She sells seashells...

In January, my good friend, Sima, and I attended Vogue Knitting Live. It was an awesome experience. We each took six classes (a full schedule) Friday through Sunday. I only had one dud class. The rest were excellent -- teachers and curricula both. VKL also had a very dangerous marketplace and while were there, Sima, ran into two women she knew, Lori and Susan. Last summer, Sima had done a beautiful scarf design for their brand new yarn company, Stitchuary. We had a drink, talked about their company -- check it out here -- and discussed designing. They generously offered me the chance to do two designs for them. There was only one catch. I could only use one skein of yarn. When I got home, I used the first skein to employ some of the new skills I learned at VKL and whipped out a pretty little scarflette which was published last month, Riva del Mare, whcih means seashore in Italian. What made this interesting to design was that even though it's knit from the top down, I charted the bottom lace first, and then "unvented" how it would flow from there. In other words, designed from the bottom up, knit from the top down. I named it seashore because the pattern kind of "dissipates" just like waves as it flows down to the bottom edge. I'd love to do this in a larger size. The second pattern was a hat. It hasn't been released, so I can't show you yet, but as soon as it's released, I will write about that one as well. You can purchase both the yarn and the pattern by visiting the pattern page at Stitchuary.