Monday, December 7, 2009

It's Been A Little While...Working on Mount Cardigan and Setting Up Shop...

Something I am knitting to felt up, stay tuned!!! Nice sparkly darning needle in this photo :o)

I haven't posted in awhile, I have been Facebooking and Tweeting a lot. You can find me on both those networking sites as follows, for my custom knitting business called knit shan knit or follow my personal stitches as I log them........I am also offering knitting classes in 2010 and new knitter kits filled with goodies from Knit Picks and etsy.

knitshanknit on Twitter
knit shan knit on Facebook
knitshanknit on etsy

I know it's really original!!!

So lately I have been trying to get my head around knitting more, taking time for designing projects (not fun because no actual knitting happens) and working in creative time whilst taking care of all my awesome menfolk. There is time to be found and I do find it, but it takes a lot of caffeine and organization.

Tonight if the baby allows it, I will start working on a lace pattern out of the second Mason Dixon book. I am going to use huge needles and bulky yarn. Stay tuned for that. It's the shawl that is doubled over and worked in two colors of mohair. Do you know the one I mean?

Soon, if a certain online shop would get my order to me. I won't mention names because I'm not like that and they are a cottage industry like me. I may give them another chance just to make sure it wasn't just an off day or someone over there. But, soon, I will be starting my long lost cousin's snow hiking hat. I am going for glorious. Her request, chic not hippy, so I think I know where I need to go. I am making sure I am using really beautiful wool and researching the cable sequences I'll use. I can't not put cables in this hat. I am pretty sure it's going to be complicated. I don't care!!! This is my sweet cousin T that lives in Connecticut. She blissfully paints away her Saturdays, carries around her Boston Terrier Bernie Mac and has two great daughters. We have always lived on opposite sides of the states, but thanks to Facebook we are getting to know each other. I am supposed to knit for her little pup soon........I love knitting for dogs. Especially dogs I love or know I am gonna love when I meet 'em.

So tonight I have a sick baby...he is either attached to me or to Blue's Clues this fine evening. I am letting him watch his video a little late due to his feeling bad. I think I am going to steal a few stitches while he's finding some clues with Blue.


I will end on this note...I started reading a really sweet book about fine gauge knitting called: Knit So Fine, Designs with Skinny Yarn. This book is going to act as a support group for my cardigan project I started earlier this year. I bought a huge amount of alpaca yarn from Pancake and LuLu on etsy.......started a top down raglan sweater. It is 7 stitches per inch. It's beautiful. I have 7+ inches knit on the raglan. I have a sanity marker to show how many rows I have completed. It is hundreds of stitches at this point because the body and sleeves are being worked at the same time. Here is what it looks like right now. It is gorgeous and will be worth it in the end.


One thing the fine gauge knitting books says is to blog about your progress, so you may get to join in my cardigan support group. I am a half inch or so away from putting the sleeves on their holders, then this blob will start to look like something. By the way, the roll on the outside edge is 3 inches of fabric rolled up, it will lay flat once I block it, etc, get the sleeves on the holders...........I am getting so close. I had to knit an 8 inch raglan and it has an almost boat neckline. I took the Magic Raglan pattern that you can google and changed it to my tastes....wide neckline with 3/4 length sleeves and cropped. I decided cropped is totally back in so why waste time knitting a whole darn sweater at 7 stitches per inch gauge.

Alright, thanks for being patient if you stop by often and I haven't posted since August like a lame-o. Go join my page on Facebook so you can stay in my loop and see what's up with my etsy shop.

shan
Will Knit For Tattoos!
http://www.knitshanknit.etsy.com