Thursday, June 25, 2015

Holla Knits Summer 2015 Magazine!

I was super excited when Allyson- editor of Holla Knits- emailed several months ago and asked if I'd like to write an article for the summer issue of Holla Knits because oh yeah, it's a full on magazine now, with tutorials, a letter from the editor, and everything. Super excited! I've never really thought of myself as a real writer before, but seeing something I wrote in a magazine- I believe. I knew right away that I wanted to share a slightly embarrassing, though lovely and heartwarming, story about my first-ever knitting project. If you're familiar with my designs, then you know that they can be a bit.... well, crazypants. See: the Duck Hat, Everett Henley (my first sweater design, because I am nuts), and just wait until you see what I'm working on for Holla Knits for this winter. Nuts. Read my story about the first thing I picked out to knit and I think you'll see why I am the way I am. You can get a copy of the fantastic magazine, which also has 6 awesome summer patterns to knit, here. Teresa Gregorio and Emma Welford wrote something too, because they are also awesome.

After you read my little story, you'll surely want to knit something from the magazine, because duh, it's Holla Knits and EVERYTHING is awesome! (I recognize that I just used "awesome" about 6 times in the last 4 sentences, but I have that lego song in my head so we all have to suffer.) All of the designs are great, but this one is my favorite, and it's already in my Ravelry queue:

Annapolis by my invisible internet friend Kristen Jancuk (mediaperuana on Twitter)



That stitch pattern! Ahh! I could see wearing this sweater a lot. I've got some mint green yarn in my stash that might be perfect... and I'm weirdly super obsessed with mint green right now.

Also, because it's not a blog tour stop without a giveaway, wanna win a pattern from the issue? Comment and tell me which pattern you're dying to knit, and you could win a copy! Be sure to leave some way for me to contact you- email, Rav ID, Twitter handle, something. And then check out the rest of the blog tour for even more giveaways. Oh, and you might want to subscribe to the magazine so that you get my nutso winter pattern as soon as it's released... I think you'll want to make what I'm cooking up. :)

Leave a comment by Tuesday, June 30th. I'll announce a winner on Wednesday July 1st!

June 16: The Sweatshop of Love- pattern giveaway
June 17: Klever Knits- pattern giveaway
June 18: Canary Knits - Travel knitting & mag giveaway
June 22: MediaPeruana - pattern giveaway
June 24: YarnGasm - Knitting with Voolenvine Podcast- magazine giveaway
June 25: Cosmos and Cashmere - pattern giveaway
June 26: Midwest Yarn - pattern giveaway
June 29: Emma Welford  - pattern giveaway
July 2: Canary Knits- Beach House styling & giveaway

Monday, June 15, 2015

New Pattern: Diamond Lattice Mittens

Once again with a non-seasonal new pattern. Hey, some people live where it's cold year-round, right?

These are the Diamond Lattice Mittens. I found this stitch pattern in one of my stitch dictionaries- favorite reading material ever- and I knew right away that this pattern was meant to be mittens. The mittens are otherwise basic: ribbed cuff, thumb gusset, nice rounded top, but the slip-stitch pattern really jazzes things up, right? I mean, why make plain mittens when you can make diamond-y mittens? It's an easy pattern to work, especially if you've ever cabled without a cable needle- these are the same idea. A pair of mittens takes about 150 yards of worsted-weight yarn. I used Malabrigo Worsted for the sample because I will come up with any excuse to use Malabrigo Worsted. It's like knitting with a cloud.

My pattern testers felt that this was a great pattern for a highly variegated yarn. Check out their projects here- they were totally right.


Two sizes, women's small/medium and women's large. Finished hand circumference for the smaller mittens is 7.75 inches, and it's 8.75 inches for the larger size. 

Needles: US 6 and US 7 dpns.
Gauge: 20 sts and 28 rows = 4" in stockinette on larger needles

Want to make a pair for yourself? Until June 20th, get the pattern for 40% off the usual price of $4. Take advantage!