I’ve been creating; but not much knitting or spinning. This has been my project for the past little while. Love Ikea. Can’t wait to get them installed!

I’ve had an Ikea kind of week. We have bought all the cabinets to go into the laundry room. My dining room is overrun with boxes of cabinets in them - waiting to be put together. I can’t do that until the laundry room is painted, and that won’t happen until after Tuesday - realistically next weekend. In the meantime I finished another project I’ve wanted to do for a while - a shelf for storing spindles.

Also - Can anyone guess where the butterfly electric spinner is hiding in this picture? :)

It’s been quiet on the blog, and it’s not even the fault of this wonderful spinner. I just got it yesterday; and haven’t had a chance to try it out. Checkout my flickr account and you’ll see the remodel that has been keeping me busy.

I started a new project yesterday. It’s only on the 3rd or 4th row. I can’t decide if I’ll use the light green pictured here, or a darker green. What do you think it’ll be? (Jill & Marta - no fair giving away the secret since you already know!)

We made it!!!

I had some crazy image stuff going on, but it should be all fixed. If you see a broken image (you’ll see a weird filename instead of the actual image) in the posts/archives, let me know. Also, internal links to old typepad posts will continue to function, since the typepad blog is still there, let me know if you find them and I’ll get them updated to point locally here.

I think I’ve gotten all the pointers setup, so the temporary blog at knitfoundry is gone, and will redirect you here, and I put a notice on my old blog location ( nancy . typepad . com).

So leave a comment, and let me know you made it!

The next post should have the “Yay! We have a new blog” contest information; including prize (or prizes??? you never know!) and how to enter.

Here’s a sneak preview of a new design that will soon be for sale at The Knit Foundry.

Click for bigger - I promise the pattern will include directions for sleeves, and Stitch holders and extra yarn dangling aren’t included :) I wanted to do a sanity check on the fit. Boy-wonder here has a 22" belly (his chest is more like 21"), and I made the sweater to be about 26.5" around. It fits him just wonderfully! 

A bit on the pattern details:
It’s a Gansey, complete with initials in the plain area on the bottom. Large diamonds are the main focus in the center of the body with a small cable and other elements on the side.  The neckline will probably be a simple k1p1 ribbed, maybe folded over, and I am just now designing the pattern on the sleeves.  There is a small gusset in the underarm to give a bit more room to active kids.  It’s knit from the bottom up, and then the sleeves are knit down from the body, so very little finishing. Worsted Weight yarn (from Shelridge, which is an absolute joy to knit with) makes it a quick knit.

I’m still deciding on what other sizes to make the pattern available in (Size shown is around a 3T), and what to name it.  Any ideas on that would be appreciated!

I have to say I am one proud Mommy.  My daughter expressed interest in my knitting a few times. Enough so that I bought her a ball of her favorite color yarn, and pulled out some needles and we cast on for a scarf for her dolly. 

To start with, she would sit on my lap and watch until she got bored.  Then I had her start holding the needles with me.  Then she started holding the needles on her own - and I would loop the yarn around and tension it for her.  (Knitting is really quite boring when you’re just holding the yarn). Months would go by between those events.  We leave her knitting on the counter, and when she’s interested, she’ll ask.  A few times I’ve asked her if she wants to knit, but the answer was "no".  No biggie - I’m not going to force her.

The past week or so, she’s been asking to knit a LOT.  Maybe it has something to do with the frantic pace I’m knitting Ribby Cardi.

So the other night I told her, "Ok, but mommy wants to knit on her own stuff, why don’t we show you how to loop the yarn yourself".  After thinking about it and showing her how you can use your left or right hand to hold the yarn, I decided it would be easiest if she didn’t need to rely on always holding the yarn under some sort of tension like you do in continental knitting.   Voila - we have a knitter:

And for the record, she turns 5 years old in 15 more days.

Please note how I am NOT touching her needles with my hands.  I am very carefully holding my OWN knitting and encouraging her.  She still asks for help with the first stitch of a row; and sometimes the last stitch.  I’m really trying to let her do her own thing as much as possible and matter of factly deal with things like dropped stitches or if she accidentally splits the yarn or knits in the stitch below.

For now it’s great because she’s got a long way to go to finish that one ball of pink yarn; but I think my stash might be in trouble once she learns how to purl.

I have two new sock patterns in the works. They will be available for sale end of this year on The Knit Foundry. This is one I’ve really enjoyed and I love how it came out. It looks very attractive both on and off the foot. I took a quick picture (I haven’t grafted the toe yet) so you’d have a sneak peak:

I’ve had the yarn and the pattern for a while - so thought I’d get started on it. The yarn is Aran weight so it should knit pretty fast. I chose grey for the body and a navy blue for the sleeves:

(click for a larger version)

I’m using my new Knit Picks Options needles for it. 32" cable, and the 3.75mm and 4.0mm needle tips. One small problem this morning that left me cursing on the bus ride in to work - the cable popped right out of the join!! GRRRRR.  I stopped and purchased some super glue and did a little surgery, and it’s as good as new. Has anyone else had this problem with the needles? I hope it was a fluke (although I know my friend Marta had the same exact problem with one of hers)

There have been a LOT of things happening lately, but I have neglected to post here. This one will be sans pictures; my apologies.  Here’s a quick list of what I’ve been doing lately:

1) Knitting on p’cock (Di finished hers, and I’m totally jealous. Go see her shawl here)

2) Designing a sock. This one is coming out SO SO well. The design is fabulous (if I do say so myself) I’m almost done with the first sock and will take a picture of it for you soon.  The yarn is Regia Silk, and I really like knitting with this yarn.  It will be Novembers SOTM at theknitter.com; and then available for sale at The Foundry as a pattern-only download shortly after that.

2a) Designing another sock. The december sock for SOTM initially gave me lots of trouble, but I finally came up with a great design that shows off the yarn well and has the added benefit of being a fun pattern to knit.   Waiting on the ‘real’ yarn to get it test knit and possibly have to knit it again myself. :)  (Think anyone would notice if I wore two socks that were in different yarn, but the same pattern?)

3) Getting new stuff in for The Knit Foundry - Bags!!! I’m really excited about the new bags I’ll have for sale. They are available in a bunch of sizes & colors, really attractive and perfect to store all your knitting accessories in.   Small, Medium and full project size.  I’m almost done with the web page where you can buy them - look for it hopefully early this week to be up.

4) Working on yarns to use for sweater designs. I got some color cards in the mail a few weeks ago; I just need to order some stuff, plus I’m also waiting on a sample pack from another source.

5) I also bought some yarn this weekend (more Regia Silk) to design some fair isle mittens.  Marta suggested something with skulls or snakes since the two yarns are a navy blue and a denim blue -  but I’m thinking maybe a butterfly? Still searching for motifs that strike me.