Wool People 4 Look Book

As usual, everything from Jared Flood's camp is extremely beautiful, detailed and inspiring. Kudos.

If you haven't already seen it, here's the look book for Wool People Volume 4.

3KCBWDAY4: Stitching for All Seasons

Day four of Knitting & Crochet Blog week...

A Knitter or Crocheter For All Seasons?
As spring is in the air in the northern hemisphere and those in the southern hemisphere start setting their sights for the arrival of winter, a lot of crocheters and knitters find that their crafting changes along with their wardrobe. Have a look through your finished projects and explain the seasonality of your craft to your readers. Do you make warm woollens the whole year through in preparation for the colder months, or do you live somewhere that never feels the chill and so invest your time in beautiful homewares and delicate lace items. How does your local seasonal weather affect your craft?

Am I a fair or foul weather knitter/crocheter? Both!

I knit pretty much year round. It's what I look forward to doing after a long work day, and on the weekends, and during vacation, and when I'm dreaming lovely dreams of sheepies and alpacas...

Enough said. I lurves some yarn crafting. Summer. Winter. Spring. Fall. Anytime, I'm knitting. And sometimes even crocheting.

I do find that the weather changes my projects though. I tend to work with bulky wool yarns during the fall/winter months, and then switch to working with finer gauge yarns in the warmer months.

One of my recent favorite yarns is Malabrigo Arroyo. It's a sport weight superwash merino wool with unparallelled drape. The colors, no surprise, are amazingly beautiful. Check out the Chircas colorway in my Riverside Cowl pattern:

I'm currently working on several designs for this fall using fingering weight yarns.

Here's a peek at one design (I'll show a larger peek later this week). Sorry it's so small. It's a wee teeny sneak peek!

I'm also furiously knitting a design sample that is due by end of May - wish me luck! The yarn I'm using - which isn't quite available yet, unfortuantely - is perfect for warm weather knitting.

It's a laceweight blend of wool and silk that works up into a silky, lofty, drapey fabric with a hint of sheen. Just gorgeous. I'll share as soon as I can!

3KCBWDAY3: My Knitting or Crochet Hero

Today's Knitting & Crochet Blog Week post is about inspiration. Who is your knitting or crochet hero?

Well, I have many- my fellow knitters and crocheters at Knit 1.

Lynn, the shop owner, has a way of constantly keeping me and all of her other customers inspired.

There are constantly new projects in various levels of progress throughout the store. Customers stop by periodically to share their own work, chat, have a snack, and, of course, stitch. 

Inspiras Galore at Knit 1Since I started hanging out at Knit 1, I've begun several new projects, I ventured into colorwork design and using (gasp!) vareigated yarns, and I've developed a love for wooly-wools.

The shop's also got me hooked on Pinterest and crochet (quite literally).

Lynn's crochet african flowersAnd it's not just yarny crafts keeping me inspired here.

Lynn (head yarn mistress) also eats paleo and lifts heavy weights, two things that I've been doing since last September.

This was a big lifestyle change for me, and it's great to have someone else to chat about it without getting the "OMGWHATDOYOUMEANYOUDONTEATBREAD???!!!!" response. 

The shop has a strong sense of community. Customers know other customers. They text each other to drop by. They grab each other lunch or treats from the coffee shop next door.

And they embark upon glorious knitted and crocheted projects together, with words of support and lots of giggling throughout the process.

How could this not be inspiring?

Notes on Design - Swans Island Blog Feature

If you get bored today, take a little looky-loo over at the Swans Island blog where you can read my interview.

Anna Cowl (C) Swans Island

Indie Designer Profile by Canary Knits

I'm so flattered by the recent Indie Designer Revisited profile from Canary Knits.

Teresa (Canary Knits) runs a great blog - you should definitely check it out! Also, I'm loving her extremely specific boards on Pinterest. If you're into Pinterest, then you know that specificity is key in keeping tidy, relevant pin collections!

Here's an excerpt:

I think it's so cool that, over a relatively short period of time, people can create such wonderful bodies of work...

...There's really quite a lot to talk about, but I'll limit myself to just one more knit: the Anna Cowl. This is a long, delicate and lacy accessory; just the right amount of lace, mind you. Just the right amount to say, peek above your coat collar, and with a great amount of full-on knit to keep your neck nice and tidywarm.

I'm really looking forward to BreeanElyse's future designs. Her aesthetic is well developed; one that I think is wonderfully wearable and attractive.