Waiting for Rain!
Saturday, 30 January 2016
Hey everyone, I'm so happy to release this pattern for the world finally!
It's been in development for-fucking-ever. It's a concept I came up with while I was knitting Shine! Back in the early months of 2015. You probably know me enough by now to know that I'm obsessed with lace charts. I was looking at my garter short rows going... "hmm, can I add lace to this?"
I played around for many months trying to figure out what the hell to do to get the lace to fit into the short rows. Eventually I figured out that charting them was the way!
The first version (seen above in Cascade Eco) of this shawl had three different lace charts in it - I only liked the finished version of the one of them - so I just stuck with that one for the published version. But the charts are brilliant, they can incorporate all sorts of different lace. I'm looking forward to trying out some more ideas I have for shawls using this lovely lace ripped-into-garter look.
They're weird charts - they're kind of backwards and yet really quite intuitive. For the published version of Waiting for Rain I also included written instructions for folks who hate charts.
I'm going to call this technique...
Waiting for Rain!
It's been in development for-fucking-ever. It's a concept I came up with while I was knitting Shine! Back in the early months of 2015. You probably know me enough by now to know that I'm obsessed with lace charts. I was looking at my garter short rows going... "hmm, can I add lace to this?"
I played around for many months trying to figure out what the hell to do to get the lace to fit into the short rows. Eventually I figured out that charting them was the way!
The first version (seen above in Cascade Eco) of this shawl had three different lace charts in it - I only liked the finished version of the one of them - so I just stuck with that one for the published version. But the charts are brilliant, they can incorporate all sorts of different lace. I'm looking forward to trying out some more ideas I have for shawls using this lovely lace ripped-into-garter look.
They're weird charts - they're kind of backwards and yet really quite intuitive. For the published version of Waiting for Rain I also included written instructions for folks who hate charts.
I'm going to call this technique...
softsweater's charted lace short row technique or SCLSRT for short!
(that's the worst acronym I've ever heard, but I'm rolling with it)
The plan is to perfect it and then teach a couple of classes on it in the near future at a couple of the LYS in Vancouver. SCLSRT ftw!
Just a little instagram highlight reel
Friday, 29 January 2016
Man, sometimes I'm just on point with all my photos. I am loving this little set of behind-the-scenes photos of all the knitting I've been working on!
The shiny yellow one is a re-knit of an old pattern of mine from 2012! The Sunlight Shawl for Sad People. It has a sister-shawl coming soon in some lovely Frida Fuchs yarns so I thought I would work up another of the sunlight shawls to reshoot!
I'm using a skein of Ash from Sunflower Knits Mermaid hair yarn! They'll have more in their shop once the re-release happens and I'll make sure to link here!
The shiny yellow one is a re-knit of an old pattern of mine from 2012! The Sunlight Shawl for Sad People. It has a sister-shawl coming soon in some lovely Frida Fuchs yarns so I thought I would work up another of the sunlight shawls to reshoot!
I'm using a skein of Ash from Sunflower Knits Mermaid hair yarn! They'll have more in their shop once the re-release happens and I'll make sure to link here!
The sunlight shawl for sad people!
This is a pile of lovely tiny knitted things (more on this soon)
The sunlight shawl and her sister shawl (coming soon!)
Oh I'm obsessed with this bolga basket. It's just a little one but it fits all my projects! Much love!
A Sweet Fiber's Canadian Yarn Mini Collection!
Sunday, 24 January 2016
A Canadian Yarn Mini Collection!
Me and Nicola have been working on these patterns since we fell in love with Sweet Fiber's new base Canadian at Knit City 2015. The yarn is so gorgeously rustic, and so gorgeously dyed. We fell in love immediately.
I designed a giant squishy lovely top-down triangle shawl with gorgeous architectural lace and Nicola (Tiny Island Textiles) worked out an ingenious sideways shallow triangle shawl with lovely lace meshing! Hers doubles (triples?) as a shawl, a scarf and a cowl if you tie it right! She's brilliant, definitely a must-knit.
Make sure that if you're in love, to hit the favourites button (it supports little designers more than you know!)
The yarn is freshly dyed and ready to order over on Melissa's website! Pop over and take a look there too!
Authenticity!
Nicola's Forager's Scarf!
Social Media master
Friday, 8 January 2016
Hey everyone! I finally decided to build myself a little facebook group for Softsweater knits! A new era of learning about when I publish patterns is here! You can click the like button if you'd like, or you could just ignore and continue along as you've been doing :)
Oh and if you missed the last post I also have a mailing list now. I'm really moving on up!
Thanks for stopping on by!
Tuesday, 5 January 2016
Lots of exciting things for 2016.
I'm enjoying planning my year. I'm not doing it all at once at the beginning, it's important for me to reevaluate things often, so I like to keep the process long and drawn out. Lots of lists of dreams, and things I need to remember. 2015 was really a wonderful year. I was able to get out of doing some things that weren't working for me and get into doing some really amazing things. I'm pretty darn grateful that I had the support to make the right decisions for me.
Blah blah blah new years blah happy blah blah :P
Blah blah blah new years blah happy blah blah :P
A couple of the fun things that I have going for 2016 are top secret, and I'm going to be aching to talk about them to everyone. The worst kind of secrets are the ones that make me so excited that it almost hurts to hold my tongue. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm notoriously bad with these kinds of secrets, so you can guarantee there will be little hints in all my instagram posts... I'll be able to reveal a bit more once I get some ducks in a row...
One of the things I'm feeling really excited about that I can talk to you about is that me and the lovely Nicola Hodges from Tiny Island Textiles have been working with Melissa from Sweet Fiber to design some fun stuff with a new line of yarn she's been dying! We got our hands on a couple of skeins at Knit City 2015 and it's gorgeous stuff! Our launch for the patterns is coming up soon, slotted for some time in mid-Janurary.
I have been absolutely smitten with my sample of my project. I have been wearing it an embarrassingly large amount. Like, I wear it all the time. It's big and squishy and so so warm. True love in knitting form.
Oh that all reminds me! I've started a mailing list! Keep track of me and the weird things I do! It will be used to keep you all updated with my pattern releases, special mailing-list only pattern deals, and other fun knitwear related things that I do.
