Win a Fiber Dreams' Kit or Pattern!

Thank you to everyone who entered.  

We have our 3 Winners!

1st Prize: Illusions & 1 Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Ysolda Red - Carmen Nuland 

2nd Prize: Aventine - Debbie (of the Arctic Knits blog)

3rd Prize: Lost Labyrinth - Angelika

Winners please email me at Sandrasingh@sandrasingh.com to claim your prize. 

As promised...May brings new talent! Introducing the knitwear designs of Fiber Dreams and a new blog giveaway. 

Creating knitwear, in luxurious fibers, that evokes art, literature and nature, this is what a knitter dreams of while crafting, and these are also some of the inspirations for Laura Patterson when designing for her Fiber Dreams' knitwear collection. Laura uses some of the finest yarns available, Malabrigo, Anzula and Lorna's Laces, to create her beautiful and superbly written designs. 

Laura and I have teamed up for this giveaway, she's donating three patterns and I'm adding the yarn! 

1st Prize: Illusions
& 1 Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Ysolda Red 

2nd Prize: Aventine 

3rd Prize: Lost Labyrinth 

Laura Patterson

Meet Laura: I’ve been knitting off and on since I was probably about 7 or 8 years old. Grandma taught me to cast on and to knit, but not how to purl; Mom taught me to cast off within the next few days. I remember sitting in the backyard while Mom was in the kitchen, knitting up what must be the world’s ugliest vest for her out of green variegated acrylic yarn that she bought for me at the grocery store. The vest was hip length, opened in the front, and was fastened with two huge pompoms connected by a crochet chain. It had to be pulled on over the head as those pompoms didn’t come off. I had no idea what a pattern was, much less how to read one, so I made it up as I went along. It was the 1960s. You can imagine how horrible the yarn was. 

 

After that I crocheted a lot, did needlepoint, embroidery... whatever. Took two knitting classes at a yarn shop when I was in my 20s, learned to purl (!) among other things. I still have and wear the sweater I knit in that first class. 

Between then and now I’ve phased in and out of knitting here and there, now and then. Made scarves and sweaters mostly, then a bunch of socks and an intricately cabled Aran for Dave in the 1990s. This was one time when the infamous “boyfriend sweater curse” didn’t strike, as we weren’t married yet when I made that sweater for him. Knitting was replaced with a flurry of counted cross stitch projects for three or four years before knitting resumed. After about 15 years of husband-ly prodding, Dave talked me into designing my first piece, Pinwheel, a lap blanket for him to use in his home office in winter. I’ve been designing non-stop ever since, and loving it. 

I’d started knitting a lot of lace, and didn’t have any blocking wires. I borrowed a set from a dear friend, and that got Dave to thinking. That year he gave me a set of blocking wires in a clear acrylic tube for my birthday. We talked about what it would take, and decided that we had a product there. The clear acrylic tubes were pretty, but the finish was fragile, scratched easily, so Dave started sanding them to give them a more resilient finish. Since then we started having the tubes custom made for us, then getting our label printed directly on the tubes. Not only are the new tubes more resilient, but with so much of the work done it means less time in the shop for Dave, while simultaneously giving us a more professional product. 

In June of 2009 we signed on with Bryson Distributing. Getting on with Bryson has done wonderful things for sales, as I’m sure you can imagine. In January 2011 one of my shawls, Evening, was in the fashion show at TNNA. The shawl seemed to be one of the hits of the fashion show. We’re hoping that that will introduce us to even more stores. 

Laura thank you very much for sharing your story with us!  Now discover Fiber Dreams' sock, lace, accessory and garment patterns, you'll dream of creating the entire line.  

The combination of the knit and purl triangles and the variegated yarn seem to move of their own accord in the Illusions socks. The simple stitch pattern is fun and easy to knit in only one skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock.   Knit top down using DPNs if you’re familiar with turning patterns around, it would work equally well to knit them toe up.

 

Illusions

Aventine is one of the Seven Hills of Rome lying to the east of the Tiber River. Some say the hill was named for the birds that nested there.  Fiber Dreams' little scarf Aventine shares the name, because its delicate stitch reminds the designer of a flock of birds in flight.  

 

Aventine

The Lost Labyrinth Cowl appears complex with its twists and turns, its rooms separated by straight pathways, but in fact it is a simple combination of basic decreases paired with well-placed yarn overs—a simple, quick-to-knit cowl with a lot of interest. The points on both top and bottom edges form from the stitch pattern, and can be emphasized with blocking.  It is worked in the round from one end straight through to the other, then bound off. The model was knit with two strands of a soft lace weight yarn. It could easily be worked with one strand—and fewer yards—of a fingering weight yarn.

Lost Labyrinth

Robert Frost’s poem Birches was the inspiration for the Birches sock. The stitch is a cascade of tiny birch leaves, accented with either nupps or beads on the cuff. Sock is knit from the toe up and the pattern is written for three sizes.

Birches

Laura shares the story of her Linea de la Playa socks..."I cast on for this pair of socks when I was in Mexico. Because of its south-of-the-border origin I wanted a Spanish name for the pattern. The movement in the stitch pattern makes me think of the movement of the waves on the beach I could see from my room. Keeping both those things in mind I pulled up the online translator, and played a bit before I hit on something that flowed well: Línea de la Playa, which is Spanish for “line of the beach” or as we would say in English “shoreline.” Perfect."

Linea de la Playa

And a hit song from a popular Broadway musical inspired Laura for her Starshine scarf...“Good morning starshine, the earth says hello.” Hair. The musical was controversial. The music was amazing. My parents got the sound track when it was new back in 1968, and I wore it out. One of my favorite cuts was always “Good Morning Starshine.” Do you know it? If you do, just try to not sing it while you knit these cabled stars that dance in front of a distant galaxy."  The scarf is knit from one end straight through to the other.  Knit it up in only one skein of Anzula Sebastian, the sea cell and merino wool blend will give your scarf an exceptional drape.  

Starshine

Knit in two contrasting colorways of Malabrigo Lace the Dulcavina shawl starts at one end with a provisional cast on. The first motif is knit on this end, a second in the center, returning to the first motif on the other side. The border, a third vine motif, is knit on last.  Pattern can be knit with 3 hanks of Malabrigo Lace if stole is knit in 1 color. If border is knit in a different color than the body, then you’ll need 2 hanks of each color.

Dulcavina

Tethys (pronounced TEE-this), one of Saturn’s 53 moons, was discovered in 1684 by the astronomer Cassini. The moon was named for Tethys in Greek mythology, who was both sister and wife of Oceanus. 

 

Designed with full skirt, long sleeves, and folded hems, the Tethys pullover is worked from the hem up in pieces, then seamed and its knit in Malabrigo's Twist yarn. Ribbing accentuates the high waist. The folded hem lets a little color peek through along the edges. The deep v-neck looks great when worn over a coordinating tank top or camisole—or not, for a little va‑va-va-voom. 

Tethys

The winner will be announced on May 22nd. The patterns will be emailed to the winners as a PDFs.

Enter this Giveaway: The more ways you enter, the more chances you have to win. Make sure to leave a comment(s) under this blog post telling what you did to enter. And please make sure to leave your contact information.
1. Tell us which Fiber Dreams' pattern is your favorite and why.
2. Blog about this giveaway on your blog & link it, leave a comment under this blogpost with a link back to your blogpost.
3. Join my Ravelry group, Sandrasingh.com and introduce yourself in the "Welcome tell us about yourself..." thread.
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