Stepping outside

There are a lot of things that I’m moderately good at, and even a few things that I’m really, really good at. But there are also things I’m horrible at. One of those things is self-promotion. It makes me really, painfully uncomfortable to talk about myself and my accomplishments. And there’s this one really awesome thing that happened that I should tell you about, because this is, after all, ostensibly where I am to feature my professional design work. So here goes:

Last year, I decided to really buckle down and get this whole “pattern design” thing going. I’m comfortable with self-publication, but since I’m not great at self-promotion, my patterns tend to just sit there. I do actually know all of the things I should be doing differently…I just have a really hard time implementing them. So I decided to take a different tack, one I’d avoided before because of the fear of rejection. Turns out my fear of rejection is not as strong as my aversion to saying nice things about myself (yes, you read that correctly: I would actually rather hear other people say not-nice things about my work than to say nice things about it myself. I gots me some Issues™.). I started reading calls for submissions on Ravelry, did some sketching and swatching, and submitted a little bolero to Knitscene.

This little bolero, in fact. Which you can find in the Summer 2012 issue of Knitscene, available on newstands and in your local yarn store now, or directly from them here. (The protoype is pictured above in a black sparkly cotton that’s just gorgeous in person. ETA: It’s 2nd Time Cotton by K1C2)

Leaf lace detail — I think my favorite thing about this sweater is the way the insets create lovely big scallops along the neckline.

Since then I’ve been sending out submissions pretty regularly, and have had a couple of others picked up (which is why there’s been a dearth of content here lately — I’ve been spending every spare moment knitting my widdle pingers to the bone), so those will be out soon-ish. And I will be sure to tell you all about them when they’re available. Because you know what? I’m really proud of them, and me, and I think you’re going to like them.

FREE Pattern! Sangria Swirl

The other day, I came upon this delicious, unlabeled yarn. The colors were beautiful, the yarn was nice and chunky so I knew it would work up fast, and it felt just lovely in my hands. I did some measuring and weighing and figured out that I had about 450yds total. Perfect for a scarfy-shawl-thingie! What I wanted was another Clapotis but I knew it wasn’t nearly enough yarn for that. Then I thought maybe I’d just do another drop-wrap shawl, but I didn’t really want another big triangle, and so I thought I could do a rectangular one. And then…then I thought about doing a rectangle on the bias, similar to how the Clapotis is shaped.

So I sat down, cast on a couple stitches, and started to play with it.  Love. It. It spirals and stretches and you don’t really have to think much about what you’re doing. It can be worn as a scarf (doubled — it’s really long) or stretched out and worn as a wrap. Best of all, even for slow knitter me it was a crazy fast knit. I think it took me <20 hours all told, and I was figuring out the pattern as I went. Without further ado, I give you the Sangria Swirl:

It's a shawl!

No, wait! It's a scarf!

Printer-Friendly Page

Measurements:

72″ x 12″

Materials:

• App. 450 yds bulky yarn
• Size 11(8mm) needles

Instructions:

CO 3.
Increase section:
Row 1: kfb, k to end
Row 2: purl
Row 3: kfb, k to end
Row 4: purl
Row 5: kfb, k to end
Row 6: purl, wrapping yarn twice around needle for each stitch (drop extra wrap when working next row)

Repeat these 6 rows a total of 14 times (84 rows, 45 stitches) Note: if you want to make your project wider, work more repeats of this section, and then work the same number of repeats of the decrease section, below

Work even section (no net increase or decrease):
Row 1: kfb, k to last 2, k2tog
Row 2: purl
Row 3: kfb, k to last 2, k2tog
Row 4: purl
Row 5: kfb, k to last 2, k2tog
Row 6: purl, wrapping yarn twice around needle for each stitch (drop extra wrap when working next row)

Repeat these 6 rows a total of 22 times (216 rows, 45 stitches) Note: if you want your project to be longer or shorter, work more or fewer repeats of this section

Decrease section:
Row 1: k to last 2, k2tog
Row 2: purl
Row 3: k to last 2, k2tog
Row 4: purl
Row 5: k to last 2, k2tog
Row 6: purl, wrapping yarn twice around needle for each stitch (drop extra wrap when working next row)

Repeat these 6 rows a total of 14 times (300 rows, 3 stitches)

Bind off remaining 3 sts. Weave in ends.

Hey, remember that pattern I keep promising?

Well, it’s finally here! Inspired by a candid snapshot I saw on the web somewhere, I wanted to make a quick floofy beret-type thingie. Luckily for me, I do a little designing here and there, so I whipped one up. Both the designing and the actual knitting were really quick; the big delay in getting the pattern published was my inability to get a decent photo that really showed how cute the hat is when worn. I’m still not thrilled with the photos, but got one that was Good Enough, and it’s long past time this pattern was made public. So, to start the week off right, I give you my latest Lauriginal: the Tip-topper. Free PDF download currently only available on Ravelry, but I’ll work the kinks out of the Patterns and Projects Page and get it thrown up there (as well as a PDF for that little headphone holder I posted last week — that should go over there, too, huh?).

Yeah, I know I'm not smiling. Had to choose between a decent pic of me or a decent pic of the hat for this one. The hat won.

ETA: Maven, is this what you were looking for?

As requested (I hope).

The Elder Gods are totally going to make me pay for this one

How did I not post about these?

Great googly-eyed Cthulu!

They’ve been done and given away for like two weeks now! I have to admit, they were not originally intended as a gift. You see, I came across this pattern on the interwebs, and while it is clearly intended for wee ones, I figured if I used a big fat yarn that would upsize enough for an adult. (This is a great way to upsize lots of patterns, by the way — my colleague Zontee wrote an article about it a while back.) I ended up using Hometown USA in Green Bay.

Turns out I was right, but not an adult with feet as big as mine. Fortunately, I have a dear friend who has wee feet (and whose handle on the interwebs is kid-cthulu — how much more perfect could that be?). And so these were duly passed along to her. And, having made the pattern once, I can see that it would be super easy to upsize just by adding some more stitches and adjusting the spacing of the tentacles, so I suspect a pair for me will be along shortly. Maybe mine will be in New Orleans French Berry. Fuschia Cthulu! I think the Elder Gods would approve.