Good Knit

It’s really difficult to think about Halloween when we are having an unusual heat wave. It have been 31 C/88 F every day for the last 10 days and it sucks.

I’ve started gearing up for my favourite holiday by watching a horror movie a week and watching The Exorcist series on Netflix (it’s creepy as hell). I just love the fall because, it’s cool, rainy and an excuse to stay in and be super cozy while knitting. Plus there’s Halloween which embraces my love of horror stories. Most years I dress in a scary costume, but this year I’ve decide to go as Louise Belcher from Bob’s Burgers. It’s fitting. I’m a Louise and I’m can be a smart mouth just like the cute nine year old in the cartoon. Of course I have to make her signature pink bunny ear hat. So I found a free pattern on WoollyRhinoCrafts. Now I hate to seam my knitting and this pattern has a lot of seaming. So of the seaming can’t be avoided but with the ears I felt I could make them in the round. Using the pattern WoollyRhino kindly provided I converted to something in the round and I’m pretty happy with it. My increases and decreases look a bit sloppy but it’s a costume so it’ll do.

Here’s Louise:

And the progress on my hat:

I’m feeling sad that the summer is almost over. My daughter’s return to school next week with the oldest one starting high school! Where does the time go? Knitting has been slow as I’ve been concentrating on finding more clients for my graphic design company. However I did manage to work on some dishcloths earlier this month when I went camping. There are few aspects of camping that aren’t my favourite, but overall I love it. Being out in nature just feels right, like I’m returning home after a long time away. I suppose knitting is like home to me too. It comforts and warms me when I knit making me feel so calm. Here’s a little camping and knitting for you:

I’m happy to have jumped back into my knitting projects shortly after a quick trip to British Columbia for my cousin’s wedding. As a side note I live in Ontario so I supposed it’s really not that quick of a trip. When I returned I was so jet lagged it took me a few days to get back to knitting as I tried to convince my body when the proper time to eat and sleep was.

Below is my progress on my plarn yoga mat strap which I’m happy with so far. It’s a double ribbed item and as you can see the plarn doesn’t have the same distinct look as regular yarn. It is a bit messy and I actually don’t mind that. As I try new things we’ll see what garter and stocking stitch looks like.

I came across this chart creating website today called Stitch Fiddle and wanted to share it with you. I can see myself spending way too much time playing around with it, creating all kinds of knitting charts. In my stash is a bunch of single balls of yarn that the girls and I dyed with Koolaid a while back and this chart creator is just the thing I need to figure out how to use them.

I came across a link to this today – Long Tail CO and I had to share. Not being able to estimate the right length of yarn for long tail cast has always driven me crazy. Running out of yarn when you have 100+ stitches is enough to break anyone. I also don’t like having excess yarn at the end of a long tail cast on. It just feels wasteful when it’s hand painted silk or some other pricey yarn.

In other news I’ve been knitting a ton of Beer Charms and trying to come up with some other unique handmade gift ideas to sell in the fall. My graphic design business has been too quiet the last week and half. I know it’s mainly because it’s summer time and lots of people wind it down a bit. I won’t lie and say I haven’t been having trouble sleeping and freaking out just a little. I honestly want to push creating and selling knitted items and patterns. My dream is to be a knitwear designer, but it’s not a simple dream. In fact I think it’s a crazy dream like wanting to be a rock star. But I’m going to keep creating and designing and dreaming. And I’ll see where it takes me.

I’ve finally put my first listing on Esty. I joined way back in 2008 and it’s only taken me 9 years to start selling something. Here’s my listing. Please come by and favourite my store as I plan on adding more products soon.

Hello all! I haven’t disappeared, just busy working, knitting and living life. Recently between my husband and I we came up with this brain child – beer charms.

I’m selling these on my Facebook shop here. And I will make the pattern available for sale soon.

Cheers and happy knitting!

So I quit my job. Yep I up and quit 3 weeks ago. I’ve maintained a consultant relationship with my previous company and I started a graphic design company called Blue Bug Design. So far things have been pretty good although I’d like to have more work. I’ve been filling the gaps by exploring creative endeavours like knitting and other fibre arts. I feel so free (even though I worried a bit more about money). I’ve been taking time for me by exercising and giving myself time to relax.

I get to pursue the things I love more and this week I started designing a new pattern. Along with knitting I am fascinated by true crime and forensic science. I decided to merge the two and started to develop a blood spatter scarf. This is in it’s baby stage. I think I will try it using fine yarn and maybe try my hand at double knitting so the other side looks as finished as the other.

And here’s my progress on my black vest (and yes I’m breaking my rule about not working on more than one project at a time).

I’ve wanted to add a basic knitted black vest to my wardrobe for awhile. As well as I feel I deserve a little something for myself with all the hard work of starting my own business.

This vest is designed by the same designer as the Messy Bun Hats in my previous 2 posts – Lena Skvagarson. It’s call Passionista Vest. I love the construction, simple and elegant in a modified type of ribbing. I’ve had to train myself to not get into auto pilot and knit a typical double rib because that would mess everything up. I also decided again like with the hats to purchase the yarn suggested by the designer which is Berroco Vintage DK in black.