Lee Does Stuff

Color by Number: a pattern set within Coloring Book

The final pattern in my Coloring Book collection is actually a mini-collection itself! Color by Number (on ravelry) is an extremely customizable pattern, with seven sample items to show how varied you can get with the pattern, and then patterns for each of those seven samples so you can copy them exactly if you want to.

Color by Number knits use no stranded knitting or intarsia – just plain striping, worked in modular strips of garter stitch, connected with picked up stitches (worked into slipped stitches, so they’re easy peasy). Yarn carrying and weaving-as-you-knit techniques make for minimal finishing. The long, narrow sections can be either straight or slanted, and by switching the directions of the slanted sections, you can get chevron or zig-zagging kinds of shapes/designs.

The pattern can be made as a cowl, headband, mitts, or a blanket! (Or, really, any other rectangular shape you want to make… you could easily use the pattern to make a long scarf, or legwarmers!) The default closure (for everything but the blanket) is buttoning, but you can choose to sew the edges together instead if you want to skip the buttons.

So, each of the seven samples is its own pattern (both on ravelry and on my website) and the customizable pattern is available as the set, since it includes both the full pattern and all the sample pattern details – that’s $10 for the entire full set (or it’s all a part of the Coloring Book collection, which is $20 for all this plus Pigment, Misanga, and Scribbled Lines).

Let’s go through each of the samples! First up, there’s the Checkered Headband (rav). It’s one of the most simple, but I really love it – I’ll be wearing this one a lot! It’s made in Malabrigo Rios worsted weight, in three colors (Teal Feather, Sunset, Lettuce), and it has an extra wide button band for a solid panel in the back:

The Lightning Headband (rav) in bulky yarn (Malabrigo Chunky in Glazed Carrot and Water Green) is crazy super wide (and warm!) so the pattern is written for you to use any weight, so that the width can easily be changed by the weight/gauge changing. There are even notes included for using a fine weight yarn, but making it wide by altering your stitch count, so you can really get any width you want, in any yarn weight. Check out this awesome test knit version in fingering weight yarn! You could make this one in black and white if you’re a vintage horror fan.

I think my personal favorite of all the samples is the Plaid Cowl (rav). In one of my all time favorite yarns – aran weight Malabrigo Twist – in five colors, the stripy color pattern is meant to resemble plaid, and I think my vision worked out pretty darn well!

It’s a bit extra wide, for extra cozy squishiness (all Color by Number cowls can be made as wide as you want, but the given sizing guidelines in the full pattern make for a width measurement a bit shorter than this one). The pattern explains how to choose your colors to result in the most plaid-esque look; this sample actually doesn’t follow those rules perfectly but I think it works well… maybe that’s just because I love the palette so much. The colors used are Natural, Sunset, Sealing Wax, Teal Feather, and Lettuce.

The other cowl is the Chevrons Cowl (rav), in five colors of squishy Chunky yarn (Bobby Blue, Water Green, Glazed Carrot, Frank Ochre, and Pearl Ten).

This one is meant to be shaded chevrons, with the slanted sections switching between the darker colors and the lighter colors. And then there are the contrasting V’s scattered around, for extra chevron-y-ness, or something:

Then there are the Stripy Mitts (rav), in Malabrigo Sock fingering weight yarn, five colors (Terracota, Persia, Primavera, Ochre, and Ivy), with a random-looking striping design:

These are designed for buttons, which is great if you want to be able to wear them as fully-closed wrist-warmers, as shown below. As I wear mine around, however, I’m finding that the buttoning closure isn’t the most practical option for functioning fingerless mitts, so the pattern also includes modifications for making them with a sewn seam instead of the buttons, if you prefer that. I don’t love knitting with sock yarn, but damn, I sure do love how these guys look!!

The Zig-Zag Mitts (rav) are in four colors of sport weight Arroyo (Sand Bank, Glitter, Piedras, and Arco Iris), with shaded chevrons along the top and bottom, a different colored section in the middle, and contrasting zig-zag lines going through all the sections. It’s not super easy to see what’s going on in these variegated colors, but I still like how it looks… you can see what’s happening a little better in this test knit version.

These are written for a sewn seam, no buttoning option for these – I made the first one with buttons, and it totally didn’t work well, so I re-did it sewn, much better! You can see below how it looks with buttons, worn on either hand you end up with buttons on the insides of your hand/wrist because of the slanting pattern.

When I tried to find a good seaming tutorial to use to sew these up, I couldn’t find a decent one anywhere, so I made my own!

And lastly, the Stash-Busting Blanket (rav)! This is ultra versatile – make it any size you want, in any yarn weight, in any striping patterns; make the sections any width you want, to get different looks, and use any combination of straight and slanted sections to make any shape! All details are included to copy this one exactly, but you’re encouraged to make any changes you want to try out!

The sample is a small lap blanket – it’s the biggest I could manage with my limited time without killing my wrists. (I knit 18 items for this Coloring Book collection, you guys, and one of them was a freaking blanket, kind of intense!) I used my aran and bulky weight Malabrigo leftovers, the aran weights held triple stranded and the bulky weights held double, on size US 15 needles, so it’s suuuper thick and warm and cozy. Oh and, I put up my tutorial for triple stranding as you knit on my site!

So, those are all the sample items. One final thing about all Color by Number patterns… I made drawings of each sample, which was really fun…

And the drawings have been turned into actual color-by-numbers, so you can play around with different color combos before committing to yarn choices for your projects! The color charts for each pattern are numbered, so you can color in the drawings, and then color in the charts with your final choices. (Each individual item pattern includes a page of color-by-number drawings; the full customizable Color by Number pattern includes the color-by-number charts for each item, and smaller drawings without the numbers; the complete Coloring Book ebook includes both the color-by-number charts and drawings for each sample item.)

(This pattern set is from the Coloring Book collection – here on ravelry – which is an assortment of accessory patterns designed to make the most of your colors, using basic stripes and easy slipped stitches!)

Scribbled Lines: scarf and headband from Coloring Book

The third pattern from the Coloring Book collection is Scribbled Lines, a simple shape for any weight yarn, with a fun stripy slip-stitch pattern, some short-row wedges, and ties on both ends. It can be made as a long scarf…

…or as a short scarf which ties on to make a cowl…

…or small and short as a headband. The size is completely customizable, so you can easily make the headband more narrow, or the scarf more wide/narrow/long/short, however you want it!

This pattern was inspired by a box of crayons. The color wedges are meant to represent crayons, and I came up with the whole design because I wanted something that could use as many colors as you want, but also could be limited to a small assortment, and would look cool either way… like having a box of crayons and making the most of what you have to work with – I tend to use as many colors as I can, if I have a lot to work with!

So, Scribbled Lines can be made with all different colors throughout, or in a rotating/repeating pattern between just a few – you can use as few colors as three.

Like the other Coloring Book patterns, this one includes techniques to take care of the yarn ends as you go and minimize finishing!

My first sample is the long scarf in six colors of Malabrigo Rios worsted weight (Teal Feather, Lettuce, Sunset, Ravelry Red, Niebla, Glazed Carrot).

As you can see, it can tie around in a few different cowl configurations, as well as being wearable as a normal scarf.

I REALLY love this piece! A little design backstory, just for fun. I worked on a completely different design idea for weeks, knitting swatch after swatch and an entire sample, and then realized I hated it, tossed the whole thing aside and started from scratch. It was a tough time. But then I came up with this, and all that bologna was worth it, because the various failed aspects of the old design led me to this one, and I love this one, so hooray!!

The short scarf sample is in three colors of Merino Worsted aran weight yarn (Verde Esperanza, Tuareg, Coco):

It’s made with two ties on each end, to open up new possible tying configurations, as you can see above, with the ties wrapping around the cowl in different ways.

This one is extra wide, to make a substantial cowl size in the short length.

I love the texture of this stitch pattern!

And then there’s the headband, in five colors of sport weight Arroyo (Glitter, Piedras, Sand Bank, Fresco y Seco, Arco Iris):

I made mine super wide, because I love this yarn so much and I wanted a big, bold, ear-warming accessory. But you can make one in any width – although, the pattern recommends a minimum stitch count of 19 across, so if you want a really narrow headband you’ll probably want to use sock yarn. This headband is 33 stitches across, so you can go significantly more narrow in sport weight.

Oh, another thing – the ties can be either braided or twisted. The scarf ties above are both braided; the ties on this headband are twisted. There are how-to photos included for both options.

A note: This pattern is listed on ravelry as two different patterns – Scribbled Lines scarf and Scribbled Lines headband – for organizational purposes, so you can post your projects to the appropriate pattern listing. But it’s all the same single pattern, you’ll get the full pdf for both items if you buy either one.

(This pattern is from the Coloring Book collection – here on ravelry – which is an assortment of accessory patterns designed to make the most of your colors, using basic stripes and easy slipped stitches!)

Pigment: a shawl pattern from Coloring Book

Next design up in the Coloring Book collection is Pigment! (here on ravelry) It’s an asymmetrical triangle shawl in squishy garter stitch, with a dot pattern meant to be worked in lots of different colors:

The dots are made with slipped stitches, so there’s no stranded colorwork, and the construction is extremely simple, compared to most of my designs 😉 Just cast on, knit with lots of decreases and a few increases, to make the wavy edge lines, until it comes to a point, and you’re done! The rows get shorter and shorter as you work, making it grow faster and faster as you go, which is fun.

(Funny thing – I was actually originally planning this piece as a complicated multi-section weirdly shaped shawl, but once I started working up the first sample, I saw how great the stitch pattern stood out on its own, and I decided to scrap the whole plan and SIMPLIFY, which is a hard thing for me to do! Ohmygosh I am SO GLAD I made that decision!!)

Something you may be excited to learn about this pattern: Weaving in the ends of the contrasting yarns as you knit is written into the knitting pattern itself, so you do what it says and you end your piece with almost no ends to weave in!

Pigment can be knit in any weight yarn, to make any size shawl. The pattern gives measurements for small{medium, large} sizes, but you can make any size in between, or go even bigger than the large! The bright dot first sample up above is a large size shawl in bulky weight, above here is a medium size shawl in sport weight, and below is a small size shawl in worsted weight. See how your dots will be different sizes in different yarn weights, so you can get really different looks in this piece depending on your yarn choice. And, of course, depending on your color choices.

The large sample is in Malabrigo Chunky, a neutral (Pearl Ten) as the main color, and five different bright solids as the contrasting colors, rotating in a basic repeating pattern. (The dot colors are: Frank Ochre, Bobby Blue, Glazed Carrot, Water Green, Cactus Flower.)

The large size is a big shawl no matter what weight you use, but in the bulky weight it is a seriously cozy item! It’s like draping a big squishy blanket around my neck and shoulders!

The medium size shawl in sport weight Arroyo is my personal favorite, I think (it’s so close though – I really love the large one too!). I don’t often work in sport weight, or any weights lighter than worsted, so this project felt overwhelming, but the yarn was so beautiful that I loved watching it grow and it didn’t feel tedious to make. Arroyo was my big yarn discovery of this collection – I’d never used it before and I completely fell in love with it!

The colors here are Sand Bank for the main color, and four variegated/semi-solid contrasting: Glitter, Piedras, Fresco y Seco, Arco Iris. They are used in a repeating pattern which is meant to seem kind of random at first glance (details are in the pattern).

This shawl drapes wonderfully at the loose gauge (it was knit on size 7 /4.5mm needles) and the size is perfect for everyday wear. I have a feeling this will be my most-worn item of the whole collection; I’ve already worn it out a few times in the last week. Love it so so so much!!

For the small sample, in worsted weight Rios, I decided to break away from the neutral main colors and go for Glazed Carrot as the main! And then I rotated between the five contrasting colors (Teal Feather, Lettuce, Sunset, Ravelry Red, Niebla) in a kind of rainbow-esque pattern, blending from one to the next.

You can see what I mean by looking at the whole thing lying flat – the “rainbow” thing would be better if my purple was more purple-y, but I still like the effect:

The size of a small is just a little neck warmer type thing, not exactly a warm winter wrap, but it’s cute for adding a pop of color to your outfit!

Want to see what the back side looks like? It’s pretty cool looking!

And I love the way the garter stitch waves around the dots:

I was reading through my old tweets (you know, like you do) from when I started designing this shawl, back in late July / early August – tweets like “Totally in love with this new project I’ve been obsessively working on.” and “one of the best feelings in the world: you think of a PERFECT pattern name, look it up on ravelry, there’s not a single pattern w/it already”. I’m still so happily surprised that the name Pigment was not taken!

This shawl is obviously a fantastic way to use up a pile of leftover scraps in the same weight – no need to rotate between the same colors throughout the whole thing, you can use little leftover mini-balls for just one or two stripes of dots. I can’t wait to start seeing Pigment projects popping up on ravelry, in all different colors and styles!

Misanga: a hat pattern from Coloring Book

The first pattern in the Coloring Book collection: Misanga! (on ravelry)

It’s a hat in any weight variegated yarn, custom fit to any size, worked from the top down with a slip-stitch body pattern and a sideways-knit modular brim.

The way the stitch pattern looks is dependent on the colorway of your yarn, since the woven slipped stitches happen as the colors change. I found the variegated Malabrigo Silky Merino (DK weight) and Malabrigo Seleccio?n Privada (aran weight) to be perfect fits for this pattern!

The Rasta super bulky weight worked, but not quite as well, since the colors were a bit less contrasty than the other two, and had less length per color (colorway Arco Iris). The keys to picking a yarn for this pattern are length of color runs, total number of colors, and contrasty-ness of the colors.

Four main colors seems pretty perfect – it’s enough that you can experiment with weaving two colors at once if you want to, and not too many colors so that the woven color gets lost in the crowd. And having color sections short enough to work with the body pattern (no more than 10 inches / 25 cm long), but long enough to really show the chevron pattern of the brim, is excellent, as you can see in the Silky Merino sample (Marruecos colorway):

The Seleccio?n Privada (Code G Color Base) sample doesn’t show the brim chevrons quite as well, but I still really love it, and it’s my favorite of the three samples for how the woven stitch pattern turned out (especially where I used both the yellow and green at the same time as the stitch pattern slipping color, around the bottom). It has color runs around the 6-10 inches / 15-25 cm range.

Here are some other things I learned from my sample knitting and my test knitters… Smooth yarns are best for this pattern – thick+thin is just too much going on at once. The pattern recommends color sections of at least 2 inches – definitely don’t go under that, and try to be more in the 4 inches and up range. As you can see in this sample, having one color that clearly pops out against the others is ideal – if your yarn has four different colors which are all equally contrasty with each other, it will be harder to see the stitch pattern.

The body stitch pattern was inspired by basic weaving – potholder loom type weaving, or basic nail loom weaving like the one pictured on the cover, which was my actual loom with the weaving still on it from when I was a kid!

The brim pattern was inspired by knotted chevron friendship bracelets. Fun side note: when I was a kid, I made tons of the rainbow spiral style friendship bracelets, but I never had a good teacher show me how to make the stripes or chevron styles successfully. I tried, but they always came out terrible looking; I must have been making the knots in the wrong direction or something. So I always loved the chevron style bracelets but never made one… and then I designed this hat, and decided I wanted to make a chevron bracelet to go with it, so I found an online tutorial and I totally successfully made one! Thanks internet!

The pattern includes a list of links to several different kinds of friendship bracelet tutorials, so you too can make bracelets to go with your hats! The word Misanga is a Japanese word for a friendship bracelet, or a handmade good luck bracelet.

As for the shape of the hat, the brim pulls in at the bottom, so the body of the hat is not fitted – it doesn’t have any negative ease, like most knit hats do have. So you can make it short, and have a loose-fitting style hat like the Silky Merino one; or you can make it a bit extra long, and have a slouchy style hat like the red/yellow/green aran weight sample. The super bulky one looks more fitted, but while the wide brim is super tight, the body is actually pretty loose, it’s just pulled down on my head…

You can also make an optional pom-pom to pop onto your Misanga, if you want to. (I kind of want to make pom-poms for a bunch of my hats now… it’s not a thing I usually think of doing, but it’s pretty great.)

So that’s Misanga! If you have a really contrasty skein of variegated yarn that just can’t find a home, perhaps you’ll consider this!

Coloring Book collection!

Coloring Book is out! It’s a collection of colorful designs in Malabrigo yarns, for the Malabrigo Freelance Patterns Project, all using stripes and slipped stitches – no stranded knitting or intarsia – and tricks to keep your yarns neat on the back side, and weave in ends as you knit to minimize your finishing! (on ravelry)

This collection is essentially four patterns, but one of them is actually a whole big pattern set within the bigger collection, featuring seven totally different samples, each with its own pattern. There are eighteen individual knitted items in this collection! I will devote a whole blog post to each of the four patterns throughout this week, to get into detail about each one, so for this introductory post, let me introduce you to my new designs…

Misanga (rav) is a hat for a single skein of contrasty variegated yarn, inspired by basic potholder loom type weaving, and knotted chevron friendship bracelets. The samples are in DK weight Silky Merino, aran weight Seleccio?n Privada, and super bulky weight Rasta:

Pigment (rav) is an asymmetrical triangle shawl for any weight and size, with a dotted slip-stitch pattern. The samples are in bulky weight Chunky, worsted weight Rios, and sport weight Arroyo:

Scribbled Lines (rav scarf/headband) is a versatile pattern that can be made as a headband or a scarf/cowl in any size, in any number of colors three or more. The samples are in worsted weight Rios, aran weight Merino Worsted, and sport weight Arroyo:

And Color by Number (rav) is a completely customizable pattern for cowls, headbands, mitts, and blankets, with specific pattern details for the seven sample items. Plaid Cowl is in aran weight Twist, Zig-Zag Mitts are in sport weight Arroyo, Lightning Headband is in bulky weight Chunky, Chevrons Cowl is in bulky weight Chunky, Stripy Mitts are in fingering weight Sock, Checkered Headband is in worsted weight Rios, and Stash-Busting Blanket is in an assorted of aran weight Twist and Merino Worsted held triple stranded and bulky weight Chunky held double stranded:

Each pattern is available separately, on my website or ravelry, for $5-6 each, or the entire collection – as a 50 page ebook, plus all the individual pattern pdfs – is $20. The Color by Number set by itself is also an option, for $10 (rav).

In probably a couple weeks, but maybe sooner, I’ll be releasing the print book – that will be available through MagCloud like my other print books, and it will be $23.

Update 12/2: Coloring Book is now available as a print book, through MagCloud here!

This collection involves lots of hand-drawn and written bits! Fun! The Color by Number patterns include actual color-by-number striping pattern charts (as you can see on the cover photos)! I’m really super happy with how the whole thing turned out, I hope you like it too!

I want to give a heartfelt THANK YOU to my awesome test knitters – this project was so very much improved thanks to their fantastic feedback, suggestions, and troubleshooting help. Leethal testers, you are the best!!

And I’ll leave it at that for today – stay tuned throughout the week to learn/see more about each pattern, and you can scroll through photos of them all on flickr, and read a bit more on my website and/or ravelry. Also, chat about the collection in the leethal knitters ravelry group, and be sure to add photos to your ravelry projects if you make any of them! I want to see your versions! 🙂

Oh wait, and speaking of sharing your versions, all of these patterns are eligible for the Indie Design Gift-a-long, so you can share your projects over there for chances to win tons of awesome prizes! Yeah! Okay that’s all for reals now, happy knitting!

Quick (gift-able) Knits ebook and the Indie Gift-a-Long!

A couple of exciting things! First, you can now (finally!) get my best-of leethal Quick Knits book collection in digital form!

This book of 12 of the most popular leethal Quick Knits patterns has been out in print booklet form for awhile now (you can get that for $12 over here, or maybe at your local yarn shop!), but I’ve just now gotten the book into e-format, so you can get a pdf of all 12 of these selected 20-yards-or-fewer patterns for $11. Just in time for quick gift knitting!

The items range from functional and practical (like the pen tube bookmark, the guitar pick pouch, the drink sweaters, the picnic wrapper), to cute and not-so-practical (like the various wearable flowers and leaves, the light-switch cover)…

…to fun and silly (like the old timey moustache and the superhero mask). Many potential gift items, as well as patterns which may teach you new knitting techniques on a small, non-intimidating scale!

So, there is a thing happening which is what pushed me to finally get this ebook together, since the Quick Knits were a perfect fit for gift knitting… and this awesome gift-focused sale and knitting event is about to begin!

Have you heard about it yet? A TON of indie designers are teaming up to offer a huge selection of patterns at 25% off November 1st – 15th (with coupon code giftalong, GMT), and then you, the knitter, get to knit-a-long (or crochet-a-long) your new patterns for gifting (or for yourself!), share your progress, and have a chance to win lots of great prizes! All the info is in the ravelry group over here.

The whole thing kicks off today, Nov 1st, and you have all the way till the end of the year to finish your knitting, but the more projects you post in the threads, the more chances you’ll have to win! Oh and, only participating designs (the ones being offered for 25% off now) are eligible for the gift-a-long-ing. (Side note: I’m trying REALLY hard to release my upcoming collection before Nov 15th, so that I can include those designs as gift-a-long options, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it. Wish me luck!)

Here are my leethal designs you can choose from (also listed in the gift-a-long thread here!) which will be 25% off with giftalong coupon code now through November 15th:

So that’s the new Quick Knits ebook (normally $11), Ten 10 yard Cuffs, which are also super quick gift-able knits, and 7 accessory patterns which can knit up fast and make good gifts! If you like bulky cables, you can choose Lemmy (shown below), or Twisted Ankles, or the Haka hat+cowl set…

If you want to choose your own gauge, using a bulky weight for extra fast knitting, or a finer weight if you prefer, you can choose from Either/Or (shown below in the full mittens option), Wild is the Wind hat, Gentle on My Mind hat/bonnet/hood, or Wobble Bass hat. Many of these are gender-neutral, and all of them can be customized based on yarn choice and other options, to best suit your giftee!

So, take advantage of that coupon code – browse through the forums (or the Pinterest boards!) and check out all the other awesome designers participating! And then get knitting! Yeah!

Fall pattern giveaway!! And lots of updated patterns!

Fall is officially here today and I want to celebrate with you!

Now through the end of the day (west coast time) Wednesday 9/25, use coupon code fallishere (either in your ravelry cart or through leethalknits) to get any one of these patterns completely free!! No strings attached, one use per person, choose your favorite for some fall knitting! Your choices are:

Lemmy (ravelry / leethalknits)

Biratu (ravelry / leethalknits)

Robin (ravelry / leethalknits)

Barry (ravelry / leethalknits)

Maurice (ravelry / leethalknits)

Haka hat+cowl set (ravelry / leethalknits)

Flying V’s collection (ravelry / leethalknits)

Wobble Bass (ravelry / leethalknits)

Flippable (ravelry / leethalknits)

Betiko (ravelry / leethalknits)

Shapeshifter (ravelry / leethalknits)

Twisted Ankles (ravelry / leethalknits)

Ten 10 yard Cuffs (ravelry / leethalknits)

Skoodlet (ravelry / leethalknits)

So you may be wondering, why these patterns? There are all my newest ones up there at the top, and then a kind of random assortment of older patterns…

Well, around the beginning of the year, I updated my pattern pdf format (new fonts, different kind of layout, etc), so all the patterns I’ve released this year have been in the new format, and then throughout the year, off and on, I’ve been going through my old patterns and updating them.

For the patterns with the new format, you can now see pdf previews on the leethalknits webpages, the first 2 or 3 pages of each pdf, to give you more info and a peek at what the pattern looks like! (Just click on the leethalknits links for any of those patterns above.)

The new format takes up significantly fewer pages than the old, but it’s still designed to be easily readable on your screen – even on a phone screen, it’s pretty darn readable, by zooming in to one of the 2 columns, try it! I always want to be screen-reading friendly, but for those of you who do print the whole files on paper, my new patterns take up much less paper 🙂

(These screen shots all show the old format to the left, vs the new format to the right.)

And then, while already in the process of re-formatting layout, I’m also doing some heavy duty editing and updating, especially on my older patterns. In the 6 years I’ve been designing, my pattern writing has evolved quite a bit, and looking back over the original versions of my early patterns is cringe-inducing for me. The patterns themselves (like, how you knit them) are unchanged, but the details of the writing, and uniformity between the different patterns, is all being much improved with the new updates.

So, the choices offered free are all in my new format. Nothing but the best for you! Happy fall!

(Remixed is a whole other issue, which I won’t get into now, still slowly in progress. Talk about cringe-inducing; I’m really sorry to those of you patiently awaiting the ebook, it is coming eventually, I promise!)

Oh and, spread the word about the giveaway! Grab that image up at the top to re-post places, if you want to. It won’t last long, so make sure your knitting friends now about it before it ends! And then be sure to post your leethal knits in your rav projects so I can see them, yay! 🙂

Some events and news and stuff!

I have a few announcement kinds of things for you – first, for Portlanders, I’m having a trunk show this weekend! At Sellwood’s brand new excellent shop, Yarntastic, on Saturday (Sept 14th) 2-5pm. My stuff will stay on display throughout the week, so if you can’t make the official event on Saturday, you can still stop by and see the samples and stuff. (But try to make it to the event, and say hi!)

The show will kind of focus on Adventure Knitting, and all eight of my sample knits will be there, but there will also be other designs, an assortment of favorites (my newest, Lemmy, will be there for sure), to get you excited about the start of cool weather knitting season! Check out the Yarntastic group on ravelry to learn more about the shop.

For the broader Pacific Northwest area, a reminder, because I only mentioned it very briefly before, that I’ll be teaching Recycled Yarn Making, and hosting a superfun Game Knitting night, at the awesome Knit Fit! in Seattle November 2-3.

(That photo is of the Game Knitting night last year, which I realized I never blogged about! So I will be doing that soon, showing you all the fun we had last year. This year we’ll be game knitting to Seattle classic, Singles!)

And now, something for anyone anywhere… I wrote a guest post for the Fresh Stitches blog that went up yesterday, and it includes a discount code for Adventure Knitting! Good through Sept 15th, so go check it out, for the code and also to read me talk about my love of options in knitting patterns, and to see a crazy flow chart thing I made about Adventure Knitting choices.

A review of Adventure Knitting also happened over on the Knit Picks blog, so that’s supercool.

And, just moments ago, another Adventure Knitting write-up went up over on Alex’s Dull Roar blog – she made a crazy water bottle sleeve, with two different section 2 patterns for extra adventure! (She also just released an ebook about becoming a designer, so check that out while you’re over there.)

And that’s all the news I can think of… I’m spending most of my time working on the big project I can’t talk about; those photos above are the start of another sample knit for that, which I am loving! I’m doing a photo-a-day thing on instagram, so there are lots of random photos being posted for that, like many of my cat, and assorted daily stuff and things. So that’s that, happy knitting!

New pattern: Lemmy, first in new Bulk Trio!

Just as the weather is (sort of) starting to drop, here’s a big, squishy, warm, quick and bulky knit for you! Lemmy (ravelry link) is written for any gauge, but it’s ideal for super bulky weights, or aran-bulky yarns held triple stranded. The ends have big fat i-cords, which can be threaded through the eyelet holes in different ways, making it wearable in lots of different kinds of cowl and wrap configurations, fun!

This is the first pattern in a new leethal Bulk Trio (ravelry link), three patterns which will all work excellently with bulky and/or super bulky yarns! The second and third patterns (Wizzö and Mikkey) will be released in a few months, probably around December and January, no set dates but definitely during the winter season. So, if you pre-order the trio, you’ll get Lemmy right now, and you’ll get the second and third patterns automatically delivered to you as soon as they’re released.

Lemmy is a cabled cowl/wrap (and it can be made as a scarf or headband as well) with eyelets throughout the cable design, allowing the i-cords to weave through it in different ways. There are two different widths, which can vary greatly depending on your yarn weight /gauge, and it can be made in pretty much any length you want, as you can keep repeating the middle section as many times as you like (regardless of gauge). The i-cords can be made in a contrasting color, for an optional design feature, like you see in my white sample here.

A few pattern details: The whole pattern is written, and the middle (repeat) section is also charted. There is a photo tutorial for triple stranding your yarn as you knit, to make things as easy as possible! There is detailed sizing info, and I think the pattern is adventurous beginner friendly – there is only one simple (2 over 2) cable, and the pattern is pretty basic, nothing crazy happening. You just need one circular needle in your size choice, and you can knit the i-cords on the circular (so you won’t have to buy multiple different kinds of needles in crazy super bulky sizes; you can also use straights plus a pair of double points for the i-cord if you prefer).

You can see a preview of the first few pdf pages on the webpage here!

It can be made wide and short, for a cowl like my green sample, wide and large like my big white sample, kind of medium width and long-ish like my orange sample, which can be worn in lots of different cowl and wrap styles. Or, you can venture outside my sample pieces and make it narrow and extra long for a long scarf, narrow and short as a headband, or however you can envision your ideal version!

My wonderful test knitters made a wide variety of different types, like a small one in bulky weight on size US 11 needles measuring 8×24 inches, a long scarf in super bulky weight on size 15’s measuring 7×96 inches, and lots that are similar measurements to mine but with different gauges, for different looks. (Thank you test knitters, you are the best!!)

This pattern is great for making multiple times with totally different kinds of finished objects, especially because it can be a SUPER quick knit in the extra super bulky weights!

As for my samples, first, there’s my orange one, which is in aran weight yarn (it’s Cascade Eco+ which is labeled as bulky weight, but it totally looks/feels/acts like an aran weight, so I call it aran) held triple stranded. I used size US 19 needles for a somewhat loose gauge of approx 3 sts per 2 inches / 5 cm (after blocking), and I used almost the whole skein (478 yards, so it’s approx the same as 160 yards / 145 meters of super bulky weight yarn). The finished measurements are 52 inches / 132 cm long, 13 inches / 33 cm wide; I worked 4 middle sections total (the first, then 3 more repeats), and the smaller width. You can see more photos on my rav project page.

My white sample (which was my first prototype, with the contrasting i-cords) was knit in Patons Classic Wool Roving held triple stranded on size US 36 needles, for a gauge of approx 5 sts per 4 inches / 10 cm; almost 3 full skeins, which are 120 yards each, so approximately the same as 120 yards / 110 meters total of extra super bulky weight yarn. The extra long i-cords were made with Lamb’s Pride Bulky, also triple stranded, almost the full skein for super long cords. This is the smaller width option (which is actually very wide because of the gauge), and I worked the middle section twice (so the first time, then 1 more repeat); the final measurements are 51 inches / 130 cm long, and 16 inches / 41 cm wide. You can see more photos on my rav project page.

My green sample was made with Brown Sheep Burly Spun super bulky weight yarn (single stranded) on size US 13 needles, for a gauge of 2 sts per inch / 2.5 cm – I used one whole skein (132 yards / 121 meters), knitting the second i-cord until the yarn ran out, which was about 10 inches longer than the standard recommended i-cord length. This one is the wider width, and just 1 middle section worked (zero repeats), for final measurements of 31 inches / ?79 cm long and 14.5 inches / 37 cm wide. It can’t be worn in so many different styles like the others, but it makes a great cowl! You can see more photos on my rav project page.

So that’s Lemmy! Happy September, hooray for fall knitting time!

What’s up?! So much! But most of it is secret…

Based on my blog alone, you’d think I’ve worked on nothing but Adventure Knitting for the last 2 months, which was kind of true for awhile, but not anymore, so I thought I should pop in here and show you what I’ve been up to behind the scenes! If you follow me on twitter/instagram, you’ve likely seen a lot of these peeks already – I do love showing knitting peeks on instagram!

I turned in two patterns to two different publications yesterday; one is super secret, but the other I can talk about! I’ll have a hat design in Holla Knits Accessories this fall, and I did a guest blog post for the Holla Knits blog, so you can read a bit about it and see more preview photos over there! I got to use Jill Draper’s beautiful yarn, and I’m really happy with the design, I can’t wait to show you in a couple months. Here’s my teaser shot, framed to leave out design details:

I’m currently focused on a design I’ll be self-publishing in mid-September – a big squishy bulky knit for fall! I’m loving it even while it’s still full on summer weather; it’s making me so anxious for some crisp autumn air! This one isn’t secret, but I’m not quite ready to reveal the whole thing yet… keep an eye on my tweets/instas because the full reveal will likely be happening in a few days. And, this pattern will be the first in a new trio! Fun!

The other things I’ve been busy knitting away on are a bit secret again, a project I can tease but I can’t fully reveal until the release in early November. Keeping my mouth shut, but here are some images to hold you, and there will be more shots to come as I continue working on it throughout the next two months…

So that’s that for now, back to knitting with me!