Cables!  Shawls!  Cabled shawls!  Let’s go!

Biratu is here!  Using the same basic construction as Betiko, all modular, no picked up stitches, no seaming, just short rows, increases, and decreases.  And cables!

If you like it, and feel up to the possible knitting challenge (it’s not exactly hard, really, just a lot to keep track of!), you can knit the fully cabled version…

…but if you prefer a more simple style, or you want to ease into the design, or you want to use any weight yarn, or get a different custom shape, there’s the simple variation!

The simple one has cables only around the edges, with stockinette and seed stitch worked in the body, and it can be made in any weight yarn with more custom sizing options.  My sample here is in Quince & Co Lark worsted weight yarn (3 skeins frost with 1 skein split pea for the edging):

This sample is the medium size, as given in the pattern – the pattern gives small{medium, large} sizes, and then explains how you can get any size you want, and adjust the shape as well, making it longer or deeper/taller, fitted to your shawl style preference.

For the simple variation, you can work the cables from charts or from written cable patterns, your choice.

You can get really different looks depending on your weight choice – my wonderful test knitters made this shawl in weights ranging super bulky to aran to worsted to dk to fingering, for a range of different cable braid thicknesses and fabric qualities.  Fun!

As for the fully cabled shawl, that is designed to be knit in aran weight, but it’s definitely flexible.  It’s pretty freaking huge, so you can easily make it in worsted and still get a good size cable-tastic shawl.  In fact, Maria tested it in worsted just to be sure, and it looks lovely.

My sample is the standard aran weight gauge, in Quince & Co Osprey (3 skeins in storm with 1 skein frank’s plum for edging), in the medium size.  The pattern gives small{medium, large} sizes (which are different measurements from the simple variation), but you can basically just keep knitting the main body section until you like the size and choose to stop, or until your yarn runs out.

The shaping of this one is different from the simple variation, as the first couple sections are not adjustable (since they must be a set stitch count for the cables), so the shape will always be fuller/taller, and the whole thing grows outwards in all directions for as big as you want.  All the cable designs repeat, so there’s no set end point.

The medium is pretty darn large, as you can see – this shawl, with all of its twists and turns, is meant to be big to show off the cable designs, big and squishy and warm and fun to wrap up in!

The body cables for this shawl are charted only, not written out.  A tutorial is included for cabling without a cable needle (and there’s my new video too!) – the cable descriptions are given as right/left, to make more sense without using a cable needle, and I also included cable needle directions, for accessibility to all knitters.

If you follow me on twitter, you may have noticed me crowd-sourcing for cable chart advice… I re-did my chart symbols several times throughout the building of this pattern, and I’m really happy with my end result.  This pattern includes lots of uneven cables (not the same number of over and under stitches), which turned out to be really hard to represent with hand-made chart font symbols!  Anyway, here’s a snippet (the grey gives some extra help by representing the number of top stitches in the off-balance twists):

Want to take a peek at my design process for this one?  Well, I already told you about the chart re-do’s, that was a big (boring) part of creating this pattern, but as for the design itself, that took months of swatching!  Oh man, so much design swatching!  Here’s a look at my pile of swatches, which doesn’t even include alllll the first tries and ideas which failed and got frogged…

But it was all worth it, because after all the planning through my swatches – figuring out the cable designs, as well as how those cables would relate to the short rows in the construction, and to each other throughout the sections, etc – I was able to make the single samples of each of the two versions, with minimal frogging, and no wasted prototype sample knitting.  (If you follow my blog, you know how I usually always have several prototypes to show you, as I work out a design by knitting it over and over!)

So yeah, I’m really happy with this design!  It’s kind of outside of my normal design style / comfort zone, with all the intense cables, but I enjoyed designing it, and it was pleasing for me to take an old construction and use it in a new way!

In case you missed the Betiko post, this is part of a collection – there will be two more designs in the future which use the Betiko construction, so you can pre-order that now to get this design, Betiko, and the future slip-stitch colorwork design and lace shawl design.  Both of those will also have complex patterns and simple variations included, like this one.  (They will be more spread out, released in the later part of the year.)

Oh and in case you’re wondering, Betiko is a Basque name meaning eternal, as that shawl is forever customizable, so I decided to stick with a Basque naming theme for this collection – Biratu is a Basque word for twist or rotate, as cables do.

So after I finished all my recent leethalknits.com style/layout updates, I worked on improving my techniques tutorials section… including the addition of video!  Yeah I know, knitting tutorial videos are nothing new and I should have started doing it long ago, but now that I have a quick+easy camera I plan to make more…

So I got all set up with an official leethal YouTube channel and uploaded my first video – let’s see if it’ll embed into my blog…

If you can’t see that here, just head to the youtube page or my cabling tutorials page – it’s a 9 minute long how-to on cabling without a cable needle, showing several different stitch counts.  Please forgive all the moments of blur and stitches being worked off-screen – it was my first time using my new i-camera so I’m just getting used to it, and I was too eager to get this how-to made so I didn’t want to re-shoot everything over again… my videos will get better with practice!

In addition to the video, I made a new tutorial page for locking in carried yarn strands, while working with stripes over several rows, and/or stripes together with short rows.  These are the techniques which are used in my Short Stripes Trio patterns (tutorials are included in those patterns) but they can be used in pretty much any project in which you want to carry yarns neatly along the back side and avoid lots of ends to weave in.  The techniques might seem kind of complex at first, but once you pick up the needles and actually do it, it’s quick and easy!

I’ve also added other tutorials over the last several months, which I think I forgot to ever mention in the blog, so I’ll mention them now!  I have tutorials for grafting both with stockinette stitch and with garter stitch…

…crochet provisional cast-on (below), and my older tutorials include the aforementioned cabling without a cable needle, twisted stitches, and make 1 increases.  (Get to them all here.)  If there are any of these that you’d reeeeally like to see a video for, let me know and I’ll see what I can do!

That’s my only announcement for now, but I’ll be releasing my new cabled shawl pattern later this week!

In case you missed it, I now have a mailing list (sign up on the leethalknits home page), so you can hear when I release new patterns without having to check the blog (or twitter, or ravelry…).  Hooray!

(More peeks at the new shawl are on flickr if you want to see more!)  Happy Tuesday!

There are more changes I’m still working on, but I just can’t wait to show you this huge update I’ve made to leethalknits.com!  First, brand new home page:

Above is a screenshot on my big monitor, and below is in a smaller browser window – some of the background photos on the left may overlap too much on your screen, so just hit refresh to see a new photo if you can’t read things.

And now I’ll list all the new things…

Down there at the bottom right you can see that I’m starting a leethal knits mailing list!  I’ll only be using it when I release a new pattern (or have some other big exciting news I suppose, but it’ll mostly just be pattern releases), and I’ll basically just link to the blog post for the pattern release, so it’s meant for if you want to be sure to learn about new patterns… I know how hard it is to keep up with blogs these days!  (Sign up on the home page.)

New navigation!  My patterns were outgrowing my old system, so now you can link from the home page to pages with all head accessories, all neck accessories, all hand/wrist accessories, all other accessories, and all quick knits, so that covers everything, plus I’ve put patterns in multiple accessory categories if they apply (like Game Knitting, Flying V’s, Haka).  So you can find everything that way if you want to browse by pattern type…

…and I’ve also majorly updated my all patterns page, so that’s a more convenient way to browse as well.  Now, not only are there the thumbnails for every pattern all on one page, but there’s also an alphabetical list of every accessory pattern down the side, plus links to all collections, solo patterns, free patterns, quick knits, all head, all neck, etc… so you can reach everything from this page (linked at the top of the home page).

New faq page!  I’ve written up lots of questions + answers that I get from knitters, and/or that I see people saying, wondering, etc, in forums and stuff like that, or just that I want to say an answer for just in case anyone is wondering… it’s a wide variety of things, from “Something is weird with my knitting, this isn’t looking how it should, what am I doing wrong?” to “Can I test knit your patterns?” to “Did you get my email?” to “Where did you get your glasses?”.  That last one is literally the most frequently asked question :-p

Also, update to my info page.  I’ve added some fun new feedback quotes (they are all taken from ravelry project page notes, so I hope no one minds me quoting them!) – my personal favorite is ”the pattern is wicked clevah” -Jennifer in Massachusetts.  The other thing there that I’m really excited about is that I made a huge update to my list of shops that carry my patterns – I tripled it, since becoming distributed by Deep South Fibers, hooray!!

Those are the major changes.  I made a bunch of minor formatting changes as well… Then, after uploading the update, I checked in with netrenderer to make sure everything looks fine in Internet Explorer, and I learned that I have some major font issues.  So, if you’re viewing the site on IE, things won’t quite look how they look above (at least as I’m writing this on Wednesday night).  I think it works fine on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, iOS.  Anyway, I figured out what the problem was, and it is requiring a huge amount of behind-the-scenes code work to fix it, but it’s for the best since it was a result of sloppy coding decisions in the first place, and now I’m forced to fix things.  I’m hoping to finish tonight, so probably by the time you’re reading this it’ll be fixed!  The main reason I’m telling you is, well two things, first because all the coding changes I’m making are causing the site layout to change slightly, so the screenshots above aren’t going to exactly match what you see, and more importantly, since I’m making all these changes to every page of the whole site, there’s a chance I might miss something.  So if you notice anything weird, especially any text that looks really wrong, please let me know!  Thanks, all!

And besides all this, I’ll actually have another big website update happening within the next few days – new technique tutorials!  So I’ll blog about that when it’s done, because I’m excited about some stuff I’ve been working on for that :)  (I’ll give you a hint… I just got an iPhone, and it has really good video quality!)  So, I hope you have fun browsing the site for now, and remember to sign up for the mailing list if you like mailing lists, and I’ll drop in here again very soon!

The first shawl I designed, back in 2010, was Betiko (on rav), first released as a mystery knit-a-long, then as a long multi-part pattern, with the more simple garter stitch edged version…

…and the customizable pattern, with full instructions for the wavy version (below), detailed instructions for striping in any version, and for plugging in your own stitch patterns for the customizable pattern.  All versions of the pattern for any weight yarn, and all custom-sizable… the original pattern, in my old pdf format, was 27 pages long and kind of overwhelming.  So, I’ve given the pattern(s) an extreme makeover, re-formatted, lots of it re-written, new diagrams, fully re-edited and condensed into my new pdf format down to 14 pages (still a long pattern, but not as long!).

If you aren’t already familiar with Betiko, I’ll tell you a little more about it.  It’s constructed in four modular sections, with no picked up stitches, no seaming, very few stitches cast on or bound off, everything connected with short rows.  You start across the top edge, working the sideways edge cast-on technique to leave stitches along the side.  Then you start working from those sideways stitches, down into the body of the shawl, working normal short rows to start forming the U shape.  Now your base is established, so you start working around all stitches (no short rows in section 3), with lots of yarn over increases, all the way from top edge to edge to fill out the body.  Lastly, you knit on a sideways edging around the whole outside, working short rows with decreases to bind off the stitches at the same time.  The shawl blocks out to a big crescent shape; the exact shape (wider across, taller, etc) can be adjusted with custom sizing specifics.

If you’ve already made a Betiko, I’ll list some of the changes to the new pdf so you know what’s different now…  Small{medium, large} sizes now given instead of smaller{larger}, with measurements for them all (there are still custom sizing notes as well); the customized cabled example is removed from the pdf, since I felt like it just took up unnecessary space and made things seem extra complicated; the diagrams are completely new; a couple changes were made to the actual pattern – wraps are now worked in the short rows in section 2, and the kfb increases in section 3 were removed (they were kind of pointless), and some other minor things.  A short rows tutorial is now included as well.  There are no longer the separate pdfs for the basic versions, since the new pattern is more condensed.

Now, I know that most knitters have no interest in the whole customizable thing, plugging in your own stitch patterns, planning it all out for all the sections… so, I’m using the Betiko construction as a base for a new collection of shawl designs!  You can pre-order the Betiko collection right now (rav link), getting the Betiko pattern itself right away, and the first new pattern, a cabled shawl, in a few weeks.  Then, later throughout the year, you’ll receive a slip-stitch colorwork shawl pattern, and a lace shawl pattern, all using the same modular construction.

All three of the new designs will include two versions each, to fully take advantage of the customizable nature of the Betiko construction (but each with their own specific patterns).  For the cabled design, there is one fully cabled pattern (with cables worked throughout every section), which is for a set gauge (aran weight yarn) and less customizable with size (there’s a set number of stitches for sections 1 and 2, then you can work the full body section 3 for as big as you want, basically).  And then there’s also a simple version of the pattern, with cables only worked around the edges (different designs for top edge and outer edge), which is for any weight yarn, and fully custom sized/shaped as you like.  All the cable designs are charted, and then the edge cables are also written out, so if you make the simple version you’ll have a choice to work the cables from the charts or written.

The colorwork and lace designs will have similar versions – each with one complex, set gauge pattern, and then one more simple, any-gauge version.  The colorwork shawl will be slip-stitch designs (no stranded colorwork)… I can’t really tell you any more about those future two since they aren’t yet designed ;)  Each pattern will be available individually for $6, or the four-pattern collection is $16.

If you follow me on twitter/instagram, then you’ve already seen these couple of peeks at the cabled design – I’m currently finishing up knitting the second sample, and then it’ll go out for testing and be released in a few weeks, definitely by the end of May.  The other two patterns will be more spread out, so if you pre-order the collection, you can expect them further along into the year, a couple of exciting surprises in your inbox!

If you have already bought Betiko at any point in the last few years since it was released (first in mystery knit-a-long form then normally), then you can use coupon code betikoknitter to get the $6 you already paid off the price of the collection (knocking it down to $10 for the three new patterns!)… if the code doesn’t work for any reason (maybe because you bought Betiko with a different email address or rav/paypal account, etc), then just send me a quick email at leemeredith at gmail dot com and let me know the rav username or email that you used to buy Betiko, and I’ll send you a working discount code.

I hope you’re as excited about this collection as I am – it’s been so much fun to revisit the Betiko construction and go crazy with the cable designs in all the different parts!  I’ve definitely gone further with cable design in this pattern than I ever have before, I can’t wait to reveal the whole thing!

The pattern was actually released a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to wait until I completed the whole ebook to do the blog post, and now I have!  So, not only is the third Short Stripes Trio pattern out – Robin – but the whole set is also now all together in an ebook.  The 20 page ebook (which you’ll get when you purchase the whole trio, along with all three individual pdfs) is condensed, one techniques section for all three patterns, fewer pictures, so it’ll take up a lot less space than the three separate pdfs (for tablet/ebook reader storage, that kind of thing).  And to celebrate the completion of the Trio, how about a promotion?!

Now through the end of next week (April 19th), you can essentially preview the trio by buying any one of the three patterns, checking it out, deciding if you’re into it, then if you decide you love it and you do indeed want the whole set, you can get that $6 spent taken off the price of the Trio!  And it’s valid for previously purchased trio patterns as well!  Meaning, for example, if you bought Maurice a couple months ago when it was first released, then you saw Barry and Robin and thought, ah crap I shoulda bought the whole trio, now here’s your chance!  You can use this preview sale to get the price of that Maurice pattern taken off the price of the trio.

So, here’s how it works… assuming you’re using your same ravelry account and/or email address to purchase the trio that you used for the first pattern, just add the trio to your shopping cart (through ravelry or my site), and enter the corresponding code into the coupon code box:  mauricegibb if you bought Maurice, barrygibb if you bought Barry, or robingibb if you bought Robin.  If for some reason this code doesn’t work (maybe you weren’t logged into ravelry when you bought the first pattern, or some other reason), simply send me a quick email at leemeredith at gmail dot com and tell me your rav username or email that you used to buy the first pattern, and I’ll send you a working coupon code for $6 off the trio.

So that’s that, now on to Robin the shawl!  I’m so happy with how this design turned out!

It’s for any gauge, but it’s the same pattern regardless of your yarn weight, no swatching needed or math or anything complicated – you just start working at the bottom point, and go up and out and out and out until your shawl is the size you want, or until you run out of yarn!

You can make any size with any yarn weight, in either 2 or 3 colors, and you can get different shapes based on when you decide to finish and bind off, anywhere from a pretty much symmetrical curved triangle shape to a very asymmetrical curvy triangle.  The pattern goes into detail about how to get the shape you want, modifications you can make to use up every last bit of yarn, and different ways you can finish, etc…

But don’t let any of that scare you because it’s really a simple pattern once you get the hang of it!  Just lots of basic short rows in garter stitch, so you don’t even have to work the wraps together with the wrapped stitches.  And a simple yarn over increase pattern along the sides.

There are some techniques used (with full photo tutorials included) for carrying your striping yarns along the back side of your shawl neatly, so you don’t have to weave in all those ends.  Once you learn the techniques you’ll want to use them in all your stripy projects!

The two samples I made are in:  Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd’s Wool (which I have completely fallen in love with!!) worsted weight (MC is Lime Green, CC is Milk Chocolate) – it used up most of the 2 full skeins, about 457 yards/418 meters total (244 yards/223 meters green and 213 yards/195 meters brown)…

…and Sandnes Garn Alpakka, which is either sport or DK weight depending on where you look (MC is blue #6554, CC2 is pink #4611), and Brown Sheep Lanaloft sport weight (Celery).  It used approximately 550 yards/503 meters total – 357 yards/326 meters in the blue MC, 68 yards/62 meters in the green CC1, and 125 yards/114 meters in the pink CC2.  So that was 3 full skeins of the blue main color, right up to the last little bit, just barely over one full skein of the pink, and under one skein of the green.  And so you know, the only reason I used a different yarn for the green was that I bought the 2 colors in the alpaca yarn, planning to do another 2 color shawl, then I did some more work on the design and decided to have there be a 3 color version, and since i wanted to get started right away I found the coordinating green in the same weight in my stash – I know I should have waited to go back to the shop to buy another color in the same yarn, but alas, I was impatient.  I’m fine with how it looks, but I just wanted you to know there’s not some designer-y reason I used the other yarn, so there’s no need to copy me with that ;)

As usual with my any-gauge designs, I had my fabulous testers make versions in all different weights and yarn types, so you can see lots more samples by checking out the ravelry projects – including Valérie’s bulky self-striping version, Kristin’s and Jenifer’s and Lacey’s versions with variegated yarns, Maria’s aran weight version with a self-striping handspun yarn, and Maiya’s gorgeous madelinetosh fingering weight version!  (That’s not all of them, just some which are significantly different from my samples – thank you to all my wonderful test knitters!!)

I think that’s all I have to say about Robin – if you are making one of your own, or any of the three Short Stripes Trio patterns, it would be great if you want to post it in the leethal knitters rav group knit-a-long thread!  I can’t wait to see more versions in all different yarns and colors and personalities, yay!

Oh one last note… of course I had to name this design Robin, but it’s kind of a bummer name because there are so many Robins in the ravelry patterns database (in pattern names and designer names), so people are sometimes having issues linking up to my Robin, both in rav projects and in forum magic linking.  Rav seems to find it easily if you type in “robin leethal” instead of just robin, or “robin-13″ since that’s the url name… okay that’s really all I have to say now :)  Happy knitting!

Pattern #2 of my leethal Short Stripes Trio is out!  Barry the hat is for any weight yarn, with lots of options, variations, and modifications, so you can make it your perfect dream hat…

And hey, guess what, Barry was my 100th pattern added to ravelry!!  So that’s exciting!  So, I want to have some kind of sale-ish thing to celebrate, but since I just had a coupon code sale for my birthday less than a month ago, I’m going to try something different this time.  Let’s work together to get more project photos up for my patterns!

You put up a ravelry project page for any of my patterns, with at least 1 photo, or add a photo to a previously photo-less project page, and I will send you a personalized coupon code for 25% off any/all of my patterns!  But wait, it gets better!  Put up two projects with photos, the discount code goes up to 35%!  Three projects, and it goes up to 45%!  Whoa there!  That’s as high as I’ll go, but if you do put up more, then I’ll send multiple codes (so five projects = one 45% code and one 35% code) and then you can save one for later, or pass one on to a friend!

Ohmygosh and there’s still more!  To encourage good photos, I’ll be handing out some additional larger coupon codes for my favorite photos – this will depend on how many there are to choose from, but I plan on choosing my top 3-5 to receive free pattern codes (something like first place gets $12, second place gets $9, third place gets $6).  So shoot your things in natural lighting (if possible) and try to get it in focus and all that fun stuff ;)

This deal is only good for a few days – get your projects up by Monday night (west coast time) and you’ll get the codes.  I’ll send out the coupon codes on Tuesday (via ravelry message) – I should be able to see all the photos go up on my designer end, but if it’s Tuesday night and you haven’t received your code, you might want to shoot me a message to make sure I saw your project.  The discount codes themselves will stay valid for a long time (through the end of the year).

So that’s that, now on to Barry!  Barry, like Maurice, has lots of variation options, but in different ways.  Barry is written for any gauge, and it’s custom sized to your head by trying it on (or measuring it) while you work the first part sideways.  So there’s no gauge swatching necessary, and you can pick out any weight to make any size!

You can close up the sides with buttons, or by sewing up the seam, and you can choose whether to use the same colors as main and contrasting yarns throughout the whole hat, or switch which is which, or even incorporate more than 2 yarns if you want to!

The standard hat is slouchy, but the pattern includes modification instructions for a shorter, non-slouchy size if you prefer:

There are also full instructions for making the garter stitch variation, like the red and blue one:

This hat is worked modularly with short rows, no picked up stitches, and no seaming if you make the buttoning version.  A yarn-carrying technique is used which prevents the need to break the contrasting yarn and weave in a zillion ends, so the pattern includes a step-by-step photo tutorial for that, as well as instructions for other techniques used.

The hat is a bit on the complex side, as far as hats go, but it’s not hard, as long as you trust the pattern, read the notes, and just take it one step at a time.  It goes quickly since the first section takes the longest, and it grows bigger as it moves along, and then the second section rows get shorter as the hat grows, so it speeds up and then you decrease in for the crown and it’s finished, bam!  It really is a fun knit!

If you want to know details about each of my samples, they are all in the ravelry project pages – the main yellow sample is in wonderful Anzula For Better or Worsted; the self-striping+tweed is Classic Elite Liberty Wool and Berroco Blackstone Tweed (but I don’t recommend using these exact 2 yarns together because the weights differ too much – see project page for details); the garter stitch sample is Alpaca with a Twist Baby Twist; the short bulky sample is Brown Sheep Burly Spun and handspun.  Also check out my fabulous test knitters’ versions in the project pages, great hats!

Which reminds me, even though all my samples are a little bit on the girly side, this hat design is totally gender neutral, as you can see with Maiya’s fantastic Barry for her man, love it!!

Oh yeah, and you can wear the buttoning version different ways by unfastening some of the buttons (do the same with the seamed version by leaving a slit at the bottom when you sew it closed)…

Barry is part of my Short Stripes Trio, along with Maurice, and I’m currently working on Robin, so if my in-progress prototype goes well then I’ll start posting some preview shots (on twitter/instagram/tumblr) soon.  (The whole trio is $12; each pattern solo is $6.)

If you are knitting any of the Short Stripes patterns, come post about them in the knit-a-long thread of the leethal rav group!  Okay, that’s all I can think of to say about Barry.  I hope you like it!  Happy knitting!!

Hey Portland people, and everyone traveling to Portland for this weekend’s Rose City Yarn Crawl, I want to let you know I’ll be making a few appearances throughout the weekend and I’m excited to be a part of this whole thing!  Yeah!

Besides having some patterns in the prize basket mix, I’ll be having trunk show events at both Twisted and Wynona Studios!  First, on Thursday afternoon 12:30-2:30 at Twisted, I’ll be part of a co-trunk-show with my good buddy and designer extraordinaire Star Athena!  I’ll have with me lots of assorted leethal knits pattern samples, and I’ll be there to answer questions, explain how my crazy things are constructed, talk about anything you want, etc, yay!

Then later on Thursday, I’ll be at Wynona (in Oregon City) to bring in trunk show items and to hang out at the Thursday night knit night 5:30-7, so come by there for some casual knitting times and recycled yarn shopping!  ”Recycled yarn shopping?”, you might be thinking…  Yes!  Wynona specializes in recycled yarns, so my Remixed patterns are a perfect fit!  All my Remixed samples which were made from recycled yarns (which is most of them!) will be on display throughout the yarn crawl weekend, and print format versions of all Remixed patterns will be available!  (Print format Remixed patterns are a brand new thing, by the way, so if you happen to work at a yarn shop or want to tell your LYS about them, they are available wholesale through Deep South Fibers!  /end side-note.)

And then, on Saturday 4-7 I’ll be back at Wynona for the official Remixed trunk show event!  So I’ll be hanging out, available for questions, to explain pattern stuff, talk about my use of recycled yarns, etc… I hope you can make it to one or more of these events!!

(All of those above photos show pattern samples which will be at one or both of the trunk shows!)

And for all of you lovely readers, I want to show you a peek at what I’ve been working on lately!  If you follow me on twitter/tumblr/instagram you’ll have seen some peeks at the next design in the leethal Short Stripes Trio – Barry!

I’m now finishing up the final sample, with yet another variation, and I’m hoping to release the pattern 1 week from today, if all goes well.  I won’t talk about it in detail here, but here you can see a few of the different options and how it’s super versatile, like Maurice.

If you love what you see here, you’ll automatically receive this pattern the moment it’s released if you get the whole Trio (on ravelry here), which will include Maurice right now, and Robin will be the final pattern in the future.  All stripy short-rows accessory patterns.  Yum!

We’re doing a Short Stripes Trio knit-a-long over in the leethal ravelry group (which has just surpassed 800 members, woo!), working on Maurice now – you can come and go at any time, post photos of patterns from the trio as you make them, and we can all knit short rows and stripes together, fun times!  Some beautiful Maurices are being made!

And with that, I will leave you to get back to my work on Barry!

I made a thing!  My now-functioning studio made me itchy to make stuff, so the other day when I should have been working at the computer all day, instead I did a little digging through my reclaimed sweater stash, and made this!  What is “this”?  It’s a convertible cowl-neck sweater vest slash cowl slash shirt slash skirt…..?  It’s a simple concept that I came across on pinterest/ravelry and have been eager to try out ever since!

First, to give credit… that pin which first introduced me to the idea had no source (the original wrong source led me to the pattern-less rav project page which helped me reverse engineer the shape; I’ve since edited the pin source and description), so I did some reverse google image searching and found that the pin image is a garment by Elementum, and can be seen in this video (4:40 minutes in).

A major design element of the inspiration garment is that it’s oversized – the baggy size is part of what allows it to be worn comfortably in all the different positions.  Well, I wanted to try the idea, immediately, with what I had on hand.  And what I had on hand were a couple of fitted-sized sweaters.  So my version is the same concept as the inspiration, but fitted, for a pretty different look.  (I plan to make another in the future, appropriately oversized.)

Also, one of the sweaters I had in my recycling stash had a kangaroo pocket, which I thought would make the garment even more awesome, right?!  Well, sort of; it also makes it less versatile.  So, don’t necessarily follow my every move with this tutorial – if you want the most convertible, comfy finished result, then go for big sweaters with no pockets.  If you like mine exactly as it is, find a fitted sweater with a kangaroo pocket and you’re good to go!

A few more words on what to look for in your reclaimed sweaters… Sweaters knit seamlessly in the round would be ideal, but are rare to find at thrift stores, as almost all mass-produced sweaters have side seams.  Seams aren’t a huge problem, but the more clean / less visible the seams, the better your garment will look worn in all the different possible positions.  (It would also be easier to make without seams.)

Your two sweaters should be as close as possible to the same width – if one is a bit bigger than the other, then the slightly bigger one can just have slightly bigger arm-hole parts, not a big deal.  But the closer in width, the better.  As for gauge / stitch count – if you have two sweaters in the same gauge, the same width, for the same (or extremely close to the same) stitch counts, excellent!  This would take some serious thrift store luck to happen though.  Probably, the two sweaters you use will be different gauges, for different stitch counts.  You’ll just need to do a little math to work decreases around the smaller gauge one so that they end up with similar stitch counts, it won’t be too hard.

A couple last notes – if you’re not a knitter, you can do this project without any knitting, by sewing everything together instead.  It won’t be as neat, but it will work.  Stitch around the armholes carefully so no stitches unravel, and sew the edges together (instead of grafting) securely, so everything stays together and nothing unravels.

If you are a knitter, and you’d prefer to just straight up knit this entire thing, that should be easy enough!  You can see the shape here, a big tube with two big holes.  Go for it!

Lastly, if you feel guilty using perfectly good sweaters for craft materials, then look at thrift stores for sweaters with stains or holes… flawed old used clothing at a thrift store is unlikely to be bought and appreciated by normal (read: non-crafty) shoppers, and if you craft with it, you’ll be giving it a brand new life!  Crafting with reclaimed materials from thrift stores is a win-win for everybody, the way I see it!  It’s not like there aren’t plenty of clothes still remaining on the racks for shoppers in need of cheap duds.

Now, on to the tutorial!

You need:

• 2 reclaimed sweaters, which are not felted (this means you can see the individual stitches, and will be able to unravel them and knit with them), as close as possible to the same width (around the body, under the armpits) – for my sample, one sweater is stockinette, and the other is ribbed; this worked nicely, but is not necessary, they can both be stockinette or both be ribbed (see notes above for sizing info)
• scissors
• 2 circular needles, sized to work with the sweater gauges
• paper and pencil, and a calculator, to figure out and make note of your numbers
• a yarn needle for grafting

(I used a weirdly shaped sweater which had already had one arm removed for another project, and a sweater from my crafting stash that I got super cheap from a thrift store because the previous owner had sloppily cut the collar off to give it a scoop neck.)

Start by cutting straight across each sweater under the armpits.  To make the right shaped garment, one tube should be shorter than the other; my orange sweater happened to be significantly shorter than my grey sweater, so I just cut under the armpits of both.  If they are the same height, and/or if both your sweaters are big and oversized, cut one of them further down so that it’s shorter than the other.  (Exact measurements are up to you!)

If cutting across stockinette stitch fabric, turn the sweater inside out, as it will be easier to cut perfectly straight across using the reverse stockinette stitch lines as a guideline:

Now you have 2 knit tubes, hopefully the same width, one a bit (or a lot, your choice) taller than the other (kangaroo pocket optional):

For each tube, stretch it out, to loosen up the stitches, then unravel the top 1 or 2 rows.  You’ll end up with a pile of little yarn bits, as a result of cutting across, and the top row may have been snipped into accidentally.  I find it’s easier to get the stitches onto the needle if I unravel 2 rows – those little yarn bits tend to stick in there when you rip out the first row, then they generally fall out with the second row.  Once you’ve unraveled a row or two, and are left with a clean line of live stitches, slip all those stitches onto your circular needle.

Be careful to pick up all stitches in the seam area so they don’t end up unraveling later – you’ll probably need to do some extra snipping or fiddling around to get every stitch on the needle.  If you end up taking out part of the seam stitching, that’s fine, as you can re-seam it up when you’re weaving in all your ends.

Hold on to the yarn strands that you unravel, as you’ll use them to finish the armholes and graft.  You can also rip out a couple rows worth of yarn bits from the unused part of the sweater, if you need extra yarn.

Here’s when you’ll have to deal with stitch counts and gauge issues… I didn’t take photos of this part for my project, and it’ll probably be different for you anyway, so you’ll just have to figure it out for yourself with your particular sweaters.  My fine-gauge orange ribbed sweater happened to be almost exactly twice as many stitches as the chunky grey sweater, making the math easy for me – I doubled up the yarn (held 2 strands together) and knit around, decreasing all stitches, for one row around the orange sweater, k2tog every stitch.  It was 2×2 rib, so I k2tog the 2 knits, then k2tog the 2 purls.  I could have k2tog the knits and p2tog the purls, but since I knew it would be grafted in stockinette, I just knit all the decreases.  I did this at a loose tension, so it wouldn’t pull in.  If you don’t luck out with such as even ratio of stitches to decrease, decrease evenly around one tube as needed to give your two tubes close to the same stitch count.

Now you’ll need to do a little math.  First, you’ll need to figure out how big you want your armholes, and therefore how big your connected parts will be.  The armholes should be big enough for your head to fit through, so at least 22 inches or so around, stretched.  Each tube will have a line of stitches bound off for each half of each armhole.  Make sense?  So, each bind-off section should be approximately 11 inches (or more) across.  (My sample, because the whole thing is so fitted, has smaller armholes – approximately 10 inches across each part, stretched, and juuuust barely fits over my head.)

Count all the stitches across, from seam to seam.  Usually the stitch count will be slightly different on one side from the other – write everything down.  My notes as I worked are shown below.  My orange tube had 79 stitches on one side, 75 on the other; my grey tube had 71 stitches on one side, 69 on the other.

Determine how many stitches will be joined – the stitches not in the armholes.  In the above sketch, this is x (x is the same on all sides of both tubes).  This measurement depends on your total tube width, but it should be somewhere around the width across (when laying flat) minus 11 inches or so (armholes)… or somewhere near 2/3 of the total width.  If your stitch counts for each side are all odd, choose an odd number, if they’re all even, choose an even number; if they are different, then you’ll need to adjust by having slightly different armhole bind-off stitch counts as needed.  I decided my joined stitches would be 43 stitches (odd number).

Now, for each side (4 sides total – 2 tubes, 2 sides each tube), subtract the joining stitch count from the total stitch count, and then divide each of these numbers in half.  (You can see in my notes, 79 minus 43 is 36, in half is 18; 75 minus 43 is 32, in half is 16, and so on.)  These numbers are your bind-off stitch counts for each side of the armholes.

If you like algebra, then using the labeled sketch above, you need to find y and z values for each tube (different for the 2 tubes).  x is your joining number (which you just decided) – so, total stitch count on the y side, minus x, divided by 2, is each y; total stitch count on the z side, minus x, divided by 2, is each z.  y + z is the total armhole length (for the one tube – the y+z numbers for the two different tubes added together makes total armhole circumference stitch count).

Now that you know the stitch counts, make the armholes.  On the first tube, with needle points at the seam, looking at the wrong side, slip the correct number of stitches to begin first armhole – slip the number that corresponds with the side you’re on.  (Eg: with my numbers, if I’m slipping into the side which has 71 stitches across, then I need to slip 14 stitches for that section of the armhole.  Or, using the variables, if you’re slipping into the y side of the tube, then slip y stitches.)

Knit across all armhole stitches – so, knit to seam, then knit correct number of stitches on other side of seam.  (For mine, if I slipped 16 stitches, then I knit across those 16, then I’d continue knitting 18 on the other side of the seam.  Using the variables, if you slipped y, then knit the y, now knit z.)  Now bind off those just-knit stitches, loosely, purlwise – I recommend the decrease bind-off method.  *Purl 2 together, pass just-purled stitch back onto left-hand needle without twisting it, repeat from *.

Repeat this for all 4 armhole parts, slipping stitches around the circular needle to get from one to the other.  Keeping those center live stitches on the needle for the next step…

Now you should have two tubes that look like this, all 4 of those rows of stitches between bound-off parts with the same stitch count:

All you need to do now is graft those live stitches together, for a nice, clean join!  If your tubes’ sides each had different stitch counts from each other, join the two sides which had higher stitch counts, and the two sides which had lower stitch counts.  Hold the 2 rows of live stitches together, needles parallel, wrong sides facing, and thread some of the extra yarn (whichever is the more sturdy, less breakable yarn of the two) onto a blunt yarn needle – try to use a length of yarn at least 4 times as long as the line of stitches.

Head over to my (brand new!) full step-by-step photo tutorial in my leethalknits.com knitting tutorials for grafting instructions.

Once that’s done, on both sides, all that’s left to do is sew up any holes you might be left with (around the seams, maybe), and neatly weave in all those loose ends:

And here is my finished piece, shown inside out and folded sideways, and then right side out after washing:

And all the ways I can wear it!  The standard way places that kangaroo pocket kind of awkwardly… I can pull it down when I put my hands in it:

The length is better with the cowl neck around my shoulders:

It’s a better look with the pocket hidden in back (proving that the pocket wasn’t the best idea…)

I love it as a cowl!

And then some of the other ways the inspiration piece was worn… I didn’t even bother photographing it worn upside down, since the small, fitted orange section as the body looks ridiculous.  It doesn’t work so well sideways, because of both the pocket and the fit (or in the kind of halter top style):

But, because I made mine smaller and fitted, it can be worn a couple extra ways – as a skirt:

…and as a weird tube sweater thing, haha.  I had fun playing around with the different ways.

Anyway, conclusion on my end, try again with bigger sweaters and no pockets, and it should be awesomesauce.  If you use the tutorial to make your own, I’d love to see it!  I have this flickr group that I tend to forget about, but you can stick a photo in there to share!  Happy crafting!!

New pattern, and new collection concept!  Today’s cowl pattern – Maurice – is part of a pattern trio, with the second and third patterns on their way within the next couple months…

This idea developed when I started brainstorming about a design concept that I wanted to play with in different ways, but not let one single design get too out of control complex, like I can tend to do sometimes.  I wanted to try to steer myself to design slightly more simple patterns, so I figured if I planned three different designs around one idea, then I could really explore that idea, taking it in three different directions.  Three seemed like the perfect number, enough room to play around, but not too many designs so that I’d get bored with the idea by the end.

I’m loving the trio concept so far.  I actually first started on a completely different trio, when the concept originated, which is still in the works, but then I got sidetracked by wanting to play with short rows and stripes, and the leethal Short Stripes Trio was the first to actually come to be!

So, there will eventually be three accessory patterns, for three different objects, each featuring short rows and stripes.  There will be some overlap with techniques and themes, but the three designs will definitely stand out on their own… and chances are, if you like this first one, you’ll like all three!

The way the trio collection functions is:  Maurice is currently available, alone for $6, or as part of the trio for $12.  Buy the whole trio now, get Maurice immediately, and have Barry and Robin delivered straight to your inbox as soon as they’re released.  (All three patterns will be $6 individually.)

And yeah, with the naming, “trio”, get it?  I’ve done way too much brainstorming about future trio pattern names!

Moving on to Maurice specifically… as you’ve been seeing, it’s a cowl that can be made in three different versions – narrow, wide, and long loop.  All the versions can be small, medium, or large, and there are lots of detailed modification notes for making any size you want in any gauge you want.  The pattern is written for a recommended gauge of aran weight yarn at 3.25 sts/inch, but you can use the mods to use any yarn you want!

The striping pattern is designed to stripe between two colors in each section, and you can stick to the same two colors for the whole thing, or switch to new contrasting colors for each section.  The narrow cowl and long loop versions have two (symmetrical) sections, and the wide cowl has three (asymmetrical) sections.  There are also modification notes for working with colors in different ways, if you want to really do your own thing!

There are also photo tutorials included for carrying yarn neatly between short rows, and switching yarns to avoid holes.  Once you get the hang of that stuff, after going through the repeat pattern once or twice, it becomes a really easy, quick, fun knit!  I had no problem making 5 samples because they were such fast moving tv/movie knitting projects, and I’m not a fast knitter.  (Actually I made 6, because my first pattern for the long loop version wasn’t right, but I liked the wrong sample too much to frog it – I’ll put that up as a rav project after I weave in the ends and take photos…)

I made samples of the narrow version in small and medium, the wide version in small and large, and the long loop in small;  a bunch of awesome test knitters made a wide variety of different versions, several with modifications, so check out the rav projects to see those!  Thank you so much, my fantastic testers!!

That’s about all I can think of to say about Maurice… the yardage estimates and other details are all listed on the pattern page.  I’m currently working on the second trio pattern and I’m really excited about it – I should be to the point where I can start showing you sneak peeks (on twitter, instagram, tumblr) within a couple days!

(If you’re reading this by February 11th, my birthday coupon code is still valid, so you can save 31% off Maurice or the whole Short Stripes Trio!)

Hey guess what!  February is my birthday month, so I’m inviting you to celebrate with me by offering a 31% off coupon code!

Enter the code leethals31 (that’s “leethal’s 31″ without punctuation) into the coupon box in your shopping cart, on ravelry or leethalknits.com, and get as many patterns/ebooks as you want for almost a third off!  This code will be valid at the start of February 1st, through my birthday on the 11th.

Moving on… I made a couple of proclamations over on my tumblr at the beginning of the year, and I wanted to address them both here.  First, I claimed that for 2013 I’ll be posting a tumbl-a-day.  I have stuck to it for most of this month, but not completely… as the days went by, I found that some days I had something personal to post about, or something knitting-related, and those were all good, but other days I didn’t have anything to post, so I’d just waste a bunch of time looking for something to reblog.  This ends up being a bad thing for multiple reasons – the time wasted, and the littering of my tumblr with reblogs, which I want to mostly avoid doing.  So, no more strict post-a-day plan, I’ll just try to post things over there when I have something worth posting.

I do like using tumblr, as a kind of halfway between a tweet and a full on blog post over here, and I think I’ll continue with the posting of pattern sneak peeks (like I posted last night!), so if you want to see those you might want to follow me over there.  And, I do plan on doing some monthly tumblr based projects, like I mentioned in that first tumbl-a-day proclamation post… I’m going to try listening to and posting a record a day in February, so we’ll see how that goes.

If you want to help give me things to post about over there, you can ask me a question.  Also, if you know of any of those photo-a-day projects for an upcoming month (in which you’re told what to photograph each day), let me know – I did one of those for a month last year and it was fun!

So then, the other thing I announced at the beginning of the year was that January would be the month that I finally get my studio in actual proper, functioning, usable order.  I have made some progress, but damn, it’s been a busy month.  I actually have a chunk of time set aside for this afternoon/evening to get it as far along as possible before the month is over, but it’s far from finished.

These photos were taken 20 minutes ago.  In my defense, I have done a lot of more internal organizational work, like figuring out where certain things can live, projects which aren’t really visible behind all the clutter.  A couple months ago, there wasn’t close to enough room for all my yarn, but then I got some new yarn organizing systems set up and now all my yarn has a place to live!  Even all the small leftover balls.  Organization feels so good!

I’ve lived in this house, with that room as my studio space, for over 2.5 years now, so it’s embarrassing that it’s always been used as basically a storage space, with rarely a surface clear enough to work on.  The thing is, the room is significantly smaller than my studio room in our old apartment, and I’ve accumulated a ton more crap stuff over the last 3 years or so… Doing my old quick knits mail-out club encouraged me to buy lots of random crafty stuff, and then doing Remixed encouraged me to buy lots of sweaters to unravel, and this and that, and excuses excuses… basically, I am cursed with hoarding tendencies and I just have too much stuff to easily organize it in that one small room.  But I’m doing my best, really.

My old studio space was never really organized either, always a work-in-progress, just like this one… until we bought a house and moved.  About a month before we bought our house, I was told the Oregonian wanted to include me in a story about studio spaces, which would mean them sending a photographer into my space.  I used it as a motivator to get my room in order for the first time ever, succeeded, was featured in the paper, then immediately packed everything up to move!

During all the house buying and moving chaos back then, I managed to take photos of the studio before packing, but I never got around to editing and posting the photos… until last night!  I got them all sorted, edited, and up on flickr;  so here and now, I’m showing you these photos of my old space, because I always meant to, and so that they might motivate me to get my current space as functional!

Got pretty good light in that room!

(Coffee can cubbies tutorial is here.)

Gotta have a record player in any decent studio space ;)

Some areas looked messy, but they were actually in order.

Thrifted wine rack (I think?) as yarn storage/display.

Reclaimed CD cases (from my old photo lab day job – I didn’t go through all those discs myself!) as yarn storage.  And Ikea plastic bag storage units as yarn storage.

I’ve been sewing at the kitchen table for the last couple years… I can’t wait till I have space to actually craft in my craft studio!

Yeah, I like Ikea.  I’ll leave it at that… there are more shots on flickr if you want to see more.  I do have more to post about, but it can be for a later day… For now, you can be expecting the new stripy pattern release next week!  I’m aiming for Wednesday morning… it’s a fun pattern, I’m excited about it!  Yay!

You may or may not remember my old hat pattern called Haka, one of the first patterns I ever wrote waay back in 2008.  Well, it was super simple, it was cheap, and no one really seemed to care about it, but I liked the idea of it and decided it was worth a major makeover!

So I turned it into a cabled hat, to go along with the basic version, and then I recycled the cable chart to make a matching cowl as well!

So it’s all updated on my site and ravelry now as kind of a mini-ebook, with the basic hat, cabled hat, and cabled cowl, altogether in the pdf for $6.  All items use super bulky weight yarn, or 3 strands of worsted weight held together, which is what I used on these cabled samples.

Just like the original Haka, the hat can be worn with the strap four different ways… loose and hanging earflaps:

…fastened around your chin (Haka is Icelandic for chin, by the way):

… fastened up behind your head (this is my favorite way to wear it most of the time, still plenty warm but a bit out of the way):

Side note: one of my testers had the smart idea of putting a second button on the other side of the strap, so when it’s fastened this way the button can show on the outside instead of hidden underneath like you see here.

…and lastly, fastened behind the neck, so the strap is out of the way but the ears are still super cozy:

The cabled hat is the same pattern as the original hat, but with the cable chart for the body (the cables are only charted, not written); the cowl is just a simple tube cowl using the same cable chart:

This sample is the large size, which is huge and flops/folds over.  The small size is more fitted and will stay up around the neck more (see some testers’ versions here!).

The pattern pdf includes a tutorial for cabling without a cable needle (same as this one on my website)… here’s a better view of the cable pattern on the hat:

And then of course there’s the basic Haka as well, which is suuuper quick, easy, great for beginners or for last-minute winter gift knitting:

It will work in any super bulky yarn, finer weights held multi-stranded, or it looks fabulous in handspun!

And the pattern also includes full instructions for jog-less stripes, like in this sample (2×1 stripes like this one, or any other width stripes you want to make):

Many many thanks to my awesome test knitters for your quick knitting and thoughtful feedback!!  Happy knitting, all!

Oh hey remember how I had a mystery shawl knit-a-long last month?  Well, it’s long over and here is the mystery revealed!

Junction is a modular shawl, made up of 5 parts worked in different directions, all connected with short rows, no picked up stitches or seaming.

It can be made in any weight yarn, and in any size, in as little as 2 colors, or in as many colors as you want!

You can use the same color for the whole background, or switch between 2 different background colors, like I did in this main sample:

You can even used a subtly variegated or a self-striping yarn for the main color throughout, like this variegated sample I made, or like this self-striping by feistykitty, or this partially self-striping by craftzone.

The way the sizing for this shawl works is that the length you work to in the first section determines the final size of the whole piece… so while 3 sizes are given in the pattern, you can actually work to absolutely any size you want!  (Helpful sizing notes are included.)

This sample of mine is in Anzula’s For Better or Worsted – in Curry and Pesto as the main colors, with bits of Bark and Navy.  I love this yarn oh so much, yes!!  For this color combo in the large size, 2 skeins each were needed of the yellow and green, but you could totally use this yarn in a different way and/or make a medium size and not have to get multiple skeins of a color.  I think you’d be able to get away with 3 skeins total in the large size and a similar look (but with 3 colors instead of 4) by using 2 main colors (like I did) but not use those for the contrasting at all, and then the third color as the contrasting throughout the whole thing.  You’d definitely be safe doing that in a medium size, or you could go kind of halfway between medium and large…

And then this small size sample is in beautiful Black Trillium Merilon sock yarn (Star colorway), with a recycled white silk used as the contrasting.  I love it!  The small size shawl makes a great 1 skein of sock yarn project (though you can use any weight!), for a special yarn that you want to show off; you could probably even get a medium size out of 1 skein, depending on how tightly you knit it up.

So… want to see my crazy design process for this one?  It started with lots of swatching, and then once I had a basic concept figured out, I made up a first prototype, which looked like this:

At first I thought I was going to make garter stitch eyelet lines for the contrasting design details, but after using them in the center section, I didn’t like the look, and moved on to what became the chains in the later sections.

And I started to try this final sideways section across the top, but quickly decided against that, leaving it in the prototype instead of frogging it just for fun:

The shape of this one needed some major adjustment, but it’s sort of wearable… sorta kinda…

Then I made all my major adjustments to the in-progress pattern, to make for a better shape, and use the chains throughout, etc, and I had this thought that it could be cool to stripe 2×2 stripes throughout the whole thing.  I had some Quince & co yarn I’d been wanting to use, in 4 colors, so I played around with striping ideas in photoshop and came up with this plan.  Each of the 4 colors are used in 3 out of the 6 sections, paired with each of the other colors, so each section has its own unique 2×2 stripes, blending into the next (from sections 1-6, colors used are A/B, B/C, C/D, D/A, A/C, D/B).

For my first try, that plan became this:

First, the stripes were a bad idea.  Second, the shape was still way off.  But this time, it was only the top 2 sections that needed adjusting.  So I frogged the whole top half, re-worked the pattern some more, and this final shawl turned out like so:

The design features are totally hidden in those stripes, so I knew that idea was out for the actual pattern.  But this prototype served multiple purposes, and it was successful in its final shape/size.  So this became pretty much the exact pattern for the small size, as worked in worsted weight…

And while it’s no good as an official pattern sample, I do like it as a personal accessory, so it will most definitely be getting some use!

So, next, I decided to make one more prototype, with a solid background, to finalize everything, before casting on with my good yarn.  So I grabbed some aran weight Cascade Soft Spun (which knits up more like a chunky weight, I think), in order to whip up a quick medium size version.  I switched between 4 different contrasting colors for this one, rotating A, B, C, D throughout the entire piece.

Well, finally it was a complete success, and my prototyping was complete!  The medium was a perfect fit for what I wanted in a medium, and I loved it!

For my official large size Anzula sample, I wanted to show it in a 2 main color version.  While the 2×2 stripes didn’t work, I was convinced that there was a way to use 2 different main colors, and I wanted to make that idea work, so I did more color-planning sketching (messy touchpad sketching in photoshop)… I tried lots of different ways of switching between the colors, and using the contrasting colors, and this is what looked best:

So I knit it up and that plan became this shawl (I love how almost exactly right on my sketched plan was):

The large size is nice and cozy!

I like how the 2 color version kind of appears as mostly one color from some angles, and mostly (or entirely) the other color from other angles.

So that was my design process!  The only thing left to do was to make a small size sample, for which I chose to use sock yarn.  I’d been holding on to this Black Trillium skein for awhile, waiting for just the right design… and I think I made a good choice!  Love how it looks!

The small size is more of a kerchief than a shawl, really, depending on how you wear it.  But in wool yarn, it keeps my neck a good amount of warm…

And that’s that!  Junction!  It was a bit tough as a mystery pattern, and I know there were a lot of drop-outs, but I think it’s a much easier pattern when you know what you’re supposed to be doing!  The pattern includes lots of photos, step-by-step shots of how each section should look, and tons of notes to help you along the way.  As long as you follow each line as it’s written, and trust it, it’s not a hard pattern.  It’s all just knitting, after all :)

It’s been a busy month!  With all these new patterns, I want to offer a sale on this cyber Monday, so you can collect whichever ones you like with some major savings!  (Like my newest Flying V’s, and Junction, which still has yet to be blogged officially, pictured below.)

So, today only, add as many leethal patterns/ebooks to your cart as you want (through ravelry or my site), and enter coupon code leethalmonday to save 40% off your entire order!!

This code will work for the whole Remixed collection (knocking it down from $20 to a mere $12 for all 8 patterns!) and all the quick knits ebooks, Game Knitting, the Flying V’s collection, etc…

And since it is now indeed the holiday season, I will go on to point you to my many patterns which might make for good (quick) gift knitting!  All of my any-gauge patterns can be made as a quick gift knit if you choose a chunky yarn, like Wobble Bass, which looks very nice in bulky yarns (pictured here in worsted) and is a great gift for a hat-wearing person of any gender:

(Note:  I’ll link to the ravelry pages for all the patterns throughout this post, since it’s a little easier and is probably preferred by many, but you can also find all the patterns on my website, and buy them through there with the coupon code if you prefer.)

Any-gauge mitts include Either/Or and Rumours (both from Remixed), which are both quick in chunky yarns:

Any-gauge cowls include Flippable and Parallel Lines (another Remixed pattern)…

…and hooded (or optionally hooded) cowls Shapeshifter and Skoodlet both work excellently in bulky or super bulky yarns:

Custom Tritops and Wild is the Wind (from Remixed) can both be made not just in any weight, but also as either fitted or slouchy styles (both shown here in slouchy), though if you choose to make either super quick in bulky yarn, the fitted style is probably the better choice.

Other Remixed any-gauge hats include Gentle on My Mind, shown here in an oversized super bulky version, and Freak Out! (a hat with a surprise hidden underneath!):

I also have some simpler bulky weight patterns, like Brimming with Color and Haka, which is the ultimate quick knit hat, in either super bulky yarn or 3 strands of worsted held together – perfect for one-night gift knitting!

And Twisted Ankles are cabled legwarmers knit up in bulky weight:

And then there are my official quick knits patterns – those hats and other accessories might be quick compared to shawls and sweaters, but these projects below are QUICK!  There are the Ten 10 yard Cuffs:

Lots of good potential gifty items in my quick knits ebooks, like these Drink Sweaters and Pen Tube Bookmarks…

…and the Guitar Pick Keyring Pouch and CD Gift Case, which are together in the same ebook:

And then there are my older quick knits patterns, compiled into 3 volumes – these Pinwheel Earmuffs and Cabled Frame are from vol. 2, the Garter Strip Light-switch Cover is from vol.3…

…and these Stiffened Chevron Bookmarks and holiday-themed Wee Gift Bag below are from vol.1.  Browse through ravelry or my site to see all my quick knits patterns (47 of them!).

Lastly, if you need to stick to freebies, I have some of those as well!  My new hat Scant knits up quickly, especially if you choose a chunky yarn.  Cassady and Buttonhead are also simple knits for any gauge, and the Buttony Chevron Cuff is super quick and fun:

And then there are these Gradient Mitts and leethal Mary Janes, both in bulky yarns for quick gift knitting.

Hope I gave you some good options if you are trying to pack in lots of knitting over the next month!  You should be able to whip up several of these in time, no problem!  Happy holidays, and happy knitting!

Happy holidays!  I have a gift to you all, a free hat pattern!  It all started when I offered to knit my brother any accessory he wanted for his birthday, and he requested a plain “brown beanie”.  Well, if you know me, you know I wasn’t exactly excited about the thought of this project… but I decided to use it as an opportunity.

While making this plain, brown beanie, I wrote it up as an any-gauge pattern for you!  It serves as both an easy, simple pattern for a basic hat, perfect for using up a single skein of a special yarn, like this one, made from this handspun that I’d been saving for just the right project:

And also as a good introduction to any-gauge patterns.  I know my patterns for any weight yarn can be intimidating to some knitters, who have only had experience with traditional patterns, but this basic hat pattern may serve to show that it’s not difficult to use an any-gauge pattern.  And it’s fun to pick out any yarn you want to use, and then make a custom fit item with it!

This twisted rib brimmed hat is knit from the top down, so you don’t need to make a gauge swatch.  You just started working outwards, and measure your gauge when you have enough fabric to do so, then determine your stitch count using that, and your own head measurement, continuing on to your ideal height.

The pattern is all on my website itself (something new I wanted to try out), and the notes include sizing info for gift knitting, and for making either a fitted or slouchy style.  I’ll stop talking about the pattern now, since you can just click over to see the whole thing for yourself.  And it’s on ravelry here.  Enjoy!!