knitting patterns – The Crochet Architect

December 21, 2017December 21, 2017

Christmas Gift

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! I hope you’re all enjoying some wonderful time with your families and friends. I’ve been taking part in the Indie Design Gift-a-long on Ravelry and having a great time! I’ve finished 7 projects and I have one remaining project to finish by the end of the year to complete an Opadoo (I should be able to make it in time)! To learn more about the Gift-a-long, check out the Ravelry group here. To find out more about my finished projects (like the yarns I used and links to the designer’s pattern pages), check out my projects page on Ravelry here.

I thought I’d share photos of my 7 finished projects with you now. I also have a few gifts/discounts for you at the end of this blog post.

These are my 7 finished projects:

1. Week Before Christmas hat by Mary Renji

2. Pretty Spiffy Tuxedo Baby Bib by Darleen Hopkins

3. Coffee Cup Cozy by Heddi Craft (knit)

4. Grace and Lace Fingerless Mitts by Lilia Vanini (knit)

5. Lace Labyrinth shawl by 10 Hours or Less

6. Entrechat by Lisa Chemery (knit)

7. Mosaic Slippers by Arella Seaton (knit)

This is the project (#8) that I’m currently working on to finish up by the end of the month. It’s the Seeds to Flowers Cowl by Kristina Vilimaite. Isn’t it a gorgeous design? I have a good start on it and if nothing slows me down, I think I’ll get it done in plenty of time to “Tame the Opadoo”!

So that’s what I’ve been doing for the past month! What about you? Are you crocheting and/or knitting gifts for Christmas this year? I enjoy crocheting and knitting for others, especially when they appreciate the time and effort that went into the gift!

Here is my holiday gift to you! Use the code “gift2017” (from today through the end of the year) on this website to receive 25% off all crochet patterns that I have available here on The Crochet Architect.

As an added bonus, the designer of the “Lace Labyrinth” shawl/scarf above (10 Hours or Less) has given me a special code to pass along to my followers to receive a 20% discount on all of their regular-priced crochet and knitting patterns. The code is “CrochetArchitect” and can be used in their Ravelry store. I LOVED crocheting my Lace Labyrinth and I LOVE so many of the “10 Hours or Less” patterns!

I’ve learned a lot from knitting and crocheting these 7 projects and I’m learning a few more things by knitting the last project. They’re all fabulous designs and I’m so glad that I’ve participated in the annual GAL!

I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017

GAL, CAL and KAL Info

Do you know what the terms GAL, CAL and KAL mean? They’re gift-a-long, crochet-a-long and knit-a-long, respectively. So what does that mean? It means that many crocheters and knitters get together either in person or online to crochet or knit the same pattern (or sometimes different patterns). What is so special about these CAL’s, KAL’s and GAL’s? Well, they create a sense of community, encouragement and helping each other out. If someone has a question about the pattern that many people are crocheting or knitting (or a particular yarn they’re using or thinking about using), it’s the perfect place to ask questions!

Starting tonight at 8:00 pm US EST, I’m participating in the 5th Annual Indie Design Gift-A-Long on Ravelry. You may be asking yourself, “What’s so special about this Ravelry group?”. It’s a wonderful place to meet other croheters and knitters, to encourage each other and to ooh and aah at other people’s completed projects! Last year, I participated in the GAL for the first time and I had a blast! I was both a participating designer and knitter. During the GAL, I knit 2 projects from 2 wonderful patterns by 2 different Ravelry knitting designers whose patterns I’d never used before! These were the 2 projects I knit last year:

The top project is a Schaumkronen, designed by SimoneKereit. The bottom project is a No-Brainer One-Skeiner, designed by Susan Ashcroft. Both of these patterns were absolutely fabulous! I thoroughly enjoyed knitting them and learned a few things at the same time.

I have 20 crochet and knit patterns that I’m including this year in the GAL (that’s twice as many as last year). Here is a collage with all 20 patterns in it:

Each of these 20 crochet or knitting patterns will be discounted 25% during the sale period (from 8:00 pm US EST tonight, Nov. 21, to 11:59 pm US EST on Nov. 28). To see my sale patterns closer and to take part in the sale, check out my Ravelry GAL bundle here.

There are over 300 participating knit and crochet designers taking part in the GAL this year. Each designer has between 10 and 20 of their patterns discounted during the one week sale period, so that’s a lot of SALE patterns!!!

To find out more about the GAL and everything that’s going on in it, check out the official Ravelry GAL group here.

I hope you enjoy taking part in the GAL as much as I enjoyed it last year (and I’ll be enjoying it again this year)!

Happy crocheting (and knitting),

Susan Lowman

July 1, 2015

I’m Crazy for Mosaics!

Some of you already know that I’ve gone over to the “Dark Side” (I’ve learned to knit)! To many crocheters, the “dark side” means knitting and to many knitters, the “dark side” means crocheting! You may call me “crazy” (and I may be), but I’m really enjoying knitting, especially mosaic knitting!

In the past 6 months or so, I’ve had 3 mosaic knitting patterns published and I just self-published my first knitting pattern yesterday. My first published knitting design was the Mosaic Blanket in the Winter 2014/2015 issue of Vogue Magazine. That was a lot of fun to design and knit! Here’s a photo of that blanket, in case you missed it in my previous blog post last January:

Mosaic Blanket (knit) from Vogue Knitting magazine Winter 2014/2015 issue

If you’d like to read that blog post, you can find it here.

My next 2 published knitting designs are the Graphic Mosaic Cowl and the Mosaic Diamonds Throw. They were both published in the book, “50 Garter Stitch Gifts to Knit: The Ultimate Easy-To-Knit Collection Featuring Universal Yarn Deluxe Worsted”. You can see and purchase that book on Amazon here. I really like a lot of the designs in this book! Here are photos of my 2 mosaic knitting designs from the book:

I have just self-published my first knitting design, too! It’s my Knit Mosaic Scarf that I designed last year using the yarn I hand-dyed with Easter Egg dyes! That was a lot of fun!!! If you’re interested in hand-dyeing yarn and want to know how I did it, I blogged about that dyeing experience earlier this year. You can read that blog post here. There’s a link to the 12 page pdf tutorial that I made in that blog post, too.

Here’s my new Knit Mosaic Scarf design:

What do you think? I like it because it’s geometrical (I love geometric designs), there are no increases or decreases, and it doesn’t take forever to finish (I’m currently working on a project that is taking FOREVER to get done with over 800 stitches on my knitting needles!).

I used Patons Classic Wool Worsted yarn and size 7 (4.5mm) needles to knit this scarf. I used a full ball of Black and 1/2 ball of Winter White yarn, which I hand-dyed. I didn’t want the hand-dyed yarn colors to pool in my knitted project, so I decided that mosaic knitting would be best for it. I’m very happy with the results!

If you’ve never given mosaic knitting a try, what are you waiting for? It’s so much fun! You knit with only one color across each row in mosaic knitting. To get the vertical lines, you slip the appropriate stitches of the other color instead of knitting them. What could be easier?

If you’re interested in purchasing this pattern, it’s currently available for sale in my Ravelry, Craftsy and Etsy stores. Since I don’t yet have a tab for “Knitting Patterns” on my website, it’s not available here quite yet!

I hope you’ll give mosaic knitting a try soon.

Happy knitting (and crocheting),

Susan

January 3, 2014January 3, 2014

Book Reviews: One Crochet Book and One Knitting Book

I recently got 2 new crochet/knitting books from Annie’s. I love getting new patterns for crochet and knitting projects! There’s nothing like a new project! If you called me a “pattern junkie”, I think you’d hit the nail right on the head!!!

Colorful Tunisian Afghans to Crochet book

The first book is “Colorful Tunisian Afghans to Crochet” by Glenda Winkleman. This book includes 6 patterns for Tunisian crochet afghans with cross-stitches worked on the surface to create the designs. These are really nice afghans! I love the construction of them. Five out of the six afghans are done in either strips or squares of Tunisian crochet. Each strip or square is edged before joining them together. The sixth afghan is done in a large center section that appears to be 2 separate sections, but it’s one big piece with bobbles separating the solid center from the edges where the cross-stitches are worked. Here’s that afghan:

Isn’t it pretty? And here are a few of the other afghans in this book:

The patterns in this book are rated as an “easy” skill level, but they may be closer to “intermediate”, in my opinion! Some of the special stitches used in various afghans in the book are: bobbles, popcorns, crossed sc and picots). Each pattern comes with written instructions and charts for the cross-stitch placement. If you’ve never done cross-stitch on Tunisan crochet before, it’s really easy! The Tunisian crochet makes a “grid” of squares that serve as the background for the cross-stitches. The book even includes a diagram in each pattern showing how to work cross-stitches.

Each of the afghan squares or panels is crocheted with one color of yarn, making the pieces work up quickly. Then you cross-stitch the design onto the squares or panels per the charts. If you’ve ever done stamped or counted cross-stitch on fabric, you already know how to do the cross-stitch portion of these afghans. And if you’ve done Tunisian crochet before, you already know how to do the background of the afghans! If you don’t know how to do Tunisian crochet and you want to learn, Annie’s has a lot of books, videos and materials for doing Tunisian crochet. You can see their assortment of Tunisian items here. Kim Guzman has designed a lot of projects in Tunisian crochet. She has several online classes with Annie’s, too. To read about her class called “Learn to Tunisian Crochet”, click here.

You can see all of the afghans in this book at the Annie’s website here. The book retails for $9.95 in the US and $11.95 in Canada. So with 6 patterns in this book, that comes out to be $1.67 for each pattern in the US ($2.00 each in Canada)!

If you enjoy doing Tunisian crochet (or want to learn), why not add this book to your crochet library?

A Playful Palette of 10 Knitted Accessories book

The second book I got is “A Playful Palette of 10 Knitted Accessories” by Tabetha Hedrick. As the name implies, this is a knitting book. For those of you who are bi-stitchual (you can crochet AND knit), this is a great book. There are 10 projects, ranging from small, quick projects to larger, longer projects. There’s a headband, bracelet, scarf, cowl, hat (in 2 versions), fingerless mitts, scarflette, cape and socks in 2 lengths in this book. All of the projects are made with 1-4 skeins of Koigu Yarn: either Koigu Premium Merino (KPM) or Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino (KPPPM). These are both fingering/sock-weight yarns in 100% merino wool. I’ve never tried this yarn, but it looks really pretty in the book, so I’ll have to give it a try sometime very soon!

Here are a few photos from this book:

You can see all of the projects in this knitting book here.

The skill levels for the projects in this book range from beginner to intermediate. I like having this range of skill levels, since I’m a fairly new knitter with lots to learn! I really like the looks of the lacy socks in this book. I never thought I’d knit or crochet socks before, but I might have to take the plunge sometime soon!!!

This knitting book has 48 pages and retails for $14.95 in the US ($17.95 in Canada). With 10 patterns in the book, each pattern costs just $1.50 in the US ($1.80 each in Canada)!

If you enjoy knitting accessories, you may want to add this book to your knitting library!

Happy crocheting (and knitting),

Susan