September 2020 - Knitting Patterns

 Somehow this month has been an amazing time for me as a knitwear designer. I am feeling like a real knitwear designer with work published by several third parties. See the list and pictures at the end of this blog post.

First let's start with a little bit of history.

This is my first finished knitting project that I remember. I recall that I did a lot of crochet projects prior to this sweater, but this is my first for so many things. I remember the trip to formal East Germany, a town now called Chemnitz. At that time it was named Karl-Marx-Stadt. We went to a Department Store and I picked up the yarn for this sweater and another sweater. I created the pattern, though I didn't know that it was a pattern that I created. I just draw a picture and calculated the number of stitches and rows based on a small swatch that I knitted. I also remember that I did not know how to cast on. My mom helped me by casting on the stitches. I knitted the sweater in four pieces, in three colors using an intarsia technique. At that time I did not know that you need to wrap the yarn around each other. This actually created a small holes around the V shape where the yarn was changing. These small holes were not on the sleeves. By then I learned that the yarn has to be wrapped around each other. When I was wearing the sweater people were asking me how did I created the pattern of holes perfectly placed along the color change on front and back of the sweater. My grandmother helped me to sew the finished pieces and knitted the crew neck edge around the neck opening. I loved that sweater and was wearing it a lot. I do not have it anymore. I do not know what have happened to the sweater. We might have unravel it to use the yarn again. This is how my love for knitting started. 

After years of knitting, in 2011 I tiptoed into a knitting pattern writing.

My first published knitting pattern was for the Apples in May 2011. The link to this free pattern is here:

Apples

My first knitting pattern published by a third party was for Snowballs, in January 2012. The pattern was originally published by Petite Purls, In Issue 11, Winter. It is available as a free pattern. Link here:

Snowballs

And so it continued for the past nine years. Creating, sketching, knitting samples, making notes, writing patterns, editing, sending out my ideas to submission calls and more of knitting, creating, editing, and writing. As of today I have either independently or through a third parties published 279 patterns.

The list of my Knitting Patterns on my blog or on Ravelry with pictures My Knitting Patterns.

This month eight of my knitting patterns were published.

Independent work is Meg and School of Fish

In October Issue of I Like Knitting Magazine are: 

Pawsome-Hat  to complete the Paw-some Dog Cowl and Human Scarf 

A set of Spotted Around Hat and Spotted Around Scarf

and Harvest Poncho

All the photos of these four patterns are by I Like Knitting

Brunelli Wrap was published in October Issue of Knotions Magazine.

photo by Kelli Nuss for Knotions Magazine. 

Misty Cowl was published by Knitpicks in the new textured collection titled Pathways. 

photo by Knitpicks.

Cuddly Cat Pillow is the last pattern that was published by Interweave Knits in their Gifts 2020 Issue magazine.

photo by Interweave Knits 

I hope to continue with creating more knitting patterns in the future for some time.

As for the rest of this year, I have an e-book project, that I started to work on last winter and slowly it started to take shape over the months of pandemic and staying home. This collection of small knitting projects will be released over the next three months. These small projects are all using small amount of yarn that I had home from a various previous knitting projects. They are all a fantastic, funky, fast and instant gratification giftable items for almost everyone. 

More on this project is coming up over the next three months. Just to give you a little sneak preview... if you look closely into my knitting bag in this picture, few of those critters are peaking out.

Thank you for reading and for visiting.

Brunelli Wrap

 

Photo by Kelli Nuss for Knotions Magazine

Brunelli Wrap is my latest published pattern by a third party. This beautiful Wrap is part of the October Issue of Knotions Magazine. The theme for this issue was fire. All of the patterns in this particular issue are gorgeous. Here is a link to the pattern:

Brunelli Wrap on Ravelry

I started to work on this idea about two years ago, when I made a small swatch in two colors. Grey and blue-green. You can see the swatch on the left side of this picture. I really liked the idea of two colored cable, with some bramble stitch and more cables to unify the look. 

I sent a submission to a third party submission call. The idea was rejected for that particular collection. And here is the thing. It was rejected not because the idea was bad, but simply because it did not fit to the whole collection together with the other ideas that were picked. I continued to send out the submission whenever I though it might be a fit for the collection. In total I sent out the idea to ten submission calls, and the idea was rejected nine times. Finally the submission was accepted and I was able to bring the idea to full size wrap. 

I was working on the sample last winter. It seems like an eternity ago. It was a time when life was normal. We were unaware of the upcoming pandemic, that changed lives for all. When I finished the sample, we had a cozy afternoon by fire, with our dog napping in the warm spot. Before I washed and blocked the wrap and sent it away for a real photoshoot  I took few pictures of my dog with the wrap.

I look at the picture now wondering what the future has in store for us and the future generation of our children. I truly hope that there is a bright future for all and not some bleak dystopian future where people hate each other based on the differences between them.  

Thank you for reading and visiting.

The tools of a Knitwear Designer and #Why I Make

 

As a knitwear designer published by third parties I have to promote my designs on the social media I have a presence. I try to do that but sometimes Instagram gets left behind. In the past month or so I had several knitting patterns published and I was thinking about how to mention all of the knitting patterns without feeling like it's a promotion or an advertising. 

Yesterday, I took this picture and posted it on Instagram. I did not know what I will write at first, and then it started to be a list of tools a knitwear designer uses.

The list:

Yarn 

Knitting Needles 

Sketch Book and notebook 

Ideas 

Swatches 

Knitted Samples 

Computer Work (pattern writing, grading, editing) 

Photography 

Patience

Responding to Submission calls 

Acceptance 

Persistence 

Luck

Social Media visibility 

If and when patterns are accepted more of the above 

When patterns are published add pattern support

It's a lot to do for one person.

Even though it is a lot to do I continue to do that. Simply because I love what I do, knitting and creating.

Last week I have received an email from @Lovecrafts about another competition for Blogger of the Year 2020.

I have tried last year, and even though I did not win, my entry was interesting enough to be mentioned on their blog. I see that as a huge success. Links to the two are here:

My last year entry

Article on Lovecrafts

I was thinking about what I would like to write for this year entry. I had so many ideas and I kept returning to the idea of dreams of our childhood and how we either pursue them or abandoned them. 

I had plenty of childhood dreams that I wanted to achieve. I would like to mention one particularly. Growing up behind the Iron curtain was very restrictive and we were not allowed to travel outside the Eastern Block. As a child I read a lot and I dreamed a lot about traveling all over the world. Under the circumstances it seemed impossible. We were not allowed to do so. Yet the Velvet Revolution in 1989 gave us the freedom to travel all over the world. I studied and become a tour guide, a profession that allowed me to pursue my childhood dream of traveling. At one point as a tour guide traveling with a group of tourists we were in the Monument Valley and my group of tourists went for a tour with a local  Navajo guide and I was left behind to wait for their return. At that moment I was approached by the owner of the company, a Navajo man and asked if I want to go for a horse ride while my group of tourists are exploring the beauty of the land. I went and it was magical. Unknown to him, he allowed me to fulfill my childhood dream of riding a horse with a Native American through their land. I cherished that memory and I have a picture of me on the horse in the Monument Valley to remind me that sometimes when we don't expect it our dreams can come true. 

 In the photo above you can see the image of me on a horse at the Monument Valley. You can also see a paw of my dog. Having a dog was another childhood dreams of mine, and I had to wait for it to happen for many years. 

Another of my childhood dreams was to become a writer. I earned BA  in Creative Writing, something I never expected to do when I was a child. I earned that degree in a non native language. I see that as an achievement  on its own. During my talks with my school advisor I mentioned that I have been creating knitting patterns and that some of them were published in a book collections, or on websites or in magazines. My adviser told me that this is what being a writer is. Have your work published. I guess I have in an unexpected ways achieved another childhood dream. 

 

Stana's Critters Etc is my personal adventure one stitch at the time. 

So if you have a dream, a passion, keep on dreaming, keep on being passionate about it, you never know when the dream comes true. 

Thank you for reading and visiting.

This is my entry into the Lovecrafts competition for The Blogger of the Year 2020. This is also my answer to the question Why I make. 

I love to create and share my creativity and passion with others so they can learn, create, craft and enjoy the process one stitch at time.

#WhyIMake 

 

September 2020

 

September is one of my favorite times of the year. The heat of summer fades away, our garden continues to give us back and I can start thinking about what kind of knitwear I will wear in the upcoming seasons.

This September is a special in a way that I have several knitting patterns published by a variety of third parties.

In my last blog post I wrote about four of the patterns that were published by I Like Knitting; link to these patterns here:  New Knitting Patterns

I also published one independent pattern; which is a playful variation and addition to my previously published knitting pattern by Knitpicks, in one of their knitting patterns book collections;: link to the pattern here: Meg and School of Fish

In the next few weeks I have three other patterns coming out with a three different publishers. It is very exciting and I do feel like a real knitwear designer. 

Stay tune for those patterns as they are all so different in a way, yet they all are product of my imagination and creativity.

Sometimes I write about gardening. I have been gardening pretty much most of my life. And I had a different outlook on gardening throughout the years. I always loved the fresh taste of fruits and vegetables, and I have learned the hard work that comes with it to actually get that fresh fruits and vegetables on your table. 

We have a small size backyard garden in comparison to what my parents and grandparents had while I was growing up. In those years we practically did not need to buy any fruits or vegetables, except some of the exotic fruits that didn't grow in our Central Europe climate. We did a lot of preservations and canning, and pickling. All of this experience I had as a child have helped me when we started our backyard adventure when our kid was small. 

I hope that the lessons learned will stay with our child into the future and will allow our child to appreciate it as an adult. Pictured here are our backyard gardening adventures. We have planted the blackberry bush and this year it has given us plenty of fruits. In the second picture our dog watch the vegetables I picked this morning, some kohlrabi, parsnip, celeriac, carrots, and butternut squash. We grew everything from seeds, event the butternut squash. Though that was an accidental. We have a compost, and last year I put some seeds and peels from squash and other vegetables and fruits. Apparently it has survived the winter and it started to grow from the compost pile. See the last picture. These are our not seeded and planted pumpkin and squash vines. When it started to grow, we just let them grow and now we have butternut squash and some kind of pumpkin. 

I will use the vegetables to make our meal today. It is a wonderful to know where our food is coming from, and that it is healthy and fresh.  

Thank you for visiting, and don't forget to see the upcoming new patterns. 

New Knitting Patterns

Somehow this month I will have several knitting patterns published by a variety of third parties.

First I would like to mention that my  Bark Scarf, previously published by Knitpicks in their book collection titled Flaunt is now available as Ravelry download pattern, and will soon be available to purchase on Lovecraft website as well. I love the simplicity of the mistake rib pattern in one color and two colors and the possibility of colors that can be created. The pattern is written for bulky weight yarn and is fabulous for beginners. 

Four of my knitting patterns were published in the October Issue of I Like Knitting magazine. In this blog post from July I wrote about working on these four pattern and knitting the samples in two weeks.

Deadline Work

First of the patterns that are part of the October Issue 2020 is the Paw-some Hat. It is a matching hat to the Paw-some Dog Cowl and Paw-some Human Infinity Scarf. First two images were taken by I Like Knitting. The last image is my favorite model T-Bone waiting for his daily walk in the fancy Paw-some Dog Cowl. 

Second and third pattern included in the October Issue are Spotted Around Scarf and Spotted Around Hat.  The Spotted Around Scarf is actually on the cover picture of the magazine issue. Both photos by I Like Knitting.

Fourth Pattern in the issue is Harvest Poncho.  A snuggly soft and reversible poncho  knit in wonderful Cascade Yarns Aereo. Photo by I Like Knitting.

 Thank you for visiting.

Knitting Pattern for Meg and School of Fish

 With a bit of unexpected delays Meg, the megalodon shark is in the hands of its recipient. For a privacy reason I will not post the picture of the recipient but let me tell you that Meg is bigger than its owner. 

Meg, the megalodon shark is about 56" (142 cm) long. 

In the picture above she is trying to snack on one of our wooden stools. But then she changed her mind and went after the school of fish.

The knitting pattern is a whimsical play on a food chain. Fish eats fish, eats another fish, and another and they all end up eaten by the ultimate predator Meg, the megalodon fish. 

The pattern is available to purchase in my Ravelry store:

Stana's Critters Etc

or you can purchase it by clicking on this button:

Soon the pattern will be also available on Lovecraft website in my Stana's Critters Etc, and in my Stana's Critters Etc PayHip store

In the meantime you can join our KAL in my Ravelry group and you can purchase the pattern for $1 until the end of Sunday, September 6th Eastern US Time Zone when using the coupon code Meg 

After that the  price will go up by $1 every 24 hours until it reach the full price. 

Thank you for visiting.