Let's Hear it for the Shawl

A few days ago, the lovely Loraine of Woolly, Madly, Deeply interviewed me for her blog, which was a rather fun exercise for me!  She asked several questions that had me really thinking about what and how I design.

One of them was "What inspires you?"

I get inspiration from so many different sources that it was really hard to answer that question!  Let's look at this shawl (which coincidentally is my newest release with Knotions.

photo by Edsgar Portrait Studio for Knotions

Last year, everywhere I went, every home decor magazine and many pretty pictures I saw on Instagram, had planters that looked like old fashioned bird cages.  I adored the look, but try as I might, my black thumb meant that after a few weeks of having planters filled with pretty succulents or greenery, I had cages filled with dying leaves and brownery instead of greenery.

So, I decided to knit myself one. (Actually it turned into several!)

Aviarium started with my wanting to make something akin to this...

but in knitting!

The elements I really wanted to capture were the straight lines of both the upright bars and the bands around the cage, with the leaves and flowers peeking out from between them.

photo by Edsgar Portrait Studio for Knotions

But as any designer will tell you, one of the hardest things about designing a patterned shawl is figuring out how to get those increases into the pattern without interrupting what the patterning is trying to say. 

To solve that I combined two different types of shawl shaping...a regular progression of increases along the spines (the upright bars) and a large series of increases like you would find in a Pi-Shawl between the bands that run around the cage.

You would think that would be it...but it turns out that I had more to "say" about those birdcages and plants...there will be more of these types of patterns in different shapes (because those cages come in all sorts of shapes and sizes) over the next year!

You can get Aviarium from Knotions or on Ravelry.

If you want to learn more about different shawl shapes, Shawl Star now includes 43 recipes for creating your own!  Using the affiliate link means I get a small percentage of the sales price, but you do not pay a single penny more for the ebook!

Until next time...Happy Knitting!

~M

When you say nothing at all

What's on my Needles

That was close

Stash Enhancement but not in stash for long.

New Shapes in Shawl Star

Buy Now with Affiliate Link

Hey Now...You're a Shawl Star

(Heads up, this post contains an affiliate link.  If you use it, you won't pay a penny more, but we here at Chez Yarn Diet will receive a small commission which helps keep the lights on!  All opinions expressed are my own, though!  Thanks for understanding!)

Last year, when Shawl Star (Knit Shawls like a pro!) came out, I was ever so excited to see 40 different shawl shapes.  So much of my own knitting and designing involves shawls, and working out where/how to put increases/decreases involves a lot of...time, math, swatching, frogging and re-knitting.  Having worked with Knotions for my own patterns, I knew, that whatever was in that e-book was going to be helpful and I was not wrong.

40 shawl shapes, from simple triangles, to hybrids, crescents and half circles with a couple of special shapes thrown in, but not just the recipe for how to achieve the shape!  Each one includes a Pros and Cons Section for example :

Crescent Worked Sideways:

Pros: "....ideal for maximizing your yarn ...."
Cons: "....it is less easy to create decorative borders..."

Then Elizabeth Felgate, the author, gives the formula for how to achieve the shape (for those math lovers!) and then a simply recipe (for the non mathy people!).

I am rather partial to the Special Shapes that are included...Logarithmic Spirals is destined to one day get cast on...I think in some Habu Textiles Copper Yarn, and hung as an art piece in the corner of my living room.

photo credit Mimz381 on Ravelry

I have referred to this book a lot in the past year, playing with shapes that turned into shawls and...heard recently that there will be new special shapes coming this Saturday!

As you, loyal reader, know...I like to work with Knotions and have a relationship built up with the editor...so...with a little gentle persuasion...I got a sneak peak at what is coming up and if you love knitting shawls as much as I do, you are going to be thrilled with the additional shapes that are coming. (Especially when you see that not only do you get the Pro's, Con's, Formula and Recipe...for some you get a link to a handy dandy calculator that does all the math for you!)

Here's where the affiliate link comes in....If you buy the original Shawl Star today...and you know you want to...when the new shapes come out on Saturday you will get them too! And if you do purchase, by clicking here...I'll get a small commission for cluing you in.

I was asked a while back who I would recommend this book to, by a friend, and my answer was "Everyone who knits shawls, but especially people who want to design their own!"

Knowing the how/why, formula and having a recipe to follow means that you can pick a shape and work out stitch patterns (or stick to a plain garter stitch shawl) without having to do the heavy lifting of working out the geometry.  And who knows...if you don't already design shawls having that heavy lifting done for you might have you designing your own and singing along...

"Hey now, you're a Shawl Star, get your knits on, go play
Hey now, you're a Shawl Star, get the pattern done and get paid."

3.14...Pie

And if calorie free is your preferred pie...A round up of a few of my favorite Pi-Shawls...(and some half pi's for those with smaller appetites.)

A New Release from Raven Knits.

Be As Water.

Pepsi's Pi Shawl from Tanja Luescher

Fire Dragon by Red and the Wolf Designs

A couple of my own...

Hike to Marion Falls

Twined Vines

Happy Pi Day!

~M

Spring Forward

I can't believe we are almost a quarter of the way through 2019 already!  Spring Breaks for the college kids  start next week and graduations are right around the corner! (If only all the schools were on the same schedule we could plan on doing something, but they don't line up.)

My life has been a whirlwind of putting up test knits, knitting samples, writing and editing patterns, browsing through libraries looking for reference materials and the usual cooking/cleaning/taxi service.

Most of my own knitting for a while has been the "hush-hush" submission type, so not a lot I can show right now...and this coming week will see the first couple of samples getting mailed to photographers and patterns to editors.

So rather than show you what I have been working on...a collection of leftovers and a frog!

I think I will be casting on a pair of socks next, maybe those I can show you!

Til next time...Happy knitting!

~M

Almost Silent Sunday

Upcoming tests....stay tuned.

Be nice to people, not because they are, but because you are!

 ~M

Marching Right Along

Some days, like many other people I am sure, I feel like the days are not long enough, the hours pass to quickly and minutes fly by and disappear in the blink of an eye.

That has been my 2019 so far, and here we are nearing the end of the first quarter of the year!

To try and get myself back on track...I finally released my first pattern of the year...there will be lots more and I am  lining up tests  to run in staggered starts over the next few months...some big projects and a couple of really quick ones.

But first...Introducing :

The Elephant's Child.

“Then the Elephant's Child put his head down close to the Crocodile's musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful.” Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant’s Child.  With help from the Bi-Coloured Python Rock Snake, the elephant’s child was able to get away from that crocodile, but not until his poor nose had been stretched this way and that way until it had become a trunk.

Like the elephant's nose, this infinity loop scarf pulls a self-striping sock yarn this way and that way to create color blocks and mitered stripes.  Knit flat in garter stitch, it is finished with a fancy loop edge and seamed to make a fully reversible piece

As you can tell by the pictures, I finished mine quite some time ago!  My testers only recently got it though and they did some wonderful variations, using different striped yarns than the Knit Picks Felici I used and even taking those fancy loops along the short edges as well.

The pattern includes a schematic, a chart, fully written out line by line instructions and a bonus file with different clasp options so you can accessorize your accessory!

You can get your copy of the pattern in my Ravelry Store.

I need to get back to work finalizing some other things, including this years April Fool's Special...if you are interested in test knitting it, take a peak here....

Until next time...Happy Knitting!

~M