7.15.2011

Moving right along

I've been steadily working on the order of 10 dishcloths I mentioned in my previous post. So far I've made five, and did each of them in a different design. I really hope the woman who is paying me for them doesn't mind them being different, since I think I would certainly go a bit nuts if I had to do them all alike. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

She asked for dishcloths that would go with a tan kitchen, and also said she likes orange and yellow. I've been working with those colors the best that I could, considering I haven't had much luck finding all cotton yarn that is actually tan. I did find one that was beige and darker beige (my personal color nightmare house-wise), so I hoped that was close enough.

Here they are in all their dishwash-y glory.













And I couldn't help but notice, but between these dishcloths and the socks I started recently:



and this fabric stack I bought this week at Michael's:



there seems to be a color scheme developing for the month of July.

7.08.2011

Yet another new project

I seem to have gotten over that slump I was in a couple weeks ago when I didn't feel like working on anything. The bad part of this equation is that I keep wanting to work on new projects instead of something I've already started.

Work on the shawl has been going great, but it's a lot of the same thing. The same colors and stitches, and since it's gotten so big, it takes a long time to even finish a couple rows. So of course it only made sense to start another pair of socks.

I wanted to use one of my own hand-painted skeins, so I pulled out the three that I was most drawn to at the moment.



(The colors in the photo are kind of washed out - all of the yarns are more vibrant in person.) After pondering this decision for quite a while, I decided to go with the yellow, pink and orange one, since it seemed the most summery to me. And I've been wanting a pair of yellow socks.



I started working on this pattern called Waterfall Socks. It's a pretty pattern, but really simple. That was key for me - I didn't really want to start anything that would require much concentration.



I don't think I'll get much of these done in the near future though. I was working on them this week while in the waiting room of my doctor's office, and a woman came by and asked me about them. We talked for a few minutes and she told me she loves knitted dishcloths, but hasn't found any for sale recently. I offered to make her some and turns out she wants 10! I won't get paid a whole lot for them, but it will help me use up some of the cotton yarn I've been stashing and make a few bucks. Works for me! (Ask me if I feel the same way after I've knit those 10 dishcloths.)

7.07.2011

Inspiration from weird places part 2

I've been trying to pay more attention to color schemes and design ideas more in my day-to-day life, because I think this helps me stay creative. I sometimes seem to get into slumps and look to other people and their work for inspiration, but I don't want to depend on that all the time.

Anyway, when I was doing laundry the other day, I noticed the colors and patterns of these items and really liked how they looked. Orange, green, turquoise, black and white wouldn't normally be a color combination I would use, but I love how it looks here. It would make a great quilt or colors for hand-dyed yarn.

7.06.2011

WIP - Shawl update

I've been working pretty steadily on the knitted shawl I started about two weeks ago. I'm about done with the striped portion and will have to do the border next. I know I will have to block this, but I have no idea how big it will end up or if it will be a good size for me and my mammoth shoulders. I am not really liking the idea of figuring out how to make it larger, so I'll probably just cross my fingers and hope for the best.



Having so many works in progress means I have found a good use for some of those box bags I made! They are a perfect size for this type of project. I keep thinking I will post some of these to sell on etsy, but haven't gotten around to it yet. (Story of my life. I love making stuff to sell, but hate writing the little descriptions for the items on etsy. Must. Get. Motivated.)