Here is a quick look at what I finished in the last month and what I’m working on in May.
FINISHED
The Zig Zag Hat is finished and the pattern is released! I originally wrote this one in the 4 sizes pictured above. During the test knit I went ahead and tested a smallest baby size out of fingering yarn and had a tester who went above and beyond and worked up a second test hat in fingering weight also.
I really, really, really appreciate all the time and work testers put into a test knit for me. Having those extra eyes and hands on a pattern before release and incorporating test knitter input into the final edits makes such a huge difference in the quality of the pattern.
The Emma sweater pattern is released now too! I know that April really isn’t the ideal month to release a new sweater. But that is how the timing worked out and I love this one too much to sit on it for a fall release. So I released it as soon as the test knit finished and I was excited to see the pattern made it all the way to the top of page 2 “hot right now” on Ravelry even with the less than ideal timing! I really love this sweater and will definitely be wearing it in my rotation once cold weather is here again.
The Pirate Scarf is done and I just opened the test knit for it this week. I renamed it to Whydah Scarf. Named for the ship loaded with treasure that Captain Samuel Bellamy commandeered on its maiden voyage in 1716. History says Bellamy was like the Robin Hood of pirates and he actually traded ships with the Whydah’s original captain when he captured the ship. The pattern features cables that evoke coins and medallions of pirate treasure. Whydah works well as a single color or with alternating colors. My sample scarf alternates DK Treasures Yarn from Treasure Goddess Yarn in the colors Ghost Ship and Pieces of Eight worked on US Size 5 needles.
The green hat finally has a name. I’m calling it the Botanist Hat because the cables evoke the shoots and growth of climbing vines in a garden or forest. And I started the test knit for this one this morning. The pattern needed final edits and one last modification to the top of hat decreases before I called for testers. I really enjoyed working with all the shades of green and different textures and weights of the yarns. This is a new cabled hat design in five sizes. The yarns from bottom to top are Universal Yarn Uptown Worsted in the color 314 Lime (aran weight for Adult L size), Berroco Vintage Worsted in the color 5124 Kiwi (worsted for Adult S size), Knit Picks Swish DK in the color Green Tea Heather (DK for Teen size), Knit Picks Galileo in the color Firefly (sport for Child size) and Louet Gems fingering in the color Fern Green (fingering for Baby size). I enjoy writing a hat pattern in multiple sizes to give knitters choices. But I’m ready for a change of pace so after this one, I think my next several hats will all use the same worsted weight yarn with small differences between the cabled panels to grade the sizing up and down.
The knitting on the Sonoran Cowl is done too (pictures of the finished cowl will be completed later this month). I’m working on pattern updates and edits to get this one ready to release mid-summer. It was original published in the Knit Picks book Little Luxuries in February of 2017. The rights have reverted back to me and I’m now free to rework the pattern and self-publish it. I knit this sample out of Knit Picks Gloss DK in the color Doe on US Size 5 needles. Named after one of my favorite places on the planet. This cowl also reminds me of the baskets and pottery found throughout the region.
ON THE NEEDLES
I’m making progress on my next sweater design. This sweater is top down (like pretty much all of my sweaters), cabled, raglan and relaxed fit with plenty of positive ease. The shaping to this sweater is different from my normal shaping so I’m learning as I go on this one. I’m knitting my sample garment out of Valley Yarns Northfield in the color 03 Chestnut. After many swatches, I’m using US Size 4 needles for this project and I’m really loving how the cables pop.
I finally cast on a scarf in the lovely Malabrigo Arroyo in the color Fucsia. I’m really loving this scarf!
I’m just about ready to start a top down cabled shawl out of this Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Dk in the color Dust which reads as a pretty muted brown to me. A friend gifted me a whole 10 balls of this yarn. I’m hoping to use a good chunk of the 1370 yards in this shawl so it should be a big one!
And we finally went to a movie so I made some progress on my Sockhead Cowl out of Knit Picks Imagination sock yarn in the colorway Seven Dwarves on size US Size 1 (2.50 mm) circulars. I’m planning to take it along when we watch End Game in the next week or so. But I honestly suspect it will just be along as moral support since I’ll be watching the movie too closely to knit much. If you look just above the ribbing where the cowl switches to stockinette stitch you can see where I switched balls and the yarn wasn’t quite in sync for a bit. I knit a few rounds that way before I realized I just couldn’t stomach it and snipped off enough yarn between repeats to get it going prettily again. I briefly considered ripping back but since this is my fun knitting I decided to just live with it.
Here you can see the evidence that there was a yarn/cat incident with this deep, vibrant red yarn. So a project out of it is on hold until I’m done being annoyed long enough to sort out how much of the yarn can be salvaged. (The cat is fine…actually all of the cats are fine since I’m not certain which one was involved…I suspect the tiny cat but it happened while I was out of the house so I don’t know for sure.)
That all sounds like a lot. But in reality it is a shockingly low amount of actual knitting because each design needs writing and editing and tech editing and pattern revisions and more. Each of those steps add up to hours and hours of work. So that leaves little time for actual knitting. I’m hoping to switch gears and knit a lot more on upcoming designs the rest of the month. I miss the actual knitting during weeks when it gets pushed out by the other work that needs done. Also, it is better for everyone when I have that quiet time to center myself and knit.
