Don't Forget To Knit Awesome!

Knitting our collective way out of a paper bag since 2011

10 Oct 2012

Little mistakes…

I’m right at the beginning of two custom projects, one due by the first severely cold weather, and the other by xmas.  And, funnily enough, I made a small mistake on each of them that ground them both to a halt.  I mislabeled my measurements for one, and totally miscounted all my stitches in a row, which resulted in it being needing to be completely frogged on the other.  It felt a bit like hitting a brick wall, you know?  I’m sitting here, in my comfy knitting spot, surrounded by pure alpaca and pure bamboo, and I can only work one, but from the beginning.  Not a lot of people understand the frustration of that.  Which is weird  because who likes having to rip apart a whole project and starting over?  But, it’s really the same people who think I’ll knit them things for free and that knitting and writing is beneath them.  I really should stop interacting with individuals like that.

To change the pace a bit, I’m really happy it’s October.  It begins the three months with my favorite holidays (free candy, lots of cooking and eating, lots of cooking, eating, and presents)  and cold weather is right around the corner.  Indeed, Colorado already has snowfall.  However, I’ve found that now that I’m a “grown up” I’ve stop thinking about my costume and decorations for Halloween in August.  That wouldn’t be a terrible thing, but I really don’t get around to considering any of that seriously until the week of, which is marked by my birthday.  So, on top of my birthday not being super exciting (they really never were, I’ve recently discovered) I start to stress about my complete lack of preparation for the first of my favorite holidays.  I end up being miserable for the week and saving everything until the day of.  I pull it off, because I’m great under fire, but it’s not as fun.  This year, I’m going to start thinking about things now.

So, for my costume, I have no idea what to do.  I’d like to knit a Cthulhu union suit, but I don’t have time for that and my custom orders.  So, that’s going on my list of things I want for myself.  A Cthunion suit.  Genuine R’lyian merino wool.  For those cold, mad, cultist nights.  That doesn’t solve my costume for this year though.  River is going to be a tiny little dragon (bonus, the top will work a jacket until she outgrows it, or the cold weather ends for this winter) and Case won’t decide on anything.  Actually, he won’t even speak of it.   He spends all his time either playing on his computer(which is better than mine) or pretending to be any number of fictional characters.  My wife wants to do a theme, but all we have so far is dragon, and I don’t want to be a night.  Maybe we should be medieval monsters.  I could be a troll.   Any ideas?

Speaking of Halloween, you know what show would have great Halloween episodes?  Doctor Who.  some of the scariest modern monsters have originated from that series, and we don’t get to be severely creeped out because no one else celebrates Halloween.  Step it up, rest of the world.   I gots me some jeebies that need to be heebied.

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24 Sep 2012
1 Comment

Winners, and

Congrats to Christina, Olivia, and Linda for being those chosen by my dice to win my completed the pattern!   It’s a quick knit, and a handy bag.  I’ll contact you each via your info separately.   And, as for the name of the pattern, My Gravity Bag got more votes than the other two combined.    So, I’ll soon be releasing the pattern for “My Gravity Bag,” stay tuned.

Yesterday, when I woke up, my brain started freaking out before I was really able to form whole thoughts.  SO, for a moment there, I bolted upright and looked around, and when I finally figured out why, it was because I had assumed that Sunday was Tuesday, and I had missed doing this update.  Obviously, I was wrong.  I’m actually just impressed that my subconscious is so worried about me being punctual.  For years(read high school,)  I was only worried about being on time if being late meant I didn’t get things.  And now I’m worrying about being timely in my sleep.  Odd progression.

So, I’m working on another bag, which is one of my projects for myself, and I’ve charted out a nice looking celtic knot cable pattern.  This is maybe my fourth cable project, and the first I’ve designed myself.  So, of course, it’s more complicated than anything I’ve tried before.  However, I’m going to look cool with this mounted on my hip, full of knitting and books and knives.  It just hit me that I carry around some weird things.

I cut myself the other day.  Just a small nick, but it’s right where my yarn goes over my index finger to keep tension.  I’ll admit, I despise using band aids, but I had to to keep from bloodying up my yarn.  My son had my back though.  I ended up with this:

A little blurier than I like, but you get the idea.

That is the Dark Knight punching tension into my yarn.  That’s how knitting should work all of the time.

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20 Sep 2012
10 Comments

Out Of Nowhere

It’s pretty obvious that most things in life happen out of nowhere.  Not a lot of people get warning that x is going to happen, that y won’t happen, or whatever.  When I signed up to work at the Renaissance Festival seven years ago, I didn’t I’d meet my wife my first weekend and crush on her for years before I’d ask her out.  I have no idea how this blog got 210 followers, because the last time I looked, it was closer to 8.  It may have been less than that.

So, what do we do when we get fired from out dream job twice, have a new kid, lose a best friend,  and save a life?  Mostly, I just do more exercising  knitting, and reading.  I’m not doing school this semester, largely because I really don’t want to go to school for something that will make me miserable,  and I’m working less than part time, yet more than not at all.    Therefore, I have a lot of free time, which I’m probably not using as well as I should.  I’ve started a garden, which takes a bit of my focus and free time, but not really enough to make me feel productive.  So, by this time next week, I’ll have a pattern written up and ready to submit it to a technical editor.

And, here’s my out of nowhere idea.  I’m going to let my numerous followers vote on what to name it.  It’s a bag with a gravity based strap/closure system.   I will give you three options, and just go ahead and comment with your vote.  Bonus feature- If you include your name, I’ll draw three of you at random (using my rpg dice) on this coming Monday, September 24th, at 9 pm, then I will announce the winners so they can get in touch with me on Tuesday, September 25th.  As for the prize,  I’ll send you three the pattern for free, once it’s finished. Completely free,  in a nice envelope or email, and completely up to each of you whether or not you enter.   Sound good?

The choices-  The Quick Break Bag: The Original Be Awesome Bag:  My Gravity Bag.   Again, comment with your vote.  Include your name to enter to win the pattern for free when I finish it up.  I’m looking forward to (hopefully) hearing from you guys.

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19 Sep 2012

My New Year Long (But Not New Years) Goals.

Alight, I know it’s WAY too late to make resolutions for the new year, and that I have some that I have no idea  what are, but I’ve decided that two new goals should help me out in my knitting career.

1. Create twelve items for myself in between/out of patterns I’ll be publishing so I can wear advertisements for my awesomeness.  I currently have zero items that I’ve made that I can wear, and that obviously detracts from my person to person marketing.  I’m going to cheat a bit and include the steering wheel and stick shift covers I made for my car, but I’m only going to count those as one item.

The items I’ll be making for myself are:

(x) Hexagon steering wheel and shifter cover.

(_) Fighter pilot Hoodie

(_) Cotton running vest

(_) Wool running vest

(_) Entrelac tam/beret/beanie of some sort out of this wonderful hand spun angora I have

(_) Hip mounted bag

(_) Long arm fingerless gloves.

(_) This in cotton, for the lighter times of the year.

(_) Projects 9-12

 

2.  My second goal is to publish 12 patterns, whether on other sites or in a book collection, by the end of 2013.  I’m giving myself a little bit more time, so I can do some huge projects, as well as smaller easier things.  Considering I currently have less than one patterns published, this will significantly expand the body of my work.  The projects I currently have planned above will be four of my published items, so That’s a third of my goal planned, and I also have two planned custom items that I’ll be making up, so that brings it up to half.  And I actually have three other items with patterns almost to a selling point.  This just got super easy, super quickly.  Go me.

In other news, I’m currently training to run a 5K, then I’ll be doing a program to train me for a 10K immediately after I finish that.  I’d really like to be able to run long distance.  I used to do track way back in elementary school, and I really love the feeling of a good run.  And last night, I started the 100 push ups program.  I’ll be adding different exercises/programs every three weeks or so, until I get a good routine.  Which I guess is a goal as well, but it’s really just something I’m doing without thinking too much about.

Ok, I actually have to go get ready to run.  So, you guys have a good whatever time period you’re comfortable having.

GL

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08 Sep 2012

Half A Dozen Life Events Later, We Try Again.

So, to some up my life since my last post, I’ve lost my first and second designs, due to something (I don’t know what) I did, and then because I didn’t fit.  Obviously, such is the field.  Also, I’ve had a daughter, lost a friend to a drunk driver, and a few other huge things have happened.  Needless to say, I’ve been swamped and in a slump.  However, I’ve been reminded lately that there is an order to things, and I need to put some things in order.

So, I’m half working on a book of patterns, and more working on two books with different stories.  One is a fantasy, the other is a fictional journal.  The idea for the journal actually came to me in a dream last night, in it’s entirety.  Which is, like, the second time that’s ever happened to me. (That reminds me, I should write that one story, also, those four other ideas I’ve thought about.)

I’m heading to a book signing/publishing party on the 28th, the author being one of my mother’s professors who she has spoken about me to, has expressed interest in either my person or my writing, possibly both.  When my mother told me about that, I instinctively got paranoid about her interest in me, which was amusing to everyone in the room.  If you’re a reader that has actually met me in a social context, you’re probably not surprised in the least.

So, that ends my thoughts for this rambling return post.  I’d like to end on a quote from Winston Churchill, from an episode of Doctor Who.  ”Keep Buggering On.”  That’s it.  But, it’s finally speaking volumes to me.

GL

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23 Jan 2012

Mind Blowing

Hello everyone, either my regular readers, or those of you from sanguiknitie.  Welcome and browse happily!

It’s mind blowing to me that in less than three years I’ve actually progressed to the point where people want to know my story and want me on their blogs.  Just… utterly mind blowing.  I’m sitting here, chilling out before class, with a frogged three times design for a head band for a friend (made with super awesome Alpaca yarn) and a design coming out in a ezine in October, and I’m just flabbergasted.   As well as seriously behind in my Hemingway story.  Won’t lie, miss doing that story, I’ve just been freakishly busy.  I’ll be back with regular updates now.

So, about this head band.  I have this super great, super complicated and fancy design in mind, and that’s not at all what my customer wants.  She wants 1-3 flowers and enough width and length to fit her head.  As such, I’ve been fighting myself each step of the way.  And I’m going at this with needles way too long, because those are the only 5′s I have.  Such is the life I pursue.

I’m back in school this semester.  I have a sewing class, a children’s lit class, 3 business classes, a cycling class, and a blacksmithing class.  Pick my major out of that.  Winner get’s props.  Anyway, the cycling class kicks my butt so hard, that my new glasses fog up on my face.  I love it.  Between that and Children’s Lit in the mornings, Monday Wednesdays and Fridays are the days I look super forward to currently.  Not that blacksmithing and sewing days are horrible.   Except that my sewing teacher says “h-white.”   When that’s not a joke, it actually really bugs me.  Can’t tell you why.

Ok, I seriously have to go get ready for class,

GL Blumenshine

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29 Dec 2011

So here’s some news and some resolutions.

I may have mentioned, I had a pattern accepted.  And I’m super happy about it.  I’ve also received my first rejection, but it came back with positive feed back.  And since them, I’ve submitted 7 more patterns.  The last two of which were submitted mere seconds ago.  I’ll give you a preview that reveals nothing of one of them.

That, my friends, is a door stop, and freaking sweet. It's also a monkey fist knot.

Anyway, I got some cool hats for xmas.  And new, awesome, TMNT headphones.  Also, some superman cartoons for me (read: for my son.)  That hat’s are both the same kind of hat, but one is black leather and black fur, the other is a Michelangelo themed one with green on the outside, bright orange fur, and Ninja Turtle eyes on the forehead.  Challenge- find the kind of hats I now own.  They’re warm and awesome.  What did you guys get?  I know that Jasmine got some “not making my wife the present we discussed, but not telling me about it, cause she’s a tool.”  So, I hope she’s enjoying that.

The most recent submission person just got back to me, and it looks good, but no real news yet.  So, fingers crossed and well wishes, or whatever you do for that kind of stuff.

I mentioned resolutions in my title, so let’s hit those off.

1. At least 10 accepted submissions

2. Make (undisclosed amount of money)  by (redacted).  That one is kind of private, so don’t tell a lot of people.

3. Just write a freaking book already, then send it to a publisher.  It’s not like I don’t have the stories or the resources.

4. Get the perfect tablet.  Probably relies on 2.

5.  Just be a freaking awesome person.

 

I think 5 is enough.  Anyone feel like sharing there resolutions?

And a last bit of news:  My wife is preggers with our second child.  Due July 25th.  I’m pretty excited.  We don’t know the gender, yet, but as long as it’s healthy, it’s cool with me.

My toes are cold and I’m wearing rag wool socks and boots,

GL Blumenshine.

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11 Dec 2011

This past week.

Look at all those colors. And unweaved ends.

I’m so very unclear on what exactly this past week was, but it certainly happened.  I got my first acceptance, and I served as a best man at a shotgun wedding.  Also, I’ve had flashes of synesthesia, as well as other unpleasantness.  However, It has brought about the destruction of my trying to keep a update schedule on this blog.  I’ll continue to post stories once a week, and just update you guys on my knitting as is fit.

So, about that boot cut sweater I’m making.  The return to my temp job has cut down the time I knit a bit, but as it’s a busy project, there really isn’t a problem.  Really, I should be working on five swatches, but I don’t really like relaxation enough to do that.  Go figure, right?   But, my job keeping me busy has given me another idea on something to design and then submit.  Bike/WWII themed no less.  So, I’m going to adore it.  Beyond that, I hope it is received well and accepted.

You know what’s an awesome moment?

When your project finally stretches easily around your circs.

Alright, I’m going to go do some firewood cutting.

Lumberjackily,

GL Blumenshine

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05 Dec 2011

Okay. More story.

This room, guys.  It had dozens of shelves, some as high as 20 feet tall.  The shelves were as eclectic as the books filling them.  As I walked around, utterly enthralled,  I saw titles in a hundred languages.  The titles I could read dealt with subjects from Anthropology, to theoretical economic implications of Zoltron.  I flipped through various books in languages I couldn’t read, and they had wonderful diagrams.  Diagrams that would look amazing on the wall of an sort of building.  As I reached for my phone to get a picture of a particularly fantastic one, I relaized I had left my phone behind.  Which, in turn, reminded me that I wasn’t chilling in an awesome room.  I remembered that I was, in fact, running for my life.

I rushed back to the door, and hey, there’s no knob.  The door didn’t open from the inside.  And that’s super frightening.  This wasn’t a bedroom, it was a prison.  A really comfy and pretty one, but a prison without windows or a bathroom.  So, naturally, I trapped myself inside it.   And yet, I was drawn back to the books.  I did a kind of emotional shrug, and went back to the shelves.  I browsed for a bit, to find the most interesting English book.  When I found it, I pulled it, sat on the bed, and read.

I read deeply.  I had always done that.  My entire life, I was able to fall deeply into anything with pages.  Before I learned to read, I flip through art and architecture books.  I’d wistfully admire the brushstrokes and brick facades.  Eventually, I learned to read.  Everything.  Pamphlets, catalogs, books, magazines, and comics.  Textbooks, I didn’t do homework, but I’d read the whole damn thing.

Then suddenly, I heard the screech of tires.  And I was 17 again.  And everyone around me was covered in blood.  Why was I at prom again?

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03 Dec 2011

How Did I Miss These Cookies?!?

I was the "Awesome Ranger." That's the non-preppy Green Ranger that was also Batman and Superman.

I saw this when I was perusing a Goodwill here-abouts.  All I could think was how had I missed these cookies as a kid.  The only isles I went to in stores when this show existed were cookies, candy, and toys.   Obviously, every adult in the world conspired against me.  Which makes me think the cookies would have given me powers.

Anyway, still waiting on the two submission answers, and I’m about to start drawing up the next one I plan on submitting.  I’m looking forward to this next one, because it’s a pattern I really like and am pretty proud of,  in regards to design and proposed functionality.  Can’t say much about it, but I will when I can.  Probably.

I completed the first sleeve of the boot cut sweater I’m re-trying.  I have started the second sleeve, as you can see below.  I’m leaving ever end out, and I’ve put in a lot of scraps of yarn from other skeins and projects.  I think it’s kind of a protest to The Man of knitting, but it may just be because I’m unique in the sense that I’m also insane.  Anyway, the more astute of you may have noticed, somehow, that the directions for this sweater actually say to to do the sleeves after most f the body.  i’m aware of that, I just don’t really care.  I screwed up so badly last time, that I wanted to get the sleeves done to make sure I did it all correctly this time.  Which, so far, I have.  I’m pretty excited about not having screwed it up.  It’s amazingly gratifying.

Hey, look how blurry this sleeve is! It's like it's the Bigfoot of sleeves! Or, I'm not a super good photographer.

That's some nice, kind of itchy, Goodwill unprocessed wool yarn right there. I actually love it. Fun to work with.

I have reduced my daily goal by half on this sweater.  One hundred rows just wasn’t working.  On smaller projects, that’ll probably be the goal I do, but 50 is plenty enough progress for a sweater.  There aren’t many rows, anyway.  Besides, it’s just a busy work project,  so there’s not really a rush to it.  Once I finish it, I won’t have any busy work.  Which would be sad.

Right, other things to do.

Busily,

GL Blumenshine

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