Knitscene

Photo credit: Knitscene/Harper Point Photography

It's been a dream of mine to have one of my designs published in a magazine and I am elated that it's become a reality.  In January I submitted my Hotpoint sock design to Knitscene and it was accepted for the Winter 2015 issue.  It's just hit the newsstand and if you haven't already gotten your copy, be sure to check it out.  

Photo credit: Knitscene/Harper Point Photography

Photo credit: Knitscene/Harper Point Photography

There are so many pretty designs in this issue.  Two of my favorites are the Trapunto Vest by Katya Frankel and the Chamei Pullover by Bristol Ivy.  I think I have some yarn in my stash that would be perfect for the vest and the sweater is just screaming for me to do a little retail therapy so I can knit that as well. 

Trapunto Vest

by Katya Frankel

Photo credit: Knitscene/Harper Point Photography

Chamei Pullover

by Bristol Ivy

Photo credit: Knitscene/Harper Point Photography

Heat Lighting and Socktober

I'd like to introduce my latest sock design, Heat Lighting in Unplanned Peacock's Cozy Sock.  This is a super fun and easy to knit sock that is worked from the cuff down and incorporates a modified short row heel.  The lace pattern is simple enough to knit while watching tv or going to a game.  Unplanned Peacock's Cozy sock was a delight to work with.  It's a blend of 20% super soft alpaca, 60% merino and 20% nylon.  It had a luxurious hand and literally just glided over my needles.

In celebration of the release of Heat Lighting and Socktober, ALL of my sock patterns in my Ravelry Pattern Shop are 50% until October 1.  Use coupon code: Socktober when you check out.

Shark Bite

Use coupon code: Amity for $2.00 off until July 5th. Don’t get caught with your socks in the water and have a Happy 4th of July!

Introducing Shark Bite! I cannot describe how much fun these socks were to design and knit!  JAWS is one of my all time favorite movies.  Just hearing the first note from the theme makes the hair raise up on the back of my neck.  I've been fascinated with sharks, particularly Great Whites, since I was kid.  When Shark Week starts, you are most likely to find me glued to the tv with my knitting.   

The Shark Bite socks were inspired by one of my all time favorite movies, JAWS. It’s a tradition for my husband and I to have a JAWS movie marathon over the 4th of July weekend every year. We hunker down in our den and watch the movies from beginning to end. 2015 is the 40th Anniversary of the original JAWS movie and I thought it was an appropriate time to design a pattern in homage to the movie.

Shark Bite is written from the cuff down. The cuff and leg portion of the socks are worked in the flat, and the joined at the ankle. The heel, foot and toe are worked in the round.

If you aren’t familiar with knitting colorwork, links to tutorials are provided in the pattern. While the colorwork details might look difficult to knit, they are really only over a small portion of the sock and some of them, like the swimmer and sharks teeth can be done in duplicate stitch once you are finished knitting.

The sample was was worked using KnitPicks Stroll unless otherwise noted. This is a perfect project to use mini skeins and left over yarn for the smaller details.

Color A: White 15 yards 
Color B: Blue Yonder 150 yards 
Color C: Black 50 yards 
Color D: Unplanned Peacock Peacock Sock, in Sun 5 yards 
Color E: Cork 10 yards, 
Color F: Thunderhead 345 yards

A very special thank you goes to Margi, whose help with test knitting and finding the links to the tutorials is so much appreciated!

Happy Friday!

It may seem strange that I get excited for Friday since I'm self employed and wind up working most every day.  Even if I am working, the weekend is still the weekend.  On Friday's I usually cook something more involved than pizza for dinner.  When Andy get's home from work we have a cocktail and kick back a bit before dinner.  Tonight I'm making Carnita Pork and will serve it will a corn salsa, black beans, avocado's and rice.   I can never get enough avocado in any form - sliced, in guacamole or fried.  I will eat it any way that it comes!   Andy has been working a lot.  Between his day job and building our deck (pictures next week!) I haven't seen as much of him as I usually do.  Since a large portion of the deck was rather high up and I am terrified of heights, I wasn't able to help out.  Now that the decking boards are mostly done I've been able to give him a hand.

I've been working on a pair of Bethesda's Socks in the Sock It To Me KAL in my Ravelry group.  If you haven't joined in, there is still plenty of time to get a pair of socks knitted up.  The holidays are right around the corner and socks make a great gift!  This is my sock in progress.  The yarn is from the Murder on the Moors yarn club that The Natural Dye Studio did earlier this year.  The club was a lot of fun, reasonably priced and came with a short mystery story in each shipment. 

Next week I have a new pattern set in Bare Naked Wools Ghillie Sport/DK coming out!  It's called Sugardance and will include a cowl and mitt pattern.  The pattern will be released on Monday and Knitspot will be having a pattern giveaway on their blog, so keep a look out there. It's a super easy knit and would make a great gift for a friend for the holidays!  I know, I know the leaves haven't even fallen off the trees yet.  Isn't it better to get started on that holiday knitting now, rather than to wait until the last minute and have to block a project in your hotel room or at your in laws?

Fun things are just around the corner!

May has really flown by and it's hard to believe that next week June will be here.  It's been exceptionally hot here with temp's in the low 90's for most of the week.  The evenings are cooler and it's given Andy and I a chance to do some work outside.  We have decided to expand our outdoor living area by replacing our two smaller decks with one large one that will go across the back of the house.  Before we start the two overgrown Cypress trees that are encroaching on the house had to be removed.  I think this picture really shows how insanely large the Cypress trees are!  The trees are gone now and Andy has started removing the deck on the patio level of the house.  Building the new deck is going to be pretty involved so I think a lot of of free time this summer will be spent on that. 

While Andy has been working hard on taking apart the deck, I have been having fun with a few new designs.  I have two that will be coming out in June and I am really excited about both of them!  I'm only going to give you a little hint for the first one:

It's going to be released during the second week of June.  I will be putting up another hint here and a few on my Facebook Page so be sure to like my page if you want to get all of the hint's. 

I also have a new sock pattern that will be released in June too.  We have been so busy with working on the house that we haven't had a chance to take pictures of the socks.  I took this picture to send to Margi and Beth so they would know what their test knits should look like.  It shows the sock really well, but I am not as talented with the camera as Andy is.  I really love the colors of the yarn.  It's called Aquaman and is from Gnome Acres. 

If you are working on your Mother of Dragons shawl and haven't joined in on the KAL in my Ravelry group, be sure to.  Miss Babs has donated a skein of Yummy 2-Ply in Biker Chick as one of the prizes that we are giving away.  All you need to do to enter is to post a picture of your finished shawl.  The drawing will be on July 1.
 



Tomorrow Beth and I are going on the Virginia Knits Yarn Crawl.  We are hoping to go to five out of the six shops in one day.  I'm bringing the camera and will have lot's of yarnie goodness talk about next week.