Cloud Peak KAL + Designer Spotlight: Simone Kereit of OwlCat Designs

Fall is just around the corner, and we're celebrating summer's last hurrah with a fun KAL featuring a new design by Simone Kereit of OwlCat Designs! We've asked Simone to share a guest post with our readers - read on for more info about this KAL, a special coupon code just for Knitter's Pride fans, and a chance to win the special prize, too!

Hello there, my lovely knitting friends! 

I am Simone Kereit, but you may know me better as OwlCat Designs, and we’ll be doing a fun KAL together! And before anything else, I want to thank Knitters Pride for sponsoring this event and letting me take over their blog as well as providing a number of cool prizes to participants, but more on that later!

But before we get into any more details, let me introduce myself a little, in case you don’t know that much about me:

My name is Simone and I was born in Switzerland where I learned to knit when I was around 5 or 6 years old. My mom always had a project going, so the concept was with me from a really young age. And then of course, we all learned to knit in school, though I am sure my brother would not remember how if I asked him these days! When I started to knit, there were not a lot of patterns, especially for kids or teenagers, and so I learned to knit socks by asking my Mom how to do it, and knitting a sweater by picking out yarn which at the time would have convenient notes on the label about how many balls of yarn it might take for a size 38 etc. You would then take the yarn home and swatch the stitch you wanted to use and then doing all the math off of the swatch. As you can imagine, there was  a bit of a learning curve and not all my projects turned out fabulous right from the start. I distinctly remember one where I decided to put a band of colorwork into the bottom third on the front and since this was the first time I worked a stranded design and was teaching myself by making ALL the mistakes, the band was a whole lot tighter than the rest of the sweater. So smartly, when I knit the back, I made sure to make it extra loose, which ended up making a big ol’ pouch than hung below my butt! I still wore the sweater, I had made it after all, but luckily it was a really warm number and there wasn’t all that much occasion to wear it except in the woods!

When I moved to the US in 1999, I was surprised to learn that not everyone was knitting the way I was taught and publishing designs was almost the logical conclusion.

I really love to knit and so I enjoy a variety of techniques and items, from shawls over smaller accessories (like the Mitts we will be knitting together) to sweaters and cardigans. I design things that I would like to wear (and I often do, though sometimes I have to wait for the shawl or sweater to make their way back to me after travelling in trunk shows to shops around the country) and so the things I am inspired to design change. I have many more ideas than hours or energy in my hands to knit, so I have to structure and plan, but I do like to leave a bit of room for the unexpected, if I can. I find having the freedom to design something on the spur of the moment just because I had this amazing idea really helps my creativity and my happiness. 

I love wooden tools, knitting needles included and have more needles than I care to admit. I probably have the entire size range of Knitter’s Pride Dreamz Interchangeable needles twice over, because they give me so much flexibility and because I always seem to need needles in the same sizes and end up adding another set of tips. I love that the wooden tips now come as Natural, because sometimes you just need a light colored needle to be able to really see your stitches. When I knit small circular things I prefer using DPNs, but I do quickly go over how to adapt your longer (40” /100 cm) circulars to knit these mitts using magic loop. 

One thing that I think absolutely rocks about the Knitter’s Pride interchangeable needles is the end caps. Do you use them much? If not, you should! Each cable comes with two of them and even though I tend to not often put something aside on the cable to use the needle tips for something else (see above and my mention of my needle collection) though they are great for that as well (just make sure to use the size tags which come with each set, for you won’t remember the size when you find your project 2 years from now and the sticky notes do fall off, trust me).

No, what I use them most often for is travel safety and sleeve stitches. 

Let me explain the first: When you travel on planes these days, you never know if they might take your needles. Fingers crossed, I never had an issue using my wooden Dreamz tips, but it depends on the country and the airport and you just never know. If you should be so unlucky as to have to give up your needles, simply unscrew the tips, put endcaps on and when you get to your destination, unpack the set of tips that was in your checked luggage! Sure it is sad that you couldn’t knit on your lace shawl while flying, but the stitches are safe and you get to enjoy it when you are on vacation! 

The other is sleeves: When I knit cardigans or sweaters in the round, (anything circular yoke or raglan shaped) instead of putting stitches on waste yarn, I simply knit them onto a short cable, add endcaps and voilà! When it comes time to knit the sleeves (or join the sleeves to the body for bottom up designs) all you have to do is unscrew the endcaps and thread on the proper needle. No more stitches that got all tiny and are hard to pick up, no slipping this way and that. Just screw on those tips, and knit right off the end! I am probably a bit giddy, but I do love this so much, I probably have 8 sets of 16” and 20” cables just for that!

But let’s get back to designing. Often my inspiration comes from nature, I love hiking and being outside in general and anything in nature from a misty sunrise to an intricately twisted branch can just hit you and take your breath away. The Cloud Peak mitts that we are going to knit together, were inspired by those high peaks up in the mountains, the ones that often wear a cap of clouds when the wind is right. I settled on the name on our recent vacation, when driving across Wyoming towards the Big Horn mountains, the tallest peaks are in an area known as the Cloud Peak Wilderness, and from a distance, there are many smaller peaks visible as you approach across the lower country. The name seemed just perfectly fitted to the stitch pattern reminding me of mountain ranges back home with multiple peaks jutting high into the blue sky.

I hope many of you will join me as we get started, the official cast on date is August 25^th, so you have 2 full weeks to shop for the perfect yarn or dig through your stash for that perfect skein. You need sport weight yarn and if you like, beads. I have tutorials that will show you all the parts that might be new to you, so if you’ve never used beads in your knitting, just follow along, it’s super easy! And all the details on materials are below. 

Click here to purchase Cloud Peak on Ravelry - enter coupon code cloudPeak at checkout to get the pattern for $5 instead of $6.50!

The socializing part of the KAL will be happening online and we even have our very own #hashtag: #CloudPeakKAL 

We will virtually knit together in my Ravelry group and on Instagram 

More info here on Ravelry  http://www.ravelry.com/groups/owlcat-designs-studio

And on the Knitter's Pride and OwlCatDesigns Instagram profiles.  

So come over, give us a follow and say hi in my Ravelry group!

When I started designing these mitts, I wanted them to be versatile, but also something that has a few details that perhaps are new to you and where you can add a new knitting skill to your bag of tricks. I designed them to be knit in Sport Weight yarn so it would go quickly and the beads add an elegant little detail to the back of your hand! The pattern comes in a couple of sizes and I want to quickly go over how to measure your hand to find the perfect size and fit. 

As shown in the picture, measure the circumference of your palm, holding the tape measure snug. On the pattern you will find two measurements, one is the actual finished size, the other is the hand circumference it is meant to fit. Just like when you make a hat, you will want some negative ease (the actual measurement of the knitted item is smaller than the size of your hand) as knitted fabric has some stretch. This is so the mitt doesn’t fit all floppy and loose in the end but fits you ‘like a glove’.

The Cloud Peak Mitts can be knit with a regular or a long cuff, since I like mine long to tuck into a sweater or inside a jacket sleeve without cold wind getting to you. And the pattern is written in multiple sizes, so you can make one for the rest of the family too! As we go along, I have a couple of hacks and adaptations that I think would make these fun for a guy to wear as well (unless of course they are fond of beads, no tweaking necessary then).

A quick word on yarn: For this stitch pattern, a smooth plied yarn works best, and since mitts usually get a good bit of use and friction, you may want to opt for Superwash while you’re at it.

Ok so now that you know a bit more, here is what you need to get to be ready for cast on!

Pattern

Cloud Peak Mitts 

Yarn

Approx. 155 (165, 180) yds / 140 (150, 165) m of sport weight yarn

Needles

US 4 (3.5mm needles) Knitter’s Pride either DPNs or 40” / 100 cm circulars needles for magic loop

Gauge

28 st and 32 rows = 4” / 10 cm in stockinette st

Finished Sizes

6 (7, 8)” / 15 (18, 20) cm palm circumference

to fit hand with palm circumference up to 7 (8, 9)” / 18 (20.5, 23) cm

Notions

Tapestry Needle

0.75mm Knitter’s Pride crochet hook or preferred tool to add beads

approx. 95 (105, 120) size 6/0 beads

5 markers (2 color A for Cloud Peak pattern panel, 2 color B for thumb gusset, and 1 marker for EoR)

Also Read: Knit Along With Us: The Summer Tee

For the sample I used Dragonfly Fibers Damsel in Silver Fox and less than 1 tube (20g) of size 6/0 beads in matte metallic silver grey.

Our KAL runs August 25-Sept. 22; I hope you will join me as we knit the Cloud Peak Mitts together over the next few weeks! 

August Giveaway! 

One lucky reader will win a Deluxe Royale Interchangeable Needle Set. To enter, leave a comment telling us what your favorite pattern is from Simone's back catalog! Don't forget to also mention your Ravelry ID or email address so that we can contact you if you win.

We'll randomly select one lucky winner to announce on our next blog post on Friday, August 31. Good luck! 

Winner + Designer Spotlight: Pia Thadani

As part of our ongoing Designer Spotlight series, we take a look at what makes designers tick.

This week we have Pia Thadani, crochet designer and Crochet Guild of America Member! Pia calls the beautiful state of Illinois home.

Pia designed the Sargassum Shawl featured in the Crochet Guild of America Crochet Along this month! Be sure to participate for a chance to win a set of our Crochet Hooks that we donated to the CAL.


When did you learn to crochet? Do you do any other crafts?

My mom taught me to crochet when I was very young – maybe around 5. I started with chaining by hand, without a hook, to make bracelets. When I got tired of that, I still remember spending days making mile long chains and then braiding them together to form jump ropes (which only worked marginally well, but was still fun)! Mom taught me lots of other fiber arts too – knitting, tatting, embroidery, needlepoint, rug hooking, macramé, sewing, and probably more that I’ve forgotten. I can’t remember any part of my life that didn’t involve making things, and I’ll try pretty much any new craft. Sometimes they work out, and other times I’m just horrible at them (like sewing). I tend to go in spurts – for a while, I was obsessed with scrapbooking, and more recently it’s been spinning. Crochet has more or less stuck as my main passion through all of them though.

How did you get started designing?

I actually started blogging first, as sort of a crafting diary, and would write about modifications I was making to patterns. I almost never follow a pattern exactly as written, and I’ve always been that way. I usually read through it, get the gist, and then start making bits up as I go. My blogging friends soon started encouraging me to make up whole patterns from scratch, and everything just grew from there. Joining the CGOA was a big step for me in taking crochet from a hobby to a business. The local chapter activities, online projects, and national conferences have all provided invaluable networking and learning opportunities. On top of that, the new friendships and sense of community I’ve found through the CGOA have been amazing.

What is your design process typically like? - or - What are your favorite projects to design?

Growing up, crochet to me was always about gift giving on a budget. I still love to make things for other people, so I often end up designing to fit specific gift giving opportunities. If someone wants a sweater for Christmas, I make a sweater. If someone’s having a baby, it’s going to be all things baby for a while. There always has to be a reason to make something. I have a much harder time just sitting down and coming up with a design without any context. Recently I’ve started designing more for myself, but it still is usually when there’s something I need (or want). If you want a very detailed look at my design process, check out my series on “How a Pattern Happens”.

Tell us about your design for the CGOA CAL. Are there any special techniques that crocheters will need to master to complete the project?

Sargassum is a perfect example of designing to fit a need. I was going on vacation in Florida, and needed something light and pretty for the chillier evenings. I’ve had a gorgeous skein of discontinued cotton yarn in my stash that I had been wanting to use, and the color reminded me of the Sargassum seaweed that you find on the beach. The lace stitch for the bottom border was something I had played with months earlier (coincidentally, in the same yarn). The pattern does incorporate a lot of different techniques, which is one reason why I thought it would be best introduced as a CAL. The techniques appear one at a time, so you can master one before having to deal with another, and the pattern includes links to tutorials for all of them. Some of them are also optional, and easier alternatives are provided. The first is foundation stitches, then chainless starting double crochets, a few rows later there are puff stitches worked so they lie sideways, then color changes, beads, linked double crochet in the top border, and finally a shell and picot edge. Fun fact – that’s my mom in those pictures!

What is your absolute favorite Knitter's Pride product, the one you would HAVE to have if you were stranded on a desert island?

If you had asked me that last year, I would have said my sock blockers. These things are magic for socks, and I think they even help them to dry faster. Also, when you tie them together, they work really well as a weight on hand-spun skeins! But, I recently got a set of Nova Cubics Platina Interchangeables, and those are now my new favorite Knitters Pride product. I swatched with them right away and they are absolute heaven. The unique ergonomically shaped shafts are surprisingly comfortable to hold and help with getting the needle into tighter stitches, and they’re just the right amount of slippery for my taste too. Just my luck though - since I got them I’ve been buried in lighter weight projects that need smaller needles. As soon as I have a chance, I’m dying to work up a nice big project on them.

Do you have any crocheting horror stories or mishaps?

I tried to make a swimsuit cover-up once, with a big fillet crochet butterfly on the back. It came out really nice…until I wore it over a wet swimsuit. I had used a kitchen cotton, and I learned the hard way just how much that type of yarn can stretch when it’s wet. Think saggy butterfly butt. Yeah, not attractive.

Winner
Congratulations to BinaBKnits,  this month's giveaway winner! We will contact you to arrange for the delivery of your prize. Thanks to everyone who entered this month's giveaway, we got some awesome ideas for - click here to check out the comments & get inspired to reuse and recycle! 

Winner + Designer Spotlight: Boo Knits

Our ongoing Designer Spotlight feature allows us to get a glimpse of what drives them to create.

Today, we interview Boo Knits. Bev is a knitter of shawls predominantly, and she has an avid obsession for beautiful yarns, beads and knitting needles. She lives in mildly moist but beautifully green England.

When did you learn to knit/crochet?
My aunt tried to teach me when I was a child but gave it up as a bad job when I just couldn’t hold my yarn properly. I still don’t! Many, many years later I taught myself with the aid of books, YouTube and a fair bit of trial and error to find the easiest way that worked for me.

What are your favorite projects to design?
I love to design shawls and have designed a couple of scarves/stoles but that doesn’t mean that that is all I will ever design. I have something different on the needles at the moment and we will have to wait and see whether it will become a pattern or not. I love the fun of designing and knitting lace – the playing with pattern and texture is mesmerizing.

Diamond Fizz by Boo Knits

A lot of knitters are intimidated by lace knitting. What are some of your fool proof tips for success with lace projects?
The most important thing is as simple as read the pattern. Read it again. Make a cup of coffee. Read the pattern. The answers to many of the questions I get asked are already in the pattern. Another useful tip - Stitch Markers! Stitch Markers are your friends, they are not a sign that you are new, less than able, cannot count, they are there to help keep track of your stitches and pattern and to help to make sure you don’t get to the end of the row only to have to tink back to put something right at the beginning. The finer your stitch markers the better, especially with lace knitting as some of the thicker markers can leave a mark in your knitting that looks like a ladder. These often disappear after blocking but not always and prevention is better than cure.

Many of your designs use beads; do you have any tips or tutorials to help knitters who are new to this technique?
Using beads is much easier than anyone would think. I would definitely recommend the better-quality beads on the market and particularly like Miyuki, Toho and Matubo – they have nice, smooth, large holes to get your yarn through. I almost always use their Size 6 Seed Beads and Size 5 Triangles on lace as the smaller beads simply get lost on anything heavier than cobweb. All of my patterns have the beads placed on the stitch individually. This ensures that the bead sits nice and straight on the stitch rather than sitting on a slant which happens when the beads are pre-strung.

There are many ways to apply a bead; with a tiny crochet hook, dental floss, a specially designed beader or, my favourite way, using a cro-tat hook. I load beads onto about six cro-tats at a time and stand them up in either a small vase or a jar of beads so that I don’t have to keep reloading. This means it is much quicker to finish a row with beads on and is less fiddly than only having one bead at a time.

Somehow it is smoother to apply beads when you have several on your hook. Just pop your stitch onto the loaded cro-tat, hold your hook at about 45 degrees with your stitch taut (at about 90 degrees from the hook) and push the bottom bead gently. The top bead should just pop onto your stitch and you are then ready to work the stitch as directed in the pattern.

What is your absolute favorite Knitter's Pride product, the one you would HAVE to have if you were stranded on a desert island?
As a lace knitter, it would have to be blocking wires and t-pins – an absolute must for anyone knitting shawls! I am sure, if stranded too long, they would become really good multi-purpose tools too.

Moonflower by Boo Knits

I have a MKAL starting 1st May called Just Be You. The shawl has been designed in conjunction with Lichtfaden for Sabine’s Meridian Pure Silk yarn. Just Be You is a crescent shaped, beaded and worked from the top down in a heavy lace weight yarn 660m/110g.

Sabine’s love for colour is evident to all and we talked at length about a style and influence for the design. Wave-Gotik-Treffen (WGT) is a gothic music and fashion festival held every year, for the past twenty-five years, in Leipzig, Germany.

With a Victorian picnic in the park, readings, theatre performances and medieval markets as well as the huge number of music events it is the biggest festival of its kind anywhere and is considered the ‘Mecca’ for cybergoths, metal heads, steampunks, neo-Victorians, dark romantics, dark electro, industrial and medieval fans.

Thousands of people descend on the city wearing the most amazing outfits – people attend alone, with friends or with their entire family and travel the world over to take part and experience this week-long event that is always a friendly, tolerant and trouble-free festival. So, whether your style is Victorian Lady, Gothic, Steampunk, or Jeans and T-shirt – Just Be You!

This shawl is a celebration of all of us, whoever we are, whatever we are and wherever we are – that we accept ourselves and others without judgement. Choose your colour and wear your shawl with pride and love and be true to yourself.

If you cannot wait until 1st May to cast on, then there are lots of other patterns available to try. Rum and Cola and Spritzer are brilliant for those new to lace, Voodoo and Spellbound would be great for anyone wanting something with more detail and Wintersweet, Danse Macabre and Temptress would be perfect for those with more experience. There really is something for everyone.

Winner
Congratulations to Connie K., this month's giveaway winner! We will contact you to arrange for the delivery of your prize. Thanks to everyone who entered this month's giveaway! 

Designer Spotlight: Jen Geigley

Chunky knits are still hot! These quick-to-knit projects offer instant gratification, and there are so many great designs making use of big yarns, big needles, and oversized texture. Designer Jen Geigley could be called the queen of chunky knits: both of her books, Weekend and Everyday, are chock full of gorgeous & wearable projects. Below is our interview with Jen, and be sure to read on to the end to see who won our February blog giveaway, and for a special treat!

When did you learn to knit/crochet?

I started knitting in 2008. I had two friends who were knitters and I begged them to teach me. One night, they taught me how to cast on, knit and purl and I immediately became obsessed. I read every book I could get my hands on and I haven’t stopped knitting since.

How did you get started designing?

I wrote my first pattern in 2010 – just a simple cowl that I had knitted a few times, but really liked. So I decided to write down the pattern. That pattern accidentally launched me into knitwear design because (almost overnight) it became very popular online. After that, I decided to experiment more, play with yarn, shapes and stitch patterns and keep writing.

What is your design process typically like? What are your favorite projects to design?

Everything starts in a sketchbook that I carry with me. I also make mood boards for larger projects, like my books. I draw first, swatch next and then start writing. I really love making an entire collection and envisioning how it will look together when photographed. It generally takes me about a year to write a book and knit samples. Some things end up not fitting with the collection and I usually have to knit them in their entirety to figure that out. Some things just don't make the final cut … it's kind of like Project Runway (Make it work!).

Leo Scarf from Everyday

You've now self published two distinct collections of patterns, Weekend and Everyday. How were you able to complete such big projects on your own?

It definitely takes a team in the end! I had lots of help from my tech editor and my talented photographers and models made everything look amazing. But yes, for a long time this was just me … slowly playing with ideas and brainstorming how things would look when they were all put together. With my first book, I definitely had to talk myself into it. I didn’t get completely serious about writing a book until I hung out with a successful photographer and book publishing friend of mine. We sat down and he talked me through the publishing process. He filled in the blanks and answered so many of my questions. I had the knitting part figured out, but the rest had been a mystery. It was that day that I decided to jump in and really go for it. I made myself a firm deadline of Fall 2015 and that was it. I wasn’t going to let another knitting season pass me by. I wrote a note to myself on a post-it and kept it on the inside cover of my sketchbook. And it just said ‘Don’t stop.’

Little Earthquakes from Weekend

I first started the rough outline of my book by dividing it into two parts – the first half is very photo-heavy and the second half is the text portion of my book. The patterns. So I made a list of photography shots that I wanted to get of each project. Then I made some bullet points for everything I’d need to write … special technique explanations, resources, acknowledgements, the table of contents, etc. And of course, the patterns themselves. Each pattern needs a list of supplies, notions, the sizing information and gauge. Plus a detail photo, and the instructions. So I began organizing that info in a graphic way using InDesign … experimenting with the hierarchy and the flow. (Sometimes being a graphic designer is a valuable thing!)

To track progress and keep up with the deadlines I had set for myself, I used Action Method notebooks. They have little blanks for Action Steps and things to put on the backburner. I kept several of these going … I’d cross things out or move on to new lists as things changed or new goals took priority. I also kept one sketchbook where I’d draw out pattern ideas and jot down quick notes. It’s very messy and scribbly but I’ll probably keep it forever.

Gap-tastic Cowl

What is your absolute favorite Knitter's Pride product, the one you would HAVE to have if you were stranded on a desert island?

I cannot live without my Knitter’s Pride Nova Cubics Platina interchangeable circulars set! Truly. I can’t remember how many years I’ve owned these, but I knit almost everything in my books with these needles. I love how my stitches stay uniform when knitting with Cubics. Truly a game-changer. I also love that Knitter's Pride carries the big needles that I need for my super-bulky projects – I have the Jumbo Birch circular US 36 and US 50 needles and I use them all of the time.

Do you have any knitting horror stories or mishaps?

Well, I just lost one of my project bags for an entire week. It had 4 skeins of yarn in it and a half-finished sweater! Every time I thought about it, I felt sick. I had no idea where I'd left it and called every single place I’d been to that week (which was a lot of places) and it finally turned up at a car dealership where I’d had an oil change.

I also left my entire knitting bag at a coffee shop one time and as I had walked out, one of the yarn balls had trailed behind me into the parking lot, unbeknownst to me. When one of the employees found my bag, they must have went outside and scooped the yarn up and saved the bag for me until I came back the next time. There was a big post-it note on my bag that said 'give this to the knitting girl.'  I've decided to attach luggage tags with my contact info on all my project bags from now on. HA.

Jen Geigley has written and self-published knitting patterns since 2010. Clean, modern designs inspire her and she has a love and appreciation for simple knits that are wearable. Her designs have been published in Knit Simple Magazine, Noro Magazine, Knitsy Magazine and Rowan’s Online Publications. She is the author of 'Weekend: Simple, Modern Knits' and 'Everyday: A casual, modern hand-knit collection.' (Jessica Jones actress Krysten Ritter is a fan of her books and recently recommended them to her Instagram followers!) Jen's most popular pattern, the Gap-tastic cowl, has been knit 18,252 times on Ravelry. She is passionate about sharing the love of knitting by teaching knitting classes to adults and children at local high schools and workshops and loves knitting with her daughter.

Find Jen around the web!

Website - http://www.jengeigley.com

Buy the books here - http://www.jengeigley.com/shop/

Blog - http://www.jengeigley.com/heyjenrenee/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/heyjenrenee/

Ravelry - http://www.ravelry.com/designers/jen-geigley

Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to Iamjoannep! You have won this month's blog giveaway, we will get in touch with you to arrange for the delivery of your prize.

Bonus Giveaway!

One of our lucky readers will win this prize pack! You can enter our contest by using the widget below, or click here to view a mobile-friendly version. We'll announce the winner on our next blog post on Friday, March 10. Good luck!

Winner + Designer Spotlight: Wooly Wormhead

Congratulations to caffeine72, our winner for this month's blog giveaway. We will get in touch with you shortly to arrange delivery of your prize! 

For our final blog post of 2016, we are pleased to share this interview with Woolly Wormhead, whom we've been a fan of for quite some time. We have donated a few prizes to her Muratura KAL that is happening now through December 31 (click here for more info), and last week she shared a technique tutorial with us - click here if you missed it! 


When did you learn to knit/crochet? - or - How did you get started designing?

My mum taught me to knit when I was 3, and I started making clothes for my dolls. You could say I started designing when I was about 7 or 8 or maybe even younger, as I clearly remember making up patterns by myself for my toys, and finding inventive ways to achieve things. I made my first jumper for myself when I was 9, and from there continued making garments for myself every year.

What is your design process typically like? 

Varied, but always organic! I'm not very good at having everything planned out on paper beforehand, with several trusty swatches. I can do it, but I always need to refine on the needles. And often that means ripping out and adjusting. I will chart out stitch patterns and know how the design will be graded before I cast on, but it's never a done deal; the design is never finished until everything is polished, and that's usually done on the needles. It's not uncommon for me to reknit a Hat 3 times to get the fine details just right.

What is your absolute favorite Knitter's Pride product, the one you would HAVE to have if you were stranded on a desert island?

My Karbonz short tip interchangeables - they're my go-to needles, each and every time. I'm also developing quite a thing for the Zing short tip interchangeables, too!

What tips do you have for knitters who plan on gifting their KAL hat to that knit-worthy person on their list? 

Sizing is really important - one size does not fit all! That said, you can pretty much guarantee that if the Hat you knit doesn't quite fit or suit the person you originally had in mind, it will fit and suit someone ;)

I have a super handy guide on my website to measuring for Hats, and gives you an idea of average head sizes. They are just that though, average. Some Hats and stitch patterns are much more forgiving about size (lacey slouchy Hats for instance) but others are not - cables and other heavily structured patterns need more precision. It's always worth remembering that a knitted fabric will stretch widthways, but what it gains there it loses in length.

There's also a useful guide on my website for choosing the right Hat style to suit difference face shapes and hairstyles - some people might be surprised to hear that there is a Hat to suit everyone!

What is your favorite cast-on method for hats? Other projects? 

That would depend on the brim with vertical Hats... the alternate cable cast-on where a rib is needed, a cable cast-on if the edge pattern really doesn't matter or needs something giving but strong, and a crochet provisional cast-on as a main cast on as a decorative finish, especially on garter stitch. I've recently been introduced to the Chinese waitress cast-on and am keen to experiment with it more, and see how it works in the round (i.e. can I join it invisibly?)

Other projects? What are 'other projects'?! ;-)


Woolly Wormhead is a Hat Architect. With an instinctive flair for unusual construction and a passion for innovation, Woolly Wormhead is a designer whose patterns are trusted and celebrated by knitters all over the world. As a designer, Woolly is driven by a need to create and develop her understanding of 3D form. Communicating her ideas and sharing her specialised knowledge with her audiences is key to Woolly’s success as a designer. Woolly's high quality pattern writing ensures perfect results, teaches new skills and encourages us all to become Hat architects. Visit www.woollywormhead.com for further details.

Giveaway + Designer Spotlight: Susanna IC

August is a great time of year to give lace knitting a try! Our previous blog posts focused on lace knitting tools & techniques and blocking your finished project, and today we are excited to spotlight a fabulous knitwear designer who is known for stunning lace designs (and more): Susanna IC. 

After nine years in Europe, Susanna IC now lives deep in the heart of Texas with her husband, two sons, one guinea pig and countless balls of yarn. Besides a background in fashion design, she has a Master’s degree in art history and a Bachelors’s in studio arts, all of which continue to inspire her knitting. Her designs have appeared in numerous online and print publications, such as Interweave Knits, Jane Austen Knits, Twist Collective, Brooklyn Tweed’s Wool People, and Knitty. You can view all of Susanna's designs here on Ravelry and keep up with her latest creations on her blog at artqualia.com.

When did you learn to knit/crochet?

My grandmother was a great knitter; she taught me how to crochet when I was five and she wanted to teach me how to knit as well, but she was left-handed, and I just could not figure out how to mirror her movements and make the stitches with my right hand. Fast forward to when my older son was six months old and I had a little extra time on my hands while he was sleeping. I thought that making adorable baby sweaters would be fun, so I decided to give knitting one more try. I picked up a how-to knit book and instantly fell in love.

How did you get started designing?

My first swatch was the back of my first baby sweater, which in a way was my first knitted design as well. Learning to knit alone from a book, I did not even realize that there were detailed knitting patterns to follow, so I just sort of made it all up as I went along. I have a background in fashion design and I’ve sewn all my life, so the designing part of knitting came naturally. Few years later, after I added some of my original projects to Ravelry, people asked about them and I wrote a few of them up as patterns. Next, I’ve sent out design submissions to several publications and they were accepted and everything just took off from there.

Pyropa shawl pattern, from Knitty First Fall 2016.

What are your favorite projects to design?

Looking at the majority of my designs I guess you would say that I live for shawls. Well, that’s true, I absolutely adore creating shawls of all sorts, but I really love all kinds of knitting - lace and cables and texture, accessories and garments, simple and complex. I absolutely love the moment of inspiration, which can come from anywhere - nature, books, movies, yarn color, etc. After that, watching the vision come to life on the needles is exhilarating and blocking lace is always a wonderful surprise. I even like the math of knit design. I guess I really do love the entire process, including ripping and reknitting.

What is your absolute favorite Knitter's Pride product, the one you would HAVE to have if you were stranded on a desert island?

I learned to knit on straight needles and for several years I did not use anything else because I did not realize how limiting the straight needles were. It was only after I decided to try colorwork in the round that I discovered interchangeable circular needles. I purchased the full set of the original nickel plated needles and I’ve never looked back. The needles are durable and very smooth with tapered tips that are perfect for intricate lace as well as cables and texture. I love how versatile and fast they are, and I use them for all types of yarn. Over the years, I’ve added many extra tips to my collection in the sizes I use most often because I usually have several design projects on the needles and I don’t want to wait for the correct needle size to free up.

Mina shawl, available on Ravelry

Many knitters might be intimidated by the thought of knitting lace. How would you convince someone to give it a try? 

I think that knitting lace is like any other knitting and anyone can do it; it’s really just knit and purl stitches combined with a few decreases and increases, which create interesting patterns depending on how they are placed. That said, any new technique can take some time to master and, as the saying goes, a little practice goes a long way. The first lace shawl I’ve ever made took me a while because I had to concentrate on every stitch; however, that same shawl would be a quick project now.

To get started, you’d want to choose a simple lace pattern with a short repeat, about ten to twelve stitches, so that the stitch sequence can be easily memorized. Look for a pattern with resting rows; this means that the right side patterned rows are separated by purled wrong side rows. If you’d rather not jump directly into a project, a small swatch of a few pattern repeats can help you learn the stitches and the sequence in which they are combined. Also, knitting lace does not necessarily mean lace weight yarn, so if you find lace weight yarns too fiddly to start with, you can use a fingering or sport weight yarn instead.

Rhodora shawl, from Twist Collective Spring/Summer 2016

What are some of your foolproof tips for success with lace projects?

When reading lace charts for the first few times, it can be helpful to color code the stitch symbols so that you can easily identify all those similar-looking symbols. Removable highlighter tape or sticky note placed on the chart can be great help in keeping track of the row you’re currently working on, and placing stitch markers on the needles to separate the pattern repeats will help you keep the stitch count correct. These are just a few ideas that helped me when I started knitting lace. Give it a try and in no time you will be creating masterpieces.

Belarra shawl, from Twist Collective Spring/Summer 2014

Giveaway
This month, one lucky blog reader will win a set of Knitter's Pride Knit Blockers! To enter, leave a comment on this blog post sharing the name of your favorite Susanna IC pattern (click here to view them all on Ravelry). Be sure to also include your Ravelry ID or email address so that we can contact you if you win.

We will randomly select the winning comment to announce here on the Knitter's Pride blog on Friday, August 26. Good luck!