Work space cleared. We aim to be productive.

A few weeks ago my sister came to town and took it upon herself to organize my craft room. Well, she offered and I took her up on it before she could change her mind. Here’s where I’d show you the evidence of the horrible, horrible mess at the beginning of the project in order for you to be amazed by the progress and the prettiness at the end. But those pictures have gone walk about (or maybe I burned them). So, instead I’m going to ask you to imagine a yarn/costume/fiber/bead/paper store had been attacked by terrible, terrible space monkeys*. 

Central to the problem of my craft room is storage. My great aunt gave me this fabulous wardrobe (sadly it does not lead to Narnia, but does have lots of yarn in it so a different sort of wonderland), but I couldn’t actually see where anything was. I also had clear plastic bins, clear plastic stackable drawers, and a wire frame elfa island – all of which were ugly and none of which were being used effectively. 

There's a lot of yarn here, but I can't find anything.  I should buy more yarn for my next project... wait.

My method up until now was pull all the bags out, pull all the yarn out of the bags, find that one ball I was looking for, then put all the yarn back in all the bags. This was also how I organized my art supplies, only they were in plastic bins. I didn’t always remember to put all the yarn, or paper, or pencils back… you see where the space monkeys come in. 

So after taking quite a few measurements of the wardrobe and a quick trip to the Container Store** we pulled everything out of the wardrobe and I started sorting.

 

Should I sort by fiber, color or thickness? Key question.

I decided that fiber/use was the way to organize. For example I’ve my hand-spun (for special TBD projects) in one place, the nice acrylics in a basket, the cotton of various colors and thicknesses in another, and wool in yet another. The blue denim yarn (too nice to toss, but what to do with 12 skeins?) goes in the basket on the top shelf, with the other random blue cotton I’ve acquired. When I find the project I need it for I’ll know where it is, but until then it won’t be in the way. 

Yarn organized so I can find what I'm looking for?! Brilliant!

Look, floor!

Look, more floor! And clothes on hangers, how novel!
My sister organized the closet, so I can't take credit for how awesome this looks.

For now, my craft room is done. There are still a few pieces that need cleaned up. My sister found a box full of paper and mementos not touched in probably five years. I want to finish organizing the closet so everything I regularly use is accessible. I'd like to get another bookcase. And I’ve still got a bag of yarn that’s ugly, scratchy acrylic that I’m having a hard time throwing away. 

I might need it. 

I mean, I don’t want to have to go out and BUY more construction-cone orange, dingy green, or eye-searing aqua. That would just be silly. Anyone need me to crochet a miniature life-preserver for them? Anyone? organization 

Next time: Steel and Steam, and Wildflowers. 

*Yes, I still miss Firefly. Just the other day I thought, “I’d love to see the second season of that… oh wait.” 

** After spending 6 hours online trying to figure out what would fit, the time spent at the Container Store was whittled down to a mere 3 hours.

Baby Shower and Drawings... not at the same time.

This past weekend I helped host a baby shower. The mommy to be was beautiful and glowing, the guests were lovely, and we had more than enough food. Party success! My co-hostess has already written an eloquent post, and you should read it there. She gave me way more credit than I deserve. And doesn’t mention all the reconnaissance she ran, finding a bunch of different possible venues, and dealing with the one we picked. She made sure we had tables, chairs, the linens, finding just the right plates (twice), made all the invitations… The girl is amazing. And she’s selling her stuff, you should check it out.

Other than party planning, I’ve been mostly just sketching. My knitting has taken a back seat, partly because it's so hot, and partly because I'd forgotten how much I love to draw and have thrown myself into it.

I took an Intro to Fashion Illustration class two weekends ago, and loved it! We worked on croquis (pronounced cro-key). It’s French for sketch, but used in English to mean the elongated figures that are used to show off clothing design.

The croquis are so different from how I’m used to sketching. They are elongated; a human being is about eight times the height of their head tall – croquis are at least nine. Also, croquis are drawn from point to point with straight lines (that you then go over and round out). I’m used to connecting circular shapes when drawing figures. Bottom line, my issue with croquis is that I am only drawing what is in my head, and I don’t have a real life model to look at if I get stuck. I know I’ll get better with practice, but I don’t want to spend time on the basics, I want to design now.

Fortunately Stephanie, who taught the class, handed out examples to use as bases, so we can create designs while we are still working on our own style. Her blog has examples of her work. I love her style of super elongated croquis, it makes the clothing pop. I’m looking forward to taking the second class in the series. It focuses on the skills needed to design knitwear. Right up my ally.

More like guidelines, really.

I’ve given up on writing the pattern (in the traditional sense) for the baby blanket that I designed. Instead, I've got some guidelines:
NOTE: What follows are the guidelines for how I made THIS blanket. Underneath I've written other guidelines should I do it again. You might want to check those before you cast on.

Cast on 102 stitches using the provisional method. (Even though the pattern calls for multiples of 4, plus 1. I added an extra stitch so that I could slip one on each side to make it easier to picking up stitches along the edge later.)
Knit using the center pattern Heatherbee's Honeycomb pattern for a lot of rows (probably 200).
Pick up stitches around the blanket such that you end up with 101 stitches on each side.
Knit 40 rounds, at the edges yo, knit, yo.
Ending with 181 stitches on each side. Don’t end at a corner. I ended 72 stitches in from the corner.

Cast on 17 stitches using the provisional method on a different needle. Knit the edging perpendicular to the blanket. For every one stitch on the blanket edge knit two rows of the edging.

WARNING THE FOLLOWING HAS NOT BEEN TESTED SINCE I WROTE IT OUT SO PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK

The edging (based on No. 3. For Grace McGregor):
1 :yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k
2 :sl 1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
3 :yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k3, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k 2
4 :sl 1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
5 :yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k4, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k 3
6 :sl 1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
7 :yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k 4
8 :bind off 4, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
9 :yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k6, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k
10:sl 1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
11:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k3, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, ssk, yo, yo, k2tog, k, yo, k, yo, k2
12:sl 1, p7, k, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
13:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k5, yo, k, yo, k 3
14:sl 1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
15:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k 4
16:bind off 4, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
17:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k4, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k
18:sl 1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
19:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k3, yo, ssk, k6, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k 2
20:sl 1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
21:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 12, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, ssk, yo, yo, k2tog, k, yo, k, yo, k3
22:sl1, p8, k, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
23:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 13, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k4
24:bind off 4, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
25:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 14, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k
26:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
27:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 11, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k2
28:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
29:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 10, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k3
30:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
31:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 9, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, ssk, yo, yo, k2tog, k, yo, k, yo, k4
32:bind off 4, p 6, k, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
33:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k8, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k
34:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
35:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k7, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k 5, yo, k, yo, k2
36:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
37:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 8, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k3
38:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
39:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 9, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k2tog, yo, yo, ssk, k, yo, ssk, yo, k4
40:bind off 4, p 6, k, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
41:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 10, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k1
42:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
43:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 11, yo, ssk, k, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k2
44:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
45:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k13, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k3
46:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
47:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k12, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k3
48:bind off 4, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
49:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k11, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, ssk, yo, yo, k2tog, k, yo, k2tog, yo, k
50:sl1, p6, k, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
51:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k3, yo, ssk, k5, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k2
52:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
53:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k3, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k3
54:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
55:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k4
56:bind off 4, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
57:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k
58:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
59:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k3, yo, ssk, k, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, ssk, yo, yo, k2tog, k, yo, k2to,yo, k2
60:sl1, p7, k, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
61:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 5, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k3
62:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
63:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k 4, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k4
64:bind off 4, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
65:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k3, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k
66:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
67:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k2, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k2
68:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
69:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k3
70:sl1, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket
71:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, ssk, yo, yo, k2tog, k, yo, k2tog, yo, k4
72:bind off 4, p6,k, p to last 3 sts, yo, k2tog tbl, purl to blanket

Except for the corners. I created a corner pattern to fit in with the edging.

SAME WARNING AS ABOVE.

The Corner pattern (based on No. 3. For Grace McGregor):
1 :yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k5, yo, k, yo, k
2 :sl 1, p 13, w/t, (you should have 3 sts on the right needle)
3 :sl 1, k3, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k5, yo, k, yo, k2
4 :sl1, p 15, w/t, (4 sts left on needle)
5 :sl 1, k 3, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k5, yo, k, yo, k3
6 :sl 1, p 16, w/t
7 :sl 1, k 3, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k5, yo, k, yo, k4
8 :bind off 4, k 14, w/t
9 :sl 1, p 3, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k5, yo, k, yo, k
10:sl1, p 13, w/t
11:sl 1, k 3, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k5, yo, k, yo, k2
12:sl 1, p 15, w/t
13:sl 1, k 3, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k5, yo, k, yo, k3
14:sl 1, p 16, w/t
15:sl 1, k 3, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k2tog, yo, yo, ssk, yo, k, yo, k4
16:bind off 4, p 6, k, p 6 w/t
17:sl 1, k3, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k5, yo, k, yo, k
18:sl1, p 13, w/t
19:sl1, k2, yo, ssk, yo, ssk, k5, yo, k, yo, k2
20:sl1, p 16, pick up wrap and knit,
21:k, k2tog, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k3
22:sl 1, p 16, pick up and knit,
23:k, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, ssk, yo, yo, k2tog, k, yo, k2tog, yo, k4
24:bind off 4, p 6, k, p 6, pick up and knit,
25:k, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k,
26:sl1, p 13, pickup and k,
27:k1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k2
28:sl1, p 15, pick up and knit,
29:k1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k3
30:sl1, p 16, pickup and knit
31:k1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k4
32:bind off 4, p 13, pick up and knit
33:k1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k1
34:sl1, p 14, pick up and knit
35:k1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k2
36:sl1, p 15, pick up and knit,
37:yo, k1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k5, yo, k2tog, yo, k3
38:sl1, p 17, yo, k2tog, k into blanket edge stitch,
39:yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, ssk, yo, yo, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo,k4
40:bind off 4, p 5, k, p 7, yo, k2tog, purl into blanket

When I got back to where I started on the edging, I grafted the two ends together.

Then wash,

I like to use Soak, but any no rinse wool-wash will do.

block,

I got to use my blocking wires!

and take an artistic picture BEFORE you give it away. (It's really easy to forget the last part.)

I remembered to take this picture 15 minutes before I was supposed to give it away.

If I were to make this blanket again, I’d make the center square smaller and the stockinette part larger. I’d cast on 82 (20 repeats, plus 1, with an extra so that you can slip a stitch on each edge).
Knit the heatherbee’s honeycomb pattern for 160 rows.
Pick up 81 stitches per side, (a total of 324).
Increase using yo, k, yo on each corner until I got 181, 50 rounds, and do the edging pattern again.

I may eventually come up with charts. I've got them written out, but I haven't found the right charting program yet. If/when I should do so, then I'll think of a name for the pattern. For now it will just be "The baby blanket I designed."

I have decided to call the style: Modern Vintage. It is a style I'm interested in pursuing.

Instead...

I was going to finish writing up the bits of blanket pattern that I've talked about... But I went to this instead:

The Intergalactic Nemesis Book 2: Robot Planet Rising

I could do a poor job explaining it, or you could click on the link above where they'll explain it very well. It was playing at The Long Center, and the first book has toured at least 30 cities. It was fabulous, and if it comes to a town near you, you should jump at the chance to see it.

Extra pictures I took during intermission:

Sound effects table, and giant screen.

 

Microphone stands, where the voice actors would be.

  

Why I learned to watermark and blur.

If you are solely interested in knitting and yoga, you might want to skip today's post. Don't worry I'll be back to spinning fiber or blocking baby blankets next time.

We live in a time of Pinterest. I use it to create idea boards so I can find that one website that had that pattern that I'll never find again without keeping a ton of tabs open. This is a fabulous thing. I also use it to gather ideas from the aether: blanket ideas, baby knits, shawls, wonderful crocheted Doctor Who toys, and how others have stashed their yarn so that you can see what's there. Good stuff, people.

And if everyone pinned ethically, making sure the pin leads to the creator of the content, then there would be no reason for this post. But people, especially those who don't have an online presence, tend to get lazy. It's so easy to see something cool and repin without checking to make sure that the pin actually leads to the right place. (I've been known to fall into this trap myself.)

What's the right place? Well it breaks down like this: if a pin from a blog goes viral it can cause a spike in traffic. That's nice since the more people reading what you are typing away into the internet void the less it seems like a void. Also if you are blogging for a living, and need people to read your content in order to make any money off of ads, you want a lot of traffic. The problem is the middle man, and people pinning from aggregators (sites that pull a lot of information into one place but add no content of their own). In the internet world traffic is currency, so if you pull from a site that doesn't create the content, you haven't given any currency to the creator of the content.


The way to ensure that people know who took that cool picture, or where to find the best icing recipe on the planet, is to watermark your photos. Like so:

See there's the name of the website at the bottom. Kinda cool, huh?

I've been using photobucket as my online storage space and photo editing spot. I'd like to get something fancier in the future*, but this works for now. This watermarking thing isn't rocket science, there's an "add text" button. I'd just never played with it before, and now you know why I did.

I've also learned how to blur photos. This is great to know if you want to create teaser photos to get people interested in the reveal of your latest project that you are planning on posting about next time.

Blurry on purpose. Rare, I know.

Next time: Pictures of that blanket I was going on about a while ago.

*I'm looking at you Adobe Photoshop that I can't quite justify buying.

The Age of Brass and Steam

I love this pattern.

 There are different kinds of knitters. There those are who knit to meditate, those who knit for the end product, and those who knit to learn a new process. There may be other types out there, but these are enough for our purposes. I'm a process knitter. I look at some knitting pattern and think “I want to make that.” The product knitters think “I want to have that.” I want to learn a new trick or technique with each new project. But I have found a pattern that I'm willing to make more than once. It’s The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief.

I was going on a trip and needed something simple to knit while talking to people. I ran across this pattern and thought it would suit my hand painted yarn. Trip knitting found. I cast on while on the flight there and bound off a few days later. It was as close to instant gratification as you get with knitting, not counting baby booties. So when, on a Tuesday, I realized I didn’t have a Mother’s day gift for that Sunday I bought pretty green skein of yarn and cast on. It was done and blocked by Saturday, but I’d blocked it crooked. So I reblocked it, and still had it done in time for Mother’s day.

It's fast, easy, but not boring. Perfect!

I’ve not blocked the hand painted one, yet. I’ve a while before I’ll see the friend for whom it’s intended. But, once I’ve given it away, I’ll be sure to post pictures.

I may end up knitting a bunch more of these. I’m so confused; I never want to make the same thing twice. Heck, I'm no stranger to the dreaded second sock syndrome (takes a week to make the first sock, takes a year to make the second, or maybe it never gets made). And now I’ve made two of these shawlettes and want to cast on another.

I think I have a bronze or silver colored yarn that would really bring out the steam punk inherent in the design. To the stash!

My true enemies revealed.

I got skin tested for allergies today. They scratched my back, and then shot allergens into my arms. I willingly underwent this procedure. My allergies have gotten that bad.  Worse, I had to be off allergy medicine for the past three days.
I've been spinning, and I've got pictures of a shawl to show you. I made it for my mom for Mother's Day. But not this week. This week I'm going to eat ice cream while cursing dander, dust mites, and mold. Excuse me, I've got to go shake my fist at the air some more.