Tag Archives: Knitting

Hi all! As part of the Indie Designer GAL we get to interview other designers, often new to us. For this installment, I got to interview Sarah Sundermeyer, KnittingSarahS on Ravelry.

Steph: Hi Sarah!  Thank you for participating in the GAL.  What are your favorite items to knit for gifts?

Cowls are the most satisfactory to me, because of their versatility and their lightweight warmth for the winter months. They’re the perfect gift because they are quick and often only take one or two skeins of yarn. Plus, they don’t require and measurements from your recipient, so your gift can stay a surprise!

I love cowls for gifts too. Which of your patterns are great for gifts? Which are most popular? Which do you think are great but overlooked?

All of my designs are quick but elegant accessories, therefore making them easily giftable! Each of my patterns are knit up in less than five hours, and take just one skein of yarn each.

My most popular pattern is the Sorrento Cowl, a super bulky cowl that uses wraps and cables to create an appealing ‘woven’ pattern. I’ve loved seeing how the cowl comes out when knitters use different yarns, as it knits up differently every time. Personally, I love wearing my Bougainvillea Cowl, because of its easy simplicity and the fabric’s natural drape.

Any new designs for the GAL? if not, anything in the works you can tell us about?

I snuck in the release of the Alhambra Cowl, a cozy cowl with an intriguing ‘lattice’ cable pattern, just before the GAL began in order to include it in the sale. It’s a release I was very excited about, and I’m happy that the GAL has been able to get some attention onto it.

I’m lucky enough to be able to take a month or so off designing in order to enjoy being a participant in the GAL. This means that I most likely won’t get another pattern out before the end of the GAL, but I’m excited to be able to spend a whole month knitting all of the patterns that have been piling up in my queue!

Aww, what a cute retriever (check out in the pics below!). And you are lucky to be able to participate in the GAL!  (I have three patterns I have to get finished and written up before Christmas, lol.)  Thank you, Sarah.

Recognize the location? It’s Veteran’s Park in Redondo Beach again.  I love these pilings, and I think the soft gray of the Artemisia Cowl, my new release, looks great against the worn wood.

The Artemisia Cowl includes one of the my favorite Aran Lace cables (#28 from Annie Maloney’s book, Aran Lace), flanking the larger panel that I’ve used either directly in Sedona or as a variation in Jackalope.

I chose these panels not only for aesthetics but because they allow the knitter to gain practice in two of the main Aran Lace techniques: paired yarnovers and decreases to outline the path of the cable, and yarnovers and decreases within the cable itself.

Finished Measurements
Circumference: 25½in / 65cm
Height: 8¼in / 21cm

Yarn
Stitch Sprouts Yellowstone, 80% wool / 10% silk (285 yds / 260m per 3.55 oz / 100g), 1 skein, shown in Old Faithful. Sample as shown used 217 yds / 198m.

Needles
US5 / 3.75mm needles or size to obtain gauge

Gauge
approx 25 sts and 34 rounds = 4in / 10 cm in cable patterns

Notions
4 stitch markers, (1) unique for beginning of round
cable needle
yarn needle

Skills
knitting in the round, cabling, reading charts

Thank you to my tech editor, KT Vaughan.

Road Trip by Tin Can Knits, 2014.

Emily Wessel and Alexa Ludeman of Tin Can Knits have created another collection full of gorgeous cable, lace, or colorwork accessories and garments, highlighted by lovely styling and photography.

Road Trip includes 14 patterns, with sizes ranging from 0-6 months to 4xl. Some of the items are unisex.  Each includes a sweet hand drawn schematic, with sweaters having an adjacent chart detailing the various measurements.  Most of the cable or lace patterns include charts and written directions for the stitch pattern (some, like Granola, are charted only); check out the info for each individual pattern on Ravelry for more details.

Yarns range from indie dyers like Indigo Dragonfly to larger companies like Cascade.

My favorites include Stovetop, a cabled unisex hat; Rivulet, a fringed and textured shawl; and Granola, lace and cable socks.

Hi all! As part of the Indie Designer GAL we get to interview other designers, often new to us. For this installment, I got to interview Jenise Reid, FeminebyDesign on Ravelry.

Steph: Hi Jenise!  Thank you for participating in the GAL.  What are your favorite items to knit for gifts?
Jenine: Mittens! Where I live, they are useful both for walking or driving in the winter (ever tried to hold a below-freezing steering wheel? It is not fun!). They are pretty fast to make, you don’t need to worry about a perfect flattering fit (like you would a sweater) and they use up very little yarn. Also, I know offhand about how large my friends hands are, so I don’t have to ask for measurements.

Which of your patterns are great for gifts? Which are most popular? Which do you think are great but overlooked?
Screw top is a really enjoyable toque to knit, and it comes together quickly. I have a some collections of headbands (Headband Love 1, 2, & 3) that are perfect for warm areas, or the Bootcuffed collection for cold areas. I didn’t expect it, but my family and friends ask to “borrow” the cuffs more than any other item in my buckets of knitted stuff.

Surprisingly, I have seen a number of ladies make Persian Dreams as a special gift, but I don’t think there is enough time before the holidays to start one and give it this year! I would suggest casting on in January and then giving it next winter.

Oh, I love that blanket.  I’m definitely getting that pattern…though I’ve no idea when I’ll do it!  Any new designs for the GAL? if not, anything in the works you can tell us about?
Nothing for the GAL, though I should have a handful of patterns released over the next month. Besides that I am working on a collection of fine-weight sweaters and I am really excited about it. They will be released one every two months all of next year, starting in January.

Sounds awesome!  Thank you, Jenise.

Hi all! As part of the Indie Designer GAL we get to interview other designers, often new to us. For this installment, I got to interview Naomi Parkhurst, Gannet on Ravelry.

Steph: Hi Naomi!  Thank you for participating in the GAL.  What are your favorite items to knit for gifts?

Naomi: I’m very fond of knitting hats and fingerless mitts – they go very quickly and can have interesting details added in easily. They’re also relatively forgiving when it comes to fit.

Which of your patterns are great for gifts? Which are most popular? Which do you think are great but overlooked? (I think the Ellerbe Mitts, left, are very pretty!)

I don’t have many patterns out yet. Most of them would be suitable for presents, as I’ve only published small things and accessories so far. The quickest to knit would have to be my Sanguinaria yarn bag – a good gift for knitters!

Popular is hard to define, since some of my patterns have lots of favorites and purchases, but very few projects attached, but I think the two that have had the best reception so far are Pinion and Bread & Roses. The pattern I’d love to see more people make is Katherine Whorl, a combination of equal amounts of knitting and crochet. I think people have been a little intimidated by the combination. The knitting is basic knit and purl in the round (there are instructions for replacing this with crochet), while the crochet is the Catherine Wheel stitch and also some surface crochet.

Any new designs for the GAL? if not, anything in the works you can tell us about?

I don’t have any new releases yet this month, but I hope to have one or two during the course of the GAL. One is a hat recipe using my secret code stitch pattern technique. You can see a sneak peek in my projects. (There will be a better pattern photo when it’s released). The other is a re-release of my Bull City Yarn bag, which needs some tech editing first.

(I noticed from Naomi’s blog she’s on Patreon, a platform for folks to support artists via a monthly subscription.) And also, tell us about Patreon — how is that working for you?

Oh, good question! I’m very happy with my progress so far and think it’s been worth doing. I’ve been able to raise money to help me pay for blog-related things I couldn’t otherwise manage. It’s also helped me stay motivated to post on a weekly basis.

Every month I take requests from my Patrons for words to encode as stitch patterns, pick a word at random to turn into a stitch pattern, and then put the results up on my blog as an extra post for everyone to enjoy. It’s been even more enjoyable than I’d hoped – it’s fun to take requests and my Patrons think up very different words for the purpose than I would.

It’s not earning me a lot yet, but it’s been growing steadily, and I hope to make some more progress toward my next goal: getting enough donations to help me pay for my own website instead of having my blog hosted on WordPress.com. In the long run, I’m hoping that Patreon will help me earn a reasonable wage for the hours I spend blogging without having to take out ads.

Thank you Naomi!

I swooned when I opened the package and cuddled the yarn.

I’m a sucker for natural &/or neutral colors.  And who doesn’t love an MCN blend?

Ve of Yarn on the House sent me two skeins of her delightful, decadent Little Brother, a softly twisted 80/10/10 Superwash Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend fingering weight yarn. Big Sister is the, um, sister yarn, a DK weight, same blend. Do check out the yarn page and the colors — each color has a lovely mood pic of a ball of yarn & its inspiration (many of which may make you hungry!), a comparison of the two different weights of yarn, and a swatch.

The skein on the right is Hazelnut — the color is much richer and warmer in person than in my pic.  The brown is Portabella.  There are a slew of other colors in the Raw Palette line — I think you could do some lovely subtle multi-shaded stranded colorwork.  As it is, I’m thinking a classic colorwork hat for these two skeins — something elegant to suit the yarn.

Read about the background to YOTH yarns here.

Thank you again, Ve, for gifting me these skeins.  Please note all the above opinions are my own.

Awesome news!  the Indie Gift-a-Long is on again for this year!

There are 293 designers participating, with 3822(!) patterns on sale (see below for details), and 1866 prizes available over the course of the GAL.  Check out all the stats here.

GAL2014 will run Thursday, November 13th at 8 pm (US-EST) through Wednesday December 31st at midnight (US-EST).

We’re able to have up to 20 patterns on sale for 25% off.  Use code giftalong2014.  The sale runs from Thursday November 13th 8pm (US-EST) through Friday November 21 at 11:59 pm (US-EST).

I’m putting the following patterns on sale. View my GAL bundle on Ravelry here; it includes all of these patterns.  I’ve tried to pick patterns that make great gifts – fun and/or quick to knit, with a good glory to work ratio.

None of these strike your fancy? Completing any of my (paid)  indie published patterns will get you in the running for prizes!

…is #3, Anne Marie!  Anne Marie, I’ve emailed you.

Her favorite was Breakers.