The first Great Northern KAL!

Wow, we are so close to being able to release our first patterns for Great Northern! Our tech editor is helping us polish off the numbers so everything is good to go when we release Cherry Pie (R) and From Another Place (L) on Tuesday, January 19th.

If you pre-ordered the Great Northern collection through our Kickstarter, you will be receiving both patterns soon (we will contact you about whether you want them emailed or Ravelry gifted next week). If you did not pre-order, you will be able to purchase the patterns through Ravelry starting on Tuesday.

The KAL will begin February 1 and run until March 14.

This 6 week long KAL will guide you through these inaugural Great Northern patterns. Ask questions! Share progress! And even get a chance to win prizes!

Interested in participating? The KALs will be hosted on the Great Northern Ravelry group.

This is the thread for From Another Place.
This is the thread for Cherry Pie. 

Hope to see you there!

Medusa Loop Scarf KAL is complete!

Laura, Tricia and I are done knitting our new Medusa Loop Scarves, and I think they look pretty great!

Laura went for eye-catching BRIGHT pink and was rewarded with this gorgeous, huge beast of a scarf, Tricia went for a nice neutral and I used some coordinating scraps for a wild, stripey scarf.

Thanks for knitting along with me, ladies!

Medusa Loop Scarf KAL

Hey knitters, let's do a KAL! This is one of my most popular patterns, the surprisingly easy Medusa Loop Scarf. If you can knit, purl, bind off and cast on, you can do it!

Are you into it? Grab about 330 yards of chunky, fluffy yarn (shown in Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande and Malabrigo Chunky), some big circular needles, the pattern, and jump on in!

Head over to the Medusa Loop KAL thread on Ravelry and leave a comment to join. Hope to knit with you soon!

Finishing up the KAL

My Knit Along with Ewe Ewe (and you?) is wrapping up! Today is the final official day of the Double Deco KAL and I posted about it over here.

I am in love with my new Double Deco wrap!

I knit really loose and it is HUGE.

It's officially cold in Chicago, so I have been using it constantly. Stay warm, fiber friends!

Double Deco Madness

We're into Week 5 of the Double Deco Knit-Along! So many great projects.

I love seeing what colors people chose. Some bold, some subtle, all awesome. These photos are a little old at this point, but you can see the color choices at least. I'll post another update once I have some more current pictures.

Keep it up, knitters!

Great TV Knitting

I don't think it's a secret that many designers watch things while knitting. I can only do this when the work is not very "think-y" and doesn't require many visual check-ins... so, garter stitch is the absolute perfect thing to knit knit knit while my attention is elsewhere.

Before you get too jealous of all the lazy, wonderful times I am having watching television, I'd estimate this is probably 10-15% of my worktime... and I usually do it at night after dinner.

While knitting my new Double Deco for the Knit-Along, I have been watching Hannibal and just started Outlander. These are verrry different shows (note to self/everyone: don't watch Hannibal before bed!) and shouldn't be watched back-to-back or whiplash may occur. I MEAN:

"I have feelings for you maybe" 

"I consider you my only friend and maybe also want to kill you and maybe you also want to kill me and maybe we just ate someone together and hey are you hungry cuz I got some nice flank steak in the freezer..."

So.

But hey! Back to the knitting. This is the tops when it comes to letting those stitches fly.

If you still want to join the Double Deco KAL, it's not too late! Check out the Ravelry thread, pick out your colors, download the pattern, and get started. 

If you're already knitting along (or crafting something else) while you watch something, leave a comment and let me know what you consider the perfect TV/movie/knitting combination!

Double Deco KAL begins!

Hey there! Are you knitting along with us yet?

 

Check out my Week 1 techniques post over at Ewe Ewe. We're casting on and getting started. Next week we will finish the first section of Wing 1 and Wing 2.

Make sure to label your posts with #DoubleDecoKAL so we can find each other! I can't wait to see what you're up to. So far the colors people have chosen have been super fun.

Double Deco Knit Along!

This is exciting! I'm leading a KAL for one of my favorite recent patterns, Double Deco. 

 

Starting Wednesday October 1st you can knit along with us, learning tips and tricks along the way... and in the end you'll have your very own gorgeous wrap.

Head over to the Ewe Ewe blog to find out how to join in. There's a coupon for 25% off the pattern price!

Once you've got your materials, join us on the Ewe Ewe blog and/or the Double Deco KAL forum on Ravelry!

Here are the colors of Ewe So Sporty I'll be using for the new version of the shawl. What do you think? If you're having trouble choosing colors, check out my color combinations blog post!

 

Octo Shawl all purty and finished

The colors, they are strange.

It's no secret at this point that I am a big fan of all things Grellow (grey + yellow). This color combination was what inspired my Kitefish Shawlette, and as soon as I designed the Octo Shawl I knew I'd make a grellow version at some point. 

With my grellow Malabrigo Lace in hand, and the addition of a purpley deep mauve, I got started on this version for the Octo Shawl KAL last fall. Deviating a little from the stripes in the pattern turned out to be very fun (whew!) and I adore how it turned out.

Blocking this shawl is really satisfying. Is it weird that blocking is my favorite part of the process?

Eight pins, that's it!

Binding off the Octo Shawl

Stretchy bind-off, lots of stitches.

I can't wait to block this thing!

The curled points remind me of soft lambs' ears or flower petals. Malabrigo Lace is so lovely. 

The fun curlies alllmost make me want to leave it as is, but blocking tends to be my favorite part. 

If you're working on the Octo Shawl, share a pic here!

Octo Shawl KAL

It's been interesting and fun to re-knit my Octo Shawl pattern for the Knit A Long. Enough time has passed since I wrote the pattern (last October, actually) that I've had to actually read the directions!

This time I am going a little wacky with the colors and stripe placement.





















Gloriously unplanned.

Stay tuned for more as the shawl unfolds... check out the other baby octo shawls that my fellow knitters are working on!

If you'd like to join the KAL, stop by here!