Author: tobyroxane

New pattern for sale!!!

X-Mitts

There is something I’ve heard people say many times and it just continues to baffle me: “Too warm.” As in, “I was going to make a pullover but I thought that yarn would just be too warm.”

Yesterday I was working at the shop and I only wore one layer because I guess I was expecting another warmish day like Tuesday, but I was freezing. (It did snow, you know.) So I put on this sample sweater that was made out of Cascade Eco Wool…and I was STILL freezing. I am perpetually freezing. I don’t think I have ever been “too warm” in my life. (…maybe on a subway platform in July.)

Sooooo…I’m having some trouble finding test knitters for Smockerie, my toddler dress. You can see the project page here and the Free Pattern Testers forum post here. Sorry to bother you with behind-the-scenes claptrap, but I really want to release this pattern before the end of the month and I’m a bit desperate.

Leave a comment or email me if you’re interested!

This year, for the very first time, I actually sat on a couch with the superbowl on a tv in front of it. I won’t say I watched it exactly but I did finish the first sleeve of this bolero I’m working on. The construction is a little..different, shall we say… and I’m not totally sure how it’s going to work, but I’m hopeful.

I’m now realizing how long it’s been since I’ve written anything on a regular basis, and it’s sort of depressing. I used to write constantly–I started keeping a journal around the time I was old enough to write. I called it my “Hannah Book” (Hannah was kind of my alter-ego…mostly I just liked the name Hannah more than I liked the name Toby). I remember exactly how it started: I’d had a nightmare one night and my mom suggested I write it down. So I did (complete with illustrations) and it evolved into a chapter book with exciting stories such as “Hannah’s Birthday,” “Hannah’s Nightmare,” “Hannah’s Lemonade Stand,” “Hannah Visits Her Grandparents,” etc. I still have it. Maybe one day I’ll scan it and you can all read it. Rebecca (one of my very best friends who happened to design this website AND my chandelier logo) even did some guest illustrations.

Anyway, the Hannah Book petered out around third grade and I started keeping a “real” journal (all I mean by “real” is that Hannah retired and I wrote about myself in the first person), which went on until college, at which point I became too busy to write anything except 20 page papers (and erotica, but that’s another story entirely). Still, I was writing, and at the time I graduated from college, I wanted to be a novelist.

Then I learned how to knit and I’ve written nary a word since then. I still think about writing a novel (nevermind the fact that my longest story ever is about 9 pages) but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Sometimes even eating and sleeping fall by the wayside. Well, not so much sleeping, I do plenty of that.

What hobby (or career path) would YOU pursue if you had the time?

I’ve been thinking a lot about seams lately.

I know exactly what you’re thinking: “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about them too. About how much I HATE THEM and how I have 17 million gorgeous sweaters I could be wearing RIGHT NOW if only I didn’t have to sew up their damn seams.”

And I’ve been there. Ohhh have I. But a few things have changed my mind recently, and they mostly have to do with Anne Hanson. Well, sort of. I took her Finishing Series class at Knit Nation last summer and it changed my life. Seriously. The method I’d been using for seaming up to that point was the “stab the needle somewhere near the edge of the fabric, pull the yarn through and repeat” method, which DOES NOT WORK. I’m sure you all know that already, but I’m also sure that some of you are still using some variation of this method and calling it mattress stitch. I’m totally convinced that the reason so many people hate seaming is that they’re doing it wrong. Seams do not have to be stressful! Once you learn the right way to do it, it’s not that hard and it’s actually even a little bit fun. I kind of get into it.

Anyway, once you know you’re doing it right, THEN you’re allowed to decide whether you hate sewing them as much, and you can be objective about where they might actually improve a piece of knitwear. For one thing, they can do wonders for garments with a tendency to sag. Cotton, for example, we all know tends to lose its shape over time, and side seams can mitigate the saggage. Shoulder seams give a sweater a much more polished, crisp feeling and can be a good marker for determining how something fits you. Setting in sleeves is a bitch, but you have to admit they look good.

Don’t get me wrong though, seamless knitting is still great for accessories like mittens, hats and legwarmers (they haven’t exactly “come back,” but they aren’t just for ballerinas and 80’s refugees). Baby sweaters! Perfectly good sans seams.

What are YOUR thoughts? (You can leave a comment if you click the title.) I’m curious. And I’m lonely. (What about a blogwarming party? Do people do that? Let’s do that.)

Guess what??!! I now have a ravelry designer page up and running, and Pennywood is now available for sale! The purchase link now works and I am just freaking out excited. Go see it!

I know I said I would start with excuses, but I changed my mind.

I will introduce myself, though, although at this point if you’re reading this you probably already know me (hopefully one day this will not necessarily be the case). I’m Toby, I’m 24, I learned how to knit in the fall of 2009 and began working at a yarn shop two months later. Now I’m working at a different yarn shop part time, and the rest of the time I spend in my little studio, designing knitting patterns.

Speaking of patterns, you may have noticed that there is only one pattern on the patterns page and that the “purchase” link doesn’t work. This will all be fixed soon. You’ll be able to buy my patterns through ravelry and, since I have a pair of fingerless mittens and a baby dress in the test knitting stages (not to mention the loads and loads of things in various stages of completion), the patterns page will become a bit more populated, I promise.

Anyway, I’ve got big plans.

British meetings start with apologies. I’m starting with excuses. Excuses and introductions coming soon!!