Week of March 12th-18th

What have I done this week? A fair amount, I guess, but not a whole lot to show for it right now. My grad student husband is busy paper-writing, and he has so much to do I haven't wanted to interrupt him so he could model gloves for me. This week I've knitted two pairs of fingerless gloves and two pairs of trigger mittens, finished a pair of socks, crocheted some Irish roses, and done assorted other things. Read some more, took some walks in the beautiful Lakeview Cemetery, which conveniently runs alongside Little Italy. (I can see the top of Garfield's monument from my apartment, in fact.) Spring has come early this year, though everyone's praying there won't be another freeze, because here you never know! The balmy weather, combined with the fact that my Etsy sales have slowed to a halt (why?? it's not even summer yet!), has left me highly unmotivated. I just want to lounge in the sun like a cat.

Week of March 4th - 11th

As of Friday, the gray vest is finally finished! Rather nice, I think. I was going for something conservative but not too boring; something you could wear over a casual long-sleeved shirt or a dress shirt. I spent a good bit of yesterday afternoon working on resizing it so I can offer it in men's sizes S through XL. Think I succeeded - I should have it typed up over the next day or so.

I had a few skeins of handspun I was being lazy about, so today I went ahead and photographed, edited, and listed them. The handspun is currently a labor of love; I've only sold two skeins ever, and one was to a family member. I wish I could just knit it all up myself, but I doubt it would sell then, either, so I'm still working on it!

I've started reading more regularly, by the way. I've always loved to read, but I got out of the habit of reading regularly for fun in high school and college - there was so much school reading that I never had time. Since I graduated, I find I still work pretty much all the time. Old habits die hard. However, now I'm putting longer hours in to knitting, I have to force myself to take regular breaks so I don't wear out my hands - perfect reading time! I took the liberty of rereading one of my favorite books, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It's possibly the most riveting nonfiction book I've ever read. Next on the agenda is a fantasy novel, The Overlord Rising: Dragon Touched by E.W. Scott. I'm particularly excited about that one because I, in fact, know the author! She's a very fun person and an excellent writer.

Week of February 26th - March 3rd

Since Filene's Basement went under for good in late December, I've been down to one part-time day job. That has enabled me to throw myself more fully into my textiles, as well as reclaim my social life and joie de vivre. (That's not to say I didn't like my cashier job, because I did, and I'm sorry the company went under; it's just that shuffling between two day jobs while trying to be an entrepreneur and a human being on the side can be exhausting on a profound level.) I've increased my focus on designing, joined Twitter, Artfire, and Pinterest, and now it's time to reboot my blog.

So, this week. While the husband has been engrossed in grad school, I've been busily designing and knitting a vest in his size. I'm lazy with the camera and therefore don't have any pictures yet, but it's a marled light gray with a double moss stitch design. Finished the front (v-neck), and now I'm toiling away at the back. It's attractive but not too thrilling to knit, so thank goodness for Netflix.

Finished and listed some new men's hats, knit in Peruvian wool ordered from KnitPicks. I know it's only March, but I'm already stocking up for next fall and winter.

Went to a talk at Case Western given by Robyn Ochs on gender and sexuality. She's a great speaker, and I think I can safely say that it was the most fun two-hour lecture I've ever been to.

And, perhaps best of all, I found some more of my teddy bears on the Mother Bear Project site! There's one from Mali and the rest are from South Africa.

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.

Art yarns!

After the urge to spin had set in, I actually went and bought myself an Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel. Then I promptly freaked out because I'd spent that much money on something that was basically a gamble - a gamble that I'd

a) Pick up spinning on a wheel faster than on a drop spindle, and
b) Learn to spin well enough to start selling my own yarns.

Fortunately, I know my limits pretty well. Some things, like precalculus and basic chemistry, I just could not "get" and probably never will, no matter how hard I try (and believe me, I did try). Textiles are one area in which I "get" things very quickly; just give me a decent teacher or book to go on, and with a few days of practice, I'll have the basics down. Which is why I'm hoping to make a living as a textile artist rather than something more lucrative that I would be terrible at.

At any rate, I have found a new passion! I spun a couple of practice yarns (the dark blue and red-orange skeins) and now have my first art yarn in my shop (the green one, here). As we speak, I have a similar skein in shades of blue hanging up to dry, and I can't wait to get started on my next yarn, whatever it may be.

Knit and spin

It's been a blazing hot summer for Cleveland, and yet somehow, I find the need to teach myself to spin wool in my un-air-conditioned apartment. I first kind of learned to spin when I took some weaving classes in college (those classes were really what got me into textiles), and was not particularly good at it. Lately, however, I've decided I should expand my skills, so while I was ordering a ball winder on KnitPicks last week I got a Turkish drop spindle and some wool roving. They arrived yesterday, and this afternoon I've been trying to twist the roving up into something resembling yarn.

And it is just as hard as I remembered - spinning is one of those things that's easy to grasp in concept but difficult to execute well. I've managed a couple of feet so far and I figure I'm doing okay for a beginner, but not well enough that I'm going to post pictures. It's a bit discouraging, but I have to keep reminding myself that when I first learned to knit I was TERRIBLE at it, and look where I am now!

I will, however, share some photos of the baby sweaters I've been working on for the past couple of weeks. I started by knitting sweaters for a friend's baby, which lead to me designing my own. I have three patterns up for sale now on Etsy and on Ravelry.

8 new teddy bears!

Another slow month for sales, but I haven't been lazy. Between my other two jobs I've knit eight new bears, some headbands and some more wool hats, while adding Avatar: The Last Airbender to my list of favorite TV shows ever. There's something particularly sweet about knitting for children while watching a really good kid's show. (The all-blue ones were inspired by Waterbenders, fyi. If I can dig up the right colors from my bins of donated yarn, I think it would be really fun to make Airbender, Earthbender and Firebender bears as well.) These bears will be off to Minneapolis as soon as I make it over to the post office.