cozy elf tuque

We finally found a few hours to get this new hat pattern ready for you! You can buy it on Ravelry, Etsy, and Lulu. I don't know if the photos do the hat justice, as it is adorable in person, and so cozy and comfortable to wear. It's a simple design, but doesn't take much yarn, so go ahead and use some yummy fiber in a beautiful colour!

The hat is knit in the round, and you can easily use either double pointed needles or circular, depending on which you prefer. I've written it for 6 sizes, from infant to adult, so you have plenty to choose from. I also decided to include many sizes because the yarn you use can affect your gauge (I had that issue with the adult size). If it's a yarn new to you, it might be worth knitting a little swatch to make sure of the finished hat size.

I hope I've given you enough time to knit one or two before the cold weather arrives wherever you are!

alpaca pattern is ready!

Finally! Finally the Alpaca pattern is done and ready for you. We're very sorry for the delay, but there is still a little bit of summer left for your alpaca toys to enjoy (if you get knitting right fast)! Although, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere, I guess you have plenty of time.

So here are a few details about the pattern. Like most of my toy patterns, this one is knit flat and seamed (although you could try to knit it in the round). The knitting techniques include knit, purl, several increases and decreases, and simple lace. You also need to make the hair, but that's pretty easy (there are diagrams in the pattern). The toy is made from worsted weight yarn, and the clothes from fingering weight. Because of the long neck, this toy is 9" tall, a bit bigger than my usual toys (but the other small clothes will still fit her).

You can find the pattern on Ravelry, Etsy, and Lulu*. If it's sold out on Etsy, I'll try to add more copies as soon as I can. Thanks so much for all your patience, and I hope you enjoy this new toy!

* The pattern costs more on Lulu because their fees are much higher than the other two sites. I will soon change all the pattern prices there, although the books will remain the same price at all my shops.  My hope is that Ravelry will make my shop public, so I can stop using Lulu for PDF sales.

Fuzzy Knits, take 2!

At long last, after a year's worth of knitting, writing, editing, photographing, proof-reading, formatting, (and on and on, it seemed) the second edition of Fuzzy Knits is ready!

I've written a bunch about the individual designs before, so I won't get into them now. You can go here to see images of all the patterns. I'll just leave you with the details of where you can get it (clicking the links to follow will take you to where you can purchase the book).

The download version (i.e. a PDF file) can be bought on Ravelry and Lulu. The file you download includes the cover. This option is really nice, because you can print it yourself and keep it in a handy binder or plastic sleeves.

The printed book can be bought on either Lulu or Qoop. These two shops offer slightly different versions of the book: on Lulu the book is perfect-bound with a soft cover and full-colour photos, while on Qoop the book is coil-bound with a soft cover and you can choose between black & white or full-colour photos.

Now for the tricky part. We are offering a copy of the new book to anyone who bought the first edition of Fuzzy Knits. Because Lulu does not give us a list of who buys what, we will need to see a copy of your receipt for the old book*. You can forward that to barbara at fuzzymitten dot com. Then I will email you a PDF file of the new book. Please be patient, as it may take me a few days to get through everyone's emails.

EDIT: I’ve also discovered that if you no longer have your Lulu receipt for ‘Fuzzy Knits’, you should be able to find a purchase history in your Lulu account. So you can just copy that info into an email and send it along to me.

Also, you might notice that we updated the cover of Festive Knits. This is so the style matches the cover of Fuzzy Knits, but the content of that book has not been changed in any way.

*Please note that if you bought a printed copy of the first edition, we cannot replace it with a printed copy of the second edition. You will receive a download copy of the new book.

bunny puppet now available

A very quick post to let you know that the Bunny Puppet pattern is now available! You can purchase it on Ravelry, Etsy, or Lulu. I had to make a few last minute changes, but it should be all good now. Please note that this pattern is intermediate level, and knit in the round. If you've made mittens, you shouldn't have any trouble. If you find any mistakes, please email me (barbara at fuzzymitten dot com) so I can update the pattern. I'm a bit short of time this morning, so I'll try to write more about the design later!

silly duck, new edition

If you've noticed that it's been a little quiet around here, that's because we've all been down with colds for the last week and a half. Nothing like having the whole family sick at once! Anyway, we're on the mend, and managed to get a little work done over the last few days.

Finally, the new edition of the Silly Duck pattern is ready! You can find it on Ravelry and Etsy (if it's sold out, don't worry as I'll list more copies as soon as I notice). You can also get it on Lulu - there was a problem with the cover editor over there, so click the preview link below the cover image to see what the pattern looks like.

Here's the tricky part: if you bought the old pattern, and want a copy of the new one, there are 2 options. 1) If you bought it on Etsy, just email me, I will look up your receipt, and send you the new pattern. 2) If you bought in on Lulu, you need to forward your receipt to me, because I don't see who buys patterns on Lulu.

It is quite different from the old pattern, which is why I couldn't post part of it here on the blog, like with the Mouse and Panda. The beak is now knitted, so you don't need to worry about finding felt or doing any hand-sewing. The feet are now much more duck-like, as is the body shape. The whole toy is knit flat on straight needles, except for the hat which is knit in the round on dpns. If you've been wanting to learn how to use them, though, a little hat might be a good place to start.

I used Elann's Bamboo Fusion for the main colour of the duck, and I think the shine of the bamboo makes the knit fabric look just a bit like shiny duck feathers. The beak and feet are in plain worsted wool, and the hat and scarf and knit in a bit of variegated wool I had in my stash (I don't remember the brand).

Somebody is cranky, so I have to go. I hope you all enjoy the silly pattern!

holiday sale

I just had a sudden inspiration to offer you a surprise New Year's sale! Until January 7th, my Well Dressed Bunny pattern, as well as Clothing Bundles 1, 2, and 3 are all $2 off! Those links are to my Lulu store, but you can also find all those patterns on Etsy, and the Well Dressed Bunny on Ravelry. Happy knitting!

(Edit: the listed prices have been changed to the sale price, so you don't need to worry about sale codes or anything like that)

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays, and maybe even a well-deserved break from work (I know I am). We had a good visit with our house-guest last week, and even managed to get out to see a movie thanks to free babysitting. This week should be a little more laid-back without any holiday preparations to worry about. Although, we are officially on a diet from all the sweets and rich food (we might make an exception for New Year's eve celebrations). Lev is enjoying the new toys and books he received from relatives. We got him a shiny red sled, but he wasn't very happy in it the first time we took him out. Hopefully we get some fresh snow and less-cold weather this week, so we can try again.

I have completely failed at getting any photos, though I intend to try a little harder this week. It's just so discouraging when our house isn't very sunny (especially in winter) and I find our camera too clunky and heavy for fun snaps. The only photos we have are some portraits of Lev, which we took to send out to our families. Hopefully this goofy smile makes up for the lack of other photos!

pattern design poll results

We've been discussing the poll results and comments for the last few days, and we've come up with some preliminary plans on how to make the most of your ideas. (this post is a little wordy, so I'll try to have something more fun next time)

The most popular poll result was to number the rows in the patterns. I've already started on this, and will continue to work through all the patterns as I have time. Mr. Mitten should have time soon to start publishing new editions of the patterns, so keep your eyes open for news of that.

The second most popular idea was for more photos of the toys, such as close-ups of the pattern details. Including more photos in the patterns themselves would make the files rather large and more difficult to download, and more costly for you to print. Instead, I'll be making a Flickr set for each toy, and the pattern will include a link to that set. Then you can look up more photos if you need them (in better resolution too!). I'll probably be doing this as we publish the new pattern editions.

The third most popular idea was to separate the toy and clothing patterns. We've been thinking of doing this for ages, but the logistics of the problem have stalled us for now. We'd like to set it up so you could get discounts for buying more patterns, but this is difficult or impossible to set up in the shops I have now. Also, that many different patterns would be confusing to browse through on Lulu and Ravelry. Mr. Mitten is looking into setting up a shop on my website, which would have lots of great options for you, but it's going to take several months before we can get it ready. In the meantime, I'll be offering some pattern bundle discounts on Etsy.

Other popular answers included different animals, or more patterns like the Scraps Chaps, as well as more fun clothing patterns. I'm keeping lists of all the ideas you've given me, as well as any I've had, and it's enough to keep me busy for a long time! What I work on really depends on what inspires me at the time, or what will please the most people. At the moment I'm considering some costume patterns for Halloween, and maybe one or two new toy patterns I've been thinking about.

I know lots of you would like more toys knit in the round, but I still think it's best to keep the patterns simple enough for most beginners. I will try to design a few more seamless clothing patterns, for those of you who hate seaming. If you need any help converting the patterns to knit in the round, please check this blog post, leave a comment on Ravelry, or email me.

I think that's quite enough writing for one post! If you have any other ideas you'd like to share, please leave a comment or email me. Now I need to go put a little munchkin down for a nap :)

Happy Spring!

It's actually starting to look like Spring around here, or the last dregs of winter, anyway. To celebrate the new season, we have a brand spanking new pattern for you!

If you've been reading the blog over the last few weeks, you will have read about it already. Mr. Mitten came up with the name of Scraps Chaps, which is both silly and rhyming, so how could I resist? You can find the pattern on Lulu and Etsy. I tried adding it to my Ravelry store, but I'm having some problems, so it will have to wait until later today when my hubby can figure out what's wrong.

I find this pattern super fun myself, starting with digging through my stash to find odd balls of yarn, then matching them together, and next deciding which colours to use for which body part. Then you knit everything up, but you're still not sure how the finished toy will look, knit from all those odd bits! When I finally get it all done, with face, ears, and floppy arms and legs - so cute! I can't wait to see what all of you make from the pattern!

I planned to write more about the kits, but a wee baby is demanding my attention :)

baby penguin

So having a baby seems to make you a little late for all kinds of things. This bugs me a bit, since I'm a very punctual person, but I suppose I have more important things to worry about, like when he'll be hungry next, whether I can make it through the day without a nap, and if it's worth staying up an extra half hour to get a shower :) Honestly, though, I'm late because yesterday was the last day of my mom's visit and we were trying to fit in as much stuff as possible. So, the Baby Penguin pattern sort of got forgotten...

Anyway, it's all done and ready for you. There are three (yes, 3!) places you can buy it: Lulu, Etsy (which is open again), and Ravelry. I've had the Ravelry store for a little while with some free patterns in it, but we just decided to see how we would do selling patterns there. I missed my Etsy store, since it was my first and lots of people still find me there. I will try my best to send out patterns every day, but I won't ever take longer than 2 days to get back to you (I should be able to take care of any baby issues in that time).

As some of you may know, Lulu has been a bit sketchy lately. For some reason, the occasional person can't download the patterns they buy (about 1% of my customers). We've complained, my customers have complained, and all they say is that they're working on the problem. Except, it's been happening for 3-4 months, and I don't really believe them any more. Sadly, there's no better place to publish my books at the moment, so we'll have to stick around and hope the problem gets solved eventually. If it happens to you, I need you to email me a copy of your receipt (because Lulu doesn't show me who buys what) and I'll email the patterns to you.

I have some fun stuff to share with you later this week, like a toy swap I'm participating in, my lovely noro socks (half done the second one already!), some thoughts on a new toy design, and some super cute baby videos.

back home

Finally, after 10 days in the hospital, our little family is back home. Baby Mitten is doing very well, slowly putting on weight, and getting cuter every day. He is currently taking a nap on his daddy's lap, which is how I'm able to leave this little note for you. I promise photos soon!

Needless to say, after such a long and unexpected absence, my email inbox is full to overflowing! Mostly lovely comments about our little one, thank goodness! We are still trying to settle in, but I will try to get back to everyone within the next week. I'm not sure how much time I will have to write here, but I'll try to drop by at least once a week to let you know what's up. My etsy store will remain closed for a while, but all my patterns are still available at the other shop.

I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday, and spending it with the ones you love!

Book pricing and costs

Hi, everyone. Mr. Mitten here with some more info on the book's pricing. As Barbara said earlier today, Lulu recently had a price hike on all printed materials. Before, you were paying $12 in printing costs per book, but now it's up to $15, which is quite a significant difference. Unfortunately, that means that we couldn't continue charging $19.95 per book, especially considering that we also have to pay Lulu's commission on each item sold.

This is why the price for printed books went up by a bit. We tried to make it up to you guys by lowering the price on the download version to $17.50 -- hopefully this will help those of you who aren't interested in getting the printed version (though it's nice and shiny! I'm very pleased with it.)

Just a couple of words about our operating costs -- we barely have any. :) The book was written entirely in Free Software (pictures done in Gimp, covers and charts done in Inkscape, and the layout done in Scribus, all of it running on Fedora Linux). Apart from Lulu (or Etsy), there are no other middlemen, so anything you pay goes straight to the artist, making sure that she is always pregnant with new ideas (*badum-pum!* ;)).

Overall, this distribution model works out pretty well for everyone, and unless Lulu's printing costs go up again, we should be able to continue to offer patterns at comparatively low costs (at least compared to some other pattern designers.)