Needles & hooks

Slow and Steady Progress

Last night I worked on Marcel’s Sweater. I realized I’ve got about 12 inches of the sleeves done (I work on both sleeves together so they match). So, that’s more than I thought I had, but it’s still slow going. Tonight I’m back to the other sweater, so it’s fun, fun, fun.

I found the pattern I have for the star bunting, so I’m all ready to order the yarn. And I found a pattern at Lion Brand for a corn bunting. I might make that for one of the baby projects I have to pick out. But the pattern is pre-printed, not downloadable, and I’m loathe to pay shipping on a leaflet. I might get the kit for this one just to make it easy. How else am I going to get the right color yarn?

I also found the Mill Hill beads that I need, but the store closes at 4pm during the week. Hopefully I can get there on Saturday.

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Fruitful fruitless search

I spent a good portion of yesterday morning running errands, hoping to find the beads I need to finish my ornament. Of course, the few places I know of that carry Mill Hill didn’t have it. I don’t want to pay shipping for one small packet of beads, so I’m holding out. One store was closed, so I’ll call them later today.

But while I was out, I spied a store called “Fabric Place”. I’d never heard of it (turns out it’s a small local chain) and it was located in a very run-down shopping mall (the kind where half the stores are vacant and TJ Maxx is their anchor) so I doubted I would have any luck. But I ventured in anyway. They didn’t carry Mill Hill, but they have one of the nicest selections of yarn I’ve seen outside of a yarn shop. I was expecting pedestrian selections from Red Heart or Lion Brand, but instead they had all sorts of wonderful fibers — Debbie Bliss, Jo Sharp, and more varieties of sock yarn than I could shake a stick at. Someone there must knit. If you live near Boston, look up Fabric Place (but the website doesn’t do justice to the collection at the Woburn store).

I also visited my local yarn shop on Saturday and came home with more yarn. I got a ball of yarn to make the sash for my sister’s duster sweater (and I did that last night). I also picked out a nice chunky merino for the star-shaped baby bunting I’m planning. Now I have to find the pattern and figure out how much to order. And, the navy merino I needed for my own sweater was available so I bought some of that and got started last night.

This one is the Bed & Breakfast Sweater from the Winter Interweave Knits. I’ve been so frustrated with Marcel’s Sweater that I decided to start this one and alternate working on the two. The B&B sweater is mostly ribs with a fun cable section in the center that looks complicated but only cables a few times per row. Much faster to do and so satisfying to make progress. Wisely, I decided to start with the back instead of the sleeves, so it won’t be so obvious when I get ahead of the other sweater. Tonight it’s back to Marcel’s Sweater, and I find myself almost dreading it.

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Post Resurrected

Okay, we’ll see how much I can remember.

I didn’t quite finish my own ornament. I sewed up the back and worked the beaded hanger, but when I got to the fringe, I discovered that I was out of red beads! It’s on my tree as-is and I hope I’ll find the beads this weekend. As for other projects in the works, I spent most of yesterday watching movies and working on my sweater.

My sister loved the duster sweater I made her*. The whole family gushed about it. And my other sister felt a little jealous that she didn’t get one, too. But I’d already picked out a pattern I think she’ll like, so all I have to do is find yarn I like and I can probably have it ready for her birthday in March. *The only downside to the sweater was that it doesn’t have buttons or a sash, so there is nothing to keep it closed. K. expressed a desire for something like that and so I told her I’d pick up one more ball of the yarn and make one. Should be a tiny project.

As usual, when my family sees my handiwork, they suggest that I make more to sell. But I don’t want to and that always makes me feel like a snob. I’ve done the cost/profit analysis and I know I couldn’t sell them for enough to make a profit. I have a different career (I’m a computer scientist) and I went through a lot of schooling to get where I am and I don’t need to sell my projects to make money to feed my habit. And I already have plenty of projects that I want to do (like my new list above?), that I’d probably resent the time spent on the ones I’m doing to sell (not to mention all the effort in establishing a marketplace, etc). There have been a few projects that I’ve done for hire and they just weren’t as fun. Maybe it’s because I didn’t get to pick the project and I don’t know the people who will be receiving them and so I can’t imagine what their reaction to the gift will be so it removes that bit of anticipation. Anyway, I know I should take the “you should sell these!” comments as sincere flattery, but they always leave me with a bitter feeling. Maybe it’s just that my mother is very talented with a variety of crafts and yet, her attempts at turning it into a career never seem to go anywhere (more from lack of effort on her part than lack of customer interest), so why would she want to foist that on me?! Maybe I just resent the implication that I should have a more artsy feminine career.

I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t have any respect for artisans. I do. Without people who devote their lives to various arts and crafts, the world would be dreary and drab. And there would be no one to design the wonderful patterns that I do my best to follow, run the fantastic yarn/fabric/needle stores that I patronize, share their knowledge by teaching classes, or create the books and magazines filled with new ideas and techniques. I just think it’s a little insensitive for people to suggest that because you can do something well, you should sell it to the world.

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Do’h!

I’d written a long post about my projects and how my sister liked her sweater and my personal philosophy on doing crafts for pay and because I hadn’t logged in anew today, when I clicked “save” it asked me to log in and didn’t save what I wrote! So I’m disheartened; maybe I’ll re-construct it. Grrr.

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Where did December go?!

Wow, it’s been forever since I posted.

In the meantime, I started working on a sweater for myself, the one I bought the yarn for way back when. I guessed right on the needle size, but had quite a challenge getting it started. The repeated pattern looks like arrowheads, but it’s comprised of all these 1-stitch cables and the stitches are twisted. I played around with different cable needles to try to find a system that worked efficiently, but even still, I’m working at about half my normal speed. That’s frustrating if nothing else. I’ve got about 8-inches of the sleeves done and I set it aside for a while.

Despite my optimism that I’d not be finishing this year’s ornament as I was packing the boxes to mail out, it was a false optimism. I was less rushed than in prior years, but I was still faced with “Ack! I’ve got all the presents and I want to mail the package tomorrow, better finish the ornament”. So I finished 3 and sent them off. The last one, mine, still needs to be finished. The principal stitching is done. All that’s left is to sew up the back seams and attach a few strands of fringe at the bottom. I’ll finish it this afternoon or tonight.

I’ve learned about more babies on the way, so now I have three baby projects that I have to do. I know it’s sort of gauche, but I want to find out what genders to expect for a couple of them. I just see so many more cute girly projects than I see cute unisex or boy ones. So if I can go all out with fancy stitches and lace, I’ll take that option everytime.

Just so happens that I’m wearing the sweater from my last post today. It’s a half-day at work so I’m going casual.

Happy Holidays to everyone, whatever you celebrate.

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