inspired Monday: when inspiration leaves

I've managed to write at least a few of these inspired Monday posts.  But this week, I'm stuck.

I've spent the last 2 weeks on 2 different knitting projects, both of which have hit dead ends for now.

The first is the lacy scarf I was working on.  I discovered it yesterday morning just before hopping into the car for a long car ride.  I figured I'd get at least a couple hours of knitting done yesterday on our way to a first communion for family friends.  But when I felt the bend of the needle--where there shouldn't be one--I knew something was wrong.

It broke sometime on Saturday, somehow in my  girls' swimming bag.  I threw the scarf into my kids' swimming bag so that I could knit during their almost hour long swim lesson on Saturday morning.  I was already cranky about having to take them.  I don't like activities scheduled on Saturday mornings.  I don't like sitting in a 90 degree and humid room.  I don't like dripping wet people standing around me.  (My list of hang ups is long and ridiculous.)  I was missing out on a spinning class which is the only spinning class that fit in my schedule all week.

I had already nixed the idea of bringing a cup of coffee with me.  The pool room was already too hot, and last week my daughter had knocked into the cup of coffee I'd brought and spilled it all over her towel while changing in the locker room.

I kind of knew I wouldn't actually get to knit.  I did want to watch the kids swim but I figured I could sneak in a little knitting here and there.  I also heard a little voice say, "Every time you try to sneak in time for yourself while taking care of the children, it ends badly."  As my girlfriend said on the phone this morning, if she ever wants to make time for herself away from her kids, she knows she has to pay the piper when it's all done.

It's only a broken needle.  I only need to buy new knitting needles for it.  Minor stuff.  But still annoying.

The second project I've been working on is a design proposal.  I've spent the last three weeks off and on swatching, trying to find a stitch pattern and gauge on a bulky yarn I've never worked with before.  I finally found a stitch pattern I liked and thought I'd determined gauge.  I even washed and dried my swatch.  But when I tried to think through the sweater design, it was too complicated.  And I'm not up for complicated right now.  And we celebrated two birthdays in our house last week.  And I knew if I pulled away to try to figure it out, I wasn't going to be able to celebrate those birthdays like I wanted.

So I missed the deadline.

Again, minor stuff.  My kids won't always be little and birthdays only come once a year.  I'm not upset about that at all.  But I do need something to jump start my creativity again because I'm getting bogged down by little annoyances.

inspired Monday: yellow

I've had a taste for lemons lately.  It started with a trip to the gym in January.  I was running on the treadmill and the TV was tuned to PBS.  PBS was running an old Julia Child episode and she and a guest were making the most amazing lemon meringue dessert.   (Talk about derailing my desire to eat healthy.)  I searched and searched online and finally found the recipe.  I made it one night and it was really delicious.  Time consuming, but worth it.

I was reading Rhythm of the Home a short while ago and came across these directions for preserving lemons.  I had Meyer lemons, not thick skinned ones, so I followed a different recipe, but I've been enjoying looking at my lemons sitting on the countertop and hoping I can sample them soon.

Which got me thinking about designing with yellow.  One of my favorite children's books is Gossie by Olivier Dunrea.  My youngest daughter especially loves this book.  I dream about designing a sweater coat in a gorgeous yellow wool and finding a pair of red boots to match.

I have no yellow yarn in my stash right now, but Genevieve of Sweet Basil Fibre Works has two beautiful yellows to choose from:

Sweet Basil Fibre Works "Sunshine" on organic merino

Sweet Basil Fibre Works "Meadowlark" on merino/cashmere/nylon

How can you choose a favorite?

And last week, while I was reading other blogs, I came across this beautiful photo by Tracey of the blog Clover.  Take a look through her blog and you'll see she really does take some of the most beautiful photos.

Photo courtesy of Tracey who blogs at Clover

On Mondays I've been writing about what inspires me.  If you've written about something that inspires you, please feel free to leave a comment and link to your blog post.

inspired Monday: my kids

Last night my husband was unexpectedly called into work.  It was about 7pm, so the kids were in their pj's and we were getting close to their bedtime.  We were watching a movie.  (Luckily, the kids had been outside all day so we were just unwinding a bit.)  And my husband and I were looking forward to relaxing after a busy day of yard work, cooking, and just being.

I know the call jolted my husband back into his work mode, but it also unsettled the kids too.  They weren't expecting their Dad to have to leave, and so putting them to bed by myself was no easy task.  My oldest was very upset and wanted me to sleep with her.  My middle chimed in that she wanted me to sleep with her too.  And my one year old just always needs a little help getting to sleep.  So I felt guilty tending to my one year old while the bigger girls were feeling so sad.

The best I could do at the time was to offer to get them a hat and a cowl that I had knit (and that they love to wear) and let them sleep with them.  This made me feel just a little less guilty and it actually made them feel a little better.  Better enough that my oldest was no longer crying.  And I promised them that I was just in the next room, and that Daddy was only gone for a few hours and would be home later to kiss them goodnight.

One of the emotions I struggle with most as a mother is guilt.  I feel like I can never do enough for any of my children.  It's hard to be emotionally present for all three children when they all need different things.  If I could have last night, I would have cuddled with my oldest to help her feel better.  The best I could do last night was a bunch of hugs and kisses and letting her sleep with something that I had made.  It won't always work and it shouldn't--a hat shouldn't be a stand in for a parent--but at least last night it made her feel like she had some part of me with her.

On Mondays I've been writing about what inspires me.  If you've written about something that inspires you, please feel free to leave a comment and link to your blog post.

inspired Monday: in which we discuss Pi

::PART 1::

(this is the 1^st of a 2 part post which I hope will help designers to calculate yardage requirements for hats)

I'm inspired this week by π (or pi or 3.14).  Today is 3/14, and I'm not the only one observing this quasi-holiday.  I had every intention of baking a lemon meringue pie for today, but our Girl Scout cookie order arrived and, well, we're swamped in treats.

Just last week, I had to google how to calculate the area of a circle, and I was reminded of the formula pi times radius squared.  I'm a complete math nerd and seeing the formula made me wonder how I ever forgot it because it's really so simple.

I wanted to know how to calculate the area of a circle because I was trying to estimate how many yards of yarn it would take to knit each size of the Lucia Hat pattern that I'm designing.

To do this, I need to start with two questions:

1. How many square inches are there in the sample hat I knit?
2. How many yards of yarn does it take to knit 1 square inch of the hat?
   

   
   

   To answer the 1st question, I need to use some geometry to turn my hat into simple shapes so that I can calculate the area—or square inches—of each shape.

So let's answer Question 1 first.

How many square inches are in my sample hat size?

Let's imagine that the hat, laying flat and 2-dimensional, is made up of rectangles and a circle.  (It's not perfect, but it's close enough for our purposes.)

Area of a rectangle (square inches) = height x width.  

Area of circle (square inches) = 3.14 x radius x radius 

The circumference of the hat I knit was 14."5.  So if the hat were laying flat, the width would be 7.25", or half of the circumference.  The height of the rectangle is 4.1", which includes all of my knitting from the bottom of the hat up until I begin my decreases.  

The area of that rectangle is 7.25 x 4.1 or 29.725 square inches.  The bottom of the hat is essentially 2 rectangles, so I can double that figure to make 59.45 square inches.

The top of the hat (the portion made up of all of the decrease rounds) is a circle.  The circle at the top of the hat has a radius of 2.6" (this is the distance from where the decreases began to the center of the hat).  So the area of the circle is 3.14 x 2.6 x 2.6, or 21.25 square inches.  

The total number of square inches in the hat are then 59.45 + 21.25 = 81 square inches (I rounded up).

Now let's answer Question 2: How many yards of yarn does it take to knit 1 square inch of the hat?

I first need to know how many yards it took me to knit this sample hat. The hat weighed 1 ounce. And the yarn I used is 250 yards per 4 ounces. So I set up a formula like this and solved for Y:

250 yards / 4 ounces =  Y yards / 1 ounce

250 x 1 = 4 x Y

250 ÷ 4 = Y

Y = 62.5

So a 1 ounce hat contains 63 yards of yarn.

How do you figure out how many yards of yarn are in each square inch? I know that it took 63 yards for me to knit the hat which is 81 square inches. So,

63 yards ÷ 81 square inches =  .77 yards per square inch.

In Part 2, which I'll next Monday, I'll show you how to take this information and estimate yardage requirements for each size of a hat you're designing.


I'd love to hear your comments on this post--is it helpful, confusing, or what?  Thanks!