Summer 2025

 

Happy summer days to you all! 

Working in the public schools has its challenges, but it also has a wonderfully long summer break. I do really like that part. It allows me to get some knitting done and even start to think about new designs and create new knitting patterns. I am not sure how successful I will be, but my intentions are set high.  

As an independent knitwear designer I am participating in two events held on Ravelry.

First, it's the fabulous Ami-a-long, an event for knitters and crocheters who loves to create toys. Join the Ami-a-long group on Ravelry and see all the critters and win some prizes.

Second, is the Around the world, stitch along. Another great event hosted on Ravelry, by participating designers. Join the fun event, learn something new and win some prizes. The group on Ravelry is Around the World Stitch Along.

For some snippets from my life and pictures of the latest knitting or other adventures follow me on Instagram or sign up for the newsletter on my website. 

Stana's Critters Etc

Life as a work in progress.....

 

These two images are my favorites, they remind me that life is filled mostly with little things that make our day-to-day lives worth living. We may not see them or appreciate them at the moment, but when we look back at them, they give us a warm feeling of accomplishment, happiness and joy. 

Sometimes our lives get tangled up and we have to go through periods of difficulties. At times like these it's good to look back and appreciate those little moments that brought us joy. I just went on a trip through the memory line by looking through the older blog posts, especially those that have the tag #life 

Looking through them made me appreciate everything that I have accomplished so far and especially for being still able to experience those small moments and live. When I wrote this blog post named Reflections it was about a year after I had my second episode of DVT and first PE. Since then, things go up and down, there are periods of calm and my leg is fine, and then something triggers it, and my leg acts up and I am left in a whirlwind of pain and inability to function as a healthy person. It is rather strange feeling of being totally without control and waiting things out, by following the doctors' orders and hope for the best. This is where knitting comes in hand, as it allows me to concentrate on something different, something that I enjoy and brings me and those who appreciate my knitting creations joy. 

 And so in the world of knitting joy I am happy to announce that I had several knitting patterns published in the past few weeks or months. Below are links to these knitting patterns on Ravelry, they are also available on Knitpicks website, and some will be a part of the new upcoming book: 60 Quick Knit Gifts for Babies, published by Sixth&Spring Books.

Rabbit toy

Striped Baby Blanket

Pencil Jar Cozy

Luvbot 

Making the Gradient Blanket

photo by I Like Knitting

Also, after six months exclusivity period my Helena Cable Cardigan, originally published in February issue of I Like Knitting Magazine and on their website is now available as Ravelry download and will be at some point available on Lovecraft and Payhip.

Last time I was home sick and recovering I created a free pattern code for the readers of my blog. It was overwhelming. This time I offer a free knitting pattern to all new subscribers to my newsletter: Stana's Critters Etc and they do receive exclusive coupons in every newsletter I sent out. 

If you don't want to comit to subscribe to the newsletter but would like to have some discount, I offer you a 20% off from any of my self-published knitting patterns, just use the coupon code blog from now until August 31st, 2022 EST midnight. 

Thank you for reading.

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.

A year of knitting...

 

This is a picture of a ball of scrap yarn from my last year of knitting. I started this ball last January. I am not sure what I will do with this scrap yarn. Previously I have made a cowl, an infinity scarf, and a pillowcase. The links to the patterns are provided above and below you can see the finished projects. They all used the tiny pieces of yarn that usually gets discarded as too small for anything. I collect them and tie them together with a knot and when there is enough to do something I pick a project and start knitting. I am not sure yet what I will do with the ball of scrap from my year of knitting. I have yet to decided it. In a way these scraptastic projects are also a little knitting diary, as when I look at them, I can remember what projects I was working on, one stitch at time. 

There are so many of my patterns that I have not mentioned here on my blog, that were published over the past year, including the latest knitting pattern for the Helena Cable Cardigan in February issue of I Like Knitting. I hope to catch up on that over the next month or so. 

Stay safe, healthy and enjoy the work in progress one stitch at time.

Thank you for visiting.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!!!

 

 I hope that everyone who have visited and will stop by to visit my small corner of the Internet will have a magical Holidays and an even better Happy New Year!

    I have been extremely busy over the past two months with few special requests knitting projects. I cannot share the pictures yet as these knitting projects are waiting for the right time to be opened by their recipients. I will write a blog post all about those toys after the Holidays. 

    There are also some exciting new patterns in the works that will be published during the next year, starting with the first pattern coming out in January 2022. 

I also plan to work on some independent work and maybe even have another toy mystery knit-a-long early next year.

Stay safe, healthy and enjoy your Holidays. 

Thank you for visiting.

Summer KAL Frogs: the winners

If you have participated in the summer KAL and have posted a picture of your finished frog, see details at this original blog post:  Summer KAL Frogs you are a winner.

You have won a pattern of your choice from my pattern collections. 

To receive the pattern you have few options, send me a message via the contact form on my website

Stana's Critters Etc

or contact me on Ravelry in my group: Stana's Critters Etc

I will either email you the pattern or gift it to you if you prefer to have it in your Ravelry library.

I hope that you all had some fun creating these little critters. I have enjoyed seeing the pictures.

The rest of this month is not happening anything organized. At the moment I am still learning all about my new website and getting ready for my first newsletter, which should be coming out at the beginning of next month, to sign up for it go to my website:

Stana's Critters Etc

There are so many exciting new patterns that will be coming out sometime over the next few months, either published by third parties or as an independent work, and I hope that you will like them when they will be available. In the meantime enjoy the rest of the summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) or winter (if you are in the Southern Hemisphere) and keep on crafting, one stitch at time. 

Thank you for visiting and reading.

Summer KAL - Frogs

 

This month I am hosting a KAL with a theme of frogs. 

If you make any frog based on one of my frog themed knitting patterns like

Chadwick and Igor

Fred

Frog Bag

Frog Mask

Toadie

and post a photo either on Ravelry in the thread in my group Stana's Critters Etc or on Instagram and tag me with @stanascrittersetc or @stanascritters or use hashtag #stanascrittersetc or #stanascritters you will be eligible to participate in a giveaway with prizes to win (patterns, e-books). 

Details for the giveaway:

1. Knit a frog and post a picture and tag me. 

2. Deadline for the post July 31st 2021

3. Winners will be announced here on my blog.

Have fun knitting.

Porta Wrap

 

I took this photograph exactly one year ago. I have finished the wrap few days earlier and it was washed, blocked and measured and the pattern was written up.  The following week I gave the wrap to the receptionist at the doctor's office where I was going for my physical therapy with my elbow. I used to take that knitting project with me and I would work on it while waiting for my appointment. The receptionist always complimented on how much she liked the color, and how nice it looked. After I gave the wrap away, I started another sample, this time instead of using Lion Brand Amazing, Olympia colorway yarn as in the pictured sample I used Caron Cakes in Red Velvet colorway. It has been my "on the go" knitting  project, and someone else was complimenting the wrap as well. I have the finished sample ready to give it away to this person. I will most likely start another sample of this wrap, most likely in different yarn than the previous two samples. 

This easily memorizable pattern is completely reversible and the pattern from this wrap has been redone and later published as Harvest Poncho last fall  by I Like Knitting magazine. 

Photo by I Like Knitting magazine

The exclusive period for the knitting pattern for the Harvest Poncho is over and I will be republishing the pattern later this month. But first I am publishing the knitting pattern for the Porta Wrap.

You can purchase the pattern on Lovecraft (link will be added soon), Payhip: Porta Wrap on Payhip  or Ravelry: Porta Wrap on Ravelry or by clicking on this button:

Thank you for visiting.

Work in progress...

Fox Pillow

Over the past week I have been taking pictures of my dog with the Fox pillow. Apparently it is his favorite pillow to sleep on.  It is quite entertaining to watch him sleep. And yeas I have been stuck in the house for about a month, so my entertainment is rather limited.....but I am not complaining. We are still alive, and breathing. Life is good.

Fox Pillow 

I also baked and cooked a lot. Normally I don't have that much time to cook or bake, but life is rather strange these days and I do enjoy the process of baking, or cooking. Though I dislike to clean up all those dishes afterwards. Pictured here are: Apple Strudel, Carrot Cake (we have a birthday to celebrate), potato pancakes, cinnamon buns with maple frosting, bread, Bundt cake, my mom's version of crepes, bread (I baked it twice this week).

week of baking III

Also, there is a storm coming our way and we might loose power and internet for few days. I guess we might be camping at home for our spring break.  If we loose the power I will not be able to update the second clue on time, therefore I have updated the pattern earlier.
For a moment we already lost the power. It came back, but who knows for how long. Stay safe, and have fun knitting.

T-Bone working on clue 1 :)

Thank you for visiting.

Toy Mystery KAL Cherie, Stella, or Brooke

Cherie, Stella, or Brooke

Life is strange these days. I hope that this fun toy mystery KAL will give you something else to think about and occupy your hands and mind.
Join us for this fun mystery KAL in my group on Ravelry
Stana's Critters etc

The pattern will be released in three parts, on these dates:
April 8th - first clue
April 15th - second clue
April 22nd - third clue
April 29th - final pattern.

Here is the link to the pattern:

Cherie, Stella, or Brooke

To get the pattern for free, join my group on Ravelry, and use the coupon code Hope during the checkout.  The code is valid during the mystery KAL.

Have fun knitting.

In my last blog post I have posted a collage picture of my baking through this time of distress. I have continued this week with more baking, as always some baking adventures were more successful than others.

Pictured are: Blueberry-lemon bread, rohliky (Czech bread rolls), Herb- cheddar scones, Strudel with cheese filling, corn bread, bread, brownies, apple strudel.
I am not sure what I will bake next week....the options are endless

Life as a work in progress

Usually I try to keep posts on this blog about knitting. Occasionally I write about life.

Scraptastic Cowl

This is one of those posts. I am not a native English speaker. I learned the language at school, and even now so many years after I moved across the ocean to be with the man I fell in love, I still make mistakes when speaking, or writing. I do apologize for them. I try my best.

Over the years I wrote few blog posts about life events, if you wish to explore them read some of them here:
Life tag
Portfolio
Gardening
Why I make

A friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer. This is devastating news to hear. What is even more devastating is the fact that she will be paying for some of her medical bills and she needs to still pay her living bills as well. She has set up a fundraiser to raise money to help her go through this difficult time of her life. I decided to donated all of the money I made from selling my knitting patterns during the month of February. I was hoping for a good month, so I would be able to give her a lot. Unfortunately it has been an average month, see the picture bellow what I have actually made during the month of February.

I hope that by sharing her fundraising page here might bring her some more money to help her through this.
Here is the link to her
Go Fund me page

In my knitting life things are improving. My elbow is much better and I can knit again. I try to work on the Scraptastic Pillow, which apparently is tested by my dog for comfort and usability, even unfinished.

Scraptastic Pillow

Over in my group on Ravelry we have the March KAL, working on Odie, the sea otter. You can join us for the fun.

Odie, the sea otter

Thank you for visiting and reading.

Stripes KAL

Petunia

As you can see in my previous posts I had three knitting patterns published earlier this month. The patterns were exploring different knitting techniques. This made me think about the next KAL I host in my group on Ravelry. The Gift KAL is over and I will announce the winners later today. Since I am still not able to knit due to my elbow injury and I cannot work on the toy mystery KAL yet I have  decided to devoted this month KAL to a knitting technique I actually really enjoy: Stripes. 
I will open the new thread in my group on Ravelry and the theme of the KAL is anything with stripes. Join my group and have fun knitting anything with stripes....

Sunny, the pencil box monster

Kittie Blanket

Stripy

Huggalufs

Funky Stripe Scarves

 Thank you for visiting.

Happy Holidays

Scraptastic Scarf

I wish everyone at this time of the year, Happy Holidays and all the best for the upcoming year.
May your days be filled with love, kindness, compassion, and generosity towards each other.


As a thank you for all of my readers and supporters. I have created  a promotion on my knitting patterns from now until the end of this year. December 31st 2019 midnight of EST

Buy two of my patterns and receive one for free.

Use the coupon code: Givingtree 

Link to the patterns page

Thank you for visiting.

Knitting Pattern for Lotti's Cowl

In October I went to Rhinebeck. While there I found yarn that I wanted to use for this Lotti's Cowl.
In summer I was looking through some magazines and found an add for a fashion company.  I loved the colorful image and wanted to create something similar. I was looking for yarn, and while in Rhinebeck I saw Miss Babs Mad Hatter. It reminded me of that colorful image and I started to hold together three skeins of yarns. The Mad Hatter with two skeins of either white, blacks, and various greys to see what worked best. After some time I decided that I really liked the soft grey of Fleur de Sol and decided to splurge on this yarn.

Miss Babs yarn

This past Friday I CO for the cowl. I have combined two of my previous knitting patterns for Brioche stitch and created a sort of new pattern by using three skeins of DK weight yarn held together.
The two patterns I previously published are:
Calypso Dream Cowl
Brie's Cowl

Here is the pattern that is a combination of the two patterns. In the picture you can see the image from a magazine I used as my inspiration. I don't remember what magazine it was from.

Lotti's Cowl

Lotti's Cowl
written by Stana D. S.

Finished Measurements: 54" (137 cm) circumference x 8.5" (21.5 cm) high.

Yarn: Miss Babs Yowza (100 Superwash Merino Wool; 560 yards / 512 meters per 225 g / 8 oz) 1 hank of Mad Hatter, 2 hanks of Fleur de Sol.

Recommended Needle Size: Circular Needles 29" US 10.5 / 6.5 mm.

Notions: Yarn needle, scissors, stich marker

Abbreviations: 
K = knit
Ktog Sl st YO = knit together slipped stitch and yarn over
P = purl
Ptog Sl st YO = purl together slipped stitch and yarn over
R = round
Sl st = slipped stitch
YO = yarn over

Note: This cowl is knit in brioche stitch in the rounds with yarn held triple.

Gauge: 10 sts & 28 rows = 4" (10 cm) in brioche stitch.

Instructions: 
With the yarn held triple and circular needles Cast on 140 sts, using the long tail cast on. Place stitch marker on the first stitch and begin working in the round.

Set up Round: * K1, Sl st YO; repeat from * around.
R 1: *Sl st YO, Ptog Sl st YO; repeat from * around
R 2: *Ktog Sl st YO, Sl st YO; repeat from * around
R 3 - 60: Repeat Rounds 1 and 2.
Bind off in K1 and P1 pattern, include with the K1 the YO as well.

Finishing: 
Weave in ends, wash and block to measurements.

Knitting Pattern for Queen of Hearts Dishcloth

photo by Knitpicks

Another of my knitting patterns, Queen of hearts dishcloth was published by Knitpicks.
The pictured sample is done in their Dishie Multi cotton yarn. The pattern is free.

Queen of Hearts Dishcloth

photo by Knitpicks

Thank you for visiting.