Resilient Knitter: January 2012

Monday, Monday

Here's to starting the week with a blank slate. Happy Monday!

kids , knitting , music

This Week

This week::

:: The boys made a fleet of Lego trains.

:: We spent time with friends at the coffee shop for knitting and a bit of tomfoolery.

:: I was reminded not to take life too seriously.

:: Evenings were spent stitching up a couple dozen pairs of upcycled longies for the shop!

:: Listened for hours to one of my favorite groups, Rising Appalachia.

How was your week?

knitting patterns , lookbook , nine lives of a ball of yarn , ravelry

Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn: LookBook and Patterns

In case you've just joined us in this Nine Lives Series, all the fun started here. Almost every day, I created a new project to use up all the gorgeous Burly Spun yarn I had left over from another project that, well.... just didn't work out.

And, in case you don't want to fish through all nine posts, {Because all you really want to see are the photos. It's ok, sometimes I do that too.} I've put together a LookBook. It's my first one. Ever. I'm no graphic designer, but I'm pretty excited with the way it turned out. I hope you like it, too!

If you are interested in purchasing the patterns in this series,
you can click "buy now" for instant download.

The Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn
$9.00

Yep, you know it! That's only a buck per pattern. Awesome, right?!

You can also find the patterns over on Ravelry and in the shop too.

p.s. I really want to make this available in ebook form for my Kindle/Nook/electronic lovers out there, but my Kindle/Nook/electronic lovin' friends all tell me that ebooks with a lot of graphics and images are hard to read. I don't have a Kindle/Nook/electronic gadget to use as reference, so if anyone has any opinions on the matter, I'd love to hear them!

burly yarn , fringe , knitting , men's scarf , nine lives of a ball of yarn , scarf , seed stitch

Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn: NINE

Whew. That was a nasty four day long stomach flu that found it's way through a few of us in the house and stopped me in my tracks. Many little people tried to bring me grape juice and knitting, but alas, I was too sick to knit. {I told you it was bad.} I did drink the grape juice, though. My mom always made me ice cold grape juice when I was sick. It works, along with tons of sleep and a few get well kisses on the forehead.

Today, I finally felt well enough to finish up the ninth and final project in the Nine Lives Series. {Thanks so much for your patience, btw.}

A request from Mike. A scarf with the following features:

*Long enough to tuck into the front of his coat but not so long that it hangs out the bottom of the coat.

*A hole in the middle so that the scarf stays put with only one wrap around the neck.

*Fringe

I hope to have a look book and all the patterns ready for sale on Friday, so stop back and take a peek!

p.s. Looking for other inspiring knitters? Join in with Ginny for her weekly Yarn Along, and see what everyone's working on!

door snake , knitting , nine lives of a ball of yarn

Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn: Eight

For old, drafty houses. A door snake.

Until Monday...

burly yarn , fingerless mittens , knitting , nine lives of a ball of yarn

Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn: {Seven}

Something for the guys. Fingerless Mittens.

Until tomorrow...

knitting , nine lives of a ball of yarn , soap

Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn: Six

What to do with all those little slivers of soap left in the shower? A soap pouch. Wool is anti~bacterial, so just hang it to dry in between uses.

{p.s. I'm adding new soap to the shop tonight!}

home decor , knitting , nine lives of a ball of yarn , pillow

Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn: Five

A pillow with tree branch buttons.

boot cuffs , knitting , nine lives of a ball of yarn

Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn: {4}

I've been needing {wanting} a pair of these forever. The go everywhere, boring, brown mud boots needed a little pick ~ me ~ up. Plus, they help keep wind out.

Boot Cuffs.

Until tomorrow...

knit hat , knitting , knitting pattern , nine lives of a ball of yarn

Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn: T h r e e

It's an irresistible thing, this hat. Meant for an adult, Cole couldn't help but grab it out of the basket and dance around the barn in it!

For my mischievous little nature sprite, I'm calling this one Puck!

Until Monday...

knitting , knitting pattern , nine lives of a ball of yarn , seed stitch

Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn: Two

Merriam - Webster lists the synonyms for seed as genesis, potential for, starting point, a source for which something grows and develops.

A new beginning, in a new year. It seems appropriate, then, that the texture of choice for this Nine Lives project be the seed stitch.

And that this cowl's name be Renee, a French name meaning rebirth.

A cowl, named Renee. Thick, warm, and a little bit pretty.

Until tomorrow...

knitting , knitting pattern , lambs pride yarn , nine lives of a ball of yarn

Nine Lives of a Ball of Yarn

Nine lives of a ball of yarn. It started back in September when Mike and I went camping in South Dakota for our 10th Anniversary. Part of my vacationly mission was to find a yarn shop deep in the Black Hills. To find a skein of yarn spun with rich history and magic by a local resident artisan, but no. None to be found. Anywhere. I asked around at local restaurants and museums, older women at historical centers, and even a crafty looking woman at a gas station. "Sorry, I don't know of anyone who sells yarn." Humpf. Now I know this can't be true. It gets cold in South Dakota. I mean really cold. And I'm certain there must be someone, somewhere in the area who loves to warm their head with a toasty hand knit hat.

Then we saw this place! The maneuver Mike did with our Kia rental when I yelled, "YARN" was Hollywood movie worthy. The man who runs the little shop was so friendly and did you know that his father in law raises a flock of 100 sheep and his wife spins a bit of the wool for fun, but they don't sell locally anymore, because no one was interested. Strange, I know.

They did however, have a whole wall devoted to Lamb's Pride {aka Brown Sheep Co.} and when I saw the pile of Burly Spun in the perfect shade of Grassy Knoll, I bought the whole lot.

I have six skeins total. 792 yards. 48 ounces. This is just one skein.

So began the task of writing up the sweater pattern I'd been dreaming of for a while. A coat really, top down, with pleats, a tab in the back, giant tree branch buttons, and a pointed pixie hood. With a simple bit of math and a gauge swatch done, I was set to go. The gauge, btw, is 2 stitches to the inch!!

See the photo below? I knit the whole thing to this point three times {with variations, of course}. Each time, not really loving the way the fabric was draping on my body. I'm 5'2" with big boobs and skinny legs, I really should have known that a long coat with bulky yarn and pleats was not the way to go, but I assured myself that if I could just get the shaping right it would be flattering and slimming. {hindsight, I know.} Well, when I finally had it right, with a shape I could live with and the sleeves done, and the hood almost finished... I ran out of yarn. Of course I found what I needed online, but I was already into this coat for $110 and I just didn't love it enough to fork over the extra $60 to finish it. And the hood was the best thing this coat had going for it, so I frogged it. Again.

So now the obvious question, what in the world do I make with all that yarn? Well, with some inspiration from friends, I thought it would be fun to put together nine small projects, one each day, for the next nine days. Then in the end, I'll have all the patterns available in an ebook of sorts.

Here we go, Life #1. The one that inspired me to put this project together. I made it on a whim at the coffee shop, while hanging out with friends. It's fun and playful and adorable on everyone! {and only took about an hour to knit}.

I'm calling it Parker, after my friend {and model}.

Until tomorrow...

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