I’m participating in a special “day in the life” blog tour so here’s how this day in my life is going!
My days are all so different, there really isn’t one schedule that I follow. I base what I do on what is currently required (finances, taxes, designing, class stuff). I don’t know if today is an average day, but it seems like a pretty normal one!
This morning I was up around 7:00, when I’m usually up, getting the kids out of bed and putting the tea on. This morning Hannah had a sore throat and sniffles, so she stayed home, but Max was on his way to school at 8:20 with his friend, biking as they usually do.
I’ve been working up some prototypes for a felted crochet bag based on my universal mitered knit bag, so I had to measure and take photographs of the unfelted bag, then I tossed it in the washer and created a smaller, felted version.
I don’t like the colors at all – I was just using anything I had in my basket that was high contrast so I could compare how the different stitches would felt. I’m happiest with the single crochet felt fabric, so I’ll be moving in that direction.
While that was going on, I had some email to read; questions to answer, shipping labels to print out so I can send out orders that came in over the weekend. Then there’s the chasing the money portion of my life, which isn’t fun – and usually isn’t an issue – but I’m having some frustrations right now that I’d like to clear up before TNNA.
Then I settled down to look over some patterns I just received via email from my tech editor.
Karis is relatively easy – just minor changes that are understandable. I’ve looked it over, cleaned it up, and it’s finally ready to put up for sale (yay!)
The other, Bel Canto Surplice, is a more complex design and I am going to wait on that one. I’ll look it over before bed tonight and and sleep on it, hoping that it makes more sense in the morning…
After that brain work I took a nice, long walk to clear my head. Atticus likes this part of the design day. I’m finding that walking has become a necessary component to my process, or maybe it’s just spending time with my doggie?
I have two patterns in the working stage right now, knitting up the samples and writing the patterns. One is a set of bathroom curtains and matching shower curtain for IK. The other is a new plaid something that’s just for me. It may be a skirt (I’d love that…) or it may be the start of a top – I need to see how it evolves. Survival of the stitches.
Most of my knitting is interspersed with copious note taking (on my computer) revising charts and noting how I might want to work a decrease differently, etc.
I just finished a hat last week (I was a class chaperone for two field trips, which turned out to be amazing times for knitting – who knew?) and I may get the pattern written up for TNNA. Or not.
I am considering doing a tutorial on my blog on Wiring A Millinery Piece – it would certainly make the process more accessible. Photos are one of the best teaching tools out there.
Since I’m leaving for TNNA on Thursday, much of my day has been taken up with getting the patterns together for the Stitch Cooperative. Selling patterns at TNNA is a new experience for me and it feels much safer and more comfortable to be doing it with a group of other designers.
We want to make a few binders of all of the patterns that will be available so shop owners can easily choose what they’d like. The two patterns I received today will be in the list, but I’ll hold of on committing to the surplice for a few days. It all depends on how clear my mind can get!
Most of this afternoon was spent knitting the aforementioned plaid piece. It’s a relatively mindless project, but the bear of it is dealing with ALL the separate strands of yarn.
I can deal with the mess (it’s a zen thing) but I know that a lot of knitters would have the razors out (for the yarn or the wrists…) So I’d like to figure a way to do this with less strands hanging down. (Please don’t tell me bobbins, that’s not what I mean – I mean a way to rework the entire concept…)