CathyCrafter

I have been working on a bunch of little projects and finishing up one big one before I settle down to my annual Christmas Angel crochet frenzy.

There is a new nephew and a friend’s first baby due in January so baby knits have been high on the list.  Neither shower has taken place yet though so I won’t spoil any surprises here, but if you are on Ravelry you can find my latest baby projects here, here, and here.  There is still one baby piece to finish this week to complete a set.

Someplace in there I snuck in my third test knit.  The square spiral hat by Samantha Leopold-Sullivan.  This was the first double knitting project I ever attempted and this was an excellent pattern to do this with.  After a few false starts as I learned to double knit, the hat knitted up quickly and easily.  It is super warm, but a little big for our small heads.  I used 100% wool so it too is sitting in the “needs final finishing” pile awaiting a quick wash and gentle felting.

The big thing keeping me busy lately was a new cardigan for me.  I used Lion Brand Homespun in the olive colorway to knit the Lion Brand Cropped Cardigan. I planned to modify this by adding a bit of length so it sits at the hip instead of being cropped.  This is finished – except for the buttons which are on order.   I remembered to put the body together and measured for the sleeves before knitting them and wound up needing shorter sleeves than the pattern called for.  Once the sweater was together, the neck wound up very wide and low, so I added a collar to this. As written the neck is left with just the bound off stair-step edge around the front of the neck.  This was a  very unprofessional finish to a pattern and left the sweater looking half finished.

I have always loved spending my free time making things. Everyone says that the best job you can ever have is doing what you love. I have been trying to think of ways to make my crafting pay for years. Unfortunately, everything I love to do is so time intensive, that even at bargain labor rates I would be hard pressed to find someone who could afford the finished products when you figure in time and materials. The internet knitting community has shown me some opportunities I had never before considered. I don’t think that I will be paying the bills by test knitting any time soon, but for now it is an interesting pursuit which may lead to some more lucrative things.

So far I have test knit twice. Once for CookieA’s Ornette Socks (Ravelry link), and once just recently for VeryBusyMonkey’s Sneak Peek Socks (Ravelry too).

Sneak Peak

Both were very enjoyable learning experiences.  CookieA did hers in the style of a knit along.  She formed a yahoo group for the test knitters and we were able to share experiences.  Ornette is a very complicated sock with many charts and different styles of cables.  CookieA released the pattern to us in stages, revising and perfecting it as we went along.  It was nice to share in the feed back of the other knitters and know whether you were on the right track.  VeryBusyMonkey’s socks, have a beautiful, simple to execute lace pattern.  I got this as a nearly ready to publish pattern that only needed a few tweaks.  Each of her test knitters worked independently on this and VeryBusyMonkey was wonderfully quick with her response to my feedback and questions throughout the whole process.

I am looking forward to doing more test knitting in the future.  Both these “jobs” paid in copies of the test knit pattern and a copy of another pattern from the designer.   I am always on the lookout for more test knitting opportunities.  Hopefully this is one step on the journey to making my hobby at least self supporting and becoming a professional at what I love.

Well, today I have been investigating some gallery and flickr integration tools for use here. So I am going to get things started here by showing you what I have been up to this week. I am participating in the Secret of the Stole III Knit-A-Long (KAL) by the NauticalKnitter. You can find her and her wonderful patterns at www.knitwith.us. I finished hint 1 a few days ago and hint 2 was just released this morning. This is an exciting project so far. I am using Coulormart 3/44 merino in the glacier colorway with clear iridescent size 6 beads. In the sunlight the beads sparkle and look like icy crystals against the pale blue background. I’ll try to get some pictures outside soon. I got very excited about my color and bead choices when I saw hint 2 this morning and realized that the motifs which we got a hint at in clue 1 were definitely snowflakes.

As best as I can remember, this is the first time I have knit with beads. This is certainly the first time I have tried the crochet hook method of adding the beads to knitting. NauticalKnitter has an excellent video on her website illustrating the technique. You don’t have to count out and thread all the beads for your project onto your yarn before you begin working! My mom kept looking at my work last week and searching my thread cone to see where I had hidden the beads.

The technique is simple and elegant. As you come up to a stitch requiring a bead, you place a bead on a very fine steel crochet hook. You then hook the stitch needing the bead off the left needle, pull the loop on the crochet hook through the bead and then replace the stitch onto the left needle ready to be knit (or purled) into as the pattern dictates. Now that I have tried this I really don’t know why you would do it any other way (unless of course you don’t have a fine steel crochet hook). The beads sit so nicely over both legs of the stitch this way, no more fussing about what part of the loop the bead should sit on.

Welcome to my little spot on the web.  I plan to use this space to chronicle my crafting endeavors.  I enjoy a wide variety of crafts including spinning, crocheting, sewing, needlework and even stained glass, but my current obsession is knitting.  I have bounced around from craft to craft over the years, but yarn keeps calling me back.  I find myself returning time and time again to the knitting needles and crochet hook.  Some of my earliest memories of my grandmother include learning to crochet chains on my finger as I sat and watched her and my mother at their needlework.