Bauhaus and Bartending

It's been a busy fall around here. For all of us. Ann Weaver, freelance copyeditor; Weaverknits; and Louise are all in high demand, which is great for paying bills and keeping life interesting, but not so great for keeping up with friends, knitters, and even my own designs. In an attempt to fill this lacuna, I'll be writing a series of posts, each of which will feature a new design and a new adventure.

First up: the Bauhaus Cardigan, which was just published in Knitting Architecture:

Here's the photo of the Bauhaus school in Dessau that inspired the design:

It's not often that a project that isn't self-published so closely matches my vision, so I'm particularly proud of this foray into more mainstream knitting publication.

And my latest adventure: I just graduated from the Maryland Bartending Academy! My staffing agency encouraged me to take this course (and gave me some financial assistance with it), and in a little over a week I went from a moderate amount of knowledge, a small amount of skill, and very slow drink mixing to creating 26 drinks of all different styles and preparations in 20 minutes. Now, time to find a more lucrative part-time job than event waiter!

Really Good New Yarn

It's Chromium from Neighborhood Fiber Co.: 69% silk noil, 31% stainless steel. Yep, stainless steel. See how it glimmers in the photo below? The color is Georgetown.

You know I like designing with silk/stainless yarn.

And now that yarn is available from Baltimore's own Neighborhood Fiber Co. As soon as Karida dyed the first batch, I snatched some in Charles Village and paired with with Neighborhood Fiber Co. Loft in Victorian Village to make Iodine, a cowl that plays with the color and texture of both yarns. For those averse to mohair, you can substitute Capital Luxury Lace (a sample in that combination is being knit now!).

Cowl photo with undyed yarn background

Neighborhood Fiber Co. publicity photo

Now that I have a feel for the yarn and what it does, I'm swatching with bigger projects in mind. A t-shirt. Perhaps a cardigan.

Knit in Stockinette stitch, this is what it does. It stands up. It ripples like a sea creature. It practically designs itself.

Want to see all this goodness in person? Neighborhood Fiber Co. and Weaverknits will have a booth at the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival next weekend. Louise has taken the weekend off! There will be Chromium. And Monomanias. And  kits. And new Rustic DK. Samples galore. Books. Patterns. BE THERE!

Meet Louise

who works as a temporary waiter, principally at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Baltimore. This weekend was the Grand Prix of Baltimore, which closes most of downtown and creates crowds in and around the Hyatt. Louise was needed in the Hyatt Bistro!

Who got a working pass? Louise did! (Louise was my Grandma Weaver's name, which is why I picked it out of the Hyatt name tag bag. One of her signature phrases was, "Oh, Boy." That came to mind often this weekend, as in, Oh, boy, this is intolerably loud.)

It's no secret that I often take jobs just because I think they're interesting, and that was certainly the case here.

Throughout the summer, I've been doing a LOT of knitting, and I'll be unveiling some new projects here over the next few weeks. First is a new hat design (I talked about this earlier) called Fixation. It's the companion hat for Monomania: a way to use up leftovers or experiment with stripe and color combinations before committing to the cardigan. So far, I've made three, the two I showed in the previous post, and one from Three Fates Eponymous sock yarn. I bought a mini 10-pack last year at Knit Fit! in Seattle, and it was just the right amount of yarn to make this hat. Amazing!

I just knit until I ran out of each color, then I joined the next one. Great fun.

Until the end of September, the Fixation pattern is only $3 here. Use the code 911fixation at checkout. Now, go crazy! Louise is going to take a nap.

MONOMANIA, anyone?

Good news! The Monomania pattern is now available as an individual pdf from Plucky Knitter, right here!

I'm going to make another in this combo that Plucky created:

And my mom has requested one in all neutrals from Neighborhood Fiber Co.:

I am going to be knitting my little fingers off! I have several other things in the works right now, too, including some Container Ships designs and an epic work of garter stitch. Hint.

Early Adopters, Part II

And the next Early Adopters pattern is . . . Powel!

Use up your fingering-weight leftovers to create a unisex hat! The pattern is so easy to remember that you can work on this hat while traveling or watching TV. It uses three colors per round some rounds, but again, simple pattern and small motifs make this really easy and a great introduction to colorwork. I love the projects on Ravelry so far and want to see more of them! Let's spread the Powel love!

Starting today, 100 Powel purchasers will get the pattern for $2 rather than the usual $5 price: You can purchase the pattern here. Just use the coupon code EarlyAdopter at checkout.

For those of you who voted for the other contenders, stay tuned!

Today in Baltimore, and Early Adopters Requests

The feral cat who looks like wood:

Work:

Mini skeins from Three Fates Yarns (I get to knit something from these as a reward for getting the Work done):

Since Traffic Furniture was such an Early Adopter success, I'm taking requests for the next pattern that will be promoted at a seriously discounted price to encourage knitters to try it. In the running are Powel,  Big Top, Button Coil, and Honeycomb Shawl. Leave a comment telling me which you'd like to see promoted!

Early Adopters, Part 1: A Pattern Promotion

I have some designs that I feel haven't received the attention they deserve. These are garments that get a ton of attention when worn or when seen in person, but for some reason this enthusiasm hasn't carried over to the number of knitters making the project.

First among these projects is Traffic Furniture. I visited Country Needleworks last week during a visit to my family in Michigan, and two knitters brought in AMAZING Traffic Furnitures. At the time, I was knitting one in Plucky Knitter Plucky Feet, which received raves wherever I went with it, even when it was just a blob on the needles. Here's the result, modeled by my lovely mom:

This one uses Plucky Feet in Medieval (dark gray), Elegant Elephant (medium gray), and Cider Mill (orange).

[Hey mom, I know you're reading this. Go down the basement into the room where you store all those boxes containing the collections of my childhood. Look in the box on the shelves marked Beer Steins.]

Here are photos of one of the shawls I saw at Country Needleworks, knit by my friend Jenn (Country Needleworks is full of early adopters):

This one is knit in Neighborhood Fiber Co. Rustic Fingering in Eastern Market (red-orange) and Belair (chartreuse), with some Malabrigo Sock (deep blue) thrown in.

To share my enthusiasm about Traffic Furniture with adventurous knitters, I'm offering a special Early Adopter discount: I'm selling 100 copies of the pdf pattern for $2 each, rather than the usual $5. I figure the people who read my blog and follow me on Ravelry are my trendsetters, my lighthouse customers, the knitters who add more colors or beads or mix bases and stripe patterns or embrace variegation. 

To get your copy for $2, go to the pattern page on Ravelry and click Buy It Now. On the checkout screen, enter the coupon code EarlyAdopter, which will apply your discount.

Okay, you guys were so fabulous that the Early Adopters promotion was over in a day. Time for the next one, right? Here it comes!