July 19th - August 22nd

I've been knitting a lot of "stock" items over the past month - hats, gloves and so forth - but I managed to get some creative time in as well. I designed and crocheted a cotton jacket using one of my favorite crochet patterns; it looks like a spiderweb and works up fairly quickly.



I sewed a bunch of new bags and have three more listed on my project bag page. This one is my favorite; I have a gorgeous skirt made out of this fabric:



Dad has a new set of spring-themed notecards in his shop:



Oh, and scarves! I crocheted a few scarves. It's been a long time since I've made scarves. I had the yarn on hand and wanted to make something fun and different (for me, at least), and since crochet works up faster I was able to price them lower than I would've had to price knitted ones. I created a new scarf-only section to include them.



I have two more patterns drafted that still need to be typed up and listed. Let's hope I get to them before my next post.

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):

Week of April 16th-22nd

Finished the Mossy Jacket today! I probably could have gotten it done yesterday or Friday, except we were on overnight dog-sitting duty at my in-laws', which always seems to put me into vacation mode. Instead of working, I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon finishing Mockingjay, the third and final book of the Hunger Games trilogy. It's really a brilliant piece of work. At any rate, here's the photo of the finished jacket in the lovely Starry Night colorway, plus one of my hubby modeling the men's vest, which I still need to finish writing up. My only excuse for not getting to that pattern sooner is that it's not sweater vest season and won't be for a while yet, so I have time to devote to other things. But what shall I work on next? I started my Pink Zebra jacket, but I also have a crocheted dragon on the hook (is that a pun?), and both are vying for my attention.

Week of April 9th-15th

I had a very nice lunch with my husband and his lovely grandmother today; however, I had too much coffee over too short a time span and I'm still quite visibly shaking. Oy. Still, I need to blog.

My pattern for this week was my Crocheted Napping Cat. It was inspired by a toy cat I had when I was a kid; the toy was fabric and more floppy, but the style is similar. I started a crocheted toy dragon earlier in the week, but I've made a detour to knit a custom Mossy Jacket for a family member. I ordered enough Trendsetter Tonalita yarn to make myself one too, which I've been wanting to do for a long time. I've knit this jacket in Mossy Tree and Ocean and Sky Blues; the one I'm making now is in Starry Night. And because subdued colors aren't really my thing, mine will be in Pink Zebra.

Finished The Hunger Games last week; now onto Catching Fire, book 2 of the trilogy. So good!

Week of April 2nd-8th

This weekend finds me in a good place. We've had family in town for Passover, so lots of socializing. Also, I've gotten a seasonal job at the excellent Joann Fabrics, which I think will be a good fit for me. I've never worked there before, but it's where I source a lot of my yarn and I'm certainly a fan of the store.

And here's the project I mentioned last week - a crocheted toy bunny. I suppose you can call it amigurumi (I think it simply means "knitted or crocheted toy," which this is), though it's not really in the amigurumi style. I wanted something non-clothing that's appropriate for babies and small children, and I've been long meaning to expand my catalog of crochet patterns. I'm in the midst of another toy design right now - it's always exciting to take off on a new creative track!

Week of March26th - April 1st

It was a nice and productive week. I made and listed a new sari silk necklace, plus some sari silk bracelets. Three very fine bears have been completed, as you can see here; I might still do some more before I send these off. I'm in the middle of a significant crochet design project at the moment, which is why I put off blogging till this late and why I'm going to quit now and go work some more. We'll see if it's presentable by next week, and if so, I'll write about it then. Design time now.

Patterns!

It's been bugging me for a while that my shop doesn't cater to other knitters and crocheters, and after taking a really long time to get around to it, I'm finally starting to offer some of my patterns in PDF format in my Etsy shop. So far I have one crochet pattern for cat toys and two knitting patterns - one for my men's beanie, another for my three-point capelet. I'm also playing with the idea of offering pattern kits, which would make awesome holiday gifts. I'm really fired-up about that idea, so they may be appearing soon!
And speaking of taking a really long time to do things - I've finally gotten over my irrational fear of designing fingerless gloves, so now I have an excellent pattern for gloves for both men and women. Just thinking about it gives me an ego boost! The white pair are my prototype, which I'm keeping; the navy and orange pair, modeled here by my supportive husband, are in my shop.

Spider Web Shrug

Here's my newest item - another recycled piece, this time a shrug in a crochet web pattern. It was so much fun to work I might just make one or two more - but at the moment, I have quite a list of projects on my plate:
- 1 cardigan to finish (for my grandmother-in-law - she knit part of it herself, but doesn't have the time to finish it at the moment, so I'm doing it for her)
- 1 baby blanket (for a friend who's commissioning some of my work to put in her store at the Brooks Museum in Memphis - I'm very excited!)
- 1 pair of black and red striped socks (for Etsy)
- 1 pair of yellow and pink striped socks (for Etsy)
Not to mention, of course, the MBP teddy bears, who are my constant project. :)

This Week's Projects

I've got two time-specific projects on for the week, which makes me quite happy. The first project, to be mailed out no later than Friday, is another wholesale order for crocheted catnip toys, 25 this time. The second, basically due by February 4th, is for a lady in town, who wants me to crochet a jacket similar to one she already has. I finished one of the front panels today, which involved shaping the neckline, and I'm quite pleased with myself for working it out. These photos show the front panel against the original jacket and my planning notebook, which I cannot design without, messy as it may be. (If the design works, I copy the pattern neatly in another notebook.)