Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Project Updates

So I haven't posted for a while, partly because of other commitments and partly because I have been slack in my project making mojo. Right now I have been doing boku overtime on some Christmas stockings that are for a neighbor of a friend. The foreign ground of Fair Isle Knitting both thrills and intimidates me. Previously I have dabbled in it a bit but never to the extent of three X-mas stockings!!! Most of the work that has needed to be done up until now has been arranging charted designs and purchasing the right materials. I have a basic traditional pattern to work from which is especially helpful in determining the number of stitches to start with, what type of yarn to work with and the general look I should be going for. The project began with me being handed four older stockings that belong to a family and they all have a particular look similar to the old 1945 Personalized Christmas Stocking from the Woman’s Home Companion. To match the others I went to my LYS to seek out some roughish, sturdy worsted weight yarn in the limited color palette of Christmasy red, green, white and blue. Nature Spun worsted weight turned out with just the right type and colors. I purchased two skeins of each. Hopefully this will be enough for three stockings. For the past several days now seeking out charts for just the right motifs and drawing everything out has kept me very busy. Like I said, I have never done this before but I still have enough confidence to do the job. Compensation has come up a couple times before in conversation with my contact and so far I have yet to mention a number. It is kind of a touchy subject for me because I really value the experience and opportunity to do this for a friend but want to make sure that I at least get the value of the yarn back. Is $80 a crazy amount to have spent on the yarn?? Originally we were to go to the store together and pick out the yarn but it is always so hard to coordinate schedules with others when you have so many kids. Also I saw exactly what I needed in just the right amounts when I was at the yarn store and wanted to give myself plenty of time to get things going. So now I have everything in motion and of course I can't find the dpn's I specifically bought to do the knitting with. I'm of to do some house rearranging.... pictures to follow soon.