women of a certain age are like sunflowers; they know how to turn their faces to the sun.
Showing posts with label Celestial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celestial. Show all posts

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Everything Old Is New Again


"When trumpets were mellow
And every gal only had one fellow
No need to remember when
'Cause everything old is new again

Dancin' at church, Long Island jazzy parties
Waiter bring us some more Bacardi
We'll order now what they ordered then
'Cause everything old is new again

Get out your white suit, your tap shoes and tails
Let's go backwards when forward fails
And movie stars you thought were alone then
Now are framed beside your bed

Don't throw the past away
You might need it some rainy day
Dreams can come true again
When everything old is new again"

-Peter Allen


I have promised DH I will spend an hour each day cleaning out closets, drawers, cabinets, and the like. The idea is to make our storage spaces look bigger by making their contents smaller. I am told this is standard house listing trickery.

Now it seems to me that if "everyone does it," potential buyers would be well aware of the tactic and not easily fooled by it, but who am I to argue with real life realtor wisdom?

So I am cleaning out, throwing away, boxing up, and getting down with the whole "let's revisit every item from the past 20 years" gig.

All I can say is, "This is what happens when you live in the same place for too long."

Actually, I can say something else...

OY!

That about covers it. If you are familiar with the former size of my stash, then you can begin to get an idea of what I am going through.

And through...

And through some more...

While it can be daunting, there are hidden treasures that come to light. I am tempted to keep them, but try to hew to the one year rule: if you haven't used it in one year, get rid of it.

Actually, DH & I started boxing things up a couple years back, before our move got postponed. We boxed up many things we thought we could live without for the year or two we thought it would take to sell this house and build the next. We weren't ready to get rid of these items, but we could put them in storage for the duration.

The sad truth is: not only have I not missed them, I don't even know what's in those boxes anymore. I think that is a convincing argument for divestiture.

We will lose many things in our long term move:
  • our dining room set
  • our decrepit rec room couches (Baby Boy/Family Man thought it was the "wreck" room, when we were adding it on. Truer words were never spoken.)
  • our bumper pool table
  • our piano
  • our high maintenance yard
  • our easy availability as last minute babysitters (this is a double edged sword.)
  • our frustration with over-zealous suburban developers and the traffic headaches that ensue when they fail to adequately plan ahead
  • our local doctors, dentists, hair stylists, dry cleaners, etc.
  • and a s**tload of unessential belongings that clutter up our lives
Most of these things are long overdue for overhaul. Familiarity breeds complacency.

Some things, however, are worth revisiting, reworking, rehabbing, re-purposing, or re-imagining.

Like my pattern for Celestial.


Celestial was my second pattern. It was never test knitted. It had many flaws. It was a beginner's effort. Not bad, but certainly not up to my current standards.

The bead count was off, the directions were confusing, and it used a convoluted method of pre-stringing, rather than the crochet hook method I now prefer. The directions for getting the beads to line up at the center of the star were torturous, at best.

I have long meant to rewrite this pattern and last week, I did.

Anyone who has purchased the original pattern can get the re-mixed pattern free of charge. I think it is the least I can do for those of you who have purchased the pattern in good faith, based upon my other designs and been disappointed.

I would like to say I have all of your purchases on record, but the sad fact is, I think I may well have lost some of them last fall when DH dropped my old laptop. Just drop me an email. I'll send you the updated pattern. We will use the honor system.

This pattern has long been the ugly stepchild of the sunflower family. No more.

She is spiffed up, made over, and glammed out.

There is only one project on Ravelry, other than mine; this is bandknito's beaded nothern lights scarf.

Isn't she lovely?

I am assuming this is NOT a picture of the knitter...

My cat would never stand still for this! LOL...

Anyway...

Celestial is really a lovely little bit of lace and I hope this rewrite and her new availability as a Ravelry download will make her more popular with the hoi-polloi.

She deserves better. And so do you.


Monday, January 28, 2008

All the News That's Fit to Print...

And some that isn't.

Not much to say tonight. Would love to stay and chat, but Morocco calls. Had a bit of a setback today. Thought I had only one more pattern repeat before reaching the center panel, however, have stretched, measured, compared with other shawls I have and have decided to do another 6 repeats to increase length.

Frustrating, but something this enthralling (thanks for the word, Lucia) deserves to be done right the first time.

So, back to the long haul. Hopefully I'll have something new to show you in a couple days.

SIGH!

As to that news?

I have dropped my prices in order to be competitive within the market. So Celestial is now $5 and Cherry Country is $8. And no, I'm not going out of business; you don't have to call within the next ten minutes; this is not a limited time offer; and I don't have to pay the tax man on everything in inventory at the end of the month...

I am talking with Evelyn at Knitty Noddy about carrying my patterns. As Martha would say, "It's a good thing." Evelyn is a delight and I have been ordering from her, seems like forever. She has a great selection of yarns and her service is unsurpassed. Cross your fingers and I'll let you know if it pans out.

I have spent some time researching alternative yarns to suggest for the four designs that are currently available. You will find those recommendations in the sidebar, under each pattern picture & info. I hope this will help all of you who might like to knit with something from your stash, or who simply need a little advice on making the pattern your very own.

Cheryl's Arabian Nights is coming along splendidly. She is enjoying the pattern (WHEW! THAT'S a relief...) and the stole is everything I envisioned. So exciting to watch someone else bring something new to the project. I will definitely be using test knitters from here on out. Her input has been invaluable!

Now though, it's time to go back to knitting...

SLAVE, SLAVE, SLAVE...THAT'S ALL I DO FOR YOU PEOPLE... (yeah, right! LOL)

Friday, October 26, 2007

CELESTIAL


CELESTIAL

$5.00

SKILL LEVEL

Intermediate (some previous lace experience recommended)

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS (after blocking):

9 inches wide by 58” long

MATERIALS: 400 yds. light fingering / heavy laceweight yarn
165 size 6/0 seed & 52 med. beads for scarf
140 size 3mm cube & 28 lg. beads for end fringe (optional)

SUGGESTED YARNS





Vital stats:
60" x 10" blocked










Yarn: one skein Blue Moon Seduction fingering yarn in color: Carbon Dating








Pattern: Celestial (original pattern)









Time to knit: one week

Difficulty level: intermediate








Center section close up













Edging close up















End border close up








Beading close up