Lately

So what have I been up to lately? Mostly just enjoying the summer while it lasts. Last month I took over control of the Bad Girls Book Club on meetup and have been studying up on good banned and challenged books to recommend to the group. Did a bit of job hunting a couple of weeks ago and guess what? I will be rejoining the 40-hour-work-week crew on Aug 2nd! And just in time for my birthday on the 3rd. Which makes me think of the gorgeous bike my wonderful husband got me as an early birthday gift. Check it out!

Isn't it the best? Thanks baby! Now I am mobile again, or at least have more range than just my own pair of feet can take me. It's great exercise too, which I can always use more of. Also as my treat to myself I am going to see Wicked this weekend! Really excited about that, I hear it is amazing.

Unfortunately with everything else going on I haven't done much in the way of knitting or crocheting.  Though I do have a couple new items that will be posted shortly.  Let you know when they are up.

New projects

So my latest new creations are coming right along. I wish I could say I have been working non-stop on them but it is summer after all. I'm sure this is true of most knitters but the warmer it gets the less time I spend with needles in my hand. I have rededicated myself to finishing these projects in the next couple of days. Here's what I have so far.

1) A very light lace crocheted scarf.

2) Red Ribbon Eclipse bookmark

As my first two completely original designs I have high hopes for them. Especially the bookmark. It has been a long road fashioning it to my satisfaction. First I attempted double-knitting it, which is some work I must say. That and increasing/decreasing is just a pain! So I scrapped that after weeks of working and reworking trying to perfect it. I may try my hand at Double-knitting again someday because it really is a neat different way to create double-sided works, but it won't be anytime soon. For now I decided to just go with a single-sided work and I will add a fabric back once I've finished knitting the front. Well it's about time to get back to it if I'm gonna get done when I want to. Happy knitting and crocheting all!

Designing

So this past week I've been working on some new design ideas for my knitting. In the pipeline is a knit bookmark with the Eclipse book cover art. Or my best rendition of it. Start my first mock up and that didn't work so well. Had to scrap it after days of working and ripping and reworking. Finally decided on double knitting it and went out and got some crochet thread to try. The sport yarn I was working with was just to thick for size 0 needles. Hoping attempt #2 turns out better.

So that is on hold for the moment since I got fed up enough to cut and toss my prototype. Now mind you this is the only time I have given up and started completely over. Usually I just back up and give it another try or learn to live with the tiny errors. I want this to be perfect. I want it to look as close to the actually cover art as possible which is a little tricky for knitting.

Needing a reprieve from knitting and the difficulties of it I thought "Why not try some crochet? I mean it goes so much faster." After perusing my new Encyclopedia of Crochet I came across some beautiful motifs, in particular the flowers. Simply amazing what can be done which a hook, or a pair of needles for that matter. So I'm in the process of conceptualizing my new project - a daisy and sunflower crocheted scarf. The biggest issue will be connecting the individual flowers all together once they are completed. Seeing as I have no experience with this (really I'm a knitter who just occasionally crochets)I am hoping I can find some info on it either online or in one of my books.

Tomorrow I am really going to buckle down and try and make some headway into one or both of my projects. Been kind of a fruitless week so far somehow. Well plenty coffee and rainy skies should make Friday the perfect atmosphere for knitting the day away.

My Etsy

So I finally started selling my hand-knit accessories! Knitting is a huge thing in my life these days. Ever since I started about 2 years ago I haven't been able to get enough of it. I am almost always working on a project. So I decided to share some of my favorite items I had knit with my Facebook friends and two of them actually wanted to pay me to make them items. You have no idea how excited I was when that happened!

So I knit a lovely lace tank top for my friend Chrissy which was a definitely learning experience. Articles of clothing are challenging when the person lives in another state. You can't compare your work in progress to them to make sure it's just right. Turned out just fine though after much correspondence between us and she loves it! Here she is wearing it. Does she look happy or what?

And here it is without the straps. I just love that lace pattern!




My other friend Maryann wanted these cute baby booties for her niece.




After my recent successful commissions I decided to open an store on the web that anyone could buy from. I went with etsy.com which is a site solely for handmade items. Took a few days to get everything up and running but I am hoping to do well. I've working the networking sites or trying to anyway. Which by the way you can find me on Twitter @meinemaria and on Facebook as Anna Quayle Harvey.

Well without further ado here it is! Meine Maria Knits