Saturday, May 31, 2008

Munchkin Rumps CROCHET?

It seems that there may be quite a few people that would be interested in a crochet version of the Munchkin Rumps pattern. As I mentioned the first time I wrote about this, I was thinking of converting it...I guess now I have more motivation :)

I was planning on working on the bloomers pattern first, but maybe that'll have to wait.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Wow! That was fast!

One of the people who contacted me about the soaker pattern bought it last night! My first pattern sale, YIPEE! And she's in Australia, no less. Very Cool!
Insert lots of cheesy grins
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Munchkin Rumps Soaker Pattern...Now Available!


It's officially done! I'm so excited.
I spent all day putting the finishing touches on it and the "Munchkin Rumps Universal Soaker Pattern (xls) " is now available in my etsy shop.
This is only the MS Excel format. I still need to rewrite for the Ravelry pdf download.

Universal Soaker Pattern? It's almost done, I swear!

Wow, I'm pleasantly surprised.
I've had a few people contact me about my soaker pattern & ask when it will be ready :)
It's almost done, HONEST! I just have to do some final tweaking to the layout & calculations.

I'm planning on having two version available. One will be in MS Excel available for email delivery through my etsy shop. For this version, you will enter your gauge and desired measurements and it will do all the calculations for you. The other will be a pdf file available through Ravelry. I will have to rewrite the pattern for this format and calculations will need to be done manually.

As soon as the MS Excel version is ready, I will go ahead and have it available rather than waiting to finish the pdf version (I was hoping to have both at the same time).

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

My first Etsy sale!

Woo hoo!
Logged into my email this morning to find I had sold my girl longies yesterday!
Off to lanolize, then ship tomorrow.
YAY!!

Monday, May 26, 2008

It's NOT a chihuahua!

I had to hurry & make this amigurumi last night to give to Tammy today...her last day at the zoo is Saturday. I stayed up till 2:30am...ugh :P
If you can't tell, it's a Fennec Fox (as pictured below)...not a chihuahua.

9 pieces


Done!




My buddy, Fazaam :)

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I feel just AWFUL...

Regarding the "torturous baby blanket"

I have not been concentrating my efforts on it recently because I was stressing out about it too much & I decided BIL & SIL's wedding presents took priority...

So today I took the blanket to church to work on b/w services & was so excited when I reported that I was 1/2 way done. Then Karen told me...the baby I was making that blanket for was delivered at 24 weeks and didn't make it...

I know my thoughts and feelings played no part in what happened, but I've been directing so much negative energy towards this project that I can't help but feel a bit guilty.

And the other thing that's bothering me is that it sounds like the mom had HELLP syndrome like I did with Owen. If that wasn't it, it was very close. Not only did she have a premature birth, but she lost the baby AND has permanent kidney damage because of it. Owen & I were SO lucky I can't even wrap my head around it...he had no preemie issues & I have no lasting effects. Oh yeah, and we're both alive.

Why do some have so many blessings and other's have so much agony?

Monday, May 12, 2008

I'm on Etsy!!


It's official...Munchkin Knitworks is open for business!
I finally listed my demo soakers on etsy.
This is just a "soft" opening since I don't have very many items right now.
Hopefully soon I can get all my other projects done & load up the store.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Sock Monkey project

Ok...so I've been tossing around the idea to make sock monkey pants for Owen for a while.
I was gonna use the handspun stuff I've been making...but I needed gray.

I found someone in a Raverly group for "yarn farmers" who had a BFL/Corriedale mix that was gray. I contacted her & she washed & carded a batt for me. Here are some pics

The raw fleece...purdy :)


The washed fleece


The 4oz batt :D


So now I think it's just gonna be too pretty for a soaker or longies.
I'm gonna make some actual sock monkeys...one for Serena & one for Owen :)
Wish me luck...gotta spin the yarn first.

Friday, May 2, 2008

TORTUROUS baby blanket!!

I must keep knitting...I must keep knitting...I must keep knitting...I must keep knitting...I must keep knitting...I must keep knitting...

I have to keep repeating that to myself as I work on this blanket.
I offered my knitting services to make a baby blanket in a charity auction in February.
I had some worsted weight acrylic yarn that could've worked for boy & another for girl...the winner didn't like either. Luckily, my MIL gave me a TON of pastel baby yarn that had been crocheted into a huge unfinished blanket. Frogged it and got 9 medium sized balls of yarn to work with. Checked with the auction winner...it was a "go."

Ok so on April 1st, I cast on...frogged, cast on, frogged, cast on. Ugh!!
I think I cast on about 6 times before continuing on for a bit.
I originally was working with the yarn double stranded (on size 5 needles) cuz I liked how the colors popped out more from the white. After about 4" I couldn't take how tight the stitches were on the needles (there's lots of switching from purl to knit & back again so I wanted to make sure I was keeping the yarn tight enough). I changed the heads of the needle to size 4 to see if it got better, it didn't >:P
Frogged it all again!!
Cast on AGAIN!
This time single stranded on size 2, but still pulling pretty tight. Looks good...I'm happy about that :) But it is taking FOREVER!! The yarn is ~sport weight...good for socks (they're small) not good for blanket (it's big).
The auction was in February & the intended recipient of the blanket was maybe 4-5 mos pregnant then...I MUST finish soon!! I have finished all other knitted projects & have to constantly remind myself not to cast on anything else until this is done!!
If it was wool...maybe it wouldn't be so hard for me to keep going.
If it was for one of my own children...or someone I knew & cared about...ugh!

I'm about 3" farther than what's in this picture...so torturously slow!!


I must keep knitting...I must keep knitting...I must keep knitting...I must keep knitting...I must keep knitting...I must keep knitting...