On the lighter side.

[PX 600 UV+ Black Frame film,  02/11 batch]

This photo makes me think of the sun rising so I decided to name it "the crack of dawn." I think it works.

Super honored and delighted that the lovely Jess Hibbard chose one of my photos to be included with her Impossible's Sunday Brunch selections.

Inspired by Downton Abbey and a friend who mentioned making cloches, I discovered and fell in love with this pattern. Super cute, right? I'm on my fifth one right now. I've given each one away so far, but I might keep this last one for myself. We'll see.

I've also been knitting striped totes to felt later in order to use up all the partial skeins that I have leftover from other felting projects.

With all of this knitting comes a lot of television watching. Mostly not so great stuff as I tend to choose shows that don't require my full attention when I am knitting. But it's all entertaining to me for the most part. A lot of SVU since there seem to be marathons  on one of the cable channels every other day.

Yesterday I watched a movie on Netflix called Goats. It's not a particularly good movie, but it did make me wish that I lived in the desert in Tucson, AZ. In a beautiful house with a pool and an amazingly landscaped yard.

I really, really want to get out-of-town. Not entirely sure where I want to go. Maybe some place in the east, maybe some place not too far from here. I just want to go. Want to meet me somewhere?

New stuff. And football, of course.

This week totally got away from me. I feel like I only got about half of the things done that I wanted to get done. It would be lovely if time would slow down a bit.

Earlier in the week, I worked a full day at the gallery which is probably part of the reason that I feel like I had a shorter week than usual for my own work. That evening we had dinner with a friend who asked me to make some flower pins in her niece's college colors and sew them on a headband. So that's one of the things I did this week. Make flowers. In college colors. And while I was at it, I figured I should make some of my little flowers in black and gold for barrettes.



I think they are pretty darn cute.

I also decided to make a beer cozy since a number of people thought my cuff bracelets were beer cozies.



Will claimed this one before I even felted it so now I have to make another for myself. He was very happy to use it this evening as he said it kept his beer cold and his hands warm. As it should.

And yes, we have black and gold on our minds around here.

We decided to make chili for the game on Sunday. Will wanted to do barbecued pork, but the last time we made it, we had quite an embarrassing loss to the Patriots. (And one of our tenants lit a fire in our driveway in front of my car and next to the gas lines, but that's another story.) So I'm feeling a bit superstitious about barbecued pork even though it's what we served throughout our last playoff run and Superbowl win. Last week we had burgers so now I am thinking sticking to a ground beef sort of theme is what's going to happen. Sorry, I know it's ridiculous. I am usually not superstitious, but I get a little bit going on when we are in the playoffs.

We are also going to be serving the leftover pimento cheese dip which I have to say has gotten better and better with time.

Anyway, I was talking about felting, wasn't I? I also made a new set of nesting bowls. Not super different, but a little. Slightly smaller and flat bottomed instead of rounded. Oh and they are crocheted instead of knitted. I learned that I need to add a couple of rows to the largest one so that it comes out more in proportion to the others, but overall I am happy with the result. And I love the colors.



Hope you all have fabulous weekends! I may not be around until Tuesday, but we'll see. Tomorrow is a whole bunch of sewing flower barrettes that aren't black and gold and shaving felted things and vacuuming and mopping and laundering. And then Sunday is all about football.

Go Steelers!!

xo

A few new things.

Another new experiment...vases! Or, I guess, vase cozies. Vase covers? Something.





I think it's pretty neat looking. Now let's see if I can sell any! Right now I just have one at the gallery, but eventually I'll get some in the shop. And, as always, if you see something here that you want and can't wait until it makes it to the shop, let me know and we can work out a special order.



This set of nested bowls is a special order for my godmother. I'm not a big purple person, but I love the purples with the bright blue. A great combo, methinks. I'm also working on a set of red, white and blue for my godmother, and it's been a bit tricky. White doesn't felt so well. I think I finally got it done today, but it took a loooooooooong time in the washing machine. I felt bad about using all that electricity for one little bowl. (Everything else got done quickly. I have three new *bright* bags drying in the laundry room.)



Another special order, this one for my mom. Okay, yes, I sell most of my things to family and family friends. The sales have to start somewhere!

I have some other ideas I want to try, but there's only so much I can do in a day. And I have a few more special orders to finish up and zinnias to make for the gallery. Zinnia pins are my best seller over there on Canyon Road!

Don't forget that I have quite a few things on sale over at the shop! A coaster set, bowls, bags...and it'll all stay on sale until it's gone.

Also, I know some of you see these same pictures on Flickr and/or Facebook. I apologize for the repetition, but I feel like I have to keep it out there in all the different places that I post. Thanks for putting up with it!

Bags and bowls.

A few more new things over at Leslie Flynt this week.



One of my favorite nested sets so far! I love these colors together.



A lemon drop yellow clutch will definitely brighten up any outfit!



And apple green with one of my favorite cable designs on it.

In the coming weeks, I'll also be adding new items to the Mad Orange Shop and putting some older items on sale. I'm starting to worry that I'm going to be buried in an avalanche of felted wool, there are so many things piled up in my office!

New stuff!

Hello, thank you for bearing with me and my rambles about lack of sleep yesterday. I slept alright last night and am feeling mostly human again. Always a nice treat.

I took a few new things over to the gallery here in Santa Fe last week, things that I have been meaning to show you.

A felted coaster set which includes 6 coasters and a small bowl to keep them in.





Another coaster set, this one in a "petal" bowl. I like to think that when put together, it looks like a flower. Yes, me and flowers. I love flowers.





And this clutch isn't a new style, just a new color. Bright and fabulous for spring and summer!



The fuchsia and turquoise look really great together.

I'm really excited about the coaster sets. I think they're pretty cute and they're even useful too!

So they aren't in my Etsy shop, but the coaster sets will be available there soon. And of course if you ever see anything here that isn't in the Etsy shop but it is something you would like to purchase, just let me know! I'm always happy to make special orders.

Felted bracelets.

I've been playing around with making felted bracelets. I made this one awhile back, but it is only recently that I was able to finish it with the snaps. The felt is just thick enough that regular snaps do not work so I had to find long-pronged snaps. (The Snap Source saved me!) And actually, the long-pronged snaps almost weren't long enough, but after some steam ironing and persistence, I made them work. As a finished bracelet, I think it turned out pretty darn cute!



This one was supposed to be about half the size of the first one, but as always with felting, you never know what's going to happen! The edges curled under quite a bit so it's less than half the size of the first, but it still works. I again used the steam iron to flatten it up some. Yay for steam irons!

I don't think these are the best items for spring/summer since they are wool, but they will definitely be perfect for fall/winter! I really need to hone my embroidery skills though. I love the idea of embroidery on the felt, but since I am a novice embroiderer, free hand embroidery is tough for me. Just gotta keep trying, I guess.

Last week, I made another batch of bracelets to see if I could "size" them and, well, it's tough. I used different brands of yarns and they all seem to shrink up differently. Plus I have really small wrists so I am not quite sure what the right size is for everybody else! (Feel free to leave me your wrist size in the comments!) This week I'll try a few more and cross my fingers that they turn out well.

I've been crocheting more than knitting lately (although the bracelets are knitted) and it's quite fun. Making lots of little bowls and a few new designs. I'll have them ready to show you soon.

This week I think I am going to take some time off to work on the garden and take care of some other projects. I love my work, but right now I need some time off the couch and some time outside! It is spring after all.

Felted heart.

I've been experimenting a lot lately, making smaller things and random things. To make this, I knitted two heart shaped pieces and then stitched them together, leaving a one-inch gap at the bottom for stuffing. Felted it in the washing machine. It turned out pretty well and was a quick project. A gift for a friend who likes hearts.

A couple of new bags.

This is probably the largest bag I have made so far. It turned out quite well, I think, and it's great because it actually can hold quite a bit of stuff. The usual wallet and keys plus a small camera, journal, book, whatever it is that you can't live without when you go out for a day. I think it would work well as a knitting bag too. I plan to make some more in other colors, but my list of things to do is so long right now, I don't know when I'll have them ready!



And this one is just really cute. It isn't all that big, but it works. I managed to get my big wallet, cell phone and small digital camera in it. I'm definitely going to be making more in this style. It's just fun to carry around.

Both are available in the shop!

Abstract.

The latest Words To Shoot By is live! Check it out.

It's all about rainbows around here.

It seems like everyone wants rainbow striped bags. With shoulder straps. I've made 4 in the past week, 3 of them to fill special orders. And they all turned out particularly well which made me very happy.

Rainbows are a happy thing.

My new favorite cowl!

I absolutely love this pattern. It was fun to knit and the end result is lovely. I used Malabrigo Merino again and it is so soft and warm.

The pattern is by Dori Mondon. It's available at both her Ravelry shop and Etsy shop. You can also make it with a hood!

Often found on the coffee table.

I do most of my knitting in the living room because I like to watch movies and crime shows while I work. So I usually have all my supplies spread out on the coffee table and next to me on the couch. Whenever Will comes to see what I am doing and sits down next to me, I tell him that he is sitting on my desk. (Yes, these are the little things that amuse us during the day.)

The only dangerous thing about using the coffee table as a work space is when a glass of wine that is on the table gets knocked over. Luckily that's only happened once and nothing got ruined. You would think that one accident would make me remove all the knitting stuff in the evening, but no, wine and knitting are still mixed sometimes.

Zinnias and roses.

I just love the way the zinnias and roses looked all piled up together before they get felted.

Experiment #1

I've had a few ideas floating around my head for awhile now, and so last week I decided to proceed with one of them. I knit most of my bags in the round (so they are all one piece) because it works and I like the look of the felted result not really having any seams. But I've been thinking about a lot of different things, and knitting in the round is limiting to a certain extent. There are some color work designs that I want to use but just haven't been able to figure out how to make them in the round. So I decided to do something with seams, i.e. make the base, front, back and side panels separately and seam them together at the end.

Have I mentioned that I hate seaming? I really do. I don't know why and usually it ends up being less of a pain than expected. But I always dread doing it.

So I planned the bag out in my head. (If I could sketch, this sort of thing might be a lot easier.) I made the base and then picked up the stitches on each side to do the panels so in the end, I only had the side seams to sew up. I've seen some felted bags with the seams on the outside and I thought it looked kind of cool so I decided to seam my bag on the outside. It makes for a chunky sort of edge. I could tell as I knit that things weren't really working out as planned. They were kind of working, but not entirely. But I decided to push forward so I could learn from my mistakes.



Once I got it all seamed and the strap knitted, I knew by looking at it that it wasn't going to work out. The color work design would probably be alright, but the construction of the bag was all wrong. I almost frogged it as to not waste the yarn. In the end, I decided that I would go ahead and felt it because one, felting is always surprising and it could end up working out and two, even if it did turn out to be a disaster, I could learn something useful from it. Maybe I could figure out how to make it work.



I wasn't even really sure that this color work pattern would felt well. But I knew if it did, it would be pretty awesome.

In the end, the bag did not work out.



Excuse the horrid picture, but it's still in the drying phase. The color work design definitely worked out. I think it looks pretty neat, but as I suspected, the construction of the bag just kind of sucks. It's all lopsided and wrong and the seams on the outside look too bulky and awful. Of course my husband likes it, but he always likes my mistakes the best. Perhaps this will be his new "man bag". (Um, not really.)

It hurts a little bit to lose the yarn, but really, it's okay. I know I need to figure out some other way to use this particular color work design on a purse. And I know that I don't like seams on the outside, at least not the way I did them here. I also learned that I still don't like seaming! I'll probably try it again at some point, but I think I will approach it differently. I also think if I had put two handles on this bag instead of a strap, it might have worked better. Live and learn, that's how it goes.

On knitting needles.

Most of you probably know this, but knitting needles come in a large variety of sizes and lengths, circular and straight. It can get expensive when every new project needs a different size of needle.

When I first taught myself to knit, I was lucky in that I had just inherited quite a variety of straight needles from Granny (Will's grandmother). I don't think I had every size, but I had a good mix of sizes for a beginner. I could make worsted weight scarves or chunky ones. (Back then I really gravitated towards the chunky!) And scarves were pretty much all I made for a few months so I wasn't worried about circular needles.

Eventually I moved on to hats and started purchasing the circulars. I always bought the Clover Takumi Bamboo circulars because they are readily available at hobby stores like Michaels and Jo-Ann. And I fell in love with the bamboo versus the aluminum straight needles that I was using. The Clover brand is also affordable so they fit my budget.

I loved making hats and over the years, I ended up having most of the needles sizes in the 16-inch circular length. And because I loved the feel of the bamboo needles, I picked up a few sizes of straight needles. (Plus some of Granny's needles were pretty worn down so I felt like replacements were justified.) Then, a few years ago when we visited my aunt and uncle in San Diego, I was sent home with my grandmother's knitting supplies. So I have doubles and maybe even a few triples of straight needles. In other words, straight needles are covered.

Of course as my passion for knitting grew, I realized that I wanted to make something besides scarves and hats. So I'd pick a pattern and find that I didn't have the needles required. Right now I have a few 24-inch circulars and a few 36-inch, but nowhere near what I need for any given pattern, especially now that I am (tentatively) delving into sweaters.

For the next sweater, I need two new circular sizes which probably amounts to $25 to $30 if I buy the Clover Takumi needles. Not too bad, but what about when the next sweater needs different sizes? Or if I do a gauge swatch and realize I need a size up or down? That's another $10 to $15 and another $10 to $15 and so on. It adds up pretty quickly.

So. (And yes, I realize I lost most of my audience awhile back.)

I started looking at interchangeable circular sets. I know a few people who have the Options Interchangeable Harmony Wood Needles Set and really like them. I get a good bit of my yarn from KnitPicks and that set is so very pretty, so I was leaning in that direction. It's a decent range of sizes, gets okay reviews, and again, so pretty! But around the same time, I happened to pick up some KA bamboo needles at Tutto. They are totally affordable and I ended up really liking both the straight needles and the circular that I bought. They are so smooth and nice.

So when in my interchangeable circular set research, I discovered that KA makes a set, I was interested. Slightly more expensive than Options and a different set up, but bamboo, which I love, and such a cute little cloth case!

I went back and forth over the two choices for days and finally decided to go with the KA set. So yes, I spent $99 on needles, but in the long run, it is way more cost effective that buying the needles singly. The KA set amounts to 39 different combinations! So that's $99 for 39 sizes versus $35 or $45 for 3 sizes. See, makes sense, right?

When my set arrived the other day, I was thrilled! Look how cute!



And I realize there is no perspective here, but it's a bit smaller than a Moleskin journal. And on the inside...



needles all in their own place plus a little pocket on the back for the circular parts. It is so compact and awesome. A good investment, for sure. I think I am set for awhile.

The Tuesday Night Cowl.

I've been wanting a new cowl all winter and now that I took a little break from knitting "work", I managed to get one done. It is the Tuesday Night Cowl (Ravelry link) and I really love it. I wanted something kind of chunky without being overwhelmingly chunky. I also wanted it to fit a bit more closely around my neck than the one I made last year. And I didn't want it to be too wide. Wide is good for outside, but I was thinking more of something to wear around the house. Looking at the photos of this pattern, it seemed to fit the bill. I love cables and this pattern is all about large cables. And the pattern has directions for chunky, aran and worsted weight yarn. Which means you can sort of play around with the size by using the instructions for aran with worsted weight yarn to get a slightly smaller size.

I just happened to have some of my favorite yarn ever in my stash, Malabrigo Worsted (leftover from the cowl I made for Sandra) so I was good to go. For once I did not have to buy anything for a new project.

It knit up quickly and I decided not to block it because I like the "scrunched up" look.



Here it is before I seamed it together. I am not a huge fan of seaming things, but this pattern requires the kitchner stitch which is grafting live stitches together and I really dig it. It takes a bit of concentration to avoid mistakes. (In other words, if my husband starts talking to me, I may not hear what he is saying.)



I'm quite happy with the results. The yarn is so soft and cozy, it feels great around my neck. (No itchy scratchies!)



And while it is a bit wider than I wanted, it works. When it's pulled all the way up, it's good for heading out into the cold.



And for inside, I just fold it over to the inside and it's perfect. I've been wearing it nonstop since I finished it the other day. I'm so sick of turtlenecks and yes, I know this goes around my neck, but it feels less claustrophobic. I love it!

On the list of things to make.

[Image © Jane Richardson]

The Jane Hat. Not that I really need another hat, but this one is too cute and I need some smaller projects to do. Also, this is one I can make with yarn from my stash. Right now not spending anymore money is a good thing.


[Image © Jane Richardson]

Yes, another top down sweater! By the same designer as the Cozy Bolero. (Obviously I am much attracted to Jane Richardson Designs.) This one looks like it will be a more flattering fit for me plus if I need to change the length or anything, it'll be a snap to do. I don't have the yarn for this one yet, nor the needles, but I am hoping to get to it in the next couple of weeks.

I've also been wanting to make myself a cowl and I think this is the one that I am going to do, the Tuesday Night Cowl (Ravelry link). I like the chunky look and I have some bright turquoise blue Malabrigo Worsted in my stash that I can use. I might start this today, but I haven't decided yet as I also need to get back to work on some new designs for the shop.

What are you working on? (Doesn't have to be knitting!)

A happy weekend to you all!

The sweater without sleeves.

Here's the sweater as it is now. It looks right and I think it fits right, although I can't say that it looks great on me. But I haven't blocked it yet so that could make a huge difference. I'm not going to block it until I add the sleeves. And I can't add the sleeves until I get the needles I need. I ordered them this morning and they already shipped so hopefully by early next week, this little project will be complete.

Following the larger size directions with the smaller needles seems to have worked out very nicely. The only modification that I made was adding two extra rows of ribbing on the collar.

I'm really hoping that the sleeves and blocking make this into something I will wear. If not, I'll either pass it off to someone else or stash it until I need the yarn for something else.

I bought the new Knitscene this afternoon and boy does it have some cute patterns in it! There are couple of things I'd like to make, but it's just so hard to buy the yarn needed. Even the smaller sweaters call for 5 or 6 skeins of yarn and when that yarn is 8 bucks or more a skein, it gets really expensive, really fast. But maybe after sales pick up a bit, I'll splurge on something.

The sweater.

I fancy myself a fairly decent knitter. Not super advanced in that there are many things I have never made (like socks or a pieced together sweater) and I don't always know what to do intuitively. But I am damn good at following a pattern. Give me a well written pattern and I think I could make just about anything. (Well and the internet has to be handy too so I can look up things that don't make sense initially.)

But this sweater. Good grief.

I first saw the pattern on a blog awhile back, then again recently and since I'm taking a little break from making handbags, I thought, what the heck, I'll buy the pattern. (Because not selling my things means I have tons of money right now. NOT.) It's a fairly simple pattern and looks super cute in the photos. I'm all for top down sweaters since there is no seaming involved. And this pattern has sleeves unlike the top down vest that I made last year so I figured I'd kind of be learning something new. Kind of.

Okay. Next, the yarn. Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick is easy enough to find and it knits up super quick. But oh yeah, it costs money, doesn't it? Lucky for me, it was on sale the day I was at Michaels so I purchased my 3 skeins for under $15. I also bought the needles that I thought I needed.

I cast on and started working on the sweater this past Saturday. I got the increases done before we left for ABQ and on the way to ABQ, I managed to finish the body of the sweater.

But something wasn't quite right. The sleeve holes looked really small. And the length was way too short. I mean, it's a bolero type sweater, but still, after the 16 rows directed, it was still super short. I kept fussing about it, trying to figure out what was wrong. Did I read the pattern wrong? No. Am I crazy? Maybe. I tried it on my nieces shoulders and it kind of worked, but no, something was wrong.

Finally I got on Ravelry to see if there were any notes about the pattern. That's when I realized that I had read the needle size incorrectly.

Ooops.

The pattern clearly states "15mm - 32-inch circular needles". But I stopped at the 15 and started the project with US 15 needles. Um, big difference. On Ravelry, it says "US 19 / 15 mm" which is what finally made my brain snap about my mistake.

This kind of bummed me out because I don't have that size needles and they aren't super common. And the pattern calls for the longer size circular as well as the 16-inch circular so now I was looking at spending more and more money. I did some research online and found both sizes for a cool $26.50 each. Um, no. Not going to happen. I finally gave up and we headed out to meet my brother and his family for dinner.

The next day we stopped at Michaels on our way out of ABQ and lucky me, I found cheapo plastic needles in the longer circular size. Not a lot of fun to use as far as knitting goes, but hey, for $4.99, I can't complain. So I cast on again and went to work. Right off the bat I didn't like the bigger holes in the knitting, but whatever, I pushed on. I skipped the sleeve part since I don't have that size yet and went ahead to add the body border and collar. It was definitely the right size now. Also very baggy and saggy and kind of too big.

Sigh.

So do I knit on, order the needles I need for the sleeves (which I finally found for a slightly better price) and make this sweater that I will probably never wear?

No. (When I first started knitting, I made a ton of things that I never wore and I refuse to do that anymore.)

I keep the body intact to use as size comparison and cast on yet again with size US 17 / 29-inch circulars which I actually already have. (This is a size difference of 15mm to 12.75mm.) I start off by knitting for my right size and after I get past the armholes, I realize it's too small. So I rip back up to the end of the increases and start following the directions for the next size up. As I knit, I keep measuring and comparing with the other sweater and it seems to being going well.

Right now I have just finished the body border and need to start on the collar. It's much smaller than the second version I did on the jumbo needles, but I think it's actually the right size. So I am going to keep going. And order the needles I need for the sleeves. (Oh, one other benefit to top down sweaters is that you can try them on as you go.)

I suspect it still may end being gifted to someone else, but after so many freakin headaches, I am going to finish the damn thing.

And next time? Next time I am knitting a sweater in fine yarn that will take me forever to make. But it's going to fit me perfectly. Just you wait.

(And for the record, I did numerous gauge swatches and they were all so close that it was hard for me to decide what to do.)

Stripes and more stripes.

Okay, one with no stripes. I know I owe you a bit more of an update, but I'm just super busy right now. Knitting and running errands and taking care of holiday related things. There just isn't enough time in a day.