Choosing captions is hard

Quick, what's a one-word adjective that describes this lion's mood or temperament?  I've worn out thesaurus.com and can't find one that LazyHusband and I can agree is perfect.

Busy, busy!

Well, I'm halfway through the wrap I'm doing for my insanely ambitious first real lace project, and while I love the yarn and love the pattern, I don't love the two together. The yarn obscures the lace pattern so you can't even see the diamonds.

Oh, well - I am not so frustrated with it that I'll abandon it, I just have learned that I need to buy quieter yarn when I do intricate patterns. Who knew?

Also - I'm typing this from my couch, because I got a new laptop and a mobile broadband internet account, so I can blog from anywhere! Ostensibly, this will maximize the time I can work while LazyKid is in school (pattern design at the library, anyone?), but really, I just hated my old computer. The thing is basically an expensive paperweight. But I luuuuuuurve my new laptop :)

Worked on a new quilt pattern this week, and as soon as I can convince it to tell me what sort of border it wants, I'll get it live. It's a relatively quick-and-dirty one that's for a twin bed (with mods for a throw size), so it should be a welcome addition to my projects. Plus, it used up a lot of my stash fabrics! Twenty-one different ones, as a matter of fact ...

Mother's Helper

Oh, the joys of knowing a 13-year-old who will come and play with Lazy Kid for money while I get massive amounts of work done. In two four-hour bursts, I have:

- designed a new product for etsy (all that's missing are decent photos and a good name)

- made half a dozen of said new product

- finished up and published a pattern that's been sitting on my desk for months, just waiting to be proofread and listed

- listed and relisted almost a dozen items

- got together another submission of my Awesome Underappreciated Quilt Design, which goes out in tomorrow's mail.

- possibly spent a little too much of my "work" time on Ravelry, looking for "inspiration." Yeah, that's it! Inspiration!

Here's hoping she can come back next week so I can get these new dealios listed on etsy and write up a couple of extra patterns and edit some photos I might try to sell online and ... oh, crap, guess I'm going to need more than one day, huh?

More socks

WIP: For my newest brother-in-law, knit with tiny sock yarn on size 1 needles, so it's going to take forever, but at least the pattern is cool:

Finished remarkably quickly: socks for my father-in-law, knit from Wool-Ease worsted weight on size 5 needles, so it took less than a day of knitting to finish each one (huzzah!)

Not a sock, but it's made of sock yarn: a sweater that I've decided I dislike enough to frog it before I get farther than the 6" of the body that I've already done. Darn, I like the stitch, I like the yarn ... I just don't like them together. Oh, well - I guess I can make a boatload of socks with the five skeins of this that I now have without a project in mind ;)

Look! Pattern development!

Yeah, so with all the mermaid tail production and sock knitting and vacationing, it's been a little while since I've introduced a new pattern to my shop. I've got a new one on the machine now, though, and once I get it written up I think it will be pretty popular. Here's a taste:

It may be a few days before it's available, though, since I have Important Things to do, like go to the observation class at Lazy Kid's dance studio.

on the needles

Yup, the Christmas rush has started already.

My goal this year is a pair of socks for everyone we exchange gifts with, which means two boys, a preschooler, my parents, LazyHusband's parents, LazyHusband's sisters, LazyHusband and Lazy Kid. That's a lot of stockinette.

Depending on how tight on time I am, I may count the socks for LazyHusband and Lazy Kid as already done, and really early, too!

But I've got my mother's socks on the needles, using stretch cotton self-striping sock yarn, and using the Jaywalker pattern for the legs (just plain stockinette for the feet). I've got the first sock finished, and dove right into the second sock ... only to find out that the striping width varies from one end of the skein to the other, so that when I started the second sock pulling yarn from the outside of the ball, I got wide stripes, but the first sock (from the inside of the ball) had thin stripes. So I frogged the second and dug around to find the inside end, started the sock again, and the stripes were thin. Huzzah!

And I have yarn for my mother-in-law's socks, my father's socks, and a pair for me and Lazy Kid to match. I probably have enough scraps left to do the boys' socks out of the leftovers from LazyHusband's socks, and I'm waiting for inspiration to strike before I buy yarn for my sisters-in-law. Plus, one of them lives in San Diego - not much sock-wearing going on there, unless I make her a pair of tabi to go with her flip-flops.

For some reason, I also decided it was a good idea to try the Liberty blanket in Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines, which is 4'x5' and done in an intricate Fair Isle pattern that has a pattern repeat of like, um, 60 rows. And the yarn is sticky enough on the needles that I'm getting carpal-tunnel from trying to scootch the stitches along as I knit. I've taken to grabbing sections of it with my teeth to pull it along ... so now my lips are chapping, too.

What the hell was I thinking? At least it's just for me, so if I have to stuff it in the back of a closet for a while to regain my composure, nobody's going to miss out at Christmas. Besides, the first five rows of the pattern look really nice ... and I've only made like two errors that I know of, neither of which will be noticeable once I'm done. Right? Right.

Attack of the (formerly) UFOs

After a brief family meeting, it was decided that I would take some time this weekend to get started on my holiday etsy shop sewing, since I've got Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all looming on the horizon. My first goal was to clear out some of the UFOs that have been hanging around, clogging up the cutting table and taking up space in my brain.




So, in roughly the order they were completed, here's the list of the FOs from this weekend:

1. SWAK blanket as a gift for a friend.
2. Two custom mermaid costumes.
3. A school bag for Lazy Kid, who starts "real" preschool tomorrow.
4. Some throw pillow covers for Christmas, made from redwork patterns I got here. Sorry for the embarrassingly bad photo, but I was in a hurry. Notice I've got two pillow covers but only one pillow? Waiting for a sale at Joanns to get another one ...
5. Two eyelet lace SWAK blankets for the shop.
6. A Halloween Hexagon quilt from stash fabric, which is all basted and ready to start quilting.
7. Three madras plaid homespun SWAK blankets for the shop.
8. A swirly wool toddler/child hat that I'm insanely proud I designed myself. See how the stripes swirl and decrease toward the top of the hat? Brilliant!
9. Pieces for the next baby quilt for the shop cut out and ready to start piecing.
10. And, if I stop typing and get my butt in gear, I may be able to finish my first pair of winter socks of the season, which are about 3/4" from the toe decreases right now.

So I'm going off to watch football (yawn) and knit furiously fast. Hope your weekend was equally productive!

Mermaid tail for dress-up

Okay, when Lazy Kid spends all morning playing with her new imaginary friend, Alice the Mermaid, you can't expect me to refrain from busting out the sequins during naptime to make a mermaid tail, can you? Didn't think so.

Not bad for freehanding the design and basing the sizing off of a pair of leggings I swiped from her room after she was asleep. The fabric choice is admirably scaly (and from my stash, so therefore both free and studio-clearing), but the edges of the sequins are scratchy and have caused Lazy Kid to collapse in hysterics at least three times (since 4pm). Of course, she collapses in hysterics at least twice a day anyway, so it's probably not so bad, but I think any future iterations of this design will be made from the softer fabric Lazy Grandma used to make the shirt.

Future versions probably won't be lined in purple silk, either, but hey - I had it in the stash, and it was exactly the right size to fit the pattern pieces, so what's not to love about that? My daughter may have the only silk-lined dress up clothes in the state (country?), but that's fine by me.

So, how much would you be willing to pay for one of these for your daughter/granddaughter/niece/friend's kid? Would $30 be too much for a reversible, shiny-on-one-side, custom-fit play skirt? Too little? What do you think?

mmmm ... hippies

I'm in the process of making another batch of SWAK blankets, this time using some rather unusual fabric I found on sale a few months ago. Unexpectedly, when I iron it it smells exactly like the hippie clothing store in Blacksburg, Virginia ... or at least, what the store used to smell like when I graduated way too long ago. Yum - patchouli-scented swaddling blankets!

I may have to post a warning for these: "Excessive exposure to this blanket may cause a lack of ambition, a tendency to wear peasant skirts with jingly bells on the hem, and a wicked case of the munchies."

Serendipity

When we moved a little over a year ago, I was so excited to be back near my preferred quilt shop that I splurged and bought fabric for a bunch of different projects. Most of the projects are finished, but a couple were of the "not-such-a-great-idea" variety, and those have been sitting at the bottom of the to-do pile for months. The fabric would get used eventually, I figured, even if it wasn't in what I originally planned. But every time I looked at the fabric, I saw wasted $$. Good thing the pile kept getting deeper, so deep you could barely see the offending prints sticking out one side.

Then today I finished up a quilt top that's a prototype for a new pattern ... and also a gift for a friend who is expecting her first baby any day now. Most of my prototypes have muslin backs to save material costs, but since this is a gift, I wanted to find something a little jazzier. Most of the fabric for the front came from my stash, but I didn't think I had anything large enough left for the back ... but it was worth a try, if only to keep me from having to wake Lazy Kid to go to the fabric store before dinner.

After digging through my drawers of full-width fabric and finding nothing that wasn't too small or too ugly, I was ready to give up when I spotted one of the "not-such-a-great-idea" fabrics out of the corner of my eye. Yes, that $18 piece of red flannel was exactly the right color to coordinate with the quilt top, and it is - get this - exactly 2" larger than the top, all the way around.

For once I have exactly the right piece of fabric in my stash, exactly when I need it. Praise Jeebus and pass the ammunition, I may be able to finish this sucker after all!

Here's a sneak peek ... Kylie-Ann, don't scroll down unless you want to ruin the surprise!
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On the hoop

Step 1: Find fabric you can't live without.

Step 2: Trace one of the motifs from the fabric (while watching a dreadfully boring movie).

Step 3: Transfer motif onto linen and choose embroidery thread to complement the fabric.

Step 4: Embroider motif, squinting regularly to make sure you're following the actual tracing and not the shadow that also showed up because your wax transfer paper is really, really old.

Step 5: Wait until kid is asleep to even contemplate adding beads - do you know how much of a mess a 3-year-old can make with a whole tin of seed beads?

Step 6: Turn the whole thing into a purse that will sell on etsy like hotcakes. Hotcakes, I tell you!

Back from vacation, full of yarn

Sorry for the lag in posts a week ago, but I was away on a short vacation to scenic Blacksburg, Virginia. My husband and I both graduated from Virginia Tech, and he was going to be in that general area on business anyway, so it seemed like a good time to introduce Lazy Kid to the college she will be attending (in 15 years).

It was a good trip, full of hiking and eating and swimming in the hotel pool. And no trip to Blacksburg would be complete without a trip to Mosaic.

After a (blissfully child-free) hour of cogitating over which colorways would work best for my projects, I came away with two yummy yarns:

First up, Ty-Dy 100% cotton from Knit One Crochet Too, in color 795. As you can see, this sucker hit the needles fast - before I even was finished with my current sweater project - and after three failed attempts at getting the gauge right, I think I'm pretty close now. It's about the same thickness as kitchen cotton, but it's the caviar version - so soft and drapey it will probably bag out as badly as the bamboo version I made of the same sweater. This is being used to make the "ballet" sweater from the July 2006 issue of Magknits (which is kinda beside the point since Magknits went kaput and took their archives with them). Luckily, the designer has made it available elsewhere, so you can find it here.

Exhibit B: Ranco Multy in Color 314 from Araucania Yarns (75/25 wool/polyamide). Check out the link for a much better photo of the colors ... it's much prettier in person than in my badly-lit kitchen. Once I invest in a ball winder these babies are going to turn into the Clover Lace Wrap from Stitch N Bitch Nation (link to the picture on Ravelry here). Good thing I was looking up a link for that ... found the errata page with some major sleeve renovations ... it would have sucked to find that out after I had already turned out Gorilla Sleeves (or Pygmy Sleeves).

And that current sweater project? "Jessica" designed by Jennifer Thurston. It will be done tonight, as I only have one sleeve left to sew in, if I ever get off the darn computer and start sewing.

Guess that's my exit line :)

WIP Monday

So, what are they? Not telling yet ... but I will give you a hint. The next step involves a hammer and an awl. Any time I get to whack holes in stuff with pointy tools, I'm a happy, happy girl.

What's on the way?

Giant (almost 5" across!) yo-yos, fussy cut from "Gilded Opulence" by Paula Nadelstern for Benartex. Thanks to Birds of a Feather for providing the fabric - you ladies rock!

I'm calling these giants "mo-yos." snort So fun, so easy, so cute when they're done!

The sample quilt is complete, and the pattern should be ready to release early this week. And I'll be teaching a class based on this pattern at Birds of a Feather in June, so check back soon for dates and times if you're in the area.

WIP Wednesday

I haven't decided what it's going to be when I'm done with the embroidery, but I'm having fun with the mindless follow-the-line stitching. Just what my brain needed this week!

WIP

Any guesses?

Coming soon to a blog near you

Gotta finish the editing on the new FREE PATTERN, but it will be up sometime tonight or tomorrow, good Lord willing and the creek don't rise. Here's a peek to hold you over until then ...

Well, that worked surprisingly well

I managed to get all four borders on and corners matched before the end of LazyToddler's preschool. The four corners don't all look identical, but each meets in a tidy fashion, so I'm happy. Wait until you see the rest of this one ... it doesn't look anything like whatever you're imagining, I can almost guarantee you that!

Pray for me

I'm going to attempt a mitered fancy border on a quilt pattern. Heaven help me, it's going to be ugly in here for the next hour or so.

Not getting much done

I made the executive decision that the best way to get LazyToddler to bed on time after the time change was to grit my teeth and not let her nap for at least the first few days this week, as this usually makes her so tired that she passes out face-first in her dinnerplate. So instead of a nice two-hour stretch of time to work on my projects during the afternoon, yesterday I had five minutes to check my e-mail while she worked some puzzles, and a few minutes to get some quilting done on the double wedding ring table runner while she watched a video on the portable DVD player in my office.

After 10 or 15 minutes, LazyToddler said in the sleepiest, most pitiful voice you can imagine, "Mama, stop sewing. I want you to come watch this video with me. It's really good - please stop sewing." So I did what any self-respecting crafty mom would do - I shut off the infernal machine and snuggled on the floor with my daughter, watching a tap dance video from the library.

(And I sketched a few ideas on a scrap of paper, which I was mean enough to not let her scribble on afterwards ... crafty moms have to be firm once in a while, you know.)