Knot Your Mama's Knitting

To market we will go...

2008-06-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Okay I've been a VERY bad girl. I have freely admitted in other posts that I am not a good blogger. But I'm trying... okay not really.

But on a happy, happy, joy, joy note I'm off to market with my boss! Sooooo excited!!! The National NeedleArts Association hosts 3 trade shows a year. We are going to the Summer show in Columbus, Ohio. We get to take some classes and hopefully get some crazy inspiration for new patterns. We're taking a seminar by Sally Melville, it's going to be amazing! But most importantly we get to look at all the new yarns for the upcoming season! OMG I think I might have a heart attack. I can't wait to see the "Great Wall of Yarn". It's where every yarn distributor puts up samples of their yarns for display before you actually go onto the floor.

We fly out tomorrow. I just hope my broken foot will cooperate with all that walking. Who cares, it's only one weekend of pain. I can rest when we get back.

I am also now selling patterns on Etsy. The response has been amazing. I just want to thank anyone who's purchased a pattern. I love being able to see what other people do with my ideas to make them more personal. I just can't think of anything else I'd rather do. I have a great job. Wait, is it really a job????

See you all after Market, I'll post as soon as I can.

Yep it's official! I suck at keeping this thing updated...

2008-04-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

Okay so I always thought that I'd have the follow through to keep this page updated. Unfortunatly I can't and I just have to come to terms with that. Hopefully if there is anyone out there that reads this silly thing you will be patient or just bug me enough to update it. That actually seems to work with me.

So I have been knitting like crazy still. I'm working on a sample sweater for the store from an amazing new yarn from Berroco called Seduce. Love the name, and the yarn is yummy! I'm working on the Can Can pattern in color #4437 Gris-Bleu. It's fairly easy and fun to do, just not one that comes fast as I am finding it really hard to get any work done on it at home becuase you have to pay attention. That seems to be hard with the dogs, kids, husband and now chickens all pulling my attention away from my knitting.

So I wanted to work on another project that would be faster and a little more "mindless". Dru from the Shoppe had knit a really cute market bag out of the Bag Style book. I love the concept of market bags, but have always been worried about all the holes and the size of the holes. Call me paranoid but I'm always afraid to put stuff in them because I think it will rip or all fall out. So again in my Denyel twisted mind I thought that I'd come up with my own pattern. And I did, and I LOVE IT!!!!

Look there's like 14 balls of Malabrigo in there and a ton of room left! I field tested it at the mall the other day to see how much weight it could handle. Surprisingly more then I wanted to carry, which is good. That means it's durable. It's knit using size 17 needles and a Staggered Brioche Stitch so it's just a variation of a knit stitch. I rate this one Easy-ish.

The pattern is typeset and ready for print. As soon as I get it test knit and the pattern finalized it will be good to go. FYI if you want to purchase any of my other patterns visit my works website.

Wholy CRAP!!!

2008-01-27T21:36:00.000-08:00

Well it only took 2 years of bitching and moaning and I finally got my wish. Now as you read this if you are married you will totally understand my dilemma.

My family and I moved in to this... how should we put this nicely? Death Trap! A free Death Trap but one none the less. Don't get me wrong I love where we are, except the house. We are caretakers a Trap Club (shameless plug inserted here ~ check out our website), anyways we take care of the property and club house in return for housing. Well the trailer is only 1 year younger then me. I won't state, but if you look hard enough you'll find the age. It's not been loved very well over the years and has it's little "quirks". So anyways, we have this huge addition and I claimed it as my own. (My husband has a small converted room that I call the Man Closet. It's tiny! We can barely both be in there at the same time) Hey as the wife and mom I think I deserve the space. I asked him to build me a work station when we first moved in. I have a lot of hobbies and they take space. I waited and waited and waited. Well I finally got it. 160 inches of glorious space. That I have already out grown.

How is it possible that I even had this much junk? Where the hell did I shove it all? If I wasn't totally embarrassed by the mess I'd take pictures to share but thinking about it gives me panic attacks!

I have it sectioned off into 3 zones; computer, sewing and scrapbooking. I found these great stainless steel bins at Target like 3 years ago and always wanted to use them for my scrapbooking stuff. They are 2 different sizes, box and drawer is the easiest way to describe them. I stacked and layered and spaced them on the wall and labelled them for ease of use. I have 4 small bookcases underneath the work surface but again all are full already. I put a shelf over the window to put bins of yarn because I had grossly neglected the fact that I needed to be able to store that somewhere.

I've been working on this space for 3 days now and I feel like I haven't made a damn bit of difference. I think I'm getting to the bottom of the pile and I turn around and there's more there. It's like Tribbles! You don't know how they breed but the next thing you know they're EVERYWHERE! Now I'm sitting here trying to blog and rambling like a stupid idiot from lack of sleep and WAY to much coffee.

Screw it I'm going to bed to read ~ ummm shower first I think. I might not be married if I crawl into bed with this funk. Good night cyber space... I shall be back later once I dig myself out of my craft junk hell!!!

Oh and to top it all off.... after my husband built the workspace he won't help with anything else. His duty is fulfilled I guess. Lucky me!

A time to blog?

2008-01-26T13:25:00.000-08:00

Okay I've been greatly re-miss in my blogging. And, well I'd like to say that this isn't a bad habit of mine but that would be a lie. As I'm trying to teach my children that this is a bad thing to do I will just fess up on this point. I am a bad blogger. I need to set aside time to vent to cyber space about all of my knitting whoas. Wait did I spell that right? Anyways, as I was saying... Oh that's going to annoy me I know that's not right. That's more like: Whoa dude thats way awesome, then that was woefully bad. Oh wait did I just get that right. ** Please hold while I spell check before I can move on ~ Insert elevator music here ** Haa haa it's wrong, but for the sake of possibly funny I shall leave it in and move on. So anyways if there is anyone out there reading this silly blog I shall try to post more often and make it as entertaining and educational as possible.

On another note I have totally and completely broken my New Years resolution. Still better then the few days I thought it was before as it's now like 20 or more. I have still broken it beyond repair or the small white lies to myself to the contrary.

On the plus side I have knit myself a FAB pair of fingerless gloves that the pattern is almost completed on. If there is anyone in my little knitting circle that would like to test said pattern please let me know and I would be happy to send the pattern along. Of course all I ask is corrections and a picture to satisfy my needs.

So here was the "official" break of my resolution. Aren't they fun???!!!

I love fingerless gloves. I think they are a great way to accessorize, add some color and they are a quick project to finish. I used a mock cable stitch every 6th row with a little bit of shaping for the wrist. These are a very fast project to whip up. Pick your favorite worsted weight yarn and add your own little spin to them.

OK time to clean. The one major thing I need to get done this week is to get my work station built and my craft room organized. Hey maybe if I'm a little more organized I can actually get some patterns finished, my UFO basket down and some blogging done.... hummm that sounds like a great plan.

Oh and P.S. I also started a sweater for my dog Sasha. I guess resolutions are made to be broken.... Can't you see the look in her eyes? She's saying, "Awww Mom come on it's cold and snowy outside and I need to rock a new pink sweater. Oh and could you throw a skull and cross bones in there too while your at it?" What's a mom to say? I mean really. Sure hunny coming right up. *smirk*

HAHA! 100% Finished

2008-01-12T20:52:00.000-08:00

TADA! Embellishments done...

Okay I have to honestly say I'm pretty damn proud of myself. For a pattern that I modified by the seat of my pants it came together quite well. I'm still a little iffy about seaming together a half double crochet but I think it looks okay. It's just hard to make a nice seam when you have that difference of texture. I'll have to ask my boss if she knows a handy little trick for that.

The embellishments were another fly by the seat as I didn't have any books with me on leaves and I didn't want to have to get up and search the internet so..... I did a Denyel and just fiddled and voila! I sewed on one of the amazing flower buttons that we had at the Shoppe and I think it turned out pretty damn cute. **small pat on the back**

Actually my husband thought it was pretty cute as well, and he thought HE was being pretty cute and decided to .... well you look at the pictures and you'll see what I mean. Sometimes he's such a dork. But it's okay because he doesn't know I've posted these pictures of him on the world wide web and it's not like he'll ever read this silly thing. So in that spirit. Ladies and Gentlemen.... My husband! **insert drum roll here**

Crochet Bag

2008-01-10T19:46:00.000-08:00

Okay so I never did decide whether or not crocheting this project was a breaking of my new years resolutions, but I'm almost done so I guess it's okay as long as I finish it. Right? I started off using the pattern out of the Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller and well I did what I usually do and went totally off pattern. No surprise there!

But what I ended up with still has the same essence of their bag but with a little more depth as I added a gusset to the sides. So after crocheting the main body of the bag I added the tabs to the side to form a gusset and allow the bag to be deeper. Basically all I wanted to be able to do was cram more crap into one space! HEHEHEH I'm a girl what can I say. Bigger in this case is always better.

Okay so I actually started this post last night while I was at work; at a gun club of all places. But, they've gotten used to seeing me knitting on one project or another so I usually don't get harassed to badly. After getting off work I went home and made my template for the lining, ironed on the interfacing and cut this stiff cotton batting (I'll find the name - promise) for the bottom. Then I machine stitched all of those pieces accordingly and got it ready to put together. I can honestly say that it took me longer to hand stitch in the lining then it did to crochet the stupid thing but that's the way it goes. I added a magnetic clasp and I'm going to be adding the embellishments to it tonight. I'm pretty pleased with the way it's turned out. And on the bright side I finished it.... no extra project going into the UFO basket! Yeah me

Resolution BUST!

2008-01-07T20:10:00.001-08:00

Okay so it's officially the 7th day of the new year and I've already broken my resolution! What the heck is wrong with me??? I HAVE to finish this damn sweater for my son before he heads off to college or gets married. I'm going on over 2 months when it's a sweater that should have taken a few weeks.

Don't get me wrong it's a gorgeous sweater, and I know it's going to look amazing on my teenage son, but I just can't seem to get it finished. So I decided to take a break from that and crochet my friend a little purse really quick. WAIT! Is crocheting a quick project breaking a knitting new years resolution? Technically it's still a needle/fiber art craft, but it's not knitting. I'm pretty sure I was only talking about my knitting UFOs when I wrote that resolution. (** note to self; go in and change previous post to reflect "new" resolution **)

Whew that was close! Okay one Cobblestone Pullover on it's way to completion. I only have about 6 inches left to go on the yoke. But as he's a teenager and they grow so fast I'm going to have to rip the cuffs and the hem and add 2-3 inches of length onto it just to be on the safe side. I know for sure his arms have grown almost 2 inches in the last 2 months. Humm I think that's another note to self.... (** note to self; don't knit big projects for still rapidly growing children **) I ended up using Berroco Ultra Alpaca as a replacement yarn and have definitely fallen in love with it. My sons major request however was that he didn't want it to be a really tight knit. So I kept to the needle size specified for the pattern even though I would have knit it on a smaller needle to get the correct gauge. I think so far I'm okay with the sizing and it hasn't thrown me off to badly. But we shall see. As they say the proof will be in the pudding.

Wish me luck. Hopefully I can keep that stinking resolution for a few weeks longer.....

New Year, New Resolutions

2008-01-04T09:49:00.000-08:00

Every year millions of people make New Years resolutions. Every year millions of people break those same resolutions. So I figure why even bother! I know that there are things I "need" to do; lose some weight, pay my bills on time (sorry hunny), and keep the house tidy. EVERYONE makes those resolutions.

But this year I have one I'm bound and determined to keep! I will finish all of my UFO's in my basket. I used to be the worlds most unorganized crafter in the world. I was famous for starting a project and then hating it half or even 3/4th of the way through and would then never finish it. So into a box it would go. Sometime down the line I would pull it out; maybe still like it and finish it or I would HATE it and think "What the hell was I thinking?" and throw it away. My husband, bless his heart would shake his head, mumble under his breath about the wasted money and walk away. So then in an attempt to make him "accept" my crafting addiction I figured I better get my act together and finishing all those damned projects.

So I became obsessively compelled to finish one project before moving on to the next. I would stay up all night knitting, get the kids ready and sent off to school, knit some more and then crash for the rest of the day. I know I know not very productive of me, but I was a stay at home mom and well who would see but the dogs. And, I've trained them good enough to not tell on me!!! But now... oh now I work at a fabulous little yarn shoppe in Whitefish, MT and I am too tempted by the yarns to keep myself from picking up another ball and casting on. So my UFO pile has continued to grow. With half written patterns and one sock syndrome kicking in what's a girl to do??? A New Years Resolution of course!

So here it is... I will finish all of the projects in my UFO basket EVEN if I hate them half way through. I will not cast on another project until the first one has come off of the needles and all the finishing is done. (That's kind of important!) and most importantly. I will make time for myself to enjoy the hobby that keeps me sane and a decent wife and mother.

Wish me luck.... the new Tilli Tomas yarn is screaming for me to pick it up!!