Publishing patterns

CableMabel is getting better slowly but not up to much knitting yet 😦

The big news for me is that I have finished the first 2 patterns of my own and published them.

The first is Opus 301 – this is a variation on CableMabel’s Opus 300 beaded glove. I wanted to use the beautiful motif she had designed for the wrist but to make it like the Indian jewellery that goes over the back of the hand and finishes in a ring on the middle finger. My first attempt was good but I wasn’t happy with the way the edge sat on the wrist or the shape or the way the decreases looked, so I took the brave step or reknitting it. Brave because of the number of beads involved. But by this time my beading technique was pretty good. I also took the opportunity to show off a bit and added a second bead colour into the design. The second knit corresponded with a quiet week at home so was done in no time. Now the pattern is available on Ravelry for £3 as of this week. No buyers yet but it’s so exciting just to see it there 🙂

The second pattern is Opus 600 – this is a creation entirely of my own. CableMabel bought me some Sirdar Salsa as a holiday present and it made me think of Ra Ra skirts in the 1980s, which was my era. I’ve seen ruffles on socks but I wanted to do something outrageous. I was also inspired by Wimbledon to think of socks to wear with trainers or tennis shoes. So these socks are very short with 3 huge ruffles sitting right on the ankle bone. Because they are so short, they are ideal for summer and they can be knitted with 50g of 4-ply, so you can get 2 pairs for the usual 100g. It took me a while to work out how to get the ruffle in the right place – when you knit it, the ruffle comes out on the inside of the sock. When you purl it, the ruffle looks great but better from the top than the bottom. As I normally design and knit toe-up socks this wasn’t ideal. So I decided to knit this one top-down to make the ruffle edge look great. They knit up really quickly as once the ruffle is done, it’s stockinet all the way, except for the lovely fisherman’s rib heel, which is quick and easy and looks great. This pattern is on Ravelry for £3 as well. Lots of people have Favourited it so looking forward to some buyers soon.

Building work is taking over here so there will be a slower pace from Darley for a while. I am playing with an idea using Sari ribbon and another outrageous idea for socks with beads. Not for everyday wear, for sure, but stunning and fun to knit.

The first 4 patterns we published, that were mostly CableMabel’s work, are proving very popular. Opus 100, 200, 300 and 400 are attracting a lot of attention. They are all £3 to buy except 400 which is free.

Catch me on Ravelry and let me know what you think of the new patterns.