BLOOM! a new Mystery Sock Knit-A-Long! Welcome to Week 1!

Spring is for flowers, sunshine, and all things that grow and change. In honor of Spring, I'm hosting a KAL (knit-a-long), my first ever Mystery Sock!




The sock design will be released in 4 parts, 4 "clues" with one new clue a week. Those who joined the group and posted a picture of their intended yarn will receive the pattern for free. Those who want to wait and see if this pattern is for them, can still receive the pattern at a great discount. It's only $1 for the first week, $2 for the second week, $3 dollars for the third week and finally full price after the last clue is released.

The inspiration for this MOCK (Mystery Sock) is blooming Hyacinths. Hyacinth Jane was one of the names on my short list had Hawthorne been born a girl. I love nature names, and I'm often inspired by nature for my designs (or geek literature, or both..Peeta Socks were designed to look like wheat, but were inspired by the Peeta character from The Hunger Games).

Each week, I'll post some tricks and tips and advice here on my blog to go with the MKAL. I hope you can all play along. I'm really excited about this.

Oh, and there will be prizes. I plan on giving out mini prizes each week with a grand prize drawing to happen at the end of the KAL. I will be offering up YARN, and COFFEE or TEA and CHOCOLATE! as well as free prize sets of patterns, including copies of my new Everdeen ebook, which is about to be updated with a new mitt pattern to fill out the set and a plus size for the cowl!

So get your yarn ready, free up your needles, and help me welcome Spring as we transition into summer and knit up a fun pair of socks! Yay socks!

ORF, KAL, OMG and other acronyms

Greetings all!

Sorry for the taking so long to update with a new post. 

So its that time of year again. The Oakland Running Festival just finished this weekend for the 5 time on Sunday. It was my 4th time running it, but my first time running it as a pacer. Here I am with my co-Pacer Amy. We headed up the 2:20 min pace group. Last year I ran this event 4 months pregnant and finished around 2:04. I wanted to take it easy this year, and since I was still recovering when I started the training program, I decided to pace the 11 min mile group. I was lucky in that I had a great, fun group of people to pace. Many of the people I helped train decided to run with me on race day too as their pacer. I felt so honored that they trusted me to help them achieve their race day goals. I really enjoyed participating in an event as a volunteer in this way. I've always raced my half marathons to see how fast I can go. I've never run one with the goal of helping others first, and thinking of myself last. It gives me a whole new perspective to the sport. 

 Charlotte also participated this year in the kids run for her second year in a row. She really enjoys these runs, and I think I may start taking her to the kids runs during the 4th Sunday runs at Lake Merritt put on my my running club LMJS. I never get to see her run, because the half marathon starts RIGHT BEFORE the kids race :(.

According to Daddy, she ran the little kids run (for the under 7 crowd) and then asked him "so when do I get to run?" apparently she didn't realize the race was over and she had completed it. I think maybe she might need to do the big kids race (1/4 mile instead of 150 meters) next year. In a couple of years, maybe we'll run the 5K together. My crazy speedy girl...

This year she took a picture with a mermaid. I think this is an improvement over last year's Raiderette...

OKAY, enough with running, onto knitting! So I have a lot going on right now in my knitiverse. 

Buy both Everdeen patterns in the EBOOK for a huge discount!

• Firstly! I am having a huge sale in my Ravelry shop on all of my patterns until the end of the month. So you have until MONDAY to get 25% off of everything.
• Secondly! I am having a KAL (knit-a-long) over in my Ravelry Group, Watch Datenshi Design. I'm even giving away prizes to finishers! Come on and knit with me. The KAL is for my two new patterns, Everdeen Cowl and Everdeen Socks. Currently we have few enough participants that pretty much anyone who signs up is guaranteed a prize. That's pretty good odds!  For the duration of the KAL, the two KAL patterns are on sale for KAL participants! You can buy them separately, or as part of a set at 50% (or more) off of the original sale price!
• Thirdly! I have two new patterns! They can be purchased separately, or as part of an ebook for a nice discount. Both utilize an original lace and cable motif designed by me to resemble arrows in a quiver. The inspiration is Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games. The socks are one of my last Hunger Games inspired sock patterns in a long series of patterns that I have now been working on for 2 years! It has many very nice details, including two toe finishes, and design motifs that continue into the heels of the sock. Every aspect of this sock is fully designed. 

The cowl is my first ever cowl pattern...ever! It was such a pleasure to design...maybe you'll see me trying other silhouettes in the near future. Sweaters? Shawls? Gloves? The list of possibilities is almost endless. So many shapes to play with! It was nice working with DK weight yarn instead of my usual fingering weight. 

In completely other news, my newest little photo editor is about to turn 6 months old. Wow! How time flies!

Baby Hawke says: knit more, cuddle more!

Until next time~!