One Pattern Down, How Many to Go?!

My Reversible Moebius Cowls pattern is finally up for sale in my online store and on Ravelry!

What took me so long?! I've been hyping it up for a month already.

It's partly because it's closer to Christmas and I have deadlines for things that needed to be worked on / finished. And partly because I've been perfecting the layout in the shuttlebus. I've also been designing  attempting to design other neckwear but they are not yet picture worthy.

What is picture worthy are a couple of projects that you may have seen me working on in the pop up store this past summer. These patterns will take a bit more time to compose because most people will want multiple sizes. As a retired math teacher, I know how much calculating goes into multi-sized patterns. Especially if you want an accurate fit. That's why I have so few of them.

For those of you who didn't see them this summer, these are the patterns I'm working on.

This top (above) takes two balls of Estelle's Rainbow Autumn (a long striping yarn) and makes use of a virtually invisible braided cast off. This size fits me and I could probably make two sizes bigger from those two balls. That being said, even a toddler size would require two balls if you want the garment to be symmetrical. For more defined stripes, one could also use Estelle's Magic Shawl.

To the right, you will see the first iteration of the crocheted version of my One Seam Sweater. If you haven't seen this knit pattern yet, I had to split it into two patterns because it runs from 3 months to adult 3X in size. The knit version uses a true chunky yarn (15sts = 4" or 10cm) and drapes beautifully. See Marble Chunky and Major.

Because of the nature of crochet (one strand of yarn wrapping around two upright strands), this size yarn is too bulky. The garment doesn't stand up on its own, but the fabric it creates isn't nearly as flexible so I had to downsize the yarn to a sport/dk weight just to achieve a desirable drape. So far I have not been impressed enough with the results from the yarns I have in stock to take a photo. I will update you with that progress when it happens.

Until then, I apologize for not having a blog for you last week. As I might have mentioned already, I've been busy. And since I don't see my project creations / shuttlebus renovating slowing down anytime soon, I am going to take a break from blogging for the remainder of the year and come back on the first Monday in 2022.

written by Lori, TCL owner, who wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc and we'll reconnect in the new year.

Drunken Mannequins?

It's finally here. The final round of yarns before the rotation starts over! That means not quite three full rotations during the market season. What that also means is that you only have two more times (at most) to come check out which yarns you want to be working with this winter.

In the top photo, nestled between the patterns and the 'baby' in the corner (hidden by the hanging demos) is the Magic Shawl demo that I've been working on for the last few weeks. It has been getting quite a lot of attention from customers as they watch it grow at the markets. You can find the free pattern here.

In the top right quarter of the photo, you will notice that I have my Dress It Up! buttons so, yes, last week's buttons made it through the earthquake of driving well enough to switch them out for new ones 😊. Because of that, you can expect to see different buttons every week from now on.

On the driver's side of the pop up store, you will see some of the kits that I had made up for the few markets that wouldn't let me sell retail. (Their 20% commercial was already full.) Their prices range between $14 and $53 (pre-GST). Someone was actually looking for kits a week or so ago so I thought I would try it out in the rotation.

You might just be able to make out, in the bottom left corner of the photo, the end of a wooden sock blocker. I know it would make so much more sense to have them when the bins are full of sock yarn - and they will be. I have three different sizes: 4.5", 8" and 9".

On the far right of the photo is a 50g version of a poncho yarn (Gala 200) I had in the brick and mortar store before I decided to transition to this 'business model'. The mannequin on the left is wearing a hat made from one ball. (The mannequins apparently had a party before I snapped this photo. They'll have to sober up by Tuesday 😉.)

I'm giving you a sneak peak at the prices in this last photo.

The upper three yarns in the right column are scarf style yarns, some of which I have used in a few of my patterns. Most of the rest of them are shawl yarns.

Above the prices, the felting tools are in their permanent (for now) home, just below the Canada flag patches that you might just want to grab considering Canada Day is just around the corner AND we may soon be travelling abroad again.

written by Lori, excited TCL owner, who is happy to see the light at the end of the COVID tunnel.