New Pattern: Chandler Bridge

I have a new cowl pattern out this week!

Chandler Bridge is a quick lightweight cowl with a textured chevron pattern and features a garter stripe section. Chandler Bridge is named for the Oligocene formation in South Carolina, which is a popular fossil hunting site, and a rich source of information about prehistoric marine life, including sharks, whales, turtles, crocodiles, and marine birds.

Chandler Bridge is worked seamlessly from the bottom up, and the texture pattern has both charted and written instructions.

Chandler Bridge is currently $1 off on Ravelry, through Monday, December 4th!

About 90% of a Sweater

Fellow USians, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving filled with food and friends and family! We ate Thanksgiving dinner three days in a row, and our leftovers are finally down to a manageable level. Anemone came down for a few days, and we squeezed in plenty of baking and crafts while she was here.

I managed to get quite a bit done on my NaKniSweMo Vianne over the long weekend- I have about half the second sleeve left to go, so hopefully I'll be able to bang the rest out tonight or tomorrow. I do not have buttons for this yet, as I have not found the perfect ones despite looking everywhere, but as soon as this sleeve's bound off and the ends are woven in, I'm calling this one done.

Last night I wound up my GAL yarns in anticipation of finishing this sweater soon. I'm really looking forward to actually knitting some GAL projects instead of just commenting on everyone else's!

Quick reminder that Tuesday, November 28, at 11:59 pm US-EST is your last chance to save 25% on select patterns for the Indie GAL with code "GIFTALONG2017"! My sale bundle is here, and the big bundle of all eligible designs is here. Happy Gifting!

Linking up with Crafting On

Gift-A-Long Time!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Last night was the launch of the 5th Annual Indie Design Gift-A-Long, and I'm so excited to be back as a participating designer. I participated back in 2015, and I missed last year for a whole bunch of reasons, and I can't wait to make up for lost time. We're in the sale period now, and the GAL Sale Bundle is full of amazing patterns that are 25% off with code "giftalong2017" through Tuesday, November 28!

I'm looking for a few different things this year. I need a gift for my mum, and I need a quick baby knit for my friend's baby shower in a week and a half. I do have two selfish projects already picked out: I'm going to be knitting a Viola by Noriko Ho and Leventry by Sarah Jordan. I've had my eye on these patterns for ages, and I'm super stoked to finally make the time to knit them up.

I'm definitely keeping my eye out for more great patterns to stock up on and knit during all the fun. The KAL/CAL portion lasts through December 31, so there should be plenty of time to cram in as much knitting and fun as possible!

Still NaKniSweMo-ing

I ran into a hiccup with my Vianne yesterday- with just one more row left on the button band, I convinced myself that I really had picked up too few stitches for it. So, I ripped the whole thing out, picked up 50% more stitches, and plowed through again. It looks much better now, and my buttonholes are spaced out better, and I am really happy that I ripped it out and started over.

I started the first sleeve cap last night, and I'm really happy with how it's looking so far. I'll be able to start knitting the sleeve in the round sometime this evening, and I probably need to get the first sleeve done by this weekend in order to stay on track. I don't think that will be too much of a problem, and I should have plenty of time to finish and block this before the end of the month.

I did find a dropped stitch yesterday morning when I was working on the button band for the second time. It looks like it got missed when I was trying to do a k2tog in the lace section, and while it could have been in an easier place to hide, it should be a pretty quick fix. I didn't have a locking stitch marker on me at the time, but I found a rubber band in my purse and secured the loose stitch with that- thankfully I found it before it dropped down further!

Linking up with Crafting On

Body Down!

Last night after a Netflix marathon, I bound off the body on my Vianne. I decided to pick up for the button band next, instead of going on to the sleeves, because the first secret of Successful Knitting is to Know Thyself, and I know that the last thing I want to do after slogging through two sleeves is to pick up another few hundred stitches.

According to my spreadsheet, the body was about 60% of the whole sweater, which puts me in a really good place for finishing on time, as long as I don't lose any motivation during the sleeves. I will admit, this has been going so well so far that I am feeling a bit more apprehensive than usual about the sleeves. But I also need to start thinking about xmas knitting and an upcoming baby shower for a friend, so hopefully having those things looming in the near future will help me churn the sleeves out really fast.

Most of a Yellow Body

Today is the halfway point in the NaKniSweMo KAL, and I am doing pretty well. I have one more hip increase to go, then a couple more body inches before the bottom ribbing. I'm still having a blast knitting this- the yarn is so soft, and all the different yellows make me so happy. 

I'm hoping to have the body done before the weekend, which should be doable if I get some good evening knitting sessions fit in. This sweater is finally starting to get just a bit unweildy to carry around- I have it in a small project bag now, but I'm going to have to swap it out into a bigger one very soon. My progress spreadsheet is really helping me stay motivated and focused on this, so I'm hoping I won't hit a point of despair during the sleeves.

My NaNoWriMo project is also going pretty well. I'm just a couple hundred words from the halfway point, and my main story is almost finished. Once I'm finished with this main part, I'm going to write a prequel about my villain, and that should get me up to the word count for NaNo. I'm really just thrilled to be finishing my novella, but my competitive streak won't let me quit until I hit 50k words!

New Pattern: Zowza

I am all about big, chunky accessories right now. I can't get enough, I will keep piling them on until I look like a big woolly laundry pile.

Zowza is a thick statement cowl with a cabled chevron pattern. Knit out of a super bulky wool yarn, This cowl is great on its own, layered over smaller cowls, or pulled down around your shoulders.

Zowza is knit flat from a provisional cast-on and grafted.

Zowza is available on Ravelry now, and is $1 off through Saturday, November 18, no code necessary.

Linking up with Crafting On

A Sweater and a Novel Update

According to my spreadsheet, I'm about 30% of the way through my Vianne for NaKniSweMo, which has me feeling really good. I'm doing my best to not get lulled into a false sense of security, though- I know I have to keep steady on this to have a chance of actually finishing it this month. The sleeves are almost certainly going to be a challenge, and they're going to be a third of the sweater. Right now I'm almost finished with the waist decreases, and since I'm modifying this to be a hip-length cardigan, I'll get to coast along for a few inches before starting hip increases.

I'm also making good progress on my NaNoWriMo novel! I'm at 13,667 words out of 50k, which puts me just a tad ahead of schedule. I didn't manage to write much over the weekend, but I've been trying to get at least 2k words every day during the week, so I had a bit of a cushion to tide me over. I'm having a lot of fun with both projects, but it's definitely making my November really crazy already, and we're only a week in! 

Finishing the 2017 Fall Accessories KAL

Today is the last day of the 2017 Fall Accessories KAL, and I can't wait to see everyone's projects! I finished my Gorham over the weekend, and I am thrilled with it. This is definitely going to get lots of wear this fall, before it gets too cold for lace hats!

Everyone has until 11:59PM tonight in your own time zone to finish your projects! Finishing means binding off and weaving in ends, but you don’t have to have them blocked.

Since life happens and we're all busy, I'm letting everyone have through Friday, November 10 to post in the FO thread. I will announce prize winners next Monday!

Day Three

It's the third day of November, and I am making pretty good progress on both my novel and my sweater. I made a handy little spreadsheet to keep track of all my stitches and calculate the percentage of each part of my sweater, and I'm just short of 10% complete, which puts me in a great position for finishing this month. I'm not sure yet if I'll need to tear my house apart to look for my missing eighth ball of yarn, but I've marked on my spreadsheet how far this first ball will need to go for me to call off the search.

I've had two good writing days as well, and I'm hoping for a few more before it starts getting difficult. I'm at 5,728/50k words so far, and I'm having lots of fun with my main character and story. My goal is to write every day, but tomorrow is the annual winter bazaar up in the city, so I know I'll probably only get a couple of paragraphs written.

I also finished my Gorham for the Wayward KAL, and it just needs ends woven in and photos taken. I have a couple of cowl patterns I'm working on writing up that I want to get ready for editing this weekend as well, but with the bazaar taking up most of tomorrow, I'm not going to worry about pushing myself too hard.

Sweatering and Noveling: The Beginning

And now it is November (how the heck did that happen???), and I am ready to cast on for my NaKniSweMo sweater. I finally swatched last night, and pulled out most of the yarn (I know I have another ball somewhere, but I can't find it, and it's stressing me out because I'm sure I'll need it). I have knit a sweater in less than a month before, but it's been a while, so we'll see how this venture goes.

I also have to start my NaNoWriMo novel today. I'm feeling pretty good about it, but having two big projects starting at once is a little bit foreboding. I tend to have a lot of trouble focusing on one big project for any length of time- I'd rather work on several smaller projects. But this month will be a good workout for my brain, and I love the communities that build up around these endeavors, so I'm going to try my best to finish my sweater and my novel.