Mixing it up!

Instead of my usual birthday give-away, this year I decided to do one for Christmas instead! We got some great pictures on the beach last night that I can't show you because it's a MYSTERY! :D

Here's the pattern page photo and description - more details here.

A Christmas present from me to you! This is such a busy time of year for those of us celebrating the holidays and we usually end up neglecting ourselves while decorating, cooking, and shopping for everyone else. Starting on December 18, I challenge you to take an hour or so of time for yourself each day! The pattern will be updated daily for a week and will finish up on Christmas Eve. After Christmas all the individual pdfs will be replaced with a single pdf. It’s free until December 18 (EST) when the first bit goes out. In the meantime, you can download the planning sheet which includes gauge, materials, and abbreviations.

What is it? A huge cozy cowl/sort-of-poncho with an interesting construction that can be worn in several ways. Nothing difficult - just knitting, purling, decreasing, and simple short rows (no picking up wraps). Everything is fully explained so you can just sit in your favorite spot with your favorite beverage and enjoy a little time for yourself.

This is a mystery but it isn’t a KAL; there are no rules to follow, no prizes to win, nothing to stress about, just relaxing knitting and a warm present for you! I hope that seeing the end result will be like opening a gift so I won’t post a photo until after Christmas. There is a thread in my group where you can ask questions.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Gift-a-Long 2014!

It's time for the second annual indie designers Gift-a-Long - put together by 293 independent designers.

There's a BIG sale and lots of great prizes! Read all about it here!

Northward

As of the wee hours of this morning, my eBook is now complete! Hay Cove is up and is on sale for a week!

I never posted here about the middle 4 patterns. There's Skerwink - a cabled headband.

Twillingate - a short-sleeved pullover.

Fox Point - a multi-colored hat.

And Gunners Cove - a textured shawl.

I had so much fun putting this collection together!

A labor of love

When my husband and I set off for our second trip to Newfoundland we thought we knew what to expect. A lot of driving, beautiful scenery, and not a lot in the way of places to eat or stay. We were mostly right, but what we weren't prepared for was just how spectacular the scenery was, how friendly the people are, and how much good food we'd encounter! Our first trip 10 years ago was with our kids, then 11 and 13, and we were camping and it was high summer. It was HOT. There were BUGS. And MOOSE - IN THE ROAD. ALL THE TIME. We camped in some spectacular places and enjoyed seeing Western Brook Pond by boat and we took some memorable hikes. But we didn't make it as far afield as we'd hoped and we didn't find a lot of good places to eat. This trip was so different! We mostly went back because we hadn't made it up to L'Anse aux Meadows. We'd tried the first time but it was so far away -

This trip we had more time and no one whining in the backseat. We took the long, overnight ferry that put us down on the southeast corner to start. Our first stop was Cape Saint Mary's. Tens of thousands of sea birds nest here - gannet, kittiwake, murre, razorbill, guillemot, cormorants and fulmars. It was a foggy day but still amazing -

There were a few sheep scattered on the grassy cliffs. Grazing unconcerned from their precarious positions.

A day or two later it was clear and warm and we hiked the Skerwink Trail.

We continued on across the northern coast to Twillingate where we did more hiking and continued to enjoy snacking on blueberries and raspberries and saw lots of pitcher plants.

Next we worked our way up the great northern peninsula. We saw sea caves -

And mountains -

And thrombolites -

 and this trip we actually made it to L’Anse aux Meadows! 

I found the Viking yarn stash :)  

In St. Anthony, we saw two humpbacks and climbed 476 steps up to the top of a mountain. 

It was a lovely trip and we met so many wonderful people. We will definitely go back, but next time we want to see icebergs! It was so much fun to work on the designs for my eBook on our trip - be sure to check out each pattern page on Ravelry to read more about it.

How I spent my summer

Back in June my husband retired. After spending chunks of just about every summer in Canada we were looking forward to spending the entire summer there. The kids are on their own (more or less) so we sold our house and hit the road. We spent a few days in Maine and Quebec before heading to Halifax, Nova Scotia where we found an apartment for a couple of months. We couldn't find a furnished one that was affordable, so we ended up on the 4th floor (the attic basically) of an old house in what is normally a student apartment (we were right next to Dalhousie University).

We had a futon, some folding chairs, and a gorgeous flowerpot on our little deck.

No TV, limited internet, but lots of interesting places to go. My goal was to keep working on the road just as I would have at home. I was moderately successful at this. Lack of internet/Netflix made it hard to just sit and knit sometimes but I was always knitting in the car or when we were out and about.

Right after we left Halifax to head to Newfoundland my laptop started to die. This made working much more difficult and I struggled with the sweater pattern I was working on during that part of the trip. Thankfully I have very patient test knitters :)

Here is the pile of what I knit during our time away -

4 adult sweaters, 2 baby sweaters, 2 wraps, 2 cowls, 3 pairs of mitts and a headband. In the same time period last year I knit 4 adult sweaters, 4 shawls, and 2 cowls, so maybe I was a little more productive? In any case it was a very inspirational trip and I'm planning an eBook of patterns inspired by our trip through Newfoundland on the way home. Yes, we went north to go south :) The first two patterns have already gone up. I am releasing them every week or two and they are on sale for that week at 40% off. After that, they aren't available until the collection comes out in November. Grey Islands was the first pattern -

It isn't currently available but the thumb-less version is and it's free!

Noddy Bay

Dark Tickle just went up so is available for a week -

It was a great experience and we need to sit down once we get ourselves reoriented and figure out what's next! My knitting makes it a bit more difficult to be nomadic - we could live out of backpacks if I didn't need yarn and needles and a computer and internet :)

IT'S FALL!!!!

Fall started at 10:29 pm EDT :)

See the list of sale patterns and coupon code here!

Favorite cardi, favorite yarn, favorite color

My newest pattern is a short-sleeved cardigan in Pashmina that's going to be a great transitional piece! I love it over a tank or t-shirt now, and can't wait until it's cool enough to wear it over a long-sleeved shirt :)

It's called Robie Street for the street we lived on this summer in Halifax. I always love knitting with Pashmina, and this colorway - Fig - is one of the best browns ever. Sadly discontinued :(

And I also released a cowl a couple of weeks ago - Blackberries, knit in the divine Tesseract DK.

I think I may need a sweater out of this stuff!

Now I'm working on a pullover in the very nice Rowan Pure Wool, but after knitting with Pashmina and Tesseract, it's wearing my hands out. Partly because it's heavier yarn but also because it just doesn't glide across the needles like the luxury stuff!

Our time in Halfax ends tomorrow - it's been a great summer! Here's a postcard for you :)

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse

Which comes first?

Usually the name is the last thing I decide on with a new pattern. A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to do a garter stitch, multi-colored shawl that I could name 'Divergent'. I sketched this out in Paint, thinking it would be appropriate for that name -

I knew short rows and decreases would be involved, but really wasn't sure it was going to be possible to knit. I just started knitting and figured it out as I went. Surprisingly there was very little ripping out involved, (less than usual for me even when I know what I'm doing!) I wasn't even sure things were going to work out with the cast on number I started with. I just couldn't see my way clear ahead of time. The whole time I was knitting I was figuring I'd have to do it twice (or more) to get it right. But look - this is the first (and only!!) go!

This was intended to be a Mystery KAL, but I polled my Rav group and they voted for just a regular KAL. It starts on September 24 but you can get the planning sheet now for 40% off so you'll be ready to go if you want to participate. Details can be found here. It is much easier to knit than you would think! And the funny thing is I ended up changing the name! I was trying to think of a project name that didn't give away my pattern name and came up with 'Exit 0' - there's an exit 0 on the 102 near where we've spent the summer in Halifax. Then I decided I liked it better than 'Divergent' :) It seemed appropriate since the idea and the shawl were both 'born' here :)

Finally!

I've been wanting to knit these two skeins up in something together ever since I swatched for something else using some leftover Bark from my Cinnamon Scone cowl and leftover Weathervane from a shawl. (I had to substitute Forge for Weathervane since I couldn't get any more.)

This is my Rumple Scrap scarf/wrap -

The colors make me really happy :)

Late Summer KAL!!

I'm so excited about this pattern and this knit-a-long :)  I love hoodies. I thought a lot about what I wanted in a knitted one. A hood of course -

and a kangaroo pocket -

big buttons with button loops -

Long long sleeves -

and a split garter hem -

I love wearing these!

Because there are so many parts to a hoodie and because some people find the top-down simultaneous sleeve sweater construction intimidating, I'm hosting a KAL in my Ravelry group. Tips and chat, pictures and prizes! Part 1 goes out on August first. Right now you can download the planning sheet so you can find your yarn, pick your size, check your gauge. I think the KAL is going to be a lot of fun - I hope you'll join us!