Designs by KN blog

Noticed this information on Facebook yesterday and am pleased to share it with those who don’t already know:

Red Heart Yarns has announced the 2012 Special Olympics USA scarf project!  From the website:

“The 2012 Official Colors are:

• Red Heart Super Saver 387-Soft Navy
• Red Heart Super Saver 319-Cherry Red
• Red Heart Soft 4604-Navy
• Red Heart Soft 9925-Really Red

The colors as well as the size (6″ x 54″-60″) of the scarves will be the same for all participating Programs in the 2012 Special Olympics USA Scarf Project.”

In previous years (when the color scheme was blue & white) I contributed scarves and even experienced a wonderful moment watching the athletes parade around Coors Field in Denver prior to a Colorado Rockies game.  It was an emotional and heartwarming sight, with the Olympians decked out in their new scarves as they proudly marched around the stadium to a standing ovation from the crowd.

Here are pics of scarves donated in previous years, and links to the Designs by KN patterns used to create them. In addition to the scarf patterns on the Red Heart site, feel free to use these for your own donations.  Even more beautiful specially-designed-for-the-Special-Olympics scarf patterns can be found on P.J. Kaylor’s page on Ravelry as well as other scarf possibilities on DBKN’s page.

Eyelet & Garter Scarf

Chunk-a-Block Scarf

Royalty Scarves

Garter & Stockinette Scarf

Lacy Shells & Bobbles Scarf

Join me in helping to support the Special Olympians (champions all!) with the work of our hands, by knitting or crocheting scarves for this worthwhile cause. (ETA 4/30/11: I’ve just ordered the specified yarn & look forward to getting started as soon as it arrives!)

See related post on scarves in progress.

When something in the yarn stash catches my eye,  I’ll start playing with it, intending to design a new pattern or sometimes to try a yarn out in one of my existing patterns just to see what will happen. Such is the case with these last two projects full of wacky color combos:

Ripple-band Scarf worked in Red Heart Super Saver, color “Mexicana”

Easy-Crochet Shawl, worked in assorted leftover sock yarns on a size H/8 hook

I’ve had a great time creating these projects with their unexpected colorful results (and without having to think too hard). They’re good stash-busting projects as well.

Speaking of wacky, here’s one more idea:

Wacky Fun Tube Scarf

Enjoy the fun, and many other free projects available from Designs by KN!

As I’ve said somewhere before, designing for publication teaches one great patience. One often has to wait (and wait, and wait) for the full cycle to be completed. Since publications work so far in advance, the time from initial design submission through a project’s final appearance in print or online may take up to a year or longer. Alas, something I thought would be revealed this month has either ended up on the cutting room floor or it will be another month’s wait.

No matter. I’ve been busy creating other designs and am happy to share three new ones with you now:

Fireman-style Brim Hat

Ripple-band Accessories (headband, wrist cuffs, scarf)

and my newest favorite …

Seedstripe, the natural lamb toy

You won’t have to wait for these patterns to appear in print — they’re freely available now from Designs by KN and our pattern database. Enjoy!

Our Spring Snow crabapple trees have burst into bloom overnight, just in time for Easter.

When the blossoms eventually fade, they fall from the trees in a gentle flutter to the ground, simulating snowfall.  The weather forecast for this weekend predicts some real snow for Easter here in the foothills of Colorado. It will be a welcome sight, as it has been exceedingly dry and windy here for far too long and the garden could really use some moisture.

Even if there’s no snow in your Easter weekend forecast, you might like to whip up a version of DBKN’s Spring Snow Shawl. It’s a quick and easy project, adaptable to various yarn choices and can be modified in width just by increasing the number of starting chains.  Besides the samples shown here, I’ve seen it worked up beautifully in a thinner yarn in a soft gold color in a bit wider width (if you’re logged in to Ravelry take a look at all thirteen of the Spring Snow Shawl Ravelry projects for this pattern.)

And here’s an idea for converting a simply crocheted Baby Washcloth into a bunny roll.  These make great baby shower gifts:

Perhaps gift them along with a Bunny-Ear Blankie!

May you have a joyful Easter.

Today was my 6-month regularly scheduled dental cleaning. For some reason, the hygienist and I got on the subject of birthdays, and I realized that 6 months of our lives have passed. It led to a reflection of how quickly time flies, and the realization that my own birthday (a milestone one this year) is fast approaching.

I was born in June, and my mom has always said that I am a true Gemini (although now that the zodiac has changed I don’t know what I am!)  She points out the traits of creativity, friendliness and  intelligence (??) but to my mind the one thing that fits best is the “twin” angle (I can be very wishy-washy at times.)  A former coworker who was close friends with a Gemini commented one day that her friend described herself as “always of two minds about everything.”  That’s it exactly!

Sometimes I wonder if that’s the reason I enjoy both knitting and crocheting.  If you are one who spends time creating with both crafts, do you ever find yourself thinking along these lines? — when I’m knitting I wish I was crocheting and when I’m crocheting I wish I was knitting!  Since acquiring both skills, I’ve felt this way many times.  Sometimes the soothing rhythm of knitting (and the ability to read while knitting) are what I long for when focusing on a crochet project, but then again I want the speed of crochet when facing a long stretch of knitting on fine needles.

A question was asked in one of the Ravelry groups the other day:  How much crochet would be acceptable on a knitted project? Would you want to work a knitting project that had crochet trim on it? Have you ever worked projects that combine both techniques?  Most responses were in the affirmative, with respondents stating that a combination of the crafts in one project was no difficulty.  Personally, I have worked numerous projects that combine both knitting and crochet.  It might have been knitted ribbing on a crocheted fabric, or the finishing touch of a reverse single crochet edging on a knitted item.

There’s a wonderful book called “Knitting Loves Crochet” by Candi Jensen. I’ve had it on my bookshelf for several years and enjoy rereading it time after time, due to the  excellent photography and project ideas she offers that successfully combine knitting with crochet. While I’ve not yet made any of the projects in the book, I have created a few knit/crochet combo projects of my own:

Shortie Combo Cap

Drop of Color Shawl

Seeded Rib Eyeglass Case

Frilled Party Shawl

If you are a knitter or crocheter (or a Gemini) who is  “always of two minds”, indulge your passion for both crafts by working them together in the same project!  Visit the DBKN website,  Designs by KN pattern database or my Ravelry page for more ideas in both crafts.

No, not this time around. But I have seen the covers of publications that two of my designs are appearing in:

Knit Noro by Sixth & Spring Books (due for release May 30)

Besides the cover, you can see on-screen digital images of a few pages of the gorgeous projects included. Can’t wait to hold a copy in my hands!

Knit (formerly Yarn Forward) Magazine, Issue 37, June 2011

The buzz in the Knit/Yarn Forward Ravelry group is that this issue has already arrived in subscribers’ mailboxes in the UK, however I’m awaiting mine in the US to see what’s inside.

In the meantime, check out what’s new at Designs by KN and on Ravelry. Quick and easy projects for springtime knitting & crocheting fun!

P.S. This photo was taken by DBKN’s pattern database administrator Piece by Piece (thank you, S.) in Fall 2007 on the memorable day when Tasseled Earflap Hat was a cover girl!

In the break room at work, there is a large chalkboard. Once a month we celebrate birthdays by bringing treats, singing “happy birthday” to the guests of honor, and writing a message on the board (in lieu of birthday cards.)  For the April birthdays, it was my turn to share in providing treats and writing the message. With a bright stick of chalk and in my best cursive I wrote big and boldly:  “Happy Spring Birthdays!!”  I felt like a teacher at the blackboard preparing for class, although in this age of computer screens, digital content,  PowerPoint presentations and mobile devices, chalkboards are probably becoming obsolete.

Teaching is a rewarding activity and a great way to share your love of knitting and crocheting with others.  Over the years I’ve taught in various venues:  “lunch & learn” sessions at the library, “crafty-day” get-togethers in homes, the LYS, a CYCA-sponsored event at the local Michaels store, and strangest of all, private lessons in an upper-floor break room at the local tire store with a window that overlooked the car repair garage!

When I taught beginning crochet classes at the LYS, I devised a stitch sampler as a teaching aid, to demonstrate various crochet stitches. It progresses in a long strip from single crochet through the taller and more decorative stitches, edged all around with a shell border with assorted finishings on the ends. I also created “how to make a granny square” posters to lead students round-by-round through construction of a square and the different choices for joining them. You could create the same ideas for knitting classes.

Any of the patterns in the Designs by KN pattern database may be used for educational purposes. Some of the projects developed for my beginning knitting & crocheting classes at the LYS several years ago were:

Garter & Stockinette Scarf

Little Crochet Bag

Little Knit Bag

Simple Crocheted Scarf for Teens & Adults

Simple Crochet Mat (or Dishcloth)

Holiday Decorations

Cool Warm Hat

Kathy’s Cross-Stitch Hat

If you’d like to see more projects suitable for teaching possibilities, check out my Ravelry page for 235 pattern ideas.  In addition, the Craft Yarn Council (CYCA) site has a number of resources on how to teach knitting and crochet.

Help someone learn how to knit or crochet. Share the love. Pass it on.  And if there’s a chalkboard in the room, write a message on it in your best cursive!

Part IV in a series …

Redirection

The creative mind couldn’t languish for long, however, and those old artistic tendencies began to tug at the subconscious.  One day I spotted a book about a “new” art form — colored pencil drawing.  It looked easy enough, so I bought myself a set of pencils and began to draw.

The creative life took a new direction as I explored each art form one after another — watercolor painting, oil painting, acrylic painting, pencil drawing, pastels.  I read every art book I could find.  I drew and painted until the walls in my house were decorated with my amateur efforts at art.  Some samples were taken to the office for fun, and to my astonishment I sold two small paintings (one more than Van Gogh!)

That summer was spent feverishly creating artworks, and I went so far as to enter the local county fair, winning some ribbons.  But eventually, just as fast as the knitting slump had hit, the art fever broke and I started to yearn for the fiber-arts again.  Seasons changed, cold weather arrived, and the call of the knitting needles and crochet hooks drew me back.

Peace for the Present

Today finds me at peace, comfortable again sitting on the couch knitting or crocheting, surrounded by four adoring cats, with my forbearing husband still bringing me cups of tea 27 years later (ETA: 37 years later!)  When the day’s work is done, I knit, I crochet, I read, I relax.  Sock knitting is the most recent fever to have hit, and who knows what the future will bring.

C.O.O.S.

For those of you who share the same creative spirit within your inner being, perhaps you can understand these wacky quirks of mood and expression.

It’s been a beautiful life so far, and though I’m not sure I have a beautiful mind, I do know that I have a creative one.  If you have one as well, relish the hours spent creating.  Delight in the work of your hands.  Share with family and friends, teach, encourage, give to charity.  Creative minds and creative hands can heal.  Write the story of your life in your own handiwork.   (Or maybe just paint rocks!)

#    #    #

… Well, the story continued on after this and eventually led to the creation of Designs by KN.  As I’ve said before, you just never know how one thing will lead to another!  May you find peace and contentment in your creative endeavors as well.

Part III in a series …

In Sickness and In Health

Early in our marriage, my husband discovered he would have to get used to the sight of his wife constantly creating something.  He patiently endured the creative phases I went through making bread-dough ornaments, pine-cone wreaths, sewn quilts, pillows, and crocheted afghans.  The birth of a daughter brought new joy into our lives, as well as the opportunity for me to create baby things.  In anticipation of bringing her home from the hospital, I crocheted a small granny-square blanket in pastel colors.

That little blanket received as many compliments as the new baby, and even now I continue to make granny-square blankets for charity.

But when someone anticipates the birth of a child, one has to knit baby booties, right?   With a Coats & Clark Learn-How booklet to guide me, I began to make feeble attempts at knitting.  This time everything clicked.  I even succeeded in knitting a tiny sweater with some leftover yarn, which came out perfect, except for the color choice.  Orange for a baby sweater?  Oh well, into the family heirloom box it has gone, to be pulled out some day when we need a laugh.

Yarn Heaven

When my daughter entered preschool, I went back to work and successfully found a part-time job in a yarn shop.  Heaven at last!  The shop sold cross-stitch supplies, needlepoint kits, yarn and patterns.  Cross-stitch was the popular craft of the day, so of course cross-stitching fever took over.  I still wasn’t comfortable knitting, especially after watching the other ladies in the shop who were experts, so I continued to stitch and crochet.  But it was 1982 and a “new” publication was announced:  Vogue Knitting magazine.  We in the shop were so excited by that first issue.

Surrounded by inspiration, it was only a matter of time before I was knitting with the best of them.  Early projects included sweaters for my daughter and myself,  and hats and scarves for the Christmas-at-Sea charity project.

Pattern, book, and yarn acquisition began in earnest, until one day the owner announced the shop was closing.  We were sad, but I had finally learned how to knit, and there was no turning back.

Custom Creations

A new job on the local university campus found me continuing to spend break times knitting and crocheting.  Requests began to come in for custom-knit sweaters and baby sets.  When presenting a co-worker with the finished product, I would always photograph her modeling her new sweater.

#12 Queen of Hearts Sweater by Perry Ellis, from Vogue Knitting, Spring/Summer 1985

Looking through those photos today brings back wonderful memories, so I continue to photograph each new project made (ETA: it’s wonderful to have digital storage sites like Ravelry, Flickr, and Facebook to record and share our photos now.)

The Slump

Years went by.  Wonderful new knitting books were published (remember the excitement over Kaffe Fassett’s “Glorious Knits”?) and gorgeous yarns were produced.   Pattern and yarn acquisition syndrome knew no bounds.  Some projects came out so well that I sent photos and letters to magazines (the Perry Ellis theatre-mask sweater photo was published in VK).

#27 Theater Sweater by Perry Ellis, from Vogue Knitting, Fall/Winter 1985

Alternately knitting, crocheting, and reading my way through the years, I was quite startled when one day a knitting slump hit.  Literally.  Overnight.  Nothing about yarn or knitting interested me any more.  I had no desire to work on projects, old or new.  I stopped knitting.  I stopped crocheting.  I stopped reading patterns and craft books.  I would be turning 50 in a year.  Was this my midlife crisis?  What happened?

Next time, Part IV …

Part II in a series  …

California Dreaming

A couple years after settling in a small town in southern California,  the local newspaper announced a coloring contest.  I entered the sixth-grade category with a unique entry — dipping colored pencils in water to create the picture.  It won first prize, $5.00, and my picture was in the paper.   During junior high school, the creative spirit found expression in a summer writing class.  We wrote poems and stories, and I collected mine into a little book with illustrations on the side.  It was the year of James Bond 007 and we had a good time coming up with spy-theme captions for the school yearbook.   When graduation day came, I was surprised and delighted to be awarded second prize in the American Legion essay contest on citizenship.  But I still didn’t knit.

Buttons and Rocks

High school years arrived and Mom thought it would be a good idea to enroll me in a Sears Charm School course to learn poise and good grooming.   I was voted “Most Graceful Hands.”  For our graduation fashion show, we had to demonstrate modeling buttons on a cardigan.  For some strange reason, I wore a buttonless outfit for the show — a kelly green machine-knit sleeveless shell worn over a white pleated skirt.   Standing on the runway with the other girls, I felt ridiculous gracefully running my hands up and down the front of my buttonless top, demonstrating the button-modeling motions we had been taught (sans buttons).

Seamstress Extraordinaire

In high school, sewing filled my free hours.  Homemaking classes taught sewing and cooking, but at times the lectures were so boring that I doodled and drew cartoon characters in my notebook during class.  (I got really good at drawing the Hawaiian punch man and Charlie Brown characters, to the delight of my friends.)  One friend was a knitter and offered to teach me to knit if I would teach her to sew.  To me, knitting was “too weird” at the time so I taught her to sew but didn’t learn to knit.  Soon other girls began to date, but I spent most of my Friday and Saturday nights at home sewing and painting — rocks.  Yes, rocks.  On trips to the beach we collected smooth, washed pebbles that made perfect paperweights.  I drew black ink outlines of  bizarre cartoon-like bugs on them and painted them in bright colors.  They were a hit with friends and family, so rock painting continued for awhile until high school days ended with grad night at Disneyland.  But I still didn’t knit.

Dorms and Dating

College brought with it the excitement of new experiences and finally, for me, a few dates.  Living at home the first year, I continued to sew and paint.  Believe it or not, I did go out dancing at clubs occasionally, where eventually I met my future husband.   On our first date he took me to see “Downhill Racer” in Los Angeles.  On the long drive into the city from the suburbs, he asked me what I liked to do.  “Sew,” I said, “and paint rocks.”   “Hmmm….,” he said, but he married me anyway.  (I have a suspicion it was because of the Daisy Mae and Lil’ Abner-style hot-pants outfit I sewed one summer that exposed quite a bit of torso and leg!)

In my second year of college I moved to the dorms.  One day my roommate and I were wandering through the local Woolworth’s store when we discovered an aisle filled with rows and rows of colorful yarn.  We bought some and spent studying breaks in our room together, she knitting and I crocheting.  The first project I tackled was an afghan featured on the cover of a magazine made of tulip-shaped pieces joined into rows.  Blind-follower that I was, I persevered with the difficult pattern, trying to make sense of it, sitting on my bed producing approximations of crocheted tulips.  When finished, the afghan didn’t quite look like the photograph,  but I didn’t care.  I was hooked.  Knitting held no interest for me, but crochet fever had struck. Through the rest of my college days into marriage and early work life, crocheting was my passion.  Projects galore, including a mini-granny-square tie for my father-in-law, were created and given as gifts.  Patient family members accepted my crocheted articles with grace, never once rolling their eyes in agony when they opened their packages.

Goose Wall Hanging by Michele Wilcox, from Annie’s Crochet Newsletter, Issue 26, Mar-Apr 1987

Patriotism

1976.  It was the year of the bicentennial in our country, and I was working for a government agency at the time.  Every break and lunch hour was spent crocheting.  When I left that job, the staff gave me a bicentennial crocheted afghan kit.  It was made of red, white, and blue afghan-stitch squares embroidered over with American eagles and other patriotic emblems.  I still have it, destined to be a family heirloom some day.

Next time, Part III …