designs | Page 3

New Pattern Release: Full Circle Cardigan

Whew, it’s been a while since I’ve posted! I do have a pretty good excuse, though. Besides the fact that my current knitting projects are two secret yarn company designs that I can’t show you, no matter how much I wish I could, there’s also this:

As of last week, the hubs and I are the proud owners of this house! We’ve been busy running around getting things ready to move in. I’m going to have a great workspace for my knit designs and plenty of yarn storage space. It’s pretty dang exciting.

But somewhere in the middle of all that, I managed to wrap up test knitting on my newest sweater design and get it published. So here, without further ado, is Full Circle:

Modeled by my lovely friend Cheryl

I finished the knitting on this sweater back in the summer (gulp! Can’t believe it’s been that long!), but I couldn’t show it as an FO because I sent it in for an online magazine’s call for submissions. When I got the word they weren’t going to use it, I started the process of self-publishing the design. And now I get to show it off!

The specs:

Pattern: My own Full Circle Cardigan pattern. I wanted a long, cozy cardigan when I moved back to the Midwest, so I decided to design one. I threw in the fun bubbly cables because, well, I like cables.

Yarn: Araucania Toconao, purchased from Little Knits when they were having their ridiculous full-bag sale ($35 for ten skeins!). I loved working with this yarn–it’s squishy and reminiscent of my beloved Tosh Vintage.

The only thing that bothered me, actually, was the obvious inaccuracy of the yardage given on the yarn label. I used about 6.5 skeins for the whole sweater, including two extensive swatches. If I use the 139 yds/skein given on the label, this was about 900 yds. I can’t knit a regular-length, all-stockinette sweater with 900 yds of Aran weight, so I knew that was waaaay off.

With some help from the Little Knits Ravelry group, I figured out that their skeins are regularly in the 160-170 yd range, which made much more sense, so I put a note in the pattern to this effect. I guess it’s better to get more yarn than advertised rather than less… but it’s still rather annoying.

Notes: I think my favorite part of this design is the teeny sleeve cables. They make me happy. :-)

2012 Knitting Year In Review

I thought it might be fun to look back at my knitting progress this year, so I went through my Ravelry project pages and tallied it all up. And holy wow–I finished 27 projects this year. Nine of those were full-sized sweater designs.

That’s a lot of knitting, yo.

Anyway, I though it would be fun to show you a quick snapshot of the projects I finished this year:

Here are the self-designed sweaters (minus two that are secret designs for yarn companies–I can’t blog about those until they’re published next year):

Hats, all but one of which are my own design:
Other accessories (lace shawl design for a forthcoming book not shown):

And finally, small sweaters (two for my niece, one for the Christmas tree):

Think I can beat my own record in 2013?

Three new patterns!

Guess what guess what guess what? I just found out not one, not two, but three of my new patterns are now available for purchase!

These are designs I did for Universal Yarn back in March (remember when I had all that knitting I couldn’t show you right around that time?). Well, the pattern collection, Universal Yarn PC550 Deluxe Worsted Vol. 4, is out!

With no further ado, here are the patterns (all pictures by Shane Baskin/Black Box Studios):

Clifden Cardigan

I’m very fond of the cables on this sweater (they’re on the back too, although I don’t have a picture to show you, unfortunately). Increases between lines of rib on the sides give it a swingy A-line shape. Let’s just say it’s lucky this sample was knit in a size too small for me… I would have had a really hard time giving it up otherwise.

I named the sweater after this little town we stayed in when we visited the west coast of Ireland a few years ago. It was August, and although it was warmish, it was damp and drizzly most of the time. A wool cardigan like this would have been perfect.

Zingy Beanie

This hat uses a lot of twisted stitches to make those cool lines of rib between the diamond patterns. I was inspired by pictures of some old Aran sweaters that currently reside in museums. When the hat was right off the needles, the fabric was doing this really cool bias thing (due to the twisted stitches). I decided to block it out straight, but I think I’m going to make another one of these and let it do its thing. It was a different look, but still neat.

Saunter Mitts

I think these little mitts knit up in about four episodes of Doctor Who. Totally fun, and just enough pattern to be interesting without frustrating.

I’m so glad to finally be able to share these patterns/FOs with y’all! I had a lot of fun knitting them, and I’d love to hear what you think. :-)

New Pattern Release: Lavandula from Twist Collective!

The Twist Collective Winter 2012 issue went live this morning…

…which means I finally get to share one of those secret sweater knits I worked on over the summer with you!

This is Lavandula, my first pattern to be published through Twist Collective. I love, love, LOVE this online magazine’s design aesthetic and sense of style, so it’s been a dream of mine to get a pattern published with them. Lavandula was my third submission–and the first one that was accepted!

Of course, I was knocked out by the photography and styling (All gorgeous photos by Jane Heller for Twist Collective):

The yarn is Sundara Sport Merino two in Monet’s Basilica. I was thrilled when they told me which yarn had been selected for the design, because I’ve been dying to try Sundara yarns for ages! Let me tell you, it lived up to the hype. The depth of tone and color is absolutely stunning.

Lavandula is sized for bust measurements from 30″ to 51″ (76 to 130 cm). If you’re interested in purchasing the pattern or finding out more information, you can check out the Twist Collective page or the Ravelry page.

I’ll try to do a post about the design process in a few days–I know I’ve enjoyed seeing those from other designers, so hopefully you’ll enjoy it too!

Oh, and this makes me pretty happy too: Lavandula is currently #5 on Ravelry’s Hot Right Now list! :-D

;

FO Friday: Texture Times Two Hat

I finished the texture hat to match the purple texture scarf!

It came out great! The hat is fully reversible and looks just as cool on both sides as the scarf.

The specs:

Pattern: My own, coming soon (with matching scarf).

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Purple Mystery, 1 skein. What can you say that hasn’t been said about Malabrigo? It’s like knitting with clouds.

Notes: Even after a whole scarf and a hat, I still really like this texture pattern. The two-in-one effect is awesome. I finally figured out a good name for the set, too: Texture Times Two!

We had fun with the photoshoot on what turned out to be one of the last days with leaves still on the trees:

I still haven’t quite readjusted to actual seasons after my years in LA. The poor trees look so sad now!

Rhinebeck 2012 in Pictures

Rhinebeck was AWESOME. Completely amazing. I’ll be going again next year for sure!

Warning: very photo-heavy post ahead.

Barn of amazing vendors

A shot of a small number of the people at the Ravelry meetup (it was huge!)

Mr. T the sheep

New sweater in action

Me with two lovely designers: Becky of Sugar Tree and Danielle of Makewise Designs

Angora bunnies!

Delicious maple cotton candy next to undyed roving. Can you tell which is which?

Hubby clowning around in the sweater I knit him last year–we got so many compliments! Of course, it helps that he's adorable.

Knitting in the (very long) line for lunch

Another barn full of amazing vendors

(Pardon the lens flare) A sighting of Chandail in the wild!!! I was so excited! This lovely lady is Amy, who sought me out at the meetup! :-D

I spotted another Chandail just walking around, which made me stop in my tracks and squeal to my husband like a little girl. And I had several people tell me they had been following the progress of my new sweater on Ravelry and were excited to see it in person! I passed out loads of business cards and (of course) bought some delicious yarn.

Rhinebeck Bound!

The Tosh sweater is done! It’s gorgeous. Unfortunately, it’s also unblocked, so the big reveal will have to wait a few days. But it will be done long before Friday, which is good because…

… that’s the day I’m leaving for Rhinebeck!

This pretty much sums up how I feel about that:

Although my sweater looks a teensy bit cooler than his.

It’ll be my first time at Rhinebeck, so I’m mostly just going to soak in the atmosphere. I’ve heard it can be pretty overwhelming for first-timers! I’ll be at the Ravelry meet-up on Saturday, so if you’ll be there, you might get to see my pretty Tosh sweater in person.

Hubby and I are driving out to New York and it’ll take about 10 hours, so of course my thoughts turn to projects for the car.

I’m thinking I’ll work on the matching hat for the Malabrigo scarf:

I might get through that one, though, so I’ll need another project too… hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

WIP Wednesday: Design Snag

I’m still working on the same sweater, but I’m not quite as lovey-dovey about it this week.

I finished the body and the neckband, which is good:

But the little jog where the neckband ribbing meets the placket ribbing is bothering me. Which is bad.

The stitch markers are standing in for buttons.

It’s especially bad because I wove in all the ends already… thinking that the main reason I didn’t like the look was because there were dangling ends everywhere. *facepalm*

I think I might have to unpick all the ends, rip it out, and try again… which doesn’t make me very happy. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my year + of designing, it’s that time spent re-doing something that isn’t quite perfect is time well-spent. That was true when I wasn’t designing, too, of course. I just didn’t want to hear it then.

Want to help me get psyched up for all that ripping? :-(

Same Sweater, Different Week

I’m still knitting away on my Tosh Merino Light sweater:

The placket part looks so weird before the buttonbands are added, doesn’t it? I have to keep reassuring myself that it’ll all look fine once the finishing is done.

Now that I’m past the part where the sweater is joined together, it’s smooth sailing (no more purl rows, yay!), so I should be able to make some good progress on it this week. I’m hoping to at least have the body and sleeves done by next Wednesday (the finishing would be great too, but I’m not sure if that’s a realistic goal).

I’m a few inches farther now than that picture–and I only just ran out of the first skein of TML! Knitting fingering weight on size #6 needles is definitely a good way to stretch out your yarn, that’s for sure. I’d be surprised if I used all of three skeins for the whole sweater, since I’m planning to do 3/4 sleeves anyway.

Back photo:

FO Friday: New Scarf Design!

I have a new design to show off for FO Friday:

The coolest thing about this pattern is the reverse side, which looks really cool and just as textural but totally different:

Proof that it’s the same scarf and I didn’t just knit two scarves with the same yarn but totally different patterns to mess you up (cause, you know, that sounds like a really good use of my time):

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Purple Mystery, 2 skeins (part of my birthday present from my lovely mother!)

Pattern: My own. I’m calling it by the amazingly unimaginative name of Texture Scarf while I think of something better. Any suggestions?

Notes: This cable pattern is kind of awesome, as long as you can cable without a cable needle (pretty easy with Malabrigo, since it’s definitely not what I’d call slippery). It was interesting enough to keep my attention, but easy enough to memorize pretty quickly and work while watching episodes of The Office (on season 7–please Netflix, hurry up and get season 8!).

I’m planning a matching hat, so I think I’ll wait to write up/release the pattern until I can do them as a set. Here’s hoping the LYS has another skein of Purple Mystery in stock…