I am pretty excited because this summer I will be working at Stitch House for a few hours/week. I had been talking with the owner for a while now, about possibly instructing a crochet class, but apparently they haven't had enough people interested. I'm going to be working the shop and offering any "drop-in" lessons for knit or crochet on Saturday afternoons starting July 12. I will definitely be working for about a month, and probably through August. Brent will watch Asher, and I think it will be good for me to have that time away and be doing something for myself. Plus make a little extra cash, if I don't spend it all at the shop!! I have to find out if there is an employee discount ;)
Yesterday I actually worked for about 2 1/2 hours helping one of the other women from the beaded shawl class. She had ripped out all of what she did, so she was starting over. I cast on with my left over yarn and worked along with her to see where she needed help. I think she really understood it after our session, and I felt good about my teaching skills. Of course, it's easier to teach someone who already knows the basics of knit and purl, but I have attempted to teach total beginners too (with varying success).
I then bought some sale yarn, the sublime mohair for my Wisp, which came to almost as much as I will be paid for that tutoring session. See what I mean?!
Friday, June 27, 2008
productivity
I have recently discovered ravelry, which is an amazing site! Thank you to Marissa for recommending it. It's really got me motivated to work on projects, and it's a great resource for finding new projects. I've already marked a bunch of patterns as "favorites" that I may complete someday. I've already started a few.
First, I decided to make the drop stitch "vest" (it's really a sleeveless shirt) from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. I had my eye on that project from the first time I looked through that book, but never did it. I had some fuchsia microspun yarn from years ago that I never used. The hot pink looked so cool over black in the book, I wanted to do the same thing!
Now, this project is SUPER BORING until the very end. It's 21 (23 for the back) inches of plain stockinette stitch. After a few rows, I ingeniously decided to cast on the back at the same time and worked both front and back together. That way I know they are the same length. I cast on for size small, since I knew it would stretch once the stitches were dropped. (Fast forward-- all I have left to do now is seam the sides, but I am worried it won't stretch enough for my bust. That would be SO sad!) Anyway, here is the fun part in action:
The drop bind off is tricky, but I got the hang of it. I am not sure the pattern directions are correct, because I ended up with 5 instead of 6 stitches on one edge and 7 on the other edge. This happened on the front and the back, so once seamed it will still add up to 12, but it still bothers me just a tad. I also added an extra 2 rows to the neck shaping because my row/inch gauge was off. The microspun had surprisingly great yardage, I only needed a little over 2 skeins. I seamed the shoulders two days ago, but I think I am avoiding seaming the sides for my fear of it not fitting. But maybe I will take the plunge today!
I've also started a pinwheel blanket and I JUST got yarn to make this lacy wrap: Wisp.
The yarn is Sublime kid mohair, which is 60% kid mohair, 35% nylon, and 5% extra fine merino. I think the nylon content gives it a certain smoothness that I feel when it slips through my fingers from the ball to my needles as I'm working. The mohair isn't too hairy either. I also decided to add some beads. I wasn't sure how I wanted to do this, but I decided on just placing them along the edges above every eyelet. You see there are eyelets along the whole length of the wrap on the border edge, as well as the bottoms. These are the "button holes" so that if you add buttons to one end, you can fasten it anywhere along the wrap. Neat, huh?! I'm not sure how the buttons will work with having the beads there, but I could choose to skip the buttons since I have the beads for embellishment. I just used beads I have, which are plastic (I think) with different iridescent colors kind of like the colors of an oil puddle. There are blues, greens, purples and pinks. I am trying to hand select beads from the bunch that are mostly purple, although a little pink or blue on one side of the bead is ok. I am worried that I will run out of purple ones though, and then it will look silly if I start using blue and green in a lump rather than a random distribution. I'll cross my fingers, or just get more beads if necessary.
First, I decided to make the drop stitch "vest" (it's really a sleeveless shirt) from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. I had my eye on that project from the first time I looked through that book, but never did it. I had some fuchsia microspun yarn from years ago that I never used. The hot pink looked so cool over black in the book, I wanted to do the same thing!
Now, this project is SUPER BORING until the very end. It's 21 (23 for the back) inches of plain stockinette stitch. After a few rows, I ingeniously decided to cast on the back at the same time and worked both front and back together. That way I know they are the same length. I cast on for size small, since I knew it would stretch once the stitches were dropped. (Fast forward-- all I have left to do now is seam the sides, but I am worried it won't stretch enough for my bust. That would be SO sad!) Anyway, here is the fun part in action:
The drop bind off is tricky, but I got the hang of it. I am not sure the pattern directions are correct, because I ended up with 5 instead of 6 stitches on one edge and 7 on the other edge. This happened on the front and the back, so once seamed it will still add up to 12, but it still bothers me just a tad. I also added an extra 2 rows to the neck shaping because my row/inch gauge was off. The microspun had surprisingly great yardage, I only needed a little over 2 skeins. I seamed the shoulders two days ago, but I think I am avoiding seaming the sides for my fear of it not fitting. But maybe I will take the plunge today!
I've also started a pinwheel blanket and I JUST got yarn to make this lacy wrap: Wisp.
The yarn is Sublime kid mohair, which is 60% kid mohair, 35% nylon, and 5% extra fine merino. I think the nylon content gives it a certain smoothness that I feel when it slips through my fingers from the ball to my needles as I'm working. The mohair isn't too hairy either. I also decided to add some beads. I wasn't sure how I wanted to do this, but I decided on just placing them along the edges above every eyelet. You see there are eyelets along the whole length of the wrap on the border edge, as well as the bottoms. These are the "button holes" so that if you add buttons to one end, you can fasten it anywhere along the wrap. Neat, huh?! I'm not sure how the buttons will work with having the beads there, but I could choose to skip the buttons since I have the beads for embellishment. I just used beads I have, which are plastic (I think) with different iridescent colors kind of like the colors of an oil puddle. There are blues, greens, purples and pinks. I am trying to hand select beads from the bunch that are mostly purple, although a little pink or blue on one side of the bead is ok. I am worried that I will run out of purple ones though, and then it will look silly if I start using blue and green in a lump rather than a random distribution. I'll cross my fingers, or just get more beads if necessary.
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