Arwen KAL

Over on the "Budding Designers Downunder" group on Ravelry they hold a monthly KAL that features a designer from Australia or New Zealand. For the month of March I was nominated & it was decided the members joining the KAL this month will knit Arwen.

Here are the rules:

"Every person that starts and completes an Arwen skirt during this KAL, and takes a photograph of the finished product and posts a picture in this thread and links their project page to the pattern page will be entitled to the entire purchase price of the pattern refunded upon the conclusion of the KAL. This offer only applies if you have purchased a copy of Arwen - those that were gifted a copy by me or others (ie for test knitting) will not get the purchase price back.

If you already have a copy of Arwen that you have purchased in the past, you are still eligible to enter - you do NOT need to buy another copy.
In addition, I am also offering a prize (of yet to be determined contents!), for the Arwen I judge to be the BEST created throughout the course of the KAL. The prize will consist of yarny related goodness……….."

There's still plenty of time to join if you'd like.

It's A Testing Time

Test knitters have started work on Jamesina. They have until March 22 to complete the hat. It only takes 8 - 10 hours all up so this should give them plenty of time to get it done. In the meantime I am knitting another version using Cascade 220. I still have to organise a photo shoot (I have an idea of the type of images I'd like...just hope I can pull it off), tidy up the chart, edit the pattern if necessary after the test knitters give me feedback and then get it tech-edited. It's not multi-sized and it's a quick knit so hopefully it won't take too long before the pattern is ready.

 Once the pattern for Jamesina is finished I can concentrate on the lace shawl I'm designing. This will take a while. There are 4 charts and a much longer test knit period. At the moment I'm still swatching patterns and tweaking stitch counts to fit.

I've started knitting my design for Project Yarnway. It's a bit messy & I have to get the broom out each time I work on it. I might have to save it for afternoon knitting on the back verandah. Pictures soon.

Project Yarnway Take 2

After the first month of the Project Yarnway went so well....no swatching, the hat just flowed from the needles, I should have known that the next challenge would be, well, more challenging.

I thought about the materials I could use for this challenge....raffia, wire, plastic cord, etc but kept coming back to tshirt fabric. I want the result to be something I will wear so I'm hoping the tshirt yarn will be soft enough, drapey enough and look really interesting.

I enrolled in an online class a few weeks ago with Stephanie Japel, "UPcycled Tshirt Yarn Class". Part of the class was how to go about cutting up the shirts & making the yarn. I've been collecting a few shirts in preparation for starting one of the projects but hadn't got around to it as yet. This challenge was the perfect opportunity to put into practice what I learnt from Stephanie about preparing the tshirt yarn for knitting. Apart from my blunt scissors and the mess of little bits of black fluff everywhere the cutting up bit wasn't too bad. (I've only cut 1 shirt until I can buy some new scissors).

I thought I'd try a top down style. Just cast on and see what happens. Well first off I forgot to add stitches for sleeves; so after 4 inches or so I unpicked it all.

 Cast on again. Then, another 6 inches in, I realised the fabric was going to be too stiff. I was knitting on 8mm circulars......the next size I have is 15mm. A big jump I know but it doesn't look too bad (4 rows in). It's nearly midnight so I'm giving up for the night & hope the morning brings better results.

Project Yarnway

Last month I discovered a new group on Ravelry...Project Yarnway. Each month a theme is announced & we come up with a design based on that theme. Over the month we develop the idea & complete it...knit or crochet. The theme for February was Stash Happy. Create using materials in the stash.

"Hello, designers, and welcome to your first challenge!
Today your challenge is: using only yarn, hooks, needles, notions, and materials that you already own, create a design that expresses who you are as a designer. The materials in your stash already say something about you - now’s your chance to put them together and make something spectacular. There is no limitation on the type of object to be made in this challenge. From puppets to pullovers, it’s your call!"

As I've had a design published and for sale I am in the professional category....up against some stiff competition. 
Here is my entry for February:

Jamesina used just over one ball of the Superwash Bamboo I had in my stash, along with an old button out of my button box.

Jamesina is named after my grandmother (nanna). Nanna was the creative one in the family & I like to think that I take after her & that she would be proud of me. Just like her namesake, Jamesina is a little bit vintage, a little bit modern, a little bit of fun, a whole lot of style.






This represents who I am as a designer in many ways:

the design just came to me, there was no swatching, I just grabbed the yarn that I thought would be nice & drapey and the needles I thought would give a nice drape and cast on - I like to think that nanna was there guiding me & lending a helping hand, when I finished I noticed there is a little ruffle/frill (around the button)…my last 3 designs now have ruffles/frills…. (maybe this is my niche/signature design feature)


 
Voting is open. I'm doing quite well in the votes with 30 so far. There is one outstanding design that is well out in front (& deserves to be) with a massive 44 votes. You can see that design over on Nikki's blog.

The response to Jamesina has been favourable so I'm tweaking the pattern & testing it. I'll let you know when it's available for download.

Now to start thinking about the challenge for March:

"The name of this challenge is Innovation.


(groans from the crowd)
Come on, you knew this was coming! It’s Project Yarnway! You may make any design of any type you like, but for your materials, you must use something not sold for the purpose of knitting or crocheting. Be creative. Look around. (Some materials are more easily adapted for these crafts than others, but as long as it is not sold to knit or crochet with, it is allowed.) The news is not all bad, though - around twenty percent of your design may be made with conventional materials AKA yarn."

Closing Down Sale

I've made the decision to close my etsy store. All prices have been reduced by 50%. If you've had your eye on something, now's the time to get it. http://www.etsy.com/shop/yarnaboutyarn

Minor Hiccough

Done! After my post last night I decided I may as well go ahead with scrapping my website and having everything here on my blog. I crossed my fingers & attempted to re-route my domain name to point to the blog. At first both yarnaboutyarn.com and yarnaboutyarn.blogspot.com led me to the website...I thought I may have lost access to my blog!! But I went to bed to give the wonders of the internet time to do it's magic & lo & behold this morning my blog is back.
So you can change the url to www.yarnaboutyarn.com or apparently blogger will still get you here with the old blogspot addy.

Static Pages

Blogger now supports static pages; and you can have up to 10 static pages. I've created a new page, titled Patterns. This is where I'll be adding new patterns as they become available.

My poor blog has been neglected lately. If you take notice of information on marketing & online business lately it seems to stress the importance of social networking. To be successful, it seems you have to blog, have a website, myspace, facebook, tweet regularly & probably a dozen more things I've neglected to mention. Well my blog has been going for a while now but lately the posts have been few & far between. There's a couple of reasons for that. The blog started as an outlet for me to record my freeform handbags & offer them for sale. Well along came etsy & the bags were posted there in my shop, which grew to offer more variety of knit, crochet, woven, felted & mixed media goods. Ravelry appeared & became my preferred format for recording my knitting projects. As I've started designing more knitwear rather than knit from patterns created by others, I seem to have less finished items to blog about. Also by concentrating on my designing I have not been dipping into other classes...the result is, again, less to blog about.

Anyway back to the social networking I mentioned before. I tried them, I "think" I had a myspace, I have a facebook profile that I still visit occasionally (more to keep up to date with distant friends/family than to post my status), I tried twitter but found it very time consuming. I set up the website and the etsy shop. In the meantime, I have a family, a job & am studying (2 courses).......not to mention trying to fit in time to actually design. It seems I must be doomed to fail this new age business stuff as I can't keep up with all the social networking we are told is a must for our businesses. But I really don't care. I like my blog & the contact I've had with other bloggers around the world. I'm seriously thinking of shutting shop over on etsy; and now that blogger supports static pages I think I'll transfer what little is on my website over here to the blog.
So it won't be long before it's just me & my little blog (hopefully with more regular postings) and Ravelry (love Ravelry...don't know what I did without it!). Stayed tuned.......& special thanks to those followers who have hung in there for the unexpected posts that appear here.

Arwen Skirt Pattern Now Available

The Arwen skirt pattern is now available after test knitting & tech editing. At the moment it is available from my etsy store. There may be a delay in receiving the PDF depending upon when you purchase it due to me having to physically send it to you. The alternative (where it is an immediate download) will be available on Ravelry in the next 24 hours. If you're not a member of Ravelry you will still be able to access pattern downloads via a link I will put on the blog and website.

500 Pencils

I stumbled across this website last night.
How amazing would they look displayed across a wall!

I'm not drawing much these days but can't stop thinking about having 500 pencils & how inspirational it would be........I'm so close to clicking that "buy now" button..........just over $1/day includes shipping........ so close.

Let me know if you do.