Dawn Brocco's Life and Design Blog

Below are photos of the new crochet scarf design with beaded flower pin/adornment. These aren't the greatest photos, I know, and my batteries went dead and need recharging, so I can't do more photos until tomorrow. But, as I said I'd post them today, I fiddled with these as much as I could to get them to be as clear as possible.



The fan stitch crocheted scarf. I've just finished the beaded slip stitch "fringe" along one short edge and am about to do the other side. This sample is in the soft wool I'm dyeing. I've done another sample in black and mushroom (sand color) cashmere and will do a natural white and mushroom cashmere sample, as soon as more yarn gets here.

The beaded pin is shown at center as both an adornment and a way to secure both ends of the short scarf.



Here's the beaded flower pin using a sparkling crystal AB (iridescent) beads on the lavender wool. Another option is a natural wool pin with oriental pearl beads. The other sample will have a Mushroom flower with a sparkling gold-lined crystal bead. Other options are being worked out. And all will be available as kits as soon as I can get the supplies in. The patetrn will be available separately.



The back of the pin. Note the coiled up and stitched down 16" Addi Turbo ckn! This was the aha! moment I had yesterday. I'm always coiling up my ckns, and when I saw a photo of the coiled up ckn in a catalog, I *saw* the coiled circle finally! and thought, that it would fit on the back of the pin, if the ckn was the right size. the 12" is too short and the other lengths far too long, but like Goldilocks, the 16" was just right!

Now, the nickel coated Turbos won't suit every scarf colorway, but Addi has bamboo ckns, which *will* suit the mushroom colorways. I could use a cheaper ckn, but the Adi cords are the most flexible and the ndl tips the most wear resistant, AND when one is sick of flower brooches, one can undo the sewing on the ckn and still be able to use it! I love multi-functioning things!

I'm not always sure, when I start out on a problem, that I'll actually figure it out. I am persistent, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee success!

After posting earlier about the beaded flower pin back problem, I googled an hour or so more, trying every last idea I could conjure up. Then I flipped through one of my knitting catalogs, and, whadayaknow, the answer stared me right in the face! I'm not telling yet!, as I need to do the finishing on the flower pin, and I'm in the middle of reworking the first sample. So by tomorrow, I should be able to post 2 photos - front and back of the pin.

It's been a few days I know, since I last posted. This is what happens when I'm working out the details on a new design - there's not much to write about!

So, I've been working on one of the crochet designs I swatched the other day. Have 2 samples worked already, except for the edgings. And am working on a beaded crochet flower pin as an adornment/clasp for the scarf.

I've spent much time yesterday online searching for the right backing to use. I'm considering a few ideas, such as I can get a plain kilt pin to attach the flower to, in one of my beading catalogs, but it's just silver plate. I'm not sure how long silver plate has before it begins to wear off. I'd prefer sterling silver. A bit more costly, but it's just an oversized, coilless pin with a more open catch end.

I've also seen some nice celtic pennanular brooches, which I'll think about as well. And a hair fork might work, where I can attach the flower at the turned end, leaving the 2 prongs to dig into the scarf. *Dig into* doesn't sound right! Scoop into? I even thought of the hooked type of cable ndls, but it would be too short and they're plastic - yuck - not for a brooch.

The typical bar clasp comes about 1.5" long at the longest size I've seen and so would be too short to do the job well. But a bar clasp longer than that will be too large for the flower! Ideally a flat straight piece attached to a semi round curved piece that opens would be good. Flat to hold the flower nicely and a large enough semi circle to scoop up the 2 layers of the scarf easily. Hmmm...... Like a hair barrette, but not the french clasping kind.

And it has to be something knitters can easily get, or, preferably, I can buy wholesale or at discount anyway and include in the kits.

Anyone have any ideas?

On pair # 8 of socks for CIC.

Crochet Swatches
Also have done 3 crochet swatches since yesterday, and charted them in my graph paper notebook, before putting them into Stitch Painter. I crocheted long before I taught myself to knit, and even though I haven't done any serious crocheting in yearrrrs, one doesn't forget easily.

So, with these swatches I am aiming for scarf patterns, though one would look nice as a shawl or as one of those new shoulder cover-ups, or both! But I can also see sweaters, vests, a purse....

If I had my druthers, I'd have a design support team to help write up the patterns for, and help knit up the samples for all the design options I see when I create a swatch. But, it's just me, and time dictates narrowing the options to one or 2 choices.

But, crochet is quicker than knitting, so, maybe I can get more options made up.

Too Hot Again
It got to be over 100 today then a thunderstorm blew through - literally! - we were running around closing windows, mopping up the what the horizontal rain and wind had puddled. But what a relief, it dropped 30 degrees within minutes. And the poor garden needed it too. Though I drenched it with pond water the other day, it was dry as a bone this morning when I checked it, and plucked my first handful of peas.

The lettuce and asparagus don't really know what to make of this odd, hot then cool weather we've been having. Hardly any lettuce took and the asparagus, which are 5 or 6 years old look like they're on their last legs.

The Ronde de Nice zucchini took well though and are growing nicely. I have 16 plants amongst 6 hills, which is plenty. As soon as they begin to flower and fruit, I'll take photos,so you can see these little round heirloom zucchini. And they taste SO much better than store bought.

And the bed of hollyhocks are growing nicely as well. An entire bed of them! I can't wait. They're not really tall yet, but all are healthy and about 1' high. A mass photo of them would be great too to post, when it's time.

Boobholder
There is one design that I am going to make for myself - the Glampyre Knits Minisweater (aka Boobholder). I never get to knit other's designs, but this one is too cute. I *am* too old to wear this type of design in public, but I'll wear it in the house, and it got hubby's OK, but then, anything that accentuates the girls always gets his OK!

Getting to know more about html and css than I want to!

yesterday I wrote a post, then published it to Blogger, to then find all my post text w/photos was moved to the bottom of the page, past the sidebar.

Well, I thought it was me - and fiddled with the template html for hours, previewing each change in hopes of finding something to bring everything up in alignment, as it *had been*.

I then googled something like blog template sidebar problem and came upon Blogger Forum and discovered that Blogger has a bug of sorts adding a div style="clear:both;" to newly published blogs. It's NOT in my template html, but shows up in the source code of my preview page and the published blog. And what it does is push all the post text past the sidebar.

Now, I'm not a techie geek (wish I was sometimes), tho I can handle the necessary tibdits of computer and internet maneuverings. On the forum was posted an answer - a bit of code to be inserted which would counteract Blogger's clear: none nonsense. I put the code where they said to and nada, nothing. I tried it in other logical places - nada, nothing.

Finally I read a forum post from a fellow Blog clear: none sufferer! who said the code fixed it for him. So I loaded his blog, pulled down his code and voilá, he put it right before the ending style tag at the top of the blog html. So, I did the same, opened it in preview and did my happy dance!

If any other blogger is having a similar problem, here's the code - div {clear: none !important;}

Though I still have Blogger's inserted code next to my blog post code, the code at the top counteracts it.

Supposedly Blogger is looking into a fix, but I wasn't about to wait, cringing every time I looked at my blog!

Design Work
Am swatching some crochet. So, far a stitch pattern idea (undulating waves of varying stitches: sc, hdc, dc, tc, then back to dc, hdc and sc) worked in 3 shades of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted (which is really a DK wt) with a US H hook. Then another swatch in a plain worsted to heavy worsted wt. wool with an I hook just to test the fabric in sc, hdc and dc.

The crochet in those new-to-me Japanese knitting mags is *very* inspiring! But most American knitters and crocheters aren't into inspiring (often interpreted as difficult) patterns, so, if my designs are going to be at all competitive, I need to focus on creating interesting designs that *aren't* difficult to work up. Though I insist that colorwork is NOT difficult or, only as difficult as one makes it!

The way in which I knit makes stranding and purling very easy, just as some ways to knit makes purling a difficulty. I was lucky in that I taught myself to knit, and so, I was not forced to knit American style or even ordinary Continental style by a teacher or other knitter.

Maybe one day, if I ever get to teach, I'll give classes on knitting in my UCV (Untensioned Continental Variant) style, and help free up some more knitters to try colorwork!

P.S.
That weather button lies! It's not 91, it's 100 degrees here today! This isn't Phoenix, it's NY, what confusing weather!
P.P.S. 102 now! at 4pm

I decided to offer my newest design - Simply Lovely Beaded Hat and Scarf - as an indie pattern, as well as part of the kits that will be coming as soon as I get more beads in.

I just uploaded all the info today, and am printing the patterns as I write.

It *is* recommended to use a soft, smooth yarn, if purchasing the yarn for it elsewhere (instead of using a kit). Cashmere *does* develop a beautiful halo after washing, but it is not hairy. A hairy or fuzzy yarn will detract from the subtle slip stitch cable pattern.

Here's one yarn suggestion, but I'm sure there are others out there. I swatched with Goddess Yarns Emmanuella and it was lovely. It comes in a natural and a beautiful icy blue. The Oriental Pearl beads would go with the natural color yarn, and the Iridescent Crystal, aka Crystal AB beads, would look fine on the blue yarn.

On other design fronts, I haven't spent any time on the book lately, in order to get this new design done, though I am finishing up the 6th sock pair for CIC. Hopefully, even though it'll be 97 degrees tomorrow (aack and egads!), I'll get more work on the book done.

We had a friend of a work cohort of hubby's come this morning to give an idea as to the time and cost to finish up this endless house prep, priming and painting. It looks like he can take on the project, which is good, as this is the only real way we'll *ever* get this house painted in our lifetimes!

I love clouds, especially dramatic clouds, but any clouds will do. I love watching how light at various times of the day and whatever clouds are present create different moods here on the ground.

Yesterday was magical. And absolutely beautiful. I was working (what else!) and happened to glance out my window before dusk - that perfect time of time for really great light!, and saw a bit of peachy sky and thought I'd go enjoy it before it ended as dark would be here soon enough.

I went outside with my camera and took 18 shots. Only 2 really show how striking the sky was and, so, I include them here for you to enjoy as well.

I long ago used up all my bright colors making CIC socks and vests. I am left with mostly dark boring colors and a few bits of bright colors.

Now I don't knit fancy socks for CIC - they're always plain with ribbed cuffs, but always extra thick and warm. When my feet are cold, they are not kept warmer via pretty patterns, they are kept warmer via the sock's thickness. And I try never to send just a dark depressing color. I always try to add a pretty or bright color to toes and cuffs or toes and heels.



So, the socks, from left to right -
The first one is knit in Bartlettyarns Fisherman Bulky in a natural dark brown for the foot - a practical color. And tho I thought of using pink as the accent color, I had enough of this Lamb's Pride Worsted in orange and gold. So I put 3 strands together - 2 orange and 1 gold, to equal the thickness of the super-bulky wt. Fisherman Bulky (it should really be called Fisherman *Super* Bulky!).

Next, a FB, med. sheep grey pair, which is really a brown/grey, with FB natural cuffs, FB Denim heels and FB Lupine, I think it's called, toes - it's not on their website, but they *may* have it if you call them about it.

3rd, a FB pair in medium sheep grey with FB in natural for the toes and 3 strands of a pretty pink Classic Elite Renaissance. (I bought 1 ball of the CE to see if it would get gauge for my cashmere kits - nope, it's a true worsted.)
I only had small bits of these colors, but one doesn't throw away small bits!

4th, for the socks made thus far is this lavender and magenta pair. Knit in 3 strands of Hifa 2 - the lavender color - and 2 strands Classic Elite Two.Two yarn for the magenta. I wouldn't buy CE yarns for making CIC socks, as they are pricey, though a good yarn company - it's just that I had 1 ball of a couple yarns and what can be done with 1, 50 gram ball - not much.

And lastly, 5th, Renaissance tripled for the toes and cuffs and LPW tripled in a deep plum purple for the feet.

I'm using US size 10 (6 mm) ndls for these super thick socks.

More pairs are coming, as I like to send 2 lbs worth at a time, to make the shipping cost less per pair, as Kathy's in my zone, so $3.95 covers 2 lbs sent Priority Mail. In the size and wt. of socks I'm making, it's about 12 pairs.

On my 4th pair of CIC socks and last night began a hat sample in the soft wool for the Simply Lovely Beaded Hat & Scarf design.

And tried to order beads last night for the kits, but must call them today, as I was unawares that this particular site doesn't take credit card orders online. Not til checkout does one get to see that's it's phone or fax only. So, why have the cart?

I got those 3 Japanese knitting and crochet mags in yesterday's mail and have just been able to do a perfunctory read through, or rather look through!

They do lovely crochet work. Very inspiring and not acrylic kitschy at all. Their illustrations are excellent and it's interesting that the crochet is all charted. What a relief over all that endless text that many American knitters are dependant on.

Now to see how my Stitch Painter Gold represents crochet symbols. I've had to create some knitting symbols, as I didn't like the cable symbols given with the prog. But the freeform curves of some of their crochet charts! They're much more like illustrations than charts. So, that'll be my research for today - how to chart crochet.

Yesterday's mission was - how to create html email newsletters. I haven't room in my budget for paying for an online newsletter service or buying a prog. I found a shareware one for Mac and as they have a preview option, I can fiddle with the html then preview it to see what it looks like. I spent many hours working on a basic, frameless layout.

I'm NOT up to anything fancy, mind you! But I'm just trying to create a newsletter /update that has my logo and photos of new designs or kits.

I wouldn't be trying this, except I get such little interest from the plain text with hyperlink updates I've been sending. I have a couple hundred website update subscribers, but very little response/orders from these updates. Same goes for the ones I send to shops.

So, even with this, designers have to compete with the visual onslaught that are the professionally-produced email newsletters from larger knitting companies as well as companies outside the knitting realm. We've come to expect photos in our emails. It does make it easier for the consumer and shop, but adds yet another layer of work to the-already working-all-the-time designer. I won't mind, if it works and finally gets readers interested and buying!

Change in the title of my upcoming beaded hat and scarf design. I mistakenly named it far too close to Jackie E-S's sock design that I published in the Summer 2003 issue of the Heels and Toes Gazette. My mind must be slipping!

So, now I'm calling it Simply Lovely Beaded Hat & Scarf. I think the design is lovely, but a photo of part of the design cover page is below, and you be the judge! The hanging beaded fringe was hubby's idea - I tried many things and liked none of them. We always come up with good ideas together!



Hubby's begun sanding the the front of the house, I'm doing laundry, Round-Upped the front garden beds that I've weeded twice and am sick of doing over and over, made iced tea, grated a whole jar of Romano for the sauce he'll be cooking later.

I'm just about to bring in the 8 hanks of Wild Rose Pink yarn and put together 4 more Double Knot Cable Scarf kits, then add the info into the cart and write up and send all the emails I send out after something new is up.

I finished the 2nd pair of CIC socks and began the 3rd. The first 2 pair are washed and pinned to the line. Then to vacuum 3 rooms and do more on the CIC socks.

I pulled out what I have left of my yarns to see what pairs I could knit for CIC. I have some odd amounts of Bartlettyarns Fisherman Bulky and so, I knit a small pair last night and have the 2nd pair in the works. My yarn stash is in a pitiful state. It's hardly a stash, more like a few bags of remnants. So I'll what I can do with what I have, then consider where I want to get more yarn as cheaply as I can, for more pairs.

The Targhee yarns I recently bought and dyed for the Double Knot Cable Scarf kits is very soft and I may use some of the hanks that didn't dye as perfectly as they should. There's just this spot across each strand in some hanks where the dye didn't take as well as it should, but I can pull that bit of yarn to the WS, making a loop and weave it in as I knit.

There's no reason to *see* bad dyeing in the knitting! I may even double it, knit them looser, then felt them - thick and warm, yet soft booties! Targhee is a very soft wool, like Merino, at 62 count. I'll begin to post photos, as soon as I have enough pairs to show.

Thoughts continue about how to further my design career. I'm booking an ad in the Fall Knitty and will do one in the Winter issue as well. I'm also considering exhibiting in the online Needlework Show. There's nothing like it specifically for wholesaling knitting designs, and I wish there was, just as I wish there were more knitting pattern distributors. But maybe if enough knitting designers, hand-dyed yarn companies and other knitting-related businesses were to begin taking spots in the show, we may well create a decent alternative to exhibiting at TNNA, for those that can't yet.

8 hanks of Wild Rose Pink are dyed, cooled down, washed, conditioned (I always use hair conditioner on wool) and are spinning in the washer as I write. NO rinsing, just spinning out as much water as possible, then to hang them somewhere to dry. I may only get to put them outside for a bit, as it's overcast again and cool! Cool is good, but from 92 and horridly humid to 56 this morning - eesh. Could it make up its mind what season it would like to be?

Have been much caught up in many email conversations regarding marketing options for indie knitting pattern designers. We *are* the forgotten end of this, otherwise booming, industry. There are tons of new designers in the past few years, never mind since I began a dozen years ago. But where oh where are the new distributors interested in the wholesale marketing of indie pattern companies?? Nope, nada, no-one.

But every time you turn around, there's new yarn companies and new yarn lines. Sigh. But sighing isn't enough. Acceptance isn't acceptable. What *is* an indie designer to do. Give up being independent and try to find work designing freelance for a yarn company?

There's no growth potential in freelance designing, whether for pubs or companies. One can only design and knit so much by oneself. Then one begins farming out the knitting and dealing with correcting what they've done wrong or have not done on time. Each project can only earn so much, and this fee has had NO cost of living increases, since I've been designing, from what I hear. So why on earth would any designer want to continue to earn the same design fees as 5 or 10 years ago - undervalued, in a *growing* industry?

The cut backs the yarn companies had several years ago were understandable. In house designers lost jobs. But knitting is booming, so are there yarn companies designing in-house again, filling long empty designer, knitter, and editor positions, complete with weekly pay checks and benefits?? If there are, I'm not hearing about them. And I've got my ears everywhere I can.

Any fellow designer thoughts or info welcome.

I've been looking at the calendar all day, knowing I'm past due to post on my blog, but just haven't had the heart to do so. I fell into a funk Tuesday morning for enumerable reasons, and didn't want to write again, until I had found my way back to my happy-go-lucky-despite-ALL-the-endless-uphill-battles-that-is-my-life-self. But then I thought it might be a LONG time before I'd write again. So if my posts sound cut and dried for awhile to come, bear with me.

I should be dyeing yarn today - my last 8 hanks, as it's finally cooled off, but it's raining and will be until Sunday, so how are they gonna dry!? - beats me, which means it's not such a good idea. I would have yesterday, but was up to my elbows in adjusting some cable symbols, then changing more charts than I can remember. I finished the 2nd belt sample for the 2nd belt for the book, and it's washed and laying flat as I write.

Elizabeth has posted a summer sock challenge to the CIC list. All socks to be postmarked by August 31st. If you've no idea what CIC is and would like to know and help, see the link in my sidebar to the CIC website and the CIC Yahoo Groups home page and the CIC pattern page on the Socknitters website.

I've done vests and socks for recent CIC challenges, but will need to start more. It won't make me feel any better, as I only get sad thinking of all those cold children. If YOU can knit a pair or 2 or 3, or? and send them to Kathy at her address posted on the Socknitters pattern link above, then please do so. Guidelines follow:

GUIDELINES:

1. Make sizes to fit children up to about age 5 (that would be no more than 6 inches from heel to toe).

2. Socks should have as much wool content as possible, with a bare minimum of 50%. Try for more. Do not worry about wool shrinking in the wash - they'll be washed in cold water, and air dried. And, if something does go awry and they shrink, they'll still fit somebody.

3. Use any pattern you like. I will provide a list of available patterns, but that's just as a resource.

4. The kids wear socks indoors, without shoes, so thick (worsted or bulky weight) is better - but if you can't stand knitting big thick socks, knit thinner socks. Any socks are better than no socks.

5. Slippers count too.

6. Bright colors are great (they're little kids, after all) but if you just have brown and gray - they're still warm. Go ahead!

7. Don't worry about "keeping up." If you just have time to knit two pairs, that's two pairs of warm feet. Some people will knit astonishing numbers, and that's pretty neat - but this is not a race or a competition. I'm finding recently that my own good intentions get derailed before I reach the number I'd intended, but the ones I finish are still warm.

8. If you think the sock you made looks pretty flimsy, or poorly knit, you're probably right -- consider ripping it out and starting over. They're real kids, with crummy lives, and deserve our best.

9. Feel free to enlist your friends, your family, your local yarn store. . .

10. When you've mailed your socks, send an email to the designated sock counter (to be announced) telling her how many pairs. We'll keep a running tally, as Marguerite did with the vests.

Got the new zippered vinyl bags in for the new soft Targhee wool Double Knot Cable Scarf kits and so I could upload the kit info to my site.

I only have a few kits in 2 hand-dyed colors and 3 remaining in the natural, as it's been just too horridly hot and humid to go through the 2 hour dyeing process. As soon as it cools enough, I'll be dyeing more yarn.

I'm working on another belt sample for the new book this evening, and hope to get it done by tomorrow sometime, then to do the 2nd sample for the other belt design. These 2 are being knit in Goddess Yarns Ellen, a 55% cotton/45% wool yarn. It definitely feels cottony. I'm no cotton yarn fan, but a belt needs more drape than many wool-alone yarns can give. The original samples were knit in a rayon ribbon and a recycled cotton yarn.

Nearly 11 years we've been here and only today we've seen a baby bunny behind the kitchen doing the typically youthful curious investigating. If he/she comes around again, I'll try and get photos. It doesn't even have the white on its tail yet!

Til tomorrow....

I couldn't give up. I tried getting the right file path names and couldn't, for the life of me figure out how to get my site feed ftp'd to my server - as I long ago left Blogger to host my blog on my site. I finally got it to work. BIG sigh of relief.

I *really* don't like not being able to figure something out, well, except for Physics. I stunk at Physics. Could do Organic Chemistry, Philosophy, Psychology, the maths, etc, but could get no grasp whatsoever on the invisble forces and theories that is Physics.

So, now I can go onto my day's work a wee bit lighter.

*Of course* I'd spend 75 minutes in the 95 degree heat and 80% humidity weeding and watering the veggie garden, only to have it finally downpour a couple hours later!!

I know I said I won't go out when it's 90 degrees outside. Heck, even in the 80's, if it's humid, it's horrible, but the poor lettuce, peas, zucchini, carrots and hollyhocks are still new. The asparagus could have withstood it, as they're several years old, but there's been nothing but spritzes of rain here lately, and one doesn't want to see one's hard work dry up and blow away!

It actually hit 97 before a thunderstorm blowed through. This is June, NOT August, it's got no business being this hot and humid in late Spring - yes, Spring, it's not even summer yet.

Photo of Double Knot Cable Scarf sample in the new wool yarn, below. Will take the weekend to finish it, then to adjust the pattern, or make 2, 1 for the cashmere and 1 for the wool and put the new wool kits on my site and into the cart.

The new YMN (Yarn Market News) came the other day. It's published by Soho, same folks that do VK and FCEK, Knit. 1 and all those books. It's a mag for shops, like The Needlework Retailer is for Needlework and Cross Stitch shops. There were a few Fall 2005 trends in it that did spark some design ideas. But first things first - finish the book, these wool kits and the beaded kit design in wool.

Wool DKC scarf sample:

Joan Schrouder is a knowledgeable teacher, as anyone who's read her Tech answers on the KnitList can avow. But, she's also extremely thoughtful and generous. She visited me at my house last Autumn, and she's sent this as a thank you for my hospitality!:

I'm not used to receiving any knitting-related gifts - this was the first one! And it floored me! I would have been pleased with a thank you email. As you can see, I have some pages flagged already, for trying, when I get a chance. Thank you, Joan!

Here's 2 headband samples for the upcoming book. They're made flat then kitchenered along the CO and BO edges. I don't like working with live sts, when grafting, when there are knits and purls involved. I much prefer a regular long tail CO in pattern, and BO in pattern, then graft from the centers of the BO sts around the posts of the CO sts.

Headbands are great projects - they only take about 50 g to 2 ozs of heavy worsted wt. yarn!



Hubby put the 2nd and last AC unit in one of my office rooms, which is open to the family room, and via a fan blowing the air around, it also cools my computer/printer room. Ahhhhh. It was getting pretty disgusting in here with the laptop always on and the printer on. This is no small printer. It's a Xerox solid ink behemoth that helps heat this room in winter, when it's printing! I had finally turned it off yesterday, as it really doesn't perform well in heat and humidity.

I tried to set up an RSS site feed today, *many* times!, but finally just put in a sub with bloglines box. Shoulda done that in the first place - it's so much easier.

Not dyeing yarn today - have printing, labelling, and sample knitting to do and tyeing up the last 8 hanks of yarn, which I'll dye tomorrow.

I finished those Tuffy and Bartlettyarns socks last night. Here they are, washed, pinned to the line:



They're just your ordinary 1x1 ribbed leg, stockinette heel flap with V-heel turning and *my* 6-point star toe.

Photo of the hanks drying - there's 2 hanks on each hanger:



This is the 3rd drying day for the lavender yarn. If it was just hot and not humid, they'd dry in 1 day, but noooooo, it's always gotta be humid - ugh.

And our lovely jasmine bush is doing quite well, since having taken down those horrid huge 5 pines behind the house. Now the bush and the nearby white lilac bush get enough sun and don't have to compete for water with those stupid pines.

Photo of jasmine in an antique pitcher I got at an antique sale for $15, probably 9-10 years ago, as it has a chip on the lip. So, I never use it to hold drinking liquids, I've always used it as a vase.



And a small bouquet in the family room in one of hubby's pretty antique blue jars:

Really hot again today!

But I dyed 8 hanks of wool in Cyclamen Pink, anyway, and washed and rinsed another 8 hanks to be left natural. All today's 16 hanks, as well as yesterday's 8 dyed hanks and 2 washed natural hanks are hanging on the line, drying.

Interesting how different fibers take up dye differently. The cashmere and the wool both used the same amount of lavender dye to give the same depth of color.

The Cyclamen Pink dye, however is another story. For the cyclamen pink cashmere, a whole jar is used, and for the Wild Rose Pink (WRP), just 33 grams are used (1/4 of the jar). It's a soft clear pink.

So today, intent on making WRP, I used 33 grams of dye on the same quantity of fiber, but the wool gave the same color depth of the cyclamen pink, on only 33 grams dye! Amazing.

Now, tomorrow, I *was* going to dye some pale blue, but will try and dye the WRP using 1/4 of the 33 grams or 8-9 grams dye. Seems like so little, yet that hot pink yarn hanging outside says otherwise!

The geese are becoming scarce - must be the heat, because the goslings aren't full-grown yet. And I'd water the garden, if I was crazy, well crazier, which I'm not. One thing I know to avoid - being outside in 90+ degree heat.

Hubby's been meaning to get to the house sanding, but each morning is another thing to tend: one morning - car maintenance, another morning - scrape and paint our bedroom windowsills, and then put in the AC unit (as we struggled through nights without it), this morning - sprayed ant killer.

Fedex just delivered my new refurb terminal, and it's downloading its info as I type. Then to enter sales from the 3rd as offline sales and send the batch. Have been watching my checking account balance dwindle to dangerously low, waiting for this terminal to come in.

Ah, the hanks of wool came in today but no terminal. I guess 2 day delivery means it gets shipped Monday and I don't get it til Wednesday!

But, I'm too busy with this yarn to fuss over setting up a terminal a the moment.

Tie up all the hanks in 5-6 places each, soak, rinse, prep the dye, bring the bath water to warm, add dye, add yarn which had been tied off again in 2-3 hank bundles, then stand on wood box by the stove so I can lift, out of huge lobster pot on the stove, each group of yarn, one at a time, so it takes the dye up as evenly as possible, all the while slowwwly bringing the pot with a gazillion gallons of water up to a boil, then boil for 1/2 an hour, then cool, rinse, hang to dry, retie if necessary and label.

I began at 4:30, it's nearly 6 now and it's almost ready to boil. It's 78 degrees in the kitchen, but way warmer up near the ceiling (the kitchen has a low ceiling). One doesn't go through this, unless one loves color AND one can't find the yarns one wants in the desired colors elsewhere!

I just wish I could dye much larger quantities of yarn at once, but short of rigging up an old cast iron tub outside over a heat source (oh yeah, I could see trying to sell the house with that huge contraption in the yard!), it'll just have to do as it is, 8 hanks at a time.

Began another headband sample, did another one last night. And I decided to do 2nd samples for each of the belts, as I have those few skeins of Goddess Yarns' Ellen, a cotton and wool blend, which I think should drape nicely, we'll see.

I need a tea break - soon, as soon as it begins to boil, I'll be free for a bit..... Yes, I've been walking back and forth to type this while I work! How's that for blogging devotion!

OK, enough already with the pine pollen!

Blasted stuff only bursts off the trees after it gets hot and it's been hot recently, and it coats everything in the house, because we have to open the windows (no central air in this old house). I'm wiping surfaces in the kitchen and my office 2 and 3x a day. I haven't done the other rooms yet. I dread it. they *were* all clean. I recently scrubbed through them all. I'll wait til the stuff stops flying around and re-clean the rooms *again*. Geesh, it's not like these rooms even get used. They just sit there, doing nothing but looking pretty - like high-maintenance women!

Work on the book continues. I added a 5th technique chapter, so I'm trimming the enclosed projects to 7, or else the thing would get too long. All the projects are now accessories, which I think is a better tack on what knitters want to make anyway. The cardigan and pullover designs using the shaped cables will be a separate pattern. Besides, they're just too much work and will slow down, immensely, the finishing of the book.

I had 9 projects, which left 7 after deducting the 2 sweaters, but needed to add a project, that employed the inner and outer shaped cable (that 5th technique chapter), so I'm adding a bag, which makes 8 designs. I don't like the number 8. So either I gotta come up with another small design, making 9 designs again - no biggee - or drop the embroidered brooch, and have 7 designs. We'll see what happens as I go along - I may add a scarf - don't have a scarf yet, but do have 2 headbands, a purse, 2 belts, and a pin. So, another bag or tote and a scarf should round it all off nicely.

Still waiting on that new terminal. UPS 2nd day Air means it *should* be here today - yup, that's what it means, and we'll see if that's what I get!

Well, so much for that Amu Knit Trends March 2005 magazine! She wants $25 plus $15 postage! That's way too much for 1 mag. Beans.

And it got hot around here awfully fast. It was 91 yesterday, 87 the day before and it's already 85 now, and humid - god, it's always humid.

And I have hanks of yarn coming, that needs dyeing - 4 colors, which means 4 days worth of dyeing and it'll be hot all week, ugh.

I bundled off my new pattern to Patternworks, Woodland Woolworks, Peace Fleece and Brown Sheep this morning. I always send a copy of any new design to the yarn manufacturer whose yarn I used in the design. And, of course to a couple catalogs, hoping they'll carry them.

I've tried Wool Connection, but they prefer indie designers to offer exclusives and I'm not limiting my already limited market by doing that.

Mailed DD her birthday present and a nephew a card for his birthday. Am awaiting for a new POS terminal. Mine crapped out Saturday morning. Then I gotta call NPC to set up the machine with me over the phone.

Back to the book designs and patterns today. I worked on a sock yesterday while watching Miss Marple on PBS. Another night of knitting and it'll be done, which makes 2 new pairs for next autumn/winter. Gotta get more B&L Tuffy, dye it and make more pairs, but not quite yet. I need to come up with new sock designs, but there's also this crochet thing I want to re-immerse myself in, this book to finish, and another pattern with 3 floral brooches to do, yarn to dye, another sample to knit up and more kits to put together and market. That's enough, I'd say! At least for the next couple of months or so!

So this is the content of conversations at our house.

I, overheated from vacuuming 4 rooms, pull the Breyers Chocolate Overload out of the freezer, and start nibbling away. I comment in my usual fashion on how many chocolate chips are in this ice cream (which is quite yummy, BTW!), saying there's lots of chippie chunks in it.

Hubby responds with chipmunks - there's chipmunks in that ice cream? Which leads to thoughts on what chipmunk-flavored ice cream would taste like - blech, but how the dog probably wouldn't mind. Hubby replies with neither would the cats (we have 2 wandering our acres). And which may be why we haven't seen any chippie munks lately.

Me, naive, asked if cats ate chipmunks. Sure, hubby says, they're rodents.

Oh, no they're not, says I. They're cute and furry. Can't be cute and furry and be rodents. And they're related to squirrels, and squirrels aren't rodents! Rats and mice are rodents, not fuzzy things.

Hubby, laughing, says sure they are - Rodentus Stripus Cutus!

Some photos of the new brooches:









Pattern is $6 and can be seen/ordered here:
Other 3 Page

This is gonna be a busy day - shopping for daughter's birthday gift and card (25 already!), errands, groceries, work, and ordering some equipment that just died on me this morning - ugh.

Well, gotta get to it! Hope you like the brooches! More will surely come!

Been working all day and evening on the photos for the brooch pattern. The ones I took yesterday weren't good and after 5 batches of photos today, I finally have good pictures.

Am working now on adding it to my site and will upload it tomorrow morning, hopefully, and get it into the shopping cart.

I've already begun another flower for the 2nd pattern, a geranium. These flowers are addictive - there's always more that I see that I want to try and create in knitting!

Speaking of flowers, the lilacs are kaput, but they only last 2 weeks or so, if we're lucky and don't have torrential downpours. BUT, the jasmine is blooming! and the Lily of the Valley, and some pretty purple weed off at the edge of the woods, not Purple Loosestrife, something else, but there's masses of them, just past the end of civilization and into the territory of the evil Poison Ivy. Got it every year the first 7 years we've been here, so now I know better - stubborn, I know - I no longer venture into the wildness to pluck a few blackberries or cut flowers or dig up pretty rounded rocks to edge anything with!

But more work awaits, so til tomorrow....

I've been eyeing the Amu Knit Trends mag on my Knit Studio, and have just emailed inquiring about price in US dollars, including shipping, so we'll see. I can't seem to find it anywhere else.

I tried Kinokuniya Book Store, Sasuga Japanese Bookstore, Fujisan Japanese Online Super Store, Japanese Streets, and Tezukuritown. I also googled ad nausem. I found the April issue, but not the March one. I hope it hasn't sold out - it looks like it would be interesting.

Still feeling not quite self yet, but that won't happen until next Tuesday - ugh. I finished the lilac-colored Lilac flower brooch and washed the flower head and leaves and they are sitting on a windowsill drying. I'll have the patterns all written up today and proofed, then to dress the model and take photos and fiddle with them. This pattern will have 3 flower brooches. There's more I want to do, but they'll have to go into a 2nd, and who knows! maybe a 3rd, pattern.

One week every month, I really have to take it easy. But, I didn't yesterday, I worked all day and night as I usually do, but felt fine, *until* late evening, then I crashed and couldn't wait to go to bed. And the inevitable happened, every time I rolled over during the night, my head reverberated from the pounding. *Taking it easy* isn't in my vocabulary. It's too important to me that I be productive. Life's short and there's much to do!

So, the inevitable Hormone Withdrawal reared its ugly head - literally! Woke up feeling like DWO. Usually the death headaches don't hit til later in the week, so this doesn't bode well for this week, having it start 2 days earlier than usual. But 3 ibuprofen and 2 cups of coffee and I feel more human, tho not my usual self, at least for now. If I keep exertion and anger at bay, I can muddle through!

Got the sunflowers finished last night. I had hubby look at them, as I thought they needed *something*. That something was an edging of some kind between the petals and the bead center, and so, crochet hook in hand, I slip stitched a nice chain around the bead centers and voila, c'est finis.

I may do another flower yet. I know yesterday I said no more - the pages might be getting to too many, but there was a really pretty photo of a Geranium Sanguineum (aka Bloody Cranesbill - ugh, what a name!) in Sunday's paper in the perfect shade of hot pink -which matches the Perestroika Pink that Peace Fleece has - well, HOW can I not! So, I'll give it a go.

Forgot to mention, on the 28th, this past Saturday, I ordered 3 Japanese knitting books from Yesasia.

I had looked at a bunch of other sites including amazon.co.jp, but trying to buy something when the pages aren't all in English, is trying. Yesasia's site is easy to navigate and order from and the prices are fine, especially if one orders $39 or more, then one gets free shipping - so that's cool.

What I ordered, tho I had a hard time choosing - there were so many!:

haru natsu no kagibariami 7 kagibari ami retsutsu nitsuto shiri zu


keitodama 2005 harugou retsutsu nitsuto shiri zu


keito no komono retsutsu nitsuto shiri zu


Talk was recently flying around the Knit Design list and I had become increasingly intrigued to see, not only these unusual pattern styles, but also the quality of the knitting design.

The Japanese format won't hinder me one bit. I have the Knitter's mag that has Gayle Roehm's article on reading Japanese patterns (Knitter's, Spring 1997, #46), but also have the ABC's of Knitting website bookmarked, which has even more explicit info on reading Japanese patterns, not that I need to read them. I only need to know the yarn weight and the specific garment dimensions, to see how they size garments, how much ease, etc. I understand they mix knitting and crochet equally and don't have the feelings about crochet that we tend to have. Somehow, the connotation of only the maids crochet (as in EZ's day) or our old granny idea of crochet has escaped them. Thank goodness. There's lots of interesting crochet stitches. It doesn't have to look like a cheap acrylic afghan, if one doesn't want it to.

The cover of the Keitodama mag shows a crocheted (looks like single crochet) sweater with lace edges.

It's one of the things on my back burner. I crocheted long before I taught myself to knit and tried almost all of the fancy stitches in Sylvia Cosh's book and made lots of handspun and naturally dyed glowing wool, mohair and silk afghans. They did *not* look cheap not cheesy, yet were all crochet.

I want to get back to it. It by itself and using it along with my knitting *more* than I have been doing, which is just edgings and button bands. I think knitters should see more nice crochet designs, then maybe that wall could slowly come down!

What I look forward to with crochet, is that, although it uses more yarn and *can* make a heavier garment than if knit, it IS quicker to do. And if one uses thinner yarn, but a hook size that gives good drape, not stiff sts, it shouldn't end up any heavier than a knit garment of the same *fabric* thickness.

Now, in knitting, I *never* use thin yarn, not usually thinner than heavy worsted for sweaters or DK for socks, tho I did make one DK wt sweater, ONCE! In knitting, it just takes too long to knit with finer yarns, if you're a designer and need to get designs *done*.

But I can foresee happily using sport wt and DK wt yarns in crochet designs! Yes, I'm looking forward to it.