Still Here! and my End of the Year Holiday Sale is Coming up!
Sorry for the inactivity this year. I had a lot going on with dealing with my health issues, home, kids, finishing the slipper socks for my sister in-law, and a huge project for my Uncle (which I will be making a separate post about at a later date. With pictures!).
While working on the project for my Uncle, I had an idea for a bag that I have been working on on and off for awhile when I needed a break. I haven’t decided yet if I am going to write a pattern for it yet though. I’m still working on figuring out how I want the bag to be. I made 2 already, but there are elements to it that I want to change and have 3 different colors already started. 1 is a solid color in Lime Aide (nice bright springy green), the 2nd is a 2 color in black and dark grey heather, and the 3rd is a 2 color in brown and sky blue. The ones that I already finished, a 3 color cross-body shoulder bag, and then a 2 color backpack that I’m sending to my mom. I’ve been using the 3 color one and it’s helped me see what I would like to change in the construction of some parts of it.
The Knee-High Slipper Socks I made for my sister in-law I did write a pattern for that was was thinking about selling, but I don’t have any good photos for it. I really should get it tested some more, but I haven’t had any luck with reliable testers (except for 1 friend of mine, who was great). The slipper socks are knitted in worsted weight yarn and was made to fit up to a 20 inch calf, a wider foot width, and the foot length is customizable.
My End of the Year Holiday Sale is coming up very, very soon! It will be starting on the 1st of November, 12am EST, this year! Ending on December 31, 11:59pm EST! 2 months long! 25% off of All Patterns! The sale includes everything in my Patterns for Purchase page.
I hope everyone had a good 2017 and a very Happy Holiday Season coming up! Keep an eye out for my upcoming blog post on the huge project that I have been working on this year!
Knitsy Issue #25
Remember when I said I had some exciting news to share? Well, now is the time to share!
I have my very first published pattern! I was contacted by the editor of Knitsy Magazine last month asking to feature my Dragon Scale Head Kerchief in the next issue of their magazine and here it is ready for download! You can read the issue online and download individual patterns, or download the entire issue onto your iPhone!
You can see it here online: Knitsy Issue #25 at mycraftacademy
or here at the App Store: Knitsy App
The Issue now costs $3.99 to purchase, it was free for the first month after it was initially published, but you can still get my Dragon Scale Head Kerchief Pattern for FREE here on my WordPress Page! The Issue is still worth purchasing for all of the other wonderful crochet and knit patterns it has!
Learning Something New, Knooking!
I’m taking a short break on the Winter into Summer Hat pattern/project right now because my husband got me a new “toy”, The Knook basic beginners kit by Leisure Arts. For only $7? Why not! Knooking is basically knitting with a modified crochet hook and I remember seeing this kit a year or so ago and being fascinated by the idea. I can knit and feel I am fairly accomplished in my knitting, I’m definitely way beyond the basics, I just crochet more than I knit. I’ve also been crocheting many more years longer than I’ve been knitting, so knitting with a crochet hook? Yes, please! I’ve been playing around with it since last night after getting comfortable with holding the “knook” (knitting hook) and making the knit and purl stitches. I found that I have to hold this particular hook more like holding a knitting needle than how I hold a crochet hook to be comfortable. Once I got the basics down, I decided to jump right into making a cable. Last night, I got the hang of making a front cable (holding the stitches to the front), and today I’m trying the back cable (holding the stitches to the back). Next I want to try lacework, with the yarn overs and knitting/purling 2 together stuff. It seems you can do anything that can be done on the needles on the knook and with having a cord hold the unworked stitches as you work, there is no accidentally dropping a stitch, and I found frogging back to fix a mistake is much easier. The only down side I’ve found is that the knooks are more difficult to find and it looks like, in my limited research, there aren’t as many hook sizes and it seems the smallest size is 4.00mm. So, it seems the downside of knooking is the limited hook size choices. I have seen around the web that some people have made their own knooks from regular crochet hooks made from plastic or bamboo, of even from Tunisian (afghan), or double-ended, hooks. What makes the knook different from a crochet hook is a cord attached to the bottom of the hook, whether through a hole or some other method. THIS is one persons way of making a Knook.
What I thought would be fun is a project combining crochet a knitting without having to change from a hook to needles or vice versa. I thought it would be worth the try, anyway.
Checking In
I know it’s been a couple of weeks since I posted, but I really haven’t done very much crochet-wise. With my health, then one of our cats got sick, I was a bit distracted. Unfortunately, although we believed that our cat, Oreo, was improving, we lost him suddenly on Monday of this week. He was only 5-1/2yrs old. He was born in this house also. We also didn’t have internet for about 4 days during all of this.
I’m to be getting “back to work” now though. I have a couple orders to fill, not jewelry yet though although I’m still hoping to sell some. I have 3 dice bags for a custom order, 2 small and 1 large, and my step-grandmother ordered a dragon scale shrug that I need to get started on. I still need to buy the thread for it though. I’ve also talked to my husband about opening an Etsy store, I’m not sure when that will happen yet though.
I recently made myself a Pinterest acct. For the longest time I told myself that I didn’t want, or even need, a Pinterest, but I blame my WordPress blog stats for this. I was checking my stats when I noticed that under “referrers” was a link to Pinterest, so I followed it and saw a couple of my things had been pinned, so I got curious and wanted to so a search, but needed an acct to do so, and well, there I am. Also, because of this, I am getting the urge to knit again, but before I pick up a new knit project, I still have a skirt, shrug, and a sock to finish.
Speaking of WIPs, I still need to finish Keely’s Dragon Shrug and a summer top I started.
January 19, 2009 – August 18, 2014
Photo taken on August 14, 2014
Testing forum?
I am really hoping to be getting knit and crochet patterns worked and written up for testing and publishing. I found a site that I can setup a free forum, but I’m not quite ready for it yet either. I am very excited about this prospect and I will be looking for trustworthy knitters and crocheters to help me out.
My real hope for this forum is not only for testing, but maybe a tight-knit (bad pun intended lol) community of friends and maybe have games, swaps, and KAL/CAL’s.
My type of stuff is pretty diverse. In crochet I like making fashion and home accessories with some amigurumi and I’m working on some clothing items like shrugs and shawls to start. I haven’t really done anything for babies and children except for one pair of newborn britches which I do need tested. In knitting, so far I am designing socks, but hope to do some other things.
I would love any feedback and if there might be any interest.
Edit:
I started a board, but it’s far from being reading, but I hope to soon!
New sock pattern in the works
I am pretty happy with this pattern (well one, I still need to cast on the 2nd one). What I can say about it is that it’s not for the purl-phobic lol Just about the entire sock is done in the purl stitch with lace and knit stitch accents. I did have fun designing this, watching it evolve for one idea into another, then another 🙂 I do still need to get it written out, but I do have the chart down on some graph paper. I do think that these would look better with a longer cuff though and in a solid colour.
Stella’s Lacy Bobbies
I just finished my first knit sock design today! I am so proud of it! I designed and made these for my Grandmother, hence the name. Without her I would have never learned how to crochet and the crochet led me to want to learn how to knit.
I hope to share this pattern, I have made it for 3 sizes, Small (7 in. circumference), medium (8 in. circumference) and large (9 in. circumference). I am getting the pattern tested before posting it though.
Adamas Lace Shawl
This is my first time knitting lace and my stitches are far from perfect but I’ve never used anything thinner that size 10 crochet cotton and this stuff is about the size of size 30 crochet cotton and much softer especially since its a Merino wool.
I restarted the lace shawl on my new Harmony needles. I really love these needles and I think that I’m pretty happy with the shawl so far, mistakes, wonky stitches and all.
Patterns
This morning, I went through all of my patterns and updated them with the link to their corresponding Ravelry page. The link is under the download link and says “Ravel This”. I also cleaned up the photos a bit. Some of them were breaking through the layout, so I resized them.
I would love some feedback on how my pattern pages look, or any suggests on how I can make them better.
Thanks 🙂
ETA: Please no rude comments, but I would like some constructive criticism/feedback. I just had an anonymous commenter on another one of my blogs being rather rude about my photos. I know my photos could be better and a couple I need to figure out how to photograph them better, I even state that they are bad. I am trying my best right now and I am not a professional anything, just an amateur trying to learn.
Thanks
by Midknight Designs 