You may have noticed, my website has had a complete face lift! My wonderfully talented husband has been working hard on it (I’m am somewhat deficient when it comes to web design!).

So a big thank you Joe!

$5.95

The latest addition to my self-published patterns has just been added ‘Summer Affair‘.  This laceweight shrug was knit for my sister’s wedding in a few weeks time.  I wanted to create something really special for her, but neither of us wear shawls.  However I really love shrugs.  So I set out to create a pattern that has all of the pleasure of lace knitting, delicate and open but creates a piece that is very wearable.

The shrug is constructed as a simple lace rectangle, the sleeve are grafted together and then the shrug opening is knit from the live stitches you have left on your needle.  For added effect a ruffle is knitted at the back of the shrug with short rows.

I hope you all enjoy knitting this!

The photo below is my favourite, I love the shadow from the lace on the dress!

Summer Affair detail

For anyone out there that likes to knit hats, I’m putting my Pick ‘n Mix Hat on Ravelry for free until the weekend.  Go take a look and knit up your own variation!

Hat A

Hat B

Hat C

Ok, so I’ve caved and have gone and opened a twitter account.  I’ve even managed to write a few updates in the last few days!  I can see how writing just a few words can be much less intimidating than an entire post.  When I post on my blog I usually wait until I also have some photos to add as well as words, which means that it only happens every few weeks.

Now hopefully I won’t find myself frozen with indecision when I have to keep my twitter updates short!

If you want to keep up with me you can find me on twitter as StolenStitches.  I am planning on adding a sidebar to the website, but it may be a few weeks…should be some major website reinvention this summer!

I’ve just had another pattern published in the latest issue of Yarn Forward, issue no. 15.  I just love the color of this yarn (Rowan summer tweed) – ‘Mango’.  I had a hard time giving this top up to the magazine!  It is a little less fitted than a lot of styles I design and it was really easy to wear.  There are slits at the sides of the hem with small twisted stitches in the ribbing at the waist.  I can see this being a top that would get a lot of use in the summer evenings.

You can see a preview of this issue here.  For anyone who can’t easily get a hardcopy of the magazine I believe that the will have the digital version up again in the near future.  The last digital provider that they were using went under a few weeks ago.

I haven’t seen a copy of this magazine yet but I believe a photo tutorial of the crochet cast-on that I did for them was in this issue.  It’s one of my favorite provisional cast-ons.  It is easy to do and you can clearly see the stitches when you remove the crochet chain afterwards. (Plus as an added bonus all of your stitches are in the right direction!)

I was in Coventry this weekend for Ravelry day.  I had a really great time, I went with Sue from Cork and met up with more knitters than I think I ever have before!  I hope none of the stallholders suffered too much from the cold and wet, it was not a good day to be standing outdoors.

My new pattern Raspberry Layers was in the fashion show for Fyberspates, who also now have several paper copies of the pattern, so if you see Jen at any shows in the next few weeks you can get a hardcopy of the pattern.  Meg Swason gave a talk after that and made us all feel as if her mother, Elizabeth Zimmermann’ was with us.

In the afternoon we took a workshop with Jared Flood.  He’s such a nice man – and I may actually get beyond my fear of steeks!!

Afterwards we all headed out for Brown’s until the early morning (it wasn’t that late – but 1 in the morning feels really late when you’ve been on little kid time!).  We met Jared again there and Woolly Wormhead, and as we all froze on balcony (the weater this weekend was really wet and cold).

Hopefully with the UK knit camp and ravelry day 2010 next summer I’ll get to see all these lovely knitters again.  It is so nice to know that all of these people really exist in the real world when it was only virtual until this weekend.  I’ve never visited Scotland before so even though it’s a year away I’m already looking forward to it!

Here is a little teaser from a lace design I’ve been working on for the last few months.  The piece is finished but I’ve still got a bit of work to do with the pattern.  I haven’t worked with laceweight much before, and while it really is hard work with small children the results is like wearing air!

Anyone who has been in Cork (or lives here) will probably have come across Fitzgerald’s Park.  Last Sunday we went down there with the boys and while they played in the playground Joe took some photos of my new cardigan Raspberry Layers.

Just outside the railings there is an entire wall with the most brillant graffiti.  This photo was my favourite from the lot:

There were several more interesting ones also:

and here is a close-up taken in front of a dead tree that is covered in a mirrored mosaic:

We had so much fun it nearly made up for how silly you feel trying to model with people around!  When you are in your own garden it somehow does feel quite as daft.

I have added the full details about the new pattern on my For Sale pattern page, or just click below.

Is there anyone out there going to the Ravelry UK day on the 6th of June?  I’ll be going over with Sue from Cork and we’ll be there from Friday until Sunday and would love to meet up with (you don’t have to be from Cork!).  I’m looking forward to having an indulgent, yarn filled weekend.

Jen from Fyberspates will be there with a stall.  I just love her yarn – in fact my next design to be published is made from her Chunky Squisy Red and plums.  I’ve talked about this yarn before and really loved working with it.

Here is a photo of the finished piece, it’s great for in between weather (which we get a lot of here). 

I must get some modelled photos this weekend and finish the pdf and I’ll be able to get it up for sale.

I’ve called it Raspberry Layers.  It somehow seems quite fitting to me, with all of the variations of pinks and purples in the colors.  It’s knit starting at the center of the back with a provisional cast on.  You work across the back (with short rows to create the bottom flare), cast on stitches for the front and finish with some tidy short row sleeve caps.  I’ve used an interesting variation on garter st for the edging and decorative rows that uses slipped stitches, almost as easy as garter st but adds a lot of color variations in a variegated yarn.

I don’t know if any of you are working on Siesta from Knotions but there are some errata for the pattern.  You can the updated pattern here.  For the lower portion of the chart there are some ‘no stitch’ symbols missing.  Jody from Knotions has also divided the chart in two so that it can be printed out a larger size making it easier to read.  Thank you Jody!