How does one pronounce the abbreviation for Et cetera  - ETC? 

Well, that is where the name for the website etsy.com comes from. From Wikipedia:

Et cetera (in English; /ɛtˈsɛtərə/; Latin pronunciation: [ɛt ˈkeːtɛra]) (rare: etceteros) is a Latin expression that means “and other things”, or “and so forth”. It is taken directly from the Latin expression which literally means “and the rest (of such things)”

…and that is the theme of the website, where the “and other things” are all sorts of arts, crafts, supplies for making such, and vintage items that one might consider to be art pieces.

Etsy is similar to eBay in that it is an online marketplace, but differs in that it is not auction-based. It is a treasure trove of wonderful work and finds from thousands of sellers world-wide.

I’ll be adding my own work to the offerings there quite soon, but my friend Patrica also needed a way to get her work in front of a larger audience. I offered my assistance, and here are the first few artworks that I am listing for her. (Click on the images to be taken to the listing on etsy.com)

First up is Patricia’s original oil painting “Nobody’s Perfect”  One can imagine the tribunal of yellow pears leaning towards the furiously blushing red pear in judgement.

Next is Patricia’s lovely portrait of beautiful woman “Emma”  Done in charcoal on buff archival paper, “Emma” is framed with non-glare glass in a simple dark 15″ x 19″ frame.

Emma seems to be thoughtfully considering what the viewer is about to say to her.

Then we have “Oranges” - another original oil by Patricia. “Oranges” has the distinction of having been published in the “Contemporary Masters” Art Book Series, volume 2.

Having your work published is always a big success.

I hope you take the time to look at Patricia’s work, and consider becoming an owner of one or more pieces.

Soon I’ll be adding more of her work as well as some of my work. There will also be some of my extra patterns and supplies available.

While we all love the BIG wins – getting the new job, the big promotion, having a proposal accepted – the little victories can be daily or even hourly changes that can add up to those big wins.

I have been enjoying some of the progress in the patio garden. My pumpkin plant is blooming, and I planted some mixed flower pots that are adding some welcome color.

The major battle is getting all the fabric, books and patterns from the storage unit sorted, stored and inventoried.

I managed to get the first storage rack put together and got a bunch of the book boxes emptied. I also got the work table in my studio cleared off and starting sorting fabric the best way – I cut out and sewed two new skirts.

Mount S.A.B.L.E. still exists, but the first steps in cutting the mountain back down to a molehill have been taken.

SABLE is a tongue in cheek acronym that stands for Stash - Acquisition – Beyond – Life – Expectancy.

I suddenly have SABLE in fabric and sewing patterns. A friend moved out of state to live with her daughter, leaving a few of her friends to clean out her storage unit. I have the fabric and patterns.

The fabric is piled in a six foot by four foot mountain in my living room waiting on me to sort, measure, label, fold, store and start using. I joked to one friend that it was like the Devil’s Tower monument in “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind”

Since I still don’t have the camera I want, let us begin with some direction for this project.

Any new project is going to begin with the idea of what is desired of it.  We’ve covered this part in the design project, but for the purpose of this 365 Blog Project, let me state that my purpose for this techniques project is to give you, the reader and viewer, the techniques that you need to take either your original design or a design you get from some other designer (including from my offerings) to a finished project.

I will cover various techniques for every stage of a project: from cast on to bind off, increases, decreases, sock heel construction, ribbings, cables, chart and pattern reading, adjusting for fit, and many, many more.

I will include charts, photos and where and possible videos to give you the most complete view of how to do all this.

Also, the blog will remain a free offering, though I will be offing some of my designs for sale and download.  Also, I plan to add a Paypal donate button in the next few days for those that feel that they can help me defray the costs of maintaining this website and doing the course.

So, let us begin!

The last couple weeks have been beyond challenging.  Between hospitals, major surgery and a stint in ICU, I’ve been too ill and in too much pain to knit.  This morning, I was finally able and willing to pick up my knitting needles and move forward on knitting more on the Grand Circle Coat.

I have to admit that when all is said and done, that creating is the reason for doing this.  Not the need for a warm sweater, or wanting to impress others with the technical expertise you have, or even the desire for something from your own hands, but the power to take charge and CREATE is the power to heal oneself.

So, I’m going to close this 365 Project on Knitting Design a day early with this thought. Design because you can, create because it brings life into all areas of your life, and enjoy the results.  You and the world will be a bit better for it.

A dye lot is a batch (or lot) of yarn dyed in the same vat at the same time.  It gives the knitter confidence that there will not be subtle changes in the color in the yarn that will show in the finished project.

Different dye lots may have subtle changes in the shade of the yarn.  Slight variations in the amount of dye concentration in the dye vat, time in the vat, or temperature of the dye bath can all result in slight differences, as can slight differences in the original color of the wool.  These differences may not be noticeable even in two skeins on the same shelf, but would show up as a different color in a finished project.

In my last post, I assumed that yarn purchased would be in the quantities needed for the project in mind.  While local yarn shops try to keep sufficient quantity in stock for project-quantity purchases, there are some work-arounds to minimize any differences in dye lot.

First is simply to do a multi-color project.  Fairisle patterns have the strength that the amount needed of any one color is small, and even if you have two different dye lots differing in shade, it is nearly impossible to notice.

Second is to blend the yarns by alternating the two different dye lots every other row.

A third method is to separate the change by working a band of a contrasting color between two areas of differing dye lots.

I’ve sometimes heard the idea that that one can handle this by re-dying the whole project to cover up the change.  I’ve never seen this done successfully.

Some manufacturers advertise that they produce “no dye lot” yarns.  I used one of these yarns for my Leaf Square coverlet.  There are dye lot differences that show up quite well, thank you.  I ended up simply shrugging my shoulders.  A dye lot difference, even if obvious, is only a problem if you decide it is one.

Nearly thirty years ago, my new husband and I were in New England and doing some of the tourist-y things I had never done even though I had grown up in the area.

I had recently knit my husband an all-wool Icelandic style sweater of yarn my step-mother had given me.

We went to the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire.  At about 6,200 feet it’s not a mountain by the standards in Colorado, but there is nothing taller on the eastern seaboard.  While the temperature at the base was seasonable for late May – mild and a light breeze – the weather at the top was forty degrees colder with a stiff wind that made for a sub-zero wind chill.

My husband was fine in the substantial sweater that he had also been comfortable in at the base.  I darn near froze in the acrylic sweater I had made while I was in college, that being all I could afford at the time.

Same knitter.  Same weight of yarn.  Different fiber content.  Different results.

I got my spouse to stop at a yarn shop I spotted.  You could have pushed me over with a feather when I saw how much I would have to spend to make myself an all-wool sweater.  It equated to well over a week’s pay.  While the yarns on offer were lovely, I wailed to the shop owner “…there has to be a cheaper way!”

The shop owner was smart – she also carried unspun wool from local sheep farms, and some spinning wheels and drop spindles.  She replied that I could make my own yarn and thereby take even more control over my finished product.

So it was that less than thirty minutes later I had a bag full of brown wool, a drop spindle, and a short lesson in spinning.  I was off and running and with the help of my local library, I soon acquired a substantial knowledge base on the art and history of hand spun yarns.  By the end of that first bag of wool, I was spinning yarns to the weight I preferred.

The make-your-own is still my best answer for those that wail as I did that natural fiber yarns are too expensive for them.

The next best is the buy direct from the producer route that my step-mother had followed.  This can be a good route, as there are a number of locally-owned small fiber mills around the country, and you are then supporting local fiber farms that sell their production to these mills.

Other options exist; including sales at yarn shops, thrift store finds, re-using the yarn from old sweaters from the attic, making craft yarns from old t-shirts, even inheriting yarn stashes from deceased relatives.

I do use synthetic yarns in some cases.  The cost of these are easy to fit into a budget, and they make a great way to test a pattern.  Further iterations can be done in hand spun or a more costly mill spun yarn if needed.  The Hugs & Kisses camisole from a year ago is just such a project.  My idea from the start has been to do it a second time in hand spun silk once I work out the pattern.

As for the life-in-the-way, I have been sick for the past several days, and am still not up to much.  I hope to have some upgrades done in the studio this week, but it isn’t looking too likely at the moment.  My current target to start the Techniques Project is the middle of February.