One Pattern Down, How Many to Go?!

My Reversible Moebius Cowls pattern is finally up for sale in my online store and on Ravelry!

What took me so long?! I've been hyping it up for a month already.

It's partly because it's closer to Christmas and I have deadlines for things that needed to be worked on / finished. And partly because I've been perfecting the layout in the shuttlebus. I've also been designing  attempting to design other neckwear but they are not yet picture worthy.

What is picture worthy are a couple of projects that you may have seen me working on in the pop up store this past summer. These patterns will take a bit more time to compose because most people will want multiple sizes. As a retired math teacher, I know how much calculating goes into multi-sized patterns. Especially if you want an accurate fit. That's why I have so few of them.

For those of you who didn't see them this summer, these are the patterns I'm working on.

This top (above) takes two balls of Estelle's Rainbow Autumn (a long striping yarn) and makes use of a virtually invisible braided cast off. This size fits me and I could probably make two sizes bigger from those two balls. That being said, even a toddler size would require two balls if you want the garment to be symmetrical. For more defined stripes, one could also use Estelle's Magic Shawl.

To the right, you will see the first iteration of the crocheted version of my One Seam Sweater. If you haven't seen this knit pattern yet, I had to split it into two patterns because it runs from 3 months to adult 3X in size. The knit version uses a true chunky yarn (15sts = 4" or 10cm) and drapes beautifully. See Marble Chunky and Major.

Because of the nature of crochet (one strand of yarn wrapping around two upright strands), this size yarn is too bulky. The garment doesn't stand up on its own, but the fabric it creates isn't nearly as flexible so I had to downsize the yarn to a sport/dk weight just to achieve a desirable drape. So far I have not been impressed enough with the results from the yarns I have in stock to take a photo. I will update you with that progress when it happens.

Until then, I apologize for not having a blog for you last week. As I might have mentioned already, I've been busy. And since I don't see my project creations / shuttlebus renovating slowing down anytime soon, I am going to take a break from blogging for the remainder of the year and come back on the first Monday in 2022.

written by Lori, TCL owner, who wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc and we'll reconnect in the new year.

Things To Look Forward To

I know, I know. As a retired teacher (of the Language Arts variety) I should know better than to end a sentence with a preposition but would you have read beyond the title if it had read ‘Things About Which To Look Forward’?

During the market season, many of you saw me starting (and sometimes even finishing!!!) some projects. Many of them were simply updates of current patterns with new yarns. A few, however, were some of those 5000+ patterns that have been swirling around in my brain trying desperately to come out. I have no definite timeline as to when the patterns will be available but if the shuttle bus buildout is delayed much longer, it may be sooner rather than later! FYI one pattern that was a bust (pun intended) was my cotton bralette with built in boob sweat ‘panels’. Every woman is built differently so a pattern for a fitted one like I was trying to create is impossible. You’re on your own for that one but I will share mine when I am finally successful. It can at least give you a jump off point for creating your own.

The most anticipated pattern is a crocheted version of my One Seam Sweater. The original knit pattern uses Aran (16 sts = 4") or Chunky (14-15 sts = 4") weight yarn. That will not be the case with the crocheted version. In order to achieve the same drape as the original pattern, this one requires Sport / DK weight yarn. So, if you loved the look of the sweaters created with James C. Brett Marble Chunky and Universal Major, you will have to find similar yarns in finer weights. Currently I have low stock on James C. Brett Baby Marble but Jawoll Magic 6 Fach and Lang Tosca Light would look great too.

Hopefully, all sizes from 3 month to adult 3X will be in one pattern (unless it gets too confusing, then it will be split in two like the originals).

The next pattern makes use of the long gradients of Estelle Yarns Rainbow Autumn. Using two balls and my favourite cast on, cast off and seaming methods, this fully reversible Feather and Fan tunic vest will fit up to a 48" bust with enough yarn to add cap sleeves if you choose. They, however, will not be part of the pattern. I'm showing both the front and the back to see if you can figure out where the seams are. I'll give you a hint: they're vertical. The curvy bottom is simply evidence that I don't block my projects before posting them 😉

The pattern that will probably be published first is still a work in progress as you can see by the photo. Moebius cowls that are truly reversible are hard to create but I managed it with this one. If you like cables but hate having to keep track of the cable needle, this four row pattern is for you! Those tiny cables are actually mock cables and there is no right side or wrong side to them. I attempted a longer version that was only about as deep as this one is so far but it was too short to be wrapped around twice and too loose to really be anything other than decorative otherwise. This one will actually keep your neck warm and only use ~125m of aran weight yarn. The sample uses Lang Yarns Mille Colori 200g and I only just now discovered when trying to create a link that this yarn has been discontinued by my supplier :( but any self striping wool blend should work nicely if you find the colour you like.

written by Lori, TCL owner, who is happy to have some time to get these projects worked on even though it is because the bigger project is on hold.

Adventures of a Mobile Store

It may not look like much to you but that is a new solar panel on the roof. "But Lori, I thought you already had solar on your rig." I did. Which brings me to an interesting story.

July 21rst I was driving from Wednesday night's market in Wetaskiwin to Camrose, as is my weekly habit, looking forward to a peaceful sleep before a morning spent adventuring around Camrose before setting up for the market in the afternoon. Shortly after rounding Justamere Farms' corner, I started to hear an unusual racket. My first instinct was to assume that my pegboard wall that holds the needles and hooks had decided to unlock itself, which it does occasionally, and that I was not going to get that leisurely evening of Facebook and YouTube viewing that I was looking forward to but instead spend the rest of my evening cleaning up after the earthquake that was happening. Then, just before the Gwynne hill, something caught my eye in the driver's side mirror. It was my solar panel flying off into the middle of the road and bouncing a couple of times before coming to rest on the dotted line!

Thankfully, no vehicles were directly behind me! But before I could pull over and collect it myself, a kind gentleman in a van, who had seen the whole thing happen, stopped and was moving it out of the line of traffic. He offered to put it in his van and drive it up to the rv for me and, as grateful as I was for the offer, I graciously declined because I needed to express my negative energy toward the panel as I hauled it back to the rv myself and get it out of my system before I got back behind the wheel.

I initially just threw it onto the floor of the motorhome because I have no outside storage that could accommodate it, but it was obvious that it couldn't stay there. I mean, how could the customers shop around it! Rather than inconvenience them, I made it impossible to use my washroom. That thing just fit into my tiny rv bathroom but only because I could get it in at an angle with a 1/2" to spare to shut the door. It stayed there until the Saturday afternoon once I finished four more markets where I had to 'rough it' like all the other vendors and use the public washrooms.

Fast forward to August 8 and while I'm sitting in church, the lovely gentleman from SunFrog Solar who sold me (but did not install) the original panel installed this lovely replacement so I don't have to worry about driving around just to boost my house battery in order to have enough power to run my till, make coffee, etc. every work day. For those of you who are curious about the initial installers, I am perfectly happy with all the other work they have done on the rv and therefore am not going to put anything negative into the universe because I chose to have someone other than the guy who knew the system backwards and forwards put it on my roof. Some lessons are hard.

One other thing I learned through this experience, I really don't need the solar power, but it sure is nice to have.

Now for the part you were really looking for this week - this week's yarn selection. The store will be filled with James C. Brett's Marble in all its incarnations: Chunky, DK, Baby, and Baby Chunky, as well as Universal Major and a few other self striping / patterning acrylic yarns. These yarns work well with a number of my patterns, making it obvious what I think of them. 😉

written by Lori, grateful TCL owner, who is over the moon to have her solar power back!

There’s Something About Routine

Some routines are easy and others not so much. Exercising daily is easy - until you skip a few days. Then it can be SO difficult to get back into the groove.

Having your weekend shift by one day can throw everything else off balance. I don’t know how shift workers with irregular shifts do it! Since the Red Deer markets started, it has been a struggle to get the blog done for Monday because Sunday has been feeling like Monday and Monday has been feeling like Sunday, especially since we haven’t been attending physical church for a few months now. Markets continue for another few months and blogging for Tuesday just makes more sense than trying to get the pop up store picture perfect in one day.

Speaking of - we are closing in on the final week(s) of our yarn rotation, so soon you will be seeing repeats of yarns that have been showcased already! Yay! This week is for hairy yarns - some of which are meant for trim and others which are meant to give an entire project a fun and funky look. 

To balance it out there is also Universal Major, a Marble Chunky copycat that I didn’t have room for last week.

I also decided to see whether or not buttons can withstand the earthquake of travelling from one destination to the next.

You can see from the photos that my mannequins have their own little corrals for travelling. So far they’ve worked beautifully. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I don’t have too much button cleanup to deal with once I get to the market each day.

Written by Lori, much calmer TCL owner, now that I’ve given myself an extra day to prep the blogs.