Instagrams from April

       

1. Our little Easter Baskets. 2. A fabulous, but too-small vintage coat. 3. At the "Olympics"... on set for a commercial. 4. Vintage dress time! 5. Nail polish obsession (I blame Danielle and Cirilia). 6. Chillin' in the pool. 7. Flowers at work. 8. Two-at-a-time toe-up socks. 9. The set for Chris' play. 10. Double rainbow! 11. Mickey sweater. 12. A little fabric present from Caitlin! 13. A bunny ring I couldn't resist. 14. Getting back into juicing! 

Holla Knits Tour & Giveaway!

Welcome to day 6 of the Holla Knits blog tour! 

Holla Knits premiered last Monday, and I'm so excited to present my first knitting pattern, Finishing School, but it's only one out of six great patterns. Each pattern is pictured in two yarns - one awesomely affordable Knit Picks yarn, and one special independently hand-dyed yarn. 

Put a Belt on It by Allyson Dykhuizen

In a While Crocodile by Allyson Dykhuizen

Holla Back Tank by Emma Welford

Umbre Lovre by Allyson Dykhuizen

Romp Around the Clock by Lilith Ubbelhohde

Holla Knits was the idea-baby of Allyson, and I could not be more proud to be involved in the inaugural issue. Last year Allyson tweeted about her frustation with knitting pattern companies, and I immediately responded. Our main complaint was that mainstream companies continue to publish two types of designs: easy beginning patterns and unfashionable advanced patterns. Where were the shades of grey!? You can totally have fashionable colorwork, short rows and cables that are interesting to knit and flattering to wear! 

With that thought in mind, we jumped into the collaboration of Holla Knits. Sometimes in knitting-blog-land, things can be competitive and secretive, but the making of Holla Knits was supportive and collaborative. And we had meetings with chicken wings & beer, which is the best of the best, as far as meetings go!

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway. The winner is Jess, who said:

JessApril 23, 2012 10:34 AM

As soon as I laid eyes on Finished School, I was smitten. It's definitely my favorite of this very strong issue. Thanks for the giveaway!

Thanks, Jess! 

Follow the rest of the Blog Tour for tons of great content and giveaways:


April 16th: Holla Knits Blog - Collection debut
April 17th: The Sweatshop of Love - Review and pattern giveaway
April 18th: FiberStory.tv - Interview with designer Emma Welford
April 19th: Emma Welford/Kangaroo Dyer - Review and yarn giveaway
April 20th: Knits in Class - Review and subscriber exclusive yarn giveaway, discounts
April 23rd: Under the Red Umbrella - Review and pattern giveaway, subscriber exclusive yarn giveaway
April 24th: Skacel - Review and yarn, pattern, and needles giveaway, additional subscriber exclusive yarn and needles giveaway
April 25th: Knit Darling - Review and pattern giveaway
April 26th: The Owl and the Bee - Review and pattern giveaway
April 27th: Dirty Water DyeWorks - Review and subscriber exclusive yarn giveaway, discounts
April 30th: Wooly Wonka Fiber Arts - Review and subscriber exclusive yarn giveaway
May 1st: Knitted Bliss - Review and pattern giveaway
May 2nd: FiberStory.tv - Interview with designer Lily Ubbelohde
May 3rd: Knit Picks Blog Stash - Review, podcast interview with designer Allyson Dykhuizen, and pattern giveaway
May 4th: Subway Knitter - Review and pattern giveaway

sneak peeks

It's been a bit quiet here on the blog, but not for lack of crafty business here at chateau Canavan. It's just that most of the crafty projects are on the secret side. Like this little wisp of a knit.

I won't tell you what it is, but I will tell you that it's soft and light and lovely.

And then there's some of this happening:

I've been tea-dyeing wool yarn for an upcoming project with WORK + SHELTER. I'm so excited to be a part of this awesome organization. W + S is a shelter in India where "women in need can come to live and work," and are taught the skills they need to contribute to their community. Read more about it here. 

Finishing School is here!

My very first pattern, Finishing School, is here! 

Along with the rest of the fabulous designs from the first issue of Holla Knits.

Finishing School is a classic sleeveless sweater with an eye for detail. The sweater is designed to fit closely with gentle shaping around the waist, a curved hem and a sporty sailor collar. If you are scared of finishing, this sweater is for you, guiding you through each finishing technique before you can move on to knitting the next section of the sweater.

This sweater is designed to fit snugly with no ease. If you’d like the sweater to fit a bit looser, knit one size up. The construction is unique: You begin knitting at the front hem, then knit the collar separately and seam to the front. After knitting the collar, the back is picked up from the square edge and knit from the top down to the hem. While the hem stitches are live, the sides are seamed and then, finally, the bottom edge is picked up along the front and continued onto the live stitches to create a neat seamed hem.

The pattern is $6, and available for download here. Or you can just click the handy button on my left sidebar! 

A Tale of Two Socks... a story of failure

Oh, socks, how you continue to be my nemesis. 

These socks don't look too bad, right? Wrong. 

I started knitting the left sock last October, using dpn's, and they perfectly fit my foot. But, that was too slow for me, so I invested in a tiny circular needle, and finished the leg of the left sock at a quicker pace. Two weeks ago, I decided to take a break from the mini mittens and finally knit the second sock, also using the tiny circ. 

Guess what. My tension and gauge are totally different on the tiny circ, and I ended up with one sock that is about an inch and a half longer than the other. ....yup, sock knitting continues to illude me. 

Count down to Holla!

It's a mere 4 days until the launch of the first issue of Holla Knits, and my first published sweater pattern! 

There's tons of fun stuff happening in conjunction with the launch. New blog posts all week (including this one from my sister, Meghan, about taking the beautiful photograph above), tons of previews, and a blog tour with lots of giveaways (including a little something here)! Yippie!

From our Easter Bunny to your's...

last few weeks of Instagrams

 

 

 

 

1. The Getty Villa. 2. On set for a commercial shoot at a beautiful horse ranch. 3. My new favorite mug, a gift from Gwen. 4. A new sock. 5. Bunny chillin' on the arm of the couch. 6. My favorite egg-shaped flipper. 7. Shareen's Vintage. 8. Mini Beauty & the Beast costume replicas at USITT. 9. At a wedding in my new skirt from Shareen's. 10. Chris in his wedding finery.


It's been a busy few weeks, getting acclimated to LA. I've been working on craft projects, but some of them are a bit secret for the moment, and some are waiting to be photographed. So for now, a few Instagram (user name: katiecanavan) photographs. And yes, I tweet these too, so apologies for the doubles!