Posted by Heather on Feb 22, 2012 in Blog Fun, Defarginess, Knitting, patterns | 2 comments
You’re all very sweet and tolerant of my long-ish pauses on this blog while I write and edit another knitting book, write a novel, podcast, and design patterns, but for a long time now I’ve wanted to try to tie this blog into the rest of that lot a bit better.
What better way to start than with Game of Thrones?!
Meg Warren, who you may know from What Would Madame Defarge Knit? and The March Hare yarns, has designed the most luscious pair of mittens with lovely Stags on the back. The pattern is charted but straight-forward and Meg (who is, shockingly, just Meg on Ravelry) is always there to help.
Still not sure?
Winter’s Stag
$4.00
Knit from the cuff up, with a plaited edge, the pattern includes a link to a plaited edge tutorial as well as internal links, helping you move between instructions and charts if you are on a tablet.
Line numbers match for use with KnitCompanion on the iPad.
And the stags of which we spoke.
I know, gorgeous, right?
Okay, I have more patterns for you coming this week, but now I have to run.
Posted by Heather on Jan 17, 2012 in Blog Fun, Defarginess, Knitting | 2 comments
I just returnecd from signing books at Vogue Knitting Live absolutely brimming with design ideas and new book plans and there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I am SO excited! What gloriously wonderful people I met absolutely everywhere I went (even at the Irish Pub where I had breakfast on Sunday! He wasn’t a knitter when we started talking, but now that we spoke… who knows?).
I’m going to be posting a few patterns this month, some free, some inexpensive, and a biggie next month. I also have the next Defarge book on its way. OH MAH GOODNESS—such lovliness I’ve got coming to you. We’ve found such marvelous designers for you!
If YOU are interested in submitting for an upcoming Defarge book, we’ve got Defarge does Shakespeare, Defarge does Chaucer, Defarge does Sherlock, and What Would Madame Defarge Knit? Vol 3 all in the pipeline. I’m updating the submissions page to reflect the rolling deadlines, but you have a little time to get your brilliance in.
In that same realm, if you are interested in beinga test knitter and/or sample knitter (with yarn support) please email me or post a comment here with info on how to contact you. Lots of goodies cooking up out here. Pictures on their way!
Posted by Heather on Dec 18, 2011 in Artsy Things, Blog Fun, Defarginess | Comments Off on Holiday Freebie—redux
Last year on the Dickens blog hop we offered this over on the What Would Madame Defarge Knit? website.
Now it’s here for you!
Holiday Freebies for You!
A gift from us to you—Christmas Cards from the Good Madame
(who is only interested in righting wrongs and vanquishing injustice, after all…which is almost sort of in the spirit of the season…mostly…)
Based on the art used in the Crachette Pattern from the Dickens of a Christmas Blog Hop—
—what could be better than a selection of sweet, printable cards to send to your creative comrades, handmade for you by our book’s artist Jen Minnis? Here you will find full-color versions of the cards along with b&w cards you can color yourself if you or you’re kids are feeling crafty.
The sets below print at 2 cards to an 8-1/2″ x 11″ page and can be used with Avery template 3266. If you would like half-fold sets, we have pdfs which fit Avery #3378 templates in color and black and white.
There are many styles to choose from. Or you can download a PDF that includes them all!
Check out more of Jen’s work at Jen Minnis’ Art Blog.
And if you’re so inclined, you might want to know that Just the Books is now paralleling CraftLit in real time—for Dracula only. We’ll be uploading the books between Pride and Prejudice and Dracula as time and space allow.
Posted by Heather on Oct 30, 2011 in Blog Fun, Gluten Free, patterns | 1 comment
I’ve been designing a design that makes my other designs look like scrap paper.
I’m not proud.
I’m just honest.
It’s complicated stranded colorwork, includes steeks and plackets and all sorts of hardware and things and it might kill both me and my test knitter, but gosh darn it, it’s for a friend and it’s important.
So.
While that’s killing me softly, I decided to eat.
Scones. (more…)
Posted by Heather on Sep 20, 2011 in Artsy Things, Blog Fun, Defarginess, Knitting, Shawls | Comments Off on KaLs for WWMDfK!
Oh oh oh oh!
I have news!
New KAL for you—Chrissy Gardiner (of sock fame and lore) is going to host our first What Would Madame Defarge Knit? Knit-a-Long! We’ll be starting with her gorgeous Wilhelmina Shawlette—a pattern that shouldn’t intimidate anyone, it’s a shawlETTE after all. And if you’re not a lace knitter (ahem, yet) fear not. This is an EXCELLENT pattern to start with.
There have already been discussions about expanding the pattern or changing the yarn—Chrissy will answer all your questions. Fear not! She is kind and gentle and good.
And a wicked good designer.
KAL starts this weekend, September 24th. Our winner will be chosen randomly from those who finish and post their pix to the Ravelry group (if you’re not on Rav yet, now’s a good time to join!).
And, if you’d like, a button for you!
Grab a button or get more from CraftLit’s
link to us page
Posted by Heather on Nov 12, 2010 in Blog Fun, Knitting, patterns | Comments Off on A Dickens of a Christmas — The Cratchette
Bob Cratchit is famous for a few things—being father of Tiny Tim, being cold, being basically cheerful, and having fingerless mitts in most representations of him.
While it would be nice to knit some fine-gauge fingerless mitts as Christmas presents, my reality is that I have far too much knitting to do in far too little time. Instead, I worked up this little pattern for our Holiday Hop. For your knitting pleasure, I would like to introduce
The Cratchette—a quick pattern for warm, fingerless mitts
$1.99—pattern includes adult medium and child medium instructions along with ideas for further sizing options; chunky and bulky yarn used, respectively.
Free Pattern booklets coming soon:
- How to Knit Socks—DPNs
- How to Knit Socks—Two Circs
- How to Knit Socks—Toe Up
Check the sidebar of this blog for further pattern updates.
And a reminder that this holiday season a group of us have come together to present a Dickens of a Christmas blog hop:
There will be recipes for the traditional foods Dickens wrote of in A Christmas Carol, or recipes that would have been found in Victorian England around the holidays. There will be a professional reading of the story available as a podcast. There will be giveaways, themed knitting patterns and quite possibly hats! There may be smoking bishop and suet cooked in organs. And there will certainly be much making of merry.
The blog entries will be rolling out starting the week of 8 Nov 2010 and will culminate Thanksgiving weekend to kick off your holidays in Victorian style.
So please do bookmark all our blogs and add them to your rss feeders. We’ll be using the tool below to link all the blog entries for the entire shebang so that you don’t miss a single one. We hope you enjoy this as much as we know we will! And we hope that you have a DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS!
Next week! A Christmas Carol podcast!
How to Knit Socks eBook—
Dutch Heel eBook
German Heel eBook
French Heel eBook
Welsh Heel eBook
MamaO is Heather Ordover, author, designer, mother and knitter... not necessarily in that order. You can get posts from this blog sent directly to your inbox by signing up below, Follow her on Twitter and Like her on Facebook if you're feeling friendly-like.
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