WT....you know the rest

I just spilled a full baggy of locking stitch markers all over the keyboard and the floor. That's just an indication how my creative process worked today. It started with a marathon of movies on TV. So I'm all ready, coffee made, project picked ( a dog sweater-don't ask) and off we go. Or not. First I could not find the right needle size. Mind you, I know I have at least 4 of each size at the house, but this one I just could not find. Since the dog is rather small, I decided to go a size smaller on the needles. The sweater was done within 2 hours.
Now for assembly: The instructions said how to "attach the chest plate to the back". Not only did that wording make me think of coroners taking off the chest plate with hedge clippers on a body, I also sewed it on wrong, so the poor dog would not have been able to put his head through.
So I unsew the seam and try again, only to discover I did it wrong a second time. Undo again and this time I got it right. I shall post a picture when the doggie wears it.
Then I wanted to knit a few more rows on my lace edging for a jacket I'm making. The movies were over by now, so I'm sitting on the computer and checking mails, ect. I discovered after 16 rows that I inverted the pattern. (knitting the RS on the WS and vice versa) Since lifelines are for yellowbellies and according to my mantra "How hard can it be?" I had to unknit 16 rows of fluffy yarn in a lace pattern. Since you can't just rip it off the needles and unravel a few rows,  it nearly drove me insane.
And now the stitch marker incident.
I shall leave now and go to bed. Hopefully the knitting fairy will pick up these stich markers while I sleep.
Good night, cruel crafting gods.

Done!

I have the pattern for the Mediterranean Fingerless Mitts finished! I turned it into a PDF file and send it to my daughter. She will knit them up now and let me know if my pattern works.
So excited!! I also had two sales in my etsy shop this week and feel like Bill Gates right now. Wish I could bottle this feeling and sell it. I would be a millionaire in no time.
I keep you posted when i will publish the pattern.

Pattern Part 3

Well....let's see...I have taken pictures of the finished fingerless mittens. They turned out perfect. I started writing down the instructions and I got to the part where you explain the pattern. That took me about 90 minutes. But I learned how to insert a photo. Yay!!!!

So here are the mittens I'm wrestling with.....
I named them Mediterranean Fingerless Gloves. If you have ever seen the sky at midday in Italy, you know why.
Oh...off the topic here.....don't try to follow a 32 row lace pattern after you had a glass of wine.
Don't ask....just take my word for it.
Now back to the pattern.
I keep you posted.

Pattern, Part two

Well, the glove did not explode. I started putting the instructions down in written format from all my post-it notes. Let me tell you from experience.....Do not use post-it notes, when you are tracking a pattern while knitting.
I think the hardest part is this....I know what I'm doing. The design is in my head, I have a clear picture of it. Now try to explain it in written form to someone that has no clue what you are talking about.
And when it comes to " What yarn are you using?", the answer is not to hold up your knitting and saying 
"This one." No...you have to keep the wrapper and write it all down.
Now..where did I put that darn wrapper?

And where are post-it notes 5 and 7?


.....to be continued.

Pattern

Here we go again with my favorite quote : "How hard can it be?"
It makes my friends and family cringe and I even get the occasional groan.
BUT.......human kind would still be sitting around a campfire hunting with spears if some caveman would not have asked the same question, right? We learn by trial and error...or at least I do.
So my latest endeavour is to publish my own pattern.
Of course I immediately put the cart before the horse by learning first: "How to turn a pattern into a PDF file."
I love YouTube!!!!! Tutorials and all. Now I have the software to turn a non existing pattern into a PDF file. Yay!
The idea in my head is a pair of babyblue fingerless gloves.With pattern on the back of the hand. Off to the LYS we go. Beautiful yarn in the Bargain isle....with Angora!!!! Very soft and fuzzy, warm....perfect. 2 skeins purchased, taken home, turned into center pull balls, casting on 60 stitches per glove....two circular needles..ribbing 6 rows.....wait! These gloves will fit Sasquatch if I keep going with 60 stitches.....Ribbit!
Read label....aha....recommended needlesize 7. Okay.
After three more try-outs I settled for 40 stitches per glove, two at a time, two circular needles.
Cuff and pattern part done, up to where the thumb gusset will be.
Now I got smarter and actually counted how many stitches I had to the inch and I measured how fat my thumb was. Just so I would not end up with a pin-sized hole for the thumb.
Oh..wait!! I forgot to write down how many rows I knitted and what pattern I used.
Several hours later after much counting and writing and recounting I decided to leave the gloves for today and go to bed.
Tomorrow is another day and I will have more luck with this.
After all: say it with me...."How hard can it be?"

Why, oh why?

I swear, if I ever make a lot of money, I will leave everything to research to prevent the common cold when I die.
I HATE BEING SICK!!!!!
I know, I know...I'm not the only one with a cold, there are worse things I could be having...I heard it all. That does not help!
I never run a fever when I'm sick..I just feel like a truck just ran me over. The head hurts, the sinus is about to explode, you know the deal.
So..that's why I will leave all my money to research. And possibly my body.....but that's another story. I never got sick when I was still smoking. Go figure..

The next mystery I have to solve is this: Why did I have to clean my bookshelves today? Feeling crappy already? Why did it have to be a sunny, warm spring day that made me see the layer of dust on the shelves?
Sigh.....
I guess, I'll clean the carpets tomorrow.....

How hard can it be?

Lovely stitch markers wherever I look. My LYS, on Etsy, Ravelry, KnitPicks, even on e-bay.
So, little Karin decides..."How hard can it be?"
A question frequently asked on one of my favorite shows Top Gear. Only there it usually ends in disaster, flames, mayhem, potential injuries.
Off to Michaels we go to buy an ample supply of beads (glass), pearls (real freshwater), and coral. Some wire and some tools with it and we are ready to go, right?
Wrong! What looked so easy in my head (trust me..that happens frequently) is not at all easy in real life.
First I did not add into the equation, that maybe all the beads and pearls should have the same diameter hole in the middle. Kind of crucial if you are trying to fiddle them onto a wire..
The pearls, don't want to go on the wire. After chasing them across the desk for a while, I decide the hole is just too small and pushing a push pin through said hole should make it accessible for the wire.
Pearls SHATTER! Did you know that? Neither did I. Lucky I was wearing my glasses at the time.
Working as a dental office manager I shall take them to work tomorrow and ask if I may use the HighSpeed Drill in our Lab to widen the hole.
For now the stitch marker adventure is on ice. I shall keep you posted and supply some pictures too, when I finish one of them.