5 Spring knitting patterns inspiring me right now.

Hi friends! Welcome or welcome back to the Knits by Lillian podcast. It's spring here in Michigan and so I've decided to talk about some of the things that I want to be making for spring. Patterns that are inspiring me, ideas that are making me want to design more, and what better to start with than the release of a pattern. This right here is the Seward sweater. It is a pattern by me. It is out now. You can get it on Ravel or you can get it on Etsy. If you don't feel like buying the pattern, you can always go in, give it a little like on Ravel, or you give it a little heart on Etsy. It all helps and it helps small designers like me reach a bigger audience. So let me tell you about her. Sorry not to just jump in. I feel like I'm doing an ad. I didn't even do my my usual. Hold on. Rewind. Grab a bev. What do I have? Say it with me. A half empty coffee. And let's crack into it. Obligatory grounding sip. Do you feel grounded? So we have top down, broken rib, raglan, short rows, additional shaping. We have a broken rib detail. I'll show you the cup because that's gonna be easier than standing up. That goes into a rolled hem. So this is very much inspired by that one J.Crew sweater that everybody is making a dupe knitting pattern of. However, I personally love broken rib. And so I wanted to incorporate that into this design because I feel like, I don't know, I've seen patterns with mostly the rolled detail. And somebody left a comment on my video back when I was talking about doing this design as an idea and said their daughter or niece or someone who was young, like early 20s, said that the rolled detail was very in. So I was like, okay, we're onto something here. Another thing about this pattern, it's got kind of a higher neck. So for right now, I'm just going to tuck it in because I'm kind of warm today. And to show you the versatility, you definitely could tack it down, do like a folded collar if you wanted something shorter. One of my test knitters, who is also a friend of mine who co-owns a yarn shop here in Michigan, did a cotton sample and did a shorter version of the broken rib. It looks so fab. So yeah, lots of options here. This is a 19 stitch gauge by 24 rows. This is Cascade 220 Superwash. You can make a lot, a lot, a lot of yarns work for this. I think this would be really gorgeous in the classic knitting for olive and knitting for olive merino. You can get gauge in just heavy merino, maybe a thicker gauge heavy merino with mohair. Obviously someone did a cotton sample. I actually did a second sample that has stripes. So I did, I want, I think it's 14 row stripes here and then my main color I did the broken rib in the bottom. But long story short, I just really love broken rib and I didn't see a pattern like this. So I wanted to make my own contribution and it's called the Seward sweater because I used to live in Alaska and there's a town in Alaska called Seward and it rains all the time there, like to the point where my family and I, if we're having like a rainy spell, we'll be like, oh we're getting Seward weather. So I wanted to do a sweater that was just really easy to throw on every day. Just, you know, a little bit of a relaxed fit but like nothing crazy. I feel like a lot of my designs, I'm trying to do something really innovative and creative, like I'm trying to do color work or texture or cables or something, which I love, but I don't have any designs of my own that I feel like are an everyday wear. So all of that to say, the Seward sweater is out. If you also want a sweater that you can wear all the time, everyday wear, go check it out. Also on Ravelry, there's a bunch of products for my test knitters, so go give them some love because I had an amazing group of test knitters and they did some really nice combinations. So yeah, check it out. Okay, so now that I'm done discussing my own self and plugging my own pattern, but you know, if I don't talk about it, who will? Let's move into some of the things that I'm excited to knit for the spring. So I'm pretty sure this is called Pointelle, but there's two patterns I want to talk about. One of them is the Vilma top by Gregoria Fibers, and it is such a gorgeous little floral striped vest top situation. I feel like living in the Midwest, spring is kind of a fickle season. So I would consider the sweater I have on, especially if it was in cotton, a spring transitional piece more than a winter piece, because I feel like it's so cold here in the winter that unless something is like rustic wool and it's thick or dense, that's like a spring fall knit in my mind. I also am a cold person. I'm kind of chilly all the time. So I feel like I wear long sleeves, maybe like longer into the summer than most people. But what is more transitional weather than a vest? I almost said a skirt. What am I talking about than a vest? Because you can layer it to wear by itself. And this is so cute. I feel like this is not my typical, I don't know, style, but I've seen people talking about this online and I really, really like it. So this is a, excuse me while I scroll on Ravelry in front of me, 21 stitch by 30 row gauge. There's eight sizes. Gregoria Fibers is usually pretty good about that. Lots of info on the Ravelry page. But I think this would be really, really pretty in like a light blue or a light purple. I think that would be so gorgeous. I also of course want to do burnt orange, but is burnt orange a spring color? I don't know. I kind of vibe with the butter yellow. I don't think, I don't think butter yellow is a great color for me. My skin trends toward very red. Like you can see, I usually have very red cheeks and there's something about like a light pastel yellow that really, I look like a bee. It's not, it's not it. Somebody told me red is my color and I was like, maybe if I wear something that's so red, it makes my skin look less red. I don't know. I have eczema. It's fine. Okay. So along the same note, the Marielle cardigan by Maria Shea Morgenstern, sorry if I'm mispronouncing that, feels very similar to me only in the fact that it's pointelle and it's stripes. And I think these would be a great pair to do. Like it would be so fun if you have a friend that knits or you want to knit for a friend and you do one for yourself and one for your friend, you can do like a little pseudo match. That would be so cute. If you have a sister that likes to wear like feminine cardigans, that would be so cute. So this is really similar 20 stitch by 30 row gauge. There's 30 sizes. Sorry, there's six sizes available. I'm just fumbling over my words today. It's because I'm in a hurry and I sat down and I was like, okay, I only have a little bit of time to film this because your girl's got places to be. And now I'm rushing and you can't really tell. So I'm sorry. How have you been? Let's, let's take a breath together. Have you been good? I hope you've been good. The stage of the world is still not, it's not slaying, if you will. And it's, there's a lot on the brain all the time, but I hope you're hanging in there. Moving on. Got a little, a little too deep for a second there. Okay, so these are the two that I think I've been thinking about the most for summer. Just because they both have a floral feel to them. So I think that is kind of what's the double wears product quote. That's like florals for spring. How original that's how I feel, but I really like it. Like, I don't know. It just looks good. It looks light, airy breezy. Plus I feel like if you're knitting for a transitional season, you can do like a piece like this. That's a little bit warmer. And then a vest, you have something a little bit cooler, makes it match. Okay. Let me go through my 9,000 tabs and find the next thing I pulled up. I'll be right back. Okay. I'm back with my research done. The next sweater that I'm thinking about, or cardigan I should say, is actually not released yet. It's called the Mono Lines cardigan. And I have been seeing this on Instagram and like waiting for the release date. That's like one of the biggest compliments I feel like people can give me whenever I release a pattern is that they're like, Oh, I've been waiting for this to come out. That makes me so happy. I'm like, wow, you, you internet stalked me for a pattern while I'm internet stalking this pattern. And it is so gorgeous. It's got details that look like lines. It's really, I really don't want to say it's nothing crazy because I don't want to like, I don't mean that in a derogatory or in a bad way, but it's one of those designs that it's so classic and so chic. I'm like, man, I wish I came up with that. It looks so good. This feels very spring to me, probably just because it's a cardigan. But if you're not into the kind of point tell that we were just talking about, I feel like this would be a good alternative to get, you know, some spring texture going, but love that. Can't wait for that to be out. Um, I don't have any information because the pattern is not out, but you can follow the designer, find out for yourself, should be coming out soon. Okay. So the last sweater I have to talk about, you can really tell that this is like a spring knits video and not a summer knits because it's been kind of like medium warm here, like in the fifties, but then today it's like 74. So I am kind of sweating right now and second guessing if I really want to be talking about all these sweaters, but okay. I need you to bear with me. I need you to see the vision here. My last, this is maybe like something that I'm going to be doing for the spring. I don't know if it's necessarily like a spring pattern recommendation I have for you, unless you also have this vision. Hear me out. The Lakes V-neck by Ozetta. Okay. I've actually never knitted a pattern by Ozetta and I want to, I know the Lakes patterns are very popular. I know people really like the fit and personally, I love a saddle shoulder. I think it's so fun and goofy to knit these little squares and then go from there. So, okay. Don't make fun of me for making a red sweater when I have another red sweater on. In person, these look like very different reds. Just, just let me, just let me be. So this is how far I am. I did the little saddle sections and then I'm onto the back, but let me talk you through my vision here. Okay. So this is one of my favorite yarns. This is Juniper Moon Farms Cumulus. It's cotton and it is, I wish I could hand you this skein through the screen because this is probably the softest yarn I've ever felt. Like if you told me this was cotton and cashmere, I'd believe you. So it is a little bit more expensive just because of that. It's $24 US dollars for 250 yards or 230 meters. So, you know, do with that what you will, but here's where the vision came from. Okay. I had a couple of these skeins of yarn of the same yarn. I want to say last summer, maybe two summers ago, if you are an avid podcast follower, I think I talked about this sweater in one of my everything I knit in a year videos, but I never wear it. So it hasn't come up, but I self-drafted this v-neck and there is nothing wrong with this sweater. Okay. I want to preface that with there's nothing wrong with it. It is this really nice light purple. And the problem is light purple, in my opinion, does not look that good on me unless it's like peak summer and I'm tan, which I really don't that tan anyway. I just get freckly. And hopefully like if you look at me from a distance, the freckles just kind of blur together and I look tan. But I found this when I was doing some knit rearranging. Here I am draping something on myself while I talk about it again. Found this recently, long story short, it's so comfortable. I've been wearing it around the house. It's like, it's just incredibly comfortable. It's light and it's airy. The sleeves are probably like bracelet length and I just did a drop shoulder. They're short rows. This is a self-drafted pattern. I think I said that it's not really a pattern I'm planning on releasing because I don't think there's anything worth making a pattern over kind of like there are a million v-neck patterns. I don't think I need to do just a stockinette v-neck. If you feel differently, let me know, because I definitely could do a test call for this and release it. But honestly, I think there are some changes I would make anyway. So the v-neck is really wide. I just did a couple rows of ribbing. I didn't even do an Italian bind off, like it's nothing crazy. So long story short, I wanted this in a better color for me and with a neckline that looked a little bit more elevated. So that brings us to the Lakes pullover. We have a folded over v-neck and I really like that detail. And here's my defense of why I think this heavy woolen pullover is a spring knit. In my mind, I just tossed that in a bunch of stuff all over. In my mind, a v-neck is cool summer wear, so therefore this is a summer sweater. So do with that what you will. These are some of the things I'm hoping to cast on slash have cast on. Let me know too. I'm working on a lot of knitting behind the scenes because we're getting married very soon. So my sequin dress is almost done if you've been following along on that journey. And I'm knitting gifts for a lot of people that are coming to my wedding. So if you're coming to my wedding, you got a knit coming. Maybe, maybe. It's really, it's like three people. But I'm really trying to get all of that done. I've got a lot of whips that are, you know, they need like one more sleeve or a collar and a sleeve. So I have confidence that I'll get everything done, but I'm not casting on a bunch of like fun spring summer knits. I also just started the, now we're just having a catch up. I might as well start knitting too. I also just started the test knit for my honeymoon top, which is the square neck tank top I was talking about on Instagram, if you follow me over there. So that should be out in early June, I think. We're doing an eight week long test knit, but that has been off to a good start. I'm loving seeing the colors people are picking for that. I just, that pattern has really inspired me. I feel like, not that there was anything wrong with this Seward sweater. I love it a lot, but I think the honeymoon top just sparked a joy in me that I haven't felt about my knitting and more specifically about designing knitwear in kind of a long time. So I'm really excited. I have plans for another summer top. I haven't even cast it on, but I have a plan for another summer top design. I kind of want to do a sweater version of the honeymoon top because I really like that texture pattern and I think it would look really good as, like I said, in sleeve or contiguous sweater construction. So let me know if you have interest in any of that. That's all kind of a ways out. I mean, I obviously haven't cast any of that on yet. I got to get through all my wedding knitting, but here's my question for you. I have a flight for my honeymoon. What should I cast on for my flight? Ideally, it's something that is not huge, like not a full wool pullover because I don't want to carry it in my suitcase the whole way and something that I can knit on for a long time because if I do just like a stockinette top, I'll probably be done before the return journey. So maybe something with texture, maybe something with two colors, maybe something, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'll cast on a design, but I just, I don't know. I'm excited. And that feels like, like I have to pick something special and cool, you know, because then for the rest of the time I have the knitted piece for the rest of my life, I can be like, I knitted this when we were on our honeymoon, which is so sentimental and so cheesy, but I think it's going to be really fun. Okay, I'm going to stop there because I think I'm going to do a separate video of things I want to cast on for the summer. I know the spring knits thing is kind of late, but I wanted to give you just an idea of where my, where my knitting mojo is at, you know, what's inspiring me, what I'm excited about, what I'm casting on. I cannot tell you how nice it is to work with this yarn. I've been joking that this is my fun knitting because the other things I'm knitting, one of the gift knits is a big wool pullover and it's with yarn that is hand spun from a local person. I bought it at, when we were at a fiber festival in Ann Arbor, actually. I went with some knit friends and this woman owns a sheep farm and she gave me a great deal on it, but you can tell that it's like natural, natural product. Like I'm picking stakes out of the wool, which is great. I feel very one with the earth, but it is not easy on the hands, nor is three strands of sequin yarn for the sequin dress. So this is my relaxation taking a break knitting. So that's all of the things I'm working on. That's all of the updates that I can show you without giving you spoilers. I'll take some pictures of everything I finish and maybe I'll take some pictures of the people that are getting the gifts, but we'll see. Otherwise, go check out the Seward sweater. I'm so happy to have it out in the world. Another child I give to you. So I'm trying to think if I missed anything. I don't think I did. You can follow me over on Instagram to get the latest updates on what I'm working on. I post all of my test calls on Instagram. If you would like to participate in test knitting, follow me on YouTube to keep posted. I'll, I'll tell you what I knitted for my wedding after it's, after it's done, I'll share all of my secrets. So follow me over here. I think there's a bell you can hit. So it notifies you when I post a video so you can be the first one to know. Okay. Talk to you later. Have fun and happy spring.