Listing my pattern on etsy means that there was an awful lot of people who said some amazingly nice things to me. Most of them, of course, were my friends. Along with all of the usual I got a handful of suggestions as well. Some of them were ideas that I had thought about anyway, like writing some free patterns to offer here on the site. I also had a few requests for crochet patterns.

So I created Chomsky tonight to be a crochet pattern that I will be offering for free on the free patterns page or you can download him [here].

One of the best parts of coming up with patterns is thinking about how I want them to look. When Chomsky was originally designed I was sitting at Starbucks with one of my best friends enjoying a coffee (or two). I love doodling on my iPad, but I’m a terrible artist. Truly horrible. One of the best things about being terrible at drawing is that my knit and crochet little monster don’t need to be beautiful on paper… or screen. They only need to be feasibly transferable to yarn in some form or another.

Chomsky ended up being a bit darker in color than my original drawing, but I rather like the darker shade of yarn. I also wasn’t 100% sure how to make the feet work. I tried to crochet some more 3-D feet, but it just wasn’t working. Instead I ended up felting the yarn, so I gave up on crocheting some little feet… which really are more toes. Though I’m not disappointed by how his feet ended up after all.

This little guy is a pretty fast project. I almost want to try a different yarn and see if I can make him in a bigger size. Though I’m really loving my teeny little monsters.

Don’t be afraid to send a message with pictures of your completed Chomsky’s! I look forward to seeing what colors you’ve chosen!

I do the largest portion of my creating late at night. I’m often so excited I break out the camera and try to go take some photos immediately. Except the pictures never turn out quite the way I want, but I make do. A little bit of playing around in photoshop and I can get them to be a little bit better.

Except they don’t look like the photos I see on etsy. Or ebay. Or craftgawker. And this bothers me.

So I googled how to take better photos and found a handful of really good ideas for transforming a box into a little macro photo studio. I also read few times that sunny days in the shade are the best. Except with it being the rainy season, even the sunny days tend to be rather windy. I’d prefer not to bother with the wind, but I do get some good sun in some rooms of the house. So maybe with the right equipment, and some ‘daylight’ bulbs for my desklamp, I might be able to produce some better photos without having to buy a new camera.

Here’s to hoping. I’m on my way to the craft store to pick up some supplies now.

 This is my first venture into selling patterns. Hopefully the momentum sticks and I’ll be motivated to not only design the others I’ve got sketches for, but to get them all typed up and ready. I learned a lot about creating this PDF for Pepe. I learned a lot about taking pictures (even bad ones). I learned about taking notes (as I stated in the previous post).

But most of all I’m looking forward to seeing more Pepe’s in different sizes and colors!

When I first made Pepe, I took a few pictures on my iPhone, but I never expected those to actually be the photos used for the pattern. Especially since I took no shots of his tushy. And that I was playing around with HDR settings because I was taking the photos under some pretty shitty lighting. When I imported those same iPhone photos to my computer and got to look at them in Photoshop, I started to realize it was absolutely horrible. I tried playing around with hue, saturation, sharpness, etc, but not a single one of them actually was salvageable in their current state. So I dug out my digital camera (which I found absolutely amusing it was stashed with my sonic screwdrivers) and went to take some pictures. Except, I had no where to take them!

I went looking for a light colored sheet. And a place with some decent lighting. Something to help prop up the mini monsters. It became this whole process to get some decent pictures. I haven’t actually looked at them yet, since I felt this need to blog about it. But next on the list is to go through all of the new photos and see what I can use in the pattern (and whether or not I will have to take more).

I am thankful for a handful of things though. My notes. I had a bunch of extra notes, which helped make the writing of the pattern process go smoothly. Different colored pens. I started writing my pattern with the lightest color (a green), then used pink, blue, and black. This might sound kind of ridiculous, but when I was frogging bits and starting again, it meant I could make a few minutes and still be able to understand what I was writing because I knew what order the colored pens were used in. Extras and tidbits. I’m hoping that these will help make things easier on people who want to recreate Pepe in a similar way. I’m glad I took note of these things and how I achieved it.

I’m hoping to be able to get the pattern finished, ask a few friends to proof-read, and then post on etsy and ravelry by Friday.

Here’s an example of when it worked out well. A holiday Xmas wreath I made quite a few years ago for a silent auction at work. This was taken on a really crappy camera phone (nothing like the cameras available on even iPhones now). But this is an example of a time when my experimentation… just worked!

I wish I had some photos of the failed experiments, but I don’t have any of those. Because who wants pictorial evidence of one’s failures?? Yeah, me either. Once I started making amigurumi dolls, I wanted to keep going. I wanted to make my own. I had all of these great plans to write patterns for these amazing ideas in my head! Unlike a million other creative outlets, crochet was something I was actually good at doing.

Mirella the bunny (named after a friend of mine, who would wear a dress like this in a heartbeat!). Another experiment where I took 2-4 different amigurumi patterns and worked/re-worked bits to fit into what I wanted/needed. She turned out well, better than I expected, but I stopped writing down what I was doing.

But I was lazy. And tired. And getting old. My hand were hurting after a couple of hours of working. What I wanted was to keep going and going, but my hands and wrists argued with me and chose otherwise. Enter: Knitting. Knitting has been amazing for creativity, as well as my hands and wrists. I don’t get the same pain crafting with needles as I did with crochet hooks. And so… the love began.

So, to make a really long story short, after working on many different Danger Crafts monster patterns, I decided that no only do I absolutely love making monsters, but I liked the knitting portion as well. And thus began the process of making dolls with knitting instead of crochet. I had only seen fairly ugly and unattractive dolls that were knit, and my brain just couldn’t understand how to get knitting to look good in smaller, more intricate patterns in the same way that crocheted dolls did. But Rebecca Danger’s monster dolls (and even her other animal dolls) are very cute. And definitely NOT ugly.

I don’t know where the idea for mini monsters was born. I think it was a little bit of making ornaments and the simplicity of it. The fact that it was a fast knit, and I was able to create an object, a finished object, in a couple of days. Before, like say, Mirella, it would take me at least 2 weeks to complete. I prefer the finished doll within a couple of day over weeks worth of work.

And so the mini monsters project was born. But now I’m stuck with a different dilemma. Do I type up the notes and patterns and offer them for sale? What do I offer for free to bring people to the site? I mean, it seems only fair that I should offer at least a handful of my patterns for anyone and everything. But at the same time I’d also like my time and energies to yield me a little bit of money.

So I’m stuck between trying to figure out which patterns I should sell for a small fee, and which patterns I should offer for free. Needless to say, that’s the only reason why Pepe‘s pattern is not up and available just yet. I also finished Madeline, but I’m saving those photos just now. I’ve got 4 more designs drawn and will likely spend the remainder of the week working on at least the two mini monsters patterns that I plan on offering for free. Until then I’m hoping I can remember to blog more often.

I also got to making some Teddy Ornaments as an Xmas gift. And it got me to thinking about smaller projects that were quicker to finish, but still really cute and adorable!
So I decided to start making some teeny monsters. Including the writing of the pattern! Which if you know me at all, you know that I always start with the best pattern-writing intentions… and almost always stop mid-way through and I give up on the taking notes bit. So, after quite a lot of experimentation, I came up with Pepe. He’s very cute, and I really like him. I hope other people do too.

Here’s Pepe waving hello to everyone. I’m rather fond of his smirky face, and smudge.

And here’s Pepe in my hand for sizing reference.

I still need to go through and type up the pattern, but I will likely get that done tomorrow sometime.

I’m hoping to get some of these projects finished over the coming days, in between all the new stuff I need to get started on.

Today I spent most of the day finishing up the knit monster twins. Their faces are glued on, and last thing I need to do is add some threading along the edges of the felt to keep those edges from coming up. One of the funniest photos I took was of the book and box smashing their faces with their legs sticking out.

Since all the knitting was done, I started up on another monster which is turning into a much cuter thing than I expected. The twins and the new one are for the kids of a friend (the older sister can’t get nothing just because of the new babies, right?!). After I finish up this monster I’m starting on WendyKnits’ Summer Mystery Shawlette.

I’m kind of excited. I’ve never participated in a mystery anything with regard to knitting, so this will be a fun project. Not to mention that I’ll get to use some of my stash yarn (since I have SO much of it).

I’ll share photos of all the monsters once mom, dad and babies have been able to see them all. Until then, I’ll try to get some photos of the other UFOs I’m getting finished.

I took a couple of days off before starting the next one, and this guy is a beast!! 60 rows for the belly portion! He’s taking much longer to complete but I’ve discovered a handful of things while working on the new monster.

First: I can knit without looking at. My hands so long as it’s only knit stitches (and since I’m working in the round, the monster is done in stockinette). And Second: I can knit and read at the same time. This is amazing news, especially for doing redundant things like making big bellies. It does seem to slow my mnitting down a little bit, but I’m able to do two things at once. This is HUGE for me. I truly never thought I would be that knitting, believing that reading and knitting was an exaggeration. It really isn’t. And it’s really possible.

And now for Dot.

Recently I decided to start knitting some dolls instead. Particularly Rebecca Danger‘s monster dolls. I’ve been wanting to make some of the adorable monsters from The Big Book of Knitted Monsters, and since S and I decided to take a break from the imopssible eye project (that’s worthy of another blog entry, to be honest).

I started late last night, after having been up for some 30+ hours and accomplished a foot. I knew that I wanted to get this adorable thing finished.

I’ve never been the type to read ahead, so instead I jumped right in. I also had no idea what was going to happen when it came time to reaching the top of the head. But when I found myself at that part of the pattern I almost gasped. I needed to do a 3-needle bind-off. Shit.

I don’t like not knowing everything, or being able to figure it out on my own. So this forced me to break out the iPad and do some searching. So a quick google search landed me at one of my favorite knitting sites because the videos are excellent. The casting off page at Knittinghelp.com gives the best videos of how to do this. And so, the top of my monster’s head is finished.

I’ve just started on one of the arms and can’t wait to finish this little guy off. Can’t wait.

So about a week ago I went to the LYS with a good friend. We were sitting around discussing how bored we were during the day (seeing as we’re both currently unemployed) and we decided to look around at what’s available in a brick and mortar shop. Mind you, I’ve always been an online yarn buyer, outside of the stuff you can pick up from Michaels for quick baby blanket projects. My snooty yarn lover life started with a couple of online yarn stores* and progressed from there. Some of the yarns available at the LYS were lovely, but the selection was fairly dismal. We had just missed the Sit & Knit, and I imagine those left were all regulars.

We both found our way over to the Noro. On the surface some Noro feels really rough to the touch. The different fibers used that make the yarn so lovely to look at is also what makes the yarn feel scratchy. I keep hearing all these great things about Noro but had never seen any up close and personal. I’ve been interested in making the Noro Striped Scarf with other yarn, but figured why not try tonmake the scarf with actual Noro. I picked up 4 balls of Noro, 2 each in two different colorways (Silk Garden 267 and 87). I went with the size 7 knitting needles like suggested on the yarn.

I looked up a video and some blog posts on how to start and what to do for the transition between the two different colored yarns. As well as how to do a 1×1 rib cast-on. almost at once I started to notice the lovely way the colors transitioned and how quickly it worked up. It was surprising how fast I was able to power through the scarf. On the second day of consistently working on only this scarf, I was casting on the second skeins of each color. I was also surprised to find that both colors worked up equally and finished at exactly the same moment. The balls looked liked one would end up having more leftover than the other, but that was not the case even up to the very end.

I did notice that I knit much more loosely with this 1×1 rib pattern but that the fabric it created was so lovely and thick. The scar,f after finishing off, was much softer on the skin than I thought it might be after man-handling the yarn strands. The color transition is amazing! I loved how the darks and lights of the one colorway (267, which appears to be a discontinued colorway**) were paired with the brights colors of the other colorway (87).

One of the other great things I enjoyed about this pattern was the brainlessness of it (and I don’t mean that in a bad way). While creating an amazing item, it is easy enough to knit up in public while continuing to have converations with people. I was even able to help a good friend work through the mistakes in her scarf. I finished off while sitting at Starbucks (Sbux for short) with some friends. I immediately threw the scarf around my neck and it was unbelievably warm. I think it has and will become my goto scarf for everyday wear. I’m stoked to get started on a similar scarf but done in Knitpick’s Chroma.

* Particularly Woolgirl (back when she had a shop) and The Loppy Ewe. And after awhile Knitpicks for affordable and consistent availability in colors.
** This is actually a really lovely colorway because of the soft browns, medium browns and blacks. It would be a good secondary color for so many other colors in the Silk Garden line.

Edit: So I started pimping my Noro Striped Scarf not long after it was finished because we started getting some pretty horribly cold weather again. It was perfect and worked so well. I got a lot of compliments on it because of it’s awesome colors. I can’t wait to get a few more of these worked up for next winter. I also fixed the pictures that were broken for some strange reason.