Monet's Garden

New free pattern up as a Ravelry download!
It's nothing really extravagant, just a simple little cowl using awesome yarn. (Artyarns supermerino in "Monet's Garden." Part of the impressionist collection exclusive to the Yarn Market.) If anyone decides to knit it up let me know how it goes and if I made any stupid mistakes in the instructions. Hopefully it's all correct, but I am only human, of course. Anyway, here's a photo:

The Impressionist Cowl

I'm still working on the other design that I have hinted at in past posts. It's going to be sooooo anticlimactic once I post photos. :) Really. The reason it's such a big deal for me is that it's something where 1) gauge really will matter, and 2) I have to make different sizes. From that you should be able to guess that it's a garment. A very simple garment, but a garment nonetheless. And with that..... I'm off to knit on said mystery project!

Mysterious Bumps

I grew a bump! No, that's not really good news. My left middle finger decided, for some unknown reason, to grow a little bumpy lumpy right at the base (palm side). Lovely eh? I guess it's a cyst, but what kind I'm not sure. Annalee had a few on her hand (she's the queen of growing lumps.... head, ears, hands, etc.) and the doc said if it didn't bother her she should just leave it. Obviously the other option would be that if it did hurt she could have it cut out. She says the bumps didn't hurt or get in the way at all, so she chose to leave them be and eventually they went away (and then she promptly grew more). My bump, however, isn't as well behaved as Annalee's. It hurts to knock it or put any pressure on it and if my hand stretches I can feel something pop over the bump. Not sure what that's about. Nerve? Muscle? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it just disappears on it's own because I, the poor starving artist that I am, don't have health insurance. Ah well.... If I did need to have the procedure to cut it out I wonder how long it would be before I could use the hand to fiddle and knit..... Days or weeks? I have no clue. If it's days then fine. If it was weeks than I have a 2 week break from gigs in August, but before that I'd be out of luck.

Sticks and String
I just posted my Whimsical Garden capelet to my Ravelry projects last night. It's meant for sale in my Etsy shop and will be arriving there as soon as I figure out what kind of price to tag it with. I'm so bad with that. I never know how to price what I make. Sometimes I browse through Etsy looking for other knitters and crocheters just to get some idea on their prices. This doesn't really work, though. There are a lot of people out there that are barely selling their goods above what it must have cost them for supplies and then there are others that price their stuff so high I can't imagine what they must have been thinking. I tend to be somewhere in the middle. At least I think so. It's probably better to be on the higher end because then you show that you value your time and skills and I think that does attract people. Of course, there is a limit. Sky high prices.... well, come on!