Author: beverly

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Out of Sight

Just the other day I was lamenting about yarns that have been discontinued. I was saddened because it won’t be available to me. It was a setup for a period of mourning. But then I saw this. These are in my bag for the items in my new collection.

These are yarns I’ve never used before. This is a rough photo of them and they are gorgeous. The Verbena will become Basic Beanies and the Chunky Cake will be a cowl.

This isn’t a matter of out of sight, out of mind. It’s more of an acceptance of the things I cannot change. I won’t be able to bring back discontinued colors or lines. It makes no sense to hold on to them so with each use, it will be bittersweet.

That being said, I must also confess to some fiber infidelity. The Caron Chunky Cake is in a color called Cherries Jubilee. I’ve been wanting to work with it for weeks and finally the chance came with this new collection. There is to be one of the field made with this yarn in the new collection. Just one. That’s the plan. 

I was up in the office where the caged and free range yarn live. I was sitting at the desk waiting for a software upgrade to finish when out of the corner of my eye I saw another chunky cake. This one was in Dolce de Leche. So beautiful. There was a crochet hook, a couple sizes too big, but still.

It was over in an hour. My fiber infidelity. But we have a beautiful cowl as a memory. I don’t know how to break it to the cherries jubilee. Thinking I should keep it to myself for the moment. Maybe fess up when it notices the new cowl. There is another of the same cowl in the collection after this one. I could save it for that one. Out of sight, etc.

I would call myself a yarn harlot but, you know, that’s already taken.

 

 

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Discontinued Yarns

I am having a love affair with discontinued yarns. With the last collection, I used three: Hayfield Colour Rich Chunky which is no longer available at all. But there are several other Hayfield Chunky yarns out there. Just none with the colorway this one had. I also used to Caron Big Cakes with discontinued colors. There are still Big Cakes but the colors I used are no longer. I still have some of each color but not enough to keep me from missing them. They are gone from me. Sigh.

I mean, look at that color. It’s gorgeous even in a picture that doesn’t do it justice.I have about 16 balls of Hayfield in various colors (I had to look up the orders, there’s some I don’t even remember) running around in the free range. I’ve seen a couple of this color called Strata and I’ve seen the brown one, which I don’t recall the name of. Apparently, there are as many as five different colors running around. I am going to have a pleasant surprise one day when I run across them.

It took me a while to realize yarns were discontinued. It didn’t occur to me until it happened after I opened my Etsy shop and there was a hat that very popular.I went to the store to pick up the yarn and it was no longer there and the clerk said it was discontinued. I had to scramble to come up with another color. Luckily, it was just as popular but I live in dread that one day, that color too, will go away.

The closest yarn I have found to the Hayfield is Premier Puzzle yarn. It knits up very nicely as well and has a very nice color run. It’s nice to the touch and will feel good against the skin. See? Isn’t it pretty? But while I also have a few balls of this in different colors in the free range, it knows, as I know, it’s a substitute. It’s an unfair thing to know you are the replacement for discontinued yarns. It must cause stress.

The best solution is to love the one you’re with because it can all come to an end. Not the healthiest way to run a relationship but one must protect the heart. And nothing breaks the heart than a yarn that is no longer available. But we must knit. So we must go on.

 

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Administration Mode

These are the items from my second collection, Deuces Wild. They were waiting to be photographed so they could be placed in the shop and on the website. There is a similar pile of the items from my newest collection, Feels. They are downstairs waiting for their time in the spotlight.

I am entering administration mode. I have two processes in owning a shop: the first is the creative mode when I get to do all that knitting and crocheting. Once that happens, I go into admin mode. That time behind the scenes doing what it takes to get all those items into the public view.

Goes something like this: photograph items, make videos, edit photos, bag and tag items to store in the cedar chest, inventory items, prepare website pages, prepare newsletter release to private/mailing list, prepare social media posts,format patterns, prepare Etsy listings, do yarn reviews (if needed). Not necessarily in that order. But all that has to happen and it goes relatively quick. Ad mode will last maybe a couple of days. It is a necessity of business but it also has a spiritual need for me. It gives me knitting down time.

I won’t be in front of the television during this time and I won’t have needles or hooks in hand. My focus will change from one thing to another thing and that means part of my brain gets a rest. Though I won’t be knitting or crocheting, I am already getting excited because this down time includes picking the yarns for my next collection. This is a part of the business I don’t get to enjoy that much. Before, when I did this just for fun, I could relish the selecting of a yarn. But now, yarn is sometimes selected because an order has been placed and there’s no choice. At this stage, I can select what I think will work. I will be working with two yarns I haven’t knit with before. That makes me smile.

By the time administration mode is done, I’ll be ready to knit again. I will want to get out of this part of my head. So it all works out for the best. Which is a good thing. I love the knitting thing too much to allow it to be a burden. It is still the work of my soul.

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Plan Your Work

There’s a phrase I love – plan your work then work your plan. I think that’s a great philosophy to go about business and sometimes even life. And it’s something I have done in both business and life but I’ve run into a snag.

Remember this? It’s an afghan in the making. It’s been in the making for a year. She has a sibling. 

The sibling has an even bigger mouth than her sister. I touched her the other day and it was like opening the flood gates. “So you still know who I am!” “You haven’t forgotten me!” “When you gonna finish me up, huh?”

The last WIP is not exactly a sibling. It’s a sweater the daughter of a friend started and really, let’s say, veered off course, and I am trying to correct it and it’s taking some time because she got the wrong yarn for the sweater with the wrong needles and made some interesting choices where the yarn was all chopped up. It was supposed to be done 4 months ago. It needs to be done by October. So does one of these afghans because it’s going to my niece for her wedding. 

The thing is, I don’t know how I’m going to work them into the system. It has to be deliberate or else they will languish. I don’t want to use free time for them and I’ve been thinking of adding afghans back in the shop. They were big for me when I started and chose to do hats over them. They will definitely be the high end, rare, hard to find item. I do have one in the shop but it’s a custom order, The ones that sold were ready to go. But it will be months before an afghan makes it to my collections list. Once there, I will have a good chunk of them in the plans. So do I wait for one until then?

That seems the good bet for the more patient of the afghans. When it comes time to work on a blanket, there she will be and part of the fold. For the squeaky wheel, since she is made up of little leaf motifs, I will work up a couple of the leaves and then add them to her. And I will work on the sweater at the end of the knit day. I watch a movie a day and that will be the time to get that done.

Plan your work and work your plan. I feel better about things already.

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Cake Yarns

For some reason, I cannot explain, I joined a group dedicated to cake yarns. I love those things but I don’t know what compelled me to join a group that revered them enough to form a cult. And then, because I apparently want to do unexplainable things, I decided to pull 10 skeins of the stuff from the free range to take a picture to post to the group.You know, to show I wasn’t some sort of cake yarn group troll.

I did not take the photo – I found this one – and I will not post it to the group. I find it a little creepy that I have a photo of cake yarn, ignore the skein on the right. I will admit I collected six balls before I decided I was a little nuts for even considering it.

OK, now I am curious about how many cakes I have running around. A quick glance shows me: Caron Big Cakes (3 colors), Caron Cakes, Caron Tea Cakes and Chunky cakes, Mandala cakes (in about 5 colors), Yarn Bee Sugar Wheel (about 7 colors.) I know there are some Bernat Pops and some Sweet Rolls and a cake from Plymouth running the range as well. My yarn sweet tooth has enough to gnaw on for a bit. I have it in mind to add some cakes from Ice Yarns to the range. I thought I was doing well to pass those up when I ordered. Nest time they’re mine.

Cake yarns play a role in the next, yet unnamed, collection. I’ve been using Caron Big Cakesfor the Taffy Pull scarves and the new collection will introduce an entirely new item which will be made with chunky yarn in solids and yarns that either stripe or color block. Right up cake yarn alley. Oh, Imma have to tell the mayor of Knitsville we should name something Cake Yarn Alley. Cuz that’s just too good a name to pass up.

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Thy Will Be Done

Thy will be done is, of course, part of the Lord’s Prayer. It is also a part of knitting. I have finished the prayer shawl and have started making another Taffy Pull scarf in the colorway Pistachio Macaron. I had to measure the chain that started the scarf as the pattern says it’s 85 inches but the last few I’ve made have been more than 90 or more. That’s because I didn’t allow for the stretch of the chain when I started doing rows.

I don’t have a problem with it being longer, long scarves are on trend, but it may be a little disconcerting if you’re expecting something to be 7 feet and it turns out to be 9. Like a guy. There’s a big difference between a guy who’s 7 feet and one who is 9 feet. You’re gonna get a nose bleed looking at him either way but at least you’ll see his face if he’s shorter.

But here’s the thing: if I stretch the fabric when I measure it, I feel like I’m cheating. So I either go with making it longer or compromise and go halfsies. That allows for a little stretch and ease. I can also use the word approx. in my description and put in a note that says it could be longer than 85 inches. Caveat Emptor.

It’s all about that evil gauge that will change with not only needle size but with the same yarn in a different color. As flexible as knitting is, it cannot run from gauge – even when gauge doesn’t matter. 

I cannot find my glasses. They have been lost since last Sunday. I asked Mr. H if he’s been able to find them and he informed me he hasn’t been looking. This morning he told me he put all the glasses he found on the bookcase.

“You found glasses?”
“I said I put all of the on the bookcase?”
“All of them?”
“Four or five pair.”
“I have four or five pair of reading glasses. They were on the table.”
“I put them on the bookcase.”
“Why?”
“So you could see them and see if your glasses are there.”
“But I put them on the table. I already know my glasses aren’t there. So, you didn’t actually find anything new?’
“No.”

Am I the only one?

 

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Shenanigans

I love Hayfield Colour Rich Chunky. I have a few skeins of it in I think three colors. It’s soft and squishy and I will get to review if this month because I am using it to make the Lacy Slouch hat. Here’s the thing: it’s discontinued. Can’t get more of it. Not even to be ripped off from EBay. No more of it. The closest I can find to sub for it is Premier Puzzle Yarn. But there’s nothing like the original one you find and I love the chunky stuff.

I started making the hat Saturday night after finishing the prayer shawl and yesterday morning right before I went downstairs, I thought that perhaps I shouldn’t continue making the hat with the Chunky. The colors weren’t lining up the right way for me and it would look a little too distracting because the marbling would look bad. Perhaps it would have been better if I frogged it and started over 

with a different yarn. Say, like this one. 

This skein, which happened to be right outside the 

office door, was ready to spring into action. I took the skein, went downstairs and picked up the hat, which was really nothing more yet than the brim, and prepared to frog. But then a strange thing happened. The chunky made a protest. I was hit with, wait, this doesn’t look so bad. Where did I get the idea this wouldn’t look good?

From the other skein, of course. Shenanigans. Yarn shenanigans. I don’t think I’ve ever run into it before. One skein of print yarn dissing another. That’s almost rude. I actually have the I Love This Yarn – Print in gray and black. I used it to make the Basic Beanie for this collection so I’ll be able to compare the two side by side. But I never expected to have a rogue skein that wasn’t in the same colorway want to Bogart in and replace a hat that’s already started. 

Of course now the question becomes: do I let the little bugger get away with it? Do I knit the next Lace Slouchy in the Strawberry Jam? It would look cute. It would stripe in those red and black shades. No denying it. But can we reward such behavior? Wouldn’t that encourage other skeins to put down their brethren? I want fiber tolerance. At the very least, the skein has gotten to come downstairs with the elite skeins.That could motivate others to follow.

There is only one Lace Slouchy in the next collection. I think a good consequence would be for the Strawberry Jam to sit that one out and we can discuss it again in collection 5. That’ll teach it.

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Doesn’t Feel Like It

 I have one of those jobs that can be done – for the most part – in front of the television or while listening to music. Or outdoors, you get the idea. I am not chained to a desk. Though I am at a desk at this very moment. You don’t need a degree to do my job. Though there are Masters Degrees in knitting available if you look. I’m gonna make you look for yourself. I find some of them funny. People tend not to take your knitting career choice seriously until you show them how much of a living one can make. It doesn’t take much to impress because folks think of this as a hobby thing not a job thing.

It doesn’t feel like it to them and sometimes to me. But then I find something like you see here. I was looking for inspiration on what to write about when I saw a file on my laptop called Projects and Yarn. I do not remember making this file and when I opened it, there were several pics of this. I do remember doing this and I’ve done it since.

This is where I admit to having to look up the name of the stitch because I can’t ever remember it. For the record, it’s the Bavarian Stitch. I believe I continued with this and made a blanket that was given away at the family get together.

This was not an easy stitch for me to learn. For me, crochet stitches are harder for me to learn. Knitting is a natural love for me. I didn’t love crochet at first. Didn’t respect it at all. I have slowly come to enjoy it almost as much as knitting. Knitting will remain my love, If I had to choose, I would knit over crochet but there are times when I quite look forward to putting down the needles and picking up the hook.

What this photo reminds me is that there is work in this unusual career I have chosen for myself. I took it from just a hobby on purpose and circumstances have led me to think about it in a clinical manner because I don’t want to have a hobby business. I want a sustaining business. Should something happen to our finances, I want to be able to have a base to start over with.

To some who see me knit in public, it doesn’t feel like it, but I take it seriously – while I maintain the spiritual side that is provides me and the fun and community that comes with sharing it with folks who also knit or crochet and those who just admire our doing it.

This isn’t hard work, at least not the visible part of the business career, but I work hard at it.

 

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Won’t Touch the Stuff

There was a time why I decided to indulge in dyeing some yarn. I used Kool-Aid. I still have one or two skeins from when I colored it – about eight years ago. The color is holding up. Which is why when people offer me Kool-Aid, I won’t touch the stuff.

I got nothing against one of the drinks of my youth. Except I find it hard to drink yarn dye. And that’s what Kool-Aid is to me now. Somewhere in the yarn room are honest to goodness dyes. Powders that are meant to hold wet yarn and turn it pretty colors. I can only find the green and have no idea where the rest are and I haven’t seen them in years, either.

I don’t think I’m being particularly paranoid. The stuff has stuck around, unfaded, on natural fiber going on a decade. Ain’t nothing more natural than a body. I think it would be perfectly accurate if on one of those murder mystery shows, the medical examiner opens a body and discovers a set of grape lungs and a cherry liver.

I’m not quite ready to jump back into the dye pool. It takes time and prep and there are other ways I’d rather spend my time. But it is a fun way to spend that time. When I was into it, I was really into it. I sold the skeins in the photo except the pale blue on the right. That’s the one that is still in the caged section of the yarn room. I don’t know that I have a desire to knit with it. I purchased the fiber for the purpose of dyeing it and I fill the duty is done. There’s nothing else to do with it. Kinda silly. I should knit with it if for no other reason to see how my dye job knits up.

It does pique the curiosity just a little. The next time I run across it, I won’t be in such a hurry to pass it by. A simple winter hat will probably do it. I don’t know how big the ball is but I can probably get a hat out of it. I still won’t touch the stuff to drink it. That ship has completely sailed.

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The Temptations

These are The Temptations. Classic. Iconic. Talented beyond measure and addictive. If one is a true music aficionado, one cannot resist the temptation. Some of their song define my knitting life quite accurately.

Ball of Confusion
I’ll Try Something New
With These Hands

I mark long trips in the car with how many times I have to play the CD I have of their greatest hits. That’s the one disc I can play over and over because it is my car jam.

These are also temptations. Especially those four balls over to the right. Those are skeins of Lion Brand Jeans yarn. And I am in love. It has been quite some time since I had a yarn that I loved. I have an affinity for all things yarn but when one knits so much and does so for a job, then yarn can sometimes be nothing more than a means to an end. 

I am surrounded by yarn – certainly more than I will use in the next few years. Note to self: set a challenge to use 100 balls of yarn in 100 days. It is the act of knitting itself that I am most in love with. Although, I won’t knit with just anything, I learned on a ball of crochet thread. it is knitting that gets to me. The yarn is a partner.

But the first time I used the Jeans, I wanted to live in the stuff. I love the feel. I love the drape.I was tempted to stock up when Lion Brand was doing a 45% discount and again when JoAnn had it on sale plus a 20% off coupon. But I didn’t. Because I have to discipline and control over having this nectar in my cup. My yarn blitz is in December and then it’s on.Both the Jeans and the Jeans Colors will find themselves grazing with the other free range skeins in the yarn room. I have only used one of those four yarns pictured there. The others are on the range somewhere. I think I know where one of them is but can’t say for sure. The others I will run across at some point in time. I am filled with anticipation at the thought. I won’t go looking for them on purpose. That’s part of the fun of being me. Avoiding the temptations is a way to enjoy the indulgence when I finally find it. After all, I Ain’t Too Proud to Beg I’m just glad I don’t have to.