Alveare & something new

(dammit, I forgot the watermarks. This is going to be a tricky new habit to form...)

A new look for Alveare. In fact, I've kinda rewritten the whole pattern. It's still the same, only for a worsted gauge and with an extra size thrown in, and the biggest difference is a tweaking of the crown shaping... the previous one bothered me a tad.

Charlie is a star, isn't she? Our shoot was only an hour, if not less, and we cracked through some tricky Hats.

Alveare is one of the few patterns that's getting more than new photos, and it'll go back into tech editing once I've made the adjustments.... I'm not going to give an estimate as to when it will be ready, but purchasers of the PDF will get an update notice, so please don't be put off by the wait.

This sample is knit in Lornas Laces Haymarket, a skein of which I managed to get my hands on at the Rocking Kitchen Retreat late last year. It's a perfect yarn for this Hat, I'd say. Yummy.

And this is something new for the coming autumn - a whole new design!

Have no idea what to call it yet, although it does remind me of the circus, for some reason. This was a design that came out of the blue - a matter of simply picking up the needles and casting on. And it felt good to instinctively work through something from start to finish and have it all work out. And do it all in less than 24hrs. Good for the soul, that.

It's not a design I would plan, I don't think, but that's cool. It's good to branch out from your own self defined comfort zone, methinks. And it is a rather charming shape, too.

Another sample knit in Lornas Laces, this time it's the Bullfrogs and Butterflies yarn. I haven't worked with anything this variegated for a while and it was interesting breaking away from semi solids for a bit!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Am kinda finding all these photoshoots and the editing and sorting of photos very therapeutic... the visual equivalent of my sanity knitting. Realistically I've few Hats now that need rephotographing but I suspect I'll keep on going anyways, as it's good exercise (both in a photographic sense, and in a get me off my backside sense)

Headwise, I've had the odd brighter day this week. Days when I've woken up with focus and a want to think and calculate. Those days to tend to be followed by exhaustion days though, and today is one such day when I'm struggling to stay awake. But that's how it goes. I'm just happy to have the odd moment of seeing a gap in the fog, even if it isn't a clear path to the other side. 

Tomorrow the plan is to attempt some pattern writing. That's another muscle in need of a gentle workout. If I can continue to have the metaphorical phone unplugged, and keep working at my pace and having naps and meltdowns as they come, then I'll get to the other side eventually. It's all too easy to have a good day then try and leap ahead.. thankfully I've just completed one of my last commissions with a deadline; there be no need for rushing now.

And now it's nap time.