New pattern: Freemans Alley Mitts
I'm super excited to release my first pattern of 2012, the Freemans Alley Mitts!
I'm sure it's no surprise that this pattern uses my favorite Koigu KPPPM yarn and that I worked in a way to use not one but three of their awesome colors. The mitts you see above shade from a mostly-purple color, through a mostly-reddish-fuchsia, to a mostly-orange color. So pretty!
My friend Seth took these awesome photos for me, which explains how I ended up with shots like this:
Which shows the ribbing on the "inside" of the mitts nicely . . .
and this:
Where the light just makes me gasp!
The knitting on these couldn't be much simpler: just knits and purls, with a few decreases for some shaping. The "front" of the mitts is all stockinette so that the yarn colors do all the talking, and the "back" of the mitts has allover ribbing to ensure a good fit:
The pattern includes instructions to knit these either flat with a seam or in the round on DPNs, so you can work them in whichever method you prefer.
Or maybe you want to knit them in just one color? That works beautifully too!
And guess what? You only need one skein of Koigu to finish the mitts! Score.
The pattern is available as an immediate PDF download for $4.00. Or if you prefer, buy it through Ravelry. And if you bought the Chiagu Collection 2012, you've already received a copy in your inbox!
I hope you enjoy this design! If you aren't quite ready to buy it yet but you did like it, can you do me a quick favor and click "add to faves" on it on Ravelry? Thanks in advance, I appreciate the love! ;o)
And the winner is: Michaela!
Thank you to everyone who entered my contest!
I added up the entries and got a total of 88 unique entries (some of you entered 3 times by posting here, on Twitter, and on Facebook, wow!). In order to ensure randomness, I used the random number generator to pick a winner:
It picked #51 . . . which is . . . Michaela!
Her answer to how to organize winter accessories was:
I am a huge shawl lover, and those are my main accessory in the winter. I got a beautiful wicker basket with a lid, and that’s where I keep my (neatly folded) shawls. I have a pretty good inventory in my head, i.e. I know exactly what’s in the basket, and rotate my shawls depending on my outfit.
I only have one hat, and I keep in in a basket on a dresser by my apartment door; that makes it easy to grab and difficult to forget. Easy peasy :)
What's funny about this answer is that it immediately elicits a bunch of questions in my mind: A wicker basket? Don't the knits get caught in the wicker? Or is the basket lined? How do you fold the shawls in there so that you can see them all so that you don't end up wearing just the ones on top? What happens when you outgrow the basket?
Clearly, I still need all the help I can get on this topic!
Michaela, I've emailed you to get your color choices for the kits and sent you a download link to the Chiagu Collection 2012. Congratulations!!!
And another huge thank you to everyone who entered!
Thank you for your responses and for spreading the word about the contest, this was tons of fun for me!
I'm off to put the finishing touches on the new pattern I'm releasing next week, and then will be going through your organization suggestions to see which one will work best for me. As always, stay tuned!
First Wholesale Customer!
I am so excited that I'm nearly bursting out of my skin! As of today Chiagu has its first wholesale customer: Knitty City!
Pearl, the owner, has decided to carry my kits, and today I delivered her first shipment. If you're looking for other colors of my Loreley Scarf, you can now find three exclusive colorways at her store!
Selling wholesale kits is only a tiny fraction of cool things I have planned for Chiagu for 2012 . . . stay tuned! Oh and if you know a store owner who might want to carry Koigu kits like Loreley or iKnit, please have them contact me, thanks!
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PS - Don't forget to enter my contest, there's only a day left! I've gotten fewer than 100 entries so your chances of winning are pretty awesome!!
New pattern: The Chaya Shawl!
I'm very excited to introduce you to my latest design, the Chaya Shawl and Shawlette!
This shawl is another example of my love for playing with handpainted and self-striping yarns. The knitting on this one is pretty easy: just garter stitch, dropped stitches, and yarn overs, but knitting each half of the triangle in a different direction makes it look way more complicated than it is. The shawl above was knit in Noro Kureyon Sock yarn, and only one skein makes the whole shawl! That's a pretty awesome deal for a Christmas present if you ask me . . .
I also knit up a smaller version using one skein of Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn:
The colorway here is my favorite Colinette colorway, Bright Charcoal, and I've been wearing this little shawlette as a scarf. I love the way the colors play with eachother and the texture of the fabric!
The pattern is available from my webshop or through Ravelry for $5.00. You'll get an immediate email with a link to download the PDF.
Here's a few more shots of the shawls in case you want to see them from various angles, starting with the back of the full-size:
I hope you like this new pattern as much as I do. As always, if you have any questions let me know!
Design on the brain
Seems like lately my brain is overflowing with new design ideas and it's all I can do to document them before something else distracts me and I forget what I was thinking about . . . what you see above is a new design for colorwork mittens in Koigu (what else!), a project I'm totally in love with at the moment. I'm using semi-solid chocolate brown and a multi pink/purple (P221 if you're curious) and quite loving the effect it's producing. This photo's pretty true-to-life, perhaps a bit too orange, but it definitely gives you a good impression of what these really look like.
The inspiration for these came all-of-a-sudden about a week ago when the weather went from a mild 45 degrees down to 20 degrees in under a day. I wasn't expecting it to be so cold that day and left my apartment wearing completely inappropriate clothing, and spent most of my time outdoors wishing I had brought mittens/gloves with me. And then the image of polka-dot mittens came to my mind completely formed, but they were traditional polka-dots (ie equally-spaced and same-sized). When I started sketching them out I thought that seemed too proper for my aesthetic, so I started messing with the proportion of the dots . . . a few hours of playing with the chart later and I was happy with what I had.
Here's a peek at the chart:
Knitting colorwork always surprises me a bit because it takes time to get your grove back when you first start. I ripped out the first few rows of this mitten because my tension was off and it was buckling very obviously. Now the knitting is nice and smooth (well, for colorwork I mean!) and I'm happy with how it looks. Can't wait to finish these and give them a good soak to get the stitches all pretty and perfect.
Oh and by the way: Stranded Koigu feels amazing. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it!
