I’m  not up to too much. I have some classes scheduled later this week at Michael’s, but otherwise my week is pretty open. I am planning on accomplishing three major goals this week, however: finishing up 4 samples for designs (2 shawls I’m still designing, a scarf in 3 widths that is started, and the Saturn Storm socks I’ve mentioned several times already);   watching a craftsy “learn to design lace socks class” that I bought months ago, and finish putting previously published patterns on all the sites I sell – a task I really dread & as such, procrastinate a lot on! I’m also hoping to get some weaving done this week

What I’m reading: a book borrowed (read that as stole) from my dad, previously read – Hope of Earth

What I’m doing: packing for upcoming vacation, going out to eat & to the movies with a friend later on today, and hopefully doing some letterboxing locally, including replanting a couple of boxes that got lost last year. I’m also planning on making some “healthy” snacks & freezing them for our trip. maybe these cookies

What I’ve been making: constant 12″ charity square making (various patterns), scrap socks, & the aforementioned design samples

What I’m watching: Lost & ST:TNG on Netflix, catching up on Bomb Girls on tivo, and watching too many ‘end of the world’ type of movies

A week ago today, my in-laws took Jon & I, my sister in law Julie & her husband Brian to NYC for a day bus trip for our birthdays. My in-laws regularly go on the bus trip, but it’s the first time Jon & I have gone with them, and the first time we’ve gone to NYC as “adults” – I was a senior in high school the last time I went, and Jon was 15 or 16! Now, we are not at all city people (despite Jon growing up in a small city), but it was definitely an experience! We were dropped off at Rockerfeller Center,

walked to Times Square, walked back to Central Park (visiting a lot of stores along the way),


spent most of the day in Central Park,

including going to the zoo & seeing the Ice Age 4D movie, walked back to Times Square to eat at Planet Hollywood,

(I know, it’s a horrid picture! It was worse before editing – my camera hates indoor photos!)
only to walk most of the way back to Central Park to pick up the bus! Talk about a long day!

First, a simple pair of scrap cotton socks

toe up, 64 stitches, cotton / bamboo / soysilk blends.

My pattern: my own version of “blended” socks, where you work one color for a round, the next color for a round, then color a for 2 rounds, color b for 2 rounds, etc., with the occasional fair isle round or two (k1 with A, k1 with B).
I’ve basically given up on the idea of ever finishing the sock yarn afghan – it’s on my bed and is definitely large enough to be used, even though it’s not finished or even “evened out”. So I’ve been knitting through my sock yarn stash. If I ever get motivated to work on the sock yarn afghan blanket again, I’ll just have to do some new swaps or knit more socks for scraps!

My second project is the above granny square slippers. There’s a bit of back story to these slippers.

I had a very, very small bag of very, very small yarn scraps (acrylic & cotton), inherited from my grandmother when she passed away a year ago March. I wanted to make something “special”, but something “usable” as a tribute to my grandmother – and I wanted to be able to make something for my mother & something for me. We went through the list – afghan – way not enough yarn for one, let alone two afghans or even a small throw. Hat – mom doesn’t really wear hats, & I’m not going to wear an acrylic one. Gloves/mittens – same thought. Scarf – same thought. Shawl – same thought.

So I sat on the idea for quite a while (a year actually), every once in a while bringing it up to Jon & brainstorming, when he came up with the brilliant idea of making slippers. And I immediately thought of making granny square slippers, from the granny square book – the first ever crochet book I owned, and one given to me by my grandmother when I was 14 & first obsessed with crochet (though I was taught when much younger). Perfect for using up the small scraps, something we’d both actually wear & use & love, something that would remind us of her.

I grabbed a skein of red heart super saver for the soles so there’d be enough yarn for 2 pairs.

I started working on these in January, planning on making them & finishing them & giving them to my mom for Mother’s Day. I sort of forgot about them for a couple of months, but dug them out & finished them the first week of May & gave them to her last week. I ended up with not enough scraps to make a pair for me, but the remaining scrap yarn went into charity 12″ squares, and I know my grandmother would be pleased with that.

What did you make for Mother’s Day?

First, the Pinecone Square, which is the May CAL square for the ongoing afghan CAL on my Ravelry group, Anastacia Knits Designs. It’s free through the end of June.

This square has been a long time in coming. I had actually originally written this as a Pinecone Afghan, with a sample made over a year ago. But the afghan didn’t lay very flat after it got about 2 feet wide, and the pattern directions were ridiculously complicated. I kept telling myself to rework it, and rework it I did, but the directions remained ridiculously complicated. Some things, like sweaters and cardigans, need complicated directions because you are making a complicated item, but afghans? nah, I want something fun and easy to memorize. So after more thought, I decided to turn my afghan idea into a 12″ square, and this is the result.

I don’t normally design one color squares, but at least now you know why I designed this one!

Next is the Free Spirited Shell Shawl – try to say that name 3 times fast! It’s a sideways shawl, worked in any weight / any gauge, and made to any size. I made one sample using Knit Picks Chroma in Fingering weight and another in Red Heart Super Saver.

the chroma

and the red heart

Pattern is only $4.50.

You know yesterday when I said I had published five patterns already for the month of May? Well, actual I was a liar – it was six.

Whew!

So I’d like to share with you my latest crochetvolution patterns… first, the Summer Triangle Shawl

The summer triangle shawl is an usually shaped triangle shawl – it’s a triangle, but not the normal, pretty, perfect triangles you see. This one is a triangle with different angles…

You can sort of see what I mean in this photo

and second, something different for me, a tapestry crochet water bottle cover, called Thistle Water Bottle Cover (thank you Melissa for coming up with such a great name!)

it was so hard taking photos of both of these projects! As I mentioned, these are both for the summer issue, and well… trying to take summer shots with snow on the ground was not easy! Luckily I was able to sneak the shawl photos in a couple of days later, after the snow had finally melted!

I’m sorry I disappeared for the past couple of weeks – I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since I’ve chatted with you! I’ve been so busy with real life stuff and lots of designing & behind the scenes action! *grin* The best news however, is news we just got on Wednesday: that Jon does not need surgery! Yay! Life can finally start to move forward!

So first, a finished pair of summer socks (scraps of cotton / bamboo / wool / soysilk)

(I know, I know, really not the best photos!)

The pattern is loosely based upon the German sock pattern, Fade-In-Fade-Out Socken by Christiane Eichler, converted to my usual toe up.

Next up, a bit of a teaser photo…

It’s my latest scarf design that’s being tested on my Ravelry group right now.

Next, I’ve made a bunch of warm up america blocks – I won’t bore you by showing you every one I’ve made, but I’ll show you two, because they go along with the latest WUA free patterns I’ve posted on Rav.

WUA Group Square

WUA Cdc Square

Tomorrow I’ll share with you my two designs published in the Summer issue of Crochetvolution! (I TOLD you I’ve been busy! whew! Five patterns published in May alone so far!)

First up, MUCH progress on the ASJ – it’s so hard to photograph this as a wip, but I am almost done! I need to lengthen the sleeves, sew the seams, and finish tucking in all the ends. I mainly wove the ends in as I go, but I missed a few. After the cardigan is seamed, I’ll then block it, and after it dries I’ll trim all the ends or weave any in more that might have been missed the first few rounds.

Next up, a pair of scrappy socks, starting with this pile of yarn…

They’re loosely based upon a German sock pattern called Fade in Fade Out socks, but the original is a) in German b) cuff down and c) sport weight yarn. I changed them to my usual toe up formula and I’m using up scraps of “summer” yarn – cotton / bamboo blends.

You work 4 rounds with color A, then 4 rounds of simple fair isle (k1 A, k1B), then 4 rounds of color B, and so on. Since I’m using up some really small scraps in some cases, sometimes I have to fudge a little, but look at how pretty they are coming out so far! Normally when I make “monster” socks, I don’t fuss about matching, but I’m trying to match these somewhat, so I’m trying to use one color on one sock for the 12 rows of the pattern, and then work it on the other foot. I’m not switching colors exactly at the same time, and because I’m using mainly self striping yarn, they don’t match too much, but for me… they are perfect.

Next, I have two design wips that I can share, as I’m self publishing both of them. First, my next pair of toe up socks…

I’m pretty excited about these socks, which I’m calling Saturn Storm Socks (yes, once again I’m naming a pattern for the storm when I wrote up the design!) Why am I so excited about a pair of lace socks? Well, I charted the lace pattern all by myself! The pattern is being tech edited so we’ll see what she says about my chart! It’ll be available for testing shortly, and purchase after that!

Next up, a new sideways asymmetrical crochet shawl, called the Free Spirit Shell Shawl.

Perhaps you recongize the yarn? It’s Knit Picks Chroma in fingering. The shawl is made sideways and is a simple 2 row repeat, and after the last pattern repeat is worked (crocheting until you are almost out of yarn), you work the one row border. It’s slightly asymmetrical, meaning it’s not a perfect triangle shape, which to me just adds to the charm.

Shawl is currently being tested in my group & will be available very soon!

Do you remember the white lace afghan I’ve blogged about a couple of times?

Well, not only is the afghan done, but the design is now published as well! I’ve been calling it the Nemo Afghan because I wrote up the pattern (and did all the math for the different sizes) during Nemo, but didn’t want to actually publish it with that name because I also wrote up a square that day & I publlished it as the Nemo March Square. Because the two designs are completely unrelated, I definitely didn’t want to use the same name for two separate designs, so after brainstorming, I finally came up with the Flowerpot Afghan.

Do you see little flowerpots?

Like I usually do for my afghan designs, the pattern is written for four sizes:

preemie 24” by 24”
small lapghan / toddler sized 32” by 32”
small afghan (twin sized bedspread) 49” by 72”
large afghan (full sized bedspread) 60” by 84”

Afghan requires Red Heart Super Saver yarn, 100% acrylic worsted weight yarn, 7 ounces (198 grams), 364 yards (334 meters), 2 (3,6,7) skeins needed.

If you prefer to use a “one pound” skein of yarn such as Caron’s One Pound, you need 1 (1, 3, 4) skeins to complete the afghan.

Afghan is now for sale on Ravelry, Craftsy, Shop Delighted, and Etsy, and soon to be listed on Patternfish. I’ve also listed the pattern on Crochetville, which now sells crochet patterns by independent designs! I’m slowly listing all of my designs.

Celebrate the End of Winter Blues was designed for my year long afghan square CAL on Ravelry.

and It’s a Cluster Square.

Purple Square made by one of my testers, pandastamper

It’s a Cluster Square was designed for the Afghans & Blankets ongoing square CAL. This is year two of the CAL. The first year we brought out a new square to crochet every week, and this year we’re working a little slower by crocheting a new square every two weeks. This is the second time one of my squares was chosen for the CAL but the first one I designed specifically for the group.

Both patterns are free through the end of May & then the price will be $2.25 each.

I greatly, greatly enjoyed making this though unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the pattern & I never plugged the info into Ravelry, but it’s one of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s designs from her garter stitch book, published after her death. It’s a genius design, as are all of hers, and I adored making it. After I finished I tried it on & it fit perfectly… but when I took the modeled shots… Well, see for yourself.

From the front…

Not bad, right?

But from the back…

or from the side…

clearly, it’s too big .