This is "Virgie's Fern", a slouch hat, quick knit, using Bulky weight yarn.  The lace pattern repeat, is easy to remember and get into a rhythm.

Side View

Crown View

This is available at my pattern store at Ravelry or Craftsy.

I plan to have another pattern in the next month, the next one is a blouse, and I'm super excited about it! 

I hope you take a look at the new pattern!

~Rocky

Now I know everyone can be a designer and easily publish a pattern, give it free or sell it, designer's choice, and that's one of the things I love about the knitting world.  Some do it casually, some do it as they have inspiration, some do it  full time.

This world is what you make of it, and the passion I have for knitting has been constantly evolving over the years.  I've published a few patterns thus far, but I've been really focusing on putting the bulk of my time toward's designing.  I have a number of patterns in queue for design, one of which is a new Spring/Summer blouse.   The whole process is alot of research, alot of decisions, etc.  I've made great headway over the past week, and now am finally going to cast on the first prototype.   I still have WIPs sitting, waiting to be finished, and I want to finish them, but at the same time I'm torn because I need to continue work on my designs.  So it's been a delicate balance, but its working for now.  I do have one pattern done, waiting to release, but I need to take another photoshoot, so that's been holding it up, I'm determined to get this one out this week, so stay tuned. 

I'll share my swatch for the Spring/Summer top I'm working on.  This will be primarily the border for blouse.

The pattern is simple, no fancy tricks, easily memorable, and fast.   I'll share my progress as I go, and some other FOs this week as well.

It was so funny because I actually lost the original file I had for this pattern and wound up going to Ravelry and downloading the pattern.  I printed it out and reviewed it, realizing that I wasn't at all satisfied.  I wasn't satisified with the pattern publishing or the crown decreases.

So I followed my pattern instructions step-by-step, pulled out my red pencil, and cast on.  I re-knitted my FO and also changed the crown decreases so the pattern flows nicely into the crown shaping.

I updated the pattern via the Ravelry store and also added it as a new pattern to Crafsty too.  This pattern is free and it is a rather fast knit, even more so if you can knit cables w/out a cable needle.  I thank myself each time I do a cable project that I learned that trick many years ago. 

Aside from the crown decreases I also changed the pattern publishing to make it more formal, space saving, and columned.  I also added a new logo.

Goin through some of my FOs I found the lovely February Baby Sweater that I had knit so long ago for Lil' Nenille, and sadly never finished it, then came Isabella, and I took too long to give this to her, so I ended up with a lovely knit sweater but nobody for it to fit.  Then came Emma, and yes!  It fitted her just right with room to grow.

She was so sweet to model for me. 

Now onto finishing up edits on another pattern, and then to swatch for a new one, very excited about this one.  Can't wait to start sharing some of these new patterns.

Enjoy your Monday!

Visit my Ravelry pattern store "Rockinknit"

Visit my Craftsy pattern store "Rockinknit".

This is a super fast knit, great to use stash yarn or scraps left over from project.  I always finish project and usually have left overs of beautiful yarn. 

I used Malabrigo Rios for this Loopis necklace. 

~Rocky

And first time ever, I left Stitches with NO YARN or FIBER in hand.  I'm still thinking twice about that, but I found a different way to enable myself this time round.

Yes, got my first Offhand Designs Bag, he's a beauty.

This is the Scottie Adelaide, and it's luscious.  It is big, not crazy big, but its mine!

Another gorgeous one I left with is from Atenti, just all around a sexy bag!

This the Doctor Madrid, just plain gorgeous.  I also tried to find an Overnighter in Cowgirl Black but they were sold out, although I made a wee bit of a friend there and I'll be getting my hands on one very soon.  For the interim, I satisfied my love for the Cowgirl Black with this one.

This is Cosmo in Cowgirl Black, look at the soft furryness, and that awesome Cowgirl Black.  Can't wait 'til I get my Overnighter.

That's it for the bags, also got me a few key books.

From top clockwork, Knitted Jackets by Cheryl Oberle, signed by Cheryl herself.  She is so nice, enjoyed chatting with her about bees.  One pattern in particular in this book is Cusco, need to find me the perfect yarn for this one.  Next is Coastal Knits, so many patterns in this one, a fave of mines is the Gnarled Oak cardi.  Next up are 2 Ysolda pattern books that I picked up at Ysolda's booth where she was graciously signing her books and had the cutest photo booth.  Here's the picture I took with Ysolda.  She had on her gorgeous red dress.

I had a great time this year, definitely more eventful than last years, and I'm not upset about walking away with no yarn, I have more than enough yarn to keep me knitting for a long time, but actually my taste in yarn has been rapidly changing, and I've been focusing more on some important personal patterns that I've been editing, so I'm not too too worried about not picking up some yarn there.

I'll leave you with a long awaited FO, this was originally the Stop, Drop, & Weave scarf (weave for weaving in some novelty fiber), but I choose to not weave the fiber, it wasn't really to my liking.  This scarf had been done for years, just needed ends woven and blocking.  Finally got around to it. 

This week has been crazy busy at work and at home.  Enjoy!

~Rocky

While the colors weren't my FIRST choice, I'm actually loving it!   Even more thankful I had a top to wear with it to properly show off the colors.

Pattern: SusannaIC January Mystery Shawl by SusannaIC
 Yarn: Herron by Yarn Pirate
Started: 1/11/1
Finished: 2/13/12
Mods: None

Although, there have a been a few highlights to look forward too, received some new squishy lovelies to play with.

The two green skeins, from corner left are Shibui yarn in Staccato, and Silk Cloud.  These lovely skeins are were destined to be a pair of fingerless gloves; sample knit for the Knitting Ranch. 

Pattern: Jane Kristin Spurkland
Yarn: Shibui Staccato & Silk Cloud
Started: 2/2/12
Finished: 2/2/12
Mods: None

I offered to knit these for Suzi, who also hosts a wonderful virutal kal!  Yes! That means I get to sit and knit from home and connect virtually with my other knitterly friends.   I part taked in my first session last Saturday morning.  The current virtual kal is for the Lacy Prairie shawl, for which the two other purple skeins in the picture above are destined for.  The skeins are A Verb for Keeping Warm in Hyacynth.   I'll share my progress on the shawl once I get to take some pictures.  A special thank you to my dearest friend Marisol for sharing this virtual kal.

For now I'll leave you with a very soon to be FO of the SusannaIC Mystery Shawl.  Almost done with this shawl, one clue left for this weekend.

I'll be doing 12 pairs of socks, 12 shawls, 12 sweaters, and 12 hats, and possibly throw in any other 12 crafting things I can think of, because it's fun to challenge myself, fun to create, and just darn crazy!

Here's my first pair of socks, this is 1 of 12, all done.  Love them.

Pattern is from the Through The Loops, Mystery Sock KAL 2012, no name yet, but soon there will be.  I've submitted my choices for the name of these socks, will see if I win!  These were knit up in 4 Clues, each released during each week of January.  Now I'll have to choose my next pair to knit.

For my 12 of hats of 2012, 1 of 12 is Piece Out.

For the 12 shawls, this is 1 of 12, still in progress, it is a Mystery KAL, I'm awaiting the next Clue 5.

For the 12 sweaters, this is 1 of 12, still in progress, almost done!

And I'm thinking about 12 Crochet projects possibly, if I do, than this would be 1 of 12.  I'm working on my building my crochet skills.  

My fortune has been written, good luck shall come to me this year, though I guess I did cheat and make my fortune come true, but hey, us "go getters" must always make our own luck 8) 

It is surprising that this month is almost over, how fast these days have been going by.  So other than knitting, what am I doing? 

Well, I'm working, just as I'm sure many of you are, I'm trying, trying to keep things going.  Much harder these days, wish things would get easier, but they never do.

It's nice to have knitting, its a nice break from all the stress.  

I've been finishing up a number of projects, which should I start with?  I'll start with the cute and fun ones, although I must say, cute and fun ones sometimes take more work than full projects, like sweaters, cardigans, etc. 

I made this cute Memento Owlet, such a cute little thing, I named it Halcon, and gave it to Lil' Nenelle.  This cute lil' owl, is all crochet, and somewhat free form crochet.  There was a pattern to follow, but alot of it was, create a flat round to the size you want, crochet round until  the base measures up, fill, seal closed, stitch some ears, and so on.  That's it, so I was on my own, the tricky part was really for me the ears and learning to use what I've learned this far in crocheting.  I'm pretty proud of this lil' guy, it was a small milestone in my limited crochet experience.

Next up a Balloon Tie Sock Monkey!  Such a cool pattern, basically its built off of the premise of actual balloon tying.  You knit a number of tubes, different sizes, all continuous, and stuff along the way.

This is what you get when your done.

Then, that's where the magic begins!  You learn to tie the monkey, and voila!  Your sock monkey is born...

I'll admit, it took awhile for me to figure out how to tie this thing, and yes, the pattern does come with instructions, but once I fully understood how to do the tying, it was easy!   I really want to make more, the design book I have for these has patterns for a tiger, tiara, you name it. 

One last fun knit, this Pin Cushion! Love it! So super fast to make.

For all these, used nothing but stash yarn, no extra purchasing, even better!

I also was able to finish a quick lovely cowl, it is Tweed Burberry Cowl.

This one is fast too, and so warm, again I pulled yarn from my stash, love the tweed black yarn.

I have alot of other projects going on, I'll share a couple:

New SusannaIC Mystery shawl - Clue 1

New Through The Loops - Sock Mystery  - Clue 4

Much more going on and more to share, as always, hope all of you are enjoying this first month of the New Year!

If I factor in actual knitting hours per week, I'd say I get probably 10 hours at best combined, and at least 5 hours.  That's not all at once, it's an hour here, 30 minutes in the car (not driving), etc.  I also try to take it easy on my hands and wrists too, so I do tend to limit my knitting at times, more say lately since I injured my wrists months ago working out. 8( 

So, without further adieu, here's pictures of my 2011 Knitting Year.  I'm missing at least 5 - 10 projects that never made it to a photo shoot.