in mind. If it works, there is always the option to do it in a nice wool...but no crab shells, please!

Knitty Submission

Today I uploaded my Michelin Man sock pattern to Knitty. And what do I worry about? Getting responses like "File too big" or "Missing X info". Nothing about "We don't want this pattern". Guess I've submitted enough fiction to magazines and publishers to understand "NO!"

The secret of success finally clicked with me the other day. Like the kid on the commercial trying to put a square peg in a round hole: "Just keep hittin' it!" If this pattern doesn't fly, then maybe Viking Formal (aka Frogger) will. Or St. Brendan's Fair Isle. Or something.

Meanwhile I walk the floor unable to settle down to anything specific. So...I blog.

Measured The Shuj's foot today 'cause my next project will be socks for him. I had decided from measuring my own foot that the length, ankle, instep, ball would all measure the same. Not so! His foot is 9.5" long, 8.25 at the instep, and 8.5 at the ankle. Will have to measure more feet before I make any ponderous statements in patterns...

Ain't life jest like...

...knitting a sock. There are times when you are focused and interested, like learning short rows, and times you are flat bored, like knitting those interminable 7.5 inches of stockinette before anything interesting happens again. Then there are the fun times, the dreaming times when you near the cuff and the whole world of colors and textures lies before one. And the bad times...let me count the ways! Evil yarn that won't behave. Color stranding that is too tight...again. Lovely, expensive yarn that hops into the shopping bag but then won't fit into a shoe.

In spite of it all, I can understand the addictive nature of sock knitting, especially for a designer. What better way of working out patterns? 4-5 inches of cuff that go wrong is nothing compared to being halfway up a sweater before realizing the beautiful Fair Isle pattern that looked so stunning in a swatch is going to make the wearer look broad as a barn. Oh, yes, all of the big girls out there will flock to buy that little number!

At least the Knitty sock is ready to go. Just waiting for PayPal to verify my account and then...this weekend...up it goes! First submission and I'm shaking like a first date! Hello, it's just a sock pattern...

Apology

Boy, did I ever get Cat Bordhi's name wrong! She's the author of "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles". Although her technique didn't work for me since I need to knit on a couple of stitches at the end of each needle to keep bad things from happening, I admire her innovative spirit. Cat, if you ever read my blog, please accept my apology.