I went downtown to get our taxes finished up and stepped across the street for some pictures on the Common. Spring is juuuuuust starting to hit Boston.
The wildlife is out in full friendly gimme-food force.
Including yours truly. (Another of my 365 shots. Cartwheels! They're popping up everywhere.)
(more mushrooms and knitterly pouches going in the shop this arvo)
It's funny, because when you hit 'publish' in your head, the posts don't actually make it on to the interwebs. Somehow I keep forgetting that.
Wicked is about 80% finished, even though I haven't knit a stitch of it since last Sunday. All that is left are the sleeves and working out the increases I want for the waist shaping. I'd considered not putting the kangaroo pocket on because really, who wants to draw attention to that area of your tummy, but if I don't knit it the sweater becomes really blah. It's just a top down, easy-peasy pullover and I'd like it to have a little something more to it. So pocket it is. Besides, I'm not ever going to keep anything in it, so it's not going to make me look that much poochier.
I've updated the shop for this week. Next week look for some matching needlecases and some more matchy-matchy pouches.
New items are up in the shop!
The black and white knitting zips are in the shop. Get 'em while they're hot!
I haven't made any resolutions per se, but I wanted to use the New Year to tackle a few things differently. The biggest change for me is how I'm going to update the splityarn shop. Without a posting deadline or any pressure, I'd been making things in dribs and drabs. That wasn't really working very well creatively or financially. My studio days weren't producing much and the shop reflected that. This year I'm going to set a fixed schedule for shop updates. Every other Monday afternoon beginning January 21st, I'll be posting new items. This week's update will have black and white knitter's zips and a few more needlecases.
I was hoping to add a few new designs to the shop and to do that, I monkeyed around with an idea I'd had for a few months. My knitting project bags used to small fabric totes that I'd made a few years ago. When we added a yarn eating feline to the house, I was forced to put my projects in something that requires opposable thumbs to open. Because above all, every knitting bag in my house needs to be absolutely Teek proof.
With the exception of a gallon ziploc bag for sock projects, most of my knitting has ended up in the zippered clear bags that you get with a new set of sheets. The construction seems quite simple; two rectangles, interlocking to make a cuboid. My hope was to try out my own version and possibly have a new product and pattern(!) to add to the shop. I grabbed some scrap fabric, two zippers (I didn't have one long enough, so I faked it) and set out to make a small sock bag version.
The resulting box bag is cute. At 5" square and 8" high, it's a great size, shape and I think it will work well as a sock project bag. The problem is that the construction was incredibly fiddly and allowed no room for error with seam allowances. I don't think this one will end up as a regular shop item without some serious pattern tweaking. Certainly not with this shop update, but we'll see if I can't simplify the process. In the meantime I'll road test this one and mull over my options.
Every morning this week I got up, I poured a big cup of coffee and locked myself in my office. My goal was to sit at the sewing machine for at least an hour to get the juices flowing. My thought is to use up fabric scraps and notions that I already have and shop from my stash until the New Year. The result this week: teeny little change purses. They're addictive to make! I've listed most of them in the splityarn shop today and I expect more by the end of the week.
The hardest to cut into was that fabulous red and white knitting print. I followed a link from 6.5 Stitches a while back to Aunty Cookie's Etsy shop. It was a limited edition fabric print and I snapped up all that I could. It's one shop I'm going to keep my eye on. Gorgeous stuff!
TV alert: The third episode of Uncommon Threads we taped last summer is going to air on HGTV tomorrow morning! (Old Cover, New Trick. I'm going to make a CD case in the same way that I make my needlecases.) Set the DVR, cheer me on and then please go easy on me if I say something goofy. (Or god forbid, high-five on national TV like I did in the first episode. Sheesh. I'm such a dork.)
I've been bustin' a hump all weekend to put together a fat splityarn shop update before we leave town to go to the next set of weddings. First it was Vegas, now Montreal, Connecticut, Vancouver and finally Cape Cod. We've been calling it the Great Wedding Tour of Aught Seven. I'll only have one or two days at home between each trip so I wanted to make sure the shop was full of needle cases because I won't have any time to sew over the next month. The bonus of the travel will definitely be some good solid knitting time on each of those flights. I could even get Hanami finished before the end of the summer if I don't catch startitis...
Somewhere in the last few weeks I've managed to squeeze in some time to make a whack of needlecases. There's some of the pink mod and grey mod over in Scout's shop. The splityarn etsy shop has some blue mod cases and my personal faves, the Balance Bird cases. I had one yard of the Etsuko Furuya print and I made it last as long as I could. The print has been sold out in most places, so I don't know that I'll be able to make any more of them. Get 'em while they're still around!
It has been a fun week for discoveries apparently. The new Knitty is up and I'm in it! No, I didn't design a pattern or anything (not yet anyway,) but look! Waaaaaaaay down the bottom of this page, my stitch markers made the quickpicks. I'm stoked! I restocked the shop and as soon as my sewing machine gets back from the spa, I'll add in some needlecases and some new wallets.
The Husband is rolling into town tonight from Minneapolis and since I haven't seen him in a month, posting will be sparse around these parts. Have a great week! (And go buy something!)
