Julia Lynne is up!

My latest pattern is up on Knit Picks!

This cardigan is sized for girls: 2 to 10.  The one Kitty is wearing in the above picture is size 4.  The pattern can be found here: http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Julia_Lynne_Girls_Cardigan___D10967220.html  The price is $1.99, and I highly recommend the Comfy cotton blend yarn; it's perfect for this project!

Julia Lynne is on her way!

I sent the sample and pattern off yesterday.  Hooray!  So now it's time to turn my attention to the next design proposal....and future designs! 

Having celebrated yesterday the second anniversary of being banned from a knitting site, I find myself wanting to design something with a Bunker theme.  I want to celebrate the wonderful family of crafters that I'm fortunate to be part of.  We're a tightly-knit group(pun intended)...with different personalities...some are skilled at being vague...some are crazy and tons of fun...some are quiet...some are full of advice...all are creative...so I'm thinking whatever it is should have lots of different stitch patterns.  Some cables, some lace, some texture...maybe some colorwork?  It should definitely be Bunker Blue.  Sorry, just thinking out loud...or thinking with my fingers...or something like that. ☺

Here's a question for my readers...What inspires you?  What does your design process look like?  Do you start with a theme and then come up with a project that describes it?  Do you begin with a stitch pattern and then decide what sort of project would showcase it?  Or do you start with a garment idea, then flesh out the idea with stitch patterns?  To answer my own question, I do all of the above.  For Julia Lynne, I started with "I want to make a little girls' cardigan with lace and ruffles".  For Laura, I started with "I want to encourage Laura".  For Frost, I started with "I love this stitch pattern".  So tell me, how do you design?  Really, I'm curious!

Julia Lynne is done!

I finished my Julia Lynne cardigan last night!  I blocked it overnight.  And this morning, we had a very successful photo shoot.  I took the girls to the park, and told Angel and Princess to go play while I took pics of Kitty.  Poor Kitty, she just wanted to play too, but she had to wait until I had enough pictures.  Here are a few of them...

It's a gorgeous day, so it was perfect for photos and playing at the park.  Some of the pictures came out a little shady, so I brightened them up, except for the one on the monkey bars.  That one was bright enough, and it would have been my favorite if not for the shadow across the sweater.  I like the bike one also, but the grass in the background turned out so bright it almost hurts my eyes!

After polling my friends, I decided to use the one on the swing as the main pattern pic, and include the one in the tree as well.  I'll send all of the pictures along with the pattern to Knit Picks, and they can use all of them on the website. I really hope they like my photos, because I'm partial to having my own girls model for my patterns.

And now I'm back to planning for my next pattern!  I'm trying to decide between my Frost Cowl and my Crown Jewels Shawl.  I'm leaning toward the shawl, since winter is practically over.  I'll probably hold onto Frost until fall.

Speaking of socks...

I finished the test-knit sock!

Isn't this a great design?  Sieglinde did a great job.  I can't wait to see her pattern up on a prominent knitting site!  I used Berocco Ultra Alpaca in a light heathered bluish-green.  I've already done the cuff ribbing for the second sock, but I'm not going to knit it in two days like I did the first.  I need to work on my other projects.

So right now I'm working on Julia Lynne.  She needs sleeves.  I was going to Magic Loop them, but instead I'm using a very short circular.  It's working, but not well.  I wish it were about two inches shorter; the stitches are a bit stretched out on this needle.  I'm thinking of switching back to the longer one, or dpns.  My longer needle doesn't have a nice flexible cable, which is why I switched to the short one in the first place.  But it might still be quicker than dpns.  Aw, heck, I'm wasting time thinking about it; I'm going to just go back to my original plan and get this done.

Knitting and exercise and gardening, oh my!

I finished the waist cables on my BBSweKniMo project!  Hooray!  I decided to only do 7 repeats, instead of 8, because I have a short waist(along with the rest of me).  So now I'm doing stockinette, except for the rope cables at the front edges. ☺ I've come to the conclusion that I won't get this project done by the end of the month, so my goal is to get the body done.  I have to do a few inches in stockinette, and an inch or so of garter stitch, and then add a crochet border and buttons and buttonholes.  I'll do the sleeves next month, I guess.  I'll be glad to get this sweater done, even though I won't be able to wear it until fall.  I started designing it so long ago that I'm just ready to have it done.

I've been thinking about socks.  Socks are nice, quick projects.  And I have a gazillion sock patterns printed, and lots of sock yarn to go with them.  So I think I'm going to set another goal, of knitting one pair of socks per month.  That way, I'll have plenty of them when cold weather comes back.  I loved wearing my handknit socks this past winter, but I only have three pairs, and none of them are superwash wool, so I have to wash them by hand.  I think I'll start a KAL with my friends in the Bunker, if any of them are interested.  I love our KALs!  I'll bring up the idea tonight, when we meet in the chat room for our virtual Knit Night. ☺

Oh, my goodness, I totally forgot to post this yesterday!  I got an email from Stacey at Knit Picks: they like my Julia Lynne cardigan!  So I'll be knitting another one of those as soon as the yarn support arrives.  I can't wait!  I'm still waiting to see the pics from their photo shoot of my Evellyn Anne blanket; I'm not sure whether they'll want me to replace my pics in the pattern with theirs, or just use them for the "additional pictures" on the site.  If it's the latter, that pattern might be up on the site tomorrow; if it's the former, it'll probably be another week.

I went to the gym this morning.  I didn't want to.  When I got there, I didn't want to exercise.  While I was exercising I wanted to stop and go home...until I reached the 15-minute mark on the bike.  When I was done, I was glad I was done.  I have yardwork and knitting and laundry and cleaning to do.  Haha.

Speaking of gardening...we were speaking of gardening, weren't we?  I peeked at my sprouts again, and saw that I have cantaloupe and pumpkins and cucumbers sprouting too!  Nothing yet with the lavender, but that usually takes longer.  I started my tomatoes yesterday: Big Boy and Red Cherry and some seeds I saved from really yummy yellow tomatoes.  And I started my Texas Bluebonnets too.  I love Bluebonnets, but since it's the State Flower, it's illegal to pick them where they grow wild.  This way, I'll be able to pick them and bring them inside.  I haven't started digging yet; I'm waiting on the utility people to come mark the underground cables and such, to make sure that I don't cut anything. 

Knittin' knittin' knittin'

I've finished the stockinette portion of my sweater!  After trying it on yesterday, I discovered that the three sets of short-rows I had done were enough, and all I needed was a few more rows of stockinette.  So on I go!  I've started the cable section, which will probably take a while. 

I've just sent off another design proposal.  This one is for my Julia Lynne cardigan that I designed in '09.  (Can you believe this pic was taken just a year and a half ago?  Kitty looks so much older now!)

After it was rejected by Knitty, I didn't have the courage to submit it anywhere else until now.  So I spent this afternoon reworking it and writing up a design proposal for it.  I've had pretty good luck with Knit Picks so far, so I'm optimistic.

I went to the gym today, and worked my chest, shoulders and back.  Then I did 25 minutes at level 4 on the bike.  I'm really feelin' it now...  Hopefully I won't hurt too much tomorrow.

Introducing: my rejected pattern.

Well, I got the email today that the pattern I submitted to Knitty was not accepted. So I can finally post pictures here. I will, however, be reserving the pattern for my book. Anyway, this is "Julia Lynne". It's a top-down, seamless raglan cardigan with lace and ruffles.

And here are some pictures of my girls, in their cardigans.
Dolly

Princess

And Angel