Oops, February was over so quickly, that I completely missed to tell you about a new design, released in the current issue of Knit Now magazine: Dragon Scales Shawl.

 The shawl is worked from the top down. It uses the shoulder-shaping and centre back panel characteristic of shawls of the Faroe Islands. The all-over pattern is worked alternating between stocking stitch and Fishermen’s Rib (brioche), creating a look that evokes the scales on a dragon’s back.

The pattern Dragon Scales Shawl is included in Knit Now 152, now available from newsagents, supermarkets and craft shops all over the UK and online from CraftStash or Pocketmags.

Seems I'm still struggling with the winter blues, how else could it be that I finished a KAL running over 8 weeks a day after the last clue came out? Obviously not into thinking up new things these days, but there's just enough energy left to knit from a pattern - and it helped a lot that I really enjoyed the this one. :)

Here's a first pictures of my Cat Love Scarf. Not a very good one (thanks to the weather being plain awful as so often), so it doesn't do the colours justice. I used Black and Cian in of-so-soft Malabrigo Sock and I think this will make a great gift for a cat-loving friend.

If you knit a lot, you eventually end up with big boxes with sock yarn left over from other projects. This year I've decided to knit up some of it and a first step is to  participate in the Scrappy Socks KAL on Instagram. I chose only yarns in 'me colours' (blues, greens, purples) and I think even those few balls are plenty for a couple of pairs. We'll see how it goes.

If you want to play along (and maybe even win a prize), check out every.thing.shapes.us on Instragram for the rules of the Easy Peasy Scrappy Socks KAL.

What better way is there to fight the winter blues that comes from all that grey and dull weather we often have in my neck of the world, than with a  pair of happy and bright socks? These dotty socks have been my go-to pattern for quite a while not only to use up some leftover bits, but also because one can go absolutely crazy with the colours if desired. And now there's finally a pattern available: Crazy Dots.

The socks are worked cuff down with an all-over dots pattern in stranded knitting. The included charts don't give any colour suggestions, but instruct where to change the background and motif colours only. You need at least five different colours of fingering weight yarn, but  you can  choose as many colours as desired to make your socks unique.

The socks in the picture above show six colours and the colours are used in the same place to make a matching pair. The picture below shows socks worked with nine different shades of blue, but only cuff, heel and toe are worked with the same colour. The colours for the background stripes and dots were chosen at random.

The pattern for Crazy Dots, which includes instructions for three sizes, is now available from my Ravelry store, here: Crazy Dots.

Since I noticed the other days that cats are something that make me smile, I chose a second project with a cat motif as my 'waiting project' (between the release days for the clues from the Cat Love Scarf). The pattern is called Cats in the Night and it is included in the Book Wild Mittens and Unruly Socks 2 by Lumi Karmitsa.

I absolutely love how these turned out and I'll definitely make another pair for a friend who loves cats as much as I do. But first I'll tackle another pattern from the book, there are several I like in there.

Oh, just one hint  if you consider to purchase the book: All patterns come in one size only, they are meant for a European size 38. That's my size, but I still had issues since I could't get gauge, especially row gauge. The width worked fine (because a bit of adjustment is possible by changing the needle size),  but the foot length was way too short for me. So I added 10 rounds before I started the toe and I did my best to keep these rounds somehow in pattern.

If you follow my babbling here, you'll probably know that I'm not really a winter person. There's nothing wrong with the cold, but usually winter here means lots of rain and grey and awfully dull days and truth be told, that's really affecting my mood. So not much knitting has happened lately, but I stick to a KAL project I started two weeks ago: Cat Love Scarf by Lisa Hannan Fox.

It is a scarf in double knitting technique and the mystery knit-along runs for eight weeks. We are now in week three and I'm quite happy with my progress. At least something that makes me smile when the look out of the window once again doesn't...

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic start into 2023. May it be a year that has lots of happy moments in store for all of us!

I certainly had some of them already and one of them was a knitting related happy moment: the newest Knit Picks collection 'Unparalleled - Modern Cables Collection' was published on Wednesday and I'm thrilled that two of my patterns were chosen for the collection.

Knots Shawl is a triangle-shaped shawl started at the bottom tip and knitted from the bottom up. All increases are made in pattern. The side edges are I-Cords worked with the shawl; the top edge is an I-Cord knit on sideways to end the shawl.

The idea for this design came from our neighbour’s chain-linked fence which during the summer month is overgrown with Indian cress and very popular with the butterflies. This pattern was inspired by this sight: It uses an all-over cable pattern to form diamond-shaped segments to represent the fence, filled with small butterfly-shaped insertions.

My second contribution is the Crossings Scarf, because I think that cabled scarves are a timeless accessory and can be heirlooms passed down from one generation to the next. This scarf features an all-over cable pattern that forms a diamond pattern on the front and a wave-like pattern at the back resulting in two equally pretty sides.

Cable patterns are the perfect winter knit, don't you agree? Maybe I was able to tempt you to start a new project, so:

Both patterns are available from the Knit Picks website, either as individual download - klick  here for Knots Shawl or here for Crossings Scarf - or as part of the Unparalleled collection, here.

Happy knitting, everyone!

... but not when you look out of the window today: grey, rain, ugh!, more grey and for tomorrow the forecast promises up to 16°C. Not very winterly at all - but it definitely looks like winter when you look at my newest sock pattern: Snowy Morning Socks.

The socks are knitted cuff down with heel falp and gusset in stranded knitting technique. The eye-catching feature is the large snowflake motif knitted on the sides of the leg, which stays the same for all sizes included in the pattern. Adjustments to the size are done with the 'dotty flakes' background pattern.

The pattern includes three sizes and you find it in the latest issue of Knit Now magazine, now available on newstands all over the UK and online, for example from Craftstash, here. So in case your winter weather is the same as here and you long to see snowflakes, here's your chance to create your own ones. ;-)

Happy New Year, everyone!