Back from Sabbatical

The best thing about being away from home is not cleaning the house for a week. The worst thing about being away from home is the house hasn’t been cleaned in a week. The cats just don’t take enough initiative with things like that.

Sigh.

S is for Sheep is just about ready to release. I’m waiting for notes from one more person. But it looks like the Summer Toy Slump is over early: I’ve come home to several special orders. Which is great, but it also means that the other patterns I had planned will have to wait until school starts in a few weeks. This is OK, I’ll need something to do while I’m waiting for Ellie to get home from kindergarten.

Argh. Kindergarten.

Sigh.

Hey, maybe I’ll finish the CounterPain? If you’re going to dream, dream Big.

Initiative

Between beach trips and Animal Crossing I’m just not real motivated lately.

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That’s enough for today. I’ma go back to my view.

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And catching bugs on my island. That Moai Statue isn’t going to pay for itself.

I’ve got Sheep updates. I really do. Two people have finished theirs (one of those people has finished a flock of them) and I’m almost done with mine.

But right this minute the breeze is just so nice.

First Among Sheep

I made the very first sheep with a great handspun wool that was grown by Farrah and spun by Cassie of Farm Genevieve. (Farrah is a Shetland sheep.)

wool

Such great texture.

I would have used him for my example sheep in the pattern, if it weren’t for his dark accents. I just couldn’t get pretty pictures! The dark was my my own bad judgement (and Ellie’s), but he looks great in person (and Ellie is pleased – his name is Sheepy)!

woolysheephead

There are eyes in there I swear.

For a pattern, it’s kind of important to actually see what is happening in the illustrations.

woolysheepall

Such a shame. He has a natural talent for modeling.

Knit-Along?

I’ve enlisted seven test knitters (hey, why not) for the Sheep Pattern so it’s feeling more like a knit-along than a test knit. I’m not completely sure what one *does* during a knit-along beyond everybody knitting the same thing at once, but it sounds like fun!

sheepface

In case you forgot what she looks like.

Does anyone else want to join in? I’ll leave the comments open until Saturday night to see if there are any takers. We’re knitting the as-yet-untested sheep pattern and sending me notes. I haven’t finished mine’s head yet, so you aren’t far behind.

If you’re posting progress pictures on your blogs, or if you’ve got sheep pictures you’d like to share let me know and I’ll post/share/whatnot here.

Sheep 3

Starting another sheep to knit along with the Test Knitters.

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Sprout and Aslan Trends Lecco

I’ve never worked with the Lecco. If I were a responsible knitter, I’d swatch with it to make sure it will do. Since I am only a semi-responsible knitter, I’ve pulled out some Rowan Pure Life to carry along with it if it doesn’t work.

I should be able to tell pretty quickly. Right about the time I have to pull it all out and start over.

Anybody Interested?

We went to Mary Ester this past weekend and somehow I didn’t take a single picture. But I did finish up the pattern I’ve been working with (and all the pieces for newly listed Snow Cone Tabby).

aheepmainsmaller

Anybody want to test knit a sheep?

If there are a couple of you who intend to make a sheep anyway, and wouldn’t mind looking over the pattern while you do it, I would really appreciate it! The idea behind the sheep is for knitters to pick a fun an unique yarn for her wooly parts so that each sheep is one of a kind. I used ‘Fusion’ (held together with some Rowan Pure Life) for the example because it made such a nice yarn idea sampler. If you’ve got a bit of handspun or something that you don’t know what to do with, this might be a good project for it. You only need…

Wait. I haven’t done the math for the yarn amounts yet. I’ll do that right now.

brb

**Thank you Volunteers! I still haven’t done the math.**