Hello all!! How are you? I hope you are well!My week was nutty. First I felt a small cold coming on. No big deal, right?? That led way to full blown laryngitis (much to the happiness of my staff and SO since I couldn't talk...). Ugh! I'm at the tail end though thank-you very much!
I think I've told you before how much I LOVE designing these free patterns for the website. I'm so relaxed while I'm doing them. Not tense at all. Nice.
But it's not easy designing stuff as I'm sure you can understand. It takes practice. I used to tell myself that I would never, ever design anything because "I'm just not a designer" I told everyone. I actually said that to my friend Alison (yes, THAT Alison Green Will, Super-Knitter, Super-Designer, of J. Knits Lace-a-licious! Yarn Artemis Stole fame). And she said, "Of course you can! It's just that no one ever showed you how".
Ok. So that stuck with me. She actually thought I could design stuff and I didn't! My lack of designing confidence well, it gnawed at me. It annoyed and ate at me to the point where I FINALLY decided to jump in and design something!
So I decided on a sock (see our Tennis Sock pattern). I sat down proudly with my yarn and needles and cast on. First problem: I need to make some sort of sketch somewhere so I know what I'm doing!! But I can't DRAW!! Not even stick people! Uh-oh! Another lack of confidence thing having to do with pattern-writing. And for those of you who know me, I don't lack confidence in most things. But this? This was just nuts.
To make a long story short and many patterns and hundreds of sketches later, I no longer have pattern-writing fear. Thank goodness!
I'd love to have a blog like so many others where they show you beautiful sketches to go along with patterns they've written. I just read one recently from a well-known yarn and pattern company's designer. Her sketches were so pretty. Mine are not!
If you've read the title of this week's post, you will find that it's FREE PATTERN Saturday! I thought that January was going to get away from me without a pattern upload but that wasn't the case!
Here it is:
And here's the ugly sketch that s
parked the design:
parked the design:Ha! It doesn't even really match. I changed the lace inset and omitted the lace trim but you get the idea! And, I sketch in the strangest of places: on napkins, placemats, cardboard. Anything! If something comes to mind I have to stop what I'm doing and draw it. I draw with crayons because, of course, my life is dominated by color! Can't draw with an ugly pencil unless it's a colored one and they are never around when I need them! Then I tend to lose the sketches for a while. I'll find them crumpled in piles a month later! See how hard sketching is?
But I love the top of this hat. The design looks like a wavy starfish. You can see it at the top of the post.
This hat uses 1 skein of our Baby Me Camel Yarn and the color shown is San Jose. I love that color! And the Camel yarn is so soft, and so warm. LOVE IT! If you haven't tried this yarn yet, you should! You'll love it! It's definitely a luxury fiber at a non-luxury price!
The hat was a challenge because I really wanted it to meet several criteria:
1. Long enough to go down over the ears. It is a HAT after all! If it doesn't cover your ears, what good is it?
2. Use only 1 skein. That's only 100 yards to work with on a size 8. Can't go up a size either. Nope! Then the stitches would be too big.
3. Loose fitting so hat head is at a minimum.
And, I am proud to say after ripping it out about 10 times and fixing it, it does all these things!
You can download the FREE pattern by clicking here.
Have a wonderful week!!
Have Fun & Knit Safely!
Julie
J. Knits
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