KNITTING || TOPS, TANKS & TEES KNIT ALONG DATES!

It's almost time for our annual Tops, Tanks & Tees Knit Along! I'm so excited to announce our #TTTKAL, which is one of our two annual knit alongs, is starting next week! Yay!

We encourage you to explore different fibers to knit with and to make yourself a new fave garment that can be worn during the warmer months! No reason to put those knits away just because it's hot out!

Whether it's a tank top, a tee shirt, a top, or even a cardi - as long as it doesn't have full length sleeves you can knit it for our TTTKAL!

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So mark your calendars and get ready for our 2015 Tops, Tanks & Tees Knit Along!

May 13th - June 3rd

The knit along will run tentatively from May 13th until June 3rd but there's always a possibility for an extension.

Sign ups and the TTTKAL Homepage where you will find all things Top, Tanks & Tees Knit Along will be live next week.

Use #TTTKAL for all your projects & on social media!

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In the meantime don't fret - there's already a pre-TTTKAL thread going in our Ravelry group HERE so jump in on the fun!

Do you already have a project picked out? Will you be joining in for the TTTKAL?

PS. My back injury that I posted about last week is unfortunately worse than we originally thought. It's going to be a longer recovery time and right now I'm supposed to sit as little as possible. This is making it really hard for me to be on the computer right now so it's going to be quiet on the blog front until next week. But I'm hoping to be back soon! I miss you guys!

Image © Quince & Co., pattern Azalea by Pam Allen.

MOMENTS || THAT DARN SPRAIN

My apologies that it's been awfully quiet around here. The back that I've spent years trying to gain strength back in gave out on me after I caught a bad cough. One wrong cough and whoops - thar she went. Sprained joint.

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I'm on the mend though. It's hard to sit though and that means no computer work for me (or sewing) - boo urns. I'm trying to remain optimistic though and look at the bright side. If I hadn't started exercising and being more healthy these last 3 mths my back would be way worse right now. I can walk, so I'm thankful for that and I'm super excited to get back to my work out routine. I'm missing it and so is my mind/body.

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I hope to be back online next week but in the meantime cheer me up with what you've been busy making! I would love to hear about what you've got on the go - sewing, knitting, drawing - you name it, I want to hear and see it! Leave a comment below or tag your projects with #veryshannon online so I can see them.

SPRING SALE! SAVE 15% OFF!

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IT'S TIME FOR OUR SPRING SALE!

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Save 15% OFF our ENTIRE shop with the code "SPRINGSALE" from now until Tuesday, April 7th, 2015, midnight, PST.*

Sale valid in our website, Ravelry and Etsy shops.

SHOP /// ETSY /// RAVELRY

Happy making and creating and thanks for all of your support!

*Sale excludes ebooks and print books.

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THE NEW BLOG IS LIVE!

The migration is over and we survived - yay! I'm so excited to have the blog in the same home as my website! I hope you will all enjoy it too!

Please bear with us as we tweak and edit things over the next few days. If you see some wonky posts etc. our apologies. We're working hard behind the scenes to re-format things and spiffy all the lovelies up for you!

Please feel free to use this custom feedback form if you run into any technical issues or have any difficulties accessing anything on the blog. Click HERE for our Feedback Form.

I hope you'll enjoy the convenience of having the blog here on veryshannon.com and enjoy the website and find it user friendly. I'm very excited and can't wait to jump right in!

BIG CHANGES COMING!

Something I'm very excited about is happening! I've waited a very long time to do this and I'm beyond thrilled to say we are FINALLY moving the blog over to my full website at veryshannon.com!

The blog will be under construction from Sunday, March 15th through Monday, March 16th. We thank you for your patience during this time.

Lorelai Shawl Pattern by Shannon Cook, Image © Betsy Jo Photography

Now you will find everything in one spot and the url - www.luvinthemommyhood.com won't confuse you all anymore. Don't get me wrong, my days with luvinthemommyhood were so special and it was an amazing part of my life, but like all things, we grow, change and evolve. When we rebranded to Very Shannon a while a go I thought I would migrate right away but it was beyond my scope of technical knowledge. So I finally found someone I trusted to move the blog over so all your old links won't be messed up and things should hopefully run smoothly (fingers & toes triple crossed).

I'm very excited for the blog and hope you will all enjoy it as well! I've been so happy using Squarespace where my website is and I can't wait to be able to blog using it now as well. It allows me so much more freedom for formatting my posts and showing you guys more information and images in a fresh format.

If you haven't already visited me at www.veryshannon.com please pop by and say hi! You can find our shop on there as well as lots of other fun pages such as well as all of our Knit Alongs, a Tips & Techniques page for them, FREE Tutorials, Roundups and more!

In the meantime happy making & creating and we'll be back soon!

NEW PATTERN & KNIT ALONG || LORELAI & THE GILMORE GIRLS KNIT ALONG!!!!!

The LORELAI Shawl pattern release and the reveal of our new mystery knit along is here! It's time for our newest knit along - GILMORE GIRLS KAL!!!!!

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Me and the talented ladies behind Nice & Knit have been excitedly waiting for today! As soon as I set eyes on the gorgeous skeins of Nice & Knit DK they so kindly sent my way I knew they had to be a shawl. After spending way too much time binge watching Gilmore Girls I was feeling inspired by Lorelai and all her flair & fun personality and the LORELAI shawl was born!

LORELAI SHAWL PATTERN

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Can't you just imagine Lorelai strolling past Luke's in her fave jeans & rock n'roll t-shirt, wearing this shawl? I can!

I wanted something filled with color and life. The combination of lace stitches and stockinette play up together to create a textural and graphic effect that suits any color palette that fits your personality! Pastels or brights - doesn't matter! It all works with Lorelai!

When I designed LORELAI I also knew I wanted to host a surprise Gilmore Girls Knit Along at the same time! So we're going to do something different for this KAL! You can choose to knit up LORELAI along with us or any other pattern you feel suits the Gilmore Girls "aesthetic". We just want you knitting!

We also want you to come on over to our lovely landing page where you can stay up to date with all the things Gilmore Girl Knit Along! This is also where you can easily sign up this year & get all the details for theKAL, and buy the LORELAI pattern + Nice & Knit Yarn Kits! You can find it at www.veryshannon.com/ggkal15

We have lots of fun stuff over there! So make sure to pop on over & to also use #ggkal15 & #lorelaishawl on social media for all your projects.

And if you do want to knit up a LORELAI (yay!) the awesome gals over at

Nice & Knit have put together the most amazing yarn kits!!!! Seriously! The color palettes are drool worthy!!! And even better with every purchase of the yarn kits you get a FREE NICE & KNITTER TOTE!!! Can we say "YES, PLEASE"! You can find them for sale HERE.

A big thank you to the talented Betsy of Betsy Jo Photography for her amazing skills and patience. She knit up the gorgeous sample shown above and did all the photography! Thank you for making my vision come to life Betsy! You're the best!

Will you be joining in? What colors would you use for LORELAI? Do you love Gilmore Girls too? Come join the fun!!!

All images © Betsy Jo Photography

STITCHES WEST 2015 RECAP - PART ONE!

I recently returned from Stitches West in California and couldn't wait to share with you some of the new lovelies I picked up at the show.

Jane and I had such a great time and I've got some fun pics to show you from the show but I figured it would be easier to split my recaps up - one for goodies and one for pics! I know I love seeing when other people do recaps of when they go to events I can't make it to. I've still never been to a sewing convention so I live vicariously through others pics.

We really didn't get as much time for shopping as we had anticipated. This always happens to us though..lol. In the end we ended up being the nerds we are and putting the booths "we must shop at" in numerical and priority order so we didn't miss the ones we really wanted to shop at. We definitely needed a whole other day dedicated to just "shopping". It saved my wallet though not having that extra time. With the exchange rate the way it is I'm sure glad I didn't buy more than I did. Ouch.

Ready to see what I brought home? Yay!

/// YOTH YARNS

I picked up a lot of goodies at the YOTH Yarns booth where we did our book signings. I'll chat more about their booth in the next post but let me just say - it was AMAZING!!! I wanted everything. I was so glad I scooped on these awesome tapes (show above) when I did as they sold out super fast. Aren't they adorable?

I also couldn't resist these adorable flowered stitch marker tins! So cute! And YOTH was also selling the best tape measure ever (in very first picture above)! It joins in one end to form a circle so you can measure your bust with your arms down!!! Say what!!! And your arms and whatever part you want to! Bodybuilders usually use them! They are so smart those YOTH Yarn peeps ;) I only came home with 1 skein of YOTH because, dudes....the booth was almost sold out when we left on Sat. I figured I would be nice and leave inventory for all you shoppers :)

I also brought home one of my favorite new bags!!!! These were coveted! You only got one if you bought a certain amount at YOTH Yarns. Word on the street is that they won't be selling them anywhere else either. You can only get them at shows. One side says "Pretty Things Inside" and the other says "YOTH Yarns".

/// COCO KNITS

Ok, so full admission here - I've been wanting one of the fabulous Knitter's Keep from Coco Knits since it came out. But I really wanted to try one on in person. So when we found out they had a booth at SW we had to get there. When we made it there we proceeded to make dorks of ourselves by trying on all the colors and checking them out with our skin tone in the mirror. Yep, that's right - dorks strike again..lmao.  In the end I ended up with a pretty bright blue and Jane got a nice army green.

The Knitter's Keep = AMAZING. Solves so many of my problems - losing my stitch markers, losing my cable needle, losing my darning needle etc. I mean seriously ladies, pop this super fun bracelet on (did I mention it's a snap bracelet which is also equally as addictive and fun) on and never worry about losing some of your pretty notions again! When I'm working on shawls or seaming etc I always need multiple tools handy and this makemy life so much easier.

We also got to meet Julie Weisenberger (Coco Knits) which was a thrill in itself! I'm a big fan of her work and her business!  So it was a highlight of the trip to get to have some time to chat with her! So exciting! 

/// JILL DRAPER MAKES STUFF

I was so excited to get to meet Jill Draper. I'm a big fan of her work and had been wanting to see her yarns and meet her in person for ages. I spent way too long at this booth and I'm sure made a fool of myself gushing over her more than a few times. In the end I left with this scrumptious skein of Rockwell - Naturemade 2014 that is 100% Cormo-Merino Crossbred Wool. I must have picked this skein up more than few times so in the end it's the one that came home with me. I couldn't bear to leave without it.

I also picked up the most adorable notebook. You all know my addiction to notebooks and this one is my new fave. The Kitchener Stitch is inside as well as needle guide and ruler! And those illustrations? Swoon! Def one of my fave new lovelies. You can also find Jill as one of the instructors on Creativebug. She's got a slew of fun classes available on there as well.

/// HIYA HIYA NEEDLES

Now for the big splurge. Jane and I have been on the hunt for new needles for over 4+ years. I think we've tried almost every needle out there (or at least attempted to). Every time we go to an event we go to the needle sampling booths and try them all out and leave empty handed. We have a checklist and some of the other sets (while gorgeous and nice) left some of our boxes unchecked. This time when we went to the Hiya Hiya booth it was both of our first times trying out their needles. It was love at first knit...lol. I think I sat stunned for a few minutes as it sunk in that we had finally found "our set". Don't get me wrong, I'm not unhappy with my Knit Picks Interchangeables (I have the nickel plated set and still really enjoy them) but I've been wanting another set to go with it.

I got the Hiya Hiya Limited Edition Set of 5" Sharps Stainless Steel. Here are some of my fave things about the Hiya Hiya's:

1) How sharp and air light they are.

2) That the tips have the sizes on them.

3) That the cables have the sizes on them too! YESSSS!!!

4) Did I mention how light and sharp they are? Two of my fave things.

5) This is a biggie for me - that the join didn't bother me. I don't like when I can feel the join and with these it was no issue at all.

6) I like that I don't need a tool or key. Just some simple rubber grips to tighten and loosen them.

7) The kit starts at size 2.75mm and goes up to 8mm.

8) You can convert them to straights if you want to.

The Limited Edition Interchangeable set included so many goodies too! It comes with the following:

- 13 sets of 5" Interchangeable tips

- case

- 4 cables (18", 26", 34", 42")

- small cable connectors

- small tip adaptor

- panda stoppers (small and large)

- single point adaptors (small and large)

- puppy snip

- darn it's

- knitters safety pins

It was like Christmas! I'm loving them so far and am super happy to finally have a new set to knit with. Do you any of you have Hiya Hiya's? Do you love them too?

I also picked up a delicious smelling new wool wash called Allure in the scent Woodland Mist (shown in very first picture in this post). This is made from Bijou Basin Ranch and it smells divine! It's also an all natural formulat that contains no dyes, enzymes or phosphates, no optical brighteners and no formaldehyde. 

I can't wait to share with you the second part to the recap next week. Were any of you at Stitches West? What have you splurged on lately to add to your knitting stash? Fill me in, I want to hear all about it!

NEW PATTERN || LOSLASSEN SHAWL!

I'm so excited to be able to release our newest knitting pattern -

Loslassen! Loslassen is a uniquely shaped shawl that flatters the figure! 

Garter ridges paired with feminine lace openwork within a uniquely shaped shawl create a lovely juxtaposition that is both flattering & easy to wear.

Loslassen drapes with ease & style mimicking the look of raglan shaping slimming the frame & showcase hand-dyed yarn beautifully.

LOSLASSEN \\\

Other Purchasing Options: 

SHOP / RAVELRY / ETSY

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Loslassen is made from 2 skeins of the lovely Neighborhood Fiber Co. yarn Studio Sock(fingering) shown in colorway Columbus Circle. It's such a lovely and soft light blue. I immediately was smitten with it. I designed Loslassen for the shop A Grand Yarn. They have a fun monthly yarn club called The Indie Club and my pattern was the February selection. It was so neat to do a club pattern! I really enjoyed it and now I get to release the pattern to all of you too! Loslassen will work great with your current fave fingering weight yarn crush! Pick your fave color of the season and get knitting!

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I really wanted Loslassen to be able to be worn multiple ways and to also sit uber-comfortably on the shoulders all while slimming the frame. I love the way the raglan-esque shaping on the shoulders allows this shawl to sit almost like you're wearing a cardigan. It's so comfy and now that I have my sample back I've hardly taken it off!

or you can get your copy of LOSLASSEN here:

VERY SHANNON \\\ RAVELRY \\\  ETSY

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Loslassen has an addicting combination of an easy to memorize lace openwork and simple Garter ridges. I think an Intermediate Beginner could easily tackle this pattern. I really enjoyed knitting it and hope you all will too! Have some fun with it!

A special thank you to my friend Summer for allowing me to shoot in her gorgeous home on the lake and her beautiful cousin Kailee for modelling so patiently for me. Thank ladies!

*** Use Coupon Code "SAVE15" to save 15% off Loslassen until Sunday in our Ravelry Shop ONLY. ***

BUY NOW

or you can get your copy of LOSLASSEN here:

VERY SHANNON \\\ RAVELRY \\\ ETSY

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I cannot wait to see all your Loslassen Shawls!!! Make sure to tag your shawls with #LoslassenShawl on Instagram and Twitter! Thank you for all of your support and happy knitting!

*All images copyright © VeryShannon.com