free pattern giveaway!!

hi everyone ^^/

there's been a slight change of plans since my last instalment a few days ago. i took a few days off from working on my Rowena sleeves to FINALLY do the tech editing for knock off that i've been meaning to do for some time now. if you follow my blog then you'll remember that i submitted the pattern for knock off to Knitty.com's Winter 09 issue. unfortunately, Knitty didn't have room for it in their Winter issue so i decided to self publish the pattern on Ravelry. 3 months later, the pattern is finally up for sale, and it's my first official pattern for sale on Ravelry or anywhere else. if you're interested in purchasing the pattern you can follow the link under the picture below, or the link in my "patterns for sale" section to the right.

knock off

so far this pattern is only for sale on Ravelry, but i've been thinking of opening up an Etsy shop to sell my patterns and various other FO's.

but if you aren't a member of Ravelry and you still really REALLY want this pattern never fear! it's time for...

petite vache designs' 1st evar super awesome free pattern givaway!!!!!!

you heard me right folks, to celebrate my first pattern for sale on Ravelry i'll be giving away 2 count 'em 2 copies of the pattern for knock off. all you have to do is

• follow my blog (if you don't already)
• leave me a comment telling me what you think of knock off
• leave your email address in the comment section below, or if you prefer you can also email me at mellonninamarie AT gmail DOT com

i'll be announcing the winners 1 week from today (next thursday) and emailing the pattern in PDF format. be advised, though, only those who follow my blog AND leave a comment will be entered into the drawing, and only one entry per person please.

if this first giveaway is a success i may make a habit of doing one of these every time i premier a pattern, but you'll just have to follow my blog to find out ;)

well that's it for today folks, i'll be returning to my work on Rowena sleeves and hopefully have the pattern finished for them by next week. as always, i'll be blogging to keep everyone updated on my progress. don't forget to start following my blog and leave me a comment to win your free copy of knock off and have a great weekend everyone ^-^

~teh vache

new beginnings

i know it's a rarity for me to be blogging 2 days in a row but i just found a new and exciting opportunity yesterday and i couldn't resist the temptation.


KnitPicks has aparently launched a new partnership that will allow freelance designers to be published on the KnitPicks site. honestly, it's about time one of these yarn companies caught on. i've seen so many awesome up and coming designers on ravelry who have all been submitting to the same Magazines for months and months and the magazines just can't accomodate the influx of awesome patterns they are receiving. the way i see it, this is a win-win scenario both for designers and for KnitPicks. the designers get some much needed exposure, and KnitPicks gets a bunch more business, if only from the scores of novice designers like me who will now be designing almost exclusively in KnitPicks yarn for the chance of being published on such a well knowns and reputable site.


as a result of this new and exciting opportunity my new years resolutions plans have changed slightly. i decided my the next WIP i conquer should be one of my own design so i can get something to send to KnitPicks ASAP. so instead of working on that scarf and pair of socks i talked about yesterday, last night i dusted off my Rowena sleeves that sadly hadn't been touched in almost half a year, and began trying to figure out where in the pattern i left off. to my dismay i couldn't quite figure it out and since i wanted to test the pattern anyways i frogged all my lovely progress on the first sleeve and commenced re-knitting. i must have been really excited last night because i got almost as much done on it as i had before from a few weeks of work on it.


here's a pic of my progress before frogging:









and the progress i made last night after starting from scratch:








this pic was taken rather hastily so i didn't have time to pin in out like in the picture before but you can see if you follow the cable pattern that i only had about 3 or 4" to go and i would have been at the point i was pre-frog.


luckily the pattern for these little beauties is all but done at this point. the hardest part is going to be finding a program to write out the cable chart and doing the tech editing so i can make it as professional-looking as possible before sending it to KnitPicks.


i'll probably be working on these for another 4 hrs tonight and maybe i'll even have the first sleeve finished by tomorrow


::crosses fingers::


if i do i'll come back with pictures and blog for a 3rd day in a row!!!!!!


ttfn ^^/


~capn' vache

new years resolutions...

a hoy hoy everyone (or should i say all 4 of my followers ^-^)



so it's finally 2010 huh? and my poor blog has been lying dormant for the last 3 months or so while i've been on hiatus from designing and actually haven't been doing much knitting at all. with the holidays and my husband coming over from France i found it hard to focus on my knitting. and the struggle isn't quite over yet because we've still got the task of securing him a visa or greencard so he can stay in this country. bleh...



but now that the holidays are over i've started knitting again, which brings me to my new years resolution. everyone always makes these really broad and vague resolutions like "losing weight" or "spending more time with family" etc, but i remember reading somewhere that making your goals as specific as possible gives you a better chance of acheiving them so i decided to make mine very specific indeed. my resolution is to either complete or frog every single WIP i have, and while to some of you that may not sound like a very daunting task, i have about 5 years worth of projects hastily cast on in an excited frenzy and then cast aside. for me that amounts to at least 15 WIP's that i can think of off the top of my head, and it's probably closer to 20 or 25.

but i have vowed not to start a single new project in the mean time, nor buy any new yarn until i at least finish or frog all of my current WIP's.



now here's where the design blog comes in....



luckily, of those WIP's at least 3 or 4 of them are original designs, most notable my sycamore parasol and Rowena sleeves. So as soon as i finish up a scarf and pair of socks i started at the end of december and just want to be done with, i'll probably be starting on the Rowena sleeves so i can finally have a design worthy of sale on Ravelry. in the mean time though, i'm going to be finally publishing knock off (a knit paper-chain necklace creation inspired by Louis Vuitton.) but i'm debating with myself whether or not to publish it for free or to charge a very small amount for it (most likely 50 cents) just because it's such an original design and it pains me to just give it away like a common whore. if any of my readers have any thoughts on the matter please do let me know in my comments section below, i always appreciate outside input.



well i'll leave you all with a picture of my latest FO "echarpe à plis"







i bought this little kit for this scarf the last time i was in France to visit my husband
and started it about 3 months ago. so this is officially the first WIP i've finished in accordance with my new years resolution. so far, not a bad start to the year. let's hope i can stay motivated and finally kick a really bad habit, not finishing what i start.



toodles for now ^^/



~teh vache

it's a bird! it's a plane! no it's....a tiny golden cow!!!!

yes thats right, a tiny golden cow, or petite vache dorée for those of you who speak a bit of french. this little heffer was made with golden DMC embroidery floss for Potions class in the HPKCHC. sadly, the competition ended yesterday ::cries:: and i didn't manage as many classes as last month, but it was still the most fun i've had on Ravelry so far. i'm still not sure if i'm going to participate next term or not because i have 3 or 4 designs that i'm trying to get finished.

here you can see the cow in the works, and you can also see how tiny the stitches are (and yes my dpns are golden too ^^)



i'm currently planning a black and white cow as well as a brown one and then the patterns for all 3 will be uploaded to Ravelry for sale under the name trois petites vaches (three little cows in english)


also, as promised in my last post here is the finished orion's belt choker:

it didn't turn out quite as flat or stable as i'd have liked, so when i get a chance i'm going to sew a fabric lining in the back and adjust the tie closure. i'm still not sure whether i'll make this pattern available or not as there didn't seem to be much interest in it in the HPKCHC. but i may still put it up here on my blog as a free pattern.

and finally some pics of my 2 biggest upcoming designs: Rowena sleeves and sycamore parasol

i featured these sleeves a few posts ago and as you can see they've grown considerably since then. i'll probably finish these up before starting on the sycamore parasol seen below:

this one was another attempted class project that i unfortunately didn't have time to finish (i seriously thought i'd be able to design and knit an entire parasol in just a few weeks? what was i thinking?)

this is probably the design i'm most excited about right now because it's the biggest and most complex thing i've undertaken so far.

and on that note, it's time for me to get clicking! check back with the blog for more pictures of my progress on my new designs and for information about when they will be released.


peace & love to all,

~petitevache

new pattern!!

you like my new Ravatar? i only had the Ravenclaw one up for like a day but i couldn't say no to a cute kitten



happy tuesday evening everyone ^^/



i'm sitting here enjoying the gazpacho i just finished making and i realized i forgot to annouce the arrival of the newest edition to my pattern section :O







the pattern for tiny bobbles, formerly known as the Bertie Bott's bag, is finally in my pattern store. once again noobyknitter from Ravelry tested this pattern for me and helped me work out the kinks, so thanks again nooby for being my test crocheter :)


i also finally finished Krystals birthday gift, although i have to say i wasn't crazy about the cotton yarn for this pattern. the cotton made the tote a bit more rigid, which i think some people would prefer, but i like the softness and stretchiness of the one i made in purple and yellow much better.










and last but not least i'm excited to announce that my mystery project is in fact a pair of cabled sleeves which i have dubbed Rowena sleeves. i had originally planned them to be my "wristwarmers" for quidditch, but upon reading the rules i now know that there are very specific patterns i have to follow for that. so now i'm making them just for fun and because it's great design practice.




i've made quite a bit more progress since these pictures so i suspect i'll be finished with the first one soon, so be on the lookout for pics ^^ (and with better lighting next time so you can see the true color of the yarn >.< )



a th-th-th-that's all for tonight folks....

I've been recruited!!

today was a really great day for me because i was recruited by the Ravenclaw head of house in the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry ^^




i'm super excited about finally having a house, as thus far i've just been doing assignments for the fun of it. now i can finally earn some points for my house :)



in honor of my admission i decided to celebrate by designing something in my house colors, blue and bronze. i've been needing to take my designs to the next level so this time i'm doing something knitted with cables. i won't tell exactly what it is yet (although if you're part of the HPKCHC you probably can guess) but i will show you my guage swatch as it's being blocked :








this will be the most complex thing i've ever attempted designing, so i'm not sure it's going to turn out exactly as i imagine it, but i'm sure i'll learn a lot in the process. to find out what it is you'll just have to check back with my blog in a few days and see if i've gone public yet xD


i've also finished writting out the pattern for my Bertie Bott's bag and am currently in the process of testing it. I'm hoping to have it uploaded to Ravelry and in my patterns section here on the blog by sometime next week. i could still use more pattern testers though so if you're interested don't hesitate to email me at mellonninamarie at gmail dot com.

well that's all for today folks, goodnight and happy knitting ^-^

~petitevache