Another Level

Over that past few months, I've been split between my love for knitting and my other love, designing. 

Now I know everyone can be a designer and easily publish a pattern, give it free or sell it, designer's choice, and that's one of the things I love about the knitting world.  Some do it casually, some do it as they have inspiration, some do it  full time.

This world is what you make of it, and the passion I have for knitting has been constantly evolving over the years.  I've published a few patterns thus far, but I've been really focusing on putting the bulk of my time toward's designing.  I have a number of patterns in queue for design, one of which is a new Spring/Summer blouse.   The whole process is alot of research, alot of decisions, etc.  I've made great headway over the past week, and now am finally going to cast on the first prototype.   I still have WIPs sitting, waiting to be finished, and I want to finish them, but at the same time I'm torn because I need to continue work on my designs.  So it's been a delicate balance, but its working for now.  I do have one pattern done, waiting to release, but I need to take another photoshoot, so that's been holding it up, I'm determined to get this one out this week, so stay tuned. 

I'll share my swatch for the Spring/Summer top I'm working on.  This will be primarily the border for blouse.

The pattern is simple, no fancy tricks, easily memorable, and fast.   I'll share my progress as I go, and some other FOs this week as well.

FOs Revisited

Over the past week I've been cleaning up a few items and revisited my former released pattern "Aztec" hat.

It was so funny because I actually lost the original file I had for this pattern and wound up going to Ravelry and downloading the pattern.  I printed it out and reviewed it, realizing that I wasn't at all satisfied.  I wasn't satisified with the pattern publishing or the crown decreases.

So I followed my pattern instructions step-by-step, pulled out my red pencil, and cast on.  I re-knitted my FO and also changed the crown decreases so the pattern flows nicely into the crown shaping.

I updated the pattern via the Ravelry store and also added it as a new pattern to Crafsty too.  This pattern is free and it is a rather fast knit, even more so if you can knit cables w/out a cable needle.  I thank myself each time I do a cable project that I learned that trick many years ago. 

Aside from the crown decreases I also changed the pattern publishing to make it more formal, space saving, and columned.  I also added a new logo.

Goin through some of my FOs I found the lovely February Baby Sweater that I had knit so long ago for Lil' Nenille, and sadly never finished it, then came Isabella, and I took too long to give this to her, so I ended up with a lovely knit sweater but nobody for it to fit.  Then came Emma, and yes!  It fitted her just right with room to grow.

She was so sweet to model for me. 

Now onto finishing up edits on another pattern, and then to swatch for a new one, very excited about this one.  Can't wait to start sharing some of these new patterns.

Enjoy your Monday!

Loopsi

Published new free pattern "Loopsi" on Ravelry and Craftsy.  

Visit my Ravelry pattern store "Rockinknit"

Visit my Craftsy pattern store "Rockinknit".

This is a super fast knit, great to use stash yarn or scraps left over from project.  I always finish project and usually have left overs of beautiful yarn. 

I used Malabrigo Rios for this Loopis necklace. 

~Rocky

Stitches West 2012 Recap

What a crazy weekend!  Helped out Suzi, who owns the Knitting Ranch, at Stitches West this past weekend.  Also there was Marisol, who was also helping out Suzi, we took some pictures, I'll have to steal them from her and share later.  It was crazy busy, and I got to see all of Suzi's wonderful yarns, from Evento a visibly luscious Virgin wool/Cotton blend, you won't believe how soft this yarn is!  And there's Heichi, a 100% silk blend, feels really cool and soft to touch, and Alta Moda Cashmere, need I say more?

And first time ever, I left Stitches with NO YARN or FIBER in hand.  I'm still thinking twice about that, but I found a different way to enable myself this time round.

Yes, got my first Offhand Designs Bag, he's a beauty.

This is the Scottie Adelaide, and it's luscious.  It is big, not crazy big, but its mine!

Another gorgeous one I left with is from Atenti, just all around a sexy bag!

This the Doctor Madrid, just plain gorgeous.  I also tried to find an Overnighter in Cowgirl Black but they were sold out, although I made a wee bit of a friend there and I'll be getting my hands on one very soon.  For the interim, I satisfied my love for the Cowgirl Black with this one.

This is Cosmo in Cowgirl Black, look at the soft furryness, and that awesome Cowgirl Black.  Can't wait 'til I get my Overnighter.

That's it for the bags, also got me a few key books.

From top clockwork, Knitted Jackets by Cheryl Oberle, signed by Cheryl herself.  She is so nice, enjoyed chatting with her about bees.  One pattern in particular in this book is Cusco, need to find me the perfect yarn for this one.  Next is Coastal Knits, so many patterns in this one, a fave of mines is the Gnarled Oak cardi.  Next up are 2 Ysolda pattern books that I picked up at Ysolda's booth where she was graciously signing her books and had the cutest photo booth.  Here's the picture I took with Ysolda.  She had on her gorgeous red dress.

I had a great time this year, definitely more eventful than last years, and I'm not upset about walking away with no yarn, I have more than enough yarn to keep me knitting for a long time, but actually my taste in yarn has been rapidly changing, and I've been focusing more on some important personal patterns that I've been editing, so I'm not too too worried about not picking up some yarn there.

I'll leave you with a long awaited FO, this was originally the Stop, Drop, & Weave scarf (weave for weaving in some novelty fiber), but I choose to not weave the fiber, it wasn't really to my liking.  This scarf had been done for years, just needed ends woven and blocking.  Finally got around to it. 

This week has been crazy busy at work and at home.  Enjoy!

~Rocky

The Mystery is solved!

Finished my SusannaIC January Mystery shawl! 

While the colors weren't my FIRST choice, I'm actually loving it!   Even more thankful I had a top to wear with it to properly show off the colors.

Pattern: SusannaIC January Mystery Shawl by SusannaIC
 Yarn: Herron by Yarn Pirate
Started: 1/11/1
Finished: 2/13/12
Mods: None