Those who love to create....

 .... You know who I am talking about. Each and every one of us, who cannot wait to create something with our hands. How do you start the creative process?

 I came across an image, and it inspired me to create the Lotti's Cowl. By using 3 skeins of Ms. Babb's yarn held together knit in brioche in the round I thought it kind of resembled the image I saw. I love that cowl. It's my favorite winter wear along with the more random and colorful Scraptastic Scarf. 

This year I actually went to Rhinebeck and while I was walking around, I kept returning to that colorful image from such a long time ago. I also thought about making a sweater just for me. But I wanted to add few details that would make the sweater a bit more unique. I love the double edge on the Roy G Biv Hat and I thought it would be a great edge for the sweater.  I also wanted to add some pockets and now it all will be somehow mixed together and, in the end, there should be a sweater that I will love to wear. I started by making a swatch. I still think about the edges for the neck and how should I make the double rolled edges for the sleeves, etc. It is a work in progress and I love it. I feel inspired to revisit all of the other unfinished projects and publish some of the patterns that have been sitting by the computer and waiting. 

So hopefully there will be new patterns coming out soon. In the meantime, follow me on Instagram:  Stanascritteretc to see my work in progress on the sweater. I hope to finish it before this winter ends! 

Thank you for visiting and hanging around!

The Joy of Creating....

 

After a long time of not really knitting, I have been picking up the knitting needles more frequently and actually working on some knitting projects. First, it was my contracted work that needed to be finished and then it's the knitted toys for this year classroom. But over the past weekend, when I was stuck home being sick and not able to do much, I picked up the strange glow in the dark yarn by Lions Brand and decided to knit something utterly joyful. Few years back, when I created the knitting pattern for a dog's cowl, human infinity scarf and a hat for I Like Knitting Magazine, I wanted to make a cowl for my dog. He already owns a pillow with his name, so why not to create a cowl with his name.

There was a snowstorm over the weekend, and being sick as well, I had plenty of time to knit for fun. First, I needed to calculate the number of stitches I had to cast on, so I could knit his name, and the paw prints as well. Once I have figured that out, I started. It took me about six hours of knitting, but here is the finished cowl. My dog is fine with wearing the cowl on his daily walks.  It even glows in the dark, once you use a flashlight and charge the glow in the dark yarn. 

I have a one more skein of the glow in the dark yarn, and I will create something else with it. Stay tuned for the next adventure, visit my website Stanascrittersetc website or follow me on Instagram Stanascrittersetc. 

Thank you for visiting.

Update

 

This Stripy Poncho has been my favorite top layer during the autumn days. A free pattern is available here: Stripy Poncho

The past two months have been a blur. My life outside of the knitting world took over and I didn't have time to knit or think about knitting for some time. The few brief moments I had over the past two months I spent working on the new upcoming design. The work is almost finished, and the new pattern will be available next month. 

Few of my knitting patterns were published in the past few months: 

In October issue of I Like Knitting magazine you can find the Gulia Knit Pants: a cozy comfortable pants knit from top down in the round using the long changing colors of Cascade 220 Superwash Wave using two skeins of yarn and changing them every few rounds to create the stripes within the changing color wave. See photos bellow by I Like Knitting 

As a part of Twelve weeks of giving by Knitpicks my Parliament of Owls Hat is available for free: See the screenshot of an email I have received about the pattern:

I hope to able to pick up my knitting needles more and enjoy the creativity that comes with making something one stitch at time.

Thank you for reading and visiting.

For snapshots from my life, you can follow me on Instagram: Stanascrittersetc

Fun activities

 

This summer I am one of many participating independent designers in two fantastic events, happening on Ravelry and also elsewhere on social medias.

I would like to mention both here.

After a few years of not being held, the Ami-a-long started at the beginning of July. It runs through the end of August. You can knit or crochet a toy from the participating designers, and you can win prizes. There are games to play and just fun critters to create. More details are in the group on Ravelry:

Ami-a-long

The second event I am participating is called Around the World Stitch Along. I have participated in the same event last year and am one of many wonderful designers again this year. This event started on Monday July 25th and ends August 25th. Once again you can knit or crochet any project from the participating designers and be eligible for prizes to win. There are also fun games on Instagram and in the Ravelry group you can chat and learn about different traditions from around the world. 

Around the World Stitch Along 

I hope that you will join these two events and learn something new, create something with your hands and maybe even win one or more of the fabulous prizes. 

I have teamed up with Cascade Yarns and one of the prizes to win at the Around the World Stitch Along is my pattern for Brie's Cowl and Cascade Yarns will provide the yarn to knit this two colors brioche cowl. You can see the original sample in the picture bellow:

Thank you for visiting.

The Year 2020 and Happy Holidays

 

What a year this has been. It will be remembered for generations and taught in history classes. 

 Happy New Year 2020 was my first blog post of this year. 

This is my last blog post of this year. 

Between these two blog posts the world dealt with some challenges and we are still not over the Pandemic. I have seen posts about how so many people wish this year didn't happen and how the New Year cannot come fast enough. 

Whether we liked 2020 or not, it is a year of our lives that will never be repeated. We do not have the option of replay or start from the beginning, and we should try to embrace this year with all that has happened to us, the world, society, and individually. It is upon us what tomorrow and future holds.

 I sincerely hope that you, the reader, will have a Happy Holidays and may your days be filled with love, kindness, compassion, and generosity towards each other. 

Stay focus on the breath and look up to the stars and Universe, for we are all made of the same material.  

Joy to the world, and may you find some peace and health. 

Thank you for reading. 

PS: In my small world of knitwear design work, I have managed to published 34 new knitting patterns this year. This include plenty of self-published patterns, including an entire e-book Baba Yaga's House and also having my work published by variety of third party publishers like: I Like Knitting, Knitpicks, Lovecraft, Interweave, and Knotions. 

Knitting Pattern for Scraptastic Pillow

 Do you remember my previous Scraptastic Projects?

Pictured are Scraptastic Cowl and Scraptastic Scarf.

 I have been collecting all those tiny scraps of yarn from other projects and tight them together and create a ball of yarn. This ball of scrap yarn is so colorful and random. I have to admit the Scraptastic Scarf is my favorite scarf to wear through the winter months. 

After creating the Scraptastic Scarf and Scraptastic Cowl I was thinking about my next Scraptastic Project while I was collecting the tiny scraps of yarn. In the end I decided to make a pillow case. As always with the scrap yarn projects it takes time to get enough scrap yarn for the whole project. With this pillow case I decided to use up even small remnants of yarn skeins that has been collecting for some time. Sometimes I would find these remnants useful in knitting toys, but mostly these small remnants were too small to use for the toys. This is the beginning of Scraptastic Pillow Case. 

As time went on I would add few rounds here and there whenever I had some yarn leftover from another knitting project. As you can see from the picture bellow, the dog approved it as a pillow for one of his naps. 

Today I finished the Pillow case, added zipper to the CO edge and here you can see the wrong side of the pillow with all those knotted yarns.

Scraptastic Pillow

written by Stana D. S.

Finished Measurements: 18" (46 cm) [20" (51 cm), 22'(56 cm), 24" (61 cm), 26" (66 cm), 28" (72 cm)] Square. Pictured pillow sample is 28" (72 cm) Square.

Material: Scrap Yarn from other knitting projects, preferably in similar weight. If using thinner yarn such as fingering weight, double the yarn. This is a fantastic project for all those tiny leftovers and small pieces of yarn that otherwise might be thrown out.

Gauge: 16 sts & 26 rows = 4" (10 cm) in double moss stitch.

Recommended Needle Size: Circular Needles US 7/4.5 mm.

Notions: Yarn needle, scissors, zipper 18" (46 cm) [20" (51 cm), 22" (56 cm), 24" (61 cm), 26" (66 cm), 28" (72 cm)] long. Pillow case insert 18" (46 cm) [20" (51 cm), 22" (56 cm), 24" (61 cm), 26" (66 cm), 28" (72 cm)] large.

Abbreviations:
K = Knit
P = Purl
CO = Cast on
BO = Bind Off
St, sts = stitch, stitches

Pattern Notes:
This Scraptastic Pillow is knit in the rounds in double moss stitch pattern, using whatever scraps of yarn you have from other knitting projects. All the ends are conveniently hidden inside this pillow case. The zipper is sewn to the CO edge. The top of the pillow is BO with 3 Needle Bind Off.

Double Moss Stitch Pattern (worked in the round, over multiple of 4 sts):
Rnds 1 - 2: K2, P2.
Rnds 3 - 4: P2, K2.
Repeat Rnds 1 - 4 for the pattern.

Directions:
CO 144 (160, 176, 192, 208, 224) sts. Place the stitch marker, and begin working in the round, being careful not to twist the sts.
Work in the Double Moss Stitch Pattern using the various scraps of yarn in similar weight, connecting the scraps with a knot, and making sure the knots are all on one side.
Work in the pattern until you reach the desired length of the square pillow. 
Make sure that all of the knots are on one side of your work. 

Turn the work inside out and BO using the 3 Needle BO technique.

Finishing:

Pin the zipper to the CO edge and sew the zipper to the CO edge.

Insert the pillow.

Here is a link to my picture tutorial for attaching zippers.

Zipper Attaching Tutorial

Thank you for 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 

 

Work in progress

 In my last blog post I wrote about my current knitting project, which I named "Food Chain". The name is probably going to change when I create the final pattern, which I really hope will be rather sooner than later. But life tends to happen and plans get change.

Last week we lost power for 6 days. I tend to refer to those days as camping in our house, as it does remind me of the times when we would go on camping adventures with no running water, no electricity, no fridge and no cooked meals. I have to say I enjoyed camping as a child, but as an adult I got used to the idea of having a flushing toilet and ability to wash my hands or even have a hot shower at home. 

In the days without electricity I had more time to knit and I have made quite a progress on the final "fish" in my "Food Chain". I started with an idea and a sketch, and an older knitting pattern of mine for Shirley, the shark. 

Before we lost electricity I have made the inside of the mouth and teeth. I started to work on the body, not knowing how big it will be. 

The picture above is from the day of the storm, before we lost electricity.

As the days without electricity continued I made quite a progress.

Then at some point I realized that I have actually created a megalodon shark, in comparison with the other fish in the food chain. I am almost finished with the knitting, even though I had to frog and reknit the tail and dorsal fin as I didn't like the size and shaping of the first attempts. Since we have electricity I switched on my computer and started to write the pattern. The first part is much easier as the fish were previously published in two of my patterns (see the links bellow), but the megalodon shark has to be retyped from my hand written notebook, and edited. That part will take a bit longer. 

Odie, the sea otter (the smallest fish)

One fish, two fish, three fish (the other three fish)

This food chain is going to be our KAL for the next few weeks/months. I opened the thread in my group on Ravelry if you are there please join us. Otherwise you can always share pictures on Instagram  by adding the hashtag #stanascritters or #stanascrittersetc  

Just so you can see how big the megalodon shark is turning out to be, here is a picture of our 75 pounds (34 kilograms) T-Bone with the shark. The tail is still missing in this picture.

Thank you for visiting, 

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

Thank you for visiting.

Deadline work and such

I love knitting. It is my to go craft. I find it relaxing and refreshing, with added benefit of having an actual finished item. Every once in a while I try some other crafts and hobbies, but ultimately I always return to knitting.
Somehow this hobby of mine has turned into a sort of side business as I create new knitted items, and write the knitting patterns that allows other people to recreate my ideas and knitted creations. Some of my knitting patterns are self-published, and some are actually published by a third party in books, magazines, websites, and online. It always amazes me when I receive an acceptance of my submission ideas. Of course there are rejections as well, but that never stop me from trying again. At the end of June I have received an email with acceptance of my knitting ideas. It was wonderful news, and I was very happy. Then I realized that I will have to knit samples for all the accepted patterns and ship them to the magazine for a photoshoot. I emailed Cascade Yarn company for a yarn support and waited for the yarn to arrive. When the box filled with squishy and soft yarn arrived I calculated that I have 15 days to knit in order to send the samples on time.
I calculated that I needed to knit over 68000 sts in those 15 days. It averaged about 4500 sts each day. I have set everything else aside and concentrated on these samples, one stitch at time. 
As always my dog kept me company, and for a brief moment it even looked like he might try to help.

But that didn't last long. There were other more important things to accomplish from his point of view. A little rest after a long day of being a dog....

Yesterday I have finished the edits to the patterns, and packed the washed and blocked samples. The email with the patterns, charts, and schematics was sent out and today I mailed the samples as well.
This picture of my dog is the perfect expression of how I felt after these two weeks. Happy, exhausted, and already thinking about my next knitting project.

Also, in the meantime I actually had two sales in my Etsy store, which has been rather inactive all those years since I created it in 2012. I might revisit the idea of adding some patterns and perhaps even some knitted items to the store.
I also tried a new (at least to me) platform for selling my knitting patterns.

It is called Payhip and the link to the store is here:

StanasCrittersEtc

Thank you for visiting.

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