When planning this year's Summer Sweater Knit Along I thought it would be fun to introduce a few new fun posts (and writers) to go along with our guest tutorials etc. I invited the lovely Michelle of My So Called Handmade Life (Mamatronic on Ravelry) to write a guest post and I was excited to see what she would come up with. I've been a fan of Michelle's for years! She's got a fabulous eye, is an amazing knitter and has a fun blog. Bonus - her photos of her knits are always my faves in our knit alongs. She just has that special touch for taking WIP and FO shots. She's also our newest helper for this year's SSKAL. I hope you enjoy the fabulous interview she did below with the equally as talented knitwear designer Alina Schneider of Gift of Knitting Designs. Enjoy!
Throughout our annual knit alongs I like to bring in special guests to write helpful posts with lots of tips and techniques to help you all grow and expand your knitting skills. For this year's Summer Sweater Knit Along my dear friend, and designer/author Andrea Rangel is here to share her knowledge today and teach you all a bit about swatching in the round and doing it with colorwork as well! Andrea is a wonderful and patient teacher and has a great way of explaining techniques so I knew she'd be the perfect fit for this subject! She's my go to for things I'm stuck on all the time. Add on that her newest book "AlterKnit Stitch Dictionary" (watch for a full review here as well as a giveaway soon) is filled with swatches that are knit in the round (and feature colorwork) that she knit all herself I'd consider her extremely experienced...lol. I hope you all enjoy this post and learn something new today and a huge thank you to Andrea for lending her knowledge here today.
Our Summer Sweater Knit Along officially launches today! Yay! Have you signed up and joined in? I hope you do - it's a fun one (you can sign up & get details HERE)! Our Summer Sweater Knit Along is all about knitting some lovely handmade garments during the summer so we have gorgeous new sweaters to wear in the fall/winter months! It's my favourite knit along of the year and a fun one so I hope you all join in!
Summer is here and you know what that means......it's almost time for our annual Summer Sweater Knit Along!!!! YAY!!!! Our Summer Sweater Knit Along (or SSKAL as we call it) is where we encourage knitters to keep making garments throughout the summer months so they can sport their new handmade lovelies just in time for the fall/winter season! It's lots of fun and our biggest knit along of the year! So if you've ever been scared to knit a garment now's the time to conquer your fears and give it a shot!
When that special piece that's missing from your closet turns from a rough sketch to your new fave sweater! A wonderful kind of magic that I'll never tire of. Veronika knits up quickly and feels so darn good for the soul. I can't help but smile every time I see her. I like to describe her as Aritzia meets rustic wool...lol. She's one of those sweaters you can live in - you know, my fave kind - the ones you can throw on with most things, layer through all the seasons....heck you can wear it with your pjs around the house (which you definitely know I'll be doing...lol).
I'm so excited to finally be able to share that I recently got to design two patterns for the newest Berroco Portfolio - Volume 4! I designed a hat and cowl set called Cavilleri that was inspired by Ali McGraw's character from the iconic romance "Love Story".
One of my favourite things about knitting and designing shawls is dreaming up color palettes! From neutrals to brights - it's always so interesting to see what color combos you all use. Add in gradients and speckles and you've got a great way to show off your personality in your knitting. My newest pattern - ATMEN, is fabulous for doing exactly that and for using leftovers, showing off custom palettes and for mixing up colors and having some fun!
I recently was lucky enough to get back to visit one of my fave yarn shops - Churchmouse Yarns & Teas in Bainbridge Island, WA. Whenever I get to Churchmouse I dive into the yarns and have some serious fun pulling color combos for shawls. This visit we put together some yummy palettes for my newest design - ATMEN. You can find these color palettes all for sale HERE on the Churchmouse website. You can also purchase lovely printed pattern booklets of ATMEN both online and in their shop as well.
Today is my 40th bday :) I'm feeling both excited for what's to come and yet nostalgic for the time that's past. It's definitely a strange feeling and one that I've been spending a lot of time reflecting on during yoga and meditation. I don't want to feel sad or scared of my 40's - I want to own them. I want to show 40 who's boss...lol, and have a fabulous time enjoying being comfortable in my own skin and knowing my true self.
It's here!!! Wahoo! It's time for Starring YOU - the post that shows off some of the projects from our Tops, Tanks & Tees Knit Along!!!! Even though, being complete honesty here, this post takes me eons to put together - I LOVE it! It brings me so much joy to go through and see all of your finished projects and all the lovely garments you now have to wear! I love seeing what patterns you choose, the colors that are most popular for the season and just how darn lovely you all look! So thank you for knitting along with me each and every year and for being such a supportive, caring and kind community! I'm so proud to have you all a part of our Tops, Tanks & Tees KAL!
I'm so excited to release my newest shawl pattern today - ATMEN! What does Atmen mean? It means breathe in German (read below to find out the back story of Atmen). With Atmen I knew I wanted to design and knit something that was meditative and soothing but that was still fun to make. You know the kind of pattern I mean.....the knitflixing kind...lol.
It's finally time for our TOPS, TANKS & TEES Knit Along Giveaway!!!! I'm so happy to finally show you all the gorgeous prizes our supportive sponsors have for you all! Yay!! I'm freaking out!!! I can't wait to see who our winners will be! They play such a big role in keeping our KAL's going please take the time to visit their shops and show them some love!
And thank you for all knitting along with me! In the next week or so is our Starring You post and seriously - so many amazing projects you guys made! There were so many fabulous patterns used and fabulous yarns! Every year I'm seriously blown away by all of your talents and gorgeous projects!
Once in a while I spot a piece of jewelry and I just fall head over heels in love! That kind of love where you stop everything you're doing - yes, even your knitting - and say out loud "I need that in my life".
Our Tops, Tanks & Tees Knit Along deadline is just around the corner which means it's time for our vote for an extension to the deadline! It's where you get to choose if you'd like another week or so to finish up your garment!
Each year I get so excited whenever Tin Can Knits does a guest post on the blog for our KAL's! I love these gals and really enjoy the wealth of information on their blog! There is always something new to learn or a skill to perfect and Alexa and Emily are wonderful at teaching knitters how to take these new techniques on and perfect them for our own knitting!
I'm happy to have Alexa here today chatting all about STRIPES! I love stripes and so do they and so we thought it would be a fun topic to cover! Stripes are a fabulous way for you to add some fun to any top or tank for this summer! Whether it's brights, pastels, lace or speckles - go for it! Stripe it up knitters!
That moment when you flip open a copy of Knit.Wear and see your book on Page 5 with Norah Gaughan!!!!! Seriously friends! Can we just say I about passed right out?! Pinch me now!!!! I must be dreaming!!
This is such a huge highlight in my career and one that means so much to Jane and myself. Being a small, independent publisher and seeing our book featured in a huge magazine was a moment that I'll never forget! I'm truly beyond thankful for all of your support of Within and all of our titles. It really does mean more than I can ever say - so thank you so much!
If you've been following along on social media and my newsletter you will have seen that my friend (and fellow knitwear designer) Andrea Rangel and I are getting each other motivated to build our handmade wardrobes by having a casual sew along/knit along called "Make My Wardrobe". We've got a plan to examine our current wardrobes and get making the pieces that are missing! I'm so excited! Our focus will be on pieces that compliment the clothes we already have, in particularly our lovely handmade pieces like hand knit sweaters and more. We plan to try to make the same sorts of things, but not always the same patterns and not always at the same pace.
It's here! Today is the start of Tops, Tanks & Tees Knit Along 2017!!! Woot woot! It's time to cast on all those gorgeous garments that will make your warm weather handmade wardrobe shine!!! The #TTTKAL17 will run from April 10th - May 8th this year so mark your calendars! We've got some fun stuff planned!
It's that time of year! The cherry blossoms are blooming, the sun is shining and the cold weather is slowly dissapearring and you know what that means......it's time for the Tops, Tanks & Tees Knit Along! One of our big annual knit alongs where we encourage you all to knit garments to wear during the warm weather months!
