....and the last part (testknits)

ok, ok....again it took more time than I thought to get back to this little blog (shame on me....)

here is the last part of the testknits i did

 

pattern. xanti by Hanna Maciejewska

yarn. unknown fingeringing weight from cone (merino blend)

did mine with cap sleeves and an A-Shape rather than waist shaping, also omitted the contrast colors for the hems

 

 

pattern. forever-more by Justyna Lorkowska

yarn. wollerey-schura-silk held together with holst-garn-titicaca

no major mods, i only added 1 short row section to each half of the shawl due to a slightly tighter gauge.

  

pattern. cathedrale by polo sylvie

yarn. ice-yarns-pure-alpaca 

i'm still in doubt that i can wear this bright colour....

 

 

pattern. zippety by Hanna Maciejewska

yarn. midara-angora-2 in light grey + holst-garn-coast---uld-bomuld in col. marlin (which resulted in an adorable, stunningly perfect greyish blue!!!!)

some mods to make this more "me"

shorter body

shorter zipper at the side "seam" (no front zipper)

no front pattern - plain St st for mine ;)

broken rib pattern at the sides from underarm to bottom 

...

still so much work to finish (deadlines over deadlines...)

but we currently do a testknit for this one in the group

 

and i need to say, this is so much fun (no pressure, no obligations, pure designers heaven - relaxing and fun)

after all the designs i did for companies, mags, books (the most of them secret ones with release dates later this year or in the beg of the next year)....testing the ones for self-publishing makes me feel like "coming home"

love,

isa m.

 

KC and WalkCollection

...finally the pattern for KC [Kynance Cove] is published!!!!
i had so much fun with the testing ladies (...and it's way easier
to launch a test in my ravelry group, than thought ...;)
Thank you, Ann for pushing this through ;)

please, please check out all these wonderful, fantastic, uber beautiful, amazing,.....projects 
i cannot say how much i loooove every single one of them!!!!



Cathrin from WalkCollection will have a shop update today 9 pm,
with adorable yarn kits (with pattern) for pre-order

the yarn kits are up, go and grab your yarn here in the shop

maybe you'd like to have a very first look ????

...aaaaand there will be a KAL (what???? a KAL!)in the group
starting 04/01, ending 05/31 and as this is the first KAL i host, everyone (YES! everyone) who finishes by the date will win a free
pattern (all of my patterns are eligible)

so come on ladies (and gents, of course ;)
join the fun here in the group 


have a great day

isa m.

....more stripes

don't know how to explain my love affair with stripes
i think i am addicted!!!!

last december Cathrin from WalkCollection offered me to use
her yarns for a new design - i sent her some sketches and we
decided to go with a casual, striped (....how extraordinary ;)
henley that matches her wonderful BFL dk 

then the hardest part of the work took part - deciding on colors!!!!

i had several combinations in mind, like:

• hey grey - pebbles - chartreuse
• sand - straw - pink candy
• secret - powder - masala

but finally we went with

• cement - tobacco - moana

and i absolutely loooove how this turned out.

the yarn itself is a pure pleasure to work with. soft and sturdy

with excellent stitch definition...and though i had so much other

things to do, this sweater went off my needles in no time...

my lovely testknitting ladies are currently testing this beauty

 - you can see some very, very promising sneak peeks in the 

testing thread of the group

while writing this post a thought crossed my mind.....

there are a few (maybe a little more..) testknits i didn't show

hmmmmm....i really need to get a better organization...

we'll see, maybe i can show these the next days  ;)

isa m.

latest testknits part 3

now to the last two testknits i lately did...

i had the pleasure to knit another adorable boxy sweater for
my dear jo 
worked from the top down, with an amazing tubular cast on
(can you image that this was the first time i did a tubular cast on in my knitting life????)
skinny sleeves and plenty of ease for the body

after working with this beautiful handdyed green yarn
which i used for miyayo's Lin-Lin Shawl 
i was in need of a sweater in this color!
so i spend some time with undyed fingering and some ashford dyes
and here we are:

the only thing i changed was to shorten the body (only a little 

this time - final length from underarm 41 cm)

and i did a different bottom ribbing - just for fun

pattern. boxy-and-buttony by Joji Locatelli

yarn. wollknoll-kammgarn-20/6 (dyed with ashford dyes)

think i will wear this to dead! .... love, love, love my new sweater

the last testknit i did was an asymmetric triangular shawl

designed by sylvie (poloetcie on rav)

this shawl is very light and absolutely cozy and soft

the pattern will be available in cooporation with WalkCollection

in late september

pattern. la havane by Polo Sylvie 

yarns. holst-garn-samarkand and midara-silk-mohair and some

unlabled lace weight silk-cashmere blend for the lace section

now....i think i am ready with all those beauties i forgot to mention here....

the next tests are on the needles...

have a nice sunday ladies ;)

isa m.

latest testknits part 1

.....there is definitely too much going on in my life
to post more regularly....sorry 
yesterday i was looking through my rav notebook and saw
that there are many, many testknits i didn't mention here..
today i have a little free time (though i have my needles
waiting for me) and thought it would be nice to post about them

funky grandpa is one of the coolest cardigans i own...

i love everything about it

the ease

the shape

the stripes (for sure!...hahaha!)

and the overall design

think Rililie has such a great style and this shows

in her amazing designs (currently on my needles: her new jumper design ;)

pattern. funky-grandpa by LaMaisonRililie
yarns. trekking-sport-xxl shown in charcoal grey (sleeves)
trekking-tweed shown in light grey (body)
mille-colori-baby shown in grey-brown-yellow (stripes)


...oh and did you know that ravello is life?

we had an amazing time while testing this pattern
was a pure pleasure to work with all my awesome testknitters!
THANK YOU again ladies!!!!!!!

isa m.

chalkstone pattern

it took me almost 1 year to get this pattern ready to publish!
but now it's done and i really hope that you all like it
as much as i do ;)

....aaaand because some of you waited so long,

the pattern will be only €3.50 till the end of may

get you copy here

now to a few other projects...

emerald test is done and my lovely testknitting ladies

did amazing jobs

the pattern will be published in 2 weeks (june)

working on a more wintry (2 color) version right now - hopefully i will be done with it soon

i also did some testknits lately:

this beautiful tee is called Tschilp and will be part of

Anke's birdsong sweaters

seamless top down construction with a beautiful neckline

pattern. tschilp by ankestrick (soon to be published)

yarn. sur by lanas stop

needles. 3.5 mm

the only modification i made was to shorten the sleeves

......

this one is called v-line designed by svetlana

she asked me 3 weeks ago to test this beauty, but with all

the things going on here i feared not to be able to make it in

time....i told her so and guess what she did?

she sent me the pattern anyway, just in case i would

feel like knitting it

ha!...i tried to ignore the pattern

about 2 weeks i really tried to ignore it

...then i picked up my needles (hahahaha!)

when i first looked at the pattern i could see the stripes

...yes, i could see them!

so there are lots of mods in here:

. no eyelets - i did m1l and m1r increases

. only 2 sts between the increase lines

. started with the numbers of the largest size to get a 

  wider v-neck

. increased to the numbers of xs for shoulder width

. icreased to numbers of size s, cause i was working 

  at a tighter gauge

. added a few more sts to the underarm co, for a little more 

  room at the upper arms

. added more rounds to the bottom due to my gauge

......

this one is currently in testing

i named this marsa-alam 

cause its colors remind me of this place between the sahara desert and the red sea where we spent our holidays the last years

i planned to publish this in july, so please stay tuned ;)

......

and this will be a gift for you (yes! a freebie!!!)

as soon as i have found 1 or 2 speedy testers for it ;)

so come on ladies!!!!

 

a simple, yet effective striped shawl to keep you happy

hope you all have good days

isa m.

way behind

seams that i am always way behind with posting....
so what to do???
today i have some unexpected free time - 
so here we go:

we moved to the new (really, really small) flat
our house is going to be completly boned
one of our cats is missing for 2 days now....
i hope he's coming back...i really hope he's coming back!!!!
my second owlsister is in town for the next month
(she works in austria)
my son will celebrate his 18th (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
birthday in june - lots of preparations
and i am feeling very, very old sometimes....
published il grande favorito and poolside
did some testknits for Joji, Nadia, Justyna, Hanna and laMaisonRililie 
aaaaaaaand (for sure!) cannot put the needles down (hehehehe!)
currently working with my testing ladies
on the patterns for chalkstone and emerald 
and helping my dear Anke with her new designs

cats and moving boxes.....(he's the one who is missing....)

il grande favorito (get your copy here)

poolside (get your copy here)

2 beautiful testknits for Joji's new eBook hopeful knits

testknit for nadia's super cute cardi love potion

testknit of Justyna's new sweater shifting

testknit for hanna

.....and not to forget my very own nuvem 

i did this in a hurry for my wedding....

two other beauties.... both testknits for laMaisonRililie

testknit for anke 

this one's just perfect, so cozy and warm

a great hug-you-tight-knit for everyday!!!!

now working on her newest design....

mine will be striped!!!!

hope you all have good days

xxx

isa m.

alpenglühen pattern

it's done!!!

my first pattern for purchase went online 

wanted to send out a big THANK YOU to my dearest testknitting

ladies! you all did an outstanding job - without your help

i would be lost :)

you can find the pattern here

was so scared about that and I am still scared....

but all went fine so far, ...


till this morning:

i found a mistake in the pattern,

immediately tried to fix it and updated the pattern

aaaand... had some weird technical problems with my ravelry

shop.

once i fixed the problem and sent out the update to all

my customers, i noticed another counting mistake in the pattern - 

how silly is that!

tried to upload another updated version and failed again and again; after several tries i finally got it...phew!!!

i am really sad about that and hope that my customers

aren't too upset about receiving several mails and updates

on only one day (maybe i shouldn't write and publish patterns, seams that i need to improve my skills, or need serious help)


nevertheless i am knitting (hahaha!)
yesterday Joji published her newest cardigan design
that was testknitted in december
so now i am allowed to show you my version of it
(some kind of retro coloured, old school looking cardigan) 

used unlabled yarns out of my stash (you know i need to

pack my house!.. so the goal is to minimize my stash till

april :))

pattern. Ohlala by Joji Locatelli

needles. 4 mm

yarn. unlabled merino/acrylic (80/20) used doubled

.. working through my notes of the refined driftwood pattern

[maybe i shouldn't do so (still feeling bad about my trials

and errors this morning)]

and finished a simple striped sweater

worked from the top down using contiguous method for the sleeves

actually purchased the yarn for some mittens (holiday gifts)

but each time i looked at the skeins i could see a stripy sweater

so here is a little sneak peek

...man,maybe this is the longest post i ever wrote!

think i need to calm down a bit

hope you all have a better day

isa k.

refined driftwood and a sneak peek

a little sign of life....

so busy days over here, that i can hardly save time to
post about those things i spend my time on...(hmmm...)

did a refined version of driftwood lately
fingering weight yarn
fine stripes
more fitted
.....aaaand a little add on to the buttonband
(which i like the best!!)

yarn. kauni effect in col. EB

and kauni solid in col. HH3

needles. 3.5 mm [US 4] and 3.0 mm [US 2 1/2]

pattern. driftwood by (me.. hihihi)

hope to save some time over the holidays to write down

my adjustments, so everyone of you can make one too :)

the next sweater is already blocked, but no modeled pix yet, sorry!

worked the yoke bottom up;

did a provisional co of all yoke sts and worked from that point to top, then unravelled the provisional co and worked the

sweater topdown, to be sure the fit is as good as it should :))

placed the colourwork on the yoke and on the bottoms of the sleeves and the body, like this 

and i loooove it, just cannot take it off (LOL....i can!

cause there are sooo many sweaters to be worn in my closet)

also working on a little test for Jo

(simplicity at its best - a cardi with some colour details)

hope to be allowed to show it soon

stay calm and have bright days

isa k.