Indie Designer Revisited

Designer: Kristen Hanley Cardozo
Blog: Knitting Kninja
Rav ID: Jejune
Some Great Designs: Jejune's Rav Designer Page
Original Indie Designer Post: October 3, 2008


Over the past (almost) three years, Jejune has published a great number of consistently wonderful designs, all of which have the great, wearable style that I think is her trademark.

Take for instance the beautiful Laetiporus, a scarf from a recently published eBook titled Understory. Understory is a collection of patterns designed by Kristen Hanley Cardozo in cooperation with Malabrigo Yarn.

Laetiporus is a genus of edible mushrooms that grow in brackets from living trees. The shelf like construction and bright yellow color make for a spectacular sight in the damp woods. The Laetiporus scarf mimics, with a wide and gentle garter ruffle, the broad ripples of Laetiporus mushrooms.

This eBook has a number of lovely patterns; I can't help but also point out the Woodpigeon Mitts!

Jejune has published her patterns in various other places:

You may remember one of her designs, Pamela Cowl, from 2010's Knitting Pattern A Day Calendar.

Popknits has featured two of her designs, Day's Eye Hat, a pretty, cabled tam and Verde, an astonishingly expandable mesh market bag.

It's difficult for me to choose a favourite, but I think if pressed I'd have to say Pauline. This pattern is sweet, quick, unique and pretty. It was selected as one of the winners in the Malabrigo Junkies One Skein Design Contest from Stockpile 08. A seamless design (yes! another thing I love!), this wee bonnet has certainly won my heart.

There's so much more to talk about, but I'll restrict myself to pointing out one more lovely, the Clothilde shawl. This pattern was published in Jejune's Two Ladies eBook, which contains another beautiful lace shawl, Arabella. I truly admire these lace designs!

All of Jejune's designs are solid. Well designed, thoughtful, attractive and wearable. I can't wait to see what comes next!

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Toby MacNutt
Blog: gizmometer
Rav ID: gizmometer
Some Great Designs: gizmomoeter's Rav Designer Page

Look at this lovely shawl, Regrowth. It's designed and published (for free!) by gizmometer, who has great taste and exciting beginnings as a designer. I love the way this shawl does seem to grow out of the upper central triangle, from sprouts into leaves and into delicate flowers.

Taking a perusal of her projects page on Rav will give you an idea of her style. The shawls (even though some are in progress) are clearly beautiful knits, wearable and appearing enticing to the touch.

I'm eagerly awaiting the publication of the lovely Aloft shawl, (available later this summer). Oh, please click that linky and check it out :) This talented designer has other patterns in the works, including a bigger version of Aloft, Owl.

I'm keeping my eyes open for her work. Looking forward to seeing more!

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Joyce (YuLian) Yu
Blog: YuLianKnits...
Rav ID: YuLian
Some Great Designs: YuLian's Rav Designer Page

You'll find this quote on YuLian's rav designer page,

I’m not a particularly clever designer, but I just love playing with different ideas, so if you find re-iterations of something similar, it’s because I wanted to expand the idea some more. Or it was just too much fun to pass up.

This quote is great - designing should always be fun!

Pictured here is Bǎoshí, a beautifully delicate lace shawl. Shown fantastically against that bright brick wall, the word Bǎoshí means “precious stone” in Chinese. I love a great name!

Geoui is a very cool crocheted lace shawl. The motifs along the edges make for a very interesting, eye-catching look. I'm always impressed by beautiful crochet, and this is certainly one of those pieces.

Chou-gok is a play with colour and simplicity. It comes in scarf and shawl sizes, and was inspired by scallops. And, I couldn't resist quoting some background on the name of this knit too:
"The shawl is named for the little daisies in the edging. A literal translation of “Chou-gok” is “little chrysanthemum,” which I shortened down to “little mum,” and that’s exactly how a daisy looks."

Lastely there's YuLian's Honeycomb Twist Mitts. Not only can she design lovely shawls in knitting and crochet, she's adept at mitt designing too! These are very pretty, with delicately dancing cables and lace throughout.

There's plenty more to see on her designer page - check it out!

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Britt Schmiesing
Blog: Sneezerville
Rav ID: brittsneezer
Some Great Designs: brittsneezer's Rav Designer Page

Believe it or not, all the shawls I'll be talking about today are free patterns!

Generously design and posted by the talented brittsneezer, each of these shawl are sweet and wearable little knits.

Sencillo Shawlette is pictured right. I really dig the simple stripes and pretty lace edging. This is a shawl I can really get behind!

Chevrolette is another great piece; I love the use of texture and lace. This looks like a warm piece, something I'd easily and often just wrap around my shoulders in the cooler weather.

Finally I'd like to point out The Watcher, which is very gear for a few reasons (that's right, gear. I've been watching too much Hard Day's Night, and have decided to revive some slang).
This shawl has a basic construction, but uses texture masterfully to create a knit that has distinctive shape; this is using the elements and principles of design to the max!

Summer Little Seasonals!

Back in February, Hannah, aka Mousewife and I published the first in our four-part eBook collaboration, Little Seasonals.

I'm here to announce the unveiling of issue two,
Summer Little Seasonals!

(click on this link to download now)

We're both very keen on this issue; I went in thinking it would be rather challenging to design for the warm weather, and have come out very impressed with the results.

Hannah and I had some kind of mind-meld going on: we spontaneously and entirely serendipitously came up with the same mesh lace stitch pattern for our separate patterns.

OoooooOOOooooo! (spooky mind-meld noise...)

Pattern: Beach Bailado

Source: Little Seasonals Summer eBook
Yarn: Butterfly Mercerized Cotton
Needles: 5 mm circs

This cute little wrap is done entirely in one piece and in one mesh pattern; it was based on my ballet wrap, which I love and wish I could just wear around.
So, this is my summertime, beachy solution to that wish!

Pattern: Beach Bailado Footies
Source: Little Seasonals Summer eBook
Yarn: Butterfly Mercerized Cotton
Needles: 5 mm circs

And here be my second contribution to the eBook, footies to match the Beach Bailado wrap. They're really kind of cool; I need to produce numerous reasons to sport these decorative pieces. They are (incredibly) fast to knit, and take up very little yarn - the perfect "what do I do with these ends?!" kind of project!

You'll also be getting two mousewife patterns in this eBook; both of them rule school. They're a matching mesh bag/cell phone case set, which also, as it happily happens, match the Beach Bailado set. You could be the coolest kid on the waterfront!