It's KAL Time!

I hope you can join us for the Tyrion's Gift KAL in my group on Ravelry.  It's being done in a casual style, cast on anytime you like and finish up by May 16th.  If you haven't tried a KAL before, this is a great one to get your feet wet on.  We have several experienced shawl knitters participating who are happy to answer questions and cheer you on.  Tyrion's Gift is a simple lace pattern with resting rows on the wrong side which makes it a great first shawl/first KAL project. 

Here are the fabulous prizes:

Leslie Wind custom made this pin to go with Tyrion's Gift and it's called Tyrion's Closure.  It's a wonderful design and easily slips into your shawl and stays in place while being worn.  Tyrion's Closure will be available in Leslies shop, if you can't wait until the end of the KAL to see if you won! 

Gwenderful, my favorite stitch marker maker extraordinaire, has donated a set of her Rainbow Stitch markers. I have several set’s from Gwen and they are fantastic! Plus they come in a cute little tin which makes them easy to keep track of.

 I’m donating a choice of any single pattern from my Ravelry Pattern Shop and one of the small project bags that I make and sell in my Etsy shop. This one has cute birds in cages and cheerful colors and is the perfect size for socks or other small projects. I’ll be updating the shop with more bags later next week.

Goals for 2015

At the beginning of each year I like to set goals for things that I would like to try to accomplish throughout the year.  It's easy to get discouraged and break New Years Resolutions because it seems that people tend to go for broke and have resolutions that are hard to stick to or achieve.  The goals (I know, it's just a different spin on resolutions, but tomato tomahto) I set are ones that I believe that I can reach and are never anything crazy like giving up chocolate.  One goal that Andy and I set together and has lasted for the past seven years is to recycle.  Recycling isn't mandatory where we live and we had been sporadic about it, after deciding that it was something that we absolutely needed to do for the benefit of the planet it was an easy goal to achieve. 

After decrapping organizing my studio for the umpteenth time, I realized that I needed to set up some knitting goals for this year - especially since we are planning on going to to major fiber festivals.  I'm going to attempt to use up ten, yes ten, skeins of yarn before MDSW which begins on May 2.  This brings me to my second knitting goal, which is to take some knitting time for myself and work on a few just for fun projects during the year.  The top shelf in the yarntertainment center is all fingering and sock weight yarns.  I'll be knitting with as many of them as I can!  I've arranged them by color this go around.  I had them by brand before and I'm not sure which way I like better. The middle shelf is worsted, dk, and lace.  The bottom shelf has needles, jewelry making tools and supplies, and miscellaneous items like my lazy kate and a couple of bobbins.

Because I have a rather extensive fiber stash I've attached a goal to that as well.  My plan is to spin up half of the fiber stash by the end of the year. I've started spinning a bump of baby alpaca from a fleece that I bought at a local farm about three years ago.  It's the softest fiber in my stash and I'm really enjoying spinning it.  I ordered two bobbins from Akerworks and they are due to be delivered today.  I've heard great things about them and thought they would be worth trying.  This is a standard bobbin that goes with Kromski wheels.  

Last week on Facebook someone posted a picture of circle weaving and I thought I would give it a try.   It's fun and easy!  I used my coiled handspun to make this little hot pad.

I spun this yarn quite a few years ago and never could figure out what to do with it.  This little mat was the perfect project for it.  Heart Song Studio has a great tutorial on how to set up the warp and use a nifty knitter for weaving in the round.

I started a pair of Wentletrap's last week and have one finished already.  The yarn is Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Fire on the Mountain colorway.  When they are done, that will be two skeins down (one for Wentletrap and one for the hot pad).  Only eight more to go. 

Two Fun Fall KAL's

Fall is almost here and we have two fun KAL's on Ravelry beginning on September 12! 

Pictured is Frost in Bloom


The Cowltastic Knit Along 

Fall is the perfect time for cowl knitting. They are fun and easy, plus make great holiday gifts. If you are a last minute gift knitter (like me!), then you know how nice it is to be able to have a gift made ahead of when you need it (instead of finishing it up in the car and trying to block it in the hotel room).

Guidelines:
Cast on no earlier than September 12.
Use any of my cowl patterns.
Post a picture of your finished cowl by October 19 midnight your time to qualify for prizes.
Tag you project with LSCowltastic.
Use coupon code: Cowltastic for $1.00 off of one pattern for the KAL. The coupon is good through September 12.

I can’t wait to see what you guys make! Spark and Camberwell are perfect for using up stash left overs if you are on a yarn diet.

Spark

 Camberwell

The Sock It To Me KAL

Pictured are Frost Bite


Socks are one of my favorite things to knit and I can’t seem to get enough of them. They are great for gift giving - to those who are sock worthy of course! I owe a pair to a friend who hand washes the ones I made for her a couple of years ago so I am going to join in on this one.

Guidelines:
Cast on no earlier than September 12.
Use any of my sock patterns.
Post a picture of your finished socks by October 19 midnight your time to qualify for prizes.
Tag you project with LSSockItToMe.

Modifications? Of course! If you prefer toe up and want to alter one of my patterns to knit them toe up, sideways, or any other mod’s feel free to do so. I really love seeing what you make from my patterns and love seeing the mod’s too!

Use coupon code: SockIt for $1.00 off of one pattern for the KAL. The coupon is good through September 12.

Sock it to me??? Why this name? My maiden name was Toomey and when my mom was pregnant with me she was a teacher. She told me that her students wanted her to call me Sockit Toomey. I always thought this was really funny :)

I'm working on the prizes for both KAL's.  If you would like to donate a prize, please let me know!

SKAL With Cat and Sparrow and a New Pattern is on the Way!

I'm so delighted to announce that there is a Spin and Knit Along (SKAL) for Night's Watch in the Cat & Sparrow Ravelry Group.   The SKAL official start date is September 10, but since they are located in Australia we thought we would go ahead and announce it now to give everyone a chance to order their fiber for the spinning portion.  If you aren't a spinner, no worries because Julie of Dyed By Hand Yarns will be offering a limited edition Night's Watch coloway in one of her fab yarns for anyone who wants to just do the knitting portion.  All the details for the SKAL can be found here:  Cat & Sparrow Night's Watch SKAL   Check out this cool batt that they created in the Night's Watch color!  I can't wait to get spinning on it!

Next week I will be releasing Coquette,  a new lace shawl pattern in Wanton Fibers Coquette yarn.  Rachel from Wonton Fibers will be having a update with lot's of Coquette in it next Friday the 15th.  I can't wait to see what colors she has for the update.  I absolutely love this yarn, it's one of the softest yarns I have ever touched.   Seriously if I had enough of it, I would wrap myself in the skeins and wear them like clothes. 

I am over the top excited about the pattern and will be giving a copy away on Facebook.  Yesterday I noticed that my design page on Facebook is only 9 likes away from reaching 400.  I can't believe it!  I really appreciate all of the support from you guys and can't thank you enough!  Once the page reaches 400 I will do a drawing for the Coquette pattern.

I have never been very good about holding out on things and really can't resist giving you a sneak peek of Coquette.

New Pattern Coming on Monday, KAL Updates and Other Fun Stuff!

Game of Thrones Season 4 has come to a close and if you are like me, the withdrawals have already started.  It's the only show on tv that I find so completely enthralling that I don't knit while watching it.  A year is just too long to wait for next season!

After Mother of Dragons was released, Miss Babs and I have been collaborating to create a series of Game of Thrones themed patterns.  I have been having a hard time containing my excitement and not letting the Direwolf out of the bag!  There will be two more patterns coming out this year and the next one is being released on Monday June 30 and will be available in my Ravelry Pattern Shop.  The third in the series will be coming out later in the fall so you will have plenty of time to get this one knitted up before the next release!

Night's Watch is a effortless one skein garter stitch triangle shawlette in Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply in the Coffee Break colorway.  I have included both charted and written instructions and the pattern is easy to memorize which makes this a perfect knit night project. I've included some fun Game of Thrones graphics and a few other surprises in the pattern layout that I hope you will enjoy.

For a chance to win a copy of Night's Watch "like" the Lara Smoot Designs Facebook Page and share the Night's Watch post on Facebook.  The drawing will be on June 30 in conjunction with the pattern release.

The Summer of Socks KAL is in full swing with lot's of lovely projects popping up.  Be sure to pop on over to the KAL thread and check out all the socks!  A huge thank you to SuchGwenderfulStuff on Etsy for sponsoring the Summer of Socks KAL with a set of stitch markers from her shop.  I absolutely love her stitch markers.  They are thinner then some of the other brands that I have used the past and the colors show up well in my knitting.  The winner with have their choice of a set of markers in Gwen's shop.

The Mother of Dragons KAL is ending on July 1.  If you haven't posted your finished Mother of Dragons in the thread be sure to do so before July 1 to qualify for a chance to win a skein of Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply in Biker Chick or your choice of one of my patterns.

Photo courtesy of Miss Babs.

Spring Knit A Longs

 

It is warm and absolutely beautiful here today.  The Redbud tree in the front of our house is in full bloom and buzzing with bee's.  One of my favorites, the Grape Hyacinths are blooming too.  Our lilac bush has it's usual two blooms on it, but they haven't opened up yet.  No matter what we do to that poor bush it refuses to produce more than a couple of blooms each year.

I've been busy getting ready for the Powhatan's Festival of Fiber on April 26. I'm putting together a few Ready Set Knit kits that will have one of my patterns and some luxury yarn paired with them.  There will be an assortment of project bags and a few other goodies.  Stephanie will be bringing some of her fabulous fiber related artwork, hand spun yarn and yarn bowls.  If you are in the area be sure to stop by our booth!  I just noticed that she has some of her paintings added to her Etsy shop: Spinderella  I may wind up coming home from the festival with one.  The colors are really fantastic in them!

 

I'm hosting a KAL in the Berry Colorful Yarnings group on Ravelry for Despicable Socks.  The cast on date is April 15 and runs until June 1. Michelle and I are working on gathering up some prizes for the KAL.  I hope you can join us for some Minion Mayhem!

 

The ladies from Dropped Stitches Podcast are having an Intersect KAL in their group.  If you are interested in joining in and don't have the pattern yet, use coupon code: Merlot for 20% off until April 12.  Julia and her sister Jennifer are a lot of fun and their podcast has a lot of good information from knitting and yarn to plants and wine.  You can watch it here: Dropped Stitches Podcast

 

 You can choose to knit the hat, mitts or both for the KAL.