I ended up calling the previous yarn “The Harvest”. This one is “Welcome to the Hellmouth”:

 

(click images to view larger)

Dyed half the skein red (maybe more red-orange) by hand, then stock-pot dyed the whole skein in a medium(ish)-blue. This turned the red (red-orange) a really dark purple, almost black in some spots. There are some areas where the blue didn’t take as well, so the red turned more berry-brown. What ended up happening is that it became this very lightly variegation, and I wonder how it’ll look crocheted or knitted up.

Fingering-weight superwash (wool/nylon) sock yarn.

My current swatch/design that I’ve planned on submitting is…well. Okay, I have a swatch done. I kept it on the smaller side (8″ wide by about 7-8″ long) so that I would have time to make a full piece, photograph it on a body, and forward it with the swatch. I may either send the swatch alone, or not submit it for the Spring issue.

I’m so in love with the yarn, but I almost feel like, even at Sport weight, it may still be too heavy for this garment. Perhaps it’s because Spring, to a Florida girl’s mind, equals Summer, and both equal hot.

Also, I wanted to use a lovely cotton blend so that it would breathe, but the cotton is already growing in the crochet-ribbed section. I’m thinking that maybe I should knit the ribbing instead, but would that turn some crocheters off? Which group would be the majority? The group of crocheters that don’t mind a couple of inches worth of knitting, or the group of crocheters who are either anti-knitting or don’t know how to knit? And do I take that risk, as a designer, to incorporate it?

I already am using a size E (3.5mm) Boye hook for the Sport weight, but maybe I should reduce it to an even smaller hook? C (2.75mm, I think) or D (3.25mm)? The body of the top is in an H (5mm) Boye hook so the stitch pattern can move around and be lovely with the drape.

I need to think about this more, but I also need to ship the swatch soon if I’m going to do that. The only problem–if I decide to go with a smaller gauge, then I’ve already submitted it with the wrong gauge yarn. How unprepared does that make me look? Eek!

Perhaps I’ll just keep this one and put it out myself?

Okay, I know what you must be thinking: why is she dyeing yarn when she could be crocheting?

To which I reply: I have been crocheting! In fact, I have been working on the following:

• body of a purse in fingering weight yarn that will be felted
• swatch for Spring submission to crochet magazine
• full garment that swatch is based off of for sister-in-law to model and keep

That’s busy, right? On top of work, I feel pretty good about my progress. If I could only stop sleeping, I’d have more time!

My birthday is coming up on the 14th of this month, which is both exciting and scary. It’s exciting for two reasons: (1) my mother has promised to make carrot-raisin salad, which is died-and-gone-to-heaven delicious; and (2) it’s a day solely about me (even though i will probably do what everyone else wants to do)! The scary part is that I’m turning 28. I’m almost out of my 20’s and into my 30’s. Some people say I’m just a kid, and I know I act it sometimes because I’m, umm, very young at heart ( *wink* ). I just think it’s the whole getting older thing, and I don’t want too many more years to pass by without anything really exciting happening. I want to live, rather than exist, you know? And a lot of these years have been spent just existing.

Maybe that’s why I finally decided to start submitting designs, or planning children with the girlfriend (we’re starting insemination this year–August or September). But there needs to be more. I want to travel. I want to ride more rollercoasters…

I want more time. I have so much that I don’t get to do in a day, how the hell am I supposed to do it all in a year?

As freaked as I am about time slipping, I have to say that I feel pretty good about 28. I have a feeling it’s going to bring some awesome things. Excitement, pleasure, fun…it should be worth the initial scare.

• SO far behind on my Ravelry forum reads
• currently working on a redesign for the site, which might switch the behind-the-scenes platform a bit; don’t worry, you won’t notice that part
• felting something!

What are y’all doing?

My coworkers, especially, are something I can feel thankful for. They were very supportive when C. and I were dealing with a sick Remix the first couple weeks of my new job. They were even more supportive when C. and I had to make that decision that no one wants to make about/for their animals.

We said a final goodbye to Remix on the 22nd of May, which both feels like a lifetime ago and just this morning. *sigh* What are we to do but move forward? It’s hard when we think we see him in one of his usual napping spots. The mind playing tricks, surely, and we haven’t really forgotten that he’s gone, but sometimes our hearts clutch and our breath leaves us, then we’re reminded all over again that he didn’t come home with us, and we won’t be seeing him again.

Remix
(late 2007, on C’s brothers bed)

I’ve crocheted a bit, but nothing specific. I won some yarn from a Giveaway, some lovely handspun in colors that remind me of rainbow sherbert. It’s kind of scratchy–ok, totally scratchy–so I’m going to felt it and, hopefully, turn it into a little bag. I love the colors a lot, so it should be a good little summer handbag.

The podcast has been on my mind a lot, as have the video tutorials. My schedule with work, up until starting tomorrow, hasn’t been formally set, but once I get into the groove of the new schedule (3pm-12pm EST/EDT), I should be able to start figuring out when it’ll be best to record and shoot. I hope soon. I’m feeling kind of lost without talking to you. Pathetic of me, right? I might need to scale back to once a month until I get my footing again.

Hope you’re all well, enjoying the weather wherever you are, and are having a great time crocheting something fun.

Stash Eater Blanket - Complete, originally uploaded by the crochet side.

Stash Eater Blanket - pattern, “The Wool Eater Blanket“, by Sarah London

I wanted to de-stash a lot of acrylic yarn, so I grabbed all of the baby colors and made a crib blanket. For who, I don’t know. Maybe a pregnant cousin of mine.

Anyway, this time now seems to be just a huge adjustment phase, along with scary bits and a lot of debt (I think we’re closing in on $700, with $90 in our checking account–eek!). I’m trying to keep up with things, keep myself sane and relaxed, but that’s always difficult. I don’t really have the time for recording a podcast, but I’ll try to get something in the next week or two. Crochet-wise, I’m just picking stuff up here and there. I had to stop working on the Stash Eater blanket because I ran out of Red Heart SS (Light Blue/#0381) before I could finish the last round. I’m going to look at it later to see if I can come up with anything creative. I’m not going to buy any to finish it off, because that negates the whole getting rish of old stash, you know?

In the meantime, Marly sent me supplies to test her design that was accepted into Interweave Crochet Fall ‘08. I’m really excited! The only thing that makes me grumpy is that I can’t find a steel hook smaller than a size 10 anywhere near me. Money being as tight as it is, with the Vet bills, and not getting my first check yet, well, I can’t rationalize driving a half hour away (gas is $3.71 here, unless it increased since last night) just to find a hook that may or may not be stocked. So, since I can’t find one, and am not going to drive aimlessly looking for one, I decided to crochet her pattern without the element that requires the Teeniest Hook in the World EVER. ;)

Now, to get off-topic from crochet, I thought I’d share that bit about Remix. It’s a lot of “bit”, which is why it’s cut behind the “Read More” link. You’ll appreciate that in a minute if you decide to read. This copy&paste of what Caryn (the girlfriend) wrote in her journal is from the beginning of our Remix-being-sick troubles to almost current, so…

(more…)

Roving Braid - Merino/Bamboo - 1st time dyeing, originally uploaded by the crochet side.

This photo has a little mood lighting, so I’ll take proper photos on a white background later, but doesn’t it look nice? This is the same roving as before, but now it’s dry and braided!

Unfortunately, I was trying to reduce some of the crunchy parts that I’m told happens when roving is part bamboo. When tugging to pull those sections apart, I tugged too hard and about a foot and a half broke off. There’s a mini braid, just like this one, but that’s okay. I know now for future.

I think next time I’m going to dye actual yarn.

I dyed my first bit of roving tonight. It’s the 2oz of merino/bamboo that I bought a week or two back. It’s so lovely and soft, and when it was soaking, pre-dye, it poofed and was like a pretty fiber halo in the water-vinegar solution. I tried three colors: a sort of neon/lime green, mixed with a little prime green to tone it down; a prime blue, but soft enough that it wasn’t too dark; and a mix of neon purple, pink and a drop or two of red, which came out a dark reddish-purple, though red’s tend to wash out a bit, so I’m hoping that it comes out lighter. I ended up using too much dye, so I think the colors bled a bit, but what was pretty was when the runoff merged and the blue and green made this gorgeous deep turquoise/teal (i can never remember which is which). I’m hoping that the dye didn’t run together too much.

This is going to be a bit of a mystery to me, once it’s done. I’ve never dyed before, with the exception of tie-dye and easter eggs when I was a kid. But this is the first time I’ve done this process, and my hands are colorful because I refused to wear gloves, and I have no idea what the roving is going to come out as, especially as bamboo dyes differently than wool, an tends to come out heathered rather than solid or semi-solid.

It’s currently steaming in order to set the dye. Once that’s done, I’ll let it cool, and then rinse the roving out, squeeze it in a towel, then hang it to dry. I cannot wait. There will be photos, for sure, even if it’s a total blunder.

This is all about testing the waters to see if I like dyeing. If I do, then I’ll purchase more roving of different types, possibly some yarn, and get some acid dyes. There are lots of things I’d change if I kept with this, but it’s fun, and I like color, and I want to have something else to do to take my mind off of things that aren’t pretty.

Roving - Merino/Bamboo - 1st time dyeing, originally uploaded by the crochet side.

Look what I did last night! I wasn’t able to rinse it out and hang it to dry until earlier today. I’m about to go fluff it a bit before it’s completely dry, but I’m not upset with my first foray into dyeing.

Caryn came in, as I was rinsing it, and said, “what’s up, hippie?” It might have been a comment on the color scheme.

For those of you who don’t already know, I had an interview for a much needed job. It was with the fantastic company, Six Apart, for a position I really wanted. Well, I got it! This means, though, that a lot of the time that I spent on Ravelry, boards, on my site, designing, sketching, and so on, will be dwindled down.

I’m not going to stop, not at all, and I think I can still do all of the above, just not all of the time, like I’m used to, so no worries. I just wanted to give you all a heads up for any changes in my time spent bopping around and being sociable.

Also, because I got the position at Typepad (Six Apart blog-authoring tool), I’ll likely shake up the look at The Crochet Side. I currently use Wordpress as my blog-authoring tool, and I’m considering switching to Movable Type, which is another Six Apart product. If you come to the site in the next couple of months, don’t be surprised to see some alterations. Call it loyalty to the company. Heh.

Another thing before I go:

I was looking at little promotional things I could eventually get for the site. I can’t remember if I ever posted about that or not, but I was thinking about buttons and the like. Something like this, perhaps:

What say you? Would you be interested? Would you like to see them in giveaway packages or with Etsy purchases from my store?

Guess who just did a bunch of work so that you wouldn’t have to?

Click the link, read the steps.

The calculators are not crochet or knit specific. It’s all about yarn, baby.

This post might be long, so here’s a list of what I’m likely to mention: podcast, life, money, life, dyeing, side-businesses, selling an already-crocheted Buckle Cloche hat.

I’ve recorded the next podcast episode at least 5 times now. I just deleted the raw recording of the fifth take. I don’t know if I can do this stupid episode again, but it has a lot of good information! I’m going to have to reshuffle the order in which I discuss things so I don’t sounds mechanical. I’ve memorized so much of what I’ve wanted to say, that it sounds like I’m reading from a script. So much dislike.

Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t just be best to put the podcast on hold until I could have a recording buddy. I don’t think my personality transmits when I’m alone.

To keep my head from exploding, I’ve been coming up with a few ideas, or being sucked into a few of Caryn’s. Almost all of them are good, but not anything I/we can do at the moment. Not having the extra money, or money at all, to do what we need to do to push our creative endeavors is harsh. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for the e-mail telling me when my interview for this job I want will be. The company is notorious, I’m told, for taking their time finding the person they want to hire. When they do decide, however, the speed kicks in and everything’s a go. I’m just waiting for a lousy interview! It doesn’t help that I’m looking at the last $20 of my paypal account, my Netflix account is suspended for nonpayment, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be down to chicken noodle soup and rice sometime this week. The credit card and grocery store accounts are nearly maxed.

We’re waiting on a check to arrive for some freelance work I did, as well as a check for a book cover Caryn sold (a Joy Fielding novel!). When those come, the pressure will be let up some, but that won’t be for another week, likely two. It’s the not knowing about anything that’s driving me crazy.

I’m desparately trying to reign in the desire to deplete my Paypal account in order to sate this need I have to purchase roving. I’ve been thinking a lot, lately, about dyeing roving to sell as a sort of side to my side-business. I love colors and playing with them and getting messy. Do you know what one of my favorite past times was when I was a kid? Fingerpainting. I kind of look at dyeing roving and yarn as a grown up way to fingerpaint. Maybe I wouldn’t necessarily paint with my fingers, but it would be similar, and, I think, just as fun.

Another aspect that I’m considering is jumping on Caryn’s idea of doing some crochet resin pendants. She’s going to be making more pendants of her photographs (and I think she’s going to do the crochet heart one that I posted a photo of in a previous entry), but this time underneath resin. So we were discussing layers of resin with lace doilies or hearts or whatever. It sounds like a blast, and a perfect little addition to my Etsy store. If I could figure out a way to set-up a store on here, without doing a mass amount of coding, then I would. For now, though, Etsy can do most of the work, and I’ll just link to the listings.

Which reminds me…I had a custom order fall through. Nothing negative, just bad timing for the woman who requested the hat. But, it leaves me with a hat just lying around, and it’s not exactly something I would wear. Not in Florida, and not in the colors the custom order required.

I was approached by a lovely woman who had a buyer wanting a Buckle Cloche. Instead of poaching my style, she sent her customer my way, post-mailed me the yarn and buckle, and I crocheted the customer the hat.

It’s in a black wool, but there’s a silver metallic sort of yarn carried along with it. The buckle is a small silver square. It’s not a buckle I would have chosen, but custom means custom, and it was already purchased.

If any of you would be interested in this hat (photo below is a link), please visit the Etsy shop and purchase it. The hat will fit 20-22″ circumference heads. Your purchase would not only help me out financially, but it would also get the hat off of my mannequin and out of my house.

my crocheted heart, originally uploaded by caryndrexl.

Caryn asked me to crochet her a heart for use in her photoshoot. The latest batch of her photographs are book-cover driven for the stock photo agency she sends her work to. Well, I thought I’d share this particular image with you. My brilliant girl.

Don’t you love the tone and texture? You can find more of her work at CarynDrexl.com.

Greetings!

Your materials for the winter 2008 Crochet magazine have arrived safely at Interweave.
Thank you for sending them and have a wonderful day.

Cheers,

Bonnie
Customer Support

HIP-HIP-HOORAY!

Thank you, Bonnie, for making my breathing a little easier. Now, let’s see if I can forget about all of this for a little while.

I have to share the e-mail because it made me feel warm and loved and, you know, other squishy feelings that we get when it comes to being approved of, or admired, or thought of in a kind way at all.

From: Mommy!
To: Brianna
Sent: 04/08/08 2:43am
Subject: podcast this and blog that…

Finally caught up with podcasts, and your presence seems to improve with each episode.

Just thought I’d mention it, since you don’t really go on about yourself around me that much, and I wanted you to know again that I am very, very proud of you and your accomplishments. I also know that you probably don’t think as highly of yourself as you should, but hey, I’m still here cheering you on.

Both you and Caryn make me so very proud just to know you.

Love
Mom

Doesn’t that just give you good feelings inside? I’m one lucky girl. And so is Caryn.

Though now I feel sort of guilty that I don’t discuss more with my mother. Not just about crochet, but about everything. It’s weird seeing as we no longer live 4 hours away, but barely 4 minutes away. I should fix that.

And, blam-o!, through the power of the internet, I have both e-mailed her AND posted this. It seems like magic, but it’s all an illusion.

R.I.P Miss Kitty Head. We’ll miss you…

Well, it was time to dust off some acrylic, grab my size G hook, and get going! It started off slow, as it always does. I never know exactly how big I should make it–too small and she’ll rip it to shreds, but too large and she won’t be able to fit it into her mouth! I worked to a point I thought was large enough, but not too large(!), and did some even rows, introducing some colorwork to just jazz it up a bit (only the best for my dog). At this point I thought I’d make a dog-head. The first toy was Miss Kitty Head, why not make a Mister Puppy Head, right?

It was a dog until I got to the point of actually making the ears. Can I just admit that the idea of shaping the ears JUST RIGHT was making me tense up? I had more stress leaving this damned project than I had going into it. Anyhow–I got pissed off in the middle of one ear and said to myself (and the room at large), “DAMMIT, I have HAD it with this stupid thing.” Then I single crocheted the edges together and bound off. I was going to have this thing finished before I went to bed tonight or there would be h-e-double-hockey-sticks to pay.

I finished the second ear, turned it around and heaved a deep sigh. Any chance of it ever looking like a dog was long gone. It looked alien-ish, and just not right, so I put my hook up the alien’s butt and started making a nubby tail. One tail, some ends woven in, then eyes and a mouth later, and Mister Alien Head appeared. And, if Rowan and I say so, he’s damned cute:

OH, and just in case you were curious…

Your item was delivered at 10:46 AM on April 4, 2008 in LOVELAND, CO 80538.

YEAH, baby. That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

nightcap yarn Po, originally uploaded by tadworks.

This was completely uploaded nearly a year ago, but look what this Flickr user posted! Just amazing. I want a dozen or more of them to line up and dance. Maybe a little stop-animation movie.

The meet-up is this Wednesday at 7pm at the Barnes-n-Noble on International Speedway, and I’m thinking I could make this my first foray into a sit-and-stitch group. I would actually crochet (while others knit), surrounded by other fiber enthusiasts! Do you realize what a monumental event this could be for me?

I’m thinking that if I can peel myself away from the house (I’m such a homebody and introvert), I could record some clips before and after the experience, then put them in a podcast episode. What say you? Sound good? You’ll probably be able to go through all my range of nerves, hysteria, and crazies before I even walk through the doors, and then afterward, you can sigh with relief for/with me.