The Sweatshop of Love Blog

A Peek Around the Corner...

You know when you don’t feel comfortable in your own house? You know that feeling? Where everywhere you look is a problem. Everywhere you look needs work. There isn’t a single corner you can sit in where you feel productive and happy and content in knowing that part of your house is just the way you want it.

I’ve had that feeling for the past three months.

I moved into this apartment over four years ago with an ex boyfriend. We moved in because a friend of ours had to vacate pronto because she left her live in girlfriend for a boy while we were in Prague. I was calling it ‘The Relationship Killer’ for a while, but now I just think relationships that start before you’re 20 are doomed from the start.

And PT and I have been rockin’ it out since our summer hiatus, and his stuff has been sitting in boxes in every corner of the apartment for three months. We had been licking our chops just waiting for the chance to move into the room left vacant by our roommate, and after a paint job, we started spreading out.

Futon's New Home

We had a study/dining room/living room/storage room that was basically just a dumping ground we hardly spent any time in that was home to a futon and coffee table, now happily situated in the football room, complete with quilts and pillows my mom has made me over the years, and my first knitting project ever! That gigantic striped/weird purple shaped shawl.

Work Table?!

My worktable has been folded up against the fireplace in the bedroom for months and months. My sewing machine was completely covered by things I needed to sew as soon as I had the room to sew, perpetuating the problem.

(See my sign?! I’ve got to figure out a way to hang it up over my table!)

Yeah, there is a lot of stuff on there, but that is my slightly urgently needed sewn pile there on the right, and it is only taking up the tiniest section of my table, as opposed to all  being draped over my sewing machine. MANAGEABLE! What a concept.

Inventory Closet

And, maybe more than anything else, I now have a place to put my inventory and finished projects! Hello, wardrobe. I love you.

All this had been shoved in plastic containers used as tables in my pantry. Now it can breath and be remembered. I knit myself up some emergency I-must-have-lost-my-mittens-last-winter mittens this weekend with time I wanted to be using differently (little did I know that it was going to be 70 in Chicago this week!), and I found four pairs buried under onions and vinegar in my kitchen!

I’m sitting in my football room right now. It’s still kind of a mess, but a manageable mess that I’m going to start tackling as soon as I publish. I’m sitting on the futon, not my bed. I know where things that I need are. There aren’t boxes everywhere! The walls are blue.

It is kind of magical what a little paint did here, and for my sanity. Thanks, Dutch Maid!

Black Bean Pizza!

Every football Sunday PT and I make a pizza. We missed out on last week because we were dead tired from our trip to Minnesota, so we knew that this week’s football pizza had to be amazing.

Enter the black bean pizza! I’ve made this a few times in my pre-PT life but hadn’t pulled it out for him yet. It’s probably the easiest football pizza we’ve made this season – you let the crust rise for about half a game, roll it out and bake just the crust while you make the topping on the stove.

A couple chopped onions, some garlic, a can of Mexican stewed tomatoes and two cups of black beans. Boil off the water, dump on the crust, sprinkle with cheese and bake for a few more minutes.

Two Pieces, Please!

What is nice about this pizza is that it is so filling! All those beans make it nearly impossible to eat more than two pieces. So we ate two for lunch and two for dinner! (Unlike all other weeks when we just ate the entire pizza for lunch. Don’t judge.)

PT, Pre-Paint

We also tackled a project that has been on the back burner for a few weeks: painting our new room! Our roommate moved out on the first, opening up a room in our apartment for… watching football in. We have been lovingly referring to it as ‘the football room’, but I’ll be moving my work table in there and pulling out a ton of craft supplies I’ve needed to hide away while we had a roommate.

PT Working Hard

We picked out this paint color based on the name: Dutch Maid. I don’t know how people stand in front of those paint chips in the store and rationally pick out a color they think will be exactly what they are looking for. So we thought blue and thought ‘Dutch’ was a sign. I’m Dutch! The room is Dutch! (The paint was even on sale! How Dutch!)

Step One: Done!

It was dark by the time we finished painting, so we couldn’t see the true color in natural light. This morning, though, wow! I’m in love with it. It’s so bright and pretty and kinda looks like Honolulu Blue. Won’t PT be surprised when the Barry Sanders Fathead comes in the mail!

YarnCon!

I had a serious blast at YarnCon yesterday!

A huge thank you and congratulations goes out to Natalia and Sara for making YarnCon happen. As far as I could tell it went off without a hitch and everyone had an amazing time.

I’ve spoken before about knitting elitists and yarn snobs. The Sweatshop, while seriously appreciating fancy yarn and fancy needles, tries to concentrate the art of knitting and the preservation of the craft more than the materials that go into it.

That being said, holy crap! I kind of wanted to lay down and just barrel roll myself around Pulaski Field House in all that beautiful fiber and yarn.

But I couldn’t do that. If I got weirdo looks from these women just trying to talk to them then lord knows what they would do if I was rolling around, rubbing my face on their fiber.

But in the back room we rocked it out with some free workshops. The promise of a free workshop brings me my people.

Michael and a Little Baby

Brandie and Jessica

First up was my beginner workshop. I thought it was a little strange to have a beginner workshop at YarnCon; kind of like having cooking class during the finale of Hell’s Kitchen. But I was hoping knitters would bring their non knitting friends, and that is exactly what happened.

Michael and Jessica were new to knitting and picked it up so fast! Even with a baby bump in the way.

Kyle at The Sweatshop

I even made a friend between classes! Kyle was working on his first scarf, and while people were stopping by and taking pictures of Tara’s sign without it sitting next to a small child (it is seriously that awesome!), the irony wasn’t lost on anyone when I wouldn’t let Kyle put his needles down Kyle was knitting at my table.

Monica, Sheryl, and Mary Cable!

Brooke and Anne Cable, Too! Tamaal Beautifies.

My cable workshop was better attended because you can knit forever and never cable. This workshop was a blast! Everyone got it, everyone had the light bulb moment when we held those stitches to the back or to the front on the paperclip. It was the definition of a perfect class.

All in all, YarnCon was an amazing experience! I met some really fun knitters, saw some Sweatshoppers, and hopefully taught a thing or two.

My second class ended right around 3. I ran home, made myself a big lunch/dinner, caught up on football scores, and struggled staying awake for the rest of the day.

So today I’ve got some catching up to do:

Three football games.

LOTS of knitting.

One black bean pizza.

That is right! Black. Bean. Pizza. Can’t wait!

But the yarn fun doesn’t stop there! Pick up some yarn and come to one of my upcoming classes to put it to good use. I’ve got a full list of amazing ways to use hand spun yarn, including Hat Days and Cabled Cowl. See my full list of classes here, and my full class schedule here.

So pick up those needles and get knitting! Whether it is for yourself or someone on your holiday list, The Sweatshop of Love is here to help you start a project, work through any issues along the way, and finish that baby up.

Email me at allyson@thesweatshopoflove.com with any questions and to sign up for a class! And come find me at YarnCon tomorrow!

When we last visited PT’s Christmas present I was dumbing the pattern down like nobody’s business. I was getting increasingly worried, though, as I was getting closer and closer to that collar.

A Little Neck Magic

I separated for the neck when I got to the front shoulder ribs and just did a simple wrong-side slip stitch/right side knit rolled edge. Then the pattern was talking about casting stitches off, and I wasn’t about it.

I followed the decreases like it said in the pattern, but the stitches that it said to bind off I just held on spare double pointed needles, with the thought that I would pick them up when I tackled the collar.

I wished I would have thought of that when I was binding off the back! I hate picking up stitches when I could easily just hold the stitches to be worked later.

Magic!

Ok, so it wasn’t as easy as ‘magic!’. I picked up those stitches so many times, trying to get the numbers right, trying to get my ribs to match up, trying to get my back ribs to match up, trying to make sure there are enough stitches on both collars so they weren’t lopsided! The part that was magic was when I threw my hands up and stopped counting, deciding to just work the ribs out and not worry about the number of stitches. And how many stitches did I end up picking up? Oh yeah it was the right number of stitches.

I kept up with the rolled edge in the front and followed the decreases as the pattern calls for three stitches in, kinda. I wanted to keep the rib, so I fudged it a little.

Douche Collar?

Now, of course, I’m all worried that it looks like a douche-bro popped collar! Does it? If it’s a sweater, does it count as a popped collar? I don’t know the popped collar rules!

Big Enough? Cute Enough? GAH!

Freaking out isn’t the right way to put it, but I’m a little concerned that it is too small. I put it on when I was done with the collar and it seemed short, even though I did that trick where you pull out a sweater your boy liked and wears a lot and measured it to that sweater. I’m hoping my boobs are throwing off the dimensions.

I can always block it a little longer. Right?

Sleeves Two at a Time!

I’ve got a pretty good start on the sleeves, though I haven’t picked them up in a while. Since PT and I had those baseball issues, and the Tigers lost, and I couldn’t even look at him much less his stupid sweater he didn’t deserve.

I’ve read the ravelry.com notes on this sweater and many people who’ve knit it have said that the sleeves were too big. So I’m keeping the increases at a minimum; I’m sticking with the first instructions, of increasing every 6th row however many times. I’m just going to keep doing that until I feel like they are big enough. Or something.

Yeah, I don’t really have a plan for the sleeves. That is why I have to do them at the same time. I don’t take good enough notes to duplicate soup, I’m not going to be able to knit two sleeves that look the same.