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!

Mystery Knit Along with a Bonus!

Okay.  I'm crawling out from under the heavy work load that I was talking about before.  I was easier for me to just post quick little things to Instagram / Twitter / Facebook and I dropped this blog for a while.  I'm back now and I hope to keep this up!  My blogs may be shorter but I will do my best to keep them consistent.

 

One of my very large time commitments went into a amazing new type of pattern.

A mystery where you participate by knitting the clues.

Yes, you read that right.  I had my friend, Donna Lutz, write a short story to flesh out the outline I had in my head.  Using textured stitches, lace, and cables, I designed 10 panel scenes depicting various stops around a hobby farm as the farmer was following a trail of yarn that had been stolen from her stash.  Following each clue, you get to read about half a page of the story. :)

Another friend pointed out that I should release it as a mystery knit along.  The more I thought of it, the more I realized that it is the ONLY logical way that it should be released. lol  The whole point of this pattern is to completely immerse the knitter in the fiber world for a while to escape the stresses of everyday life.  To that end, I am stretching the knit-along over 20 weeks (1 clue every two weeks) so that there is no stress of keeping up while the rest of life continues on.

The charts come in both color and  black & white so you can choose which suits your needs better as well as master keys to the charts for easy reference.  I also included a list of links to technique videos so you can research any techniques you are unsure of.  When the knit-along is complete you will be able to download the entire 63-page ebook! 

You can get your own copy of the pattern here: 
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/stitch--story-the-case-of-the-missing-yarn

Join the knit-along here:
www.ravelry.com/discuss/rachels-cozy-knits--designs/3331440/www.ravelry.com/discuss/rachels-cozy-knits--designs/3331440/

Luck Sack is finally released!

It's finally ready! I was going to post the pattern public on Monday but I got impatient.

 

 

This dice bag will influence your dice to land you some very lucky rolls! Well, not really, but your fellow gamers will be jealous that you pulled out your Luck Sack and want one of their very own!

The bag comes in two versions, knit or felted. I’ll walk you through two cord-pull styles and how to dye your own shades of green and felting your bag.

If you an advanced beginner learning new techniques, I’ve included helpful instructional links.

The Luck Sack pattern in now released for sale on Ravelry and Etsy for just $1.50!
Along with patterns, I also have box bags, knitted goods, handspun yarns, and printable graphic designs for sale in my etsy shop.

The brown bag on the left and the green bag in the rear are both knit with handspun yarn!  All of the green pictured is dyed with Wilton's icing coloring.

_________________

The test knitters had some good input!  I added a second, smaller size for those that want a smaller bag. Reclaimed sweater yarn is an excellent source of yarn.   Most of all, they confirmed that my directions are easy to follow, so you can produce a nice bag, too!  If you want to see their takes on my design, you can find them here.

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...

Color Play

The dyeing I did yesterday cam out too unsaturated so I gave the yarn another go. While I liked the new tones, they are notvwhat I am looking for for this project. I'll have to play with saturation formulas later. After today's effort, I  am happy to say that I reproduced the saturated testcolors  rather well!  

I am well into knitting a second version of the brown bag to be felted. :). For both the felted and tightly-knit versions I am ready to add the intarsia. Now, with dyed and dried yarn in hand, I can begin!

Making Swatches

Yesterday I promisted you that I'd give you an update on my pattern "Luck Sack."  Here's what the bag currently looks like:

Thats is my handspun California Red / Huacaya yarn that I just finished for SAPGAP, a portion of it dyed with lime Koolaid. A walkthrough of the technique will be included with the pattern. You can also search the internet.  I had fun trying out a few combinations yesterday. :D

When the bag is finished I intend to felt it so that no dice can force their way through a stitch. I did a swatch in the yarn, 25 sts by 25 sts.  Then it was time to felt it. 

(Well, technically turning a knitted piece into a felt-like fabric is called "fulling" but most non-knitters don't know that.  I prefer to stick to layman's terms so I will call it "felting" here.)

I measured my knitted piece then I went and held it in the sink under hot/warm running water and rubbed it viggirously.  I folded it in half and used the swatches' own abrasiveness. It rolled up and I used that, too.  Then I unwound it from itself and folded it the opposite direction and rubbed again. Think; using a scoring pad to scour itself. 

I did this over and over again until I was satisfied that it was done felting. I tugged at the edges to get it to lay out. 

I meaured how big it was again.  I divided the new size by the old size.  My swatch is 66% of its original size in both directions (sts and rows). So I know it shrunk by 33%.  Using those numbers I can now calculate how many stitches to cast on or increase to while knitting to get my finidhed felted piece to the size I want. 

Furthermore, this pattern is going to have an intarsia (method of adding a color picture to the knitting) shamrock. I needed to write out the graph and test it. I hand drew a shamrock on knitters graph paper. (The boxes are rectangles instead of squares to reflect the shape of the knit stitch.)  I then knitted up the swatch using some scrap yarn. (I don't want to waste my good handspun!)

I snugged up the intarisa too tight but didn't worry too much. I went and felted this swatch. 

I'm sure you can see some of the problems. 

1) The too tight intarsia did effect the swatch

2) The scrap sock wool I used was 25% nylon and didn't felt right. 

3) The middle leaves are too tall, the side leaves too wide. You can't even see the stem!

4) It is a little smaller than the requested 3" square. 

So I hit the graph paper again. I also use some rejected Koolaide-dyed yarn to do the colorwork. I liked the color but it wasn't what my husband envisioned for his bag.  Here is the new swatch I finished this morning:

And here is the reverse side with very loose stranding. 

Before I felted the swatch I made sure to tidy up the color change stitches but tugging firmly, yet gently, on those back loose strands. I wove in my ends and then got to work at the sink.

 

Victory!  I love it.  My husband is happy with it.  The shamrock is about 3 1/8" square so it is the right size. I yanked a bit too hard on the right side but that issue should be eliminated when on the bag.  Now it's time to knit the graph into the bag.  Woohoo!  It is so exciting seeing everything come togather. 

By the way, the next time you think a pattern is too expensive, think about all the trial and error that went into it. All the drawing and swatching I've done has taken an estimated 6-7 hours. That's not counting knitting the final product!


If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow me by email or Google+ so you don't miss anything!
If you like the things that I make, check out my online shop.
You can also find me at the following sites:
Ravelry Designer Page
Facebook Page
Twitter
My Personal Knitting Projects