kimidawn24

Aug 21 2013

Cuff Chuffed

I’ve been keeping my knitting a little behind-the-scenes lately. The truth is, I’m planning a collection of knitting patterns and I don’t want to give all my secrets away before its even finished, but today I have a little peek at something I wanted to share.

This cuff has been a little bit of a learning process for me over the past few months. It all started out with a pretty basic idea for a pair of fingerless mitts with 1×1 twisted ribbing. Twisted ribbing is one of my favorite cuff/hem treatments, as I think it looks much neater than regular 1×1 ribbing. I started out working the mitt idea that was in my head and halfway through I ripped it back, knowing that I wanted to revise my stitch counts, but also because I became convinced that my design needed a little reworking. The idea was super cute but also super simple, and didn’t have enough “wow” factor that I felt it would entice people to purchase the pattern.

I needed to add an extra little kick to the design, so I started playing around with traveling twisted stitches and came out with the cuff you see above. In the end, this version of the mitt has been scrapped for with something totally different that I think works better, but I’m still in love with these traveling twisted stitches. I’m pretty sure this idea will work itself into another design soon, though maybe not on a pair of fingerless mitts.

Tagged knitting, madelinetosh, yarn

Aug 02 2013

2 Comments

Antics, baby knits, designing, Dogs, Family, gloves/mittens, Hats, knitting, Other Crafty Things, wool

Insta July

July brought the birth of our nephew Healy, who was promptly snuggled in a handknit wool blankie and has been bringing us all love and happiness nonstop ever since. I’ve also been spending lots of time with Joey as he gets ready to start touring with Midlake again soon. There have been lots of stolen moments between his rehearsals and my work schedule to get in as much time together as we can before he leaves. I was able to catch one of their production rehearsals the other day and I was blown away… I welled up with emotion and pride at how beautiful everything sounds and how hard these guys have been working to get this album to fruition, and its almost time! There’s even been a little bit of knitting and crafting in the wee hours before I go to sleep. I have some secret knitty-type things I’m planning that I’m super excited about but I just need to find a little more time to get them going. And of course I can always count on Henry’s silly antics. He’s such a ridiculously sweet and goofy dog and he just makes us laugh and smile every single day.

Jul 30 2013

1 Comment

Antics, designing, gloves/mittens, knitting

Gusseted

I spent the better part of my Sunday afternoon battling with a thumb gusset for a fingerless mitt I’m working on. On my first sad attempt, I was increasing too rapidly and the stitches were all bunched up. I probably shouldn’t even tell you the part about how my working yarn was clearly in the wrong spot when it was time to put the stitches on a holder…..

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiip!

Take two is looking much more like an actual thumb gusset, thank goodness!

Jul 27 2013

1 Comment

Antics, Dogs

A Saturday Drive With Henry

Blue skies, fluffy clouds

New smells to be sniffed on the breeze,

Velvety ears flapping in the wind,

and a fuzzy little chinny chin chin.

Jul 19 2013

1 Comment

Antics, designing, Hats, knitting

When All Else Fails, Knit Stripes

The intarsia was a big fail. Just a few rounds in, I had 15 different strands of yarn hanging from the work, getting so tangled I couldn’t take it. I ripped it back for probably the twentieth time and just called it a loss. The awesomely cute colorwork hat idea I had will just have to wait on the back burner for a while. After a few weeks of knit frustration where the only project I would let myself work on was this colorwork idea and nothing to show for it, I snapped. All I wanted to do was just KNIT SOMETHING. And so I knit stripes. Simple, soothing, stockinette stripes.

Yes I realize the pic is dark and grainy, and you can barely see the stripes, but have you ever tried snapping a one-armed selfie while standing next to your kitchen window hoping to get the few last rays of sunlight at 8:45pm before your poor neglected blog readers have to go yet another day without any knitting pictures, all the while trying to garner a demure smile?

Phew. I think I need to knit a few more “soothing” stockinette hats.

Jul 07 2013

2 Comments

Antics, Texas

Cactus Watch ’13

The little cactus sproutling that I thought was going to be a blossom turned out to be a little baby cactus! I’m way more excited about this than any normal person should be.

Jun 27 2013

1 Comment

Antics, designing, Dogs, Family, knitting, Texas, wool

Insta June

And just like that, June has come to a close. Any spare moment I had these past few weeks was spent seeking sun and fun or a bit of relaxation and conversation with good friends. I was inspired by a message to ‘walk in beauty,’ and so I took the time to savor the sounds of beautiful music made by people I love and adore, the splendor of heart stopping sunrises, the wonderful feel of squishy soft American-made wool in my hands and on my knitting needles, and the unexpected delight from discovering a tiny little cactus blossom sprouting from a cutting I planted at the end of last summer.

Walk in beauty, indeed.

Jun 24 2013

1 Comment

Antics, designing, Dogs, Hats, knitting, Texas, Yarn

On Summer, Swatching & Unconventional Yarn Holders

What was it I said at the end of May– something about looking forward to summertime? Oh yes, summer is in full effect here in Texas. So much that there has been an insanely negligible amount of knitting to show. I knitted a small swatch for a colorwork hat idea I’m working on, but the stranded method I had originally planned didn’t look very good as the floats were way too long, and duplicate stitching the color sections made it way too bulky, so I’m trying a different approach.

Have you ever tried intarsia in the round? I watched a video of someone doing it the other day and it blew my mind. I had no idea it was done with wraps and turns and knitting back and forth while the rest of the piece is worked circularly. Hopefully I will have more success with this method of adding some color to my knitting, because as of right now this hat is looking like a total snooze-fest.

Also, who needs a yarn bowl when you have a sleepy old basset? Five minutes after I took this picture he was wagging his tail and barking in his sleep. Oh Henry, you melt my heart with your sweetness.

Jun 17 2013

A Day at the Beach

We have some friends in town, Johan and Anna who are visiting from Sweden. Johan is here to record an album at Redwood and Anna is here visiting the states for the very first time. While the boys spend their days making some really beautiful music in the studio, my friend Felicia and I are doing our best to make sure Anna gets a good glimpse of Texas while she’s here. This weekend, we found ourselves sitting on the beach of a lake that felt like an ocean.

We packed ourselves into the car; I squeezed in alongside Anna, Felicia, and our friend Shayla and her two littles and we started making our way north towards the lake. It was a classic Texas summer day—bright blue skies with gorgeous white clouds and the feel of the hot hot sun on your skin. Anna had her camera out during most of the drive, snapping shots of the horses and cows that were grazing the pastures that lined the small farm roads.

We arrived at the swimming beach and made a quick dash to the water which was the perfect temperature for cooling off in the heat. Tons of bright umbrellas were staked in the sand and lots of excited swimmers were having a blast and splashing around on colorful inflatables. Kids were laughing, dogs were barking and families were grilling food and enjoying the sunshine.

Our day was full of so many fun memories: we swam out to the buoys, we caught a rogue dolphin inflatable and we grossed out when our toes touched the mossy rocks on the lake bottom. We made up silly water games and laughed really, really hard. And at the end of the day, we drove home sandy-footed and waterlogged and with that sleepy-happy feeling that comes from a day well spent with good friends.

PS- if you have some time, be sure to check out Johan and Anna’s websites linked above. Johan has an amazing voice and writes beautiful songs and Anna is a very talented painter who recently had her work on exhibition at the Louvre.

Jun 01 2013