Long time no post! Sorry all! I’ve been swamped at my new job (did I mention I started a new job last month?) and have had a surprisingly busy social calendar recently, meaning most of my evenings are spent out with people instead of home knitting . . . which is so weird! I have been making some progress on a few projects though, and am getting ready to release a new pattern as well! Here’s a sneak peek of that new pattern, which I’m calling City:

Can you tell what it is? No? Well that’s the point! All will be revealed shortly, I promise. The pattern will include two versions, and I’m currently knitting the second one. And have already written the instructions! So it really is close to being done. Hopefully within the next few weeks.

And here’s another sneak peek into the pattern I plan to release after City:

Not much detail in this one either, huh? I’ll tell you what it is: a mitten! I have the first one completely finished and the second is about half done, but haven’t even started on the pattern yet, so this one will not be out all that quickly. I love these mittens and have already started planning a second pair in a completely different colorway!

Both these designs are knit with St Denis Nordique yarn, which I absolutely adore. The hand is woolly yet soft, the color range is awesome, and each color is gorgeous and unique. Perfect for colorwork! I plan to come up with several colorways for each design and sell kits with the yarn. I’ll take a picture of the Tower O’ Nordique and share it soon, you may just choke . . .

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I finished the last few details of the pattern and it’s now available, finally! Sorry it took so long, many of you have been hounding me (nicely!) for this one for a few months now . . . well the wait is over! Get it from my shopping cart or Ravelry’s, whichever you prefer.

Covered with interesting cables, this oversized cowl is fun to knit and easy to wear. Knit it in a semi-solid handpainted yarn or a solid neutral to coordinate with your favorite winter coat!

Complete written and charted instructions included.

Looking for help on the wrapped cable? Check out my step-by-step video, How to Knit a Wrapped Cable!

Price: $4.00

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I think I’m at the point now where I get more excited for a new issue of Twist Collective than for a new issue of IK or VK. I guess that makes sense given the sheer talent included in those pages, but also from a practical perspective, Twist Collective is the perfect magazine for me because you only buy the patterns you’re interested in! I don’t knit from published patterns all that much anyway so it’s nice to be able to just buy the one I want instead of a whole print magazine I then have to store somehow . . .

In this issue my favorite thing is the article on double knitting (not that it really matters, but I’m constantly wierded out by what the Twist URLs look like. Check out that doozie!). I understand the basic concept of double knitting but haven’t really explored it much, and now I have all sorts of ideas I want to try out! The design that goes along with this article is a reversible hat named Four Winds by Alasdair Post-Quinn, which quite cute:

The fit on the hat seems kind of weird but that may just be because of the model’s hair, hard to tell. I totally love the idea of a double-knit hat though, it’s like having two hats instead of one! I plan to play with this concept using one solid color and one handpainted color (big surprise I’m sure) . . . I’m thinking of all my odd skeins of Koigu and already sketching out ideas!

Of all the patterns in this edition of Twist, the one I think I’m most likely to knit is the Veronik Avery mitten pattern called Mitaines & Moufles:

I love the simple-yet-gorgeous patterning of the outer mittens and the idea of knitting two layers like this is just brilliant! I would knit the inner mitten in something really luxurious like cashmere, and the outer mitten in something sturdy that really shows off the stitch pattern and that could put up with the grime of the NYC subways . . . this one may just end up on the short list!

Among my other likes were Ysolda’s dramatic gloves and Angela Hahn’s Plaited Tam beret. And the little Rover stuffie by Jennie Eveleigh Lamond is super-cute, too!

In truth I don’t have time to knit probably ANY of these patterns but I genuinely enjoyed browsing through them and letting them inspire me to my own design work. I’m about halfway done with the Chaya shawl sample and have started finalizing the pattern for the Vimioso Cowl . . . oh did I mention I decided on a name for that cabled cowl? More on that next time . . .

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I just picked up this magazine and while some of the designs in it are downright scary, there are a few that sparked my interest! You can see the whole issue previewed here on Vogue’s site, but here are the projects I’m thinking about:

This pink cowl caught my eye because it reminds me of my new cowl design (which is well on its way to being published! yea!) and because the stitch pattern looks really interesting. I have a few more ideas in my mind for oversized cowls like these and infinity scarves, need to do some more sketching and swatching to weed out the winners from the losers before the trend has come and gone . . .

This little purple vesty thing is probably my favorite piece in the whole issue. I actually went stash-diving for appropriate yarn when I saw it! I remember the designer sweater that (I assume) inspired it and it caused quite the stir at the yarn shop a few years ago when we saw it on the runway. This little sweater changed a few things and in my opinion, is just as good, if not better, than the designer version. The more I look at it the more I want to knit it!

I feel like there was something else in this issue I liked but I don’t see it on that preview page . . . maybe they didn’t put all the patterns up? I don’t have the magazine with me right now so I can’t check either, and a quick look at Ravelry didn’t jog my memory . . . if I remember what it was I’ll update this post!

What about you, what are you considering knitting from the VK Holiday 2009 issue?

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Thanks for your patience folks! I came home after a long day at work yesterday, mostly filled with editing a huge Word file, and sat down to edit my own (not that huge) file! There were some final corrections that needed to be made but now the pattern is finished and ready for you!

Introducing Leila!

The pattern includes instructions for both the full size shawl and the shawlette size. All instructions are written out (yes, every single line!) and charted. The large shawl is knit in light fingering weight yarn, I used 2 skeins of Cashlana (sadly discontinued) for the sample you see above.

For the shawlette size, my aim was to write a pattern that could use sock yarn and required no more than the amount of yarn needed for a pair of socks. We all have way more sock yarn stashed than we’d like to admit, right? This shawlette took less than one skein of Socks that Rock Lightweight, and would work equally well with other sock yarns you may already own. At least for me, knitting this shawlette took much less time than knitting a pair of socks does! It’s a great way to knit down your stash (if you’re into that sort of thing that is).

Both sizes are included in one pattern for $5.00. Purchase from my e-junkie shopping cart or from Ravelry.

Here’s a link to the official Leila Pattern Page with all the yardage and size measurements.

Or if you’re ready to buy now, here are the purchase buttons!

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me (click “Contact” above and fill out the form) with any questions!

Enjoy!

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Post tags: knitting pattern, leila shawl, shawl

I don’t know what’s going on with knitting patterns recently, but it seems like the knitting world it out to get me to knit stuffies! Checkout out the new Knitty, my favorite pattern is this crab, called the Deadliest Crab. The details on this little guy are stunning, and we’re huge fans of the Deadliest Catch show that inspired him . . . I really may be casting on for this guy later this week!

I also quite like the shawl pattern Cold Mountain and the Outside In socks. This issue of Knitty is definitely one of the best I’ve seen in a while, usually there’s nothing in them that I want to knit but to have 3 potentials in one issue? That’s awesome!

Is it possible there’s a conspiracy to distract me from my pattern-writing with cute new patterns? Ah, a convenient excuse for why the Leila pattern isn’t out yet . . . just what I need! Ha!

In all seriousness, I am *almost* done with it. Really! The laceweight sample is about half done after several hours of work on it last night. And it’s a good thing I’m reknitting it, I found several small errors and have added more stitch counts, which always helps! I did get sidetracked by submissions to IK’s spring issue, which I still need to get in the mail tomorrow to meet the deadline, but after that I’m spending all my knitting time on Leila. I’m really getting the itch to finishing some of my long-standing UFOs, too (spefically Babette and the Anne top), hopefully there will be more knitting content around here soon! I can’t believe it’s been so long since my last FO post . . .

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Have you seen the Summer 2009 Twist Collective yet? My favorite pattern in this issue is this stuffie, it’s called Niles & Cleo and I want one NOW! Do I have a need for a stuffed animal? Hell no. But they’re just so cute! I love their little hoodies and their crazy-long noses. The designer is Jennie Eveleigh Lamond, whom I’d never heard of before, but when I looked her up on Ravelry I realized she’d previously designed those cute flower dolls for a previous issue of Twist! She apparently has several other stuffie patterns, too, check out her Ravelry patterns page.  Her designs are all really cute without being too cloyingly-sweet, I can’t wait to see what other stuffed animal patterns she comes up with in the future!

The other designs in this Twist issue didn’t really do it for me, which is really surprising given how much I’ve loved previous issues. I think this is probably the weakest issue to date for them, there wasn’t a single garment I wanted to knit! That’s really saying something. I did like one of the sock patterns and have put it in my check-it-out-later list, but for now I think that Niles & Cleo is the only pattern I’ll be buying.

Besides, I have plenty of WIPs and patterns to work on already! What about you, what did you like in this Twist Collective?

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Post tags: Knitting Patterns, twist collective

Leila went with us to Aruba so we could take pictures for the pattern . . . but somehow we ended up shotting in a corner of the hotel that hardly denotes the location! Oh well, at least it was sunny and the picture came out well! I wish the top edge hadn’t rolled like that, but I think this picture shows the shawl off pretty well. It won’t be the only shot of the shawl in the pattern, but it’s currently the top contender for the front cover. What do you think?

I’ve been fighting with the chart for this pattern and think I’ve finally found a compromise between giving a chart but not leaving out the words. Unfortunately I think the pattern is going to be over 10 pages long because of all the different charts, but I’ve never heard of a knitter complain that a pattern was TOO detailed before, so I’m thinking this will be OK with most people! I’m including instructions written-out as well as the charts, and both versions (shawl & shawlette) will be included.

I’ve given myself a deadline to publish . . . now let’s see if I can meet it!

Oh, and volunteer test knitter? Your pattern will be in your inbox this weekend! I promise!

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Post tags: knitting, knitting pattern, lace, shawl

Introducing my latest free pattern, the Riverside Handwarmers! This super-quick project uses about one sock’s worth of sock yarn, so it’s a great stashbuster (seriously, just how much sock yarn do we each own? It’s unbelievable!) and a perfect last-minute present. I knit these for myself in just a few hours, and now you can, too!

Click here for the free pattern

Enjoy!

Project specs:
Pattern: Riverside Handwarmers, my own design
Yarn: Half a skein of Colinette Jitterbug in Kingfisher
Needles: US size 2
Started: March 2009
Finished: March 21, 2009

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Post tags: free knitting pattern, free pattern, handwarmers, knitting

I finished this shawl and even managed to block it right away over the weekend! It came out really well, and the pointed border I had played around with (really easy to make, just YO’s and double decreases) turned out even better than I expected! I’m so pleased with this design I’m moving right along to the pattern-writing and layout stage, I’m hoping to offer this pattern for sale sometime in the very near future.

I decided to offer two sizes of this design, this full size, knit in a light fingering weight yarn, and a shawlette size, knit in thicker fingering for a quicker FO. Here’s a shot of that sample:

I’m using Blue Moon’s Socks that Rock in the color Tanzanite, which really looks as gorgeous as it looks in this picture. I’ve only knit a tiny big with STR, I think this is my second project, and I am really surprised by how much this yarn winds back up on itself as you work! The color totally makes up for it though, I’m not a huge fan of how their yarns pool and flash in sock knitting, but in something like a triangle shawl, where the stitch count keeps changing, the dye style really looks super-interesting and adds a little extra something to the pattern.

I’m much further than this with this shawlette now, might even have it done tomorrow . . . I’ve decided to name this design “Leila,” and since coming up with a name is one of the hardest parts of designing knitting patterns for me (honest!), that bodes well for the publication date for this shawl. With any luck I could have the shawlette size done & blocked, and both photographed, and the pattern up for sale next weekend. That’s my official goal anyway . . . let’s see if I can keep from getting sidetracked!

Oh, and if anyone is just itching to get your hands on this pattern ASAP, and might be interested in test knitting it . . . well, leave me a comment and I just may drop an advanced copy in your inbox for your testing pleasure. I’ve never done that before but since so many other (better-established!) online designers are doing it, I thought I’d give it a try!

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Post tags: handpainted yarn, knitting, lace, shawl knitting