Framlingham

I am very pleased to announce the arrival of my latest pattern Framlingham 

Framlingham is easy to knit and easy to wear. 

Knit in superwash merino for a little bit of everyday luxury with heat regulating properties that take it from the warmest summer day through to a layering piece for winter.

Worked in one piece on a circular needle in the round, Framlingham is the ideal introduction to top-down, seamless knitting. No DPNs required! The pretty cabling detail that runs down the raglan and side 'seams' doesn't even need a cable needle as it is worked using a simple slip stitch pattern. The garter stitch borders are knitted as you go too.

The pattern is written to make it a quick and enjoyable knit, markers are used to minimise counting and errors. There is just enough detail to keep the knit interesting. It grows quickly in a DK weight and 4mm needles.

The name is inspired by the twisted chimney at Framlingham castle which reminded me of the twisting cables in this top. And the colour of the merino is reminiscent of the heather on the nearby heaths.

Dress it down with denim or dress it up with pretty summer skirt. Layer it with a cardigan over or a long sleeved top underneath, this is a versatile knit.

Because Wendy Merino is great value at just £3.79 a ball most sizes can be made for £26 including the pattern.

Full pattern details can be found on the Ravelry pattern page or the Craftsy pattern page.

Or you can buy it now: 

Photo credits: THANK YOU to my wonderful photographer Kath of Lightbook Photography for the fantastic shots of the top. Thank you to Christy from snapdragonchristy for letting me use her shot of Framlingham Castle. The shot of the suffolk heather is copyright of Throwawayhack used under creative commons license.

Yet more yarn

Now I know that this is all I have posted about recently but with my head (and hands) stuck in super secret projects now and for the forseeable future the only thing I can really share is the lovely scrummy yarn that keeps arriving. Today the DHL man brought me this

A very, very big box of yarn! Now I am not as keen on the DHL man as I am on the postman as he made me pay a customs charge (ho hum it happens and given that the customs charge probably would have bought me about one skein of this lovely stuff at full retail price its not too drastic) 

"What is it?", "Show us the yarn!" I hear you cry. Ok then, why not? This is the only sneaky preview (well maybe some super close ups of the samples in a few months but nothing else) until this little lot gets released in February...

The whole box is sent from Malabrigo Yarns who I'm working with under their Freelance Pattern Project on an e-book of crochet designs.

Design one uses these lovelies

Next design will be in these

Fans of the silky merino will be salvating over these for another design

And Joanne in a rare lace designing mode...

Fair to say I am very very excited and have spent far too much time today fondling the lovely yarn. I must get back to the task in hand and get my crochet hook in hand to work my way towards my current deadline. Its a hard life :-)

Poor postie!

Another day another package of yarn

This time much more than a sweaters worth (and that is the only clue you are getting) of Knit Picks Swish DK, a very lovely soft superwash merino. I wonder what it could be for...

Off to swatch because now the hard work really begins!

Yarn perfection

Its been a rubbish week with illness and writing off bad debts but nothing can raise the spirits of a knitting designer more than a package like the one I received this morning

This is Precious DK from the Natural Dye Studio who kindly supplied yarn support for one of the projects I am working on. Even with my hopeless point and click camera on a dull day the yarn shines and shimmers and practically sings. 

I am putting the clocks forward two hours in order to get the kids to bed sooner so I can wind a ball and swatch this loveliness...

Very good and Very bad

It has been a week of opposites this week in terms of news.

It started off with lots of very excellent news.

some beautiful malabrigo yarn (image from their website) 

Malabrigo a yarn company that sells the most beautiful yarns (if you don't know them I highly recommend going to a stockist (Sheep Shop in Cambridge for instance) and squidging - I dare you to come away without a skein!) has chosen me to do a crochet e-book for them.

They run a Freelance Pattern Project for independent designers where they approve the designs and supply the yarn, post the e-book on their website and promote it but otherwise the designer has creative control and keeps all the profits (what lovely people!) So far all the e-books have been knitting patterns. There will be six crochet books next year with four to six patterns in each one. AND MINE IS ONE OF THEM!

Sorry for the shouting but I am a little bit excited! It was such fun to design a collection of patterns around a theme (which they gave me and will be secret for now) and choosing the yarns to use I was like a kid in a candy shop! My e-book will be available in February next year.

Then I heard that I had a very special submission accepted. I can't say who for but I will say that it is an honour and a privilege and A DREAM COME TRUE! You could not scrub the smile off my face if you tried. I am very excited. Its a bit like finding out you are pregnant because you are so happy and so pleased (or at least I was) but you can't share the news yet.

Then as if things weren't great enough already I got another email telling me another submission was successful. Again I haven't yet had the go-ahead to talk about it so can't say who for but it is going to be in a book. Its a design I was particularly pleased with and know I will enjoy making.

Today however brought bad news for me. ACM the company that publishes Inside Crochet has gone into administration. This means that I won't get paid for any of the four designs I have done for them and it is unlikely that Issue 30 will ever hit the stands - it had a lovely four page interview with me and what would have been my first published garment.

The writing was on the wall for ACM so it wasn't unexpected, problems with the company were blogged about by a number of designers including Rock and Purl, Dull Roar and Joyuna. Sadly though their warnings came too late for me as my designs and samples had already been sent or were well under way. At least the information made sure I didn't spend in anticipation of the fee as I was not sure I'd get it. And I won't. Oh well.

But my mood will not be shifted down, it is a shame that I won't get paid by them but I can still make money from the designs as I own the copyright. I have decided to revoke the contracts (I checked with the administrator and I can do this) So I have decided to self publish them and they will be available in my store as soon as I can format the photos and patterns, get them tech edited and load them up.

Actually its not VERY bad is it?

• I am not out of pocket for the designs apart form my time as yarn was provided. 
• I still have four patterns that I am proud of to add to my store. 
• Getting into Inside Crochet gave me confidence and credibility that enabled me to go for a get other submissions accepted.

And the good this week was so VERY VERY good!