One Day Flash Sale Happening Now!! - 40% off all items in the NiseyKnits Shop

I don't usually do this, but I thought this sale was too good not to share. All day today, all items in my NiseyKnits Etsy shop, as well as in over 55 other Etsy shops, is on sale for 40%  OFF using the coupon code XOXOSFETSY. Search for XOXOSFETSY and you will find all the shops that are participating in this sale.

I have quite a few of my chunky procragratification infinity scarves on there, as well as other chunky and lacy scarves on sale. You can also see all the other shops participating in this flash sale here: http://sfetsy.blogspot.com/2013/02/sfetsy-crush-40-off-one-day-only.html

The sale lasts all day today (Monday Feb 4th) till 11:59pm PST. You can visit my Etsy shop here. Hope you have a wonderful day!

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!

And the winner is...

This is sooo hard because....well...I only had 3 people comment on last week's giveaway post, and one of the commenters wasn't entering the competition. I can't pick, I can't. Soooooooo...both Pious and Nik are going to get copies of the book! Yay!! Please email niseyknits@gmail.com with your mailing addresses so I can get the books to you, Pious and Nik. In other news, I'm running a week-long 25% off sale on a few items in my Etsy shop right now. Take a look at the items and snag something warm and cosy for yourself or a loved one.  Visit the sale section in my Etsy shop here.

And finally, I'm going to slow things down a bit here on my blog for the next couple of weeks - a month. I'm taking a bit of a vacation, meaning that my blog posts for the next few weeks is going to be full of pictures, with no real theme. I need a bit of a breather, but I also don't want to lose touch with you all. So, if you see mostly pictures in my blog posts, please do not fret. I hope you'll like the pretty pics all the same.

To end, here's a quick roundup of items I've worked on recently.

Some Procragratification Scarves...

And a few Scrunchable Scarves...

Enjoy the rest of the week everyone! :)

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!

New Pattern: The Lacy Cables Scarf and Hat set

Just in time for Christmas, I have a new pattern out! The "Lacy Cables Scarf and Hat" set was published by Tangled online magazine just last week. I'm so excited for it! It is a simple scarf with left and right leaning cables, with a bit of lace added for a light touch.

The hat was my first attempt at designing a hat. I really labored over it, even making two different samples of the hat to make sure that it looked good and made sense to whoever bought the pattern.

The scarf and hat samples were knit in Berroco Vintage Chunky, and I have to say that I  love this yarn! I've worked with the worsted weight Vintage, but this was my first time knitting in the Chunky weight. In fact, I just ordered the yarn in the Mistletoe colorway, which is this vibrant rich green color (almost like emeralds). I'm going to knit a set for myself! Yay!

Here are the specs for the pattern. Head over to the Tangled Website and snag a copy of the pattern for your own Christmas knitting deliciousness! Happy Knitting!

Materials: Yarn:

Berroco Vintage Chunky (50% acrylic, 40% wool, 10% nylon; 130 yd [120 m]/100 g [3.5 oz]): #61104,

Scarf, 3 skeins

Hat, 1 skein

Needles:

Size 8 (5 mm) 32” circular needle

Size 10 (6 mm) 32” circular needle

Size 10 (6 mm) straight needles

Notions:

7 Markers (m) (optional)

Cable needle

Tapestry needle

Working hard for Christmas

I am so sorry this blog post is a day (or two) late. I've been working really really hard to finish the custom orders I received at the Bazaar Bizarre Fair two weekends ago. All the members of my family are also either sick or recuperating, which has made my work go slower than expected. For this I sincerely apologize. However, I thought I would duck in here quickly and share some of the things I've been working on for the custom orders. Here they are.

There's a couple of Procragratification Infinity Scarves...

... a few chain scarves

    

...and my newest, the Fibonacci-inspired chunky cowls.

      

 Remember, the 15% off coupon (SFETSYHOLIDAY2012) is still active. And if you order now, you will definitely get it before Christmas (no custom orders though, sorry). Visit my Etsy Shop here for more knitted goodness!

Have a wonderful week!

Prepping for the Bizarre Bazaar Fair

Hi everyone, I've been busy fighting off a terrible cold and prepping for my first major holiday fair, the Bizarre Bazaar Fair. It's quite hectic here so I'm just going to leave you with some pretty photos from a photoshoot that my friend Sam Kessie did for Eden's Corner Hair Salon (in Atlanta, GA), using my scarves.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

The joy of gift knitting - Part 2

Last week I took an impromptu trip to Indiana to visit one of my BFFs. She just had a baby girl and had requested (more like demanded...hehehhe) that I knit the little cutie a hat, a sweater and a blanket. I bought the yarn (Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Solids & Twists) on my birthday and started on the awesome Moderne Baby Blanket by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne from the Mason-Dixon book. I love this blanket pattern and thought it would be perfect for this little girl. What I forgot was the fact that the stitch count go progressively larger as the knitting went along, and that I was also supposed to be preparing for a craft fair as well as working on a pattern submission. Eek!

Once the blanket was finished, I started on the sweater. The pattern I used was Lillie's Baby Cardigan by Laura Edwards. Would you believe this was my first time knitting a baby sweater? And it went so fast too! I don't even know why it took me so long to make one.

And finally, the hat(s). I knew from the get-go that I was going to knit another Aviatrix baby hat by Justine Turner (I made the first one for my son last year). It's such an awesome design and works so well for those little babies. Anyway, the first one I made was in just one color, so this time I decided to be more adventurous and do two colors. Since the baby has a small head, I only worked 3 repeats of the main pattern. Oh, I forgot to mention that I actually knit this while I was with mommy and baby in Indiana, and as I didn't have a button on me, I didn't technically finish the hat. Oh well! Mommy is better at sewing than me anyways. :)

Now since the baby couldn't technically wear the hat (due to the conspicuous absence of a button), I had to knit another hat during the trip. I found this super quick pattern by Woolly Wormhead, Baby Rollin' Beret, and whipped one up quickly before I left.

And one more just because...here's the whole set together.(Sorry about the weird angle).

It was too short a trip, but I'm so glad I was able to see my friend and her daughter, share in her joy and give to them from my craft. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and see you all next week.

PS: If you are looking for a lovely holiday gift to give to friends and loved ones during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, visit my Etsy shop at http://NiseyKnits.etsy.com and use the coupon code SFETSYHOLIDAY2012 for 15% off your entire purchase!

Also, if you live in the Bay Area, please visit me at the Bazaar Bizarre Fair in San Francisco on Dec 1st and 2nd in Booth #156! http://www.bazaarbizarre.org/sanfrancisco/shows/holidayshow/

Saturday December 1st & Sunday December 2nd 2012 Concourse Exhibition Center EAST HALL 620 Seventh St. (at Brannan) San Francisco, CA 94103-4901 Saturday & Sunday 11-6PM – FREE TO ATTEND

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.

Melody's Stole: A new free pattern

Earlier this year, I was contacted by Sandra of www.sandrasingh.com about designing a shawl using her newly launched lace yarn line, Sandrasingh.com Lace. I have to tell you that this yarn is one of the softest I've worked with. I really wanted to do justice to this yarn with my design. My initial plan was to redo my Evelyne pattern for her, but the more I looked at and played with the yarn, the more I wanted to do something different. I wanted a zigzag design to the shawl, but not one with sharp turns. I wanted it to be super lacy like Evelyne, and I knew that I wanted some garter bands separating the lace sections. I also wanted a zigzag border to match the zigzagging of the stole's body. After a few swatches, I finalized the pattern and got to work on this stole in May. It took a little bit of time as I was working on this design and a few other secret projects. I finished in June and sent it over to Sandra, who loved it (Thank God!). Here it is, Melody's Stole.

I'm so glad the pattern is out now. I hope you love it as much as I do. Did I mention that it's free? Visit this link to download it from Sandrasingh.com. Here's what you'll need to make your own Melody's Stole.

Size 21in x 61 in

Yarn Sandrasingh.com Lace (100% merino; 950 yd [869 m]/100 g [3.53 oz]): Electric Blue, 0.5 skeins

Gauge 14 sts and 16 rows = 4" in Right or Left Diagonal Openwork Pattern 32 rows = 4 inches in garter stitch.

Tools US #8 (5 mm): 32" circular (cir) needle or straight needles 2 Markers (m) Yarn needle

We are planning a KAL (Knit-A-Long) for this shawl, just in time for Christmas gifts. Please leave a comment below and let me know if you would be interested in participating in this fun activity.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

PS: Please share with your friends and family who might also be interested. KALs are more fun with more people, don't you think?