Socks, Socks, Socks

Happy Halloween friends! What a month it has been. Full of knitting, dying, selling, painting, and making! I have loved every minute of it.  

Tonight it's all about socks, as I finished my October pair last night, just in time for Halloween, and have the next pair pretty much planned out.

"Lacey Pumpkin Socks" are toe up, short-row heel and toe done in a fun orange and black colorway.  The yarn is 'panda' - Merino/nylon/bamboo - that was handdyed by my LYS.  I have been saving it for this month for pretty obvious reasons. 

Because... well... because :)

Next up on my list will be a simple pair made in my own dyed yarn on the new "sock" base.  I haven't had a chance to knit any samples in this 75 merino/ 25 nylon and need something for my upcoming Fiber Fest (in 2.5 weeks....wow). So what better time than to make some socks! Hopefully at least one will be done in time to use as a demo.

I'm sure it's the nylon content, but it does seem interesting that the sock base tends to dye up more pastel than the 100% merino.  Oh the things you learn when you start to really play with dying!

Now I just can't decide what socks to make.  I probably should just do some vanilla socks, as this yarn is highly variegated and I don't know how it will pool, but what fun is that? Maybe I'll try Flowers and Sunshine, a pattern I found via Instabgram.

Image (C) Dana Gervais

Or there's always the standbys - Vanilla Latte, Hermoine's Everyday Socks, and Jeck. 

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Do you have a stand-by for your sock knitting? Any suggestions for patterns with highly variegated? Shout out below!

I hope you have a safe and wonderful Halloween (if you celebrate).  Until next time!

~Lisa

Scrap Happy

Well I have a week of school left.  Not even that actually, one full day and three half days.  How crazy is that? It seems like I just started and now it's the end of May.  Should I be ashamed to say that I spent a good portion of my last period today looking up the patterns below? 

It being the end of May, I wanted to talk about this month's socks, which have been oh so much fun to work on this month.  So much that they are influencing the entire topic of this post and possibly a summer project for me. 

For May I decided to make a pair of "Spring Cleaning" socks, utilizing small bits of sock yarn from previous socks and shawls.  I'm using the Vanilla Latte Pattern to add a small amount of interest and it's been so much fun reaching in my bag and randomly picking a color.

Sadly, I have barely scratched the surface on my sock scrap collection, if you want to even call them scraps.  Look below and see for yourself.  Practically every color I have has slightly under half a skein left.  I must have small feet, because I usually make pretty tall cuffs.  How is this possible? Will this yarn EVER disappear?

While the scrap socks have been fun playing with complete randomness, as I look at this photo I am noticing a lot of colors that are very similar.  So much in fact that I could very easily make something that transitions between them all.  And as such, the pattern hunting has begun for a summer project using scraps!

Photo (c) Jenn Wolfe Kaiser

My first choice is, oddly enough, a crochet pattern.  I don't know, but lately I've been on a crochet kick.  And what better way to use my scraps and feed my kick (is that a thing) then the Spill Shawl by Jenn Wolfe Kaiser.  It's meant for gradiated yarns, but I could pull off the transitions pretty easily.

Photo (c) Alex Tinsley

The Bad Oyster Shawl has been on my mind again also - I made three of them already a while back - and it would be so fun to use random stripes and create a fringe, right?

Photo (c) Outland (on Ravlery)

\Dreambird is on my mind also, as I have a good amount of black sock yarn I could use and do each wing with a different sock yarn.  Again, how fun would that be?!

Photo (c) Mysistersknitter

And then there's always the influence of the knitting community that pulls me in too.  For example, the Patchwork Blanket by my blogging friend Andi has me drooling every time she shares photos.  Who wouldn't want one of these?  But I have a feeling that if I started one it would NEVER get finished!

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What do you think? I am very heavily leaning towards the Spill Shawl right now, because I really want to test my crochet skills.  Plus I like the shape a lot.  

My next post will be on the first official day of summer vacation.  Crazy right?

~Lisa

Selfish Designing

I consider myself a pretty good designer.  Not that I've been in any publications or want to give up my day job, but sometimes the bug just bites and I'm able to design something better than what I can find online. 

After finishing my latest "self-design" (see bottom of post), I realized that I have a lot of things on Ravelry that I designed and never published a pattern for.  Some of them I swore I would, others I just didn't have time to write up.  And then deciding if you want to get it tested and proofed.  It all just takes so much time! And so today's post is dedicated to projects from the last 2-3 years that were designed by me but never published as patterns. 

Starting with the oldest is Stricken Socks, "Stricken" meaning "knit" in German. The design came about when I found a triangle motif that I adapted to look like enlarged knitted V's.  The yarn used was Blue Ridge Yarns, Subtle Shades in a violet color.  Sadly these socks came out a bit tight (the yarn was really thin) and also the color has since become patchy-faded from washing.  I do like the motif though and may re-work it into a pair this year. 

Next up on the list is my Woven Colors Shawl, made with two skeins of Ella Rae Lace Merino Worsted that I bought on a road trip. I love these two colors together and wanted a way to play with them.  I love my woven design, but the overall shawl didn't really work out. It's heavy and I attempted this weird sleeve thing.  I keep saying I'll rip it out and try something else but I haven't yet.  

More colorwork, this time with some local alpaca, the Alpaca Weave hat and mitts set was fun to do. I wanted to play again with the idea of the colors interacting and chose to use a mosaic technique to create the squares. I don't actually remember the exact way I did this, but I would love to publish it someday (Guess I need to be looking back through my journals for the chart!)  And see the ribbon? The ranch that made the yarn took a bunch of projects from our knit group to an event and I won a ribbon. 

Maybe you saw an earlier post this year about the playfully titled Unicorn Farts that I made with some rainbow wool.  I have really gotten into the idea of using mosaic knitting when it comes to two colors and that showed up again in this one.  If I were to publish or write this one up, I'd do it with different yarn (maybe from the blue/yellow above??) just because both of these yarns were super random.

The main inspiration for today's post was Eagle's Wings, a two colored half-pi shawl I started last October with my school (I teach at) colors.  The purple is actually left over from those Stricken Socks, while the gold is a clearance skein of Shibui Staccato.  I started with stripes of purple stockinette and gold drop stitches, but because I had less purple I ended up running out and chose to do a gold feather/fan border with beads.  It's not as massive as I wish, but I also was in a hurry to finish it up.  My knitting group thinks I need to publish this one.  I'm not sure if I will. 

Anyone reading ever design? Do you publish your designs or keep them to yourself? Do you find yourself taking an already published design and changing things up? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Have a fabulous week.

~Lisa

New Year. New Look.

Hello friends. Please do not get confused, I can explain.

After much debate the past few months I have decided to re-vamp my blog.  Wicked Artsy was something I came up with my Freshman year of college when I was greatly obsessed with the musical Wicked.  While it has gone through revamps to better fit my needs over the years, I have decided that it is no longer relevant to the message I am trying to convey in a blog.

Thus, "The Knitting Artist" is born.  Based off the title and imagery of my Etsy Page, "The Knitting Artist" truly encompasses all that is special about me.  Knitting. Art. Inspiration. I hope you will all agree and continue to follow me during this new change and new year!

I wanted to just do a quickie update before the new year.  I haven't taken many photos since returning home for Christmas, but I have been very busy!

I've been working on a double knit project with the rest of my yarn from last year's sweater.  It's much farther now that the holidays are over, but I'm about to run out of the dark brown.  I have a bit more, but it's in TX. So I guess this will be the first FO of the new year instead of the last of 2015.

I published a dishcloth pattern last week. Super simple yet super fun. I am hoping to publish a lot more this coming year, it really is a happy feeling knowing that other people can make my designs. 

While it is raining in TX, it is snowing her in KS. I am one happy girl, as I wasn't sure if I would get to see snow while I was home.  However, most of my warm clothes (knitted stuff included) I left in TX before I left. Why, who knows. 

Visiting home makes me miss my kitties. Sasha especially! She is one crazy girl.

I promise that I will be updating this blog more in 2016. And also get back to doing weekly inspirations.  But for now I am calling it a day and wishing you all safe travels and a happy new year!

~Lisa

The Next Big Thing - Product Testers Wanted :)

I hope that everyone had a splendid week and a wonderful new year. Mine was pretty casual - stayed up late watching TV shows and knitting. But isn't that the best way to spend the holiday? 

I am writing today with a request for all of my friends in blogland. 

This past holiday, I wanted to give my brother's girlfriend a homemade gift. Knowing that she was going to be student teaching this coming semester, I thought some sort of lesson plan book would be a good idea. After doing some googling and shopping, I decided to try my hand at making here a homemade binder. 

After finishing her's (which I never did take a photo of...) I got to thinking about knitters and how we all have so many patterns floating around. We all need a place to keep them right? Thus "The Pattern Keeper" was born (title may change). 

Each binder starts with archival matboard for the covers, and is then assembled using simple material. The cover features a beautiful, handpainted watercolor stitch design.

The binder portion is created with 3 binder rings inserted along the spine. These are just simple rings like you find in any standard binder. The only thing is they don't have the fancy mechanism to open and close. 

Inside each binder is matching paper to cover the fabric. The front cover also has a pocket to fit all of your random papers. The plan right now is to also include blank dividers and some of the page protector sheets to get the user started. I am also considering adding graph paper for the budding designer.

So what I am asking all of my readers is for opinions. I have 4 of these made up, and will send them to you, completely free, to analyze, test, and review. I really want to start selling these on Etsy - I think they could go well - but I want to have real feedback before I jump in,

Interested? Comment here or Email me - Lisa(dot)Urban(dot)24(at)Gmail(dot)com. I would love to send you a handmade binder to try and use !

~Lisa