29 January 2010

Free Pattern Friday: Mom Tattoo

Valentine's Day is coming up fast. Why not show your first love just how much you love her with this little winged heart tattoo pillow? [Ravelry]

22 January 2010

(NOT) Free Pattern Friday: Go Buy a Pattern for Haiti

As you may know I will be donating 50% of all pattern sales to Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontiers at the end of January on Ravelry and on Etsy. You don't have to buy one of my patterns, but please consider buying a pattern (or ten) on Ravelry from one of the many designers who have pledged to donate to a relief organization. [Ravelry link]

We'll return to our erratic, regular Free Pattern Friday feature next week.

And I'm working on a post about the problems of knitting magazines in this day and age, but it's taking more time than I thought, and I now have freelance work to keep me busy (yay!), and so you'll have to wait. You'll survive, I imagine. Sorry and happy weekend!

18 January 2010

Patterns for Haiti

From now until January 31st I will donate 50% of all pattern sales to Doctors Without Borders/MSF to aid in Haitian relief efforts. You can find my patterns for sale at my Etsy store and on Ravelry, where a whole bunch of designers are also donating portions of their proceeds. Help Haiti and get to know some new-to-you designers' patterns (or buy the ones you've got in your queue).

13 January 2010

Hat's Off

I've had to set aside "Off with her head" (working title for the King Charles Brocade sweater -- hehe) for a little while to knit up a new hat for Nick. Yes, I did knit him one for his birthday, but, sadly, it rode off in a cab last week, and Nick has been a little forlorn ever since. We went to buy some more yarn for it last week (Berocco's Ultra Alpaca), and Nick insisted it be in the same color. "I just want the exact same hat" may have been uttered. Now he understands why I always looked askance at him when he put on his acrylic Bears hat (nothing against the Bears, of course), but a ribbed alpaca watch cap with a wide brim to pull down around the ears and back of neck is much cozier than any piece of logo gear.

In working on the cap, I've been reminded of how I'm not very keen on production knitting. I can't decide if I'm more of a process or product knitter (probably a bit of both, as I love exploring new techniques but also like wearing or giving away the end result), but knitting the same thing over and over again is not my thing these days. In part I'm sure that's because right now I have so many good (or at least I think they're good) ideas I want to work up.

There's more I wanted to write about today, but the munchkin is warbling from her room -- naptime's over.

11 January 2010

What I'm working on


This lovely Swan's Island Organic Fingering weight yarn has been waiting patiently in the stash since the end of the summer for me to come up with the right project. And I think I've come up with it! This is a shaped pullover in King Charles Brocade. I'm working it from the bottom up and have just gotten to the armscye, so now I'm going to do the sleeves. I was trying to cast on provisionally for the sleeves, but then I remembered the last time I knit the sleeves from the shoulder down. I found it really annoying to have the whole sweater OTN. Plus, I'm not yet sure how I am going to work out the pattern where the sleeves meet the body. Now I'll have more time to figure it out.

I am in love with the yarn! Knitting this on US3s is just a pleasure, and I kind of don't want it to end. But when it does, I have plenty more projects to keep me busy. Don't look at my queue, it's ridiculous and doesn't even include most of the free patterns I highlighted last month -- those are mostly still "faves"! Hopefully, when I'm done, this will be as pretty as it is in my mind. If it is, I'll write up the pattern.

In "professional" news someone else got the University job I interviewed for last month. It would have been a good job near home and the kids' schools, upstairs from the Starbucks, and the rest of the big kids' tuitions would have been covered (talk about a benefit!), but they went with someone else (their loss, as my family and friends keep reminding me). However, it looks like I may start some freelance work for my former boss/mentor. She's pretty amazing, and it will be great to work with her again. So, that's probably going to keep me busy, which is what I need!

08 January 2010

Free Pattern Friday: Aviatrix Baby Hat

Someone I know just had a baby, and I think the little miss could use her own Aviatrix hat. How cute is it?! Lots of Ravelers think so, too, as more than 750 projects are up there, and it's in over 1500 queues. I may work it in Worsted rather than the DK called for, as my dear friends are super smart and have ... super noggins. Time to examine the stash and see what might work. [Ravelry link]

I had so much fun doing the Falala Free Patterns for, well, I guess it was Advent (my Catholic upbringing can't be escaped, I guess) that I've decided to continue highlighting free patterns every Friday. Hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.