Changes and Discounts

After a lot of soul searching and reflection, I have decided to refocus my efforts on pattern design, and for that reason I will be closing down other aspects of Knitolution at the end of August. More of my stock and supplies will be posted soon as I clear things out, but please enjoy 10% off your purchases with code BLOG10! Thank you. http://www.etsy.com/shop/knitolution

Crocheting, and Crocheting

I'm so tired of making amigurimi! Fortunately, I'm also very closed to finished. In the last month I've finished Chewbaccas, Vaders, and Zoidbergs.

Also for the wedding, I busted out a kippah to give Ian for marrying us, and a pair of corsage cuffs knit with wire for our mothers.

Now that I'm finally really really close to being done with wedding crocheting and knitting, I'm trying to bust out birthday gifts for my parents in time to wrestle some serious WIPS when the Olympics start! I'm hoping to finish Ryan's socks, my entrelac socks, and make some serious progress (finally) on my penguin vest.

Shame on the USOC, and mini skeins

If you haven't heard, the USOC (US Olympic Committee) has decided to go after Ravelry for the Olympic fan event, the Ravelympics. Read the full cease and desist letter here. The thing knitters are taking issue with (mostly) is not the claim of copyright infringement (which it is, technically) but both that the USOC is wasting time and money attacking a group that is not making any money from their Olympic themed event, but also that the USOC is claiming that knitting is denigrating and offensive to the spirit of the Olympics. I've loved watching the Olympics for my entire life, but if the USOC does not apologize for insulting knitters and our desire to participate in the Olympic spirit, then I will not be watching the Olympics this summer. Want to let the USOC know what you think? Knitter or non-knitter, post on the USOC facebook page in support of knitters engaging in the spirit of the Olympics (and spending many hours knitting while watching the games!)

Meanwhile... I posted 6 different sets of mini skeins on etsy yesterday. Mini skeins are perfect for adding a little bit of color to a project, stripes, or of course, for the Beekeeper's Quilt or any of the other scrap yarn blankets, scarves, etc.

Upadate: The USOC issued this response to the flood of angry comments from knitters. As many others have pointed out, this is a pretty lame attempt at apologizing for what was clearly NOT a form letter but a very personalized, detailed, and demeaning letter. And really, to show YOUR support of ravelry, WE should send you hand knitted stuff? Knitted Olympic themed stuff from those patterns you asked ravelry to remove?

Update again: The USOC updated their apology to be a bit more contrite, and said they would no longer consider legal action against Ravelry. Hooray for the power of knitters! In 48 hours we were put down, responded, and received two apologies from a powerful organization! I am so thrilled and impressed, and I love Ravelry and the community it creates more than ever.

The Sound of Slipping

The sound of finished projects slipping to the floor after the last bound off stitch that is! After spending a marathon memorial day weekend knitting 6-8 hours a day, I finished the 2 blankets that had deadlines at the beginning of June. While in Colorado for a friend's (gorgeous!) wedding, I finished my own wedding veil (finally!) and shortly after returning I finished the Wall-Es. In between all of that, I've made some good progress on Ryan's socks in spare moments, and I've started on the Boba Fetts. At least without the blanket deadlines looming over me the amigurimi feel like they are going faster!

The biohazard baby blankie: A chart that I will eventually get converted from paper to electronic form and posted, because, well, I'm pretty pleased with how it came out! The parents were also thrilled, and that's what really matters.

The wedding blanket for the friends who got married in said gorgeous wedding- they love it, and it did indeed come out big enough for both of them to cuddle up under, so I did my job! They loved it so much that they sent photos, during their honeymoon!!, of them cuddled under it in a cabin in the mountains. Also, they took it on their honeymoon! Way to be appreciative knit recipients friends. Rest assured your future babies will have many handknits to wear!

My wedding veil! I know, isn't it gorgeous?!? When I first bound off, there was a little moment where I held it up and went, "seriously?!? THAT'S all the knitting I get for all that work?!?" and even after blocking its still a pretty small shawl, for having worked probably close to 100,000 stitches over the last 18 months! But it really is beautiful, and I got a little weepy when I tried pinning it on with my dress (sorry, none of those photos until after the wedding), and I'm quite proud of it if I do say so myself. I am, however, also swearing off cobweb yarns for the foreseeable future!

Ryan's socks are really coming along, and aren't they just charming? Also, he is a very willing foot model. Always a plus.

The first Boba Fett off the hook! Its adorable, and I love it, but I am really really really tired of crocheting little space toys. I really can't wait to be done with that.

New Worsted Wooly and Chubby Bunny

Lots of new colors posted recently! In Worsted Wooly, Endor: Endor's inspiration is pretty obvious- the lush greens and browns of the forest moon! 

In Chubby Bunny, 3 new colors. First, Keukenhof: Keukenhof colorway is inspired by the riot of colors in Holland's famous tulip gardens, during the spring tulip festivals. This colorway is a complex rainbow, with colors ranging from almost black to bright orange, magenta, and blue and overlapping into many subtle shades.

Undersea: Undersea colorway is inspired by the high contrast and bright colors found when snorkeling in shallow waters on a bright sunny day. The brightness of the yellow, blue, and green makes this a very cheerful yarn.

Earth Day: Earth Day colorway is inspired by the beautiful shades of green blanketing the earth. It ranges from deep navy blues to a range of bright and dark greens and hints of yellow. 

Dyeing and Knitting

I've been hitting the dye pots again now that its warm enough to leave windows open and properly ventilate my dye space! Two new colorways of Shirley have hit the shop in the last week, Andromeda and Keukenhof.

Meanwhile, I've been knitting on all the deadline knitting like crazy! Its been successful though, as I now have two half finished blankets and several more Wall-Es to show for it!

The Wall-Es are up to 4.5 and have been holding conference on my living room floor today. This is one of the more complicated amigurumi I've made, and therefore takes a little longer than the others. (the veil is also coming along but there wasn't an obvious enough difference so I decided not to post a new photo)

Blanket #1, the wedding blanket, is HUGE and is half done, which is fortunate since the wedding is (eek!) less than 2 weeks away! I really hope I manage to finish it in time!

Blanket #2, the baby blanket, is significantly smaller, but also due in less than 2 weeks, so I'm chugging along hoping to somehow finish both. I love how the biohazard symbol is coming out, and I love the afghan stitch. This blanket makes me giggle every time I pick it up (baby... biohazard... snorgle!) so I've decided to write it up when I'm done for all the other unconventional parents out there who want to get a chuckle out of their baby preparation.

Between deadline knitting, when I've had a chance for mindless relaxation knitting I've gotten a couple more hexipuffs done.

Shop Update

Some of the things currently in my etsy shop: Especially Viva la Knitolution tshirts, perfect to show your knitter pride during the summer! They also make great gifts. Available in several colors and sizes, and I do take custom orders for different sizes, colors, and to print other things like bags. Lots of other stock- including spinning fiber, yarn, and handspun!

Time and Relative Dimension in Space

Yep, that's right, TARDIS. Why? Because that's my latest pattern! I've finally got the charts out from my TARDIS kleenex box cover, as a free pattern- download now via Ravelry!

The charts can be used for color knitting and crochet, for needlepoint, cross stitch- even for weaving. If you want my kleenex box cover, use standard plastic canvas (available at any craft store) and worsted weight yarn. Cut the pieces to allow the number of stitches shown in the chart for each side and the top, work through each of the charts, and then use a whip stitch and blue yarn to attach the pieces together and to go over the bottom edge so there is no exposed plastic showing.

Allons-y!

Knitworthy

This started out as a post about the moment when I knew my fiance was knitworthy, but the more I thought about it, the more it grew. It isn't just that he's knitworthy, its that his being knitworthy highlights so many of the reasons I love him. 

The first thing I ever knit for my fiance was a hat. It was a terrible hat. We were on a trip, it was colder than expected, and he didn't have a hat. The only spare yarn I had was crummy, and the only needles I had with me were the wrong size for the yarn. (Why did I have crummy yarn without needles the right size to use it if I wanted to? There are some questions better left unasked.) But I whipped out a crummy hat in an hour or so, and it kept him warm(er) for that trip. Given the total lack of time, energy and love committed to that hat, I wouldn't have been upset at all if he got rid of it upon return to his hats of superior usefulness at home. But he didn't. A few years later, when we were cleaning out our stuff in preparation to move, he still had the hat! He had kept it just because I made it for him. I convinced him to pass it along in the donation box- but I knew in that moment that he was a keeper, and knitworthy to boot. 

The next thing I made him was a pair of "gloves", his "Teradactyl" gloves. He helped pick out the pattern, and it was the first thing I ever made with my own handspun yarn. Not only does he still wear them all the time, but he proudly shows them off to everyone.

A few months ago, a spinning wheel practically fell into my lap. When I told my fiance I was bringing it home, I expected a response about where the hell would it go? and why do I need more stuff for knitting/spinning? and why was I spending money on this? but all I got was "Awesome!" Which is way more supportive than I would probably have been- so, lesson learned better half! During the following weeks of repairs and finishing to get the wheel back into prime condition, he was very curious- to the point that I think I might get him spinning someday. Now, I'm sure part of that is because he's an engineer, and wanting to know how things work is in his blood... 

And then, the socks. The socks that got me thinking about how lucky I am to have such a knitworthy partner. I already posted about how he allowed himself to be dragged into being my excuse to buy yarn in France, so I could make him socks (I've been trying to convince him that I should make him socks for awhile now) and every time I tried them on his feet he got a more eager look on his face. I'm a little worried that I'm ruining him for storebought socks and will have my hands full knitting him socks for the rest of my life, but mostly I can't wait to see the look on his face when they're finished and he can wear them for real. And that started me thinking about how he doesn't just pretend to be interested in what I'm working on, or in going to mills and petting sheep and spotting knitterly things while travelling- he really is interested, because he's interested in me. 

Then I thought about how thrilled he was when I got my first pattern accepted by Knit Picks, and when they featured it in the Knit Picks catalogue, and what a tolerant glove and hat model he's been, and how supportive he's been of my endeavors with Knitolution and I realized- I am truly blessed to have such wonderful, curious, intelligent, interested, supportive partner. That's how I knew he was knitworthy. 

Vacation Knitting

Vacation knitting is so relaxing! Especially when you've been mostly doing deadline knitting under pressure. I'm home now, and back at the deadline knitting- which, incidentally, is less onerous when you've been away from it for 2 weeks. Today I finished Wall-E (Wall-E 1 of 10 that is) and isn't he cute? I had to make some pattern modifications, as I said in the last post. It didn't turn out to be that complicated to make him fewer pieces with less sewing- mostly a matter of magic circles and crochet through the back loop only.

But back to the vacation knitting! I took an old project with me- the Sailor's Scarf, that I never seem to get anywhere with. I didn't work on it a whole lot, but I did get a couple pattern repeats done. Its gorgeous, just slow. and grey. and tiny and slippery, which don't go well with knitting in moving vehicles.

I brought along two projects to start on vacation- in theory one was backup in case I completely finished the other... but are you surprised to learn that I cast both on before we even left the US? That's right, on our 1 hour flight to Philly, I had already started both projects.

The first is a lace shawl, the Shetland Triangle pattern. I can't tell you who for just yet. I'm loving the yarn, and loving working this pattern again. I already made it once, in what turned out to be my giant silver shawl. This pretty much flew along for much of the first half of the trip.

The second is the entrelac socks I've been meaning to make for, oh, three years or so! As it turns out, the pattern needs some serious tech editing. Its a brilliant construction method, but I had to pretty much reconstruct a lot of the hows and wherefores for myself. I'm now really glad this project has lain in wait for so long, because when I got it I had neither the knitting knowledge nor the entrelac experience to figure out all these issues, and while I know the designer and she would have been happy to explain, figuring out that I couldn't figure it out while on vacation and without internet would have been enormously frustrating. As it is now, it was just an interesting challenge.

I bought yarn in Europe (really, no shocker there!) Ryan agreed to be my excuse in France (more on that shortly) and in Holland, I couldn't find any Dutch yarn, so I came home with German sock yarn and Swedish lace yarn- both things I at least have never seen in the US (that doesn't mean they can't be found here, just that they aren't available at any of the shops I frequent) The sock yarn will (eventually) be (shockingly) socks, while I have plans for green beads and brown lace yarn and a leafy pattern and forest-y goodness. (again... eventually)

The French yarn however! Nothing was really reaching out and grabbing me at Bergere de France, at least nothing that I could think what I'd do with it and therefore how much to buy, so I went with what any sensible person would do- I asked Ryan what I could make for him, and with which yarn. After some coaxing and reassurances that he really really really would love handknit socks, we settled on this lovely tweedy yarn (soft too!) and I promptly cast on for his socks. I call them his 5 country socks, because I knit them on the bust to Amsterdam, so they've been knit in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the USA, and even over international waters! These absorbed most of my time in the second half of the trip and are well on their way to sockdom. They fit really well, and so far he's quite pleased. Fortunately, since the next 3 months will be full of nearly exclusively deadline knitting, its going to be awhile before boot socks will be in service again, so there isn't any rush to finish.