Indie Pattern of the month nomination & Paw-some Cowl and Infinity Scarf pattern

Indie spotlight #3

This has been a rather unexpected surprise. For the third time this year, another of my knitting patterns have been selected and nominated for the Indie designer pattern of the month. 

It is another of my patterns that was previously published by I Like Knitting  online magazine. 

The article link 

Here I wrote about the previous two nominations of my patterns by Lovecraft website:

My blog post

Another pattern of mine has been published this month on I Like Knitting website:

photo by I Like Knitting

Paw-some Dog Cowl and Matching Paw-some Infinity Scarf.

I Like Knitting link

photo by I Like Knitting

I worked on this sample at the beginning of the pandemic, when we were asked to stay at home. I have to say it was a rather nice distraction from everything that was going on around me as I was forced to concentrate on this pattern, working one stitch at time. Since I was home a lot, and I had some leftover yarn I knitted a matching hat as well. The pattern for the hat will be in the following issue of I Like Knitting magazine. 

Bellow is a picture of my dog modeling the fancy Paw-some Cowl. 

Paw-some Cowl

Thank you for visiting.

Express yourself

This morning I have received an email from @lovecraftscom where crafters and independent designers are asked to create a blog post or Instagram post and tell about why they create. I have entered a similar competition organized by Lovecraft last fall. You can read my blog post here.
I have not won the blogger of the year at that time, but my entry was inspiring enough that Lovecraft has decided to feature a little post about me based on this entry from last year.
You can see my blog post about it here or read the article on Lovecraft website here.

Since I wrote that blog post nothing has really changed. I still love to create for the simple joy it brings me. Crafting has helped me to go through the pandemic and stay at home orders. I have managed to let go of everything that is going on in the world and for a few brief moments I felt calm and peaceful concentrating on one stitch at time.

Voyager Sweater

Being an independent knitwear designer have helped me through the difficult time when I was furloughed from my work. Even though the money I get from my knitwear design business does not cover my living expenses, it allowed me to feel as if I have contributed something into our family budget, however small amount it is.  I hope to expand and earn more as the time goes by.

Frances

If I were to win this competition by Lovecrafts I would use the money towards this new e-book, and hopefully an actual printed book project that I started to work on late last year. At first it was going to be just a few knitting patterns that are collection of whimsical and joyful ideas, inspired by fairytales and woodland creatures. An example of the patterns that would be in this collection is Frances.
This week I came with an idea to include in the collection few other things, like recipes, pictures and such. Like the dandelion honey, a sweet childhood memory of mine. Pictured bellow.

Dandelion Honey

Thank you for reading and visiting. It means the world to me, and it have helped to put food on our table these past few months.

Knitting Pattern for Frances

Fox family

During the pandemic and stay at home period I had time on my hands. Under the normal circumstances I would not be able to observe the fox family that moved into the woods across the street. It felt special to be able to see them so close, yet afar as the fox family went about their daily lives, the baby foxes playing with each other, the parents running around trying to feed their babies. As I was watching them I started to think about the momma fox how busy she must be and it lead to this playful idea of mine to create a momma fox and a baby fox. The momma fox definitively needed an apron and some snack food to keep her babies fed.

Frances

The knitting pattern for Frances has been test knitted and edited by Midnight Purl.

You can purchase the pattern in my Ravelry store, Designer page

on Lovecraft 

Frances

or by clicking on this button:

Frances

Knitting and life

Earth

I hope that the world will be a better place once the dust settles in, the virus runs its course and peaceful protest achieve the changes that should have been in place for many years. Growing up behind the Iron curtains, participating in Velvet Revolution and watching the world evolve into something else than we hoped for is heartbreaking. This is not the world I wish our children would inherit from us, the adults.
My wish is for peace to the world.

In these turbulent times I have received some unexpected news from knitting world.
One of my patterns that was previously published in I Like Knitting online magazine, has been nominated for Indie Designer pattern of the month - June.

link here

Watermelon Pouch

It is a second time this year that one of my patterns have been nominated.  

Previously it was my Calypso Cowl, and coincidently both of these patterns were part of Top 50 patterns on I Like Knitting.

Blog post here

Thank you for visiting.

Knitting Pattern for Leonard and Lola

Leonard and Lola

Leonard and Lola

The toy mystery KAL is over, but you can still knit your Leonard and Lola. The pattern is available to purchase on Raverly:

Ravelry store

or by clicking on this button:



or you can purchase the pattern on Lovecraft:

Leonard and Lola

Thank you for visiting.

Work in progress

Another week went by.
I stayed at home. I baked. I cooked. I cleaned. I did laundry. I cooked. I cleaned. I cooked more. I baked. I read. I played with yarn and knitted. I took the dog for a walk. I took the dog for another walk. I talked to my mom on Skype. I took a lot of pictures, of nature, garden, our dog, knitting.  Etc, etc.

Baking week VIII

Pictured are Linzer cookies, Ginger Bread, Sourdough Bread, Panna Cotta, Sourdough Bread, Dandelion Honey, Sourdough bread, Sourdough Bread, Sourdough Bread. 
In some ways it might seem like a very limited entertainment, but on the other hand I have ventured into a new territory of sourdough baking. I am at the beginning of the journey and I continue to learn each time I try to make and bake a loaf of bread.  As you can see in my collage of baking I have baked quite a few loafs of bread. Each was slightly different and I learned something each time I baked the bread.

Dandelion Honey

I also made Dandelion honey. I remember it as a special treat my mom and grandmother used to make in the spring. It feels as if each jar is filled with childhood memories, sweet and tender.
Under the normal circumstances, I would never be able to make this. It is time consuming. Collecting the dandelions (carefully picked up flower heads, with enough behind to leave for the insect to feed on), simmering in water, allowing the aroma and flavors to intensify.

In my knitting world, the first clue for Leonard and Lola was released. Second clue is coming tomorrow. See my previous post Leonard and Lola, toy mystery KAL how to join the fun.

Leonard and Lola, yarn

We also have a new neighbor. Somewhere in the woods across the street lives a fox family. I keep seeing her and her four babies. It is amazing to watch them play and frolic around, while their momma is out hunting for food. I named her Frances. I managed to capture the fox babies on a video playing around. Even though I keep seeing them almost daily, my phone camera is not good enough to capture a decent close up image of them.  Bellow see the picture I took during one of my walks with the dog.

Fox babies

During these walks, I imagine that Frances is a single mom, busy running around trying to feed her babies. I am not sure if the father is around or what have happened, but this is what I imagine Frances might look like....

Frances and her baby 

And here is their encounter with our dog...

Frances, her baby, and T-Bone

 In the real life their encounter would be rather different, and I am making sure that they only see each other from far away.

I will spend this coming week working on the knitting pattern and after the test knitting, and TE is completed the pattern will be available.

Thank you for visiting.

Leonard and Lola, toy mystery KAL

As I mentioned in my previous post, the new toy mystery KAL is about to start.

Leonard and Lola

Leonard and Lola is the new toy mystery KAL, starting with clue one this week. The pattern will be released in four clues with the final pattern available June 9th.
Pictured is the yarn I used for Leonard. I have used Knitpicks Palette, fingering yarn held double. I will be using slightly different yarn (worsted Cascade 220 Superwash) for Lola. I have already knitted another sample about a year ago for a colleague from work. For her sample I used some random worsted weight yarn from my stash, held double to make the toy a bit larger.

More details and the pattern to download is here:
Leonard and Lola

Don't forget to join my group on Ravelry where you can find the coupon code and where you can participate in posting the work in progress pictures and chat with fellow knitters.
Stana's Critters Etc group

In my small stay at home world I continued on my baking adventures path. I baked my tried and successful recipes, some comfort food, and I tried few new thing. After many years of being asked to try and make the sourdough bread I have gone down the rabbit hole of sourdough baking. It is a challenge and I am not sure how successful I have been. I followed the book The Bread Baker's Apprentice  by Peter Reinhart and started my sourdough adventure last Monday morning with the Day one for Seed Culture, I continued with the Barm and yesterday evening we had the first sourdough bread. The sourdough bread didn't rise as much as my usual bread I bake using the commercial yeast, but it tasted good. I guess I just have to continue and I am sure with time and practice the bread will be better and better. Just like with knitting. My first attempts were so much different from what I am knitting these days. And it also took practice and perseverance.

Baking Week VII

 In my collage picture are: My first sourdough breads, Linzer cookies, Bread, Bread (I baked another), Focaccia (This time I added few thing on top to make it more interesting), Bundt Cake, Tortillas (my first time making them from scratch, they taste different from the store bought tortillas, and they were harder to use for Fajitas, but still tasted good), Ginger Bread (my mom's recipe, fast, easy and good tasting), and my Monday adventure of starting the sourdough seed culture, my bread (I baked it three times this week) and our comfort food of Chocolate Brownies (it's so good to bite into a warm, and soft chocolate brownie).

This week proved to be challenging for our garden. Last week we planted two Pear trees, Blueberry, Currant, and Raspberry bushes, and then this weekend we had a freezing temperatures overnight and it snowed. We will not know if the trees will make it through this temperature change and produce some fruit or not until late in the season.

Pear tree bloom

We also had our first crop of the season. We seeded the radishes early in March, in our new cold frame, and now they are maturing, and are ready to be picked and eaten.

Radishes

Yesterday, on my walk with our dog through the neighborhood I looked up and saw for a brief moment this wonderful heart shaped cloud.

Heart shaped cloud

I see this as a sign of hope, that we as humans will make it through this pandemic and learn to be better and kinder to each other and to the Earth especially.

Thank you for visiting.