fiver

Are you ready for winner #5 from my give-away?!

pixiewear! You are the fifth winner!

Please email me at romi(at)designsbyromi(dot)com! Congratulations!

(As I noted before...I will post the winners each day, and I will try to get in contact with each winner as best I can. If I cannot, and I don't hear anything within two weeks of my posting a winner's name, I will draw another name. As the list of winners progresses, it will be completely first come, first serve. In other words, if you are the third winner, but contact me first, you get first choice. :) As of right now: one eBook, the Penny Farthing Sock and Spark Lace are taken, but the other prizes are still there!)

I had an amazing trip down memory lane today. I am in the process of updating some of my patterns, and I got to Merope. Remember her?

She was the first shawl from my first eBook subscription!

I went to update the written instructions to make them easier and shorter, and all I saw were pdfs. Yikes! And then I remembered. That was back when I was still using my grand old faithful beige G3 tower with System 9. Sigh. I always had such a soft spot for that machine that when I could no longer upgrade her, I bought a Mac mini to use the internet and went on using, and using, and using that old fabulous machine with the giant graphics monitor that weighs about 60 pounds. I switched over slowly, but until we moved and I just didn't unpack her, I used her every day.

So back to Merope. I knew where she was. And I can't believe it, but I got that old tower up and running again, and remembered how to connect to her from my current Macs. Any other Mac geeks know that when Apple upgraded to system 10.6 (I believe it was), they took away the ability to connect to "legacy" machines except as a server. So here I am...copying my old stuff onto my 2 TB disk and marveling at how much I've seen technology change. :)

Still kinda edgy

7 Small Shawls: T - 211 days and counting down.

Still working away on that edging for Maia. But I think I've finally got it figured out. I hope I hope! Anyway, I should have an explanation in greater detail on Monday. It's looking good for the straight down option! :)

In other news, one of my test knitters, by the name of Robin (the Great), has come up with an amazing spreadsheet that details stitch counts by chart for Merope. And yarn requirements. That's right. Yarn requirements! By chart repeat. This means that she can help you use up every last bit of yarn! And she's sharing her spreadsheet with all of us, because she is a Goddess. You can download her file here. Thank you Robin!

On the home front, this year has been a really rainy one, and today felt like a flashback to my college days in Pittsburgh, PA and Rochester, NY. It was a warm rain and really muggy. Those of you who have spent any time in my part of the world will know that rain here is cold and falls in the winter. That's right, the winter. (Hear that, weather?) In the summer, California turns golden brown. Why? Because it doesn't rain in California in the summer time. Except this year.

But there are certain aesthetically pleasing aspects, just the same.

All the spider webs were turned into sparkling jewels.

This one was invisible before the rain.

Lovely, aren't they?

This weekend the boys have a mini swim meet, so I'm hoping for good weather. And then I need to figure out the edging for Maia, work on two stealth projects - one easy and one more difficult, and try to figure out what to do if come Monday, I hear some news that I don't want to hear. I will be seriously scrambling then. So please think good thoughts!!! And have a great weekend. :)

Merope + a sale!

7 Small Shawls: T - 214 days and counting down.

Today, I released Merope, the first pattern from 7 Small Shawls to Knit!

To celebrate, I'm having a sale on shawl pins on my Designs by Romi site! Through June 6th, enter MEROPE at checkout and receive 15% off on your order of $15 or more (patterns excluded)!

I will now vegetate. So. Tired. Carry on. :)

Randominity

7 Small Shawls: T - 220 days and counting down.

Wow, the days are flying by! I enjoyed a bit of sun today - actually more sun than rain. :)

Today we assembled all the items for the 4-H kids' garden barrel for the FFA Fair this weekend. The idea behind it is completely awesome, and as such is very hushush. But I can tell you it involves an olive tree. This olive tree, in fact.

It was very very kindly donated to our 4-H club by the Olive Tree Company, a local (about a block away!) grower. It's a lovely little Maurino tree in full bloom and it will be the centerpiece. The nurseryman showed us the tiny fruit forming in the center of the blossoms. You can see it a little bit in this picture.

Not much swatching happened today. There were a lot of other things happening: gathering things for 4-H, sending out packages, making shawl pins, roasting almonds.

But I did find a moment to model my freshly blocked garter stitch Merope.

The Wolf Creek BFL sock yarn is amazing. Incredibly soft and bouncy. And it smells wonderful too, because I washed it in Kookaburra wool wash! Yummy.

Another thing about today: it was a Good Mail Day.

I'm in a thoughtful mood today. There are wonderful things about living in this small town and area: the cemetery is owned by the same man who owns the general store and the water department, everyone watches out for the kids, people trust each other and know one another. But there are other things, like this, that we are really trying wrap our heads around. Knowing your fellow townspeople means that when something happens, you have a greater chance of knowing the people it happened to. Sometimes it even means you've seen them every day walking by, and the anonymity of the newspaper article is broken, and you're left pondering and wondering how this could happen to such great people.

We're still getting ready for the Fair and the twilight parade tomorrow. I'll be able to knit some on my shawl, but not much on the swatches. And I'm just not feeling the love for them yet. Maybe after they're blocked....

Oh, and the almonds...to roast almonds, heat your oven to 350 F and spread the raw almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet. I put them on aluminum foil to remove them easily. Bake for about ten minutes and then put them on a cooling rack immediately. If you like them salted, just sprinkle some salt on them while they cool. Yummy and easy.

Slow but steady

7 Small Shawls: T - 222 days and counting down.

Progress was slow today. It seemed that I was looking at this view a lot.

I have decided that the trouble really began when I tried to think out some technical issues with a foggy brain, instead of just winging it. Because, dear readers, I am apparently a knitiot savant. If I don't think about the technical side -numbers, stitch counts and the like - things just seem to come together correctly. So much for planning! :P Maybe I'll have a bit more brain tomorrow. I hope?

Shawl #2 starts with a provisional cast-on, from which both sides are knit out, and then stitches are picked up around the side. This is sort of the idea here.

And this is how far I got with it before I went to pick the boys up at swimming.

This isn't too terribly bad, considering the number of times I ripped it out because it wasn't quite right. I figured out how to disguise the half stitch offset when you pick up the stitches from the provisional cast-on and work the opposite way. Woot! I love little geeky details like that. :)

I'm farther along now, and I think it's going well. The construction of this one is a little different, and I'm not quite sure it's going to work out as envisioned, so I'm going to hedge my bets. I want to get another shawl to my test knitters as soon as possible, and if I have to rip this one out, there needs to be a back-up. So tomorrow I'm going to start swatching another design. The construction is simple, but the stitch pattern will need some serious tweaking. And it's a great excuse to use my Flamingo Pie Starry smooshy yarn.

YUM!

In other news, I blocked my garter stitch Merope! First, I soaked it in my favorite wool wash, Kookaburra. I love love love the smell of the tea tree oil in it, and it almost makes blocking a pleasure!

When I block, I always soak for at least half an hour in cold water with wool wash and then squeeze as much water out as possible. Being careful to support the wet piece, I transfer it to a towel, wrap it up and walk on it to squeeze the excess water out. Works like a charm! (I admit that I love the smell of Kookaburra so much, I use the towel for showering afterwards).

I really don't enjoy blocking, in fact I avoid it for days after finishing a shawl, but I hadn't remembered how easy this one is until I actually got my blocking wires and t-pins out. This version has a reverse stockinette i-cord bind off like Brandywine, which I love for blocking!

I ran wires (mine are tig welding rod) through the tube the bind off creates and then down the sides through the points in the edging. I just placed it on a clean dry towel and pinned it to the carpet. A small shawl like this one can easily be eye-balled and tape measured for correct dimensions.

Presto! The whole process, including pinning it out, took less than 15 minutes.

The forecast for tomorrow: rain. I'm looking forward to some smooshy swatching.

Progress! + a mini tutorial

7 Small Shawls: T - 224 days and counting down.

Today I finished my test garter stitch Merope during my Saturday knitting group. It doesn't look like much, does it?!

It will be blocked this evening. Oops - just looked at the time. Maybe tomorrow! I'm feeling unmotivated lazy at the moment. :)

I didn't realize until I was finished that the yarn I was using - Wolf Creek Wools BFL sock yarn purchased at Stitches West - is 3 ply! It has a super tight twist, as you can imagine!

Anyway, here's where the mini tutorial comes in.... I always separate the plies before weaving in ends.

Initially it takes longer, but this way the ends really stay put! Even superwash.

After separating the plies, I thread the needle with each ply in succession and weave them in one by one.

I use a sharp needle and pass it through the center of the working yarn, making sure to stretch the knitting out so that I don't bind the stitches and make it difficult to block the piece.

After going through one way, I turn around and go right back through both the ply I am weaving and the yarn through which I wove it. This last step makes it virtually impossible to unravel the ends.

Trim the ends and you're set! The great thing about this method is that you really don't need to weave the plies in more than two to three inches to have them stay docilely where they have been placed.

In other news, one of my test knitters is a local friend of mine, and she brought her finished Merope to knitting this morning. We had a little photo shoot!

It turned out really beautifully.

I am quite envious of her incredibly even stitches!

Isn't it a lovely color?!

The photos really don't do it justice at all.

The rest of the day was spent doing yardwork (lots of pruning overgrown shrubbery!) and having a little 4-H rabbit meeting. The big event in the year for our local 4-H is next week: the Future Farmers of America Country Fair, and we are all rushing to get everything ready!

A question for the gardeners out there: what to do when my lemon tree's leaves are yellow? Does it need fertilizer? More acidic soil? It's blooming this year - last year I moved it and it took some time to recover - and I am so looking forward to a nice crop of lemons!

Have a great Sunday. :)

T - 225 {days}

Thank you, everyone, for the incredible response to my scheme! I have been flying high!

The first thing I did today was check the actual number of days until the new year. As of this morning, I had 225 full days to accomplish my goal. Merope is almost finished with testing, and I have yarn, sketches and ideas. I'm feeling good right now, but definitely not complacent!

Ironically, almost the moment I announced my quest, something else popped up. I had submitted a few designs to a magazine, and I found out yesterday that one was accepted. I will receive yarn next week, and the completed project is due July 5. One month to complete a secret project while designing and knitting small shawls, and your assignment, should you decide to accept it dear readers, is to keep me on the straight and narrow!

I've been working on my garter stitch Merope today, in between kid wrangling and making shawl pins. It's difficult to believe that this lump is going to block out beautifully, isn't it?

I always believe in some small part of my mind that this time, the magic won't happen and it will stay a lump forever.

I was flying along on my mortal Merope (having completed her nymph personality) and discovered, much to my annoyance, that I had done something stupid.

I hate it when I do something stupid.

I mean, really, who could knit half a row in pattern and then continue in stockinette the rest of the way? It seems that the answer is :drumroll: me. Sigh. You may be able to see in the photo below that the pin on the right goes through an eyelet and the pin on the left goes through...garter stitch. I fixed two of them and then Ms. Merope was put in time out.

Out came the yarn I have been obsessing over. Because really, even though I loved the pink yarn above in the skein, I get tired of looking at it on the needles. But I never get tired of Yuck Green.

This particular one was Karen's mistake. She hated it; I loved it. With a passion. She all but made me promise that I wouldn't design a pattern with it so she a) wouldn't have to figure out what she had done, and b) wouldn't have to look at it again. I don't know how to break the news to her. :/

This is the stitch pattern I have been obsessing over. Will they get along well? The next step - swatching - will tell.

In mid afternoon, the cloudy, rainy day began really wearing on me. One of the difficult things about what I do is the comparative solitude. I say comparative because the kids are around all day and I referee supervise them while they are doing their school work (we home school). So really, there are other people here, but sometimes I really miss going to an office every day and having to get out of the house.

Lucky for me, a dear friend of mine was having similar feelings, and we met for coffee and a treat.

I came back with a whole different attitude. :)

Home made split pea soup, home baked bread (courtesy of my fabulous husband) and salad for dinner tonight!

10 in 2010!

You all have seen that Ravelry group, right? Those brave and fearless souls who have signed on to knit 10 shawls in 2010? Well, it's been teasing at my brain for some time now. Ever since I first heard of it, my sane side has been trying to convince my crazy side that I shouldn't try to design 10 shawls in 2010. Guess who won? Hee.

I've already designed 3 shawls this year: Brandywine, Fiori di Sole and an as yet secret shawl due out in fall. That leaves 7. And that leads us to my quest!

I've become addicted to designing small shawls made of sock yarn and my sock yarn stash is growing. And growing. So I'm jumping in! I’m starting late, and I have 7 shawls to go before the end of this year. Can I do it? We shall soon find out!

The patterns will all go into an ebook, 7 Small Shawls to Knit, which you can "subscribe" to now! For those of you who have not joined the amazing Ravelry site, you can also see the book on my site here.

As a subscriber, you will receive periodic notices that there is a new pattern ready. Just go to the link provided and download your next copy of the book. Each update will include the past patterns, as well, so there is no need to keep lots of files. The update file will completely replace any older files.

Each of the shawl patterns will also be sold separately, but when you buy the entire collection as an ebook, you will also get other small patterns sprinkled here and there–at least 3 extras! Those extra projects will not be available for purchase alone. And with an ebook purchase, you'll already be getting - at a minimum - 3 of the shawl patterns free, as well!

Another great bit of win? If you subscribe now, the ebook is only $16! When the first pattern (Merope) is released on June 1st, 2010, the price of the book will go up to $20, (which isn't too shabby either). :)

Each of the 7 shawls in this book is named after one of the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology–nymph companions of Artemis–turned into stars to save them from Orion’s pursuit.

Here's a little sneak peek at Merope.

This one is the stockinette version.

It's knit with one skein of Jade Sapphire's silk/cashmere.

There is a garter stitch version, as well, and it's being tested as I write this.

Just as the Merope of legend, a nymph who married a human, had different personalities, her namesake does as well.

You can knit a smooth stockinette version for your inner nymph, or a more mortal garter stitch version. :)

Follow along with me – I'll be blogging the progress I make through the design process: imagining, swatching, charting, testing and laying out the patterns while trying to live a normal life!

I can't tell you how excited I am about this project! I hope you will join me!