Welcome Newbie!

The Newbie Vest is now available on Ravelry! Come join me for a KAL with Leading Men Fiber Arts!

I designed this little vest in the last few weeks of my pregnancy. About a week before my due date, I started having contractions. I panicked, but not for the reasons you might expect. I did not think, "Oh no, the baby is coming!" I thought, "Oh no, I haven't knit enough for the baby that's coming." I should have packed my hospital bag, but instead I started knitting this vest. 

 A few months after Dea was born, I was putting away her littlest clothes and I decided I wanted publish her newborn vest as a knitting pattern. It had been such a handy little knit. I put buttons all over it, so I never needed to pull it over her head. I made the front and the back the same, so Daddy couldn't put it on backwards (he's famous for that). And, it knit up so quickly (I knit my newborn size in a day and a half). I added a cabled version for the fellas and voila!

I was lucky to work with Leading Men Fiber Arts on this project. They have some of the happiest colors in their collection of yarn, perfect for baby wear. I knit two new vests for Dea in "Poison Apple" and "Imperial" using the their sport weight yarn, Callback. Aren't these colors fantastic?

Starting in June, I will be co-hosting a knit-a-long with Leading Men Fiber Arts to celebrate the launch of the Newbie Vest. There are more babies in my future (friends' babies...calm down), so I'm excited to cast on another tiny Newbie Vest. It's baby shower season, after all. Time to get ready. THE BABIES ARE COMING!

It's aLIVE!

Welcome to the new and improved tellybeanknits.com! 

As you may have noticed, my webpage has been down for a bit. And now, as you can see, that is NOT because I gave up on her. It was time for my little site to get an upgrade. She's a fickle lady, my dear ol' dot com, and it took a lot of love (and a few tears) to get her back online. Now, here she is, dressed to the nines and ready to party.

It's been a busy year in the Lotven household. We added a whole person to our family: another girl, nicknamed Dea. She's pretty awesome and she seems tough enough to handle her older sister. She's been around for eight months and we've decided she's a keeper.

Since the baby was born, I've been keeping myself busy with lots of other non-baby challenges. I launched the Zero Hour mini-collection with Skein Yarn:

Scuttle Shrug

Hasten Hat

Inertia Shawl

All four seasons of the Child for All Seasons MKAL have been revealed. Lisa Ross and I are gearing up for year two (more details on this in the next few months). Here are the patterns I designed for year one:

Curious Path Cardigan

Bunny Slopes Cardigan

Sir Swank Vest

Sweet Gale Cardigan

Breezy Bend Scarf

Hanky Hank

I also have a new pattern out this week: the Newbie Vest. There will be more details about this little knit in my next blog (including info on the Newbie Vest KAL), but in the meantime, here is a sneak peek:

All the changes in our growing household (and lots of late night baby feedings) have motivated me to think about the next step for TellybeanKnits. Owning a small business can be tough, especially when so much of what you do is done alone. So I've decided to expand. Not just with more patterns or more knitting (there will be more of both), but with more OUTREACH.

I've learned a lot since I started my business. I don't know everything, but I know a lot more than when I started. Much of what I've learned has been through trial and error. I read; I research; I knit; I try. Often, I screw up, but sooner or later, I get it right.

I want to take part in a dialogue with other try-ers, other designers who are starting or growing their businesses. I want to share what I've learned and learn from you. Our community of fiber artists is extremely generous, and I want to give back to it.

So what will you be seeing in this blog? Knitting, obviously. But I plan to share more, including: My tips for setting up photo shoots at home. A tutorial on writing yarn support proposals. An inside look at pattern construction. Interviews with other designers and fiber artists. Stuff I love. And lots of it.  

Keep an eye out, because, honey, there is more to come!