Work in Progress: Daphnaie

Sometimes I am really lucky with my designs.  I mean everything comes perfectly together and my very first prototype/sample goes off without a hitch.  Other times it can be like trying to get a square peg in a round hole...and I am that kid that is too stubborn just to try the round peg and go with it.  I feel like almost anything can work, but who really wants a pattern that is 27 pages long in a 7 point font with 13 different charts?  I try to get my lace patterns down to a more concise form that doesn't send the average knitter running and screaming.



Daphnaie should have been easy enough, though while I was in the initial designing phase, I was blissfully ignorant of the nightmares that double sided lace repeats can cause.  Then trying to fit the repeats of the center panel in with the awkward repeats of the lace pattern just added to my frustration.  So I charted on paper and in Excel until I had filled pages of tiny grids with tiny little symbols that only knitters can understand and I added and multiplied and divided and subtracted. Next, I swatched and swatched and swatched.  Then I ripped out some swatches and swatched some more.



Finally there was a pattern I liked and, with some tweaking to it and my center panel, it all worked together wonderfully.  Like really wonderfully awesomely...so much so, I impressed myself.  Not so much because it is some monumental piece of knitting, but because I didn't opt to take the round peg and give up on my idea, I took a chainsaw and made it work...and it is almost exactly as I envisioned.  For a long time the vision was all I had too, it was just a sketch on a piece of paper for months and when I went back and looked at it with Daphnaie all charted out, it was so perfectly right. 



I just wanted to share my excitement with you guys and give you a little peek at what I have been up to.  Also, a big thanks to everyone that has purchased patterns so far.  There is one week left, then I will be tallying up the sales and making the donations!

Work in Progress: The Mermaid's Gift

Whew, I am in full panic mode, as I always seem to be when I am under a deadline.  Things are coming along...I just need to learn how to relax, but also not procrastinate so much!  Like last night, after I spent the day photographing, writing up and then sending off the test draft of Hesperides to my test knitters...I kept finding more things to do on the computer.  What I really needed to be doing was working on The Mermaid's Gift...which I did, around 10 pm.  This whole DST thing always does a number on me, especially when I am in this crazed state!

Anyway, that said I did finish almost an entire section on TMG, which I am really happy about.  Even if that does mean I was up past 1 am and slept in this morning!  I am super pleased with how it is coming along and I think my bead choice; while a bit, um, bright will work out well with the pale blue lace.  Also, I am wondering why I didn't get on the half circular shawl thing a lot sooner!  That is one of the things I love about working on this eBook, I wanted all 6 shawls to be constructed differently, so it is really making me step outside of that triangular shawl comfort zone!



The colors on this are rocking my world!  I am a powder blue lover from way back and I think the beads will do a wonderful job to give it the feeling of spray on top of ocean waves. Plus the yarn color is Malabrigo's "Blue Surf" and the beads are called "Miami Surf!"

Work in Progress: Hesperides

It took me a little longer than I had hoped to get pictures of my latest WIP, Hesperides.  These were taken with the new wireless remote I got for my camera, since I was the only one home today.  It was actually quite interesting to see what I look like when I knit!



Every "action" shot I got was a bit blurry...I don't really knit that fast!  I think I just had the bad luck of moving my hand every time the camera took a shot.  I set it for a 2 second delay so I could get the remote out of the shot ;)  Also, I've noticed I hold my right middle and ring fingers super awkward...funny.



Here is a little larger look at Hesperides.  It is a triangular shawl with alternating bands of stockinette and a striped lacy section.  The original striped lace I had swatched for this worked out horribly in action, but maybe someday it will live again as a scarf or stole.  Luckily the change didn't set me back too far and I managed to recover the design gracefully and still keep the general look I was going for.

When I came up with this design, I had wanted something that would work well with a variegated yarn and a complementary solid color.  Since I have an unhealthy obsession with variegated yarns, I am always trying to come up with good uses for them.  This way I can justify those skeins that inevitably find their way into my stash and it offers up a fun challenge for me to tackle.

I Love Darts!

I am amazed and in love with using darts in knitting!  Actually, I haven't had much experience until recently, and I wonder why you don't see it more often in patterns.  They look great and I feel the increases and decreases follow the shape of the body better than the traditional increase/decrease along the side seam.  It definitely suits certain styles and stitch patterns better, though.  I find they give the knitted garment a wonderfully polished and tailored look.

Why this sudden need to proclaim my love?  Well I was taking some shots of my progress on the Winsome proto and I am just so pleased with how it is coming along...including the darts.  I am sure you know that feeling (or want to!), when the design idea in your head and the actual knitted piece are the same...no this could be different here or I should change that neckline, etc.  It is exactly how I pictured it in my head and I couldn't be happier!

I hope to finish up this week, though my carpal tunnel is acting up a bit...I just have to be patient and not push it.  While I am so excited about the prospect of this sweater, it is hotter than Hades out!  It 100 degrees F here today with a heat index of 112, so I won't be wearing this anytime soon!

WIPs Galore

Currently I am at critical mass of WIPs (works in progress).  My usual goal is to have no more than three projects on the needles, and prefer only two.  Right now I have six, seven if you count the project that I should cast on this month, since I signed up for the knit-along (KAL) as part of Malabrigo March.

The problem with all of these WIPs is that I cannot focus on one thing and progress is hard to measure.  Luckily some of these projects haven't been touched in months and are hidden away in my closet so they don't stress me out quite as much.  The only problem with the remaining WIPs is that they are all in sock or lace weight yarn.  Projects where every centimeter is progress, and they are not small projects.

I like to keep knitting fun, but I am very much a product knitter.  Sure I like the process, too, but it is the finished object that I am after!  All the UFOs (unfinished objects) scattered around the house are starting to make me anxious.  My goal for the remainder of March is to focus solely on one project and not touch anything else until April.  It is less than a week, surely I can do it!  Hopefully the yarn I ordered to swatch for some new designs does not come until the first of April!