11 May 2012

"It's the best day ever!"

Many thanks to Spongebob Squarepants (and consequently, my children and in-laws, for acquainting me with the porous fellow and his song--there will be ear-worm-ish music at that link--you've been warned!) for today's post title. Actually, it was yesterday that was the best day ever for me, at least as far as notice on Ravelry goes. Check it:
SQUEE!!!! After Veera's lovely Color Affection, which is blowing up right now thanks to the Yarn Harlot's latest FO, my two sweaters were "hot right now" all day yesterday. As of this writing Sotherton has 540 hearts, and An Aran for Anne 144. That's in, like, one day. I've never had a day like that, and it feels so very, very nice.

To be honest I've been moping around a little this spring. After banging out two sweaters and three patterns in a month-and-a-half, I was pretty fried, mentally and physically (my hip is still kind of wonky from sitting in my "groove" on the couch knitting away for such long stretches--clearly I need to follow Rebecca Watson's advice in the Summer 2012 issue of Interweave Knits). That's on top of all the usual family wrangling and presiding over the PA at Penelope's preschool and my ex's father passing away and, just, life. Then I had to whip my existing patterns and Avast No. 1 into shape for print to do the trunk show in March, which reacquainted me with my Art Director muscles.

The dreaming-up and knitting-up portion of this job I'm creating for myself are the parts I love, and the wrestling with spreadsheets and numbers gets my inner geek going, but the sales and marketing parts are challenging for me, so I'm working on that. I purchased Tara Swiger's Market Yourself the other day (though I'm having a problem with the download that has yet to be resolved) and am exploring all the ways to get myself out there more (for a homebody like me, that's more challenging than you might think).

So, thank you so much to everyone who hearted and queued Sotherton and An Aran for Anne! And extra thanks to those of you who discovered one of my older patterns. This is the kind of marketing I like best :)

10 May 2012

An Aran for Anne--Jane Austen Knits, Summer 2012

Not one, but two of my sweater designs are in the new Jane Austen Knits! Today's "share" is An Aran for Anne, my companion to An Aran for Frederick, which you may recall from last years issue of JAK (and may see below in the pictures from the magazine).

After I submitted Frederick last Spring, a bag of Louet Gems Worsted, procured from the lovely Loopy Yarns in Chicago, started pestering me. It was the perfect foil to the Brooklyn Tweed Shelter of Frederick: smooth and sleek in contrast to Shelter's airy, worsted-spun yarn. And by late summer it was a pretty sweater with empire-style waist shaping and Elegant Ribbing to enhance the shapeliness. Like Frederick, Anne is worked in the round from the bottom up and has a saddle-shoulder style hybrid yoke, which allows the cables and twisted stitches to keep going all the way up the back. The neckline is wider, almost a boat-neck, and, thus, flattering to the delicate collar bones of elegant ladies.

As you can see, I knit this sweater for me with 0-1" of negative ease. Not all models are as voluptuous as I am :) , yet it still looks very pretty on the lovely model from JAK (I need that skirt!).

Originally, I planned to release the pattern myself last Fall. I dropped Amy, JAK's editor, a note about it, and she asked about the possibility of including it in the Summer 2012 issue. For various and sundry reasons I kept putting off releasing it myself (I'm not even sure why now), and so it is now a part of this lovely collection. Yay!
© Kathleen & Nicholas Dames

© Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits

© Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits

© Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits

© Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits

© Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits
You can check out An Aran for Anne on Ravelry. Print copies of Jane Austen Knits, Summer 2012 may be pre-ordered here. And if you can't wait, you can purchase the digital edition here.

09 May 2012

Sotherton--Jane Austen Knits, Summer 2012

I'm so excited to share my latest pattern! Sotherton is in the Summer 2012 issue of Jane Austen Knits, now available as a digital edition (and arriving at your LYS by the beginning of June).

Sotherton is worked in-the-round from the bottom up with a round yoke and a Gothic grillwork-inspired twisted stitch pattern. Designed with negative ease and empire-style waist shaping, you can see how wildly flattering it is on the beautiful model! Madeline Tosh's tosh dk in Verdigris is the yarn, and it was lovely to use--the different shades of green with spikes of verdigris and golden sunlight is perfect.

4" of negative ease - don't fear negative ease!



Check out the Ravelry page (even if you are not a member of Ravelry, I believe you can access pattern pages). You can also pre-order your print copy here, if you can't wait for your LYS to get their copies.

All photographs of Sotherton are © Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits.

10 April 2012

OTN: Mermaid's Cardigan

WIP
Bunch o' tosh in Baltic
Here's what I have on my needles right now. I'm about two-thirds of the way through turning this delicious pile of tosh dk in Baltic (love that colorway) into a cardigan. Working with a dk/worsted weight yarn is a nice break from the laceweight thing I've been wrestling with (now in time out for a second time). I've been working on this in fits and starts, since I've had some soon-to-be published patterns to review thrown in there, which I'm very excited to share with you as we approach the publication date.

Not much else to report here. Easter was quiet. And I've got the urge to design a new shawlette - lots of lace and fingering weight yarn giving me the eye from the stash. Still mulling over ideas,  but I think something will crystallize soon.

27 March 2012

Trunk Show report

OMG! The trunk show was so much fun. I love the ladies of Yarns in the Farms dearly, and it was such a treat to hang out with them Friday afternoon and meet a bunch of their customers. I was so happy to show off some of my hard work, talk to a variety of real knitters, and sell some patterns and booklets. Since I spend so much time knitting on my own and/or in my own head, the best (and most tiring) part was interacting with people who are (almost) as excited about knitting and yarn as I am. Here are a couple of shots of the table:

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Avast No. 1 trunk show at Yarns in the Farms
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Walk the Plank, Aphros, Infinite, Babe in the Mist, Matryoshka Japonais and lots of yummy yarn options

My lovely model is sporting the Night Watch Cap (which photographs so dark but has lovely highlights IRL) and Captain Austen's Scarf. And there's the printed version of Avast No. 1! The printing came out very nicely (the art director in me was very nervous, since copies arrived the day before we left for Boston), and I'm quite happy with MagCloud. So happy, in fact, that I've set up a shop over there where you can purchase printed versions of all my patterns and have them mailed to you. It's pretty cool.

Here's the first one, the Avast No. 1 booklet. More to follow shortly!
Avast No. 1
Avast No. 1: Avast No. 1
Avast No. 1 eight patterns for piratical knitters by Kathleen DamesThis colorful, 24 page booklet contains eight patterns, helpful notes, charts, and written instructions. Suitable for the adventurous beginner or any experienced knitter. Patterns include: Aphros - a lace stole suitab…

12 March 2012

Trunk Show!

This Friday I will have a trunk show at Yarns in the Farms beginning at noon. Please stop by during your North Shore Yarn Crawl adventures to say hello and see all the lovely yarns my dear friends at Yarns in the Farms stock.

I will have print copies of

I'm particularly excited to have print copies of Avast No. 1, as I have reformatted it into an 8.5 x 5.5" 28-page booklet. Printed copies are arriving here Wednesday, and we'll be taking them up to Cambridge Thursday. If you're in the Boston area, let me know!

02 March 2012

Desert Island

Finally! It's been a crazy couple of weeks here with two knitting project/pattern deadlines, both of which bit me in the derriere at the eleventh hour and involved far too much reknitting. But they're good, very different from each other, and I'm quite happy with them.

Then, after some return to a semblance of order involving much laundry, vacuuming the bejeesus out of the apartment and actually cooking a meal or two, Noro hit. And not the colorful yarn-y Noro but the really gross one that involves more laundry, plus floor scrubbing. Sigh. Isobel got it last Friday night, starting in our room before heading to the bathroom. In her defense, our room is en route, but we had a little chat with the kids about heading directly to the bathroom for future ... gastric episodes without popping in to let us know. If you have small people in your house who haven't thrown up lately, you may want to educate them on this important notion. Noro seems to be sweeping the nation, so I highly recommend this chat, folks. Your floors/rugs/walls/furniture, as well as your hands/knees/housemaid's elbows will thank you.

So, I kind of feel like I've been on a desert island. Knittingknittingknitting, then writing, doing math, followed by lots of cleaning. And I've had this yarn staring at me from my dressing table:

Solitude Wool's tweedy alpaca/merino laceweight
Habu Textile's Wool Stainless
Jill Draper Makes Stuff Aurora
Jill Draper Makes Stuff Aurora laceweight in Leaf - I wound this up during that panel discussion
Makes it kind of difficult to concentrate on the business at hand, doesn't it? These are my spoils, along with an Addi US6 40" circular needle, from VKLive. I had been kicking myself for not bringing home a goodie from Solitude Wool's booth in 2011 - they focus on heritage breeds, which I find pretty neat - so this year I wanted something of theirs; however, with two sweater lots of yarn breathing down my neck for the aforementioned patterns, a small skein of lace seemed like the best choice this year. I love that the alpaca and wool aren't dyed - that's the color of the fleece and fiber; the nepps are dyed, though. The Habu Stainless is something I've been pondering for a while and have a pattern idea kicking around. And that Leaf color of Jill Draper's has been haunting me since Rhinebeck, so when I found her booth at VKL, I had to bring some home - the silk just makes that color sing. It's not even really my color, but I had to have it!

Other than that, I'm getting my sample together for the upcoming Folklore Crafts project. I'll blog more about this as we get closer to publication. I've also been pondering a print version of Avast No. 1, since I'm a firm believer in, you know, actual books and stuff. Come the robot revolution, the "cloud" isn't going to do you much good when you're hiding out in a cave :) But, seriously, my first career was as a print book designer and art director. I should probably print this baby. What do you think? I'll really have to up my sales-and-marketing game, though. There are so many options out there that I have to really decide what I want.

The other reason I called this post "Desert Island" is that in replying to a lovely PM on Ravelry, I mentioned EZ's Knitter's Almanac as one of my desert island books, so I thought I'd play the game out here and make a proper list of my desert island books (I should put links in there, but it's getting close to lunchtime - you're smart; I bet you can find them):
  1. Persuasion - just ... my favorite, the best, though I'd love to have a complete works of Jane Austen if I could on the island
  2. Knitter's Almanac - hopefully with some yarn and needles, too, but even without there is so much information to ponder and clever writing to enjoy
  3. something (or everything) by Dorothy Dunnett - Checkmate or King, Hereafter if there can only be one, but for anyone who enjoys the swoony Jamie of the Outlander series, Lymond is to die for, and Lady Dunnett's writing spoils you for most other things
  4. The Odyssey - my college minor was Ancient Greek so I could read this in the original, though these days I would need a Greek dictionary, too, so I'd be fine with a translation (except for the lines Nick translated for our wedding - all set with those)
  5. Possession - I first read this at a moment in college where it was just perfect for me, and I still dig it
  6. A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns - if I can only have one in Barbara Walker's invaluable series, this is the one, since it has the lace borders and edgings sections
  7. Ulysses - so I'd finally read it
  8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - so much loopy fun
  9. Bossypants - Tina Fey's my girl crush, unsurprisingly, and my nickname at a former job was Princess Crankypants. What? I got cranky when people didn't clean up after themselves or do their jobs properly. Come on!
  10. Oh, I don't know! SO many possibilities for the last spot that I just can't decide: Goodnight, Moon; The Secret Garden; Little House on the Prairie; Villette; The Crying of Lot 49; Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting; some book from The Met's Costume Institute or the V&A; How to Find Water on a Desert Island. That last one is probably the wisest, but they're all good, as are so many more!
What are your desert island books?