Coming Attractions

Whew! Been a bit

The beta/test knit for the Four Hand Reel is wrapping up soon, and it's gone wonderfully well 😊 The knitters chose such different colors to my own bag, and they all look phenomenal. I'll be sharing some of their photos in my Instagram stories leading up to the pattern release.

When will that be?

I'm happy to announce the Four Hand Reel pattern will be released before the end of October 😊 I'm firming up the date ; guess who needs photos ;)

While the generous knitters have been busy with their "totes of many colors", I've been hard at work on the Countess Cathleen design. 

I had the entire thing off the needles (onto a holding thread; no way am I risking 612 stitches to possible ladders!) last week, and captured this photo of it. Thanks to a furry "helper" it's not nicely spread out with the front edges touching, like when I stood up to get the photo... (Way to go, Jade 🙄)

(The fronts actually overlap as the cloak is more than a circle's worth of hand knit fabric)

Right now it's 9 rows shorter than this. I realized after trying it on that I'd started the knotwork motifs too soon 🤦🏼‍♀️ The joys of designing on the needles! 

So this beauty is taking all of my design attention right now. But it shouldn't be too much longer, and I'll have it finished. Then it's finalizing the pattern (and doub... tri... quadruple checking all my math lol), and sending it off to my awesome techeditor. I think this might possibly be in beta/test knitting in the spring, with a fall release date. We'll see! I have a couple other designs nearly done that could sneak in ahead of this one. 

And after that? Don't worry I have some fun designs in the plotting/planning stages. A real mixed bag of everything too! Double-knitting, lace, and (of course) more cables; I even have double-knitting *with* cables in the works 😉 

Hope this finds you enjoying your fall or spring projects, depending where you call home. What's on your needles as we approach the end of 2023?

Yours in yarn and movable deadlines,

Síle

Photo Shoot Day!

That's right! 

Photos for the Hornpipe Bag are on the schedule today :)

And that means I'll be taking some time over the next few days to choose which photos will be in the pattern, and which additional ones will be on the various pattern pages. And of course making sure everything is just so before I put it out for everyone.

Release day for the Hornpipe Bag will be Tuesday, the 18th!

That's not all that's on my designer's to-do list this weekend! The test/beta knit for the Four Hand Reel starts on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to what colors the knitters will be using. That's my favorite part of any test/beta knit: seeing my design re-interpreted in someone else's color and yarn choices.

And of course I have actual knitting on my list. I'm knitting up the various knotwork motif charts I've created for the bottom section of the Countess Cathleen cloak. I thought that a cabled knotwork would look really nice centered near the bottom of each of the shaping panels. So, I've been creating charts, and knitting them, to try and find the right one. I've made some interesting observations but my hunt for the right knotwork continues. 

I have a couple of double-knitting designs in the works. I'm looking at yarns right now, and hope to get them on the needles toward the end of the summer or early fall. Which will hopefully be when I have another pattern in test/beta knitting. This will be something for the lace and/or shawl knitters amongst you. I've dubbed it the Planxty Hap. I think you'll like it if lace with a twist is your type of pattern.

Time for me to get outside and join my photographer so she can make some photo magic!

Yours in yarn and model mode ;)

Síle

Is This Summer?

I almost think my island home has skipped spring in favor of a summer. Yesterday and today it's suddenly topped 20°C with bright sunshine. No complaints from me! I'm still a prairie girl at heart; give me all the sunshine!!

I'm happy to say the Hornpipe Bag pattern is in the midst of tech-editing. I'm making some fixes here and there to clean it up before returning it to my tech-editor. And to go with my wordy explanations in a couple of specific areas, I'll be getting photo tutorials ready as well. I'll be including these in the pattern but also putting them up here on the blog (with listings in my Helpful Post tab for quick reference).

A helpful knitter has reached out to me with some hiccups in my oldest pattern, Anchors & Ropes. If you've been following along over the years, this pattern was originally popped up on the Síle's Knittin' & Kittens blog back in December 2009(!) and didn't even have a chart. Rustic would be the nice word for it lol. I added a chart in 2015 or so and then revamped the entire thing with a new chart and new written instructions.

Well, I've got a couple of goofs in the translation from the latest chart to the newest written instructions that I need to fix up. I've also discovered that some of my written explanations for stitches, while familiar to a lot of North American knitters, and quite a few in the UK and Ireland, aren't as familiar with our cousins in other parts of Europe. I'll be adding two photo tutorials to the blog, with links in the fixed up Anchors & Ropes, to show these couple of trickier spots in a bit better way. 

And speaking of designs, I've finished the hood for Countess Cathleen and moved onto the cloak's body :) I'm so pleased with how it's shaping up! The moss stitch has such a nice rhythm to its knitting; very intuitive with the shaping, I find at least. I hope others will think so too! Here's the photo I nabbed as I got the transition between hood and body finished Monday night:

That's everything for today! Lots going on behind the scenes this week, and you'll be seeing the results soon :)

Yours in yarn and summery temperatures (for now),

Síle