Tag: crochet

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The Night I Fell in Love

So, remember when I told you I made a cowl with Caron Chunky Cakes when I wasn’t really supposed to? Well, I was making one in the color I originally intended but it wasn’t going the way I wanted. I decided to use the hook size suggested in the band. The fabric was stiff and didn’t seem at all soft as the first one I made. 

I know some colors of the same yarn can be stiffer or rougher than others but in the skein it was soft. I went up a.hook size and started over. I got the same result. It was stiff and didn’t feel right. I was again in my office – the scene of the original cowl crime – and saw the crochet hook that for me into trouble to begin with. I decided I would try the cowl again to see what would happen. I took the hook and began again in the evening.

And that was the night I fell in love. It was soft and chunky and looked full. It was every bit of everything the first one was. I was grinning from ear to ear as if I had just won both lotteries and the government decided not to take any taxes.

If course, it wasn’t enough to take that victory. I decided I wasn’t just in love with this Caron Cake and this cowl. Oh no, that would be too simple. I was in love with chunky knits as a.whole. I would need to go through the stash and find all my chunky yarns so I could make chunky scarves and recall some past chunky knits. Chunky knits showed up on the Etsy trend page so not only would I make them; they would sell because they were hot. I would get sales. I would have great fun doing it. There was no downside.

I’ve calmed down a little. I might have lost momentum at the thought of going through the stash. I am anxious to make this with a tea cake. I won’t have that chance for a bit because I already have the cowl for the next collection. Hopefully, I will remember.

With the completion of the cowl, I have done 6 of 10. I have a lace slouch, new hat pattern and another cable beanie and basic beanie to complete. The plan is to have it done by the end of the month but we will see.

Pray I stay on track. I can hear the chunky yarns whispering to each other. They may be calling for my seduction. I am vulnerable but I shall stay strong.

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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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Believe It or Not

Believe it or not, I do not use my own stuff. Well, I do wear my hats but that is strictly as a matter of function when it’s really cold and I have a high threshold for cold. Otherwise, I don’t (often) wear hats, scarves or even afghans I make.

I recall one day I complained to Mr. Honey that it was cold in the house. He stopped, turned to look at me and said, “You have a hundred blankets in the house” and pointed to a pile of afghans.

There weren’t a hundred of them. But there was a nice pile of them. Never occurred to me to take one and put it over my body. I have an electric blanket – a gift he gave me and a nice comforter my sister-in-law gave me. There is a handmade comforter we use on the bed but that was made by a friend of my mother-in-law. Hey, I purchased it at their annual craft show more than twenty years ago. It fit our double bed, was only $40 and it still holds up all these years later. Don’t tell me handmade ain’t great.

While I am not a great ambassador for my own goods; I am for my craft. I knit/crochet in public all the time. Even in church. I sit in the back and I put it down when during prayer time – except for the quiet prayer time. During that time, I hold onto the fiber and send a prayer and ask for a blessing into it. For some reason, it is more important to share the gift of it than the end result. I’m not sure I want to change that. I do like making money and having a successful business but I would be knitting anyway.

I like to think of it as being a natural inclination to remember what is really the important thing. The spiritual gift that knitting is to me. It is the journey not the destination that makes it work for me and through me. I imagine how I should look pulling on one of my hats. I should be thinner and taller and the rest of my wardrobe should all of a sudden make sense. It never has in all my life but that’s what the imagination does. Real life is so much different. I rejoice at finding a clean shirt. Where I was once proud of the way my hair draped after a visit to the salon, I now have a stylist who cuts me practically bald and I live for haircut day. The last time I bought makeup was around the time of the royal wedding – of Charles and Diane.

Knitting has remained a constant for me. Believe it or not, I have a short attention span so this is a good thing. I’ll take it over having a hat head. But still…

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The Knitsville Yarn Barn

Visiting Knitsville – The Yarn Barn

There is a lovely place in Knitsville called The Yarn Barn. It is filled with fiber. Mostly acrylic but every once in a while there is a lovely wool blend, even some silk and camel’s hair. But mostly acrylic. It used to be quite organized but it no longer is. Marie Kondo would jump for joy at the sight of this room in our house.

I have more yarn than I can use in a year. I think I could go a couple or three years using one ball a day before I would run out. Even so, I still have to pull myself back from buying more.

I love the stuff. I like looking at and thinking of the possibilities. But even I know I have too much of a good thing. I have sold some of it and there is an idea running inside my head of doing a KonMari on the lot and bagging some of it up to sell at a craft show. I believe this is the year I will make that idea into a real thing. The craft show is already in the planning stages in my head.

Having this much fiber has also changed the way I will run my business. I am going to concentrate a great deal more on my Ready to Ship section so I will be buying only the fiber I need for those custom and made to order fibers. Right now, most of the shop is made to order and this year, I hope to make at least 25% of it Ready to Ship.

That satisfies on several levels: I won’t be buried in made to order orders and I will be able to use some of the yarn that has been looking at me from their cages. They will fulfill their destiny and become objects of art and usefulness. Isn’t that what we all want from life?

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Ready to Ship from designbcb

 Items ship in 1-2 business days. Shop now.

Naturally when one knits (crochets) for hours at a time, one ends up with…something. A hat, or a scarf or blanket or something. And if one knits (crochets) for hours at a time every day; you get a lot of somethings.

When one has a lot of somethings and one has an Etsy shop, then one needs to create a section called ready to ship so those somethings can go to new homes and be used and loved.

The Wedding Day Bridal Shawl $65

There are several items which can and should go to new places and meet new people. There are hats and scarves and shawls.

The Man Knit Scarf in Mosaic $25

I make pretty things. I make useful things. So, I guess I make pretty useful things as well. That’s the blessing within the blessing. It’s the act of knitting I love and it’s an additional blessing that things turn out so well.

But it does make for a house filled with finished projects and there are just so many that can be given away. I do give some away. My search serves as a station for people between housing and I give some items there. I have given each of my brothers and sisters an afghan. Various other places, too. Yet there is enough for a section in the shop.

The Stocking Cap $45

I suppose I would feel differently about knitting and crochet if there weren’t such lovely things at the end of it. I would not be content doing what I did when I first learned, which was ripping out my knitting and starting again. I did because I didn’t have any more yarn. I now have room filled to overflowing so I can knit to my heart’s content. 

All of it works together, I suppose, though it is still the doing and not the having done that brings me the most joy. But that’s symbiotic. I get to do the knitting. You get to do the wearing of it.  

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DIY Knitting – The Joy and Bliss of Making it by Hand.

“Why do you have a cigarette lighter in your glove compartment?” her husband asked her. “I’m bored with knitting. I’ve taken up arson.” – Her Fearful Symmetry

DIY Knitting – The Joy of Doing it Yourself

I don’t know that I was bored when I first learned to knit. I know I was fascinated by it and really took to it. But I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know to change colors on the same side and gauge was a term unfamiliar to me. My fascination quickly died because I only had one lesson, learning to knit with pencils. I didn’t even know about the purl stitch. There was no YouTube so I’m not certain how I figured it out. 

Crochet, too, for that matter. Don’t remember when I learned it. I liked knitting better but I went without both, off and on, for almost thirty years after I learned in grade school.

The Eden Cap – Pattern available at designbcb

I picked it up almost fifteen years ago and it has let me go. We haven’t let go of each other . I knit or crochet at a career choice and I’ve gotten into designing pieces for beginner and advanced beginner knitters and crocheters. 

Opening the shop on Etsy was a necessity because there were too many items clogging up the house. Opening the shop did not solve the problem as there are still finished objects in the house. They are now joined by more than 800 skeins of yarn. Most of it in a 10×10 room of the house that also holds two desks, two bookcases, two computers and a laptop. Yarn is in every room of our house – including the garage and I’ve never knit in there.

There is something magical about all things made by hand. I admire people who can paint and draw. Those who have the gift of words and can pull together narratives and images in ink. I see some of the work of my fellow needle arts artisans and I am in awe.

The yarns are different that when I first learned and now they can do a great deal of the work by being self striping, having texture or mixing plies. There are some knitters who won’t work with acrylic yarn but I am not one to forego it. It is economical and has come a long way from the stiff, rough yarn that used to be commonplace. Today’s acrylics have softness, texture and beautiful colors.

Along with a huge stash of yarn, I have a collection of knitting needles and crochet hooks. Some come from the legacy left from my mother-in-law who crocheted and knit. None of her kids or grandkids have the knitting gene. Her needles are in the office in a couple of mugs. I don’t use them. They are part of the atmosphere.

I never would have imagined this would be my living and now I cannot imagine being without it. Knitting and crochet are cornerstones of my life and faith. Being able to do it as my work and as a way of connecting with the world is a bonus and a blessing. I am grateful every day.