Cream & Sugar - A trio of designs

Earlier this year I submitted my first designs to be included in a book - an actual printed book - and 3 of my designs got accepted. The design brief for this book by the American yarn company Classic Elite was to take one stitch pattern and design 3 scarves or shawls around that theme. I chose a triangular shawl, scarf/wrap and a cowl. 

Classic Elite isn't available in the UK so I'd never had the chance to try out their yarns but I absolutely loved them and would love to try them again.

 The triangular shawl starts with a wide lace section at the hem and finishes off with a plain section at the top. As you're decreasing on every other row the rows get shorter and quicker which is great. I love this shawl and I really wanted to keep it.

 The second design was a rectangular scarf which blocked out quite wide and actually looks perfect as a wrap but you could easily wear it around your neck as a scarf too. The alpaca and bamboo blend yarn was incredibly soft and gorgeous to work with. Denise (aka Craftie Pixie) and Sarah knitted these two designs for me but I can't remember which one of them knitted which now. Thank you to both Sarah and Denise for their expert knitting as always.

 I knitted this gorgeous lacy cowl in Pirouette which is a mohair and bamboo blend. it's not the same blend as Rowan's Kidsilk Haze but it did remind me of Kidsilk Haze a lot. I'm not a huge mohair fan but I did really enjoy knitting with this yarn. The result is a stunning, lightweight but very warm lace cowl. Perfect for warmth without the bulk. The cowl is worked in the round and is ever so quick to knit. You can easily make it bigger by adding more repeats.

I didn't think this book was due to be published yet so I was really surprised when I logged into Ravelry today and saw the designs on my designer page. What a great surprise just before Christmas. The book is available from Amazon. Take a look at the book page on Ravelry. Look at all those gorgeous designs and i'm so thrilled and flattered to be included among so many great designers.

This book is published by Soho Publishing who also publishes Vogue Knitting/Designer Knitting and the photos defintitely have a VK look about them. I'm absolutely thrilled with the look.

ETA: the problem with writing blogposts at nearly midnight is that I'm rather tired. This book hasn't been published quite yet but you can pre-order it now. I obviously got a bit too excited.