You’ll often hear that knitting & crochet are good soothing activities for people with anxiety issues, because it helps them to feel safe and in control. Not so; not so.
Well, not if you’re a designer, anyway. At times I wonder if the good folks out there in the slow making/slow knitting movement have any idea what kind of frenetic mania goes on behind the scenes as the designer creates the pattern that they then proceed to knit slowly and soothingly…
Anyway, not to complain. But things have been just a little crazy around here, and as a result I have a few announcements.
First of all, the Downstream Tee is done!!! I’m super thrilled with the fit and the style of the garment; though I have to admit that when I tried it on after washing and blocking I felt like Kevin of Home Alone using a credit card for the first time—”Wow, it worked!” For this reason I plan on having it thoroughly tech edited before putting out a test call. Therein lieth the hangup—my longtime tech editor is hanging up her tech editing hat and I need to find someone else, and fast. Finding a tech editor that can do garments well is a tricky endeavor already, and this release is a few weeks behind as it is (grading woes…long story).
So in any case, it’ll be a little while before I can put out a test knitting call, and a little while longer before the pattern comes out. By then it’ll be close to fall weather here in the Northern Hemisphere, and not really the time for summer tees…at least summer will be right around the corner for folks in the Southern Hemisphere. Then again, the sleeves can be lengthened easily; and this would be really cute as a transitional autumn piece. What do you think?
FYI, I did not set up a tripod and do self portraits by a muddy creek. One of my brothers took all the photos of this design for me—thanks, bro! Love you lots!
My next announcement pertains to the crochet shawl design I’m currently working on. Not too long ago I’d shared that I would be doing a mystery crochet-along; sadly, given the current scheduling craziness with the above tee and the upcoming Quiet Bay MKAL with SweetGeorgia Yarns (have you signed up for that yet?), I will not have the time for all the extra promotions and logistics that are required for an MCAL.
However, I still plan to release the design; now y’all will get to follow along and watch it grow! And maybe I’ll do an informal crochet-along for it this fall. If I did, would you be interested? Leave a comment below if you’d like to do a shawl CAL!
As you can see, I’m using two colors of sock yarn: one skein of a solid color and one skein of a gradient. Both of these are SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock. I haven’t gotten to the point where the gradient starts to shift, but I think it’s coming…
Thank you all for your patience with my scheduling challenges! Even though it feels like I should have it all figured out by now, I’m still a young designer by industry standards; I have a lot to learn and grooves to find, and I’m so honored that y’all are here in this little corner of the internet to observe the journey.
