Lisa Ellis Designs' "Hooded Scarves & Cowl Kits" Giveaway

Congratulations!

#1 Peppermint Mocha Moma
#2 Lori
#3 Blessedspeedy

Please email sandrasingh@sandrasingh.com
to claim your prizes!

And Thank You to everyone who enter!

Lisa Ellis

Week two of my anniversary month brings us the simple yet contemporary design work of the knitwear artist Lisa Ellis of Lisa Ellis Designs. It was August 2008 that I had the pleasure to begin working with Lisa. For this blog giveaway she has generously donated a copy of her new Sandrasingh.com Exclusive pattern, the Hooded Scarves and Cowls and I've thrown in some of my Sandrasingh.com 1 Ply Merino Worsted to knit these designs in, there will be 3 Winners!

#1 3 skeins Sandrasingh.com 1 Ply Merino Worsted in Mauve Mix and Pattern

#2 2 skeins Sandrasingh.com 1 Ply Merino Worsted in Mauve Mix and Pattern

#3 Pattern only

Hooded Scarves and Cowls

1 Ply Merino Worsted Mauve Mix

I originally introduced her patterns to you with her diverse hat collection, Lisa has a flair for designing hats that range from playful earflap styles to having clean and classic lines, yet all have very interesting textures.

Madison Ave Tam

Andean

During these past three years she's stayed true to her love for designing hats and each season she's introduced several new styles, but she's also branched into other accessories and women's garments.

One of which has proved to be her most popular pattern, the Super Bulky Winter Vest, which is availabe grouped in sizes and sold individually for $5: Women, Plus, Children or as Bundle Series with all 18 sizes for only $10.

Super Bulky Women's Sizes

Super Bulky Plus Sizes

Super Bulky Children's Sizes

Many things about Lisa's knitting and design talents impress me and one in particular tells me she's a dedicated mom who loves her family. I see this in the way she sizes her designs, the majority of them include a wide range of sizes from child & adolescent to adult. In her Bio she shares she's a dedicated mother of two daughters and I picture Lisa on an outing with her two girls, all three are wearing the same stylish hat, but fitting each perfectly in their own custom size!

The second thing that impresses me is Lisa is always pushing her knitting boundaries and challenging her skills by learning new techniques. Her patterns reflect her love of learning and often feature new and unusual textures and patterns that you'll enjoy knitting, just may teach you something new and you'll love wearing! She specializes in breaking a technique down into it's smaller components and writing step by step tutorials.

And third I'm blown away by how much Lisa loves to knit! I knew this had to be true by her career choice, but over the last few months as we emailed back and forth while she designed the Hooded Scarves and Cowls pattern her love became more evident. She was excited from the moment she received my yarn to designing a piece that included buttons and it was a real celebration when she finished the garments and wrote the pattern. And I found her love infectious and enjoyed every minute of the process too.

Hooded Scarves and Cowls

The Hooded Scarves and Cowls design includes four different, but complimentary styles, 2 hooded scarves and 2 cowls. The hooded scarf designs are simple to knit either from top down or bottom up and the cowls are either knit in the round or flat. Pick your style and skill level, nothing is too complicated but all are extremely satisfying knits. Pattern includes written instructions and charts. These four designs are worked in only 2-3 skeins of the worsted weight yarns, Sandrasingh.com 1 Ply Merino Worsted, which is On Sale, and Malabrigo Merino Worsted.

And once again showcasing her love of rich textures and interesting knitting techniques she's just released her Spring/Summer Collection 2011. The Russian Winter Hat & Purse set is rich in color and pattern with a hemmed trim for a clean and professional finish.

Russian Winter Hat & Purse

While the Peruvian Earflap Hat is knit in a simple Fair Isle pattern with subtle purl sts to add depth and texture, this darling hat is lightweight enough to wear year round.

Peruvian Earflap Hat

And the lusciously lofty Buttoned Neck Wrap & Scarf is an easy knit, loaded with a cable design that gives it loft and texture.

Buttoned Neck Wrap & Scarf

Let's meet Lisa...

Lisa was taught knitting by her mother at a young age. In college, she spent a year studying in Spain and France. There, her Spanish host mother re-taught her to knit but without a pattern. She simply would drape the sweater over Lisa's body like a mannequin to decide where decreases should go. Then in France, Lisa noticed a young Norwegian sitting in back of class knitting daily. This Norwegian never used a pattern and rarely looked down at her work. This is where the idea of knitting without a pattern became embedded. After taking designing classes and upgrading her yarn stash, Lisa became a designer. 6 years later, she became a knitting instructor at a local yarn shop in Gig Harbor and began self-publishing her designs. Lisa now has 2 exclusive publications with Leisure Arts and has graced the pages of 5 other books as a contributing designer as well as 2 knitting magazines. When Lisa isn't drinking tea and knitting, she's either gardening, cooking or teaching these skills to her 2 daughters.

1. Please tell us about yourself and what got you interested in knitting and designing knitwear.

I've knit on and off my entire life but it wasn't until I had maternity leave that I felt the need (and had the time) to knit baby sweaters. I would literally spend hours trying to find the right pattern with the right yarn and right children sizes. That's when I started knitting without a pattern. I had actually learned how to knit without a pattern back in college while studying in Spain but quit knitting once I returned back to the states.

2. What is your design philosophy?

Nothing too trendy, flashy or overly complicated. If I'm going to spend all this time, effort and money on quality yarn, the sweater has got to be in style for at least another 5 years! Besides, I live in the Northwest and we dress very casual, very earthy here.

3. Who or what inspires you the most in your design process?

I think it's the yarn that speaks to me first. Sometimes the design comes first but if I can't find the right yarn and color, the design falls to the wayside. Solid colors inspire me more than variegated yarns. Variegated yarns need no introduction whereas solid yarn needs a great design to catch your eye and to bring the yarn to life.

4. What direction do you see yourself heading in as a designer?

I would really like to get into publishing books down the road. I have two booklets with Leisure Arts (Fun Time Knits and Wardrobe Favorites) which have been very successful and I would like to venture deeper into the publishing world.

5. How have the advances in technology and the internet helped you (or hindered) you as a knitwear designer?

The internet has definitely helped me be more visible to the knitting world. My first 5 years of designing were confined to my local yarn shop. My designs were well received but my audience was 200 knitters at most.

Lisa Thank You very much for taking the time to have this conversation with us!

Please take a moment to enjoy all Lisa Ellis Designs' patterns. They are all sold as PDFs with no shipping fees.

Men, Women & Children Accessories

Winter Trio (hat, fingerless mitts and sock set)

Men, Women & Children Garments

Seamless Short Sweater

Socks

Textured Socks

Holidays

Old Fashioned Stockings

There will be 3 winners for this giveaway, no purchase necessary to enter, and the winners will be announced May 14, 2011.

Enter this Giveaway:
The more ways you enter, the more chances you have to win and make sure to leave a comment telling exactly what you did to enter. And please make sure to include your contact information.

1. Leave a comment about your favorite Lisa Ellis Designs' pattern, under this blogpost.
2. Blog about this Giveaway on your blog and link it, leave a comment under this blogpost with the link back to your blogpost.
3. Join my Ravelry group Sandrasingh.com and introduce yourself in the "Welcome Tell us About Yourself..." thread.
4. Announce this Giveaway in your Ravelry group or in another Ravelry group that allows you to announce Blog Giveaways.
5. Friend me on Facebook: Sandra Singh and say you "Like" my post about this Giveaway.
6. Announce this Giveaway (with the link) on Facebook
7. Follow me on Twitter: Sandrasingh
8. Announce this Giveaway (with the link) on Twitter.
9. Sign up for my Newsletter on my Home Page.
10. Sign up to "Follow my Blog."