Well, I finished the camisole I was knitting.

[camwyn]

It's a lovely piece of work and the colour is an attractive one- I used Lion Brand's Microspun yarn, which is an acrylic microfiber, in their Lilac colour. Unfortunately my initial mistake of knitting the back at the wrong size (I lost track of whether I was supposed to cast on for 103 or 113 stitches, I think), plus the gauge being a bit larger than the pattern called for, means that even knitting the front piece at a size that fits me didn't help. It fits in front but the back is awfully loose. Since it's the sort of colour my sister likes and my mother has corroborated this, I'm going to wait for August and give it to my sister then (she's pregnant and due in February- August is going to be swelter season for her). In the meantime I have a vest to work on and lovely dark green Egyptian cotton to do it in, and anyway I can always knit the camisole again in yarn that fits the gauge better, with different needles as need be. And since I'm looking at a 14-hour train ride to Toronto next Saturday, I'll be bringing along a few balls of Divine, too. Might as well get back to work on that sweater for ocean_song, eh?

My mother, meanwhile, spotted one of the other patterns in the issue of Interweave Knits that had the camisole. She's quite interested in the Mandarin faux cardigan and has offered to pay me for the yarn if I knit it for her, only she wants it in a different colour than the magazine has. I'm going to look for Trendsetter Oceano today at yarn stores in Manhattan if I can find any within reach between 'arrival in city' and 'meeting ahmeemee'. Mom's expressed an interest in a sort of salmon-pinkish colour and I want to see if that's an option or not.

Dad hasn't said anything about more knitting, but the voices in my head have been pretty insistent on me knitting the multi-coloured slippers for felting at his size, so he doesn't really need to say anything.

Now a question, since LJ's bein' stupid and I don't have the patience to force open a tab in Mozilla and work up a poll there. I have a tendency to knit whenever I've got a spare moment in which I'm not writing. While I'm good at drawing- several of my user pics including this one are my own work, and you can see more of my art at http://www.megaloceros.net- I'm nothing like the people on my friendslist who do art or cartoon commissions. Would you, or anyone you know, ever consider commissioning some piece of knitting work? Something relatively small, mind, like a hat or gloves or socks or something- sweaters take forever unless they're done in Big Fecking Yarn on Big Fecking Needles, and my one blanket experience took me two and a half months to do even though I was knitting day and night to meet a deadline. I'm just wondering.

Comments

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately my initial mistake of knitting the back at the wrong size (I lost track of whether I was supposed to cast on for 103 or 113 stitches, I think), plus the gauge being a bit larger than the pattern called for, means that even knitting the front piece at a size that fits me didn't help.

See why you always need to check your gauge? I bet that's a lesson you won't forget in a long while. ;)

Something relatively small, mind, like a hat or gloves or socks or something

If you do get comissions, I'd suggest you charge three times the cost of the yarn *at least*. Otherwise, you're not getting even minimum wage for your efforts.

You might see about offering House scarves -- people seem to like them, and they're not that complicated, though finding bronze yarn for Ravenclaw seems to be tricky.

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I made... I don't even remember how many house scarves now.

1 for the birthday of one of DLP's twin grandchildren (she made the other) -- Slytherin
1 for my husband, countgeiger, Gryffindor
1 for ME! HA! -- Ravenclaw
1 for bearmum, Hufflepuff
1 for firehair28, Slytherin
1 for pentaclemoon, "Gryffinclaw" (scarlet & grey)

Oh, and everyone's name, initials, or some similar sewn in dupicate stitch at the end in tasteful runes.

I think I'm missing one in that list, actually. See, when you have a few dozen people who attend movies together, many of whom are fen enough to enjoy costumes... and then it spreads, a really viral meme. Mine was of Encore Utopia Worsted, a 25% wool/75% acrylic blend, and it actually keeps in heat. This came in handy a couple nights when I was camping in the Sandia Moutnains outside of Alburquerque, but I digress...

Anyway, those were all in the style used in the first two movies. The pattern's at:

http://knit.atypically.net/scarves/hogwarts/pattern.shtml

The pattern for the latest movie's scarves is at:

http://knit.atypically.net/scarves/azkaban/pattern.shtml

If you're having trouble finding the yarn locally, she suggests some online yarn sites she's had luck with in the past.

Good luck!

-- Lorrie

[lwood.livejournal.com]

I'm now getting commissions from gods.

Sheesh.

-- Lorrie