At Your Service!

I got a new gig as a waiter for a company that staffs banquets and other large events! (It's a slow time for copyediting, and Ann gots to get paid.) It's nice to know I can send out a resume and have work two days later. You can't freelance if you can't hustle.

I went to Burlington Coat Factory and purchased the smallest tux pants, vest, and shirt I could find. When Chris saw me trying these on when I got home, he cooed, "Who's my wittle man?" The vest is pinned in preparation for alterations in this photo.

I spent last night hemming the pants and altering the vest so I don't present a totally absurd spectacle at my first event tonight (check out how much I had to alter the vest! And it still doesn't look good on me!).

Meanwhile, our house is undergoing a nearly complete rewire. It's a construction site. The seller is paying for it, but our lives are unsettled by the dust and rubble.

Unexpected house remodeling before we fully moved in! The horror!

Off to shower and work a banquet!

Three New Projects in Dragonfly Fibers

As I've been moving and dealing with the logistics of my life, I've designed three new projects using Dragonfly Fibers yarns. Considering my life for the past few months, it makes sense that they're large, relaxing projects that were easily knit without full concentration.

First, Antrea, which was the May shipment for Club Dragonfly:

This shipment included TWO skeins of Dragon Sock, which was enough to make this very large cowl and have quite a bit left over. The cowl can be pulled down over your shoulders like a cape if you're chilly:

It stretches to about 44 inches around, but can easily be made larger to cover a larger bust (and you'll have plenty of yarn!), and it's nearly three feet long. If you're interested, you can still sign up for Club Dragonfly and get the May shipment; there's a month-to-month subscription option! Just contact Dragonfly here. The pattern will be released separately in six months.

Second, Karelia. It's my first DRESS pattern, although I think of it as a tunic to be worn over jeans or leggings. My sister was nice enough to model it for me:

It's knit in one piece from the top down, so you can stop knitting whenever you like and have a top, a short tunic, or a full-on dress. I used Pixie in Black is Black (yoke) and Firecraker (body).

Third, a new mystery KAL called 5, inspired by Jasper Johns and Bauhaus weaving.

5 colors, 5 clues.

Easy, modular, colorblocking. The first clue will be released on June 24. You can get kits here (I chose the four combinations with the help of Dragonfly color experts), or purchase the pattern only and use any five colors of fingering-weight yarn; you'll need about 230 yards of each.

Obviously I love Dragonfly yarn and have been knitting my way through miles of it.

What's next? How about this? Chevrons, cardigan, set-in sleeves.

"So you're living in a fantasy land of ponies, children, and free fruit?"

My sister asked me this last night after I told her that we had just purchased a big bag of fruit from an arabber who came down our street, and that someone was giving out as many free watermelons as you could carry from a truck just around the corner (I MISSED it, but every child on my street was eating watermelon last night).

So yeah, ponies, children, free fruit. And so much to see. These are photos of North Avenue right around the corner:

And here are a few photos of our unbelievable house.

Chris has a bike shop in the basement.

We have dining room for the first time (not that we have any furniture for it).

Stairs. Everything seems so distant. In our last apartment, the coffee pot was about 10 feet from my bed, now it's ALL THE WAY DOWNSTAIRS.

We have a microwave now! The foil-covered plate on the stove is bbq chicken that one of our neighbors gave us the night we moved in.

Here's the living room with bike nook.

I pulled something in my back during the move, so when we were done I lay on the living room floor and looked out the windows.

Fantasy land.

We are homeowners in Baltimore!

As of Wednesday evening!

101

Today I published my 101st knitting pattern. I fell into designing in 2007 with the publication of Neiman. And it kept going. I never made a choice to design, I never had a moment where I decided to be, or felt that I was, a professional. Now I have an Employer Identification Number and an LLC, but it's just me in a messy apartment (soon to be a messy office in an otherwise organized home, KNOCK WOOD), plus a great tech editor, my sister, and some amazing test and sample knitters.

Pattern number 101 is Shante, an art yarn cowl that, to quote Karida of Neighborhood Fiber Co., is "a little bit drag queen, a little bit rock and roll." You can use the Ozark Handspun, or sub another art yarn or your own handspun.

You can purchase the pattern for $5:



To celebrate the 101 mark, I'm giving 50% off all my self-published patterns until I publish pattern number 102 (probably in about two weeks). You can find the patterns here. Use the coupon code 101 at checkout. Enjoy, and pass it on! And THANK YOU!

(Oh, and about the house: CLOSING THIS WEEK!!!!)

Weaverknits Yellow Pages Search FAILS!

Nope, don't have a house yet, but I feel like we're getting closer. Last week I got an email from the mortgage people that said "CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

But then it said, "you have been approved with these remaining conditions," followed by a list. The list was short, but one of the requests was for an explanation of why the Yellow Pages search for my two businesses, Weaverknits and Ann Weaver the freelance copyeditor, failed to produce any results.

Short answer: Because it is not 1970. This is my office at home (also the only three pieces of furniture in our current apartment, a table and two chairs):

But this is also my office in a hotel room (note the shockingly not bad Wine Cube in the foreground; I was unwinding):

Look closely at the knitting on the left. It's a new design some of you may have seen this weekend. Coming soon!!!

I replicate this office wherever I go: family and friends' houses, hotels, coffee shops. My businesses consist of me, at least one computer, and a few knitting projects. Where would I list such a thing in the yellow pages?

Also not in the yellow pages: The Baltimore Satellite Reef! The opening was Friday, and the exhibition is up through June 28.

The bleached reef plus angry painted turtle:

Blues and greens (a few pieces from me are in this shot; I ended up crocheting like crazy the week before the show. It's addictive and cathartic):

 Purples:

Check it out if you're in the Baltimore area! And cross your fingers for me and the home buying nightmare!!!

Negative Balance in My Savings Account

One of the most recent requests from the mortgage people was a letter explaining the negative balance in my savings account. (Obviously we have not closed on the house yet.) Not only do I not have a negative balance in my savings account, it's IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE A NEGATIVE BALANCE IN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT.

When Chris and I set out to be homeowners in Baltimore City, we didn't anticipate what that would mean. I feel like I've been run over. I FEEL like I have a negative balance in my savings account, because wouldn't that be an awful feeling? Not only having no savings, but actually owing your savings account money?

The bright spot in this has been a last-minute trip to Stitches South.

 

There was Red Bull. There was Sarah from Cephalopod Yarns. And books. And working in the Neighborhood Fiber Co. booth. Nice Southern knitters. Learning about designing for warmer climates.

 

Speaking of Neighborhood Fiber Co., Karida, the artist behind the colors, has been working on the Baltimore Satelite Reef, doing everything from planning the installation to teaching middle schoolers to crochet. You can read more here, and if you have a few extra dollars to support community arts, there's a kickstarter page here. If there's a place for kickstarter, I think it's community arts. And the reef is going to be great. It's even got a little piece from me (not nearly as cool as the pieces a lot of those kids made, though).

 

 

And my cats miss me. When they sit like this, they're usually staring at me as I sit at our only table and work in front of the computer. They're my quality assurance department.

 

The gray suitcase behind them is Stuff I Have Given the Mortgage People (and my ball winder). Time to get home and add to that pile!