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.

Knitting pattern for Rib Hat and few more patterns

Rib Hat

A while back I received a skein of yarn from Lovecraft. It was The Yarn Collective, DK weight Bloomsbury in a gorgeous Indigo color. I made a hat, and another from the same skein of yarn. I also had another color of the same yarn and made two more hats. The rhythm of 2x2 ribbing is fairly simple and looks great on anyone. The crown is shaped into a point and the hat is reversible. 

Rib Hat

You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry, Lovecraft, and also here by clicking on this button:

 

 

 Also the rights to some of my previously published patterns by a third party has returned to me and I can sell the patterns as an independent designer.

You can purchase these patterns on Ravelry and Lovecraft website. Link to the pattern stores are on the side of the blog.

First it is my favorite Golden Hour Fair Isle Scarf

A colorful exploration of fair isle knitting. The original sample is using 11 different colors, but the pattern invites you to play with your own favorite colors and create an original scarf. 

Golden Hour Fair Isle Scarf

Luna Infinity Scarf and Cowl is another pattern that has just recently been added to my own store on Ravelry and Lovecraft. 

A super quick textured infinity scarf or cowl worked in Cascade Magnum yarn is  done in a matter of hours.

photo by I Like Knitting

Cora clutch is a combination of knitting and sewing. The outer layer is knitted, while the inside layer is made of fabric. The two layers are attached to a zipper, which securely closes the bag, and a knitted flap is secured with two buttons. 

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.

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