Knitting Pattern for Elata Wrap

Elata Wrap

The knitting pattern for this reversible and fairly simple wrap has been on my desk since last summer. I actually knit this sample in the spring 2019. For the sample I used two skeins of Cascade Eco Peruvian Tones. It is  bulky weight yarn and the wrap was finished very fast. I made a second sample using the Caron cakes.
The pattern is written out, and also have chart.
You can purchase the pattern by clicking on this button:



or in my Ravelry store:

Stana D. S. designs

or on Lovecraft website:
link here

Elata Wrap

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Frog

Frog

Over the past week so much have happened. Everything is changing and we are trying to adopt on the fly, hoping for the best. I talk to my mom everyday via Skype and am grateful for the technology. It allows me to check on her, even though we are on the opposite sides of the Atlantic ocean. I feel a bit better when I hear her voice, and see her face.
I have  lost two of my jobs, as the country stays in to try to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. I hope it is only temporarily and at some point I will have my work back again. I try not to worry as I keep telling myself we are all alive and breathing.

Knitting is also my solace in this time of distress. I have few real projects on my knitting needles, but I could not help myself not to be affected by everything around me.
While talking to my mom she was telling about the lack of face mask, and how she and so many other people are sewing them from cotton fabric. Based on these conversations I started to draw some sketches and decided to make a mask of my own. A little bit of whimsy, and an extra layer of cotton fabric for the inside.
This mask will not protect you, but it might make you smile.
I have the pattern in PDF form, but I will also typed up the direction as my next post, with some pictures of how I made it.

Thank you.

Life as a work in progress...continues

heart

Today is Friday the 13th.
Life continues in a strange way. The world is trying to cope with the Coronavirus pandemic and I have to admit, I am scared.
I worry about my mom who lives alone across the ocean, and I cannot help her from here. It has always been difficult, but it seems impossible now with the travel ban, and borders closing. I talk to her every day and I am so thankful for the technology and all the possible way to communicate.
I hope that she will make it through and we will have another chance to see each other in person and I will be able to hold her in my arms.
Our everyday life here is changed. Schools have been cancelled, activities postponed. All of this have been done to help to slow down the spread of the Coronavirus.
To keep myself busy and distracted from everything that is happening, aside of spending plenty of hours with our dog, and knitting, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It seems to me that baking is one of the ways I cope with stress, aside of yoga, and knitting.
Today I baked Banana bread. The recipe I use is from a dear friend of mine, and to keep things simple I use the same Bundt cake form for many of my baking recipes.

Banana Bread

Aside of baking, I also spent my afternoon outside and enjoyed the nice weather. The dog was tired from his nice long hike in the woods, and I got to watch my kid play, and knit few rounds on sample for one of my new knitting patterns.

WIP

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Life as a work in progress: sick day

blueberry muffin

Tuesday is my day off from my regular work. That means I usually work on my knitting patterns, submissions, and other designer work that needs to be done, or should be done. I usually take a break in the middle of the day and meet a friend and the two of us go out hiking in the woods with our dogs. Not today.

A member of my family developed runny nose, and a bit of cough and sneezing over the weekend. Under normal circumstances it looks like a regular cold and we would think nothing of it. But things are not normal these days. Coronavirus runs wild through the world, entire nations are under quarantine and it seems that nobody knows what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, or even next month. So this said member of my family stayed home, just to play it safe. Just to make it clear, nobody in my family has travelled anywhere but school, work, and few local places, no further than twenty miles within the past two weeks.
This morning I woke up and my coffee didn't taste right. The same kind of coffee was just fine yesterday. This usually means that I might be coming down with something. So I decided to have a sick day, to rest, and get better.

I remember when I was child and had a sick day, it meant to spend the day in bed, reading books, sleeping, drinking hot tea with lemon and honey, eating my favorite food, and even being allowed to watch TV during the day.

As an adult, my sick day went so far like this: take the dog for a walk (he doesn't understand that I am having a sick day), make a pot of tea with lemon and honey, serve it to the other member of the family who is still under weather, clean and sanitize the bathroom (again, the last time I did it on Sunday), wash the dishes, clean the kitchen counters, do the laundry, strip and wash the beds (just in case, the last time I did it  was last Sunday), start cooking the soup, make blueberry muffins. The dog needed another walk, he just woke up refreshed from his morning nap. I cancelled my hike with the friend, thinking it might be better not to pass on whatever is trying to knock me down. The other dog I walk every weekday needed her walk. The beds needed to be done with the freshly washed bedding. Dinner needs to be cook.

I have not touch anything related to my knitwear designer work, but somehow my sick day doesn't look like a rest day to me at all. I managed to have a cup of tea with honey and lemon. Maybe I will have another one later in the evening, when everyone is fed, dishes are done, dog is asleep, and everyone else is settled for the evening.

Thank you for visiting and reading.

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

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Odie, the sea otter

Odie

In my group on Ravelry Stana's critters etc we always have some sort of KAL. It may be a toy mystery KAL, toy KAL, or technique KAL. Sometimes there is a prize to win, sometimes it is just for the fun of knitting or crocheting.
In November during our Food KAL I offered a prize for the random winner to pick my next toy design. The winner gave me few ideas and then my elbow got injured and I couldn't knit for some time.
Finally after weeks of resting, physical therapy, and such I am back to knitting again.
I kept thinking about the ideas and went back and forth. I made some sketches, and then last weekend I picked up some yarn and started to knit.
The best part of the process is seeing the toy emerge. I usually send pictures to my friends during the work in progress and ask them what they think the toy is. Odie proved to be a challenging one.
The answers were very different.
In any case Odie is a sea otter, and she (or he) needed to have a swim trunk (kind of old fashionable), and of course she (he) needed a snack... a fish.
I will spend next few days typing up the pattern and editing and make it ready to post it on Ravelry for our March KAL.
Join us for the fun.

The link to the pattern:



In the meantime here are some pictures of my work in progress over the past week:

Odie

Odie with T-Bone

Odie with swim trunks

Odie with swim trunks and a fish

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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.

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