New

I am attempting to stay awake in order to not be up all night. A cold has caused me to put things on hold for the past two days. Actually to put everything on hold. I have skipped work for two days, have not worked on any of my knitting in two days, and have literally stayed in the house for two days. I did go out on the balcony twice...does that count?

So today, I at least got up the strength to post my newest item! It was a challenge to get together. Between figuring out what handles I would add, reinforcing the button holes, and finding and buying the right buttons, my second purse has taken longer than one would have thought! As you will see, I was rather indecisive on the button choices, and decided to make it a "choose your own adventure" thing.

In other news, I continue to watch my friend's cat while she is away for the holidays. I begin to think I've either made her sick or depressed her with my sick and unmoving ways. She has been sleeping almost straight for two days. She does get up every time I do though, and will play then. Or maybe she just knows I need a little furry friend...

I surely hope tonight to get the sleep I need...yesterday I left two burners on the stove...oh my.

Pattern help...

So I put this out to my knitting group of friends, but hoped to maybe reach a wider audience via blog. I have knit a chunky scarf for my cousin and now need to follow through on mittens to match....I've never knit any mittens!


I wish I had taken a picture of the scarf before I sent it off to her, but didn't. Either way, it's a chunky Bernat yarn. Just need a pattern that a beginner mitten knitter can do, or even a link to a tutorial would be good.

Ideas??

Knits by Jo
www.outdooreducator.etsy.com

New Endeavors

So it is Christmas Eve tonight. While I would love to be able to go home for this holiday season, I find that I am too far away and working to pay bills and not for extras at this time in my life.

My new plans include looking for a job, and also working on my business. My new plan is to start writing knitting patterns. As I hear it, it's much easier to use this as a way to sell since you don't have to keep recreating the same thing over and over again. In the meantime, I work on finishing gifts for friends and creating new designs. I also look for new ways to market my shop.

My new project in progress (not necessarily for friends):




An entrelac purse. All I need are handles and buttons. Any suggestions as to how I should make them look? For handles, I'm thinking i-cord (and if so, one single cord or three braided in the corresponding colors?). Maybe just a wooden handle? If I do this, I would not have to buy these colors all over again, as I seem to have lost them in my most recent move.

Well, regardless of the handles or the buttons, I will be experiencing yet another Southern holiday tomorrow. This time, a traditional Christmas. I will be spending it in good company, even if not my own family. I am thankful to have someone to spend it with. Actually, I am very thankful, as I have had many invites from people who were willing to open their family holiday to me knowing I was not able to be with my own. The world finds ways of working itself out again.

The Logical Knitter

So a few days ago I took a test on my Knitting Brain. My results said I was a "logical knitter". In the results description, it said that I like to understand the logic behind how things work, behind a pattern in this case. This is so true. It went on from that thought to say that many people like me come from a scientific background. This is so true. And to think I spent all those years and all that money on a degree in Biology when I never felt like it was all making sense and I could have just started knitting years ago. Apparently my scientific mind would have gone to better
use there.

The thing that really caught my attention in the description though was that "many successful professional knitters fall into this category". Did you catch that? The word successful? Hmmm...I'm just gonna keep going on this and hope that the next time someone drops a huge opportunity in my lap to do a large order that I desperately do not want to turn down but have to, I can actually fill it within the time frame.

Ok, so I can't really rely on an online personality test to determine my life, but who ever got anywhere without seeing what was in front of them or ignoring the positives? It really doesn't matter how much of what you see out there that is positive is really just a load of crap. What matters is that you saw it, and that if affected you positively. The reasoning behind this? It will generally bring about more positivity along the way if you pay it any attention at all.

So does this suddenly make the logical knitter into the hopeful knitter?

YA cont'd

Oh yes, and this is what happens when yarn frustration gets the best of you...

I will find the end of this yarn, oh yes, I will find the end. At least one of the two...

YA

I believe I have a yarn addiction. Just as there is an AA for alcoholics, might there be a YA for people like me? I collect coupons and actually have to restrain myself from going to the craft store and getting more yarn. Just because I can get it for 40% off doesn't mean I NEED to, right?

This is precisely why I need to (a)keep knitting with what I have and (b) explore options like knitting with plastic bags and old t-shirts. The t-shirt thing from the previous blog would also work well for that and can be cut into a "yarn" by using the same technique as for plastic bags.

It's funny what we fill our time with. Tonight I'm watching the movie Julie and Julia. I find it to be inspiring. We all need something to fill our time with. In my last job I would have called it my PMA or positive mental attitude. Basically, it's one of the needs of survival. No one is making smart decisions when they're going out of their minds with boredom and/or anxiety. So my project, partially out of interest and partially out of necessity, has become knitting. Or more so starting a business in it.

Is it preposterous to think that you can knit your way out of financial ruin? It might be. My father keeps telling me I should be careful so I don't get an onset of carpal tunnel. If anyone knows about that it's him.

I've decided that besides the threat of carpal tunnel looming in my future, it might just be possible. Am I becoming rich overnight? Nope. But I am mostly covering my costs. There are a couple things not covered, but you've got to invest, right? I figure, if after three weeks I've covered my costs, I'm not doing too badly right?

I would be doing even better, but have found that I had to turn down a big client on a custom order. Knitting is not a quick thing, and when given a 6 day turnaround time on a large order to be made from scratch with new materials and a custom logo which I've had to figure out how to print myself (see last blog) AND get it shipped by Friday....I just have to say no. Very reluctantly, no. Ironically, they did turn out to be based out of Minneapolis, close to home. Seemed like a big company and I was very sad to turn them down. It certainly could have lead to something good. You just gotta send them a prototype and a business card and hope for the best.

So I continue on with my addiction. Most of my coupons expired today, and strangely enough, I felt almost proud of myself that I didn't go running off to use them. I do, however, have one that is still good until the 19th...I maybe be back again. So hard to resist when you know you get every single item almost half off if you only just space your visits, ha ha.

I suppose there's worse. I could be filling my time of missing home and little cash with worse things like drugs, alcohol, illegal cock fights...who knows. Instead, I use my spare time buying yarn and turning it into cute cuddly things for people to wear and use. Yeah, there could be worse things.

Learning

In my life, I always like to be learning. Sometimes it's about animals, sometimes it's about the education of children about nature, and lately it's about knitting and the things that go with it.

I've been learning how to create my own appliques, how to knit with the magic loop (yes, I said magic) and how to cast on so that there isn't a solid line that has no stretch. It's important to always be building up your personal self.

For me, it's what keeps me going. And fortunately, it's been somewhat profitable as well. I feel fortunate to enjoy doing something that can pass as a very part-time second job.

Something interesting to know: If you happen to need random t-shirt like fabric in many colors for a project, you can get about 1-2 lbs. for just a dollar. It's a great way to recycle (these are t-shirts that just weren't selling so those who need to serve community service time steam iron the solid colored pieces and package them to be marketed as rags). I personally appreciate that they are not just throwing out that amount of product and finding a last ditch effort to get rid of the things. They work perfectly for someone like me.

If you're a knitter and wanting to add designs to your work but don't feel like creating a pattern grid for each little design, here's something you can do.

Get some cheap to free fabric just like the above mentioned find. You'll be reusing something that would have otherwise gone to waste, and save yourself a lot of planning time.

Next step: Go to a fabric store and invest in the thinnest iron on backing you can find. It will leave only the adhesive on the back of your fabric after ironing it on. One use for this is to cut out patterns and iron them on your knitting. You can free hand it, or something that I've been trying is using dollar store socks! They generally have cute patterns like penguins and such that you can cut out and iron on.

Another thing that you can do is to cut a piece of your adhesive paper into an 81/2 x 11 sheet. You can then iron on that same size of fabric. This is where these good will finds come in very handy. They are just bigger than that very size, so they overlap and you can cut off the edges. You can then run them through your printer, adding any design you can possibly dream up to a fabric. I would be wary of picking any random image online, as there are most likely copyright issues to be had but still, it does open some doors.This is an example something I was able to do. It's a logo for a local college. Pretty easy, but it doesn't turn out looking too bad.

I am also learning not to trust any one driver in this state. It is very apparent each time I go off to work why my insurance has doubled simply by moving here. I have learned that it is imperative that I don't go out if the weather ever decides that snow is going to be a part of the day. I have a feeling it would not be a good idea...

So I stay inside once it's dark and cold and I knit, or print, or cut and hope for the best!