New Design: SIDEREAL CHECK COWL

I have released my new stranded colorwork design, SIDEREAL CHECK COWL as promised. It is a companion piece to my recently released SIDEREAL CHECK HAT.  The pattern is available on Ravelry with a 25% introductory discount through midnight (EST) December 16.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was very fortunate to have my designs selected for yarn support by The Fibre Co as part of Autumn/Winter Yarn Support Programme. Their gorgeous, Arranmore Light is a new favorite of mine. It blends cashmere and silk with merino wool to create an autentic tweed yarn of the highest quality.

The reversible cowl, with one side in stranded colorwork and the other in a two-row stripe, has picot edgings. It begins with a provisional cast on and ends with three-needle bind off.

Finished Measurements 
33” 84 cm circumference and 9½” 24 cm height

Yarn
DK weight yarn 
348 yd 318 m Main Color (MC)
180 yd 165 m Contrast Color (CC)

Note: If making both hat & cowl with Arranmore Light, two skeins of the main color and one of the contrast color will be more than enough.

Thanks for reading!

xoxox

New Design: SIDEREAL CHECK HAT

I am happy to finally introduce my new stranded colorwork hat pattern in two sizes, SIDEREAL CHECK HAT. This pattern is available on Ravelry with a 25% introductory discount through midnight (EST) December 2.

Earlier this year, I was thrilled to learn that I had been selected for The Fibre Co’s Yarn Support Programme AW 18/19. Their Arranmore Light blends cashmere and silk with a fine merino wool to create an authentic tweed yarn of the finest quality. I have always loved colorwork with tweed yarns.

I actually received yarn support for both the hat and a coordinating cowl that will be released two weeks from today, on December 13. These colorwork projects were inspired by high fashion garments featuring graphic variations of houndstooth check. I enjoyed charting some of these checks for stranded knitting.

The check pattern I use here was one of my favorites. I love how the background color appears as a series of four-pointed stars. ‘Sidereal’ means of or relating to distant stars or constellations.

The hat, with optional pompom, may be made in one of two sizes to fit most women (men).

Finished Measurements
18¼ (19¾)” 46.5 (50) cm un-stretched brim circumference and 10¾ (11¾)” 27.5 (30) cm un-cuffed height, will stretch to fit heads up to approximately 22 (24)” 56, (61) cm

Yarn
DK weight yarn
For hat:
152 (178) yd 139 (163) m Main Color (MC)
38 (44) yd 35 (40) m Contrast Color (CC)
For optional 3⅜” (8.5 cm) pompom:
additional 43 yd 39 m CC

Note: If making both hat & cowl with Arranmore Light, two skeins of the main color and one of the contrast color will be more than enough. (Arranmore Light has an amazing 328 yds per skein.)

Thanks for reading!
xoxox

I hope you are out there somewhere!

For many weeks, I have worked on design samples and pattern-writing for my upcoming designs... A hat design will be released in two weeks and a cowl two weeks later.

My original swatch in The Fibre Co's Arranmore Light is where it all began. The Fibre Co. selected my proposal for their Yarn Support Programme AW 18/19. They provided yarn (in a very different color scheme) for both projects.

I am in need of a couple more test knitters for these designs (especially the cowl). Please consider test knitting one of these for me, if you have some experience knitting stranded colorwork from a chart.

For a lot more information on the hat test knit see this post on Ravelry.

For a lot more information on the cowl test knit see this post on Ravelry.

I have made the deadlines for these projects quite flexible. I only ask that you would have a Ravelry project page with flattering WIP photos ready to link to my pattern page on its release date.

Sidereal Check Hat coming November 29!
Sidereal Check Cowl coming December 13!

I look forward to hearing from you!!!
xoxox

Officially Launched: Swatch Warriors

www.swatchwarriors.com

This has been a busy fall... During the weeks that my Trinity Mountain Hat and Daphnis scarf designs were released I have spent time promoting them... I have also been working on two more designs that will definitely be released in 2018... A couple more are in the works and may be released shortly thereafter... These are also the weeks of the year when publishers everywhere are seeking design submissions for next fall........

I am interrupting all of that to announce the official launch of a brand new pattern website!!!

~  Swatch Warriors ~

The site is the brainchild of Yurika Kotze of South Africa -- a crochet designer who has a dayjob building ECommerce sites. This summer, after months of work, Yurika put out a call to designers on Ravelry to gauge interest in her yet to be launched curated pattern site. Enough designers, including myself, came on-board for the launch.

Swatch Warriors is a deeply curated collection, quite different from Ravelry, whose primary goal is to be an all-inclusive fiber-arts database. Swatch Warriors sets itself apart with Yurika's curation. She has used her designer's eye and aesthetic to sift out what are the most beautiful, fresh and forward-thinking patterns that designers have to offer. The website is lovely and easily navigated, first by tool (needles or hook), and then by category. There are new patterns being added every week, and a fun featured 'Pattern of the Week'. I hope to contribute more designs to the site in the future.

Please check it out. I think you will be glad that you did!
xoxox

DAPHNIS -- Scarves etc 7 is here!

I am happy to announce the release of my scarf design, DAPHNIS.

Daphnis is just one of 10 beautiful knitwear designs for hand-knitters included in Quince and co's annual neckwear collection, Scarves etc, 7.

The cables of Daphnis are very round and flowing. Its generous size makes it a statement piece.

The cable crossings are unique in that three groups of stitches are crossed using two cable needles. (I found using two bamboo double-pointed needles worked even better for me than using cable needles.)

The cable crossings are all the same and there are over 100 of them.

I loved using Osprey for Daphnis. It is a lofty, soft, plump and round wool yarn that has tremendous stitch definition -- perfect for the triple-cross Daphnis knitted cables. The Aran weight Osprey worked up beautifully to make a substantially-sized piece that is light and lofty. The Nightshade colorway is a favorite of mine, but there are dozens more to choose from.

Thanks for reading!

xoxox

💗

Coming Soon: Scarves Etc 7

The first one was Scarves etc 2012. I was very lucky that year, as a new knitwear designer, to have my cowl, Jonna selected for Quince & co's first annual collection of scarves, cowls, wraps and shawls.

  Jonna, Carolyn Kern 

 Scarves, etc 2012, © Quince & Co.

Every year since 2012, the yarn company has put together a Scarves etc neckware collection, having published a total of 76 designs in six years. A handful of times over the years, I have submitted design proposals when I have seen their calls for submissions. My ideas were not selected until the call late last year...

A new design of mine will be one of 10 in the new Scarves, etc 7 to be released on Thursday, October 11! It is so rewarding to have finally got back in again!

Quince is so amazing to work with. One of my favorite people at Quince is Jerusha, who just posted about Scarves, etc through the years.

As before the release of Jonna, I have not yet seen any of the Quince photography for my new design with the sample that I made this spring. I can hardly wait to see them, and the other 9 designs in the Scarves etc 7 lookbook on Thursday!

You can go to the post by Jerusha, and click through the link at the bottom to sign up for Quince email announcements... or follow me here, or on Ravelry, but especially on Instagram.

I will close with a teaser photo and a a secret that I learned along the way about #7...

There will be a good number of cables.

xoxox

New Design: TRINITY MOUNTAIN HAT

My latest design, Trinity Mountain Hat, was recently released by Green Mountain Spinnery. It was a fun and colorful project!

I designed the hat to show off GMS's brand new DK weight Ragg-Time yarn. This 100% wool yarn comes in many stunning colorways.

The "Holiday" colorway, on top above, was sent for me to work with for my hat design. This colorway is actually more of a gradient yarn with long lengths of color that do not repeat within one skein. This became evident once I wound my skein into a ball.

I selected a highly-textured stitch pattern most commonly known as Trinity Stitch.

The stitch pattern continues through the decreasing of the crown. The pompom is optional.

Details

Finished Measurements

13¼ (16½, 19¾)” / 33.5 (42, 50) cm un-stretched circumference
 (will stretch to fit heads up to approximately 19 (22, 25)” / 48.5 (56, 63.5) cm).
  10½ (11½, 12)” / 26.5 (29, 30.5) cm un-cuffed height.

Yarn250 - 300 yards (229 - 274 m) DK weight yarnOne skein of Green Mountain Spinnery Ragg-Time will be enough to make a hat in either of the two smaller sizes along with a pompom similar in size to sample hat.
 If making the largest size hat, a smaller pompom could be made.

Needles

                 - Size US 3 [3.25 mm] needles: 16” circular (cir) 

                 - Size US 6 [4.0 mm] needles: 16” circular (cir) and set of double-pointed (dpn).

Adjust needle size if necessary to obtain the correct gauge.

View the Trinity Mountain Hat on Ravelry for more information.

Both pattern and yarn are available at the Green Mountain Spinnery website.

Also see this GMS blog post for more information on Ragg-Time yarn and other ideas for using it.

Thanks for reading!
xoxox 

Our Rocky Mountain Trip - Part 3

Best shots from Yellowstone...

Paint Pots

The Falls

Old Faithful

And us

Our Rocky Mountain Trip - Part 2

It has been a year now since our trip to three national parks in the Rocky Mountains. (I have been told that it may not be correct to group all of these mountains together with my "Rocky Mountain" label, but it works for me.)

This first photo is my favorite shot from Glacier National Park on the Canadian border in Montana. I did not take it. Dave Kuharchick, a local TV personality who was touring with us, shot it with my iPhone 7 plus. He was sitting at the window during that part of our Red Bus tour. I learned a lot while watching him (quickly) set the focus and zoom.

We were sincerely told that our views on that rainy day were far better than those we would have seen on days (before or after) when the smoke of wildfires dominated.

We learned a lot about why natural, controlled, forest fires are both healthy and necessary for the ecosystem.

All of these shots were from the Going to the Sun Highway. (The roadway is the first to have been registered in all of the following categories: National Historic Place, National Historic Landmark and Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The length of the road is approximately 50 miles and spans the width of the park between the east and west entrance stations.) 

My Part 3 Rocky Mountain Post will be all about Yellowstone.

It is very possible that new knitting will come sooner...

(didn't know I was) Playing Yarn Chicken

One of my knitwear design highlights in 2017 was my No-Wrong-Side Hat which I created for The Fibre Co’s Fall 2017 Yarn Support Programme.

No-Wrong-Side Hat (for Mr K) Dec 2017 (with just one skein of Tundra)

Please see my design release post from November to read about the reversibilty of this hat (two hats in one).

The pattern has three sizes: 15½ (18¼, 20¾)” [39.5 (46.5, 52.5) cm] circumference. The two smaller sizes can easily be made with one skein of lovely, silky and lofty Tundra. The largest size will take a bit more...

Or so I calculated.

I did NOT make the largest size No-Wrong-Side Hat in Tundra before I published the pattern. (My test knitters did but with other yarns.) Shortly after publication I made one for Mr K, and...

It only took one skein!

With only one yard to spare!!! (as shown in photo)

I have been adding 5% to my yardage calculations for a long time now. This was originally suggested to me by the tech editor for my Socks That Rock Design, Sandy Rosner, and it only makes sense...

Using my swatches and design samples, I do my best to calculate yardage requirements, and then I add 5%. I strive to guarantee that others have success knitting my designs -- which means not having to play the game of yarn chicken (i.e., will I, or won't I, run out of yarn?).  

In the case of the largest No-Wrong-Side hat in Tundra, a 5% buffer means that you will need a second skein to be certain that you will not run out of yarn. But, of course, you may not need it...

Perhaps you can ask about the return policy where you purchase your yarn... Perhaps you can make a second hat... Perhaps you can wait a bit for the release of my next mitt design...

A pair of mitts will take far less than one skein of Tundra.
I will keep you posted. 😉
❤❤❤ 

Revisiting: Equilibrium Cowl -- Now a kit!

This seems a very good time to revisit my Equilibrium Cowl design which was originally published in Knitscene Accessories, 2012. (My first magazine!)

This reversible cowl was designed to be a great learning project in stranded knitting. You can learn much more about the technique in my own Two-Handed Stranded Colorwork Tutorial. In fact, all of the photos in my tutorial are of me knitting the Equilibrium stitch patterns.

If you are a Knitting Daily email subscriber you might already know that Interweave is currently offering an Equilibrium Cowl Kit with 2 skeins of the very same yarn that I used for the original design sample... 

Cascade Yarns Eco Alpaca (100% undyed alpaca; 220 yd 201 m/100 g) 
• #1520 black (MC), 1 skein 
• #1510 natural (CC), 1 skein

Included in the kit is a digital copy of Knitscene Accessories, 2012.

In addition, you will need a 16" circular needle to get gauge (US Size 8, 5mm recommended), a stitch marker and tapestry needle.

Knitscene editor Hannah Baker wrote a lovely article describing the cowl, Irresistible Reversible Knits: One Cowl, Two Ways. Please check it out if you have the time.

There are currently 88 Equilibrium Cowl Projects on Ravelry in every color of the rainbow!  

Thanks for reading.❤❤❤

All photos ©Harper Point Photography and used courtesy Interweave.