Indie Design Gift Along 2016

Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. friends! I hope your day is full of good food and loved ones. I'm going to celebrate tomorrow with family coming up to Victoria from Seattle, but for today I'm working and thinking of how grateful I am for knitters and my designer colleagues. This community is something I couldn't have dreamed up. Not only do I get to interact with kind and enthusiastic knitters who use my patterns and attend my workshops, but I'm also among professionals who value collaboration and support. I'm so thankful for the encouragement and advice that has been given to me freely since I was a brand new designer. 

That spirit of mutual support is a big bright light to me, and the Indie Design Gift Along is an amazing example of it. If you're not familiar with the GAL, it's an enormous group sale (335 designers are participating!) and online knitting party. Participating designers are offering 25% off a specially-selected group of their indie patterns for one week. The idea is that these patterns are great for gift knitting, but you might just knit yourself a gift too! The sale is on now (use the code giftalong2016 to get your discount), and goes through November 30. But it isn't just the sale that's fun! There are also a huge number of Knit Alongs happening in the group and there will be so, so many prizes.

My sale bundle includes 16 of my most popular patterns (you can see a few of them above) and you can check out the whole bundle here. I'm hoping to get a little gift knitting in myself, and to make the experience a little more relaxing, I'm planning to knit from friends' patterns rather than designing my own. Part of the goal of the GAL is to allow designers to promote each other, so here are the patterns I'm hoping to knit and gift.

© K Good Photography

I tried this hat on at the local Victoria launch party for Within, a new book from Shannon Cook and Jane Richmond, and it had just the perfect amount of slouch and texture. I may leave off the pom pom, but I feel like it'll be a really fun and fast knit. It's called Tread and it's by Shannon Cook, and lucky us, the pattern is in her GAL bundle! (Though I'll admit, I do already have the book in print. It's gorgeous. Go look!) While I haven't knit it yet, I have had a good look over the pattern and it seems really straightforward, with lots of gorgeous images, three sizes, helpful hints, and links to additional resources. I also love a good, clean layout and it really delivers!

© Stephannie Tallent

The other pattern I'd like to knit up is the Cayucos Shawl by Stephannie Tallent. I just love the texture in the body of the shawl and that cabled/lace edging looks so fun (and gorgeous!) I also had a good look at this pattern, and I was so impressed! The pattern includes instructions for three gauges (lace, DK, and worsted), a single-color and two-color versions, and the texture and lace instructions are given in charted and written instructions. The pattern has all these great extra helpful things too, like a special chart and written instructions for swatching, tips for using up whatever quantity of yarn you've got on hand, and a clear description of how the construction works. I'm thinking I'll do mine in a woolly neutral.

I hope you'll be participating in the GAL too! Here are some links to get you started:
- Gift Along Ravelry Group
- Participating Designers Thread
- My GAL bundle 

Don't forget to use the code giftalong2016 to get the 25% discount and please post in the KAL/CAL forum threads, and use the hashtag #giftalong2016 for your social media posts. 

Happy gifting!