The Admiralty

Hello hello Holla Knits lovers. It's blog tour day!

Let's talk about my pattern from the Holla Knits Home Collection. I designed a 3-D ship's helm pillow, because why not. It's called The Admiralty, and you can check it/buy it out here on the Holla Knits website.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, then I think you'll already know about my love of all things Nautical. It's a real problem for me. Examples.

This is just one of my nautical art pieces. It lives in the dining room. 

A subset of my nautical jewelry. Really, I have more.

A portion of my nautical clothes. I really love stripes. And, uh, navy.

And of course, my living room. I have so very many nautical pillows. Most of them I made after we moved to Delaware last year, because we got that gray couch, and gray is easier to work into a navy-white-and-lots-of-stripes theme than our old tan couch was. When I saw the call for submissions for the Holla Knits Home Collection this past spring, my brain went, "Ship's helm pillow. Round out the couch collection." I honestly thought there was no way that the editor would go for it, but apparently she and I have the same weirdnesses going on. So here we are. A knitted ship's helm pillow. 

Construction was a bit tricky to figure out, but in the end I got it. Like my previous Holla Knits pattern (the Everett Henley, bane of lace sweater knitters everywhere), the difficulty is a little high. You should already know how, or at least be willing to learn quickly, to do intarsia, Kitchener stitch, mattress stitch, and small-diameter knitting in the round. The black circle is your starting point. Each spoke is its own intarsia wedge. After knitting all six you seam them together, then join them on one long circular to knit the edging. You make two of the same, then Kitchener those babies together with a pillow form inside. The handle parts of the spokes are stuffed and sewn on.  

Please, please, someone with a little boy needs to design a pirate-themed room for him and knit this. I am begging someone. I want to see that so badly. 

So, there we are. Knitted ship's helm pillow. If you want to check out the other stops on the blog tour for this collection, here you go. 

July 7: Launch

July 8: The Sweatshop of Love

July 9: Jean Chung

July 10: Emily Ringleman

July 11: Klever Knits

July 14: Canary Knits

July 15: Louet Blog

July 16: Laura McDougal

July 17: Knits in Class

I have a pattern in Knitty!

I cannot even tell you how excited I am that I have a pattern in the First Fall 2014 issue of Knitty. I did a lot of squealing when I got the email from the editor, saying she wanted to publish my pattern. I bet every dog for 10 miles heard me. 

The pattern is called Delaware is for Cables, and it's a hat in two styles: close-fitting beanie, or slouchy with a pompom. When I designed this pattern, I started with the antler cable, because I think that the antler cable is just about the best cable. Then I added the smaller cable and twist-stitch mock cables around it for fun and added texture. I can't resist the lure of pompoms, so once I finished the beanie version, I did a pompom version, too. The slouchy-ness is achieved simply by switching to larger needles after the first inch. Easy! 

I actually knitted the first version of this pattern in January. Then, for reasons best known to no one, I sat on it for a couple of months. When I finally got around to thinking about publishing, the call for submissions for Knitty came out, and I was like, eh, why not go for it! So I submitted, and.... success. Glorious, fantastic success. 

You don't need much yarn, and it knits up quickly, making this pattern great for holiday gifting, or for when you just need a quick, cable-y, fun project! 

Are you planning to knit your own Delaware hat? I hope so! You'll like it, I promise.  :)

The Nautical Knits Collection

I knitted some nautical stuff, because I was apparently supposed to be born in Cape Cod or something, and I wrote up the patterns. There are three: the Yacht Club Scarf, the Captain's Mitts, and the Sailor Slouch. They come as one PDF pattern.

Yarn needed to knit all 3: two skeins of Encore Worsted and one skein of Vanna's Choice.
Needles: size 6, 7, and 9
Notions: 8 buttons, 3/4 diameter; a tapestry needle; stitch markers

The Nautical Knits Collection: $5
(No Ravelry account needed)