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Great Sighs of Relief

The work craziness is all but over. I have to go collect some binders to FedEx back to the people they belong to and that’s IT! There were a couple of 12 hour days, about 10 cartons (cartons, not reams) of paper, and a REALLY cold conference room, but it’s over, most likely for the next 5 years. Such is life when your employment depends on Federal grants.

I’m sure given the 12 hour days and week without lunches that you’ll forgive the lack of blogging. There hasn’t been a lack of knitting though, so I’ll start with that.

I was working on BP2, the green camisole, but realized I needed more yarn, so it’s on hold until I get the yarn. Besides, it would be really boring to show you right now. It’s just a long stockinette body right now. The interesting bits come later.

But I did finally block BP1, and gave it the final title of Cleopatra Wrap (many thanks to Margene for the name!) May I present the Cleopatra Wrap!

Pattern: My own design, to be published in Winter 2008 in a book edited by Yahaira and titled Sensual Knits.

Yarn: Much less than 2 skeins of PureKnits Bamboo Laceweight in color Mulberry, a beautiful blend of shades of rose, purple, and red. Also, I wanted to mention how lovely this yarn is! It’s silky and beautiful and SO easy to block! All it needed was a spritz of water, patting into shape to open the lace and I did pin the points to make them nice and pointy.

Needles: 3.25 mm (US 3) 24″ circular

Verdict: I am so pleased with it! It’s drapey and beautiful and it will be a lovely addition to the book. I can’t get the pictures to do it justice, but believe me when I tell you the color is amazing and the shine is subtle and perfect.

And while I was contemplating the green camisole and then waiting for yarn, I also cranked out a pair of socks! I swear I must have been knitting in my sleep! These went so quickly!

Pattern: New England Socks by Nancy Bush from Knitting on the Road.

Yarn: Lang Jawoll in Yellow Green, which is more of a pale grass green and less yellowy. 100% Superwash Wool, 2 skeins purchased at Black Sheep Wool Company in Salt Lake City.

Needles: 6″ Plymouth Bamboo Double Points, 2 sets of 5. Knitted at the same time using both sets of dpns.

Modifications: Only unintentional ones. I missed the instructions for the first 2 rows and started the lace right off instead. That’s why the fronts pull down a little bit, but they’re still lovely.

Verdict: It was really nice to knit a pattern that someone else wrote. It’s been a while and I’ve been longing for some down time, so this pattern was perfect for the situation. Also, I will never get sick of telling you how much I LOVE Nancy Bush’s patterns. They are unique, creative, well written and interesting to knit. I love them! They are wonderful!

So that’s it for now. Still waiting on yarn for the camisole and I’ve been working out a proposal to Interweave for their 2007 Holiday issue. I’m excited about it! Woot!
M

Posted 14 February 2007 † Mim § Designing § Knitting § My FO's ‡ Comments (26) °

Distraction Button

Work is really busy and really stressful right now.   I have been knitting, but mostly it has been knitting and ripping and knitting and ripping on BP2, the green camisole.  The yarn is lovely and I enjoy working with it, but I was trying to knit the camisole top down in order to avoid having to provisionally cast on 200 sts.  But in the end, I figured why the hell not, eh?  So I cast on for the bottom of the cami.  Things seem to be flowing well now.  Isn’t it funny how that works?  Sometimes you just need to flip something over and approach from a totally opposite way and it works out.

I also managed to nearly finish a pair of socks between ripping times with the cami.  The socks were just a “knit something else while you think about it” thing, and now they’re close to done!  I guess I had to think about it a lot.  I’ll try to show you pictures tomorrow, but I can’t guarantee that.  The big stressful event at work takes place on Tuesday, so I might be all busy until then.  But after… ooooh after.  I may buy myself a metric ton of chocolate and sleep for a week.
M

Posted 08 February 2007 † Mim § Designing § Knitting ‡ Comments (6) °

Enlarging PDF Charts

In my last post, Judy asked about enlarged charts. It’s something I’ve meant to get around to, but have just not had the time, as I would have to do every chart for every pattern I’ve put out and set up the store for the ability to purchase different versions, etc… which will take a long time. Since Judy isn’t the only one who’s asked about this, I decided to address it today.

As a good solution for those of you having trouble reading the charts in my patterns, here is a tutorial on how to print enlarged charts. You can use this to split the chart in half and print it on 2 letter sized sheets rather than one legal sized sheet, or you can use it to print the chart on 10 sheets all taped together, or 50 sheets, or basically whatever you want.

You can also use this on any pdf file, so if another pdf is giving you trouble and you can’t read the chart, use this tutorial to enlarge the area you wish to see.

Hack the Print; a pdf enlarging tutorial
These instructions can be used to enlarge ANY pdf, not just my pdf’s. The pdf file that you downloaded can be zoomed in on and then snapshots made.

Also, the charts are copyrighted, so please don’t distribute your enlarged version of the charts to anyone. Distributing my charts in any form is copyright infringement. Please be nice.

Step 1: You’ll need to open the original pdf file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Then along the top there is a box that will have a percentage in it. You can change the percentage and then shift the window around to see the first portion you want to enlarge. (click here to see a good graphic that will help you know how to do this)

Step 2: Use the snapshot tool (it looks like a camera) to select the portion of it that you want on one page. This will copy the snapshot area to the clipboard.

Step 3: Then just open up a word processing program like Word or Open Office Writer (which is free), and paste the snapshot area into the document (it’s in your clipboard so you only have to right click and select paste, or select Edit, Paste, or even Ctrl+V) and the image will drop right into your word processing program where you can size it. Most word processors when inserting a large image will automatically size it to be the largest it can be on the page, but you may need to size it on your own).

Step 4: Once you’ve got it how you want it, you can print. Just make sure that if you print it on multiple pages, you consult the original pdf file for correct placement of the pages together.

A little tip: If you want it to print as large as possible on the page, then start by making the margins on the word processing document as small as they will go. Also, it might be helpful if the page is Landscape Layout rather than Portrait layout. Margins and the layout options can be changed within File, Page Setup.

Because of the nature of a pdf file, there is a lot more data in it than you see when you print. That makes this method better with a more crisp and clean final result than if you were to print the charts and enlarge them with a photocopier. Plus it is really versatile in that you can enlarge as much as you want to.

Posted 05 February 2007 † Mim § Designing § Tutorials ‡ Comments (8) °

Hail Brigid

Happy Groundhog Day, Feast of Brigid, Imbolc, or what have you.  In honor of Brigid, who was herself a poetess, it’s the Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading day.  And to celebrate intelligent women, here is my favorite from Emily Dickinson.

Some keep the Sabbath going to church;

I keep it staying at home,

With a bobolink for a chorister,

And an orchard for a dome.

Some keep the Sabbath in surplice;

I just wear my wings,

And instead of tolling the bell for church,

Our little sexton sings.

God preaches, — a noted clergyman, —

And the sermon is never long;

So instead of getting to heaven at last,

I’m going all along!

M

Posted 02 February 2007 † Mim § Totally Random ‡ Comments (9) °

Spinning soothes the savage beast

When my brain needs soothing and my wrists and arms need a break, I turn to spinning as my solace. Since borrowing the wheel, I’ve been acquiring fiber at an alarming rate since I can now spin a 3 or 4 ounce glob of fiber in a relatively short time period. I came home from Three Wishes and immediately started spinning the Wasatch Watercolors roving I showed you the singles from in Monday’s post. I had planned to let them marinate on the bobbin for a day or two before I got to plying, but it just didn’t happen that way. Once I was done with the singles it was a whole 15 minutes before I wound them up to make a 2 ply. I immediately skeined and washed it, and although I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the wash water (click for a picture), the yarn turned out lovely.

While I was washing, I decided I might as well finish up some other unset handspun, so I poured a new bath and washed the Merino/Tencel I spun on the Ashford when I first got it…

…and the Alpaca and Hank the Angora Bunny Fluff roving from Anne that I spun on my light weight but craptastic spindle. Sorry it’s blurry, but that’s a dime for scale. It came out a lovely light laceweight. And it softened up and bloomed beautifully in the bath.

It’s really gratifying to see my progress in spinning on the wheel. The yarn is getting more even and the plying more balanced and to my liking. I might even knit something with it one of these days!

M

Posted 31 January 2007 † Mim § Spinning ‡ Comments (11) °

Toasty Warm Legs

YAY! Finished socks!

Yarn: Koigu Premium Merino in a dark mossy green for the toes, heels and upper cuffs (1 skein) and Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino in a jewel-toned rainbow colorway for body of the socks (less than 3 skeins).Needles: 2.25 mm (US Size 1) Plymouth Bamboo 6″ double points.Pattern: My own, made toe up to fit my feet and legs, using a round toe from Charlene Schurch’s Sensational Knitted Socks (thanks to the tip from Margene. I didn’t know it was in there!) and a heel flap from my toe-up heel flap guidelines. K2P2 ribbing at the top and make one increases for the shaping.

Verdict: I love them, but I will add a bit of elastic around the top like Grumperina did with her grandma’s beret so they don’t slowly creep down my legs.

They were a lot of fun to knit and I did them pretty quickly (the knitting was done on Friday and the finishing on Saturday morning).

ETA:  I totally forgot to mention that they were inspired by Cara’s knee highs :)  I hadn’t planned to do the accents in green, but that’s what popped out at me in the yarn store.  My green is a bit darker than Cara’s, but I think it’s the same jewel toned rainbow 🙂

Posted 30 January 2007 † Mim § Designing § Knitting § My FO's ‡ Comments (26) °

Stash Enhancement Philosophy

To soothe my bruised ego I went to Three Wishes this weekend to buy some goodies. I meant to buy yarn that was on sale, but none of it was speaking to me quite like the spinning fiber. I ended up buying some Wasatch Watercolors rovings, one a blend of purples, black and a hint of a slate blue that I couldn’t wait to start spinning on the Traveller I have come to feel is my own and one of a fine wool dyed in beautiful deep crimsons and reds. I also came home with a new .6 oz Greensleeves spindle so I can work on a project I’ve got in mind. I came home happier than I’ve been all week.

Which got me to thinking about why Stash Enhancement makes us happy. It’s not the fact that I just dropped $60 on stuff that will keep me busy for a while. It’s not that I didn’t have stuff to keep me busy for a good long time already stuffed into closets and drawers. For me it is the promise of creativity. Something is beautiful, or feels nice or is perfect for a project I’ve had in mind and my imagination is humming. I start working out in my head how I can make it happen and reach the goal of a finished… something. So I realized that I’m happiest when I’m creating, even if it’s still the “in my head” stage of it.

I guess to some extent, we’re all like that because we wouldn’t be doing this if it didn’t make us happy. For some people, the best thing may be having a finished sweater or having taken a step back from Corporate America to have something that doesn’t involve global ad campaigns and profit shares. But for me, it’s the act of starting with nothing and ending with something. The spark of an idea turns into a plan which turns into a work in progress, which progresses to something unique and beautiful. From raw fiber in the hands of someone else, to beautiful hand dyed roving, to this.

What do you think? What means the most to you?

M

Take a look at Tabitha’s finished shawls! She finished both Icarus and Seraphim after having set aside Adamas. We of lace addicts anonymous welcome you. I think you’re hooked! 😀

Posted 29 January 2007 † Mim § Acquisitions § Designing § Navel Gazing § Spinning ‡ Comments (13) °

Not in the mood

I was going to blog today. I was going to show you the awesome yarn I got in the mail for the second book project (BP2), I was going to show you how close I am to finishing my knee socks (probably about 10 more rows), but the magic is gone. I am very busy kicking myself in the ass for having lost everything in the “My Documents” folder on my computer.

At work we were switching from a departmentally run network to a more University run network, and for some strange and inconceivable reason, my computer was running Wind0ws XP HOME rather than Wind0ws XP PRO, and computers running XP HOME can’t talk to the new network… so they had to change my operating system (which involves reformatting my hard drive in order for it to work well). So I backed up my stuff. Everything from my desktop, my internet bookmarks… and my my documents folder…. or so I thought. I, being in a rush and not paying close attention, copied my My Documents SHORTCUT and not the actual folder onto the external hard drive I was using for backup. So when I went to copy it all over… nothing. The My Documents folder shortcut was empty and all my documents had been wiped off of my hard drive in the reformatting.

Right now, the only things I remember having in that folder were things that I can recreate. Spreadsheets that might take a few hours to redo, but honestly, it’s not the end of the world… just a lot of extra work. But I don’t have any big deadlines right now, and sometimes it’s better to start with a clean slate, but still…. I could just KICK myself for not having checked on the external HD to see if my files were in that folder. *headdesk*

M

Check out Michelle in Arizona’s finished Hidcote Garden Shawl! She sent me pictures and you can see one in my flickr account here. She knit it in KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in the Iris colorway. It’s BEAUTIFUL Michelle! Good job!

Posted 26 January 2007 † Mim § Knitting § Others FO's § Totally Random ‡ Comments (13) °

Change to Errata Handling

If you’ve been a long(ish)time purchaser of my patterns, you’ve probably received an errata e-mail from me before, but due to the growth of this business, I need to change how I do things.

With paper patterns being sold to people I have never met or corresponded with, it means I can’t contact everyone who owns the pattern to e-mail them the updated version any more, so I have started an errata page (the link is over in the sidebar as well).  I will add to it and make sure you know when I’ve added to it by posting here.  I posted updates to the Hidcote Garden Shawl and the Icarus shawl.

Also, with the new shop set up (well… new-ish… since August or thereabouts) if you want to redownload the pattern after an update has been issued, you can send me an e-mail with your order number and I can just refresh the download.  It’s very simple.

Thanks for the fabulous year and here’s hoping that the business will grow so much that I can cut back on my regular job and dedicate more time to the knitting!

M

Posted 24 January 2007 † Mim § Errata § Knitting ‡ Comments (5) °

TNNA Post #3: Coming Home and the recovery knitting

Something that should have been in yesterday’s post, but I forgot. In the exhibit hall there in the Conjoined Creations booth there was a familiar site! (apologies for the craptastic photo)

They had sold a lot of their soysilk laceweight yarn (Pastimes, the hand painted version and Pastimes, Too, the solid version) using Icarus as an example of what you could knit with it. I made sure they knew why I was taking a picture of their booth and got to talking with them about the possibility of doing some designs for their yarn. It was quite serendipitous.
I did finish the BP1 when I got home thanks to all the knitting time I had on the trip, but I’ll show you that later when it’s blocked. Right now it’s sitting in a pile, albeit a lovely and shiney pile, on my ottoman.I came home to a HUGE pile of packages on my sofa. Some of it was yarn I had ordered to send to Stéphanie in France in return for translations of some patterns**, but most of it was for me. There was some more spinning fiber from Spunky Eclectic:

The two on the left are from the almost solid series and the one on the right is a handpaint called “Hidden”. I absolutely LOVE Amy’s fiber. If you want something easy to spin but also very fun and interesting, give Amy’s Corriedale roving a try.
I also got a package from Teri full of wonderful little baggies full of different fibers and even some Camel down! I felt like a some sort of fiber druggie with all this crack in small ziplocs! Thanks so much Teri! I can’t wait to try some of it out!I was waiting for the yarn for BP2, a lacey camisole, but was just DYING to make something for myself, so I took advantage of the koigu I bought with Dis at Common Threads, and I started some knee socks. I may have to set them aside to work on BP2 (I bet the yarn is in my PO box right now), but they’re about 3″ away from the top ribbing (I’m knitting them toe up), so I’ve made pretty good progress.

The colorful skeins I got from Margene and the dark earthy green (which looks sort of black in this photo) is a skein I got from Common Threads. I also picked up 2 skeins of a lighter sagey green that goes very well with the dark green for the knee socks, so I’ll probably make another pair of socks using those together, but that’s in the far distant future.  I also got a package from Levenger, but I’ll tell you about that later.

**More on this later, I’m so far behind that I may skip over something, but I need to remember to tell you this.

And just for fun today, visit my sister’s blog where she makes her own “little list” of people who wouldn’t be missed (ala the Lord High Executioner in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado). It’s very cathartic 😉 Also while searching out the lyrics, I found a Librarian’s Little List that made both Carole and I laugh.
M

Posted 23 January 2007 † Mim § Acquisitions § Designing § Knitting § Spinning § TNNA ‡ Comments (5) °