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.

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. 

Food KAL

In the past few weeks I was busy picking up fruits and vegetables from our garden and preserve them for the winter. Even though our plum trees produced only two plums, we are having some yellow raspberries and alpine strawberries to snack on and we still are having an abundance of cucumbers. I have been pickling them at least twice a week.
Our friends and family might be receiving homemade pickles as their Christmas presents.

Dog approves

I cannot really share the recipe for my pickling liquid as it seems to be every time slightly different. I am following the recipe my mom gave me when we started to do our own pickling.
She said: "I use water, vinegar, pickling salt, a bit of sugar, spices (All Spice, Black Peppercorn, Bay Leaves, Cinnamon, Clove), try how it tastes and add what you think is needed. In the jar put some mustard seeds, fresh dill, sliced onions, garlic, peppers, carrots and cucumbers. Fill the jars with liquid close the top and boil in a pot with a kitchen towel on the bottom for about twenty minutes."
We have been using her recipe for some time, experimenting with variety of flavors, adding hot peppers to some jars, etc. Each batch that I make tastes slightly different, and that is what I enjoy about it - the unpredictability of what it will taste like when we open a new jar of our pickles.

Apples

I was also thinking about the next KAL for my group on Ravelry. I decided that we should knit anything that is food related. Aprons, dishcloths, knitted food, knitted parts of a food chain...…
The Food related KAL will run from now until the end of October, when I will pick the grand prize winner and some more winners to win other things as well.

To start the KAL I am offering  a 25% discount on many of my food related knitting patterns. The coupon code is valid until September 25th midnight EST.

Bowls

Use the coupon code Food to receive the discount.

Joint the fun and a chance to win my group Stana's critters etc on Ravelry.

photo by Knitpicks

Thank you for visiting.

Knitting Pattern for Apple Dishloth

photo by Knitpicks

Another of my dishcloth pattern was published by Knitpicks.

The pattern is free, and you can get the pattern on Knitpicks website, here is the link to the pattern:

Apple Dishcloth


I was working on this pattern last fall. Sometimes it takes a while from the time I work on a pattern before it is finally published.  Here is the sample I knitted while I was working on the pattern.

Apple dishcloth

Thank you for visiting.

Knitting Pattern for Apples

Apples
by Stana D.S.
Finished Toy Size: approximately 3.5" diameter
Yarn: I use two strains of light or medium yarn in two different colors to give the knitted apples appearance similar to real apples. Less than a ball of each color.
Recommended Needles size: DPN US # 7/4.5mm (set of 4)
Notions: Yarn needles, scissors, stitch marker, polyester fiberfill (1 small bag), small amount of brown yarn for the stem.
Abbreviations: KFB = Knit in front and back of the same sts, this creates 2 sts from 1st.
SSK= slip sts, slip sts and knit the 2 sts together. This decrease 2sts to 1 sts.
I-cord = the sts are knitted from one needle to second needle, do not turn the needle with sts around, just push the sts to the beginning of the needle and knit again. This technique makes tube.
INSTRUCTION:
With two strains of yarn and three double pointed needles cast on 6 sts. (2sts per needle)
Place a stitch marker on the first st, and begin working in the round.
Row 1: Knit around (6sts total)
Row 2: KFB all around, 4sts per needle (12sts total)
Row 3: Knit around (12sts total)
Row 4: KFB all around, 8sts per needle (24sts total)
Row 5: Knit around (24sts total)
Row 6: *KFB, Knit 3; repeat from * around, 10sts per needle (30sts total)
Row 7 - 10: Knit around (30sts total)
Row 11: *KFB, Knit 4; repeat from * around, 12sts per needle (36sts total)
Row 12-17: Knit around (36sts total)
Row 18: *SSK, Knit 4; repeat from * around, 10sts per needle (30sts total)
Row 19 - 21: Knit around (30sts total)
Thread the tail of yarn from the cast on stitches on a yarn needle. Stitch through all of the cast on stitches, pull up tight to close the hole, and stitch to secure. Begin to stuff the apple with fiberfill.
Row 22: *SSK, Knit 3; repeat from * around, 8sts per needle (24sts total)
Row 23: Knit around (24sts total)
Row 24: SSK all around (12sts total)
Row 25: Knit around (12sts total)
Row 26: SSK around (6sts total)
Finish stuffing. Cut the yarn, leaving long enough tail, and thread the end on a yarn needle. Pull the end through the reminding stitches on needles, gather up and close the hole, stitch to secure.
Finishing: With brown yarn cast on 4sts on a double pointed needle, I-cord the brown yarn approximately 1", cut long enough tail and thread the end on a yarn needle. Pull the end through the reminding stitches on the needle to secure, stitch the I-cord on top of the apple and sew through the two ends of apple to pull them together to shape the apple. weave the end of yarn to the inside and trim.

Copyright: This pattern was design and written by Stana D.S.
The pattern is for personal use only. The finished items may not be sold for profit, except for charity purposes.
Please acknowledge the author. Thank you.

A Little Temptation.......

........applesssssss pleassssse.




The pattern for apples and snakes will be available soon. The original toys will be available upon request.


Thank you for visiting