Hello world!

10 May Hello world!

Welcome to my world! May I introduce myself – my name is Jean and I’m an aspiring designer of patterns for hand knitters. I’d like to get to know you and hope you’ll get to know me. Please come along through my adventures in pattern designing, self publishing and promoting (I am trying to earn a living, or come close, with my designs).

Knitting is a craft I learned at a very early age, along with most other types of needlework. My teachers were Mom, who was an expert knitter, my grandmother & great-grandmother. My earliest knitting memory is of one sister & I sitting on a bed in a great-aunt’s home, knitting garter stitch slippers. Our great-aunt had found some wool & needles and a project to keep us out of trouble. I don’t know what we did with the slippers, it was long ago.

I kept knitting through all these years, for family and friends, creating designs along the way. In 2005 I was encouraged to put my ideas into pattern form and Desert Rose Designs was born. For the next couple of years I self published a couple of patterns which are still carried in my LYS. I kept knitting for family and friends and coming up with new ideas. So many ideas that fate seemed to be telling me to get busy and really do something with my designs – so here I am now with more patterns in development, a web site where my patterns can be purchased and a blog!

I’ve also discovered the Ravelry web community and can be found there as “Trialsmom”. This is a fabulous place where knitters of all level come together and share thoughts and ideas. Designers like myself can list patterns for PDF downloads, some for sale & some for free. Knitters can post their projects with pictures and there are many very nice projects! 

While I know I’ve got some learning to do as I become more familiar with blogging, I will leave you today with a picture of my newest design – Vallisneria Socks.

This design was a pleasure to do, the stitch pattern falls into a easy rhythm and leaves you with an impression of seagrasses gently swaying in the surf. I used Wooly Wonka Fiber’s Bamboo & Superwash Wool Sock yarn and absolutely love it. The pattern is available as a kit or separately from Wooly Wonka’s web site.

Please come back often as you & I get to know each other. Comments are welcome and I will do my best to respond to any questions.

Cheers! Jean