Monthly Archives: September 2025

Introducing Fantasia Cowlette

Posted on September 30, 2025 | 6 comments
Woman wearing a hand knit cowl featuring assigned pooling fans

I’m so pleased to publish the Fantasia Cowlette! Fantasia is a fingering weight bandana cowl knit in the round, featuring easy assigned pooling fans on a stockinette stitch background.

Choose a single skein of fingering weight yarn that is dyed for assigned pooling. I used A Chick that Knitz Singles Fingering in Tropical Flowers for mine.

yarn dyed for assigned pooling

The pattern is available through Ravelry and Payhip. Use coupon code FANCY for 15% off the pattern through October 9, 2025. Let’s get knitting for fall!

Reminder: The Knit Your Own Adventure Summit is next week! This free online event will help you be a more confident knitter. Learn more about the Knit Your Own Adventure Summit, and grab your free ticket here (The links to the summit give me credit for you signing up, which is free. If you upgrade your access with an Expedition Pass, I receive a commission. Your choice!)

I’m presenting a segment on frogging your knitting and how to get back on track. And I’m participating in a Zoom presentation on Tuesday, too. Come join the fun!

Onward!

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Posted in events, Knit, pattern design, yarn

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Knit Your Own Adventure Summit

Posted on September 22, 2025 | 2 comments

I’m excited to be part of the Knit Your Own Adventure Summit! This is a free 4-day event where you’ll learn from 20+ top knitting designers who are ready to help you fix your knitting mistakes, tackle challenging techniques with ease, and knit with confidence.

I’m giving a presentation about frogging your knitting. As a designer, I have a lot of experience with frogging. It’s part of my design process. (Rip-it, rip-it, rip-it! Practice makes perfect.)

This summit is free! You can watch the presentations for 48 hours after they go up. You can also upgrade your access with an Expedition Pass, but basic access is totally free.

You can get all the details about the Knit Your Own Adventure Summit over here, but as a quick recap:

  • The summit will run from October 7-10, 2025
  • Each day will be packed with amazing speakers who are ready to help you learn
  • The summit is absolutely free to attend, but you can choose to get the upgraded Expedition Pass for bonus resources and an upgraded event experience

Learn more about the Knit Your Own Adventure Summit, and grab your free ticket here (The links to the summit give me credit for you signing up, which is free. If you upgrade your access with an Expedition Pass, I receive a commission. Your choice!)

Looking forward to it!

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Posted in classes, events, Knit

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Will it go round in circles

Posted on September 13, 2025 | 5 comments

Progress report on my jewelry storage project. I want to hang my necklaces so they don’t tangle.

This circle isn’t quite as big as the embroidery hoop, but it’s going to be stretched while wet blocked. It seems a bit ruffly, and if I fold it in half it’s slightly more than a half circle.

Wet blocking solves that. And the little yarn over holes are a good guide for centering it in the hoop.

It definitely grew when wet. Now what should I do with the excess fabric? I don’t want to keep it looking like a mob cap.

I can turn it to the back and trim it off, but it might still show. Or I could try to glue it to the inside of the hoop. Or I could take yarn and sew across the hoop to hold the extra in back, like spokes on a wheel. That might show through to the front, though. What do you think?

I’ve decided I want a brighter color for my bedroom; the gray/blue isn’t as contrasty as I thought it would be. Also, I think I don’t want it to be a single ply; it’s going to get some bumping and handling as I hang and swap out jewelry on it. So this lovely yarn is on its way to me from Sharon Spence at Garage Dyeworks. It’s a plied MCN blend (merino/cashmere/nylon), colorway April in Paris. I think it’s going to be perfect.

Let’s find out!

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Posted in Knit, pattern design

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Plumside up, plumside down

Posted on September 5, 2025 | 4 comments

Happy birthday to me! I was going to coffee this morning at a friend’s house, and I said I would bring cake. Gotta use those plums! This is my favorite plum torte recipe; you can find it here on my blog. It’s a mash-up of NYTimes, Smitten Kitchen, and Food52. My take on it subs in cornmeal for part of the flour.

Someone mentioned to me that the plums don’t sink as much if you put them cut side up, that the plums turn into a glaze with all that sugar and cinnamon. So I tried it yesterday. (No picture, sorry.) The plums didn’t sink in as much, true. But it looked more like a cake with plums on it, rather than a plum infused cake. Would that make a difference in the taste and texture?

I wanted this morning’s torte to be perfect, so we had to taste it. For science. I knew I had enough plums for two cakes, and I would bake a second torte whichever way I liked better.

plum torte, yogurt parfait, candied bacon, coffee

Cut side down was the clear winner. All that juicy goodness goes into the torte, instead of sitting on top. I baked another one last night. Here’s this morning’s torte, with yogurt/fruit/nut parfaits, and candied bacon (on the green plate).

The things I do for science!

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Introducing Simply Stellar

Posted on September 1, 2025 | 5 comments

Simply Stellar is an asymmetric triangle brioche shawlette, knit on the bias from narrow end to wide end. It features assigned pooling stars. The pattern requires two skeins of fingering weight yarn, one of which should be dyed for assigned pooling.

I knit my Simply Stellar with A Chick That Knitz Deluxe sock in Wildflowers (pooling) and Sassy, a fabulous hot pink.

I designed this shawlette as a slightly simpler version of my Starstruck. Tammy Pelfrey, the dyer at A Chick that Knitz, told me that some people were intimidated by the syncopated border on Starstruck, so Simply Stellar was designed as a simpler introduction to brioche plus assigned pooling. The shaping is very simple, and the yarn tells you when it’s time to make a star.

This pattern is available through Ravelry, link here, and Payhip, link here. Use coupon code SHINE for 15% off through September 9, 2025.

Have fun!

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

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