… that I go on photoshoots now. Okay, so I must disclose that although I am the model, I am also the casting director and the client. I enlisted my friend Ryan’s expertise again today to take some pictures of my new boot-cuff design. We headed to a park near his house and were able to find some beautiful trees and even a small stream for a backdrop. Just looking at what he got on his camera has made me very excited to see the finished product. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll have the time to knit him another pair of socks for payment, but a case of beer will probably go over very well. Hopefully this business will take off and I’ll be able to pay him with actual money.
In the meantime, the pattern has been tested quite successfully by 4 test knitters, and I should be getting it back from the technical editor sometime in the next week. Then I’ll just have to tidy it up, add the pictures and make any possible changes, and then you’ll finally get to see it. Yay!
Category: clothing
Swatching and Math
Today’s confession is that I’m not good at following through. As such, that will likely be my last Sunday Confession.
Onto new business, I haven’t been posting as much as I had been because I’m finding myself very busy lately. With A being back in school 3 days a week, the 1.5 hours I get to myself is overshadowed by the 2.5 hours of getting him ready and walking him to and from school. I also signed myself up for swimming lessons, which I love, but they are taking up two evenings a week.
When I have been getting some free time lately I’ve been planning my new girl’s sweater/jacket design. This one is going to be fairly complex again so I’m having to learn some new techniques along the way. The idea for the sweater came while looking for a fall jacket for P last week. I didn’t like anything I saw but I did like the looks of some chunky, fair isle cardigans. After seeing those I couldn’t get them out f my head and I’ve been preoccupied with designing my own ever since.
I spent some time trying to come up with my own fair isle motif. It didn’t take me long to figure out that not only is a good motif extremely complex, it’s just not the type of designing I’m good at. Instead I hit the book store and found 200 Fair Isle Motifs, which is an incredible directory of all things Fair Isle.
Then I dug through my yarn stash and found a bunch of Cascade 220 in lots of different colours. I wanted the sweater to be nice and dense so I picked a US 5 needle and started swatching. Happy with how the swatch turned out I began all the math. I’ve now got the measurements worked out for 5 different sizes and converted them to stitch and row counts. I’ve started writing what I know of the pattern so far and will make the rest up as I go.
I cast on this morning for my sample, which will eventually be P’s fall jacket. Hopefully I will finish it and the pattern before we’re fully into winter coat season. Stay tuned for more updates on the pattern writing and progress on the sweater. I figure posting about it will keep me motivated to finish!
Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3
Inspired by my sister’s request for a pair of knit boot cuffs, I put together a new pattern over the weekend. “Jen’s Boot Cuffs” has already been completed by one test-knitter and I am sending it off to a technical editor when I am done this post. While my first pattern “Everyday Hoodie” is still being perfected, this new pattern has flown off the needles and should be released very soon. I can’t contain my excitement!
Must Stop Making Pillowcase Dresses
I made yet another pillowcase dress on the weekend, and it was the cutest one yet! I’m going to have to stay out of Walmart’s fabric aisle for a while because it’s becoming a serious problem. I got to deliver this one to the little birthday girl this morning but I snapped a picture before I let it go.
Booties Galore!
I just finished another pair of custom booties for a friend. She wanted them for her little girl to wear with her pumpkin costume for Halloween so we picked orange for the booties and green laces. The pattern is Ruth’s Perfect Baby Booties and I used Just A Leaf for the leaves on the end of the laces. The finished product is really cute but the pattern had a few problems. If I had it to do all over again I would use Judy’s Magic Cast On and try to knit them in the round.
I think these will look adorable on the little pumpkin!
Cowtown Knits 