Things are truckin’ along here. I managed to get my file off to my tech editor over the weekend. Yay! I know there are issues with it, and I also forgot to add the section about putting the ribbon on the t-shirt. lol But, it’s a good start. 😀 Thanks to the big push to get the tee done and the pattern emailed off, it triggered a nice case of finish-it-up-itis. That means I am really pushing to get things done. Another reason for the push to get things done is the wip basket. Oh dear…the wip basket. I have it sitting up here by my desk.

The pink zigzag basket is all the wip’s that I found so far. There could be more hiding in bags around the house. lol This basket is not small. It’s sitting on top of a bar fridge, and is about 3 layers deep. So many things! The brown basket to the left has some quilting stuff in it, but the pink and white squares on top is a double knit blanket I am working on. I have 12/20ish squares complete so far. I say “ish” because I don’t know if 20 squares will result in the size blanket I would like. More squares may be needed.

I released these socks a while ago. They are my Lace Argyle socks. The poor second sock sat there just waiting for me to finish it. The last two days I worked on it as quickly as I could, and I managed to get it finished. Yay! Finally something else off my to do list.

I am also working on a pair of socks that will be a gift. They are my Leaves Galore socks, but they aren’t completed yet. I am on the gusset of sock two. So stay tuned for that one in the coming days.

With all the work being done around here, I am replacing my office desk. This is the one in the main office, not the one in the studio. I am using the studio for inspiration though. Desks have become so expensive and I can never find one I like. My current one broke almost immediately. Absolute junk. So, I bought a dining table that is 60″ long, 34″ deep and 30″ tall. Big, but not that big. My current desk is 59″ long, so it won’t take up too much more space, other than how far it sticks out from the wall. It should arrive tomorrow. Unfortunately with the desk I bought a matching printer stand. I seriously just assembled the printer stand today. I bought it last July. It’s been quite a rough winter for me. lol But, it’s assembled!!

There is a door to go on it, but I am planning on using the whole thing to hold paper, so the door will be in the way. So, we’ll leave it open.

We also put together a cabinet a couple days ago for the laundry room. It gives us a bit more room in there. We took down two hanging cabinets to put this in its place. I have to paint around the top of it now, but I’ll do that later. 😀

Other than that, we’re about to start gutting the basement. That’s on for tomorrow. We need to at least pull out and pile up the things for the junk guys to take. They come on Wedesday.

Phew! I’m already thinking about bed time! But, there is hockey on in an hour, and it’s the Playoffs baby!! hehe That will be some quality knitting time.

One of the fun parts of designing are the do overs. Okay, fun is the wrong word. Perhaps frustrating beyond words would be more appropriate, possibly with some colorful unladylike language. lol Sometimes the mistakes happen in the actual drafting of the pattern portion. Sometimes they happen during the knit. Other time you put on the finished item and it doesn’t fit. I’ve had a couple of these just today. So, my new t-shirt design doesn’t fit me. I’ve already altered the design to fix this. The problem is that it’s done and knit and isn’t long enough for the bust. sigh I’m hoping I can salvage it. I’m not sure how, though. The problem is that the button band is super high. I needed another 1.5-2″ in length from the button band to the armhole.

Then I’m working on a new sock design. I already found a problem when knitting it, so I’m now trying to fix the pattern to match it. The problem is that the pattern is actually 23 pages long. Yep. 23 pages. Oh my. The first 7 pages don’t need altering, but every single page past that does. I have 3 finished. I’ll be here for a bit.

I also started a new pattern today on top of those for a pair of socks. They will be toe up with an oyster stitch to look like flowers going up the leg. I think. I’m still not 100% sure on that pattern. I want something flowery, but I’m not sure this is going to fit the bill. It’s actually going to be paired with a yarn from a yarn club that is on its way to me. I think it’s supposed to be delivered Saturday, so I have some time.

That is a glimpse into the level of work the designs take. That t-shirt for example has been going for about 2 months, and I haven’t even started the tech edit portion, let alone the testing. The socks go faster, since it’s quicker for me to knit. It usually takes about 2 months of work from start to finish to get them released. Time can start to feel very tight when you have more than one on the go. Right now, I also have the cowl in testing. So, I technically have those 4 things in full go mode. I also have the leaf scarf that is approaching my deadline for completing the sample….so make that 5 things in full go mode.

A friend mentioned earlier today that someone asked if she would “share” the pattern she used to make a blanket. She politely said no to them. I greatly appreciate that response. While this was not my design, it was someones hard work. We work for sometimes 6 months on a design (2 months has been my minimum), and only get to sell the for $6-10 (the socks I design are usually $4.50). Now think about how many times we need to sell that pattern for to make the money back on just our time. Now, consider the fact that we have to pay approximately $20 an hour for a tech editor in there, for a few hours of their time, at least. So, 6 months work plus the $60, plus the yarn, plus plus plus. Those little guys are a lot of our own money out the window before we see any return. So, please make sure to take that into consideration when looking at a persons pattern, and wondering if the price is worth it. Believe me, it’s terribly under priced.

Okay, I don’t really have pictures to go with today’s post, so here’s one of my cats. 😀 This is Daisy, and she really likes to pose with all the knit wear photos.

Last August we had a flood in our basement. The stairwell outside got full of water and came in through the door. That meant all the carpet was pulled out, and we had a bunch of fans and dehumidifiers down there for a week. Unfortunately, this is also the home of my craft room, which we finished just a couple months earlier. The disaster assistance crew only took out the wet carpet, so I was left with 3/4 of my craft room carpet. sigh Then about a month ago, more water. We had already fixed the door and things, and this was more like a pool in the middle of the room. Turns out the small crack in the floor that we were monitoring suddenly opened and water came in from the floor. Ugh! Again, the craft room was hit with water. We call in the foundation guys, and when he went downstairs and put down the laser level he sighed. That can’t be good. It wasn’t. The floor was compromised. We’re now 2 weeks out from the foundation guys coming in to jackhammer our basement to put in an internal weeping system, since the one outside seems to have failed. Plus they are going to pump stuff under the floor to hopefully raise it, but it will at least fill any gaps and keep it from dropping any farther.

All that leads up to this mess. This is the dining room. In order for the floor to be demo’d, the rooms need to have all their stuff pushed to the interior walls. They only need to put the weeping system on exterior walls. But, it’s damp down there, and I needed to get all the yarn out. This is most of it. I think I have a couple tubs down there that still need to come up, but it wasn’t the “nice” yarn, so to speak. hehe

The dining room is a disaster! Plus we’ve been working on computers, which takes up a bunch of table space. I did usurp the table today though, and cleaned up the computer parts. I needed to get my latest design sample blocked. I’m working on a t-shirt with a lace bottom, and short row cap type sleeves. I’ve finished knitting it, and now know how it’s blocking and how the size will work. That means tomorrow begins all the math for the rest of the sizes. From there, it will go in for tech editing and for testing. 😀

I also have a scarf that is in the process of getting knit. I’m falling behind on it, and with summer coming up quickly, it’s going to be tough to finish it before August. hehe The pattern itself is pretty simple and consists of leaves working their way along the scarf. I’m Knit Picks Preciosa, which is really divine to work with. It’s so soft and squishy. That’s what is keeping me going on this one. 🙂

I have a cowl that is in testing right now, that should be released in early July. The testing deadline is the end of June, but given that it’s a pretty quick knit I might get lucky and have everyone finished early. But, I’m not going to count on that. 😀 I’m also knitting it again myself to make sure it reads the way I want it to.

I have a fun project on the go as well. This is square 12 of 20 ish. All these squares are reversible (they are double knit), and will form a big ole blanket. 😀 It’s from the 2017 Yarnia Quest by Tania Richter of Epic Knits. I’ve been working through the entire quest, I took some time off for other things. I have a few other projects in this group to complete as well. But, this blanket takes priority. I really love it!

Okay, that’s enough project spam for today. I even managed to take a break from writing this to go do the dishes. haha! At least the kitchen is now clean, so I can say I have accomplished something other than knitting. But, since knitting is also work, it’s allowed to be the main accomplishment of the day. Especially when you get that t-shirt finally done and blocked!

Thanks for reading!

I have decided to start up the blog portion of this website. As you can see from the headings above, you can jump to various categories for patterns, tests, etc. But, I didn’t have a place to ramble on about things I have completed just because, or things that are in the pipelines for patterns.  And since this is its own tab, and not the main landing page, you can ignore it if you so choose….but hopefully you won’t. 🙂 hehe

First up, is an introduction of me. If you have been to the site before, then you have seen some of my designs already. But as for me personally, I’m Canadian born. I grew up in Nova Scotia near the Bay of Fundy, so the ocean is in my blood. I do tend to be a bit salty. 😉 After meeting my husband and living in Canada for a bit, his mom took a turn for the worse in her health and we moved to Virginia to be closer to her. We have been slowly putting our lives back together after such an upheaval in everything.  We were fine with the move, but it’s just not the same anymore. In Nova Scotia, most of us adhere to what we call “dewdrop inn”…otherwise known as “do drop in”…or come on over anytime. That doesn’t exist around here as much, really. The other difficult part was it took almost 2 years to move down here. The Immigration process can be a bit lengthy, and there were government shut downs, etc etc. The fun part was that I had to travel across country to Montreal and hang out there for a week. I had a medical exam and an interview and all that good stuff. But, the medical had to be done 3 days before the appointment to ensure time for all the reports to get where they needed to be. Thankfully we were doing this in September, which meant pre-season hockey games! Yes, we’re hockey people. I know, so Canadian, right? hehe Well, I’m a big Montreal Canadiens fan, and we got super lucky to get tickets to 2 pre-season games!! It was so much fun. That was a big perk to being there a week.

Now in my 40’s, I’ve made a bunch of changes. I left my accounting job, and didn’t bother redoing cert’s to work down here. I could have, but I was so burnt out already. I became a housewife and settled in to life here. Of course, the first couple of years were being with the inlaws a lot and helping out. After my mother in law passed, we began to try finding our way again. We are slowly getting there. I was knitting a lot. A. Lot. Then I began to have an issue. I wanted to make something and had the idea in my head, but it didn’t exist in a pattern. So, I drew it up and wrote it out and ended up with the finished thing. I worked on it for a bit, and then actually published it! It was rough, and still needed polishing, but I went for it. After that, I was hooked. So, here I sit working on a blog post about publishing patterns and knitting. haha!

It’s funny how life changes. In addition to all that basic stuff of what I do, I also have some health things I’ve been trying to overcome. My doc diagnosed me with rheumatoid arthritis about 5 years ago. I deal with that 24/7. I had an issue with meds last year that ended up causing me to fall and break my leg. So, now I am going natural. Every med I try to take messes with me, so I gave up on those for now. Right now we are going through an elimination diet. Turns out I might have an issue with salicylates. I didn’t know what those even were until a few weeks ago. I guess every living plant has them as their own bug defense. They are just natural. But, some fruits and veg have more than others, and my body seems to hate them. It’s a common allergy/intolerance, so it’s easy to figure out what to eat or not eat. But, the biggest issue is not having spices. It’s bland city over here right now. But, it’s very worth it. I am feeling much better. I have energy, I’m sleeping better, pain levels have actually decreased, and I feel like doing things. 😀

I also wear a brace on my right leg from nerve damage as a baby (possibly from birth). For the most part, it’s just there, and helps me walk easier. I can walk without it, and don’t wear it in the house, but when I put shoes on, it just helps me get around and not trip. Last week when we went for groceries the kid at the check out had a bit of a conniption at seeing it. He was shocked and asked if I was okay in a way that was a bit embarrassing, actually. I wasn’t sure how to respond, but whatever. I mean, it was if I walked up to the register with my bone sticking out of my leg or something. I actually looked down to make sure I was still in one piece. I mean, I do have a lot of loss of feeling in that leg from the knee down, so who knew what was going on. lol

So ya, that’s me. 😀 Feel free to hang out and have some fun, or just browse through some patterns. The next post you see will be about something in testing, something about to be in testing, and some general in progress stuff. 😀