In Which I Find I Have a Lot to Say
Apparently I’m not very good at updating everyday, even though I am managing to keep up with my paperwork and art/craft project. Yesterday I managed to double and triple check, and polish, and tweak the patterns for “Climbing Trellis” and the “Arrowhead Stole” and get them sent out to the first test knitter. Because they are my first patterns I’m sending them both to Lara for her to test knit first, and then to other test knitters, once the huge kinks have been worked out. Today I charted and printed the re-designed “Birdy Shawl” chart, and created a first draft of the chart for a new stole design. At the moment I’m calling it The Cables & Lace Stole, but that will hopefully change throughout the design process.
This new stole is now waiting in the wings, along with a pair of arm warmers, to be swatched. Once I have one or two projects much closer to completion than they currently are. On the needles at the moment I’m in the middle of, or towards the beginning of, 4 lace projects. This means that swatching probably won’t happen for a while, and by the time it does happen I’ll probably have a whole stack of designs to swatch and cast on rather than just two.
Yesterday I started and finished this ATC as my art/craft piece for the day. It’s made using a pre-made by me ATC blank and markers. Over the last school break I made up a whole bunch of ATC blanks by gluing scraps of paper onto a piece of card stock, and then cutting the whole thing into blanks. This produced 9 (I think) unique blanks that all still tied together. I ended up making 6 or 7 of card stock sheets. So now I have a whole stack of awesome ATC blanks laying around my room and tucked into the notebook I carry around everywhere.
Today I actually finished two art/craft objects.
First up is a project for a theatrical design class. It’s a ground plan (not to scale) for “A Streetcar Named Desire.” This was done using a number 2 pencil in a 8.5×11 sketch book. More designs from this class will probably make their appearances over the next week or two. There will most likely be 2 costume renderings for “Hamlet”, 2 (maybe 3) costume renderings for Streetcar, and maybe a mood piece or two, also for Streetcar.
The next thing I finished today for my art/craft was spinning and plying 2 oz of a 70% Alpaca, 30% Silk blend from Gale’s Art, in the colorway Ruby Swirl. I got the fiber at this past NY Sheep and Wool Festival, which I went to for the first time this past fall and had an absolute blast. Technically this yarn isn’t finished because it hasn’t been washed yet, so I don’t have all the stats.
I’ve been trying to figure out how I was going to count finished knitted and spun objects, because while they aren’t technically finished until they have been blocked, washed, etc. I don’t do all of that finishing while I’m at school. This is partly due to space and partly due to the fact that I have a roommate, and I already make the room constantly smell like coffee, so I don’t want to add wet wool to the mix. So I’m figuring that these objects will count towards my art/craft project once they have been knit/spun and are put away until I go home again. Then once I get home and everything is washed, blocked, and dried I’ll post pictures again, along with all of the technical details.
I’ll leave it at that, and get my butt in gear to do homework and maybe some much needed knitting.
Holly
1 Day Off, 1 Day On
So I took yesterday “off” and it was a good idea in terms of getting homework done, but it felt weird. On one hand I went through the whole day feeling like there was something that I should be doing, on another hand it meant that I got homework done and turned in which was a very good thing. I also did a bit of work on some art/craft projects that will take longer than a day or two to complete. At least for the moment, I’m thinking that Mondays will be up in the air days. When I can do my hour of paperwork and my art/craft, or I can do one or the other, or I can do neither, and I’ll simply play each Monday by ear.
On to today. My hour of paperwork today wasn’t so much an hour of paperwork as 4-5 hours of “swatching.” And when I say “swatching” I mean starting a shawl that I was expecting to have to rip out after a few rows to re-design the chart, and then I just kept going.
Not so much a swatch anymore. I did end up changing a few minor things, but decided those changes weren’t enough to justify ripping and re-knitting the whole thing for the 4th or 5th time. It’s knit out of Socks That Rock Chickabiddy (which doesn’t seem to be available anymore -tear-) medium weight, on US 8 (?). I’m hoping to design the entire shawl so that it is knit out of one skein, or approximately 380 yards.
Another simple sketch for today this time of a tree. I was going to keep it black and white, but then really like the idea of lime green as a suggestion of leaves, and so I added the brown into the roots to balance the green.
Contrary to my initial thoughts, I’m finding that I have much more to say about the knitting design paperwork than the piece of art/craft. I’m not sure if this will continue or if, as I finish and post larger, more time consuming projects, that this will change, but I do find it interesting.
Holly
Days Three and Four
Yesterday’s hour of paperwork was spent charting the pattern for the “Orange Spicy Scarf,” and “J’s Christmas Scarf ’09” (a better name to come), and starting writing the pattern for “J’s Christmas Scarf ’09.” Then today was spent finishing the write up and charting, then swatching, then ripping out the swatch for a triangular birdy shawl/scarf. No pictures of the swatch, silly me. Hopefully I’ll finish the chart and swatch either tomorrow or the next day, and then there will be pictures.
The art/craft from yesterday is a pair of ATCs. They were quick and fun, and I like them.
Today was just a doodle of an eye with swirls. I feel kind of meh about it, though it might make a cool stencil or notebook cover.
I’m toying with the idea of taking Mondays off for the rest of the semester, just because of my classes, and how my homework schedule ends up working out. For the moment I’m undecided, I think I’ll play tomorrow by ear and then decide about the next few weeks. Either way, this would only be till the end of the semester which is a few weeks away (a rather terrifying thought).
Holly
