A Custom Order Is Complete: My First Hat In The Round

Recently, I had a friend ask me to knit a hat for her son. She had the pattern and the yarn ready to go, and wanted to help pay for Winston's surgery, so she asked me to do it. The pattern seemed easy enough. A little colour work, and knit in the round, though; two things I'd never done before. (I've knit in the round, but never a hat) I figured I would try it out, and if I failed miserably, I would admit defeat, and give everything back to her. Initially, I cast on with 6mm needles that she supplied. It would have fit an elephant. I went down to 5mm and it was perfect. The stranding wasn't that difficult, to be honest. It took me a couple days to finish, but I got it done! Not to toot my own horn, but I think it looks great! The pattern is the Skull Beanie from Polar Knit.
I'm now confident enough to start working on regular hats done in the round. Will I forget the loom hats completely? Probably not. But it's nice to add another skill to the knitting arsenal.

Some New Items In The Shop!

If you're looking for the giveaway, it's here!
I was supposed to have a craft show this upcoming Saturday, but it was postponed until further notice. I'm hoping it's really soon! I was really looking forward to it.
So, instead of having a craft show, I decided to list a few items in my shop. So far, it's only hats, but I will probably be adding a few more things later in the week.
These are the first two hats I added. They are both knit in super bulky Wool Ease Thick and Quick. That is one of my favourite yarns to use. It knits up so quickly, and is super, super warm. I really like that the way I knit the hats makes them loosen up slightly over time. You can see that they are slightly slouchy already. After wearing them for about a week, they loosen up to a super comfortable fit.
All of my new photos were taken by my friend Nicki of Nicki Kay Photography. The male model is her boyfriend, and my good friend Richard. The day we took these photos was amazing. All the snow on the ground was the perfect backdrop for my knitted items.
I have a few other items I finished recently that I will be posting soon. One of them is absolutely perfect, I can't wait to share it with you all!

Four Finished Scarves

Since I started my 101 list, I've started and finished four scarves and two dishcloths.

These are the four scarves. The green and black is a cone of green acrylic blend and a chunky black acrylic. The creamy, hard to see one is a skein of Wool Ease Thick and Quick in "Wheat" all done in seed stitch. The next one is the same yarn in "Charcoal" also in seed stitch. The last one is the same chunky black acrylic as the first, with a ball of awesome vintage Italian wool/acrylic blend that I've had in my stash for a while. It's quite long, and very warm.
As you can see, I still have ends to weave in. I will hopefully get those done today to bring them down to Phog. I haven't checked my sales there since my actual birthday. I'm 80% of the way to my low balling goal, and about a third of the way to my "wouldn't it be awesome if I sold this much!?" goal.

I am really happy with my progress on the "Knit 5 miles of yarn" goal. I am at just over 1400 feet, which is about a quarter of a mile. Not bad at all, considering this is only one week of knitting.

I have lots of project ideas. The one major thing stopping me is that my yarn stash is a complete mess. I know certain yarn exists, but I have no idea where to find it! I have sorted out a couple drawers in my storage area for yarn for charity knitting. Most of the stuff I do is for Lee Lee hats, so it's mostly baby yarns and small balls of various colours, too small to do anything else with.

Hats, Hats, and More Hats!

Rick and I are out at his parents for a few days. I brought lots of yarn and my loom and I've been working on hats. I've finished four so far, and I'm working on a fifth. I'm hoping to have 6 done before we head home this afternoon.


I've decided that I will be bringing hats to Doin' The Louvre at Artcite. I'm trying to get several hats made of a few colours due to the submission rules. I'm allowed to have 10 different items, but I can have several of each. I also have more hats to bring to Trinkets, Treasures & Truly Unique.
All in all, I'm keeping myself busy and productive. I'm so excited about working for myself. I'm still figuring out exactly what I have to sell each month to cover my expenses.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Much More Yarn

It's impossible for me to resist buying yarn at thrift shops, especially small-time independent ones.
Rick and I checked out a couple near his place, and I got a big bag of yarn for a really good price. Two skeins of burgundy, 8 or so of forest green, and one black, all 50g of Patons Beehive Shetland Chunky. I looked online, and it seems like the yarn is no longer called this. I have seen just Shetland Chunky, and for the current price of one skein, I got the whole lot of them.
I've made a burgundy scarf already, and I am starting on a forest green one. I am going to use most of it for scarves, and possibly make some phone cases.
Speaking of, I will be making more of those as soon as I get home. I have a few people in the Facebook group that want some.

More hats made

Hats are starting to become my main project. I have had a few of them ordered, and the first one has been given to the recipient.
The upper left in the image is a beautiful dark amethyst Homespun hat, for Kara from work. I haven't seen her to give it to her yet.
The brown in the upper right is from some mill-end yarn I bought last week. I am pretty sure it is Bernat Harmony, but I can't be certain. I just finished a second on in the same colour a few minutes ago. So very soft.
The black hat hiding in the lower left is a plain black worsted acrylic paired with a strand of Bernat Boucle if I remember correctly.
The blue in the lower right is supposed to be for Billy, but I haven't seen him in ages. Also, not sure if it's a little too feminine for him.
The grey hat in the centre is pretty awesome. It is the one that James bought, and probably my favourite of the bunch here. Three strands of slightly-thinner-than-worsted yarn in a wonderful charcoal grey. The fabric is a little stiff, but I am sure it will soften up with time. I am going to make more in that colour when I get home and have access to my stash.
I really hope I continue to sell hats for a bit longer. I am going to make some out of thinner yarn so they're not as warm, and can be warn during the slightly warmer weather.

Two Finished Objects, One Picture.

As part of my 101 project, I have set myself a few knitting related goals. The first is to knit 101 scarves and neck warmers. I also have yarn bombing related goals, and I would like to use up all of my cotton yarn.
I finished a rainbow dishcloth last night, and added it to the pile of other cloths I have floating around the house. I still haven't gotten bored of knitting the same cloth over and over again, but I am considering mixing things up a bit. I will probably start making some other basic cloths in the near future, depending on how all of my other knitting goes.
I have sold a couple of cloths at Made In Windsor, which is great.

The other awesome knitted item in the photo is a neck warmer. It's made from Lion Wool Ease Thick and Quick in Black. I think 8mm needles, 56 stitches. It's just a K2P2 rib, but I think it makes this yarn look fantastic.
I've started an other neck warmer, this one in Hazelnut. Everything else is the same.

I will keep updating with pictures as often as possible. I know I am a horrible photographer, but I am hoping to improve, at least slightly, with time.

I got paid from Made In Windsor the other day. This payment included most of the days leading up til Christmas, and I made quite a few sales. So many, in fact, that this payment was larger than all the others combined! If you purchased something from me, I really hope you, or the recipient, are enjoying it!

New yarn!

I know I haven't been updating much lately, but fear not, I have not forgotten you!
The other day, I returned some yarn from the scarf I just finished for Rick. I know, returning yarn is sort of crazy, but I knew I could get other yarn with that money.
And more yarn is what I got.
I bought three skeins of Bernat Harmony, in different colours. One dark pink, a lavender colour, and black.
All I can say is this yarn is amazing. Super soft, has just the right amount of texture. If I double it, it's perfect for the Knifty Knitter.
And, best of all, it's affordable! Coming in at $3.99 a skein for 169 meters/184 yards, this will keep me going for a little while.

I have been working on a lot of craft show things lately. I have two in November that I at determined to do really well at. I am taking the day off work, risking losing a decent amount of pay. I'm trying to figure out a way to make deals on my product without losing a lot of money.
Have any of you ever done a raffle at a craft show? Give a ticket away with each purchase over $X and draw at the end of the show? The only problem with this is that I don't drive, and I wouldn't want to make the winner come pick up the prize.

I'm open to suggestions!

Made In Windsor Grand Opening

Yesterday was the Made in Windsor grand opening! I was there from about 10 am until 10:30 pm, and had an awesome time.
I finished a black hat on the Knifty Knitter, then started a purple one, and finished that one by the end of the night.
Dianne Clinton of Off The Chain crocheted a pink bunny hat for my friend Amy and I offered to model it. Owen, of Windsor Visuals, made me laugh while I was trying to do some sort of bunny buck teeth something or other. Despite the fact that I look incredibly ridiculous, I do like this picture. The hat is adorable, and totally suits Amy. She came in and picked it up and was incredibly excited. Check out Dianne's website. She does awesome charity work, and crochets mittens for Mitts for Tits.

The Art Gallery of Windsor also had some activities for the kids, and bigger kids I suppose. We painted Plexiglas to turn it into a fridge magnet. I sorta just messed around with the paint and got this. It kind of matches my kitchen, but at the same time totally doesn't.
A few other vendors did their thing and demonstrated their craft. I answered a lot of questions about Knifty Knitters and knitting in general.
All in all, the day was a great success. As soon as Christine posts about the day, I will have more pictures, and an other post! Make sure you check that one out, there will be pictures of super cute kids helping me knit.

A gift!

The scarf I finished a few days ago has been given as a gift. Generally, I don't knit with a specific recipient in mind. Instead, I knit the item, and as it progresses, an ideal person comes to mind.
This one was perfect for my boyfriend, T. Now, T asked for a "dragon blood coloured scarf". What colour is dragon blood?
Black. But not just any black. The blackest black that exists is still not as black as dragon blood. It is merely "off black".
Where to find yarn dyed with dragon blood? I searched Etsy with no luck. I figured black form Lion Brand would have to do.
He was quite happy with it, and didn't take it off the entire time I was there.

Fresh off the needles!

I've been working on this scarf for the past few days. It's a seed stitch scarf in Black from the yarn I picked up a couple weeks ago. It's 13 stitches wide on 10 mm needles, and I just knit the entire skein. I'm thinking I'm going to start doing the Thick & Quick scarves with 11 or 12 stitches. Since the yarn is so thick, it makes it a little hard to wrap around your neck.
I come with a terrible cell phone picture once again. I can't find my memory card for my camera, so this will have to do for now!
After this, I'm hoping to get that blanket finished. I'm almost done the skein I have right now, and the last skein is hiding in my stash. I'm going to dig through today to try and find it!

More frequent updates!

My dear readers, I am very sorry for the lack of regular updates.
My boyfriend has converted me to the dark side. No, not that Dark Side, but the dark side that is World Of Warcraft. This game has consumed many of my waking hours. This game has stolen precious knitting time, blog reading time, and blog posting time.
I have promised myself that certain things need to be done before I can play.

The first is knitting at least 5 rows of whatever is closest to me. Right now, this is a seed stitch scarf I'm knitting out of new stash. I also still have the Baby Boucle blanket on the needles. I have about a skein and a half to go on it. It's a perfect lap blanket size for when my Dad doesn't feel like turning the heat on.

Second, I must read at least half of the updates in my Google Reader. I subscribe to over 150 blogs, and I read nearly every update. This gets time consuming. I am trying to lower my number of subscriptions to no more than 125.

I am also trying to drop at least 100 Entrecards a day. This doesn't take too much time, and I often do it while knitting.

Lastly, I want to update this blog more often. Any time I cast on something new, or finish something, or find a really cool something or other online, you will find an update here.

All this must be done before I can play video games.
All this must be done before I can play video games.
All this must be done before I can play video games.
All this must be done before I can play video games.
Maybe if I keep telling myself that, it will actually happen, or even do itself.
A girl can wish, right?