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Friday, June 29, 2012

Nearly Mindless Shawl

I will be teaching a Nearly Mindless Shawl class at The Dancing Goat in Warsaw on July 16 & 23. This is a great shawl for those wanting to make something light and lacy but unsure of their ability to get the stitches to line up just right. You get to choose where and when you add the lacy mesh to your shawl. The shawl in the photo is solid with a mesh band at the bottom edges and a picot bind off for a little more interest. Decide whether you want :

  • a set placement of a specific number of lace rows mixed with a specific number of solid rows
  • to alternate solid and mesh as you work through wide bands of different colors (think Noro)
  • to choose a few colors from a hand painted yarn for more random placement of mesh areas
More great things about this shawl are getting your choice of any yarn size - though lace weight and fingering are probably best for this time of year, deciding what size shawl you want - you can keep adding yarn until you have a blanket if that's what you're looking for - the one in the picture used just over 400 yards of lace weight yarn and blocked out to a nice medium size, and, who knows, once you get the hang of it you might want to move on to one of those fancier shawls you've been eyeing!
Hope to see you there!

For more details: call Mara at The Dancing Goat: 585-786-2888

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Friday, June 22,2012
While today may not be THE day, it is a BIG day. I'm waiting for UPS to drop off my first shipment of yarn and find myself looking out the window every few minutes to see if the truck is out there. The dogs aren't barking but yesterday, or the day before, they let the mail lady park in front of the house and honk her horn without a peep until I started down the stairs - then they wouldn't shut up. My new business cards were in the mail today. Nate designed them and they turned out pretty darn good.
I did receive my business cards today! Nate designed them, using my logo and I think they turned out great!
My biggest concern right now is brand identity. I have the Propanicus Moon name playing off of Propanicus - bitter cold winter, empty propane tank lasts 2 weeks, now it's a giant party in February with fried turkeys, spicy food, gifts of warmth, tiki torches, glow in the dark bocce, and, last year, a fire juggler. How does this transfer into the name/theme of a yarn company? My only connection is the gifts of warmth aspect with me making dozens, over the years, of hats and scarves and fingerless gloves. The idea that sparked (ha, ha) the bigger concept was watching lightning during a thunder storm. I'd wanted a way to combine art and knitting into a way to make some money and this seemed like a great way to do that.
I'd better post this now so I can move on to things that are happening.