Second Nature Cowl Pattern available

I have a new cowl pattern available. It's called the Second Nature Cowl.

A bulky, warm, woollen Basketweave cowl, this is a very quick and easy cowl to make.  It's worked in the timeless favourite, basketweave stitch, in 100% wool.

The yarn I've used is Cleckheaton Country Wide which is a bulky, machine washable wool.  Their red is just the tone I love, but maybe you could go with something more subtle.  It really is Second Nature.

Second Nature Cowl
Knitting Pattern

Yarn suggested: Cleckheaton Country Wide, 50g balls, each approx 49m(54 yds) (100% wool) or any other Bulky / 12 ply yarn

Gauge: 13.5 sts and 20 rows to 10cm(4 ins) in Basket Stitch using 7mm needles.

Needle Size: 7mm needles or size to obtain gauge. (Gauge is not terribly important for this piece.)

Meterage:  245 m, 270 yds

Sizes Available: Circumference 84cm (33 in), Width 31.5cm (12 1/2 in)

This pattern is available to buy from Ravelry for $US 4.25

Slip Stitch Pullover Front

The sample for my new knitting pattern, a slip stitch pullover, is coming along nicely.  Here are a couple of pictures of the front, almost completed.  There's just a few more rows to do, then I'll be casting off for the shoulders.  The multi coloured yarn I'm using, Shepherd Colour 4 Me Prints, continually fascinates me in the way that it arranges itself in this piece.  I keep seeing pixels when I look at this big-picture view.  Knitting it up close, I don't see that at all.  Step back and you see a whole different picture.  I'm so happy to see on Shepherd page, that the colour way I've chosen is called Bramble.  I didn't know it had a name up until now, and what a cute one! 
I'll be starting the sleeves soon.  Very exciting!!  I'll be using the same stitch pattern as this for the cuffs, then plain purple stocking stitch for the rest, so it should go much quicker.

Slip Stitch Pullover Front

Slip Stitch Pullover Front

Lovely Mitts from Ambah

Lots of activity is continuing in the Indie Designers Giftalong.  I've discovered lots of lovely patterns which have been offered for sale.  One of them is this design, mirri mitts by Ambah O'Brien, a fellow Victorian Australian.  They are a fun design, very easy to knit in a simple stocking/stockinette stitch with eyelet holes.  You would never need to have worked any lace before to manage these.  A bit of experience in increases and decreases would be useful, but an adventurous beginner would definitely be able to manage them.

Lots of people have made these mitts and added their projects to the design page and they look great in all different colours, and a great variety of yarns have been used, including Knit Picks Stroll Tonal.

I think any fingering / 4 ply wool yarn would work well with this design, but the ones with strong colour contrasts aren't my favourites.  Single colours or subtle multi colours look fabulous.  While you're over there check out more of Ambah's designs.  They fit into the category of timeless classics for me.

Gift-A-Long 2015 is off and racing!

The Indie Design 2015 Gift-A-Long is now underway!  Yippee!

Here's a quote from the Gift-A-Long group on Ravelry which explains the event:

What is Gift-A-Long? It’s a multi-designer promotion to help you kick your holiday gift-making into high gear!The Indie Design Gift-A-Long is a 6 week long KAL/CAL of holiday gifts made from patterns designed by a rather extensive list of independent designers. From Thursday, November 19th at 8:00 pm US EST - Friday, November 27, 2015 at 11:59 pm US EST tons of indie designers will be discounting between 5 - 20 of their patterns 25% for this event. Use coupon code: giftalong2015.

The sale runs until the end of November 27th (US EST)  -  That will be 12 noon November 28th here in Melbourne, Aus.  The sale might end there, but KAL's (Knit A Longs) and CAL's (Crochet A Longs) run for 6 weeks.  There are chat threads for each type of item being created, to keep each other's motivation up and lot's of competitions and prizes will run be happening for the duration.

Click here to see all my patterns which are eligible for the discount.

Click here to see patterns from all designers which are eligible for the discount.

Just use the coupon code giftalong2015 to get the sale price.

Gluten Free Impossible Pie

I made a Gluten Free Impossible Pie a couple of days ago.  I haven't had success in making pastry with Gluten Free Flour of any kind.  It's a bit tricky to manipulate due to the minimal flexibility. Gluten does have its uses.  I used a standard Impossible Pie recipe, which included tinned corn and fried, diced bacon.  To add to the excitement, one quarter of this pie is for the vegetarian among us.  I mixed all the ingredients except the bacon, replacing the flour with Buckwheat Flour.  I put the mixture into a greased pie dish.  I sprinkled the fried bacon over three quarters of the mixture, and some tinned Kidney Beans over the other quarter.  I sprinkled cheese over the whole thing.  Oops, the photos are around the wrong way.  I cooked it as directed by the recipe.  And there we have a pie with a definite crust at the bottom.  Here's one vegetarian piece, and one bacon piece.  Being Buckwheat Flour made the crust a little dense, but it was easy and delicious!

Gluten Free Impossible Pie

Although it's three and a half years since I've posted in this blog, it seems that this is still the place where quite a few people are finding my patterns.  It's time to revive this blog!  I've renamed it to Wakeful Knits and I've changed the look a little bit.  I've added a tab at the top where you can find all of my scarf and cowl patterns. I'll gradually be adding tabs for other types of patterns too.
The latest project I'm working on is this slip stitch pullover.  Here's the completed back.  I'm partway through the front and hope to get a bit more done soon.
Welcome to my reactivated blog!

Slip Stitch Pullover Back

Determinism means never having to say "I hate myself".

I'm moving

Hi all,  just a quick word to let you know I'm moving.
My new blog is knits the journey
Hope to see you there!