Works in Progess, A Twelve Step Process, sorta!

We are pretty "follow the routine" around Chez Yarn Diet.

We get up at "o dark thirty" even during the summer (year round school for one child, although right now it is Summer Work Program for two).

We do at least a load of laundry a day. (I hate doing laundry, it is a thankless job, no matter how caught up you think you are by the end of the day there are four more changes of clothes to be cleaned!)

We usually eat an Italian dish on Monday and Friday is always something that can be thrown together quickly.

The fridge gets cleared out on garbage night.

I am trying (maybe successfully) to set up a routine for writing patterns. Each step has a day of the week assigned to it, and I am far enough into having dug myself a hole of patterns that are in various stages of development I need a longer work week! (You know what they say about being "self employed", you can work any 18 hours a day you pick...but I don't have an extra 18 hours each day to pick!)

Step One - decide which of the bajillion ideas running around my head to work on. (This is harder than you think.  Things, people, random comments, all keep insisting on giving me new ideas, and we haven't even mentioned that ones that the yarns have been whispering in my ears....seriously can I turn it off???)

Step Two - Chart it and Write it.  Maybe that should be two separate steps, but I usually have a word doc and an excel chart open at the same time.

Step Three- Knit it myself.  Ok that one is easy!!

Step Four - Check the knitting against the pattern.  Well, actually this gets done during the knitting but to double check it is always a good thing.

Step Five - put it away for a day or three.  This is important because I always know what I meant to say, not always what I actually said.

Step Six - Pull that pattern back out and read it again. Does it still say what I thought it meant when I put it away.

Step Seven - Photographs! (Although that will be easier now that I don't have to wait until I have suitable bribery to give the models....I was saving three or four things to photo shoot for the same t-shirt, now I can just whisper Pokemon, or Pokemon Stop, or Pokemon Gym.  LOL)

Step Eight - Edit, edit, edit, edit....tech edit, grammar edit, photo edit.  The list goes on and on!

Step Nine - Test it.  Can somebody else create the same thing I did from those charts and words?

Step Nine is complicated.  I am now at the point where a couple of test knitters see it is me and jump on the chance to try the pattern, but they are used to the way I write and breeze through what should be worded differently...but what a relief to be able to just say something along the lines of "ready for another one?" and have them say yes rather than just waiting for random strangers to volunteer in testing threads...so I still put things in testing threads hoping for that random stranger.

Step Ten - data collection from the test knitters.  I keep a spread sheet of all the input and if it comes up more than once, or if the post gets lots of "yes, that" or "agrees" I try to put it in. But, that can end up taking me all the way back to step Eight and more and more edits.

Step Eleven - friends!  Usually somewhere in here I will send the pattern out to a select group and ask their opinion.

Step Twelve*- put it away again.  Yep, I give it at least another few days before hitting the publish button.  One more read through on my end, usually by now I have forgotten my original knitting and it is worth asking, could I or would I knit this again based on the pattern in front of me?  Honestly a couple of things have come to a grinding halt right here.  If I wouldn't knit it now, why should anyone else?  If it isn't a grinding halt then it is time to push the "publish" button.

I finished knitting my CMS2016Number3 on May 1st.  Here we are in July and not only does she have a name, but she is in Step Eleven!

What do you think?  Is she worth heading to the very end of Step Twelve?  Cast your vote by leaving a comment. (Please, leave a comment, sometimes I think I am talking to myself!  But my stat counter says otherwise!!!!)

~M

*And for those patterns that are possible to put in print format there are even more steps for bringing the pattern to you!

Thanks to Pokemon Go

In an unusual turn of events I did not have to bribe the models to actually venture a little bit away from our house to do a photo shoot for some finished objects.  (Some of them pretty old finished objects that just needed a quick photo update for print versions of patterns.)

Step Into Spring

 All it took was the magic words...There might be Pokemon there.*

Bag of knitting, camera and water

Luckily for me there were Pokemon there, so 2 out of 3 models were very happy.

Putting on upcoming socks

The third was actually more interested in looking at the park we went to and noticing that just about everyone else there was staring at their phone or tablet looking for Pokemon,
 while I was looking for the "perfect" spot to take pictures and staging them.













They didn't even complain how hot they were in knitted items.....

Upcoming hat pattern

Of course, long after I was through taking pictures they were still tracking down imaginary creatures.

But...no one walked into trees, doors or oncoming traffic and I only got a little bit too much sun on my shoulders.

So it is all good!

~M

*For those who do not know Pokemon Go became available in the US this past weekend.  "Get Up, Get Out and Explore" or How to Play Video Games and still get some exercise and fresh air.

I also suspect that I will not have to push too hard to get them to want to go other places with me...I see another zoo trip in our near future!

Letters, nothing but letters

Slow blog week.

I have nothing to show you but a few more letters on my letter sampler.

Yes, a less than impressive week at Chez Yarn Diet.  Well, from a sharing perspective anyway.  I did an awful lot of "behind the scenes" work which sometimes feels like it is more time consuming than the knitting.

Lots of planning and charting, and playing with embedding text fonts into pdf files so that they can be uploaded to print on demand sites.  (I have six or seven patterns I am just dying to cast on, but startitis is a disease for which finishitupus is the only cure, so before I fall too far down the starting things rabbit hole I should finish a few things up. Luckily for a couple of the projects I have to wait for the yarn to arrive.  Who me fall off the stash down program?  Just a little bit, I saw this gradient set at Colourmart and was inspired by a picture that I saw, and I really hope it works out the way I plan.  Somehow a cone of this might have jumped in my cart too!.....)

I did a little swatching and playing with beads and nupps.

Look really closely and you can see beads

A little editing for another designer.

Errands.  Lots of errands this week.

What didn't I do?

Knit anything blog-able. 

Get the photo shoots for the next two patterns done.  (We won't mention cleaning my house!  But I did turn out a bunch of cupboards and drawers because.....)



Has anyone seen any of the US Size 3 needles that I own?

Anyone?

~M

I Bet You Thought....

With the holiday on Monday, I bet that you thought you were going to see pictures of a finished sweater, or sampler today or maybe a photo of our annual doughnut making results.  But, alas you would be sadly mistaken.

It seems to be the year of things wearing out around Chez Yarn Diet...the pump on the dishwasher, numerous pairs of socks that TOB has worn through and the heating element in my deep fryer.  Not that the heating element deciding that it wouldn't work is an insurmountable problem, before the world of self contained, programmable deep fryers I had an old fashioned one that you pour oil in, heat and pray it is the right temperature and that it doesn't boil over and set fire to your kitchen when you dump a load of wet potato slices in it!*  Actually, I still have it...

But, it is July in Ohio and the last thing I wanted to do was stand over a big pan of hot oil. 

So what did we do instead?

We stood over a hot pan of boiling fruit and sugar!

We stood in front of a hot oven watching home-made giant pretzels bake. (TOB referred to them as salt buns because they rose to the point that they lost their pretzel shape and looked something closer to cinnamon buns when they were done.)

We made hummus....and tabbouleh....and deviled eggs...

In short we trashed the kitchen.

I get to trash it again, my jelly didn't set, so even though red currants should have enough pectin in them to not need any more, I will be dumping all 7 pints of the first batch back into a pan and watching it bubble away while the jars sterilize in the new dishwasher.  (See, you knew that it wasn't just that I was tired of hand washing dishes!  I had to get a new one to sterilize jars for jams, jellies and whatever else we decide to put up this year.)  I think however, the half of the bushes we didn't pick can just be for the birds. I still have some jars of last years jelly in the basement!

Which is why I have no knitting progress to show you!

About the only progress I made was swatching and frogging...the same 100 yards or so of yarn over and over again trying to get a lace pattern just right!

~M

*I actually did that once, so I am extra careful now.  And yes, now that you ask, there are two fire extinguishers rated for oil fires in easy reach of my stove!

(Late) B-Day Goodies and Knitting

I have this friend that kind of fell under the spell of my knitting during my lunch break and started knitting too a few years ago.  I introduced her to some "budget" yarn sites, and some not so budget yarn sites. I even led the way to my all time favorite designer's knit alongs.

She still isn't very confident in things like fixing her work, where I am fearless and will just rip things off the needles (without a lifeline) and pick up where they were last right, or pull just a few stitches off and drop them back to where things went wrong and fix them.  On those rare occasions that she doesn't just frog back to the beginning, I have been known to pick up her stitches for her when she drops them.

Not that there are not things I have not been brave enough to try yet...steeking comes to mind, really I should give it a go!  (Ok but maybe not on a blanket or sweater for my first attempt!)

But, I digress.

The rule here is, if you are not a knitter and you give me yarn you get it back as a finished object the next time a gift giving opportunity presents itself.  But, if you are a knitter all bets are off and I keep the finished object and love it even more because you, a knitter, gave me the most precious thing ever...a new project!

Hmm...my friend figured out a new thing now that I am designing and publishing...give a gal some yarn and get a finished pattern out of it!

I asked for hints about what she would like to knit with hers, and got the same kind of response that I get from my kids when I ask what they want for their upcoming birthday, that random noise that is translated to "I don't know".

The yarn isn't telling any secrets either, I keep hearing little whispers of "I could be..." and "I could be..." but no "I want to be."

Oh, you want to know what yarn I am talking about?

 The Lemonade Shop, Mighty Sock in Rainbows and Clouds.  Take a look around her etsy site, I really like Bad Day and Stormy Day too! (Of course that could just be because I am in a mood* and the names appeal to me...on second thought, not true, I really do like the colors and it has nothing to do with the mood!)  If you hear the yarn saying what it would like to be, leave me a comment.  I can't possibly knit all the ideas I have had from the one skein!

In other knitting news...

Yes I know you didn't get a newsletter, if you were signed up for it!  After sending out two pattern release announcements I decided that I didn't want to overload you email with yet another thing from me this month. Our regular routine will be back in place for July.

Testing call went out for another pattern on Ravelry this week. If you are part of Ravelry and signed in the link will take you right to it, if you are not signed up...just do it already!  The site is free and a glorious time sink resource for knitting patterns; along with knitting friends, along with techniques and help.

I made some (slight) progress on my test knit for another Colourmart Lover's knitter, referred to as a  Colourmartian.

(And btw, Richard, I really should unsubscribe from your emails you are tempting me beyond belief with all the  yarn you are stocking this month!  Especially this one, I can knit with a 2/60 how much harder will a 2/70 be?)**







Speaking of knitting with a 2/60 here is more (slight) progress on knitting projects!

I still think that I am crazy.  What is even crazier is I am trying to chart out lower case letters too for the border.  It might never happen, because I have to keep changing the stitch counts as letters don't work with what I had used before...shoulda started with a hard one instead of "a".

It is a holiday weekend here, so I am hoping to actually get some knitting time in on Monday. The weekend was  pretty much a knitting bust (see above comment about mood!) 

Happy Belated Canada Day to my Canadian friends, and Happy July 4th to my American friends.

~M

*I had a forced Windows 10 upgrade and Windows 10 isn't playing nicely with me right now.  All my charts are falling off their grids when I save them.  The silly computer will randomly save things to places they shouldn't be and to make matters worse there is no "recent places" and for some reason this particular computer is configured to save everything to a teeny, tiny segment of a giant hard drive!

**Seriously, look at some of those colors and the price!  But...the last thing this stash downing gal needs is 1800 more yards of anything! Not to mention that I  spent my yarn money on a new dishwasher.

WIP Wednesday - Or What I Do for Fun?

After a serious knitting jag of knitting, writing, rewriting, charting, charting again, editing and sending for testing of my own patterns it really was time to knit someone elses for a while. *

Another person's entry into the Colourmart Spring Contest was ready for test knitters, so I volunteered to do that, even though I really should be working on the Dragon for TDQ's friend's birthday.  Reading through the pattern instantly had me back in my "testers" frame of mind and I happily swatched and then cast on.

Wanna see?

I know it doesn't look like it yet, but that is the starts of a top down collared cardigan.  A little bit of lace, a little bit of cables...you know,

all the things I love!

But.....

I have had a "bee in my bonnet" for some time and it was an itch that had to be scratched, so I am not being monogamous on the test knit at all.

Over the years, as people, namely young women, have learned to sew and embroider, to hone their skills and perhaps even to show them off, they have worked on samplers.  Some are pretty amazing, with delicate pictures, symbols and most importantly alphabets and dates on them. The older ones are crafted on homespun warp and weft, from home woven even count fabrics, and over the years have faded and muted in color.

Go into any craft store and you can buy kits or charts to make your own, with catchy phrases in them..or not.. which ever you prefer.  And I will admit, that hanging in the stairwell to our basement is one that I cross-stitched in 1986, I think from a Better Homes and Garden pattern.  It is the Floral Alphabet, for anyone who cares.

So think of this, a thirty year old project, nicely protected behind glass and framed for all to see...but what do we as knitters have to show after thirty years?  At least in my house the socks, sweaters, scarves and mitts will have all have long since worn away.  I have  a couple of the pieces I knit as a teen**, mostly cotton blend tops, that still fit and get worn on occasion, but nothing that will last centuries like those old samplers did.

I have been determined that I will knit a sampler and mount and frame it as carefully as I have those cross-stitch patterns that still are on my walls.  But I could never quite pull it together.

But, now I might have....



Just to prove I am out of my freaking mind, that is knit on size 000 needles out of a 2/60 yarn that has been sitting in my stash for far too long.  On good days I can almost feel the yarn in my fingers, but to be honest it is something I have to look at to knit. (Yeah there is a reason I have been working mainly in fingering weight yarn, that I can still feel!)

I still need to work out a border and I did not create the lace letters charts.....but imagine if you will a blanket or a shawl with all your favorite quotes on it.

So putting on the tester hat, where you have to look at everything in a way that leads to the most misunderstanding and idiocy***, and/or working in a thread that probably is designed to be carried along with another thread to make something approaching a normal weight of yarn is what I do for "fun".

~M
*It won't last long, I already swatched another concept piece, but it really is restful to knit something I am not charting or doing the math on!

**Oh my, that means those pieces are over 30 years old..when did I get that old?

***Not that knitters are idiots, but, well sometimes there is clear and there is clear!

Through the Mist - New Pattern

Do you remember the second shawl from the Colourmart Spring Contest?  (She is at the bottom of that page.)  Well the testers knit her up in no time, and then she sat around for a minute or three waiting for final edits.  Then she sat around for a minute or three while another pattern took center stage.

On Friday, it was finally her turn and Through the Mist was published on Ravelry.

As is usual with my life, I then sat down to tell the universe, or at least the internet, about the pattern and got distracted by something else and never actual got around to telling anyone, other than a brief post on Facebook, that she was live!

If you subscribe to the newsletter, in the morning you will get a coupon code for a discount!

But, back to telling you (late) about the pattern!

From the pattern:

In late spring and early summer, occasionally there are mornings in Central Ohio that are special. A touch of mist curls around the trees and plants that grow in the fields near where I live and everything has a slightly surreal quality about it. I know that within a few short hours the sun will burn that mist away and add heat to the day, but I need a little something around my shoulders when I go out early. This top down triangle shawl fills that need. A relaxed knit for the knitter who is comfortable working from charts, in a light to heavy fingering yarn, this shoulder shawl knits up very quickly.
Materials:
Cashmere/Merino 2/10NM Fingering Weight, 95 % Merino/5% Cashmere, 894 yards to 150 grams. 540 yards used for sample.
Size 4 (3.5mm) 40 inch circular needle or needle size required to obtain gauge.
Stitch Markers, smooth yarn for provisional cast on, and a large eyed tapestry needle for weaving in ends.
Lace motifs are presented in charted form only.

And now, "the rest of the story"...*

Having just got off a chart heavy pattern and being a little "socked out", I needed something that I could knit while watching movies with the kids.  Something that didn't have me too tied to a chart, or beads that  I could run through return rows on, but still feel like I was knitting something more than a garter stitch throw blanket.  (Yes, log cabin blanket, I still haven't forgotten you. We love how warm and snuggly you are when it is winter, but it is summer now!)

Using stitch markers that I have a love/hate relationship with, to center a lace motif and then as a counting aid so that I wasn't having to keep track of rows, made this a great movie watching project.

And those misty mornings?  If I leave the house early enough we are still getting them, we certainly were when I was knitting Through the Mist, and better yet, I have found she is perfect to throw in the car for when I am shopping or going somewhere air conditioned.

~M

* Wasn't there a radio show that was the catch line for?