FIRST ETSY SALE!!

*squeal!*

Astonishingly, someone other than my friends thinks that my scarves are worth purchasing. I am shocked.

I have also listed a new item, it is based on the idea I had for the scarves, but my friend Gwen had the idea to construct a more solid, collar-like piece from the repeating circles I had designed. I very much love how it came out, although it's definitely a lot of work. Anyway, check it out!


More images at astitchtowear.etsy.com.

Yay for etsy!

Big Announcement!

My etsy store is now officially opened! I am very excited about it. Please take a look!

Other exciting news: my scarf design won a Hookilicious award from the Crochet Liberation Front blog!! I was featured on the blog, I'm totally flattered and blown away that I got singled out for literally the second original design I've displayed on Ravelry. Woo!
I have to say I'm very pleased with how the scarf turned out. It was one of those rare and inspiring moments where the thing that is in your head actually turns out just like you hoped. And the yarn I used has SUCH beautiful bright colors, I had a lot of fun creating these things.

Tomorrow I should be able to get pictures of my spring hats as well, so those will go up in the shop over the coming week.
Tell all of your friends!

Aaand...we're back!

My goodness I knew it had been a long time since I'd written, but six weeks is ridiculous.

My March/April has been filled with people coming to visit, catching up with friends and generally playing. Which means not a lot of quality crochet time. But it's been so nice.

Also, instead of working on a lot of other people's patterns, I actually managed to hit on a couple of designs of my own that I really like, and for the past few weeks I've been a hat- and scarf-making factory! I wanted to sell things on Etsy that I had designed myself (to insure that I don't step on anyone's toes), and I wanted to focus on this beautiful spring/early summer time of year. I finally I think have enough to stock a good store, shot some pictures of scarves this weekend and should get hat pics in the coming days, so I should be opening shop soon! I'm really excited.

Speaking of original designs, my first-ever scarf pattern is being worked on by my friend Celeste, you can click on this post and scroll down to get a sneak peak! (I'm a little late noticing this, but the picture made me so excited!!)

Hasn't been too much else, except that I finished the blanket I was working on for Project Linus:

It is the "Baby Starghan" that can be found here. Last time I donated a blanket to Project Linus, the organizer told me that they were really in need of blankets for boys and older kids. I thought this might be unisex enough for anyone, and I liked the colors, it looks cheerful to me. Not sure how in love with the design I am, actually, just because it's pretty impractical as a blanket, and I'm afraid it's not quite big enough for a bigger kid. But hopefully someone will like it.
I put the blanket on Shrek to get an idea of the size, as Shrek is sized (although not exactly proportioned) like an average toddler:

Um and yes I do own a giant stuffed Shrek doll. You wanna make somethin of it?

That's all from this busy girl. Will have the link to my etsy shop, accompanied by lots more pictures, soon!

trial and error

So I have this idea for a ballet-wrap style cardigan in my head that I've been meaning to create for probably a year now. I even made a prototype long ago, but the measurements were wrong, the yarn was too thick, etc etc, all very fixable things so when I sat down with a better idea of the size and a better yarn, I thought, oh boy! This will be a snap. And I worked on it a lot, and this weekend finished the body of the piece, and spent a few hours meticulously diagramming and taking notes and doing math so that the pattern would be flawless. Then I sewed up the seams and...it's awful. Maybe not awful, but compared to what I want, it's bad. I used an all-in-one-piece construction, up the back and over the shoulders, the arms worked at the same time. Which is a neat construction I picked up from the Knot-Ugly Shrug from the Happy Hooker, but there are several reasons that works for that pattern and does not for mine. Because I had a more solid fabric and a tighter gauge, the shoulders looked wrong, and armpits bunched weird, and the sleeves weren't fitted at all although they were tight towards the top. Gah!
So I threw a little fit and wallowed in self-pity for a few minutes, my design dreams crushed, a colossal and eternal failure. I drowned my sorrows in some sharp cheddar and repeatedly threw my poor prototype sweater to the floor. Then I finally pulled myself together and thought about the fact that this is what is called "learning by doing". Of course I've never designed a sweater before. And I'm not too experienced in constructing sweaters designed by other people either. So perhaps I was doomed to failure, but I did learn a valuable lesson about the importance of choosing your sleeve construction. And of course the whole point of crocheting the darn thing yourself instead of just writing up a pattern and letting other people deal with it is to make sure your design makes sense, and like all new designers, I am bound to have designs that just don't. So I'm no longer wallowing, although I still wasn't prepared to face the frogging yet so I just hid both failed prototypes under the bed until I feel up to it :)

On the brighter side, I've gotten my first complete feedback on a pattern! The wrap I designed for Project Spectrum was finished by one of my testers this weekend (holy cow she was fast!) and I got some really nice comments! So apparently I'm okay at designing things that are flat and rectangular haha. Oh well, that's enough for right now. Pattern should be available soon! Yay!

everything in moderation?

I love crochet. I am obsessed with crochet. This should be an obvious fact.

I am not, however, as obsessed with crochet as this gentleman:



Holy cow.

Does this merit...applause? Shocked silence? I can't decide.