Distractions

There are 2 of my test knits, e-spinner, my design (due at the end of Feb), a wrist brace that needs to be fixed, yarn for wash cloths, red & blue yarn for test knit spa cloths, rolag equipment, the sushi project bag is hubby's shark scarf (a double knit that I only get about 1/2 inch done in an hour).  I so need to focus and get stuff knocked out.

Must Design Faster!

I'm running out of time to get this done.  It needs to be done by the end of Feb.  I'm writing and will be knitting as a go.  I have up to row 20 written and I'll need at least 70 for the pattern.  The shawl will decrease to a point after that.

Writing it out and test knitting it

I finally started this.  I'm not going to be keeping the test knit.  I'm knitting it to make sure my written instructions match the picture.  I already notice that the books on the sides were missing part of their heads.  It's slow going since I need to count and write it out then knit it.  The yarn is leftover Bugga (sport weight).  The orange is what I want the blue needs to be brighter.  I'm going to knit the shawl in fingering weight.  Here is the pattern:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/icehouse

Trying to Design

I got graph paper to try my hand and designing.  I need to make the pattern bigger in order to figure out the colorwork.  I have some orange and blue yarn to test knit the pattern first before I try come up with the shawl design.

Squirrel!! By That I Mean Distractions

"Squirrel!" gets yelled out at our house.  It refers to Dug the dog in the movie "Up".  He's a dog and squirrels distract him.  I'm very much like Dug when it comes to crafting (or my husband would say "life in general").  I should be focusing on finishing Christmas gifts as I have probably said in the last few posts.  I also spend too much time on Ravelry.  Anyway, one of my favorite publishers Cooperative Press is doing a KAL (knit-a-long).  http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/cooperative-press/3078452/1-25#19

She has a free pattern up and the deal is that its basically a pattern for a scarf.  Free pattern here:   http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/icehouse

Now she would like people to knit it up but you can knit it up as a cowl, hat, double knit or any way you like.  A shawl came to my mind and below is my idea and a page of the pattern (its like 3 or 4 pages long!).

Knitting, Weaving, Spinning, Desiging...Oh My!

First of all, this arrived in the mail yesterday.  I look forward to getting a closer look.  It's got some great general ideas for patterns.  Like what size to knit for a man's hat.

This is on my loom right now and I'm sad to say I haven't weaved any more since this picture was taken.  I need to finish it up.

I'm happy to say that I finally finished this cowl which was 11 inches of the same 4 line pattern.  I get bored easily so I tend to have a lot of WIP (works in progress) so I can switch it up.

I just finished spinning this yarn.  Now I need to n-ply (Navajo ply or chain ply) it.  I tend to run out of yarn if I 2 or 3 ply it.  I tried to ply it from a cake but it kept getting tangled up.

I should be working on my business plan and getting stock ready for the Etsy site.  I have lots of rolags but need to weave some scarves and knit up some baby items for the shop.

Designing!

I've actually used 2 of my design books!  The top one is ideas & sketches.  The bottom one is info on a project I've started to knit.  It reminds me to put in info about needle size and gauge information.

Books for Design Ideas

I have dreams of designing knit wear.  I got this knitting journal from one of the knitting ladies yesterday.  We meet up usually every Saturday.  I don't have a need for a knitting journal since I pretty much keep all my knitting stuff up on Ravelry and my knitting blog.  I thought it perfect to organize my thoughts and keep swatches for knit designs.  The purple one is just a blank journal which I've started to jot down some ideas.