Design Challenge 2016

I felt so good about reentering the pattern publishing game that I decided to challenge myself this year to keep designing, writing, and publishing! I wanted something that would stimulate my creativity, and keep me motivated, productive, and on schedule. I wanted to make sure it would be fun, and exciting, and not feel like a chore, and that by the end of the year I would feel like I've really grown as a designer and earned a lot of practical experience. Earning a little money wouldn't hurt, either.

I Googled for a while but couldn't find anything even remotely close to what I was imagining. All my results were either KALs (knitalongs) or design contests. So, I simply made one up on my own. Perhaps someday other people will use it!

I started with the Ravelry pattern browser filters for inspiration. There are five main categories of items: Accessories, Clothing, Home, Toys and Hobbies, and Pet. There's a sixth category, too, called Components, which is a sort of catch-all for appliques, blocks and squares, charts, tutorials, etc. I decided to ignore this one for now and focus on the first five.

I would like, by the end of the year, to have one pattern available for sale in each category. This means either coming up with a completely original design, or using something completely original that I've already knit in the past, and writing out a full pattern for it, complete with photos, editing and formatting it, and listing it on Craftsy and Ravelry. I haven't decided yet if I'll have all of them test knit first. The clothing one I probably will, because any good clothing pattern should be available in multiple sizes. But I may not have enough time to have them all tested.

so damn cute

I've already selected my item for Accessories - a crazy cute fox hat that I knit for the craft fair. It didn't sell that day, so I have it on hand to study closely, which is fortunate because I didn't write any of it down while I was improvising it! I also have no idea what brand yarn I used, so I'll have to do some retroactive yarn hunting to figure that out, or at least get close enough.


Here's a peek at my brainstorming for the other categories:

• Clothing - probably a shrug or bolero. Keep it simple. A complicated pullover could take you all year just by itself! I'm thinking a square lace back knit in the round, with added sleeves and collar.
• Home - Hmmm so many possibilities! Cafe curtains for the kitchen? Throw pillow? Nerdy coasters? I'm the least decided on this one of any category.
• Toys and Hobbies - Could be a stuffed animal, but I'm leaning towards creating another dice bag! They're so fun! And I got inspired and went a bit nuts sketching out some steampunk fairisle ideas. 
• Pet - A small dog sweater that looks like a turtle shell, with a long snood. I don't know where this idea came from but once it was in my brain it would NOT go away. I even made a sketch. I must make this a reality.

Oh! And part of the challenge is that I need to blog regularly about it, at least once a week, partly to keep me on-track and accountable but mostly because I need an excuse to write more often! See you soon!

Top-Down Set-In Seamless Sleeves (WHAT?!?!)

Tasha, the stylish genius behind By Gum, By Golly, just may be my new favorite craft blogger. She did not invent this ingenious method for sleeve knitting, but her tutorial is beautifully written and illustrated, and discovering her blog was nothing short of a "Eureka!" moment in the process of designing the Flamingo Cardi.

With all the garter rib pieces finished and seamed together, I found myself faced with large, asymmetrical armholes, and absolutely zero experience shaping set-in sleeves from scratch. Not willing to just wing it on something as structured as a sleeve cap, I googled for days, looking for the right tutorial, the right shaping wizard tool, something designed for knitting, not sewing, although I knew I could manage to convert the basic concepts if really necessary. Nothing I found seemed exactly suitable, especially for the unusually shaped armholes now staring me down.

Somehow, somewhere in there, I stumbled across Tasha's tutorial. And it was like one of those beautiful moments of clarity you read about. The room seemed brighter, music played somewhere.

The basic gist of it is, without stepping on Tasha's toes - because really, you should go to her for this - you pick up stitches around the armhole, and then work short rows centered at the shoulder, increasing one stitch at a time on either side, until you get to a certain marked point near the bottom of your sleeve, and then just start working in the round. It's so simple. And so obvious after the fact, in the "why didn't I think of that, except of course I never would have" kind of way.

It did take a bit of finagling on my part, due to that crazy asymmetry of my sweater design. But I've got one sleeve finished now, and it hangs perfectly. I did the first sleeve entirely on dpns, but I have a few uneven stitches sprinkled through it, probably due to working with a looser gauge that I'm accustomed to. For the second sleeve, I picked up the stitches with dpns but then thought better of it and switched to my circular to shape the cap. I'm ready to work in the round now, and I may have to switch back to dpns soon, since I'll have to start decreasing down the sleeve and my stitches already barely fit on my single size 9 circular. I really should get a second one. Knitting in the round on two circulars is SO much better than dpns.

I also went lace hunting for the trim yesterday morning, and scored the perfect pale pink floral lace. It's a large-patterned lace like on the original sweater, and while it's not a flawless color match for the yarn, it's pretty dang close and I think it's going to look lovely! Better make sure I know where my ballpoint sewing needles are...

The Cardigan Challenge Continued

I'm now on my fourth day working on mom's cardigan, and it's been a breeze so far!

I wound up going with size 8 needles for the main body (7's for the waffle-stitch borders). The 8's give me a gauge of 4.8 stitches and 6.5 rows per inch, which is a bit on the small side - the stated gauge is 4.5 stitches and 5.5 rows per inch - but I've had no trouble adjusting my stitch counts as necessary.  The swatch I did on 9's was slightly over gauge, and I didn't like how loose the fabric was, so 8's it was.  The drape and texture are perfect!

My only complaint so far is that the skein of Comfort is not a continuous strand - there's been a knot in each of the first two balls.  I attempted Russian weaver's joins, but it's an 8-ply yarn and the joins were just too messy and knotted, and it's not like I can spit splice a synthetic, so I had to go with the traditional double knit-in, which means slightly lumpy areas and more ends for me to weave in later.  Hoorah.

But, I've just finished decreasing for the waist, working even for a little bit, then going to increase back out for the hips.  Then - on to sleeves and button bands!

The Cardigan Challenge

This week, my mom asked me to make her a cardigan for the workplace, something to ward off the chill when the heater isn't working properly, or the AC is working a little too well.  Now, I absolutely love requests.  Especially with an accompanying offer of pay!  But to knit something for mom presents a few unique challenges, first and most important of which is:

1. I can't use wool.  From any kind of animal.  This means not just regular sheep's wool, which comprises a huge chunk of the yarn market, but also alpaca, merino, cashmere, bison, vicuna, etc.  Therefore, I'll have to use plant fibers, silk, synthetics, or some combination thereof.  Synthetic fibers don't block AT ALL, and the majority of them feel like cheap crap against the skin.  Plant fibers are generally stiff and heavy.  Silk is prohibitively pricey, and not particularly warm.  So the first mission is to find a vegan yarn (silk excepted) that is lightweight, springy, soft, and affordable.

Then there are the less difficult challenges:

2. Sizing.  Even if she takes the time to send me all her measurements, I can't try it on her as I go, and she's a couple sizes smaller than me.  I'll have to be very, very careful.

3. Color.  This cardigan has to go with everything, almost literally.  It will live at the office and must coordinate with anything she might choose to wear in a professional environment.  This may not be a real challenge at all, actually, if she picks the color herself.

So here's what I've chosen so far:

The Brompton Cardigan: It's lovely, simple, and the waffle stitch borders will help prevent curling.

Berroco Comfort Yarn: I have one or two other yarns in mind as well, but according to Berocco, this yarn is one of their most popular, and is soft, springy, and warm.  Of course, being a nylon/acrylic blend, it won't block, but hopefully those waffle stitch borders will eliminate or at least greatly reduce the need.

As soon as we figure out a color, I'll order the yarn and cast on.  So excited!