It's All About The Gifts This Melange Monday

It's (late!) Monday, time for melange.

As many of you may know, I've been involved with Ravelry's 2014 Independent Designer Gift-a-long, specifically I helped pin all of the participating designs to Pinterest boards. I have gone one step further and curated my own 2014 DIY Gifts board right here. I have chosen my favorites from all of the boards excepts the baby/children's board as well as the feet and leg board. I still have one or two children's patterns curated, but mostly I'm all about the hats, gloves, sweaters, scarves, home and shawls, shawls, shawls. There are some fantastic designs currently on sale and ripe for the picking before the end of the day this coming Friday. Of course, most of my self-published patterns are part of the mix (hey, I'm biased!), but with over 200 pins on the board, my designs represent only about 10% of what I curated. Do please take a look (knit and crochet together) - maybe there will be something you missed the first time around!

My fiber choice for my version of the
Lucie Shawlette. Photo taken with craptastic
cell phone camera.

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So, I purchased some shawl patterns late last Friday: four in all, but one for me to make now and one to make as a gift for a family member this holiday season. I'm currently enthralled with Gabriella Henry's Lucie Shawlette. It's a combination of simple garter stitch and a sweet crochet edging on one side. I am not only thoroughly enjoying the squoishy comfort of all that garter stitch, but as a fellow designer and creator of written patterns, I appreciate her unorthodox and artistic approach to pattern presentation. Henry incorporates unique font choices as well as (what I suspect) is her own art in her document layout. It's a real breath of fresh air from all of the cookie-cutter approaches to pattern layout. As someone who also utilizes some unique font choices as well as lots of photos and my own art (although less of the art in my single patterns), it's nice to see someone marching to her own tune. Well done, Gabriella. 

I'm farther along than this photo indicates.
I am loving the subtle color changes and
all.that.garter.stitch.

A friendly reminder that 20 of my designs, bundled here, are 25% off until the end of the day this Friday with the code giftalong2014. Partake of any of my designs on sale as well as those from other designers on my curated board linked above. Give someone hand-made worthy a great gift this holiday season, hopefully made with some yarn produced by an indie dyer or spinner.

Of course, that hand-made worthy person could be your very awesome self. Craft on, people.