Moving Hands, Moving Boxes, Moving Houses

I'm in the process of a big move. That's a very tiny sentence expressing a very big change in my life. Details aren't extremely important at this time, but in less than 48 hours I'll be settling in a new (temporary) home, and soon settling in to a new job and life in a new city. (Of course, until yesterday I thought my flight was on the 26th, but it's actually on the 27th. confusion city! but all is sorted and I'm bound and determined to enjoy my extra day in Portland!)

I've been hesitant to talk too much about it on the blog because ... I don't really have a good reason. I am doing a sock design for a club themed "Made In Oregon" (put on by my friends at Pico Accuardi Dyeworks) and even I'm not in Oregon for much longer, the design is definitely made here, and exemplary of the wonderful experience I've had in this beautiful state. To learn any more about the design... well, you'll just have to sign up for the club, won't you? ;)

This is about all I've been able to handle in the last couple days, knitting-wise. Lots of boxes packed, some things distributed amongst friends for safe keeping until I can send for them, and now I'm sitting on my bed in a very empty room with nothing on the walls and a couple of suitcases waiting for their final items to jump inside.

Moving is always a strange process, especially when it's this big/final/whatever. I've had to not only touch most of my belongings, but decide their importance/worth to me. My credo has been "Do you need it? Do you love it? Does it make you money?" as I managed to pack only 16 boxes to ship. a good 1/4-1/3 of which contained yarn in some form. a couple of them just flat out being yarn. I guess it falls in to all three categories, eh? At least that's what I Decided. The fact of the matter is, if it fell in to the "Do you love it?" category, it means I would have paid anything to make sure it came with me.

This was going to be a really quick post, but I got to rambling... the point is, I'm off on an amazing adventure, which I will fill you in on in a later post, as well as presenting to you some more of my fall patterns :) Also, the knitting in the picture? I'm pretty sure it's going to become a free pattern before the end of may - so keep an eye out for that!

Lets just hope my needles get through TSA again... fingers crossed!

Schmidt - A Vest for Men

Pattern: "Schmidt" by David R. Castillo (on ravelry)
Yarn: Fibra Natura Shepherd's Own in colorway 40004
Needles: Addi Turbo circulars, US4

Gauge: 5 sts/inch in stockinette

Sizes Available: S-XXXL (34"-56") - Sample is knit in medium size.

Price: $7.00 us (buy now)

I'm super proud to announce the availability of Schmidt! I've received a great response on ravelry since posting my project and subsequently the pattern page! Frankly, i'm overwhelmed and super happy people like it.

Conceptually, Schmidt started with the idea of Argyle. Commonly, argyle is accomplished through some form of colorwork knitting (either stranded colorwork or intarsia, generally), but that can be a daunting task, especially in the form of a garment. Argyle also tends to be one of the few colorful requests coming from men who want handknits.

So, my idea was to take the basic shape of argyle and apply it in a textural form as opposed to a color form. This way, even somebody new to garment knitting could undertake a simple, seamless vest, and create striking visual texture at the same time.

I hope Schmidt will meet all your yarnie needs for the male hand-knit recipient in your life. Whether that be your husband, boyfriend, partner or yourself!

"Schmidt" By David R. Castillo

$7.00 US

Instead of agonizing over exactly what to say in my next post, knowing full well i should be posting (i've had the tab open for about 40 minutes now, but no words are coming from my fingers), i have decided that i will, isntead, share some of my favorite knitting-related videos. some of them music videos, some of them commercials. Anyway. i love them!

Natural Gas Commercial


Les peaux des lievres - Tricot Machine


The Last Knit (a short film)


Dont Let It All Unravel (a Short Film)

that's all for now... I'll be updating soon with some exciting new patterns and what not for everyone! :D Thanks for reading!

New Beginnings!

A lot of you have visited based on the recent blog post over at Splendor's blog. Thanks for taking a look! I appreciate all of your hits :D

I have recently updated my ravelry store to include 4 brand new patterns! You can view them HERE. In the coming days i'll be writing a nice, long post about each of them, so you can get a peek behind the design process, see some extra pictures, hear some yarn suggestions, etcetcetc. I'm very excited to bring it to you!

for now, thanks for following my blog! I'm looking forward to reviewing some of my favorite knitting books, sharing insightful tutorials and videos of techniques that are making me happy and improving my craft (and hopefully yours as well!)