The 5th annual Gift-A-Long

The 5th annual Ravelry Indie Design Gift-A-Long is almost here! I am super excited to announce this multi-designer promotion to help you kick your holiday gift-making into high gear!

The Indie Design Gift-A-Long is a 6 week long KAL/CAL of holiday gift projects made with patterns designed by an extensive list of (would you believe 312 in 2017?) independent designers. And, it all begins with an enormous pattern sale!!!

The Gift-A-Long:

From November 21, 2017 at 8:00 pm US EST to December 31, 2017 at midnight US EST there will be fun games, contests, tons of prizes, and 8 KAL/CALs that will help you get your holiday knitting and crocheting done with companionship and fun! This party will be happening in the Ravelry Indie Design Gift-A-Long Group.

The Sale:

From November 21, 2017 at 8:00 pm US EST to November 28th at 11:59pm US EST (312, including me) indie designers will be discounting between 10 to 20 of their patterns 25% for this event. Use coupon code: giftalong2017.

Most of my Ravelry patterns are included in the sale.

Once you’ve got your Gift-A-Long patterns, I encourage you to join a relevant KAL/CAL! (For instance, if it is a cowl, please join the Cowls, Scarves, & Other Neck Things KAL/CAL.) To join, simply write a post in the KAL/CAL thread you want to join, including the pattern name you will be knitting and a link to your project page. KAL/CAL participants are eligible for lots of lovely prizes but you’ve got to post to win Please Note: all prize winners must be (indie design gift-a-long) group members! 

KAL/CALs will run from November 21, 2017 at 8:00 pm US EST to December 31, 2017 at midnight US EST, plenty of time to knock out all your holiday knitting and crocheting. We have tons of prizes, games, and great conversation, plus a lot of other fun, so pull up a chair and join us!

On your mark…get set…. GIFT!!!

Made in May / Coming in June / More in July

Made in May

during

The Gosh Yarn It Multi-Pane Mitten KAL

my

Multi-Pane-Mittens in neutral colorways

Yarn: Blue Sky Fibers Woolstock

in Gravel Road and Drift Wood

Coming in June

(next week, maybe, probably)

This is a January photo of my "boxed to send to Colorado"

Walnut (Cable Boxes) Cowl

My next magazine design!!!

KNITSCENE FALL 2017!

Yarn: The Fibre Co Arranmore

in Cronan 

NEW:

I have a new computer, surface book,

 I'm using a new browser, chrome,

 I now have a new photo editor, picmonkey,

I used it all to make this "teaser" photo

 of my next new indie knit design...

More in July

This is a photo of my left hand wearing a lovely little mitt

with an aran cable filled with lace.

My next indie design is now being tested

(more photos)

here.

MULTI-PANE MITTENS: Design Release, Promotion(s) & KAL

My MULTI-PANE MITTENS pattern is now available on Ravelry! Please read more to learn about the pattern, my introductory promotion(s), and an upcoming KAL!

My goal with this design was to create an easy stranded colorwork pattern for a mitten. I began with corrugated ribbing and carried on with many more rectangles in stranded colorwork… reminding me of windows with many panes…

This pattern was designed for those with previous experience knitting small diameters in the round on double-pointed or two-circular needles, or by using the Magic Loop method. There are step by step instructions for the “afterthought” thumbs.

I have set up a half price introductory promotion on the MULTI-PANE MITTENS pattern. From now through midnight on Monday, May 1, the pattern price will be $2.50 (no coupon code required). The regular price of the pattern will be $5.00. Click on this link to buy it now at half price!

OR, even better... 

You can get the pattern absolutely free from now through Tuesday, May 16, if you purchase yarn to make the mittens at Gosh Yarn It! in Kingston, PA. 

Once you get your yarn and pattern, please join me in the Multi-Pane Mitten KAL at Gosh Yarn It! This KAL will run through the month of May. It will take place in the shop (where I hope to be on most Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons) and will also take place online, in this thread, at the GYI! Ravelry group discussion board.

Knitters everywhere... we welcome you... please consider joining us virtually for the KAL! It will be a lot of fun!   

 

DETAILS
Finished Measurements
8½” [21.5 cm] circumference and 9¾” [25 cm] overall length (sized to fit most women)

Yarn Required
Worsted weight yarn
90 yd 82 m Color A
85 yd 78 m Color B
 
Sample Yarn
Blue Sky Fibers Woolstok (100% Fine Highland Wool; 123 yd 112 m, 50 g)
Color A: No. 1310 Cranberry Compote, 1 skein
Color B: No. 1319 Quartz Crystal, 1 skein
Needles
- Size US 5 3.75 mm needles (two circular or set of double-pointed)
Adjust needle size if necessary to obtain the correct gauge. Many knitters find they need to size up when working stranded colorwork.

You may find my popular Two-Handed Stranded Colorwork Tutorial helpful if you are new to colorwork.

Thanks for reading and happy knitting!

♥♥♥

2016 Indie Design Gift-A-Long

The time is now for the 2016 Indie Gift-A-Long!

This giant knit-a-long and crochet-a-long is one of the most highly anticipated annual events on Ravelry, and this year it will be bigger and better than ever!

The first part of the GAL begins at 8:00 pm (EST) today... and continues through November 30th at 11:59pm (EST). It is a GIGANTIC Pattern Sale with over 335 Indie designers discounting thousands of designs by 25%. Use the coupon code: giftalong2016. 

Once you have your patterns, join the Indie Design Gift-A-Long group where you can sign up and participate in the amazing 6 week long Gift-A-Long. GAL fun begins at 8:00 pm (EST) today... and continues through the end of the year, December 31, 2016 at midnight (EST). There will be eight KAL/CAL's with games, contests, and tons of prizes, that will help you breeze through your holiday knitting with all of the joyful companionship that Ravelry has to offer!

I now have 14 knitting patterns for sale on Ravelry and all of them will be 25% off through the end of November with the code: giftalong2016. 

Ready, set, gift!

LINKS

My Gift-A-Long Sale Patterns 

Indie Design Gift-A-Long Forums 

Thread Listing All Participating Designers

The Hat's on Me (Part 2)

I wear many hats as a knitting pattern designer.

The last part of every design release is what I tend to think of as "THE PROMOTION" and I need to get better at it.

FLORIBUNDA, (worn by me)

There are very many steps to writing knitting patterns...

1) THE SPARK!!! Some of my more popular blog posts describe design "sparks" and are worth revisiting:
Tartan Mitts Spark
Rosebud: My "Spark" & My Design Proposal
The Spark & The Reinvention: Opulent Cowl
Wearing my spark hat is all about creativity.  It is one of my favorite parts.

2) THE SWATCHING:  On occasion, the design begins with the yarn or a swatch made from the yarn... a swatch becomes my spark.
At other times, a "spark" leads to a swatch.
I have posted about swatching as well:
Some Things I Like
More of the Same 
I like to think of swatching as my R&D (Research & Development).  It is another of my favorite parts.

3) SKETCHES & SCHEMATICS and very often CHARTING:  Planning the design sample and how it will be made.

4) PATTERN ROUGH DRAFT WRITING & SAMPLE KNITTING:  The design sample gets made at this point... I write (most) parts of the pattern as I go. Sometimes I stop and do math, and sometimes I make new sketches. 

5) PATTERN WRITING:  With my finished sample and all of my notes and sketches around me, I write my "first best possible draft".
These last three steps can be challenging, but I love bringing my "sparks" to life. 

6) THE TECH EDIT:  I send my "first best possible draft" to my tech editor. My tech editor sends it back to me with at least one million edits. (Oh, my!) We send emails back and forth until we agree on all the edits.  (I always agree on most of them.)

7) PHOTOGRAPHY:  This is something I have been getting better at, but I still have a lot to learn. My models (recruited friends and family) work for free. Scheduling photo shoots (and locations) in various weather conditions can be a very bumpy process with prolonged delays.

8) FORMATTING:  In which I put the edited pattern and the edited photos together in a PDF document.
These last three steps are never easy, but I accept them as part of the process of pattern writing, and I have enjoyed learning more about them. 

9) RELEASING THE PATTERN:  Uploading my formatted and edited PDF pattern to Ravelry where I sell it. Then (the PROMOTION begins as) I create a pattern page on Ravelry with some release announcements in appropriate forums.

10) PATTERN PROMOTION:  This includes a blog post (here) and posts in some other social media places. (Right now I use Instagram and Pinterest.) I need to do more.

My last two patterns, JUST CHILLIN' and DOT ON, were also test knitted in a June Hat KAL at my LYS, Gosh Yarn It. I was grateful for that. I gave away several copies of each pattern for the KAL, which I do not regret.

Then I gave away even more hat patterns through an offer in a recent post, The Hat's on Me (Part 1). That was a promotional giveaway. But it has not helped me in selling any patterns. I kind of think it is better to get paid a fair price for my work. Next time I will stick to an introductory discount.     

My promotional hat is not my favorite.  (It does not fit me so well.)
I need to learn how to create ads on Ravelry and I need to figure out if it would be a good idea to sell patterns in other places. Indie knitting pattern designers I know of also sell on Craftsy, Etsy and Patternfish.  Do you ever buy patterns in any of those places?

I'm really hoping for a comment or two! Thanks for reading!
♥♥♥

The Hat's on Me (Part 1)

Earlier this month I wrote about my new hats.  As in: My Newest Hat Patterns...

There was this one,
DOT ON, (worn by me)

There was that one,
JUST CHILLIN, (worn by my dear Mallory)

In that earlier post, I said, "These new hat patterns will become available on Ravelry for $5 each in late June.  Watch this blog for the announcement of their release after June 20th."  That has already happened.

I also posted, "I will provide a coupon code for my blog readers to get one new hat pattern of their choice for free."  That is happening now.

The free pattern coupon code will not appear anywhere other than this blog post...

Dear blog readers,
Your coupon code is:  ThisHatsOnCarolyn

Click on one of the links (Dot On or Just Chillin') to find the Ravelry pattern page for the hat pattern you like best.  I hope that you have enough time to take a look around at my other Ravelry patterns.

Details (the fine print):
This offer has been extended to expire at midnight, Ravery time, Monday, July 4.
The coupon code shown above can be used one time only for one free pattern.  Chose between Dot On or Just Chillin'.

Thanks for your support!
♥♥♥