Undetermined (Tunisian) Entrelac

Earlier in the month I re-visited a technique that I wanted to learn about - Tunisian entrelac.  Typically entrelac is made from knit.  When I first heard of it I wasn't yet knitting so I said, "O that's neat, guess I won't be doing this anytime soon." and forgot about it.  So when I heard about a crocheted version I had to jump on it!  Being a lover of all things Tunisian crochet I always jump at the chance to try out anything with it.

I grabbed some scrap yarn to fiddle around with and came up with this:

It's not done yet (I ran out of yarn) and I'm not sure quite what it will become but for now it'll lay hibernating.

January Updates

Starting off 2012 right!  So far everything today has been on time work-wise, good start!

December was very hectic here with three custom orders and two pre-fabricated ones.  Some hiccups in the design process caused a few kinks, but everything was finished on time (we thank long work hours for that!)  I made the executive decision to put off crafting gifts I'd been planning to finish orders so a good part of January is going to be dedicated to finishing just those things.  After the initial gift run through is caught up - including a huge baby shower gift and one final cross stitch sign (we had more but they require photo manipulation first) we're going to re-evaluate our queue's order and rearrange some choices in what will be worked on come February.

Some craft/business resolutions for 2012...

• Finally catch up on our data entry for receipts etc, basically have our books in order and revamp older versions of spreadsheets to something more streamline with the aid of our billing agent.
• Defeat the queue monster...or at least tame it.
• Lots of sales (of course!)
• Make a few things for me.
• Start gifts earlier this year!

Until February!

Final Order of 2011!

As 2011 draws to a close I finish our final custom order (and right on time too!)  The unsurprisingly popular armwarmers we've taken to making are finally done, but not without some troubleshooting.  The original pattern, by Coty Cockrell, features a differently stitched gusset (which we changed in this version to match the 1x1 ribbing of the rest of the body of the armwarmer) and is "generically" sized.  We've figured out a custom sizing system which is working quite well.

The other changes I had hoped to make - including creating it in Seed Stitch - did not quite work.  The drawing up of the ribbing cinched the size to a more fitted constituency (hence why your socks generally have a ribbed pattern on the cuff), Seed Stitch does not do this, leaving the fabric flat and unstretched...and decidedly longer when cast on at the same amount.  After started twice and frogging twice it was decided that this order (which had a definite finite deadline) was not the time to experiment.  Though we hope to in the future...


The variegated yarn also made for a fun odd diagonal stripe pattern!

Happy Stitching in 2012!

Christmas Orders O My!

Usually orders pick up during the holiday season, last minute gifts and the ease of online shopping.  This year seems to have come a little late however.  Thus far in the last two months I've had 4 custom order requests, 5 if I count the few months before.  They've consisted of a scarf, hat, amigurumi bunny, and two sets of armwarmers.  Knit also seems to be more popular this year as 4 of the 5 orders was knitted.  All in all I'm very happy to be having these orders, as well as having various pre-fabricated stock orders too (namely our Tree Frog Trio cross stitch and one of the gabus from our quartets).

With the coming of the end of the year we hope to be finished updating all of our stock, in all our store venues and our official site.  Also after the holidays we'll be taking a week break from projects to get some financial details tended to (namely prepping all of our past paperwork).

Saucy Mermaid Mitts - Pt 1

With the holiday season, and a new friendship with a talented beader and wire artist, comes  a new custom order.  One of my favorite items to make are a pair of armwarmers.  The original pattern is simple and basic, however I have much altered in and with this particular run through I will even more heavily altering it.  I'm using a seed stitch rather than ribbing and have devised a way to make a custom fit.  Another variance I'm putting on the pattern is for the gusset (where the thumb goes) in line with the rest of the pattern.

Melli has chosen a love blue and green variegated acrylic made by Michaels Loops & Threads Impeccable Worsted - a personal favorite yarn of mine.

The swatch made helps in establishing the proper sizing and for me is very important as I tend to knit very tightly.  (I will also point out that this is a vast improvement over the first squares I knitted which were typically entirely too loose!)