We're In This Love Together

Let me say how much I appreciate all you guys. I woke up this morning and went to my email and Twitter box and there were such lovely private tweets and emails that it just me smile with tears of joy. Earlier, I was talking with one of my very best friends on this planet and he said to me he was in the dumps and talking to me lifted him up.

You have no idea how much you've lifted my spirits especially after yesterday when someone tried to bring them down. (Don't worry, they didn't succeed too much.)

These forums have been such a great way to get to know some truly splendid people and I'm so honored you are part of my life.

Want to see what I've finished?


I'm in love with this bag! I searched and searched for the paillettes and finally found them at Hobby Lobby (that is going to be my new #1 craft store.) Come on, admit it, it's cute.
And I blocked out the cable afghan. I love my little steamer, I think I gave myself a facial when I was steaming the afghan. If someone can tell me how to make the deep purple photograph true in digital photography, I'd appreciate it.

This afghan is so soft and it blocked out to a very generous 54x64. That's a nice size afghan for anybody. It isn't something I would be placing in the shop now because it's more of a fall thing, but I'm thinking it might make a nice present for a graduate going off to school in the fall. And who doesn't love purple?

These will be both go on sale in the shop.

At Last

Read my lastest article on Squidoo!

I don't even remember when I started this afghan. I am certain it was some time this year and if I go looking through the blog I will find some reference to it. But I put it aside because - frankly - it was getting a little tedious doing all the cables. I didn't think too much about the design, I just started making cable strips and I'd say to myself "Oh, I know, I make this one with three cables, and the another strip with just one...oh, then I'll need one with two..and..."

You get the idea. My knitting eye is sometimes way bigger than my knitting stomach.

I was getting a little whacked out and so I put it in a trusty tote bag and put it aside while I worked on other things.

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to cleaning the living room.
I was organizing boxes of yarn and placing some project filled and some empty tote bags in the boxes all to be carted down to the great yarn stash in the basement when I ran across this one and said. "I should really finish this." So I picked up the needles and started working on it.

Yes, some would say I was stalling in finishing the living room and if I had a good argument that disputed this claim I would use it now - but I was stalling. But then I did put down the project and move the boxes downstairs.

Here's the thing about putting away an project that's getting on your nerves: your nerves will get over it and then one day you will be able to pick it up - finish the last strip, sew it all together and try and take pictures of it before you hurry out the door to choir rehearsal. (OK, that last part was just me.)

It is now hanging on the blocking wires in the bathroom where it has been steamed. It will be incredibly soft because of the steaming and it will be cuddly because of the yarn and the cables. I have to take outdoor pictures of it because it will go on sale in the shop.

While I was going through the boxes, I ran across another wip. It was going to be a bag. It still is going to be a bag, but I'm going to change it up a little - a lot. It should turn out cute and if it does, you will be the first to know!

Today blogout! - Have you seen The Gift Hutch on Etsy? There are some very lovely pillows on her site. If you have a couple of minutes, go pay a visit.

The Birth of a Designer

I know, it's been almost a week. What kind of blogger goes without writing to their peeps for almost a week? The kind of blogger who has been working on a project that is taking way longer than expected. Still, I understand that is no excuse and from looking at the pictures, you would want to know why the scarf took a week to make....

and therein lies the lesson. (Get some coffee or tea; this is gonna take a while.)

I feel incredibly blessed to be able to combine writing with knitting. It is something that seems to fit with me since I am either at my computer or have my knitting needles in my hand.
So, I had this idea - several ideas- to combine them both, earn something of a living and be able to enhance the spiritual walk that is a part of my life.

I am working on a book of patterns that have a spiritual basis to them. It involved reading Bible passages and seeing what type of garment those passages inspired. I would read, make a note that said something like: "Prayer shawl: red, orange, burnt orange - colors of the sunset." I had thirteen of these to go with the Bible passages. There were prayer shawls, blankets and afghans.

But I had no designs. No patterns. And I hesitated as I thought about how I was going to go about getting these patterns for my book. Would I hire designers? Would I ask for freebies? Would I purchase patterns outright?

While this was going on, I had the bright idea of opening up the shop on Etsy and trying to sell my items there. I figured I wouldn't specialize in one particular thing because that's the quickest way to boredom for me. No, I would knit items as I do now - pull the first book off the shelf or look at the first item in my Ravelry Que or bookmarked on my computer and start knitting.

(Do you need a drink refill?)

Funny thing happened on the way to stocking my store. The next pattern for me to knit was for a baby blanket. A weird looking baby blanket. I liked the pattern but thought a baby would take one look at it, slap the doctor and go back into the womb.

So I thought: keep the stitches - alter the pattern.
Change the size of the yarn
Change the needles
Increase the size of the blanket
Use different colors - manly colors
Make it a throw.
and that became the Man Cave Throw I've blogged about.

Next, I pulled out a pattern for a baby blanket. I read the pattern and I didn't have enough of the right kind of yarn (no, seriously, I didn't.) But I did have all these skeins of a 'baby yarn' that I brought for another project and didn't like so I started knitting with that and it worked.

Except I had to change the size of the needles because the weight of the yarn was different than the pattern called for.

Which meant I had to calculate the number of stitches I would need to get the size indicated in the pattern.

Except I wanted it to be bigger than the pattern indicated.

And I wanted to use different stitches than the pattern indicated.

Those of you who are very smart have already put this together. I, on the other hand, was still clueless.

I began to work on an afghan. The pattern called for about nine strips: four cabled strips and five strips of a different pattern. I started working on it when, you guessed it, I decided I needed to change what I was knitting.
In the meantime, I was working on the book when I raised the question again of where am I going to get these patterns - and then it hit me - I had just designed two blankets.

I was still dense. I said to myself, "But they don't match any of the descriptions of the items I said I wanted." The voice spoke to me again. "Change the descriptions."

DUH.

So, I placed the two patterns into the book and was feeling pretty good and went back to working on the afghan with all the cables. I decided to completely change the pattern but not until I had knit this strip. And last night, at about midnight, I told myself to go to bed when I looked at the strip pinned to the cable strip and decided to remove it. I took it off, looked at it and thought to myself 'what am I going to do with this?' and I put it around my neck and said, 'Bet I can turn this into a scarf.' and 'Bet I can do a different kind of fringe.'

And I did. Pattern number three. A new item for the shop. A new blog post.

Ain't God alright?

View From The Bridge

What else is there to do, really, but stay in and knit? I am recovering from the all day inaugural coverage and the first Etsy sale to back to normal. Today the weather is warming up so the snow pile will be gone, but it has been around for a few days when the weather was frightful.
Duke loves this weather and he loves the snow. He bugs us constantly to go outside so he can jump in the pile. He's gotten so clever that if I say no, he will actually go find the hub and bug him (and he usually gets his way there.)

In the meantime, I am reworking the cable stitch afghan pattern I cast on. I'm making it so different that it can't be called the same pattern. I didn't know I had this kind of design genie in me but I like her!