Weeks of April 5th - May 1st

I've been hard at work in one capacity or another for the past couple of weeks, but what else is new? To a certain extent, I live for my work. Much of my life is devoted to creativity, and always has been - I know I'm not alone in that.

Last week I was excited to see my Afghans for Afghans sweater pictured in their blog. When it was posted, I had already pooled my wool and alpaca yarns once more and was almost finished with another sweater, this time in a more subdued color scheme:



So now my leftover wool stash is sufficiently depleted and I can move on to other things.

I'd been wanting to do some more crochet designs, so I came up with a pattern for a small blanket using three colors of Vickie Howell Sheep(ish). It was originally meant to be a baby blanket, but then Teddy claimed it as his own, placing his handsome self right in the middle of the photo I was taking. What else could I do but make it a cat blanket?



I have one more design to show for April - a knitted cloche-style hat. I'd picked up some lovely tagua nut buttons at Fine Points a while back and was looking for a way to integrate them into a design. I liked the idea of taking an adornment and building a garment around it. It's a fun and simple pattern, and I might go on to make some similar hats for sale later.



And it occurs to me that I should post more photos of my sewing projects, especially as they seem to be getting better these days! I finished this skirt last week (sorry for the lousy picture):

March 21st - April 4th

I successfully finished my entirely destashed Afghans for Afghans sweater, and I'll send it off as soon as I finish a pair of socks to send with it.



It's funny - I had a great time blending all the colors together and I would wear this sweater myself without hesitation, but this time around I found myself worrying it might be too loud for the tastes of a discerning Afghan teenager. Not everyone shares my addiction to bright colors, and I doubt that living in a war zone means you lack an interest in fashion. I probably worry about these things too much. I'll never know, but I think if I'd love wearing this sweater, there should be another girl out there who would also.

In my dad's shop, we have a beautiful new set of notecards featuring his paintings:



And in other news, I've been working on my sewing-machine skills. Teddy likes to "help":



Of course he picks the Enterprise fabric to lie on. He has a real affinity for Star Trek and other sci fi shows - I think he likes all the pretty flashing lights. This weekend he was particularly enamored with the new Doctor Who intro. He's such a precious little dork!

Week of March 13th-20th

Afghans for Afghans has just listed a new campaign; they're asking for 500 sweaters, mittens, socks and hats for schoolgirls for this coming winter. I was yearning for a large project anyway, so I got together a box of wool bits and I'm knitting another A4A Destash Sweater based on the pattern I put together in 2011. This time I'm not letting myself buy any new yarn for it - it's all got to come from my stash. As it turns out, that's not going to be a problem. I have so much wool and alpaca stashed that I can make a few pairs of socks as well, if not a second sweater!

I don't have any new listings myself, but my dad does at RulemanArt. Here's another of my favorites of his, "Bradford Pear Tree In Autumn":

Weeks of October 17th - November 6th

Yes, I know it has been three weeks since my last post. I was distracted first by being sick (better now), then by being busy, then - the best by far - by adopting a cat! For the first time in our married life we're in a cat-friendly apartment, and on a cold, drizzly Friday a couple of weeks ago we went to the Cleveland APL and adopted a handsome 4-year-old tabby we're calling Teddy:

He was picked up as a stray on the west side and brought to the shelter. Though he shows signs of living on the street for a while, I suspect he started out living with people because he's adjusted so well to our home. He's still fond of hiding in corners, but he loves being petted and is quite playful. Teddy is a quiet kitty, but he purrs readily and he's learning to ask for what he wants - he has a tiny meow that sounds like a squeak! He's been with us just a week and a half, but we're already finding it hard to imagine life without him. He is just the best cat.

As for work - I've been knitting mostly shop stuff, but last week I made a couple of hats and a pair of mittens for the new Afghans for Afghans campaign:

I now have some custom orders to keep me busy over the next few days.

Week of July 16th - 23rd

This week I have one new addition to my shop: a skein of handspun wool made from Bluefaced Leicester top, soft white, 94 yards. It's a lovely, squishy yarn and very soft.

Otherwise I've been plugging away at the red lace sweater. Last week I got a last-call email from the current Afghans for Afghans campaign, so I put the sweater on hold and knit up two more hats. That's pretty much the end of my scrap wool stash, and two more people will have warm hats this winter!

Weeks of May 14th-27th

I skipped last week's blog post because last Sunday was my husband's grad school commencement, so I was busy with ceremonies and things all day. Knitting-wise, my sock binge has continued, with two more pairs of A4A socks:

Also, two more pairs of "leftovers" socks for myself:

Aside from those, I knit a couple of my usual men's hats for the fall. I think I've more or less exhausted my sock stash for the time being, so I should have something more interesting to share in my next post - probably the Sunday after next.

In other news, I've been enjoying the hot, sunny weather. I love spring; it can make even the urban blight look pretty. Day jobs are going okay, though I'm working on phasing out the dog-walking. I've done it for over a year and a half now, and though I love my dogs, now that I have the JoAnn Fabrics job I think it's time to move on.

I've been reading Knitting America: A Glorious Heritage from Warm Socks to High Art by Susan M. Strawn. It's much like the excellent book No Idle Hands: A Social History of American Knitting by Anne MacDonald, except it's more of a coffee table book and has lots of pictures. I'm drawn to the history of textile arts, and I find wartime knitting particularly interesting because of my family heritage - both my great-grandmother (World War I) and my grandmother (World War II) knit for the war effort, and I like to knit for the peace effort (Afghanistan, etc.), which feels like a natural progression in time.

In case anyone is wondering how I get all this knitting done, it's because I work ALL THE TIME. I am either away at work or home at work. All jobs combined, I can work anywhere from 50-70 hours a week. When I am not working, I am usually asleep (I need a good nine hours a night to feel truly rested) or eating (at least two meals a day, preferably three, but I often forget to eat lunch). Once or twice a week I'll go grocery shopping and do housework. Occasionally I socialize, but that's usually accompanied by knitting, so whether or not that counts as work or rest is up for debate. I may well be a workaholic, but I'm pretty happy and my husband's pretty happy, so I figure there's no reason to change my lifestyle until we have kids.

Week of May 7th-13th

I didn't have to work this weekend and also have very little scheduled to do, so for the past two days I've been doing little other than knitting socks. The socks are great, but honestly I've been a little bored. Boredom isn't common for me; I was an only child with working parents and therefore learned early on to entertain myself. Part of it was that my husband was out of town, and he usually keeps me entertained. It's not that I fall apart or anything when he's not around - of course, I miss him, but I'm not upset - but I tend to revert to my natural reclusive state when left to my own devices.

Anyway, socks. I finished the A4A pair I had on the needles when I wrote last week, and I knit myself a wool-acrylic blend pair from yarn leftovers. Most significantly, I finished my Pink Zebra jacket this week, all except for the button.

I went by Fine Points yarn store yesterday afternoon to help my mother-in-law pick out yarn for a jacket I'm making her. Fine Points is a lovely LYS (Local Yarn Store) and a real fixture of the Larchmere neighborhood. I've taught several knitting and crochet classes there in the past. But here's the funny thing: I always have to psych myself up to go there, because it gets me down. Or to any LYS, for that matter. This is a fairly new thing - I used to love going to yarn stores to admire all the beautiful designer yarns. But over the past couple of years, as I've been more serious about my shop and have been knitting with simpler yarns, going to an LYS tends to make me depressed. The reason is the cost.

I'm not criticizing independent stores for having higher prices than chain stores; they have to if they want to stay in business, and on the whole I don't mind paying an extra dollar or so if it's to support a local store and it saves me having to wait for an online order. But when you're on a limited income and like to make large things like sweaters, the extra couple of dollars per ball of yarn quickly makes a project prohibitively expensive. Even if you do order online, designer yarn is designer yarn, and it's going to cost more than what you get at a chain craft store. Again, I'm not saying they should be cheaper, because I know they often contain fine materials and require a lot of time to make. And it seems like, for most knitters, it's fine. Most of the knitters I know or know of are women in their 40s and up and are fairly wealthy, so they can buy a $15 ball of beautiful, one-of-a-kind handpainted yarn. But for me, looking at a shelf of luxury yarns feels a bit like looking at a case of fine jewelry: I can appreciate the beauty, but I can't afford any of it, so I just get depressed.

Which is why I typically stick to sturdy, simple yarns from places like JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobby. You can find some affordable and good-quality wools there. I'd be more inclined to buy "nicer" yarns if I could sell what I make from them, but from my experience a hat made from plain worsted wool is much more likely to sell than one made from a fancy wool/mohair blend. Leftover designer wool that I bought when I was a new knitter tends to wind up in my A4A pieces.

Yesterday, as a gift, my husband's grandmother bought me a lovely skein of a silk/mohair blend - something I would never allow myself to buy nowadays - along with a pattern for an airy shawl/cowl/scarf to make from it. It's soft and decadent and only marginally useful. And I'm going to love knitting and wearing it.

Week of April 30th - May 6th

The new Afghans for Afghans campaign is posted, and here are my pieces from this week. I have two hats that are a bit misshapen because I used bulky and thick-and-thin wools rather than worsted, but nevertheless they're toasty warm and perfectly wearable for an adult or older child.

I also have one completed pair of adult-size socks and another on the needles. Since I learned the two-at-a-time method I've been trying to develop the perfect design for worsted-weight socks - mine always come out too loose around the foot - and I think I've found it! By just adding a slip 1, knit one round every other round at the foot, I can get the foot to fit more snugly without making the rest of the sock too small. These pure wool ones are going to Afghanistan, but later on I'm going to knit some for myself in a washable wool blend.

I worked this week but got the weekend off. My husband and I went to see The Avengers on Friday, which was a lot of fun; it lived up to my high expectations of a movie written and directed by Joss Whedon! And superheroes aren't usually my thing. I also have to add with some pride that the outdoor scenes set in Germany and New York City were actually filmed here in Cleveland, mere blocks away from my apartment. I was working at Filene's Basement while they were filming last summer, and movie people would come in periodically and buy up tons of clothes and accessories for filming. They would never say what movie they were working on, but come on, we all knew! Stuff like that doesn't happen here every day.

Week of April 23rd-29th

I started my new job this week and I'm utterly exhausted, so it'll be a short post tonight. I worked some more on my Pink Zebra jacket this week: both front panels and about half of the back are finished. Yesterday I got an email from Afghans for Afghans giving details on their new campaign (not up on the website last I checked), so I indulged a bit and started a hat this evening. I dug out some designer wool oddballs and I'm putting them to good use in a couple of hats. Then I have some multicolored worsted wool that should make at least one nice pair of socks. Pics when I have them.

Afghans for Afghans Destash Sweater Knitting Pattern

I designed this sweater specifically for the January 2012 Afghans for Afghans youth campaign. Like most wool-loving knitters, I've accumulated quite a stash of beautiful wool oddballs, and this piece is a great way to put them to use (especially for us A4A knitters who'd love to make sweaters for kids but find it hard to spring for the cost of all that wool!). If your yarn is in all different colors, I recommend alternating colors every two rows. I bought a couple of balls of variegated Patons Classic Wool specifically for this project, alternating rows with leftover wool yarns; the "base" yarn helped keep some continuity in the colors. Whether or not you decide to buy new yarn is entirely up to you.

I adapted this pattern from the yoke sweater templates found in "The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns" by Ann Budd. It's knit from the bottom-up and joined as you go, with garter stitch borders. So raid your stash and have fun!

Size: Small adult/teenager
Finished chest circumference: 34"

Gauge: 5 sts/inch in St st. (Since the campaign is for youths ages 7-16, your gauge doesn't have to be perfect as long as your sweater will fit someone that age range.)

32" long US 6 circular, five US 6 double-pointed needles
Stitch markers
A whole lot of worsted weight wool (about 920 yds) (you can also use sport or DK weight wool held double)

Body:
With circular needle, CO 172. Place marker (pm) and join in round. Work in garter stitch for 2" (knit one round, purl one round). Work in St st (knit every round) until sweater body measures 14" from CO, ending 4 sts before marker.
Divide:
(BO 8, k 78) 2 times. There will be 78 sts for the front of the sweater and 78 for the back.

Sleeves: (make 2)
With double-pointed needles, CO 40. Pm and join in round. Work in garter stitch for 2".
Increases:
Working in St st, increase 1 stitch on each side of marker every 6 rounds 11 times - 62 sts.
Work in St st until sleeve measures 15.5" from CO, ending 4 sts before marker.
BO 8 and work to end of round - 54 sts.

Join body and sleeves:
K 54 from left sleeve, pm; k 78 from body front, pm; k 54 from right sleeve, pm; k 78 from back, pm to mark end of round - 264 sts total.

Yoke:
(K to 1 st past marker, k2tog) 4x - 260 sts.
Work even in St st until yoke measures 2".
Decrease round 1: (k3, k2tog), repeat across - 208 sts.
Work even until yoke measures 4".
Decrease round 2: (k2, k2tog), repeat across - 156 sts.
Work even until yoke measures 6".
Decrease round 3: (k1, k2tog), repeat across - 104 sts.
Work even until yoke measures 7.75".

Shape neck:
Make 2 short rows: K to left shoulder line, wrap st, turn;
P to right shoulder line, wrap st, turn;
k to 1" before previously wrapped st, wrap st, turn;
p to 1" before previously wrapped st, wrap st, turn;
K to end of round.
K one round even, knitting the wrapped stitches together to hide them.
Decrease round 4: (k1, k2tog), repeat across - 69 sts.

Neckband:
Work in garter st for 3/4". BO.
Sew underarm seams.
Weave in all ends.

Afghans for Afghans child's sweater

So my old netbook suddenly broke down a few days ago, completely throwing off my work schedule. Luckily my husband's a techie and had kept his older but quite functional Mac laptop on hand, so I now have a working computer and can get back to business!
Here's the finished Afghans for Afghans destash sweater I mentioned earlier. I used wool colors I don't have much use for in my shop - light pinks and blues, for instance - and mixed them in with the variegated yarn I had leftover from my cardigan. I knit it top-down according to the pattern, but I think in the future I'll go for bottom-up sweaters; this one is nice and was fun to do, but I liked the bottom-up raglan shaping better. Soon it'll be in the mail heading to San Francisco and then to Afghanistan.
Next up: I'm back into my cat blankets. I have three of them planned out, and with luck I'll get them done by the end of the month.

The best way to knit socks - ever!

Two-at-a-time from the toe up, as presented in the aptly-named book Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. After several bookstore visits of resisting the urge to buy yet another knitting book, I finally broke down and bought this one a week ago. And let me tell you - it was worth spending $16.95 of my hard-earned cash, because it has completely transformed my view of socks. It's incredible - no more second-sock boredom, no more worrying about running out of yarn, no more fussing around with tiny double-pointed needles. With this technique in my head, I've become a bona fide Sock Knitter. I've already written two patterns based on the technique, and I'm hoping to have some in my shop soon, both ready-to-ship and available for custom order.
Thus, here I have some model socks I've just begun for my Etsy store; a pair of wool women's socks for Afghans for Afghans that I'm almost done with; and another A4A pair that I knit in the car on the way to and from the IKEA store in Pittsburg. (Believe it or not, there's no IKEA in Cleveland.) And I've just begun!

Even more socks

Here are the last six pairs of this batch of A4A socks. I've got a little of that fabulous yarn left, but not enough to make another pair. Maybe I'll use it to make myself something fun, like wristwarmers...
I'll try to have a new and different post up in the next couple of days. Just like to show off my pretty socks before I send them off. :)

Socks!

I'm back onto the socks, since Afghans for Afghans has another campaign for kids' clothes going on. I used up some wool remnants from other projects, including the rest of the pretty variegated green-blue yarn I used to make a vest for Mom, and I also bought a bunch of this super yummy variegated wool on sale at Herrschners. (If you haven't guessed already, I LOVE variegated yarn. Though I don't have ADD in my non-knitting life, I seem to with regard to knitting. The changing colors you get with variegated yarn can keep me entertained for a really long time. Most projects using one-color yarns are reserved for TV knitting.) The first pair of socks I made from it is on the far left. This yarn is just so full of happy that I couldn't use it for anything but A4A socks. Knitting with it is like eating candy - I just can't stop! These first five pairs went in the mail today; more to come.

A4A blanket complete!

Here we have the baby blanket I just made for the current Afghans for Afghans campaign. Even knit with double strands using a size 10 needle, it took me about two weeks to finish! I finally completed it at about 3 a.m., and I put it in the mail this afternoon, quite satisfied with the way it turned out. And now I am free to return to my other projects.

Alert to Knitters and Crocheters: Afghans for Afghans needs your help!

I already posted this on the Etsy forums, and I want to here as well:

I wanted to spread the word - the wonderful knitting/crocheting charity, Afghans for Afghans, is currently running a high-priority campaign for kids' wool clothing and blankets to send to needy children in Afghanistan in time for the winter. The due date for these items is Oct. 29; it's really soon, but even if you could whip up a hat or a pair of mittens to send them by then, I'm sure it'll be appreciated. There is also a campaign for baby blankets going on at the moment. So let's all try to help these kids in any way we can!
To find out how you can help, visit www.afghansforafghans.org.

Let's spread the word!

Afghans for Afghans Blanket *Couverture pour Afghans for Afghans

Here's the baby blanket I made for Afghans for Afghans, following Elizabeth Zimmermann's pattern for a garter stitch baby blanket made by knitting four right angles. I worked it in stripes to highlight the design. The weird color variations were due to the fact that I kept running out of a certain color of yarn, so I had to keep changing colors! I think the overall effect is okay, though, and it's very warm and comfy. I put it in the mail on Friday, so it should be getting to the collection center soon.

I think I'm going to have to take it easy with the French, since I've realized that I haven't been blogging as often or as extensively now I've committed myself to a bilingual blog. I do want to keep it up some, but I can't let it start feeling like homework - so it'll have to be a sometimes thing.

Resting up from the weekend's work (and from the effects of the flu shot I got today). Going to have tea with my favorite kindergartner and her mom tomorrow - so it looks to be a good week. :)