Faraday Cowl & Giveaway!

UPDATE 1.9.2017: Congratulations to winners Azure, Linda and Cheryl. Please check your emails! --------------------

Happy new year, dear readers!

My goodness, where does the time go? With the cluster that is Thanksgiving, Christmahanukwanza (or whatever you chose to celebrate) and New Years, I'm afraid my blog has been woefully ignored. Now that school has reopened after an almost 3-week break (did you hear my jubilant yell on Tuesday at drop off?), the guest bedroom sheets washed and put away, and every last pine needle vacuumed up from our living room, I'm happy to be back into the swing of things.

While I'm feverishly working away on my 9th book and crossing freelance (mostly Fair Isle - hooray!) off my to-do list, I figured we should start the new year off right with a new, easy cowl pattern.

Meet the Faraday Cowl, a super bulky textured dream knit up using only knit and purl stitches. Faraday is designed to be easily picked up and knit wherever you are and is ideal for holiday-detox-Netflix-binge-watching your favorite show. Using two colors of the lovely and squishy Dragonfly Fibers Super Traveller in Mushroom Hunting and Limelight, this smooshy delight knits up quickly on US 10s and uses almost every bit of yardage. A wonderful stash buster or just an excuse to head to your LYS to pick up some of that super bulky you've been eyeing, this is a cowl to make for yourself after all that gift knitting. After knitting and gifting 5 cabled hats for my son's teachers, 1 Fair Isle hat to our babysitter, 2 pairs of cabled fingerless wristers for the crossing guard and postal lady, a beaded lace shawl for my mom, and a lace cowl for a friend, I may just knit a Faraday up for myself in super bright anti-winter-blah colors.

With a definite hint of snow in the air this morning, I knew today was the day to release this new cowl pattern. Let's give 3 copies of Faraday away, shall we? Leave a comment in the comments section of this post telling me your favorite winter activity. 3 winners will be chosen at random on Monday, January 9.

Stay cozy, knitters!

Thankful

There's a lot to be thankful for on any given day, but this is the time of year we sit and really think about it. The list of things I am personally and professionally thankful for is miles long - a wonderful family who makes each day an absolute joy, the baby growing in my belly, the roof over our heads, the chance to teach a friend to knit on a quiet afternoon, to read a book in the sunshine, take a walk, eat a good meal, spend time with my amazing students, work on my new book, hang Christmas lights outside... the list goes on. I often find that the simple things make life worth living, so whether or not we as a country can agree on policy and politics, you're going through a difficult time, or you can't wait for the year to end, I encourage you to focus on the good and give thanks. We're all in this together.

I am especially grateful to you, dear readers. Friends, students, fans, fellow knitters - whomever you are, I am grateful to you and for you. I am delighted to be part of this knitted tapestry of life we find ourselves all in together. Thank you for knitting my patterns, reading my books and my blog, taking my classes both in person and at Craftsy, sending me emails with your finished projects, your tweets, Instagram comments and the outpouring of creativity each and every one of you shares with me. It makes my day, truly.

In honor of Thanksgiving and giving thanks, I'm doing something I haven't done before. Please enjoy 25% off all hand sewn (by me while you're all sleeping) TanisKnits project bags in my Etsy shop with the coupon code TANISKNITS25 at checkout now through Saturday, November 26th. Why are my knitting and crochet project bags better than the rest? Made with 100% designer cotton fabrics, my bags are fully lined with coordinating fabric, are machine-washable, roomy enough for a big project, and one-of-a-kind. Unlike other bags, I use fabric drawstrings instead of cheap nylon cording. There are no plastic toggles or zippers for your yarn to get stuck or snagged in. Please enjoy.

Happy thankgiving!

Embroidered Portraits

While things have been quiet on the blog, I assure you, they have not been quiet in my studio! I continue to work on my new book and cross freelance projects off my list. So many exciting things are happening that are still under wraps and I'm trying to squeeze in teacher appreciate holiday gifts, something for our amazing school crossing guard, various friends and family. 'Tis the season to knit like the wind! As always, dear readers, when I see something interesting happening in our small crafting world, I love to share it with you. I've gotten back into embroidery lately and when I saw these I was struck by the colors, detail, and how it felt like these people were so realistic they were about to walk out of the cloth. Check out the below work by the incredibly talented Cape Town-based artist Danielle Clough. Original article found here.

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Intimate Embroidered Portraits by Danielle Clough

by Kate Sierzputowski 

Cape Town-based artist Danielle Clough embroiders portraits of friends and loved ones, adapting black and white images of subjects into multi-colored works. By working from black and white images the resulting works are not tied to the colors present in the original images, creating vibrant pieces that feature bright oranges, purples, and blues.

The portraits featured here were produced by Clough for the upcoming book Queer Africa II, a collection of new stories about love on the continent of Africa. The editors, Makhosazana Xaba and Karen Martin, were drawn to Clough’s work for the publication because of the conceptual linkage of her layered yarn to the personal narratives told in the book, which Zaba explained “adds meaning and speaks to the zigzagging nature of our lives.”

Queer Africa II will be published next month through MaThoko’s Books and be available online through both Amazon and African Books Collective. You can see more portraits by Clough on her Instagram, and take a look into the artist’s process on her blog.

   

Discounts!

Who doesn't love a good discount?

I'm happy to share a discount link for you all for my Craftsy class, Fair Isle Fundamentals. Save 50% off the full retail price of my class (cannot be combined with other coupons or discounts) from November 1st through January 15th. Follow the link here to download!

If you've taken my class, I'd really love if you could share your experience and write a review on Craftsy.

Get that holiday knitting started!