That went a lot faster than I thought it would

Did you guess right about which pattern I was going to review next? It only took me about a week to rewrite and knit up some new models for the punkin hat, which was much faster than I was expecting. But then again, it's a simple little hat, and even the color work portion follows a pretty simple mathematical formula, so it wasn't as hard as I anticipated to scale up and down. It will be available in 4 sizes, from infant to adult, to fit heads 10"-24". The photos on the left show my Monster Baby modeling the Child size; she's 3 years old with an 18" head, so she's pretty big for a toddler. The hats are really stretchy, too. The Toddler size fits her, but just barely, and the child size fits my 20" head as well. The ribbing creates a really stretchy, adaptable fabric, which is a great quality in a hat, I feel. I'm putting out a testing call tomorrow (after I hear back from my core group of testers about whether or not they'd like to have first crack at it) over in my group so be sure to swing by and sign up if you're interested.

In other news, the new school year is starting and I'm a weird mix of excited and stressed. I met the majority of my students at the open house last Friday (two were out of the country, so that's understandable, but the third... where were you?) And I'm mostly done getting ready, like maybe 95% done. I have next month's lesson plans sort of finished (I just need to input the theme work, and I didn't get the study unit list until Friday, but the core work is done) and the classroom is nearly all decorated and organized, but my class list keeps changing so I've had to change name tags and all like 3 times. Then my supply closet got padlocked shut and of course it wasn't one of the standard padlocks, it was apparently one someone brought from home so we have to wait for the city to come back and cut it (when we put in the work order, we specified that we needed it cut, that it wasn't one of the city or county locks, but of course they sent a guy with the master key ring to try anyway, and of course he didn't bring bolt cutters, because of course these silly women just forgot that keys open locks. Sigh.) probably some time next week, so I can't even finish all the things that aren't done yet. So I'm way less excited for the new beginnings that I could and should be. Plus, I still have to move, and that's a drain.

But, Monster Baby has started making friends. We visited one of her friends last night, and they seriously spent about 30 minutes playing a game (?) where they would take turns running across the room, "fall," and cry for help. Then the other would rush over and help them up, then they would hold hands and run back to the adult side of the room to exclaim "Friend helped me!" before starting the whole thing again. I didn't really understand it, but then, I guess I don't have to. Of course, since they're both three, it wasn't all fun and games and getting along. There was more than one instance of pleasant play for a time before both would become jealous of whatever the other had, merely because they had it, only for the toy to be abandoned once they actually possessed it, to make moving on to the next fight much more streamlined, I guess. I am simultaneously sad that my problems aren't so simple anymore and glad that my problems aren't so simple anymore, lol.

How has your weekend been? Leave a comment below and let me know, or start a thread in the new group.

Summer Time is a Busy Time

Phew. I have had a crazy summer. I've lost a job and started a new one and now I have to have my classroom all in order for the new school year by this coming Wednesday. The pressure is on to say the least.

On my lunch breaks, and times at home that Monster Baby has co-operated, I've been getting a good amount of knitting done, I think, all things considered.

For my birthday in June, I got myself some Hikoo Merino Lace Lightin the Bliss colorway. I'm using it to make an open square shawl for myself. I've never made a square shawl before, but it intrigued me, and I knew I wanted something pretty and light and airy, so this yarn the pattern (the 5 Shawl Shapes Cheat Sheet by Derya Davenport) just kind of came together somewhat fortuitously.  I don't have any pictures of the shawl itself yet, as the weather as been kind of crappy for photography for a few weeks. Hopefully that changes soon and I can get a progress picture of the shawl soon.

I spent most of July doing a test knit for my Ballerina Skirt in my brand new Ravelry Group. Head on over there if you're interested in joining a test knit or if you'd like to get sneak peeks at new stuff I have in the works. There isn't a whole lot going on right now, but I literally just started it and there's only about ten members, but going forward I'd like to build a whole community, and that means I need more of you! If you're a Ravelry member and enjoy my designs, join the group! I'm planning some polls about future designs and possibly a knit a long around Christmas or the new year. Head on over and tell me what ideas you have. If you're not a Ravelry member (which, how is that even possible? Check it out, I promise it's worth your time) leave me a comment below on those same topics. What kind of designs do you like best? What would you like to see more of? How can I improve? Let me know!

And I'll end on the kind of sneak peeks I'll be providing in my Ravelry group. Last month I bought some Knit Picks Bare Swish DK to dye, and I finally dyed it up last week. Now that it's washed and dried and I've swatched, I'm ready to review one of my original patterns. When I first started designing, I didn't know anything about pattern writing, or tech editing, or test knitting, or how to grade sizes. I was a hot mess, honestly. But I've learned a lot since then (it's seriously been 6 years, I can hardly believe it sometimes!) and it's time to go back to my old designs and make them something someone else would actually be able to make, rather that just documenting the process I took. Especially since the process I took was a bit... convoluted sometimes, if you know what I mean. >.>

But, either way, let me know in the comments or on Ravelry which pattern you think I'm going to be reviewing next and what changes you think I'll be making to the pattern. See you soon! :)