Use the code 10is5by5 when you buy Ivory Tower Cowl and get Traveling Cowl free. Visit the store now!

Note that you must enter the coupon code at checkout or it will not work.

Use the code its9bynine at checkout and get 10% off all patterns. I know, I know, I already did this one. But it’s just such a great deal! Any pattern! 10% off! Visit the store now.

Buy My Renaissance and get One Million Eyelets free today!

Visit the pattern store, add My Renaissance to your cart, add One Million Eyelets to your cart, and enter 888yay at checkout.

It’s time for a Saroyan KAL! You can choose from Double Leaf Saroyan or the regular Saroyan.

Start date: September 15th
End date: December 15th

You can use any yarn you want! The prizes are a surprise – there are patterns, yarns, and kits that will be sent out. Prizes will be awarded for all kinds of different patterns, including randomly drawn winners so that everyone has a chance to win.

You can tag your project with on Ravelry “twsaroyan2011.”

To be entered to win a prize: enter your project info into this spreadsheet. You must have a Ravelry account to enter to win a prize!

You can view the forum thread for the KAL here.

Come join the fun at knit1! I’ll be there to kick start the Chicago Yarn Crawl on Friday, August 19 from 6:30–8:30 p.m.

As those of you who have purchased Luna’s Shawl and Citizen Shawl are aware, I have released updates for these patterns. Luna’s Shawl had 1 or 2 small errors that needed correcting, but Citizen Shawl was a purely aesthetic update.

I’m in the process of going through my entire pattern library – yes, the whole thing – and changing the format to make them more user-friendly. Some are having the instructions tweaked, while others are getting a more intuitive layout. All newly released patterns are in a printer-friendly format that contains all of the photos (and almost all of the color printing) on the first page of the pattern. Subsequent pages will have text-only and charted instructions, with the only exception to the “no color” rule being the charts themselves.

Chart quality is also improving: you’ll notice that charts now have infinite zoom when viewing the PDFs on the computer, iPad, or other device. The font has also been changed to allow for an easier reading experience. The simple sans serif fond is easier on the eyes than the font I used previously, and is easy to read in multiple sizes.

As I re-release each pattern, I share $1 off coupons with my lovely group on Ravelry. If you want to grab these coupon codes, head over to the Traveling Woman group, join up, and check out the thread for more info.

The next pattern to be re-released is Goneril & Reagan, which is much overdue for an update. The pattern is supposed to be called “Regan” – not “Reagan” – but when I was working on the pattern, I erroneously spellchecked the entire thing and allowed every single mention of the correctly spelled “Regan” to be changed to “Reagan.” So here’s my dilemma: re-name the pattern after its rightful inspiration, or let it die?

Some News

There’s a party in Chicago and you’re invited! Details to follow, but it’s during the Yarn Crawl. Save the date: August 19, 6:30–8:30 p.m. I’m going to celebrate the yarn crawl by releasing a new version of Traveling Cowl. Stay tuned for details!

Finally, I am traveling to Switzerland, Germany, and Italy this October and November. I will be gone for 2 weeks, first for a wedding, then for some much-needed traveling through my family’s country of origin (Italy), and then back home to the frigid Chicago weather. We are staying in northern Italy (no Rome), landing in Zurich, and spending time in the Black Forest. Any suggestions for yarn stores? Our list of sights to see is already set and ready to go.

Live chat starts at 1:15pm PST Sunday, May 1 and ends at 2:45pm PST.

Click here to enter the live chat.

You can either login with Facebook or create your own account with Lingr. If prompted, the passphrase to enter the chat is feministy.

The chat room is open NOW, but I will not be ready to respond until 1:15.

Veronika has posted all of the winners over at Yarn On the House. Be sure to check out this week’s giveaway, too! It’s some beautiful yarn from the ladies at String Theory.

The two Grand Prize Winners of the Luna’s Shawl & Miss Babs giveaway AKA Buried Treasure Hunt are:
Maggie & Connie Brooks

And the following individuals have won a copy of the Luna’s Shawl pattern:
Patricia Witherspoon, Laura D, & LuisaM

Be sure to email Veronika (not me!) at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com to collect your prize(s).

Congratulations to the winners!

The answers were:
1. Three Irish Girls dyes Adorn Sock. Veronika’s favorite color is Hipster.
2. Miss Babs has a deadly red named Vlads after Vlad the Impaler.
3. There were three potential answers, but you only needed two: Bones, Arrested Development, and Firefly.

You had to post the answers on the hidden Buried Treasure post to be qualified to win.

Since the scavenger hunt went so well this time around, I think I’ll definitely do another one again soon. We’ll see! Maybe more clues, bigger prizes?

Today is tax day for me (boo). I hate doing taxes, it’s so tedious as a small business owner. No matter how much I prepare, I always have something I forgot to do.

So to make today a little brighter, I’m offering $1 off all of my patterns starting NOW (9:30am PST) for TODAY ONLY (ends 11:59pm PST).

All you have to do is add a pattern to your cart and check out!

You can visit my Pattern Store to add patterns to your shopping cart.

I got so many questions about the tights I wore to Stitches West, but I was so busy doing meet ‘n greet stuff that I couldn’t answer everyone’s questions about them. But! Before I get to the tights, let me tell you all about Stitches West.

I did my meet ‘n greet on Saturday at Miss Babs’ enormous booth on Saturday. It was a lot of fun! I brought a set of limited first edition prints of the Traveling Woman Collection and sold those to people who came by the booth. I’ll be listing the remainder of the limited first edition prints online soon. They’re full color and are printed on deluxe felt cardstock paper with coil binding for easy reading while knitting.

I’m already drowning in yarn from Miss Babs (what? It’s so soft! And pretty!), so I refrained by buying more. But! Colin – yes, Colin – bought a skein of yarn from Miss Babs! He decided he wanted a scarf knit for him and he took it upon himself to buy some yarn for said scarf.

I also paid numerous visits to the A Verb For Keeping Warm booth and grabbed two of the new alpaca/silk base. It was so hard to only grab two skeins and I’m not quite sure how I did it. I used to be so skeptical of naturally dyed yarns until I came across Kristine’s beautiful colorways. I love going into her store and petting the fiber – it actually makes me want to spin!

For those of you who don’t know, I hate spinning. I hate that I’m terrible at it. I hate that I didn’t take to it right away. I hate that I can’t spin what I want right away. Hate hate hate! I am so jealous of spinners. But watching all of the spinners this weekend and spending a little too much time petting the fiber at the Verb booth got to me. Next time I go to the Verb store, I’m going to buy a spindle and some fiber. Do you hear that Kristine? YOU GO TO ME.

I visited the lovely Alana of Never Not Knitting and got some yarn from Lisa’s Becoming Art booth – always a treat!

You’ll be seeing some beautiful Becoming Art yarn in an upcoming design of mine. The color is called Sanguine Sky and it’s part of a new series of shawls I’m doing that use sport weight yarns. This beautiful picture is from Lisa’s website. I’ve already started knitting with yarn, or I’d share a photo with you.

And finally! The tights. No, I did not paint them. I am absolutely flattered that people think I am that talented, but I’m most definitely not. I got mine when I was in London a few years ago, but you can get them online at ModCloth.com in black (out of stock), grey, brown, or indigo. I have a black pair and I wear them with the peacock feathers facing front. I’m thinking about getting another pair, probably an indigo. What do you think?

I also got a lot of questions about my shoes. They’re by Steve Madden and the shoe is called Harrah. Sadly, they are no longer made and the internet is failing me in my search for photos and I only found this teeny tiny picture of my black and cream pair. I bought them about 2 years ago and I wear them every chance I get.

I might have an addiction to shoes. It’s so terrible, I know. It has intensified due to my love of dresses and strong hatred of wearing jeans. I was pants-less for four months this summer. That’s how many dresses I have. Yes, I know. It’s a problem.