Acclimation

Hello, lovely knitters!

Long time, no see! Thanks to everyone for your lovely comments on CustomFit’s A-line designs, I’m so glad you like them. I’ll be adding more A-line designs to the site over the next few months, and I can’t wait to see the sweaters start to pop up.

I hope your spring has been completely fantastic so far. Things are warming up here, and the plants have been going crazy in a very good way. My very favorite iris have just bloomed, a treat I look forward to all year long:

Iris

And my knitting life has been busy, too! Earlier this month I traveled back to Craftsy for a third time, to film a beginner fit class. I got to design a drop-shoulder cardigan/pullover pattern for the class, and I absolutely loved both knitting it and wearing it. The class will be out later this month if you’re interested – I hope you like it!

Craftsy

Since returning from Denver, things have been settling into a pretty comfortable rhythm here. As those of you who follow me on Ravelry may know, my little company has shrunk to essentially one person (with some contractor coding help here and there) this spring – and I’ve been acclimating to the changing proportion of “new new NEW!” work, and work that’s supporting existing projects.

Overall I really love the change – I feel a lot more connected to the day-to-day issues, now, and I love seeing what you’re all knitting and enjoying. That connection has let me be more on top of bugs and improvements to CustomFit than ever before, which feels really good.

…But I don’t necessarily have the same endless parade of new projects to show you! And so the blog has languished a bit. Earlier this week, though, I spent some time going through the archives of more than 10 years I’ve been writing this blog, looking for inspiration.

And I found something wonderful – that the times when I was clearly most enjoying the blog, I didn’t necessarily have an endless parade of perfection to show you. The blog was equal parts conversation and learning. So I’m going to try to get back to that, if it’s okay with all of you. I’m nervous about this, but excited too.

And I’ll start by admitting that I’ve spent the last 2 weeks knitting on a sweater and I don’t even have the back completed yet! Life has just gotten in the way too much to make faster progress.

spring-knitting-3

At least it’s glorious, though – the yarn is Habu’s silk-wrapped merino, in the color dark brown, and the garment is an A-line tank for summer.

So how have you all been? What are you knitting? Are you full of mojo, participating in Cardipalooza, something else?

9 thoughts on “Acclimation

  1. Two weeks to get the back done on a sweater? That is warp speed in my world! =) My goal is to finish the Cypress cardigan before it’s one year anniversary on the needles rolls around. It seems like the only time I get to knit is when I am at my daughter’s pole vaulting practice or clarinet lesson — she needs to practice more! My husband is planning a river cruise for us for next summer and I told him it will be great because I can do a bunch of knitting. He was like — that is what you are most excited about? How do I stay married to him? 😉

  2. Finishing Alight, just have to finish seaming the second side then do the seed stitch border. I had thought it was too late for spring so wasn’t hurrying, but turns out I could still be wearing it with this crazy cold weather! Started Dorica hoodie and half way up the back. I have a thought for a summer sweatern(http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hitofude-cardigan), which clearly I won’t have finished until about the time it gets cold out ;-).

    1. I’ve got half the Alight seamed, and now all the ends are woven in. I am loving, loving, loving the way the first half fits and looks! I’m getting one of those bright lights with a magnification lens from JoAnns to seam the second half. It may just be cold enough on vacation next week to wear this sweater at night, so that’s incentive! Meanwhile, the Dorica hoodie back is nearing completion!

  3. Amy, your photo of your irises looks like a painting – they are beyond beautiful! And as far as your slower knitting pace, that is just familiar to the hordes of us who love to knit but need to fit knitting in to our other pursuits and obligations, so we can all relate to what is happening with your recent knitting schedule and progress. As far as what I happen to be working on, it is – a sweater! An Amy sweater! That I started many weeks ago, and am making slow (but steady) progress on, and loving every challenge and stitch!

    (Can’t wait for your newest Craftsy class to become available, and I am so glad that this was part of your recent busy-ness.)

  4. Change is always exciting. After being self-employed for 20 years, I feel confident saying that change is more of a constant than we would like to imagine. I’m sure you are going to rock this, like you always do.

    Best wishes! Can’t wait to see your new class. 🙂

  5. Amy,

    I am so glad that you are taking care of you and doing what fits best into your busy life/career/family (not necessarily in that order.) The Spirit Trail Fiver Brigantia that I chose for my first Custom Fit Sweater did not work and I am not using that yarn (or at least some of it) to do Stephen West’s Boneyard Shawl. I will be back to Custom Fit as I am determined to be successful in creating a sweater.

  6. Hi Amy,

    While this probably is a bad time for website suggestions, I’d love a way to tag or filter the patterns that are available, to help isolate a type or group. Suggestions for categories or groups:
    – type of garment (cardigan, pullover, vest, etc)
    – type of shaping (A-line, shaped/hourglass, no shaping/straight)
    – type of pattern (CustomFit vs standard) – this would help me understand what you offer and to see how the results might look between a traditional shaped sweater, a non-shaped sweater, or an A-line sweater)
    – pattern level, i.e. best suited for a beginner, intermediate, advanced knitter

    It’s just food for thought. Now that I’m typing this, I could probably use Ravelry to gather this kind of information.

    It’s always interesting hearing from you. I’ll stay tuned. Best wishes!

    1. I love this idea! I’ll work it into my site changes for the year. 🙂

  7. That’s the kind of blog writing I love best : ) Jen PS I really love your work!

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