Mad About Hats

Knit Madness
With fall in full swing, I have been knitting like crazy.  So many fall and winter projects to do and so little time left!  I discovered a new love though...for hats!  I found a tutorial for hat design and I was instantly hooked.  Since finishing Peanut's Fall Sweater Vest, I have made the following:

Kid's Packer Beanie

Simply Elegant Beanie

Pointed Hat
(Simple Stockinette Stitch Hat with Butterfly)

Green and Gold Sox

I attemped another baby beanie a few times, but each time, either Peanut or Q figured out a way to pull out a needle from one side and I'd have to start over again.  The  I messed up the lace pattern I found and finally gave up.

To be sure, these aren't the only things I've been working on.  I also finished the Falling Leaves jumper which will be photographed tomorrow around the Bed and Breakfast.  It is my favorite project that I've worked on, and I am so happy that it's finished.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves once I post them.

Coming Soon

More hats, scarves, and winter apparel are coming to the Etsy shop.  Keep checking back!

Knit Continuum

Knit Madness
This will be a brief entry, but I am happy to announce that I am still working on The Dude Sweater.  I finished a few more rows and will begin armhole shaping of the back tomorrow.  I would have done more, but I was watching my son who has been a bit of a yarn monster lately (snatching my work from my hands or pulling a needle out from one of the sides).

I also managed to finish another pair of socks (below) and start a pair of socks in toddler size.

Green Moss Socks

$25 on etsy.com (cherishedmomentswi)

Finally, I'm experimenting with new photographic techniques in order to better showcase my handmade products.  I am using different scrapbooking supplies to dress up backgrounds and add a little something to the foreground as well.  I hope it's helping.

Coming Soon

The quest for popularity in the handmade realm.

Just Getting Started

Design

I can't believe it actually happened.  I made a set of knitting needles and finally posted them on Etsy.com!

6-inch US 2.5 double-pointed knitting needles

Since we now have a lathe (a woodworking power tool), I will be learning how to make straight knitting needles with handmade designs.  It's very exciting that things are coming together.  I will be even happier when I make my first sale on Etsy.  I also posted a pair of socks on there as well to get that section of my shop going too.

Autumn Leaves

I'm so happy with how these turned out as well.  We'll see how they do!

Coming soon

More socks and possibly even a jumper!

An Order to Chaos

Current Projects

• Peanut's Fall Sweater: I was able to complete Peanut's Fall Sweater, which is known as "Sweater with Ribbed Yoke" by Debbie Bliss.  It seemed as though the collar took the longest, but this sweater actually looks incredibly cute on my son (unfortunately, he wouldn't pose for any pictures while he tried it on).  This sweater involved a lot of ribbing and faux cables across the top of the front and back and also at the top of the sleeves.

• Pink Swirls: I picked up a book called "Socks a la carte 2: Toes up!" while on my Yarn Trek.  I decided to start a pair of socks, as mentioned in my previous post.  I was also able to finish this pair while visiting my parents at their bed and breakfast.  So far, I've gotten pretty positive feedback on this pair, so I definitely will be making more pairs of socks out of this book.

• Autumn Leaves: Yes, I started another pair of socks using a leaf pattern out of the book.  I am using Berroco Sox Metallic to complete this pair.  So far, I've been able to get a bit better at casting on a toe-up sock and it's turning out great.  Hopefully, I'll be able to finish these quickly and post pictures soon!
• Falling Leaves:  Continuing with the upcoming "back-to-school" and fall season, I designed a jumper using Sirdar Snuggly yarn.  It will be multicolored with a border containing leaves.

Knitting Madness

It's absolutely crazy the number of projects that have decided to take on in order to get my etsy shop officially up and running.  Some of the things you will see on there soon:

• Handmade knitting needles
• Handmade stitch markers
• Socks
• Children's clothing

Keep checking back to monitor our progress!

Toe-up Socks

Design
While on my Yarn Trek, I came across a book for knitting toe up socks: Socks a la carte 2: Toes Up!  As much as I love to knit socks - and I even have my own master pattern - I have never done a toe-up sock.  Probably out of fear of the unknown...  Using the figure-eight cast on, I attempted (and failed) to start a toe-up sock a good 20 times until I gave up that day.  Even with the pictures, it just wasn't working.  Thanks to the group Sock Madness on Ravelry.com, I was able to get a few hints on how to do this cast on and make it look good.  Here's what I learned:

1. When doing the cast on, include the slip-knot stitch as your cast on stitch.
2. Knit a few rows - I knit a total of 2 - on each needle once you've done the cast on in order to make sure that the cast on was good.  It also creates a good-looking toe point if you're using variegated yarn.
3. The book tells you to distribute the stitches a certain way for a lot of the different toe patterns.  For the double-up toe, slip 4 of the sts of one of the needles onto a third needle and then you should have the sts distributed. You'll have to knit the sts on what would be needle 3 (N3) in order to get to the beginning of the round.  Then and only then will it work.

Knitting Madness
Yarn Trek took a total of four days.  On days three and four, Peanut and I visited four more shops.

• Grafton Yarn Store:  http://www.graftonyarnstore.com/  The shop is absolutely awesome!  It's in an older building and set up very well.  I got more baby yarn, picturing a back to school/fall colors jumper.  The owner was very friendly and invited me to join her Ravelry group to follow sales, etc. 
• Main St. Yarn Shop:  http://www.mainstyarnshop.com/ This took a while for us to get to from our hometown, but it was definitely worth it.  I got some good business start-up advice from the owner, who was actually willing to talk to me about owning a yarn shop.  I also picked out some yarn that I plan on using to design a few fall items for my etsy shop.
• Xpressions Beads & Yarn:  http://www.xpressionsbeadsnyarn.com/ This was a little bit of a smaller shop, but it is equally devoted to yarn and beads.  You can purchase items on their website, or email the owner and put in a special order.
• Fiddlehead Yarns:  http://www.fiddleheadyarns.com/  Another quaint shop, but it is much larger than it appears.  There is even another room off of the main shop, which I assumed was for classes and/or private knitting. 

Coming Soon
Handmade knitting needles!

Busy Bee

Keeping Busy
I haven't posted in a while because I've been at my parent's bed and breakfast, helping them celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.  We had an excellent get together and all joined in to sing "With You I'm Born Again", the song my uncle sang at their wedding.  When I returned home, my husband surprised me with a plot of land in the community garden part of an urban farming project in our city.  Now I have a bunch of tomato, pickle cucumber, kolorabhi, jalapeno, basil, onion, and cilantro plants thriving!  It took 2 days of hard labor, but we got it all planted.

Current Projects

• "The Dude" Sweater: Still in progress and the fair isle is still working pretty well for me.  For those of you working on this pattern, the size medium Chart 2a is a little off so you may have to improvise a little to make sure that it ends up looking like it's supposed to.  Also, after watching "The Big Lebowski" with my husband again, I noticed that "The Dude" sweater is a little bit darker than the Andrea Rangel pattern.  If you want to substitute the Ivory-looking main color with a little bit more of a fisherman's wool traditional color, it will be a little bit more true to form. 
• Patriotic Toeless Socks with Cuff:  I have my own master pattern for socks after some trial and error with my first few pairs of socks that I made for myself, but I got the idea for a cuff from one of the Patons sock books.  Following the picture, I added a cuff to a toeless version of the socks of which one is almost done.  Once it's complete, I'll share photos.

Coming Soon
More pictures of my projects and progress.  Blogger picture uploads are currently not functioning on my computer.