Debbie Bliss Fall/Winter 2012

Last night when we came home from Spain at about 11.30 pm after 12 hours of travelling (yes it took 12 hours from when we left the flat in Spain until we arrived home!) I had this waiting for me:

Yes, it's the Fall/Winter 2012 issue of the Debbie Bliss magazine and my design (!!!) is on the cover! Wow!!! I was so excited when Debbie told me my design would be on the cover of her magazine but actually seeing it is even more amazing.

I've had a few magazine covers now but this one is the biggest yet as the Debbie Bliss magazine is sold in yarn shops around the world that sells Debbie Bliss yarn. That's a whole lot of yarn shops. Debbie Bliss is very, very popular in the US and the US knitting market is huge.

Regular blog readers may remember that last year I was fortunate to do a fashion show with Debbie Bliss at Spin A Yarn. Joyce (owner of Spin A Yarn) had invited Debbie to do a fashion show and invited myself and Claire Crompton to show some of our designs alongside Debbie. On the way to the show I was thinking about how I could drop it into conversation that I was very keen to design for Debbie. Luckily I didn't have to. While we were chatting in the yarn shop before the fashion show Debbie asked me if I did freelance work for yarn companies. During the fashion show I showed my Snow Queen shawl and Debbie loved it and asked me to do something similar for the Fall/Winter 2012 issue of her magazine.

I can't tell you how excited I was when Debbie sent me photos from the photoshoot in Poland, they are gorgeous.  Look at that beautiful Winter Wonderland:

In the magazine the design has been given a lovely double page spread and the pictures are stunning. 

The Snowflake shawl is worked from the top down and is what I call a hybrid triangular shawl. You can read my tutorial about half hexagon and hybrid triangular shawls here. This shawl consists of two identical triangles separated by a snow flake insertion at centre back. 

The shawl is finished off with a simple crochet chain cast off which adds a very delicate touch and is very easy to do even if you're not a crocheter. Take a look at my video tutorial.

The Snowflake Shawl only takes two 50 gr balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto Lace which is 800m/100gr in total. In my opinion the Rialto Lace is a very good value, luxurious lace yarn. It's pure merino, incredibly soft and bouncy, gorgeous to knit with and comes in a huge selection of stunning colours. If your local yarn shop doesn't stock Debbie Bliss yarns then there are lots of online shops that do. 

I've got lots to tell you about our holiday in Spain, which was wonderful. It was wonderfully relaxing and I got a lot of knitting done. I finished the first sample for the YarnAddict Mystery Shawl KAL 2012 which will be running in October. There is a little twist with this year's KAL and an option of different sizes and possibly different yarn weights. More details to come in due course. 

Once the mystery shawl was finished, I cast on for a new design in Lornas Laces Solemate which is a yarn I've wanted to try since it came out but it's not that easy to find in the UK. It's gorgeous to knit with and this is a fun shawl that is quick to knit. I cast on Sunday and this is my progress so far:

I'll come back later this week with more holiday knitting, some sunny pics, more magazine designs and lots of other exciting things.

My online shop will be live again later today and the sale will continue for a bit longer.