Welcome Back

Holy crap its been a long time since I've posted. But for good reason. I went on a mission trip to Puerto Rico, quit my retail job, bought a house, and realized my dream for being a knitwear designer, which actually brings me back to the blog.
Here is the pic I promised of the finished gray sweater.

But back to me, not to be self centered. I still don't have my own camera, but I did buy a computer with an awesome webcam, that can also take pictures. so i've been able to take photos using that. :)

But about knitting. Lately I've been doing a lot of it. I work at a daycare now, 6am-2pm mon to thurs and 6-6 on fridays. I'm also going to school but basically I have every evening off. It's awesome. I have a lot more time to knit because lo and behold i also have weekends off. Its made my  life so much less stressful. But I digress.

So I decided to knit some thrummed mittens. But I need to knit them two at a time if I want them finished anytime soon. I also needed them to be top down because I cant figure out casting on at the cuff in magic loop. Actually that's a lie. I probably could if I tried but I don't want to. meh. 

Anyway so I decided to take three mitten patterns , thrummed and not, and my own personal flair and voila! these puppies were born.

So yea. They are a prototype. The thumbs are a little tight and I need to find a cast off that will be stretchy enough, or increase my stitch count. I'm still trying to write the pattern. I was so surprised that one didn't already exist. I'm hoping to someday submit to Knitty, but two things have to happen first. 

One, I need to be a better picture taker. and Two, I need to learn how to write and size a pattern. It's hard. 

I know what I mean, why doesn't anyone else! just kidding. But seriously, I don't even have any knitter in my life that I can ask to test knit for me. Kinda hindering. But you deal with the cards God deals you and make the best of it.

I've had a couple of designs in my head and the motive for writing this all down is mostly so I don't forget them. I've got the thrummed mittens, finger-less gloves, a tee and others I cant think of right now. These are the ones that are at the front of my mind right now. 

Like I mentioned my biggest hurdle is pattern writing. I have a shorthand that's all my own, like I'm sure most knitters do. And an experienced knitter will probably be able to read the pattern, my designs will be easy enough for beginners. So I need to write for them. Sigh.

I have the philosophy that anyone can knit anything. Some people say to me, "I couldn't do that, I'm not patient enough." To those people I say, "Have you seen me without knitting? I am not very patient" Some people say to me "I couldn't do that, I'm not smart enough" To those people I say, "If you can read, you can knit. plain and simple" If a six year old, or a blind man can knit, then you surly can. Of course just like anything, there can be physical things that stop you from knitting but a side form those, all you need is a willingness to learn.

All knitting is made of parts. There are two stitches, knit and purl, and one is really the reverse of the other so really there is only one stitch. There's increasing and decreasing. There's casting one and binding off. And my theory is, if you can do all the parts then you can do anything. People tell me that they can knit a scarf but they can't knit a sweater. Phooey. Lies. Excuses.

If I wanted to I could probably learn about... how to fix cars, or how to fix people. But I don't want to. I am quite content with taking my car to my father or a mechanic because I don't really care how the car runs as long as I can get to school and work and back :) I am fine with going to the doctor when I am sick because he can fix me better than I can. If I wanted to spend a million years in school and learn about how the body works, I could fix myself, and others, but I'm content with myself.
I love to learn about which decrease looks better in this pattern. I love to learn about how different yarns work together. I love to see gauge change (ok SOMETIMES gauge is frustrating) I love to buy a sweater on clearance for 3 dollars, just so I can reverse knit it.

One day I will have my own company. One day I will have lots of people knitting MY deigns on Ravelry. One day.