Infrequent Posting.

Currently, I don't have much time. I have just finished one of my modules which had three projects one after another and then a presentation. It was on python, which is a programming language. And now I need to catch up on my other module for the exam that is in a little over a week. As well as starting to sort things out for my home university.... I also need to pack, which I started today. Probably a mistake, as I now have to at least finish was I was doing.

First, I am still working on my insomnia piece. I haven't had time to sit and glue everything and to make the hands that I am currently making it as they take a good while. Hopefully I will be able to get some in tonight or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow. Though at the latest it will be a little over a week and then I'll do my second update.

I think I have mentioned it. I am working on two knitting patterns, one is on hiatus until I am back in the UK as I realised I don't have to correct sized needles to finish it off but it is the first sample piece for the fashion line I am working one, which I hope to finish having all of the drawings done this summer and at least this piece completely finished (I want to try different techniques and styles... You'll see). The other is a little bit more complex. It is a jumper. And I am working on that completely from scratch. Once I am done though I plan on making the pattern available. It might be for free or I might charge a small fee. (Seriously, the max I would charge right now is £1.99 but I will see how the pattern goes and then the write up and formatting). I have nearly finished the front of my jumper, I think, however I think I want to change it, so I may or may not do a post once I have done that. I feel I should as it is taking up a lot of my time.

And the last thing I am going to mention. I have said before that I want to create my own business, it would involve cute homemade items that have some form of function around the home. The name has been strong in my mind for about a year, as with the font I want to use. However the spelling is causing me issues.. BUT the logo.. It is driving me insane! I cannot simplify what I want in my head to a logo without me feeling like it is missing something. Nevertheless, I think I might have done it today! I need to draw up a few sketches and talk to some people just for feedback. I am super excited though! I have pushed my idea even further! And now I am just looking for the correct resources so I can practice over summer as I design & finalise the patterns for the first batch.

I have also spent some of my day writing notes about what I need for the business, i.e. promos & business cards. I am aware I need to budget and go through a trailing period where I get some feed back from a few people. And then I'm ready for action! Well, I need to market myself, I think when I know I am getting ready to set up the official store I will start networking online. I don't want to start too soon and for it to all just fall through. I don't want it to feel like a broken promise!

I think there was something else about the business I wanted to mention but it seems to have completely slipped my mind.. OH! I also have a tag line.. But I need to see how relevant it is.

Anyway that is all.  My need for sleep is on the rise again...

My knitting Journey.

I am back! Well, I am back knitting. I learnt how to knit when I was about 13. I think. My Grandma taught me how to knit by giving me two giant skeins of yarn. A creamy colour and then a blue which I am not too sure how to describe. And a pair of chunky needles, probably about 8 or 10mm. All she taught me was how to knit. Literally, just knit stitch. This meant I couldn't start or finish my own pieces without help. Naturally this frustrated me, so my mum, who is also a knitter but only knows when she picks up her needles and plays about for awhile... taught me how to cast on, bind off and how to purl.

Purl, to me, at that point was hideous. It didn't make sense, so I forgot I knew it and just carried on with knit and the ability to cast on and off. My mum also helped me learn how to change colour, but only in the case of stripes, because like, probably about 80%+ of all knitters, the first 'major' project is a scarf.

I wanted to make multiple. I had all these ideas! I wanted a red and black striped scarf and then a grey and black striped scarf. I'll just add this here, I never finished either, slight lie, I went back to the grey and black yarn and did make a scarf but not how I'd envisioned, more later. And then! I decided I NEEDED a Doctor Who scarf! I think this is probably another project attempted by the geeky knitter. So I told my nan to get me lots of little balls of lots of different colours. And then I began my scarf. I stopped half why through knitting it and left it for probably about three years to which I then just binded off. It is very unlike Tom Baker's scarf. But it was close enough... At the time.

I wanted to insert a photo of me, a particularly bad photo at that too! But I can't seem to find it. Probably for the best! If I am remembering the photo correctly, I also have this jumper which has two different names from different friends. One is 'sick jumper' and the other is 'Grandad jumper'. It was from a charity shop...

I also had ideas for more complex projects. I wanted to knit a pink bunny bag, which I may do one day... And some other things. But I pretty much put my needles down until I was about 15. I only picked them up briefly. I made a miniature hat that resembled Pucca because I was... I don't fully remember, but I was talking about different dolls and Blythe dolls have cute little accessories! In hindsight I should have taken that much further. 

PUCCA! PuccaClub

After that, I left my knitting needles alone. I occasionally would pick them back up and then just put them back down. And that was a pattern until the end of my first year at uni, the start of my second year of uni. This is when I say I got into knitting properly. This is when I actually started knitting stuff and finished them. I'll do another post of them soon as I don't have access to them right now. But take a look at my ravelry for some photos (here).

But to finish this post! I took close to another year hiatus from knitting because a lot of stuff happened, some were pretty bad, some where okay, but everything was pretty tainted by the bad. I am happy to be knitting again! And improving. I am currently writing two of my own patterns! One I intent to sell the item itself, the other, I'd probably be happy to sell the pattern, assuming it turns out well.

The last thing I want to add is. this is my knitting journey, notice how there are years of gaps but it does not change the fact that I am a knitter and I love it. I have so much yarn it is crazy, but knitting is a release of negative energy, it relaxes you and helps you forget about the bad things. It can be hard to get into, but once you are there, it is great and very much worth it.

Can't Stop Knitting

I don't know how many of you are similar to me when it comes to creating. I will get urges to create late at night, or so early in the morning when I am forced to do something else after little sleep. I think it must have something to do with my sleep cycle :p

So anyway! I have a spent a large proportion of my evening knitting because python decided to get error messages *boo* and I felt a little sleepy all evening. And I am currently working on my first proper design from scratch, it is for the fashion line I am creating. Watch this space.

But my knitting was pretty casual. Nothing too strenuous, literally k1p1 in the round. No biggie. So I was watching various tv shows online before I remembered. It is my birthday next month and I want a sewing machine. So I started looking at different sewing machines and thought I would see if I could find the one from The Great British Sewing Bee... I may have found it. I am not sure. But I will have a look again tomorrow. And then I remember one of the girls who i follow on youtube has a video about her sewing machine, thus, following this train of thought, I ended up on youtube. However before I made it to her channel I was distracted by a video.

This video was by the lovely Tiny Owl Knits. She is my knitting inspiration and for that I kinda love her. I have been knitting and been passionate about it before I knew about her, but there is something about her spirit that is just captivating... I don't know. But everything I end up watching her videos, I just want to watch them all, knit all her things and create. She also reminds me how more in tune with nature I would like to become. That will be a habit I will try and get into over the next week so I can try to embrace it a lot more fully in May.

Some of you may how who she is just by her most famous pattern, The Beekeeper's Quilt? This is something I have been meaning to make, but I only want to knit it with really nice yarn, i.e. no 100% acrylic blends. The dream to become a knitting snob and only mostly use fancy yarns... But when I found this video I was just mesmerised by her and her joy towards knitting. Her excitement is what you want to see from someone who is creating! I remember my ex came over while I was watching her videos, he didn't quite get her, but he knew it was clear that something about her was inspiring me.. I cannot remember the term he used, but knitting inspiration, knitting guru... You get the jist?

the beekeeper's quilt from tinyowlknits on Vimeo.

Nevertheless, The Beekeeper's Quilt is beautiful and I very much intend to start it once I am back in the UK as travelling with all those hexipuffs would probably be a little bit of a nightmare, but it will be good to have a background project constantly on the go for awhile!

I am not sure I even.. OH YES! Basically my point of writing this! I feel like I am in the zone. I am over half way of the first section of my knitting and want to see how far I can get if I keep going this evening. Though, it is pretty late... And I should go to class tomorrow!

I will do some more posts about knitting soon! But all my finish projects reside in the UK right now, to which I am not! I will probably talk some more about Tiny Owl Knits...





p.s. If you ever read this, you being creator of Tiny Owl, I guess this is like the Helena Bonham Carter moment, awkward fangirling but coming from the best place! Haha >_<