A Stitch in Time

My wrist broke out last week, AGAIN, from a watch band.

I had assumed that since I'd worn the watch for some time without incident that it was okay, but then I hadn't been sweating then. Now it is summer and something about my sweat eats away at any plating or other barrier between my skin and nickel iron. Once that plating is gone I develop a rash of small oozing pustules that look a great deal like poison ivy. Though I've not told the Dentist this, this is why there will be no partial dentures, or implants or hip/joint replacements for that matter.

I've had ear lobes puff up to twice their size from "surgical steel" posts on pierced earrings. If it's not 14 carat gold or sterling silver, I can't wear it without repercussions in the form of weeping open sores.

So, I finally decided to stop looking for those great $5 plastic watches from Walgreens and am making my own watch bands.

This is the product of a day and a half of searching for a good lace insert pattern, turning it into a color coded graph (which you'll find below), starting to knit it three times and pulling it out twice. I used size two needles and some J&P Coats "Luster Sheen" acrylic cabled yarn which would normally be used for a crocheted Shell blouse or doily or perhaps a filet crochet curtain. I found the $2.50 ball at Goodwill for 49 cents. That price is perfect for experimentation, and that is what I was doing.



I'll probably be adding my Lace Graphs as free downloads to the Prodigal Sock site ... let me know if you'd be interested.

This particular lace wristlet, while lovely, is too time consumptive for sale, so tonight at work I'm going to be whipping out some 6 stitch wide garter-stitch bands that I'll be adding crochet edging to them later to make them saleable. Garter-stitch because I can do it without looking and it gives my hands something to do while my eyes are working for a living.

This is all just biding time, of course, while the yarn and roving that I dyed scarlet dries. I'm hoping that tonight I can spin some scarlet and gold thick-and-thin and then tomorrow I can start a new top down Beret. I am so excited by the look of one I knitted for my niece for her birthday that I can't wait to start putting these on Etsy. And now, this isn't a picture of the one I made for the niece. This is a beret pattern that is gorgeous but is more work than I care to spend on something I'd sell because I simply cannot charge what it costs me to make.

Two Successful Experiments

Couldn't Believe My Eyes

You know how you read things and say to yourself, "Sure that could happen." But when you sit down to replicate what you've read there's that nasty little voice that says, "Maybe someone else can do this, but that's not me."?

That happened to me while I was weaving this scarf from Bernat Baby Sport and some Pink/Red/Off-White hand-spun of mine. The original piece looked too flimsy and tacky and ugly to amount to anything. I was sure I was wasting my time. But I kept going. Once run through the washer to felt it, I got this. Now I admit, it's not going to win any national beauty contests, but when I sit down to the loom again I won't be smacked in the gut by despair. Lesson Learned: If nobody's eye is going to be put out, go ahead and run with it. It might work.

Now that I know that this technique really works and I can really do it, I'll be spinning specific yarns in felting and non-felting and feltyish versions in fun funny colors and eventually go to town with this one.

This scarf is currently not in the store ... if you're interested let me know.

From a Different Point of View

I know something is going to be fun when I immediately start thinking how to approach it from the backside or the top or the bottom ... the astrophysics of knitting. You may recognize the "blossoms" on the end of this skinny scarf. They're a different take on the modular shells from the Isis Scarf and the Isis Cuffs that are currently available at Artisan Local Gift Gallery in Janesville. Again, I'm using my hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn for this fun project. I'll be labeling it and taking it in to the Gallery next week and will post here when it's available there. Same thing goes, though .... if you're interested in this piece let me know.

ALGG
If you're like me and not always interested enough to click a link, but still wouldn't mind seeing a picture, here's the Main Street entrance of Artisan Locale Gift Gallery in Janesville.

And here's the view from the river side.

The cooperative shop is located in a historic building which has something to do with Mr. Jane, the settler for whom the city is named. I'll get more data and report next post. I realized after I downloaded the image from the camera and cropped it for inclusion here that the street address is 6. I think I need to find out if there are any apartments upstairs that are available for rent, and if they are done in kubrick-nouveau-modern-continental style. And yes. City Hall does have a dome.

Updating Prodigal Sock

I'm still in the process of updating the Website. I'm altering the "Store" and making other needed renovations to make it load a tad faster. Until next time ...

Be Seeing You!