Indie Design Gift Along 2015

Knitters!

This year I'm participating in the Indie Design Gift-Along.

What is that you ask?

It's a massive pattern sale + knit-along featuring the work of 335 designer from 30 countries, with over 5,500 knitters from around the world participating! It's all hosted over on Ravelry, and here's the official description.:

What is Gift-A-Long? It’s a multi-designer promotion to help you kick your holiday gift-making into high gear!

The Indie Design Gift-A-Long is a 6 week long KAL/CAL of holiday gifts made from patterns designed by a rather extensive list of independent designers. From Thursday, November 19th at 8:00 pm US EST - Friday, November 27, 2015 at 11:59 pm US EST tons of indie designers will be discounting between 5 - 20 of their patterns 25% for this event. Use coupon code: giftalong2015. 

Once you’ve got your Gift-A-Long patterns, we encourage you to join a relevant KAL/CAL! (For instance, if it is a cowl, please join the cowl KAL/CAL.) To join, simply write a post in the KAL/CAL thread you want to join, including the pattern name you will be knitting and a link to your project page. KAL/CAL participants are eligible for lots of lovely prizes but you gotta post to win!

KAL/CALs will run from Thursday, November 19th at 8pm (US-EST) through our New Years Eve party, Thursday, December 31 at midnight (US-EST), plenty of time to knock out all your holiday knitting and crocheting. We have games, tons of prizes, great conversation, and a lot of fun, so pull up a chair and join us! Please use #giftalong2015 to tag your social media-ing!

On your mark…get set…. GIFT!!

I've got 13 patterns for sale as part of the Gift-A-Long, all specially selected as quicker knits, perfect for gift giving. You can get them for 25% off in my Ravelry shop from Thursday, November 19th at 8:00 pm US EST - Friday, November 27, 2015 at 11:59 pm US EST - just use the code giftalong2015

The Gift-A-Long is a great way to kick your holiday knitting into high gear (and you can win tons of awesome prizes) so head on over to Ravelry and sign up!

(Stats infographic courtesy of 80skeins)

Tried and True Review: Slow Fashion October Edition

A Tried & True Review, where I look back at old project and discuss how it's held up since I made it, both successes and closet rejects, in an attempt to show how my projects have stood the test of time and/or to learn from the mistakes of my yesterdays.

The Original:  Waltz in Grey and School House Tunic

Made: June 2011 (4.25 years old) and September 2011 (4 years old) (you'd also think my hair doesn't change much either...)

Update: If you follow along in the sewing or knitting social media worlds, you've probably heard of Slow Fashion October by now. If not, the short version is that it's taking the month of October to think consciously about our wardrobes, how do we add to them?, what is enough?, how does making your own clothes influence that? etc.

I've been thinking about a lot of these topics for a while both in these Tried & True Reviews and in my post on Ethical Fashion and why I started making my own underthings.

It's week three of Slow Fashion October now, with the theme of LOVED: proudest accomplishment / most loved item / most frequently worn item / thing you saved up for / investment pieces / thing you worked a long time on / oldest thing that’s still in rotation. And I thought it would be as good a time as any to feature my two most frequently worn makes in a Tried and True Review.

If it's fall or winter and that top is clean, there's a good chance I'm wearing it and even if it's not clean, I'm probably still wearing the cardigan anyway.

Fit: In truth, I really should have knit the next size of the cardigan up, so the collar doesn't really fold back as far as it should, but I just give it a firm blocking whenever I wash it and it's an open cardigan anyway, so it doesn't matter too much. The tunic fits well, though sometimes the armband elastic feels a bit snug.

Style/Materials: The cardigan was knit out of an undyed alpaca/nylon sock yarn. It takes a licking and keep on ticking (as they say). It's a bit itchy on bare arms, but the beautiful natural grey color goes with pretty much anything, which is why is gets worn so very much. The fabric for the tunic is in gingham (my favorite) and is a thick cotton that feel almost like a dish towel, it's just ridiculously cozy. As for style, I still feel like the tunic looks vaguely like maternity wear (and I made a bunch during my pregnancy), but if I throw a more fitted cardigan over it, it doesn't matter as much.

Construction: The tunic was a simple sew, but the cardigan took forever to knit. I've had to replace the thread button loop on the tunic once and the yarn is starting to pill a bit, but both these pieces have survived four years of hard wear and will last for many more. Well worth the effort.

Lesson(s) Learned: Positive ease is a good thing in a cardigan.

Final Verdict: Something doesn't have to be perfect to be your favorite.

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Adding A Ribbon Backing to Your Knit Button Band

Why Reinforce A Button Band?

Both of my recent pattern releases, Lady Heartrose and Prairie Wife, suggest that you use ribbon to reinforce the button bands. If you're one of those knitters who hates finishing, you may think why bother?  You certainly don't have to, most of my sweaters to date don't have any kind of reinforcement, but there are several reasons to consider it. 

1. It will keep your fabric from curling (though ribbing may already take care of that).
2. It will help prevent gaping at the bust if you intend to button up.
3. It will help prevent the button band and button holes from getting stretched out over time.
4. If it's a steeked piece, it can cover up the cut ends of yarn. 
5. It's a nice little surprise inside the cardigan and looks really pretty!

What Supplies Do I Need?

1. Your blocked cardigan.
2. Approximately 2 yards of a sturdy ribbon, such as Petersham, Grosgrain, or other firmly woven ribbon, that just as wide or slightly less wide than your knit button band. If you're doing something like a long sweater coat, measure the length first. (The ribbon used in this post is from Vintage Ribbons on Etsy). 
3. A sewing machine with buttonhole capabilities. (You could always sew the buttonholes by hand, but this tutorial won't cover that).
4. The buttons you are planing to use. 
5. Needle and thread to match your yarn.
6. Pins or clips.
7. Seam ripper or button hole cutter.
8. Fray Check (optional).

Measuring and Marking your Ribbon

The first thing to do is measure, cut and mark your ribbon. To measure, lay your finished and blocked cardigan on a flat surface. It's very important that the piece is blocked, otherwise the band may be too short. Match the length of your ribbon to the length of the knit band and add an extra inch or so to each side, enough that you can fold it under to make a neat edge (as seen above). Cut a second piece of ribbon to the same length and set aside. The unmarked ribbon will be used to back the button side of the cardigan. Now we'll mark the buttonhole side.

With the ribbon flat against the buttonhole side. Place a pin at the top of each knit buttonhole. If you have a patterned ribbon, you may be able to use the pattern to make your placement more exact/even, but it's more important that the pins line up with the actual knit buttonholes.

Testing the Buttonhole Size

Using a scrap piece of ribbon and the buttonhole feature on your machine, test out your buttonhole size to make sure the button can fit through easily. The ribbon button hole is likely to be a lot longer than the knit one. 

Once you have confirmed the proper size, mark the ends of the buttonhole on your ribbon (the top being the pin you already put in). 

Use your machine and sew the buttonholes on the ribbon.

Finishing the Buttonholes

Before you slice into them, double check that your buttonholes still line up. If they do use a seam ripper or buttonhole cutter to open up your buttonholes. Adding a drop of fray check to the buttonhole as desired. Set aside to dry if using fray check for the recommended amount of time. 

Attaching the Ribbon to the Sweater

Fold over the top and bottom of the ribbon, whip-stitching closed as desired, then making sure that the buttonholes line up and both the ribbon and the button band are flat, pin or clip the ribbon to the inside of the button band. Starting on the outside edge, whip-stitch ribbon to knit fabric. To help keep the stitches even, use the knit fabric as your guide, here I did one stitch per knit row. Work your way down the outside edge and up the inside edge, making sure the ribbon lays flat. Unless your button band is very wide, there's no need to tack down the ribbon buttonhole around the knit buttonhole beyond securing the ribbons at the edges.

For more detailed instruction on how to whip-stitch see DMC's embroidery guide).

Repeat process for button side. 

Sew on buttons on across from buttonhole and you're done! Enjoy wearing your snazzy-looking and sturdy button bands!

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Lady Heartrose - PDF Pattern

$8.00

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Introducing: Prairie Wife

Sometimes, a yarn and a design just come together like toast and jam. This, for me, is one of those designs. Earlier this year I was contacted by Shalimar Yarns to see if I'd like to do some work with their yarn. A week or so later, I had a sweater's worth of Breathless DK in Silver Sage to work with. This is a ridiculously beautiful yarn, and an utter joy to work with, so I wanted to do it justice with the design. I ended doing way more swatching than usual to get the drape just right. 

I've long been collecting images of pioneer women with the intent of doing some designs around it, and that came to the fore here. I've been especailly entranced by the work of South Dakota painter Harvey Dunn, and the western painting of N.C. Wyeth. Prairie Wife was specifically influenced by Wyeth's The Homesteaders (left) and Dunn's The Prairie is My Garden (right). 

I wanted to capture the feel of these images, do homage to the grace and strength of these pioneer women,  as well as make some nods to western fashion. So I started off the design with the yoke and back box pleat, which is borrowed from Western/cowboy shirts, but made it knitterly and feminine by the inclusion of a floral-inspired lace motif. The pleats and loose-knit fabric keeps its breezy and swingy, while 3/4 sleeve keep your hands free for work. 

I don't know if I'm allowed to say this about my own patterns, but I adore the way this one turned out, which was even better than it originally was in my head. 

Prairie Wife is worked in pieces from the bottom up, with the collar and button bands picked up and worked after seaming. The shaping is all done with the pleats, so the body is simple back and forth Stockinette stitch, until you get to the armsceye/yoke. 

Again, a big thanks to Bristol Ivy for the lovely photos (complete with cows!) and Martha Wissing for the technical editing. 

Pattern Details 

Sizes

Bust Circumference: 33¼ (34 ¾, 36 ¼, 39 ¼, 44 ½, 46 ¼, 50, 53 ¾)”/ 84.5 (88.5, 92, 99.5, 113, 117.5, 127, 136.5)cm. To be worn with 2-3”/5-8 cm of positive ease.

Sample knit in size 39 ¼, with approximately 2”/5 cm of positive ease. (Wondering about ease?- Check this post out!)

Yarn

4 (4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6) skeins Shalimar Yarns Breathless DK in Silver Sage [75% Merino, 15% Cashmere, 10% Silk]; 270 yds (247 m) per 141g or approximately 1042 (1088, 1145, 1217, 1307, 1336, 1422, 1489) yards of DK weight yarn.

Purchase

Prairie Wife is available for purchase for $7.00 USD via the following methods:

Ravelry  //  Ms. Cleaver Creations  //  Love Knitting (coming soon)

Really love swingy A-line sweaters? FOR ONE WEEK ONLY - get both Prairie Wife and Lady Heartrose for $10.50 (Discount automatically applied to Ravelry purchases. Already have Lady Heartrose? The discount will still apply! Offer good until 10/8/15)

Ravelry  //  Ms. Cleaver Creations

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Introducing: Lady Heartrose

I've already written a fair amount about Lady Heartrose, which has been way too long delayed by other deadline knitting, but I'm pleased to finally release it out into the world!

A companion to the pint-sized Heartrose, the grown up version is a ladylike A-line cardigan with slighty puffed 3/4 to bracelet length sleeves and the same sweet heart cable down the front. It buttons all the way down if you wish, but can also be worn buttoned at the top-only for maximum swing, as shown here. 

The pattern is knit from the bottom-up seamlessly, with raglan-style sleeve. The button band is then picked up and worked last. The cable elements are confined to the starts and rends of rows, which,  when combined with the simple, seamless construction, would make this a great beginner/car/ tv-knitting sweater. 

The sample is knit up in the soft and drapey Swans Island Washable Wool DK in Malbec, a rich wine-like color, that suits this more grown-up version. 

A big thanks to Bristol Ivy for the photos and Martha Wissing for the technical editing. 

If you really love A-Line sweaters, wait for a second pattern announcement and special discount coming later this week! (Don't want to miss a pattern? Sign up for the newsletter!)

Pattern Details 

Sizes

Bust Circumference: 34 (36, 37 ¾, 39 ¼, 40 ½, 42 ½, 46 ½, 50)”/ 86.5 (91.5, 96, 99.5, 103, 108, 118, 127) cm. To be worn with 1-2 inches of positive ease.

Sample knit in size 39 ¼, with approximately 2”/5 cm of positive ease. (Wondering about ease?- Check this post out!)

Yarn

9 (10, 10, 11, 11, 12, 13, 14) skeins Swans Island Washable Wool DK in Malbec/EWS205 [100% Washable Organic Merino Wool]; 140 yds [128 m] per 50g or approximately 1210 (1310, 1390, 1450, 1515, 1600, 1775, 1940) yards of DK weight yarn.

Purchase

Lady Heartrose is available for purchase for $7.00 USD via the following methods:

Ravelry  //  Ms. Cleaver Creations  //  Love Knitting (coming soon)

Want to knit a matching adult/kid set? Get the pair for $3.oo off the individual prices! (Discount automatically applied to Ravelry purchases. Already have Heartrose? The discount will still apply!)

Ravelry  //  Ms. Cleaver Creations

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Coming Soon....

Two new sweater patterns coming soon.  Want to find out when they do? Sign up for the mailing list below!

What is Ease? (Or How to Choose the Size you Want)

What is Ease?

In a lot of knitting patterns for garments you'll find something that looks like this:

Sizes 41 1/2 (44 1/2, 47 1/2, 50 1/2, 53 1/2, 57)" bust circumference; shown in size 41 1/2", modeled with 8 1/2" of positive ease

If your pattern includes this, fantastic!

If it also includes something like intended to be worn with 8-10" positive ease, even better!

These two bits of information are going to be very helpful in choosing a size. 

Ease is all about Fit and Style

When I first started knitting, I thought you just picked the size closest to your bust measurement and went from there. That's certainly an option, but it probably won't get you the best fit. 

When I design a garment, I think about two things related to fit (well more than that obviously, but stick with me here) - wearing ease and design ease. Every body has measurements. These measurements are the basic starting point for a good fit, but then as a designer, I add extra fabric to those measurements for ease of movement and style.

Oakdale, designed by me, with zero ease

Demonstrating Negative Ease

Positive Versus Negative Ease

Positive ease means that the garment measurements are larger than your actual measurements. For example, a 40" sweater on a 38" bust has two inches of positive ease. A 37" sweater on that same 38" bust would have 1" of negative ease. A 38" sweater on a 38" bust would have no or zero ease.

Wearing Ease 

Wearing ease contributes to ease of movement. Think of cutting out a piece of sturdy paper to your exact bust measurement and taping it on. Now try taking a deep chest breath, or bending over to pick something up, or reaching forward. We move a lot and moving requires ease, or a little bit of extra space to allow for that movement.

Now a piece of paper is stiff and inflexible, woven fabrics can be fairly rigid too, which is why wearing ease is more important in woven garments. Fortunately knitted fabric has a bit more give, it stretches as you move, so you can get away with little, no, or even negative ease, depending on the flexibility of your knitted fabric. So that super snug, ribbed Lana Turner-esque sweater? The fabric has a lot of give, so you can still breathe, hooray!

But just because you don't necessary need wearing ease in the bust, doesn't mean that you wouldn't want in other places, like the sleeve and  armhole. Because we all like to lift our arms right?

Also, in general, I think that unless you're reinforcing your buttonbands, you want cardigans to have some positive ease so you don't have button-band gappage. (Because nobody wants that)

Cormac with 8 1/2" of positive ease

Toulouse with several inches of positive ease as modeled in Knitscene

Toulouse with slight positive ease as knitted by Orlaflo

Design Ease

If wearing ease is about how you move, design ease is about how you look. Fashion goes back on forth a lot on what silhouette is in. In the 1940's, like the photo about, the snug "sweater girl" look was the thing, and they used zero or negative design ease to achieve it. Nowadays, we sport a much more relaxed look, and to create it you need to add design ease on top of the wearing ease.

I recommend about 8" of ease for the Cormac sweater. Clearly you don't need 8 extra inches of fabric around your bust to move,  so this is largely design ease. If you want your sweater to look similar to the one in the mag, you're going to need to choose a size somewhere 6-10 inches larger than your bust measurement. The smaller your bust, the less ease you'd need proportionally than larger bust, i.e. a 32" bust would be fine closer to 6" extra, while a 42" bust would want closer to 9 or 10"  

For a good look at how ease can change the final look, check out the 200+ examples of the Toulouse pullover.  In the magazine it was styled with a great deal of positive ease, which result in a slouchy/boho look, but many knitters have chosen to knit it much closer to their actual measurements with very little positive ease, like the example from Orlaflo on the right.  Both options are equally "right," depending on what you want the final look to be.

One note of caution: if a pattern indicates a "to be worn with xx inches of ease" it usually means that the underlying body measurements used to design the piece are that many inches smaller. For example, if I design a 40" sweater to be worn with 4" of positive ease, it means that when I do my baseline calculations for that sweater I'm starting with the standard measurements that go with a 36" bust, so if you chose to do less ease or more ease than suggested it may not fit as well in the shoulders or arms. 

In Conclusion

With these two types of ease in mind, and good pattern information, you can confidently choose a size that will get you the finished fit you desire!

Cormac and Toulouse Photos courtesy of Knitscene/Harper Point

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Introducing: Hemingway

It's August, but that doesn't mean its not sweater season at Ms. Cleaver Creations!

Hot on the heels of the Cormac release, I'm pleased to present, not one, but two new sweaters - Hemingway: Men's and Women's. Or as I call them, Him-ingway and Her-ingway. 

This design can be credited to power of the corkboard squares in my studio space. Sometime, a long time ago (before July 2012 at least), I had the idea of trying to design a pattern that used knit and purl stitches to make a plaid fabric. I was pretty happy with the way the swatch turned out, but I never quite figured out what to do with it. So it stayed pinned there on my corkboard for ages.  

Then I started playing around with a simple, pieced shawl-collar men's pullover. And thought, hey, that plaid thing just might work! The folks at Twist Collective seemed to agree, so much so that they asked to do a women's version too. I panicked briefly, said yes, and then started looking for my first ever sample knitter. 

The main differences between the two are that the women's has waist shaping and is generally shorter in the body, sleeves, and armhole depth, as well as narrower in the shoulders. The men's is straight through the waist (easy to lengthen for the extra-tall fellas) and has a slightly wider collar and ribbing. Both are worked in pieces and seams, with the shawl collar that is picked up and worked after seaming. 

The sample yarn used for both sweaters is Valley Yarn's Northhampton, which I really enjoyed knitting (the men's sweater) with. It's just a super solid 100% wool yarn. I just kep thinking, yeah - this is wool. Its not too itchy, but it's not so soft that you think it won't hold up in a few years and it comes in some really pretty heathered shades. 

If you knit this one up, I'd recommend choosing a size with 2+ inches of positive ease for the best fit. In the photos above the women's has about 4"/10 cm of positive ease and the men's has 2.5"/6 cm positive ease. Not sure what I mean when I'm talking about ease? Check back later this week for a post all about it!

Hemingway is now available for sale through Twist Collective. You can buy each pattern individually for $7.00 USD or get both for $10.00. You can also find the pattern on Ravelry.

All modeled photos courtesy of Twist Collective/Crissy Jarvis. 

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Using Ravelry to Find a Yarn Substitution

As a designer, my most frequently asked questions is "why is your gauge so weird?" (A: Everyone is different, and I generally prefer densely knitted fabric?), but the second most frequently asked question is do you think X pattern will work in Y yarn? 

The answer? Probably.

The best way to figure out if a yarn substitution will work is to swatch it out and give it a try.

But that's not always practical.

No Need to Fear Substituting Yarn

There's a good chance that the sample itself was done in a substitute yarn. About 50%+ of the time I do editorial designs (for magazines, books, etc.) the yarn I submitted my design swatches in is not the yarn that's used in the final design.

Sometimes I'll go out and buy something if I'm looking for something specific or need a different color, but  I usually do my design swatches from my stash, which mostly contains a lot of leftovers from previous designs. Sometimes, I'm attached to the yarn I send the design swatch in on, sometimes I'm not, but if it's for editorial purposes, it's best not to get attached because it's likely that its going to change. I'd also advise that if you're designing for magazines that your design isn't yarn-dependent for the same reason.

I'm not an editor, so I don't know how the final yarns are chosen, but I imagine it's a combination of trying to have variety,  relationships with yarn companies, desired color stories, etc. 

Cormac is a bit of an oddity in that the sample in the magazine was knit in the exact yarn I submitted with in the exact color I used.  But some of that was because the submission call specifically called for using chainette-style yarn, and there's not a huge number of those on the market, and I specifically did buy yarn for swatching.

How to Choose a Substitute Yarn (if you don't have something in your stash) - Option #1

Maybe you're allergic to alpaca or the suggested yarn is too expensive, or you want something more attuned to your climate, or it doesn't come in a color you like - there are dozens of reasons to choose a substitute yarn and hundreds of choices to sub. How do you narrow it down?

For now, I'm going to assume you generally want your finished sweater to look more or less like the sample (we'll talk more drastic changes later)

Here's where the Ravelry database is going to be a huge help. 

Step #1 - Look at the suggested yarn page on Ravelry (or on the manufacturers site). Even if you know you don't want to use it. What are it's basic qualities? 

 For Shibui Knit's Maai the basics are this - DK weight, 70% alpaca/30% merino.  So it's mostly alpaca, which is fairly drapey and has a bit of a halo/fuzz factor. The chainette construction makes it  light and "springy" per the description.  Looking at the design, the need for drapey is high - otherwise it would be pretty stiff and boxy, the fuzz factor is less evident. The pattern calls for size 8 needles, which is fairly big for DK, and the pattern is open, so that'll provide some drape there too. 

So to replace it, we're looking for a drapey DK weight yarn. 

Alpaca is drapey, so is silk, bamboo, tencel, and linen. But there's the springy factor too. So you might want a firmer fiber like a bit of wool or hemp or cotton in there to help the sweater holds it's shape a little. Something like the 70/30 blend of the original or up to a 50/50 mix of drapey/firm. 

Step #2 - Back to Ravelry, this time  to the advanced yarn search page. To start off I'm going to looks for the following criteria - Not discontinued, dk weight, contains alpaca and wool. This is going to be the closest to the Maai, without being Maai. 

We've got 203 matches there alone.  Let's look at some of our top-provided options. 

Drops Lima - 65% wool/35% alpaca - this could work, but it's a little heavy on the wool side. 

Classic Elite's Soft Linen - 35% Linen, 35% Wool, 30% Alpaca. That's 65% drapey (linen/alpaca). Looking pretty good here. The linen could help make it an even more transitional piece.

Queensland Collection Rustic Tweed - 63% Wool, 27% Alpaca, 7% Acrylic, 3% Other. Again heavy on the wool. It's also rustic and tweedy, which is a bit style shift. 

The Alpaca Yarn Co's Astral -   50% Tencel, 30% Alpaca, 20% Wool. That's 80% drape, so super drapey. It also looks hand-dyed, which could mean alternating skeins in lace. 

Berroco's Fiora - 40% Cotton, 30% Rayon, 15% Alpaca, 5% Wool. 45% firm/ 45% drape (not sure what the missing 10% is). Could work, be a solid choice for a more summery version, but keep in mind that that is a high percentage of cotton, which is heavier than most other fibers. 

What if you look at Cormac and think - forget fall, that'd be better as an awesome beach pullover for the summer? Then you could search for a linen/cotton  or cotton/bamboo blend (drapey/firm) or something similar. 

How to Choose a Substitute Yarn (if you don't have something in your stash) - Option #2

Alternatively, if scrolling through pictures of yarn isn't your thing, you can do a project based-search. In this case we'll search for similar patterns (DK weight, lace, pullover) and see what other people knit them out of.  There's a lot of options, but most of them aren't as open as Cormac, but Amy Miller's Stonecutter Sweater has a good number of similarities (there's nothing new under the sun, right?)

The original Stonecutter was knit in Lion Brand Cotton Bamboo, so that could be a good choice too. But wait, there's more! Stonecutter has been around for a while, and over 100 people have knit it and if you click the little "yarn ideas" tab, it'll show the most popularly used yarn subs and you have another 2 pages of yarn to choose from (back to the scrolling through little photos of yarn, sorry). 

Already Have a Yarn in Mind?

Maybe you've got something in your stash your'e itching to use up. I've had a few message in my inbox regarding more summer-specific yarn subs for this project, specifically: Berroco Weekend DK, and Shibui Linen. 

My first stop when considering a specific yarn substitution is to look at projects on ravelry that have been knit up in the yarn that have some similarities to the project I’m trying to do. In this case, a lace garment of some kind. For the left we have an example for the Weekend DK and one for the Shibui Linen on the right. 

This can give you a good hint of what the fabric would look like. Both of them seem to work in lace pretty well, though I will note the following two things - the yarn is held double in the lace project and that cotton and acrylic don’t block open as well as animal fibers (though linen blocks fairly well). However there appear to be some well-blocked lace projects in Weekend DK, (Also the sample wasn’t aggressively blocked).

In Conclusion

While I specifically designed the Cormac Sweater with Shibui Maai in mind, and tried to take advantage of the specific qualities of that yarn,  it doesn't mean you have to use it! The great thing about knitting is you can make it your own and you have hundreds of options to choose from that will work. 

 

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Announcing the Cormac Knit Along!

I'm so excited to announce that I'm hosting my first knit along!

The fall issue of Knitscene is  out on newsstands now and in it, my Cormac Sweater. I'm super pleased with how this design turned out, and now that I have my own Ravelry Group - I thought it would be a good candidate for a knit along.  

Like the design? Join us - you end up with a finished sweater and could win a fabulous prize pack! 

How It Works

1. Join the Knit Along Thread on Ravelry.  (Don't have a Ravelry account? It's free to join!)
2. Start knitting the Cormac Sweater from the Fall 2015 Issue of Knitscene magazine sometime between August 15 and October 15 (or start early! NBD)..
3. Have fun and share what you're knitting! Comment in the Ravelry thread and share photos on social media with the hashtag #CormacKAL
4. Anyone with a FO (Finished Object) or (WIP) in the thread as of October 15, 2015 (midnight EST), is eligible to win prizes!

The cast-on part doesn't officially start until August 15, but before then I'll be posting about choosing a size and yarn substitutions to help you get ready. 

You can also bookmark the official knit along page, where I'll be aggregating all the knit along stuff. 

I hope you'll join in!

Photos Courtesy of Knitscene/Harper Point

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