Designs and Prototypes and Shawls, Oh My!

Well I had hoped to write a few more witty and informative blog posts this week but I have been so busy with actual knitting the writing about knitting thing has had to go on the back burner.
Priorities y'know.

First, and most excitingly, I got my very first pattern commission from a magazine! A month or so back I got in touch with the editor of Knit Now magazine asking about their design submission process.  She sent me a link to sign up to their designers email list and a couple of weeks ago I received the first 'call to action' - a design challenge using just one skein of yarn (from a selection) to be submitted in three days. I spent a quite enjoyable Sunday playing with stitch patterns, sketching my idea and creating a design submission which I duly emailed before the deadline. I may have whooped a little when I got an email back to say that they wanted to commission my design for the December issue!! So now I am furiously knitting up my design and wading through the magazine style sheet to write my pattern in the correct manner for the magazine. It's all a bit exciting. And scary. What if I get it wrong? What if the design just doesn't work with the yarn? What if I just don't like the finished object? What if no-one else likes the finished object? Stepping into the unknown is always a little stressful for me but I keep reminding myself that they must have liked my idea enough to take a chance on me.
Obviously I can't reveal any more right now but I will be shouting from the rooftops when the pattern finally goes into print!

Then a few days later I received another knitting job - this time from designer Erika Knight whom I knit design samples for. A bag of super chunky wool and a prototype pattern to knit up asap for a photo shoot for new product range for John Lewis. How exciting is that? Again I can't share much just yet but it's a great project and I look forward to seeing the results!

Thank goodness for knitting, tea and chocolate digestives.

And if that was not enough knitting to be getting on with the first pattern in The Shawl Society was also released and after a month or so of anticipation (I blogged about it here) of course I just HAD to get that started too! I probably shouldn't have, what with deadlines and all that, but I just couldn't wait to start knitting up that gorgeous Wool Kitchen yarn!

The Talisman Shawl is a simple stocking stitch crescent shawl with cute, yet subtle rows of star stitches and lace border. As always Helen's pattern is beautifully written with percentage system she uses being so useful in ensuring you have enough yarn AND so encouraging - just want to keep knitting to the next 5% mark! It's a simple enough knit to work whilst watching TV so whilst my days have been filled with work knitting, my evenings have been all about Talisman. As I type I am at about 75% so it won't be long before I get to the lace border and that picot bind off but they may have to wait due to aforementioned deadlines!!




And so, although it's the weekend, I shall mostly be working - albeit in my pj's, on the sofa, watching movies with my boy...  #lovemyjob

I want to knit ALL the shawls

I never thought I'd be a shawl person.
Then I knit a Hitchhiker and was hooked.
Shawls are a great way to showcase those beautiful hand dyed skeins that accidentally fall into your basket everytime you spend more than a few minutes browsing Etsy. Or is that just me?
Anyhow as I can rarely afford to buy sweater quantities of these yarns my single skeins stash is ever growing and, as I promised myself earlier this year that I would not buy any more random skeins until I'd used what I had, I have been drawn more and more to shawl patterns.

Last month I finally found a pattern worthy of my two special skeins of Blacker Yarns' Cornish Tin.

Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade released a lovely shawl pattern named after the Lake District home of Beatrix Potter -  the Hill Top Shawl is a cosy large crescent featuring wide bands of garter stitch alternating with bands of simple lace.  Helen's shawl was knitted in one colour but I knew there wouldn't be enough yarn in one skein so I decided to knit the garter in the Levant Grey and the lace panels in Dolceath Turquoise. If you want to knit a two colour one like mine i have listed exact quantities in my Ravelry project notes. The shawl knit up really quickly and with Helen's unique percentage method of pattern writing keeping track of progress, and yarn requirements, super easy.

wearing my Hill Top Shawl at Hill Top!

I love it so much and when Helen announced her new project I couldn't wait to jump in!
The Shawl Society is a series of six brand new shawl patterns released over six months. There are no previews - each pattern is a surprise - but a quick look through her back catalogue of patterns has convinced me that these will all be shawls I want to knit (her Pebble Beach has been in my Ravelry queue forever!) and I signed up there and then.  A Ravelry chat thread has been set up in the Curious Handmade group and there is a real buzz of excitement around the Shawl Society already with lots of speculation about pattern possiblities and yarn choices. I for one can't wait till the first pattern release and I am working hard to finish what I have on my needles so I can cast on straight away.

So maybe this year I will get to work through my single skein stash. Which means I don't need to feel too bad when another gorgeous hand dyed skein accidentally drops into my Etsy cart...

If you want to join the Curious Handmade Shawl Society there's a special earlybird price of £9.95 (+VAT) for all six patterns if you sign up before the first pattern release on 9th June 2016. You'll receive a few emails from Helen with hints about yarn choices and quantities but each pattern is top secret until it's release date.


I'd love it if you could join me in The Shawl Society. Do let me know if you decide to sign up and we can knit all the shawls together!