5KCBWDAY7 - Looking Back, Looking Forward

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Day Seven (Sunday 18th May): Looking Back, Looking Forward

While I did participate in the KCBW last year, I didn't complete the Day7 prompt. Somehow I wasn't even aware of it! I do want to participate next year, though so here's my miniature list of things I hope to have achieved by then:

  • A second knit sweater (either for me or a gift for someone else)

  • My first crochet project completed (with some measure of comfort with the craft)

  • My first published pattern maybe?

Not a very long list of expectations, but I'm okay with this. :D

On the Kindle: White Fang by Jack London

On the knitting front: The Irish Wellington Socks by Aileen Cahill. I felt the straight up stockinette pattern would complement the self-striping yarn really well. I'm working with Drops Big Fabel in Forest, a fitting colorway with which to remember all of my forest walks while here in England. :D Jason's going to have a pair as well, in his chosen shade of..wait for it..plain black! The simplicity of this pattern will work really well for that too.

I just might gnaw an arm off if I had to work anything like cables with a jet-black yarn. The smaller skeins(?) are elastic thread I plan to use for the cuffs of Jason's pair of socks. Wool is pretty springy, but I think he'll enjoy socks that do a better job of staying up. We'll see how that goes..

Both yarns are 75%wool and 25% nylon. Thanks for your suggestions! I'm very optimistic about the durable quality of these yarns, and am doubly glad to know that it comes in a worsted weight as well! These socks are gonna fly right off my needles, without a doubt.

I made another small stash addition last friday from Quilter's Quest in Bridgnorth. It's a lovely self striping sock yarn by Four Seasons Gründl, and I've got my eyes on the Vanilla Latte Socks pattern. This'll be a nice little change from all of these thick socks I've made this year! There isn't much info on Ravelry about this yarn, so I'm excited to see how this will look all knit-up. :D

This post is part of Eskimimi Makes' 5th Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. To find posts by other participating bloggers, simply google 5KCBWDAY7 and explore away!

Also part of KCCO! I think I may participate from now on with this. :]

5KCBWDAY6 - Views of Others, Views of Yourself

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Day Six (Saturday 17th May): Views Of Others, Views Of Yourself.

(Here are some picks from our wandering in Bridgnorth, to avoid an overly text-heavy post.)

Before making my own blog, I spent a lot of time looking through the gorgeous blogs of Alison Brookbanks, Severien, and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (among many others).

They are each very skilled knitters and designers, with their own unique voice and world. Alison's photos and design sensibility is moody and minimal which appeals to me. Severien's projects are gorgeous, and her writing voice is simple and friendly. Her posts feel like letters to a good friend!  Stephanie's writing style helped me understand that it's okay to not have a perfectly curated and monitored personality for people to take interest in you or appreciate what you have to do! The good she does(with the help of her generous readers!) through her craft and other pursuits, shows how much you can help from wherever you are and can do. Having wonderful knitters and bloggers, helped me out of lurking to just go on and share what I love.

I began knitting a relatively short time ago, and remember pretty clearly the kinds of reactions to it I received. Some were surprised. “You? Knitting?!” (I don’t come off as the type to take up what people would expect to be a delicate, feminine hobby I guess). But the general opinion’s been positive and at least a little bit supportive. :]

It wasn’t until I began selling at craft shows that I got some negative responses to what I do, and it’s usually when they find how much it would cost them to own one of my knits. I’ve had people slam them down on the table like it’s on fire when they hear how much they cost (thankfully yarn doesn't shatter), some straight up laugh in my face, some even politely telling me that they don’t see why this  6-foot-long scarf should cost any more than about $15 because it cost about as much at H&M. I owe it to a lack of understanding of the amount of work and care that goes into these pieces, even if those words really bite. I do what I can to let people know about what goes into making my work, but when all is said and done, Bapsicrafts isn’t for everyone. So I try to let the comments roll off my back, and appreciate the world to me that’s made from the people who happily made my knits a part of their lives. :]

Those who are a little closer to me (read: put up with my knitting while outside or in class) have been super wonderful and supportive of me as a knitter. My mom shelled out a quite a bit of money on these enormous skeins of Red Heart when I was 13 and only dabbling, I’d guess she’s secretly glad that one of the hobbies I suddenly took interest in when I was younger is showing up as a part of my life as a young adult. She and my dad seemed very impressed when I showed off my first finished sweater (which I still have to photograph and make a proper post about!)

Jason for one has been a great supporter of my work too. He tells me that his Christopher hat got compliments often and when asked where he bought it, he’d proudly say that his girlfriend handmade it! He almost never leaves the house without it on, which really makes my heart swell to know!

I think it helps a ton to share what all goes into the craft of knitting. He was very receptive and patient when I ranted about the MILES of yarn I had to frog one night, or my daily gushing about wool socks. He happily held still for measurements, and got to see a yarn he picked out be very steadily and carefully transformed into gloves or socks or a hat. And he was about as upset as I was to find a now cat-sized hat come out of a dryer it shouldn’t have been in in the first place.

An understanding non-knitter is the best kind of person I can knit for and know. I think there’s no better feedback than that moment you catch someone dear to you remembering to set a hand-wash-only piece aside so no accidents happen, or beam when someone says a nice thing about their gloves :]

This post is part of Eskimimi Makes' 5th Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. To find posts by other participating bloggers, simply google 5KCBWDAY6 and explore away!

5KCBWDAY3 - Experimental Photography And Image Handling For Bloggers

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Day Three (Wednesday 14th May): Experimental Photography And Image Handling For Bloggers.

I've been meaning to explore ways to better show the emotional/environmental context for my knits. It's present when we knitters look at our work I think, we see a pair of socks we made and it brings us back to a moment we spent making it--maybe around good company at a knitting circle, maybe sitting down on a perfect morning, maybe in the middle of the most stressful day yet--it's always there.

The last big one I had were those Ribbed socks completed earlier this month. That day could not have been better; I took hundreds of photos! A foot would be blurry in one shot ("this would be terrible for ravelry, I wouldn't measure up!"), or a stick would be in the way("this is garbage compositionally").

I'm glad I had the chance to experiment with two of the types of photos that don't see the light of day usually. :D Among other things that I tried today:

  • Messing with filters/levels (well, I always did, but they're veeery apparent this time!

  • Moving the watermark outside of the photo itself and working with transparent PNGs (although flickr might have flattened them and made them opaque)

  • Adding writing. I've been wanting to fit my cruddy handwriting into photos! It feels more personal than using someone's typeface.

Anywho, this was fun! I'll definitely make a habit of this in the future. I tried some things that didn't work out too well, but that's half of the joy of experimentation! The other half would be finding stuff that does work. :]

This (somewhat late!) post is part of Eskimimi Makes' 5th Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. To find posts by other participating bloggers, simply google 5KCBWDAY3 and explore away!

Have you tried anything new with your blogging or knitting? What worked/didn't work? What's surprised you?

5KCBWDAY2 - Dating Profile

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Fun loving vegan, looking for a special someone to keep warm.

I'm fun loving, bright, and flexible(WINK~). Looking for a good friend or more to leave the house with once in a while, though I'm no stranger to staying in and chilling in front of a movie. Cool with a fling, but open to a longterm meaningful relationship. I can take it.

Likes: Long walks in chilly weather, good tea and scones, campfire songs, ghouls(little green ones)

Dislikes: Clothes dryers on "High" If you're down to meet, drop a line! Let's be good friends. :)

This (somewhat late!) post is part of Eskimimi Makes' 5th Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. To find posts by other participating bloggers, simply google KCBW5DAY2 and explore away!