Gills is what happened to me when I was knitting a large lace panel and I particularly enjoy the rhythmic of feeling of a few rows of particular four stitch repeat of the larger piece. I took this snippet and threw it into a sock that was initially going to just be a plain sock for myself. After knitting the socks for myself I realized I loved the stitch pattern so much I needed to reknit it with a not so pooling yarn and publish it.

I love the addition of ribbing around the ankle bit, to add a bit of extra stretch and compression there and I wrote in a slightly modified version of my favorite slipped stitch heel. I will admit I caught my first case of “second sock syndrome” with this sock, because the official version didn’t get a mate yet, as I’d already knit three whole socks with this pattern and I couldn’t be bothered to cast on the second one yet. Soon, I’m sure!

You can get Gills here on Ravelry.

Did you know that a blocked and dried sock will perfectly stick to the natural brick outside my back door, just for a minute or so? Gravity left us alone with plenty of time to get fun pictures of this sock hanging on to the side of my house with nothing but a partnership of sock and brick textures.

With Nymphalis published as a follow up to Canterlot, I thought I should have a cowl to go with the hat and mitts, and really I was just desperate to use the lace cuff design from Canterlot again. I came up with a cowl that had several possible variations, the first was size. It comes in a drapey smaller size and a larger size that can be looped 2-3 times or worn in a long infinity scarf style. It also offers a garter edging for those that didn’t love the lacey edging as much as me.

I wound up knitting mine in a beautiful blue with lots of large speckled pops of rainbow colors, which inspired me to give in a name that reflected not just the colors of the cowl, but it sort of just *went with* the name of Canterlot, neverminding the fact that Nymphalis didn’t follow that same naming convention.

You can get Rainboom here on Ravelry or here on Payhip.

Shown here is my lovely husband showing off the original sample of this cowl. I think he really pulls off the blue.

After publishing Canterlot, the first fingerless mitts pattern I designed, I wanted to make a matching hat using the little butterfly stitch that was featured all over the mitts. When I knit my first version of it, I’d miscalculated my gauge and accidentally made it too small for my head and ended up giving it to my daughter and knitting a second one for myself and for the pattern, forgetting about the first one.

After struggling with a name for this hat for several days, my young daughter and I were getting ready to go for a walk and she’d chosen her orange butterfly hat to wear out. Immediately the knit fabric of that particular yarn reminded me of tortoiseshell butterflies. I quickly did some research and found the scientific name for tortoiseshells was called Nymphalis and I settled on the name for this hat. Even more exciting, when my best friend test knit this hat for me, she happened to have a matching skein and knit it in one of the adult sizes to fit her Mom!

You can get Nymphalis here on Ravelry or here on Payhip.

Shown here is Ruth modeling Nymphalis in the original colorway!

I was test knitting a children’s cardigan when I came across a stitch pattern that I really liked but couldn’t help but mess up every time it came to the “do the thing” row, because I kept feeling like if I just did two small things, the stitch pattern would look more cool and have a similar overall effect. As soon as I finished the cardigan, I started swatching ways to change up the stitch pattern and give it a little more movement.

I came up with the stitch pattern that I put in this hat, and I love the way that it just moves from the brim ribbing right into the pattern. These little triangular shapes shift back and forth and it made me think of those pictures of sailboat races where all the boats are all close together and the horizon is nothing but sails, which gave me the idea for the name. This hat is super stretchy and fits lots of adult head sizes with varying amounts of ease.

You can get Crazy Sails here on Ravelry or here on Payhip.

Shown here is one of my best friends modeling their finished hats which they knit with yarn that I hand dyed for them. If you visit the Ravelry page for this pattern, you’ll see several other images, including the original off white lightly speckled hat that I knit, which lended to the sail-look.

One of the first things I ever wanted to design, besides hats (seriously, I’m pretty sure I could never stop dreaming up hat designs) was fingerless mitts. For my first, I envisioned something sort of frilly, a little bit of lace at the cuff and some pretty lace motifs all over. I also wanted them to be somewhat practical, so I designed them using a DK weight yarn that would be warm and cozy. Once I’d knit the cuff I was so pleased with myself that the first two inches I’d moved on to the main section went incredibly slowly because I couldn’t resist stopping to stroke the cuff fabric I’d knit. It was so pretty and I was in love with it.

I ultimately knit two pairs, the second one I cut out a full pattern repeat of the main section and added an extra repeat before the top to give a little extra finger coverage. I loved both and wrote the pattern to give the knitter a bit of creative freedom to make gloves that they would love and make their (or someone else’s!) very own.

You can get Canterlot here on Ravelry or here on Payhip.

This image features the first pair I knit! If you’re able to visit the Ravelry page for this pattern, you’ll see I added a lot of featured projects from my test knitters and other folks who knit the pattern. I just couldn’t help it, I love every pair I see!

When I first decided to get serious about designing, I had only one pattern published at that time (that I’d put out years before, for free) and about two dozen swimming around in my head, that had yet to be put on paper or in yarn. The first pattern I decided to knit up and publish after this was Avenue of Pines. It is inspired by the real life Avenue of Pines in Northern Minnesota, which my childhood home is situated on (and my parent’s still live!) The hat features a row of pine trees underneath a beautiful sky of stars.

The pattern is very beginner friendly, the perfect option for someone wanting to explore lace (easy eyelets!) for the first time. It’s got a small amount of slouchiness to the brim and is designed in several sizes, so you can make one for yourself or any of your loved ones.

You can get Avenue of Pines here on Ravelry or here on Payhip.

This image features the first prototype I knit of the hat, which I sent to my mom, who is modeling it here! The pom pom is optional, but highly recommended. The bigger, the better!