cosmicpluto knits!

2008 in review; here comes 2009!

Well I’m a little slow on the uptake, but that’s the way it goes around the holidays! I’ve been working a lot at the store this week, selling tons o’ yarn on our boxing week sale, and then counting everything that was left! Whew.

2008 was a pretty interesting year - tons of awesome stuff happened!

I wrote and published Teach Yourself Visually Sock Knitting and did all the stuff associated with it, including a business trip to Indianapolis. I also taught my first out of town class, at Shall We Knit in New Hamburg, ON.

I self published a bunch of patterns - the B-Side Cardigan, Simple Yet Effective shawl (version 2.0), Perimeter Skirt, Galileo Mittens, Waffles, a reissue of the Vino Cardigan, and of course, Just Enough Ruffles! Thanks to everyone who has purchased my patterns, I really appreciate it! I also started working on a series of hard-copy basic patterns for lettuce knit, hopefully soon to be expanded and available for wholesale (not for awhile though!).

I bought a new camera, and just now, a new lens! I also started the Flickr 365 self-portrait project on my birthday, August 1, when I turned 24. I spent a lot of time single (as in, not in a relationship).

I traveled to Europe for the first time ever (definitely not the last), my first time flying alone and my first big trip alone - although I wasn’t actually traveling along since I had my good friend Ysolda to go around with!

I think I did a little less knitting this year, but it was pretty productive - working on designs takes a lot longer than knitting someone else’s pattern! I did lots of weaving and a little bit of sewing too. I worked and taught a lot at the store, which continues to grow and be an awesome place to be!

Goals for 2009? Well, I didn’t really think I had all that much until I started writing this! There are lots of things on the menu for this year, including a ton of traveling. My round the world trip of course, for which I leave on January 18! There’s so much to do before then. To recap, I’ll be headed to Japan, China, Malaysia, India, and then a stop in Scotland on the way home when I head back in March. It’s crazy! I’m scared but excited, and everyone is telling me how happy they are that I’m doing this kind of trip. My wallet’s a little sad though!

In May I’m hoping to head down to the NYC and then the Maryland Sheep and Wool (anyone driving from NYC that’s willing to take a few passengers?).

In July I’ll be going to Hawaii for two weeks with my family - which should be interesting, since I haven’t been on vacation with them in a long time! Hopefully my mother will let me do my own thing rather than always doing the touristy things they do - if I’m on vacation, I need to time to chill out!

So what are my goals for all these trips and in between?

Sew more - possibly take a class so I can alleviate a little of my frustration with sewing!
Read more.
Be mindful in my knitting and designing.
Take lots of photographs and improve my photography.
De-clutter - I’ve been doing a lot of this over the holidays, but there’s always more to get rid of!
Design more, publish more. Market myself more.
Cook and eat well.
Move. Both in the physical sense and in the home sense.

There’s so much to do this year - I think I’ll be taking this weekend as one to relax and get ready for everything!

Happy 2009, everyone - let’s make it a good one.

new toys

A couple weeks back I ordered a slightly used lens off eBay and it finally arrived this week! It’s a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 (as I’m sure you can read). While I do like my 50mm 1.8 Nikon lens a lot, I’m just not fast enough with my manual focus to take good photos of say, moving objects (I can handle yarn and stuff that doesn’t move!).

The Nikon body that I have (the D40) doesn’t have a focusing motor in the body, which is why it’s so small and light - but it means that lenses which aren’t marked AF-S (or HSM with Sigma) won’t autofocus. Like I said, I can deal with it for still subjects, but it’s hard for people and such! And pretty impossible for taking a self-portrait with (for my Flickr 365 project).

So enter the Sigma lens. I LOVE IT. The only downside is that it’s a bit heavy (430 g, that’s nearly a pound) but I’m sure my arms can get used to it. Or else. And in addition to the new (to me) lens, I got a great Christmas gift from my best friend’s family - an SB-400 speedlight flash! I haven’t used it yet because I need to dig up some batteries, but it’ll force me to learn how to use flash properly. Most of the time I cringe when I see someone take a photo with flash (particularly with point and shoot cameras) but this one can be angled up to the ceiling for more natural light.

Mmmm, this lens is awesome! Anyway, my Lucy redux (knit in Dream in Color Classy in Black Parade) is coming along, but rather slowly. Now that all the Christmas knitting is done I ought to be able to push it out a little bit. I do want to cast on for a sleeve so that I have something in straight stockinette, which should be easy to get done!

poppy, otto and mousie

So much knitting this week! I didn’t get these done in time to be given before Christmas, so I knit really hard and got them all done in just a couple days! Excuse the photos, the middle of the night really isn’t the best time for accurate colours!

These super cute toys are all by Ysolda, for a couple of super awesome kids I know.

Otto is a polar bear knit out of Coldharbour Mill Organic Merino (DK weight) that I picked up at iknit day in London back in September. Awesome yarn, great pattern, a little fiddly but what toy pattern isn’t?

This little immobile Mousie doesn’t have legs mainly because I was sort of running out of time and yarn. Besides, it’s just going to get chewed on by a baby anyway! Knit in a crazy yarn-weight combo of Nature’s Palette sock yarn (pink) and Ultra Alpaca (the grey). A little too lifelike until I added the oversized ears!

I finished up yellow-haired Poppy on Christmas Day - and I love her! Body was knit with the Coldharbour Mill Organic Merino as well, with her dress in a handspun silk (lucky girl) and scraps of black and yellow for her shoes and hair.

(And I’m not some kind of knitting time traveler, I had a bit of an advance copy of the pattern!)

Now that there’s only three weeks to go before I take off on my six-week trip, I’m freaking out a little bit (or a lot) about how much there is to do! Getting a visa (India), shots, luggage, doing packing lists and such, deciding what knitting to bring! And I’ve got a couple of projects I want to work up before I leave, too. Bit insane but we’ll see how I do!

merry merry!

Okay, I’m actually not all that merry this year - I just can’t seem to find that Christmassy spirit. Oh well. Keep on trucking, I guess! I do finally have all my gifts set, but I do need to do some (erm, possibly all) of the wrapping up tonight.

The vest turned out fine, quite nicely in fact! I’m just about to sew on the buttons, the fake-woven-leather kind. I’ll try to get a modeled shot tomorrow!

At our gift-exchange dinner last weekend, my aunt remarked that my grandmother would probably like the hat I was wearing (Gretel), so I quickly cast on for another in some super yummy Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted.

It’s in Cranberry, which my camera’s doesn’t love - it’s darker and richer than it looks in the photo. Currently still drying, so it might need to be wrapped tomorrow. Good thing people won’t be over until suppertime.

I’ve made an eggplant casserole for my Christmas dinner main, since everyone else will be eating turkey/roast beef/salmon (yeah, it’s a lot of meat), and put together yummy yummy taco dip. I baked up a batch of Ysolda’s gingerbread cupcakes in my mini cupcake pan and they are super cute! One batch made just shy of four dozen minis. My icing is a bit runny though, I’ve already put in a lot of sugar so now I’m hoping that a sit in the fridge uncovered, and frosting the cakes right before serving, might help it along. Any other ideas? I should’ve made it a cream cheese frosting…

While I scramble to do all those last-minute things, I hope all of you who celebrate Christmas have a great one.

And for those who don’t - have a great Thursday!

whaaaat

So there I was, binding off the buttonband on my grandpa’s Christmas-gift vest, looking forward to starting (and finishing) the armhole bands when I decided to lay it out…

And saw that I’d somehow completely twisted one front when I attached it to the shoulder. And picked up and knit the entire buttonband with it twisted like that.

Of course, it was late when I noticed, and I was rather angry at myself for making such a stupid mistake, so I had to fix it right then (although I considered just tossing the whole project!). I ripped out the buttonband, but then when I tried to take out the shoulder seam…I couldn’t find the end. In a moment of weakness I took out the scissors and…

…I cut my knitting, but in the wrong place. Of course. Eventually I did find the seam, took it out, reknit the shoulder which now had a hole in it, sewed the shoulder back together properly, and picked up the button band again. Now I’m almost done the second armhole band, then it’s onto blocking and all that stuff.

Take this as a lesson, folks - don’t just keep your knitting all balled up on your lap.

now featuring sock yarn

As I went through my sock yarn bin, I realized that I don’t have as much sock yarn now as I used to - at least, not in sock quantities! I’ve been stashing a lot more sock yarn in sweater quantities, as it turns out! Lots of sock yarn being used to make scarves, too.

Nevertheless, I did dig up some that I’m just not in love with anymore - time to move on.

More info on Flickr and Ravelry.

It’s not allll re-organizing around here, I have been doing just a wee bit of knitting - man, I just don’t know where the time goes, but I don’t think I’ve been using it very effectively.

My grandfather’s vest has been getting a little time in, but it still just looks like a blob:

I need to seam the shoulders and do the button and armhole bands and then I’ll be done! That’s on tap for today - I hope.

And because I can never leave well enough alone with the on-the-needles list, I started something for myself, too. I’m bypassing a lot of winter this year by going on my trip - that’s prime knitting season! So I thought I’d try to get at least one more sweater in before I go. It’ll be my trip sweater, to be worn basically every day anywhere it’s cooler (Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Edinburgh).

It’s another Lucy sweater (it’s been over two years since I released that pattern? crikey), a bit bigger this time, and will be longer too. I’m thinking of re-releasing a new version of the pattern with a couple bigger sizes and a new layout, but I’m not sure - I certainly wouldn’t be able to get to it before my trip, but maybe during it.

I’m using Dream in Color Classy in Black Parade. I love this yarn (I’ve got 2 sweaters out of it!) but this colour is rubbing off on my hands all over the place, and that sucks. I can’t decide whether I should try setting the dye on the other skeins before I knit with them, or just on the whole thing once it’s done. The second option will leave me with black fingertips a lot, though. Hmmmm.