Flying Along at Warp Speed...

Sorry, I haven't posted in the last week or two, but I had two patterns finish testing and go live on Ravelry, plus I have another that just finished.

Pelican Beach, a cabled cowl will be released on Ravelry as of  November 15 at 6:00 p.m. EST -  if everything goes according to schedule. See a picture and a couple of stitch details below.😁
 👇

If you read this before that time, you have a chance to score yourself a free copy of the pattern.  If you, sign up for my designer update newsletter you will get a free copy, with a special code just for subscribers.

The first 20 downloads will all be free, but they will disappear pretty quickly - so be assured of  a free pattern by signing up here. 👈

After that, there will be a 40% discount for 24 hours until 11/16 at 6:00 pm, when it will shift to 20% discount for 48 hours until 11/18 at 6:00 pm. By the way, all times listed are EST (US Eastern Standard Time).

I will also be sharing information about a new collaboration with Sunshine Dye Works very shortly and I will also be taking part in the 6th Annual Indie Designer Gift-A-Long for 2018 starting 11/23 so watch for those details as well.

Happy knitting!

Pelican Beach Cowl

Ribbing & Cable Details

Sea Oats Serenade Release

Sea Oats Serenade Cowl will be available on Ravelry starting 06/20/18.  It has an easy to remember slip stitch cable pattern that will be challenging for adventurous beginners, yet keep more experienced knitters interested as they watch the sea oats pattern emerge.

This cowl is the right size to use as a layering piece during the cool weather of spring or fall, as well as a barrier to the frigid air conditioning that you may find blowing on your neck in some buildings during the heat of summer. Your hands created this little piece of warmth and remind of your time at the beach.

Listen to the breeze sing its ancient song as it makes the sea oats, sway to its rhythm in its eternal dance. You can hear it if you try, especially when stillness surrounds you.

I am offering an exclusive discount to my newsletter subscribers which will arrive in their inbox before the pattern release. You can sign up for the newsletter here.  

If you are interested in becoming a test knitter for any future designs, you may sign up for my test knitting pool.  Members of my test knitting pool are notified 24 hours before general test knitting calls are submitted to other social sites for applicants. You may sign up for the test knitting pool here.

Sea Oats Serenade Test Knitter Appreciation,...part two

In the last post about my excellent crew of test knitters, I profiled the pictures of five of the twelve. I am going to get the rest of them in this post on the countdown to releasing this pattern!

I finally had my photoshoot, so am completing the layout and getting looked over one more time by Heather Folkner of Crafty Ferret Tech Editing, before releasing it. I will be giving an exclusive discount to my newsletter subscribers, so you can sign up here. I will be sending out discount codes before the pattern release, so watch your inbox once you sign up.

Now on to the shameless praise and exhibiting of pictures from my test knitters, who have gone above and beyond in the pursuit of helping to test this pattern. So many beautiful colors were chosen from solids to speckled wonders, it really does show the versatility of this cowl.

Please review these pretties to see an example from each of the seven remaining test knitters.....

Andrea of Artistic Fibers rocking her cowl!S

This lovely cowl is from dimpls742

This from Pam aka knitziwhitzi

Mewmui models her cowl

This pretty blue from yarnsmithdori

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This pretty purple is from aromanov

Yvonna13 first one done & got a prize

Sea Oats Serenade Test Knitter Appreciation ....part one

I got really lucky with my Sea Oats Serenade test knit! I was overwhelmed by the response of people who wanted to test knit for me. I had to shut it down in less than 24 hours and decided on 12 test knitters and decided to run it like a mini-KAL to get some experience, since I planned on having my first one within a month or so.

I was amazed at the variety of yarns people chose and how each one suited the pattern differently. I have to thank Heather Folkner of Crafty Ferret Tech Editing, for the bang-up job she did of checking my pattern and making sure it was ready for the test knitters. If you are in need of tech editing services, you can find her at her website.

I am showing off a few progress photos of the test knitter versions below.  As soon I have my final photo shoot with my model, I can finish the final layout and release the pattern. These photos will give you a feel for how versatile this pattern is and if you would like to see more you can check out my Instagram feed here, where I have been shamelessly praising and showing off test knitter accomplishments  I am only including a smattering here, but want to thank all my testers and I plan on featuring more when I have more photos of blocked or modeled cowl

This is from @spunbyrj! I really like her mini photo shoot!

This beauty is by @anneswolle! So pretty!

This is from egypte on Ravelry! Love the colors!

@slmetaime modeled this one beautifully.

We folded this one from @lacinitting. She's local!

What to do with leftovers?....yarn that is....

When you have a goodly amount of yarn left from a project what do you do? Here are some of the things I have been known to do....see if some of them sound familiar....

• Leave them in the bottom of the project bag to see if they will go away.
• Put them in another bag with other left over balls of yarn to "organize" them.
• Swatch for other projects of similar yarn weight.
• Look for scrap projects that require lots of yarn.
• Make minis and swap for temperature or hexi-puff blankets
• Any of a number of other ideas.

When I finished Canova Beach, I had approximately 50 g of the color Lagoon left from Arrowhead Fibers and I hated to let it languish in my project bag. While knitting Canova Beach, I had to decide how big to make the neck opening, so with advice from a few others I decided to make up a sample neck.

After casting on the smallest amount of stitches I thought would work, I discovered I would need more stitches, so I continued and came up with the right amount of stitches.

I kept the sample neck around for reference, while I finished knitting  the Canova Beach sample and discovered that the stitch pattern really appealed to me. I thought at some point I would use it again.

Little did I know, that it would be sooner than I originally thought. While Canova Beach was being blocked, I cast on and started playing around with the stitch pattern again.  The result is a great little cowl in the same Sea Oats stitch pattern used in Canova Beach.

Sea Oats Serenade is now in testing. The cowl has an interesting little eyelet pattern at the beginning and end to remind us of the fencing that protects the sea oats on the dunes. The sea oats, themselves protected in Florida, are protecting our dunes from erosion from wind and water. They sway on top of the dunes as the breezes blow up the beach, singing their sweet and ancient song.

 Keep an eye out here for future updates about its progress down the test knitting trail. I'll be posting more here about it later...