Long overdue..

I started an afghan for the living room... Over a year ago. I took my time deciding colors, yarn content, and pattern. Then I ordered the yarn, Knit Picks Brava Worsted, a machine washable worsted weight yarn. The pattern that inspired my afghan was the Updated Ripple Pattern which I found through the Lion Brand Yarn pattern pages. The actual knitting is the same for my project, but I organized my three colors in a Mossimo inspired pattern. Thick and thin stripes of brown, dark green and bright green zig zag through my afghan.

I worked rather diligently on this at first, but the never ending feeling had me moving on to smaller, quicker projects. On a couple occasions I was inspired to pick it up again and thought I might be done. I'd mapped out my pattern for so many rows and when I finished that I thought the afghan might be finished... The length just wasn't there and I had plenty of yarn left, so I added to the pattern and kept on... for a bit... then lost interest again.

This weekend I decided to start up again and am now determined to finish it. I have less than 100 rows to go, three skeins of yarn... But compared to what I started with its looking good. I've made good progress just the past couple days so I think in a couple more I could be done.

And it's about time!

Shop update and coupon code

More items were added to the shop today, mostly neck items. Scarf, cowl, ponytail hat/cowl, and a fashion scarf. Since I sold the Dropped Raspberries hat yesterday, I added a listing for that hat style in your choice of color, made to order!

In celebration of the restocking of my shop I'm offering a coupon code for free shipping... Message me through any site and I'll give it to you.

Etsy shop updates

Finally getting around to updating my shop on Etsy, Denknits.Etsy.com!

Today's additions include a colorful chevron cowl, two colors of mini bandanas, a ribbed hat, a drop stitch hat, and a selection of colors in a cables and ribs hat.

Tomorrow I plan to add a few more neck warming items, so be sure to keep an eye on the store page!

Productive knitting weekend

Starting this past Friday I found myself with more free time on my hands than expected and was happy to fill that time with knitting related things.  I'd slowly worked through knitting several baby items over the past couple of months and was able to finish the sleeves on a baby girl top and then rinse/block the whole lot. (No pics on those yet as I am cautious about ruining the surprises)

While those were drying I started up a project with some souvenir yarn from boucle in Fargo ND.  I bought the one skein thinking it could be a hat, cowl or possibly socks.  Once I was ready to work with it, I felt like a hat... unfortunately the yarn did not.  I tried two different simple styles and neither was working on my head, so I easily converted it to a cowl.  I've worn it a couple days now and think it is a nice addition to my collection.  The seed stitch and the yarn combined to look like pixels to me so I called it the Pixelated Sunset.

I had another skein of souvenir yarn, this one from ImagiKnit in San Francisco, that I'd been wanting to turn into something so that was next.  I'd actually had this skein for about 4 months and had been thinking about what it would be for that whole time.  As it usually happens, I couldn't find an existing pattern that was what I wanted so I set to make one up as I went.  The Cowl/Kerchief was born.

Having finally accomplished knitting things out of my most recent purchases, not to mention items just for me, I decided to work on a quick knit that will be part of a more complicated piece requested by DH.  For Christmas this year I made my boys Mohawk hats and was surprised that my husband kept trying to steal them.  I had enough left over yarn to make another one but hadn't gotten around to it yet.  In the meantime, he went skiing and saw people with what he describes as viking mohawk bearded hats.  So the fairly simple mohawk hat now needs a beard piece as well.  I quickly knit up the grey ribbed cap part but have set that aside while I search for bulky yarn in a white shade.

With time still on my hands I decided to browse my Ravelry favorites for something to work on next.  Since I'd just finished two cowls at hat was on my mind.  I finally found a project in the Meret hat by Woolly Wormhead, a free pattern by a designer I'd been meaning to knit.  I had some yarn that would work at the top of my stash and I cast on for the small size, mostly because I was worried about yardage.  After a day and a half and half way through the hat I realized two things.  There was plenty of yarn left and the hat was a little small.  I cast back on for the medium and am back to knitting.

Cowl Kerchief

I had a hank of Berroco Campus that I purchased as souvenir yarn at ImagiKnit in San Francisco a few months ago that I'd been trying to decide what it was meant to be.  I'd finally gotten some downtime from my 'real' job this weekend and set out to create what I'd come up with in my mind.

I love the shawls that can be worn as triangle kind of scarves but they don't usually stay in place or fit around my neck right.  I thought something like a cowl would be good to fix those aspects.

Since I just created as I knit, and only have the one example, I'm posting my directions as a free pattern here.

Berroco Campus is a 130 yard wool/acrylic/alpaca blend bulky yarn.  I used size 11 circulars as I have a tendency to be a tight knitter.



CO 54 stitches and join in the round, place a marker at the join
Knit one row, *purl one row, knit one row, purl one row, knit four rows, purl one row*, knit six rows, Repeat * to * one more time
Place a marker on stitch 27
Knit six rows, increasing on the first stitch, the stitches before and after the markered 27th stitch, and the second to last stitch
Purl one row, knit one row, purl one row, knit one row, BO stitches between markers and knit the rest of the row

The cowl portion is complete and the triangle part will be worked next

Purl one row
Work decrease row as follows K2tog, k to last two, slip one, knit one, psso
[Knit one row, knit one decrease row, purl one row, knit one decrease row, purl one row, knit one decrease row, purl one row *Purl 2tog, purl to last two, slip one, purl one, psso, purl one row*, Repeat * to *, knit one decrease row, purl one row, knit one decrease row] two times
Knit one row, knit one decrease row, *purl one row, knit one decrease rows*, repeat
BO last three stitches

Optional fringe: Cut 38 12 inch long pieces of yarn, use a crochet hook to add on at the purl rows as well as three evenly spaced in the 6 knit rows

Baby knits, a wedding shawl and a doggie sweater

Work has been quite busy lately and while I always find time to knit, I don't always find time to keep things related to my projects updated.

After getting all my holiday knitting done I was able to finish a couple items for myself with special skeins. A shawl from CJ Kopec yarn I purchased at the Michigan Fiber Fest, an Entrelac cowl out of Noro from a shop I visited in Fargo and a hat out of Malabrigo from the same shop.

I designed a lovely (if I do say so myself) shawl for a cousin's wedding, which took a good amount of time between designing, knitting, and note taking. When things slow down a bit I hope to write the pattern out to share.

There are three babies due (or already done) in my life so I had lots of items I wanted to finish for them. I've gotten a pair of tiny socks, two pairs of booties, and one sweater finished with a second sweater on the needles now. Another set of booties are planned to finish a set and then possibly one more baby item.

Between all the baby stuff I had a request... One of my holiday knits was a dog sweater, and it was such a big hit that a second one was in order. He's a smaller dog so it's a quick knit and I am back to the baby stuff.

So many things are on the ever growing list and I've tried a couple ways to keep that in order. One thing I've tried to do more often is utilize all Ravelry has to offer in the way of pattern organization. As far as the yarn goes, I've gone as far as putting together a bag for a particular project with needles and everything (only to have it sit so long I picked most everything out) to my current, simpler process of just keeping the yarn I want to use soon in a special bag that's always handy.

No matter what though, I'm sure I'll never run out of things to knit or yarn, inspiration and organization are easy to get along the way...

Bizarre Bazaar

I have been so busy knitting that any other hobbies or non-housework activities were left on the back burner...  This blog being one of those things.  But look!

This is my half spot at a local bazaar, or as they seem to be called these days, craft show.  I had somewhere around 60-70 items for sale and they are all on this table.  I managed to get pretty much all of it knit between August and October, which I was pretty impressed with.

My bazaar experience was a bit bizarre mostly because I had truly no idea what to expect.  I'd been to some in the past but that was the extent of my knowledge.  After deciding that I was really interested in this, I started to search the internet for shows I could be in that were close enough to me.  I ended up with two in town options, one which had a booth price this first-timer could appreciate and the other which was a little pricey in addition to being juried.  What I came to learn was the juried type would look over my work ahead of time and make a decision based on that as to my admittance to their show.  In my position I felt that the lower price was best.

Still feeling a bit uncertain about expectations, I set out to do more research.  I found some ideas on various Ravelry boards but nothing that with information on the show as a whole.  I ended up finding an informative book at my local library, Crafts and craft shows: how to make money by Phil Kadubec.  The author and his wife had been on the craft show circuit in the California area selling their baskets and made quite a second career out of it.  They were a bit more serious about it than I am at this point and their market a bit different from mine, but there were many helpful hints, tips and tricks.

In order to better understand my customer, I also put out a quick survey for people who happened upon my Facebook or Twitter page and were willing to take a couple minutes and help out.  This helped me get an idea of the type of products most desired along with color and variety.

Now I was ready to really dig in and get product knit up.  I did start out with some items knit for my Etsy shop, but that needed to grow immensely   My beginning focus was hats of various colors in a pattern I had created myself and then mitts in matching colors in a complementary pattern I'd also created.  I did a couple other hats for variety and then moved on to scarves.  Personally, I'm more of a cowl fan, so this was a difficult category for me, but I had a couple of standby's that turned out nicely.  Speaking of cowls, I had already accumulated a nice selection of those so only one or two more were needed to round out that category.  Lastly I worked on smaller items, like cup (or coffee) cozies, headband style ear warmers (I call them Button Back Bands because of the button on the back) as well as hair clip and pins with flowers or bows on them.

I can honestly say I didn't stop knitting items for the sale, but there did come a point where I slowed down on the knitting and took to doing the less exciting work of preparations.  The first thing I did was set out everything on my dining room table to get an idea how it looked, did I have enough?, and what kind of display elements do I need?  I was pleasantly surprised to find that what I was worried was not enough filled the table out nicely.  I realized I would need something to hang scarves and bags as well as some other items for hat and mitt display.  A section of my table display would also be dedicated to items whose sale price would be donated to Susan B. Komen Passionately Pink.

Brown craft paper seemed a blank but not stark which canvas which to lay my items on and purple accents to match my business card theme seemed most appropriate.  I found that Styrofoam heads and hands are sold at big box craft stores and not just second hand store finds.  I added a man and a second woman to my thrift store found woman but couldn't find the Styrofoam hands I was hoping to use for my mitts.  I happened upon a sale on glassware at the craft store and some cute little purple ones appeared to be the size of a wrist so I purchased two of those as well.  I covered some boxes in purple tissue paper and used some thrift store stands to add some height to the display along with my proudest display piece... The re-purposed branches scarf display!  We had trees trimmed and cut down in our yard over the past year and had kept the branches as possible firewood so I went through out piles and found some in the right sizes.  I trimmed them to fit just right, screwed everything together and sprayed a coat of Poly on everything.

My daughter helped me set up the afternoon before the show (and also took the photo above) as well as sat with me most of the show.  While we did have some fun, it was mostly boring to her.  I was knitting between talking to people, saying hello, good morning, or good afternoon more than I have ever in a day!  I had lots of interest and even compliments from other knitters but not much in the way of sales.  My low goal was one sale because that covered the cost of my booth and I did pass that slightly so I was happy enough.

I'd really love to know what held people back from buying though, yet I fear I know the answer.  I would like to think of my style as more boutique-esque and the items are priced accordingly.  The other knit items booths I briefly saw were more granny or novelty style.  I mean no offense to either style, as they certainly have their place, it just put my style almost out of place.

This was a great experience and I'm glad I did it.  I've learned some things and would like to research shows more before I participate so I can be sure my style is in the right place.  Maybe juried shows would even be a good idea for me.  However I think for now I'll have to take pics of all my remaining items and get to listing on Etsy!