Evelyne....again

One of the first designs I came up with (if you can call it a design), was a simple lace scarf for my MIL. At that time I hadn't yet discovered bulky and superbulky yarn, so I swooned at the thought of all things lace! I still love lace, but the "bulkies" give me such awesome instant gratification that I keep forgetting my first love. Anyway, I just wanted to share a few pictures of this sample of my Evelyne scarf, handknit by my friend Sara (a friend I made in college in 2001!).

   

As always, I'm so grateful for my partnership with my fellow small business owner and photographer extraordinaire, Kwaku of Nkadu Photography, and my ready-for-whatever go-getter model Lilia!

I hope you enjoyed the photos, and see you next week!

Color Flow Chunky Cowl Giveaway Ends Tonight, 11:59PM PST

I hope you are all enjoyed the long weekend and are having a great week back on the daily grind. Just in case you forgot, here's a quick reminder that the Color Flow Chunky Cowl Giveaway ends tonight, 11:59PM PST. There are many ways to enter, so go ahead and enter via the Rafflecopter widget in the Color Flow Chunky Cowl Giveaway post or the Rafflecopter giveaway below. There will be 3 winners, and each person will receive one of these cowls pictured below! So go ahead, leave me a comment on how you'll style the Color Flow Chunky Cowl, or what other colors you'd like to see them in. All the best and have fun!!

A NiseyKnits giveaway

Studio Re-organization, and giveaway update

Hi everyone, While this giveaway is ongoing, I took the opportunity to do some reorganization of our study/my "studio". Ok, I'll be honest. I planned and started this reorganization in May, but I was not able to work on it as much as I needed to, until the past week. It's been in flux for a long time, but I got the energy and motivation to work on it last week.

I have mostly the "before" and "in progress" photos. I'll update this post with some "after photos" soon. In the meantime, the Color Flow Chunky Handknit Cowl Giveaway has been extended till 9/4/2013, so please enter, get your friends and family to enter, and share with your colleagues. LOL! You want them to look stylish AND stay warm during this winter, don't you.

I have to admit that I've had a knitting mental block the past few months because everything was everywhere in the study. It has really affected my designing mojo, and I just knew that I had to clear, clean and reorganize this creative space so the creative space in my brain would also get cleared.

Anyway, while you wait to see the "after photo" (I think you'll like it a lot!), don't forget to enter the Color Flow Chunky Cowl Giveaway. I'm loving the various styling and color suggestions, and I can't wait to read more of them!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Updated Berry Lacey pattern

I thought I'd pop in quickly and share some fun news. I updated my Berry Lacey pattern, complete with new pictures and two versions of the scarf, so you can quickly knit one if you'd like. It's a very quick knit and the results are extremely gratifying. All the samples were knit in Malabrigo Silky Merino, but the scarf can be knit in almost any yarn you like. It looks pretty great in chunky weight yarn too.

You can size it up or down, make is a scarf, or expand it to a shawl. Either way, you'll love Berry Lacey. If you aren't a knitter, email me at niseyknits@gmail.com and I'll be glad to knit a custom one for you.

You can download the pattern here: Berry Lacey 2013 or visit my Ravelry pattern page for the Berry Lacey pattern.

Have a great week everyone!

Evelyne Revisited

It's a new month, and time for some new things! Or in this case, some new old things. Evelyne was one of the first patterns I designed, and is named after my MIL. I hadn't yet planned to be a knitwear designer, and thought any photo is better than no photo. So I listed the pattern on Ravelry with this photo:

I took this photo indoors....and at night. Tsk tsk tsk. Now I know better, and I was able to get a professional to take some better photos of the shawl for me. Thanks to my friend Sarah for knitting the new sample for me. As always, I'm thankful to Lilia for being such a professional model, and to my friend Nana Kwaku (who I've been bugging to take photos for me for years!) for going above and beyond what I even imagined. Check out some of the new photos of the Evelyne shawl. It's free! I never offered a PDF copy of the  pattern because I didn't have pretty photos, but that is going to change shortly.  I'm so excited!

This new sample was knit in KnitPicks Aloft Sky colorway. It's so soft and light that the stole looks ethereal! I just love how it turned out, and now I want to knit Evelyne in as many Aloft colorways as I can. I never learn do I?

Be on the lookout for a PDF of the Evelyne pattern, for those who would like a copy for your records. Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Yay!! A finished project!

This month has been a little slow for me in terms of actually having some finished projects to show you all. What with the frequent bouts of sickness we've had, and getting my store ready for the Val's Day flash sale, I haven't been able to finish a lot of items. In fact, right now I'm working hard on completing some custom orders so I can get to work on my spring line and plan ahead for fall/winter. It also means I haven't had time to come up with any new designs. :( Anyway, I finally got the chance to block a pink version of my Sunehri Shawl (knit in Malabrigo Merino Worsted). I finished knitting this shawl way back in November, and I had hoped to have it ready for the December Bazaar Bizarre Fair. However that didn't happen, and I only got to block it last week. Here it is now, in all it's pink glory. Let me just say that I'm not usually a fan of pink, but I could get down with this shade of pink, for sure!

I am glad I finally got this blocked and photographed. Maybe I'll even be able to get a photoshoot with an actual model wearing the shawl? That would be fantastic. This shawl is now listed in my Etsy shop here if you would like to take it home with you. :)

Stitches West update

Oh, and I was only able to make it to Stitches West on one of the days (Friday). I met up with my friend Katharine for lunch and then went to the market to browse. I noted down a few booths I wanted to visit on Sunday, but then life happened and I wasn't able to make it. Boohoohoo! I spied some delicious-looking yarn at Becoming Art and Sweet Fiber Yarns. I think I might have to order a few skeins for my next shawl designs.

The Fisherman's Rib (knit 1 below stitch) - A video tutorial

It's really cold here in the Bay Area (and looks like it will be still chilly for the rest of the week). The Procragratification Scarf is a fast, easy infinity scarf pattern that will definitely keep you warm during this cold spell.

This pattern uses the fisherman's rib stitch pattern, which requires you to knit and/or purl into the stitch below. I was asked a few weeks ago about how to knit this particular stitch. I thought I'd post this video tutorial that I found on YouTube which does a great job of showing how to work this stitch pattern.

How to Knit the Knit One Below Stitch (K1B) by newstitchaday

http://youtu.be/_g_E31DnTUg

The Purl Bee, one of my favorite knitting websites, also has a photo tutorial of how to work this particular stitch, with two accompanying patterns for a scarf and cowl here. Enjoy and stay warm!!

PS:If you aren't a knitter, I have these chunky, ultra-warm infinity scarves for sale in my Etsy shop!

Melody's Stole Knit-a-long: Recap

I'm feeling quite under the weather today so this blog post will be hopefully short and sweet. Remember the Melody's Stole Knit-a-long that I was holding with Sandra Singh on her Ravelry group? Well, I promised to keep you updated on my progress with the stole. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish the stole in time for the deadline. However, two people finished the stole (one even made TWO of them), and have graciously given me permission to share photos of their finished Melody. Here we go. One of the participants, Laurel, made 2 stoles. The first one was in KnitPicks Aloft, in the Tranquil colorway.

For her second one, she used Saffron Dyeworks Odara: Silk/Merino in Parrot Blue. I love that you can see the zigzag nature of the pattern very well in this second stole.

Gini H. who also took part in the knitalong knit her stole in Sandrasingh.com Lace, the yarn that I designed the pattern for. She used the Cinnamon Girl colorway and it come out looking quite delicious. :)

Finally, here are photos from my friend Catrin (whom I've never met, but she's awesome, and we've had numerous chats online about knitting and other stuff), who test knitted the pattern for me and also knit 2 of the stoles for herself.

The pattern is really easy to knit, and you can even go up to a fingering, dk or sportweight yarn if lace isn't your thing. You can even double up the lace yarn to make your own version! Make your own Melody's Stole (pattern is free and can be downloaded via that link) and support Sandrasingh.com by using her Sandrasingh.com Yarn-Lace. You get 950yds of gorgeous lace-weight yarn in one skein, so you can make TWO Melody stoles if you so wanted.

Thank you so much for visiting today, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Off to a running start!

2012 is gone and we are already 9 days into 2012. I have a sinking feeling that this year is going to just run past me and come December I'll be left standing, wondering where all the time has gone. :( I come bearing good news though! I have 3 designs in a new pattern book published by F+W Media. The book is titled "Quick & Simple Knit Hats & Scarves: 14 Designs from Up-and-Coming Designers!", is pretty self-explanatory. (And I'm getting quite a kick out of being called an up-and-coming designer. I hope I get to "be" a designer. )

Here is a cover of the book (I love the cute hat with the pompoms):

And the back cover, which has one of my scarves.

My patterns in this book are the Nautical Scarf (a whopping 9ft long! Huzzah!),

the Nautical Cowl,

and the Twisted ZigZag Scarf.

The lovely team at F+W Media gave me 2 copies of this book, so guess what? It's giveaway time!! What a fun way to start the year off, right? (by helping you break all your knitting/yarn-related resolutions. Muahahahahhaha!). I'm joking...sort of. :P

Please leave a comment about this post here on my blog, on my Facebook page or send me a tweet(@NiseyKnits) with the hashtag #Quick&SimpleGiveaway for your chance to win the second copy of this book. Fun comments will be highly valued. :)

Have a great week everyone, and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

What a ride this past year has been! I moved my blog to a new website, got a few patterns published in awesome magazines (Sunehri shawl, Destiny Cowl, Lace Blanket Shawl, Lacy Cables Hat & Scarf Set), and vended at two craft fairs, one of them a 2-day affair. All in all, I have to say that 2012 has been a good progress year for my little knitting business here. I hope next year brings more growth and wonderful learning experiences. I've also met a lot of wonderful people who've supported my business (including all of you who read my blog) and I'm so very thankful for you all. I hope the sum total of this year for you is one of hopeful progress, and that you are looking forward to this new year with me

Have a wonderful and prosperous New Year! Thank you all so much for 2012.