So, How's the Website Coming?

I'm hearing this question a lot, especially as I've taken some time off this summer to work on my website. My website exclusively, maybe some part-time work for my bank account's sake, but my website that I initially saw as a representation as my retail shop. For the most part, that has been the case, until I've walked into my storage unit (a 10 x 30, climate controlled space) and seen a box of kits . . . and some cases of fabric . . . and two huge boxes filled with stuff . . . and all those things that we grabbed and packed and marked with names like "top shelf in the cross stitch room."

Well, 3 years have passed, and many of those items are still in their boxes, and I kind of remember what was on the top shelf of the cross stitch room, but not completely. So what occurred to me while I was there last week was, why not re-pack? There's no great rush now, those office packing boxes have worked just fine, and one of them fits nicely into my car and next to my chair in my office, and if I had all of them labeled "Stitcher's Aides" and "Pillows and Band Fabric" and "Baby Items," it would make all the difference between being able to find the item a customer has ordered on-line, pack it neatly, and go onto the next project, than having to go through 4 different boxes to find which box item X lived and where it might be found. Quite the difference between a quick and pleasant packing experience and one that is quite frustrating.

So I did that - I dressed in T-shirt and shorts last Friday and spent a good 3 hours just making up those boxes (you know the ones I mean, the boxes that are all-in-one with the sides you fold up and pull the bottom up, and put all of your office's papers into) and pulling and packing and organizing. And you know what? It's worked. I can now take the box of baby things home, upload all of the baby things in that box onto the web, at one time, and take pictures of what I need while the box is in my possession. It makes the knowledge of "On the Web" so much cleaner both mentally and visually, and gives me the impetus to continue with this good work. And on the flip side, in a few months, when a baby item sells on the web, I know exactly which box to go into, pull the item, and pack it for my on-line customer.

Another thing that has made my uploading so much easier is the realization that I can add an item to my website, then make a corresponding list of what needs a picture, and taking a series of pictures all at once. Strangely enough, writing down an item that needs a picture and then taking a picture is such a huge time-saver, compared to sitting for huge amounts of time in front of the World Wide Web and trying to find one picture among thousands. This new way of doing things means that I upload everything in a box or folder all at once, then take all the pictures all at once, then work on the pictures, all at once.

So, that's where I am with my website - hope it's not too geeky for everyone out there!

Beach Sweater in Asheville

I call it my Beach sweater because its colors are, well, beach-like. Bright blue and green, and it's not often that I can find a shade of green that a) I like and b) does not make me look like I'm sickly and ready to fall over in a dead faint. I found two shades last year when I went to help with the tiny house on Mt. Matt (see "Life in 120 Square Feet" blog next door for additional information about my friends' adventures). Since I'm their friend I get to indulge in their hospitality over July 4th weekend and help with whatever odd jobs are on the docket for that weekend.

Two years ago we were only there for a night and one full day due to work schedules (or maybe it was two full nights, one full and two partial days - all I remember was the incredible amount of RAIN that weekend and how dry our new tent kept us). Last year we drove up after work on Friday and took a road we had taken in years past when going to Hickory for furniture shopping, a road called White Horse Road. We hadn't remembered it being as industrial in 1996 as it was in 2010, but then we got past all the "development" and WOW! There was a sunset between two mountain peaks and we realized we had taken the most beautiful scenic route we could have hoped for.

On the morrow last year we spent some time in downtown Asheville. I had heard about this wonderful shop from customers who had been there (*grumble*) while I had to stay in Atlanta and mind my shop while they went galivanting around the country. The shop is called Earth Guild, and it was supposed to be fantastic and full of great yarn and creativity, so I asked directions while in Asheville to it. We walked uphill and down, saw the marvelous fountain park in the downtown area, and finally went into Earth Guild. Oh my.

Really. Seriously. Oh my.

They had everything there - basketweaving, leatherworking, clay, and knitting. Their colors were inspirational and of course I just had to buy. I had been working for almost a year, after all, and wasn't part of vacationing visiting the yarn and needlework shops??

So I found this blue Ironstone yarn. It was a thick-thin cotton construction that called for a size 6 needle. Size 6? Were they kidding? I would have had to wear a shirt under my knitted sweater, and what's the point in that? So I discovered some green, and twisted the two yarns together. WOW. Just wow.

The texture, on size 6's, getting 5 sts to the inch.
Which is why you always knit a gauge swatch.
Yarn is doubled; mfg. gauge for single ply is 5 sts/inch. Who knew??

Just the perfect combination, and surely I could create something out of them. I selected an amount of yarn that I thought would be suitable for a sweater, and then the owner said the magic words and I knew I was succumbing: "Those yarns have been discontinued." *Sigh*

What that means is "the manufacturer decided/sales weren't enough to/they had a disagreement with the mill" and there is no more of that yarn. It means "you better buy more yarn than you think because I can't get any more in for you." It means "get out your checkbook, and you might as well stay for a spell cuz you're gonna be spending money, girl."

I saw two sides of this when I was a shopowner. The first was the reaction I had, above, the "get out your checkbook, honey" where you know, you just know, you're going to sell that very last skein of discontinued yarn and not have to worry about telling the next person that you can't get any more of THAT yarn for them. Ever.

The second reaction, which almost always ended in bad feelings all around, was the "Well, I really don't need that much yarn, I'll leave with what I want to/intended to leave with" that came back to haunt them a few months later when, guess what? they didn't have enough yarn to finish their project and were just out of luck. I learned early on that it was my responsibility to advise them of a yarn's discontinued status; it was not my job to feel responsible for their inadequate purchase when they came back and were upset at me, my shop, my suppliers, etc., etc. A very good learning experience for this shopowner, that was.

So anyway. I went back to the Ironstone cubicles, grabbed more yarn, and decided that since they had some Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece yarn in colors I had not yet seen at Sheepish, by golly I'd have to buy sufficient quantity to make that 3/4 sleeve summer cardigan that I had always envisioned as a use for Cotton Fleece, the one you wear in an office in the summer in Atlanta because the air conditioning is just too darn high. And again, there was one color they didn't have quite enough of . . . so another, darker color became the trim. But that's another posting for another day.

So with Cotton Fleece and Ironstone Solo in hand (both arms, really), I went to the cash register. Where I was told that I was close to point A on their discount level, and didn't I need some needles with that? Of course I did! I needed to knit a gauge swatch, now didn't I? And being a North Carolina yarn shop, lo and behold they had Twin Birch needles in stock! I had always loved Twin Birch needles - they were a local company, they put other people to work in the community making needles and other knitting accessories, they used mill ends of wood, etc., etc. Their points were very, very sharp, and while they didn't make circular needles, their straights were just smooth, wooden, warm, and one of my all-time favorite products. So I bought needles in the appropriate sizes for both products (I worked with the owner to determine what size to use for this doubled yarn; size 6 was the answer) and again, went proudly back to my growing pile on the counter.

Where I was gladly told that I was almost at the point on their customer discount level that if I bought $X more, I could get a nice Earth Guild bag. Into said pile went two different skeins of sock yarn (including this, shown on the post about sock knitting at The Mountain, and shown here) and I received a nice blue bag in which to place my larger-than-expected purchase. Oh, and Webmaster Bill decided some woodworking tools would be just the thing, so we got an even larger discount for our even larger purchase. *Sigh*

I decided to use a pattern I had used before called the Bistro Shirt by Oat Couture, a fantastic summer sweater with a nice open collar. I had knit a bulky cotton yarn called Rasta into said summer sweater pattern a few years ago, and realized that this yarn with its thick-thin texture and twisted together would be perfect. The pattern is strictly stockinette, so fancier yarns help bring more jazz to it.

(Sorry - forgot to rotate it!)

But, here it is, the day after our annual weekend at Mt. Matt, and said sweater is almost finished. The back I finished before The Mountain venture, and for some reason (maybe after two very complicated socks for the Ravelry Cookies KAL??) I just wanted some easy, mindless, in-front-of-the-TV-to-watch-movies knitting. So the front is done, and all it needs is the 3-needle bind-off to sew together the shoulder seams, and then knit up the side seams. Here are pictures of the finished back and almost finished front:

Back, with yarn instead of metal stitch holders,
to allow the live stitches to "relax" better

Front, with Twin Birch needles quite visible,
and the front RH and LH sides yet to be knit

Oh, and I have tons more yarn left over. Guess I was the other end of the purchasing spectrum, eh? Will post extra yarn on Ravelry - someone is probably looking for it so they can finish their sweater!!

Happy after 4th week!

Starting with Socks

So when I arrive at the Mountain, check in, unpack my one meager bag full of all my winter sweaters, and prepare my many, many project bags for the weekend, I always start knitting on a sock.

Why a sock?

Well, for one thing, they're small. They knit up quickly. After the cast on and joining rounds, there's a lot of "mindless knitting" followed by "thinking knitting" followed by more "mindless knitting" followed by "thinking knitting." Then you finish with scrambling to find directions for the Kitchener stitch, and before you know it, you're done with your sock.

I started knitting a sock as my first project at the Mountain several years ago, when I was learning Intarsia in the round for a sock (from the "Socks for Sandals and Clogs" book) and I wanted the peace and serenity of the Mountain to be present while I started on this seemingly impossible adventure.

It wasn't impossible - it was fun, very very fun. Basically what you do is you knit with the background yarn to the pattern, slip the pattern stitches, knit the ground stitches, and then turn the whole thing around, purling across the pattern stitches while slipping the ground stitches. It can be done with small patterns (about 5 stitches, ground stitch or two, and 5 more stitches) but not with 12 stitch beer hat patterns. Those have to be knit flat, then sew up the seam in the back.

But I digress.

So with the wonderful lightbulbs going off above my head as I sat on the porch outside with other knitters around me to ooooh and aaaah at this cool new technique, I found that I was all jazzed from my new learning experience AND sufficiently calmed down from the exciting drive up to the Mountain to begin to knit on something a little more complicated that night after dinner.

And I do mean exciting - I drive a Neon, and there's a reason for it: it is the best handling car, most fleet and easily manuever-able car I've ever driven since I inherited my Dad's Camero in the 80's. There are twisty windy mountain roads all the way up to the Mountain, and yes, I do drive them as fast as my car can handle them. There is nothing like the feel of a great car hugging the road while it is put through its paces and it, too, revels in the feel of doing what it was designed to do.

But I digress. Again.

Anyway, the next year, I brought some socks to knit on, just regular sock knitting ("mindless knitting") in the round to slow down from the drive and mesh with the energy of the Mountain that year. I used yarn I had bought in Dahlonega while touring that yarn shop with some friends, just some simple yarn, and found that this sort of settling in to be just the thing. I could concentrate better, have more mental energy later that evening, and have something to just knit on in between thinking projects.

This year, I continued the tradition with some yarn I bought in Asheville. Asheville is truly a wonderful city for the arts and many people had told me while I was a shopowner (can you say "jealous about weekend getaways??") about Earth Guild as a wonderful shop to visit. While I was on one of my many weekend getaways post-shopowner life, I helped friends with building their Tiny House and stopped for a few hours in Asheville on the way to their Mountain. All of the customers who raved about Earth Guild - they weren't kidding - no matter what sort of handcraft you like, whether it be spinning or basketweaving or knitting, they have the tools and the expertise to help you with your project and get you started on your next. So much creative inspiration, and I'm so glad I was able to spend some time there at long last, visiting a legend.

To help bring my purchase up to the correct dollar amount to qualify for a 20% discount for my entire purchase, I bought some Trekking yarn for a sock. Liked the color, wasn't sure how the patterning would happen, but I needed a sock for, well, for take along knitting. I started it in time for DragonCon last year (now that the costumers are coming full circle with kimonos and steam punk, there is a room set aside for doing one's fiber arts every morning as costume add-ins or just to sit and knit or tat with friends), then brought its companion to the Mountain to revel in the energy there:


It's got very pretty shades of blues with lots of dark purples for contrast. I've worn it once to work - I buy sandles these days especially so that I can wear my socks with them. I'm discovering, though, that I need to knit socks with gussets in the front to compensate for the difference in size between my ankles and my calves. I do like the length and the marbling of the color.




Here's the companion (not quite completed) with the yarn info. I think you can get a better look at the quality of the coloring with this shot.

The needles are, yes, aluminum, but they are my grandmother's. While I've given away her other aluminum knitting needles to a good cause, I've knit most of my socks with these.



And that, dear readers, is why I knit socks at the Mountain. I'm concentrating pretty hard on very complicated projects and on wonderful conversations, and sock knitting brings just enough *brain sigh* energy to the weekend that I can relax while I'm there.

Mountain Projects - Brambleberry Sweater

I've promised and promised to put these projects on my blog, and now here it is - a Friday afternoon in late April (Good Friday, in fact), and the Mountain is now a happy memory.

But not to worry! That's why blogs exist!

This is the first of several posts about projects I work on at the annual Atlanta Knitting Guild retreat at The Mountain in North Carolina. It is a wonderful, calming, peaceful place, way up at the ankle of the Appalachian Mountains (Atlanta being the foothills, North Carolina would be the ankles, no?). Everyone brings projects that they often cannot work on anywhere else, due to the association with The Mountain, the amount of concentration needed to work on a project, or the help they will receive from other knitters over the long weekend. And that's basically what it is: show up after noon-ish on Friday, snack, knit, eat dinner, knit, begin to taste Knitting Water, and continue knitting into the weee hours of the next day.

Sleep.

Repeat.

For an entire long weekend.

Some other projects I've worked on have been a wedding shawl for my friend and former colleague, for whom I cast on 400 stitches! a project that could only have been accomplished with many stitch markers, the complete silence of other understanding knitters, and a few swigs of Knitting Water.

I also knit Webmaster Bill his two cable-knit sweaters, the first out of Chester Farms yarn out of Virginia, a thick, durable, "wears like iron" wool yarn that is 100% machine washable. I found out while knitting that sweater that you can fudge the fact that you didn't count your rows properly, and can crochet an edging to make the arm decreases look like knit decreases instead of purl-on-the-right-side decreases. You can, you really can . . .

The second was a beautiful off-white sweater featuring yarn from Blackwater Abbey Yarns, available only through the distributor in Colorado (or from Abbey Farm in Ireland). I had had a trunk show with Blackwater Abbey Yarns while my friend was still in my employ - she is a huge fan of the designer Beth Brown-Reinsel who has designed a number of Aran and Guernsey-style sweaters out of this yarn. The yarn is also a traditional Irish Aran yarn, and not at all appealing to the soft scarf crowd, but it still proved to be a fruitful trunk show and one which I wish I could have had again. And many of the sales were to staff and owner, but that's just one of the perks of working in the yarn shop!

So, my project for the Mountain (stay on topic!) was my sweater out of this beautiful, handwash only yarn, using a pattern designed for this yarn (not by BB-R) called "Brambleberry." I used a fall-ish orangey rust yarn, and I did my swatches. Oh, boy, did I do my swatches! But more on that later.

The pattern is a little different, in that the chart is read from left to right on the right side of the pattern, and the reverse on the wrong side. Which is opposite all the other charted patterns I've ever used. Another difference is the reversal of odd-is-right, even-is-wrong row counting. Needless to say, Knitting Water has helped make these pattern differences even more clear, and has taken the sting out of ripping back and re-knitting those rows until I began to focus on the pattern's quirks.

I started this pattern 2 Mountain trips ago, in 2009, with a cast-on and knitting of the back. And you know what? After I figured out the pattern changes, it really was an easy pattern to knit. Seriously. It's only on R2 that you have to cable, and you knit the majority of the body repeating the same 8 rows. Very, very simple for late night conversation.

Then you get to do the traveling cables as you decrease for the arms, a factor which adds its very own magic to the design of the sweater. Some concentration, and no Knitting Water was involved (in fact, I think I did these decreases at home, but I wouldn't swear to it), and it makes the sweater design really cool.

Last year's Mountain stay featured knitting the front of this sweater, and one of the things I wanted to make certain of was that I was a) familiar with the pattern by this year's Mountain stay, and b) ready to start on the sleeves by doing a): finishing the front before I got to The Mountain. Which I did with the help of some very brave bunnies, as featured in that marvelous masterpiece, Watership Down, as a book on tape. Meaning I knitting into the evening and heard one of my favorite books read aloud as only a gifted storyteller can.

As promised, here are the pictures:

This is the back of the Brambleberry sweater. I only wish the color was more true - it's an orangy reddish leaf color.








This is much more true to the actual color of the yarn itself. This is a detail of the sweater. What makes the cables stand out so amazingly is the Z-twist of the yarn - it's spun in reverse. Most yarns and threads produced commercially or privately by spinners create an S-twist. But not this yarn.



This is the front of the sweater. Notice the deep neckline, an indication of it being the front, and also the double-decreasing at both sides while knitting the traveling cables.

I now have greater respect for the professional photographers who make the pictures on patterns look just perfect! It's hard to see the detail, but the traveling cables start right at the arm decreases.




Why this picture of a scrap of knitting, you ask? Why, this is no ordinary scrap of knitting: this is my swatch. I knit it with three different needles, then washed the swatch to see how my individual needle choices would come out. After all, I was going to spend at least 3 years of my life on this project, and I wanted it to be perfect.

You know what I found? Not just the needle size but the needle type makes all the difference with this project. My gauge was the same whatever needle size I used, BTW.

My first needle option was a size 6, since I tend to knit loose. Not so much fun knitting with these needles on a 2-ply Worsted Weight yarn. That's the scrunched up bit at the bottom.

My second needle option was a Bryspun plastic size 7 needle. Soft on the hand and easy to manuver the yarn over and around. Great, I thought, but I'll try one more. Plus, the pattern called for a 7 though my gauge didn't change at all.

My third option was size 8 bamboo. And that made all the difference.

Remember when I said that I had washed and blocked my swatch after I knit it? Well, the portion I knit with the size 6 was all hard to pull - no give whatsoever. But the portion I knit with the nice, soft, easy-to-manuver Bryspun? It turned flat. There was no definition in my cables, they relaxed almost to the point of being just an embellishment on the pattern and not the pattern itself. I could not believe my hands, and the more knitters I've shown it to, the more my reality about using these needles has been correct.

So my final option, of the bamboo size 8's, was right on the money. The cables were crisp and at attention, and maybe because the wood offers resistance to the wool it makes the cables stand up the way they do.

That's my lesson for the day - always, always wash your swatch, and keep knitting on the same swatch so that you can see one variation from the other. Very, very, important.

Oh, and before I sign off, here are the promised sleeves, started this year at the Mountain (I had forgotten that the rows are read reversed, so after 7 rows I poured some more Knitting Water to take the sting out of ripping them out and starting again). And one more thing - I'm knitting both sleeves together/at the same time. This way I can keep up with the pattern and its myriad of increases. Like the ones I forgot right at the very beginning, which is fine because I have small wrists, and heavily increased sleeves would just hang on my wrists like flappy bits of knitted fabric. My arms increase after the elbow, and by golly, that's just where these extra increases are going to go!

Here are the pictures:


There is more knit on them now, of course. My goal here is to finish the sleeves by this autumn, to either knit the pieces together and wear this sweater at The Mountain (it gets pretty darn cold up there, let me tell ya!) or sew it together next year while there.

OK, well, that's my first of these posts of Mountain projects. Will put some more up (I've taken tons of pictures), and hopefully all the posts will be current by the time I go on next year's retreat!

Theolonius is Begun!

Here are the sock pics just taken with my cast-on row for the Ravelry Sock Knit-along for Theolonius.


P.S. It looks intimidating!


P.P.S. It was! So many extra stitch markers!! I even noted which ones I used where!