Mystery Knit Along with a Bonus!

Okay.  I'm crawling out from under the heavy work load that I was talking about before.  I was easier for me to just post quick little things to Instagram / Twitter / Facebook and I dropped this blog for a while.  I'm back now and I hope to keep this up!  My blogs may be shorter but I will do my best to keep them consistent.

 

One of my very large time commitments went into a amazing new type of pattern.

A mystery where you participate by knitting the clues.

Yes, you read that right.  I had my friend, Donna Lutz, write a short story to flesh out the outline I had in my head.  Using textured stitches, lace, and cables, I designed 10 panel scenes depicting various stops around a hobby farm as the farmer was following a trail of yarn that had been stolen from her stash.  Following each clue, you get to read about half a page of the story. :)

Another friend pointed out that I should release it as a mystery knit along.  The more I thought of it, the more I realized that it is the ONLY logical way that it should be released. lol  The whole point of this pattern is to completely immerse the knitter in the fiber world for a while to escape the stresses of everyday life.  To that end, I am stretching the knit-along over 20 weeks (1 clue every two weeks) so that there is no stress of keeping up while the rest of life continues on.

The charts come in both color and  black & white so you can choose which suits your needs better as well as master keys to the charts for easy reference.  I also included a list of links to technique videos so you can research any techniques you are unsure of.  When the knit-along is complete you will be able to download the entire 63-page ebook! 

You can get your own copy of the pattern here: 
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/stitch--story-the-case-of-the-missing-yarn

Join the knit-along here:
www.ravelry.com/discuss/rachels-cozy-knits--designs/3331440/www.ravelry.com/discuss/rachels-cozy-knits--designs/3331440/

I'm hosting a trunk sale on my Facebook page!

My ferret has a nasty growth on her tail that is just getting worse.  She really needs surgery.  So to help her, I am discounting my old stock and introducing new stock.  Please visit my photo album or visit my Etsy page!

New Pattern! Red Alien Hat

Apparently I wasn't over booked enough, so I took on an effort to create a crochet pattern for someone who was looking for a crochet Pikmin hat pattern.

So it took me a while to get to it, but here I present you with the Red Alien Hat.

The pattern is available on Ravelry.

Throwback Thursday: Daughter's Dress

As I was doing laundry yesterday I got to talking with my oldest boy about his sister's dress.  He was trying to remember if it is supposed to be hung up or not.

I saw this dress in a shop (now closed) and I fell in love with it.  I wanted to make one for my one-year-old daughter.

They only had one hank of the bubblegum pink in Cascade Pima Cotton that I wanted to use, so I was forced to play with color combinations (poor me!)  So my friend and I played around with color and picked out two bright green and a hot pink. 

They also had the magazine the pattern came from: Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine, Spring/Summer 2010 so I picked that up, too.

At the time, I had Cast on Bind off checked out from the library.  I was inspired by the picot cast on and wanted to use it on the dress.  As I red the pattern, I was frustrated with the fact that I was going to have to sew the pieces together.  I'd just knitted a raglan shirt and that made much more sense to just knit in the round, so I frogged the cast on and rewrote the pattern in my own notes so that it cold be worked in the round.  Then I really got going on it!

While the above picture isn't how it sits on her finished, it was where it would stay as she wiggled and I snapped a picture with my other hand.

Eventually everything was the length and size it needed to be.  I cast off in the appropriate places.  Here I'm about to start working on the straps.  That was done in the matter of about an hour!  I couldn't stop!  Of course I had to try it on her right away.  Since it wasn't blocked yet, the bottom edge was flipping up and the pocket wasn't on but I didn't care.  I loved it and so did my daughter!

So I got to the finishing.  I still felt like it was missing something.  The dress was adorable but it needed to be accessorized!

So, I knit up the sock yarn I had bought that same day, which I realized matched the dress!  I hadn't thought of it at the time.

I clipped a bow I found in her hair and with the socks it was SO cute!  I still quite a bit of yarn left over, however.  Was there something else I could add?

A shrug!  I took the pattern from the raglan shirt I had just done an altered it so that it didn't close.  And finally it was complete!

Shortly after, my friends were talking about entering their knitted things into the county fair.  I remembered my mom telling me about how fun it was to enter something into the fair and if I had an opportunity to just do it.  So off I went.  I filled out the form and took my daughter's dress and a shawl to the fair.

On the first day of the fair I got a call from my friend.  She asked if I'd been there yet, to which I replied no, I was going the next day.  She told me that I won a blue ribbon!  I was shocked and started crying.  I'm so glad that she called and told me that at home because I would have been so embarrassed to do that in public.  lol

Here we are now, two years later.  She still can wear this dress as I sized it loose on her.  It's a summer shirt now, but it still looks great!  I just had her model it for me so here is a picture from today!

The return of peace

Things have indeed been chaotic at my home this summer.  My kids were on top of each other and fighting.  Meanwhile I was trying to push my fiber business off to a start.  I had spinning orders to fulfill, a pattern I wrote, tested, remade, and tested by others, and finally released.  My fiber graphics have become fairly popular and I've sold several orders. Oh, and I've been photo journaling my art projects before bed every night.
 

Today school started again.  I have one kiddo in public school in a special needs class and that is working *wonderfully* for him.  My oldest kiddo I homeschool, and now I'm working on paperwork to get my youngest into preschool.  I hope I can get her in so my oldest and I can get some work done in peace for a few hours.

Recently I've joined in a craft swap hosted by my favorite podcast Knit 1 Geek 2.  I was inspired by my spoilee (the secret person I am spoiling that I will not reveal online) to create yet another knitting pattern.  I am *so* excited about this one but I can't reveal my concept yet.  I can get it done before the deadline if I'm quick, but I would really like it to go through test knitting first if I can.  So, I've pulled in a friend to help me with part of this project and she is just excited as I am!

I can show you a little bit; below are a few swatches I've knit, and above is my stack of research books. :)

Oh, and yesterday, I stuck my toes and spent a little money to promote my latest pattern on Facebook this week.  I'm curious to see how that goes!