valentine photos

this week we are very lucky indeed- we have "professional" photos of the finished pink and green socks! jay took the socks (and his father) into his lighting class for a portrait/product demo shoot. we have the very talented student, angela lawson, to thank for these final shots of both jay himself and the hand knit socks. i don't (as of yet) have photos of jay's father. that's a post all it's own, and it may end up here in the blog. but i digress. on to the product photos!!

 

photo by angela lawson, photo 121 (lighting)

art institute of san antonio

model:  jay tomioka 

• US size 1 dpns
• 2 balls patons stretch sock in "cherry sours"

i hope everyone had a wonderful valentine's day.  i know that mine was brightened by these great shots! 



happy knitting!

tonks

kitchener toes

i've been working on a pair of socks for a gift, and while i'm happy with the progress so far, i always seem to start to stagnate in the second sock. i also seem to avoid kitchenering the toes together until the very end, finishing both socks at once. i have no idea why this should be so, but doing the kitchener stitch seems to be something i avoid until i have no other choice. i don't have an active dislike of the darning task, so i'm truly baffled for an explanation as to why i would avoid doing it until i have no way around it.

i often wonder how many other knitters have bizarre little traditions and habits regarding the finishing of their projects. i know several knitters that simply can't start the second sock without fully completing the first one. i know others still that can't finish the first sock at all... even to make it past the heel turn, before starting the second one on a separate set of needles and a new ball of yarn. of course, many further still (myself formerly among them) could never even get around to beginning the second sock.

as i have two weeks to finish the second sock, i feel confident that i'll be done in plenty of time, but i my mind wanders when i knit socks. they aren't my favorite thing to knit, but i find myself returning to them again and again...

happy (sock) knitting!

tonks

new examiner dot com article

things are starting to settle down in the beautiful state of texas!  i finally found some time to actually work on an article for the examiner- something i've been remiss to do regularly. 

this one is about ways to use knitting to cope with mental disorders.  I know it's not a new topic for me, but since it's only my second article on the examiner, i want to do things right and build a reputation first.  :)

more to come soon, and i hope you enjoy the article.

happy knitting!
tonks

in one week, tonks goes blues brothers.

what could tonks possibly be planning?  what seeds of dementia have been planted in her circusy little brain?  to what end will she go to bring you the best information she can?  prepare, my knitterly few, for the east coast yarn crawl.  over 1000 miles of fiber, frivolity and frolic.  plus blog posts, photos and professional reviews galore.  it all begins on the 15th!  see you next week!



happy knitting!

tonks

a new article, a new sideline career

hello, my knitterly few!
i have some wonderful news to share! i have picked up a small writing gig at examiner.com, writing articles and reviews about knitting. the first article was recently published! it's about using knitting to overcome addiction.

ooh, look! a handy link!

anyhoo, i hope you enjoy it. there will be many more in this vein- a series i call "knitherapy". stay tuned for the next article, and hopefully some wonderful book-related news!

happy knitting!
tonks

an update from the sunshine state

after many long weeks, we're in west palm beach, florida. it's likely i'll be setting up shop here for some time, so we've gone out to my wireless carrier and purchased a hotspot portable wifi device for the house (no cable here... not for some time.) and have jacked in. hellooooo, internets!! it's nice to be back on the laptop, i've gotta say.

i'd promised pictures of the shawl. it is complete and blocked, and photos will come, but it's currently waiting for action shots. if all goes well, they'll be great ones- on a sailboat on the ocean. gimmie like a week or so, okee? <3

it's been busy, busy! both jay and i are working tirelessly on getting life set up. 12 (the patient and tolerant) is back in va, holding down the dc homestead. i'll be traveling frequently to and fro as this house is turned over and set up for us. in the meantime, the hotspot wifi is a godsend, and it's a lovely place to be. though i plan on being in va/dc for the holidays. :)

more to come,

tonks
the unhinged knitter

a myriad of changes

wow, it's been a long, long spring!


so much is changing here, but the knitting, as ever, stays constant. my personal life has undergone major revisions. i'm moving, changing lifestyles and moving forward with my dreams. the future looks bright and full of travel, love and fine yarns. what more could a girl ask for?

the past months have been filled with joy and sorrow. i have traveled all over the east coast, assisting a dear artist friend in new york city, philly and west palm beach, florida. we drove up and down the country twice, stopping back home in DC whenever possible. it was amazing to be on the road again, and i truly found my wings once again. i can't wait, as we're going again in august, and i'll be on the road doing what i've fallen in love with until mid october. it's amazing, to say the very least.

the knits do flow. in fact, i'm presently amid a lace weight shawl to compliment a teal dress i'm making. pics will happen, of course, but i just wanted to rave a bit about sea silk yarn.

oh. my. god. sea silk. it's a combination of sea cell (elements of seaweed) and silk. the blend i have is a buttery, natural/undyed beauty, totaling out at about 700 yards of wonderful. i LOVE it. it's amazing, and i can't wait to get my hands on more of it!

for now, i know it's a short update, but i just had to take a moment to gush over awesome yarn. like i said- everything is changing here, and fast. i will get back to some semblance of a regular schedule soon- so i hope!

happy knitting!
tonks

kindle knitting?

recently, and after much initial hesitation, i jumped on the band wagon and bought a kindle. i must admit i didn't much care for the idea originally, as most of the books i read are on audio as to free up my hands for knitting time. this habit of reading made enjoying a paper book a rare treat, complete with the glorious textures of the paper and the smell of the binding. a kindle, said i? what use would i ever have for one? i would lose my favorite part of reading an actual book!

it didn't take long into actually researching e-readers before i realized just how much easier my life would be with one, and i must admit it had nothing at all to do with reading books.

patterns, my friends. knitting patterns. all in one portable, easy to read place. all neatly complied and categorized as i see fit, complete with the ability to add notes and adjustments as i go along, and even thereby allowing the sharing of said notes on facebook or twitter. patterns galore- and those digital files i had roaming around my hard drive that were not already pdfs were soon brought over to the dark side and installed on the device.

so i took the plunge. it's been just over a week since i purchased the kindle, and i'm hooked in deep. it's already become such a part of my daily life for both the novels and the patterns, and i often find myself holding it and wondering how in the hell i got through life without it. it's brilliant.

no, i must confess, it did not take long at all. in fact, i've even downloaded fictional books as well- even though i swore up and down that i would really only use my kindle for knitting. yeah... i'm cheating on my books. thankfully they, much like my yarn, will not resent me for this gross negligence. but i do wonder if they will get lonely...
do you own a kindle, or other e-reader? do you use it for knitting patterns? why or why not? if you don't own one, do you plan to in the near future? it's a marvelous time we live in, with the height of technology at our fingertips when and if we ask of it. it really makes one wonder what they will come up with next, and- more importantly- how we will adapt it to suit our knitterly whims.
happy knitting!

tonks

p.s. oh... n' also? my haiku book is now available as a digital download (pdf) and it reads BEAUTIFULLY with all of the original images intact. check the sidebar for a link, and enjoy it at a low price!

the good, the bad and the sparkly awesomeness.

good news, everyone! well, bad news, too. but then i promise i have more good news! here's what's up:


i received a reply from my publicist about the latest book pitch, and we have a winner! it goes before the acquisitions board on monday morning, and if they like what they see, we move forward and start bringing in other designers. i'll be sure to update just as soon as i can talk about it in more depth, as if we move forward, i'll be taking submissions from others instead of just making them myself. that'll be a nice change of pace. :) to answer the first question most hopefuls may have about their submissions- yes, you will be paid for your work. how much, as of now (as we're still in the preliminary stages) is as of yet unknown, but yes. designers will be compensated. i can't wait!

bad news bear- i messed up the ball of my foot and had to get a soft cast. no fun. it's just a little fracture, but it hurts like holy hell if i accidentally put any pressure on it. this really wouldn't be much of a bother... just an inconvenience, had the snow storm not hit as we were trying to get to the doctor. by the time we were done, getting home was very dangerous and the car was not able to get up the hill to our house. we had to park in a lot at the base of the hill and walk. ever walked through a blizzard uphill on a broken foot? i don't advise it. i hope i never have to do something like that again. but, other than that... yeah. no worries. i'll heal. always do. :)

more good news! i'll be showcased (more specifically, many of my chokers will be showcased) at the upcoming project TRONIK fashion show in march. there will be loads of lovely ladies from the dc goth and fetish modeling scene sporting my beaded creations. i can't wait to be a part of this, and i hope you all can come out and enjoy the show. it promises to be one hell of a party. :) plus there's sparkly things there. everybody likes sparkly things...

happy knitting!

tonks
the unhinged knitter

long overdue, and an explanation of why

happy new year, everyone! i know i'm behind on my blogging, but i have a very good reason. they don't call me the unhinged knitter for nothing, and when things go wrong, they really go wrong! shortly before the new year (and not soon enough after the crazy hustle of the christmas rush) our dishwasher threatened to burn down our house due to a faulty heating coil.  we were less than pleased, to say the very least.  dishwasher's don't grow on truffela trees after all, and the holidays are NOT THE TIME you want one of your major household appliances to punk out.

then, my dear laptop, a faithful companion of five years, went to the tech graveyard in the sky. however, as faithful and wonderful a friend a laptop is, we must always be prepared for even the dearest of them to go completely psycho ex girlfriend on us. it pays to back up your shit.

that being said, the last two days of my life have been spent teaching my new laptop all of the wonderful things about my life. we've shared pictures with one another, told each other stories of our favorite knitting patterns and learned many things about each other through the marvelous tool that is a custom dictionary. :P

in short, i'm back and back at it. as i scrounge around the new tech, i'd learned about a very interesting drive feature. it's called lightscribe, and what it does is pretty damn cool! basically, once you've burned a cd or dvd, you can flip over the disc in the drive and have it burn images and/or text into the top of a lightscribe enabled disc. of course, i spent a fair bit of my evening playing around on photoshop for someday hopeful burns... but those things will simply have to wait. in the meantime, i'm moving forward with fraggle things, and am currently awaiting a response from my publisher about some very cool information. alas, i do wish i could share with you some of the photos of the fraggle knits, but they are off limits! instead, i shall (hopefully) appease you with an image of one of the lightcribe disc templates available online. i think it's awesome!

happy new year, one and all, and happy knitting!
tonks

festive mistletoe- a holiday gift for you!

the holiday is almost upon us, and if you're a knitter, you're likely working your fingers to the bone in an effort to not be that person at the 7-11 at 3 am on christmas eve, looking for gifts as you didn't have time to complete your christmas knits.  believe me, my friends- i've been that girl.  it's not fun.

so, to help you with your holiday crafts, i'm giving you a free mistletoe pattern!  this guy really is a quick knit.  it's not like other patterns, such as socks, which claim to be a quick knit.  this little bugger can be finished in about an hour or less.  it's very fast, really cute and a perfect compliment to a variety of your christmas needs.  work some up for gift ornaments, stocking stuffers, for you own holiday party to guarantee kisses or as a gift all on it's own.  the pattern has clear instructions and variation options (for making a larger, fuller mistletoe, should you desire it) and comes all bundled up as a festive pdf file.

ravelry users can download the pattern here!  for now, it's only available as a pdf download from ravelry, but if you don't use ravelry and want it anyway, just email me at tonks@unhingedknitter.com and ask me for one.  i'll get it off you to post haste.

i hope all of your holiday knits are coming along well!  for now, i'm off to get back to work!

happy knitting!
tonks

a change of pace and fraggle updates

hello, my lovely knitter fiends! i'll keep this one quick.

the fraggle book is, as we know, in the works and waiting for a release date on the movie. as the movie is having some sketchy conflicts, i still need to up the tonks name to a more epic standing. as such, i'm going to be multitasking my talents a smidge. the henson project is an epic one, and a few more rungs on that ladder couldn't hurt! as such, i've submit a few things to publishers to help build up my knitterly name.

first, a new article about using knitting for addiction has been sent off to the interested parties at vogue knitting. the response to the mental health article was overwhelmingly positive, and i'm very grateful to all of you for reading and enjoying it. knit simple magazine is a branch of the vogue knitting company, and i'm looking forward to a reply from vogue to see if they wish to delegate the article out to a branch of the company again. let's keep our fingers crossed!

secondly, i've put together a smaller book pitch for f+w media (northlight). never fear my fraggle lovers- i am NOT abandoning the fraggle book. i am, in fact, still working on it regularly. however, the amount of clout i need to ensure the success of the publication is still lacking in my professional life, and a smaller, less risky publication for the company is a wise move. i hope to hear back from them soon, and i do hope that this less demanding book idea goes over well. i know that it's something i could complete quickly, and still be able to give my fraggle yarn some love.

things are moving fast here in my little corner of the universe, and my knitting needles are flying around like shiny ninja darts. i advise caution when navigating through my living room. :)

i hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving holiday. ours was a delight, and the blackened turkey we cooked was amazing. so with a belly full of turkey leftovers, i must bid you adeau as i push forward with the latest projects!

happy knitting!
tonks