Lee Does Stuff

leethal Adventure Knit-a-long!

Summer is almost here and it’s time for some adventure! So in July will begin the leethal Adventure Knit-a-long!

A knit-a-long like no other, you will be led on adventures each week as you make choices about your knitting project. You’ll be able to choose between four different items – three accessories, or one smaller gifty item – and then all the items will have many different specific design options to choose from. Nothing will be that hard; there will be lots of different techniques used (like short rows, cables, slip-stitches, twisted sts…) but not more than a couple at the same time, and if you don’t like how one option is looking you can just pick another one! Any yarn weight can be used; most items will need about 1-2 skeins of yarn (normal accessory amounts), in one or more colors.

Most details will remain a mystery for now, during this get ready… phase, and then we’ll get set… on Monday July 1st. That’s when more details about the adventure knit-a-long itself, and about the different items, etc, will be revealed. Finally, we’ll go! on Friday, July 12th, when actual project knitting begins, with the second part going out the following Friday, and the final pattern section released Friday, July 26th.

If you pre-order now, you’ll just get an intro page, and you’ll get a discount for early pre-ordering – only $8 now.

The whole adventure collection of patterns can potentially make well over a hundred different specific items (with the four different item types and all the options involved), so when all is revealed and the knit-a-long is over, the collection price will be $12. But, since it’s all mysterious right now, and a new kind of knit-a-long I’ve never done before, I’m starting things out majorly discounted, then raising the price by $1 with each section’s release. So when the first official pdf goes out on July 1st, it’ll be $9, then up to 10 with the first section of knitting, 11 on the second week of knitting, and 12 at the end.

I’ve been planning this for a couple months now, and continue to work out all the details and knit up my sample items during this pre-order time, but I have enough done to tell you I am loving how the items are looking, and I am extreeeemely excited for this to begin!! I can’t wait to reveal more of the general details in a few weeks, because the way everything is going to be presented is special in and of itself. I’m just really happy with how it’s all coming together, so I wanted to get the ball rolling with the pre-order phase, because I just couldn’t stand waiting any longer!

To celebrate summer and adventures and the beginning of this project and everything else fun, I’m going to give away three knit-a-longs today (Monday June 10th)! Either comment here on the blog or tweet @leethal and tell me one adventurous thing you plan to do this summer (it can be anything from climb a mountain to stay up all night to play a new board game to watch a scary movie – your definition of adventure can be as broad as you want it to be!); if you enter on twitter, use #adventureKAL! I’ll pick three winners at the end of the day, randomly from all the adventure comments.

Edit: Winners have been chosen! I picked from both the comments here and on twitter, but random number generator chose numbers kind of close together, all in the blog group, sorry twitterers. The winners are misstlog, Nicole Reister, and Cindy Manzanares! Yay! Thanks everyone for playing – so many awesome adventures planned!!

Okay I hope you’re excited too! There are adventure placeholder pictures on the webpage that you can use for ravelry project pictures for now, and feel free to ask me any questions in the leethal group forums! I might not be able to answer them yet, but I’ll say what I can for now 😉 Happy almost-summer!

I’m in Knitscene Accessories 2013!

Hey you guys, I have a pattern in a magazine! Woo!

That’s a montage from their webpage of just a few of the 33 patterns in Knitscene’s new Accessories 2013 issue, and there’s my pattern!

It’s called Pink Squish Hat, and it’s a bulky cabled hat knit modularly in four sections, all connected with short rows, no seaming or picked up stitches! It starts with the sideways cabled brim, then the body is knit in the round, then it switches directions again for the top sideways cable, then back to round to close up the crown. Both sideways cables are closed up with buttons, tah dah!

It’s pretty neat to have a pattern in a real knitting magazine. Not something I’d pursued before, but I read the submission call for this issue, with words like modular, bulky, and cables, and it was calling to me! I brainstormed this up, put together my very first official magazine submission, and was accepted! Exciting!

I love the photos of my hat in the magazine, and the issue as a whole is fabulous!! So many great designs! I’m tempted to list my favorites, but the list would be too long, so check out all the patterns if you haven’t already. Some great interesting modular pieces, lots of variety, excellent stuff.

The official sample is in Quince & co Puffin bulky yarn, which I LOVE. After I finished knitting up that hat, it was such a super quick and fun knit that I went stash diving and knit up another one for myself to keep!

This brown version is in Brown Sheep Lanaloft Bulky, which doesn’t show the cables quite as well as the Puffin, but it worked in a pinch.

Sorry about the quickie phone photos here. I was actually preparing to leave town for eleven days in about an hour, when I found out this issue was released for pre-order, which is why I didn’t blog about it sooner. I had knit this second sample months ago, but hadn’t sewn on buttons yet, so I threw it in my suitcase and found these buttons while traveling in Bellingham, Washington (at NW Handspun Yarns), sewed them on in the hotel room so I could wear the hat… planned to get some photos of it in Bellingham, but rain and forgetfulness prevented that from happening, sigh. So I just snapped these real quick so I could blog it… anyway, you get the idea. It’s the same hat as in the good photos above, in brown 😉

So yeah, things have been hectic – that trip was to Rochester, New York, for a 3-day long family thing, then from there to Bellingham for a week, where I did some working in coffee shops, lots of walking around and not working… I have yet to edit all the photos I took, but I did post instagrams all throughout the trip – here are a few. Above, PDX airport on my way out, and a view of Bellingham from the train on my way back home. Below, the Canadian coast out the train window just after crossing the border (on a day trip from Bellingham to Vancouver, BC) – those birds in the sky are bald eagles! – and our fave dinner spot of the trip, Boundary Bay Brewing co.

And if you’d like to see a glimpse at how much of my Bellingham time was spent, goofing off with Pete’s co-workers (Pete was there for a work trip, I was tagging along), here is a video for you to enjoy.

Okay, back to work for me! I’m hoping to post again in a couple days with a superfun announcement about a project I’ve been working on!!

New pattern: Biratu, a cabled shawl

Cables! Shawls! Cabled shawls! Let’s go!

Biratu is here! Using the same basic construction as Betiko, all modular, no picked up stitches, no seaming, just short rows, increases, and decreases. And cables!

If you like it, and feel up to the possible knitting challenge (it’s not exactly hard, really, just a lot to keep track of!), you can knit the fully cabled version…

…but if you prefer a more simple style, or you want to ease into the design, or you want to use any weight yarn, or get a different custom shape, there’s the simple variation!

The simple one has cables only around the edges, with stockinette and seed stitch worked in the body, and it can be made in any weight yarn with more custom sizing options. My sample here is in Quince & Co Lark worsted weight yarn (3 skeins frost with 1 skein split pea for the edging):

This sample is the medium size, as given in the pattern – the pattern gives small{medium, large} sizes, and then explains how you can get any size you want, and adjust the shape as well, making it longer or deeper/taller, fitted to your shawl style preference.

For the simple variation, you can work the cables from charts or from written cable patterns, your choice.

You can get really different looks depending on your weight choice – my wonderful test knitters made this shawl in weights ranging super bulky to aran to worsted to dk to fingering, for a range of different cable braid thicknesses and fabric qualities. Fun!

As for the fully cabled shawl, that is designed to be knit in aran weight, but it’s definitely flexible. It’s pretty freaking huge, so you can easily make it in worsted and still get a good size cable-tastic shawl. In fact, Maria tested it in worsted just to be sure, and it looks lovely.

My sample is the standard aran weight gauge, in Quince & Co Osprey (3 skeins in storm with 1 skein frank’s plum for edging), in the medium size. The pattern gives small{medium, large} sizes (which are different measurements from the simple variation), but you can basically just keep knitting the main body section until you like the size and choose to stop, or until your yarn runs out.

The shaping of this one is different from the simple variation, as the first couple sections are not adjustable (since they must be a set stitch count for the cables), so the shape will always be fuller/taller, and the whole thing grows outwards in all directions for as big as you want. All the cable designs repeat, so there’s no set end point.

The medium is pretty darn large, as you can see – this shawl, with all of its twists and turns, is meant to be big to show off the cable designs, big and squishy and warm and fun to wrap up in!

The body cables for this shawl are charted only, not written out. A tutorial is included for cabling without a cable needle (and there’s my new video too!) – the cable descriptions are given as right/left, to make more sense without using a cable needle, and I also included cable needle directions, for accessibility to all knitters.

If you follow me on twitter, you may have noticed me crowd-sourcing for cable chart advice… I re-did my chart symbols several times throughout the building of this pattern, and I’m really happy with my end result. This pattern includes lots of uneven cables (not the same number of over and under stitches), which turned out to be really hard to represent with hand-made chart font symbols! Anyway, here’s a snippet (the grey gives some extra help by representing the number of top stitches in the off-balance twists):

Want to take a peek at my design process for this one? Well, I already told you about the chart re-do’s, that was a big (boring) part of creating this pattern, but as for the design itself, that took months of swatching! Oh man, so much design swatching! Here’s a look at my pile of swatches, which doesn’t even include alllll the first tries and ideas which failed and got frogged…

But it was all worth it, because after all the planning through my swatches – figuring out the cable designs, as well as how those cables would relate to the short rows in the construction, and to each other throughout the sections, etc – I was able to make the single samples of each of the two versions, with minimal frogging, and no wasted prototype sample knitting. (If you follow my blog, you know how I ~~usually~~ always have several prototypes to show you, as I work out a design by knitting it over and over!)

So yeah, I’m really happy with this design! It’s kind of outside of my normal design style / comfort zone, with all the intense cables, but I enjoyed designing it, and it was pleasing for me to take an old construction and use it in a new way!

In case you missed the Betiko post, this is part of a collection – there will be two more designs in the future which use the Betiko construction, so you can pre-order that now to get this design, Betiko, and the future slip-stitch colorwork design and lace shawl design. Both of those will also have complex patterns and simple variations included, like this one. (They will be more spread out, released in the later part of the year.)

Oh and in case you’re wondering, Betiko is a Basque name meaning eternal, as that shawl is forever customizable, so I decided to stick with a Basque naming theme for this collection – Biratu is a Basque word for twist or rotate, as cables do.

New leethal knits technique tutorials!

So after I finished all my recent leethalknits.com style/layout updates, I worked on improving my techniques tutorials section… including the addition of video! Yeah I know, knitting tutorial videos are nothing new and I should have started doing it long ago, but now that I have a quick+easy camera I plan to make more…

So I got all set up with an official leethal YouTube channel and uploaded my first video – let’s see if it’ll embed into my blog…

If you can’t see that here, just head to the youtube page or my cabling tutorials page – it’s a 9 minute long how-to on cabling without a cable needle, showing several different stitch counts. Please forgive all the moments of blur and stitches being worked off-screen – it was my first time using my new i-camera so I’m just getting used to it, and I was too eager to get this how-to made so I didn’t want to re-shoot everything over again… my videos will get better with practice!

In addition to the video, I made a new tutorial page for locking in carried yarn strands, while working with stripes over several rows, and/or stripes together with short rows. These are the techniques which are used in my Short Stripes Trio patterns (tutorials are included in those patterns) but they can be used in pretty much any project in which you want to carry yarns neatly along the back side and avoid lots of ends to weave in. The techniques might seem kind of complex at first, but once you pick up the needles and actually do it, it’s quick and easy!

I’ve also added other tutorials over the last several months, which I think I forgot to ever mention in the blog, so I’ll mention them now! I have tutorials for grafting both with stockinette stitch and with garter stitch…

…crochet provisional cast-on (below), and my older tutorials include the aforementioned cabling without a cable needle, twisted stitches, and make 1 increases. (Get to them all here.) If there are any of these that you’d reeeeally like to see a video for, let me know and I’ll see what I can do!

That’s my only announcement for now, but I’ll be releasing my new cabled shawl pattern later this week!

In case you missed it, I now have a mailing list (sign up on the leethalknits home page), so you can hear when I release new patterns without having to check the blog (or twitter, or ravelry…). Hooray!

(More peeks at the new shawl are on flickr if you want to see more!) Happy Tuesday!

Website makeover! Complete with new faq page, mailing list, and more…

There are more changes I’m still working on, but I just can’t wait to show you this huge update I’ve made to leethalknits.com! First, brand new home page:

Above is a screenshot on my big monitor, and below is in a smaller browser window – some of the background photos on the left may overlap too much on your screen, so just hit refresh to see a new photo if you can’t read things.

And now I’ll list all the new things…

Down there at the bottom right you can see that I’m starting a leethal knits mailing list! I’ll only be using it when I release a new pattern (or have some other big exciting news I suppose, but it’ll mostly just be pattern releases), and I’ll basically just link to the blog post for the pattern release, so it’s meant for if you want to be sure to learn about new patterns… I know how hard it is to keep up with blogs these days! (Sign up on the home page.)

New navigation! My patterns were outgrowing my old system, so now you can link from the home page to pages with all head accessories, all neck accessories, all hand/wrist accessories, all other accessories, and all quick knits, so that covers everything, plus I’ve put patterns in multiple accessory categories if they apply (like Game Knitting, Flying V’s, Haka). So you can find everything that way if you want to browse by pattern type…

…and I’ve also majorly updated my all patterns page, so that’s a more convenient way to browse as well. Now, not only are there the thumbnails for every pattern all on one page, but there’s also an alphabetical list of every accessory pattern down the side, plus links to all collections, solo patterns, free patterns, quick knits, all head, all neck, etc… so you can reach everything from this page (linked at the top of the home page).

New faq page! I’ve written up lots of questions + answers that I get from knitters, and/or that I see people saying, wondering, etc, in forums and stuff like that, or just that I want to say an answer for just in case anyone is wondering… it’s a wide variety of things, from “Something is weird with my knitting, this isn’t looking how it should, what am I doing wrong?” to “Can I test knit your patterns?” to “Did you get my email?” to “Where did you get your glasses?”. That last one is literally the most frequently asked question :-p

Also, update to my info page. I’ve added some fun new feedback quotes (they are all taken from ravelry project page notes, so I hope no one minds me quoting them!) – my personal favorite is “the pattern is wicked clevah” -Jennifer in Massachusetts. The other thing there that I’m really excited about is that I made a huge update to my list of shops that carry my patterns – I tripled it, since becoming distributed by Deep South Fibers, hooray!!

Those are the major changes. I made a bunch of minor formatting changes as well… Then, after uploading the update, I checked in with netrenderer to make sure everything looks fine in Internet Explorer, and I learned that I have some major font issues. So, if you’re viewing the site on IE, things won’t quite look how they look above (at least as I’m writing this on Wednesday night). I think it works fine on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, iOS. Anyway, I figured out what the problem was, and it is requiring a huge amount of behind-the-scenes code work to fix it, but it’s for the best since it was a result of sloppy coding decisions in the first place, and now I’m forced to fix things. I’m hoping to finish tonight, so probably by the time you’re reading this it’ll be fixed! The main reason I’m telling you is, well two things, first because all the coding changes I’m making are causing the site layout to change slightly, so the screenshots above aren’t going to exactly match what you see, and more importantly, since I’m making all these changes to every page of the whole site, there’s a chance I might miss something. So if you notice anything weird, especially any text that looks really wrong, please let me know! Thanks, all!

And besides all this, I’ll actually have another big website update happening within the next few days – new technique tutorials! So I’ll blog about that when it’s done, because I’m excited about some stuff I’ve been working on for that 🙂 (I’ll give you a hint… I just got an iPhone, and it has really good video quality!) So, I hope you have fun browsing the site for now, and remember to sign up for the mailing list if you like mailing lists, and I’ll drop in here again very soon!

New and improved Betiko shawl, plus upcoming collection!

The first shawl I designed, back in 2010, was Betiko (on rav), first released as a mystery knit-a-long, then as a long multi-part pattern, with the more simple garter stitch edged version…

…and the customizable pattern, with full instructions for the wavy version (below), detailed instructions for striping in any version, and for plugging in your own stitch patterns for the customizable pattern. All versions of the pattern for any weight yarn, and all custom-sizable… the original pattern, in my old pdf format, was 27 pages long and kind of overwhelming. So, I’ve given the pattern(s) an extreme makeover, re-formatted, lots of it re-written, new diagrams, fully re-edited and condensed into my new pdf format down to 14 pages (still a long pattern, but not as long!).

If you aren’t already familiar with Betiko, I’ll tell you a little more about it. It’s constructed in four modular sections, with no picked up stitches, no seaming, very few stitches cast on or bound off, everything connected with short rows. You start across the top edge, working the sideways edge cast-on technique to leave stitches along the side. Then you start working from those sideways stitches, down into the body of the shawl, working normal short rows to start forming the U shape. Now your base is established, so you start working around all stitches (no short rows in section 3), with lots of yarn over increases, all the way from top edge to edge to fill out the body. Lastly, you knit on a sideways edging around the whole outside, working short rows with decreases to bind off the stitches at the same time. The shawl blocks out to a big crescent shape; the exact shape (wider across, taller, etc) can be adjusted with custom sizing specifics.

If you’ve already made a Betiko, I’ll list some of the changes to the new pdf so you know what’s different now… Small{medium, large} sizes now given instead of smaller{larger}, with measurements for them all (there are still custom sizing notes as well); the customized cabled example is removed from the pdf, since I felt like it just took up unnecessary space and made things seem extra complicated; the diagrams are completely new; a couple changes were made to the actual pattern – wraps are now worked in the short rows in section 2, and the kfb increases in section 3 were removed (they were kind of pointless), and some other minor things. A short rows tutorial is now included as well. There are no longer the separate pdfs for the basic versions, since the new pattern is more condensed.

Now, I know that most knitters have no interest in the whole customizable thing, plugging in your own stitch patterns, planning it all out for all the sections… so, I’m using the Betiko construction as a base for a new collection of shawl designs! You can pre-order the Betiko collection right now (rav link), getting the Betiko pattern itself right away, and the first new pattern, a cabled shawl, in a few weeks. Then, later throughout the year, you’ll receive a slip-stitch colorwork shawl pattern, and a lace shawl pattern, all using the same modular construction.

All three of the new designs will include two versions each, to fully take advantage of the customizable nature of the Betiko construction (but each with their own specific patterns). For the cabled design, there is one fully cabled pattern (with cables worked throughout every section), which is for a set gauge (aran weight yarn) and less customizable with size (there’s a set number of stitches for sections 1 and 2, then you can work the full body section 3 for as big as you want, basically). And then there’s also a simple version of the pattern, with cables only worked around the edges (different designs for top edge and outer edge), which is for any weight yarn, and fully custom sized/shaped as you like. All the cable designs are charted, and then the edge cables are also written out, so if you make the simple version you’ll have a choice to work the cables from the charts or written.

The colorwork and lace designs will have similar versions – each with one complex, set gauge pattern, and then one more simple, any-gauge version. The colorwork shawl will be slip-stitch designs (no stranded colorwork)… I can’t really tell you any more about those future two since they aren’t yet designed 😉 Each pattern will be available individually for $6, or the four-pattern collection is $16.

If you follow me on twitter/instagram, then you’ve already seen these couple of peeks at the cabled design – I’m currently finishing up knitting the second sample, and then it’ll go out for testing and be released in a few weeks, definitely by the end of May. The other two patterns will be more spread out, so if you pre-order the collection, you can expect them further along into the year, a couple of exciting surprises in your inbox!

If you have already bought Betiko at any point in the last few years since it was released (first in mystery knit-a-long form then normally), then you can use coupon code betikoknitter to get the $6 you already paid off the price of the collection (knocking it down to $10 for the three new patterns!)… if the code doesn’t work for any reason (maybe because you bought Betiko with a different email address or rav/paypal account, etc), then just send me a quick email at leemeredith at gmail dot com and let me know the rav username or email that you used to buy Betiko, and I’ll send you a working discount code.

I hope you’re as excited about this collection as I am – it’s been so much fun to revisit the Betiko construction and go crazy with the cable designs in all the different parts! I’ve definitely gone further with cable design in this pattern than I ever have before, I can’t wait to reveal the whole thing!

Final Short Stripes Trio pattern: Robin the shawl!

The pattern was actually released a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to wait until I completed the whole ebook to do the blog post, and now I have! So, not only is the third Short Stripes Trio pattern out – Robin – but the whole set is also now all together in an ebook. The 20 page ebook (which you’ll get when you purchase the whole trio, along with all three individual pdfs) is condensed, one techniques section for all three patterns, fewer pictures, so it’ll take up a lot less space than the three separate pdfs (for tablet/ebook reader storage, that kind of thing). And to celebrate the completion of the Trio, how about a promotion?!

Now through the end of next week (April 19th), you can essentially preview the trio by buying any one of the three patterns, checking it out, deciding if you’re into it, then if you decide you love it and you do indeed want the whole set, you can get that $6 spent taken off the price of the Trio! And it’s valid for previously purchased trio patterns as well! Meaning, for example, if you bought Maurice a couple months ago when it was first released, then you saw Barry and Robin and thought, ah crap I shoulda bought the whole trio, now here’s your chance! You can use this preview sale to get the price of that Maurice pattern taken off the price of the trio.

So, here’s how it works… assuming you’re using your same ravelry account and/or email address to purchase the trio that you used for the first pattern, just add the trio to your shopping cart (through ravelry or my site), and enter the corresponding code into the coupon code box: mauricegibb if you bought Maurice, barrygibb if you bought Barry, or robingibb if you bought Robin. If for some reason this code doesn’t work (maybe you weren’t logged into ravelry when you bought the first pattern, or some other reason), simply send me a quick email at leemeredith at gmail dot com and tell me your rav username or email that you used to buy the first pattern, and I’ll send you a working coupon code for $6 off the trio.

So that’s that, now on to Robin the shawl! I’m so happy with how this design turned out!

It’s for any gauge, but it’s the same pattern regardless of your yarn weight, no swatching needed or math or anything complicated – you just start working at the bottom point, and go up and out and out and out until your shawl is the size you want, or until you run out of yarn!

You can make any size with any yarn weight, in either 2 or 3 colors, and you can get different shapes based on when you decide to finish and bind off, anywhere from a pretty much symmetrical curved triangle shape to a very asymmetrical curvy triangle. The pattern goes into detail about how to get the shape you want, modifications you can make to use up every last bit of yarn, and different ways you can finish, etc…

But don’t let any of that scare you because it’s really a simple pattern once you get the hang of it! Just lots of basic short rows in garter stitch, so you don’t even have to work the wraps together with the wrapped stitches. And a simple yarn over increase pattern along the sides.

There are some techniques used (with full photo tutorials included) for carrying your striping yarns along the back side of your shawl neatly, so you don’t have to weave in all those ends. Once you learn the techniques you’ll want to use them in all your stripy projects!

The two samples I made are in: Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd’s Wool (which I have completely fallen in love with!!) worsted weight (MC is Lime Green, CC is Milk Chocolate) – it used up most of the 2 full skeins, about 457 yards/418 meters total (244 yards/223 meters green and 213 yards/195 meters brown)…

…and Sandnes Garn Alpakka, which is either sport or DK weight depending on where you look (MC is blue #6554, CC2 is pink #4611), and Brown Sheep Lanaloft sport weight (Celery). It used approximately 550 yards/503 meters total – 357 yards/326 meters in the blue MC, 68 yards/62 meters in the green CC1, and 125 yards/114 meters in the pink CC2. So that was 3 full skeins of the blue main color, right up to the last little bit, just barely over one full skein of the pink, and under one skein of the green. And so you know, the only reason I used a different yarn for the green was that I bought the 2 colors in the alpaca yarn, planning to do another 2 color shawl, then I did some more work on the design and decided to have there be a 3 color version, and since i wanted to get started right away I found the coordinating green in the same weight in my stash – I know I should have waited to go back to the shop to buy another color in the same yarn, but alas, I was impatient. I’m fine with how it looks, but I just wanted you to know there’s not some designer-y reason I used the other yarn, so there’s no need to copy me with that 😉

As usual with my any-gauge designs, I had my fabulous testers make versions in all different weights and yarn types, so you can see lots more samples by checking out the ravelry projects – including Valérie’s bulky self-striping version, Kristin’s and Jenifer’s and Lacey’s versions with variegated yarns, Maria’s aran weight version with a self-striping handspun yarn, and Maiya’s gorgeous madelinetosh fingering weight version! (That’s not all of them, just some which are significantly different from my samples – thank you to all my wonderful test knitters!!)

I think that’s all I have to say about Robin – if you are making one of your own, or any of the three Short Stripes Trio patterns, it would be great if you want to post it in the leethal knitters rav group knit-a-long thread! I can’t wait to see more versions in all different yarns and colors and personalities, yay!

Oh one last note… of course I had to name this design Robin, but it’s kind of a bummer name because there are so many Robins in the ravelry patterns database (in pattern names and designer names), so people are sometimes having issues linking up to my Robin, both in rav projects and in forum magic linking. Rav seems to find it easily if you type in “robin leethal” instead of just robin, or “robin-13” since that’s the url name… okay that’s really all I have to say now 🙂 Happy knitting!

East Coast Trip!! Wooo!

Okay so, Robin is out, the third pattern in my Short Stripes Trio (and it’s my first pattern ever to make it into the ravelry hot right now top 5, so it’s been a very exciting couple of days), but I’m here today for a different reason. I will be blogging about Robin in detail in a couple weeks, because…

I’m taking a trip! To New York! And Boston and other east coast cities! Pete has had a job for about 2.5 years now which has involved accumulating a ridiculous amount of flyer miles and hotel points, so he is cashing them out to fly us for free to the east coast, and stay for 8 nights in NYC and Boston for free!!

So, we’ll be hanging out in NY for about half the time, and spending the other half both in Boston and traveling a bit to Providence, and hopefully Portland, Maine, for a day each. Our plans are still fairly loose, especially with the details, like meals and shops to visit, etc, so any recommendations would be appreciated!! Of course I want to visit lots of yarn shops, but since this is a fun trip with Pete, I’ll try to keep it down to just the absolute best shops, and priorities for both of us are used records and books, good vegetarian food, and cool sites to see.

The last time I was in NY was 9 years ago with my mom (when I took these photos), and I loved it so much I actually had plans to move there after college, but those plans fell through, and everything worked out for the best, but I’ve wanted to go back to visit ever since! And I’ve never been to Boston, or Providence, or Portland, or anywhere else up in that region, so I’m supercrazy excited to explore it all and have east coast adventures!

So, I’m way behind on all the preparation stuff. We have a house sitter lined up, and I’ve released my new pattern, but other than those things crossed off the list, everything else is still to-do! I have big plans to make a couple pairs of leggings (using this awesome tutorial by Cal Patch!) and legwarmers (from recycled sweaters), and maybe even a new skirt… but we’ll see what I can squeeze into my weekend hours before we head out way too early on Monday morning! Wish me luck!

Barry the hat! My 100th pattern! (and a celebration sale!)

Pattern #2 of my leethal Short Stripes Trio is out! Barry the hat is for any weight yarn, with lots of options, variations, and modifications, so you can make it your perfect dream hat…

And hey, guess what, Barry was my 100th pattern added to ravelry!! So that’s exciting! So, I want to have some kind of sale-ish thing to celebrate, but since I just had a coupon code sale for my birthday less than a month ago, I’m going to try something different this time. Let’s work together to get more project photos up for my patterns!

You put up a ravelry project page for any of my patterns, with at least 1 photo, or add a photo to a previously photo-less project page, and I will send you a personalized coupon code for 25% off any/all of my patterns! But wait, it gets better! Put up two projects with photos, the discount code goes up to 35%! Three projects, and it goes up to 45%! Whoa there! That’s as high as I’ll go, but if you do put up more, then I’ll send multiple codes (so five projects = one 45% code and one 35% code) and then you can save one for later, or pass one on to a friend!

Ohmygosh and there’s still more! To encourage good photos, I’ll be handing out some additional larger coupon codes for my favorite photos – this will depend on how many there are to choose from, but I plan on choosing my top 3-5 to receive free pattern codes (something like first place gets $12, second place gets $9, third place gets $6). So shoot your things in natural lighting (if possible) and try to get it in focus and all that fun stuff 😉

This deal is only good for a few days – get your projects up by Monday night (west coast time) and you’ll get the codes. I’ll send out the coupon codes on Tuesday (via ravelry message) – I should be able to see all the photos go up on my designer end, but if it’s Tuesday night and you haven’t received your code, you might want to shoot me a message to make sure I saw your project. The discount codes themselves will stay valid for a long time (through the end of the year).

So that’s that, now on to Barry! Barry, like Maurice, has lots of variation options, but in different ways. Barry is written for any gauge, and it’s custom sized to your head by trying it on (or measuring it) while you work the first part sideways. So there’s no gauge swatching necessary, and you can pick out any weight to make any size!

You can close up the sides with buttons, or by sewing up the seam, and you can choose whether to use the same colors as main and contrasting yarns throughout the whole hat, or switch which is which, or even incorporate more than 2 yarns if you want to!

The standard hat is slouchy, but the pattern includes modification instructions for a shorter, non-slouchy size if you prefer:

There are also full instructions for making the garter stitch variation, like the red and blue one:

This hat is worked modularly with short rows, no picked up stitches, and no seaming if you make the buttoning version. A yarn-carrying technique is used which prevents the need to break the contrasting yarn and weave in a zillion ends, so the pattern includes a step-by-step photo tutorial for that, as well as instructions for other techniques used.

The hat is a bit on the complex side, as far as hats go, but it’s not hard, as long as you trust the pattern, read the notes, and just take it one step at a time. It goes quickly since the first section takes the longest, and it grows bigger as it moves along, and then the second section rows get shorter as the hat grows, so it speeds up and then you decrease in for the crown and it’s finished, bam! It really is a fun knit!

If you want to know details about each of my samples, they are all in the ravelry project pages – the main yellow sample is in wonderful Anzula For Better or Worsted; the self-striping+tweed is Classic Elite Liberty Wool and Berroco Blackstone Tweed (but I don’t recommend using these exact 2 yarns together because the weights differ too much – see project page for details); the garter stitch sample is Alpaca with a Twist Baby Twist; the short bulky sample is Brown Sheep Burly Spun and handspun. Also check out my fabulous test knitters’ versions in the project pages, great hats!

Which reminds me, even though all my samples are a little bit on the girly side, this hat design is totally gender neutral, as you can see with Maiya’s fantastic Barry for her man, love it!!

Oh yeah, and you can wear the buttoning version different ways by unfastening some of the buttons (do the same with the seamed version by leaving a slit at the bottom when you sew it closed)…

Barry is part of my Short Stripes Trio, along with Maurice, and I’m currently working on Robin, so if my in-progress prototype goes well then I’ll start posting some preview shots (on twitter/instagram/tumblr) soon. (The whole trio is $12; each pattern solo is $6.)

If you are knitting any of the Short Stripes patterns, come post about them in the knit-a-long thread of the leethal rav group! Okay, that’s all I can think of to say about Barry. I hope you like it! Happy knitting!!

Rose City Yarn Crawl and what I’m up to these days…

Hey Portland people, and everyone traveling to Portland for this weekend’s Rose City Yarn Crawl, I want to let you know I’ll be making a few appearances throughout the weekend and I’m excited to be a part of this whole thing! Yeah!

Besides having some patterns in the prize basket mix, I’ll be having trunk show events at both Twisted and Wynona Studios! First, on Thursday afternoon 12:30-2:30 at Twisted, I’ll be part of a co-trunk-show with my good buddy and designer extraordinaire Star Athena! I’ll have with me lots of assorted leethal knits pattern samples, and I’ll be there to answer questions, explain how my crazy things are constructed, talk about anything you want, etc, yay!

Then later on Thursday, I’ll be at Wynona (in Oregon City) to bring in trunk show items and to hang out at the Thursday night knit night 5:30-7, so come by there for some casual knitting times and recycled yarn shopping! “Recycled yarn shopping?”, you might be thinking… Yes! Wynona specializes in recycled yarns, so my Remixed patterns are a perfect fit! All my Remixed samples which were made from recycled yarns (which is most of them!) will be on display throughout the yarn crawl weekend, and print format versions of all Remixed patterns will be available! (Print format Remixed patterns are a brand new thing, by the way, so if you happen to work at a yarn shop or want to tell your LYS about them, they are available wholesale through Deep South Fibers! /end side-note.)

And then, on Saturday 4-7 I’ll be back at Wynona for the official Remixed trunk show event! So I’ll be hanging out, available for questions, to explain pattern stuff, talk about my use of recycled yarns, etc… I hope you can make it to one or more of these events!!

(All of those above photos show pattern samples which will be at one or both of the trunk shows!)

And for all of you lovely readers, I want to show you a peek at what I’ve been working on lately! If you follow me on twitter/tumblr/instagram you’ll have seen some peeks at the next design in the leethal Short Stripes Trio – Barry!

I’m now finishing up the final sample, with yet another variation, and I’m hoping to release the pattern 1 week from today, if all goes well. I won’t talk about it in detail here, but here you can see a few of the different options and how it’s super versatile, like Maurice.

If you love what you see here, you’ll automatically receive this pattern the moment it’s released if you get the whole Trio (on ravelry here), which will include Maurice right now, and Robin will be the final pattern in the future. All stripy short-rows accessory patterns. Yum!

We’re doing a Short Stripes Trio knit-a-long over in the leethal ravelry group (which has just surpassed 800 members, woo!), working on Maurice now – you can come and go at any time, post photos of patterns from the trio as you make them, and we can all knit short rows and stripes together, fun times! Some beautiful Maurices are being made!

And with that, I will leave you to get back to my work on Barry!