CUPCAKES!!! With a snazzy free printable.

We're kicking off the busy season at work today.  I won't go into details (they're the boring kind, not the "if I told you I'd have to kill you" kind), but the season goes by the acronym "SWT."  The "S" stands for summer - not that it's REMOTELY summery here in Kyiv at the moment, but it's essentially us gearing up for the summer.

So I decided to celebrate the kickoff by bringing cupcakes to work.  Cupcakes with RIDICULOUS CUPCAKE TOPPERS!!!  Muahahahahaaaaaaa.......

Click here to download the PDF file.

Folks, this is my first go creating printables, so please pardon the crude design.  I rather dig the crude design, actually.  I feel like toppers for cupcakes meant to celebrate the insane season at work sort of ought to look like they were drawn in crayon by a 4-year-old.  I figure none of you will have much use for cupcake toppers that say "SWT," so I'm just including a sheet of all-purpose "OMG" toppers for download.  If you DO happen to be in my same boat, though, and actually want SWT cupcake toppers, send me an email and I will totally hook you up.

You'll find cupcake topper printables online in perfect cirlce-shapes or even scalloped flowerdy-shapes.  These require a special paper punch to cut out neatly.  I do not own a special paper-punch (I'm a scrapper, for sure, but I am Not.  A.  Scrapbooker).  So I designed these to be cut into squares on straight lines between the suns.  Like with scissors.  You're welcome.

A lot of people tape these to lollipop sticks.  Some people tape them to cut-up popsicle sticks.  I figured I should be able to find toothpicks at the grocery store, but I was WRONG!!!  I've seen them at restaurants, I looked in all of the logical places, but the score wound up Kyiv 1, Sasha 0.  Fortunately, decapitated Q-tips will also do, in a pinch.

Shared on...

Brown Things

I was supposed to go to a sort of folk-harp masterclass on Sunday morning.  So I grab my harp, hop into my car, get horribly lost and miss the class.  As a consolation prize, I took my husband, who shall remain nameless, to The Sow's Ear for yarn and chai, both of which he enjoys.  Did I win the nameless husband lottery or what?

So I spent the $30 that I didn't get to blow on the class on yarn.  Nice fall yarn, unfortunately, and I'm knitting something devastatingly simple, so expect a rather unseasonal free pattern to emerge before long.  :-)  I'm going to be nice to myself, knit for myself calm and easy before getting back into the "knitting for publication" groove.  I have ideas, but I'm not going to push them out just yet.

I finally bought yarn.  Oh, that feels good.  And what yummy yarn it is.  Merino wool, alpaca and silk.  Sulka.  Yes.

And This Is Why You Swatch

Update on Person Cozy: it'll be a while.

I didn't swatch. Rather, I used my hot water bottle cozy as a swatch to figure out gauge and how the yarn would behave after blocking. I figured this was perfectly reasonable - I was using the same yarn, same size needles, same stitch pattern - the only difference was the colorway. And oh, what a difference it made!

Berroco Peruvia in "sea turtle" is soft, squishy, warm, luscious with just enough of a halo to make it cozy. In black, however, it is scratchy, straw-like, less elastic, itchy and hairy. "Halo" is not the word - it's hairy. I noticed the difference early on while knitting - the yarn wasn't as soft, it was hairier, it was splittier than when I'd knit it in "sea turtle." I figured it would all even out after blocking. I was a fool.

The lesson I have learned, and I hope you'll all learn from my mistake, is to SWATCH!!! Swatch even when you don't think you need to. Switching to a new yarn of the same weight? SWATCH!!! Switching to a new colorway that feels slightly different? You're not crazy - SWATCH!!! I feel like I've flushed an itchy, hairy sweater's worth of yarn down the toilet. Ugh.

But in reality, I haven't. I have a prototype, I tried it on. I now know that the basic design works the way I wanted it to. I now know that if I raise the neckline and shorten the shoulder straps, it will look perfect. I now know exactly how much negative ease I want (it fits great width-wise, but the black yarn had less vertical stretch than the green yarn). I will find suitable yarn, I will swatch, I will knit a perfect and glorious Person Cozy, and it will be good. Someday. When I can afford the yarn. Like the phoenix, Person Cozy will rise again!

My "To Knit" List

I'm focusing very deliberately on my own designs these days (many of which I can't tell you about yet, but boy am I getting this coy smile down). As a result, it's been sort of a while since I've knit a pattern by anyone else! I think it's important that I continue to knit other people's designs not just for designer solidarity, and not just because there are so many beautiful things out there that I want but did not design. Knitting other people's patterns is how I learn new techniques and construction methods. It's how I push my envelope, and it's how I'm able to expand what I'm able to design myself.

I've been drooling over some patterns by Ysolda Teague, for instance. I've never knit toys or anything stuffed before, and I know at least two little boys who really need a handmade stuffed elephant. I've not knit a slouchy, beret style hat either, and she has some really nice ones. I'll go with a lacier one, I think, maybe Ishbel because I need to flex my lace chops some more. I should try out a shawl too, circles and triangles. Maybe Bethany Kok's Shipwreck.

I've never done much with color, but I'd like to work it into my knitting more. I may start with Paper Dolls, by Kate Davies. Owls (scroll down from "Paper Dolls") will happen as well, oh yes it will, though I don't need practice cabling. I just love it, and it needs to happen.

It will be a slow, slow process, working through this list, both because it's a rather expensive list and because I do intend to continue focusing on my own designs.

On and Off the Needles

Did you think I meant that I'm on and off the needles? Because that would have been a hilariously inaccurate misconstrual! I am very much on the needles. On them like a drug. Here's what's off, though:

That's my Foliage. I wore it on the bus this morning, and who should step onto the bus as I sat in my morning fog but some random stranger wearing the same hat in a nice, warm yellow! I was delighted, and kept awkwardly trying to catch her eye to flash her my "Hey, we have the same hat which is cooler because we both obviously made the hats as well!" smile, but to no avail. She never looked at me, and I started to feel weird and stalkerish, so I gave up. It was a bit of a let-down, in the end. Now for what's on my needles:

Meet "Bluebonnets." If this turns out as nicely as I think it will, I may offer it for sale. We'll see. It's going to be a headband with two lacy bluebonnets knit down its length. This should be a great beginner lace project, and a really quick knit. I'm knitting it in Paton's bamboo/silk blend. It's shiny and slippery and smooth and silky and I'm really falling in love with the idea of bamboo yarn, not just from an ecological standpoint, but from a purely aesthetic one as well.

I have a number of larger-scale projects in the planning and knitting stages as well, but I can't tell you about them yet. Rest assured, I am smiling coyly as I type this.