Designs by KN blog

What’s that famous quote by Yogi Berra? “It’s deja vu all over again.” Such is the case this week. Two of my previous posts have been titled “Rainbow” and “Green.” Since there are no better words to describe the next two DBKN patterns appearing in various publications, I’ll use them “all over again.”

Rainbow

The first new pattern is in the Autumn issue of Creative Knitting Magazine (Digital edition available now. Print edition on newsstands July 9th.) We’ve had a bit of severe weather roll through the past few days but one late afternoon storm left a vivid rainbow across the sky. My design features a wearable version of a rainbow, thanks to the beautiful color-changing yarn Red Heart Boutique “Unforgettable”:

Colorfully Comfy Leg Warmers

Photos copyright Creative Knitting Magazine/Annie’s

Green

The second new pattern is in the book “50 Knitted Gifts for Year-Round Giving” (release date July 23):

My Emerald Isle Lap Blanket, knitted in Universal Yarn Deluxe Worsted in a shade of green called Shamrock Heather, will appear in the St. Patrick’s Day section:

Emerald Isle Lap Blanket by Kathy North from “50 Knitted Gifts for Year Round Giving,” published by Sixth&Spring Books.
Photography by Jack Deutsch and text copyright © 2013 by Sixth&Spring Books. Used by permission.

Another design in the category of “green” is the free pattern for the Ridgeline Kerchief published last week in CEY Web-letter, Issue 296.  Some completed kerchiefs are already posted on Ravelry project pages in a rainbow of colors, not just green:

Photo copyright Classic Elite Yarns

I’m honored to have my design ideas chosen by publishers and yarn companies, and am grateful to the knitters and crocheters who use them to make projects to share with others. Thank you all.

Somewhere over the rainbow are even more DBKN designs slated for publication, and when they are you’ll be the first to know!

Extreme weather today in the form of gusty winds, record-setting temperatures (95+) and very high fire danger. Unfortunately we’re not in the middle of the ocean in the Bermuda Triangle but instead at the foot of the Front Range of Colorado, where the prairie meets the Rocky Mountains. Today will be rather nerve-wracking listening to the howling wind and watching the beautiful spring green landscape turn to mid-summer dryness in no time at all.

Remember the previous post about shapes? It ended with the question “Curious about what shape the next pattern will be?” Here it is: a triangle. What better time to introduce the Ridgeline Kerchief than on a hot day. This fun and easy crocheted accessory will help keep one’s hair in check throughout the summer season:

Ridgeline Kerchief in Provence

Photos copyright Classic Elite Yarns

What started as a diminutive granny square set me off in two directions rather than the traditional four. I did a little bit of shaping to provide a base for turning the square into a triangular piece. Decorative bands across the top echo the granny square cluster pattern, and in the smooth-crocheting Provence cotton yarn the project was quickly completed with no sewing. Hope you have a chance to try making one.  Be sure to share your projects on the Ravelry pattern page.  Here are a couple views of mine:

This one was the prototype, later modified for the final one-color version shown in the CEY photos above:

Will be trying to stay cool and calm in the 90+ degree heat and high winds predicted for the next few days. Cotton, think cotton, cool cotton … crochet with cotton … crochet another kerchief in cotton … that sounds like an excellent plan. Have fun with the new pattern!

As a birthday gift to myself this year I arranged to have a 20-year-old tired and sad-looking xeriscaped front yard refreshed/relandscaped. Just as the final plant was being put in the ground the other day, a fast-moving storm with lightning, thunder and rain came through, cooling the air and watering the new plantings naturally. To top it off, a brilliant double-rainbow appeared shortly afterwards, so it was perfect timing for the landscape and a perfect gift for this milestone birthday year:

When designing I tend to think in easy straight lines and block shapes, so sometimes instead of gentle curves and circles, as seen in the landscape above, I end up with projects that feature square angles. Such is the case with the shawl I designed for the spring/summer issue of Noro Knitting Magazine. My initial sketch for this piece was based on a series of seven 7″ panels arranged in graduated steps, so at the time I named it the “Lucky 7 Shawl.” Worked side-to-side, with stitches bound off/cast on at each end every 7″, it was chosen to be worked up in Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn matched to the design plan I submitted. The result is the shawl shown in the magazine: the #7 Lace Panel Shawl (how apropros that it ended up being the seventh project in the magazine):

Magazine photo copyright Noro Magazine Spring/Summer 2013, photo by Paul Amato for LVARepresents.com

Lace Panel Shawl
Designer: Kathy North
Yarn Information: Noro/KFI Silk Garden Sock
For sizes: 55 x 24.5″
Amounts: 3 skeins in #S373

Here’s a view of how the stepped design appears when knitted side-to-side:

Viewed flat, the “steps” are evident and the color changes in the Noro yarn appear as vertical stripes. It was definitely a “Lucky 7 Shawl” for me when the project came together successfully:

Since I enjoyed designing this piece and knitting the Noro sample, I decided to make another shawl this week, but with an entirely different look. For several years (since 2005 to be exact) I have had some cone yarns sitting in the closet, the result of a bargain purchase when I assisted in a local yarn shop that is no longer in business. The owners were weavers and had miles and miles of cone yarns stacked in one room, plus were able to purchase more at discount. One day they asked if I would like to order a few cones for knitting and crocheting (I’m not a weaver.) There was such incredible yardage on the cones at such a nominal price I couldn’t resist, but since then the cones have been biding their time, waiting for the day when I could figure out what to do with them. Some are a rayon/cotton blend that is very fine so over time I’ve played with the threads singly, doubled and tripled to see what could be made. The first successful project is this crocheted hat, worked with a strand each of three separate colors: champagne (a very pale yellow), chili pepper (a soft pale shade of rust) and dark teal:

Fireman-Style Brim Hat

Back to the shawl … this week I got out the cone yarns again and tried knitting with a double strand, using the champagne and chili pepper threads held together as one:

I knit on size 8 (5 mm) needles) according to the #7 Lace Panel Shawl pattern and just kept going. Here is the stepped design taking shape again:

Knitting with the double-strand cone yarns produced such a lovely, lacy, lightweight, softly draping fabric I envision the finished shawl worn as an accessory suitable for a garden party or wedding, or as a light cover-up at the beach or poolside:

Just as in landscape design, the basic shapes mapped out by the hardscaping provide a framework for the softer layer of plants, or in the case of knit/crochet pieces, the softer fabric of fiber and yarn. Whether it’s garden greenery, self-striping waves of color or softly subtle laciness, at rainbow’s end there is beauty to behold.

On June 11 a new DBKN design is scheduled to appear in the CEY Web-letter. Curious about what shape it will be? Stay tuned!

There’s a folk song (sung by the New Christy Minstrels) with the lyrics “Green, green, it’s green they say on the far side of the hill. Green, green, I’m going away to where the grass is greener still.”  The grass is sure greener in the lawns around our neighborhood right now. New spring growth is popping out everywhere with green leaves on trees and shrubs (unfortunately there are also a lot of green weeds and green & yellow dandelions popping up too.)  Among the green in our backyard is this refreshing spot of purple on an early-blooming lilac shrub:

My FO of the week is this green version of the #16 Basketweave Pocket Scarf.  Due to the limited quantity of yarn on hand in stash (one hank of Halcyon Victorian 2-ply) it became a one-pocket scarf:

I do love knitting basketweave fabric for its soothing rhythm that doesn’t require much concentration, but it does take longer to knit a complete project in this stitch. Still it was fun designing and knitting the sample scarf for the book “60 More Quick Knits“:

Since the book’s release I’ve made a couple more of these scarves:

This week I discovered a touch of green appearing in a project for another book “50 Knitted Gifts for Year-Round Giving” due for release on July 23.  According to the limited preview available on the “Click to Look Inside” feature on Amazon, this is going to be one awesome volume!  My design is the “Emerald Isle Lap Blanket,” a project in the St. Patrick’s Day section.  If you log in to your Amazon account (logging in reveals more pages of the book) you can see a small glimpse of the project in the green swatch photo on p. 31.  I will be looking forward to seeing the now-hidden pages of other photos and projects in this jam-packed title:

Before that book is released I am anticipating the June 18 issue of the CEY Web-letter, which is scheduled to feature another of my designs in a soft, pale shade of green … what else!

There’s just a touch of green in the predominantly blue colorway of Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn used for the #7 Lace Panel Shawl now appearing in Noro Knitting Magazine, Spring/Summer 2013, but at least the model (Michelle Dockery from Downton Abbey) is wearing a light green dress:

Noro Magazine Spring/Summer 2013, photo by Paul Amato for LVARepresents.com

Lace Panel Shawl
Designer: Kathy North
Yarn Information: Noro/KFI Silk Garden Sock
For sizes: 55 x 24.5″
Amounts: 3 skeins in #S373

Of course, in any discussion of green, the famous “cover hat” (my very first published design) must be included, the #13 Tasseled Earflap Hat from Knit Simple, Fall 2007, which is now available as a free pattern on the VK site since this issue sold out:

Copyright Knit Simple/SoHo Publishing, photo by Paul Amato

1. Noro Knitting Magazine, Spring/Summer 2013 appearing in yarn shops now, on newsstands June 4 and available for order online.  My #7 Lace Panel Shawl is on page 38:

Noro Magazine Spring/Summer 2013, photo by Paul Amato for LVARepresents.com

Lace Panel Shawl
Designer: Kathy North
Yarn Information: Noro/KFI Silk Garden Sock
For sizes: 55 x 24.5″
Amounts: 3 skeins in #S373

2. A new CEY Web-letter design, Fresh Air Bag in Provence:

3. A new hat in sock yarn on a size H/8 (5 mm) crochet hook. The easy Crochet Hat pattern takes just a couple hours time:

4.  A new lapghan, just to experiment with this interesting pattern,  Houndstooth from the Berroco book “Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans“:

This book is chock full of knit and crochet afghan projects in so many intriguing designs that I’ve completed four others over the past several months:

Spiral

Basketweave

Meditate

Swirl

One, two, three, four … guess that’s enough for this week’s FO Friday post.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

P.S.  OK, five things to report … this just in on the Blue Sky Alpacas blog and Facebook page today:

#23 Mesh Cape in Vogue Knitting Crochet 2013

Copyright Vogue Knitting/SoHo Publishing, photos by Paul Amato for LVARepresents.com

Mesh Cape
Designer: Kathy North
For sizes: Small/Medium, Large/X-Large
Yarn information: Blue Sky Alpacas Melange
Amounts: 10 (11) hanks in #813 pomegranate

Now go knit and crochet!!

Step-by-step new DBKN designs are appearing in print and online. Three new patterns have been revealed in the past two weeks, and over the next few months six more are scheduled. In order to stay active and in line with cycles of various publications I continue to create new ideas, develop design submissions and send them out with the hope that some of them will make the cut and be chosen for future publication.

There’s a certain amount of brain strain that goes on with trying to come up with original designs so the other day, after sending three design submissions “out there”, I took a break by sitting down with some scrap yarn and a crochet hook. I had a sudden urge to make simple granny squares, and before I knew it there were enough to make a pet pad for a charitable cause, the Snuggles Project. Our Bill-cat (sleepy as he was) posed for a photo with the comfort mat which is composed of twelve 4″ granny squares, bordered in single crochet and joined together with slip stitch seams, then finished off with an edging of reverse single crochet:

The squares were made from scraps of this and that (Lion Brand Yarns “Vanna’s Choice“, Plymouth “Encore” and some unidentified blends.) It was rather amazing that the colors thrown together in a bag for a quick stitching session coordinated so well with each other:

During the evening spent crocheting simple granny squares and watching baseball on TV, I enjoyed the respite from original thinking but I know I’ll be back at it soon because the designing fever continues to burn.

A far cry from the humble granny square project is this high-fashion shawl created for the new issue of Noro Knitting Magazine, Spring/Summer 2013.  The #7 Lace Panel Shawl in Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn is modeled by Michelle Dockery of Downton Abbey. What an honor to have one’s design modeled by an actress!

Magazine photo by Paul Amato for LVARepresents.com, copyright Noro Knitting Magazine/SoHo Publishing

Prior to that design revelation, the latest issue of the CEY Web-letter was released which featured my Fresh Air Bag in Provence.  It’s doing very well in faves, queues and projects on Ravelry so far — thanks, everyone!

Photos copyright Classic Elite Yarns

Before that the #23 Mesh Cape was revealed in the new Vogue Knitting Crochet issue. The fun part about this one is that not only is it shown in high-fashion photos in the magazine and the Vogue Knitting website fashion preview, but also in a video posted on YouTube. Sometimes you gotta love modern-day technology and the internet for helping to spread the word about new designs:

Photos by Paul Amato for LVARepresents.com, copyright Vogue Knitting/SoHo Publishing

Mesh Cape
Designer: Kathy North
For sizes: Small/Medium, Large/X-Large
Yarn information: Blue Sky Alpacas Melange
Amounts: 10 (11) hanks in #813 pomegranate

Step-by-step two new pattern designs will appear in the following books:

Cozy Knits: 50 Fast & Easy Projects from Top Designers (release date November 2013)

50 Knitted Gifts for Year-Round Giving (release date July 2013)

A few more will be appearing  in venues like Creative Knitting Magazine, the CEY Web-letter and the CEY fall collection, but step-by-step I’m beginning to love the number 50!

Fresh strawberries purchased the other day have been so delicious — ripe, red, plump, juicy and offered at a bargain price since so many flats of them were available in the store. Some of the berries in the pack I bought were almost the size of small apples!  We brought some along to a Mother’s Day get-together, supposedly to be eaten fresh alongside a coconut cream cake set out for dessert after the main buffet, however the berries didn’t last until dessert-time. They were so attractive on the platter and so refreshingly yummy that they were eaten as appetizers instead!

Today’s CEY Web-letter, Issue 292 features my new market bag pattern, the Fresh Air Bag in Provence.  I love that it’s been photographed with a bevy of assorted fresh fruit. Makes me want to scout out a local farmer’s market and fill my bag too, as Meg Myers describes on the pattern intro page.

Fresh Air Bag in Classic Elite Yarns “Provence”

Photos copyright Classic Elite Yarns

Here is another view of the finished bag as well as the prototype version. I had such fun designing this accessory in vividly fresh summer colors — there are so many choices of “Provence” I may have to try more of them!

As mentioned in the pattern intro page, another market bag using “Provence” cotton was the amazingly popular Summer String Bag designed for the CEY Web-letter, Issue 139.  In case you happened to miss that one, here are some photos so you can be inspired to get hook and cotton yarn ready for your own market bag stitching fest. Have fun!

Photos copyright Classic Elite Yarns

It’s May and springtime in the Rockies. Despite hoping we wouldn’t experience any hail storms as destructive as the one last year, along came a reminder yesterday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. when the skies opened and a quantity of pea-sized hail fell over the region. Fortunately no damage to homes, landscapes or cars, but enough to get our attention:

Two waves of hail passed through, the second much briefer than the first, and in typical Colorado fashion by early evening the sun was shining and all clouds had drifted east. I was happy to see these baby birds survived well enough to visit our deck after the storm. With their young feathers sticking out of their heads, they hopped about, drinking from puddles of water and poking curiously at the hail stones all around:

Before the storm came along, I completed a knitting project that was an experiment, a reinterpretation of a design by Lipp Holmfeld in the Vogue Knitting On the Go! Scarves book: Chevron-Patterned Scarf. While reviewing pattern details I noticed the finished size was 24″ wide and thought it would make a good baby blanket or pad. Since I still have quantities of the Goodwill bargain-yarn (Reynolds “Saucy”) gifted to me by a friend and the gauge matched the pattern, I proceeded to follow it just for the fun of learning how this chevron piece was worked. It was a ton of garter stitch, so I planned to work only to 24″, thus producing a square that could serve as a small baby or preemie blanket, or a pad for baby to lie on, or even as a burp cloth. Even though it’s very “plain Jane” I wanted to try a new-to-me knitting technique. It was one of those projects that could be picked up and set down as time allowed and without much thought to the stitching. The piece turned out a little wonky but it’s serviceable and should survive many launderings:

Speaking of “plain Jane” my family knows that it’s my style and who I am, both in personal dress and in designs produced since starting Designs by KN in 2004. I think those who create develop a certain look to their work that is a natural extension of who they are. In my case that means practicality, so when designing something new, if the project becomes too complex for anyone to duplicate easily I often simplify the “recipe” to make it more do-able.  My goal has always been to provide easy, well-written, fun-to-work patterns so that others can enjoy the knitting or crocheting process but can go off on their own tangent to produce pieces that fit their own style.

An example of my “plain Jane” approach appears in the new Vogue Knitting Crochet 2013 issue that has just been released (#23 Mesh Cape.) Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that after years of creating plain and practical projects, one would find its way into a Vogue Knitting special collector’s issue, let alone being the lead design featured in a “Glamour Girls” story! I am honored to be in such amazing designer company. In looking through the issue (discovered today in a most unglamorous place, the local Safeway store) which is full of fabulous eye candy and outstanding lacy designs, my humble cape seems to provide a respite from the other intricate designs shown. I am very grateful to the editorial staff at VK/SoHo Publishing who saw something in my design proposal that could be transformed from “plain Jane” to “glamour girl” status. Similar to the day my first submitted design became a “cover girl” (Knit Simple, Fall 2007, the #13 Tasseled Earflap Hat) I thank everyone that made this new publication possible:

Magazine photo by Paul Amato for LVARepresents.com, copyright Vogue Knitting Crochet 2013, SoHo Publishing
Mesh Cape
Designer: Kathy North
For sizes: Small/Medium, Large/X-Large
Yarn information: Blue Sky Alpacas Melange
Amounts: 10 (11) hanks in #813 pomegranate

As if the excitement about seeing one’s design in a Vogue publication wasn’t enough, along comes a second, the spring/summer issue of Noro Magazine. My #7 Lace Panel Shawl appears in this preview. Again, I am honored to be in such awesome designer company. Working with the colorful Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn for the creation of this shawl was pure pleasure.

I have to say this has been quite a week of faring well on the design/publication front, and it promises to continue next week with a new Classic Elite Yarns Web-letter pattern, scheduled for release on Tuesday, May 14. Hope you like it!

May you be protected from wild and wacky spring season weather. Wouldn’t it be great if the clouds would open and pellet us with yarn instead of hail?

Next month …  is here.

Next snowstorm … has come and gone.

Next baseball game … our favorite team won.

Next pattern releases … coming soon!

Today the announcement of the next issue of Noro Magazine, Spring/Summer 2013 appeared on the Noro Yarns Facebook page, with a link to the sneak peek.  One of my designs (#7 Lace Panel Shawl) is in this issue (release date June 4.)

Just before that announcement, information appeared on Amazon about the new book “50 Knitted Gifts for Year-Round Giving” (release date July 2.)  Another of my designs will be in this volume:

The next surprise before these two was the discovery that a video of my cape design in the new Vogue Knitting Crochet 2013 issue is now available on YouTube:

Copyright Vogue Knitting Crochet 2013, photo by Paul Amato for LVARepresents.com

Mesh Cape
Designer: Kathy North
For sizes: Small/Medium, Large/X-Large
Yarn information: Blue Sky Alpacas Melange
Amounts: 10 (11) hanks in #813 pomegranate

While all those “nexts” were happening a snowstorm was blustering outside, so I spent a pleasant day crocheting an afghan from the book “Better Homes & Gardens Romantic Crochet.”  The lacy 6″ squares work up quickly and are attached using the join-as-you-go method. I was able to make progress on it quite easily. It was a good project to work on rather than venturing outside where it was only thirty degrees for the high temperature (Snowing on May 1? That’s springtime in the Rockies!)

Lacy-Square Afghan

A leftover cone of “Peaches & Creme” WW cotton was in stash so I decided to try making a square or two with it.  After the first couple of squares were completed, the pattern was easily memorized so I just kept going until the yarn supply ran out.The afghan, composed of thirty squares, has a bit of a wintry snowflake look to it, so it was an appropriate way to pass the time during a snowstorm.

The next announcement?  Look for it sometime this month in the Classic Elite Yarns Web-letter.  After that, who knows what’s next!

Between creating new design submissions and waiting for already completed commissions to appear in print, frequently I head for the “knitting room”, grab some yarn, browse through assorted patterns or journal notebooks and decide what I want to work on next, be it knit or crochet. Sometimes a project may be a re-do of a favorite from the Designs by KN pattern line, done in a different yarn. Such is this case with this “cooler” version of the Wooly Wave Scarf:

This unidentified, unlabeled, cotton-flake style yarn has been sitting in stash for several years. I remember using some of it for another project, but there was enough left to knit up a shorter version of the scarf (approx. 6″ w. by 36″ l.) based on the classic feather & fan stitch pattern, one of my faves for its easy knitting and soothing rhythm:

When the knitting was finished it was damp-blocked overnight. Morning revealed a lovely, soft, drapey scarf suitable for spring/summer wear:

DD stopped by yesterday for a lunch break and brought me a cute little paper bag with raffia ribbon tied on to the handle. The bag was labeled with a sticker identifying the country store where it was from, and inside was this gem of a fridge magnet … love it!

Since the knitted scarf project was done and I was between projects not knowing what to work on next, I spent a pleasant evening watching baseball on TV while browsing some books from my personal library. One of them kept me occupied for two hours, it was so interesting:  “Ready Set Crochet” by Susie Johns.  Even a seasoned crocheter might find useful tips in this book. It contains clear photos and cute project ideas as well as a photographic stitch pattern “library” that is very well done.  Check it out.

If you happen to be between projects and need an idea for your next one, you might consider crocheting a Shortie Shell Capelet. For some reason in the past week several newly completed capelet projects have appeared on Ravelry, in different color choices that are quite lovely, including some two-color versions.  This rather poor-quality photo is of the original capelet when it was first designed years ago.  Since then I’ve made several more. It’s actually a fairly quick project to work up, despite its “complicated” look – nothing but double crochets and shells worked round and round.  Hope you have a chance to try making one, and if you’re a Ravelry member, be sure to post your finished project!

Between the last published design (#23 Mesh Cape in the Vogue Knitting Crochet 2013 issue) and the next (due out in the CEY Web-letter sometime in May) I’ve submitted new ideas in response to calls for designs.  One never knows where it will lead.  It’s always fun to see whether editors and publishers will choose between this idea or that one.  In the case of the cape, it’s been really fun to see videos of it posted on VK360 as well as on YouTube!

Remember the sad little robin looking miserable in a snowstorm a few weeks ago?

He was very happy yesterday, as the sun was shining and the temperature was in the mid-’80s:

Alas, his joy will be short-lived.  The weather forecast is for a 50 degree temperature drop today, with snow tonight and tomorrow. Gotta love springtime in the Rockies!