NiseyKnits

I am both happy and sad today, because this is my last post on this forum. This blog has served me very well, and I have loved writing on it. But it's time for a new beginning. This is the announcement you've all been waiting for....my new website www.niseyknits.com.  This website has taken over a year to get off the ground, and at times I wondered whether it was the right thing to do. However I really really wanted one place where you could find my designs,  my finished items and me, and the blog was just not cutting it for me.  Now this website is still a work in progress, but most of the main parts are finished, so I thought I'd share it with you.  The design work and the building of the website was done by Sierra Fong and Mike Chen of Atmosphere Websites . I love, love, love their work! I'm still working with Sierra on a few more design items and hope this business relationship continues because they do amazing work, and their support is phenomenal ( I know b

I have to unfortunately disappoint you all because I cannot make that big announcement I talked about in last week's post . It's not ready yet. However, I would love some help from you today if you would bear with me. Please take this quick poll I put together (and feel free to be as silly as possible) with your answers. I can't wait to read your answers. See you next week! Viena Brown and Orange Lacy Scarf   Loading...

It's another beautiful collection from the in-house design team at Brooklyn Tweed. Y'all know how much I love the work done by Jared Flood and his team. His yarn lines Shelter and Loft look pretty darn good, and I'm kicking myself for not having a skein or two yet to try out. Well, Mr. Flood and his team over at Brooklyn Tweed have given us a wonderful way to welcome fall (A.K.A knitting season) with 18 mouth-watering designs in the BT FALL 12 collection . The patterns in this collection make such good use of the Shelter yarn brand that you want to buy a few skeins in EVERY color available (or maybe it's just me? ) The first number that caught my eye was the Gelsomina Aran pullover by Veronik Avery. Those traveling stitches at the front, that rich deep blue color, the moss stitch used all over to give such awesome texture! I tell you, I fell head over heels (or needles over yarn?) in love with this pattern. © Jared Flood/Brooklyn Tweed © Jared Flood/Brookly

I just turned 30 this week! It's such an odd feeling, being the age you thought was "so old". Now I'm that age, and I feel exactly the same as I did 5 years ago. :) To celebrate this milestone, and to thank you all for supporting my small knitting business, all items in my shop (and all custom orders) from now till September 30th will be 30% off. Yes, that's 30% off! So get proactive, visit my Etsy Shop and order all your holiday gifts. Use the coupon code HAPPYBIRTHDAY and help me celebrate!! Thank you all once again for your support, through encouraging words and purchases. You are all very dear to me. Have a great week! PS: And here are some pretty pictures, just because! :)

"Seonmul" is the Korean word for "gift". The scarf in this week's post is a gift for my dad. I started this scarf in February 2011 but I quickly lost interest in it, mainly because it was all black and I wanted to knit with color. Fast forward to June 2011 when my parents came to visit us. I pulled out the scarf again and quickly started knitting, hoping to be done before they left so they could take it with them. That also did not happen. The scarf went back to the WIP abyss until last month, when I felt so bad that I had let this scarf slide for almost a year and a half. With gritted teeth, I wallowed through the last half of the scarf with the help of many Korean drama episodes (which is why I know the word for gift in the Korean language) and finally finished it! Whew! Oh, but the story is not over. I soaked the scarf and got ready to block...and left the scarf in a bucket for about 5 days. Not good!  I finally blocked it and let it lie around for two more

At least, I'd like to think so. Because I love this cowl and the Malabrigo Chunky yarn that I used for knitting it. The Ariosa Broken Rib Cowl by Emmy Coplea is one of the simplest and most exquisite patterns I've ever had the pleasure of knitting, and I'm quite in love with it. The pattern is a broken rib worked in the round, and the finished product looks so stunning you wouldn't believe it was hand knit. This cowl is now available in my Etsy shop here . As is usual with me, I'm including a million pictures (ok, not really) so you can also see how beautiful this cowl is. I'll definitely be making more of them. Thanks to Lilia and Irene of LivedStories for the gorgeous pictures. I can't stop looking at them. Have a great week everyone, and remember, it's already HUMP DAY! The weekend will be here before you know it. :)

I'm making progress, little by little, on the giveaway shawls. I finished another one on our vacation trip, but only got the chance to photograph it this past weekend. I used the  Moody Kerchief  pattern by Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loop ). The winner of the shawl, Alexandra, wanted this shawl in the Twig and Peacock colorways of Quince & Co's Chickadee yarn .  This was quite a quick knit, and I'm glad I was able to get to it during the trip. Alexandra, I'll be sending your shawl later this week. :) I hope you like it. Thanks again to Irene of LivedStories and the lovely Lilia for the beautiful photos! I only have one more to go (Yay!) - the Roma Shawl (also by Kirsten Kapur) for Megan. That's all for this week. Next week I'll share a few new items I've knit up for the shop. Have a great week everyone, and enjoy the long weekend!  

We have only 10 days more till the end of August, and here in the Bay Area, nights have gotten considerably cooler. You know what that means? It's knitting season!! Yes!!!! I can now bust out my bulky and super bulky yarns and knit soft, cushy, super-squeezable, ultra-warm items for Fall and Winter. This year I'm hoping to be ahead of the holiday rush by starting on items for my Etsy Shop. I worked on an oldie but goodie, the Scrunchable Scarf pattern by Susan McConne, while we were on vacation in Hawaii. I knit the scarf in Loops & Threads Cozy Wool (one of my favorite bulky yarns) and added a shell crochet border on one edge to give it a little touch of whimsy. Y'all know I love lots of pictures, so here you go! The scarf is currently available in my Etsy shop here . Have a great week and see y'all next week. PS: I still have headbands and mitts available if you are interested. Please see last week's blog post .

I have a problem, and I hope you all can help me out. I made some headbands and matching mitts for my first Craft Fair way back in April. However due to a number of factors, we had very low patronage at the fair and I sold only three items. Now I can't sell these headbands and mitts on Etsy because the designer also makes them for sale on there. I however cannot wear all 6 headbands and 3 mitts, so I thought I would have a short sale here on my blog and on my Facebook page. The price for each headband is $16, and for a pair of mitts is $20. All items are made from top quality yarn. The green, fuchsia, rust red and goldenrod items were knit in Classic Elite Waterlily yarn, the Flame Red headband in Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica, and the Cadmium Headband and Mitts in Malabrigo Merino Worsted. Here's the deal I have for you: Buy 1: 10% off Buy 2: 15% off Buy 3: 20% off..... you get the idea. Below are the pictures of the headbands and mitts. They will make great gifts. I

I first posted about this shawl blanket in the Megdans Part 1- Pictures post about a year ago. I designed it for my mom to showcase my newly acquired knitting skills. I ended up submitting the pattern to Tangled magazine, and it was accepted. The magazine Tangled Nearly Fall 2012 just came out, and my pattern is in there!! Woohoo!! This version was knit in KnitPicks Swish Worsted yarn, in the Dove Heather colorway. It's a shawl, and a blanket. It's up to you to choose how to wear it. And the pattern is free on the Tangled magazine website. Enjoy it, and I can't wait to see pictures if you do knit one! UPDATE: You can download the pattern directly here .

My friend Irene of LivedStories took the pictures of this scarf in 2010 for my Etsy Shop , and she loved it. In fact, she loved it so much that she took almost 60 pictures of this one scarf. The pattern is the Drop Stitch Scarf by Christine Vogel. I think I've knit almost 10 of these scarves. They are quick and easy to carry around, so I default to them whenever I want a simple project for nights (like today) when I'm exhausted and don't want to think about my knitting. It just so happened that I had two skeins of the Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Silk DK Print leftover from the first one, so I decided to surprise her with one of these scarves as a birthday present. Her birthday also just happens to be our wedding anniversary! I'll be giving her the gift later this week. I thought I would celebrate her big day with a post, because she's been a great help in getting my business off the ground with all these wonderful pictures she's taken for me. Happy Bir

Doing this (another giveaway Moody Kerchief in Quince & Co. Chickadee yarn) while looking at this... See you next week! :-)

It's 2am Saturday morning. I have to catch a flight at 8:30am, which means I have to be up in 3 hours. And yet, I'm up. Doing this...oh what knitting has done to me. :-)

About a year and 3 months ago, I bit off more than I could chew. I didn't know it at the time, of course, but I took on more than I could handle when I held this giveaway and awarded 6 prizes. :) Don't get me wrong - I'm not sad at all about the giveaway. I was just so excited to get the chance to knit six different shawl designs by Kirsten Kapur that I jumped right in.  I'm ashamed to admit that till now, I had only finished two shawls. Only two out of the six.  In a bid to cleanse away a bit of that shame and get the gifts to the recipients, I've finally finished two more of the shawls. They are both knit from the Snow Drops and Snap Peas shawl pattern (that was the winner if I recall. A lot of people loved it.) The red version is knit in the Hollyberry colorway of KnitPicks Swish DK. I started the shawl in October last year, and just finished in June this year. Tsk tsk tsk...bad bad Denise. :) I also finally got my schedule to line up with Lilia's (the mode