MAYARN

swirly bibs

I had another design published in Crochet Today! These Swirly Bibs appear in the May/June 09 issue. I think they are so cute!

To design these, I started with a stitch book that had the guidelines for making a small spiral (like 2 rounds), and it took me a while to figure out how to make it much bigger without the whole thing warping or curling. Since designing these I've seen there are a lot of spiral crochet things out there, but I think it was good I was forced to figure it out on my own.

stitchy scrubbie

I can't believe I forgot to post about this!

I designed this scrubbie pattern for the March/April 09 issue of Crochet Today! After being a knitter for so long before becomming a crocheter, I'm still surprised that my first published pattern is crochet. But you know what? I'm kind of loving crochet these days. And actually, at heart, I'm an equal opportunity yarn craft person. I may have loved knitting first, but I don't think it's "better" than crochet (or spinning). It has it's place, just like crochet. And crochet is great for something like these scrubbies--super fast, circular, bobbles that can be made in half the time of a knited bobble. Nice.

busy times

Wow. I can’t believe I haven’t posted since January 17. I fully intended to pop in with a knitterly update within a week or so of that post and now… it’s March 10.

Well, there’s so much to report. I’ll just give an overview of the knits, reveal my Big News (which many of you already know), and try to resume more “normal” blogging with the next post. Sound good?

First, the knits:

Pattern: Hemlock Ring, the Jared Flood version
Needles: US 10
Yarn: South West Trading Company Phoenix (can’t remember the colorway)

Knit for a friend’s baby girl, due to arrive in April. It turned out a little smaller than I would have liked, but I was running out of yarn so this was as big as I could get it. I think it will make a good stroller blanket—or just something pretty for the nursery.  I really enjoyed knitting this, although I’m not sure I would make an adult-sized version. The feather and fan section can get tedious and it’s just so heavy to knit a blanket in one piece like this. I don’t like having to push my stitches around the needles with considerable force every 10 knits or so. Mostly, I like to fly…

Pattern: Spiral Cowl by Keri McKiernan
Needles: US 6
Yarn: From School Products, so it didn’t have a name. It was a Cashmere/Merino wool/silk blend of some sort. Nice and squishy-soft, but not too soft. (I am one of those people who thinks a yarn can in fact be too soft.) It was somewhere between fingering and lace weight, so I held it double.

Knit for the Spiders Cowl Exchange, which took place this past Saturday. This cowl went to Katie.

This is the first cowl I ever knit and now I can see why they’ve become so popular. Cowls are stylish, knit up quickly, are handspun-friendly and are small enough to experiment with a fun or funky technique, without being stuck doing said technique for, say, a blankets-length. The Spiral Cowl involves a picot edging which, I admit, is not my favorite thing to knit, but the end result is so nice and clean. I think it really adds something special. I wasn’t sure about this project when I started, but I love the way it turned out. I kind of want to make one for myself now…

Now, for my big news. In case you didn’t know, or hadn’t seen elsewhere (like on flickr). I’m pregnant!

About 21 weeks right now, due July 17, and we just found out Friday that it’s a boy (!). Every day the idea of bringing a child into our lives becomes more real; of course we’re both thoroughly excited. Also, yay for baby knits! For starters, I’m considering crocheting up a baby ripple blanket with this:

What do you think??

oh. hello there.

Lately, I haven't felt much like myself. This state of being has obviously hindered my ability to post on this blog (see date of last entry: October 27!). And it's also (gasp!) made me sort of 'meh" about knitting. Oh, I HAVE been knitting, but I haven't been very excited about it, therefore I don't feel much like talking/blogging about it. I've also had projects and things going on that aren't public-ready, which, I admit, I let hold me back. And so, the blog suffers. Although, mayarn.com was never bubbling over with content, so "suffers" might be too strong a word. "Gathers dust" might be more appropriate… 

2009 arrived and has been around for a couple weeks now, but I haven't reflected much or though about resolutions. I guess I've never been much of a resolution person. They seem like good ideas at the time—and they ARE good ideas—but I quickly forget about said resolutions after I make them and then… nothing. Let's just say 2009 is set to be huge. Any resolution that might be wafting around this place is sure to shift and change over the months. I guess you could say I'm resolving to remain flexible.

2008, you weren't my favorite year ever. But you contained my first year in New York, my first wedding anniversary, many new friendships, a new career path and a happy assortment of memorable adventures, so for that I will look back on you fondly. 

This post acts as a re-entry into blogging. Next time, more of a knitterly update, yes?

getting things done

On my Ravelry projects page, I currently have 8 projects marked as WIPs. Yes, you read that right--8. But honestly, I don't think that number is accurate; I think I currently have more like 10 or 11 WIPs. It's gotten to the point where I have so many unfinished projects, it's stressing me out.

I tend to be more of a product crafter than a process crafter--when I start making something, it's almost always because I want to have or give the thing I am making. Don't get me wrong, I usually love the process too, but the product is my motivation. So why do I have all these languishing unfinished objects? They need to get done so I can actually have/give the thing I was pursuing via craft in the first place. I admit it—I haven't really enjoyed working on any of my projects lately because I have all this unfinished business hanging over my head. But I'm working on it. I'm tying up loose ends in hopes that eventually knitting (and crochet) will be all about the fun again.

The happy news is, two of those WIPS can move into the finished category on Ravelry and enter to my winter wardrobe rotations:

Endpaper mits by Eunny Jang
Rowan 4-ply soft
US 2 & 0

These were really fun to knit (even though I let them languish for months--started in December 07). And even though the tubular cast on and off were sort of fiddly, I adore the end result and was happy to learn this new-to-me technique. If you haven't done color work before, these are a great first project. The pattern is interesting, yet not too complicated. You can even reach a point of memorizing the pattern, which always makes things more fun.

Next up...

Feather and Fan Scarf by Wendy Knits
Socks That Rock, medium weight, agate colorway
US 5

I think feather and fan is the perfect pattern for verigated, hand-dyed yarns like STR. The mixture of garter stitch and the fan pattern distributes the color just so. If you hate pooling, you will love the result--no pooling to be seen. No flashing really, either. At first I worried this colorway, which I was ga-ga for in the hank-form, looked too rainbow-y for my taste when knit up. I got over that pretty quickly. I see this getting more than its share of wear.

Two down. But there is much left to be done. I hope I have another reason or two for show-and-tell soon...