Canova Beach is in testing....

Canova Beach, one of my local beaches, is like most others. It constantly renews itself, as the waves bring the sand in and take it out again. The wind sculpts the dunes, while the sea oats and other vegetation keep it all from eroding away. This circle is infinite and always.

Translated into knitting, Canova Beach is a long capelet, knitted in the round with lace, cables and texture stitches calling to mind waves, drifting sand dunes and the sea oats that hold them fast, despite the action of wind and water. The stitch patterns are straight forward and easy to remember, which makes it a pleasing knit for adventurous beginners, but enough of a challenge to keep more experienced knitters engaged.

I recently had my pattern tech edited by Frauke Urban of Urban Yarning, who did a wonderful job. She's a non-native speaker of English and looked at my pattern with both the eyes of a tech editor and a consumer of knitting patterns.  She was very encouraging and made some great suggestions, which helped the look of the patterns. 

I put up a call for testing and had lots of wonderful applicants, but I was giving preference to people who were willing to purchase their yarn for the test from my partner in this venture, Melody Harmon of Arrowhead Fibers. We have several great testers in the US and two in Europe (Germany and Italy).

Canova Beach should be out in late May, as I gave extra time to my testers in Europe due to the shipping time for the yarn. I have included a picture below for your viewing pleasure. It is on my dress form Bertha Rose, which was named for my husband's maternal grandmother and my paternal grandmother. It seemed fitting to give her a name, since she is earning her keep as my model some of the time.

I will have a real model for my pattern photos, as I recruited my niece for that job when she was in town. You'll have to wait a bit longer before I start using those shots. You can follow along on Instagram where I am @kraziknitz, to see progress photos from the various test knitters or you can join my group on Ravelry, KraziKnitz Designs for future test knitting opportunities, KALs or other events.

Canova Beach

First Collaboration with an Indie Dyer! Melody Harmon of Arrowhead Fibers

I'm currently working with an indie yarn dyer, Melody Harmon of Arrowhead Fibers. She's a relatively new dyer and we were connected by another designer, Mary E. Rose. Mary thought we might make good collaboration partners since we were both relatively new.
I had to wait until I was done with my Knotions pattern, but we connected. Once I was done, we spoke and I looked at her colorways. I found three colors that inspired me and came up with a design idea.
I worked up a swatch for what I had in mind and sent photos. She liked my idea and sent me the yarn.
I have been documenting the progress of the design on Instagram. The design is now complete and I start the next step in the process.
Writing the pattern, creating chart and schematics are next on the list before I send it off to the technical editor. A tech editor checks it for accuracy and consistency in a variety of areas, before it can be sent to test knitters.
I will be putting up a call for test knitters very soon. You can see progress shots on Instagram, but I have included a few here. If you would like to see more of Arrowhead Fibers offerings, you can find her at www.instagram.com/ArrowheadFibers.

Silver Fox, Lagoon and Stormy Seas

 

The secret is out....

I should have posted about this sooner, but promoting my Rushing River Cowl and other medical  issues have slowed both knitting and typing.

My secret project was a design that appeared in Knotions Magazine, for their January issue that went live on the 27th.  I spent quite a bit of time promoting it all over Instagram, Ravelry, Facebook, and a few other places. It's a free pattern and can be found here. Please enjoy it with my compliments.

Rushing River Cowl made it to the first page Ravelry's Hot Right Now and stayed there for about 36 hours, which was very exciting! I've never had anything go there before, so if you are one of the folks who helped it get there by making it a favorite or putting it in your queue, I want to thank you. If you look at the picture on the right you will see it. It made it into the upper twenties, which is pretty good considering that I am a fairly new designer to conventional patterns, outside my knit/felt niche.

Speaking of my knit/felted niche, I will be rewriting all of my patterns to coincide with my better pattern writing skills. It may take quite a while, because I want to have them all tech edited as well, which is not an inexpensive undertaking.  It may take more that a year, but I want to provide the best patterns that I can for everyone. I will re-launch each of the patterns as I have them done, but will also have them test knitted as well, so be on the look out for calls for test knits on Instagram and Ravelry.
If you would like to be included in the test knits, you may contact me at http://www.ravelry.com/groups/kraziknitz-designs, Reply to the general test knitting thread, I usually recruit from there and from past successful test knitters first.  After that, if I don't have enough test knitters, I recruit from Instagram and Facebook groups I belong to.

That's all for now. 

Motivation has not been my middle name, but.....

Motivation has not been my middle name over the holidays, but I'm going to try to do better. I can't promise that I will, but I am going to try.  Carpal tunnel and a few other issues left me unable to knit as much as I like.  I recovered a bit, but over compensating for the time I was laid up led to another bout.

You might have read in earlier posts about my secret project that took so much of my knitting time, well in two weeks time I'll be able to let that bit of mystery loose in the blog complete with pictures.
It is currently being test knitted by my intrepid band of testers. You might be able to find a few test knit reposts over at my Instagram feed at www.instagram.com/kraziknitz. I can say that this will be my second pattern with the particular publication, but first non-knit/felted item to appear in a third party publication.

Also over the next month or so, I'll be trying to publish a series of posts at the urging of Chelsea Fitch and the gang over at FiberBoss College about the knitting cruise that I was involved in this past fall
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I also am working on my first collaboration with an indie yarn dyer.  She and I have been discussing a design inspired by some of her lovely hand-dyed yarn. We will be working together on this and hopefully other collaborations in the future. I have been sketching other ideas and making notes on some other designs I would like to try. We were recommended to each other by another designer, Mary Rose to whom I am very grateful.

I think that's all for now, but here's to a safe, happy and prosperous 2018.

Mittens done.. On to the next project

My CJ's Garter Cuff Mittens are done. I called my project Bumble Mittens, due to the color scheme of the cuffs. I van see myself making more of these and using more scraps and odd balls to give more people at the Pine Ridge Reservation warm hands.

My Bumble Mittens

My next project is Kirsten McTeer's Soft Honeycomb Cowl, which I am knitting from Buttercream Luxe Craft Twist in their Bluebell colorway.

CJ's Garter Cuff Mittens..and more patterns to try!

My knitting for the upcoming publication that is still my secret project will be done by tomorrow night, so now I'll be going back to my Gift-A-Long knitting projects. I'm testing out several patterns for my charity knitting rotation, as it's fun to try new patterns.
I've tried Ziyad, a hat pattern by Ranee Mueller of Arabian Knits. Next in line, is CJ's Garter Cuff Mittens, for which I have the main color selected and have narrowed down my contrasting colors previously. I chose from the pile of odd balls and bits, shown below. I will post updates to these soon once there is a bit of progress. I'm not knitting fast, but at least I'm able to knit again.

I'm also hoping to knit Soft Honeycomb Cowl, which is knit flat and can be seamed or grafted, depending on the experience and desire of the knitter. I like that it's knit in bulky, so should knit up quickly which is good for charity patterns.

I'm also going to give two children's patterns a try. Milo Bambino by Georgie Nicholson is the baby size of her very popular Milo vest pattern.  I thought it would make a great layering piece for spring or autumn, especially with the cold temperatures in South Dakota, where the Pineridge Reservation is located.

Lacy Loo by Jenny Wiebe is a cute little tee, with a lace panel knitted in worsted weight. I think this might make another cute layering piece, as well as spring or summer top depending on the yarn used.

No bother boot slippers by Elizabeth Felgate sound exactly like their name. Knit from the top down, in the round and seamless yet no picking up of stitches sounds too good to be true. I'm going to find out, because these will be great for children and elders alike, not to mention moms and anyone else with cold feet.

My own choice of technique to learn this time around is covered in the blog post about Faye Kennington of Ukee Knits. I want to try my hand at stranded knitting with her Christmas Cracker hat.

It is my hope to work on all of these in the next several weeks, which will take me past the end of Gift-A-Long 2017. This is okay, because we can't choose when our bodies will cooperate and when they won't. I have lots of stuff to keep me busy as you can see. I hope they will make useful additions to my charity knitting rotation and they will keep it interesting as well.

Sorry, I've been absent...

Sorry, I've been absent due to carpal tunnel issues which make typing and knitting difficult. Most of my limited knitting time has been spent on a secret project, which I will share once I have the go ahead from the publication. Yes, I'm going to have another project published, but can't tell you what, which publication or date yet.
Once the details are out I will share here. Until then I need to finish the sample, which is a little slower going than I wished, but I never know when I'll have a flare up. It just happened during the Indie Design Gift-A-Long this time, which has put a quash on many of my plans.
I'm hoping to be in "fighting shape" soon. I have so many things to knit for charity, but even they have had to take a back burner lately.  I'll have to extend my charity knitting deadline to my birthday, so that will give me extra time.
I'll be writing about some of my top charity knitting picks, as well as sharing info and pictures from my recent knitting cruise through the western Caribbean including Haiti, Jamaica, and  Mexico.
I taught classes, worked in the on board supply center and did social media for our group of over 300 knitters and crocheters.
See you soon.