Another blog series I'm starting this week is Wednesday WIPS. Wips means 'works in progress' and I've got lots of those but most weeks I've got one or two that I focus on. If I've got design deadlines then that'll be my priority project. This week I'm mainly focusing on the shawl above because the deadline is next week and I've got a lot of knitting still to do. I can't show the details of this shawl because it's for a magazine but I'm loving how it's turning out. Aren't my flowers beautiful though? A friend gave them to me on Friday after we'd had a bit of a row.
One of the most challenging things for me as a designer is to keep the balance between working on current deadlines and self-published patterns as well as planning ahead and submitting to magazines and yarn companies. It's easy to get wrapped up in deadlines and forget to look ahead and then you suddenly find that your deadlines dry up. I've missed quite a few important magazine submission deadlines in the last year because I've been too focused on current design deadlines.
So this weekend I spent the vast majority of my knitting time swatching for new designs. Some are for yarn company and magazine design submissions and some are for self-published designs. I did some more swatching yesterday and I'm doing more in the week ahead but I need to make sure I alternate between swatching and knitting on my deadline shawl.
I knit in church every week and I usually take something easy with me. My current easy 'take along' knitting is my Mudpunch sock. I'm using my Creme Caramel toe up sock pattern but instead of the heel included in the pattern, I'm doing an afterthought heel which is my preferred heel option for a stripey yarn like this. On Sunday, during church, I knitted from the top green marker. The yellow row is my waste yarn for the afterthought heel, which I'll remove later.
Want to learn to knit Toe Up Socks? I'm teaching my Toe Up Socks workshop at Sitting Knitting in Birmingham in June. Contact Sitting Knitting to book.
Interested in learning more about afterthought heels? Know how to knit socks but are you getting bored with your regular heel and toes? I'm teaching my new 'Heels & Toes' workshop (this workshop is suitable for both toe up and top down sock knitters) at Artesano in Berkshire in June too. Contact Artesano to book.
What's on your needles this week? Share your wips in the comments or tag me on Instagram to share what you're working on.
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