Times Are A Changin'

I really didn't want to turn into one of those bloggers that posts sporadically because of life events, but I have. As I posted before, Rick and I separated a few months ago, and we're just finishing the relationship now. We tried to work on things, but it just isn't going to happen. At least not in the present. Maybe the future, it could work out well, but neither of us is holding our breath. We are still friends, and we will still talk occasionally, but not see each other regularly, as we have been since I moved out.
I am diving into the deep end of rebranding, and I will be busting my ass to make it awesome. I have a whole bunch of new items made, and supplies ordered for other new stuff. I found a couple great suppliers that I am dealing with, and I'm really looking forward to receiving all of it. And of course, creating with it, then sharing it with all of you.
I haven't been knitting much of anything lately. I finished that pile of new mystery items, which I still need to sew up and put the buttons on. Now I'm a bit apathetic about everything. I think I just need to take another step, and actually register my business, or start building the site, or start photographing items, or SOMETHING to get the fire lit under my ass so I can get busy. I'm a huge procrastinator, and I keep telling myself I have till October, but that's only 35 days away. I don't necessarily want to launch for the beginning of October, but definitely before the 15th.
Anyway, I don't really know where I'm going with this. I guess I just need to let some emotions out, and this is helping. I hope you forgive me for being absent, and absent-minded.

Wednesdays Are For Gratitude: August 21, 2013

It's been quite some time since I've posted a Wendesdays Are For Gratitude post, and a lot has happened lately. Lots of good, some not so good, but I'm here to talk about the former. Nobody likes a bum out blog post, am I right?
Here is what I am grateful for lately:
My brother (whose 20th birthday was yesterday!)  /  My yarn stash  /  New hair (more on this in a minute!)  /  Poutines  /  Old friends  /  New friends  /  Transit Windsor  /  The annual town festival this weekend  /  Finishing up three balls of yarn recently.

More about new hair! Yesterday, I went to see my friend Christine, where she worked her magic on my hairs, and I came out looking brand spanking new. I'm not as blonde as I'd like, I prefer it to be closer to a white blonde than a golden colour, but we're getting there! I got awesome feedback from the people I saw afterwards. I love being blonde!
In addition to all this fun hair stuff, I went all over Windsor yesterday, hence the thankfulness to Transit Windsor. I had an amazing breakfast poutine at The Twisted Apron, and a regular dinner poutine at Phog. Not the healthiest, especially when you add in all the beer I consumed. I think I deserved a fun day after all the junk I've been through lately. I ran into a few people I knew, and overall had an awesome day.
I have finished three balls of yarn lately. All on the same secret projects I've been on a bender for. I just have to sew the rest of them up, and I'll be done with them. Then, it's time to figure out a new project. I have a bunch of ideas of stuff to make, just a matter of figuring out which yarns to use. These three balls bring me to +54. I'm starting to get a little more realistic with my goal, and I don't know if I'll actually make it. But I will still keep track of everything.
What is going on in your lives lately? Are you trying to get as much summer fun in as possible, too?

Sometimes, Life Gets in The Way

For the longest time, I was updating three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with the occasional post on the weekend. Lately, I just haven't been able to keep up with that. I have quotas I want to meet for new items for the rebrand, which means I am knitting even more than usual. I've even been knitting on my breaks at work! Last week, I took the bus to go for dinner with a friend, and even got some knitting done on the bus. (more on this later) I'm trying really hard to get my stash eliminated as much as possible. I managed to get three balls of yarn used up this week, if you count the tiny balls I am donating. This brings me to +57. I'm getting there!
I'm starting to go through my yarn and finding more yarns that I thought I really liked, but after more consideration, they're just not what I want. I don't know what to do with them now. Part of me wants to donate to a group that can use it, but the rest of me says "hey, you put a lot of money out for this, don't just give it away." Does that make me a bad person? I hope not. It will still take me some time to decide what I want to do with all this extra yarn.
Now, about dinner! There is a new place in Windsor that opened, called The Nacho Suite that I heard about on Windsorite. I have a friend that loves to try new foods, so we made arrangements on Twitter to meet up there and try some food. Totally delicious, and I can't wait to go back. I'm planning on trying the seafood option next time.
Have you tried any new restaurants lately?

More Stash Down Progress

This past week, I've been busy knitting away. A lot of knitting is happening, but not much can be shared, as it's all stuff for the rebrand. I can share this one sneak peek picture, which gives nothing away.

Those are my Pymatuning Crafts buttons I got a little while back. This is the first project I've used them on, and seriously, I am in love!!! I initially got them for the baby photo props I made, but I had no luck selling those, and kind of gave up.

I've knit eight of these mystery items, and used up FOUR balls of yarn in the process. Well, almost, I guess. The balls left over were too small to do anything with, so I am donating them to LeeLee hats to use to make stripes on their hats. Anyway,  this brings me to +60. This puts me back at 5.5 skeins to be eliminated per week. I'm confident I can make some progress soon! I have quite a few half finished projects on the needles that I am going to get finished soon!

How are your projects going?

Working on the Rebrand

As you may know, in October, I will no longer be creating under the Knit, Nicole, Knit! name. I won't be disappearing, though, so don't worry! I can't share what my new name is, but it is not knitting specific. Here is a sneak peek at what some of the branding will look like.

I am LOVING how everything is turning out. My friend Christine is doing my branding, and is doing an amazing job. I am going to be ordering business cards, earring cards, and tags for the knitwear this week. I am getting so excited.

I've been working on creating new items for the new brand, which is so much fun. I'm trying to have a more consistent line, by using the same yarns in many of my projects. This means that a lot of my stash is no longer suited to what I need. I will not be getting rid of it though! I'll still continue to knit with them, and sell the finished objects at a discount. I've thought about giving the yarn away, and even selling it, but I would never get the money back that I paid for it. Plus, nearly everything I have now is stuff that I really like. The only reason I am not planning on using it for the new business is that it is vintage, or otherwise impossible to find.

Not much longer till the launch. October is coming up fast!

More Stash Down Progress!

It's only been a couple days since my last update, but I've made even more Stash Down progress! I've been knitting like a madwoman, and eliminating yarn left and right. Still working on the dishcloths, and I am enjoying them. I might miss them once all my cotton is gone.
The top two cloths are some of my favourites. I love adding textures and small sections of stripes to the cloths. They make them way more fun. The blue finished off one ball, and the yellow was finished with the green in the second picture. More on the pink later!
The green and yellow cloth is pretty neat, too. It finished off the yellow and green in one swoop. It's actually like 4 garter ridges too short for a full size cloth, so I threw it in the drawer in the kitchen here. I wouldn't feel right selling a too small cloth to someone, even if I discounted it.
The last two pink ones, in addition to the pink one in the first picture, finished off one of the bigger balls of cotton I had. I still have quite a bit of the light pink left, which I'm working with right now.
This is FOUR balls of yarn finished since Monday! Not half bad, if I say so myself! This brings my count to +64. I always check the average I need to eliminate after I count a chunk. I went from 5.5 skeins per week for the rest of the year, to 5.18. If I can get that number down to 4 or less, I am sure I will get to my goal without having to give yarn away!
I'm taking a short break from the cloths, and working on a striped scarf on 8mm needles that I am loving. I hope to get it done in the next couple days, and share it with all of you.

Stash Down 2013: It's Not Over Yet

One of my goals for 2013 was the have a net change to my stash of -50 balls of yarn. If you've been following my Stash Down progress, you'll know that I acquired 150 balls of yarn a little while ago, and I was incredibly discouraged. Well, my knitting mojo is back in full force, and I've been knitting like crazy. Seriously, crazy amounts of knitting have been going on. Mom and I went grocery shopping last week, and I walked around behind her, knitting on a cloth. Between these six cloths, and a couple other partial cloths I have on the go, I've eliminated three balls of cotton. Sure, not a whole lot, but that's three less than I had before! Plus, it's yarn I no longer have a real need for, so I'm opening up a drawer in the storage area for yarn I really love. I've decided to leave dishcloth knitting to others so I can focus on things I truly enjoy making.
I calculated the other day that I need to eliminate 5.5 skeins of yarn a week until the end of the year, and not acquire any, in order to meet my goal. I'm intimidated, but I really believe I can do it. Summer is going to be difficult, but as soon as my hours at work drop down again, I'll be kicking ass and taking names.
What are you knitting on this week?

The Last Friday of the Month

This month is almost done, which is totally crazy to me. I know everyone always says how fast time is going, but seriously, where are the brakes?!
I've been pretty busy lately, knitting, hanging out with Rick, working, hanging out with my family and so much more.
Here is a "quick" recap. (I really hope it's quick, I have knitting to get done!)
I spent a few days out at Rick's earlier in the week. We baked and baked and baked together, which was a lot of fun. He has his project going on, which I can't share just yet, but I made some mediocre brownies. I used the recipe off the back of the cocoa powder. The pan made them pretty neat, but they weren't really that good. Nothing special about them. They weren't gooey and fudgey, which is how I like my brownies. Oh well, no big loss, the recipe only made these six brownies. I'll try a different recipe next time. If you have an awesome brownie recipe, let me know!
I went out with a friend to Second Cup after work a couple days ago. Second Cup is Canada's Starbucks, but I actually prefer it most of the time. I got an iced coffee, and he got a frozen hot chocolate. The coffee was a bad idea. I was laying awake in bed until like 3 am. I didn't feel tired at all. I don't think I'll be getting a large coffee at 9:30 at night again, any time soon. Unless the goal is to stay awake forever.
Anyway, my friend is moving to Sweden next weekend, for a two year teaching position. I'm going to miss him. I've known him since high school, and no matter how long we go without talking, we can catch right up whenever we get together.

Today, I was sitting in my room, knitting, and I heard someone knock on the door. My first thought was "Why don't people ring the door bell? It's so much more efficient" and then I finally got up and went to see who it was. The mailman was there, with a small padded envelope in his hand, and he said he was looking for Nicole. As soon as I saw the package, I knew what it was. I am so excited for this! I can't share it yet, because it's for the rebrand, but it's awesome.
I need to get back to my knitting! If I want to be down 50 skeins by the end of the year, I need to eliminate 5.5 skeins a week. That's a lot!
How was your week?

LUV LOCAL Windsor-Essex Creates: A Recap

This past weekend was the LUV LOCAL show at Walkerville Brewery. It was all day Saturday and Sunday, and I did pretty alright.
I was there bright and early Saturday morning, ready to set up. As per my usual, I started setting up, got halfway done, and then socialized for a little while. I got back to my space, and decided at the last minute to set up most of my winter wear, and put a sign up saying it was half price. I sold five items off this rack to a family with three young boys, so I am really happy I made that decision!
Over the course of the first day, I sold a few pairs of earrings, some rings and a couple bracelets. Not a whole lot, but I was happy with what sold.
I got dinner from Kildare House, which was pretty disappointing. They didn't have the lobster mac and cheese I was really looking forward to.
The second day was quite a bit slower, with only about half the number of people that Saturday had. I did sell a few things, but not as many as I was hoping for. I did get a bunch of sign ups for my mailing list, which is awesome. I want to notify as many people as possible when I launch with the new brand, and this will help.
I saw quite a few people that I know throughout the show, nearly all of which I was happy to see.
I got lunch from Salute Espresso Bar which is right next door to the brewery. It was delicious.
Overall, the show was a success. Not everyone did super well, and I was probably middle of the pack with how well I did. Regardless, I had a really good time, in spite of the heat (it was pushing 90 degrees inside for most of the weekend)
How did your weekend go?

My Week In Instagrams: July 19, 2013

This week is almost done, and I can't wait for the weekend! I have a craft show tomorrow and Sunday at Walkerville Brewery, here in Windsor. It's the same venue as my most successful show ever, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Here is a peek at what I've been up to this week.

I spent a few days out at Ricks, and we went and sat in the car, by the water, eating our chilli cheese dogs. It was raining, but it wasn't as oppressively hot as it has been lately. Seriously, Windsor-Essex County is having some strange weather. If it's not 95 F +, it's storming. I love the storms, the heat, I could do without. I can't wait for summer to be over! Bring on the chilly fall and winter weather! I don't know if I prefer winter more because it's cold, or because I can wear jeans, sweaters and scarves.

I picked up a four pack of Jones Soda when I was out at Ricks. I love this stuff. This was the first fortune that was under my cap. I posted it on Facebook and Instagram, asking if anyone would be interested in being a pen pal. I got a couple takers, and I'm looking forward to writing to them. I'm hoping to pick up some decent paper today when I am out and about with my mom. I don't want to be lame and boring and just write on plain lined paper. That's no fun.
If you would like to be my penpal, send me your mailing address to nicoleATknitnicoleknitDOTcom I'm hoping to have like ten pen pals or so, and I'm about halfway there. I'm excited. I had a pen pal in grade school, and it was so much fun writing to her.

And now for the knitting content! I've been working with a lot of thinner yarns lately, and I'm really enjoying it. I haven't posted much on the blog, but there has been knitting happening. I cast on for a Terribly Simple shawl, and it's a lot of fun. Miles of garter stitch, turning into a gentle crescent shape. It's super fun. I'm thinking of modifying the pattern a wee bit, and adding a ruffle at the end. Nothing too crazy, just enough to have a little texture. We'll see how much yarn I have when it comes time. But I'm not opposed to striping in another colour.
This is Knit Picks Shadow Lace Tonal in Summer Blooms. I got it a while back, and caked it up after I got my ball winder and swift, and just haven't found something I want to knit with it. I think this pattern will be just the right fit.
What have all of you been up to?