NiseyKnits

First, let me apologize for missing last week's post. I got a long needed vacation and the week just flew by before I knew what was happening. I hope you all enjoyed your July 4th festivities, and are ready for the second half of 2012. Crazy right? Second half ALREADY. Anyway, today, I'm here to let you know that I finally knitted something for myself!! Yay!! I don't know how long it's been since I made something for myself. I started the Xenia shawl by Vanessa Smith, but it's lying in the WIP basket because I got swamped with design submissions in the past three months. Once the Knitscene Accessories 2012 magazine came out and I saw my Sunehri Shawl  in all it's glory, I decided to knit one for myself! I originally designed this shawl in Malabrigo Worsted Merino, in the Cadmium colorway. I had just a little less than one skein left at home, so I decided to use it up in a shawl for myself. Now if you haven't tried my pattern, let me talk it up a...

As a new knitter, I used to hear that swatching is important before casting on for a new knitting project. :) I frankly thought they were a waste of my time. I mean, I was ready to start on my new project with my newly purchased scrumptious yarn, and then I read "Take time to check your gauge". Grrr!! Suffice it to say that I went for a few years as a knitter without ever knitting a gauge swatch. Gauge Swatch for my Wrapped in Clouds Shawl pattern Then I started designing. And that's when I realized how important making a gauge swatch is. It isn't just a waste of time and yarn. It's like a little mini-prototype of whatever project you will be working on. And that little square of knitting gives a lot of information. How so? Well, let's say I'm designing a simple scarf using worsted weight yarn. I cast on between 20-30 stitches and work about 20-30 rows of the pattern I'm going to be using. Then I block the swatch like I would the real scarf -...

I am so excited for this week's post! I submitted two patterns to Knitscene Accessories magazine last year, and luckily for me both of them were accepted. The knitting deadline was mid-December so I spent most of late November and the first two weeks of December knitting frantically. In fact, I think I pulled an all-nighter in order to finish the Sunehri shawl, block it, and mail it so it would get to the editors in time. It was a tough night. If you don't believe me, ask my neighbor Claudine. :) I had to borrow a fan from her to speed the drying process during blocking. Anyway, enough of my chatter. Here are the two patterns! I'm so excited!! I designed the Sunehri Shawl on the fly. I thought it would be cool to use the elongated stitch pattern in a shawl. However I had never designed a shawl before. I looked online for instructions on how to design a shawl. (Trust me, a Google search works wonders!) I found this post by Michelle Miller of Fickleknitter. Michelle is ...