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It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like

It’s beginning to look a lot like….nope, can’t finish that sentence because it will speak it into existence and that’s a reality I have to live as it is.

I have a stocking cap on the needles. I have already finished three of them and I want to have a nice supply before the busy season hits. Part of me thinks I am cursing my sales by preparing for them but I’ve had that thought every year and I’ve made the same hat over and over and never seem to make enough. So now I am getting the mundane part over with to hopefully be replaced with, the happier I can just ship this out vibe. Pray for me.

There are times when knitting something familiar can be comforting and easy because you know what to expect. It’s autopilot and dependable. It’s a different comfort level when someone has paid money for and needs it in a certain amount of time and you already made it over and over and the comfort has been replaced by pressure. Making the hats now brings comfort and now and maintains the blessing that knitting is for me. The business should never overtake the blessing and sometimes you have to work to make sure that priority stays straight.

I’ve also been working on a new mug design and this one really had me thinking and rethinking. Similar to a new knit or crochet design, you start and stop and start again.

Why I always think something will take a moment or two is a testimony to positivity. This took several days before I got to that moment every designer desires: this is it.

This year we have general elections in November and I signed up to be an election judge again. I’ve been an election judge since 2020 and now I am a Polling Place Technician as well. I also signed up for the early voting session, two weeks before election day. Haven’t been assigned yet but I am interested to see how that two weeks may effect my knitting gig. Another reason to get some of the hats out of the way.

And then there’s church. We have a new music director. We prayed for the right person to come, and somehow what arrived feels like more than what we knew to ask for. I’ve been thinking about that.

Sometimes we pray very specifically. We know exactly what we think we need, so we bring God our carefully prepared list.And sometimes the answer seems to say, You were thinking too small.

Music has always been part of our church, but lately I’ve been thinking more about what it could mean for us—not simply something that happens during worship, but something we have to give. Something that might reach beyond Sunday morning and beyond the people already sitting in the pews.

So there is a stocking cap on my needles. There are new designs on my computer. There are election days on my calendar. There is new music coming from the church. None of these things seemed connected when I started thinking about what I might write today. Maybe they aren’t. 

But it’s beginning to look a lot like:

Making something instead of only thinking about making it. And making the future easier when it hits me in the face.

Showing up instead of only caring from a distance. Elections are important – especially when politicians have disappointed you and voting is the last bastion to change.

Using what is already in my hands and being willing to see what might happen next.

There are seasons when life gets very quiet. Sometimes that’s exactly what we need.

And then there are seasons when everything is upon you and you have to learn to deal with it and yourself. It’s beginning to look a lot like blessings. 

I have a hat to finish and an ornament to design.

 

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The Circle of Life

We didn’t put up the Christmas tree last year. It usually goes up the weekend of birthday which is always around Thanksgiving. But last year, most of the family was in Portland for Thanksgiving and it was also the first Thanksgiving without my eldest brother. When we got back home, it just wasn’t there for me to put it up.

This morning was the first time I thought about putting up the tree. Most of the family met in Phoenix to celebrate my brother’s life on the first anniversary of his passing. One of his daughters is quite the entrepreneur and we were discussing business and me branching into POD and she suggested I do ornaments. I have a shop on Etsy for POD that I haven’t done much with and I decided to bring it back and ornaments fit the new direction and so here we are. I designed an ornament around the brand and even when designing it I didn’t think of the tree. It was this morning when one thought leads to another and I realized it is August but I’m getting ready for October – December and November is smack in the middle of that and then Thanksgiving and then family and then the tree. 

The circle of life. 

I am sure I will put the tree this year. I will decide on a theme for the decorations. (Angels, Santa, crystal, free for all.) I usually have a few friends over to help decorate but I think it might be expanded a little. We have a small apartment and can only hold about 10 people before it gets hard to breathe but I can think of something.

I realize I am still grieving. I realize I have some regrets about my relationship with my brother. There are things I can do to move through them both. I can feel the feels and I have another brother and two sisters to relate to in a regret free way. I can get there because it’s the circle of life. There’s always a way back.

The new shop is StitchPrayRepeat.

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The View From the Bridge

The view from the bridge, or rather my work table. It is a bit of a cluster because that’s where my head is at: in a cluster.

Yarn here and yarn there and some sheet music in for good measure. It’s organized chaos. I hope.  It’s early August and I am eight weeks away from the first of my two craft fairs and about six weeks away from the start of the busy season. I want to get ahead of it by making a few of the most popular item that’s been selling the past season. I’ve already sold a couple of them and I think the smart move is having some on hand to mail or for the shows.

Preparing knit and crochet stuff and also creating for designbcb and Stitch, Pray and Repeat can be exciting and tedious all at the same time. I am hoping this time I will be able to make a go of SPR. I have some goals in mind for getting rid of debt and generating wealth and that can’t happen, at least not as quickly, without that shop taking off.

The clutter won’t last long. There’s only so much I can take before I clear it all away. Just to start it all over again. But that is the magic of creativity. We have messes in our minds and messes on our tables and then we somehow turn it around and make the most beautiful things. I bet Da Vinci was a slob.

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Already Gone

I love a tote bag. I have a huge tote bag collection. When we travel anywhere out of state I look for two things: a shirt with the place where we’re going. (It can be purchased at the airport or truck stop and a tote bag which is usually found at a museum or book store. It helps if it has the place where I got it but that’s not really a deal breaker. I’ve been collecting them for decades. Just don’t ask me where they are. The moment I bring them in the house they are already gone.

I can look around the yarn room and see a couple of them but every year when I do a deep clean or rearrangement, I get a Christmas morning  feeling when I rediscover them. When I travel, there is always this mad dash to find the tote bag that will hold my projects. It is worse when we are doing a road trip because I know I can bring more and put it in the van. During those trips, I don’t bring a tote bag as much as I bring a bin. But for airplanes and trains, I have to find a bag I can somewhat neatly pack so yarn doesn’t fall out and roll around. Ask me how I know.

It would be nice if they were organized somewhere but there are some battles that can’t be won. I may give it a shot after this next trip. Since it is just an extended weekend, I am packing a bigger tote bag that will hold the yarn as well as my clothes. No need for a suitcase and there will be a tote bag in the tote bag for using every day. Variety is spice and all that.

That reminds me. I don’t think I have a shirt for the place I’m going or a tote bag. I will have to rectify that…and make sure I have room.

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That’s The Way I Always Heard It Should Be

There is a YouTuber who bike rides with his little son on his bike. and his son is 2 years old and adorable. his name is Ire. and Ire loves birds, and cars, and snacks. while riding around Ire told his father he wanted a baby bicycle. His dad stopped his bike, sighed, kissed his helmeted son on the top of his head and softly said ‘ok.’

You could see it on his face even though he was wearing sunglasses.

This is what it’s like to have your heart filled and broken at the same time.

But that’s exactly how it’s supposed to go. That’s the way I always heard it should be. That time when we give them the foundation and we teach and learn and share and have a time together that we never think will come to an end. Until it does. We prepare them for that day and forget to prepare ourselves. Ire’s internet aunties and uncles were OK when he got a scooter but asking for that bike hit different.

His father’s ‘ok’ was a few seconds in coming as he said good-bye to the beginning of the end of a very short chapter and started writing the intro to the next, He will teach his son how to ride a bike. He will take rides with his son. Together they will forge another set of memories built on the ones already there.

And so we go. We will learn what we have to learn and then let go. We have to let go in order to catch the blessing coming our way. There are only so many chances because we don’t see them all. The ones we do, we need to be ready to catch them. We empty the hands but not the heart. Always full. Always remembering. Always grateful.

*The Baptiste Pattern and hat are now available. Click the picture.

 

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What’s Done is Done

The Aadi Cowl pattern is done and it is now available in the Etsy and Ravelry shops.

I still have not found my writing pattern rhythm. The process should go more smoothly than it does. I try to write the pattern as I go and I end up working faster than my writing so I have to go back and remember things I’ve done. Recently I started dictating it into AI and depending on which one is used, it rewrites the pattern to where I’m not sure what I started with.

What’s done is done and AI is here to stay and it has helpful ways. It can also be fun in a ‘one day they’ll laugh at us when they takeover’ sort of way. Example, I will write instructions to be formatted into my pattern template and it will try and anticipate where I’m going next and make suggestions for the next step that will absolutely not work. Instead of just correcting the text, I will actually explain why it won’t work and it will answer me back with a ‘great catch!’ or ‘I see your point.’ Supposedly it learns from all the inputs so the responses are freaky funny.

So, I dictate the pattern piece by piece and when I am done, I ask it to format to my specs and it does and I have to go in and correct a few things each time but it does save me time in the end. In all the times I’ve used it, it has never gotten it completely right. Attention to what is written is key. While I am certain it will one day takeover; I think I will be long gone before it happens.

I would be delighted and interested in hearing how you designers flow your work process. A girl can always use a little help.

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Mug Shots

It’s too hot in Chicago today. This is the kind of thing that could be worn out today. If one had the body for it. Which I don’t. I would wear it over a tee but not today. It’s somewhere near 90 degrees and that hovers near warm.

This, btw, is the Kanata Kerchief Tank by Jennifer Ozses and you can find all the way free right here. It is not the day for drinking hot things – though there are millions of people right here in Chicagoland doing that very same thing. Haven’t they heard of iced coffee?

Anyhow, I am indoors working and though it is fiery outside, it is not warm enough inside for us to turn on the air conditioner. It is quite comfortable in here.  There are five units in our building and the air conditioner fans are running in four of them. Not us, our unit has been run in almost the full five years we’ve been here. Our last electric bill was just $50. We take our blessings where they are given.

Speaking of blessings and coffee. I was blessed with designing some new coffee mugs for Stitch, Pray, Repeat. 

I love mugs. I have a mug collection. I have a mug collection even though I don’t drink coffee at home. I drink tea and sometimes I have it with dinner and I need a mug for that. I am using a quite large Santa Claus mug but it’s nice to have options. I’m having fun in this phase of my career and I hope the blessing continues. It feeds my faith as well as my creativity.

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So We Don’t Have To

 

So We Don’t Have To

The thing about a knitting pattern is that someone took the time to create it so we don’t have to. I first discovered designing quite by accident. I was in the airport waiting for a flight and I purchased a knitting magazine. It was one of the gift issues so there were lots of patterns and I ran across a hat pattern I really, really liked. 

Several weeks later when I needed to make a new hat, I thought of that one in the magazine and decided to make it. I didn’t bother finding the book because I remembered what the hat looked like and I could just go ahead and whip it.

So i began it and when I got to the decreases I wondered how the author did theirs. I grabbed the book, turned to the pattern and realized the hat in the book looked nothing like what I had on my needles. They both looked good, the decreases in the book would have worked for my hat as mine would have worked for it.

But I was surprised at how different they looked the design wasn’t even close. How did I dream up my version? Don’t know. But I did and I continued it. I designed my first thing.

I was off to the designing races and I haven’t left the track. This season I am determined that most of what I offer will come from my own patterns and I will sell the patterns and the items. It challenges me. It increases the fun and I believe adds value to my work. Really, that’s what an occupation should do. It is a blessing and I embrace it.

Speaking of knitting design, I loves me some tote bags and the latest thing I designed was a knitting (or project) bag. It is beautiful, durable and functional.  It was fun to design and the logo is on both sides and reminds me to live my life motto: Stitch, Pray, Repeat.

 

 

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The Island of Misfit Wips

The Island of Misfit Wips.

The thing is, I don’t even watch Rudolph when it comes on every Christmas. I remember being excited about it when I was a kid but I haven’t been a kid for quite some time. What I am is a knitter and a designer and that means things are constantly on needles and hooks. This is what I currently have going on:

Rejoice! There are only three. A fourth one will be coming in a matter of hours. But for now, there are just three things going and much to my surprise and delight, they are all knitting projects.

Do not get me wrong, I love me some crochet but knitting is my first love and I am glad to making all things knit thus far.

 

 

The first thing I have going is a new pattern called Baptiste. The pattern is written it’s waiting for the hat to be finished so it can be photographed and added to the text. The second is another Aadi cowl which was the subject of my last post and the third and final is the beginning of a new hat pattern call Calix. Just in its infancy, I really need to have it done by the end of the month so I can have it ready for my nephew when he comes in from the UK.

There’s no doubt I have had more than three things going at the same time. When the holidays roll around and designbcb gets orders, it’s not unusual to have six or seven things going. So, three, well that is a blessing and I am going to savor it for a while because there is another project hitting the needles soon.

It’s a reason I need to get Baptiste off the needles. Did you notice I am using the two circular needles method? The next pattern design will be another hat and I could use at least one of the needles currently in use. OK, I have plenty of needles. I still need to get Baptiste done, though.

One thing I did manage to get done is to design a new mug. I started drinking coffee a few years ago and I don’t drink it at home because I don’t like how Mr. Honey makes it. I started out at Starbucks but I’ pretty much a Dunkin’ diva but if I did make it at home, I would drink it out of this. It sums up life pretty well.

 

 

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The Reasons I Knit Have Changed

The reasons I knit have changed.

I learned to knit in the 60’s. I did it because it was fun. I tried to knit things beyond my comprehension and the first thing I made was a scarf of so many different colors, my siblings could have sold me off. I switched colors and saw the line you get when doing the change but didn’t know enough to make the change on the same side.  I loved the scarf made from scrabs of yarn that came from who knows where.

I learned how to crochet shortly after and like a lot of crocheters, I learned how to make a chain and not much else until someone introduced to me turning my work.

I didn’t knit much in high school or college and it wasn’t on my mind as I tried to make my way in the world. I didn’t think about it much until I met Mr. Honey or more precise, Mr. Honey’s mama who knit and crocheted like a boss.

Well now, none of her kids or grandkids knit and I saw an in. I would knit to impress my hopefully one day mother-in-law. I went crazy. I found a huge set of needles and crochet hooks on sale on eBay and spent about $100 getting them. I bought some cheap yarn (Hello, Red Heart) and started making scarves. That was the easiest thing to make.

First, she wasn’t impressed. She kinda smiled at me. She didn’t need me to knit. She was extremely happy her late 40’s son had found someone he wanted to marry.

Second, God laughed at that little scheme because I got hooked on knitting and crochet for the love of knitting and crochet and would lead me to all sorts of paths of service. So my reasons for knitting would change again. I would start a knitting group, add a source of revenue for my church, start a business and knit prayer shawls, baby blankets and afghans for church members at different phases in their lives. And I would finally knit for me again but in a respectful and reverent way.

It is rare for me to leave a hook or needles alone. We were recently in Austria and I had my projects with me and didn’t touch them once. I’m surprised the snow caps didn’t melt. 

Why do you knit or crochet or craft? Besides the universal “So I don’t kill people”, how does your craft bring you joy?