Garterrific!

2014 update: This pattern was one of my older, more amateur efforts, but has been revamped and re-released to meet my current professional standards- I'm pleased to introduce the new and improved Garterriffic!

Simple garter stitch is fabulous for showing off a wonderful yarn- whether it's an interesting variegated like the original (below) or some of Malabrigo's new neons (they're a little tough to photograph though, haha.) Easy enough for mindless tv knitting, but interesting enough (thanks to the shaping) that you won't be bored out of your skull. Garterrific makes a fast and wonderful gift, too!

You can find it on Ravelry here, or...

~~~~~~~~~~~~Original post~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This was a project I thought about including in my Malabrigo ebook but I wanted to make it in this yarn instead.








If you want to make the most of whatever yarn you're using but you really want tassels, I'd recommend making them before you start knitting.

Go Go Malabrigo, in agonizing detail

Ok! Everything's working now, whew!

A quick tour of what awaits you in the magical land of "Go Go Malabrigo!" All of the "Buy Now" links will check you out through Ravelry (which you can do even if you're not a member, but why aren't you? It's fun.) Everything will be up in the etsy shop as well.

Verse









As in "versatile" and also as in poetry, but you'll have to ask Vivian about that one.
Requires two skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino and about 4 yards of ribbon. Kind of super adorable and girly. $5


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Wabbit Season





As in duck season. Double-thick earflaps serve as odd little pockets; pompoms serve as super fun things to fling around. Uses 2 skeins of Malabrigo Twist, mmmboy. $5


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Muffle







As in, "I can't hear you, I've got all this wool over my ears. But they sure are warm." Doubles as a neckwarmer, in case your ears are already sufficiently toasty. Uses 1 skein of Malabrigo Aquarella. $5


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Doublish





As in, each stockinette panel is approximately double the size of the last one. Double-ish. Yumcozy. One skein of Malabrigo Sock. $5


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Catacomb





As in... I don't know, the name just seemed to fit. This is one of those patterns with the pleasant tendency to look much more complicated than it is. Also suitably boyish, for those hard-to-knit-for men in your life. One skein Malabrigo Worsted. $5


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The Whole Kit'n'Caboodle



As in, "I want it all!" Get all five patterns for $15, which those of you doing the math will realize is a darn good deal if you want at least three or four of 'em.




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Whew! And with that, I dine! Thank you for all the lovely nice comments, they really make a girl blush. And thanks again to all my testers, name-suggesters, photographers, and otherwise helpers!

Fine Print:
Your purchase of these patterns constitutes your agreement to use them only for personal, non-profit use without specific written permission from the designer. Items made from these patterns may not be sold, nor may the patterns themselves be copied, sold, or distributed in any way. You may print one copy for personal use but may not print multiples to distribute, nor may you share the digital file with others.

Go Go Malabrigo!

The ebook is up! On Ravelry, at least.

Go Go Malabrigo!

For the time being, the patterns can only be bought individually... I'm having a bit of trouble uploading the whole ebook. But it'll be there soon.

And as you may have gathered, the winner of the naming contest is Annie! Who will get a copy of the ebook just as soon as it's up and running and I can send it. (Annie, if you're on Ravelry, send me your user name so I can send it that way. It's too big for emailing, heh. presentsknits at gmail dot com.)

Honorable mentions to "Supermalafragilisticexpimalidocious," and my fiance's suggestion, "Bros, Hos, and Malabrigos" (yep, that's the dude I'm marrying.) And thank you one and all for your suggestions!

I will do a more detailed post later today when everything is totally up and running (at the moment, I need to get ready for work, eep!)

Prototypes

I'm not the type of designer who makes everything ten times before finalizing it (I just rip back, eh) but occasionally I'll knock out a prototype. These poor things never get any attention- sometimes I completely forget to even put them on my Ravelry page, despite wearing them all the time. So I thought I'd snap a few shots yesterday before I completely wear out these two hats.

First up, the hat that eventually was remade as Meriwether:



Basically just a chunkier version, in Alpaca with a Twist Highlander. It also has a weird horizontal linen stitch brim dealio going on. I wear it all the time, because it's black and actually matches everything (you'd think I'd learn to knit in colors I wear, but I don't.)

The second hat is the precursor to the blue earflap hat in the ebook (which should be out, oh, say, REALLY SOON). It's made with some super gorgeous handspun of Vivian's, and even though it's got some mad laddering going on (I'm usually more adept with the dpns, I don't know what happened) and the earflaps aren't quite in the ideal location, I love it.



(my poor camera seems to be having a white balance identity crisis, but I kind of like the weird results. Not good for consistency, though.)



(hint- don't knit a hat with only 4 dpns. I think that's why crazy laddering ensued. Though it's really just the one.)

So yes. There you go, little under-appreciated prototype hats. You are officially documented.

Mood Board: Porch Light

So I've been playing around with mood boards because, well, if you read enough wedding blogs, you start wanting to collage stuff. And the plan was to post them elsewhere since they're arguably kind of a wedding-y thing, but then I thought, "Hey, y'know, inspiration is inspiration, why not toss 'em out to the knitting/crafting folks too, in case they could do something with them" so... that's what I'm going to do.

I am still getting the hang of these things so forgive me if the first few are a bit sad (I am hoping that all the crediting is correct enough to pass muster, though I think I'll try to record things more carefully next time.) This one was semi-inspired by a super cute little store in Portland called "Porch Light", and the various keywords I came up with for the place are listed below in a grammatically questionable fashion.



{french country, ticking fabric, cottony ribbons, light colored old fancy furniture, peeling paint, bunting flags, home-crafted-ness}


Sources:

Rosey Little Things,Country Living,Home to Roost
Renovation Therapy, Ffffound, Epicute
Cake Toppers World, Camille Styles, Tiny Bird Arts
Blush Publishing, Terra Dawn Blog, Fotosa

So what do you think? Do you want to see more of these or are they better off staying in the wedding blogs?

Peeky peek. And a little contest. Sort of.

Today my rather talented pal Vivian came over and shot the rest of the projects for the Malabrigo ebook for me (before we hopped on the Portland Yarn Crawl bandwagon for a few hours. I managed to only buy one skein! Go me.)

Which means I can finally start recruiting test knitters and putting this thing together. Hooray!

However, the name is proving to be a bit of a sticking point. Being as "mal" is the latin(?) root for "bad", it's hard to play off it without coming out with something evil sounding.

Malabrigo + Delicious = Malicious!
Malabrigo + Lady = Malady!
Malabrigo + Magnificent = Malificent! (the evil lady in Sleeping Beauty, I think.)

So! Free ebook to anyone who suggests something I like! (It doesn't have to be a pun on the name of the yarn, but you know how I'm partial to puns.)

Ooooh

The ebook projects are done! Well, except for the blocking and photographing and typing and formatting. And test knitting. It's not going to be a big one, really. I 'd add more projects but I'm really hoping to get it out by the end of March...or more specifically, the end of "Malabrigo March," as the Mal Junkies group on Ravelry calls it. Because, as it turns out, all the patterns in this ebook are for Malabrigo yarns. In fact, that's kind of the theme, now. It was a bit accidental- I got three projects in and realized, "Oh, hey, these are all Malabrigo... I should probably diversify. OR...."

So, yes. Guess it's a Mal book now. Though I should probably specify that I'm in no way affiliated with the company, besides the part where I give them lots of money and they give me yarn, indirectly.

I also need a name. The name is the hard part, man.

Meriwether!

My first pattern for the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program (which, to you, translates into "the pattern is less than two bucks and the yarn is super cheap too!")



This hat is a sort of remake of a hat I wear all the time (but, I just realized, haven't photographed at all... I'll get on that) that people are always asking about. It uses Knit Picks Gloss Heavyweight, which if you're familiar with their original, fingering-weight Gloss, you can probably imagine is rather delightful (merino and silk, can you ever go wrong?)



You can find it on Rav, here and Knitpicks here - both places it's available for $1.99. I probably won't put it on etsy since, honestly, for $1.99 it ain't worth the listing fees :-P

I also wanted to show you guys my new pdf layout, which I'm pretty squee-ish about.



If you've ever downloaded patterns from me before you probably know how dismally boring they looked- this is a marked improvement. It'll take a while to retro-fit all the old ones into the new template, though.

As for that earflap hat, I'll fill you in on that little ditty later- I haven't quite decided if I'm going to release it before the ebook or not. Perhaps :-) For now, a bridge:



Fine Print: Your purchase of this pattern constitutes your agreement to use this pattern only for personal, non-profit use without specific written permission from the designer. Items made from this pattern may not be sold, nor may the pattern itself be copied, sold, or distributed in any way. You may print one copy for personal use but may not print multiples to distribute, nor may you share the digital file with others.