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

Louis Vuitton ain't got nothin on me!

it's been almost a month since my last post here, and a lot has happened since then, so i figured it was time for some new design updates:


i'm not really into "high fashion" at all. but i came across this crafting site where i stumbled upon a tutorial for a paper-chain necklace and discovered that aparently they're all the rage in Louis Vuitton's fall fashion line. this sparked an idea in my head to make a knitted version to submit to Knitty.com because they're into unique patterns and i was just sure no one had ever done something like this with knitting before. below you can see my "Knock Off" of the Louis Vuitton necklaces (and yes, it's actually named "Knock Off" hehe)




i only had 3 days to plan, knit, and write out the pattern for this little beauty, and it wasn't easy, but i did manage to get it done in time to submit it. sadly, Knitty did not accept my pattern for their Winter '09 issue, and i had this wonderful plan to submit it to Knit.1 magazine. sadly, again, i was informed that Vogue Knitting is not going to be publishing anymore issues of Knit.1 any time soon...gah!




so since my best laid plans have all been dashed i've decided to just self publish the pattern on Ravelry and charge 50 cents to a dollar for the pattern. i know it's a really simple pattern, but i did develop a technique that some people might not really think of to keep it sturdy. so i'm just going to put it out there to see if i get any bites, and if not then i'll just make it free. it should be up as soon as i can get the tech editing done, so watch out for it in my Ravelry Pattern Store sometime within the next week!

on another design note, i also submitted the design for my eyelet gloves that i renamed "raspberry bliss" to Knitcircus Magazine. I got a really nice email back from the editor over there who said that she couldn't use it for the Winter '09 issue, but if i were to add a cuff to it she'd consider it for the Spring '10 issue. so it's back to the drawing board for raspberry bliss...i already know exactly what kind of cuff i'm going to add and will be working on it for submission by January 1st 2010.

all in all not a bad response for my first design submissions. i was really pleased by the response to my designs, the editors of both publications were very encouraging. it's inspired me to keep on designing, and hopefully my next submission will be accepted :)

hope everyone has a great day, and keep on clickin!

~petitevache