Zöllner shawl - pattern publishing

I've been plugging away at trying to get my City and Guilds assessment pieces published.

I published the apple seat pad on Ravelry, despite it not being test knit.  I figured it was a good way to figure out how the system works etc.

Since then I've been working on the accessory assessment piece, which was a shawl I designed and made for David.  I had the same person tech review it and this time I was able to find a few people who were willing to test knit it for me.

My version of the shawl came out like this:

 It has a geometric zig zaggy pattern at differing scales across the whole thing created from twisted stitches.  It's interesting without being too feminine.  The zig zags are inspired by an optical illusion by German astrophysicist Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner.  

One aspect of the shawl that I was keen to have it be is reversible.  I think it's nice when you're able to put a scarf or shawl on and not have to worry about which way round it is, or which way the ends are twisted etc - so I took quite some time during the designing phase figuring out the stitch so that it is reversible.  This does make it a bit fiddly to knit as there are no easy rows and you're often knitting into stitches which have been twisted on the row below.  It's also a bear to correct mistakes on as my test knitters discovered!

I published the pattern on Ravelry last week and have already had a few sales - which I'm pleasantly surprised about.  I'm now waiting for requests for pattern support and hoping to see some more finished shawls out there.

The next assessment piece I'm going to rework and try to get published is an inset sleeve sweater.  I might change this one a bit and actually make it sleeveless.  At the very least I need to grade it into more sizes than just mine.  I'm quite looking forward to having a go at that.

Apple seat pad pattern publishing in progress

One of the things I'd like to do is to try to publish the patterns that I wrote as part of my City and Guilds course.  I had to produce 4 assessment pieces including writing the patterns for them: an interior item, an inset sleeve sweater, an accessory and a cardigan/jacket.

For the interior item I produced a seat pad for a kitchen chair using my sister-in-law as my client and using a tile in her kitchen as my inspiration starting point.

The apple on the tile is quite simple and I wanted to find a way of making the apple remain an apple but be more abstract.  After some trial and error and art making and swatch knitting I came up with a mosaic stitch pattern with "apples" on the seat pad upper and then just "leaves" underneath.  

 

To make it City and Guilds  -worthy I decided to seam it together using I-cord and also have a buttoned opening underneath to get the cushion in and out.  

It passed the assessment and made my sister-in-law's chair more comfortable.  So that's a double tick.

When it comes to publishing it - I don't know that it's that "commercial" a pattern.  I think it might be fun knit in some non-apple colours to make it even more abstract.  Or maybe even just knit the leaf pattern?

I've rejigged the pattern layout a little and have had it tech reviewed and am now trying to find test knitters through Ravelry.  I haven't had any success finding a test knitter so far, which I think confirms what I thought about its commerciability - but it's interesting to figure out the process of getting a pattern published.  It's been a while since I did this module so I don't feel so personally attached to this as I maybe did straight after I'd finished it, so am happy to take my time and use this to figure out how things work.  If I don't find a test knitter I'll probably publish it on Ravelry anyway to see how that side of things works. 

What's on my ironing board

Most people work at a desk, not me - I do most things (apart from sitting at my sewing machine or somewhere knitting) at my ironing board. 

Very little actual ironing goes on!  So, what's on my ironing board at the moment:

From left to right:

I'm making a blouse for F from some spotty purple fabric using the Oliver and S music class blouse and skirt pattern.  I've made the skirt a couple of times before, but never the blouse - I'm making the size 10, have added a couple of inches to the length and intend to sew some shirring elastic around the sleeves on Fs request after her seeing that on a top I made for myself.

There's also a yarn label for Creative Bubble by Rico Design.   I had one ball of this to try making washing up tribbles from, it was successful so the yarn label is around as I went looking for some more. 

Next is my Geo Yoked Fair Isle Sweater by Di Gilpin.  I received the pattern and yarn for this from D for my birthday last year after seeing it (and trying it on) at Di Gilpin's stand at Yarndale.  It's in a bag as I'm having to pause as I have run out of the main colour - I don't need a lot more as it's mostly just the yoke to do, and Di has been very helpful in finding another ball for me, so hopefully it won't be in the bag for long.

In the red folder is the paperwork for the first assessment piece I submitted to City and Guilds and which I intend to work into a publishable pattern.  At the moment I'm rewriting the charts from excel into Stitchmastery before I get the pattern into shape and then look for a couple of test knitters. 

I'm off to the Swiss Yarn Festival tomorrow - I wonder if I'll find any goodies.

Knitting update

I'm pretty good at keeping my Ravelry project list up to date.  I was just looking back at it to see how many projects I've completed since before the blog hiatus - and there's one or two:

Thirty five, actually, and there's two completed items (a jumper and a cardigan) that aren't on here as I haven't taken a post blocking picture to put on Ravelry yet. 

Seven of these projects are all related to one larger project that I've finally finished - and that's the City & Guilds level 3 in knitwear design.  It's taken me a while - I was pretty slow at first, but managed to speed up and concentrate on it so that I was able to finish it within the designated C&G time frame. 

I've learnt a lot during the course - knitting techniques, art techniques, design process, knitting confidence - all sorts of things.  Four of the modules had knitted assessment pieces associated with them, so my plan now is to try to publish those four items (seat cushion, summer top, shawl and cardigan).  I'll start by self publishing through Ravelry, just to get a feel for the process and then go from there. 

I'm keen to do this, but am also keen to preserve knitting as a hobby, rather than getting too bogged down in deadlines and stress.

De-stashing before it makes the stash

After I finished my Martha cardigan I was left with three balls of the green cotton yarn.  Instead of finding a home for it to go to - and languish for who knows how long - I decided to find a pattern that I could knit to use it up.

Enter "Fresh mint" - I cute little camisole top pattern by Linden Down that's knitted from the top down.  Ravelry link.

It took just over the three balls I had, so I bought a ball of something similar and did a few stripes at the bottom, which hopefully looks like the colour change is a design feature!

The back is exactly the same as the front:

I think I'll be making some more of these tops - or variations of them as they're very simple and a good little stash buster.

In other knitting news, I'm just about to send off the Module 4 of the C&G course.

We're off to London tomorrow, so I might as well make use of sending it locally rather than internationally.

Goal accountability

I thought I would try to keep myself accountable to my crafting goals on my blog. 

They are: 

• City and Guilds knitwear design course;
• Quilt;
• Try not to get sidetracked into doing anything else crafty.

 So far I'm doing fine.  I've been plugging away at the samples for  the C&G course: 

These are all to do with increases and decreases.





And I've sewn a few squares for the quilt:

I've also managed not to start anything else - although I think I'm about to change that as I'm going to make a tiger costume for Rory.

Module 2 finish up and a manicure

This week, so far has been about finishing up Module 2 of my City and Guilds course I'm doing.  And yesterday - hoorah...

 

It got boxed up and set on its merry way to England, hopefully to arrive in about a week's time.

To celebrate finishing this module I decided to do a little bit of sewing before I start the next module.  For Christmas Frances got a nail painting kit from my parents - lots of bottles of nail varnish and stickers and gems and bits.  She is chuffed to bits with it, but it came in a cardboard box, which wasn't very useful or pretty for keeping it in long term.  

Enter me, with some pink fabric, a bit of interfacing, a zip and this pattern.

 

And hey presto a manicure wallet.  Pretty?  I bought the outer fabric in a shop in Helsinki before we left and the inner fabric comes from my parent's local fabric shop.

It's got lots of spaces for her bottles and the zippered pocket for all the other bits and pieces.  She was very chuffed with it and I'm happy that we get rid of the horrible box.

The pattern was easy to follow, as you can see I went for the Velcro option rather than the snaps.  It took me an afternoon to make (not including cutting out, which I did a couple of days ago) and would have taken less time, but I put one of the pieces of Velcro in the wrong place and then managed to put the same piece of Velcro in the right place, but with the sticking together bit facing inwards. Doh.

Rory wanted to know what I'd made for him - so I guess I'd better come up with a plan.  Maybe some sort of car or Lego mat thing?

spiral hats and goals for the year

This last Christmas my knitting was a few pairs of socks and also some spiral hats.  D asked for a new hat for Christmas, and once I'd finished one I thought I should make a couple more for the kids too. 

Here they are all modelling them together (I love F's pose!).  R looks sad, but it's not because of the hat (honest).

And of course once Grandma saw the hats she requested one too....

They're all knitted using the three-spiral hat pattern by EZ from the opinionated knitter.  D's is knit pretty much as written so it's quite large and sloppy.  The others I scaled down a bit, so cast on 34 stitches and altered the rest of the pattern accordingly.  I used some Bravo Big by Schachenmayr original for all of them.

They're all ravelled here.... D's, F's, R's and Grandma's

So, this year I have made some crafting goals - basically I'm going to try to make some progress on some large projects that have been hanging around for a while. 

First, I'm restarting my City and Guilds in Knitwear design that I started before F was born and then put on hold when we moved back to Helsinki and I was expecting R.  Now they're both at kindergarten some of the time I have time to start that again.  I'm trying to get the module I was working on when I quit back in 2010 finished by the end of January.

Secondly, I'm going to try to make a leap forward in the queen-size quilt I've been working on forever (well since 2000).  It's coming along nicely but I want to prioritise it so that I can get it finished.

So, they're my big goals - there's some other stuff I'd like to make - but I'm going to try to prioritise those two for now.

Seascape

There has been knitting going on here between nappy changes, feeding, washing and general mischief and merriment.

This is seascape stole from knitty summer 2008 I started it back in July 2008 but it came a cropper to knitting things that didn't take as much concentration... I never managed to memorize the chart..., hibernating, and general life. It's not as airy as the version in the pattern, but I like it, and it makes for a bit of a different type of scarf for me.

The other knitting project that I've been working on is my city and guilds - that, like seascape, stalled last year but I've been making some good headway and am hoping to have the first module done by the time my parents come in a couple of weeks time. I'm excited about keeping going with it and getting some momentum going.

teach a young dog new tricks

One thing that I've been plugging away at and not blogged about, is the City and Guilds course in hand knit textiles that I've started.

I'm about half way through the first module - so far it's been a lot of swatches of "building blocks" for knitting - so different cast ons, cast offs, stitches, ribs, tension, gauge swatches, blocking etc etc.

Here are a few of the mounted swatches I've made so far - I've got an envelope of others that still need mounting and labelling. Soon I start doing stuff which is hopefully going to help develop the inspiration to design process. I'm really looking forward to that part.

One good thing about all the swatches that I've been making is that it's helping use up some of the not so nice yarn I seem to have in my stash, yarn that I wouldn't buy now, but that I have aquired through one way or another over the years.

The course is run from the UK - so far I haven't been able to attend any of the get-togethers of other students that happen, but maybe at some point one will coincide with a visit back to the UK.