Meet Ruth of Rock + Purl – now with a pattern giveaway!

Meet Ruth from Rock + Purl. This is Ruth here, isn’t she lovely?

She’s awesome, and so are her designs. I got to know Ruth via Twitter and Ravelry. I immediately loved her design aesthetic and her quirky personality. She’s full of good information; I’ve heard her discuss everything from the proper way to cook a paella to how short rows make a sweater awesome. If you follow me at all, you know I love all things food and knitting related. You can easily see how Ruth quickly made her way into my heart.

 

For November’s sock club colors, Ruth provided me with a photograph as a starting point for a brand new colorway:

Then I translated it into yarn form:

Since I try not to double up on colors for the sock club members (just in case they don’t like a particular hue) I created a second color choice that follows the same theme, in a different palette.  Just Before Dawn follows the sunrise/sunset theme, and mimics the way the sky looks out my window at dawn:

Now a little more about Ruth. She has many beautiful designs. In particular, I fell in love with her She Wore Blue Socks, and knew I just had to interview her for the blog. If you’re a member of the Sock Club, you’ll be receiving a free copy as your November goody!

 

If you’re not a sock club member, no problem. Ruth has generously provided a copy of the pattern to one lucky blog reader. Simply comment below to enter!

 

My questions are bolded, and Ruth’s answers follow. Without further ado, here’s more about Ruth and how she designs!

K: Where in the world are you located?

R: I was originally born in Spain but have spent my adult life in the UK – I live in West Sussex, a mostly country-side county in the South of England.

 

K: How long have you been designing, and what inspired you to start?

R: From the start, I added my tweaks and preferences to other people’s designs (I was one of those knitters who know how to manipulate measurements to make things fit me), and with a father in fashion, it’s always been in the back of my mind. When I found myself out of a full time job and wanting to take more control over my life, I chose to start small (all my first designs are accessories) while I “honed” my skills at grading/pattern writing!

 

K: What inspired you to design She Wore Blue?

R: I was playing with yarn – initially it was only lace, and browsing through stitch dictionaries, I found a way to include the cable in my lace!

 

K: What is your favorite color?

R: Oh, that’s too difficult to say!! I love anything bright – I don’t like dull colors or colors that don’t inspire a smile!! I guess if I had to choose it’d be red or yellow.

 

K: What’s your favorite knitting technique?

R: Cabling without a cable needle. Many of my designs feature cables, and it’s the fastest trick in the book!!

 

K: How can we keep up with you & your designs?

R: I love hearing from people on twitter (@rockandpurl) but I recently opened my Facebook page (http://on.fb.me/rockpurl) and can’t wait to see more knitters joining!

 

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A huge thank-you to Ruth for teaming up with me on this month’s yarn, taking the time to participate in the interview, and providing a great pattern giveaway. If you haven’t yet, comment below for your chance to win!

 

 

free sock pattern + hand dyed yarn by Yarn Love

Winner Update!

And we have a winner! Nan who wrote “LOVE the new colors, especially “New” Allure!” gets the prize package! Congratulations – I’ll be in touch shortly.

If you didn’t win this time, don’t be too disappointed, I’m planning on doing drawings about once a month on the blog. I love all the comments! In the meantime, perhaps you all could bribe the random number generator I used for the drawing……

If you didn’t win, but would still like the pattern, stop by Never Not Knitting. There’s a 25% off coupon for all my patterns and overstock yarns there.

After a brief interlude for delicious baking (oreos = yum!) we now return to our regularly scheduled knitting! I’ve just released a new sock pattern: Grecian Goddess socks! They’re a lovely combination of diamonds and eyelets adorning the instep and cuff, plus a lilting cable twirling along the gusset. I seem to have a “thing” for cabled gussets….they’re just so pretty! Grecian Goddess is shown here in Celestial Rose (on Juliet hand dyed by Yarn Love).

This pattern is suitable for intermediate knitters (or an adventurous beginner). All the stitch patterns are given in chart form, because that really is the easiest way to covey the large stitch design. Though you will need to work from multiple charts at once, the good news is that the instep and cuff charts are nearly identical so working them up is actually easier than you might think at first glance. Plus – cabled gussets! You need these daintily cabled gussets!

14 New Semi Solid colors from Yarn Love
Yep – I just finished uploading 14 brilliant new shades to the Yarn Love website. That means they’re officially released. Check them out here – they’re beautiful. I’ll be telling you more about how they’re dyed and why you want them in a future post….but for now ogling them is sure to brighten your day!

You can win free yarn!
I’m celebrating my recent productivity by giving away two skeins of Elizabeth Bennet yarn plus a PDF copy of my Grecian Goddess socks! Awesome – free hand dyed yarn! Free sock pattern! Please leave a comment below telling me which if the 14 new colors is your favorite. (Hint, the new colors are the ones labeled *new* right here.)

If you link to this post via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or your blog, comment with the url to your post and we’ll enter you a second time. I’ll choose the winner Friday, February 4th – so please enter before noon 2/4/2011. Good luck!

It’s hot here in the Midwest. And really humid. We’re only a couple of inches of rainfall away from breaking the “most rainfall ever” record for our state. The rain plus the mid-90 degree heat (Heat index in excess of a 105 degrees, anyone?) Has got me feeling a little bit melty here in the studio. And it’s actually slowing down the dyeing as it’s so hot that I have to strategically plan my dyeing so I don’t kill the studio air conditioner. Yesterday, it was 83 degrees here until well after sundown even with the A/C running continuously. eeek!

Despite the heat, boxes of yarn are still arriving here in the studio. These are the three that arrived this week, so I can finish up my last couple of orders before taking maternity leave. For size reference, that big one has about 40 lbs of Elizabeth Bennet inside. It makes the others look positively petite!

I’ve also been working diligently on writing and knitting up two new patterns. I have a new shawlette pattern being test knit right now, plus a cabled beret & mitten set. I might be crazy for working on cold-weather patterns during the hottest part of the summer, but it should mean they’re ready for you when the cold weather comes calling. I’ll post pictures as soon as I can get the mittens to behave!

Photoshoot!

Yesterday was a photo shoot  for our upcoming Twist Collective ad. I like photo shoots – I really do. They’re always exciting but a little nerve wracking, too. So many questions like “Did I bring everything we’re going to need?” and “Will the shots I’ve dreamed up in my head actually look good?” Of course, having an amazing photographer on hand to do all of the heavy lifting takes a huge load of responsibility off me, the lowly dyer/designer. Fortunately, I have one of those. Sarah (of Sarah Signature Photography, Des Moines)

Some of you may remember way back when, to the Brilliance (That’s a Ravelry link) and the Twinkle Mitts/Cowl – Sarah took those photos. They turned out to be so lovely that we had to repeat the experience. This time, we were photographing 17 brand new semi-solid colors which will be introduced into our regular line up very soon! We’re very excited!

We also took many “beauty shots” of the colors so they look their best for the upcoming 1/2 page ad. Big ad = pretty pictures! I’ll keep you updated about the new colors. I still have to create color cards for shipping out to our wonderful retailers. With all the preparations for the the photo shoot this week I haven’t quite gotten everything I hoped accomplished…..yet.

And in case you were wondering this photo is of the new colors, but isn’t a professional shot. That’s them cooling onmy deck railing in preparations for their final rinse after a productive dye day. Don’t the 50 gram skeins of Elizabeth Bennet look so cute?

We also took shots of the long languishing Grecian Goddess socks! (That’s a Ravelry link, too.) It’s been about a year since I finished the design and sent it off for technical editing. (All that happened right before Sock Sumit & our dye schedule has been a bit frantic since then…) So after many months, Grecian Goddess will soon be released in all her prettily pictured glory. (Sheesh! It’s about time!)

For now, I’ll leave with a couple more shots of photo props and yarn……

Miss Margaret Socks – newly released!

Introducing:

little Miss Margaret!

Miss Margaret is my latest pattern. She was released yesterday for Three Irish Girls’ Sock Yarnista club. She’ll be available for purchase for non-club members shortly at Three Irish Girls.

She is a cuff down sock with an easy to remember spiral stitch pattern. I’ve added beads for a little “bling” but she’s just as pretty without. The spiral pattern melts into a cabled heel flap and is framed by prettily cabled gussets for a great fit.

The pink sample is shown in Scarlett O’Hara by Yarn Love, colorway: Petal.

Intermediate difficulty: pattern assumes familiarity with cables and charts. Bead work is done using a small crochet hook, so you don’t have to pre-string the beads.

Materials:
• 4 oz/410 yards fingering weight yarn. Shown in Yarn Love’s Scarlett O’ Hara. Color – Petal.
• US size1 or 2.25 mm needles (2 circulars, 5 DPNS or 1 long circular for magic loop.)
• Taspestry needle
• Stitch markers (optional)

Extra notions:
• Small gauge steel crochet hook – size 14
• Seed beads size 6 or 8 (You will need 60-80 per sock depending upon how long you knit the cuff.)
• 2 small cable needles (You may cable without cable needles if you prefer.)

Techniques:
• Beading (explained in the pattern)
• Cables
• Short rows

Notes:
• The heel flap, gusset, and instep st patterns are given as charts only for clarity.
• You may pre-string the beads if you prefer.