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!
Free Stuffed Animal Knitting Patterns
I'm almost afraid to utter the words but it turns out that Christmas is only 46 days away. How crazy is that?
This year I'm thinking of knitting a bunch of stuffed animals as gifts . . . even for the adults in my life. So I've been collecting a list of patterns, and though you might like to have the list yourself!
First up is the adorable Kiwi bird from the latest Knitty:
He is just so cute! I already know who this one will be going to, believe me.
Next is another bird, but of a totally different species/variety:
Its an Angry Birds bird! The details on this pattern are so impressive, I kinda want to knit it just to see how she did it. Great job knitterbees!
If you're not into birds, you can always knit up a lobster:
Or maybe just some lobster claws? I love this knit lobster pattern from Dirigo, and the styling of the photo is wonderful too!
As I go through my list, I am realizing that I am on a bird kick . . . the next one is yet another, completely different, bird:
I totally love this Flamingo from Spud & Chloe, it has so much personality. And of course it doesn't hurt that it's pink, which is my favorite color. I may just knit this one for myself . . .
Next up, finally, is an animal other than a bird:
I think the Elefante pattern is intended for babies, but knit in different colors it would be more grown up. I love that his snout functions as a 5th leg!
Next up, a snake:
I particularly love the braided snake's tongue on this stuffed snake (Ravelry link)! It would make a great present for a Slytherin fan if you knit it in green and grey stripes.
If you'd rather go the traditional stuffed animal route, you can't go wrong with this classic teddy bear:
The Ruby Bear Pattern is very cute, especially how the sample is knit up to look like a strawberry. And the classic button connections on the arms and legs give this pattern an old-time charm.
That's the end of my list, but there are plenty of other free stuffed animal patterns available. Here's a Ravelry search to get you started finding more!
Wearing your knitting
Now that it's officially "fall" here in NYC, I've been pulling out my finished knits and wearing them more often. We're still in the transitional time here so you never know what the weather will be like from one day to the next, but it's often cold enough to wear something you made yourself.
Today I felt like my outfit was too plain so I decided to try the Sev[en] Circle neck thingie as a necklace and am going to wear it out in public for the first time. I wonder what my more fashionable coworkers will say . . .
As I was considering wearing this I realized I'd never taken FO shots or even talked about it on the blog! I finished this over a year ago, around March of 2010, but I have literally never worn it. Not sure why though, it's pretty awesome! And keeps me just a tiny bit warmer which is perfect for someone like me who's usually running hot, not cold.
Here's another shot that shows the way bottom of the loops:
I like to kind of mess them up so that they don't look too prim and proper. The color of Koigu Mori I knit this out of goes with literally any color, so I think I may just start wearing this "necklace" all the time . . .
Not-at-all-daily photo: Fall in a shop window
On my walk to work this morning I spotted this shop window with its two interesting sweaters (and weird bondage-looking center dummy wearing who-knows-what). While I hate that the pullover on the left has those weird furry bits down the outside of the sleeves, I thought the placement of the herringbone pattern was really interesting! I may use this in a future design . . .
The robe-style cardigan on the right is quite cute, too. I love the texture of the lapels and super-deep armbands, as well as the oversized shawl collar. This one would take, like, forever to hand-knit though, so I'm not planning on doing a version of THIS one anytime soon.
By the way: T minus 10 days until Rhinebeck. Excited!
Ramping up the fall knitting
Fall is in the air, people! The wind smells positively different in NYC and the urge to knit has been overwhelming lately.
I have been working on lots of knitterly things, including making tons and tons of kits for my Loreley Scarf design. Over the last few weeks I totally redid the packaging of the kits, so they now look so attractive that they would even make nice gifts! Check it out:
As I emailed my mailing list this week, I've realized that I need to raise the price of these kits a bit due to how long they take me to put together (I didn't really realize it until I did 10 in a row one day!). So after this current bunch of kits is sold out, the price will go up from $39 to $43. There are 3 kits left at the time of this post so if you want to grab them at the original price, hurry! I'll be spending a large chunk of this weekend putting together new kits . . .
Sandra Singh still has several of her own exclusive colorways available at the original price too! Go check out her stock if you're interested.
In other knitting news, I have several patterns that are almost ready to be released, but lately all I can think about is Rhinebeck. This year I'm going with a group of women for the whole weekend! We rented out a house and will be spending the time knitting and drinking wine with no boys allowed. I am so excited I can hardly wait! I'm planning on taking advantage of the trip to get some photography done for some of my newest designs . . . as always, stay tuned!
Oh and if you aren't on my mailing list and therefore missed my heads-up email earlier this week, you may want to join the list now . . . just sayin' =)
Here's a handy signup form where you can do just that!
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