Surprises!

I've been meaning to post for many days now. But for those of you that didn't know February 10th, I got proposed to by my wonderful boyfriend and I said yes! I couldn't be more thrilled because he pampered me that day with a day out with the girls shopping then spending the rest of the day glamming me out. I've never felt better and was totally taken by surprise.

So I've been busy lately with being engaged and spending some time with my new fiancee now that we are officially that. And really looking towards the future and what our plans are. I've pretty much given him the yarn business plan and he is up for it. But there's also life plans too. Like looking for bigger rental and setting up in a more proper enviroment. Baby Chase is well on his way to talking and walking although I think he is terrified of letting go and walking but is definitely picking up on language. Especially yelling. He has that down!
Knitting wise I started on this capelet:

It's Kathy Kelly Cabled Capelet and it was an enjoyable knit. I've really liked it, I had done a few mods but nothing really drastic, just switched the needle size, and made the border garter band with buttonholes. I had been doing good so far, even found a few errors. But then I've hit a snag and am just not sure how to go along. Something must have gotten messed up a few rows back and it upset me a little because I had a long of energy going into this project. I'm thinking of frogging it and doing something else with that yarn but I'm not sure yet. I wanted a lot of cables in a worsted weight shawl and I couldn't at the time buy Four Seasons by Alana Dakos. (It's my dream to knit up since I first saw the Mystery Shawl a long.) I missed it mainly because I couldn't find my size 8 knitting needles! And I still haven't. So I don't know what I want to do. I have some yarn that I want to use after I do something with it to bring it a little more color depth to it and I guess I'm going to have to get down and buy some another size 8 needles.
Which brings me to more important news!

I've started my own Etsy shop for hand dyed yarn and finished items! Above is a few of my first colorways. Left to right is A Midsummer's Night's Dream, Surfer's Wave, Black and Yellow, Black and Yellow, and Rose Petals.  Now there's two things I want to mention is that 1. Knitpicks has such a fast service for priority shipping. I ordered Thursday morning and recieved it Friday afternoon! I was beyond amazed. That's the perks of living so close to Columbus where the warehouse is, I guess. And 2. In my master plan I was suppose to start hand dyeing at 5 years down the road but I've decided I should jump on the bandwagon now. Foremost because a lot of my designs have taken backseat because I haven't had the yarn to inspire me to jump up and make things. But now with just that one skein I test dyed I already have a design ready to be casted on. And it makes me excited about designing more interesting things than I have lately. And that color is killing me!

I do still have the toddler socks pattern to write up and share for FREE on here on the blog. I haven't yet gotten down to it, pattern writing can be a progress blocker sometimes, but I will get to it here soon, I have another pair of socks that are on the needles that I've have a pattern to write up soon too, I've just been so busy with other things that I haven't caught up on everything. Trying to do so much knitting wise. Keep on knitting! Next post I'll show some of my other new colorways and more knitting!

Updates, and THROWBACK THURSDAY (past projects you haven't yet seen)

Waiting on tax time is a real struggle! Especially when I have Knitter's Pride Karbonz interchangeables and double pointed needles waiting for me in my Amazon cart! I also have several knitting site's (EatSleepKnit, Knitpicks to name a couple) wishlists full of yarn, I'm anxiety awaiting.

But anyways, some of the projects that I've working on haven't all been strictly knitting design work or even knitting! I have made some crocheted potholders using the ever so simple Tunisian crochet stitch, they are double sided and slip stitched wrong sides together in Sugar 'n' Cream cotton. Super simple, took me only a day and very little cotton to make both. I used 1 1/4 balls for the body and a little bit of matching yarn for the border. Even added a small loop to hang. I plan on making matching ones when we move but as for now these ones are fine.

I also dipped my hand into some brand new techniques.

If you follow pretty much any knitter especially some of the greats (cough, cough West Knits) then you know that brioche knitting is all the rage these days. So I had to try it out for myself.

My first attempt was pretty crude, even though I had read many articles and how to's tutorials to know that it was going to be a little looser gauge than traditional knitting. I was skeptical. So I casted on for a baby sized hat and ended up with a hat that could fit my fiancee's large head. I learned my lesson than. I frogged that hat and made this one next:

I knitted this hat out of Lion Brand Wool-ease in, I believe, Gray Heather and Oxford Grey. I didn't make it baby size because one of my fiancee's co-workers had seen the first hat and wanted one for himself, so I make this one with an adult in mind and just casted on fewer stitches with smaller needles. The stitches are much tighter and well structured. The guy asked for a pompom so I whipped one up to throw on top. I haven't yet been able to gift it to him.

I also tried double knitting on this little piece here. I couldn't resist adding a color-work. It's something I could see myself making some cowl double knitting designs but right now there aren't any inprogress yet. Check out my Instagram (@hammydesigns) to see what I'm currently using this for.

I also tried out thread crocheting with a pattern off Ravelry (click link for the pattern name).

It was a lot of fun but for sure a lot of work to make a small piece of clothing. It was worth it though to see the end result.  I have already started on another crochet thread project for my future mother-in-law, it just needs starched and a good blocking before you can even sneak a peek at it.

I am going to start a new closing for this blog by having a: 

#Knittersofinstagram Knitter of the Week

 it'll be someone who I've recently found by browsing Instagram and happened upon them and if you ever need some knitting inspiration their feed will certainly help you out. I know that I spend wayyy too much time on Instagram, I'm willing to admit that. I got two today, @una04 and @dankfiber

Both of these people have such beautiful knit work I am jealous! The yarn and pattern are on my queue for Suke-Suke Cowl similar to the one @dankfiber made!

My next post will probably be in a few days when either I have goodies to show off or a pattern uploaded. I do have a blanket design on the needles and some pattern submissions in the works to submit in the next couple days, but nothing else to show. Just waiting, waiting on being able to buy yarn. . .