Summer 2020

As the pandemic continues its rampage through the world I am trying to adjust to what is happening around me in the real world and online as well. 

Under a normal circumstances I would be visiting my mom and friends in Europe. I would be sitting on my mom's balcony and knit, while the two of us would be talking. I would call my friends from the time I lived in Europe. We would get together and sit on a sidewalk in one of those little cafés, catching up on our lives. 

I miss that this year. 

But, whenever I am away I wonder what it would be like to spend the summer at home. This year is the year I can experience that. I am spending my summer at home. I have the time to watch my garden grow. I get to enjoy fresh berries and incorporate vegetables from our garden into our meals. It is exciting to sneak in a kale and create meatballs that turns green and cause raised eyebrows and musings about "What is wrong with those meatballs?", "Why are they green?". 

And a huge bonus is that I get to talk to my mom on daily basis on Skype. I love it. I know it is not as seeing her in person, but it is a joy to be able to talk to her. 

Aside from working on few knitting patterns that will be published in the future by a third party I also get to work on some fun knitting projects. 

Remember my pattern for One fish, two fish, three fish?

Blog post about it

I am revisiting the pattern and have fun with creating more fish and play with the idea of a food chain and who gets to eat who. I will be posting an updated pattern for this fun food chain sometime next week or so and if you are on Ravelry and a member of my group you can join the Knit-a-long hosted in my group. Otherwise the pattern will be available on Lovecraft, Ravelry. 

Recently I have opened a store on Payhip where you can purchase some of my patterns. I am slowly adding more patterns to that store, so check it out. Payhip store

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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

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Knitting versus Deadline Knitting

I like to knit.

Playing with yarn

Ever since I learned how to knit I enjoyed the process. I have knitted all those years when knitting was not fashionable. My first ever finished project was a sweater. I actually unknowingly started my knitwear designer career with my first knitting project when I calculated the number of stitches to cast on and how many rows I needed to knit. I also used three colors and intarsia technique, without actually knowing how to cast on. My mom helped me with the cast on process, and I continued from there. I knitted the sweater and created an original design element, small holes in the place where the yarns should have been twisted around each other when I changed them. I didn't know that at the time. I finished the sweater, my grandmother helped me to sew the pieces together and made the crew neck around the neck opening. I had that sweater for years. Last year, when I visited my mom I found an old picture of me in that first sweater.  The picture was taken by my grandfather. He was an excellent photographer and writer.

First sweater

I kept on knitting all those years. I might have thought about knitwear designer career from time to time, but I never pursued that until few years ago. It was when a friend of mine mentioned the website Ravelry and I joined the knitting website when I realized that there is a possibility to be a knitwear designer. I was given the opportunity to share some of my ideas and projects, and I learned to write knitting patterns. I started to submit to various magazines and yarn companies and to my surprise my ideas were accepted. This whole thing is a work in progress and I am still learning.

Somehow my hobby turned into a part time job.  I can create and knit, and sometimes I earn some money. With the opportunity to have my work published by magazines, yarn companies, or in a various knitting books  the deadline knitting arrives as well.

Knitting is a leisurely process created one stitch at the time.
However when working under contract for a third party, knitting turns into a deadline knitting and the process is suddenly less of a leisure and more of a stressful event as the whole process needs to be finished on time and delivered to the third party by a certain date. Sometimes there is plenty of time to work out the pattern and knit the sample. Other times the process is more limited and has serious time constraint.

There have been moments when I am complaining about knitting. It feels frustrating, especially if something is not working the way it should, or if I make a mistake and have to rip out portion of my knitting and start over. Yesterday morning I emailed the finished pattern and in the afternoon I mailed out finished sample that will be published by a third party. Now I have to wait until the pattern is published to share the pictures of my work.

Today I spend my morning in the garden picking out the berries.

Berries from our garden

And because I like knitting, I already started to think about my next knitting project. But that has to wait, first I need to finish the final read of my Voyager Sweater pattern.

Voyager Sweater

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Knitting Pattern for Blueberries

Blueberries (or Grapes)
by Stana D. S.
Finished Toy: Approximately 1" diameter
Yarn: Small amount of blue-purple sport to medium weight yarn. If making the grapes, small amount of green color yarn.
Recommended Needles size: DPN US # 3/3.25mm (set of 4)
Notions: Yarn needle, scissors, stitch marker, polyester fiberfill (1 small bag)
Abbreviations: KFB= Knit in front and back of the same sts, this creates 2sts from 1st.
SSK= slip st, slip st and knit the 2sts together, this decrease 2sts to 1st.
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 the yarn and three double pointed needles cast on 9sts (3sts per needle) Place a stitch marker on the first st, and begin working in the round.
Row 1: Knit around (9sts total)
Row 2: *KFB, Knit 2; repeat from * around, 4sts per needle ((12sts total)
Row 3: * KFB, Knit 3; repeat from * around, 5sts per needle (15sts total)
Row 4 -6: Knit around (15sts total)
Row 7: *SSK, Knit 3; repeat from * around, 4sts per needle (12sts 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 blueberry with fiberfill.
Row 8: *SSK, Knit 2; repeat from * around, 3sts per needle (9sts total)
Row 9: Knit around. 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.
First blueberry is done.
Finishing: If making grapes, sew the finished grapes together to form the cluster. I-cord short green stem, and sew it to the top of the cluster of grapes.

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.

Blueberries.....

There is something magical about going to the forest and pick fresh blueberries off the blueberry bush. Perhaps it's my imagination, and perhaps it is true that the blueberries picked by ourselves taste much better then those bought in store.

This picture is my tribute to endless days of summer, childhood and playfulness in all of us.

The knitting pattern will be available soon.

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