OBSESSED....

HELP!

I HAVE DEADLINES.

I NEED TO FIND A JOB.

I NEED TO KNIT 10 SWEATERS.

I NEED TO SOCIALIZE.

I MUST FINISH THIS BOOK!!!!!

While I was Out...

Like I said, I was away for just over a week. It seems like much more time has passed. I'm home now and have a couple of photos to show.

First up, there were animals. These are Belted Cows. The craziest things you've ever seen. These are Superior, High Quality Show Cows. I believe they even get pedicures before they are taken to the shows. These particular cows live the life of Riley. They actually have a shower right next to the pasture. I saw it with my own eyes. Really Funny! I think a bull was in the shower and a smaller calf (maybe) was on deck. There were no farm hands helping out. They just appeared to be lining up all on their own.

That cute little donkey in the background is the proud mama of the teensy weensy donkey at her feet. Meet Jasper. He is the sweetest, most adorable creature you have ever laid eyes on. He is about 2 weeks old here. SOOOOO CUTE. And Mary Alice is doing a fine job as a first time mother. I don't think post partem depression will get her. This is the most bucolic animal haven I've ever seen!


Ah, yes, more animals. Horses this time. This was over the weekend in Lake Placid. I believe that's Senora a Halflinger. She has her own ideas as to what trot and cantor mean. More likely she'll come head first to the fence and try to knock down any and all casual observers. But there was some awesome riding going on in the mountains. Much to Senora's dismay!




There were lots of gorgeous flowers both in North Carolina and in the Adirondacks. I guess day lillies are a favorite among the deer plus a few others I think! But I still was able to see some beautiful colors and patterns and designs. Very inspirational. Nature is not afraid to mix it's greens. I'm always amazed driving in the mountains. Sage Green. Hunter Green. Loden Green. Grass Green. Pine Tree Green. If I ever knit something with all of those greens it would look horrible. But Nature has a way of mixing them with the most pleasing effect.



I bought some fabric imported from Provence at a quirky little store that sells French and African wares, fabrics, furniture. Interesting. Cotton with what look like Kalamata Olives.




Oh, and I went to the Vietri outlet in Hillsboro, N.C. Hillsboro is a quaint southern town with some vintage/antique stores. A few restaurants and a jazz/bluegrass joint. I fell in love with this pattern at A Southern Season. Basically I couldn't stop thinking about it. When we got to the outlet I only had Firoi di Bosco (Flowers of the Woods) on my mind. On my first pass I was seriously disappointed that there were no flowers of the woods to be found. But on closer inspection I came up with 7 dinner plates, two pasta bowl, 2 salad plates, 2 cereal bowls and 4 mugs. YEEHA. I was totally stoked. Plus, it was basically 50% off the original price. These pieces had been sitting in a showroom so they aren't even seconds. DOUBLE YEEHA. I'm just waiting for them to be delivered.



Let's see, what else has happened.....

Oh, some tennis ball golf in the mountains. I highly recommend it. It's almost impossible to miss the ball! But the rough can be murder. And the holes are things like...the center of the bon fire pit. Yes, up and over the rocks surrounding the ring of fire! I would equate it to put put with a 5 iron and a tennis ball. FUN!



Of course, tie dying! My newest craze is the monochromatic versions seen below. It's all about the twisting and rubber banding!




Oh, right, the knitting. UGH. 4 sweaters, 8 arms. But I finished this order! Delivery is today.


The way I see it, I could have knit a slipcover for my sofa! Interesting idea, right? Big Cables, Rough, Scratchy Wool.

Yes, there has been knitting!

I'm away from home for a few days. I had to bring an extra bag just for all of my knitting! I have finished a sweater. I have to knit 8 sleeves between now and 6:00am Friday morning. YIKES! Oh, whew, it's only Tuesday! I should hopefully be able to get it done.

I am really excited about Ravelry.com. I'm having a lot of "fun" inputting all of my information. I'm torn as to how I should proceed with all of my Lion Brand designs...I have some questions out to the Ravelry folks. I should have an update soon. I basically am wondering if I should be inputting my name on designs that I did for Lion Brand with a reference to the Lion Brand website. Or if I should just say that I knit these pieces for Lion Brand. Anyway, it will get worked out one way or the other.

In the meantime, I'm taking a little time off from the big apple. Relaxing. Resting. Knitting.

Oh, I went to Michaels today. No there isn't one in NYC. I purchased some of the Martha Stewart stuff. Could she be any more brilliant? OMG, I love her pens, papers, embellishments ...She's a genius!

I'm heading to the Vietri outlet tomorrow. I hope they have some great stuff. I found a pattern that I absolutely love today at a store called A Southern Season in North Carolina. Vietri is awesome. This pattern is awesome. We'll see what I find tomorrow.

I also bought some super cute fabric at this quaint store in Fearrington, NC. I'll have pics when I get back home.

That's it for now. I'm off to work on a sleeve. BORING! at least it's only the sleeves that are left!

At least there's the knitting

I decided to go with my original idea of making this a simple eyelet vest. I was going to add long sleeves but a) I hate knitting sleeves and b) I kind of wanted to finish this yesterday.

Here it is blocking...



Still a little wet but dry enough to hang...




I particularly like the way the neckline turned out. I put the back stitches and the neck stitches on holders while I seamed up the shoulder. Then I just picked up the few stitches between neck and back on either side while knitting across the stitches on the holders. It makes for a really nice, clean transition. Worked about an inch in the round and bound off. Nice.




The armholes were just picked up evenly around and knit on circs for about an inch.




The eyelet is hard to see but it turned out well enough.



Next up: I think I'm going to use up some ugly mohair and make a sort of sweater/scarf/wrap thing. I just swatched and and figuring out the design. We'll see if I can handle the yarn.

Life

The final night for Double Happiness is August 25th. It's a Saturday night. I'm conflicted over it. I know that I've known since January that the sale was going to take place but I also know that one day I'll die. It was just a bad thought in the back of my brain. These things take time. Finding a job like this is kind of like renting an apartment in nyc. You can't look until you're ready to move because if you look too soon that fantastic place will be gone by the time you can actually move. So for the past few months I've looked a little. Just to see. But realized that it was pointless because I wasn't going to give up my really great gig for the unknown - until I had to. Well, here we are. I'm at the I have to place. I REALLY want my knitting to be in the forefront of whatever I decide to do. I mean, it has to be. So that really points me in the direction of working at night. It gives me freedom during the day to work on my knitting. Finding a good night job is tough. I had one. They are few and far between. I mean in terms of the staff, the money, the clientele. I've been SO lucky. For the most part Double Happiness was a dream job. Plus, I had every single one of the best shifts in the place. Seniority and all... So here I am figuring it out. The good news is that up until this point I have always landed on my feet. Things have always had a way of furthering me along my path. So, if I just put in some leg work and go with the flow I have to believe that this situation won't be any different than any of the others. But I'm still staring at the unknown.... I'm taking a week off (I probably wouldn't have if I'd known about the sale) to think about what I might really want to do. Then hopefully I'll come back with a purpose and a plan.

And some knitting!

Photos...

The color in these photos is nothing like the real color. Don't ask me why. I'm a crappy photographer. The light blew. This is all I've got. These look so ugly. I apologize!





All in all I'm relatively happy with the outcome. I knew going into it that I was dealing with a whole different can of worms (kettle of fish) than the pattern called for. But since I'm not one to shy away from a knitting challenge I forged ahead. The size is pretty good. Actually I think it's sized the way it should be. My knits are always body hugging. So this is kind of nice that it actually fits to measurement.

Anyway, on to the next thing. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS YET!!! I actually need to put sleeves on two sweaters that I've already knit. hmmmmmm. I mean I have to knit the sleeves and then put them on! Maybe I'll do that. I want to be WIP free!

I

Where Have I Been?

Between MySpace and Ravelry, whoa.

Ravelry requires a Flickr account and MySpace requires PhotoBucket. Between the two my little mac is huffin and puffin. But I'm totally having fun. What is really cool for the first time in a really long time is that I don't have any deadlines. (not exactly true but none that are looming over my head) I've actually picked up a book. I'm surfing the internet. I'm going out every night. Phwew. It's fun.

I'm giving myself a week or two to be sad about the soon to be shuttered Double Happiness. Then I'll pull myself up and look for a job. I can't decide if I want to enter the stream of the daytiime employed or not. (I don't think so) Or rather find something similar with perhaps better hours. But that's for another day.

I finished the cardigan that I was making. But all the photos have been really crappy. I'll try again today. I'm meeting with an indie designer today about doing some handknits for them. I'm not sure what the label is or what their style is but work is work. I'm psyched!

Back to the addiction of the internet!

Ravelry

Who on earth has time for this?

my user name is fluffyshenanigan.
my designer name is heather carlson.


FIVE HOURS LATER..... I'm not even close to uploading all of my stuff. OMG!

Crap!

Oh well, we new it would end sooner or later. I was hoping for much later!

Check this out!

I just saw these online....the pieces I made for f/w 07......cool!

Knit Simple

This is the photo of the sweater I designed for the Fall issue of Knit Simple. I love it. I know I've already said that but I do. It's one of my favorite photos of any of my designs that have been photographed professionally. Yay! I hope you like it too.




This is what it looked like before I sent it in for the photo shoot.




And this is what I sent to Vogue as a submission. I actually sent in a photo, not an actual sample. Usually submissions are sketches and swatches but I knit this, loved it and sent a photo. I was thinking that they would use it for the 75th anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting but opted for Knit Simple. Fine with me. I love this sweater. I wear it and get compliments every time I have it on. The only problem with this version is that it's angora and it sheds like CRAZY!! So whatever I wear it with turns furry.




As promised, here's the left front of the new sweater that I'm knitting. The one from VK's spring/summer issue. I've got half of the right front done also. I think I like it. I'm following a pattern which is a little strange for me. On the one hand it is so easy. On the other hand I find problems with the pattern. hmmm. Strange. I'm using a yarn called Enzo Lucci Boubou. It's 100% cotton tape with some stretch? Though it doesn't say there's any stretchy stuff in it? Hmmm....It's growing on me. The color is made up of pink tones. It's pretty light in weight and it has some memory. I love that. Cotton with memory. Sweet.



I'm improvising with my gauge. Surprising. I'm knitting the smallest size but I was hoping it would come in at the medium size. Guess what. It's exactly doing that! Woot. I love it when that happens!

There's so much love going on. I'm not sure why. I went to bed at midnight. I woke up at 4:13 from nightmares. Got up at 4:47. I should be grumpy. Hmmmm.

Off To Berlin Fashion Week

I swear these are the last photos of this thing....

There were some changes late last evening that required some fancy knitting over night. Though you can't see it here, the sleeves have been altered. One sleeve is about 3" lower than the other causing what looks like a mess in this photo but really is a beautiful drape over the left shoulder while the right shoulder fits normally.




Again, you can't see it but there is drape happening here. This piece wasn't blocked and only made it downtown about an hour before the car picked them up! Have a great show!



I didn't take photos of the slate grey piece. I can tell you that it was drop dead gorgeous. The reason for no photos is because I thought there were going to be changes. Lo and behold, no changes....no photo. I hate that.

On to new and exciting things....

An ugly swatch - this is an off-ish white tape yarn with some gold blobs thrown in. I thought it was going to be pretty. I thought wrong! I actually think at a much looser gauge this might look nice. But that will be for another day.




This swatch looks nothing like the true colors of this cotton tape. I'm knitting up the front of a sweater to see if I like it. I'm at the armhole so I'll take a pic in a little while and post it. I can't decide if I like it or not. I'm knitting up Shiri's (Shiri Mor) short sleeve cardigan from the spring/summer Vogue Knitting. I love the pattern. Classy but modern. And SUPER EASY and SUPER FAST! Mindless knitting. Just what I need after the pressure of the past few weeks.



I have no deadlines at the moment. Well, that's not true. I have to start the dreaded production knitting again. But like I said a few posts ago, I'm alright with it. I picked up more yarn today when I was at Tom's. So I'm good to go. It is so much fun knitting doubled ECO WOOL when it's almost 100 degrees. Ahhhhhhhh.

I'll show you the left front of that sweater in the next post.

Pre-Blocking Photos

Front....





Back....



Slate grey number...

Home Sweet Home

The traffic between Montauk and South Hampton was insane today. Why? I've NEVER seen it that bad. The reason I bring it up is because I had to go straight to work instead of coming home, taking a shower (ahem), getting dolled up and heading out to work. I'm home now, so all is well. Tonight at work was pretty darn slow so I guess I won't sweat the no shower thing!

Great news...The latest issue of Knit Simple (mine is the blue one in the top left corner) arrived in an envelope in my mail while I was away. In the magazine my sweater is design #2. I think it looks darn good! It was supposed to be in the plus sized section but apparently didn't fit the model so they had to move it to the dyed section...luckily they were able to do that! I have to say that I'm pretty pleased. I need to read through the pattern to see what changes they made (if any) but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I knit about 10 or 12 inches of a new tank top to be worn in the Berlin Fashion Week show. I'm hoping it meets with approval tomorrow. My hands are killing me from knitting on this string like stuff. I want to be done with it. I promise I'll never complain about those crazy production pieces again. Really, I promise!

Maybe I'll have some pics tomorrow.

Happy 4th of July!

As promised, Version 3 and version 5 - 5 is on the right.... It's not blocked yet. This has been one of the hardest things I've ever knit up. Weird, right? I mean it's basic stockinette. The gauge issues, the lack of memory, the lack of any give in the yarn at all = hard times for the knitter. However, the finished piece is stunning...gorgeous....I need to photograph it on my dress form. I'll be home tomorrow or friday and will do it then.




Girls hats! I love this pattern. The inspiration for this pattern was from the movie "Proof". Coincidentally it was on yesterday.....I got to see reality and inspiration at the same time. Stranage but super cool. The hat is exactly the same!!!!!



Have fun today!

I'm on Vacation

Sorry for the delay but I'm away for a few days.

I'll post photos tomorrow. I've finished version 5 of the handpainted yoked top. OY VAY. This has been a total nightmare. But It looks pretty good. Instead of going to the beach I've been knitting....

I also finished the two hats! I have photos of them also.

I went to the cutest yarn store in Montauk. I love it. It's called Purl By The Sea. The people are so nice. Good selection. Great pattern support. PLUS they have things like thread, buttons, needlepoint, notions, etc. Really convenient. My old sewing machine made its way out here so now there can be some sewing going on too!!!!!

AND Speaking of Gauge:

This is the dumbest thing ever.....

I usually make a gauge swatch. It isn't always big because I'm pretty consistent and can usually get it right in just a few rows. I'm always complaining that when I knit my garment my gauge is off. Why? Well, I figured it out.....DUH!

When knitting in the round there isn't any purling. Knit stitches are slightly tighter. Gauge is different. DUH, DUH, DUH, DUH.

I love knitting in the round and do it whenever possible (this obviously means no purling)