Tag Archive | dogs

Yarn Store Trickery

Funny story: so you know I went to my LYS recently, twice in two days actually. The first time, I noticed a gorgeous gradient wrap. They had two samples knit up in different colors. The second time, I asked about it, wanting the pattern. The owner said oh yes, it’s a free pattern with the purchase of the yarn…four colors at $30 a skein! Um, wow. I said that was out of my price range for now and thanked her, and she said, “Sure, and you know it’s here later.” Sure, okay. I almost asked if she’d sell me just the pattern, but figured she would have offered if it was an option.

I’m glad I didn’t, too: I went home and out of curiosity did a search on Ravelry. I found the exact same pattern…AND IT’S FREE. It’s a FREE PATTERN. I’m a little irritated. I understand kits, I understand paid patterns, and I’ve even bought yarn to get the pattern and be able to replicate a shop’s sample. (In that instance, the pattern was written by one of the shop’s employee and isn’t even available on Ravelry.) But when it’s distributed for free on Ravelry, it irks me that they’d want me to shell out $120 for it. And for the record, I spent $30 the first day and $50 the second, so it’s not like she wasn’t getting any money out of me.

So if you’re interested, check out the Pradera Wrap by Jocelyn Tunney. It’s stunning, and she’s got so many other equally beautiful patterns on her page on Ravelry. I’ve made her Picholine Hat and Springtime Picholine Hat, and I’ve got several others in mind.

In related news, yes, I did get to do some knitting yesterday. Here’s the start of my Moonstone Wrap. I started with size 17 needles and it was too loose, so I frogged and cast on 175 stitches on size 15s. I love it already. Can’t wait until it’s done, and I don’t think it’ll take too long. The party went well, though I did keep Jack on the leash for the first hour or so until he adjusted to having so many strangers around. He did keep my baby nephew happy: the baby laughed every time Jack barked, which was a lot. Once I let him off the leash, he did really well. He and Grace both followed me around, settling in wherever I did. My mom noticed and asked if they loved anyone else as much as they love me. Don’t tell my kids, but I don’t think so. They’re both my babies, even if I do have a favorite!

Now, I’m off to knit my quiet Sunday away. I must take advantage of the time I have, since I lost an hour today!

New Yarn. Again.

Mar12

I blame it on my friend. She was going to the yarn store near me and asked if I wanted to meet her there. Well, I didn’t want to risk hurting her feelings, and I do enjoy seeing her, so it was a risk I had to take. Then, the silly yarn store worked against me by putting one of my favorite yarns on sale, 50% off! It’s Manos del Uruguay Maxima, and they even had my favorite purple shade. I knew I had two at home, so I grabbed two more with the plan of making Purl Soho’s Moonstone Wrap, holding the Maxima double. They also had a beautiful Herb green so I grabbed a couple of those. I mean, you have to get it when the price is this good, right? Now, I want you to look at the yarn below the green. It is the exact same yarn as the yarns on the right side of the green. Same color way and everything. COMPLETELY different. That’s the Maxima I was planning to use for the wrap, and having one skein so different would not work at all. I had to go back to the yarn store. Had to. No other option. Plus, the owner had mentioned they were having a yarn tasting, and that sounded fun.

So I went back this morning. The yarn tasting was actually nothing exciting, just a trunk show of new Shibui yarns, which are beautiful but more expensive than I wanted, and none of them called my name anyway. But this Berroco Fiora did, in a big way. I kept coming back to this pewter color, and ended up taking two home. I’ve also had the urge to make something with brown and teal, so when I saw these colors in the Fiora, they ended up in my arms too. It’s an interesting blend of fibers: 40% cotton, 30% viscose, 15% alpaca, 10% nylon and 5% wool, and it’s 246 yards of DK weight. The two together should make a lovely lightweight scarf; I just need to find the right pattern. But it’ll be after I do the Moonstone. That’s my next project, and I’ll be casting on this morning.

I have no knitting to show you. Today is the girl’s birthday party so I spent ALL DAY yesterday cleaning. It was horrible. But now the house is as good as it’s going to get (can you believe it’s raining? I clean the floors and of course it starts raining) and I’m going to take a couple of hours to relax with my yarn before all the people show up at my house. I just hope the puppies behave themselves. Jack has a habit of being a bit of a jerk to visitors sometimes, and not all of our guests are comfortable with dogs. I’d put him outside but he freaks out and claws the heck out of the door and barks non-stop, so that’s not a good option. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll just get the vacuum back out. He loves that!

Enjoy your weekend, friends!

It’s MSWL Day!

Mar10

I am in a bit of a knitting lull, friends. This week has kept me busy and distracted enough that there’s just not a lot of yarn stuff going on. I did have some yesterday during flute lesson, and I cast on for something new because I’m so bored with all my current WIPs. I’ve got a blanket, a wrap, a scarf I’m not sure I’m liking, and the Because I Love You Wrap which is waiting to be cast on yet again. None of those sound like fun car knitting, do they? No, they do not. Ergo, a hat. It’s another Lace Ribbon Slouch hat like this aqua one, only this time in white cotton. I also went down in needle size, to 5s and 7s, since the first hat was a bit large.

Today is errand-free, so you’d think I’d have lots of knitting time, but it’s also #MSWL day on Twitter! That stands for manuscript wish list, and it’s when agents/editors post what kind of projects they’re looking for. It’s a fantastic resource for writers like me, looking for an agent, so I’ll be keeping track of that throughout the day and working on my queries at the same time.

My biggest struggle with MSWL is that memoir is a really difficult genre to break into (unless you’re a celebrity) so there’s very few MSWL requests for it. Many agents seem resistant to memoirs, many only want authors with an established platform, and those that do take on memoirs are *extremely* selective. With good reason, I’m sure: memoir isn’t a hot seller the same way commercial fiction, YA, or thrillers are, so the writing/premise/hook etc all have to be top-notch.

But there are memoir readers out there like me, who like reading memoirs by ordinary people. I know there’s at least one, because this article from bookriot.com popped up in my Facebook feed the other day, and it was the absolute perfect boost I needed. It’s called What Makes You Pick Up a Memoir, and this last bit summed up my thoughts exactly:

“I think people read memoirs by “non-famous” people to get a glimpse into someone else’s life. Readers, by nature, are curious people. What better way to satisfy that curiosity than losing yourself in someone else’s story for 200 pages? We read memoir for connection, to feel less alone, to know that someone else out there has struggled with something similar and lived to tell the tale. We read it for entertainment (I never laugh out loud at books, but Tina Fey’s Bossypants changed that), we read it for hope.”

SEE? Isn’t that awesome? That’s me. That’s my audience, people like her. So this is my hope: that my story is interesting and written well enough to engage the right agent/editor so I can get my book into her hands!

Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods so everything is sunny and bright and optimistic. The puppies are full of spring fever and spend most of the morning romping outside before coming in and passing out like this. As much as I like to watch them play, I do love them when they’re all sleepy and peaceful.

Frogging and Query Letters

Mar7

Ugh. I need to frog my Because I Love You Wrap and start over. Okay, no, I don’t really *need* to, but I want to and won’t be happy with it if I don’t. Here’s what I’ve got so far: I love how it’s knitting up, and I even watched a video about intarsia and figured out the yarn-twisting bit so there’s no hole where I picked up the teal for the stripe. Great, right? Right! But then I looked at the pattern again and realized that in the second half of the shawl, the stockinette sections are much bigger because of how the shawl grows. I would much rather have the variegated yarn in the big sections of stockinette than the solid teal. Maybe it’s a minor thing, maybe it won’t make a huge difference, but in my mind right now, I’m thinking it will. The only downside is that I’ll lose those two lengths of teal yarn (unless I just use them and have even more ends to weave in). But at least I figured it out before I got even further into the wrap!

Here’s some good news though: remember my Duality hat from yesterday? The designer noticed my project page on Ravelry and asked to feature it on the pattern page!! I love when that happens! You can see it here, and remember, today’s the last day to get the pattern for free!

And more good news (maybe): I sent my first query letters to agents yesterday!! I don’t know if I’ll ever think my memoir manuscript is “done” but it feels done. It feels ready, although of course as soon as I sent the letters I was consumed with doubt and self-loathing. I only did three; they take longer than you’d think. You have to determine each agent’s requirements, tailor your query letter for each agent, then copy and paste the requested materials (and in my case, reformat it when it goes all wonky in the email). I also had to write a brief synopsis, since one agent requested it along with the query letter. Each one is so different, it seems like. And there’s so much pressure to be PERFECT with that one short letter.

Ugh. It’s hard hard hard. But also so exciting. It feels wonderful to move on to this step, to believe in myself enough to send my book out for others to judge. And they will, and most of them will reject it. I recognize that, and it’s okay. I know there are thousands of books written every year and agents have to turn down perfectly good books just because it didn’t call their name. I only need one, one fabulous agent who believes she can sell this book to a publisher. Until I find her, I’ll keep sending out queries and waiting patiently.

And I’ll knit of course, to calm my nerves while I’m pretending to be patient.

Okay, fine, you’re right. Yes, I’ll play with the puppies too.

Sparkly Indian Silk Yarn

Mar3

This is why people hire yarn de-tanglers, isn’t it? This is fingering weight silk, a skein my husband brought me from India, and at one point it was neatly caked. Then the puppy happened. Thank goodness Grace didn’t chew on it, just played with it and turned it into this mess. This happened a few months ago and it’s been in time-out ever since. But I spotted it last night and remembered how much I love this yarn and want to use it. I don’t have a current WIP calling my name, so I decided to give it a shot. Let me tell you, I would NOT want to be a yarn de-tangler. This is a big pain in my butt. I’m making progress, though, so I’ll keep going. I’m just stubborn enough to win this battle.

This wasn’t even why I was in my craft room. I was up there perusing my stash because I’m obsessed with the Because I Love You wrap. I keep seeing them on Instagram (check out #becauseIloveyouwrap) and they’re gorgeous!! People are using fantastic color combos, and I do love stripes. At first my mind was going nuts, thinking of all the gorgeous yarns I wanted to buy for this wrap, but then I came to my senses. I HAVE YARN. I HAVE GORGEOUS YARN. I HAVE GORGEOUS FINGERING WEIGHT YARN. No purchase required! I think I found the perfect match-up, too. Check it out: The pattern recommends picking yarns with a strong contrast, and this fits the bill. I have some solid purple that would work instead of the teal, but it would be much more muted. Plus, I love that both these yarns have some sparkle. (Side note: this teal yarn is the same yarn as the pink. THIS is what got me thinking about the pink.) So now I have a project planned out, and it’s so far out of what I normally do. It’s fingering weight yarn, not bulky. It’s a paid pattern, not free. It’s a large shawl, not a quick hat. But I can’t stop thinking about it and that means it must be knit, no matter how long it takes. Today I will be winding some silk and casting on!

Have you ever had an unusual project that called your name, something out of your comfort zone?

“Please rub my belly, mom!”

Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Mar2

I got complacent. Grace was being so good the last couple of months, not chewing things up when we were gone. I mean, yeah, she was stealing butcher knives, but whatever, right? Then yesterday I was gone for almost four hours and came home to stuffing on the floor. Now, she’s already destroyed our throw pillows, so at first I had no clue what it was from. Then I realized: we have an upholstered chair in the sitting room. It’s one of her favorite spots because it’s in front of a window, so she drapes herself over the back and watches the world go by. Not anymore, pup! Not anymore. Not after this: Oy. This dog. So yeah, she was in the doghouse (figuratively) for the rest of the day. At least until it was time for me to stretch out on the couch with my blanket. Then both puppies thought it was cuddle time with mom. Fine. They’re warm and snuggly. Fortunately, I did have some good to counteract the bad. The yarn store was indeed open yesterday and I did indeed find some yarn. More than I meant to find, honestly. (That’s always what happens, isn’t it?) Last night I hid in my craft room and wound yarn. It was lovely. Please note: not all of this is new yarn! Some of it was in the stash and I decided it needed to be wound. Mostly to make room for the new yarn. This is the new yarn. Yes, I have plenty of cotton now, in a nice variety of colors. The three on the left are Berroco Weekend, which my LYS has for 35% off. It’s a crispy yet soft cotton/acrylic blend and I’ve made several hats with it in the past. The two on the right are Universal Yarn Cotton Supreme, which is a deliciously soft yarn. I’m hoping to get one adult hat and one baby hat out of each skein. I don’t have patterns picked out yet, so some of today will be spent perusing Ravelry.

And some of it will be spent on my manuscript. I have an idea for a new first chapter, so I’m going to play around with that. A fellow knitter/blogger/writer/reader has generously offered to be an extra set of eyes, so I’d like to get it as ready as possible before that happens. I thought it was, honestly, but then I started doubting myself again. There’s a blog I follow written by a literary agent, and she’s strongly anti-memoir. By that I mean, she seems to believe that unless you’re a celebrity or super funny, your memoir won’t sell (with a few obvious exceptions, and I don’t think I’m Cheryl Strayed either). And I know she has the experience to back that up. So yeah, I’ve got that in the back of my mind. But I’m still going to keep pushing forward. I haven’t hit a roadblock big enough to stop me yet!

Oh yeah, one last thing. Here’s the finished purple hat! Ravelry notes are here if you’re interested.

Until next time, happy Wednesday, friends! Go forth and create stuff!

One hat done, one hat begun

Mar1

Just as I thought, the Oscar Night hat was quick to finish yesterday. I love how it turned out, except it seems a little big. But this head is pretty slippery, plus it doesn’t have any hair to fill out the hat. Why not try it on a person, you say? What a novel idea! Nobody was around when I finished it, and somehow it didn’t occur to me to try it on myself. And right now it’s upstairs and I’m downstairs and it’s not worth it to go fetch it. It will fit someone, I’m sure. And it’s pretty and I had fun making it. You can find the details on the Ravelry page. You might remember I mentioned I was going to babysit my wee nephew yesterday, and I was afraid he’d be very cranky? Well, I did and he wasn’t!! Sure, he had a few fussy moments but overall we had a lovely time. He’s about 8 months old and desperately wants to be more mobile than he is, so he gets frustrated. But he seems to be warming up to me and has a perfectly charming grin.

Anyway, the reason I’m telling you this: I was weak yesterday! I was running early so I decided I needed to stop by the yarn store. Spring is coming, and I want to make lots and lot of cotton hats. Thus, I need more cotton yarn. Green yarn, I decided. A bright, cheerful grass green. I could see the yarn in my mind’s eye and it was beautiful. I pulled into the parking lot…the empty parking lot…in front of the building with dark windows…it was CLOSED. The yarn store is closed on Mondays, darn it all. Well. Saved me some money, didn’t they? Instead I came home and picked out a pretty lavender cotton from the stash and cast on with that. Jack helped.Speaking of Jack: he’s pretty sneaky. Both pups sleep with the girl at night, but they think they want to sleep in my bed. Every night they sneak in when I’m getting ready for bed and jump up and make themselves all cute and comfy so we won’t have the heart to kick them out. (It never works. The husband is stern in this regard.) Last night Jack jumped up and promptly claimed my pillow.“Dis is pillow for me, right?” Ha. Right. (Actually if it weren’t for the husband, I would let him have it. Even though I don’t sleep well with puppies in the bed either. He’s just that cute.)

Okay, sorry, back to the knitting: the hat is going swimmingly, and I have some waiting room time this morning so I should make good progress on it today. I’ll also be driving right by the yarn store again today. And I’m pretty sure they’re open on Tuesdays.

Oscar Night Hat

Feb29

Last night was the Oscars, and of course I was there from the red carpet to the bitter bitter end. No, I’m not commenting on the winners. I really had no preferences. It was just bitter because by then I was so tired but didn’t want to miss any Chris Rock. The upside to a show five hours long (if you count the pre-show) is plenty of knitting time. Our warmer weather made me want a Spring-y project, so I pulled out some Lion Brand Cotton-ease and cast on for a lacy hat. The pattern is Lace Ribbon Slouch Hat and I’m really enjoying it. I love the zig-zag. I did switch the brim from garter stitch to ribbing, because I figure hats always need that stretch, especially one made with cotton. You’d think with that much time it would be done, but I did have to pay a little bit of attention to the lace at times, and I kept getting distracted by the show. Some parts I just had to watch. So I’ve got just one more pattern row and then the decreases. It’ll easily get done today, but not right away. I’m babysitting my newest nephew today for the first time, the one who’s cute but often cranky, and I’m really hoping he treats me well!

I also got my manuscript back from my second reader over the weekend, and she said she really enjoyed reading it. I’m choosing to believe her! But she also gave me some good feedback, so yesterday I dove back in and did a bit more revising. I’m so close to being done with this silly thing! But now I’m wondering if the beginning is too boring. I mean, if someone only asks for five pages, are mine good enough to make them want more? So I’m pondering that, trying to figure out if I can jazz up the first chapter. Still, my goal is to get it submitted to at least one agent by the end of March! yikes scary exciting am I ready for rejection?

Here’s what I found when I got up this morning. Yes, that’s a knife on my couch. Grace is a knife thief. Usually it’s butter knives, because she’s obsessed with butter, but we’ve gotten pretty good at keeping our sharp knives out of her reach. Last night we must have gotten lazy (I was watching the Oscars. I couldn’t leave to wash dishes. Seriously.) so sometime this morning she was probably thrilled to reach the chicken knife. She’s fine. She didn’t have it very long, and I know that because the handle hasn’t been chewed on. She’s grown up a lot but I guess she’ll never lose her love for knives.

Happy Monday, friends. Here’s hoping you don’t find any hidden knives in your house.

Darkness and Light Cowl

Feb21

I’m steadily plowing through my WIPs. This morning I finished my mom’s rainbow cowl, and I’m delighted with it. If she doesn’t love it, I’ll keep it for sure! I used one strand of Done Roving Frolicking Feet DK in Pot o’ Gold and one strand of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in black. The pattern is the Hartwell Scarf by Karin Michele. It was a simple pattern, though I did have a bit of trouble with the last round of the repeating pattern and kept ending up with a slipped stitch where it didn’t look right. Not sure if I was supposed to hold the yarn in back maybe? Anyway, it was a minor thing and not noticeable unless you look for it. And I love the diagonal ridge. I’d definitely make this pattern again.

I’ve also got one more WIP that became a FO today. The girl requested a gray beanie with just a little slouch, so we chose the Violet Waffles hat with gray Preciosa Tonal. It was ready for decreases, so I had her try it on first to make sure it was the right amount of slouch. Once she deemed it acceptable, it got finished off pretty quickly. This is a nifty pattern too, one I want to make for myself. I’ll make it gray if I have enough left, or I have a lovely raspberry color I could use instead.

Finally, another WIP left the list via frogging. I’d started some fingerless gloves in August of last year with some Baah Sonoma Chocolate Cherries yarn. Then they got set aside for gift and craft show knitting. Now I’ve decided I want to use the yarn elsewhere. Since I had less than half of one mitt completed, the frogging was quick and painless. The pattern is lovely, but I wear so little red that I wasn’t sure I’d wear them often enough. I have a few black/gray/white shirts, and what I do see myself wearing is a scarf, one with a lovely lacy pattern of some sort. To that end, I’m even considering frogging this Chocolate Cherries shawelette. It’s an awkward length for me, not quite long enough to wear as a scarf, and it ends up hanging in my closet. I do think it’s beautiful, and I enjoyed knitting it, but again, I think I’d rather use the yarn for something I could wear often.

After all that, I’m left with only TWO WIPs! One is a blanket, so I’m content letting that be a long-term project. The other is a gradient cowl that’s simple seed stitch, so I’ll pull that out for my TV knitting, and I might allow myself to cast on something new. I’m working with another blogger on starting a bulky-cowl Knit-along (more details soon). Anyone else want to play??

Finally, yesterday was the anniversary of the day we got Grace! She’s grown up a lot in the last year, and we sure love having her around. She’s a pain in the butt at times, but she’s OUR pain in the butt!

What a Weekend!

Feb15

There was so much going on this weekend! I’m glad to finally have a quieter day. The kids have a long weekend, thanks to parent/teacher conferences and Washington’s birthday, so they had Friday off. I drove downtown to take the girl to a weekend-long honor band, and that was only a little stressful for my small-city-driver self. The fun bit was that we met a knitter from Vietnam! During our downtime, we hung out at the B&N cafe, and I was knitting a Yoda hat. An older woman came over and asked where she could get needles like mine (I was using my 12″ Addi Turbos). She lives in Vietnam and comes here to visit her son, who attends the local university, so she didn’t know the area well at all. She was really only familiar with Michaels stores, and didn’t seem to understand the concept of local yarn stores (so sad). We chatted a bit as best we could with the language barrier, and it was neat to share the love of knitting. It made me realize that’s really the only time people come up and talk to me, when I’m knitting. It must be a good ice-breaker! Either that or I suffer from RBF (Resting B*#@% Face) when I’m not knitting. We may never know.

Saturday morning was my craft show and it was a whirlwind five hours. I had some family visit me (and buy a couple of things) but I also had several real customers too! I focused on hats for this show, and I think I sold 6 or 7. The Yoda hats were a hit, of course, but so were the black hats. Note to self: make sure to have black hats at every show. My Knitting SIL was up there with me, and we had a grand time knitting and chatting between customers. Really, it went much better than I expected, and it makes me think that focusing on hats might be a good strategy. But…I LOVE cowls! Love making them, love wearing them. Why don’t people buy them? I just don’t know. Still, hats are good. I like hats.

Yesterday was the concert for the girl’s honor band, and though it was a struggle to get the boy awake (forget about happy) by 9 a.m., we managed. The concert was marvelous…and the lunch afterward was marvelous too… Look: the boy has a new hairdo! It was a bold move for him; we love it!And look: the girl has a new smile! She got her top braces off finally and is SO HAPPY!

Then we came home and I took a bunch of photos of my newer hats and updated my Etsy shop. It’s all current now, and I’m going to step back from Yoda hats and work on the rainbow cowl for my mom.

But now I have a question for you fellow sellers of knitted goods: I was invited to do a show in June. It’s a good show, well-advertised and popular, and the booth fee is very reasonable. BUT, that’s the middle of summer. It’s warm here then. How well do knitted things sell during the summer? In my experience, not that well. I can modify my inventory a bit, have more summer-weight hats, baby hats, cotton bags, etc, but I’m not sure I’d have enough for a show. Have any of you done well with summer shows? What advice do you have for me?

I will wait patiently for your replies, as patiently as Jack waits when it’s dinner time. (Sorry the photo is so bad; I had to take it quickly before he moved.) I just love how he sits!