But for this collection I wanted to do a little something more. Something extra. And then it came to me in a mad rush. What better yarn for a collection called the Seven Sheep than Baah?!?!?!? I’ve been using Baah a lot lately and I love it. The colors, the squishiness. It just all fit. Seven Sheep all worked up in Baah yarn. It was like kismet!

But then I wanted a sheep. My very own cute little sheep to use for the cover of this e-book. The nice thing about being in this business is you get to know amazing talented people. Like Heather Zoppetti. She’s my wholesale distributor, she puts up with my crazy, AND she’s an accomplished graphic artist.

Look at this:

Could it be any cuter? Well yes. We can fill it up with some Baah goodness.

And this is the yarn for the first of the Seven Sheep.  Two skeins of La Jolla in in the Burmese Ruby colorway. The richest, truest, best blue-red I have ever seen. And I am a big red person. Red and turquoise have regular fisticuffs to see who is my favorite, but this red might push me over the edge in red’s favor!

This gorgeous yarn will become Sardinian, the first of the Seven Sheep. It will be released May 25th and is currently only available for pre-order. You can pre-order the pattern for $4.50 or you can pre-order the entire collection for $16.95. The Seven Sheep will include seven shawl and shawlette patterns. Some of them will be one skein, some two-skein. At least one will be two-color – just wait til you see that one!  But all of them will be in my new favorite yarn – Baah!

The same basic set-up for the e-book will apply. Shawls will be released once per month. I’ve set my release date as no later than the 25th of the month. This month’s will come out on 5/25 and June’s will be released on 6/21 to coincide with its debut at TNNA!

So head on over to Ravelry to pre-order Sardinian or to pre-order the entire Seven Sheep collection and come on this new adventure with me! The price of the full collection will go up to the standard $21.95 once the first pattern has been released, but is available until the 25th for $16.95. And head on over to the Baah! site to see where you can buy yarn for these projects. (Psst! If you’re local A Stitch In Time carries Baah!)

Sardinian is available for $4.50 USD for pre-order only

The Seven Sheep can be pre-ordered for $16.95 USD

I am not a big nupp fan. I find them fiddly, and I rarely think the result is worth the effort. Your mileage may vary of course. Some folks adore nupps. Not me. But beads… swoon. Why I haven’t designed with beads yet is beyond me. Really. Why haven’t I? I definitely need more beads in my life.

Brindille is the French word for twig. And the patterning is of course one of the Estonian twig patterns. Why are words in other languages so much lovelier? If I named this pattern “twig” it would just be odd. And slightly guttural sounding. But Brindille sounds very fancy. And fancy it is!

This shawlette is worked asymmetrically – from tip to side edge in Sincere Sheep‘s Agleam yarn in Cumulus. It’s a superwash merino/tencel blend that has an amazingly soft hand and a luminous sheen. The beads are 6/0 seed beads procured from AC Moore in a flat amethyst colorway. They were applied using a fishing line method by the sample knitter, but the pattern calls for a tiny crochet hook – which is how I prefer to do it. You can even string the beads if you like – it’s up to you!

Needles: Size 6 needles (4.0 mm)
Yarn: Sincere Sheep Agleam in the Cumulus Colorway – 412 yards to 4 oz.
Gauge: 20 stitches and 24 rows = 4 inches in blocked stockinette
Size: Approximately 42″ wide and 24″ deep

Brindille is available on Ravelry for $6.00 USD!

Sarla is my new favorite thing. I didn’t actually get to knit this one. I have finally started hiring sample knitters. And my first experience was all kinds of awesome. Her name is Brenda. If you are a designer and you try to steal her things will get ugly. She did three shawlette samples for me. And this is the first beauty!

It blocks into a 3/4 circle kind of shape that is perfect for sitting on your shoulders. And it’s reversible!!!! That’s right. Totally reversible. So only pretty shows no matter what.

Sarla is offered with written and charted instructions. And it’s way easier than it looks! Can you knit? Can you purl? Can you yarnover? Can you pick up stitches? Then you can make this shawlette!

Needles: Size 6 needles (4.0 mm)
Yarn: Sincere Sheep Keen in the Virid Colorway – 460 yards to 4 oz.
Gauge: 20 stitches and 26 rows = 4 inches in blocked garter
Size: Approximately 52″ wide and 18 deep

Sarla is available on Ravelry for $6.00 USD.

If you follow me on twitter you might know I’ve established a new satellite office. This is my office furniture:

I got so much knitting done on the beach last week staring at the ocean and feeling the sand in my toes. Way more than I’ve been able to get done at home lately. The man has had a ton of conference calls lately which isn’t good for movie watching or knitting. But the beach is good for my soul. I cannot wait until the rain stops and I get back out there!

And I know it’s still snowing all over the place. Snow. In May. I lived most of life in Ohio and two years in Nebraska, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen snow in May! So to put a little cheer in your Friday I’m having a sale. Buy One Get One Free Friday! Use the coupon code “beach” and you can buy anything from the PicnicKnits pattern store and get another item for free!

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This my friends is the Ceniza Shawlette, worked up in Classic Elite’s Canyon yarn. Canyon is 85% pima cotton and 15% alpaca, and somehow that fiber blend magically combines to make love and unicorns and glitter. Seriously. It is buttery soft and easy on the hands and blocks like a dream. Perfection.

This is a pattern that is much simpler than it looks – so simple it isn’t even charted! Some slip stitches, some basic increasing and decreasing and you’ve got got a lovely shoulder wrap that goes with anything. It would especially useful for the winter that is seeming to never end – it’s even been chilly down here in Florida.

And the best part? This is available for FREE! I don’t do freebies often, so take advantage of it! Head on over to the Classic Elite Webletter site and you can get your free copy of the Ceniza Shawlette. And if you subscribe to the CEY Webletter you get a free pattern out of their lovely yarns every. single. week. Good stuff!

But I also want to a be a sweater designer. Like Thea Colman. She makes the most beautiful sweaters. I actually have a few sweaters coming out in publications in the future which I am very excited about! But I wanted to streamline my grading process. Make life easier for me and my editors!

So I headed over to Craftsy and signed up for Faina’s Goberstein’s Sizing Knitwear Patterns. It is an amazing resource for folks who want to design sweaters, whether for themselves or for publication. Incredibly thorough, it starts with measurements and swatching – she even provides a very comprehensive set of measurement standards.

I will say, to take full advantage of this class, you really, really need to have access to Excel or some similar open source spreadsheet software. The meat of this class for me is in the spreadsheet tutorials. I’ve set up all the spreadsheets using her handouts and am ready to design a brand new sweater using them.

This gorgeous Anzula yarn – Cricket in the Pesto colorway – is going to grow up to be a lovely short-sleeve summer sweater using the stitch patterns in the swatch above. And I’m going to use Faina’s spreadsheets and grading methods to make everything just right!

So if you’re looking to grade sweaters – whether you are a beginner or even have done a few like me – Faina’s class really does give you everything you need to know to grade sweaters. And the lessons and spreadsheets can be used again and again, so it’s a worthy investment. But lucky you, you can get Faina’s class for 50% off by clicking on this link!

So go, learn how to grade sweaters and watch this space for the new summer sweater I’m working on!

But the reason I was out “in the woods” today was to photograph this beauty. Lawsonia.

It’s a crescent shaped shawlette (why yes I am addicted to these) cast-on and worked in my favorite method with a gorgeous leafy edging and finished off with crochet loops. The yarn is not quite semi-solid and not quite variegated. I guess you would call it a tonal. But the large areas of stockinette and the strong lace motifs stand up nicely to the blues and greens with hints of purple.

Lawsonia is on sale for the rest of this week for 25% off to celebrate it’s unveiling. This baby has been a long time in the works. Circumstances conspired to make it’s original debut untenable but now finally you get to see her.

And in a lucky coincidence a good friend of mine has a new shawl debuting today as well. The Ceili Shawl was supposed to come out with Lawsonia, so we thought it was only fitting that they come out together. They actually use a part of the same lace motif – totally a surprise as they were supposed to be in the same publication – so we’re calling them sisters!

If you comment here on this entry you can win a copy of both Lawsonia and the Ceili Shawl for your very own and you can knit up these lovely sister shawlettes. The winner will be drawn next Tuesday, April 16th. Head on over to Tabetha’s blog and leave a comment there for another chance to win both patterns!

Needles: Size 6 needles (4.0 mm) and size E hook (3.5 mm)
Yarn: Socktupus Sokkusu Original in the Triton colorway (433 yards to 100g)
Gauge: 18 stitches and 28 rows = 4 inches in blocked stockinette
Size: Approximately 60″ wide and 14 1/2″ deep

Lawsonia is available on Ravelry for $6.00 USD 

A little something to keep the chill off during the last dregs of this seemingly interminable winter (yes even in Florida).

Jovia is just right. It’s crescent shaped, with garter stitch short rows and picot-edged lace. It’s good for a beginner with written and charted directions.

Jovia was designed for the Stitch Jones yarn club and is now available for purchase.

Needles: Size 8 needles (5.0 mm)
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh DK (225 yards to 100g)
or Stitch Jones Pure BFL Light Worsted (250 yards to 100g)
Gauge: 14 stitches and 22 rows = 4 inches in blocked garter
Size: Approximately 58″ wide and 12″ deep

Jovia is available on Ravelry for $6.00 USD!

Amy – I’m shooting you an e-mail so I can get a shipping address for your new Lazy Sock Monkey bag!

And in other news here’s a sneak peek of the design that will be going live this Friday. I am really, really loving this edging!

And it is mine. I love the mustaches, I love the red lining, I love the little details, like the mustache ribbon accents. It is awesome and it is my new favorite.

But Lisa is also awesome and she sent me an extra bag. And her awesome generosity could be your lucky day! Because I am doing a giveaway.

I’ve been in a funk lately. And not a funky fun kind of funk. The kind where you are convinced you are useless and a failure as a parent and all sort of non-fun things. So this is how you enter the contest. You make me smile. You tell me something funny or happy or give me a link for a funny picture. Something happy, something good in the comments and you are entered to win this sweet very happy Easter box bag!

The winner will be randomly drawn on Wednesday, March 13th. It has an Easter sheep people! In a pretty Easter egg! Go! Comment! Enter!