woollymammothknits.com

May 2012-1 022, a photo by linda.wilgus on Flickr.

Tosh Merino Light in Mineral. Yum. I can’t wait to knit with this!

hotrightnowonrav, a photo by linda.wilgus on Flickr.

I’ve just spent the last thirty minutes or so looking at sock yarn. Emma is napping and Noortje’s playing with her papa, giving me time to do lots of useful stuff, housework, sending long overdue emails to friends, actual knitting… and yet, instead, I’m just staring at my computer screen completely lost in the prettiness that is hand-dyed sock yarn. I’m trying to pick a yarn and colorway for my next shawl, but oh, it’s hard to choose! Will let you know once I’ve decided. It might be a while.

The picture above is a screen shot from the Ravelry patterns page from earlier today. I’m very excited that my newest pattern Waveline Shawl is in the top five of patterns Ravelers are looking at today. Off to look at some more sock yarn now…

Hi all! I’ve just released a new pattern: Waveline Shawl, a crescent-shaped lace shawl featuring a delicate Crest of the Wave lace pattern. Waveline Shawl is worked from the bottom up using short rows for the shaping. I knit mine is scrumptious Knit Picks Stroll Tonal, a beautiful semi-solid hand-dyed sock yarn which made the knitting very enjoyable (but then isn’t all knitting? Well, perhaps with the exception of colorwork with more than 4 colors. And crazy tiny mini cables all over. I love the look but ah, so much finicky work!). Here are two pictures:

.
Off to work on my next project! The next two will be knits for the girls; one, a little girls’ skirt, is nearly finished, and the other, a girls’ dress in the same style, will be ready sometime next month. Stay tuned…

I’m very excited to share my latest pattern with you. Just released a few minutes ago and right in time for some summer knitting this spring: Tulpen, a short-sleeved summer cardi in a breezy DK cotton.

Here’s two pictures and the blurb from the website. I really hope you’ll like it! If you’re a member of Ravelry, be sure to check out the Woolly Mammoth Knits Ravelry Group for the pattern giveaway drawing, which runs until March 29. Tulpen is available for sale on the Woolly Mammoth Knits website for $6.50.

I’d love to hear what you think!

About Tulpen:

When I picture springtime, one of the first things that comes to mind is tulips: growing in our garden, while a watery sun tries to warm the still-chilly air, for sale on the market, in a vase on the kitchen table, growing in the grass by the side of the road… it’s no wonder tulips are one of the national symbols of my home country The Netherlands. Now that I live in the United States I sometimes miss that abundance of flowers, and tulips in particular. For that reason I decided to design a cardigan inspired by my favorite flower.

Tulpen – you guessed it, Dutch for tulips – is a top-down short-sleeved cardigan with tulip lace and a tulip-shaped knit and purl motif on the round yoke and a large tulip lace motif worked as a border around the bottom of the cardigan. Knit in a soft organic cotton, Tulpen is great for spring weather or a cool summer evening. The sample was knit in scrumptious Mirasol Samp’a, which fittingly is produced in Holland in support of the Mirasol Project.

february-march 2012 123, a photo by linda.wilgus on Flickr.

The theme of Emma’s room is animals and especially wild animals. There are the three Ikea animal prints (Bjarnslig series – hope I spelled that right!), the two kiddie frames with lion and giraffe drawings I found at the thrift store, the lamp with the lion and zebra, as well as the Ikea animal bumper pad for her crib and loads of sweet stuffed animals perched on dresser, shelves and other assorted furniture. And now there are these tiger curtain tie-backs, too. Well, to be honest, there’s only one at the moment as I have yet to find the time to complete the second one (must add to to-do list right after handful of knitting design projects!), but they are pretty sweet though, I think. The idea and instructions come from a book called “Creative Ideas for Kids’ Rooms”, listed on Amazon here: here.

It took me a bit longer to make them than I had thought, mainly due to glue not sticking well to the felt at all and consequently having to sew all the details onto the tiger, but all in all it was a pretty quick little project.

Noortjesbooks, a photo by linda.wilgus on Flickr.

Besides knitting for our girls, I love to make things for their rooms, as does my husband. In the next few weeks I thought I’d share some of the things with you that we’ve made for them.

One of the fun things about moving every few years is getting to re-do some of the decorating in our rooms. When we moved to the States last year we got Noortje a proper big girl room, which includes this bookshelf. Brandon made it of an old hutch that used to sit on a dining room cupboard. I took some ‘before’ photos but can’t seem to find them now; here’s the result, anyway! Brandon attached a shelf to the bottom and painted it green, plus added “Noortje’s books” to the top. Noortje loves her bookshelf. Here’s a photo of her with it from about a year ago. Sweet!

The talented CanaryKnits just published a profile of me as part of her Indie Designer Profiles series on her blog. I’m honored she wanted to profile me again (she first profiled me almost three years ago, when I had just begun designing knitting patterns) and extremely flattered by her comments. I highly recommend checking out all of her blog; besides her Indie Designer Profiles she posts about all sorts of cool stuff, including some of her own very pretty patterns! I also especially love her “Sugary Learnins’ feature about cupcake decorating.

Here’s the link to my designer profile on her blog: Indie Designer Revisited and here’s the link to her blog: Canary Knits.

My latest pattern, Applelicious is now available for sale here on the website for $4.50. Here’s the blurb about the pattern once more: Applelicious is a children’s chunky sweater jacket with a garter stitch, square yoke and stockinette stitch body. Worked from the top-down, Applelicious requires no seaming. The jacket features a small front patch pocket and optional basic embroidery around the edge of the yoke and on the pocket. A straightforward, easy knit, Applelicious comes in 8 sizes from 3 months to 8 years.

For more information, please check out the pattern page for Applelicious here.

Members of Ravelry, I’m hosting a pattern giveaway in my Ravelry group here: Woolly Mammoth Knits Ravelry Group. Two lucky winners will receive a free copy of the pattern, so check out the forum if you think you may be interested in knitting this!

Isn’t Noortje cute in this? Crazily enough, after a short (very) cold spell last week, it’s now all of a sudden very warm and Spring-like out here. We’ve basically gone straight from hat-scarf-winter-coat-weather to long-sleeve-t-shirt weather, skipping altogether the weather for which this little jacket would be perfect! Ah well, perhaps it may get a bit colder yet (not sure if I should hope for that really, though, as I love the warmer weather!), and if not, Emma can wear it two years from now.

I take my knitting and design inspiration from all sorts of things. Looking at motifs, patterns, shapes and colors in nature tends to do the trick pretty well, and these tulips are sure to give me some ideas! My sweet husband got them for me for Valentine’s Day. He knows I love tulips and that I’m sometimes a wee bit homesick for my home country the Netherlands. These remind me home. I was a bit under the weather this week, too, and getting this bunch definitely cheered me up:

Pretty, no? I love the pink, red and white together.

I’ve just finished knitting a Snow Blossom hat for the sweet new arrival of a dear friend of mine. As the design features a band of fair-isle flowers, I wasn’t sure if the hat would turn out sufficiently boyish, but I’m happy to say that with some light and dark blue yarn (Rowan Purelife Organic Cotton DK and Knit Picks Shine Sport, both yummy soft yarns) I think it’s baby boy worthy. Mind you, I’d still not knit this for any man older than 2! See for yourself and let me know what you think! Here’s Logan’s hat:

Modelled by our own sweet Emma, who looks decidedly tomboyish herself in this (It’s a size 3 months hat and Emma is 5.5 months wearing it in this photo, so while it does fit, it’s just a little short on her):

And ready to be sent, with label with washing instructions attached: