Swatching hearts

My creative juices have been flowing lately and this past weekend was no exception. I was busy making swatches, writing down ideas and looking through my inspiration files (now digital, not torn out pieces of paper all over my house... what a mess that was!). 

I've had hearts on my brain lately, and not just because Valentine's Day is around the corner. Little S and Big S have helped me through a very tough time these past few months. They have such big hearts... it makes me smile just thinking about them. They have shown me so much love - it melts my heart. This is my expression of all that love.

Great resource for knitting books...

No, it's not a secret website or bookstore... think more local than that. Yes, your local library! Have you checked out your local library's collection of knitting books yet? If not, I highly encourage you to get online and see what's available in the catalog. 

These are the books I currently have checked out. Now, I live in a decent sized city, so I can request books from quite a few libraries in my system, but I never would have imagined the selection to be so good. In the past I have checked out stitch dictionaries, books about Estonian lace, color-working and finishing techniques. And the best part of it all... it's free!!

Another pattern! Lana Poncho over at Petite Purls

That's right... I finally get to break my silence and announce my Lana poncho pattern is in the Winter 2011/2012 edition of Petite Purls! It always so difficult to keep projects like this off the blog until the magazine goes live, but I managed to hold off all pictures and talking about it.

Lana is a stylish poncho, with a chunky cable motif and a matching belt to tie it all together. It's knit from the bottom up in one piece, using a tweed yarn to make the fabric visually interesting. Best of all, this and all the patterns at Petite Purls are free!

Check out Lana Poncho and all the other wonderful patterns from this issue!

Wishbraid Pattern

Introducing wishbraid -- the headband, bracelet, anything you wishbraid. Perfect for selfish AND gift knitting.

Sometimes my inspiration hits me and I can't think about anything else. This was one of those patterns... I usually wear my hair in an elastic headband to the gym and was noticing that my hair looks darn cute when I wear it like that. But I'm in gym clothes, which are not so cute. I thought to myself, "now wouldn't it be nice to have something like this that I could wear in my hair with cute clothes... wait, I knit... I could knit something". And the rest is history. The great thing about this pattern is that it could be modified so many different ways to be a bracelet (included in the pattern), a belt, a necklace... 

What do you wish wishbraid to be?

Please note: I managed to omit the last row's instructions when I posted this pattern originally. The corrected file name is wishbraidv1.pdf.  Please download again if you have the old one!

wishbraid pattern page

::Sneak Peek::

Earlier this week I had this idea pop into my head and it was one of those ideas I couldn't stop thinking about. So, I pulled out my needles and some stash yarn and I knit... can you guess what it is?

As soon as I can get Big S to take some pictures of me wearing it (have you guessed yet?) I'll publish it as a free pattern. It's been a while since I posted a free pattern!