Spring 2012 in Pictures

I'm having what my family would call one continuous love affair with the British countryside. My photo albums on Facebook are so long that most people who even attempt to look at them must give up after the third scroll-and-load (but maybe that's being generous?). But the thing is, how can you not live here and see that certain times must be captured? How can you not want to immortalize the fragile young growth of English Spring?

Spring Collection Preview

Getting ready to release some of my patterns for the new season, some things have taken longer than I thought, while others are ready to go, so I thought it would only be fair to start releasing those patterns that are ready go into the world!

I have just released Lady of the Blue Forest for individual sale. Later this Spring, it will also be part of new pattern collection, featuring the patterns below. Keep an eye on my blog and my Ravelry designer page, and I'll let you know when each pattern is available, plus when the collection finally makes its fashionably late appearance!

Lady of the Blue Forest

Marja

Luminosity

From this Day Forward

Shells and Sea Glass Beret

Summer's Day

Wind and Willow

And finally...

Cabowls

The collection will be available as a Ravelry download for 12 GBP (price subject to change). In the meantime, keep track of the individual patterns are they're released on my Ravelry group!

Springtime and New Patterns

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Can I made up for it with some pretty pictures?

 

I'm also putting the finishing touches (well, a lot of finishing touches, but finishing ones, nonetheless!) on my Spring/Summer collection, with a hesitant release date of mid to late May. The most exciting thing about it? We're heading to Spain for the photoshoot!

Okay, well, not actually for the photo shoot, actually to see our wonderful family, but knitwear will be a nice distraction from the beautiful scenery and sunshine. I've finished the samples and am now indulging in a bit of lightweight non-design knitting while I get all the technical bits done. In the meantime, here's a bit of a preview for you:

Lady of the Blue Forest

Lady of the Golden Leaf (Triangle version of shawl above)

Luminosity

As always, there's lots more to see on my Ravelry Projects Page!

And before I forget, The Sanguine Gryphon recently released this little beauty as part of their Spring collection:

Gismonda

Happy knitting!

The rumours are true...

...there's going to be a Spring and Summer collection!

This season's focus will be light-weight yarns, bright colours, and we'll have a few garments thrown into the mix. I'm working hard to get the samples and patterns ready, but it's coming together well, and I'm aiming for a release of April-May. Will keep you posted on that.

In the meantime, you can watch my Ravelry Group or my Twitter feed for calls for test knitting.  You can also keep an eye on my Ravelry Notebook page, where the samples keep popping up!

A Search for Signs of Spring

I love self-employment, if only for the fact that I dictate the hours of my day. To be honest, most of my days are spent working pretty frantically for a deadline. But since I'm 50% Tech Editor and 50% Designer, when I have the luxury, I like to split my day in half, and spend the time of transition doing something I enjoy.

Today was a walk, in search of design inspiration and signs of Spring. And by Spring I really mean lambs. Except for the fact that it's still cold enough to flare up my exercise allergy (I wish I weren't serious about that), the blue skies made up for it.

So I went on a walk, only to find a lack of sheep. In Wales.

 

Nothing.

Not even in our back yard.

In short, it was shocking. And the taunting evidence of this mythic sheep was not helping.

 

 

Liars!

I stumbled upon other signs of Spring along the way. Though not nearly as cute as lambs (because let's face it, nothing is), they were promising:

 

The snow drops were snow dropping

The blue tits were tittering

There was even a cat, which to poor, pet-starved person such as myself, is a big deal.

This was as close as I could get to it.

Finally, at the end of an arduous journey uphill, past empty field after empty field and with itchy, itchy legs (allergies!), I found my reward.

Lambs.

LAMBS.

 Task completed. Now it's time to get back to work.

Yarny Yarn Yarn!

I despaired in January when I gave up buying yarn until July so I could buy a new camera. But my self-control has been rewarded; I was amazingly lucky enough to win a yarn haul a few weeks ago, on a raffle on Ravelry where proceeds went to send a Raveler to do dental work in Senegal.

I don't usually win things, so it wasn't a surprise that the package took so long to get to me, cost me 22 pounds to get out of Customs limbo, and then floated around the post system for nearly a week before I biked to the sorting centre and got it myself. But I have it! And it's beautiful! Thank you so much, Bradymom29 for organizing this and for all the helpers and volunteers.

And now for pictures.

 

 

Gorgeous Malabrigo Sock in Abril

Yarn Pirate Superwash Merino Sock in Hard Cider

Classic Elite Inca Alpaca in Rio Red (on my husband's knee)

Flydesigns Monarch in Myst

Textiles a Mano Vail in Autumn (destined to be a pair of husband socks)

And a cute sheepy pendent!

Also a lovely skein of Colinette Jitterbug in Oyster Blush (which didn't make it on to the camera I'd given up yarn for before I forgot my memory card at home and the internal memory was full). To top it all off, it was a gorgeous first day of March and we spent the late afternoon in the park. So in celebration here's a bonus squirrel:

Happy almost Spring!

Letting Go

I'm always somewhat loathe to give up my knitwear, which makes me feel as though my mantle of "Selfish Knitter" is particularly apt. However, the time comes in a young woman's life where she has to reevaluate her wardrobe and decide what's actually worth keeping.

The U-Neck vest is special to me because I worked on while I was in Peru and, despite language barriers, used it to teach a girl to knit. But specialness kind of stops there. It's always been a bit too small and too tight across the shoulders, so I thought if I wasn't going to wear it, I should give it to someone who would appreciate it more. Looking back at a previous blog post about this vest, I can see how far my knitting has come; back then, this vest was "good enough" that I was ecstatic with it; now that I can look at it with an eye that's more aware of what looks good on me, my affection has cooled enough to let it go to the good home of my friend Jo.

Claudia was the first hat I made for my boyfriend. Well, the second if you count its first reincarnation as a hat that didn't fit. And of course, the second one didn't either, but since both he and I have huge heads, someone else could enjoy it (namely, EllaJ).

Some purple tank top from an earlier issue of Vogue Knitting (not pictured) was one of my first "serious" knitting projects, but it also fell about 4 inches above my belly button. It's found a new home with my friend Kaz.


My fellow Washingtonian ex-pat and friend Rachel was kind enough to host the clothing exchange and invite friends with extremely good taste. So while my knitwear might have been hard to give up, the trade was definitely worth it.

 

For pretty, comfortable t-shirts (and an angora jumper),

pretty details, and a wardrobe ready for Spring.