Tag Archive | bonnyknits

Four New WIPs

I kind of went crazy this weekend and started some new projects. Not just one, a few. The first is my fourth Hitchhiker. This one is for a former co-worker and a good friend, someone who was kind enough to read my manuscript and give me some feedback. She picked the yarn and I’m providing the manual labor. Fortunately, she has very good taste. The yarn is Araucania Huasco, a lovely crispy Merino. It’ll be my first fingering weight Hitchhiker but it’s going quickly enough. Still, I got a bit tired of the skinny yarn and tiny needles and needed a bulky fix. So I started this. Simple beanie in super-bulky wool on size 15s. This was so super fast to knit…but the sad part is that I got to the decreases and realized I have no size 15 DPNs and couldn’t finish. Joann doesn’t carry them in the store, but thankfully we’re testing Amazon Prime so I’ve got a set ordered that should arrive tomorrow. But just that hat wasn’t a long enough break from the Hitchhiker, so I *finally* cast on for my Color Block Bias Wrap in Chateau. Um, this yarn is AMAZING. It’s a bulky blend of 70% alpaca, 30% bamboo, and it’s a chainette yarn so it’s incredibly light and fluffy. I don’t even care that it’s spring and I’m knitting with alpaca. I might in a couple of weeks, but for now, this will be fantastic evening knitting.

Finally, this morning the girl had an early morning orthodontist appointment to have her braces removed (hooray!). Early, like 7:30. On spring break. Ugh. Anyway, I had a bag ready to go, and in my bag I had yarn and needles to start a new hat. I’m thinking it will be for me but I always think that and I never keep it. Still, I’ll pretend. I’m doing another Violet Waffles hat and using HiKoo Simpliworsted, a bouncy squishy merino/acrylic/nylon blend. It’s one of my favorite yarns, and I think it will make a great lightweight hat. But seriously, hot pink is a really hard color to photograph.

I managed to almost double my WIPs in two days, but I’m okay with it. I now have a nice mix of projects to meet almost any need. I’m not sure how much knitting I’ll get done this week, having both kids home all week for spring break, but it will surely be more than the writing/revising I’ll get done (which will be none, I’m guessing). And maybe that’s just as well. I’m up to three rejections, and each one stings a little more. So it might be best for me to take a break and not think about it for a while. Today, I’ll do that by taking the girl on a belated birthday-shopping trip. Maybe I’ll take the hat knitting with me!

Oh Yeah, Knitting

Feb10

I’ve been distracted from my knitting the last few days, but I came back to it yesterday. While in a waiting room, I knit up some Yoda ears and completed another Yoda hat. It looks a little long, doesn’t it? Hmm. I used a different hat pattern this time. I might modify it a bit next time. I’ve got another Yoda waiting for one more ear, and then it’ll go into the For Sale pile too. I also finished the pink and gray hat last night. Now I need to make one in the reverse colors, but I don’t know if it’ll happen before Saturday. You may remember, I have a small craft show on Saturday, and I’m focusing on hats for this one. I’m trying to get a good variety of price points, and acrylic kid hats seem to be popular. Anyway, once I finished this one, it was time to get everything tagged and priced. I turned up Adele and got to work. I added 17 hats and 4 cowls to my inventory! With any luck, I’ll come home from the show with a lot fewer. Now, let’s see how many more hats I can knit before Saturday…

A Scarf, a book and an Etsy Sale!

Jan25

Today’s post will be quick and a bit scrambled, I think, much like my brain today. First, some happy news: I finished the scarf commission, hooray! It will ship out tomorrow and complete that order. Now I can move on to finishing my eight other WIPs without guilt. Here’s a terrible photo that doesn’t show any good details…because it’s so darn hard to photograph black yarn. But just to prove that I’m not a complete and utter photo slouch, here’s a better one that I took last night. I’m pleased with it; it’s soft and cozy.

Second, I’m taking my manuscript and handing it off to my first co-worker reader! It’s a little scary and a little exciting at the same time. I hope she likes it, but I also hope I get good feedback. We’re having lunch too, which is why I don’t have time for a long post today.

Finally, I decided to do a sale on my Etsy shop for Valentine’s Day! I try to keep my prices affordable all the time, so I very rarely do discounts, but I figured, what the heck. Let’s try it and see what happens. So I’ve done a Facebook boost to hit a bigger audience, and you can see that here. Fingers crossed!

Happy Monday, friends!

I bought more yarn

Jan24

This proves it: I am weak. I couldn’t even go a month without buying new yarn. I lasted 23 days. Then I made the mistake of going to Michaels. I was just going to get some Yoda green yarn to have on hand, and darn it, all the yarn was on sale. Even with that, I resisted until the very end, when I found some lovely variegated bulky skeins. Mostly acrylic but with a nice wooly feel to them. Then I found a display with these value packs, two skeins (1060 yards total) for $5.99. That seemed like too good a deal to resist. Sure it’s all acrylic, but they’ll make great inexpensive pieces for kids and my craft shows. The bags were sealed but someone had torn one open so I made sure to get a feel for the yarn before I bought it. Aren’t these awesome colors?

That wasn’t too terrible, but then yesterday we took a day trip to northwest Missouri. The girl was in an all-day honor band at Northwest Missouri State in Maryville, which is about an hour and a half away from us. At first we figured we’d stay in Maryville…but even the lone Starbucks inside the library was closed, and the biggest attraction in town was Walmart. So instead we drove to St. Joseph for the day, where we toured four antique malls and a real live yarn store! The Red Barn Yarn Farm was small but had a fantastic selection of yarns, and the staff was super friendly and helpful. Of course I needed some souvenir yarn, right?Malabrigo Worsted in Periwinkle. Malabrigo Worsted in Pink Frost.This Lustra isn’t the softest yarn against my cheek but I adore the color and the sheen. It won’t be something for me but I had to have some to play with.

I did have a bit of knitting time too. I wanted to work on this hat but forgot to bring the bigger needles for when it was time to switch to the body, oops! Fortunately, I’d brought my black scarf commission with me and I made good progress on that. I forgot! I found buttons at the antique mall too! Most of the time they’re loose in jars and I don’t want to pay $15 for a jar of tiny random buttons. But I love it when I find the cards of vintage buttons for a good price.So yeah, I broke my streak big time. But it sure was fun! And I’m back in the mode of “Knit all the things NOW!” I’ve got so many WIPs on my needles and so many ideas for new projects that I think it’s the tiniest bit overwhelming. Today I might focus on the scarf; that’s the highest priority and getting done will ease my mind. What do you think, can I knit 3/4 of a scarf in one day?

A Knitted Mug & a Bulky Cowl

Jan12

Yesterday the mother and I went to Hallmark to investigate the after-Christmas sale, and though it was pretty picked over, I found one thing that made the whole trip worthwhile: It’s a mug that looks KNITTED!! Isn’t that so cool? It was the only one left, and it came with this nifty napkin too:with a “knitted” snowflake design! But wait, there’s more that makes this an amazing find…IT MATCHES MY TEAPOT!! This is the teapot I got for Christmas a year ago, and now it’s a fabulous set. Plus, I only paid $4.25 for the mug. Sighhh. I love sales, don’t you?

After the shopping, I came home and finished the red bulky cowl during Jeopardy. This one is definitely kid-sized. I now have a backlog of 5 items that need to be photographed and added to my Etsy shop. I guess that should be my agenda today…once I remove the dog hairs. Oops! There is clearly much shedding going on in my house right now. Oh, who am I kidding? There’s always much shedding in my house. Note to self: buy more lint rollers.

Two Finished Hats

Sep29

“I like big sticks, and I cannot lie.” The puppies discovered they can reach the pile of sticks we made during our yard work and they’ve been having a marvelous time pulling them out one by one and fighting over them. Because as you know, just like with children, you can’t simply give each puppy a stick and call it good. No, one stick is clearly better than the other, and both must fight for the right to gnaw on it. Jack won this time.

In between taking the dogs outside in the gorgeous almost-fall weather, I managed to finish two hats. One is the Lunar Eclipse hat, which is even getting button accents. The other is a basic pink. It’s not quite as bright as it looks in this photo; it’s more of a dark raspberry pink. I’ll leave off buttons on this one.What color next: purple, teal, or green?

I also got to take the girl shopping for a Homecoming dress yesterday. The dance is this Saturday and the rest of the week is pretty full, so last night was basically our only opportunity. We found three great options. Two were full-length, gorgeous but more formal, more Prom-ish. One was shorter, with a swirly skirt, beaded waist and gathered bodice. It’s lovely, looked gorgeous on her, very feminine without being overly revealing. She wasn’t sure any of them were “the One” but with limited time, she had to pick. She picked the shorter one and by the time we got home and she modeled it for her dad, she was really excited about it, liked it better than she did in the store. So she had him take a photo and she texted it to some of her friends. Two of the three were supportive and encouraging, they loved it, so cute, she looked great. But the other one? She decided to tell my girl she looked like one of the Golden Girls, that the dress was pretty but it made her look older. Seriously?? If you’re shopping for a dress with a girlfriend and ask for opinions, I get it, this would have been acceptable. (Depending on the friendship. I definitely have people who could say this to me without fear of retribution.) But once the dress is purchased with no other options? That’s just mean, I think. Or thoughtless, I’m not sure which. Either way, my daughter was hurt, and I hope she’s able to set that comment aside and remember how she felt in the dress before. It’s just one more example of why it’s best to think before you speak!