Knitting for Hire

I am currently in full blown knitting for hire mode. So you might no hear too much from me over the next few weeks. I can tell you that there are pros and cons to doing Knitting for Hire jobs.

I have found that there are two different categories for Knitting for Hire Jobs: Test Knitting: where you are actually testing the pattern to make sure it is clearly written and doesn’t contain mistakes; and Sample Knitting: where you are not only reviewing the pattern for clarity, but also producing a sample garment that will be returned to the designer.

For Test Knitting, there are many designers that recruit knitters to review their pattern before they publish it. A lot of these designers look for knitters who will use their own materials and don’t expect to be paid for their time or materials. I have found that it is fun to work for these types designers because you can usually get a copy of the pattern for free, both when you test the pattern and usually when the final pattern, without errors, is published. Plus, you are one of the first to knit the project. The drawback that I have found is that sometimes it is necessary to make a purchase to meet the requirements for the pattern. Typically, I will only do this type of test knitting if I have the materials already on hand.

Sample Knitting is a different ball game all together. Designers requiring Sample Knitters will provide the materials and will also pay for the knitting, usually by the yard. Now don’t think you will get paid and also get to keep the item. No sir, the designers require the items for what they call Trunk Shows. They take their garments around to different shows to sell the pattern to the wholesale market.

One of the things I love about sample knitting jobs is that I learn so much and typically, I get to use yarn that I have never used before and might not have selected on my own. Understand that sample knitting is not a huge moneymaker, but I find it fun as well as educational.

Don’t get me wrong, there are the drawbacks as well. For starters, when I am in a time crunch to get a project completed for a designer I get little, if any, work done on my own personal projects. This makes it very difficult to knit up my stash, but I have found the benefits outweigh the drawbacks in this case.  Because it also means I am less likely to want to purchase more yarn.

KAL Update

Here is a progress picture of my KAL sock for the Sock Knitters Anonymous April Sockdown. At first I really didn’t like the pattern, but once I was able to try them on and spread out the lace pattern I found I really do love the pattern. It is a simple pattern to follow so I don’t need to drag the written pattern around with me.

Earlier this week I completed the short-row heels on both socks and when I tried them on I was a little nervous that they would be too short. But instead of frogging back and adding some length I proceeded forward.

Today, after working about 1½” up the leg of one sock I tried it on again and could barely get it over my heel. Once, I got it over my heel I realized that it was in fact too short, and also very tight around my ankle. So both socks have been frogged back to just before the short-row heel. I think I will change the needle size to 2.25 to make them a little looser. Unfortunately, I only have a 2.25 in the Harmony needles and I so much prefer the Nickel plated, so I just placed an order with Knit Picks and will be able to continue with my socks later this week.

Until then I leave you with some additional pictures of this project. Not the best pictures I have taken, but all I have right now.

 

Cables and Lace Collar

After finishing this cute little collar more than a week ago I have finally finished perfecting the pattern, and now I am post it here for all to enjoy. You can download this pattern by clicking this link, or by clicking the link in the right side panel.  If you have any questions or find an error with the pattern please feel free to let me know. You can also find this pattern as a FREE download in my Ravelry store.

   

Trial and Error

Last year, when a friend of mine showed me the hot pads that her grandmother had made I was totally amazed, and ever since I have wanted to make them.

Recently, I found the pattern and some additional examples on Ravelry. I was also inspired by Clutter My Couch’s Squiggly Potholders.

So, for the last few days, I have been experimenting with this new project. This is the pattern that I am using as a basis for my project and the reason for my experimentation is the pattern calls for rug yarn, but I am using crochet thread instead, which is the material used in the original potholders shown above.

It has been quite a bit of work to get this worked out, because I really want my Hot Pads to have very thick ruffles like in the ones done by my friends grandmother, but this is what I have been getting. Not exactly what I had hoped for.

So far, I have found that it is of the utmost importance to have the squares on the grid smaller rather than larger. Even after increasing the number of double crochets in each section the ruffle still doesn’t fill in the gaps as much as I would like. So back to the drawing board I went, with a smaller needle and a more deliberate mindset to make the stitches smaller with the grid.

Even though I used the same number of stitches I was able to make the grid considerable smaller as you can see here with the smaller grid layed on top of the first grid made.

But even with the smaller grid and after increasing the number of double crochet in each section I am still not getting the perfect ruffle. The only thing I feel I can do at this point is to continue to add additional double crochet stitches per section until I find the perfect combination. That is my project over the next few days, because I am determined to make these cool potholders.

Once I perfect the process, I will be writing a formal pattern for this “Hot Pad” so that no one else has to go through what I have expereienced over the last two days. Look for it in the next week or so.

Speech Recognition

Over the last few weeks, my boss has been dictating a lot of emails to me.  All that typing, on top of  knitting, has really aggravated the tendinitis in my left wrist. This has been quite a frustrating especially when I want to knit.  So recently, when I saw a speech recognition software on sale I decided to buy it.  After installing it at work and using it a few times I couldn’t believe how accurate it was. My boss, who was very skeptical, was even impressed.

I tried to install the same software on my personal computer but because I am running a 64 bit operating system the software was not compatible.  I was totally bummed, because I thought speech recognition software would be so helpful for emails and blog posts, and to save my hand from the excessive of typing.

After doing some research, to try to figure out a way to get the software to work on my computer I found that Microsoft Windows Vista comes fully equipped with speech recognition software.  After doing a short tutorial, my computer was ready for me to start dictating to it.  With any speech recognition software, there have been a few difficult stumbling blocks along the way, but as I continue to use the software the computer get smarter and understands what I say better each time.

It is actually quite fun speaking to the computer rather than having to type every single word.  I think it will be harder for me to learn all the commands that are required for editing then it will be for the computer to get better at understanding what I say.

This blog post was almost entirely dictated with only a few keystrokes along the way.  I know overtime, as I learn all the commands, and as the computer better understands what I say, dictating blog posts and emails will become a standard in my world.

Which means my wrist and hands will have more rest time and I will be able to knit more.  For that matter, I can knit while I dictate a blog post.

My First KAL

I started my first KAL today. I joined the Sock Knitters Anonymous Group’s Sockdown for April. I typically don’t join in on KALs because usually I find out about them way after they have started and usually don’t have the time to catch up.

What is nice about this KAL is that it is ongoing and starts every month. I probably wouldn’t have joined it except that I have been spending way to much time on the Ravelry Forums and I have had loads of fun reading about the February and March Sockdown, so I decided to join the fun for April

One of the requirements is that you have to cast on between April 1 and April 30. This was rather difficult for me because I did my swatch over the weekend and I have wanted to cast on ever since. Here is my swatch. I just love the way the colors are blending.

Therefore, this morning, bright and early, 7:20 am to be exact, I cast on my first sock. I had under an hour before I had to leave for work, but I did get a few rows done.

It has been somewhat of a crazy morning at work, first thing this morning my boss comes in and tells me about some god-awful virus that was to be released today and I had to stop everything and download the patch to make sure we were covered. Not exactly what I had planned to do this morning, but it turned out to be an exciting little twist to my day.

 

Because, while I was watching the progress meter go by I got to knit. I did get a few things accomplished that didn’t require the computer, but as you can see at this moment I took the picture it had been over an hour and a half that it had been running. And since most of my job involves the computer I was just about at a standstill so I picked up my knitting and got a few more rows done.

Even though at 1 hour 33 minutes the progress meter showed that it was nearly complete, it actually took over 2 hours before it was finally finished scanning. Nevertheless, once the scan was done I had to get back to work. I can’t wait to get home this evening to continue knitting on my socks.

Knitting Limbo

For the past few days, I have sort of been in a knitting limbo. I am waiting to start my April Sockdown Socks tomorrow, and I am also expecting some yarn for a new test/sample knit in the next few days. In an effort to keep the WIPs to a minimum, two or under, I didn’t want to start any major projects that wouldn’t get completed before the Test/Sample knitting started. So I have been spending my time working on the swatches for the Basics, Basics, Basics Workshop as well as the Mobius Collar, which isn’t a mobius any more.

I don’t know why I have been dragging my feet on getting the swatches done for the Basics, Basics, Basics Workshop, because they have been quite easy. I whipped out the first two yesterday in addition to knitting on the collar. My plan is to have the other three swatches completed by the end of the week. That is if I can keep my hands off the Sockdown Socks once I get them started tomorrow.

Here is a picture of the collar as it stands right now. I plan on writing up this pattern and posting it on this blog for free in the next few days. You can read more about this project on Ravelry.

Enjoy!

Frogging!

In the past few weeks, I have had my fair share of frogging experiences. You might think frogging is easy, I mean all you are doing is unraveling your work and typically that is very easy. But there are a few circumstances that I have found that frogging can be a big pain.

For instance a few weeks ago I frogged a cat bed that I had knit double stranded. After it was frogged I decided I wanted to knit an afghan single stranded. Now, the frogging wasn’t the hard part, it was when it came to separating the two strands, which after knitting and frogging had twisted around each other and made for quite a difficult time unwinding the two skeins.

The second instance that I found to be difficult is when you have knit a project where you were alternating skeins. You might do this if you have different dye lots of yarn in the same project. Or in my case, I alternated skeins because the yarn was variegated and I didn’t want strange pooling to happen. this was also very difficult to frog, because you have to frog one row at a time and then wind the yarn, then frog the next row and wind, frog and wind, frog and wind. Not a lot of fun either.

And lastly, when you have knit a mobius with two twists, you have to manually unravel a bunch of yarn before you wind it on the ball winder because if you don’t do this the yarn will just get twisted around the piece and then you have to stop and untangle it.

If I were to come across any of these circumstances again I would definitely RETHINK whether or not I want to frog the project. I might even go as far as to just toss it rather than to go through the headache of the frogging. The only way I would torture myself is if I really love the yarn and I just couldn’t live without it.

Wasted Knitting Time

Last night I re-frogged Wicked and re-cast it on. I was alternating the skeins each round to avoid strange pooling of the colors. Here is how much I had gotten accomplished in under 24 hours.

As you can see this is a very quick knit. I was still quite concerned about the pooling, but  it was looking like something I could live with.

UNTIL, this happened.

I left my knitting for less than 5 minutes to get a bite to eat, only to return to find Cody licking and kneading my knitting.  Yes, he is very cute, below, but not so cute when he totally ruins my work.

After three attempts at this sweater, I have finally come to the realization that I am not meant to have this sweater in this yarn. The area that he ruined is just a few rows after the cast-on and there really is no saving the sweater.

And just so you know, frogging a sweater that has been alternating skeins of yarn each round is not a lot of fun. I have frogged back to where the yarn was ruined and I am putting the yarn away to hopefully some day becoming something else.

Now, I need to find something to keep myself busy with until Wednesday when I can start my April Sockdown socks. I will probably frog this..

I finished it awhile back, but it is way to big, it is supposed to be a a neck warmer. At least it might keep me busy for a few days, and it will also make me feel better about getting some of the Ugh! projects cleaned up.

I probably should work on the Basics, Basics, Basics workshop, but I am just not motivated for that right now.

Cast-on – for Toe Up Socks

As you might already know, I prefer toe-up socks over cuff down. The main reason I prefer toe-up is because it is very easy to try on the socks as you go, but also because you can keep knitting the leg until you are nearly out of yarn. When knitting cuff down it is more difficult to judge how much yarn you will have to complete the foot. It is very possible that you can knit the entire sock only to find that you are short on yarn. Or you may end up shortening the leg of the sock because you are worried about having enough yarn, only to find out you had plenty and could have made the leg longer.

I am sure there are benefits to knitting cuff down socks as well, but I just don’t know what they are, other than having a particular pattern displayed on the leg one way verses the other.

There are several different ways to cast-on for a toe-up sock. I prefer the Turkish cast-on over others. I have tried the figure 8 cast-on, but found that after the first few rows are completed it is necessary to go back and tighten up the first round of stitches, with the Turkish cast-on I haven’t had that issue.

There is also the option of using a provisional cast-on and going through the motions much like a short-row heel. I have never used this method because the Turkish cast-on works so well for me that I am very happy continuing to use it.

There are several great tutorials on the web for all of these cast-ons, so I am not going to try to reinvent them, but I will share a few links that I have found quite helpful.

Turkish Cast-On

Provisional cast-on with short-row toe
Figure 8 cast-0n
Easy Toe

Magic Cast-on

YouTube Figure 8 cast-on

YouTube Provisional Cast-on

YouTube Magic Cast-on