Marshwood

I've teamed up with Bare Naked Wools to bring you Marshwood.  Bare Naked Wools will be offering a kit for Marshwood in their shop later this week, so be sure to check it out!

Marshwood is inspired by the many castles that are found throughout Europe. The simple, but elegant texture of the body of the shawl is reminiscent of castle walls and the picot edging represents the battlements.
Marshwood uses just two skeins of Bare Naked Wools Confection DK. Beginning with a garter stitch tab and worked from the top down this is a great project to take with you to knit group or work on while watching your favorite show.

Weather you will be walking along the Moors of the Scottish countryside or dining at your favorite pub this summer, Marshwood is the perfect accessory for you to wear. The three sections drape nicely and will lay over your shoulders without the use of a shawl pin.


Use coupon code: BNW in my Ravelry pattern shop for $1.00 off of Marshwood through 5/11. 





Later this week I'll have the MDSW recap.  I don't think Blogger had enough coffee this morning as it keeps deleting what I've typed.

Holiday Knitting

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Thank you so much for the support during my Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday Sale.  Now that you have stocked your Ravelry Library with some new patterns and did a bit of stash enhancement from the sales lists that Marly Bird and Lisa from Indie Untangled put together it's time to figure out what to cast on!   I'll be casting on a couple of pairs of Intersect Mitt's tonight for gift giving.  They knit up so quickly and it's a really fun pattern.  I have some nice yarn from Indieway Yarns in my stash that I plan on using for both pairs.

I also will be working on a few new designs in the coming months and am really looking forward to getting started on them.  One of them is going to be in this delicious yarn from Bare Naked Wools.  It's called Confection Sport, and there is good reason for that.  If you look up confection in the dictionary it should say: See Bare Naked Wools, but all it says is: a dish or delicacy made with sweet ingredients.  It's absolutely scrumptious!  This colorway is called Nougat, but it comes in several other delicious colorways like: Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate.  Yum!!

 I hope that you are enjoying the holiday season and remember to take time to relax and knit in between going to the market and trying to fit in all of the festivities.  Speaking of which, my annual Festivus post is coming right up and I have some fun prizes to give away! 

An Interview, Powhatan's Festival of Fiber and Spark KAL with Bare Naked Wools!

Last month Robin Hunter contacted me to see if I would be interested in participating in an interview for her blog.  There are a few blogs that I try to read on a regular basis and hers is one of them.  She always has interesting information and I enjoy reading the interviews she does with other designers.

Robin posted the interview today.  I'm really honored that she asked me!  She asks a lot of good questions and if you were wondering more about me and my business, please check out her post:  An Interview with Lara Smoot

For the past few weeks I have been getting ready for the Powhatan's Festival of Fiber.  I've put together some "Ready to Knit" kits with a few of my patterns.  These kits include the yarn, pattern and a stitch marker.  All you will need are your needles to get started!


Frost in Bloom



Oktoberfest



Iridill
 


Ferry Beach 




I will also be bringing some Mother of Dragons kits.  They include a Limited Edition dragon project bag, Mother of Dragons pattern and coordinating yarn.  This is just a little hint of the bag as I am putting the final touches on them:

I will be adding some project bags and kit's to my Etsy shop around the first week of May.  I am really excited to be starting this new venture!

Speaking of excitement, the Spark KAL has been announced in the Bare Naked Wools group on Ravelry.  We would love to have you join us.  It begins on April 30 and Erica and I have some fun things planned for the KAL including a few contests along the way.  If you are looking for something to knit for your Mom for Mothers Day, Spark is a perfect gift.  Mom can wear it in the chilly spring air when she goes out for her morning walk, or in the evenings since the nights are still a bit chilly.  Ok, who am I trying to kid here?  When I spoke with Erica earlier this week she had 2" of snow at her house! It's definitely a late spring and Mom would sure appreciate a nice hand knitted Spark cowl to keep her warm.  Check out these pictures from the look book photo shoot.  Beth knitted the lighter colored Spark using all Bare Naked Confection and I knitted the darker one in Confection with Indieways Best Worsted for the contrast.

Spring Might Actually Be Here!

We happened to be very lucky and it was 65 here on the first day of spring!  The song birds are back and late last night I heard a flock of geese that were heading north for the summer.  While winters here aren't as harsh as many other areas, this one seemed to drag on a bit longer than normal.  The first spring flowers are making an appearance and can be spotted almost everywhere.  I really enjoy seeing them bloom!  This daffodil is in our garden.

 

I spotted this crocus while I was out running errands today.  It was peeking up through the grass next to the sidewalk. 

Ever since I was a little girl one of my favorite things is to get the mail.  You never know what might arrive that day, and even if it is bills it was still fun wondering what was going to be in the box before you got there.

Earlier this week I revived a package full of squishy goodness from Knitspot's Bare Naked Wools.  Erica aka majordomo contacted me about having a sample of Spark knitted for their Look Book in three colors of their wonderful Confection yarn and a second sample in Confection with hand dyed yarn as the accents.  Beth is knitting the sample that is all in BNW's and I am working on the one that has the hand dyed accents.  I'm using Confection Worsted in Cookies and Cream with Indieway's Best Worsted in Black Currant and Periwinkle. I love knitting with both of the yarns and putting them together is extra special!  Confection is lofty and soft and just glides through your fingers while you knit.  Best Worsted is soft and smooth and in Black Currant and Periwinkle really stands out with the Cookies and Cream.  Spark is one of those patterns that is fun to knit and doesn't require a large amount of yarn - just 70 yards for each contrasting color and 200 yards for the main color.  Choose a  neutral for the main color like Cookies and Cream and pair it with some brighter left overs that you have saved in your stash.  I think it would look great with a variegated colorway for the contrast too.  The possibilities are endless.

I've just gotten started on mine so you can't really see much yet.

 

A peek in my project bag shows how pretty the yarns look together:

 

I love the pictures of Confection that Anne has on Raverly.  It must have been a fun photo shoot!

The Reveal!

Since the Intersect MKAL has come to a close I thought it would be a good time to reveal what the patterns look like!  The ladies in the Indieway Yarns group all did a fabulous job on their projects!  Dragonstar posted about hers on her blog.  She also has an interesting post where she is knitting with giant needles - be sure to check that one out too.  You can see all of the projects for the MAKL on Ravelry.   I have to say that the Indieway group made me feel right at home and I had a blast getting to know everyone. Wendi, who is the creator of Indieway Yarns, has been wonderful to work with and so much fun!  I have another pattern coming out later this spring in her yarn and will have more details very soon.  I was so happy to see that AllisonMarie joined the group too.  I've known Allison from other groups on Ravelry and she is super nice.  We even met in person once which was really cool! 

Andy and I had such a great time doing the photo shoot for Intersect.  We were driving around downtown Lynchburg looking for a spot to take pictures when we spotted this great yellow door from a street above.    We parked a street below where we had spotted the door and took the walking path up to it.  I have no idea what the door leads to, which made it even more perfect for pictures for a Mystery Knit Along!

I am updating the pattern in Ravelry so that it includes pictures and will no longer be in clue format.  It's a fun knit and would make a perfect Easter gift.

I love the color of the door and really would like to paint something at our house in this shade of yellow!  Bright colors always cheer me up and I love being surrounded by them.

 

I have a few other fun things in the works that I will be posting about next week; a couple new patterns that are in the works and an upcoming KAL with Bare Naked Wools. If you go to their website there is a count down at the top of the page that is a mystery.  I have no idea what it's for and I would really like to know! I guess we will have to wait for 47 more days to find out. 

TNNA

We are back from TNNA and had a wonderful time!  Kristi, Paul and Laurie did an amazing job designing the Shalimar booth.  We had three spaces this year and the extra room was wonderful!

I finished Tempest just in time to wear on Saturday:

I love how the colors of Ore and Love Potion look together.  It was a really fun knit and it's so nice to have a finished sweater that fit's so well.  I may have to knit this again in another colorway.  I'm thinking of possibly doing something with gradient stripes next time.

I've been reading Carrie aka IrishGirlieKnits  blog for several years now and have done a few test knits for her.  I was so excited to finally get to meet her!  She is one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet and she has some really fantastic designs that I was able to admire in person. She even offered some really great advice for me as a designer which I am really grateful for.

  The lovely shawl to the right of me is Falling Slowly one of Carries newest designs. 

We were able to spend some time with Anne and Erica (and her super cute baby!) from KnitSpot.  Anne's booth was amazing!  Seeing so many of her designs knitted up and all in one place was incredible.  Even though David couldn't be there, we still managed to get him in the group picture:

Anne was kind enough to give me a sample card with all of the Bare Naked Yarns on it.  I've worked with the Breakfast Blend for the Ribbon Street Cowl design earlier this year and it has a lovely hand.  I'm sure I will be coming up with a new design for one of the other yarns.  Stone Soup and Kent are really calling out to me right now!

I'm a few days late posting about TNNA.  Last week our dog Roper, took a turn for the worse and we had to put him down.  The vet thinks that in addition to his heart issues he had a brain or spinal column tumor.  We had him for almost 13 years and it's been really hard being in the house without him.  He was very well loved and a special guy.  He was always right by my side or where he could watch me to see what I was doing though out the day.

Knit Along Time!

It's been a really exciting week here!  Erica asked me to hoast the first Knit Aong in the new Bare Naked Wools group on Ravelry.  We will be using my brand new Ribbon Street Cowl pattern along with Anne's new Breakfast Blend DK yarn.  It's really quite an honor to be be asked to do this and Ive been over the moon about it!  Erica, Barb, Anne Marie and myself will all be there if anyone has questions or needs help.  It's fun and easy pattern, perfect for knitting in the evening while relaxing or to take with you to knit group.


The Ribbon Street Cowl pattern is just $3.50 until the end of the month in my Ravelry shop. 

Ive already knit one up in Breakfast Blend DK.  It's in the Morning Smoke colorway.  Don't you just love this color?  Grays are my favorite!  Not to mention the fantastic blend of Merino and Alpaca that gives this yarn softness and fantastic squish factor!

 For an idea of what it would look like in other colorways, please see the pattern page on Ravelry.

The other thing that has made this a great week is that I finally got around to painting the shelves that Andy made for the dining room.  I honestly had gotten so burned out from our kitchen remodel that I just couldn't bring myself to paint these three simple shelves.  In all fairness, it did take most of a day to get them painted.  Now all that is left to do is to paint the bottom of the wall.  The current color really doesn't go well with the new cabinet color.  We are changing it to a warm shade of brown.  Oh and then Andy is buiding a new and larger pantry.  But, that's a story for another day!

 

Hope to see you in the Bare Naked Wools Ribbon Street Cowl KAL!