The design process

I'm still blogging from on the road, we'll be home tomorrow but the bad news is that our floors won't be finished... A hold up in supplies means they'll be laid on Monday.

Anyway, I thought I might spend some time in October blogging about my design process, as I had a few questions about that. Luckily, while up at the block I came up with a new design. Yippee!!!

I've been pondering a wee little boy's cardigan for awhile, I've been dreaming about a circular yoke with colourwork be it stripes, fair isle or something. But I just hadn't quite landed on it. Just waiting for the perfect inspiration. And then it struck.




I'm sort of cheating by showing you what it will look like when finished...sort of.
Luckily I'd taken away five balls of Skeinz vintage that the lovely Maree sent me last year. I've been wanting to use these for ages, waiting for the perfect project, the perfect inspiration.




With the idea bubbling and perfect stitch pattern found, I set about swatching to see if it would work. I swatched the stitch pattern in the colours I wanted, threw in an increase row to see how it would fare. Pleased with the result, I added the rib edging to mimic the neckband and buttonband.

All this gets carried out with my trusty visual diary in hand, notes being scrawled around my original sketch to remind of the best increase, any changes to the swatch I need to make, or just general thoughts about the emerging pattern.




I sat with this all day. Pinned it on the boy to contemplate it. I do so like it. I do so love this colour combination, it reminds me of something I would expect to see knit in Shetland yarns.

What I really love about this stitch pattern is it looks fancy, it looks complicated but it is deliciously simple!

I am so pleased I loaded Numbers onto my iPad before we left. I spent yesterday evening grading the whole size range into a spread sheet, which means all I need now to do is order some more yarn, knit the sample and convert the spread sheet into the written pattern.




How damn exciting is that!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The bush block

As we've been forced out of our house, we decided to spend the last few days up at the family bush block near the Grampians.




The kids were absolutely stoked with this, as the bush block affords them a real sense of wild. They get up early and roam through the bush at will, often shoeless and by themselves. It gives them a wonderful experience of responsibility and independence that they wouldn't get elsewhere.




For Toby, sticks is where it's at. He spends the whole time here with one stick or another in his hand. For Lily, her freedom is epitomised by her Pa's Akubra which she dons almost as soon as she gets here.



We took our usual pilgrimage to the local fossicking site today's, a short track through the bush.

There were gates to open and close.




And being Spring, oh so many Wildflowers!




These are my favourite orchids.




The kids love the gem fields and fossick for what can seem like hours in search of that elusive smoky quartz.



This is a great spot for fossicking, as you always, and I mean always, find something! Perfect for the kids.




Even Blythe got into the act and had a bit of a search for some gems.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The fairies at the bottom of the garden

Yesterday while we were busy packing and clearing most of our house out, the kidlets were busy in the garden. Down the bottom of the garden to be precise.

When I went to investigate this is what I found; three young ladies, Rapunzel, Alice and Snow White, asleep under some silverbeet leaves.





Our parsley patch had been turned into a fairy garden with little houses and seats.




It does seem, however, that the mermaids have moved in instead.




There was even a grand entrance, a runway or walkway, who knows. I think it makes it easier for the fairies to find. And a pond, complete with fish and even a lobster!




But most exciting of all is that, Lily tells me,this morning she found fairy footsteps out there!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

down by the seaside

Today I was going to blog about the release of a recent pattern, Tobias, but that is going to have to wait.

Tomorrow we move out of our house while the builders move in, we're having the floating floors in our entire place replaced. This is what happens when your dishwasher has a major flooding incident and they no longer make the floor type you have.

Anyway, the long and short of it, has meant this afternoon was spent emptying our all removable furniture items, like bookshelves, buffets, cabinets, etc. in preparation for the builders. They'll move all our furniture out but we needed to empty them first. All the inners of that furniture is currently residing in the study/playroom, all stacked neatly up... computers have been shut down and are inaccessible.

Before tackling this task we decided to make the most of the wonderful weather and ventured down to the beach for an early morning low-tide snorkel; the first of this season!





We live five minutes drive from Point Lonsdale, and our favourite kid friendly snorkeling is just out the front of the lighthouse. At low tide, it becomes the most amazing wonderland of rockpools and rock platforms with caves and arches to explore. The ocean is part of a marine sanctuary so when you venture out on a flat day, there are plenty of fish to see.





The water is still quite cold, yes indeed. To make the most of it and really enjoy it, full length wetties were essential. Toby is finally big enough for Lily's hand-me-down wetsuit. He's extremely stoked with it, and spent last evening in it. He even ate dinner in it. Lily, I am very pleased to say, selected this lovely blue wetsuit as her new one. What a perfect hand-me-dwon that will be!

It's still only the start of Spring really here. The water is only just starting to warm up, but there's something just so lovely about a morning at the beach.




If you're wondering why Lily and Toby are wearing their sandals in the water, it's because they are Salt Water sandals. They don't rust and designed for use in salt water, perfect for stylish kids who like to rockhop!




We have vowed to go for a snorkel every weekend where possible at low tide from hereon. Let's hope we do! It was so blissful and despite the drudgery of the day's chores I was perfectly relaxed, thanks to the lovely feel of salt in my hair.

How did you spend your day?
Did you have such glorious weather as we did? I hope so!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

What I'm working on...

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who left comments yesterday and gave me some awesome ideas for some upcoming blog posts. Every post had some great ideas and I think I  will be working my way through the whole list!  Today I'm a little limited as it's quite late and for some of the posts I have planned I'd really like to snap some photos.... so they'll have to wait until tomorrow. 

By the way, it's not too late to add your ideas to yesterday's post about what you'd like to read about. The more ideas the better!

The idea for today's post came from Annwen, who suggested:

"Perhaps you could do a post about what we can expect (no pressure!) in the way of upcoming pattern releases?"

Today, this really appealed to me for the simple reason that at the moment I don't actively have a design on the needles. This is a rare occurrence for me, and in fact, when I packed our basket for the beach this afternoon I had to really think about what knitting to take!

This doesn't mean I don't have any designs on the needles, heaven forbid! I do. Truth be told there are quite a few in varying states of completion, but most of those have not been touched for quite some time, so they're not what I would consider "active designs". There is some logic there, I promise.

It feels strange but sort of liberating when you're at this in-between stage. I have to decide whether to start something new, something that may have been itching away at me for a while, or to return to one of my half completed design.  This time around I am committing to returning to a few of my half completed designs.

In July, I compiled a list of all those half completed designs. Some had patterns half written, some had prototypes half knit, some had prototypes knit and patterns almost completed.. but something had distracted me and I hadn't returned to it. The list was a lot longer than I thought it would be. So I promised that every time I reached this point, I would work on at least one of these patterns before starting something new. And it has been working!

Following this approach, I managed to get Tobias released, (which reminds me I haven't blogged that release. That's tomorrow's topic taken care of)

and also have both Griffin

 and Gwendolyn

 with the testers.

Griffin is pretty much ready to go, it just needs the final tech editing, etc. That process will begin next week, and the release shouldn't be too long after that.
Gwendolyn is probably still another 4 or 5 weeks off from release, once the full process has run its course.

Next week, I'll also be sending another pattern off to the testers, Olinda:

While this is all happening, I'll be returning to a series of smaller patterns I have in the works. I have a couple of dolly patterns that are so close to being ready to go to the testers, and a handful of accessory patterns that I think I'd like to group as an e-book. We'll see!


P.S. The two knits at the top of this post are Granny's favourite and What Big Eyes You Have! These patterns were part of the Red Riding Hood Yarns Winter Yarn Club and will be released to the general public in March 2013. See, I'm organised ;)

Yarns used in this post were:
RRHY 'Belle' Superwash DK, WOOLganics Organic Merino Knitters Yarn and Noro Kureyon.

October!

I love October! And every year I am so glad to greet its arrival. October really truly means the end of the Winter months. Despite being a month into Spring, it is really October when you can really sense the warming air. Although, a few days ago when we experienced what I think was our coldest day this year I wouldn't have said that. But now it is October and all that is behind us! Bring on the sunshine and happy salad days, I say!

Today we celebrated October by a morning at the beach.

You could just feel that Summer was coming and we're all anticipating the warmer weather arriving in the next few days. Lily was quite disappointed that she couldn't go snorkelling today... not quite the conditions for it really. She's used to seeing this stretch of beach at low tide when it is home to the most glorious rock pools and super super snorkelling fun for kids.

It's a really special spot. This was where Andy and I spent our last day as carefree young DINKs. That evening Lily began her push to this world.

October also means a return of Blogtoberfest! woot! This year it's being hosted by the lovely Kat from I Saw You Dancing. Kat is so lovely that she dropped by my blog to remind me about blogtober. How did she know I was so forgetful!!!! You can click on the pretty image below to get to Kat's blog and join up too.

So yes, this will be my third attempt at BlogtoberFest and this year, I might just make it through to the end. I'm thinking, possibly the same as I did last year, this could get me back into good blogging habits again.

This year, I'm going to be honest and admit I need some help. I need to feel the love to get me over the line, well and some ideas too.

So what I want from you, dear reader, is some ideas about what you would like me to write about. I have another 30 days to go.. so plenty of scope.

Do you want to read about knitting related stuff? (given that's most of my crafting, let's hope so!)
Do you want me to tell you about my stash? What needles I use? What are my favourite yarns? Whose patterns would I knit if I had the time? What I'm knitting at the moment? What patterns I'm working on? Do you want me to review a book, a yarn, needles,  a gizmo or knitting App?

Do you want to know about my other crafting ventures?
Maybe I can do some sewing to blog about? or cross stitch?
Or do yo want me to delve into the often untouched world of my Wholefoods thermomix adventures?

Who knows maybe you just want to see photos of my adorable children?

Give me ideas, loads of them, and if I use yours I shall gift you one of my patterns (except for those under an exclusivity deal) ~ that sounds quite important! in either pdf or printed form.

You can see the full range of my patterns here.  

the diary

For Christmas last year, my sister gave me this beautiful visual diary that she made. Its cover is woollen  and the beautiful design on the front is one of her own that she has screen printed.  It has such lovely little detail, like the special spot to keep drawing pencils, which she included.

Anyway, I'm embarrassed to say it has sat untouched for the majority of this year.  Why?
Firstly because I've kept a visual diary before for my designs but... eventually my kids attack it and take it over. This is despite the fact that they both have their own visual diaries that they use almost daily!
And secondly, well, I don't think my drawing skills are up to par to do this gorgeous diary justice. It was just a wee bit daunting to approach that first page.

I. just. couldn't. do. it.

But then one fine day in August, well possibly not that fine given it's Winter here, I for some unknown reason decided to take stock of my patterns in developmental stages. Gulp!  To qualify, a pattern had to have a sketch (no matter how rough), notes, swatch and have been cast on. The list was longer than I expected. I also found that despite owning an iPad, which is where I supposedly keep my pattern notes, I did have sketches and notes spread over three different notebooks.  As I looked through these notebooks I found many many sketches I had forgotten about. Some showed promise. Some had evolved into patterns already. Some were complete rubbish. Many had little people added to them courtesy of my daughter. There were even a few designs she'd added herself in hope.

So I decided the time had come to open and christen my visual diary.

I started with the words, it's always easier for me to begin with words. They come so much easier than drawing.  And then I drew. I sat with my kids and sketched out some ideas; some new and some from my old notebooks. I coloured and drew with my kids and it was all ok.

My sketches, as you can see, are certainly never going to make it to an exhibition, but they're ok enough for me to know what they are.

So if you're wondering how the design process evolves from that spark of an idea. Or in this case, my friend asking me to write a pattern for a hooded vest that she could knit in Noro Kureyon.

The idea for the mitred neckline came from this blanket that I knit for Toby last year. I see it everyday and I've often pondered how to utilise the mitred look some more. I do really love it!

This is the first of my sketches in my new visual diary that has actually transformed into something. I'm really proud of that. So from sketch to garment, this is it!

Griffin knit in Noro Kureyon.
It took 4 balls, or 440 yards to complete this hooded vest for Toby.

if you want to have a look at some more photos or the details of Griffin, It's ravelled here.
The pattern is currently in testing and will be available in the next few weeks.