Think of a Happy Thought, Any Happy Little Thought

Where did the week go?  I've been concentrating hard on my project list that I've barely noticed the individual days go by.  All in all, it has been a pretty good week. :)

Yes, I researched, prayed, cried, and voted.  I have been avoiding the nasty social media war.  

Please, lets not talk about it here.  Happy thoughts only!

Last Saturday I put the finishing touches on the hats my aunt commissioned me to make for Christmas gifts.  I would recommend both these patterns and the yarn I used.  

Catching Up to Date

In my last blog post I was talking about all the crazy things I had going on last year that overwhelmed me.  I left off at the end of August just as I was being buried alive in projects...

I have always loved September.  For me it represents so many new beginnings;  the first day of school, my birthday, it is even Jewish New Year though I've not particular celebrated it that way.  September 2015 was all about just getting through the next step, one little bit of progress over the mountain path, carefully as to not cause an avalanche.

Here's what I worked on month-by month:

September

Searched through lots of pattern books for ideas for my design

Hand knitted socks for my sister

Used Jamberry nail wraps to quit biting my nails

Started knitting socks for my daughter

Started spinning this SAPGAP yarn order

October

Working out pattern details

Finished my daughter's socks

Wrote, tested and published this hat pattern

Started socks for my son

Hand spun and mailed out all this yarn

November

Sewed box bags for a fiber festival

Sewed a special order bag and an new cube-sized bag

Hand spun and hand dyed this yarn

Hand knit this adorable dragon

Started a fund-raiser for my ferret's surgry

Finished writing the pattern, and got it test knit

Sent off my Geek-Swap package

December

Make custom-order slippers

Dyed wool

Sewed more bags

Sewed a different style bag

Designed new fiber graphics

Hand-combed LOTS of wool

Learned a new style of art-yarn

Dyed this wool

Went on vacation to visit my family!

January

Designed something I haven't revealed yet

Hand knit a skirt for my daughter

Made a custom order of two hats

Finished this SAPGAP art-yarn order

Finally finished my son's socks

Got my ferret her life-saving surgery

Started an MKAL for my latest pattern

Whew!  All that was tiring!  That gets us all caught up!  My husband is still on swing shift so I am still 99% a single parent.  However I am going to be careful as to not overload myself to *that* point again.  I am enjoying my freedom of sitting and enjoying an evening of MY choice instead of trying to keep up with that frantic pace.  I still have a lot to get done, but at a much more reasonable pace. :D  I have lots of exciting things to share with you!

The return of peace

Things have indeed been chaotic at my home this summer.  My kids were on top of each other and fighting.  Meanwhile I was trying to push my fiber business off to a start.  I had spinning orders to fulfill, a pattern I wrote, tested, remade, and tested by others, and finally released.  My fiber graphics have become fairly popular and I've sold several orders. Oh, and I've been photo journaling my art projects before bed every night.
 

Today school started again.  I have one kiddo in public school in a special needs class and that is working *wonderfully* for him.  My oldest kiddo I homeschool, and now I'm working on paperwork to get my youngest into preschool.  I hope I can get her in so my oldest and I can get some work done in peace for a few hours.

Recently I've joined in a craft swap hosted by my favorite podcast Knit 1 Geek 2.  I was inspired by my spoilee (the secret person I am spoiling that I will not reveal online) to create yet another knitting pattern.  I am *so* excited about this one but I can't reveal my concept yet.  I can get it done before the deadline if I'm quick, but I would really like it to go through test knitting first if I can.  So, I've pulled in a friend to help me with part of this project and she is just excited as I am!

I can show you a little bit; below are a few swatches I've knit, and above is my stack of research books. :)

Oh, and yesterday, I stuck my toes and spent a little money to promote my latest pattern on Facebook this week.  I'm curious to see how that goes!

Nemesis Horns re-released!

Nemesis Knapsack has completed testing and has been re-released with updates!  

I really enjoyed working with the people in Ravely's "Free Pattern Testers" group. :). If you are a desugner, check them out. 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nemesis-horns-free-pattern

Busy Bee

I in no way meant to neglect this blog, and if you've been on any of my other social media site you can see that I've been busy!

Speaking of which, I've joined a few new ones.  Here's the list of where I'm at:

Blogger: http://rcozyknits.blogspot.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RCozyKnits
Google+: https://plus.google.com/108753918272315672879/posts/p/pub
Instagram: https://instagram.com/rcozyknits  NEW!
Ravelry:http://www.ravelry.com/people/Freckleface78
Ravelry Designer Page: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/rachel-sanchez
Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RCozyKnits
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RCozyKnits
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHGebKHn123t4cstnMGsh5Q  NEW! 


Whew.  Just looking at that makes me tired.  lol  Putting that list down was as much for me as it is for you.  I kept confusing myself where I posted stuff; which is one reason why I've not written for so long.  I gave an update on Facebook and not here by accident.  Hopefully as I go forward from here I'll figure out a system to keep it smooth.

So, advertising is a boring part of the business but necessary.  Moving on!

I put out my pattern and asked for test knitters.  I found a couple but I also found an error with my pattern.  While my husband requested a certain kind of closure it just didn't work with the felted fabric that he also requested.  So I thought it out, did a test run and he likes it.  So I fixed up his bag and fixed up the pattern.  I took new pictures and I'm ready to try again to ask for more test knitters.  The two are still interested but more is better.  I'm going to reach out to a test knitting group on Ravelry and see how that goes.  If anyone reading this blog wants to test knit a bag please email me!

Same great bag, better cinching closure.

Oh,  and Tour de Fleece!  I took lots of photos as I went along.   You all have seen the colorful yarns I spun but then I moved on to my SAPGAP order.  I have one more skien to spin up and then I'll be done.

The kids want dinner.  Why do they feel the need to eat everyday?  Sheesh!  :P  So I'll leave you with a teaser for now and tell you more tomorrow...

Tour de Fleece 2014, Day 9

Ok. I freely admit it. I'm addicted to spinning and I don't care who knows it!  I have no regrets!

The last time I wrote a blog wntry it was day 3.   It is now day 9. My lack of computer is holding me back, too, but Ishould  have it back in a few days.  That will be a relief!

Let's see, what exactly have I been doing?

I've washed a few pounds of fleece and started picking the vegetable matter out of it. 

Its the Ramboulett and Targhee fiber I bought recently. 

I also have been spinning a lot!  For a few days I spun a new technique for me. This wool had (suri?) locks (angelina?) and I only flicked it - no carding or eoving. It qas my first lock spinning. The tiny knots hurt my hands trying to oull it thin but it was so woth it!

Trying to decide what to pair it with took quite some time. Blue wool?  White suri?Chocolate  huacaya?   I finally decided on this lovely mystery batt if wool-alpaca-(rayon?) in black/white/purple.

The gorgeous 517 yard skein crying out to me to be a shawl!  I will oblige it!  What was left I plied back on itself (72 y). 

Next I spent an afternoon weighing out 50g piles of fiber for two SAPGAP trades.   The batts went into bags and the rovings went into small balls. 

Yesterday I spent all day spinning a fine yarn that I think will end up being a 2-ply lace weight.   This is a Merino-Coromo cross. 

 Tonight I will work more on its ply-mate. 

I cannot forget to tell you that I'm almost done writing the Luck Sack pattern!  I need to edit a bit more and get some pictures taken and it'll be ready for test knitting!  I expect to have it ready in the next day or two. :)

Dyeing with Wilton

 I finally got my husband to confess what the look on his face was already telling me; he didn't like the Koolaid dye.  It lost something when knit in with the brown yarn into the bag.  The top stripe was fine, but the shamrock was getting lost.  He didn't want to be picky but I invited him to be.  (I reminded him just how excited I am to *finally* knit something for him.)

He finally pulled out a circuit board and said that's the color he's looking for.


So that night I took my stuff to my guild night and asked the ladies what they thought.  I could either buy the yarn (the shop didn't have my requirements in stock) or I could try Wilton dying.  I decided to do that.  So I did some research online and found some info.


This site has marvelous info on various kinds of dyeing: http://www.dyeyouryarn.com/wilton-general.html
These are the directions I followed (for the most part) and I am SO inspired by her gorgeous roving and yarn!  I will need to play with her technique some more.   http://keeponknittinginthefreeworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/wiltons-icing-gel-dying-tutorial.html


I bought three colors of Wilton icing dye at Michael's Craft store this afternoon; Kelly Green, Moss Green, and Juniper Green.  The Juniper label looked like what I wanted but I wasn't 100% sure how it would translate on yarn so I grabbed the three to play with.  They were about $2.45 a piece (1 oz.) and I had a 40% off coupon.


I got out some mason jars; pints for my mix jars and quarts for my cooking jars.  I mixed them up according the [the second website above]'s directions with vinegar and water.  Then I poured about half into jar and added a cup of warm water.  I dropped in a mini skein (tied at two points) of 10 yards into each jar and stirred it slightly.  Then I lined them up and they jars took turns nuking in the microwave for two minutes.  I think each jar when through three times but I was distracted by my kids.   Anyway, the water became see through.  The last little bit didn't get absorbed as I had overloaded the water.  That's okay.

I let them cool and later pulled them out with tongs and tossed them into a colander and rinsed.  (I wasn't sure if they'd leak on me.  Turns out they were fine, but I didn't want green fingers.)  I squeezed out the excess water and hung them up to dry.

When I check on them later I could see the final color (dry fiber will sometimes look different than when wet.)  They were close, but I decided to play with the fourth mini skein I had set aside.  I mixed a quarter cup of each the Kelly and Moss greens together in a mason jar and added the cup of water and yarn.  I really like how this one came out.  I think its the computer-board green he's wanting.  We'll see when it's completely dry!

Furthermore, I also finally set some alpaca yarn that I finished spinning a few weeks ago.  It is what I was spinning at World Wide Knit in Public Day.  That was my final batt I was working on from that fiber.  It was the very first fiber I processed raw from the animal and I am so excited that it is finally done!  Most of it I spun on my drop spindle  Only two of these skeins where spun on my wheel and the other was plied on my wheel. 


I'm a bit embarrassed that one of the skeins got messed up but this is real life and it's not always pretty.  Somehow there was only one single tie on it when I usually do four!  I didn't realize it until I was hanging it up.  I will probably re-skein it after it is dry and re-set it again.