Dinner!

When Chris asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year I said I just wanted a nice dinner somewhere I could get dressed up and let my inner girly girl have fun primping. I got it. He really did well finding a restaurant... Amazingly well... I don't think I've ever had a better birthday dinner in my life, actually I've never been taken out to dinner like that at all before. If I go on too much more this will end up simply being a post where I gush about how amazing Chris is and how much I enjoyed the night. I think I'll cut myself off now ;o)

Chris! At the restaurant :o)

At Prime. My Mom says it looks like I'm on a sinking ship with that tilted background.

Got a Knotion

Getting an acceptance e-mail for a pattern submission cannot possibly ever lose its thrill. ...Technically I guess anything can lose its excitement factor if repeated too many times, but I'm not getting into that debate now... In my inbox today I received word that a pattern submitted to Knotions will be appearing in the Winter issue. The name of the pattern is Wylde Oats, but that's all I'm going to give you. Keep an eye out for it. I'll be posting photos and links as soon as it appears in Knotions.

Other news on the design front...
The summer top in Knit Picks Comfy has been wrapped up. It's currently awaiting photos, something that tends to hold me up in the pattern process. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Very cute, very casual, very easy to knit. I'd say it's a good project for a relatively new knitter, or for some mindless social knitting.

Lace Loss

I've mentioned before, perhaps a few times now, that I'm in the middle of designing my first lace piece. Sound familiar? It's going pretty well. I'd say I'm almost at the halfway point. Not too shabby for a first attempt. (Yes, I'm patting myself on the back a little bit.) However, there are a few slight changes I'd like to make, really just in the placement of a few beads. Nothing major. It would only take a few minor clicks in the charting program to fix those minute details. It would only take a few quick clicks if I had the original file for the Knit Visualizer chart that is. Yes, I accidentally trashed it when I was cleaning up the folder for this design. and yes, I'm kicking myself. Instead of a few minor adjustments I get to chart the whole darn thing again! Ain't that fun?! I can't comprehend redoing the entire thing on a hot, sunny, gorgeously tempting summer day, so it's going to have to wait for my next free day that turns out to be raining buckets, so I'm not tempted to run away screaming. It will get done. I'm too determined not to be outdone by my own stupidity.

Wise Nora (Pattern)

$4.50 usd

View Project On Ravelry

Wise Nora Beret

Wise Nora is an airy summer beret knit from a cotton/linen blend. Cabled brim band ties at the back of the hat to provide a secure fit.


Yarn:: Knit Picks CotLin (2 skeins Kohlrabi)

Gauge:: 22 stitches and 28 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch

Needle size:: US 3 (3.25 mm) 16" circular needles for brim band;

US 5 (3.75 mm) 16" circular needles for hat, US 5 dpns for decrease portion.

Yardage:: 190 - 240 yards

Sizes available:: One size—women's

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Special Thanks
to Knit Picks for providing yarn support for this pattern
KnitPicks.com

In the YO

Recently all I want to do is knit lace. I have several non lace projects going, but they're just not holding my attention very well. I've been completely (at least for the time being) sucked into the fascination of watching the delicate pattern emerge from the needles. Excitement is amplified in this case for me by the fact that the particular lace piece I'm working on is of my own design. I'm at a point now where I'm curious to see if what I planned on paper will actually translate to sticks and string. Hmmm.... So you see, the other works in progress, which happen to contain a million miles of stockinette in all of them, lack the interest factor in comparison. Eventually I'll get some pictures of my lace taken and uploaded, but I have to first decide what I'm going to do with this design. I think I'm heading toward self publishing, however I haven't 100% decided. We'll see.

All the projects on my needles are original designs, and despite my statements of how boring they are when compared to lace, they are quite nice (just, you know, not lace). I'm on the second, and hopefully final, test knit of three different items. One is a garment, one is a sock, and one is a hat. The hat will most likely be the next pattern to hit the Web site. It's a simple little summer number worked in Knit Picks CotLin in Kohlrabi (pale green).

A huge reason that it's taking me so long to complete the non-lace projects I have going is the material. Both the hat and garment are plant fibers. (The garment being 100% cotton and the hat a cotton/linen blend.) I always felt like I had to fight a bit when knitting with cotton due to it's lack of stretch. However, recently it's been somewhat of an intensified battle. Too much time spent with the plant fiber based yarn and my wrists begin to audibly snap and pop. That *can't* be a good sign. So I'm taking it very slow and only doing a few rows here and there on those projects. I am hands down a huge fan of a nice merino wool yarn. Soft to work with and easy on the hands due to it's natural elasticity.