'Tis the Very Best Season

It is, almost (finally), gift-making season! It's been every *other* season, for ... like ... ever, and none of them good. To have survived and made it to actually be able to make gifts - well, that alone feels like a supreme feat.

Yet, this is 2020, so things will not be quite the same this year as in previous years. I have, for the last seven years, been a participating designer in the Ravelry-based Indie Designer Gift-a-long, and this year will be the same, I am happy to announce. 

However, because Ravelry instituted its most bungled site update in June, virtually eliminating accessibility for a critical amount of its users, I will *also* be a participating designer in a brand new event - the Fasten Off Yarn-a-long (Fasten Off YAL 2020), created by a few Ravelry users that either cannot - or won't, in solidarity - have the ability to access Ravelry for this year's GAL. It will be a smaller event, to be certain, but will incorporate most of the same features as the GAL - a community of makers celebrating indie designs and making things for others, with the possibility of winning prizes and generally creating community.

I must admit, I am sorely bummed that Ravelry has put the maker community in this position. Its insufficient (and many would argue non-existent) response to the site upgrade, since June (!), has left a whole subsection of its former users feeling unappreciated, not listened to, and all but ignored. 

It, however, has exacerbated the position in which we now find ourselves. Because the Indie GAL is so entrenched (going on eight years), it feels that it needs to now differentiate itself from the new kid on the block. While not completely dissing the Fasten Off YAL, it's been made clear that all of us who actively promote the GAL must only use GAL hashtags in social media posts, and relegate the use of Fasten Off's hashtags in *separate* posts on social media. Oh, just le sigh. Haven't we learned anything from this separate but equal treatment? I hope that the need for a separate gift-making event might eventually go away (pie-in-the-sky hope that might be), but in the meantime, both events are virtually identical, just the forum that hosts discussion is different (Ravelry vs. Discord). Why not join forces, or at least allow both events' respective hashtags in the same social media post? 

I'm old enough to remember another GAL kerfuffle, which I posted about here in 2017. I am still advocating for cooperation over competition, and given the reasons behind the need for an alternate gift-making event, cooperation is far more in order than back in 2017. Hasn't the hand-knit and crochet industry's contraction and almost complete transformation in the last two years shown us that we compete at our peril? Hasn't the last nine months of extreme pandemic life, coupled with the current rampant spike in the virus, also shown us that we are all so incredibly interconnected? How come I feel like I keep banging my head against the same damn brick wall?

I am leaving you, my dear readers, with the look book from the current capsule collection I just released. A few of the designs, I am happy to report, highlight my new line of hand-painted and dyed yarns. I have a lot to be thankful for this year - my good health for the last nine months at the top of the list, along with the interactions I have had with my fellow indie designers via the GAL as well as the happiness make-a-longs during the past four summers. We are going to see the other side of all of this. Let's bring some color, light, and good spirit into the end of this year, ok?

2020 Capsule Collection look-book linky

 

The 2018 Indie Designer Gift-a-long - Some Opening Thoughts

Yes, everyone, it is that time of year again – the 2018 Indie Designer Gift-a-long rang the opening bell on Friday, November 23^rd, at 8:00 pm EST. This year’s version features a whopping 349 designers, including yours truly.

As usual, we are in the midst of this year’s GAL kick-off sale – each of those 349 designers has designated up to 20 items eligible for a nifty 25% off at checkout (with the giftalong2018 code entered) – and I am not immune to a good sale. No, no siree Bob. Each year I purchase patterns from my fellow designers, and I have (so far, I may or may not be done) picked up three designs that I just may work up during the next six weeks: the Cacophony Shawl from upstart designer Margo Bauman, Annie Modesitt’s awesome Pembroke Jacket, and the Urban Frieze cowl from one of my favorite Italy-based indie designers, Paola Albergamo. These designs figure (to a greater or lesser degree) into my own gift-making plans this season, and I’ll be posting project progress and photos to my Instagram feed (with all appropriate hashtags), so I’d suggest following there for all the good and (goofing!) details.

A sampling from my design sale bundle

As is also my yearly wont, I once again have put together a 2018 GAL Pinterest board of a sampling of totally rockin’ designs from virtually all 349 of my fellow designers. Yup, I spent two days and more mugs of coffee than I can count digging through each designer’s respective sale bundle (which we each designate beforehand), as well as looking through some non-sale items in certain instances, and taking a peek at a seemingly never-ending stream of photos to put together one of the most colorful, eye-catching displays of indie crochet and knit designs, like, ever. And, yes, my entire sale bundle of designs is interspersed in the board (containing almost 800 pins!!!), but that is not why I have, and continue to, engage in this design-pinning marathon.

Designing exclusively in a fiber medium (specifically crochet and knit garments and accessories for both self and home) is, at its most basic, a reflection of self and what animates each of us. My fellow indie designers and I put our hearts and souls and sweat and tears and talent into each and every design we publish.  We put ourselves out there every day in ways big and small. It is all guts and a very teeny, tiny, eensy, weensy amount of glory. This yearly gift-making celebration was conceived as a way to celebrate indie designers and their designs. Curating a Pinterest board every year is my way of contributing to that celebration. It is geared to showing off my fellow designers’ respective designs, and there is an additional happy and long-lasting by-product.

As I think most devotees of Pinterest know, pinners receive various Pinterest emails each week pushing pins and boards. I also receive (along with most other pinners with businesses) a weekly recap of one’s top three pins. For every week during the last oh, at least, two months, one of my most popular pins is one I pinned to my 2015 curated Gift-a-along board. Yes, a pin from 2015 is still getting all kinds of exposure for its designer.  That is one helluva designy half-life, and one I am more than pleased and happy to report and help create.

So, please, I hope everyone will join me in celebrating our yearly tribute to indie design, indie designers who give so much all the time, and makers who embrace the best of the season and make gifts like there’s no tomorrow. ‘Tis the season for it all, people. I raise my coffee mug to that.

To Help With Gift Decisions

The link to my sale designs is right here.

We are less than a week into this year's Indie Designer Gift-a-along, and I feel like we are all on overload with all of the amazing design choices. So, to help everyone out, here are some helpful links:

The Ravelry GAL sale bundle is here - all 100+ pages worth!
The 2017 Indie GAL designer bundle is here. One can search by designer name (and that's how the bundle is organized), or one can search by designs.

Here's the majority of the yarn
I'll be using for my blanket
throw-down with Amy van de
Laar. There wasn't enough
room for the purples; I also
have an old blanket WIP that
I'm frogging to get the colors
from it, since they are exactly
what I need for this project.

This is, however, the first year that we are not utilizing category-specific Pinterest boards. There are some (like yours truly) who really do like a visual road map, but something more manageable than hundreds of pages worth of designs. So, I have gone through the entire sale bundle and teased out those designs (mostly) from 2017 that appealed to me, and created a curated Pinterest board of my own right here.

I am now tucking into the making gifts part of this whole thing, and even though I've purchased a few patterns, my shopping cart remains bulging. I'm planning on making and gifting a Fenton Glass Cowl, a Zahar Shawl, and a Chic Mega Cowl. I also want to make a Chic Mega Cowl for myself, time willing. I also picked up the design that I am currently obsessed with, the Rhythmical Lines Cowl. Additionally, I am in a crochet blanket throw-down with Amy van de Laar over at Baroque Purls. We've both picked out designs from the awesome Amanda Perkins, and we're getting all our duckie yarn skeins in a row. I don't know if we'll finish our respective blankets, so stay tuned.

I hope everyone has started in on their gift-making and -giving. I also need to find more time so I can finish decorating my digs for the holiday season.

In addition to other knit and crochet designs, here's my biggest wishes right now:

A Little Holiday Update

This Lush Looped Scarf was
gifted earlier in the week.

Hello holiday makers - it is the day before Christmas Eve, and I hope that everything that needs to be made by Sunday is done (or at least drying!). 

It has been a busy 2016 Independent Designer Gift-a-long for me. I have made a few things: one of which I have already gifted, another that, while I have "broken it in," I expect I will gift it as well in a package I am getting ready to send out next week. I have three other projects in various stages that will be complete in a few days, only one of which I am making for me. My pile o' works-in-progress reveals my current blue and brown preoccupation.  I suppose I should be

I have broken in this Cowl a Go Go,
but I expect it will find its way into
the gift package I send out next week. 

more specific - it's more an earthy vibe, since I am also still in a green phase, and I am loving all neutrals a lot.

That above is the beginnings of a
cowl, about 1/3 of the way through
a shawl, and a second shawl that is
done and ready for blocking.

In addition to all of this gifting stuff, I also completed a special shop sample which I have sent off and it has been received - in England!

There's my Etched Ice
sample at Baa Ram Ewe
headquarters.

I am so thrilled that a sample of my Etched Ice Cowl is now sitting on display at Baa Ram Ewe headquarters. Back in October, they sent me two skeins of the awesome Titus in the wonderful bishopthorpe colorway and I worked up large version of the cowl and shipped it back to them. Jess at the store was kind enough to snap a quick photo, so below is what it looks like in the shop right this very moment. I wish I could pop on over for a quick visit to see it, as well as the rest of the wonderful yarny goodness at Baa Ram Ewe. Feel free to check out my Ravelry project page for an additional photo, as well as yardage and other project information, in clase you might want to whip up an Etched Ice of your very own.


I leave you with the sparkle and green of the season.

And We're Off To the Gift-a-long Races!

I, along with about 334 other participating designers, hereby announce the 2015 Gift-a-long sale and holiday gift-making open. Woohoo! I have 20 designs on sale (which you can access from my Ravelry design page - just click on the Gift-a-long 2015 bundle photo montage and see all of them) between now and the end of the day (eastern standard time) on Friday, November 27.

However, we'll all be whipping up a handmade gift frenzy between now and the end of the year! Take advantage of the sale by all means, but then stay for the merry gift making. 

If you want to check out the Pinterest boards for the Gift-a-long, here are the links:

Hats and Head - 2015 Gift-a-long

Cowls, Scarves and Neck - 2015 Gift-a-long

Shawls and Stoles - 2015 Gift-a-long

Sweaters and other Garments - 2015 Gift-a-long

Hands and Arms - 2015 Gift-a-long

Feet and Legs - 2015 Gift-a-long

Baby and Kids - 2015 Gift-a-long

Toys, Home and Other - 2015 Gift-a-long

Crochet Only - 2015 Gift-a-long

And, if you don't want to wade through thousands of pins, but want one designer's targeted curation, feel free to check out my curated 2015 holiday gift designs board. While my participating designs are absolutely pinned to it (!), there are 220 pins, representing a wide swath of all the knit and crochet designs, across most of the categories above, except feet (I don't do socks) and babies (cause I'd want to pin all the cuteness).

I leave you with a nifty visual of some of the statistics that our too-cool-for-stats-school statistician Kimberly put together. It's really pretty awesome to see the entire world getting in on this indie design/hand made gifts galore party.

Make all the things, people.

The GAL Excitement is Building

Hello everyone - we (us indie designers who have volunteered) have begun the Pinterest pinning frenzy! After a minor administrative hiccup on my part (that underscores my need, finally, for glasses), I am off to the races. I cannot wait to reveal the board links as well as my personally curated design board once this pinning portion is all done. The sale gets started next Thursday, and there are some absolutely beautiful designs this year for everyone to make, so get that hand-made-gift-worthy list together, and check it twice ... like ... pronto.


I thought I'd share with everyone another design of mine that's been out there for a while, but which I've recently added to my design store, and just for the GAL. As most everyone knows, I published a book earlier this year, Leather, Lace, Grit & Grace. What I've done is pick out 4 designs from the book and made them available as individual pattern purchases only for the 2015 Indie Gift-a-long. Once the gift-a-long is over at the end of the year, so too will be the ability to purchase these four designs individually.

The back view of the bulky weight
version. Get a load of all that
textural goodness, as well as a
pretty nifty pompom.

One in particular, the Beryl Hat, I've also added a bulky weight version to the pattern, just for the GAL. We love those super quick gift projects, and this hat can be made pretty much in a long evening, or over a weekend if you're super busy. 

My model and I have nicknamed this the gnome hat, and it's totally appropriate. Both versions were made with Berroco Yarns (Abode for the original version, Peruvia Quick for the bulky weight) and just a few skeins of each are needed. I am, admittedly, particularly fond of the bulky weight version, but only because I just recently whipped it up.

Get excited about making all the things!

In the Gift-Giving Tradition of the Season

Anyone interested in a holiday gift exchange?

I'm participating in a Secret Sister gift exchange this year (my friend Kristina lured me in!), and I'm looking for a few more ladies to join in with me.  Comment below if you think yo can (and would like to!) buy a $10+ gift and send it off to someone.

No matter where you live, you are welcome to join in. I need 6 (or more) ladies of any age to participate in the secret sister gift exchange. You only have to buy ONE gift valued at $10 (or more) and send it to to one secret sister and receive 6-36 gifts in return.

Let me know if you are interested (via email is also fine) and I can send you the information. Tis the season, and since I'm getting ready for my own Ravelry gift-a-long participation, I thought it would make someones day by sending them a little special something in the mail.

Giftmaking on-the-Go and Rendezvousing Sweater Parts

Happy Fee-Fi(ber)-F.O. Friday my friendly fiberistas (now say that three times quickly). We are in the thick of gift-making here at chez Voie de Vie. I am happy to report decent progress on my red laceweight shawl:

I'm about one-third of the way completed with the main body, and it's coming along nicely. This lace stitch is going to block wonderfully, just you wait. This is the remainder of the Drops laceweight from my Rouge Que Sera Sera sweater, and these two hanks of laceweight have done me proud.

On Skappel sweater news: I am very happy to report that the insanely wide and boxy front and back have rendezvous'd at the shoulders in a most lovely three-needle bind-off:

Blocking: such an elegant affair.

If you've never done a three-needle bind-off, I'd highly recommend doing one. It's very easy and produces an incredibly neat and almost invisible seam. These photos were taken with the wrong side of the fabric facing the camera. I'll have better shots of the shoulders once I've completed the sweater, and I'll dare you to spot the seam absent my prompts.

Isn't that one, neat seam?

Finally, I received a most unexpected Christmas present from Heather over at Wool love-functional fiber art. She made me a quick, reversible felt cowl using some of the Premier Alpaca Dance yarn she won from me:

The cowl is green on one side, purple on the other, and the yarn makes waves in opposite directions on either side. Clever and very nicely done - thanks Heather!

Now don't forget to check in with the WonderWhyGal over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder to see everyone else's holiday gift progress.

P.S. - updated spelling, gah! Remind me not to write blogposts late at night that include riffed French words. :)

A Sincere Thank You ...

... to everyone who visited my blog this past week during the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week. I have enjoyed reading your comments and checking out new-to-me bloggers. There are some seriously funny, creative, crafty bloggers out in the blogosphere.

If you've liked what you've read here this week, consider either following the blog and/or signing up for my new, quarterly-ish newsletter, the first edition of which will be published this fall. There will be new design news as well as goodies for everyone, so being a subscriber will reap treats!

Finally, I blogged about a paying-it-forward scheme right before this bloggy week. I'm still looking for two more people to surprise in the next year, so if you're interested, do feel free to sign up.

Happy blogging, everyone - and hey, be careful out there in the blogosphere. :)

P.S. - and for everyone who participated in Friday's Something A Little Different Topic, I'm one of the persons who provided a prize. I can't wait to see who wins my artsy Box d'Histoire!