Announcing Rogue Editing & Design

Hey, folks; Susan here, to let you know that I've launched a new site for my knitting and generally yarn-related activities! I may still post non-yarn-related things here on Two Piece Set, although as you've noticed traffic is pretty low around here these days, so I don't expect you to hold your breath. Instead, follow me over at www.RogueEdits.com, especially if you're looking for a tech editor or some fun new knitting patterns!

Here's what the new site offers:

• Patterns I've designed (both free and, soon, for-sale patterns)
• Showcase of patterns I've edited
• A blog about knitting, crochet, editing, designing, and fibery events and miscellany
• ...and more to come.

Note that I still don't accept Google-related questions on my personal sites, either here or at the new site. For anything Google-related please contact me and/or my co-workers through our Help Forum.

Urban Craft Uprising recap

Every time I go to a street fair or art fair I get a bunch of great business cards from the merchants & crafts people, expecting to blog about it... and then never do. Today I'm rectifying that with a recap of my two (yes, two!) days spent at Urban Craft Uprising this weekend!

Well, maybe not a recap. More like a shopping list for the future. :-) I got a lot of great Christmas gifts from the vendors, but of course there's always so much more you want to buy than you can really justify. Happily, there were a ton of people at Urban Craft Uprising and it was really great to see so many supporting our local artists and craftsters!! It almost makes one optimistic about making a living in the handmade business.

I did most of my shopping on Saturday, but was so impressed with the vendors that I came back early on Sunday to wait in line for a swag bag. My two hours in the cold ended up being well worth it.

Here are some of the vendors that most caught my eye:

• Imps & Monsters (Justin Hillgrove)
  Very cute & unique prints & paintings. A lot of his work has a dark or lonely quality to it, but then you'll find one that you can't help but smile at. I may or may not have gotten a few of these as Christmas presents. :-)
• Texture
  Comfy, classic, casual-chic clothing made in Bellingham. After ooh-ing and aah-ing over the booth on Saturday, I went back on Sunday and got this irresistible skirt. Their palazzo pants looked pretty cozy, too.
• Belle Epoch
  OMG feathers! This was another booth that I drooled over on Saturday and came back to on Sunday. They collect molted feathers from fowl and make them into rockin' jewelry and hair accessories. From long & dramatic to irresistibly iridescent, their stuff is eye catching in every form.
• Queen Bee
  Everyone I know was drooling over her baby-soft faux leather bags and their beautiful embroidery. I was lucky enough to get this adorable coin purse in the swag bag I got on Sunday (squee!). When I went over to thank her I think she giggled at how excited I was. :-)
• The Sprinkle Factory
  Jewelry that looks like CANDY! This stuff was seriously adorable and looked good enough to eat. They have all manner of rings, necklaces, clips, charms, etc. that look like cookies, cakes, lollipops, sushi, donuts, and more. I got my mom a cute necklace that I think her kids will like (she teaches at an elementary school).
• Foamy Wader
  Delicate, sophisticated gemstone jewelry. I got a koi necklace here for someone who hopefully doesn't read this blog. :-P
• Jewels Curnow
  I liked these folks' gemstone rings, and had an interesting chat with Robbie. This full lotus ring was one of my favorites. They also had these cool rings where the stone is set off to the side so it looks like it's sitting between your fingers.
• Mermaid Empire (Rachel Rader)
  Rachel makes these great little flowers out of polymer clay—her earrings & brooches in particular grabbed me. I love her use of color—she stacks three or four gradations of color together to create a lot of depth in such small objects. I love combination of solid colors so this was right up my alley.
• Bella Sisters
  Painfully adorable jackets. They take thrift store jackets & vests and make them into new, stylish, you'd-never-recognize-it fashion items by adding felt appliqués, lace, bustles, embroidery, and awesomeness. I didn't even look at the prices because I knew it would only make me sad... it was all lovely and oh-so-hip.
• Slow Loris
  Screen printed clothing of all colors & shapes. This rockin' polo shirt dress caught my eye immediately. I'm not really into the bicycles, though, so I discovered that the base garment (minus the screen printing) is on sale for $17 right now...

Sooooo now you know what to get me for my birthday (you've got two weeks!). ;-)

Fondue

This pattern has moved to http://www.rogueedits.com/patterns/fondue-hat/.

Joey

This pattern has moved to http://www.rogueedits.com/patterns/joey-hat/.

Karo Socken

This pattern has moved to http://www.rogueedits.com/patterns/karo-socken/.

Knitting breakthroughs

Ahh, the joys of being self-taught.

This week while poring over diagrams of a new knitting stitch I'm trying to learn, I realized that for the five years I've been knitting, I've been doing the most basic stitch—"the knit"—wrong.

Sigh. At least I figured it out before making a mess of my latest project. This is the first time I've tried anything that wasn't just a basic stockinette or seed stitch, so it never really mattered before.

Incidentally—although I don't think this had anything to do with my learning the stitch wrong—I taught myself to knit while I was in Paris, so my book is all in French. This means I don't really know any knitting vocabulary in English. For those interested, here's my new stitch:

The yarn is Plymouth baby alpaca grande paint, #8819. It's a bit expensive but is gorgeously soft (and the color is much better than this photo makes it out to be). Here's the stitch ("Grille ondulée"):

Cast on a number of stitches evenly divisible by 12.
1er rang: *4 mailles croisées à droite (glisser 2 m. en attente derrière le travail, tricoter les 2 m. suivantes à l'endroit, puis les 2 m. en attente), 4 m. endroit, 4 m. croisées à gauche (glisser 2 m. en attente devant le travail, tricoter les 2 m. suiv. à l'endroit puis les 2 m. en attente)*, répéter de * à *
2e et tous les rangs pairs suivants: à l'envers
3e et 7e rangs: à l'endroit
5e rang: *2 m. end., 4 m. croisées à gauche, 4 m. croisées à droite, 2 m. end.*, répéter de * à *
Répéter toujours ces 8 rangs.