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!

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

Update - Melody's Stole Knit-a-Long Weeks 3 & 4

The past few weeks have been quite slow in terms of knitting this stole. Almost all of us fell sick in my household, meaning that most of my knitting projects are way behind schedule (I'm currently recovering from a terrible cold). I also traveled to Indiana for 3 days, which also reduced my knitting time (and got me off schedule a bit so I missed putting up an update), and then Thanksgiving was here. Still I tried my best to knit a few rows of the stole to keep the momentum going. Here it is.

I also wanted to share how I keep track of my rows when knitting from multiple charts. I know there are row counters around, but because my charts don't have the same number of rows, I actually prefer to write down and mark off the rows as I finish them. To do this I usually carry a piece of paper/a small notebook and a pen/pencil in the knitting bag (ahem...ziploc bag) that I have the knitting in.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I'll see you 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! (THIS WEEKEND) 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

Update: Melody Stole Knit-A-Long Week 1

The Melody's Stole Knit-A-Long is trucking along nicely. It's not late to join if you'd like to work on a lace project with other knitters and get help as we all go along. The pattern is free, and it's free to join the KAL also. You can use whatever yarn you want for the stole, or you can purchase the Lace Yarn used in the original pattern from Sandrasingh.com. She's offering the yarn at 15% off during this time period for the KAL. Each skein has 950yds, so you can make TWO stoles out of one skein if you wanted. So awesome. I'm going to be making my stole out of the Sandrasingh.com Yarn Lace, in the Love Potion colorway.

It's so pretty isn't it?

I cast on for the stole on Monday night and knit the first 10 rows of the pattern (the setup rows, which is all garter stitch and the edging for the stole). I'm loving how it looks. It's so pretty and so soft! I'll check back with you next week Thursday to keep you up to date with the progress.

Well, don't hesitate any longer and come join us in the knit-a-long. We are waiting for you! :)

A sneak peek, and fundraising for Hurricane Sandy survivors

I can't believe it's November already! Where is the year galloping off to? Frankly I'm a little frightened at the speed with which the years are passing by. Plus it means I have less time than I think I do for knitting. Oh well... For the past two weeks I've been super busy working on a pattern for a scarf and a matching hat. I have never designed a hat before, and it's been quite daunting. Figuring out the math for the hat was challenging, mainly because I wanted to keep the pattern on the hat even while shaping the top of the hat. Anyway, here's a sneak peek of this pattern. It should be out soon, just in time for Christmas gift knitting!

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Fundraising for Hurricane Sandy survivors

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 in rebuilding affected places in New York and New Jersey.

Melody's Stole Knit-A-Long

Hello! I hope you are all having a great week so far. For those of you on the East Coast, I hope you and yours are well and safe during this Hurricane Sandy. Today's post is to give you a quick update on the Melody's Stole Knit-A-Long (KAL). The official start date has been set for Monday Nov. 5th (next week Monday). I'm working with Sandra Singh, the owner of Sandrasingh.com, and she is hosting the KAL in her Ravelry Group here. If you are already a knitter and would like to try out lace knitting, this pattern is easy enough to follow along, and there will be lots of hand holding by me and other knitters in the KAL.

Best of all, Sandra has been so kind to offer 15% off her Sandrasingh.com Lace for anyone participating in this KAL (You can purchase the yarn and download the pattern here.) So, you have a free pattern, 15% off a humongous skein of yarn (that skein is enough for 2 stoles), and a lovely group of knitters to help and encourage you through this project. What are you waiting for? Come join us in this fun KAL here: Melody Stole KAL.

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?