alisonknits

working and teaching and designing, oh my

Please forgive my long absence.  I've been working a lot, plus the usual holiday stuff (including a lot of very inappropriate dinner table conversation at Thanksgiving in CT... I love my off-color family...)  I think I need a blogging schedule so that I actually post - I'd like to make this blog a higher priority.  I'm not telling what my planned schedule is... I want to see if I can stick to it first!

Besides my hours at the store and the church, I'm gearing up to teach several classes and workshops at Three Bags Full in Newburyport.  Tomorrow night starts a new beginner cycle, another starts Friday, I'm doing Last Minute Holiday Gifts Saturday morning, then Finishing the following Saturday and Beginner Refresher (for people who knit a long time ago and want to pick it up again) the Saturday after that.  The gifts class has involved making some samples, because I like to make things difficult for myself so didn't choose to use existing patterns. My favorites are these cabled fingerless gloves, knit in Reynolds Odyssey merino:

And now I'm scrambling to get my designs finished in time to send to my technical editor when she's expecting them.  The cutaway jacket sweater is almost finished, but it took a lot of trial and error to get it right.  Originally I did the curved front pieces by increasing on every row for a bunch of rows, but decided (after completing the pieces and starting the border) that it was pulling in too much.  So I ripped.  My solution was use short rows, and I also used short rows on the curved bottom of the back and also on the shawl collar, so this sweater is now a study in short rows. 

Today I'm working on the patterns, and just finished calculating all the sizes for a bolero jacket that I made last spring.  I should be able to start writing the pattern, but the eyelet stitch pattern that I used is going to make it difficult to write the instructions for the fronts.  The problem is, it involves increasing in pattern, with each size being half a pattern repeat off from the next.  I'm thinking of just charting it, but that too will be rather labor intensive.  I may need some guidance on this one.

mmm Mitten...

Remember how I said a couple posts ago that I had enough time?  I think I knew that by saying that aloud (or writing it down in black-and-white), I was tempting fate.  I wanted more work?  Ask and ye shall receive.  Due to some staffing changes at the yarn shop, I picked up another shift and will also be teaching a lot more.  This is a good thing.

The first class I'm teaching, which I started on Tuesday, is a kids knitting class.  I've taught a few individual kids before, but never a class.  This one is small, just four kids: two girls and two boys.  I'm happy about the gender parity and have noticed that a lot of boys knit nowadays - probably a lot more boys than men do, as far as I've seen.  The first class went well, the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and the two who had never knit before picked it up very quickly.  I think in some ways it's easier for kids to learn skills like knitting than adults, because they're used to learning all the time and they don't have so many anxieties about whether or not they'll be able to do it right.  Just my un-scientific observation.

Having realized that I really need a technical editor for my patterns, and faced with the reality of actually writing them, I'm pushing back the launch of my website until January 1.  I'm still working on the name.  Any other ideas out there?  I need to think more about my brand identity.

In the meantime, because obviously I don't have enough to knit on (class samples, UFOs, the afghan), I started some Latvian mittens last week.  I became enamoured of these when the Harlot was making them last winter, and have been really missing stranded color knitting.  I'm almost done with the first mitten:

Sorry the picture's so dark.  No time to fix it.

These are great fun!  Try it, you'll like it.

No Tricksters Nor Treats

So apparently they celebrate Halloween early 'round these parts, and we were uninformed.  While I was driving home from a conference in the snow (snow!) on Saturday, our neighborhood was invaded by ghouls and goblins.  And on Monday while Scott & I were blissfully carving pumpkins and making other preparations, a passing preteen informed us that we were two days late.  Shame they all went out on Saturday, given that the actual Halloween was a balmy 65 degrees, not a snowflake in sight.  (As a child, I hated having to wear a coat over my costume.)

Plus, they missed our excellent Jack O'Lanterns...