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I promised that my next sock pattern would be toe up and would feature colourwork… I only half lied! LOL!
Socks and sandals for the win! This is the Little Boxes Sock pattern by Summer Lee Knits.
This week’s post is apparently brought to you by knit socks! I’m also really into how sleek our new kitchen vent is. But really it’s all about those rainbow feet.
Remember when Chris used to make knives? He hasn’t had much time to devote to it since Willow was born. Hopefully he’s able to get back into it soon because he’s so talented!
My Gartrell pattern is almost ready!!! I’m excited.
Guys. I’m SHOOK! I consider myself to be a big time sock knitter. I’m someone who always has a pair of socks on the needles. I also consider myself as someone who has designed a hundred socks…. BUT I HAVEN’T AND I AM SHOCKED! I have released exactly 11 sock patterns in 12 years. I don’t even know who I am anymore.
Shall we take a walk down memory lane? I won’t walk you through every single pattern but let’s chat about some of the highlights ok?
This is my free Business Casual sock pattern (Rav link) and one of my all time favourites. I released this pattern in 2011. A decade ago! I’ve knit it a handful of times and I think I’m ready to knit another pair. It looks good in every yarn and has such a classy faux-argyle vibe. Simple to execute but so much impact.
I designed my Patina Socks (Rav link) for the 2013 Year In Colour Club. Oh brother the YICC designs are some of my favourites while at the same time being the most stressful things I’ve ever worked on. You need both the yarn and the pattern to be standouts in their own right while also working together perfectly. They also both need to work as part of a collection of 6 patterns/colourways that spanned the entire year. No small ask!
For the 2014 Year In Colour Club I designed the Cavalcade socks (Rav link). These I’m a really big fan of and I think I’ll cast on a pair again soon. These socks feature such pretty lace but in a simple repeat. Really stretchy and comfortable to wear. Not too much openwork. I’m very picky with my sock patterns. Socks are my happy place and they need to be an enjoyable knit. I love a challenge in other areas of my knitting but for whatever reason I need socks to be fuss-free, which has informed my sock designs a lot.
My Smokestack Socks (Rav link)! These remind me the most of my Rook Sock pattern (Rav link) that I just released last week. Fun story, both my Smokestack Socks and my Business Casual sock patterns were designed for my dad! I try to knit him a pair of socks every Christmas and I had a bit of a designing streak for a while where I would design his Christmas socks too. Finding fun man-sock patterns can be a challenge so I’m always keeping the boys in my life in mind when I’m scheming up a new sock pattern. I LOVE these socks. They are so crisp and clean and textural. Sock knitting heaven. I released these in 2014 shortly after my Brixter Hat pattern (Rav link) which remains one of my all time favourite hat patterns as well. Is it time to put this motif on a sweater? I love it!
Lavanderia (Rav link)! I love these socks. They are so pretty. I fell hard for this motif and used it on this pair of socks in 2017 and then used a slightly different version of it on my Skylights Sweater (Rav link) pattern in 2020. I’m currently thinking about a Skylights “light” (working title) for a t-shirt version knit in fingering weight featuring this same motif.
Last on my list to talk about today is my Trusty Toe Up pattern (Rav link). Friends, I vow to design more toe up sock patterns! I really mean it. I released 2 basic sock pattern, one toe up and one top down and the toe up is knit twice as often according to Ravelry. I knit so many of my socks toe up but this is my only toe up pattern! Why? Beats me. I’m vowing to fix that. I’m also vowing to add some colourwork to my next (toe up) sock pattern. Because none of my sock patterns feature colourwork! Why?
Well, thank you for humouring me with this little look back over my career as a sock designer. I do love knitting socks. Knitting happy little socks just makes me feel good. I am so picky about what I look for in a sock pattern and put a lot of pressure on myself to only design patterns that I would personally want to knit - and when it comes to socks I have such a strict criteria that it can be daunting. But, that criteria has just expanded to include colourwork which I’ve recently had a change of heart about when it comes to socks so a whole new world has just opened itself up to me and my sock loving heart! I already have a plan. Stay tuned!
Today I’m happy to report that I’ve published a new sock pattern! Voila the Rook Socks available on my website here (CAD) and on Ravelry here (USD). This pattern is on sale for 20% off until the end of the day on Monday. No coupon code needed! These socks are hypnotically satisfying to knit. The 12 row repeat is easily memorized and flows effortlessly off the needles. They are full of yummy texture, are stretchy and cozy and are graphic enough to let almost any yarn shine. I’ve knit samples in both a gradient and a speckled yarn. They would also be beautiful in a tonal. Have fun with it!
A few finishing touches are going in to the kitchen and this custom barn door our contractor made for us has added so much! It’s a work of art!
I made this quick easy “all season” salsa this week and it was delicious. 10/10 recommend!
I washed my makeup brushes this week. I will not tell you how long it’s been since the last time I did this.
This is my end of the sofa at all times. The Little Boxes Sock pattern was released this week!
One more shot of the Rook Socks I knit for Chris out of Shireen’s beautiful gradient yarn. I have enough beautiful gradient left to knit myself a pair of socks! You can see I’ve cast on already in the photo above.
Oh boy. I could knit with this collection of mohair for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy! This week’s update kinda came together by accident but I’m so thrilled with the direction it ended up taking. It’s May. Can you even believe it!? For me that means looking towards the summer. We always take a solid 6-8 weeks off in the summer, either to spend time with our family in Nova Scotia or, in the case of last summer, to prep to buy and sell a house. How relaxing does that sound!? Not.
This year we have no idea what the summer will hold but we know that we will be doing our very best to fit in some R&R one way or another. So…. what does that have to do with May? Well, call me optimistic but May means that we’re officially close enough to summer that we can start counting down by weeks rather than months! So, with only a “few” weeks left until summer we’re focussing on ready-to-ship updates. We stacked the first third of the year with pre-order updates and now we’re switching gears. When we do pre-orders I like to allow for a solid 4-6 weeks turnaround time and as the countdown to the summer commences that window just disappears. So, ready-to-ship updates it is! I’m hoping to have a new inventory in the shop every week. I’m aiming for Wednesday’s at 9am ET.
This week I told Chris to “dye a bunch of mohair in a bunch of colours” and this is the selection he came up with! There are a few more colours that didn’t make this photo only because I was running out of space and they didn’t flow quite as nicely but this is the meat of potatoes of the available colourways. Isn’t she dreamy!? Tomorrow’s update will also feature a bunch of PureWash fingering weight yarn as well as a few odds and ends in different bases that I’ve had hanging around the office. I’m trying something a little bit different… I’m including the speckled colourways as part of my regular yarn listings. So if you’re looking for fingering weight yarn you’ll click on fingering and you’ll see all of the PureWash fingering we have available to order. All of our Core Collection colourways plus any speckles and OOAK’s will all be in the same listing. I’m hoping this simplifies things!
I have had countless, and I seriously mean that I’ve honestly lost count of the amount of ways I’ve tried organizing the shop, and no matter how super clear I think it is there is always room for improvement. My goal with the shop is for it to be easily accessible to everyone. You don’t have to be a TFA super fan or understand a complex system of updates and member only secrets in order to figure out how to place an order. That’s also my mindset when naming yarn bases, PureWash Fingering, DK, Worsted, Chunky and Sock may not be the most creative or cute names out there but even if you’re not familiar with my business or my bases you can find the weight you’re looking for fairly quickly. So, to shop, you go to SHOP, then YARN, and that’s it! I used to separate the Pop Up Shop from our Core Collection but I get why it could be confusing. So they’re all together now. I have to admit, I still get the occasional email from someone all in a tizzy because my website is so confusing and they don’t know how to navigate to my shop and I have to find a way to send them a reply that says “Click on SHOP” without sounding condescending… which is a real skill!
Sidebar - I’m so happy that I’m back to blogging again and I have a venue to come and write all this nonsense about shop organization. Thank you for being here for it!
So… shop update on Wednesday and then later this week: Rook Socks pattern! This is the first sock pattern I’ve published in a long time and it has me excited. I’m in a sock kinda mood!
My Rook Sock pattern will be published on Friday. Get your sock yarn ready!
Always match your socks to our sweater! New sock pattern coming out next week.
I’ve cast on 2 new pairs of socks using yarns from this little collection of colourways. I’m gearing up to cast on a third!
I owe you a proper blog post about my latest Rock It Tee!
This is a bunch of Metropolis mohair waiting to be twisted. I have so many pictures like this on my phone! A pile like this is just so tempting.
I’m on the hunt for a go-to lemon bar recipe. Full disclosure, I LOVE the lemon bars that we regularly get from a local bakery and am on a mission to duplicate the recipe at home. I made a batch last weekend but they weren’t quite right. This weekend I’m trying this highly recommended recipe.
I wore my Cumulus sweater yesterday. It’s one of my favourites, it’s so light and comfortable and feels effortlessly chic.
Rowan finished his crystal art earlier this week and it is stunning! This was such a cool project for someone his age (8) with his interests (tigers and crystals).
I cast on (and have since finished!) a new pair of socks this week. A design I’m working on. I always cast on over 2 needles for top down socks for a nice stretchy cuff.
OK, I’ve already talked about my new obsession with baked donuts. I bought these silicone molds and love them. This Fluffy Baked Lemon Doughnuts recipe is the one you need to make! They are light and fluffy and absolutely delicious!!!
Boo for snow in April! Thankfully the snow is almost gone already and I’m optimistic that it’s gone for good now!
On Sunday I posted this quick snap of myself wearing a fanny pack and a hat on Instagram and was delighted at the enthusiasm everyone displayed towards A) my fanny pack of course and B) my Seaboard Sweater! I published this pattern in October of 2018 and had kits available on my website for ages after that. Last year when we were gearing up for our move and re-evaluating how to keep our business manageable throughout, we ditched the Seaboard Sweater kits because they were no longer feeling fresh to me. Fast forward to almost a year later and, you know what they say! Absence makes the heart grow fonder and I have found a new passion for this sweater pattern and the accompanying kits, so they’re back!
It’s actually really fun to see an older design get a boost of love like this. The hard truth is that the majority of pattern sales happen in the first week of a pattern release. That’s been true for me and I’ve heard it echoed by countless designers over the years. There is so much pressure to constantly be releasing new patterns to get that boost in sales and no matter how awesome a design is and what a timeless, classic piece it is, people move on to the next “hot right now” pattern very quickly. I’ve made it a bit of a personal mission of mine to try and highlight older patterns and remind people that there is equal value to be found in older patterns as well.
And this is what I love about being a small business owner. The ability to pivot all the time! Because my business is so small, it’s literally just me and Chris, we are super flexible. I had absolutely no intentions of bringing back the Seaboard Sweater kits this week. I got up on Sunday and my 3 year old put on a navy and white striped dress, so naturally she requested that I wear a navy and white striped dress as well. Sadly I don’t have one so we settled on this navy and white striped sweater as a good substitute. We were heading out to the park and I liked my outfit so I took a picture and shared it. I was surprised by the amount of requests I received for kits and so, bing bang boom! the kits are back!
I often think that life would be more straightforward if I planned out our work in advance. I see so many dyers on Instagram talking about their plan for their entire year and I’m like “whoa! I don’t even have a plan for this week!” Everybody’s working style is different and try as I might I’m just not a planner. I actually think that maintaining the flexibility to do whatever we’re moved to do creatively at any given moment is my own way of feeling in control. I do not work particularly well with deadlines, I am 100% committed to maintaining the joy in my creative practice (which happens to be my job) and for me that means going with the flow. I think that this commitment to keeping things fresh and riding the waves of inspiration as they come is one of the reasons why running this tiny yarn business is still as fun and exciting for me 14 years in as it was when I first started out. Actually, I think things have only gotten better!
So, do it your way. If you’re a planner, plan! If you’re not, that’s ok too! If you’re a small business and were feeling overwhelmed because you’re living and parenting and working through a pandemic and then you decided to move and had to cut back on some things because you were going to have a breakdown and then a year later you feel like you want to bring that sweater kit back, do it! I am all about the pivot.
I posted about the 2 years of wear that Willow has gotten out of this dress/tunic yesterday. It’s amazing!
I bound of the hem of my handspun Rock It Tee last night! Now for the neck and sleeve edgings.
I have never felt more organized! This is the cutlery organizer and this is the knife block I got.
I’m casting on for a new and improved I Heart Aran next. I’ve reworked the pattern a bit and am looking forward to revisiting this old friend before officially releasing the updated pdf.
Wishing everyone a great weekend! We have zero plans. Hopefully we’ll get lots of knitting and bedazzling done!
Pattern: Flutter Buttshirt by Jessie Maed Designs
Yarn: TFA Red Label Cashmere/Silk Singles in Retro.
Ravelry Project page here.
Mods: I opted to omit the hem ruffle and lengthened the body by 3” to compensate. I wanted the hem to just meet the top of my high waisted jeans and it does!
Good golly this top is CUTE! Jessie Maed Designs is making a career for herself designing very cute knit intimates. She’s got plenty of beautiful non-intimate designs as well, and many of her loungewear inspired designs can be worn as outerwear (like the Flutter Buttshirt) but I think it’s safe to say that her collection of almost lingerie inspired knitwear design is so unique and innovative that it deserves a gold star and a mention. This top is part of a set that includes, naturally, the Flutter Buttshorts, which are absolutely adorable if you’re in the market for a knit short. I initially fell for this design based exclusively on the name. Buttshirt. I am very mature. I knit my version in our luxe merino/cashmere/silk single ply yarn in one of my all time favourite colourways, Retro. This top is knit at a loose gauge and I really wanted that beautiful drape so the sleeves fluttered and weren’t too stiff. The super soft and drapey fabric created by this yarn at this gauge is perfect.
A few years ago I started embracing summer knits and I haven’t looked back since. For me it required a bit of a shift in mindset. I would see people knitting tees in wool and think “that’s way too hot for a Montreal summer!” and decide that summer knits weren’t for me. I know that I’m not the only one who thought/thinks that way because I get so many comments from people concerned about the fiber content in my Rock It Tee pattern (merino + mohair) and I GET IT! Here’s the thing: you don’t wear these knits to the beach! You don’t wear them to play tennis. You don’t wear them on the hottest, stickiest, most humid days of peak summer. You wear them in the spring and fall, on cool summer evenings, on days when you’ll be in air conditioned spaces all day… I live in Montreal where summer temperatures are over 30°C with 100% humidity and I still manage to find plenty of opportunity to wear my summer knits.
And of course, there’s always the option to work your summer knits in something other than wool! We’re gearing up to have our linen/silk Willow base back in stock by the end of the month and there are lots of non-wool summer yarns out there. If you still don’t like the thought of a wooly summer knit, don’t let that stop you from knitting a summer wardrobe, explore new fibers!
Here’s my biggest tip for comfortable summer knits: breezy pits! Yup. That’s the secret. Pick a garment style and a size that has some built in ease so you don’t get any bunching in the armpits. The Flutter Buttshirt has a fairly open armhole, though the ruffle keeps it from gaping, it’s super comfortable and easy breezy and goes a long way towards making this top totally wearable even on warmer days. It doesn’t cling to the body, the fabric flutters around your torso. The neckline is quite open. It’s light and airy and delightful!
I think that this is my first crop top and it’s a conservative crop at that. I’m 37 tomorrow and not particularly interested in flaunting my midriff at this point in my life. This top is kinda pushing it for me but it’s just long enough that it meets the very top of my high waisted jeans and doesn’t rise up too high if I raise my arms. I wanted to experiment with the copped look, but if I didn’t I would have just added a few more inches to the body and done a front tuck instead. Don’t let the crop scare you! This would be super cute as a longer top with a statement sleeve. It could also be layered over a tucked in tank to still be cropped and swingy but with a bit of extra coverage and security from the tank.
I’ve previously knit the Ripple Bralette by Jessie Maed and am thinking of casting on the Outlined Tank next. Hooray for summer knits!
Last week we spent $15.99 at Canadian Tire and bought this swing to hang from the huge maple tree that graces our front lawn. It was the best $15.99 we’ve ever spent! I had no idea the kids would be so into it. It has become the centre of all their play and it’s just the most wholesome, sweetest thing you’ve ever seen!
She smiles from ear to ear (and giggles!) the entire time she’s swinging!
He has probably clocked 20 hours on the swing already!
He's getting too big for this! He turned 8 last week. Can you believe this was 8 years ago!
I recently bought some silicone donut molds and made baked donuts for the first time. I used this recipe but then whipped up a quick vanilla glaze and packed on the sprinkles - next time I’ll do the cinnamon sugar because I bet it would be more delicious but the kids were very excited about the sprinkles. Make no mistake, these are no yeast based fried donut, but they are adorable and super quick and easy to make. More of a cupcake in donut form and that’s loads of fun!
A new FO waiting for it’s official photoshoot. This one’s a real cutie!
Have a great weekend everyone! We will be spending it swinging and hopefully baking some more donuts.
Last spring I released my Rock It Tee pattern and it became my best selling pattern by a landslide! I love this Tee and am thrilled that you all seem to like it too. I knit 3 last summer and I can’t fight this feeling that I’ll be casting on for another one soon. Because I’m optimistic that summer knit season will soon be upon us I’ve put together a Rock It Tee Kit Pre-Order that will go live tomorrow morning at 9am ET and remain open for as long as we can manage, hopefully through the end of the week.
I’ve put together a few new colours for this update - that Plumtastic in the bottom left corner of this collage is calling my name! I hope to continue to have Rock It Tee kits available (maybe in a different assortment of colours) in the coming months. Rock It Tee kits for everyone!
I started off this blog post by boldly stating that my Rock It Tee pattern was my #1 selling pattern of all time. Which is a big statement considering it’s not even 1 year old and I have some patterns that have been slowly and steadily collecting sales for over a decade. My 3 top selling patterns are Rock It Tee, Camaro and Sproutlette Dress - and Rock It Tee has sold more than Camaro and Sproutlette combined. I had to go and check my Ravelry stats in order to confirm that, it’s not something that I keep track of. I design and knit what I want, not what I think will sell, that feels like a recipe for an unhappy life (but also a luxury seeing as how designing isn’t my full time gig). The success of this pattern came as quite a shock to me and prompted me to think about what made it stand out. I have not designed many summer knits and I was living under the impression that there wasn’t that big of a market for them. I thought that most of us knitters like warm wooly cozies and summer knits were more “niche”. I still think that winter wear is more prolific in the knitting industry, but because of that maybe there is a lack of summer knitting patterns? Maybe I was filling a need I didn’t even know existed.
I also think that the use of mohair in this pattern - though highly controversial to some! - played a big roll in its success because mohair is HOT right now for sure, it adds interest to a simple shape, not to mention contrast and texture. And it just looks so damn dreamy! It adds an ethereal quality to a simple tee that elevates it and what’s not to love about that?
Another thing I think this design has going for it is the fact that it is a simple, universally flattering shape with just the right amount of detailing to keep it interesting (eyelet increases and neat i-cord edgings). This tee looks good on every single body and I love that about it.
Being sleeveless and knit in fingering weight yarn it also requires a very low yarn investment compared to most garments. The 4 smallest sizes can be knit with a single skein of fingering paired with a single skein of mohair. The remaining sizes require 2 of each base. Because of the stripes it’s perfect for stash diving. Who doesn’t have 2 single skeins that pair well together just waiting for the perfect tee pattern to come along?
And the last thing that I have to mention that maybe had the largest impact of the success of this pattern is the LYS support it received. I was completely unprepared for the impact that LYS hosted KALs and LYS’s and other indie dyers putting together kits would have. This pattern is so “kit-able”, and as a dyer/designer it’s something that I’m super aware of because every single time I release a pattern I am bombarded with requests for kits. Not every pattern is well suited to kits. Sized garments in particular are a bit of a nightmare since every size requires a different amount of yardage and that makes inventory management a total shit show. The Rock It Tee only needs to be available in 2 sizes, you need 1 skein of each base or 2 skeins of each base. Since I used the same colour in both fingering and mohair for my sample it makes choosing colours even easier. You don’t have to be an expert in colour theory to put together a set that will work. It’s basically foolproof!
I absolutely loved seeing LYS’s and other hand dyers putting together kits for my pattern. You might think that because I sell kits myself and because I’m a hand dyer I could be weird about that? No? That didn’t occur to you? Well, good! Because it’s not weird at all! In fact it’s absolutely amazing. Seeing other dyers support me and my business by promoting my pattern and promoting their yarn at the same time was new to me and such a thrill! I want more of that. It felt really good to be supported in that way.
So, there you have it, so many thoughts about my Rock It Tee pattern and I didn’t even get into how lovely it is knit in linen! More on that next time I guess. I hope it’s sunny wherever you’re reading and that you’re as excited for summer knit season as I am. And if you’re in the mood for a Rock It Tee kit, I’ll see you tomorrow!
The sweetest play kitchen made just for us by our great contractors.
I’ve got bins full of Speckled Iris mohair for our Love Note Sweater kits!
Retro on Red Label Cashmere/Silk Single ply. Chef’s kiss!
Who doesn’t love pockets!?
So happy we found these quartzite slabs for our kitchen! Dare I say they are the star.
