Knitting Needle Stand

Scrap Wood Knitting Needle Stand

Well, here it is! Scrap wood boards, a few holes drilled at strategic intervals and depths and my stand holds the tips to my interchangeable cable needles, my double-pointed and long straights! It even has a little pencil ledge in front!

I just put a few needles in to try it out. This one will hold up to 3.75mm needles — one for the larger needles is on order

I was going to write the needle sizes on before it was varathaned and then we thought better of that — so right now there are little stickers — albeit a little uneven — for the sizes; that way it’s a little more flexible.

Scrap Wood Knitting Needle Stand

Recycling old glasses cases

It’s not just a way to remember who your optometrist is!

This glasses case has a spring-loaded lid so it clamps shut quite nicely.

Great way to transport hooks, stitch markers, stitch holders, sewing needles and all those little items that get lost in the bottom of your knitting, crocheting or sewing bag.

You can even use the cleaning cloth that you always get with a pair of glasses as a needle/pin holder – just fold the cloth in half, stab your pins/needles in and out of the cloth on one half of the folded cloth. Then, fold it in half again (or roll it) to cover the needles and tuck it into the ‘carrier’.

Just a thought!

And I’m still working on reversing that pattern for the Long Skinny Scarf, but it doesn’t look good — I have a variation but it’s not a true mirror image, so I’ll knit a few rows and take a picture and see what you think!

Blocking – the Thrifty Way

I have recycled 12″ x 12″ ceiling tile to use as a blocking board. The front (good side) of the ceiling tile has a painted surface which is very hard.

The back of the tile, however, is a softer surface to pin into and because the ceiling tiles interlock, I can create any size blocking board I need.

I cover the ceiling tile with a towel.

Then I lay grid interfacing (sold at fabric stores – it’s interfacing weight and my version has dots at 1″ intervals) over the towel. The grid helps me keep my garment true and makes blocking to a specific size very easy.

Celtic Jenna Rose and Toddler Irish

Celtic Jenna Rose
Here’s another teaser picture! I have been rewriting the draft pattern — honest!

I’m procrastinating just a little because it’s hard going back to scribble notes after 6 months — not recommended!!

Test Knitting
I decided to only have the centre panel test knit for this design since there is no body shaping to the top itself.

Pattern Publishing
For now, I publish all of my own patterns.

It’s hard to know which is better — booklet or full page format. Some people love the booklet format because its very transportable; others keep all of their patterns in plastic page protectors so really like full page patterns best.

The first 5 PurpleSage patterns were published using MS Publisher using a half-page booklet format.

Certainly there are pros and cons to the Publisher program itself, but since I don’t create drafts in that program and there are some issues when I copy from Word and Excel into Publisher, I thought I would use a full-page, 2-column Word format for the Celtic Jenna Rose sleeveless top pattern.

The pattern writing is actually taking way more time than the designing / knitting. One of the reasons, of course, is that the presentation of the pattern is so important — it’s not only the accuracy of the numbers and directions and clarity of same, it’s also the format

• booklet vs full-page
• columns vs full-width
• picture placement
• fonts and styles
• which techniques to include

and then there’s the photography! I spent most of yesterday afternoon with “Kes” .

Yes, she has a name
This is Kes: the mannequin that a lovely person donated to me through Freecycle — what a great way to recycle.

She’s a little worse for wear — little chip off the nose and a “birthmark” on the cheek and hairless — but she’s been a wonderful help! Much easier taking pictures of her than of me through the looking glass!

Irish toddler Sweater (August 12 post)
I started the sample knit for this design and decided that, as much as I like seamless garments, this one would have to have underarm seams — with the cable patterns and centrepiece design it became too complicated to write the directions for all 5 sizes.

I did consider charting it exclusively, but reading charts is not an easy knit for some people.

So, a frogging I went and I will start anew on straight needles and see how it progresses.

Okay, back to work for me!

Recycled Cereal Box Storage

Just a little update on my recycled cereal box storage system (see July 25th post).

A month and a half into it and it’s working very well!

And — to extrapolate — once the project/pattern is finished, you can take the label off, fold the “top” down to close the box and put the label back on the outside and it’s ready for semi-permanent storage. All of the pieces are in one spot and if you stack them on a shelf with the label toward the front, think of the fun you can have alphabetizing??? You know you want to!!!

Don’t stab yourself

The top I’m currently knitting has some cabling and what to do with that extra needle (I must confess I don’t always use a cable needle — sometimes just and extra dp) when it’s not in use? (I know some fearless knitters do it without cable needles, but for me somehow that method extremely cumbersome and slow.)

And then just the other day, as I was removing this hairband from my ponytail and wrapped it around my wrist for temporary storage — aha!!!!

Now, I’ve tried this with some other ponytail holders that were all fabric on the outside and did not meet with great success — the needle ended up under the cushions of my favourite chair — again

However, this particular hairband has the elastic stitching on the inside of the band (you can see the dark lines in the first picture) and so provides some grip to hold the needle.

Recycling – not! or A $2.40 Lesson

So disappointed!

The lovely knit silk top I wrote about on Friday will not become anything from my needles!

I carefully hand-washed it and laid it flat to dry. But once it was dry — there was that “distinctive” silk odour (which I’m told some people like but I think smells like bad fish). Now, I checked for that odour when I purchased the top and it was not present. Hmmm, a conundrum — maybe the recommended dry cleaning would avoid this phenomenon. Too sad — not about to go there.

Recycling, Un-Bumping Cast-off in the Round

Recycling
I’m determined to follow up on my recycling quandary so today I purchased a deep sage green 100% silk top to unravel ($2.40 at Guy’s Frenchy’s). It’s currently being washed so I’ll have to post pictures later. It is destined to become a lace scarf.

Knitting Techniques
This is not a new technique by any means, but very handy if you knit in the round. When you cast off in the round, the rows are always offset leaving a bump or jog. Here’s one way to avoid that. Today I uploaded a series of pictures and descriptions on the PurpleSage Designs website.

I’ve Changed My Mind: Evolution of the WIP Binder

This is one of those, “I thought it was a good idea, but…”

I have found that my WIP Binder sits on the shelf while I have my notes, pattern versions, swatches, etc. lying about to the point where it was even driving me crazy! It was a good idea originally as I was organizing all my bits and pieces, but once they were filed in the binder it just became awkward. Since it contains all of my projects, swatches, notes, etc., it’s become pretty bulky and just cumbersome when I was looking for one little thing. So, off with the old and on with the new.

The new are individual pocket portfolios – the kind from the office supply store.

On the front of the folder I clip a checklist of my design process (19 steps at the moment if you don’t count 7a. and 7b. as separate steps!).

My checklist also has a p lace to record
- the start date and end date for each step
- other To Do items e.g. credit Test Knitters or special printing instructions for buyers
- tags for the pattern
- price for the pattern

The inside pockets are perfect to file all of the versions of patterns, notes, etc. as well as swatches. (I cheated on the swatch in the picture — actually frogged the original!)

The portfolios I have even have little diagonal cuts (for business cards) that are perfect for storing yarn labels (depending on their size).

I also clip my Ziploc bag containing my garment to the portfolio with a butterfly clip – everything in one place and easy to grab. Instant access is what it’s all about.

Large cereal boxes cut open at the side work well for storage. I cut along the one long side and across the bottom only. This flap is folded up and used as a label for the project. I tape up the original top of the box and tape a little extra cardboard along the edge to strengthen the new opening. The cereal boxes can be stored like this or in plastic storage bins to keep them together or for easy transportability. I think I’m loving it!

Ok – this is try #2 to post this — I thought I was being clever and composed off-line in Word but when I pasted the text in Blogger had all sorts of issues with extra codes, so I had to paste all the text into Notepad and copy it back — here goes!

Bargains and Measuring Swatches

So on my last trip to the great GF (Guy’s Frenchy’s) I found multitudinous treasures:

• cashmere sweater to unravel (yarn probably destined for DD) $3.85

• wonderful little make-up? case — sorry about the slightly blurry picture, but it’s picture #2 that’s the more important one because…..

• the case has two zippered pockets that are perfect for carrying 2 small projects $1.50

• a leather daytimer for $1.50 that had this really neat small clear plastic ruler that makes it very easy to measure swatches (Hot Green again!)

And speaking of recycling, I found some old business cards that I found just perfect for labelling my swatches. On the back of the card I write:

• name of yarn and colour
• dry and washed gauges
• size of needle used for swatch
• pattern and source (if any)