Here is a look at what I’m working on these days.
FINISHED
Pictured from top to bottom and left to right: Turquoise Trail Pullover, Turquoise Trail Cowl and a sweater found in deep, deep stash.
The Turquoise Trail Pullover (Ravelry link) pattern is now live! If you don’t use Ravelry, here is the link to the Turquoise Trail Pullover at Tallgrass Knitting (my Etsy shop). This pullover is a simple top-down seamless raglan with a scoop neck, positive ease and subtle shaping for a relaxed fit. Textured cable panels frame the neck and bottom of the body and sleeves. Written in 8 sizes. This design is written for fingering weight yarn which helps make the sweater silhouette very flattering for all sizes. Sample pullover knit out of Valley Yarns Charlemont.
The Turquoise Trail Cowl (Ravelry link) pattern is now live! If you don’t use Ravelry, here is the link to the Turquoise Trail Cowl at Tallgrass Knitting (my Etsy shop). The Turquoise Trail Cowl uses the same southwest-inspired textured cable panels that evoke both cabochons of turquoise and trails as the pullover. Written in two sizes. Sample cowls knit out of Valley Yarns Charlemont and Old Rusted Chair Squish DK.
And this sweater kind of feels like cheating. I recently rearranged the craft room. The rearrange meant I could actually look in a tote that has been buried for ages. And this sweater was in the tote!!! It only needed the ends sewn in and the neck finished. Done and done! (Please ignore the mess in the picture and instead notice how happy I look at finding an almost completely finished sweater.) The yarn for this one is Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky….I love the finished sweater and if you’ve been paying attention you know I love Brown Sheep yarns…but the fact that knitting on any needle that large hurts my hands is probably how this sweater got put into time out and then forgotten.
ON THE NEEDLES
Pictured from top to bottom and left to right: Thorin Cloak, Twisty Lollipop Boot Cuffs, Orchid Tee, shawl design, upcoming cowl, different upcoming cowl, new top down worsted weight sweater, new shawl design and a stack of some of the submissions I’ve sent out.
I have THREE test knits going right now! They are all three happening in The Testing Pool on Ravelry. That means the links for each are Ravelry links. The Thorin Cloak and Twisty Lollipop Boot Cuffs test knits are drawing to a close at the end of March. The Orchid Tee test knit started in early February and is slated to end in early May. As always, I very much value the extra eyes and hands of test knitters on these projects! Strangely the samples for all three are knit out of Knit Picks yarn – Simply Wool Worsted, Gloss DK and Shine Sport.
My next shawl design is getting close to done. The sample knitting is finished! And the pattern is currently going through edits and tech editing. This one should be ready to call for testers the last week or so of March. The sample shawl is knit out of 70/30 Merino Wool/Silk high twist single by Apothefaery Luxury Fibers in a gorgeous red named Poinsettia. I’m naming this one the Gemstone Shawl and the yarn was a perfect, deep, rich gemstone color for it.
Next and next are two more cowl designs. As you can see here, neither is on the actual needles yet. But both are close enough that I’m counting them anyway. The yarn for the first one is Miss Babs Caroline in a beautiful muted green named Iantha. The yarn for the second one is Malabrigo Rios in the Frank Ochre color.
After that is a new worsted weight top down sweater for release this coming Fall 2022. The sample sweater for this is worked in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in the color Cilantro Heather.
I just got the Turquoise Trail Shawl cast on using Treasure Goddess Yak Silk DK Treasures in the color Mermaid’s Curse. This is her new wool/yak/silk blend and I’m really loving it!
And finally, I’ve been working really hard on submissions this quarter. As any knitwear designer can tell you – income from just releasing your own designs (no matter how many hours you put in and how consistently you release) is not enough. So, I’ve been steadily working on adding revenue streams over the last years (qigong instructor training, my Etsy shop Tallgrass Knitting, getting more freelance writing assignments and submitting to publications). Here’s a look at submissions #6, #7, #8 and #9 for 2022.
That seems like plenty for this month. As always, you can sign up here for my newsletter to receive new pattern updates and exclusive discounts. Please be kind to yourself and others.
