Behind the scenes...

 

Here is a sneak preview of two patterns that will be published in June. Today was the day to take photos of the finished samples and our dog was very involved as always. 

There have been many different blog posts about how much time it takes to create a knitting pattern. How much money a knitting pattern should cost, in order to be profitable. There is never a good way to predict if a pattern will be successful and the designer will earn enough money to cover the cost of creating the pattern and if there will be a profit for the designer in the end. 

These two patterns are going to be a part of Knitpicks IDP showcase in June or July. Therefore, I have received a yarn support to create these two patterns. In order to be a part of the IDP showcase, I had to create a submission and submit it for consideration. To create a submission, you have to knit a swatch, draw a good sketch and take photo of the swatch and create the submission on a computer and send it out. That takes several hours, and sometimes the submission is not accepted. With these two submissions I was lucky, and they were accepted, and I received the yarn support. It took me about three weeks to create these samples. Technically, the actual knitting was less than three weeks, but I have other commitments, like work, house choirs etc. that occupy my time as well. I have to type up the patterns using my notes, and I had to send the pattern to my technical editor. After the initial editing, I spent more time on the patterns, and sent it to the editor again for another read through. After that there is the last editing and the photography. For these two patterns it was about seven hours of computer work and photography so far. Now I will be looking over the photos and pick the best, and if they are not good enough, they will have to be retaken and once all is ready it has to be uploaded and send to Knitpicks and then added to the other variety of websites that I have my patterns available on. It will take another two to three hours at least of computer work to have the patterns ready. 

I am not sure how much money I will make in the end of these two patterns, if it will cover the cost for the technical editor, and even if it will cover the time, I have spent working on them. In the end it all comes down to the fact that I just really enjoy knitting and creating with yarn. I even knitted the cover for my writing portfolio that I presented in order to graduate. 

  Thank you for visiting.

 

Toys, toys, toys....

 

Toys and more

I have to admit, my favorite knitting projects are usually toys. I love to make them and even more I enjoy giving them away. Sometimes I get to do special requests toys that require me to be creative and use more than just knitting needles in order to capture the image or an idea. In the collage picture above, you can see some of the toys I have made over the past few months. 

The large picture has our dog posing with a large teddy bear and a small cat. They were both Christmas presents for two small children. The two dolls in the bottom corner were created to replicate drawings of a young artist, and they were received with a huge smile on the artist's face. The cat in the top corner was made for a colleague of mine at work. One day we were talking, and he showed me a picture of this peaceful looking yoga posing cat and I tried to recreate that image, while adding the coloration of his own cat.  

At the moment I am working on a new toy mystery KAL. I have to get the PDF files ready with all the clues and set the dates and hopefully it will bring some smiles to anyone who will participate. I will post more information as soon as I have everything ready. Here is a sneak preview of the yarn I am using for Cleo.

Cleo, toy mystery KAL

I spent yesterday evening knitting a new sample for my older pattern named Grande Gatto. Here is a link to the original blog post about the pattern. The jumbo weight yarn that the original Grande Gatto was made in has been discontinued and I have received new yarn from Knitpicks to give the pattern an update. The original Grande Gatto made in jumbo weight yarn measured about 15" / 38 cm, the new resized Grande Gatto is about 10" / 25.5 cm, which is still a decent size for a huggable toy or a cool decoration. It might be on a smaller size as a pillow, but I may make another sample with different stitch counts and rounds to make the Grande Gatto closer to the original size. 

Grande Gatto

Grande Gatto

Thank you for visiting.

My dog is a better influencer...

 

Seriously, my dog seems to be getting more Instagram collaboration requests than I have ever received as a knitwear designer. All he has to do is being himself and I just help with posting a picture of him to his Instagram T-Bone dog diary. 

I have to do more, than that. 

photo by I Like Knitting

Spotted Around Set is an e-book collection of two knitting patterns that were originally published in October issue of I Like Knitting Magazine and on their website, see the blog post from last September here: Knitwear Designer. After the exclusivity period finished I have the rights to the patterns and I can publish the patterns independently. You can buy the patterns individually or as an e-book for a discounted price.

At the moment I am working on another project for a third party publisher and my independent work is  as usually put on hold as the deadline is nonexistent unlike the contracted work for a third party.  

But once the work is finished I will return to my independent projects and continue to work on those. There are so many knitting patterns in various stages of work in progress that I hope to finish and publish during this year.  Like the pattern for this Bernie's doll. It took me about two months to knit the doll and now the pattern is taking even longer to write up into a word document from my handwritten  notes. 

Thank you for visiting and reading. 

Work in Progress

    Remember the pictures of Bernie Sanders wearing handmade mittens to inauguration in January 2021? Bernie Sander's handmade mittens inspired so many crafters as they recreated the pattern in mittens, hats, scarfs, cowls, sweaters and even dolls created to resemble Bernie Sanders with these mittens. I waited few days but then I couldn't resist and decided to knit a doll. 

   

     I looked through my yarn stash and picked the colors based on the picture. I had a sketch and ideas as what I would like to do. Under normal circumstances this kind of project would take about two weeks. Well life happens. For about a moth I couldn't really knit and then I had my submission accepted for publication by a third party. I am still working on this project for the third party, but I have also managed to finally finish the Bernie Sanders's doll, with mittens and all. It took me two months from cast on to finish. As for the knitting pattern, it will be typed up and available, I just need a bit more time.

These past few weeks whenever I could I worked on finishing my project for the third party and once this is done and patterns and samples are mailed to the  editor I will return to the Bernie Sanders' doll and type up the pattern. You can see a sneak peek photo of me sitting on a porch, while working on the finishing touches to the sample, while my dog T-Bone is practicing porch napping. 

Thank you for visiting.

Paw-some Set and Harvest Poncho

 Harvest Poncho, seen in the picture bellow is now available as a pattern download on Ravelry, or you can purchase the pattern by clicking on the button bellow:

The pattern will be soon available on Lovecraft as well. 

photo by I Like Knitting

Harvest Poncho sewing tutorial

Paw-some dog's cowl, human infinity scarf and a hat are all available to purchase on Ravelry, and Payhip and soon will be also on Lovecraft website. You can buy the pattern for the dog's cowl and scarf and separately the hat, or you can purchase the entire set. The button bellow the pictures is for the complete set.

Photo by I Like Knitting

10 years of work in progress

Ten years ago I have started this blog with a help from my friend. 

Here is a link to that first blog post: Welcome to Stana's Critters Etc Blog. 

The image from the first blog post is a whole bunch of knitted teddy bears and a pink polka dot dog and a yellow striped cat. All of these toys were given away either to my kid, my friend's children, my kid's friends, or variety of charitable organizations. 

When I started this blog I really didn't know what to expect and what would happen. Somehow my love for knitting has evolved into a small side business and in the process I have managed to write and publish almost three hundred knitting patterns. As of today, officially, there are 295 published knitting patterns in my Ravelry store, and my patterns were published in seventeen different knitting books, as well as variety of websites and magazines.  To have my work accepted and published by a variety of third parties I have learned the different ways to submit my ideas and inevitably also understand that the rejections happen more than the acceptance, and usually it has nothing to do with the idea itself but rather with how the different ideas from so many other talented creators fit together. 

I do not know what the future holds, but I know for sure that I will continue to knit one stitch at time.  That way I am sure that I will manage to finish this Bernie Sanders doll, my current work in progress since January 2021. 

Thank you for visiting and reading. 

Paw-some Dog Cowl and matching Human Scarf

 

This fancy paw-some cowl is for our four legged furry friends. The knitting pattern provides variety of sizes from extra small to extra large with directions on how to adjust to your furry friend. A human infinity scarf in opposite colors is the perfect companion for all those long walks. A knitting pattern for matching hat will be available also. 

You can purchase the pattern by clicking on this button (it takes you to Ravelry):

or you can purchase the pattern on Payhip and shortly also on Lovecraft website: link here.

Pictured bellow is T-Bone modeling the cowl, patiently waiting to go out for a walk.

The pattern was originally published by I Like Knitting website in their August Issue. The matching hat was published in October Issue.

                                                              photo by I Like Knitting

Snowmen Garland, Paw Print Pin Cushion and Paw Print Heart

 Over the past week I have published three knitting patterns. They are all quick and wonderful last minute knitted gifts. Each of these takes about two hours or less of knitting.  And all you need is less then 50 yards / 46 meters of yarn. The patterns suggest worsted weight yarn, but it will work in any yarn weight. The size of the finished item will be different from the samples done in worsted weight yarn, and you will have to adjust the needle size accordingly to the yarn weight. 

The first and the most easy of the three patterns is Snowman Garland: 

You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry: My Designer Page

or clicking on this button, which takes you to Ravelry:

 

or you can buy it on Lovecraft website, or on Payhip

My second pattern is Paw Print Pin Cushion: 

You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry:

or clicking on this button, which takes you to Ravelry: 

 

or you can buy it on Lovecraft website, or on Payhip

My third pattern is the most difficult of these three as it requires stranded knitting, increases, and decreases working in the round, but it's also my favorite one of the three:

Paw Print Heart

You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry:

or clicking on this button, which takes you to Ravelry:

 

or you can buy it on Lovecraft website, or on Payhip, or in my Etsy store

Here is a picture of our dog with the Paw Print Hearts. He has been an inspiration behind this pattern and as a thank you I will donate $1 from each pattern purchase during the month of December to our local animal shelter. Our dog has arrived from an animal shelter and he has been a wonderful addition to our family. 

Thank you for visiting, and thank you for buying my knitting patterns. 

Generosity, GAL, Fasten off Yarn 2020, and life

 

This is the time of year when people tend to be more generous and caring. In the knitwear designer world it is also the time of year when a wonderful event Gift-a-long is happening on Ravelry.

GAL 2020 officially started yesterday with a week long sale event, after the sale event is over the gift-a-long continues until the end of the year. There are games to play, prizes to win, and more. You can join the event on Ravelry Indie Design Gift-a-long I am also participating as a designer.  Stana's Critters Etc on Ravelry.

In June of this year (I think, but I might be wrong) Ravelry website was redesigned and the new Ravelry website was live. Apparently there have been some issues with the new design. Due to this a new event was created  Fasten Off Yarn-a-long  This event starts today with another sale time and conitnues with knit a long, games, prizes and all, but is held completely off Ravelry. I am also participating as a designer in this event, you can see the patterns here: Stana's Critters Etc 

As a knitter I will try to participate and knit something from other designer's patterns. I have quite a few favorites and I just need to decide what to make. 

Life is rather interesting. We all are trying to cope with the effects the pandemic had on our lives in the past several months. I am not sure what the future is holding for us, humanity and the world, but I try to be optimistic. That is rather difficult at times when I scroll through the news and read them. I personally choose each and every day to see something good and something positive in my life. For example my heart shaped rocks pictures and collection. It started with an unexpected chance discovery of a heart shaped rock on a path I have taken so many times before, yet I never saw that heart shaped rock before that day, few years ago. Since that day I have seen so many heart shaped rocks, and clouds and other objects that it might be an ordinary. Yet I choose to see each and every heart shape I see as a message from the Universe that life is good, and that there is hope for all of us. 

One of my latest knitting patterns is named Paw Print Heart. It is a combination of heart shape and a paw print on it. You can see the samples with my dog. At the moment the pattern is available in my Etsy store, Payhip store, and on Lovecraft. I will add the pattern to Ravelry next week.

Each year I choose a charity to donate some money. This year I will donate locally to our animal shelter. It is not the only charitable organization I donate, as I am an active member of Friends of the library and I support them a lot. For every pattern purchase of the Paw Print Heart I will donate $1 to the animal shelter. I guess it is my way of being thankful for the gift of our dog who has arrived from an animal shelter and has been a loved member of our family.

Stana's Critters Etc

Paw Print Heart

Thank you.

September 2020 - Knitting Patterns

 Somehow this month has been an amazing time for me as a knitwear designer. I am feeling like a real knitwear designer with work published by several third parties. See the list and pictures at the end of this blog post.

First let's start with a little bit of history.

This is my first finished knitting project that I remember. I recall that I did a lot of crochet projects prior to this sweater, but this is my first for so many things. I remember the trip to formal East Germany, a town now called Chemnitz. At that time it was named Karl-Marx-Stadt. We went to a Department Store and I picked up the yarn for this sweater and another sweater. I created the pattern, though I didn't know that it was a pattern that I created. I just draw a picture and calculated the number of stitches and rows based on a small swatch that I knitted. I also remember that I did not know how to cast on. My mom helped me by casting on the stitches. I knitted the sweater in four pieces, in three colors using an intarsia technique. At that time I did not know that you need to wrap the yarn around each other. This actually created a small holes around the V shape where the yarn was changing. These small holes were not on the sleeves. By then I learned that the yarn has to be wrapped around each other. When I was wearing the sweater people were asking me how did I created the pattern of holes perfectly placed along the color change on front and back of the sweater. My grandmother helped me to sew the finished pieces and knitted the crew neck edge around the neck opening. I loved that sweater and was wearing it a lot. I do not have it anymore. I do not know what have happened to the sweater. We might have unravel it to use the yarn again. This is how my love for knitting started. 

After years of knitting, in 2011 I tiptoed into a knitting pattern writing.

My first published knitting pattern was for the Apples in May 2011. The link to this free pattern is here:

Apples

My first knitting pattern published by a third party was for Snowballs, in January 2012. The pattern was originally published by Petite Purls, In Issue 11, Winter. It is available as a free pattern. Link here:

Snowballs

And so it continued for the past nine years. Creating, sketching, knitting samples, making notes, writing patterns, editing, sending out my ideas to submission calls and more of knitting, creating, editing, and writing. As of today I have either independently or through a third parties published 279 patterns.

The list of my Knitting Patterns on my blog or on Ravelry with pictures My Knitting Patterns.

This month eight of my knitting patterns were published.

Independent work is Meg and School of Fish

In October Issue of I Like Knitting Magazine are: 

Pawsome-Hat  to complete the Paw-some Dog Cowl and Human Scarf 

A set of Spotted Around Hat and Spotted Around Scarf

and Harvest Poncho

All the photos of these four patterns are by I Like Knitting

Brunelli Wrap was published in October Issue of Knotions Magazine.

photo by Kelli Nuss for Knotions Magazine. 

Misty Cowl was published by Knitpicks in the new textured collection titled Pathways. 

photo by Knitpicks.

Cuddly Cat Pillow is the last pattern that was published by Interweave Knits in their Gifts 2020 Issue magazine.

photo by Interweave Knits 

I hope to continue with creating more knitting patterns in the future for some time.

As for the rest of this year, I have an e-book project, that I started to work on last winter and slowly it started to take shape over the months of pandemic and staying home. This collection of small knitting projects will be released over the next three months. These small projects are all using small amount of yarn that I had home from a various previous knitting projects. They are all a fantastic, funky, fast and instant gratification giftable items for almost everyone. 

More on this project is coming up over the next three months. Just to give you a little sneak preview... if you look closely into my knitting bag in this picture, few of those critters are peaking out.

Thank you for reading and for visiting.

New Knitting Patterns

Somehow this month I will have several knitting patterns published by a variety of third parties.

First I would like to mention that my  Bark Scarf, previously published by Knitpicks in their book collection titled Flaunt is now available as Ravelry download pattern, and will soon be available to purchase on Lovecraft website as well. I love the simplicity of the mistake rib pattern in one color and two colors and the possibility of colors that can be created. The pattern is written for bulky weight yarn and is fabulous for beginners. 

Four of my knitting patterns were published in the October Issue of I Like Knitting magazine. In this blog post from July I wrote about working on these four pattern and knitting the samples in two weeks.

Deadline Work

First of the patterns that are part of the October Issue 2020 is the Paw-some Hat. It is a matching hat to the Paw-some Dog Cowl and Paw-some Human Infinity Scarf. First two images were taken by I Like Knitting. The last image is my favorite model T-Bone waiting for his daily walk in the fancy Paw-some Dog Cowl. 

Second and third pattern included in the October Issue are Spotted Around Scarf and Spotted Around Hat.  The Spotted Around Scarf is actually on the cover picture of the magazine issue. Both photos by I Like Knitting.

Fourth Pattern in the issue is Harvest Poncho.  A snuggly soft and reversible poncho  knit in wonderful Cascade Yarns Aereo. Photo by I Like Knitting.

 Thank you for visiting.