Finished projects, Progress, and Travels

After a wonderful nine day vacation with my Mom, I'm back home and hitting the ground running!  The hot summer weather isn't helping me out any at the moment with my current to-do list of cleaning, sorting, gardening and other yard work.  I returned from green, humid Washington and British Columbia to find that Missoula is roasting, quite literally!  My lawn is currently in intensive care, and the garden got so dry even the dandelions kicked it.  Even with all of this, it is nice to be home.

The good news about this stint of hot weather, is that I'm much more likely to be found hiding inside from the heat, sitting and knitting a spell.  I do have a lot to catch up on!  I'm really quite happy with the number of projects I have to work on,  I like keeping busy and really love that people's orders are pushing me to knit things I haven't tried before.  It makes me realize both how much I've learned and the skill I've gained (since I can keep up with and figure out most patterns now) and at the same time how much more there is for me to learn and know.  

Tension has been my most recent challenge.  Since I injured my hand I've spent a good amount of time knitting with a brace on to keep my thumb from moving.  I've had to learn to hold the yarn differently as I go and this effected the tension of my stitches, and threw off the gauge for a few of my pieces.  I was basically forced to re-learn controlling tension as I went.  It was a good exercise in patience and also a good exercise in focus.  A lot of the time I'm able to knit on auto-pilot when working with simpler patterns, my lack of attention at times caused a couple sessions of starting over.  

I did get some knitting done during my travels, though not nearly as much as I expected to.  There was too much to see and explore, so I found myself only having time to sit and work while in the car in transit from one spot to another.  I only managed to finish one project, and nearly finish a second, which I just completed earlier today.

(I apologize for the poor quality of these photos, they were taken with my cell-phone, and I'll upload better ones later!)  The first projects I finished was this set of arm-warmers commissioned by my friend Maia, for a friend of hers.  They're made from the same organic-cotton yarn that I knitted a pair of for her much earlier.  Maia's were actually the first pair of arm-warmers I made, and I was inspired to make more from there.  

I have gotten better with practice, and these are better quality than Maia's original pair.  The thumb-hole is a more recently learned addition, the cable work is a bit cleaner and they're also slightly longer.  All in all I'm very happy with the way they turned out.  Knitting with this lovely blue cotton during Cancer was really a joy, and allowed doing energy work for comfort, warmth and psychic protection on this project very easy and natural.  It has taken me awhile to finally finish this project, and I hope that she and her friend are happy with the outcome! 

The second project is these cozy baby booties commissioned by my friends Brad & Eric, to give as a gift at a baby shower coming up.  These were made on a bit more of a time crunch since they need them by the end of the month.   

The color is a bit washed out in this photo, so the yarn looks more blue than the actual lilac purple that it is.  These were made from organic naturally died cotton and were super-fun to make.  They didn't go quite as quickly as I thought that they would, but they are the first pair I've ever made.  They need a couple of buttons for the straps and then they'll be ready to send off on Monday.  

I did use a pattern for these, from an awesome book called "Natural Nursery Knits" by Erika Knight.  This wonderful collection of patterns were specifically written with various natural fibers in mind and I would highly recommend it.  These booties have lace stitching around the bottom part and are really precious.  They're impossible to knit up without charging them with abundant love and protection for a new life.  After talking with Brad today they have also agreed to commission the hat that goes with these as a set from the book since I have enough yarn left over and want to knit it up.  I'm really excited to start this project as soon as I'm finished with this update.  

I'm also quite excited to start working on the other sets of booties that Adam has commissioned me for, I'm going to try a couple of other styles of booties from patterns and maybe, once I have them figured out, modify some. 

In other excited news regarding babies, we have found out that my little sister is having a boy in December, so I can start dreaming up warm baby gear for him when I have time!  

I am still open for commissions and have several pairs of armwarmers for sale, so please do e-mail me if you have any questions or interest.

Till later, love, light, and blessings

~Datura

Online Beginnings, on the mend, and projects galore!

This blog is just one more addition to my starting to keep track of projects, thoughts and ideas online.  Not only will this blog serve as a way for my friends, family, and customers to keep track of what I'm working on, but also as a reminder to myself to work regularly on things and keep track of what I need to work on.  I'm currently in the middle of a year-long meditation on fiber arts, and am attempting to work on some kind of project daily, and working towards mastering knitting (something which really can only be accomplished after years and years of practice.)

I have recently had the misfortune of injuring my hand while putting up some heavy shelving for my Mom, this put me out of commission when it came to knitting projects for the first week of it, but happily I am now on the mend.  One of the amazing elders in my spiritual community, Delyla, has built a brace for me that keeps my injury from moving when I work, and thanks to her, I can knit while I heal.  I'm not as fast as I usually am, but I can still get things done.

On that note, it's a good thing too!  I have recently gotten several commissions, which is very exciting!  I work on projects in the order that I get them, unless a very advance time limit is given, in which case I'll work on those projects between other more pressing things.  I currently have several pairs of arm-warmers to knit up, and some to start yarn shopping for, a baby blanket, and as a new challenge: two orders for baby-booties!  I have made socks before, and made some muk-luks and moccasins in the past so I'm sure I'll be able to pick up the pattern. Also new, my friends Jessa and Shrandie have both requested snoods, which I still need to look into.  I think that they may be a project that's much easier done in crochet rather than with knitting. 

When I have time between these I'll also continue working up a stock of armwarmers, wristlets and gloves for sale.  I suspect that when the weather starts cooling they'll go pretty quickly.  Depending on how long they take to make I may start adding baby-booties to my stock up list as well.  

I will update soon with progress and more details on the projects listed above.  Until then I'll leave you all with some photos of finished armwarmers that I have fore sale at the moment.  If anyone is interested in pricing for any of these items, or commissioning me, please send me an E-mail or contact me on Facebook.

Blessed be!

~Datura

 

In the beginning...

I'm working on figuring this out!  Project updates and photos coming soon!