collaging with fabric,

and combining that annoying curling ribbon we all use with yarn to make a knit basket that actually stands up straight and a market bag that won’t stretch down to your knees after a few uses.

I’m so excited and thrilled and relieved and filled with joy to birth this beast out into the world. It was of course about triple the work either of us anticipated with many bumps, bruises and swearing (at least on my end) to get it finished. And I’m so happy we did! Because. It. Is. Awesome!

I’m going to be totally conceded here and say that this is the sweetest ebook ever…. okay I can’t be that conceded because I totally loved Knitting Game by Lee and Diane’s Craft Blog series of ebooks. How about I say that this is just one more awesome ebook in a long line of awesome ebooks put out by the newly annointed authority on crafty ebooks: CraftyPod Publishing!

It was so wonderful working with Diane, she was great to throw ideas around with, she was a great editor, she’s a wonderful friend and inspiration!

You can pick up this awesome beast of a craft ebook in the CraftyPod Publishing Shop starting now!

And if you order it between now and Friday 12th, 11:59pm – you will get a pretty sweet chance at winning one of these DecoArt paint sets.

Hooray! The first Craft Leftovers Ebook Card.Paper.Ribbon. is now out Today!

Happy Crafting and making and being creative!

Kristin Roach

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Drawing knitting is freaking hard. It’s like a big smooshy organic, geometric structure with so much texture you just get lost in it. Sure I could render every single stitch, but how do you get the idea across that it’s knit fabric without doing that? How do you do a 10 minute study of knitting and give the impression of those stitches without representing each one. I’m excited to find something so challenging. I’m going to set up a still life at home and do a larger/longer study of it.

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1. frank; outspoken; open and sincere: a candid critic.
2. free from reservation, disguise, or subterfuge
3. straightforward: a candid opinion.
4. informal; unposed: a candid photo.
5. honest; impartial: a candid mind.
6. Archaic. white.
7. Archaic. clear; pure.

And that’s exactly what this cardigan is. It’s exactly what I want and need. No frills, just the beauty of the yarn.

This is a sweater that has been on hold for a long time. The yarn is beautiful. The best yarn I will have for a long time to knit a whole sweater with. It’s a baby alpaca silk blend by catalina yarn. Warm, good drape, luscious. It was payment for knitting them a sweater to model. I would never have been able to afford this yarn otherwise.

So what sweater to make. At first I was going to do a simple cabled kind of deal and after finishing the back and the front frogged it. I think it was from Interweave Fall 2007, not relevant though, It just wasn’t my style.

And then I decided on a top down deal in the round. wider neckline. Good to go. I got to the point where I knew I would need to measure. So I stopped. It was decision making time. Do I join it in the round for a pull over? Keep going to for a cardigan? Do some kind of fancy stitch like a broken rib for the waist?

Too many options. On top of that I had forgotten to put in the last too buttons holes. I was in knitting oblivion at that point. I had started this sweater my last fall semester of school (that’s over a year ago now!) and had been distracted and hung up on a million other things.

(the picture is blown out, I’ll take a better one once the sun comes back out)

So how to fix the button hole and resolve my knitting indecisiveness.

Awhile ago – while suffering from food poisoning and general lethargy I looked through all my pattern books. I looked through all of ravelry. I looked through all of flickr. All for ideas on what to do for the bottom half of the sweater.

At the end of it I realized two things. 1) My favorite sweaters have always been plain stockinette stitch cardigans with pockets – so since I most likely won’t be making a sweater from yarn this nice for awhile I should totally make something that I will wear all the time and love. 2) I decided to sew and cut the button band right off and make a different one by picking up stitches. So I bound off all but 2 stitch of the button band and am cruising right along.

Finally. Time for some great mindless knitting.

Last month I finished the body and it was time to deal with the button band, after talking it through with a friend I decided to just pick up the stitches and knit out, do a double folded styled button band similar to the hem. On Saturday I completely finished the button band and sewed he buttons on at the Sewing Rebellion on Sunday. I really like the way it’s hemmed and turned under so it’s double thick.

I had a bunch of these buttons and they are all similar, but are actually different. They are and opaque off white glass and I love them.

Now it’s time to make the sleeves (no problem there, I have a plan) and decide on the collar. I want to do a hood I think and will have to see if I have enough yarn for that once I finish the sleeves. I may just do a double thick collar to match the style of the button band. Oh and of course I need to finish sewing on the pockets, haha.

I’m also keeping track of how I make this and i’m hoping to write it up into a pattern for everyone – including myself so I can make more. You see this is the sweater of my dreams, and I want at least two more with slight variations – inset pockets for one, either a hood or collar, cotton or linen vs the alpaca silk of this one, black or brown to go with everything, and or course one in blue – my favorite color. I’m sure after all of them I will have a great pattern, haha.

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So that concludes the three quick posts of the day (this last one not as quick as the others). I’ll have more to post tomorrow as I am working all day in the studio on things I will be able to share with you Hooray to that!

Oh and some good news! I have a project on the Craftzine blog for their Crafting with Nature month! Check it out here.

And I’ve been accepted to the Maker’s Faire and will be a Maker representing Craft Leftovers and the Sewing Rebellion! And Frau Fiber has agreed to come down for it so she will be co-hosting the workshop with me and giving demos on mending while I’ll be demoing all sorts of sewing skills and small scale projects! It’s going to be so fun!

See you all soon!

Kristin

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And this guy landed just 3 feet from me. He was huge!

They are all a little “soft” becuase of the window, but that’s okay. I was thinking they would be good canidates for paintings or charcoal drawings this weekend. I took about 100 shots, but these 4 were the ones that came out the “best”. Yeah, the through the dirty window thing is not the best way to go. When I went outside even though I thought I was being super sneaky and they just all flew away. Oh well.

I’m finally getting my weaving going again. It was such a mess while warping and things broke and it was tangled. It took me awhile to get the courage to face it again. Well, I finally untangled it all and am almost done threading the heddles. I’m hoping to finish it up tomorrow.

Here are the mittens I made for my friend Emily. They are all blocked and on their way to her. I am thinking about making another pair for myself. Here are some more pictures:

And some more knitting:

Do see how long that scarf is? Yowzers! I finally blocked it. It was 4 skeins of stockinette stitch in the round. I’m never doing that again, haha. It looks really nice though and will be really warm for Jason.

Oh and I blocked my first woven piece on my loom.. and contrary to popular belief, it’s a stole, not a table runner, haha. The thing was that it was really rough before blocking, but now it’s softened up and it’s really warm. I would have liked it to be a little longer, but it was all the warp I had, so that was that.

I’ll take a better picture of it tomorrow. Laying flat it’s just not as nice looking as it could be.

Well, that’s it for tonight. Back to pattern writing and stitch marker making.

Goodnight!

Kristin

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This is the start of the second market bag. I am feeling pretty good about this pattern as I am taking detailed notes and typing it up as I go along. I should be able to get this done tomorrow I think.

Here are my worsted socks in all their in progress unblocked glory. As I’m sitting here I’m thinking to myself, geeze those would be nice to have on. My feet are cold!

And here is Jason’s mittens that I’ve been working on all winter. I feel guilty that I don’t have them finished yet. I wanted to have them done by Christmas, but I was working too much to allow it. At least he will have a nice pair to look forward to this fall.

I am in the process of updating my ravelry project and stash page. I think it might help me get a handle on things. I cleaned up my studio last night, really organized and went through things and I realized that I have litereally a whole box of yarn that I really don’t care to ever knit or crochet with. I’m not sure what to do about it. My Craft Leftovers asthetic tells me there is a project perfect for every yarn, but honestly, I’m just sick of it. Like I’ve knit with as much as I can and I’m just tired of the colors and such.

I have a whole bag of vintage mohair and I really, well, I don’t like mohair. There. I said it. It’s itchy and hairy and sheds those itchy hairy hairs everywhere. I’m sure I’m just having an oversight that can’t think of something nice. I can think of things that would look nice, but feel nice is a different story. Seriously? do you have an idea for it? I’m okay with Mohair blends – like Lamb’s Pride is nice – but this is 100% and from the 80′s – so not so soft and wonderful as some of today’s mohair yarns. Hmm. I should just make that my next challenge for myself. What to do with 6 skeins of mohair I don’t particularly care for. Oh and they are black, tan, and mustard yellow. I would say little cute striped mohair cropped sweater…. maybe… maybe I could wear a fitted long sleeve t under it? I don’t know, what are your thoughts on mohair?

Okay. I need to get out of here and run to the post office (hooray- 2 orders to send out today) and grocery store and then to teach beginning crochet at the Rose Tree. Busy busy busy – I love it!

See you all later!
Kristin

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It’s taken me awhile, but I finally am working on changing around the blog. I’ve been playing with the style sheets last night and today and will most likely tomorrow too. So if you have stopped by and there is no styling or all the words are really big or really small or there is no banner, an old banner, or words running across things – well, that’s why.

I did get a new banner up today and I like it a lot more than the little holder logo that was in there before. What do you think? Do you like it? If you don’t, well, you can keep that to youself. I just want cookies today, no veggies that would actually help me improve myself (constructive crit).

My plan is that I will use the same style of the homepage of Kro Studio – linen, graph paper, pen and ink drawings. As well as business cards and fliers of the same style.

Which brings me to the next point. I updated my class list for the upcoming quarter (March – May). There are many new classes and exciting things, plus I put just about everything into google calender so you can click though that too! I don’t have all the specifics yet (cost and material fees for instance), but will add them as I get info verified. I know I told you this just two posts ago, but in case you missed it because the post was so long I’m annoucing it again.

Once I get all the details from the Octagon I’m going to make a flier with all my classes on it as a jpg for you here online and as a flier for those around town. I’m excited.

Alright, back to the woven project, then on to article outlines.

Tomorrow I’m going to get some new things listed in Green Prairie Fibers, so I’ll let you know when that gets up.

Oh and does anyone know how to change the horizontal menu bar in Thematic? Becuase I sure as heck can’t figure it out.

See you later!
Kristin

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Here is a quick list of new things (with quick pictures):

1. New self portrait that sucks a little less than the last one.

2. I cut my hair (and you can also see how bad the above self portait is by seeing what I really look like):

3. I got a hippo in a trade for yarn – it is so freaking awesome! – from Fun Is Always In Style.

4. I dyed yarn (it will go in the shop this week coming up) – I tried a new hand painting method and I really like how it turned out:

5. I’m knitting some mittens for my friend Emily:

6. I rearranged my studio:

7. I am making progress on my Scrap Quilt:

8. I started a new pair of socks:

9. I figured out what I want to do for my sweater and am making progress on it again.

10. I’ve been spinning.

11. I received this great zine/kit bundle and am now a member of the diy weavers club!

12. I organized my hooks and needles.

And that concludes the pictorial list of things. In other non picture news:

1. I worked my last day at the chocolate shop last week – I’m still on call so if they need me, I will if possible – but I’m not on the schedule anymore and that’s a big step in the right direction.

2. I’m now teaching fiber art classes at the octagon, knitting at the WorkSpace, and crochet at the RoseTree – hooray!

3. I’m working on a secret article project for one of my favorite magainzes.

4. I received a copy of the book I have a project in this past week – giveaway, preview, and more details coming soon

5. I’m working on my own book – I’m hoping to have a prototype to show around at the end of March if not sooner.

6. Kro Studio is well underway to get a good work over visually with business cards, newsletter, and fliers (for classes), so that is super exciting, I can’t wait.

7. The Sewing Rebellion is going to 2 times a month next month! the second and forth sunday of each month.

8. Food poisoning two weekend in a row! I need to get a little insulated bag for things I pick up while I’m out and about so I don’t let them spoil before eating – it’s not -20 anymore where they are okay after being in my bag all day! Hummus the first time and Brie the second.

9. I’m starting a garden in my friend’s yard and we are doing the first planning of it tonight.

10. I updated my class list for the upcoming quarter (March – May). There are many new classes and exciting things, plus I put just about everything into google calender so you can click though that too! I don’t have all the specifics yet (cost and material fees for instance), but will add them as I get info verified.

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Ahhhhh, okay, big breath. I think that pretty much gets us up to speed on everything. Now I feel free to post little random updates each day. I don’t feel like there is so much to catch up on. I might extrapulate on some of the above topics too. Especially the process/story of the sweater, which is pretty funny I think and deserves a post all it’s on.

So I will see you soon and am happy to get back into blogging again. I sure was missing it while i was going through this crazy time of “exhilarating and exhausting”

See you soon!
Kristin

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I’m pretty excited about this class because I am hopefully I’ll be able to give my students a good foundation of knitting. Of course getting them cast on and knitting was today’s objective, but I’m going to teach them a new set of skills – depending where each student is I’ll give them different things to work on – each class.

So next week we are picking up stitches and telling the difference between the purl side and the knit side and what twisted stitches look like and how to fix them. Plus we will work on swatches of different stitch patterns that are knit/purl variations.

And on and on it will go. If they are ready for it I’ll get them knitting in the round, learning shaping, and they can make a hat or mittens to match their first scarf.

It worked out really well too because even though I wasn’t thinking about it, I started a learning to knit series on Craft Leftovers. I was able to just print out the first three tutorials- the third I worked up this morning and will be posted on cl tonight – and give them as hand outs today. Perfect!

Cable Cast On

Knit Stitch

Purl Stitch

You can click on each thumbnail and select the largest view to see the directions, print and or download them.

And I’m going to end this here instead of going on to other things I want to post so I will have something to post tomorrow! Because that’s right I’m going to start posting more often. And hopefully we will have shorter daily posts – or even multiple posts a day – instead of just one long “I have so much I want to tell you because I haven’t posted in so long!” post.

See you soon!

Kristin

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The wool on the left is what I have picked through, the wool on the left is straight off the sheep. It looks cleaner than it is i this picture. There is actually a lot of dirt and grease and mossy stuff and I love it.

After carding I practiced spinning with a bottom whorl drop spindle. Different from my top whorl that I’m used to, but it’s always fun to learn a new tool.

Lots of the wool after being picked through and carded, they are like little clouds waiting to be made into yarn, which is then waiting to be made into a hat.

I’m mostly done picking, but I have about a bag more of wool to card by Wednesday You see, I’m taking a spinning class at the Rose Tree Fiber shop and we are starting on the wheel this week! So I have to have all my fiber prepped.

In other news I bought a drafting table today. I was going to just go for a cutting table or something at joann’s or hobby lobby and they were all so shaking and badly made and expensive. I found one online on ebay that is super nice, angles, has a drawer, pencil holders, and was within my budget. I should have it in my hot little hands in 3-7 business days.

While at Hobby Lobby and Joann’s this morning though I became very disheartened at the selection of drafting tables and the crabby sales people and the obnoxious music that I almost used my 40% off coupon to buy and knitting machine.

You see I’ve had this project in the works since the summer and it involves knitting. A lot of knitting. So much knitting that a knitting machine is required. And I’ve been working on it lately and editing audio for it and so when I saw “THE ULTIMATE KNITTING MACHINE” sitting there I almost gave in. But now. That can wait. For now. At least until after this spinning class is over. Haha. I did however spend a huge chunk of time watching YouTube videos on it and reading about it and then I turned it into a big ol’ post over on Craft Leftovers. It’s all set to go and will publish itself in the morning. So make sure to check it out.

In other news, I’m going to start an Iowa chapter of the Sewing Rebellion here in Ames or possibly Des Moines. I’m looking for spaces to do it in, possibly empty retail spaces, or independently run spaces, but I’ve got the okay from Frau Fiber herself to start things up here after the new year and hope to start hammering out the details. Lot’s of free workshops, patterns, and sewing troubleshooting will be going on. It will be fun. I think that, instead of presenting myself as Frau Fiber, I’m going to create my own persona, something french, Madame something. Frau Fibers cousine française. Any ideas?

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On the weaving front: I’ve cleaned out my reed as much as possible and am hoping that after finishing picking through raw wool tonight I will have some time to start dressing the loom. And because I want that time badly, I’m going to end this here and get going again on that wool.

Have a good night!
Kristin

ps – do any of you know of any artist run spaces in the midwest that are open to newbie artists who just have their bfa? (aka don’t have a bias against  people with just bfa’s no mfa required to apply) Just asking.

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Jason and I found this huge dragon fly on the way to the gas station (we were walking there after dinner to get some hot chocolate). I just could leave it there. So we grabbed a napkin from the gas station and I carried it home. I really need to get a case for all these bugs I’m collecting! Haha. I really like drawing them though and I’m serious when I say I should get a case. Any ideas?

These are my argyle slipper toes I’ve been working on (Weekend Knitting). The finished one isn’t blocked, but it will be soon enough. I can’t wait to get them done. I haven’t decided what I want to use for a sole as I can’t use leather (Totally allergic, my toes swell up and turn blue! Yuck! And itch! Annoying!). I was thinking about thick wool felt, but there is no local source to get it from. I could wet felt some soles. I could order some wool felt online.

I am really excited to get these done though so I can start wearing them around. They will be so cozy and warm and I can’t wait.

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I should apologize for the complete lack of posting going on here lately, but I’m not going to, haha. It’s my blog, I’ll post when I want. Nah, I’m just kidding. I really want to continue the daily drawings. And I want to continue to show you my knitting and random things I see and do. I just need a bit of time to adjust to this whole working a part time job thing. I’m going to be working 6 hours tomorrow and 7 hours Friday and it’s really thrown me out of sync with my craft cave. I am starting to get the hang of it, but I’ve had to cram a whole lot into yesterday and today to stay on schedule. I did get most things on my to do list done though with just “clean ferret cage” left to go (I just gave them their bath, so cute! they are little puff balls right now). It’s almost midnight some I’m going to clean the cage, put the citizens to bed, and then go to bed myself.

Hopefully you will hear from me again sooner rather than later, but honestly it might not be until clm is in the shop on Sunday. If I can sneak in some drawing time of that awesome dragon fly I will and I’ll post it. I’ve even been considering doing some studies and then a painting or larger/detailed drawing. We will see.

Have a good night!
Kristin

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