Design

Roxbourne

| Elanor

Well, it’s live! My first pattern for sale that I’ll actually earn money from! (Fingers crossed) (and toes and legs and hair and teeth)

 

 

Roxbourne Hat, now available for download!
Roxbourne Hat, now available for download!

Roxbourne Hat, Ready to Test

| Elanor

I would greatly appreciate your help in testing my latest pattern, Roxbourne.

This beanie-style hat features crimped welts that give it some interesting shaping. The body of the hat is a stocking stitch panel, which you can decorate however you want. I’ve included charts for the skull-and-crossbones motif if you like pirates!

Get in touch if you’d like to join in, I’ll be conducting the test in my ravelry group.

New yarn, new projects

| Elanor

Look at these beauties:

Artesano Merino Superwash
Lovely Squishy Balls of Artesano Merino Superwash

I’m working on a new project with Jane of StitchUpp. You are looking at the makings of two  hats, a cowl and a capelet! Very excited to be working with Jane for the first time, especially since she’s opening her own premises in Uppingham soon, so keep an eye out!

I haven’t tried Artesano Superwash Merino before, so when I’ve done some swatches, I’ll post a review here.

Happy knitting!

x e

My Son’s Pirate Hat

| Elanor

Ooh, my heart is all gooey and melty. My little boy, 2½, hasn’t taken his new pirate hat off since I finished it for him. Part of that is because I’ve been putting it on him at every available opportunity so I can get a decent picture for the pattern, but mostly it’s because he reckon’s he’s dead cool in it. I’m sure the warmth and softness of the Fyberspates Scrumptious it’s made from isn’t hurting either!

Jake and the Neverland Pirates has been a firm favourite, and some of his first phrases were “ah, coconuts!” and “grab ‘em and go!” (looong emphasis on the “go!”, also accompanied by much running around in circles, fist upraised). Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly have also featured pirates at some point, so it’s no wonder he’s taken with them.

Beloved Pirate Hat

Today as he was cuddling his hat in bed, and he looked up at me and said “Mummy make it? Mummy knit it for me? Sank you, Mummy.” and I just puddled. Love you, baby bear.

The pattern is called Roxbourne, coming soon!. Arrrrr!

Mentoring With Rockandpurl, Knitwear Designer Supremo

| Elanor

Ruth Garcia-Alcantud was gracious enough to agree to mentor me as I set out on this path towards knitterly enlightenment.  Not only does she have gorgeous designs to ogle, Ruth also gives excellent advice. She was able to identify my style, and I didn’t even know I had one!

Rock and Purl

We talked over Skype IM, it’s been a while since I’ve had an IM chat, but boy, I rocked those smileys. Quite a lot of the conversation ultimately came back to time management – if I can discipline myself to get my work done within the time I have available, that’ll be a flying start.

This is how long I have left to finish this post (from 45 mins).

Submissions I’ve been sending off are too lengthy. Huh. I forgot to ask if the ideas were sound, but I guess they are or I’m sure Ruth would have said – best not to pull the punches in these situations! So, do you have any tips for me on layout? I have a lot of information (graphical and written) that I need to fit onto one page (max 2). What tricks do you use to condense information? Thanks for any comments you can make.

We also talked a lot about blogging, my local knitting group (The Harrow Knitters (who totally rock!)), patterns with tricky bits, a little about cameras and accountants, and yes, poking myself in the eye. We covered a fair bit of ground in that first session.

This was the best bit for me though:

Me: even if i don’t have a style yet?

Ruth: if I can see it, cant you??

Me: erm???

Ruth: You are Miss Trick in the bag, I’ll teach you how to graft ribbing to make it look superb, I’ll teach you knitting backwards so your friends can gasp in admiration

Ruth: I’ll teach you to match welts at the back of a neck

Me: oh right. no pressure

Ruth: and put intarsia AND beads

Ruth: it’s your style

Ruth: I can see it

Ruth: you need to polish it by working on it

Me: ok, cool, thanks

Ruth: seriously now, I think you CAN do this

Ruth: I cannot tell you how many people don’t work half as hard in their submissions

Ruth: you’re putting in some serious elbow and brain into this and you can do this

Me: ta, ta for the confidence boost

Ruth: hey sometimes it’s all about that

I have a style! Rock on! Hope you like it ‘cos you’ll be seeing more of it!

Hugs

Xxxx e

P.s. I went two mins over.

How You Doin’?

| Elanor

I’ve been up to no good! I have organised some tech editing on two more patterns and I have outsourced some knitting for the first time. I’m about 3 weeks away from releasing a dinky little hat and a great bit mofo of a blanket. I’ll give you a sneak peek of the blanket schematic:

can't tell you the name cos it's a surprise
can’t tell you the name cos it’s a surprise

I guess I could have just left it as a blank rectangle, but that wouldn’t have been very nice of me.
So, I’m VERY excited about things slowly, glacially, moving forward. I have the next 6 months planned out and they’re HECTIC. Expect the following:

  • Roxbourne hat, made from yummy, scrummy Fyberspates Scrumptious
  • Can’t tell you cos it’s a surprise for a friend blanket as schematic above
  • A multicoloured, fabulous, stash-busting marvel of a cowl/shawl/collar that I’m calling  Wildacres. Due November, it’ll look great over your clothes as a winter warmer. Here’s a pic of it in progress:
Wildacres sneak peek
Wildacres sneak peek
  • Then over the course of the winter, I’m aiming to get a boob-lovin’ tank sweater, some simple socks and an elegant little cushion out of my head and onto your needles. Fingers crossed, eh?

Cue little happy dance.

Luv ya! Happy knitting!