Grab your knitting needles and come relax with me.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Busy Bees
Today, actually this week, has been full of cleaning, not so much knitting being done. I am still knitting away on my Super Secret Project-it's fun and right now easily memorised. Really all you need to remember is TWO rows. Easy peasy.
It's been drizzling today, the sun never even peeked out of the clouds...I know because I was up before dawn...and once again no soccer. Today was supposed to be Micci's make up game for last Saturday's game that was rained out. Oh well. Just gives me more time to clean, less time to knit.
We have about a week before we HAVE to migrate off of Blogger...I keep bugging my husband: you are running out of time!! Come on! Poor guy is overworked. This Spring has been murder on us. Between Jamey volunteering with the Final Four and special project AND Micci and Lorelei's activities our evenings have been jammed up.
Hopefully the Super Secret Project can be finished before May starts and I can concentrate once again on projects I can actually show you. I'll prolly work on the shawl and Kimmy's baby blanket. The blanket needs to be done by June. I do not want to procrastinate on it this pattern again. We all remember the pain I was in trying to complete the first Snow Flurries--I do not want to relive that!
No more brain fugue! or even fatigue! I worked out the stitch problem and wrangled it into a triangle shape. I COULD see the triangle, just couldn't get the pieces to fit and I KNEW the solution was just beyond my "sight." So I turned off my internet browser and turned up my iTunes playlist. I blocked out the world and focused. Viola, problem solved and a good week of aggravation and turmoil ended. Woot!
I've been buzzing along ever since...the shawl is coming along nicely now. Smooth sailin' ahead. Knock on wood.
I wish I could show you pictures, the yarn I am using and the pattern is just perfect together. My friend, Yvonne, from Germany dyes the most beautiful yarn and she asked me to design a shawl to show case the yarns in her new summer yarn club: Jewel Tones Lace (etsy link). There's also another designer working with Yvonne so you'll receive my pattern and her pattern with as part of the club, along with other fun surprises. You have until May 15th to sign up.
She also has a sign up thru ArtFire, so you can sign up there if you prefer: Jewel Tones Lace Yarn Club.
Have a look at all her various yarns they are all gorgeous!
My Super Secret Project is giving me a Super Serious Headache and Brain Fatigue. I have swatched it all out and the stitch patterns look awesome. The headache and fatigue is coming from trying to stick the lovely stitches into a shawl shape...I don't have enough yarn for anything full. I need half shapes. No squares or circles or even rectangles...I need half moons and triangles.
I think this wouldn't be so hard if my brain was already overwhelmed with mental clutter and stress.
Blergh.
This is the extent of my vocabulary lately: blah, blergh, bleck, gah, and ugh; lot's of nonsensical jumbles of consonants and vowels. Oh, what I have been reduced to! My muse is buried underneath it all.
I want to run away and escape into comfort projects: ones with PATTERNS already written. But, deadlines and promises cling to my back, reminding me I have obligations and not to runaway for too long.
Right now, I have been working on the Still Unnamed Shawl. (It's bugging me it still has no name; BUT at least I know where I am going with this pattern) It's pretty and growing at a nice clip.
I unearthed my husband's camera today, so I can share the pictures of the FINISHED mediation rug! I finished the edging yesterday morning and blocked it.
It came out perfect!
I am trying to find some quick test knitters for my pattern. Since, although I am happy with how it turned out I do really want to make the edge a bit less tight, BUT I do not want to rip it out to alter it. It took ME 2 months to knit this, but I am knit slower than a snail.
The Details-
Pattern: A Birdy's Knit Original, pattern forthcoming. The final pattern will be priced at $2.50 and will include instructions for a Christian themed rug. Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Undyed, 100% wool 4 skeins (100 grams a piece) and KP Wool of the Andes in Black Cherry, 100% 2 balls (50 grams a piece) Needles: KP Interchangeables in US size 8 and DPNs US size 6 Misc: The rug measures 45 inches in diameter.
The cabled edging took ages--about 3 weeks. It's about 8 feet worth of edging.
I LOVE the edging though.
Here's close ups of all the runes. They are Eldar Futhark runes and they are arranged in order.
It was done just in time too...it's really getting too hot to have what is essentially a wool blanket covering my lap. Now it's exclusively lacey things and socks (if I ever let them out of time out).
Once again I must apologise for being a bad blogger. Between, not having a camera, STILL knitting on the border of my meditation rug and technical website concerns, blogging has been difficult and secondary.
Right now I have stitch pattern books laid open around me. I am having a hard time finding my muse for this new project. While the yarn is beautiful, it hasn't really sung to me yet. I've started carrying it around with me, trying to spark something. I just need a little spark, something to fan to flame.
I have also been working (still) on the mediation rug. I have roughly two feet of border left to knit. It's the longest two feet in the history. It seems like i have been knitting these last two feet FOREVER. It's daunting and frustrating. Never mind that...I don;t know if my Pi calculations were off or what but the mediation rug is shaped more like a bowl that a flat circle. I am desperately hoping that blocking will smooth it all out.
I am also bummed by all the techy stuff going on with my websites. I have still found no resolution to the domain name debacle for my Birdwell Productions website. It's so disheartening: I have had this domain for ten years and it looks like because of shaddy business practises of the domain register (dnbuy.com) I am losing it. So I think I have decided to try to combine knitting blog and personal blog onto one. I am not sure if I'll still have tag functionality when I move the blogs to a new content manager (blogger will not support FTP or own domain hosting as of May 1-and i am a control freak over content management). But I will work out something. I have been working with webs design and architecture for over 12 years I will figure something out. Grin. I just need to remind myself that I can DO THIS!
In any case it is Spring and I am happy. Easter is soon...true mark of SPRING! and rebirth. I feel like I am waking up after my grey winter sleepiness. Although, I have to admit the allergies from the fornicating trees have been acting like a sleeping potion.
