Over the past year, I've gotten a lot of requests for felted (technically, it's fulled) tabi from runners, but I've been kind of loaded with a few large custom commissions. This time of year is the time of year where I should really be working on cranking out huge numbers of socks for the holidays, but it's always the time of year that I get itching to perfect some new designs. This time, it's going to be these felted tabi, so rejoice all you runners out there. :)
I spend a lot of time coming up with new ideas...most of which never get done! About a week ago, I decided to make more of a dedicated effort to get knitting new things. Rather than tediously planning out my next moves and doing intricate sketches, I'm trying out the wing-it technique. As a result, I've come up with the world's ugliest sock, and this:  I'm pretty pleased with the result, and think I've perfected the pattern. I knit this fish net tabi in a 98% organic cotton, 2% elastic yarn. It works up fantastically for tight knitting like the sole and toes, but it gets pretty saggy through the mesh upper and leg after a few stretches. Once I find a more suitable yarn, I'll get these puppies in my shop! This week has been a productive one! I've:
I plan on:
Last night I was doing some reading on the computer (and shopping, I'll admit it), and I flipped over to craftcult to check my evening's views. I noticed that they'd made a significant jump, when I got the statsy email saying that I was on the front page! My chrome and black tabi were the featured item. Anyway, I thought I'd share. I was pretty excited! I got a tidy amount of hearts and a number of views. Maybe next time I'll get on in the middle of the day! :) It looks like incoming custom orders are about finished for the Christmas shopping season, and I'm breathing a big sigh of relief. I have a few more to finish up, and I'm then going to tackle a few holiday gifts for my loved ones. I got in a rather fat shipment of yarn today, and I'm resisting the temptation to rip into it and knit up a storm. I set a goal for myself at the beginning of the year to use up some yarns that have been hiding in the back of my stash, and I realized that I needed to ramp up on that before rolling around in my new lovelies. The recent stash busting has yielded two more large pairs of my Simple Luxury Alpaca socks in a nice, subtle buff color (found here and here), and a nice, cushy pair of super thick, large, graphite tabi (found here.) Exciting news: After the holidays, twiddletoes will be joining hands with Leslie from CoolEastMarket, where my handmade tabi will accompany her extensive offerings of tabi. Leslie has been fantastic and upfront, as we've hammered out details, and I hope this relationship is lucrative for the both of us! I'm finishing up my last custom order today! I finished a few of my personal projects in downtime at doctor's offices and while visiting family, so I'm primed and ready to go on new socks for my shop. And I can't even begin to tell you how many different tabi I have spinning around in my head right now! I called around about a week ago, and I have found another source for my yarn. This is a pretty big relief, and I'm putting together a huge, celebratory order soon. I can't wait to sink my hands into new, rich colors. I was starting to get a bit panicky about paying retail costs for yarn, and am still itchy from cutting it so close with this order. Hopefully, it arrives in good time and when I'm ready to work with it. | AuthorI'm the brain behind twiddletoes. Read here about material experiments, projects, and my online adventure.  ArchivesNovember 2011 CategoriesAll |
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