September 2008 Archives

Who knew people wanted to knit hot pants? You guys are awesome. In the 4 days the pattern has been up, it's been downloaded over 300 times, which I think is pretty fabby. A few folks have also made donation, which is generous and wonderful. Thank you so much.

This is part of my download stats page from Ravelry. If you are wondering why there are two Assets of Evo files it's because the first version had a missing hyperlink in the resource section. It wasn't important enough to make an announcement but I thought I'd update it nonetheless.

In doggy news, Leo found us a new little stretch of the Oregon Coast. As always, we hit Manzanita, which is great because it's beautiful, plenty of room to play and Thea gets to socialize. But after, Leo wound his way through some back roads and landed us at a secluded little stretch of where only one other person and her dog were playing. All in all, a great day out.

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Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

See all the pictures here:

Assets of Evo is up!

I'm playing around with a whole shareware sharewear (thanks colin, you know I love a good pun.) concept here. The pattern is free, either for download from my site or from Ravelry. So go get yourself a copy and knit away. If you happen to like the pattern and you can afford to do so, there's an option to make a donation towards the cost of the tech editing, supplies and labor that went into the pattern. Don't want to make a donation? Don't. It's all good.

As always, I try to provide error free patterns, but even with tech editing, errors can slip in, so please let me know if you find any problems with the pattern.

Now go get a copy and knit and be merry.

I finished the Nehalem Bay shawl a couple days ago but it took me a little while to get it all blocked out and modeled. The lighting was pretty poor, so the shots aren't great, but you get the idea.

1. Nehalem Bay Shawl - Back (worn), 2. Nehalem Bay Shawl - As scarf, 3. Nehalem Bay Shawl - Back, 4. Nehalem Bay Shawl - Front (worn)

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Stats

Name: Nehalem Bay
Pattern: The first lace panel area is from Evelyn Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles the remainder is my own design based on a stitch I found in a Japanese stitch dictionary.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Gold Hill (Superwash Merino/Nylon)
Needles: US#4
Size: Approx 58" across and 26" deep, after blocking
Yardage: 96 grams/365 yards
General thoughts: This was a fun project, plain and simple. The yarn is absolutely delightful to work with and a perfect choice for lace because of it's harmonious shades and short color repeats. I just love that there's no noticeable flashing or pooling. The lace was interesting enough to keep me going on the long stretches yet simple enough that I could converse or watch a show without getting confused.

The size is also a good one for my intended use. I like the idea of a shawl, but I get a lot more mileage out of scarves and I expect to use this that way, a lot, this winter. The best part is that even when I get to my destination, the scarf converts back to its shawl role if it gets too chilly in the building. This makes it all the more appropriate to use a good sock yarn, since it's likely to get lots of real world wear and tear. I have to thank Julia for gifting me such fantastic yarn.

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On a totally unrelated note, my dad's colleague is going to be traveling to Vancouver, BC with her SO. She'll have a lot of time to wander around the city while her guy is at a convention. Does anyone have any recommendations for her for things she might do while she's there? You can leave a comment or click that Contact button up in the navigation bar and let me know.

Recently, I picked up Evelyn A. Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles. It's a lovely little book that gives you lots of tips for knitting, well, lace triangles. She gives four lace patterns and combines them in a myriad of ways, working them either in stockinette or garter, alone or in combination, with or without transitions.

Everything is so clear and simple, I just had to cast on. With some beautiful Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock that a dear friend sent me, recently, I quickly worked up a few repeats of the ripple lace motif. But after that, I knew I wanted to go my own direction. Heaven forfend I actually follow a pattern, huh?

On our way to the beach, I knit away on my little shawl.

The colors of the yarn made me think of the autumn leaves just starting to show, on our route to the ocean. The ripples make me think of the sea lapping at the shore. As we passed by lovely little Nehalem Bay, I knew I had my shawl's name.

This morning, I moved my stitches onto longer cords and did a little steam block to see how it's looking.

I just started my second of two skeins, after nearly finishing 2 repeats of the feathery leaf pattern. The piece blocks out to about 48" wide right now. After I add another repeat of the feathery leaf, and then the border, I think I'll have a shawl that's another 6 to 8" wide, which I feel will be a good size to work as either a scarf or a small wrap for date night with Leo.

As for the beach trip, you know that went great.

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See entire set here

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

We tried riding our bikes on the beach, but the sand was either too dry (thus too soft) or too wet (thus too soft) to ride on. We'll try again at lower tide, though, because bikes + beach = a darn good run for the girls.

The second and final version of Assets of Evo are done. The first were pretty good, but I knew there were some elements that could be better.

I love the wine and black color combo. The browns are gorgeous, but this is more my color.

I redid the duplicate stitch chart to better reflect the proportions of the artwork. The previous was a little short and stout.

The front meets the strict standards of our Quality Control department, which is always good.

The new crotch gusset fits so much better than the original design.

And if I stand in just the right position, wearing a cute pair of shoes, with flattering lighting and soft focus, it doesn't look too bad on me.

I am now finishing up the pattern and then I'll be looking for a tech editor.

I refuse to call it a "stay-cation" or, as John Oliver put it, "holi-stay." But what I will say is that I have nothing planned (other than the improv class I'm taking with my friend, Erica, on Mondays) and I'm happy to keep it that way. Oh and there may be more pictures like the ones below, that I took on Saturday.

It was a perfect day; not too cool, not too warm, and absolutely sunshiny beautiful.

The car went home a little heavier than it left. Panda brought the sand and Leo found the tire iron we'd lost a month before. I kid you not! We used it for leverage to screw the girls' leash stake into the ground, and we lost it when we were packing up in the dark. There it sat, a few feet from where we had been, just waiting for our return. I love Oregon.

Kites.

Lots of running and being generally cute.

I tried to take a nice shot of the girls in front of the ocean.
First Thea won't look at the camera...

Then Panda won't look at the camera...

Then some women stop to take pictures, right behind the girls. You win some, you lose some, I guess.

All the pictures here.

Dawn and Faina's blog tour, for their new book, Casual Elegant Knits.

I directed my questions to both Dawn and Faina, who graciously answered all my questions. I think you'll find them as interesting as I did.

I think I'm going to massage the design a bit by adding in a slightly different shaping at the crotch area and tweaking the tree so it's not so stretched, width-wise, but the first go is looking pretty cute, I think. The second pair will be in a wine color with either white or black trim. I'm still deciding.

The side:

Darwin's tree spans the side of the shorts, taking advantage of the additional length in back for the very top of the tree.

The back:

The back is nearly 2 inches longer than the front, thanks to short rows at the top and bottom. The instructions will give info for customizing this shaping.

The front:

You can really see how different the length is in front, from this view. Let me tell you, the 2" isn't nearly enough to account for my, ahem, assets.

And to Cher's point about Cascade Fixation not being exactly the same as Elann's Esprit, she's right! I have some of both here and Fixation is a bit springier. However, it shouldn't be a problem, for subbing in this pattern, so when it's out, if you have fixation around, it'll be a suitable replacement.

* Thanks to MJ and Cher for coming up with a PG rated version of the name I wanted. My mom also suggested "Intelligent Behind" which is pretty darn funny too. I come by my punniness, honestly.

When I first found Schmeebot's blog, I came for the Waffles, but even now that the photogenic golden has moved away, I enjoy my regular fix of delightful images. Recently, though, she gave me even more reason to love her blog, she's a member of the Axis of Evo. Woohoo!

Once I mentioned my interest in joining the brigade, she challenged me to a hot-pants-design-off. Well, that makes it sound a little more competitive than it is. Really we're just both designing some boy shorts and I'll be offering the pattern for free. Yipee!

Here's my initial sketch.

And Schmee's great sketch is here.

I've code named this pattern, "Asses of Evo" but I'll need a more family friendly name for the final pattern.

The pattern will be worked in Elann Esprit in "Coffee Bean" and "Pecan" to be a sort of inverse of Charles Darwin's original drawing. I also picked up some "Wine" and "Natural" that I might use to knit a second pair, if the first come out well enough. For those who don't want to order from Elann, Esprit is the same as Cascade Fixation.

Surely, you are all awaiting, with bated breath, a chance to knit up some evolution themed hot pants, right? RIGHT? Sure you are.

Also, on a somewhat related note, I plan to do a new tutorial, sometime soon, on colorizing your sketches in Photoshop and using the program to play around with color combination.

Who doesn't love a long weekend?

Saturday was all about relaxing and spending a bit of time with friends.

Sunday, we hit the beach.

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And Monday we rode our bikes around our neighborhood. I have a Springer on my bike, but we've never tried it with Thea. Isn't that absurd? Leo wanted to make sure that she wouldn't pull too hard, so he rode my bike a bit and I rode his.

Frankly, I think it takes a very manly man to ride a Hello Kitty bike.

Though, admittedly, he feels more at home on his own bike.

He's clearly very mature.

Still, who can hold a grudge with such views.

Just a lovely way to end a great weekend.