Product development & Christmas

E & G’s Christmas Tunics – michael miller’s Yule Christmas & Dots

Snow

It’s really early here. Hubby got up before 6 am to go into work before we get a monster snow storm. The idea is that he go in early and then come home later this morning, safely, before the snow really starts to fly. We’ll see how it goes. The commute is the downside to living in a quaint, small town 30 miles away from downtown… This will be our 7th snow since the beginning of November & in case your child burned your calendar and you’ve been  living under a rock, it’s mid December.

 

Yarn that stripes like Noro

Besides the usual Christmas busyness and familial obligations, I’ve decided that *now* is the best time to pursue new product development. Nothing beats holiday stress like a huge amount of work that may or may not pan out. In my defense, I started working on this project 2 months ago. I need to contract out some very specific, custom fiber work in order to make this venture successful. I found one contractor on the West coast and proceeded to ship yarn with them so they could get a sample worked up and firm pricing. It took 3 weeks for them to acknowledge receipt of the yarn. Then 2 1/2 more to work up a sample. We are currently sitting at 4+ weeks that they’ve had the sample but won’t ship it.

On second thought, I’ll think I’ll skip hiring you.

So the search has continued. I’ve found others who will work, but of course, they are booked up solidly through Christmas. My poor retailer will have been waiting three months before the product is even in production. In the meantime, I’ve been making not-quite-perfect samples for myself and limping through the new dyeing technique. Hopefully, this will come together in a big  ball of beautiful symmetry after Christmas.

Home Improvement

The office is finally usable! We moved the computer desk back down here the weekend before last…so we could put the Christmas tree up in the living room. Since we have been working every available weekend since the end of June, it feels like a *huge* accomplishment. And it’s pretty. Seriously pretty. We have a deep chocolate accent wall, and the other three are painted a warm, harvest gold. The ceiling is finally “real”, instead of an ugly & way too low suspended number. The best part about it, is we have two additional full sized closets in here – completely fitted out with shelves, organizers and crates. Yes!

Things I want

Now onto a random list of things I want & you probably do, too.

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Club - it’s taking all my restraint not to sign up.

Mystic Monk Coffee - amazing & fresh roasted. I have the two big, two small pack coming my way.

Twisted Fiber Arts - I love her work & collect it. It’s so beautiful!

My house smells like spiced pumpkin scones!

Wow. It’s been a while since I blogged, eh? I’ve always had this problem with journaling. If I get out of the habit, it’s months before I get back to it. I must not be very committed to writing down my thoughts.

It was a busy summer. It was an even busier fall. Let’s not even get into what the Thanksgiving and Christmas season are shaping up to be.

Most recently, I returned from Stitches East in Baltimore. Sharon and I were both there with Yarn Love and Three Irish Girls. Our  booth looked beautiful….but I don’t have photos. The camera unfortunately, suffered an injury on the plane which caused LCD screen to die. Technically, you can still take photographs via the viewfinder, but you can’t make adjustments to any settings because those options are always displayed on the screen. It makes for Zen Photography (i.e. Crappy Photos!). Oh well. We are getting a new camera next week. One that’s well rated….and actually inexpensive for the sheer number of favorable reviews about it.

Now, I’m working on getting the above sweater pattern ready for public consumption…including technical editing, photography, and layout. This is all new to me, since my only other published pattern was very simple and edited by the kind people over at Knitty.

Here are few pictures of things I knit over the summer to keep you going until the next time I actually blog:

Boo Socks in Twinkling Pink & Fresh Celery:

NeverMore Socks in Bump in The Night:

Netherfield Hand Knit Socks in Netherfield (Dutchess Dk yarn):

Sensational Colorwork Socks in Cove and Fresh Celery:

(These were by far the most popular sample I took to Stitches!)

Revenge of the Mummies Socks in Robin Hood and Delicate Aquamarine:

That’s not everything, but it’s all I’m going to post right now. Enjoy until another bout of motivation takes hold and I post more!

Embroidered Owl Lacing Card Tutorial

Materials:

• Three colors of craft felt. I picked up a variety of colors 5 for $1 at JoAnns. It’s the recycled poly felt.
• Heat in Bond – heavy weight to fuse your pieces together
• Embroidery thread – your choice of colors – for the embroidered accents
• Eyelet tool – for cutting and setting eyelets
• Fray Check
• Metal eyelets to insert (optional)
• Heavyweight fusible interfacing (optional)

 

Step One – make your pattern pieces

Cut your pieces. I use the pictured template from the book Doodle Stitching. I’m not going to give away that exact pattern, but I’ll help you draw your own. It’s a simple shape. Feel free to freestyle it. Below, I’ll give you more specific instructions.

If you have a printer, simply save this scanned image and print it at the appropriate size (The owl body should be about 5 1/2″ tall and the chest accent should be about 3 1/8″ tall.) These are patterns that I designed myself and I don’t mind if you print them for your own use. Skip all the foofarah for the pattern drafting below and proceed to cutting and sewing!

Owl Outline

Using a straight edge (I used my grocery list note pad!) draw a central line – at least 4 1/2″ long.

At the bottom, draw a straight line at a 90 degree angle to the first, at least 3 1/2″ long.

Measure the central line where it intersects the bottom line and make a hash mark at 4 1/2″. Measure the bottom line 1 3/4″ out from the central line and make hash marks to the right and left.

 

Using your notepad, draw a straight line across the top, at the top hash marks. (Also 90 degrees from the central line – it should be parallel to the bottom line.) Measure 1 1/4″ from the central line and make hash marks to the right and left.

Measure 1/2″ from these hash marks and make another. These two hash marks indicate the width of the ears.

Centered between the two outer hash marks on the top line, measure up 1 ” and make a hash mark on each side. (This will be the top of the ears.)

Now that you have your guidelines, its time to freestyle your curves. Draw a curved line between the two inner marks along the top line. Draw a similar curved line between the two hash marks on the bottom line.

Starting from the upper curve, draw the ears on either side.

Step Six

 

 

Join the ears to the bottom of the body by drawing a gentle curve. Don’t worry about matching things exactly.

Fold along the center line & cut along the side that you like best.

 

The bad thing about summer is….

It’s too freaking hot to wear socks. At least where I live. I’m sure all you gentle readers in Alaska and Iceland would disagree….but in Iowa, the summers are just too hot to warrant socks. Sure, I could bypass convention and comfort and wear them anyway, but then I would not only look stupid with them on, but would acquire a farmer’s tan (A farmer’s tan is when you have obvious and awkward tan lines.) from the ankle down. Not a good idea.  Summer is wonderful for knitting socks and this leads to a dilemma. Do you keep knitting socks during the summer and stockpile for cold weather – ignoring the building resentment of not being able to wear a fresh hand knit? Or do you take up knitting tank-tops and other summer friendly apparel which you can immediately put on, once it’s cast-off, despite the increase in overall project size. (I.E. – you will have a lap blanket of a knitting project for anything larger than a pair of socks or gloves….) I don’t know the answer. Perhaps you do…. or maybe it’s one of the deep mysteries of the universe. At any rate, I’m knitting socks. I have been knitting socks all year long and will probably continue to knit them. They’re easy, I can ad lib patterns on the fly and they’re wonderful for that intoxicating and addictive feeling of instant gratification.

The latest and greatest pair to fly off my needles are some nice Swirl Socks in Scarlett O’Hara, gradient dyed on a sock blank. I originally intended these babies to have five large bands of color, but I made the bands too large. Usually I only use 2/3 of a 4 ounce skein of yarn, and hence these really only have 2 1/2 color repeats in them. Lesson learned – shorter bands for more color change. Another bummer, the first color change occurred while I was working the short row heel. The heel looks awesome, slowly fading from light green into the darker, but at the ankle there is a sharp color break as the light ends and the dark takes over. I’m not sure there’s really any way to plan around that without doing an inserted heel. But farther up on the ankle, the color shift from green to blue is subtle and fun and lovely.

I want to wear them, but I’m resisting. It’s a good thing that my new summer Birkenstocks have a toe post that prevents me from wearing them with socks, or I’d look like a total nerd running around in socks and sandals in the 90 degree heat and 85% humidity.

I liked the first pair of Swirl Socks so well, that I’m now knitting a second pair from another dyed blank. This time, it’s diagonally painted stripes in the Mariner colorway on Marianne Dashwood yarn. Marianne is a 100% super-wash merino, sport weight yarn with lots of spring. I love knitting with her. She wears pretty darn well, too….although I do recommend a sweater shaver every 3-4 washings. (Or just turn these babies inside out when you wash and forget the sweater shaver.) The color mixing is coming along really well at this point….although I must confess I’m only a couple inches into the socks. I’ll keep you posted.

There are a couple adjustments that I need to make to this colorway to compensate for the differences between dyeing blanks and a skein of yarn. The contrast between the celedon and the drab is not as sharp as I’d like it to be, and I might need to increase the color concentration to achieve the very saturated tones more easily attained when dyeing skeins. Now, if I could just find someone to knit me up some yarn blanks at a reasonable price!

Lastly, I’ve been working on new colors for the fall. More specifically, semi-solid colorways that match current multi-color colorways in the Yarn Love collection. I’m starting with the most ordered colors and branching out from there. Here’s a sneak peek at three of the skeins. From top to bottom these will match Valentine, Mariner and Awakening Earth. What do you think?

 

 

Happiness is:

The love of my life being home. Sigh. He made it. They only watched the river for an hour and a half and he made it in before midnight. Not much before midnight, but still before. Of course, they had scheduled him for meetings this morning while he was out, so he got up and went into work. Double sigh. At least his pillow smells like him again.

I am so tired. I don’t sleep well while he’s gone. In fact, I avoid going to bed. The first night I was laying on my stomach on the couch at midnight reading Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day. I fell asleep face first in the hardbound book and woke up two hours with a screaming neck ache. That was pleasant.

The next night I opted for a pillow, the couch, and the latest Persuasion. That was better. I’m still tired. Probably a combination of keeping the kids clean, fed and happy, as well as running the household.

I did some knitting while he was out, but don’t have much to show for it. A pair of overly green socks knit from a gradient dyed knitted blank. I’ll have to shorten the color repeats. They’re too long. So I’m going to end up with a pair of mostly green swirl socks. Sigh. Oh, well. I guess that’s what experimenting is for. Figuring things out!

Maybe I’ll go to bed early tonight. Then I can write perkier blog entries where I feel more like myself…. I sure hope my coffee beans come today. I’m embarking on a new adventure of roasting green coffee beans at home. My ridiculously cheap popcorn popper came in the mail on Saturday and the beans should be here today. So if you’re around the Midwest and see some crazy, pink haired lady, looking slightly dazed while smoking coffee beans in a popcorn popper on her back deck, don’t worry. It’s just me! (If you want a decent popcorn popper, don’t buy this one. I hear it’s horrible for popcorn. But since coffee roasting voids the warranty I wanted the el cheapo one. Funnily enough, if you search popper reviews via Amazon, this one has several good recommendations for coffee roasting and ALL bad for popping popcorn.)

If you’re wondering what going to bed early tonight has to do with coffee and feeling myself…well I was simply reflecting that I’d probably feel more energetic and cheerier with a little coffee in me…and hence the comments about awaiting mail order coffee beans!

Trying to keep my cool

I’m trying to keep my cool. My sweet husband just called me. He’s been out of town since 6 am Friday. He drove to Ohio with a college buddy to attend the wedding of another college friend. They had to take a 3-4 hour detour because of the flooding and consequent closure of I-80. I-80 was expected to be back to “normal” by today, but the water hasn’t receded enough. The main thoroughfaire and most of the surrounding roads/bridges are closed. In an attempt to skirt the large detour, they’re on small highways, in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the flood waters to go down. Apparently, Driving Buddy (and owner of the car) has decided he’d rather wait for the river to drop 6 inches than take the detour. So they’re sitting in a tiny town waiting. They have been for an hour and a half. Nick can’t leave and if the river doesn’t drop, they will still have a 4 hour drive home. It’s now 6pm and they have been on the road for 10hours. I’m trying to not to be disappointed and angry. Knowing that he’s stuck in a tiny Kia with a guy who doesn’t care that Nick is upset is not making it easier.  Ugh. Next time we’re spending the $450 on a plane ticket. It’s just not worth it….and I can’t wait to find out how much his mood will have deteriorated by the time they get home….who knows how many hours after midnight.

Testing…1,2,3….

First off, I would like to say that rain sucks. Flooding sucks….and frizzy pink hair is NOT a fashion statement. Speaking of frizzy pink hair, I need to have my hair cut. If you have any great ideas of how I should cut my hair, please let me know. Throw a picture in the comments down there. My hair is past my shoulders, which is too long.  I have so much hair that anything below the shoulders really overcrowds my face. I’ve been putting it off, because a haircut will mean that I’ll need to re-bleach and over-dye the pink….but with all the rain and humidity, I really need a style update!

Test Sock Blanks

I’ve continued with the sock blank dye tests. I’m knitting off one right now – Scarlett O’ Hara gradient dyed – and it is wonderful. Aside from the fact that my bands of color are way too wide, it’s going well. Getting the blank dyeing down to a science is going to take a lot of test dyeing and knitting.

Gauge is of course an issue. My Bond doesn’t like to knit super tightly. Then there is of course the slight fact that machine knitting requires a certain amount of skill and knowledge that I don’t have…but am aquiring by jumping into the frying pan. The Bond knits quite a bit more loosely than your average sock knitter, so the 60 stitch wide blank that I’m knitting from doesn’t accurately show how long the color repeats will be on an actual pair of socks. I started at the green end of this blank, and now that I’m nearly to the heel turn, I’m almost finished with the first color. Um, yeah….that’s going to need some tweaking.

I can dye faster than I can knit, so I now have three test blanks waiting for me to get to them. The first is a simple gradient of a test colorway. The second is my Mariner colorway painted in diagnal stripes and the last is Sweetheart painted in vertical stripes. The vertical stripes should create very short color repeats across the blank, rather than a self striping effect. We’ll see how I did once I get them all knitted up. Good thing they’re sport weight!

Besides the sock blanks, I’ve been dyeing up other self striping yarns…which will need knitted up for photography. Sigh. I think I’ve added about 6 new “skeins” to the “must knit” pile and so far this week I’ve ripped out one almost complete pair of socks (too tight) and knit half of another pair. Oi. I’d better get knitting!

Let me know what you think of the blanks. They’re going to require quite a bit of business research and wrangling to become a viable business venture, so if you really would like to see them, let me know. It’s always nice to know you have some backing before plunking down hours of time and lots of funds.

Sock blanks and other mayhem

Just when I get a really good idea….someone else already has it! Oh, well. KnitPicks came out with their new sock blanks recently….just a few days after my Bond Knitting machine arrived for me to work out how to machine knit them for myself. The original plan was to offer these as a new product via Yarn Love….but now I’m going to have to seriously rethink that. I feel like such a copycat – but I wasn’t. I came up with the idea on my own before Knit Picks released their product. Sigh. The good news is that I can use my favorite sock yarns for my own blanks and they can’t. It’s not a total loss; I can always knit them for myself and me content with that!

New Couch – delivered to your door!

I ordered a couch off the internet. It came and I’m happy. There’s a company by the name of HomeReserve and they sell couches that you assemble. You get your choice of style and fabric, and it comes straight to your door where you put it together. The main reason we chose this company over more traditional furniture is that every single piece of fabric on the couch is washable.

If you don’t have children, this probably isn’t a big deal….but for those of you who have ever stared at a traditional piece of upholstery freshly covered in toddler vomit, you will understand the sheer genius of this couch. Better yet, if you have commitment issues, you can replace all the fabric and cushions with a new for $150 – 200 bucks. New look, low price!

They are surprisingly comfy despite the lack of springs. (There are three storage compartments under the seat cushions instead of springs.) The cushions are firmer than our previous, overstuffed couch, but the scale is much better for me. I can sit on the couch without having to prop a large throw pillow behind me. Yay new couch!

I am planning on dressing it up with some pretty throw pillows. Geisha Fans by Amy Butler in the olive colorway are on the radar…right after I finish sewing the girlies’ window treatments and the bra kits that I ordered….I have no idea when I’ll get them done.

 

 

Super Secret Project

Well, I went and started a long term, super secret project. It involves yarn. It involves dye. It involves writing. We’ll see how I do. It’s a new venture and one with an uncertain outcome. But along the way there will be lots of yarn and photos and fun. I started it late in the week. Here’s one of the skeins that dyed for it. Over dyed stripes. I’ve been itching to knit it up, but I can’t. It must be saved for professional photography purposes. Sigh. Dyeing new yarn is so hard to resist.

More super secret stuff as I get it done…but not all of it, because then it wouldn’t be a secret, would it?

Dear Diary

I am having a crappy day. Sigh. I shouldn’t be having a crappy day, but I am, and it’s making it worse. It should be good because last night I got to go out with friends for some quality girl time and hubby was happily entertained the entire time I was gone. Secondly, I had a mom/kid breakfast date this morning which is always fun. However, it does involve waking up the children at 0 dark hundred which leads to tantrums. Plus a 30 mile drive there in the fog. Then there was the slight fact that my happily entertained hubby was upset because I went over the cell phone minutes again this month. Coupled with the fact that even though I tried to call her 3 times yesterday, my mom and I were unable to connect and she came by my house this morning with two coffees and two scones and I wasn’t even here. I did email her early before I left as a last ditch effort, but no dice. Ugh. I’m hoping this is PMS come early because I feel like a real heel.

 Now I must go clean my house (which is a mess) and reskein over 300 skeins of yarn because my skeining gal is having serious allergy complications and once again dig around in the bare cupboards for something for dinner. The store didn’t have 2 crucial ingredients last week, and therefore we’ve been three meals short this week. I’m such a planner – I plan our meals so we only have to shop for what we need. When things don’t go right I get stressed.

 If you need me, I’ll be trudging through the mess feeling like an overly sensitive-heel-whiner.

Fairy Crowns and Birthday Parties

I spent all yesterday morning making fairy crowns for the girlies’ birthday party. They’re still a work in progress, but it felt good to dig around in the stash of creative detrius and make something new and different. I am very used to the idea of cultivating and using a stash. I recently organized my sock yarn stash. I would have done more, but I ran out of plastic shoe boxes. But stash use is usually reserved for knitting, as I don’t really do many other crafts.

I was inspired by these fairy crowns on etsy. Mine aren’t nearly as cool as those ones, but considering that I need to make a minimum of 8 girly fairy crowns in order for all potential female birthday guests under the age of 8 to wear, I’m not sweating it. I’m consoling myself with the knowledge that 1.) I made all the current fairy crowns from stuff I had on hand. yay! 2.) I’m going to either buy or recycle some silk flowers from my mom to finish them out. 3.) They’re not done because they don’t have the flowers yet.

Do you know how much easier it is to plan a girl’s birthday party as opposed to a boy’s? Way easier! Especially since the girlies’ b-day is in Spring, they get a large party. The boy usually gets a smaller affair, because our house isn’t great for entertaining large groups when we can’t hang out on the deck. So the girls always get a beautiful birthday dress and a big party. But Little X isn’t entirely left out. When we buy presents for the girls we always make sure all three kids can play with them. And X usually gets a bit more spent on presents to make up for his smaller party. This year, he got a really cool candle wreath. It was a huge hit. He blew out the candles three times. There was no danger of spit flying over the flock of sheep cupcakes or wax melting in. I guess it all works out in the end. I think for his 3rd birthday maybe I’ll work harder on a theme and make him custom party hats. A boy wouldn’t be embarrassed that his mother made him wear a party hat, would he?

I’m making the girls pillowcase dresses out of Amy Butler fabric. It will be Pink Lotus for the top, with a wide band of Full Moon Polka Dots at the hem. Since my favorite place to purchase girly dresses went out of business last year, I’m trying the handmade option this year. It’s a bit daunting, but since in a former life I worked a boutique fabric and sewing machine shop, I know I’ll be fine. It’s my lack of dedicated sewing space that tends to hamstring me. I’ll let you know how it goes. My fabric arrives today and I want to get started!

 Best be off to actually get some work done while the kids are “napping”.