Knitting Pattern for Golden Days Lounge Shorts

 

My latest published pattern is for the Golden Days Lounge Shorts at the August Issue of I Like Knitting Magazine. 

Here is an excerpt from the magazine:

"Bask in easy summer living with the Golden Days Lounge Shorts, a warm-weather essential designed for comfort and style. Knit from the top down in the round, these customizable shorts feature a folded waistband with a functional I-cord drawstring for the perfect fit. Subtle short-row shaping ensures a flattering silhouette, while neatly finished hems at the legs keep stockinette edges crisp and curl-free. Whether you’re lounging at home, heading to the beach, or enjoying a golden hour stroll, these soft and breathable shorts are made to move with you—your new favorite piece for sun-soaked days."

Size: XS (S, M, L, XL, 2X, 3X, 4X)

Finished Waist Size: 26 (28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 40, 44)”

Finished Hip Size: 34 (36, 38, 40, 44, 46, 50, 54)”

Finished Inseam: 3” or your desired length.

Shown in size S”

Link to the pattern on Ravelry: Golden Days Lounge Shorts

and here is the link to the website of the I Like Knitting Magazine:

I Like Knitting

New Patterns and more

 

In my blog post from September 2020 (read here) I talked about how my love for knitting and creating started. You can see a photo of my first finished sweater, and in some way my first design of a sweater, even though it was created only to fit me, and I never dreamed of becoming a knitwear designer at that time. 

photo by I Like Knitting

This is my 304th knitting pattern, Helena Cable Cardigan published in February issue of I Like Knitting magazine. The pattern is free for the subscribers. 

link here to the I Like Knitting website

Helena Cable Cardigan on Ravelry

Update on Helena Cable Cardigan

photo by I Like Knitting

For the pictured sample I have use the Cascade Yarns Aereo Tweed in Marine colorwork. It's a snuggly mix of Merino and Baby Alpaca yarn that was a pleasure to work with. 

Two of my previously published patterns are now available as Ravelry downloads and will be shortly also on Lovecraft website and in my Payhip store.  See pictures bellow of the Cuddly Cat Pillow a whimsical pillow and Brie's Cowl an introductory brioche technique in the rounds.

photo by Interweave Knits

photo by Knitpicks

Also, during the last year, I had few more patterns published by I Like Knitting: 

First in August 2021 Issue two patterns for pillows:

Zion Canyon Pillows on Ravelry

Zion Grotto Pillows on Ravelry

photo by I Like Knitting

In September 2021 Issue it was a Raven Plaid Poncho.

 Raven Plaid Poncho on Ravelry.

photo by I Like Knitting

Once the rights to these patterns are reverted back to me, I will add them as PDF files to Ravelry, also to Lovecraft, and Payhip.

My 305th published knitting pattern is a whimsical instant gratification project named Monogram Gift Heart.

At the moment the pattern is available as Ravelry download, and will be added to Lovecraft, Payhip and Knitpicks website. The pattern is written for variety of yarn weights, from fingering all the way to bulky, and has charts for all the letters of the alphabet, a paw print and a written-out direction on how to knit the hearts. It is a perfect project for those long gloomy and cold days as it will brighten up your day as you work on the monogram heart, and it will definitively bring a smile to anyone who will receive this little gift heart. You can play with different letters, creating words and messages.

Happy Knitting.

Thank you for visiting.

My dog is a better influencer...

 

Seriously, my dog seems to be getting more Instagram collaboration requests than I have ever received as a knitwear designer. All he has to do is being himself and I just help with posting a picture of him to his Instagram T-Bone dog diary. 

I have to do more, than that. 

photo by I Like Knitting

Spotted Around Set is an e-book collection of two knitting patterns that were originally published in October issue of I Like Knitting Magazine and on their website, see the blog post from last September here: Knitwear Designer. After the exclusivity period finished I have the rights to the patterns and I can publish the patterns independently. You can buy the patterns individually or as an e-book for a discounted price.

At the moment I am working on another project for a third party publisher and my independent work is  as usually put on hold as the deadline is nonexistent unlike the contracted work for a third party.  

But once the work is finished I will return to my independent projects and continue to work on those. There are so many knitting patterns in various stages of work in progress that I hope to finish and publish during this year.  Like the pattern for this Bernie's doll. It took me about two months to knit the doll and now the pattern is taking even longer to write up into a word document from my handwritten  notes. 

Thank you for visiting and reading. 

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.

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.

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.

Knitting Pattern Calypso Cowl

photo by I Like Knitting

Yesterday, I have received an email from Lovecrafts that my pattern Calypso Cowl has been nominated as one of the knitting patterns of the month. Bellow is the collage of the ten patterns that have been nominated.
People can vote on their favorite and the winner will be announced next month. Here is the link to the article on Lovecraft blog:
Link

collage by Lovecraft

My Calypso Cowl made it onto the Top 50 knitting patterns of 2019 on I Like Knitting Website
My blog post .
I really enjoyed creating this pattern and I love its versatility. It is fairly simple cowl , knit in the round, in slipped stitch pattern.

I have also created knitting pattern for a hat that is based on the same slip stitch pattern.

Rayas Hat

Link to the blog post about the pattern for Rayas Hat:
Blog Post

Both patterns use bulky weight yarn, and are very quick knitting projects. For the sample published originally on I Like Knitting website I used Cascade 128 Superwash wool  in Grey color as MC and three blue colors as CC. For the hat samples I have used a variety of bulky weight yarn, in various colors to show the pattern in different colors.

To purchase the pattern for the hat on Ravelry:



To purchase the pattern for the cowl on Ravelry:



To purchase the patterns of the Lovecrafts website:

Link to the patterns collection:

This is such a joyful moment, to have my work recognized and highlighted on two different websites.

Thank you for visiting.

Running Hat, Calypso Cowl and Top 50 knitting patterns

Recently I have added two of my knitting patterns that were originally published by a third party into my Ravelry store.

Runner Hat was originally published by Knitpicks in their Under 200 book collection.  The pattern is available now to buy at my Ravelry store, by clicking on this button:



 and soon the pattern will be available on Lovecraft webiste as well.

photo by Knitpicks

Calypso Cowl was originally published by I Like Knitting in their February 2019 issue of magazine.
The pattern is available now to buy at my Ravelry store, by clicking on this button:



and soon will be available on Lovecraft website as well.

photo by I Like Knitting

Calypso Cowl together with my two other knitting patterns ( Watermelon Pouch, Golden Hour Fair Isle Scarf) made it into their Top 50 Knitting patterns of 2019  list. The link is here:
Best Knitting Patterns of 2019

photo by I Like Knitting

photo by I Like Knitting

photo by I Like Knitting

Thank you for visiting.

Knitting Patern for Golden Hour Fair Isle Scarf

Yarn 

In June I got to play with yarn. I had submitted an idea for a Fair Isle Scarf and it was accepted by I Like Knitting magazine. I received eleven skeins of yarn from Cascade Yarns company and I took them with me on my vacation. I was playing with the colors, while creating the pattern for the Golden Hour Fair Isle Scarf. Since I was on my vacation I had more time to knit than usually, and I finished the scarf in less than a week. I love the endless possibility of playing with the colors and creating a one of a kind scarf or just follow the direction and make the scarf as pictured in the sample.

Golden Hour Fair Isle Scarf

The pattern is part of the October issue of I Like Knitting Magazine.
Link here

photo by I Like Knitting

Thank you for visiting.