Knit Picks | Page 2

Burnished Pattern Book Winner!

The random number generator has spoken:

Comment #5 is Katinka, who said:

“I usually want to knit all the things, all the time, but one specific fall goal is a red sweater. I just **need** a red sweater — it’s my happy color.
Love your cardi coat! Enjoy the time with your little guy — he’s about to get into a really fun stage of interacting back, if he’s not already.”

Congratulations, Katinka! Send me your address in an email to triona@trionadesigns.com, or a Ravelry PM to otismurph, and I’ll get the pattern book sent out to you!

FO Friday: Yep, More Baby Knits

I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, aren’t I?

This newest FO matches the colorwork hat I knit up a few months ago:

The specs:

Pattern: My own (to be named). The hat and vest will likely be part of a baby collection I’ll be releasing sometime in the fall.

Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Sport in Grass and Caution. I got the hat and the vest out of just one skein of the green and less than a half skein of the yellow. Baby knits are tiny.

I’m still impressed with the quality of the Knit Picks acrylic lines. The sport-weight version is just as soft and non-squeaky as the worsted-weight version I used for the baby blanket.

Notes: I went back and forth on whether I wanted to do the v-neck edging in the same yellow-green combo as the hems and armholes, but in the end I decided it would be a little too much yellow. I think I made the right choice. Plus the neckline flows better into the green buttoned shoulder band this way.

I’m planning to knit up another sample of this pattern in a different yarn and colorway, because I want the pattern to have the options of a round neck instead of a v-neck and colorwork placement near the hem instead of at the chest.

Bonus FO for this week:

Pattern: Golden Pear (Ravelry link) by Melissa Thomson

Yarn: Scroungings from my leftovers drawer… I think this is Dream in Color Classy (the brown) and some varieties of Cascade 220 for the cream and green.

Notes: Not my own pattern, for once (gasp!). I have a friend who’s going into labor at any moment, so I thought I’d whip up a quick little baby hat. I think this took me about 2.5 hours from cast on to weaving in ends, so it was definitely quick! The i-cord loop at the top twisted a little when I sewed it down, but I actually like the look better than straight, so it’s all good. This is going in the mail tomorrow.

FO Friday: Baby Hats!

Well, I said I’d go nuts with baby stuff now that my commissioned designs were finished. Maybe you thought I was exaggerating?

Ahem. For FO Friday today, I have two baby hats, designed and knit up in about two days each.

First up, this little fair isle number:

The specs:

Pattern: My own, coming… sometime? I’ll probably have a flurry of baby releases this fall, after the baby is born and I have a willing model. The colorwork pattern is one I was playing with more than a year ago, but I wasn’t happy with it for an adult hat. I think it’s perfect for babies, though!

Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Sport. I got a bunch of Brava in a few different weights for Christmas, since I knew I’d want to make some easy-care baby gifts. This was my first experience knitting with it. I totally understand why people are raving about it. If I didn’t know it was 100% acrylic, I wouldn’t have guessed. It’s soft and non-squeaky. Very nice to knit with.

Unfortunately, I’ve heard that Knit Picks has moved production of this yarn to another country recently, and it changed considerably so it’s closer to other types of 100% acrylic yarn. Here’s hoping they get it resolved, because I’d buy this stuff by the truckload if it was always like this.

Notes: Does this colorwork pattern look like TIE fighters to anyone else? Just me then? Okay.

The next hat turned out pretty dang cute, too:

Pattern: My own, probably coming sometime this fall.

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Azul Profundo and Lettuce. This yarn is soooo nice on the hands. After knitting with a cotton-like yarn on the commissioned designs, it was like bathing in lotion. And bonus–this is all leftover yarn! I knew I was hanging onto that teeny ball of Lettuce for a good reason.

Notes: I love the bobble-y pattern on the brim, but the contrasting color decreases and the teensy i-cord make this hat for me. I cannot WAIT to put it on my very own baby. I might die from cute.

And if those weren’t enough baby knits for you, I also started a little cabled sweater design, also in Malabrigo Worsted. It’s about 1/4 of the way done already. Maybe if I hustle, I’ll have it finished for next Friday. :-)

Giveaway Winners!

The random number generator has spoken!

The two winners of the Swish Collection booklet are:

1. Sonya (post #17)

and

2. Rebekah Evelyn (post #9)

The two winners of the Bulky Collection are:

1. Britney (post #10)

and

2. Stephanie (post #13)

I’m sending a message your way asking for your address, so keep an eye out for that.

Congratulations to the winners!

Pattern Book Giveaway!

Apologies for the lack of blogging recently. This is mostly due to a couple of secret projects I’m working on. Hopefully I’ll be able to show off one of them next week, so stay tuned!

To distract you from the lack of posts, how about a giveaway? Remember I mentioned two new designs I had in Knit Picks books recently? (If you get the Knit Picks catalog, you may have seen them featured there.)

The first, which I blogged about, is the Reilly Pullover in the Swish 2013 Collection:

And the second, which I somehow missed announcing here, is the Ayri Tunic. This pattern is included in the 2013 Bulky Collection:

Now, on to the giveaway! Knit Picks generously sent me multiple copies of each pattern booklet, so I have two of each to give away. Click on the link above each photo below to check out the patterns in each booklet on Ravelry. There are some gorgeous designs!

Bulky 2013 Collection:

Swish 2013 Collection:

To be entered for a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post telling me which booklet you want to win and why. Next Monday (Nov. 18), I will use a random number generator to pick the winners! This contest is open to anyone (although you may have to wait a little bit longer to receive your prize if you don’t live in the US, as I probably won’t be shipping it super-fast).

Good luck!

FO Friday and New Pattern Release: Reilly Pullover

Boy, things have been crazy around here! Rhinebeck was awesome, and I promise to have a post up on that in the next few days. But in the meantime, I have had not one, not two, but three new sweater patterns released this week! So as not to overwhelm this post completely, I’ll space them out into separate posts.

First up: a design in Knit Picks’s newly released Swish Collection, the Reilly Pullover!

And here’s the original sample, the FO I couldn’t show you back around this time last year, in its glory at Rhinebeck:

Forgive the slightly glazed look and the slumped posture-it had been a long day!

My inspiration for this sweater was my love of Aran patterning, but I wanted to keep it simple because it’s easy for cables to overwhelm a sweater. I knew I wanted a large front cable, and two smaller ones. Making the side cables wavy seemed like a good way to add a modern touch.

Here are the FO details:

Pattern: My own Reilly Pullover

Yarn: Swish Worsted in Marine Heather (the green sweater is in Jade). I really, really like this yarn. It’s soft and nice to work with, but as you can see, cables pop just as well as they do with a stickier, more rustic wool.

Notes: This sweater combines three of my favorite elements: cables that are complex but not hard to keep track of, a v-neck, and raglan, all-in-one-piece construction.

Stay tuned for more Rhinebeck pictures!

WIP Wednesday: Creme de Menthe

I finished the large design and shipped it off, woohoo! Although I still have a few commissioned accessories I’m working on, with the sweater load off my shoulders, I allowed myself to start a new design.

Here’s the sketch (which I did in about 10 minutes using Adobe Illustrator–I’m getting pretty good with that program, if I do say so myself). I really like the idea of a vest with skinny stripes running perpendicular to each other, so that’s what I’ll be attempting. It’ll either be cute or a mess… but that’s part of the fun of designing, right?

I’m using the Tosh DK Twist I showed off in last week’s post, and man is this stuff lovely. It’s as springy as Tosh Vintage, but lighter weight and softer. I’m an addict after only a few inches:The tank is bottom up, in the round to the armholes and then back and forth. The 2-1 stripe pattern I’m using will necessitate pushing the work back and forth on the circular needles to keep the stripe pattern correct when it’s worked flat, but I tried it on a swatch and it’s actually kind of fun. You have to think about the fabric you’re making on each row, but that helps alleviate the boredom of endless stockinette. :-)

Also: I thought of a name for this design right away, which almost never happens. It shall be Creme de Menthe. Perfect, isn’t it?

Thanks to lightning-fast shipping from Knit Picks, I got my extra skein of Gloss DK this week and finished Concord, too!

Hopefully I’ll have some modeled pics by Friday, and then the vest gets popped in the mail.

WIP Wednesday: Bevin Mark 2

Well, I guess Knitting & Crochet Blog Week must have taken a bit more out of me than I thought, because it’s been over a week since I last posted. Oops.

Anyway, during that time I’ve finished a prototype for a new hat design (more on that Friday!) and started this:

I’m knitting another sample for my own Bevin Pullover pattern, in the called-for Knit Picks CotLin yarn. The first sample was shipped back to me just as I moved across the country, and between a wonky forwarding order and the not-very-conscientious tenants who moved into our apartment after us, the sweater went missing.

I was never totally thrilled with the original pattern pictures anyway, so I’m not too upset. They were taken on a beach in the middle of summer, so I was trying my very best not to sweat profusely the whole time. This is my chance to knit a new version and do a new photoshoot. I’m just lucky Knit Picks got some nice ones, which they graciously allow me to use as I see fit:

Their model looks gorgeous in the white color, but I think the teal is better for me!

It’s pretty bizarre to be knitting from my own pattern. It’s been long enough since I wrote it that I don’t really remember much of the process, so it’s like reading something someone else put together! So far, so good. We’ll see if I manage to get through it without getting frustrated with myself…