Dogyarns interview and pattern giveaway.

Today I have the joy of sharing an interview with a lovely person and a double pattern giveaway. 

I came to know Elizabeth through Ravelry and was honered when she had chosen me as the recipient of a random act of kindness, letting me chose a pattern from her large collection. 

When she agreed to do an interview and a giveaway I was so excited, but this lady is very generous and wanted two of you to be able to benefit from this, but first a chance to get to know her...

Tell us a little about yourself.

Fun and excitement are what I look for in my crafting life. If it were not fun or exciting, why would I do it? That is probably why I have plenty of hand knitted and crocheted puppets around my house. No one can be sad around a puppet. I also do animal rescue and have three dogs and multiple cats around me all the time. I adopt out stray animals to good homes and am always happy to hear they are doing well.

Your ravetar is Dogyarns, please tell us how that came to be.

With my love of dogs and my love of yarn, it just seemed like the best ravetar anyone could have! When I started my group on Ravelry, it seemed just as natural that it should be called A Big Comfy Doghouse! That’s where we talk about our ‘fur kids’ and have test-alongs of my new designs and where everyone gets to hear about my new designs before they are released on Ravelry.

How did you learn to knit, crochet and spin?

Knitting I learned from my grandmother when I was a wee lass. I took to it like a fish to water. I know some people have periods of their life when they stop knitting for a while, but I never have. If there were such a thing as a ‘natural knitter’ then that would be me. To be able to create something with two sticks and some string is simply amazing to me! I learned to crochet by reading a book about it when I was in my 20s. I don’t do as much crocheting as knitting, but have been trying more and more complex crochet patterns the last couple of years to increase my skills. I even have a free crochet pattern in my designs on Ravelry now: In The Doghouse Business Card Case (even in crochet, its all about the dogs! LOL!).

I learned to spin by taking a beginning spinning class at a local guild. It was so much fun and I held a skein of yarn I spun myself after just a few hours, so I was hooked. I love that I can make fiber into different types of yarn just by how I prepare it, spin it and ply it! One of my 2014 goals is to knit and crochet more items with my handspun yarns.

In my mind you are Elizabeth the snowflake lady, how do you come up with your amazing snowflake designs?

There are so many beautiful lace patterns in the world already, but I just can’t resist designing these tiny and delicate flakes. I just get a picture in my mind of the lace-like patterns of frost on a window. Then I sketch out an outline on paper, followed by putting that on graph paper and placing a lot of yarn overs all over, and eventually it will look just like a snowflake. Taking up needles and yarn then lets me work out all the bugs in the pattern. I usually work up at least three samples of a design to be absolutely sure it will work and try to knit them in sparkly threads whenever I can! I love sparkly threads!

You also design beautiful sock patterns, one of which you are giving away on the blog, where do you find inspiration for them?

Inspiration for my sock designs come from wherever my curiosity and/or a challenge takes me. The Southern Belle Socks came about because I was asked to contribute to a book of ethnic socks. My heritage is in the deep South of the U.S., so I wanted to do something that represented that. The silk and wool yarn I chose represented the Steel Magnolia aspect of women in the South – they can get the work done, while maintaining a lovely femininity. Also, being in the South where the heat can get pretty unbearable, I wanted something that would be light and airy! Lace in a laceweight yarn seemed just right! For my Winter Games: Snowboarding the Halfpipe Socks, I was watching the last Winter Olympics snowboarding competition with all the flips and somersaults and sliding into the finish and kept wanting to interpret that in knitting. Cables and cabled cables are the result! I am already working on other Winter Games socks designs for the 2014 Winter Olympics. I want to feature the yarns of indie dyers for these new designs because I want to support all those who give their time and talent to produce such beautiful yarns for us.

Southern Belle Socks

Besides the Southern Belle Socks, I also want to do a giveaway here for my latest pattern, the Braided Gems Reversible Mitts pattern. They have a fun braided pattern that does not require a cable needle and is so easy to do. They can be made with or without beads. The best part is that the stitch pattern is very stretchy so they can fit many different sizes of hands. This means that you can go from the braided side to a ribbed side just by turning them inside out and that they can be shared by both guys and gals.

Braided Gems Reversible Mitts

What would you say the best part of being a knitwear designer is?

Taking a design from my imagination and interpreting it into knitwear. To watch what was in my imagination take form on the needles is simply the best fun and never ceases to amaze me.

If you could be any fibre or skein of yarn, which would you choose and why?

Cotton! I love the way cotton feels against my skin, how smoothly it works up, and how beautifully it knits and crochets into beautiful garments, useful items for the home, and lace. I love wool for all its great properties, but when you live in one of the hottest states in the U.S., a lightweight cotton garment feels luxurious and cotton yarn is much cooler to work with in the summer months.

Thanks so much for having me as a guest on your blog! Have a wonderful time giving away the Southern Belle Socks pattern and the Braided Gems Reversible Mitts pattern! If anyone has any questions about the patterns, please feel free to contact me at dogyarns at gmail dot com!

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For your chance to win either the Shouthern Belle Socks or the Braided Gems Reversible Mitts please follow this blog and leave a comment about which of Elizabeth's Snowflakes you like the most. The giveaway will end Sunday 10/11-13.