Frogs Everywhere

I think I've done more frogging than knitting the past couple of weeks. 

I can't say much because at least I'm now working on yarn crafting projects again.  Between the month of sewing I had to do this summer and some other miscellaneous stuff going on, I didn't really get back in the yarn crafting gear until the fall hit.

Sure, I did finish a pair of socks for my husband (finally, and without losing one this time!):

But the rest of the time since went like this:

• Finish up the custom baby dress and write up the pattern (which, being a on the fly pattern, mostly involves trying to figure out how the heck you wrote down what you wrote when making the darn thing). 
• Finally start an adult sweater to replace the one I been wearing so long I've had to darn both sleeves at the elbow (anyone remember when the work sweater was completed? It's been awhile; I can't say I'm surprised).
• Realize that I could get a sweater done for NYS Sheep and Wool if I pick up the one I was designing and knitting two years ago and un-screw up the neckline idea. 
• Get past the neckline, do another trim, then decide on another neckline trim to better match the other trim, redo the neckline.
• Finally get to the sleeves, so I do the math for the sleeves, try to work the sleeves, realize sleeve doesn't fit, rip sleeve out, adjust and restart sleeve. Now sleeve is too big on cap but tight elsewhere, rip sleeve out, get peeved at sweater when as I'm not going to finish it in time for Sheep and Wool and have no clue how to actually mathematically calculate an afterthought sleeve.  I then banned sweater to the time-out corner for a couple of days. 
• Decide that due to all the other crap that I should start a nice seed stitch cowl out of some soft yarn bought two years ago. Then I realized that the yarn is too thin to work for a good seed stitch cowl, so I surf patterns, don't like any of the patterns, get idea, try idea, rip idea out, try another idea, rip idea out, chart third idea, start idea, rip idea out, adjust chart, start idea, rip idea out, repeat two more times. I finally get an idea I'm mostly happy with off ground, but at this point I've created a time-consuming pattern for what was supposed to be an easy cowl. I resisted the urge to go find more yarn in the stash to do that seed stitch cowl.  Work on not-easy cowl on the subway for some reason.
• Go back to sweater, figure out a way to recalculate the stupid sleeves, start sleeve again, get half way done, realize it's still screwed up, rip it out.  I then realize I was using the stitch gauge instead of the row gauge to calculate everything for the sleeve, not that my method didn't work. Recalculate using correct gauge and start sleeve again.
• Decide to also work on getting baby dress pattern tech edited, tech editor finds first row has one stitch off of cast on, realize the one stitch off is because all the other calculations are screwed up and spend all night trying to figure out how the heck I managed to knit the thing in the first place.
• Then decided that I should write this blog post instead of working on sleeve or anything else I decided to design or start at the same time.

I mean, it's probably a good thing that I've gotten my design groove back.  I'm looking forward to getting something out there given the time it's been since I've had actual time and inspiration to devote to this.  But why do I have to make it so hard on myself when I could just simply work on something already written or easy without struggling through all the frogs?  Then again, I write software as a day job.  It all involves sitting there and beating your head against the wall wondering why on earth you're doing this when what you did isn't working for the 5th time...until you figure it out, get something done, and feel accomplished and confident.  Then you're more than willing dive right back into another wall because it won't be as crazy this time...right?

And if I have to frog that cowl or the sleeves one more time, the yarn is shot and I won't know what to do with myself.  Probably ban it back to the timeout corner.

I Have No Excuse

Actually, I do have a few excuses.  They're just not very good, so I'll save the hee hawing about how I haven't done anything with this blog in more than a month and just catch up with the projects I finally managed to have time to sit down and start.

First off, though, do you remember these socks I made?

Yeah, I don't expect you to.  Anyway, they were my first pair that I knit up using a skein of

Fiber Optic Yarns Foot Notes that I randomly bought the first time I went to Rhinebeck. Just so you know, they made one tough pair of socks.  You see, they're the only wool socks I own at the moment.  Any of you in the northeast on Memorial Day weekend know that it was cold and rainy that weekend.  I went camping in it, well, until the wind broke most of our common tents on Sunday and we had to pack up and call it a trip.  However, the worst of the rain and cold was Saturday, and I wore those socks throughout most of that day (because who cares if they're not period when you're getting rained on all day).  They got wet, muddy, and absolutely trashed, to the point that they were so soaked I had to take them off because my feet were going numb from the wet and cold. 

Because they were so messed up when I got back to my parent's house, I decided to throw all caution to the wind and run them through the washer (well, that and my parents don't have a good place to handwash things.  And I already had asked them if I could wash my boots in the kitchen sink).  And taa da:

They look just as good as they did before the camping trip.  Granted, this was after I washed them again in my sink so I could block them properly (I noticed they bled somewhat when I did that, which never has happened before I machine washed them.  Luckily, I washed them alone in the sink, and with dark clothes in the machine).  But I have to say, not the softest or warmest yarn for socks, but pretty tough. Which is good.

So, now that I have more time, I've finally set down and started designing the tank I wanted to do.  Did I ever mention that before?  Anyway, I've wanted to do a purple and silver tank for awhile, though the design in my head has changed every now and then.  About a month or so ago, my knit group went on a field trip to WEBS, and I got a lot more yarn (<sarcasm>because I don't have enough of it at the moment</sarcasm>):

There, I managed to find a cotton yarn that wasn't Prima Cotton for once:

I then changed my whole idea of what I was doing and stopped there because I had other shit to do.  However, this weekend I managed to finally sit down and calculate out the measurements and stitch counts I needed to at least start the tank:

Hopefully it doesn't become a wreck.  If I'm really lucky, I'll be able to size it and have a new pattern!  Honestly, writing a shirt or sweater pattern has spooked me a bit, but that's another post.

Also, I started swatching for a baby sweater:

Because as luck would have it, right before I went to WEBS I found out another cousin of mine is having her second child.  So I bought yarn to do a baby sweater, which of course ended up being a sport weight yarn despite the fact that half the patterns I have are for worsted.  However, it turns out that my gauge isn't too far off for this sweater, and I just have to go a size up from the size I want to do to get that size.  It should also make a nice, lightweight cardigan (since most of my cousins live in warmer climates...boo...).

Finally, I'm still working on those other socks:

One and a half done, another half to go.  A good, easy, project with some yarn from Rhinebeck.  I tend to buy sock yarn at Rhinebeck, don't I?

Anyway, I should get back to actually getting some knitting done.  Or maybe other things done.  But knitting's better.

I Seem to Plan These Things at the Last Minute

So, in true me fashion, I found out last week that Vogue Knitting Live was being held this weekend in Manhattan, and therefore made last minute plans to go.  Which I can do, since I now don't just live close to the city, but now live close enough where attending was just a matter of hopping on the subway.

Unfortunately, having just moved (as well as had some other unforeseen cost sinks) meant I couldn't afford to take any classes, not that there was a good selection the last week of registration anyway. I ended up doing the 'I Heart NY' package, since paying for that cost just as much as paying for two day marketplace pass, and got you a lecture on top of it.  It ended up working out, as I not only went Saturday to attend the lecture as I had planned to in the beginning, but went Sunday to attend one of the free panels as well.  Though, being in the marketplace for two days didn't help my budget much.  But let me start from the beginning here.

In General
At first, I wasn't too sure about this event.  I walked around the marketplace first, saw projects I liked, but not a lot of yarn caught my eye.  Contrasting that to Rhinebeck where I saw tons of yarn I liked, it was a little disheartening at first.  I'm thinking that part of the reason was that I was trying to be more cautious with my money and space (in contrast to Rhinebeck, where I didn't have a budget or space constraints), and therefore only glanced at all the nice cashmere and silk yarns that are at these events.  The other was that the projects I've been thinking of doing were more warmer weather projects, and a lot of the yarn was cold weather stuff (on top of that, none of my project ideas were solid 'I'm doing X' things, which didn't help). The third is that this seems more geared towards the fashion-forward crowd, whereas I'm picky about what I like and it usually isn't popular (for example, I really didn't see any colors I like that wasn't some brand name yarn I can get elsewhere for the same price if I want it).  Also, I was hoping I'd find buttons for my baby sweater, but there were very few button sellers.  I don't think it helped that I've been in a weird mood for unrelated reasons. 

However, there were some interesting thing there.  As I said, I did see a couple of projects on display that I loved as a project, though I wasn't interested in the yarn used.  One of the vendors had a nice shrug with a stockinette body and cabled collar, with mid-length sleeves.  I fell in love with it the first time I saw it.  However, the yarn used was some weird yak/wool blend which wouldn't have worked for when I needed the shrug (I have a event in June that I was thinking of making a shrug for), the color choices didn't thrill me, and the yarn wasn't cheap either.  As far as I could tell, the pattern itself wasn't on sale.  The other projects I saw was just displays of patterns from magazines, and the last thing I need is a magazine subscription.  Something to think about, but nothing to do.  At first this bugged me, but now it doesn't.  I have food for thought, at least.

The Lecture
I scheduled myself to go to the 'Passionate Knitter Takes the Next Step' by Jo Packham, mainly because the time worked for me.  However, having played with this blog and the idea of trying to design more complicated patterns, I was thinking it may be helpful.

Now, don't get me wrong, the talk was interesting and Packham was funny and entertaining.  However, the talk was geared more towards those really trying to break into the industry as writers and entrepreneurs, and so a lot of the advice wasn't useful to me.  I was thinking I would get more advice on blogging, designing, and other quirks in the knitting world as a means to itself, not as a tool to market a brand so one can freelance as a creative person. I blog, design, and otherwise knit because I enjoy it and want to share, not because I'm looking to make it my job or use it to break into another job.  Hell, I think there's one person who actually knows who I am, who also knows I blog about this stuff.  I know there's very few people who know how much I truly lurk in the knitting world (and I mainly lurk.  That's what needs to change first, I think).  I guess if the lecture did anything, it showed me that I'm a lot more out of the knitting world than I was thinking, and that's ok with me.

Fashion Shows and the Panel
I found the fashion shows by accident; I just happen to be walking by when one was going on, and decided to watch.  I didn't think I'd be interested, but it ended up being one of the better things about this event.  I say that despite the fact that I am horrified at the trends coming up in the knitting world.  Maybe that's why I did enjoy it.  Because I'm horrified.

I first caught part of the Trendsetter fashion show.  I've never heard of them before this event, and their line of yarns seem to consist of, what's it called, specialty yarns?  Ribbon yarns, sparkly yarns, bobble yarns, all sorts of demented not-yarn yarns.  I was under the impression that specialty yarns were what they tried to spring on new knitters (I know that my learn-to-knit book had more than enough projects made out of Fun Fur.  Why certain people think fun fur and the like is appropriate for beginners is beyond me).  That they're the yarns big box stores sell to one in a blue moon hobby knitters.  But here they all, bobbles, sparkles, and all that jazz, in projects that models are wearing down the runway at a major knitting event.  I don't think I need to tell you that I've never liked such yarns or styles.  I wasn't happy that they seem to be picking up again, despite the fact that I shouldn't be surprised.  After all, when did those ugly fir vests, boots, and hats start selling in department stores? Last year?

Anyway, I decided to stick around and watch the next show (despite the fact that, at this point, I was tired and hungry).  This show was for Skacel, which is another company I've never heard of.  The good thing is that they didn't overdo the specialty yarns.  The bad thing is it seems like the next knitting trend is modular knitting, at least according to this company.  I'm not a huge fan of the 'bunch of squares put together' look outside of some afghans; it was one of the reasons I've gotten into knitting over crochet for such things.  They didn't change my opinion.  Another trend they used was weird garment shaping.  Now, I'm not automatically against unique shaping, but not like this.  These garments had bat wings, sweaters that looked like bags with cuffs, weird cowls attached to the garment, that kind of thing.  Yes, I like knitting rectangles too, but I rather deal with garment shaping than wear a rectangle.  Again, some of the stuff here was just reflecting store trends that I hate.  Oye.  However, there were a couple of things I didn't mind, and I have to say that swing dress is pretty neat, though I'd probably never wear such a thing if I knit it.

After this show I left to get food and go home.  That would have been the end of my Vogue Knitting Live trip, except I guess I enjoyed see all the bad fashions more than I thought, as I found myself looking at the Sunday schedule and going: 'Oh, I could go see the Vogue Knitting show at 2.'  So, I came back on Sunday in the afternoon to see the what Vogue Knitting was offering.

I have to say, while there was maybe one thing I would actually want to really wear (maybe two, if I modified the second a bit), they were a lot saner than the other shows.  There were several garments I was going: 'Oh, that looks really interesting, I wouldn't mind knitting something like that.' or even 'Hm, I wouldn't do that but that's an interesting idea.'  Of course, there were a couple of things where I went 'What the hell?', mainly a long, weirdly shaped cardigan with a long twisted attached cowl in the front (at least the other garments with cowls in this collection were not attached).  Also, cowls in the summer?  Summer ponchos?  I don't get these trends.

After this was a panel on knitting as a career, which was the second reason I went back on Sunday.  As I thought, it was interesting and amusing to hear the stories of people, some whom I've read their blogs, or just names we all have heard around the knitting world, tell their stories on how they ended up doing it for a living. 

Purchases
Despite wondering around the marketplace for hours on Saturday because nothing really caught my eye, I did end up buying some yarn (of course):

This will be for a baby sweater for that baby I've been making the other things for (which, I should mention, one good thing about this event was all the knitting time I had during and between shows and events.  I got the baby hat done. Also, being surrounded by people knitting during shows was great).  I picked this yarn because it's 1) cotton and 2) wasn't in the classical pastel blue/pink colors and 3) I've never seen a colorway like that red/orange one, and I thought it'll be interesting, especially since I still don't know the baby's gender, and while I'd have no issue putting pink or flair-y things on a boy or blue on a girl, my relatives would.  So, I thought the red/orange combo would be gender neutral enough, in a short-sleeve cardigan with stripes (or maybe with sleeves, not sure yet).

When I went back on Sunday, I had plans to not buy anything else.  Not only did that not work, I also manage to make an ass out of myself.  Here's what happened:

1) As I was walking around the marketplace right before it was set to close, I passed the Knitty City booth. At the Knitty City booth were two knitwear designers with books out, both which I've heard of but never owned their books.  One happens to be a known designer who I: 1) have favorited patterns on Raverly for but never got around to making, 2) have read their blog since they were featured in Brave New Knits, and 3) just released a book I was just looking at on Amazon as something I may be interested in. 
2) I go up to the known designer's table and say 'oh, I was just looking at this book on Amazon', hereby throwing all proper social introductions out the window.  I pick up the book and start looking through it.
3) After some niceties about the book with a Knitty City staffer, I get told that the author of said book is sitting at the table (which I knew).  I go 'Oh, yes, *mumble, mumble, looking at book not people*, I know, I hang around the Internet.'  At this point I then realize that I: 1) failed to maintain proper social etiquette from the get go, 2) didn't make much sense to anyone else but myself, and 3) now sound like some deranged stalker.  Author has smiled at me, but not said anything but hello.  Unsure what to do, I just keep looking at book.
4) Knowing that there was no graceful way out now, I ask how much book is.  Another mistake.  Knitty City employee flips over book and reads price off of back (duh).
5) I ask to buy book, hand book I'm holding to author.  I still haven't bother explaining myself about the internet comment, or saying anything like 'Oh, I've read your blog' or anything to that nature because I'm afraid of sounding more like a crazy idiot.
6) At this point, another person reads my name tag and asks about where I live.  I tell her that I just moved.  Turns out, she lives in the same 'hood and informs me that there are a lot of knitters there and they meet up.  I mention that I 'didn't know that because I didn't find it on the Internet' (why did I say that?), and I live on the other side of the 'hood from the place she was pointing out they meet.  She did at least tell me a Raverly group for knitters in the area. I make mental note to check it out.
7) Author hands book back.  I say thank you at least two times.  Author thanks me.  I look around and bow away from table to pay for book.

So, the end result is that I bought something completely unplanned, and there's a well known designer who may think I'm a complete idiot. Oye.  But, hey, I have a signed knitting book, and the note is very nice despite my, um, behavor.  And there are a couple of patterns in there I would love to do once I get the time and money.


Conclusion
I had fun, believe it or not.  Even it was the 'hey, let's see what absurd thing we can see today' kind of fun.  It also made me think about what I'm doing as a knitter, and where I want to go with my hobby.  That's something I'm still thinking about, though it did lead me to do yesterday's post.  Because, honestly, I know I'm talking to myself right now.  I don't really participate in the knitting world.  I just lurk, and think that's enough.  What this event let me see is that it's not enough.  Even if I sound like an idiot at first, I need to participate more, talk more, share more.  Because, after all, one of the things that attracted me was that there is a 'knitting community'.  That's impressive in its own right.  And I don't have to make it my job to participate, though I have to keep in mind that I am a budding intermediate knitter/crocheter and not a designer, despite the fact that I have two designs on this blog.  They're basic; I haven't done anything yet.  However, the other fact is that I can learn to be a hobby designer, but I can't rush the process or do it alone.  My goal, therefore, is to get to a point where I do have some better designs, and to not get frustrated when my fantastical ideas that I have right now don't work at first.  To sit down and do, instead of dream, and to do for the knitting community.

Also, I hope that for next year, I can afford a class or two.  Because I think one of the better things about this event is the classes, and honestly, they would have helped me a lot more.  But that is life.

Oh, and I do have pictures from the event, but they're on my phone, and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share them, as most of them are of one of the shows.  Sorry.

Ok, So I've Decided to Actually Blog on This Thing

Originally, I created this blog for the sole purpose of putting my first original pattern somewhere online.  It was easier for me to stick the patterns on a blog and link back to it on Raverly, than trying to create a Raverly download.  I was also naive enough to think that I'd have more time and willpower than I do, and that I'd have a ton of patterns to share with the world.

Yeah, didn't happen.  What a surprise. 

Anyway, I've been thinking.  I've been putting all my trials and tribulations with my projects under my Ravelry entry for them.  While this allows issues and other changes associated with the pattern to be easily found, some of my other...um...issues have been lost under some random project that ended up associated with it.  As well, I've been inspired by reading a couple of established knitting bloggers in that maybe, just maybe, by posting my adventures in knitting and crocheting that someone will not make the mistakes I did, or at least be entertained.

Or it'll just give me an avenue to gab over where no one will really be listening.  One or the other.

So I'm going to try and actually blog on this thing.  I will try not to rant (I have a habit of rant-blogging; it killed another blog of mine).  I will try to help.  I'll try to post once a week.  I will do my first post after this one.  Worst case, I stop and this blog will again just be for my patterns.  Best case, maybe someone will be educated, I'll make more patterns, and also find the time to edit this blog's layout.  In between my long commute, 8-hour work days, my current apartment search, and the projects I'm working on.  Yeah, that's it.