Knit Simple Winter 2011/2012

Knit Simple Winter 2011/2012 just hit the newsstands yesterday. I am so excited that my Lace-Panel Wrap made it onto the front cover of the magazine. My first cover! The Lace-Panel Wrap is part of the Shawl We Knit? story. There is a workshop section in the magazine that teaches you how to work the simple lace stitches for all 4 of the shawls in that story.

Right now, Knit Simple is having a contest. You can win a yarn kit to make my Lace-Panel Wrap. The yarn used is "Ecco" yarn from Zitron/Skacel Collection. Enter the contest HERE. You can add the project to your Ravelry queue or favorite it, HERE.

My second design for Knit Simple is the Bobble Cowl. It is part of the Knitting By Numbers story. All the projects are knit with 1, 2 or 3 balls of yarn. The cowl is knit with 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alapacas Techno. The yarn is light and warm because it's made by blowing baby alpaca into a mesh tube of silk. You can add the project to your Ravelry queue or favorite it, HERE.

*All photos are from Knit Simple Winter 2011, photos by Paul Amato.*

Petra Shawl in Knitscene Winter 2011

Back in April, I showed you all these gorgeous skeins of Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage that I received to make a secret project. The colorway is called Terra. The yarn is a worsted weight, 100% superwash merino wool. It's super soft and squishy.

The color is eye catching. I got so many compliments on the color of the yarn whenever I was knitting this project in public. Even non-knitters would come up to me to comment. One afternoon, I was knitting this at the playground while Melody played. A group of mothers who were leaving the playground came and told me what a gorgeous color it was before they left.

The Knitscene Winter 2011 issue preview went live a few days ago, so I can finally reveal my project. The Petra Shawl is knit from the bottom up in one piece. All three sides of the shawl is bordered by a bobble border.

The worsted weight yarn makes this a quick and cozy knit. It takes approximately 600 yards (549 m) of worsted weight. Now that the weather is getting cooler by the minute, I want to knit one for myself.

Photo from Knitscene

The print versions of Knitscene should be hitting stores on October 25, but if you can't wait, you can buy the digital edition immediately. You can add my Petra Shawl to your queue or favorite list on Ravelry.

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Are any of you going to Rhinebeck? It's that time of year again. Yes, the New York State Sheep & Wool Festival is this weekend. This will be my first year attending the whole weekend. I will be sharing a house with 11 knitters near Rhinebeck. It should be a lot of fun!

Please say hi if you see me walking around in a haze of yarn fumes. This year, I am participating in Rhinebeck Bingo by being a square on the bingo card and as a player. Allegra and Brandy, the editors of Petite Purls, won't be able to attend this year, but they sent me some post cards to hand out to knitters. So be sure to ask me for one if you see me.

Beyond Rectangles Cardigan for Isobel

Have you heard of Craftsy yet? Craftsy offers online courses about all of your favorite crafty topics and each course is taught by an acclaimed instructor. Take a look at their course catalog to see all of the classes that they offer.

In June, I signed up for Linda Permann's crochet class called Beyond Rectangles. My friend, Sarah, from my knitting group was pregnant and we were going to throw her a baby shower. We wanted to shower her new baby girl with knitted and crocheted gifts. This was the perfect timing for me to take the class.

I have crocheted baby sweaters before, but it was always seamless or in the round in one piece. This class was intriguing to me because I have never made a sweater that was completely pieced together. What better way to try that technique than on a baby sweater? You don't have to invest too much time on it like an adult sweater and it's always guaranteed to fit a baby.

The pieces were pretty fast to crochet. There is a video for every part of the sweater. I was very impressed with HD (high definition) videos. Linda walks you through everything. She even shows you where to insert the crochet hook for certain stitches. As a self-taught crocheter, I found that extremely helpful.

When it came time to block, Linda shows you how to block the pieces to the measurements. The class includes a PDF file of the pattern and schematics, so you can refer to that when you are blocking. Blocking the pieces to the measurements is key for all the pieces to fit together.

Linda's seaming video made it look so simple to seam the cardigan together and it was! I was pretty excited to see how all the pieces fit together. It was hard not to feel a huge sense of accomplishment when I was done.

I can't stress enough on how detailed the videos are. After the pieces are seamed together, Linda teaches you how to crochet the border around the cardigan and even shows you how she sews on the buttons. I always find buttons a bit of a pain to sew, so I was grateful for Linda's tips.

The original Beyond Rectangles Cardigan is made with one main color and a accent color for the trim. Since I made my cardigan in one color with no accent trim color, I added my own embellishment. Btw, the sweater is made with 1 skein of Brooks Farm Willow. It's a wool and bamboo yarn perfect for a Summer baby.

The flower is made with a hole in the center so it can pop over the button like a cover.

I love the bright spot of color it added to the cardigan. Sarah is not into girly colors and one of her favorite colors is green. The pink flower added just a touch of girlishness to the cardigan. And if she didn't like it, its' removable. (BTW, everyone at the baby shower loved the flower, including Sarah.)

I also put a little safety pin on the back so that Sarah can use it as a broach for the cardigan.

I had the chance to meet Linda at TNNA this year and we had such a fun time chatting. I told her that I took her class and planned to write about it on my blog because I liked it so much. She generously offered a discount to my blog readers. Thank you so much, Linda! Beyond Rectangles is regularly priced at $39.99 (a bargain if you ask me). Click through this link to register for the class at $29.99. If you have ever wanted to learn how to crochet a baby sweater, I highly recommend this class.

Did I mention that the courses are available to you anytime you want, for as long as you want. Craftsy courses have no scheduled class times, so you can enjoy them entirely on your own schedule. Your access never expires.

French Press Cowl & Capelet

The French Press Cowl is part of Larissa Brown's KAL Line. The KAL Line is a new line of knitalong-friendly projects that invite knitters to invent and play with embellishments and yarn choices. The idea here is to knit the cowl in a beautiful yarn and then thread anything (cord, ribbon, yarn, or whatever you can think of) through the column of eyelets to scrunch or distort the cowl.

Although the pattern calls for 400 yards of yarn, I found that 1 skein of Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted (210 yards) made a substantial cowl. I haven't come up with anything creative to thread the cowl with yet. But Melody was partial to this purple satin ribbon she found in my closet.

I was surprised to see that this cowl can also be used as a capelet for Melody. This is going to be an adorable and practical Winter accessory for her.

Pattern: French Press Cowl by Larissa Brown
Needles: US 8/5.0 mm
Yarn: 1 skein of Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted in Pagoda

Tummy Warmer Vest

The Petite Purls Fall 2011 issue went live on Friday. It's another fabulous issue full of great projects (knitting, sewing, crochet) and articles. The 2 articles on photography was very educational and written by 2 awesome photographers, Brandy Fortune and Caro Sheridan. And how cute is this tutorial on making friendship bracelets?

I am really excited to have a 2nd pattern published by Petite Purls. My Tummy Warmer Vest would be a perfect Fall garment for a new baby. It is knit in the round, seamlessly from the top down. This vest uses a honeycomb pattern that is made with twisted stitches. By twisting the stitches, the thickness of the fabric is doubled and the air trapped by the stitches makes it very insulating.

I learned a lot from this project. Photographing babies are hard, especially when they are not your own. Baby Arden was such a trooper. She let me dress her in 100% alpaca in the middle of August! And not only once, but twice. The first set of pictures were not satisfactory, so I had to ask Arden's mom for another photo session. One of the things I learned is that there is only a small window of opportunity to photograph a baby. And once it has passed, it's over. The baby will let you know it's over. Don't push it. :-)

Thank you to Blue Sky Alpacas for the yarn support. Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight is lovely to knit with. It is a well plied yarn which gives great stitch definition to your projects. This is not the first time I knit with it. I have made a few scarves in the past as presents and everyone always comments on how soft it is. Alpaca is similar to sheep’s wool, but it is warmer, not prickly, and has no lanolin which makes it hypoallergenic. It is also naturally water-repellent and difficult to ignite.

You can get the Tummy Warmer pattern here or Ravel It for your Ravelry queue. Enjoy!

Colfax Shawl in Knitscene Fall 2011

Photo from Knitscene

Have you seen the Fall issue of Knitscene? I am proud to have my first print magazine published design in Knitscene. Back in October of 2010, I saw Lisa Shroyer's call for submissions for Knitscene's Fall issue. I looked at the mood board and thought about submitting. At that point, I had only self-published 2 of my designs on Ravelry. I had a design that I had swatched a month ago and wanted to send that in. But I wanted to re-knit the swatch in a different color. Well, time went by pretty fast and the deadline approached. I never did get the chance to re-knit it. I was left with 2 choices: not submitting or submit my design in the current color swatch that day. Well, I went for it and quickly sketched out my design proposal. I really had no clue what I was doing, but I did the best that I could. Drawing was never my strong suit in art school, but I was hoping my swatch could convey my idea.

Photo from Knitscene

Melody was the one that kissed the package and dropped it in the mail box for me at the post office. She was my lucky charm. Honestly, I didn't feel that I had a chance of getting in but it wouldn't hurt to try. In the beginning of December, I got a email from Lisa that she loved my shawl design and the color yarn I used. In fact, she chose a yarn and color for the sample that is pretty much the same as the yarn I used. It was fate.

When I got the acceptance email, I was jumping up and down. Melody thought it was funny and started doing the same even though she didn't understand why I was so happy. I immediately called my husband and then my sister. Even though they both do not knit, they were excited for me. I was on cloud 9 for a while.

The shawl is knit from the top-down with a simple eyelet pattern and sections of stockinette. The border of the shawl is done with a crochet hook. You don't need to know how to crochet. As long as you can make chains with a crochet hook, you have all the necessary skills for the border. The finished shawl measures 60" wide and 27" deep at center point, after blocking. It's a full size shawl which is a first for me. I think there may be more full size shawl designs in my future.

To celebrate, I am having a little giveaway. I am giving away a copy of Knitscene Fall 2011 and the same yarn/color (Zitron Lifestyle in Grass #59) to make a Colfax Shawl of your own. Please leave a comment that you would like to be entered in the giveaway. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you, either Ravelry name, blog link, or email address. Giveaway ends on August 10, 2011.

In the mean time, Ravel It. It has been fun seeing the projects show up on Ravelry. I love the variegated versions that some people are doing.

Flapjack Frog

I was so excited to see Anna design another stackable toy pattern. Her series of stackable toys are so cute. I was happy to test knit the Flapjack Frogs for her. She didn't need the test knitters to knit up all 3 frogs, but I plan to when I get my order of safety eyes. I only had one set left for one frog. As always, her construction techniques makes the knitting very interesting. The only thing to seam up was attaching the arms and legs to the body.

Melody has been enjoying playing with it. She likes to make the frog eat the fly by hiding it underneath it's belly. It's so cute hearing her say,"Nom, nom, nom!"

Pattern: Flapjack Frogs by Anna Hrachovec
Needles: US5/3.75mm double pointed needles
Yarn: Cascade 220