2017: The Year That Was...

2017: The Year That Was...

1) The start of a new tradition: knitting journals.

Gifted from a fellow knitter, I have spent the year chronicling every project I worked on and cannot wait to do it again in 2018.  I just wish I didn't have to retire this really nice journal.

2) An (almost) successful attempt at keeping my feet forever warm.

You can see all my projects here!

I am happy to report that I finished 11.25 pairs of socks.  The December pair is still on sock one, as I just cannot speed up those cables.  But I plan to finish them by the end of January, which was when I declared the goal to begin with, so that counts, right? 

3) A major inspiration in my painting world.

With these beauties being my most successful to date (although I am kinda sick of looking at them), I feel like my art is going in a new direction and cannot wait to see how 2018 goes!

(Also, I recently sold the Originals!)

4) The start of many new and exciting things.

I cannot believe I only started this dye journey in March! It feels like I have been doing it for so much longer.  But I guess when you find something you love, time seems to fly.  I have truly enjoyed this new endeavor and cannot wait to introduce my new colors (last 2 on right) and new ideas in 2018!

I have two shows coming up already! One in March and one in June.  I cannot wait, but that means more work for me...

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What else can I say? I went through and re-read all of my posts from this year and am very impressed with myself on how consistent I was and my ability to share what was happening.  Thank you to everyone who read and commented this year, it always means so much to know someone is listening.

I'm leaving you all with this song, which is from a movie I saw last week.  The lyrics are stuck in my head and are very inspirational for me as an artist.

Bring on 2018!

~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 

Getting Knitpicky

Tonight I want to express my opinions about my experience with Knitpicks. I hope that no one takes any offense to anything I may say, for they are simply my own opinions and no one else's.

I've been knitting now for a little over 3 years and last year at Christmas I was graciously given a set of Knitpicks interchangeable needles in the Harmony Wood. I asked for the wood because at the time I was used to knitting with bamboo and thought wood would be very much the same. I have faithfully used this set ever since, hardly even picking up straights or dpns any more; I love them to death.  Recently, I've noticed they are starting to show their 'age' with me. The joins are getting a bit rougher and I swear there are times when I get afraid one will break. 

Maybe it was just the excessive knitting I did over Christmas Break, but I also noticed my wrists beginning to hurt after using these a lot. I recently purchased some size 1 and 2 fixed circs from them in the nickel, because they were cheaper, and I really do like them. I may continue to purchase the nickel in the future.I also am in love with the cables and smooth joins!

Something else I want to mention about Knitpicks, and it's something that kind of frustrates me, is the fact that most of their yarns are just 'rip offs' of other brands.  It reminds me of how Hobby Lobby has been selling their brand of LYS yarns lately. A great example is Chroma, which to me is just their version of Mini Mochi.

See the similarities?

I have personally never knitted with any of Knitpicks' yarn, because I like my LYS too much to bother with shipping and such from an online retailer, but many people I talk to agree that Knitpicks is just a cheaper alternative to many name brand yarns. 

I will admit I like their spinning roving though, but maybe that is just me being a pretty novice spinner. The Stroll roving that I used last semester for my Spinning Drawings (if you haven't seen my spinning drawings, please click the link, it's definitely worth your time!) spun up really well in the end, but I would probably never use it for more than just experimenting with spinning and dying: it's cheap enough I don't mind 'wasting' it.

Kool Aid dyed Stroll Roving

I will give them credit though, when it comes to knitting accessories, they have a great selection and quality. I love their needle caps as well as the prices they have on books and they seem to really know what knitters need in terms of supplies. If I had to rate them overall, I'd give them between a 6-7, just because the yarn thing and quality of some of their products drives me crazy. As a 'broke' college kid though, I love the prices on supplies!

So now it's your turn. What do you think of Knitpicks? Do you have any first hand experience? What's your go to brand of needle/yarn/supplies? I'm really interested to hear what all my readers have to say!

And once again, the views in this blog are simply that, my views, and no one else's.

'Night!

~Lisa