 Knitting is my "go-to" activity whenever I have a few free minutes. I knit on my lunch break at work, I knit during down time when volunteering, I knit when riding with friends places... at the beach, at the movies... it's the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning (after checking email and ravelry) and the last thing I do usually before going to bed every night.
Recently, I have been doing some design work for publication and it has taken a lot of my time away from some of the other things I like to do (like my goal of posting more frequently on the blog about knitting). Those who have designed for publication know what it's like... coming up with an idea, swatching, swatching, swatching and then swatching some more... figuring out what the stitch pattern wants to be, then spending hours and hours knitting, ripping, knitting, ripping and knitting some more until a knitted item is born. LOTS of notes are made and revised, and once the piece is complete, knitting becomes a sort of math "word problem" where the goal is to calculate the various sizing requirements for the project. All of this takes so much time, and the publication process takes a few months more... so in the end, there's LOTS of knitting that becomes secret and takes up time and can't be talked about... what that means is sometimes I am working like crazy on projects and while I want to post about them I can't. I have also been working on a commission project that I prefer not to talk about until it's complete... (It's a fun knitting project and I can't wait to share the finished item with you!) I have to get back to knitting - but that's what's going on right now. Thanks for reading, subscribing to the newsletter, adding my blog to your blog reader of choice, and for sharing my website and link on your blog! Have a fantastic week! Like what you see? Click the "like" Facebook button or share this post on Twitter with your friends. Thanks!  Yesterday, a friend and I went to Building RE Sources - a non-profit business offering a place for eco-conscious folks to donate and/or purchase recycled building materials. We had a great time wandering through the aisles of doors, windows, plumbing fixtures and tiles, and spent some time thinking creatively about what we could do with the different items. We were hunting for something specific (and didn't find it) but DID find tumbled tile and glass that is produced by The Red Shovel Glass Co.; a division of the same organization. They offer tumbled terra cotta, random tiles and a variety of ten different colors of glass. These repurposed mini-gems could be used in planter beds or flower pots, and the glass versions look very similar to sea glass...  The textures and patterns in these salvaged objects are inspiring to me - the cracked paint, worn out and bent metal railings, broken tiles, antique doors... drawer after drawer of card catalogs filled with cabinet hardware... inspiration for knitting patterns is everwhere; we just have to look!
Our field trip was great fun and while there is no major building project happening currently, I think that visiting places like this from time to time is helpful to show what's available within the community. It's also a great place to consider recommending for those in the area who are doing major remodels - how nice to donate (and get a tax deduction) for the old windows, doors, lighting and plumbing fixtures in a home instead of sending those things to a landfill! Salvage centers such as this are located all over the United States. Search online for one in your area! Like what you see? Click the "like" Facebook button or share this post on Twitter with your friends. Thanks! This sweater was started in April, 2010 just as a diversion from other knitting projects that needed attention. It lingered and hibernated off and on, and was ripped and re-knit a number of times until I found the perfect recipient for it; my friend Anthony! Realizing that the sizing was perfect for him, I got his partner to sneak one of his sweaters out for a quick measure and made some notes to modify the work. I ripped out the bottom ribbing and knit the body longer, then ripped back and started the sleeve over.  Once I figured out the sleeve, knitting the second was easy. One thing I want to note about this project: The yarn Feza Yarns Cypress Mohair (which, by the way, has NO mohair in it!) is a s l o w self striping yarn... gently spun, fluffy and wonderful to work with... However, when knitting a top-down sweater with self-striping yarn, the size of the stripes changes dramatically at the point where the shoulder and body stop being knit and the sleeve is continued on its own. In the past I have avoided this obvious change in band sizing by doing alternating stripes on my other sweaters. some "in progress" and other details for this project can be found HERE on its Ravelry page. If I were to knit another sweater like the one I just gave to Anthony, using yarn that slowly changes colors causing broad stripes, I might consider alternating two balls of yarn and striping the sleeves instead of allowing the self-striping yarn to be in control. Going WAY back in time to late 2007/early 2008, I made a sweater I called "New Years Resolution" out of a similar yarn called Atunno, and in anticipation of the varying sizes of stripes I used two balls of yarn for the back of the sweater which helped even out the color changes. For example, if a piece was 50 stitches across, I knit 25 stitches with ball A and 25 stitches with ball 2, wrapping the two yarns each time I came to the center (like intarsia). This resulted in a striped fabric with stripe sizing that somewhat mirrored the two fronts (this was a cardigan; click on the image below to be directed to the ravelry page for this project). The striping on the sleeves ends up being in about the same size, and I am pretty happy with the way this one turned out.  The problem is that for a top-down raglan the piece is worked in the round, removing the ability to work back and forth on the pieces. If anyone has heard any suggestions as to how to improve the stripe sizes on this type of sweater, I'd love to hear! Post in the comments and share your knowledge with others!
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