Chain Chain Chain

I had forgotten about these lovely, quick scarves that I made a couple of years ago. However we recently traveled to the East Coast, and I needed some quick, instant gratification projects to keep me sane. Also, I was on a plane for almost 6 hours each way. Did someone say perfect knitting time? Oh yeah! I pulled out my huge size N crochet needles, grabbed a few (ok a lot) skeins of my super-bulky lovies, and went to town.

I didn’t do anything different from the previous chain scarves I had made. In fact, I made one in my favorite color combination, Thunder and Grassy Green (I’ve probably made about 5 in this combo).

I also tried a Sea Blue-Grassy Green combo, and I love how it turned out. So very pretty, and very similar to the Thunder/Lime scarf above. Green and blue (in all different shades) look so good together!

I tried turning up the heat on the chain scarves by working with 3 colors instead of 2, in one of the scarves (it’s getting hot in here!). I quite like the effect. I think the two shades of pink and white play very nicely together.

Now that I’ve started, I don’t want to stop. I’m thinking of these color combos next.

           

  

 

                                                    

And here's the whole color palette that I have available to work with!

What colors do you think I should make for my next chain scarves? Let me know in the comments below. If I create your suggested color combination, I will send you a 30% off coupon to use in my Etsy shop!

Have a lovely week!

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!

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!

What am I up to? - February WIP roundup

It's the first week of February, so I thought it would be a great time to take stock and share with you the projects I currently have on my needles.

First up is a remix of the Scrunchable Scarf pattern which I LOVE! I've knit 13 scarves with this pattern. :) These 2 are the newest ones I've been working on. In December I got an order for an infinity scarf with buttons. The person (lovely Karin B.) had seen a similar scarf here (http://psheart.blogspot.com/2012/09/diy-buttoned-up-infinity-scarf.html) and wanted me to make one. I did, and got another order for that same scarf.

Someone else saw Karin's scarf and now I have to more orders for them. So cool right? So here they are, one in oatmeal heather and the other in hot pink (squeee!! so pretty). I'm using a chunky weight yarn (Oatmeal is Universal Yarns Classic Chunky and pink is Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky) on US #11(8mm) needles. To make this regular scarf into an infinity scarf, you just need to add a few buttonholes and sew on some buttons. I'll make another post later about how to make the modifications so you have your own DIY handknit infinity scarf.

And how cute are these buttons? I can't wait to finish the scarves and add the buttons.

Some of you may already know that I'm a wee bit addicted to Korean dramas. Well, since it's also winter over there, the dramas I've been watching recently are chock full of awesomely colorful, huge scarves that make me giddily happy each time I see them. I've been wanting to launch a kdrama-inspired accessories line for so long that I finally took the plunge and swatched for one of the scarves. Here's a sneak peek of that scarf.

I absolutely love how the different shades of red play on each other and add a hint of depth to the scarf. I can't wait to be done and outdoor this scarf. :)

If you are a crafter, what are you currently working on? Feel free to share your works in progress and project ideas, and pictures (I love pictures!). And whether you are a crafter or not, I would love to hear your thoughts/ideas on other colors/color combinations I can work these two different scarf patterns in.

Have a wonderful week and see you next week! 

The joy of gift knitting - Part 1

I haven't knitted a gift for someone in a while, and so I was quite excited to make this quick gift for Claudine, our neighbor who has become a dear friend and another grandmother to my son. She follows my blog (hi Claudine!) and really liked the lacy mitts I posted about in this Short Sale blog post (PS: The headbands and mitts are still on sale, so please let me know if you'd like something). It turns out that our birthdays are one day apart! Such a fun coincidence, isn't it? So when Claudine custom ordered a pair of mitts, I thought it would be better as a birthday gift. Now even though our houses are separated by a fence, and we usually pass things over this fence all the time, for some reason I wasn't able to get her gift to her until last week. Here are a few pictures I took of her enjoying her mitts.

 Thank you Claudine, for being so wonderful, caring and supportive. :) I hope you enjoy your mitts!

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week. You won't believe what I made. I'm giddy with excitement about this set of gifts. :) Have a wonderful, wonderful week!

PS: Fundraising for Hurricane Sandy survivors is still ongoing

Please help me support those affected by Hurricane Sandy by purchasing something from the NiseyKnits shop. I will donate 25% of all proceeds from this month to the Red Cross and Samaritan’s Purse to help rebuild affected areas in New York and New Jersey.