The Joy of Creating....

 

After a long time of not really knitting, I have been picking up the knitting needles more frequently and actually working on some knitting projects. First, it was my contracted work that needed to be finished and then it's the knitted toys for this year classroom. But over the past weekend, when I was stuck home being sick and not able to do much, I picked up the strange glow in the dark yarn by Lions Brand and decided to knit something utterly joyful. Few years back, when I created the knitting pattern for a dog's cowl, human infinity scarf and a hat for I Like Knitting Magazine, I wanted to make a cowl for my dog. He already owns a pillow with his name, so why not to create a cowl with his name.

There was a snowstorm over the weekend, and being sick as well, I had plenty of time to knit for fun. First, I needed to calculate the number of stitches I had to cast on, so I could knit his name, and the paw prints as well. Once I have figured that out, I started. It took me about six hours of knitting, but here is the finished cowl. My dog is fine with wearing the cowl on his daily walks.  It even glows in the dark, once you use a flashlight and charge the glow in the dark yarn. 

I have a one more skein of the glow in the dark yarn, and I will create something else with it. Stay tuned for the next adventure, visit my website Stanascrittersetc website or follow me on Instagram Stanascrittersetc. 

Thank you for visiting.

Happy Crafting to All!

 

As another year comes to end, we tend to reflect on the past year and make plans for the upcoming year. I hope that yours was a good one. Mine was filled with work and reading, and some crafting as well. I didn't publish too many new patterns over the past year, but I hope that there will be more to come in the upcoming year. I did manage to knit frog in a sweater for each child in the last year class. It was a fun project, and I have used up a whole lot of scrap yarn. I am hoping to knit another group of toys for each child in this year class. I do not want to knit frogs, and I have spent quite some time thinking about what I should make for the kids. Over the winter break I started on my parliament of owls. We shall see how successful I will be in this project as I am still working on a sample for a pattern that will be published later next year by a third party.   

Thank you for all the visits to my blog and sticking out with me on my crafting adventures. 

May the next year be a good one!

Fall 2024

 

This is my favorite time of the year. The months are filled with wonderfully warm sunny days, yet the mornings can get a bit chilly. I slowly take out my knitted pieces and wear them each and every day. The colors of leaves are just spectacular, and I enjoy the precious moments of being present. I think about different knitted items that I would like to add to my wardrobe, and what I already have. I also start to think about knitted gifts and what should I create next. 

I have totally missed the toy mystery KAL that I wanted to create for the last days of summer entering into the first days of fall. Life outside of my knitting bubble happened and I just didn't have enough time. At the moment I am working on a design for a third party to be published next year. Once this project is off my knitting needles, I hope to revisit my toy mystery KAL. In the meantime, there are plenty of knitting patterns that you can choose from. For example, this cute broomstick, a perfect half hour project for some leftover yarn. The pattern is available here on my blog, or anywhere my patterns are available.

Thank you for visiting.

Summer 2024

 

My summer project is to knit another rattlesnake. I was asked to make one, and I looked through my yarn stash and picked up the yarn in the colors I wanted to use. I have not started to knit the snake, yet and now I have a bit of deadline to finish this project, simply because I was procrastinating. 

After a year of missing, I am again participating in the Ami-a-long, an event for knitters and crocheters to create toys using the patterns from participating designers. Post about it on Ravelry, and be eligible to win a pattern from the participating designers. Ami-a-long group on Ravelry has more information in regard to who is participating designer and all the details.

As soon as I finish the rattlesnake, I should be able to concentrate on the next toy mystery KAL. I will post more details when I have everything ready. 

In the meantime, I hope that you have a fun filled summer. 

Thank you for visiting.

Stana

Knitted Frogs in a Sweater Project

 

I have been busy with a really fun project over the last few months. Here is a full class photo of 21 frogs in sweaters with a larger frog as a teacher. Last year when I started to work full time in the education field, I was thinking about knitting a little toy for every child in the classroom. Somehow things didn't work out as by the end of the school year I had five frogs finished. So, last year the children each got a new book and a bookmark with their picture holding their favorite book. I thought of trying to knit the toys for each child this year, and I made a frog here and there, using up scrap yarn from previous projects. Somewhere around the beginning of January I realized that I only needed to knit 3 frogs each month for the next five months in order to have a whole classroom. I challenged myself and in early January I started to really work on this fun knitting project. I have finished ahead of schedule and the frogs are ready to be given away at the end of this school year.  I am not sure if I will do another knitting project like this next year, perhaps completely different toys or maybe something else. 

At the moment I have returned to my sketches for the next toy mystery Knit-a -long. Stay tuned for the next fun toy mystery KAL. These knitted frogs were actually our last year toy mystery KAL. 

The pattern is Fran and you can find it in all places that my knitting patterns are available.

Thank you for visiting.

Paw Print Heart Patch

 

My original Paw Print Heart was written for working in the round. I have to admit that I prefer to create 3D toys and objects by working in the round and avoid the sewing pieces together part. But some people prefer to knit on two needles instead of using the magic loop method or working on the double pointed needles. Last fall I received a message on Etsy if I can create a flat knit version of the paw print heart. 

I was home sick in the early November and had some time to play with yarn. I managed to create a flat version and the pattern is now available on Ravelry, Payhip, Lovecraft and in my Etsy store. I love the idea of knitting a small paw print heart patch and apply it on clothes, cushions, or blankets. 

Paw Print Heart Patch on Ravelry

Paw Print Heart Patch on Payhip

Paw Print heart Patch on Etsy

Thank you for visiting.

The Journey Ahead....

 

It snowed here. It is something that usually happens during the winter months with regularity. Last winter was a rather strange as we didn't have any significant snowstorms until March. The kids at school were super excited for the snowstorm, as our winter break has been rather wet and gloomy, without any sunny days. The snow blanketed nature looks gorgeous, and everything seems to slow down. I really love those days, when we can enjoy the snow, and then have a cup of hot cocoa and freshly baked cookies. The days like these also call for a new knitting project to start. I started on a snuggly pillow for a friend. What are you going to make? Something warm for yourself or something fun, like a flat squirrel bookmark or a bunch of snowballs? 

Pictured in this blog post are, Snowballs, my first ever published pattern by a third party in 2012, the Bramble Cowl, a one skein of yarn cowl with simple yet gorgeous pattern, and Squirt, the squirrel bookmark. All patterns are available on Ravelry, Lovecraft, and some on Payhip. Links on the side bar or in the List of my published patterns.

I am making plans for this year new knitting patterns and I already have started to make sketches for my new fun mystery knit-a-long. Stay connected on the various social media, or sign up for my newsletter:

Stanascrittersetc

Thank you for visiting and reading. 

Still here, working on one stitch at time.....

 

Staircase to....

This image is one of my favorites. I took it few years ago at an old castle in Czech Republic named Pernstejn. If you ever have a chance to travel to Czech Republic, this is a wonderful place to visit, as it's usually not overrun by tourists. The castle has been used by movie makers as a setting for several movies, especially fairytales. The castle has been on my wish list for many years, but the opportunity to visit always seemed to slip away, until few years ago, when I stayed at my friend's place who live nearby, and finally I was able to see the castle. I hope to return to visit this castle again at some point in life, but more importantly I want to visit my friends again. I visited them this summer, but the castle didn't fit our itinerary, so hopefully the next time....

This brings me to my knitwear adventures. I still create and knit and write patterns, just at much slower pace than I used to. The blog posts are less frequent, my toy mystery KAL happens about once a year and the time seems to never be there for all that I would like to create. 

I am working on a flat version of my Paw Print Heart pattern, and this should be published and available within a week. I also am participating as independent knitwear designer in two major events that happens around this time of year.

On Ravelry it's the Indie Gift-a-long which runs to the end of this year and participants can win prizes. This year there are over 250 independent knitwear designers and thousands of knitting and crocheting patterns. 

If you are not on Ravelry, then the Fasten Off might be for you. This event is held entirely online and there are about 100 independent knitwear designers who offered their patterns. You can participate in games, meet fellow crafters, and win prizes. 

When I started this blog in 2011, I really didn't know what to expect and I definitively didn't imagine that one day there will be more than a million of visitors to this little space online. 

Thank you all for visiting, reading, and believing in my craft, ideas and creativity. 

I will continue one stich at time.

  

Fran, the toy mystery KAL and some new patterns

 

Sensory Caterpillar is one of the two new patterns that I have added to Ravelry and to Lovecraft. I have created the pattern for Knitpicks IDP program, and the pictured sample uses their Dishie yarn.

My second pattern Calypso Hat and Cowl that I have just added to Ravelry was also created for Knitpicks IDP and it just got published on Knitpicks website as well. The pattern uses Knitpicks Wool of the Andes Bulky weight.  

Link to Ravelry:  My designer page

Link to Lovecraft: My patterns on Lovecraft

Link to Knitpicks: Calypso Hat and Cowl and Sensory Caterpillar

Fran, the next toy mystery KAL will start next Monday, August 21st, 2023. 

You can sign up for my newsletter and receive a coupon code for the pattern and a free toy pattern on my website: Stana's Critters etc.

Also, you can get the pattern for 50% off by using the coupon code: Fran 

The coupon code is valid from today until August 24th, 2023. 

As always, I appreciate your visits, comments and please don't forget to follow me, here or on Instagram: stanascrittersetc

One stitch at time....

     At the end of April, I had everything ready for the next toy mystery KAL. I only needed few more pictures of work in progress to show what the toy looks after each clue during the mystery KAL. Then something unexpected happened in our lives and I am still trying to figure out the next step. Life goes on and I will be back with the toy mystery KAL in second half of the summer, but I need few more weeks of time to allow me to process my grief. 

Be kind to each other. Life is full of unexpected twists and turns, yet full of moments of joy. 

Thank you for visiting.

Dandelion Honey

 

These jars are filled with sweet syrup made from dandelion flowers. I remember it as a special treat my mom and grandmother used to make when I was growing up. First time I made it by myself was in the spring of 2020. See the blog post here. Since then, I have continued making the syrup each year in the spring, when the dandelions are in bloom. 

This year I have posted a picture of my dandelions and violet flowers collection and once again I have received request for the recipe. I have included the recipe in my e-book Baba Yaga's House. But if you are not interested in knitting, you may not want to buy an entire e-book filled with knitting patterns and some extras, therefore I have decided to write the recipe here.

This recipe goes back to my childhood. We would gather dandelion flowers and made what we called honey, but it’s rather a syrup. This is a spring time activity, and I would highly recommend leaving plenty of blooms for the bees and other pollinating insects when collecting the dandelion flowers. 

Ingredients:
Dandelion flowers (400)
2 liters (0.5 gallon) water
1.8 kg (4 pounds) sugar
Lemon juice (from one lemon)
Orange slices (optional)

Directions:
Step 1: Collect the dandelion flowers.
Step 2: Wash the flowers. Add them to a large pot with the water. Add the lemon juice and sliced orange.
Step 3: Bring to a boil, let it simmer for 15 minutes. 
Step 4: Cover the pot with the lid. Let it sit overnight in the pot. 
Step 5: Strain the liquid through a cheese cloth or a strainer. 
Step 6:  Add the strained liquid to a pot, add the sugar and bring to a boil.
Step 7: Lower the temperature and let the mixture simmer, stirring occasionally. The longer you let the liquid simmer the thicker the dandelion honey will be.  
Step 8: Sterilize small glass containers, then pour the dandelion honey inside. Cover. Let it cool to room temperature. 
Step 9: Keep in the refrigerator, and use it as a sweetener for teas, lemonades, etc.  

Thank you for visiting and enjoy! 

The Headaches of Medical Bills....

 

Another one just arrived yesterday. 

This year has been rather stressful, and my knitting has been mostly on hold. I cannot find the energy or time to knit. The stress of having my husband out of work and without any income since January is not helping. Earlier this month, when I went to an Urgent Care with a chest pain and was refused to be seen, I had to go to ER instead. I was worried about the chest pain, not the medical bills at that time. 

Now the medical bills started arriving. Even though we are lucky to have a health insurance through my full-time job, it's a rather high deductible insurance and we have to pay most of the bills anyway. The unbelievable high medical bills here in the USA force people to create GoFundMe pages as they struggle to pay their regular bills and the medical bills as well, while sometimes they cannot even work. A good friend of mine is dealing with the uncertainty of his child's long recovery from a serious car accident as well as the devastating medical bills the prolonged hospital stay at an ICU will cost. I am truly at loss on how he must feel. Below is the link to my friend's child GoFundMe page. 

My friend's child GoFundMe Page

I still hope to host the toy mystery KAL sometimes soon. It might take a bit longer than I anticipated, but there are more than 300 other knitting pattern that I have created over the years, which you can either purchase or are available as free patterns. See all the places where you can buy my patterns on my website. Stana's Critters Etc

As always, I am grateful for any purchase you make as it helps me to continue to create one stitch at time. 

Thank you.

A brief note

 

Hello everyone,

Every day I keep thinking about sitting down and writing a blog post. Yet somehow it has not happened yet. My knitting adventure has taken a brief break over the past few months. I tried to keep up, but life got busy with other things and there were days when my knitting needles were left untouched, and I couldn't manage to make a single stitch. It wasn't that I lost a joy from knitting and creating, but the time just wasn't there. Life happens sometimes. 

We all try to do our best, and as I am adjusting to everything, I try to find few moments here and there and continue with my knitting adventure one stitch at time. 

My new toy mystery knit-a-long is slowly getting ready, and I hope to have it all done soon. So, we can have some fun mystery knit-a-long towards the end of this month. 

Sensory Caterpillar is my latest knitting pattern created for Knitpicks IDP program. When I have more time I will add the pattern to Lovecraft, Knitpicks, and Payhip. In the meantime, you can get the pattern on Knitpicks website, along with the yarn. 

Thank you for visiting.

For some little snippets of my life, you can follow me on Instagram: @stanascrittersetc

All the best....

 

to you all, who continue to read my blog throughout all those years, or who stopped by to check out my free knitting patterns. I hope that your year of 2022 has been a good one and you are going to have pleasant and safe last days of this year. 

As another year is coming to an end, I look back to what I have accomplished as a knitwear designer. When I started this blog in March 2011, I didn't know what to expect and where my knitting journey will take me. It has been eleven years since I published my first knitting pattern. Although it didn't turn to be my full-time profession, I still continue to create and publish knitting patterns. As I mentioned in my newsletter, I am creating at a slower pace than before. Life is full of surprises. 

 

I hope to create another toy mystery Knit-a-long for the beginning of the next year, and also some new wearable items as well. In the meantime, you can still browse my previously published 320 knitting patterns and I hope that it will inspire you to keep on knitting, one stitch at time. 

All the best for the New Year!

Thank you for visiting and reading.

Winter Cowl - Malabrigo Quickie

 

Winter Cowl is my latest published knitting pattern. It is a part of the popular Malabrigo quickie program. The pattern calls for one skein of Mechita yarn. 

You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry: Winter Cowl 

Payhip: Winter Cowl

and soon it will be also available on Lovecraft website. 

I love how the honeycomb pattern creates a 3D appeal yet is simple enough for new knitters to cable knitting and I really like the polished look of I-cord edges. I have created this pattern for Malabrigo quickies, and the cowl uses one skein of fingering weight yarn. At first, I made couple swatches of the honeycomb pattern in heavier yarn weight, and I really liked the 3d appeal to it. But when I made the same pattern in the fingering weight the 3D appeal kind of disappeared and I had to adjust the pattern to keep the 3d visual appeal even in the fingering weight yarn. You can see the different swatches in the picture bellow. From left to right it is the fingering weight yarn, sport/ DK and worsted/ Aran weight yarn. 

Bellow you can see the two samples of the fingering weight yarn cowls in Malabrigo Mechita in two different colorways. 

Thank you for visiting and reading.

Tutorial for Cat Silhouette Bookmark

 

I have created this super-fast knitting pattern for the Cat Silhouette Bookmark in 2015 and it has been my most downloaded knitting pattern for some time, passing over the knitting pattern for Minions.  

Even though this pattern is available for free, I still try to help people if they contact me and ask for help. One of the most asked questions I receive about this, and my other bookmark patterns is how to knit the bookmark in the round. So, I decided to create a small photo tutorial which shows how I do that. 

I have spent one hour knitting the bookmark and since I have some leftover yarn, I created a new bookmark for the Cat Silhouette working flat in garter stitch. I will type up the notes (it is slightly different then just use a half amount of stitches given for the bookmark in the round).

The new pattern, which is written for flat knitting and have an additional updated version of the original Cat bookmark in the round as a bonus is available on: 

Lovecraft: Cat Bookmark

Payhip: Cat Bookmark

Ravelry: Cat Bookmark 

Here is the picture tutorial for the original Cat Silhouette Bookmark 

Start with cast on the number of stitches, I prefer to use the long tail CO.

After I knit the first round, I join the stitches to continue to work in the round. With two double pointed needles, each holding half of the stitches, and using the third needle to knit.

Following the knitting pattern round after round. 

After the Cat Silhouette is finished, continue with the ears.

Then, make the I-cord tail.

In about an hour, the Cat Silhouette Bookmark is done. 

Happy knitting and reading.

Update

 

This Stripy Poncho has been my favorite top layer during the autumn days. A free pattern is available here: Stripy Poncho

The past two months have been a blur. My life outside of the knitting world took over and I didn't have time to knit or think about knitting for some time. The few brief moments I had over the past two months I spent working on the new upcoming design. The work is almost finished, and the new pattern will be available next month. 

Few of my knitting patterns were published in the past few months: 

In October issue of I Like Knitting magazine you can find the Gulia Knit Pants: a cozy comfortable pants knit from top down in the round using the long changing colors of Cascade 220 Superwash Wave using two skeins of yarn and changing them every few rounds to create the stripes within the changing color wave. See photos bellow by I Like Knitting 

As a part of Twelve weeks of giving by Knitpicks my Parliament of Owls Hat is available for free: See the screenshot of an email I have received about the pattern:

I hope to able to pick up my knitting needles more and enjoy the creativity that comes with making something one stitch at time.

Thank you for reading and visiting.

For snapshots from my life, you can follow me on Instagram: Stanascrittersetc

Life as a work in progress.....

 

These two images are my favorites, they remind me that life is filled mostly with little things that make our day-to-day lives worth living. We may not see them or appreciate them at the moment, but when we look back at them, they give us a warm feeling of accomplishment, happiness and joy. 

Sometimes our lives get tangled up and we have to go through periods of difficulties. At times like these it's good to look back and appreciate those little moments that brought us joy. I just went on a trip through the memory line by looking through the older blog posts, especially those that have the tag #life 

Looking through them made me appreciate everything that I have accomplished so far and especially for being still able to experience those small moments and live. When I wrote this blog post named Reflections it was about a year after I had my second episode of DVT and first PE. Since then, things go up and down, there are periods of calm and my leg is fine, and then something triggers it, and my leg acts up and I am left in a whirlwind of pain and inability to function as a healthy person. It is rather strange feeling of being totally without control and waiting things out, by following the doctors' orders and hope for the best. This is where knitting comes in hand, as it allows me to concentrate on something different, something that I enjoy and brings me and those who appreciate my knitting creations joy. 

 And so in the world of knitting joy I am happy to announce that I had several knitting patterns published in the past few weeks or months. Below are links to these knitting patterns on Ravelry, they are also available on Knitpicks website, and some will be a part of the new upcoming book: 60 Quick Knit Gifts for Babies, published by Sixth&Spring Books.

Rabbit toy

Striped Baby Blanket

Pencil Jar Cozy

Luvbot 

Making the Gradient Blanket

photo by I Like Knitting

Also, after six months exclusivity period my Helena Cable Cardigan, originally published in February issue of I Like Knitting Magazine and on their website is now available as Ravelry download and will be at some point available on Lovecraft and Payhip.

Last time I was home sick and recovering I created a free pattern code for the readers of my blog. It was overwhelming. This time I offer a free knitting pattern to all new subscribers to my newsletter: Stana's Critters Etc and they do receive exclusive coupons in every newsletter I sent out. 

If you don't want to comit to subscribe to the newsletter but would like to have some discount, I offer you a 20% off from any of my self-published knitting patterns, just use the coupon code blog from now until August 31st, 2022 EST midnight. 

Thank you for reading.

Fun activities

 

This summer I am one of many participating independent designers in two fantastic events, happening on Ravelry and also elsewhere on social medias.

I would like to mention both here.

After a few years of not being held, the Ami-a-long started at the beginning of July. It runs through the end of August. You can knit or crochet a toy from the participating designers, and you can win prizes. There are games to play and just fun critters to create. More details are in the group on Ravelry:

Ami-a-long

The second event I am participating is called Around the World Stitch Along. I have participated in the same event last year and am one of many wonderful designers again this year. This event started on Monday July 25th and ends August 25th. Once again you can knit or crochet any project from the participating designers and be eligible for prizes to win. There are also fun games on Instagram and in the Ravelry group you can chat and learn about different traditions from around the world. 

Around the World Stitch Along 

I hope that you will join these two events and learn something new, create something with your hands and maybe even win one or more of the fabulous prizes. 

I have teamed up with Cascade Yarns and one of the prizes to win at the Around the World Stitch Along is my pattern for Brie's Cowl and Cascade Yarns will provide the yarn to knit this two colors brioche cowl. You can see the original sample in the picture bellow:

Thank you for visiting.