A New Design!

Hello everyone - can you believe it is the end of September? Where has it gone? I want it back - I have more things I need to get done!

There is a confluence of events that will be taking place in October, and I hope you will stick around to read about some of them here. The Slow Fashion October conversation will once again take place the entire month. I encourage everyone to read about this year's prompts and join in the wonderfully big and sometimes unwieldy conversation, occurring both online and via Instagram. I know I have a fair amount to say this year, and I plan on doing just that. 

Additionally, I and my merry band of makers will continue with the second month of my Ravelry group's Wardrobe Weather a-long. I am in the process of making a few things, some of which should be completed like, very soon. I am planning on some Wardrobe Wednesday posts in October that tie in with both the above events.

And, not a moment too soon, I will be rolling out my second home collection - with a design a day (well, almost), through the beginning weeks in October. To the right you'll see a sneak peek of a few of the designs.

I know that one doesn't immediately think of home accessories in Fall, but for me, my home design efforts are just as important as my garment and accessories designing. It is, somehow, fitting that home and wardrobe should come together in a fall collection, and so I have done just that. I will flat out tell you, this is my largest seasonal collection to date, and I'm pretty darn excited about it. 

So, I am going to kick off things just a wee bit early with one of the personal accessory designs from the collection:

Say hello to the Below the Fold Shawl. This shawl design started from original materials received in a swap back in April. We all swapped materials we had on hand, whether whole skeins of yarn or bits of fabric, and from the materials I received came the prototype for Below the Fold. I then tested it in August during the Rio Olympics - and a huge shout out to my testers for their wonderful help: Kris, Liza, Debi, Michelle, Aimee and Joann - and then made this final sample using awesome Neighborhood Fiber Co. Rustic Fingering. The written pattern, including charts, is finally ready for release into the crafty wild, and I will do just that by adding it to my Ravelry store.

I am so thrilled with everything about this design: the initial inspiration, which is exactly in line with Slow Fashion October's theme and community building, the testing phase (which I really enjoyed - thanks, again, ladies!), the finished, polished pattern and sample, as well as how I arrived at the design's name. From start to finish, a true joy.

Isn't that a great way to gear up for October?