How many projects do you have on your needles? I've lost track.
When I began the Hiker Chick sock pattern for the kit that will be released in (gasp!) about two weeks, I hadn't anything on my plate other than a few projects wanting to be finished up from last winter. When I quit my job to regain my health shortly after this great sock kit idea was formulated (one test sock was done and another was cast-on I believe), I thought I would have a summer of household chores and a whole bunch of knitting. But it seems like my best-laid plans have gone awry, again.
When I got the job teaching knitting classes at the Art Guild, I only had the socks to test-knit and dying for the Charlotte Fiber Festival to do. But then I ripped out and recycled a silk sweater from the thrift shop, dyed it, and cast on for a lovely 100% silk shawl (all will be revealed in a future project post). Then there was the last-minute attempt at getting a new cropped sweater pattern written, knit up, and accepted into the KnitPicks.com IDP collection--which ultimately failed in that dept. but which will be released on my own accord as soon as I can find time to knit the collar. And then I thought it would be brilliant to knit a shoulder shrug in my new Finger Paints hand-painted worsted wool line as a sample of its patterning and beauty for the Charlotte thing (I think I need a new body double with arms)--the second test-knit pair of socks was finished shortly after despite not being able to follow my own directions on that one.
Then I started doing a regular Saturday booth at the Monroe Farmers' Market, which is great fun and actually quite good for making up in sales what the online market has been lacking for months.
I guess it didn't occur to me until I started teaching classes that I have to knit samples of the projects for the knitting classes I am teaching, too--no big deal at first because the first class was a dishcloth pattern and the second class was a choice between a potato chip scarf or a lace scarf and I had at least already knit the potato chip scarf. This week's class is colorwork. I opted to teach the basics for intarsia, striping, and Fair Isle (in two hours because I was apparently out of my mind when I put this class description together and figured two hours would be plenty of time) AND I have to put kits together and measure out yarn for this one--we are doing a striped chevron pillow because it's a little classier than "let me show you how to knit stripes in a dishcloth".
Consequently, the last test-knit is looking like an impossible mountain to climb because it's the largest size--I heard somewhere that a typical pair of socks in this size equals 20,000 stitches per sock!--and the three samples that I have to knit plus the "don't ever do floats like this with intarsia" sample are my obstacles to climbing that mountain and getting this last pair of socks done by the end of the week in time for photos and packaging and shipping off to Yarn on the House for the blog giveaway. Surprise, surprise! I don't have as much knitting time this summer as I had anticipated. I haven't even had time to show off the last colorway of the sock kit: Water Sprite. This is my favorite one.
So the socks are going everywhere with me in case I might have a minute to do half of a row here and there. Occasionally, I've gotten more than a minute. Murphy's Law: if you think you are going to sneak into the nail salon on an off-day when everyone will have already had their pedicures because the holiday was 2 days ago and it's right after lunch hour, EVERY WOMAN IN TOWN will be there getting a pedicure and pedicures for her three daughters, too. For 20 minutes my feet soaked in the water before it was my turn! Bright side: that was 20 more minutes of sock knitting than I had planned. (Sorry, Iphone picture.)
I also didn't count on the evil sun god destroying my entire garden this past week--5 hours yesterday to re-condition and replant. Part of that time also included Honey building a hoop house over half of the raised beds in the hopes that this time around the sun wouldn't make the garden crispy.
So, today I'm going to have to be all about the chevron-striped pillow sample and the Fair Isle square on this list of class-necessary knitting projects and the socks will, sadly, have to wait until another day. I have modified this pattern for my pillow project (mine is a bit smaller for the class purposes since my knitters are still mostly newbies to knitting): Chevron Pillow Knitting Pattern. I highly recommend it, though you need not spend oodles of money on hand spun, hand-painted silk yarn to knit it up, that's for sure! I'm using Debra Norville's Everyday Soft Worsted, myself. (Has anyone else noticed that Joanne Fabrics seems to be gutting it's yarn dept. all of a sudden? My local store has aisles of empty shelves!) My sample pillow looks like this so far:
And now, off to knit and knit some more!
When I began the Hiker Chick sock pattern for the kit that will be released in (gasp!) about two weeks, I hadn't anything on my plate other than a few projects wanting to be finished up from last winter. When I quit my job to regain my health shortly after this great sock kit idea was formulated (one test sock was done and another was cast-on I believe), I thought I would have a summer of household chores and a whole bunch of knitting. But it seems like my best-laid plans have gone awry, again.
When I got the job teaching knitting classes at the Art Guild, I only had the socks to test-knit and dying for the Charlotte Fiber Festival to do. But then I ripped out and recycled a silk sweater from the thrift shop, dyed it, and cast on for a lovely 100% silk shawl (all will be revealed in a future project post). Then there was the last-minute attempt at getting a new cropped sweater pattern written, knit up, and accepted into the KnitPicks.com IDP collection--which ultimately failed in that dept. but which will be released on my own accord as soon as I can find time to knit the collar. And then I thought it would be brilliant to knit a shoulder shrug in my new Finger Paints hand-painted worsted wool line as a sample of its patterning and beauty for the Charlotte thing (I think I need a new body double with arms)--the second test-knit pair of socks was finished shortly after despite not being able to follow my own directions on that one.
Then I started doing a regular Saturday booth at the Monroe Farmers' Market, which is great fun and actually quite good for making up in sales what the online market has been lacking for months.
I guess it didn't occur to me until I started teaching classes that I have to knit samples of the projects for the knitting classes I am teaching, too--no big deal at first because the first class was a dishcloth pattern and the second class was a choice between a potato chip scarf or a lace scarf and I had at least already knit the potato chip scarf. This week's class is colorwork. I opted to teach the basics for intarsia, striping, and Fair Isle (in two hours because I was apparently out of my mind when I put this class description together and figured two hours would be plenty of time) AND I have to put kits together and measure out yarn for this one--we are doing a striped chevron pillow because it's a little classier than "let me show you how to knit stripes in a dishcloth".
Consequently, the last test-knit is looking like an impossible mountain to climb because it's the largest size--I heard somewhere that a typical pair of socks in this size equals 20,000 stitches per sock!--and the three samples that I have to knit plus the "don't ever do floats like this with intarsia" sample are my obstacles to climbing that mountain and getting this last pair of socks done by the end of the week in time for photos and packaging and shipping off to Yarn on the House for the blog giveaway. Surprise, surprise! I don't have as much knitting time this summer as I had anticipated. I haven't even had time to show off the last colorway of the sock kit: Water Sprite. This is my favorite one.
So the socks are going everywhere with me in case I might have a minute to do half of a row here and there. Occasionally, I've gotten more than a minute. Murphy's Law: if you think you are going to sneak into the nail salon on an off-day when everyone will have already had their pedicures because the holiday was 2 days ago and it's right after lunch hour, EVERY WOMAN IN TOWN will be there getting a pedicure and pedicures for her three daughters, too. For 20 minutes my feet soaked in the water before it was my turn! Bright side: that was 20 more minutes of sock knitting than I had planned. (Sorry, Iphone picture.)
So, today I'm going to have to be all about the chevron-striped pillow sample and the Fair Isle square on this list of class-necessary knitting projects and the socks will, sadly, have to wait until another day. I have modified this pattern for my pillow project (mine is a bit smaller for the class purposes since my knitters are still mostly newbies to knitting): Chevron Pillow Knitting Pattern. I highly recommend it, though you need not spend oodles of money on hand spun, hand-painted silk yarn to knit it up, that's for sure! I'm using Debra Norville's Everyday Soft Worsted, myself. (Has anyone else noticed that Joanne Fabrics seems to be gutting it's yarn dept. all of a sudden? My local store has aisles of empty shelves!) My sample pillow looks like this so far:
And now, off to knit and knit some more!
Oh, Sweetie, I feel your pain. I had been up in my studio (actually room of piles and yarn mountains and half-finished design samples) trying to once again get organized, stopped to turn on the laptop and catch up a little with coffee before plunging back in, and thankfully I saw your post on FB. It somehow makes me feel better to know that there's someone else out there wishing for some knitting faeries to help with all this sample knitting! Argh! We'll get it all done someday, right? One stitch at a time....
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