Baby Bear Hats

Hey all!

Been crazy busy with life and knit projects for my Etsy shop and work's craft fair.  As I mentioned in my last post, I have several items that are now for sale on my online shop, so feel free to check those out!

In the meanwhile, I had some hats commissioned by a co-worker and I managed to take some photos real quickly before handing them off to her.  Sorry for the horrible phone photo quality, but it's all I could manage.

 

They're for two toddler boys, so hopefully they like them :)

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers!  I am thankful for all of you!

For Sale SNEAK PEEK!

Here they are!  Some of the projects I've been working on that will soon be for sale on my Etsy shop and/or my work's craft fair.  Had a blast taking photos with the lovely Sam Samuels today.  You can check out her blog here.

Enjoy! :)

City Knitting

Sometimes it's fun to get away from the usual knit spots and get some fresh air.  Since I live near San Francisco, I especially love the idea of knitting by the water and really giving the project a bit of life and a better story.  Here's a picture from a recent excursion.

In other news, I'm getting ready for some holiday sales.  I've already had a couple commissioned projects, and other than those, my main focus has been getting ready for my work's craft fair.  I'm also hoping to get some items on my Etsy shop soon.  It's just a matter of setting aside the time to create the listings...

To the left is a fun glove project I just sort of whipped up this past weekend.  I still need to finish the second glove, but the first one turned out pretty nice:

I have several other ideas in mind, like some knit boot cuffs or ankle warmers.  Since I've started wearing more boots again for the cooler weather, I wouldn't mind having some myself! :)

Well, thanks for reading.  Hope everyone has a great Halloween coming up!  Here's a fun idea for a Halloween themed project: knit candy corn!  You can find the pattern at Purl Bee.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Knitting Therapy

When life gets fuzzy and complicated, what do you do?  You knit.  A lot.

There's something really therapeutic about knitting, which I'm sure all knitters have discovered to some degree.  The methodical movement and structured creativity provides a nice outlet and consistency when the rest of life is all over the place.  I always think of that one moment from Julie & Julia:

“You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure (and when I say nothing, I mean nothing), you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That’s such a comfort.”

Granted, that was about cooking, but you get the idea.  You can know that when you knit two together and do a yarn over, it will have created a lovely eyelet hole that's visible just after knitting the next row.  

That's what I was doing for the last week.  My knitting friends and I have been passing around a pretty cowl scarf pattern with random rows of eyelet holes.  I took some time to use some merino wool that's been sitting my stash for the last year and made myself a nice warm infinity scarf (after modifying the original pattern to make it longer) for the coming cool weather.  Here's a picture of it in it's "in progress" form.  It's finished now and I've already worn it once to many compliments.  I'm currently making another in a different yarn and color.

You'll notice I was also enjoying a chai tea latte.  Yep, when life is crazy, there's nothing better than a good knit project and a warm cup of coffee or tea.

Here's to the busy holidays, lots more coffee, and lots more knitting!

Side Income

While knitting is one of my favorite hobbies, it's also a side income for me.  I love making stuff in my spare time and often make more than I'll probably ever use or give away.

Every year, my company hosts a craft fair in December.  I've participated the last three years or so and it's generally been a nice source of extra gift spending money for me around the holidays.  With it already being October (crazy!), I've started working on some projects to sell come December.  I'm also probably going to help with organizing the event, so you know, double the work this year.

I've already got a few items that I'll either save for the craft fair, or eventually post on my Etsy shop.  Here's a look at a pair of my finished gloves.  I also sell the pattern for these on both Ravelry and Etsy.

Currently, I'm finishing up a couple last personal projects and then it's going to be all "for sale" goods!  It's that time of year, folks!

Knitspiration

Welcome to Fall.

Yesterday was the official first day of the autumn season.  This is a knitter's dream :)

Weather starts cooling down and your warm cozy yarn stash starts to look more and more inviting.  I, like many others, took a major vacation from knitting during the warmer spring and summer months, but now that fall and winter are upon us, it's hard to resist the lure of warm drinks, cozy fires and new knit projects.  To also keep my inspired, someone else just bought my glove pattern on Etsy! :)

I recently spent a long weekend in Seattle, taking in the sights and weather.  It wasn't too rainy, but the weather was definitely cooler and rain was definitely present.  One of my favorite discoveries, however, was the abundance of big cozy sweaters and cute knit hats.  I started feeling rather inspired to pick up my needles and make a hat for myself.  I even found an awesome over-sized sweater pattern online...

Do you need some knitspiration for your fall?  Here are some awesome patterns I've found online!  Happy knitting!

Lucy Hat

Baggy wave-sweater

Mac & Cheese

I recently took a week off from work so I could get some rest and recharge before my next busy work project.  While I was off, I took some time to knit some gifts as well as some personal projects I'll probably keep for myself.  It was refreshing after having completed several items for my etsy shop (those should be up soon!).

But one of my proudest moments of my week off was making mac & cheese from scratch for the first time.  Most of my friends and family know how much I love the creamy, cheesy pasta dish, but many had no idea that I had never made it from scratch!  Recently, my favorite mac & cheese restaurant (Homeroom), released a cookbook with all their recipes!  I bought it right away and the first recipe I tackled was one of my faves: the Gilroy Garlic Mac.

The hardest part about it was the timing.  You have to be really precise with the timing of how long you cook everything.  There is definitely a greater possibility of ruining sauces, textures and consistencies if you don't time it right.  The most difficult timing portion is making the bechamel sauce, which is made with a simple mix of flour, milk, butter, and salt.  But it's all about timing.

For the Gilroy Mac, you simply start with the bechamel sauce and then add in your cheeses and a garlic compound butter (minced garlic mashed together with butter).  I used Pecorino Romano and a five-year aged Gouda for the cheese.  For fun, I also added in some bacon.  Who doesn't love bacon in their mac?

Bechamel Sauce Ingredients (plus some panko and the pasta)

Gilroy Mac ingredients: butter, minced garlic, Pecorino Romano and Gouda

Garlic compound butter

Finished product before adding the panko bread crumbs

For the finishing touch, I added on baked panko breadcrumbs.  To get the toasted look, you actually toast them in the oven for a few minutes before placing them on the mac and putting it all back into the oven.  It was great to pull it out and share it with friends.  Goes great with a white wine.  The authors suggest a chardonnay, but after making the dish twice, I found that any wine of choice seems to go well :)

Finished product prior to serving

Absolutely delicious!

With fall around the corner, I'm looking forward to more warm dishes, coffee and lots more knitting!  Should be a great fall!

Getting Back Into the Groove

Hello loyal readers!

It's been far too long since I had an update here.  The summer has been filled with many projects including my very first 10k!  I completed it just yesterday and got this awesome medal for the Giant Race 2013.

Other than that, I've been working on and completed a baby hat for a couple of my co-workers.  They are soon to have their first kid, a baby boy.  I'm pretty excited for them :)

 

 And last, I got an etsy sale of one of my patterns!  The Samantha Fingerless Glove pattern had it's first sale today, which is pretty awesome.  It's so validating to design and create something, put it out in the world and then not only have someone appreciate it, but appreciate it enough that they are willing to pay for it.  That's pretty cool.

All in all, a good day :)

This always makes me smile

I'm really, really excited.  Why?

Another Ravelry member made a dish cloth using my pattern and posted a photo.  I love sharing them here!  Super awesome!  Great color!

 

In other news, I'm in the process of trying to come up with some cool, quick and easy knit ideas for raising money for my work's AIDS Walk team.  I think I may have thought of something and I'm going to see what I can do tonight after work.  If it works out I'll try to post a photo here...

Hope everyone's doing well!  Thanks for reading!

The Samantha Fingerless Glove

Hello all!

I promised I would finally post this pattern online and I have!  It's now available on Ravelry for purchase!

I've dedicated the pattern in name to one my dearest friends who has inspired me to be creative in my craft and wears a pair of these all the time in cooler weather.

Here's a link if you would like to give it a whirl!

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-samantha-fingerless-glove

Lesson Learned: always use a winder... or at least a friend

This past weekend, I received some yarn in the mail that I needed to complete a gift for one of my managers.  Unfortunately, when you purchase specialty yarn, it never comes already wound.  Usually you can have the store you bought it from wind the yarn for you, but if you order it online, you're outta luck unless you personally have a winder or know someone who does. 

I do not own my winder (why not, I'll never know), but know some co-workers who do.  However, I was feeling a little ambitious and stubborn this last Saturday so I decided to try and wind the yarn myself, without a machine, and without even a friend to help hold the yarn.  I figured I could go slow and keep my eye on it.  WRONG.  Terrible decision.  The yarn began to tangle up faster than I could keep up with it and before I knew it, I was spending the next 3 days untangling yarn. 

Looking back on it, I suppose I could have draped the yarn on the back of a chair to keep it from tangling on itself, but a friend or an actual winder would have probably been the best way to go.  In the end, I finally ended up with a nice ball of yarn.  Full of love... er... frustration.

March Knitting Madness

What a busy month it's been!

My work's knitting circle is already nearly halfway finished with our March knit-a-thon to knit hats for chemo patients.  I'm about 3/4 through a cool cable knit hat right now.  Our goal is to have 20 hats completed by the end of the month.  We'll see how it goes!

Meanwhile, I also finally finished my friend's hat, using this pattern from JL Yarnworks.  Here I am modeling it horribly:

 My friend texted me shortly after she got it and said that she was planning on wearing it that night, despite warmer weather.  Ha ha!  So glad she liked it.

I am also in the middle of knitting another gift, so I'm juggling that along with my hat projects.  I have an upcoming trip and I'll need to figure out what the heck I want to bring to knit while on the plane.  The project I really want to finally start (my sweater), will have to wait just a little bit longer.  At this rate though, maybe it will at least be ready for next fall!

And lastly, I found another photo of someone's finished dishcloth pattern on Ravelry.  I'm so happy that people are using and liking my custom pattern!  It's so exciting!

I promise to have my glove post up and available soon.  It's been a busy winter/spring so I haven't had much time to make it nice.  Anyway, hope you are all well!  Thanks for reading!

Getting Active and Giving Back

The later half of January and this beginning to February has been invigorating!  Maybe it's the winding down of projects so there's less pressure to knit particular items?  Maybe it's the start of a new year?  Who knows.  Whatever it is, I've just felt so motivated lately to be my best self - for God, for myself and for all those around me.

How, you may ask, am I trying to do this?  Well, several ways... 

First, I'm finally getting some late Christmas gifts finished.  I'm nearly done with my last one.  One of my recent gifts was actually a birthday gift for my brother.  I had given some beanies to my three teenage nephews and they all loved them.  My brother expressed that he would really like one, so I made one for his birthday.  I'm happy that they loved them so much.  It was a true sense of pride to know that my teenage nephews really loved a gift I'd given them.  Made for them, especially!  The last of these gifts are late Christmas gifts, and I'll have photos up as soon as they've been shipped to their recipients.

A pretty neighborhood photo from my most recent 5k walk

Next, I'm FINALLY getting back into a regular work out routine.  No more of "maybe that day, maybe this day", but just a solid, "today's the day!"  One of the greatest motivators I've found for that is using some of my daily exercise and activity to give back to charity.  Anyone who knows me knows that I've become an avid user of the mobile app Charity Miles.  This nifty app will track how many miles you run, walk or bike and then donate money from a collection of corporate sponsors to a charity of your choice.  Lately, I've been walking a lot for Autism Speaks, Stand Up To Cancer, and Feeding America.  There are several other charities partnered with the app, too, including the (RED)  Campaign for AIDS research, World Food Programme, ASPCA, and more!  If you have a smartphone and you haven't tried using Charity Miles in your daily walking/running/biking, I highly recommend it!  It's the simplest way to give a little to others in need.

On a side note, here are some cool ideas from Ravelry to make for winter weather runners/walkers/bikers:

The Morning Walk Headband and Earwarmer

Runner's Watchcap

 Velomeisters Socks

And last, speaking of giving back, my work's knitting group has decided to dedicate the month of March to giving back to chemotherapy patients in the form of hand knit hats!  We're still working out the minor details, but we plan to see who from work is willing to pledge some knitting time during the month of March and then we will set a goal of how many hats we want to complete by March 31.  It's pretty exciting.  With World Cancer Day just a couple days ago (February 4), it's a cause that's definitely on my mind right now.  We felt that this could be a great way to do some stash busting as well!  We've all got so much yarn tucked away in our closets, and this way, we can get through some of it and help others at the same time!  It's a win-win!

So, between those three things, I'm feeling extra motivated these days to get up and do awesome things!  This youtube video might also have a little something to do with it...

Also, be on the look out for my cabled fingerless glove pattern on Ravelry soon! 

 

These have been one of my more requested items, so I figured I might as well share the pattern.  This pattern will only be available on Ravelry, however, so I'll post a link to that here once it's up.

Hope you are all having a great day!  Let's make 2013 awesome!

New Year, New Projects

It's been quite a while since I last posted here.  Now that my holiday break is over, it's back to business.  I have a few (late) Christmas gifts to complete and one more order that I hope to finish over the weekend.

In the meanwhile, here's something really cool.  I posted my cotton dishcloth pattern on Ravelry and someone posted a picture of their finished product.  How cool!  Here it is pictured below.  I love the variation in color.  it turned out great!

Anyway, I promise to have more posts soon as I finish more projects.  Pretty soon I'm hoping to start on my first piece of real clothing!  I've got some great plans for 2013, so I'd better get started! :)

Happy New Year!