Ravelry Hits A Million Members!

I logged on to Ravelry today to find that the website has reached the milestone of 1,000,000 members! Yay Ravelry! Congrats! This is such a great website and I'm proud to have been a member for the past few years. This site is an invaluable resource for knitters, crocheters and fiber crafters alike.

Happy 1 Million Ravelry!

Roger Vivier - design inspiration

I remember sitting in my Historic Costume class at the University of Akron watching an old film about the legendary shoe designer, Roger Vivier. Vivier is well-known for redesigning the stiletto with a metal rod so that the posts did not break under stress of wear.

Roger Vivier was perhaps the most innovative shoe designer of the 20th century and beyond. Vivier's shoes have had the remarkable ability to seem avant-garde yet destined at the same time to become classics. He maintained an eye for the cutting edge of fashion for six decades. Vivier looked back into the history of fashion and forward to the disciplines of engineering and science for inspiration. The shoes may seem shocking at first; however, it is the way they complete the silhouette that has made Vivier so coveted by top fashion designers for decades. With a sophisticated eye for line, form, and the use of innovative materials, Vivier created footwear worn by some of the most stylish and prestigious people of both the 20th and 21st centuries, among them Diana Vreeland, the Queen of England, and Marlene Dietrich. Source: Fashion Encyclopedia

The part of the film that resonated with me was when Vivier described his design process. In a straightforward way, he professed that if the shoe he was designing would have many embellishments, then the basic design and structure would need to be classic and simple, in order to not over-design the shoe.

On the other end of the spectrum, if the shoe was unembellished, then the structure and style of the basic design could be much more complex.

I think that this concept is extremely important in knitwear design. for example, if a sweater has a highly complex cable pattern, then the style, structure and yarn should be simple, as to not hinder the beauty of the stitches. In contrast, textured and colorful yarns are more suited to simple structures and stitch patterns.

What's your design inspiration?

Slouchy Pom Hat Prototype

This past weekend I spotted the cutest hat at Urban Outfitters. Of course, there were many things I'd change about it if I were knitting it myself. I knew that this simple hat was something I could recreate on my own terms with little to no fuss, so I added to my list of "things I must design" for the near future.

Here's the hat I saw at Urban. It just so happens that I was in need of a simple project for my book club meeting tonight, so I made my first trip to Loopy Yarns, which was quite pleasant. It's funny that I've lived in Chicago for 3.5 years now and I somehow had never made it to Loopy. They have a great selection everyone was super nice to me.

I purchased some lovely Cascade Eco Duo - a 70% undyed baby alpaca, 30% undyed merino wool blend that knits up to 18 sts per 4" on a US8 (6mm). Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

Yes, I know. The picture leaves much to the imagination. It's 11:30pm and I'm tired, OK? This is the best that my little ole iPhone 3G has to offer at this time :)

Anyway, it's fuzzy and lovely. You'll just have to take my word for it.

I chose a US 10 needle to knit up the hat because I intended for it to be slouchy. My test swatch revealed that I got 5 sts per inch in a k3,p2 rib. So I cast on and began this beauty.

Starting at 7pm, and it's now 11:30pm and I almost have an entire hat! I began decreasing for the crown, and I'm ready to switch to dpns, but I think it's bedtime! The rest will have to be unveiled at a later date...

Until then, here's a peek:

My Twisted Cowl Featured in the Malabrigo Book 3 Preview

In my last post I showed the ad featuring my Rasta Neckwarmer, which is one of the patterns in the upcoming Malabrigo Book 3. In response to some feedback to commenters on the Malabrigo blog, Hannah posted a preview featuring a few of the book's designs. My Twisted Cowl was featured in this post!

Up to this point, I had only seen my own designs, and I was extremely excited to see the patterns from the other contributors. They are beautiful! The styling, done by Hannah Thiessen, is super gorgeous - apparently a lot of the clothes came straight from her closet! Wow :) Here are the other previewed designs:

Aren't they beautiful? This looks like a great book and I'm extremely honored and thrilled to be a part of it. I can't wait to have a copy of this baby in my hands!

My cowl design featured in Malabrigo's latest ad!

Thanks to my awesome friend Sam, I was given the opportunity to design a few patterns for the newest upcoming book for Malabrigo yarns. I'm extremely excited about this book and I can't wait for it to be finished. There will be more posts on this, but for now, here's a shot I took with my iPhone when I accidentally stumbled upon this ad and said, "I think that's my design!"

I used Malabrigo's yarn Rasta in colorway #862 Piedras. What I find extremely awesome is that this picture is of the actual sample that I knitted when I designed the pattern!

Here's the link to the Book 3 thread on the Malabrigo Junkies forum on Ravelry.

I'd love to hear your feedback on the design!

~Bree