Happy Valentines Day!

I'm probably going to spend the night in eating bad food and too much chocolate with my Mr.

How do you want to spend the day?

Cheers

First Knitting Pattern: Isabella Riff Cowl

One of my goals this year is to use up some of my yarn stash. I have way too much for my level of knitting or crochet productivity. Some of the stash I have bought, but a lot of it I inherited from Mr S' grandmother's stash.

So this year I thought "get to it" and just started knitting a cowl. I knit a quick swatch, quickly dismissed it and cast on. I made the pattern up as I went along and made notes as I knit it. At the end I decided that the cowl I made would make a really great pattern for people wanting to create something a little bit 'fancy' without really complicated knitting stitches.

I find that when I'm knitting a pattern I generally use tally marks to keep track of where I am in the pattern. This can become messy and confusing. The pattern I was making was aimed at a beginner/easy level so I thought I would try to make it as simple as possible to keep track of progress made through the pattern. A checkbox for each row seemed to be the perfect solution. I typed up the pattern and gave the pattern a name, the Isabella Riff Cowl pattern was born!

Isabella Riff Cowl

The Isabella Riff Cowl pattern is a good simple introduction into lace knitting. 
The result is a very loose and slouchy cowl. with some lacey pillers. It is a 2 skein project.

Skills needed: Knit, Purl, Yarn Over, Knit 2 together, Knitting in the round.

The pattern includes tick boxes next to each step so you can keep track of your progress through the pattern.

~TIP~In row 13 pm every 5 or 10 stitches to keep track of the lacework rows.

On 16th January 2014 I uploaded my first knitting pattern to Ravelry. I had never uploaded a pattern to Ravelry before and wasn't sure what to expect. I fumbled through and got the pattern uploaded and opened a Ravelry store called Make It Nifty.

I decided that I would make this pattern free as it is my first ever knitting pattern and I just really wanted to share it.

I got really excited as I saw that people were downloading the pattern. I was even more ecstatic when I saw the first finished project that someone else had made.

If you want to download the pattern you can go the pattern page here - Isabella Riff Cowl pattern
Or click here to download now.

If you use the pattern please tell me about your experience. I'd love to hear some feedback.

Cheers,

Well, hello there!

Hello,

To get started here I thought it would be best to introduce myself. My name is Vanessa and I am the person behind Make It Nifty.
I knit, crochet and sew.
I live in Brisbane, Australia with my partner Mr S.

I enjoy helping people to learn new skills and how to make things with the skills that they have learnt.
I get a buzz from sharing things that I have created with others.

I'm want this place can be virtual hub where I can share the various elements of my creativity with you.

Cheers,