Hitchhiker

I'm 33 teeth in, hopefully can get the other 9 but we'll see.

A Confidence High, And Then Crash

Look how adorable this kiddo is!

I recently started a photography business. Like, a real, registered-with-the-state, tax ID number, now-accepting-clients-I-don't-know business. As you know, I have been taking pictures of friends and family for a couple of years now, and after the trip to Portland my husband and I talked long and hard and decided it was finally time to go for it. I feel like I've hit a wall with the education and the gear I have, and I figure I can finance upgrading both by bringing in clients and charging for portraits. I did the standard research of photographers in my area and priced myself out accordingly. I did a booth at a local school and had a lot of positive feedback and email signups. I even have a friend who is so kind and gives me feedback on what needs to be adjusted, which I really, really appreciate. I also had my first real paid-for shoot for a stranger on Saturday, and I was so incredibly pleased with the photos.

In other words, I have been on Cloud 9 for the last few days. I even have 3 more shoots booked already!

And then the crash came. What if the client from Saturday doesn't like her portraits? She seemed happy with the sneak peek, but I'm still nervous. What if things don't go A-B-C with booking the three shoots I have on my schedule? What if someone gets upset with me? I'm already running through my guarantee policy and feeling bad for disappointing someone, even though to my knowledge it hasn't even happened yet.

I admit, I am totally the kind of person who has a "words of affirmation" love language and I often struggle with self-doubt. You would think as a 29 year old mom with four kids I totally would have gotten over that already, but it still shows up quite a bit when new people are brought in to the picture. I'm not looking for people to come on here and reassure me, mostly I'm just documenting the beginning of a new (and hopefully long) chapter in my life of running a photography business.

I'm curious, do you get nervous like this when you start something new? I would love to hear your story, and how you overcame that obstacle.

Current Works In Progress - October

Remember that whole "WIP Monday" and how I knew there was no way I was going to keep up? Yeah, I called that. I still felt like updating my two readers on the current projects I am working on.

On the top I am working on my second/third Christmas stocking for this year. I finished Charlie's and I actually finished Sammy's except for the seaming and I hated it. I tried a bunch of stranding behind the Santa faces and some Fair Isle techniques on the name and I hated it when it was finished. I decided to redo it completely and it's much better this time. This year was also the first time I tried duplicate stitch on the eyes, nose and mouth, and on Charlie's it looks so incredibly nice. I am going to do a swatch for the next one to see if I want to do duplicate stitches for the names, which will make it so much easier to make it a surprise who I am making the stockings for. And BTW, I have a goal for a total of 7 this year by Thanksgiving. Think I can do it? We'll see.

On the right you can see my Hitchiker for the "Behm-along" from the Knitmore Girls. This is my selfish knitting I do when I need to congratulate myself on a job well done on something. I am using the lovely Madeline Tosh Prairie yarn I picked up in Portland for this one. The pattern calls for sock yarn to make it squishy and nice and you knit it on fours, but my yarn is lace and I'm knitting on sixes. When I block it I'm planning to stretch the snot out of it (I know, classy) to make the stitches very elongated and the ribs very pronounced in the garter stitches. I saw a shawl blocked like this at a yarn store once and it was lovely, so I wrote myself a permission slip to do it how I wanted. I actually wasn't going to participate in the Behm-along until I read the description for the Hitchiker, how if you use 150 g of Wollmeise yarn you should come out with 42 teeth and 42 is the answer to everything and the entire universe on the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In other words, it's nerdy but not obviously nerdy, which is the absolute perfect project for me and I had to join in. I currently have 23 teeth on mine and I don't think I will reach the full 42, but I'm okay with that. 

On the bottom left you can see the Vanilla Latte socks from my purse. I have the first one finished but I definitely have second sock syndrome on this one. I don't know if it's the fiber or the colorway and literally as I am typing this I am realizing I forgot to add the "latte" part to the body and will have to rip back to the ribbing. Dangit. Oh well. I am making plans for the next sock yarn I am going to buy, probably something really nice from the Loopy Ewe. We'll have to see.

Anyway, that's it for now. Up next in the queue are a couple of amigurumi birds, more stockings, and possibly beardy hats, though those might not make it this year. Happy Thursday!

Girl On Fire - Finished!

Hooray, this scarf is finally finished! It's literally been sitting on my computer desk for months asking me to block it. I decided to block this one with "fake" blocking wires, aka a piece of yarn that doesn't stretch pulled very tightly and wrapped around pins. Long story short, I had blocked about 1/3 of it before and hated it, so I reblocked it and it turned out (while not perfect) much better this time.

It's funny, I had a bear of a time photographing this one. It turned out so pretty, but I'm actually not super happy with it. I don't know if it's because it's so drapey yet somewhat stiff (if that makes any sense at all). Maybe it's because orange is just one of my least favorite colors. Honestly though I think it's the fiber I used, definitely not my favorite. I have another 2 skeins of it in a pink color, not sure what I'm going to use it for yet but I won't be buying it again. No worries though :) 

Fortunately I loved the actual stitch pattern and will be knitting it again, hopefully soon after Christmas. I would love to do it in a worsted weight yarn or dk, something bigger than a sock yarn and see how it turns out. I hope you enjoy it! Blessings!

Project Details: Falling Water pattern by Bonnie Sennott
Yarn: Brown Sheep Company Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn in "Circus"

Needle size 3

Blocking....

I'm finally blocking one of my favorite UFO's, the Falling Water scarf. Still debating if I'm going to give it away or keep it for myself. Decisions, decisions.