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!

Week of July 9th - 15th

Dealing with photo-editing software this morning has made me irrationally cranky, so I'll keep things short and sweet. I'm pleased to have completed and listed three new infinity scarves in Ocean, Salsa and Cerulean:

I was also very excited to learn last week that the legendary Ohio Knitting Mills has a summer pop-up store in Ohio City. It's only open for a few weeks, so on Wednesday I braved a trip to the west side to visit.* I was thrilled to get to see all the vintage, never-before-worn sweaters they had for sale there. I expected them to be prohibitively expensive, but while there were some that were out of my price range, I was pleased to find that many weren't. Since sample garments tend to be in the smallest size, a lot of the early pieces (1940s and '50s) were too small for me; they would probably be XS according to today's measurements. The later pieces were generally larger, and I came home with two attractive ones from the '70s:

They're vintage without being too dated, they fit well, and - most importantly - I'll wear them both!

*As is probably true of many cities, there's a strange divide between the east and west side of Cleveland. Though I'm far from a native Clevelander, I fell right into it when I moved here. If you live on the east side, you may never go to the west side unless maybe you work there, or vice versa. "Your" side is familiar; the "other" side is uncharted territory.

Week of June 18th-24th

Despite the sluggish heat, I managed to knit two infinity scarves in teal and rust:





Also got five new bears knit up, but I don't have pictures because they're not yet assembled. At the moment I'm starting a lace cotton sweater design, which I would much rather work on now than blog, so I'm going call it a day.

Week of June 11th-17th

Two things to show for this week. First, my new scarf. I've gradually been knitting up some of my handspun yarn into infinity scarves for my shop, and the newest is listed here.



One-of-a-kind pieces are always kind of a leap of faith; I could probably count on one hand the number of OOAK items I've sold on Etsy. I love knitting OOAK pieces, but I'm not sure if I have the knack for making them sell. Still, it's worth it to get to work with my handspun and make something pretty and unique.

Second, my complete set of bears. I've made as many as I think I can afford to do right now (Mother Bear Project asks for a donation of $3 per bear to help with shipping costs, which adds up). Here are the new ones:


And here's the full set, eight in all:


I'll get them in the mail this week. I'm still in the mood to knit bears, so my mother and I have worked out an arrangement. I'll knit the bears, then send them to her to stuff and finish, and she'll mail them with the donation to Mother Bear Project. That should keep me going for a while longer!

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.