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!