And now what you really want to hear... the details of the new Mezzaluna Club.

The Mezzaluna Club will explore all aspects of the crescent shawlette, including shawls worked from the top down, the bottom up, and just about everything in between.  

In this club, you will receive six exclusive crescent-shaped shawl 
designs, along with premium yarns from top yarn dyers in exclusive colorways and beautiful Japanese beads to compliment the designs.

Each shipment of the club is meant to make your heart flutter, or cause you to break out in a chorus of "That's Amoré!" I love beautiful things and I know you do too. 


The first shipment will go out August 25, 2012, and will proceed to you on an every-other-month basis. Your last shipment will be in June, 2013. Imagine a year full of lace and beads. It's enough to put you over the moon! 


The fee for membership in the Mezzaluna Club is due within 5 days of signup. Payment can be made through our shopping cart or by check. Please contact us at siviaclub AT gmail DOT com if you need to pay by check so we can hold your spot in the club while your check is in the mail. The check payment option is for US knitters only, sorry. Membership is limited and registration will close once the maximum level is achieved so please register early and get your payment in quickly. If your payment is complete before July 1, 2012, you will receive a bonus pattern in the final shipment, bringing the number to a total of seven patterns for the club. All patterns are digital PDF downloads and are delivered straight to your Ravelry library.



For the Mezzaluna Club kit option, you will receive six exclusive Sivia Harding designs with exclusive colorway yarns and beads, along with access to the Ravelry group and pattern support from Sivia. You receive the same pattern support and access to the group if you choose the pattern-only option. There will also be a group KAL for each pattern.  


Pricing will be as follows: For US and Canadian full club shipments, $294. For international full club shipments, $325. For pattern-only option, $45.

If you have any questions, please address them to: siviaclub AT gmail DOT com. I can’t wait to begin sharing my designs with you!!

Harmonia Again, for the First Time

A most exciting development!

After many requests (and in some cases, begging and pleading), I have developed a tunic sweater based on the popular Harmonia's Rings cowl. The tunic begins like the cowl (and the yoke has identical structure), but the pattern has now been engineered to fit seven sizes. The yoke creates a perfect cap sleeve shape by virtue of its construction. In addition, the drape of the yoke contrasts beautifully with the close fit of the shaped body. The pattern is knit entirely in the round, every single blessed stitch. Every knitter who has seen this sweater wants to make one!

This is only the current installment in a series of Harmonia patterns. The next will be sleeved versions of the sweater, now in testing.









See details on my website here.

And on Ravelry:

The model is actually the beautiful and brilliant photographer Vivian Aubrey, who consented to be a model one day, in the middle of her class on photographing knits at Twisted Yarn Shop in Portland, OR.

Huge, huge thanks to my tech editor, the incomparable Jeane deCoster of Elemental Affects Yarn, who patiently endured hours of teaching me spreadsheet math, and my many lovely and hardworking test knitters, long may they hold yarn and needles in their blessed hands.

Spoken! and Gifts!

I SO appreciate all of your help in this new venture.

And, as promised, I have chosen names from the list of commenters, using a random number generator. Five lucky folks will be receiving gifts from moi in thanks for your time and energy in sending me your thoughts about my clubs.

As this is a Blogger blog, however, I don't have access to email addresses nor do I have a way to look at many of your Blogger profiles. So, here's a plea: Will pencraftco, asimpleknitter, Lisa, Robin, and Hinkie please email me at siviaharding at clear dot net to claim your prizes?

So now more about the clubs. They will be pattern only, and I am working on a secret plan with a few chosen outlets to provide kit options for the lace club, since many people enjoy receiving a club package that includes pattern, yarn and lovely beads too.

Designs are in progress and I am getting more excited every single day. One is out being tested by trusted test knitters right now!

OK.. now I must get ready for a big workshop this weekend at Serial Knitters in Seattle, where I am teaching Lace Design to a nice group on Saturday. If it happens that you are in the area and that you may be interested, please consult the Serial Knitters website for registration details, or call the store at 425-242-0086.

Tallulah on my Mind

The place: Tallulah Falls, Georgia.

Balmy southern nights, steamy days. Welcome to the Albert-Evans family reunion.. the first within memory. It is quite something to see cousins, aunts, uncles and others that last seen, were kids like me, and are now going gray, like me. It was a bit surreal but wonderful to see everyone again. Unfortunately, no pics were taken of the event itself.. I forgot my camera. But I do have a remembrance sock.. Tallulah.





These short but very sweet toe-up socks begin with my newly favorite round toe and feature a beaded openwork rib, a sculpturally fitted back, and just a hint of beaded ruffle at the top. The first sock was improvised and finished on the plane trip home. The first pair is a gift for my mother and her pair contain no beads, but my pair (yet to come) has to have them! I am hoping that the beads, inset into the openwork rib pattern in the front and around the top rim of the sock, will give an impression of sparkling water drops that catch the light now and then.. a lovely effect.

I am also including instructions for working heel stitch over the toe-up heel turn, and making length adjustments based on the individual knitter's row gauge.

See Tallulah's emergence here.. soon!

Black and Other Sheep

Oh lord, it has been a long blog silence. I seem to have a difficult time with day to day fodder. Oh blog readers, can you forgive me?

There are no lace or beads in today's post. Please excuse. However, last weekend I was incredibly fortunate to visit the legendary Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon. Out of the dog house and into the sheep house.

I adore sheep faces! So now, lucky readers, you get to see a few of the sheepy personalities I saw at the gathering.



This young man obligingly allowed me to photograph his back. The answer is obviously "YES!"



First, to get my cute quotient just as high as it can possibly go, here is a baby kitten that someone had in the sheep area. Awwww.



And here is the requisite bunny. He was, according to his owner, asleep with his eyes open. So sweet, and apparently so relaxed too.



Another blissfully sleeping baby amidst the din and b-a-a-a-a-h-ings.



A young Jacob, raring to go.



This fellow almost looks like he should be sporting a unicorn!











Thank you for indulging me in my sheepy obsession.

I met so many wonderful folks at the gathering, and saw so many old friends. I did feel dorky asking people if I could take their picture though. Must get over that.

I did come home with a few choice booty items. I hope you agree that I exercised enormous restraint.



Left to right, a Jenkins Turkish Delight spindle (I got a tiny itsy-bitsy Jenkins too.. it stole my heart), a luminous glass shawl pin (actually a laying tool) from the wizardry of Sheila and Michael Ernst, and three skeins of precious yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts: a Seduction in a particularly lovely colorway and two STR skeins in new vibrant reds that had to come home with me.



And here, six precious balls of Elemental Affects shetland fingering weight yarn that will be part of a Plum Frost cardigan if all goes well. The plain part of the sweater will be Imperial Stock Ranch's Tracie fingering weight, which I am hoping will blend beautifully with the shetland.

May you all have sheep around you in plentiful quantities.. either in four footed or fiber form. We heart sheeps everywhere.

Dog days

Yes, we are in the dog days, and here in San Diego it is beastly hot. The impulse is to be lazy and do absolutely nothing... Yet, work continues in a rush after the high of Sock Summit, and in its aftermath I follow the muse to wherever she is leading...

I have several as-yet secret projects that will be revealed in their good time, and in the meantime here are some lovely links for you:



Aphrodite on the Twist Collective Blog!!! Somehow things all look more beautiful on this site.. please do take a peek at Sparklefaerie in her glory...

Joy of Sox is now out! My project is called "Afternoon Delight" and the book is a gorgeous and sensuous delight. Please do check it out...



For this design, I used Sundara FSM in robin's egg, one of my favorite colorways ever, and I can't say enough lovely things about this yarn and especially how it is with beads.. splendido!

Hoping coolness will return soon...

Color Riot, or Forgive my Teal

I am in full pre-Sock Summit obsession.. projects crowding around like little mewling babies, all craving attention and all wanting to be made before SS09.

As most of you know, probably to the point of nauseating repetition, I love beads and use them in almost everything I make. A growing number of people share my fascination with beads and how they can enhance (in my humble opinion) knitting designs.

It is however, rare when I find the right bead for the right yarn right away.. usually it takes some shopping around and that can be a process when you mostly order your good Japanese beads by mail order.

So.. regard. This is my latest order from Earth Faire, and EVERY BEAD IS PERFECT! I don't think it is my masterful decision making ability either, because I forgot what I ordered right after I ordered them, and besides I didn't have these skeins of yarn in my possession when I ordered. It has to be serendipity, or grace, or maybe synchronicity. Take your pick.

So take a look, and dream of the socks that will emerge from these yarns and bead combinations...


Because each of these is so wonderful in its own right, here follows a photo of each project.. more for my journalistic desire to record what I mean to do next than anything else.. and nothing is carved in stone, mind you. No promises.

But today, this is my happy color dance of potential bliss...


Oh Mama! STR lightweight in My blue heaven and Turquoise, with mint julep aqua and silver lined dark aqua beads. Yes, this is all one project!


Sweet sweet sweet! Blue Moon Fiber Arts Seduction in Rose Quartz, with sparkling cranberry lined amethyst ab beads.


Be still my heart! STR lightweight in Corbie with sparkling aqua green lined crystal ab beads.


Oh lordy - I hear the angels singing! STR lightweight in Quilla with dark peach lined crystal ab beads.


Splendiforous! Sweet Georgia Superwash Sock in Turquoise with glacier blue lined crystal ab beads


Elegance! Sweet Georgia Speed Demon in Teal with teal lined lavender beads

OK.. enough of this.. I'm going to wind up some yarn, yeah baby!

Phoenix has Risen

So many people have written to me over the last year asking when the Phoenix Rising shawl would be available after its stint in last year's Year of Lace 2008 subscription club.

After much reworking and in a gorgeous new yarn, here she is on my website, and here on ravelry. Please do take a peek.

You will notice some differences between last year’s version and this new one. I have added beads into the flame-like center lace panel, and a brand new beaded lace edge that I feel is a perfect finish. I hope you agree.











The yarn is Sweet Georgia Yarns’ Cashsilk lace, a wonderful blend of 45% cashmere, 50% silk that is truly sinfully soft. Lovely Felicia Lo, whom you see modeling the shawl, dyes a wonderful yarn.. I used her boysenberry colorway. Yum!

Happy lacing and beading to all,

Sivia

Aphrodite Revealed

Hello all,

Just to let you know that the Summer 2009 Issue of Twist Collective is now up. If you are not yet familiar with this beautifully put together online publication, you can read all of the many articles and features for free, and of course see the gorgeous photographs of all the patterns. If you would like to purchase a pattern, you can do so on the shop page. All patterns are available as pdf downloadable files only.

Have I mentioned how thrilled I am to be a part of this publication, in the company of so many other great designers?

I hope you like Aphrodite... She is on the cover of the magazine, and on page 10! Please do take a peek!

If you are on Ravelry, you can favorite or queue the pattern, and also see what everyone else is doing with theirs. The Ravelry library page for Aphrodite can be found here.

There is also an Aphrodite knitalong just getting started on my Ravelry group.

Now forgive me if I indulge myself by posting these *homemade* blocking pics of both versions of Aphrodite, complete with blocking gremlin!

Lace Conquers All

I saw a preview of Twist Collective's summer issue today.. I am on the cover! Please take a peek...

and let me know what you think!

Sivia

There and Back Again

Most of you know that for the last two months I have been away looking after my son.

I am back now, a little sleep deprived but all in one piece. Internet access was not always available to me, so there is a lot to catch up on!

Thanks to all of you who offered their wishes for my son’s recovery. It is so hard to see a child hurting, even if he is no longer a child. My son, Ari, has sustained nerve damage from a surgical procedure that went wrong. He has a long road ahead as he continues his rehabilitation, and every prayer and wish is appreciated.

Although we were able to find him excellent health care, the support in California for people in need is not the best and he does not have enough money to meet his bills, especially since he lost his health insurance along with his job a few months ago.

I will be hosting a blog event soon to raise some funds to help with his medical and other expenses. I will be sure to post all the developments here.

In the meantime, I have been busy knitting and designing. Here are some new things you can look forward to seeing:

The June issue of Twist Collective will feature a new beaded shawl pattern. See the Sneak Peak page here.

Also in June, the Fiddlehead Sock pattern, already published as part of Dye Dreams’ Four Seasons Sock Club, will be available from my website and here on ravelry.

The Embrace the Lace Club from Woolgirl, loosely based on the Seven Heavenly Virtues, is now featuring a new beaded lace shawlette pattern along with hosting a charity event in honor of the theme (my virtue: Charity). Please see the blog to join in the event, which will benefit Autism Speaks.

I am working up a new version of the Phoenix Rising shawl that was first seen last year in the Year of Lace 2008 Club. The new version is in a glorious yarn by Sweet Georgia and now includes more beads and features a different edging than the original.

And last but not least.. I am getting ready for Sock Summit!!! New designs and new classes.. oh my.

Please stay tuned for more developments, and thank you again for being such a worthy audience…

Love to all,

Sivia

Clubbed

This must be the Year of the Club for me.

Last year, I had a magnificent introduction into the Mysteries of the Club when Phoenix Rising was the kickoff design for the Year of Lace 2008 club.



The success of that design led me to go.. hog wild comes to mind.. when I started getting requests for designs for this year's club docket.

Already this year I have had two club releases, with several more to come.

Forgive me if I indulge myself with a list of past and present offerings.

The first one was for the Seven Deadly S(p)ins club sponsored by the Unique Sheep. My sin was Envy, and this was my initial design:



The yarn is House Blend from Unique Sheep, a lovely dk-weight alpaca blend. The final design was much prettier... in envy green with beads, of course. Sorry I don't have any pics of the final one to show, but you get the idea.

The next was an installment of the Rockin' Sock Club, a design called the Queen of Beads, or as Tina lovingly embellished the title, Queen of Beads Singing the Blues. I became part of the Notorious Sock Knitters World Domination Tour with that shipment and I must say that this has been the highlight of my year in knitting so far.. Blue Moon does rock, and rock well...

And what's up next, you may ask?

I had to balance the Seven Deadly S(p)ins with something, and this is what it was: The Seven Heavenly Virtues of Lace, sponsored by Woolgirl. Can't expose the work in progress to the public eye as yet, but it will be heavenly, at least I hope so. My virtue is Charity, and we are planning an event along with the installment that will bring out this quality in the best way.

Next up is Dye Dreams' Four Seasons Sock Club, for which I am pleased to be the representative of Spring. Do check out the lineup of designers.. I am flattered indeed to be included in this list of luminary sock designers!

I was given the choice of fibers and best of all, colors in this club, and here is the gorgeous color (and beads) I chose:



Next? Why, the Year of Lace 2009!!! For now, suffice it to say that my design will be the summer installment of this prestigious club.

And last but not least, the Shakespeare in Lace Club from Wooly Wonka Fibers. I have my Shakespearean theme, and the gorgeous yarn and beads in hand for the shawl that shall be the December installment of the club. I do hope that it will be bard-worthy.

Here is the lineup for the rest of the year.. I don't know if subscriptions are still open, but do check it out:

March: Miriam Felton of Mimknits is kicking off the subscription kits with a nod to Othello. She’s taking her design theme from Desdemona’s handkerchief, a strawberry motif, done in a drapey merino blend laceweight dyed the color of (what else?) crushed strawberries.

June: Judy Anderson has chosen a lovely soft periwinkle blue silk/merino laceweight for her A Midsummer Night’s Dream project, a triangular lace shawl knit in fairy lace motifs and sprinkled with sparkling beads.

September: Anne Hanson of Knitspot will be chiming in for her interpretation of Macbeth’s Burnham Wood, with a rectangular stole covered with tree and woods motifs in rich earthy hues on a laceweight cashmere/silk yarn.

December: Sivia Harding has agreed to round out the year for us by taking a cue from As You Like it, following the twists and turns of the plot (which resolve neatly in the end!) in the shawl’s lace patterning, and creating a Faroese-shaped shawl knit in a slightly heavier, fingering weight yarn dyed in a deep blue-black ink color.

I think that rounds out the year quite nicely, what say you?

More Mystery

It's finished!



Soon, soon, soon... the pattern will be available.

And in other news,

Some of you will have noticed that I have started to design for subscription clubs like the Year of Lace 2008. I had a very good experience with that one, and that has encouraged me to do more this year.

One such club I that will be contributing to in 2009 is the "Embrace the Lace" club from Woolgirl, who is planning a lineup of lace beauties for your knitting pleasure.

The club will run from March 2009 to March 2010, and features a total of 8 shipments, 8 well known lace designers, and 8 different handdyed yarns with custom colorways, all based upon the theme of "Seven Heavenly Virtues" of lace, which include Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Temperance, and Prudence.

Enrollment has been very good, according to Jennifer (Woolgirl's owner), and there is still a little bit of time left if you would like to sign up for the club. Enrollment is open for two more weeks so be sure to investigate the club if you think you may be interested.

I think it has been said that you can never have enough lace projects in the queue...

New Mystery

What happens when you combine a luscious yarn, a highly textured self-pleating pattern, and a mysterious Moebius structure?

Well, this! (Shown in its current, half-completed state...)









It's a Moebius cowl/wimple/neckwarmer with a mysterious beaded spiral in the middle! I am quite pleased with how this version is coming out. (A previous, much smaller version had been distributed to students in my Moebius Knitting classes at Three Bags Full over the last few months).

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Peru in the Valkyrie colorway. Beads: matte raku blue/purple iris 6/0 seed beads from Earth Faire.

I have been so inspired by the response to the One World Moebius KAL on ravelry. Please keep those pictures and posts coming! So wonderful to see you all in Moebius land. If you haven't looked us up, do join in if you have half a mind to do so, and happy knitting wherever you are...

One World

Come and join the One World Moebius KAL, now in progress over on Ravelry here. All are welcome...

And here is my newest Elegant Arrows, in Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn, with a beaded picot edging. The picture was taken by my hubby as a rainy Vancouver dusk was falling outside. How nice to have a new bit of bright color in residence!


With enormous gratitude to Cat Bordhi, who brought us the gift of Moebius knitting... thank you Cat!

Lace and Shakespeare

What do these two have in common, you say?

Well, more than you might ever think!

Here is a big, big hint... Design is now is progress!

Yes, that's right, another subscription lace club for 2009! This is another gem, folks, so get over and reserve your spot if you enjoy my designs, and the other stellar lace designers that are slotted for the club in 2009.

I had Great Fun deciding which Shakespearian theme was to be mine, but there was really no contest. I love Rosalind, my favorite heroine in the works of Shakespeare. The new lace shawl will have elements of the best of the story, complicated but with a neat resolution (just like the Bard's plays)...

You articulate, well-read knitters, leave me a line if you love W.S.!!!

Progress and More Progress

So... just to catch up, since I have been back from the retreat, most of my time has been spent visiting with my Mom (she went back home a little over a week ago), answering emails and such, and working at the shop.

But a few things have been getting knitted too.. and here is a little progress report on those.

First, the Dué Amori items now include a pair of long gloves in the works as well as a pair of shorter (gauntlet length) gloves, and the scarf is close to being finished.


The scarf, like the shorter gloves, is being done is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Seduction in the Quilla colorway, with 6/0 pearl beads. More pictures promised when finished... it promises to be one of the nicest eye candy lace pieces yet, if I do say so myself. Here it is shown about one-half blocked, one half unblocked, and still on the needles for the rest.


The longer gloves are in progress too, and they are lovely in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Seduction in the Tanzanite colorway with silver lined matte amethyst beads that Nancy gave me during the retreat... thank you my dear! They are perfect for this yarn! Here you see the Fan Pattern that begins all of the gloves, and then the beaded lace pattern that continues up most of the length of the glove to culminate in the leaf pattern on the hand, which I promise to show when it's done!

This shows the decreases on the back of the long, opera length glove. I think this view is quite elegant actually...


And here is actually something JUST FOR ME! Yes, I DO knit for myself sometimes, strangely enough! I picked up this beautiful Rowan Felted Tweed yarn at the Beehive when we passed through Victoria on the way to the retreat, and I truly love working with it. The Leaf Yoke Pullover pattern is from a Classic Elite Summer booklet but it will be very fall-like by the time I am done. I love the in-the-round top-down construction and it is a perfect foil for the detailed knitting I am doing otherwise. I am making several mods of course, starting with the leaf cable, which if you can tell is a bit fatter and rounder than in the pattern. What can I say... it's probably pathological the way I just can't do a pattern as written... ahem.

And here is something I had to start, with a great new yarn we are carrying at Three Bags Full, Malabrigo Sock. Hehe... my mom literally walked away with my only samples of my Rolling Thunder sock pattern so I just had to start another pair... right? This one is working up beautifully (if I do say so myself) in the Tiziano Red colorway with some amazing Toho triangle beads. I am really enjoying the knit, even though the most interesting part is done and now it is just ribbing and regular top down sock stuff, which makes it my designated car and bus project for the next little while. Here is a pic of the sock top so far:

I guess I am getting the Fall Knitting Bug...