Category: test knitters

The design I have been working on since February has been tech edited and it now has a name: Shearwater.   A shearwater is a seabird; it is also the name of a lake and a resort.  It makes me think of the sea – the smell of saltwater and the sound of seagulls.  Who knows, perhaps even a selkie is sunning in a cove nearby.

I mentioned before the similarites to the Ethereal Sweater, with the major difference being that it has no stranded colorwork.  Only one color is ever worked at a time, and the colorwork is created through the use of slipped stitches.

The sweater uses a main color (Dragonfly Fibers Pixie in Captain Nemo) and 10 solid/ semi-solid contrasting colors, along with one variegated colorway.  The variegated colorway magically ties the rest of the colors together and adds an extra something special.  It really makes the sweater sing!

Fading is the technique used to blend the colors one into another.  It’s really quite fun to do, and instructions are included, of course.

The hem and sleeve cuff are worked in another slipped stitch pattern that almost looks woven.  This hem makes me very happy.

If you are interested in testing, please go to Shearwater Test on Yarnpond to get the details and to sign up if you wish.

---

A very different type of test knit will be coming soon, the Hollywood and Vine Shawl.  This design is part of a designer collaboration, so it will be top secret until the collection is published.  We will test it over on Yarnpond as well.  It has cables and some wonderful Japanese stitches, as well as a picked-up border.  I can share a glimpse of it here.

And finally, the 2023 pumpkin design has revealed itself to me.  (It really is a thing…it’s like with authors whose characters have conversations with them….)

…Anyway, the yarn is purchased, and as soon as Hollywood and Vine is sent for tech editing, it will be on the needles.  It will have two or three colors, but they’ll be treated more like color blocks than any kind of colorwork, and this will be the color at the base – I really can’t wait to get started!:

---

Ahh, happy to be dreaming of pumpkins!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo
Carol

 

Hello dear friends,

The test-knit for Little Ethereal is open on Yarnpond.  I could still use a couple of testers, if anyone is interested.  Sizes 4-6 yrs and 8-10 yrs are still available.  You can find the test here.

I really love how this little sweater turned out.  It’s just so tiny in this little 0-6 mo size.  As it approaches the larger sizes, the proportions become more like those in Ethereal.

Also, I have improved the pattern shop here on Knit Equals Joy.  I realized after the previous post that you would need to know what you were looking for in order for the previous shop to be very useful, and even so, the drop-down boxes were a pain to use.

The new and improved shop is now found by using the Pattern tab in the navigation bar.  You’ll now see all the patterns at once.  Hovering over each thumbnail provides the pattern name.  There is now a search bar, and you can also filter by tags if you’d like to see all the pumpkin patterns, for instance, or all the lace patterns.  Clicking on the photo will take you to the pattern page with the description of the pattern and the capability to buy now or add to a cart.  Since this is so much easier to use than the previous shop, I’d like to offer 25% off all my patterns purchased through this website through mid-August.  Just use the coupon code shopthewebsite2 at checkout between now and August 15th for that 25% discount.

Thank you, as always, for your support.  Please stay safe and well.

xoxo

Carol