Archives for June 2012

I have finally finalized a couple of patterns and put them up for sale on Ravelry: the Bernadette Shawlette, and the Penny and Amy Shawlettes. It took me long enough!

And in the wee hours of this morning, Clue B of the Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl was released, so check your emails/Ravelry messages.

Tomorrow morning I’m heading to Nashville to teach at SSK, so I won’t be blogging or on Ravelry for a few days. I’ll see some of you there, and talk to the rest of you when I get back!

Lucy sez:

“I’m resting up for the party I’m throwing while Momma is gone!”

Lately I’ve done a lot of projects with a garter stitch base. In the past I was not overly fond of garter stitch but I have grown to appreciate it more and more. I’ve done a bunch of garter stitch sideways shawls, and the last of those, Bernadette, will be available for sale soon, probably tomorrow.

I started an extremely simple garter stitch project last night: Basalt. Last week, Sheri at The Loopy Ewe put up for sale the yarn called for in the pattern: The Fibre Company Road to China Light. My knitting buddy Sharon pointed out the Basalt pattern to me, so I ordered up the yarn asap! The pattern calls for 3 different colors: two for the body of the shawl, and one for an applied i-cord edging.

Here are my colors: Apatite, Blue Tourmaline, and Hematite. (I’m using the Hematite for the i-cord.)

Here’s my work so far:

You slip the first stitch of each row, which makes a nice edge for adding the applied i-cord later:

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

The contest is over — the winner of The Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet by Hunter Hammersen is Rachel, who has been emailed. Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway.

2012 Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl

The second clue for the KAL will be releaed on June 26. Then, the rest of the clues will be released a week apart. I’m loving seeing all the photos in the spoiler thread in my Ravery forum!

Wendy & Lucy

What Lucy is really doing today:

The view as I knit my Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl:

It’s a good thing the a/c is working.

Have a good weekend!

I have in my possession a review copy of  The Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet by Hunter Hammersen.

As it says on the cover, this book has 20 patterns inspired by vintage botanical illustrations. Ten different botanical illustrations are represented (and reproduced) in the book, and for each one, there are two patterns: a sock pattern, and a non-sock pattern: mitts, a hat, a cowl, or a shawl.

The cover socks (see above photo) are chysanthemum frutescens, and there is also a chysanthemum frutescens hat:

(This pattern really caught my eye because of the gorgeous green yarn used: Traveller by Verdant Gryphon in the “Ireland” colorway.)

These socks are crocus vernus:

And narcissus pseudonarcissus socks:

And linaria bipartita socks

One of the patterns for mitts is rosa rubiginosa:

As you can see, the photography is lovely, and each pattern is accompanied by several photos of the item. The charts are large and clear and there is an excellent key to the symbols used in the front of the book.

The patterns are for the most part sized in 2 or 3 different sizes (one cowl is 4 sizes and one shawl is 1 size only) so you can fit pretty much everyone. You could bet a lot of gift knitting covered with the patterns in this book.

Hunter sent me a review copy and very kindly offered to send a copy to one of my readers as well. Who would like a copy?

To be entered in a drawing to win a copy of  The Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet by Hunter Hammersen, please leave a comment on this blog post by 11:00am Eastern time on Sunday, June 24, 2012. I’ll use the Random Number Generator to choose a lucky recipient then.

Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl

Are you ready? Got your needles? Got your yarn? The first clue for the 2012 Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl will be released in a few short hours!

Lucy can hardly contain her excitement!

“A KAL? I gotta bulk up!”

I finished my second sideways shawlette knit from Tempted Yarns Luxe Grrl Friday night:

Like the red one, this took two skeins of Luxe Grrl: 500 yards of sportweight yarn. I knit with a U.S. size 5 needle. It measures 60″ along the top edge and 16″ down the center back.

I will offer this and the red shawlette together in one pattern. They are very similar, but the red one has a lace band on the bottom edge above the ruffle while the caramel one just has a simple line of fagoting. They each have a different rate of increase/decrease so the shape is slightly different.

On Saturday I cast on again for my Summer Mystery KAL shawl. I of course have already knit the shawl, while I was designing it. And my tech editor has knit it as well. The KAL starts on June 20 — this Wednesday! At this moment 1,955 people have bought the pattern! I wonder if we’ll reach 2,000 before Wednesday?

If you don’t already have the pattern, there’s still plenty of time to buy it — and of course you can purchase it after the 20th as well. It’s $2.00 while the KAL is going on, and will be $5.00 after the KAL ends later in July.

If you purchase before June 20 (through my Ravelry store) you will get all the preliminary information, including yarn and needle requirements, swatching instructions — it’s all described on the pattern page. On June 20, I will update the pattern to include the first clue, and everyone who has purchased the pattern will be notified to download the update.

There are several threads for the KAL in my Ravelry group and we are having lots of fun sharing photos of yarn and swatches and asking and answering questions.

Anyway, I cast on for the project again — just wanted to knit through it again a bit ahead of the group so I could make any last minute adjustments to the pattern to make it as good as it can be.

Lucy & Wendy

Lucy sez:

“Why is that funny? boxes are awesome!”