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

A Long and Winding Road

I now have a couple more new designs to share with you.

If you have been following along, you might remember that my latest (3rd party) magazine pattern is my Walnut Cowl,

© knitscene/Harper Point

which currently is featured in Interweave Knits Fall 2017, now on newsstands and in knitting stores everywhere.

On Ravelry, my newest pattern, Godiva Mitts, is slowly becoming one of my most popular indie designs.

Then just before July came to an end, I learned that a book with two of my designs had been published.

© Daniel Shanken/Stackpole Books

© Daniel Shanken/Stackpole Books

What a long and Winding Road it has been!!!

My Winding Road Mitts and the companion Winding Road Convertible Cowl were designed in the Summer of 2014. They were selected to be published in a book tentatively titled 60-Minute Knits to be published by Stackpole Books in Spring 2016.

The book was put on a hold after the company was sold in December 2015. It was not put back into production until October 2016.

It seems a very long time ago for me in my design career. But finally, in July 2017, the book has been published with the title KNITS IN A DAY.

© Daniel Shanken/Stackpole Books

As editor Candi Derr wrote, “Sometimes when you realize you need a new hat or mittens--It’s going to be freezing tomorrow and I’m going hiking! It’s my best friend’s birthday and I don’t have a gift!--you need it NOW! This is the book you can turn to again and again for just the right pattern, knowing that every project in it can be completed in a matter of minutes or hours.”

© Daniel Shanken/Stackpole Books

BTW: This Winding Road Convertible Cowl took me about 2 hours to knit.

And these Winding Road Mitts took a little more than one hour each.

Thanks for reading!

❤❤❤

  

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!
♥♥♥