Happy I Love Yarn Day! As a celebration of all things yarn the third installment of my tutorial series on crochet cables is live! In it I dissect the process I use to create colorworked cable patterns where cables are more than one color. The steps gone over in this video are what I used to create my Wicked Little Towns Cable Scarf and the Freeze Your Brain Cable Scarf which will be released soon! Use this technique in those patterns, or my Melchior Cable Scarf, which is free on my blog!

"If you've got no other choice, you know you can follow my voice through the dark turns and noise of this wicked little town."- Stephen Trask

It's time to release my newest cable pattern! The Wicked Little Town Cable Scarf is already a favorite of mine. I had the pleasure of meeting the guys over at Leading Men Fiber Arts at Stitches Midwest, and they kindly gifted me a couple skeins of their Show Stopper base to run wild with. This cable scarf was the result. 

​For this project I had a few distinct characteristics I wanted to play with. Firstly, I loved the fact that it was fingering weight, and knew that I could have a semi-complex pattern repeat that wouldn't make a finished scarf so wide or bulky. I also knew that I needed to make this pattern colorworked and as long as possible. In the winter, I love layering my scarves underneath my jackets for a pop of color and texture, so a long thin scarf would work perfectly for wrapping. After my swatches checked off every box on the qualification list, I was off!

How will you work your Wicked Little Towns Scarf? Will you be daring and try to make a fingering weigh version, or stick to worsted? And what about colorworking? I recommend you give it a try! For a colorworking cable tutorial, see my video here. I'll also be filming and publishing a follow up tutorial about working with two or more colored cables this Saturday for I Love Yarn Day! Until the video is released, pick up the pattern here and enter code TRASK for 20% off.

Those who are frequent viewers of my podcast will recognize the name Olivia. Olivia, for the uninformed, is my usual videographer and the best friend I have. For this challenge she goes in front of the camera and I quiz her over words from the fiber field to see how well she pays attention to me. It's a doozy. 

The Friends of Fiber challenge is something that I've wanted to create for a long time, and this first video was a great kickstart to it! Watch the full video below, or at The QUOE Podcast YouTube page. I have plans to continue the series with other friends and family members as well (e.g. asking my grandmother what a hooker is). 

Do you want to test your friends of fiber? Great! Click the button below to download your free wordbank and scorecard. If you film your challenge, please be sure to credit and link back to me and this post so that others can join in the fun!

What is more classic than a granny square? When I was first learning crochet, the granny square motif was the one thing that I knew I had to create.  The signature motifs were a cornerstone in my childhood home. I always loved the soft artwork of the small clusters, whether I was cuddling up with one of my grandmothers afghans or climbing the mountain of blankets in the laundry room.

This love of the classic folk art staple is what inspired me to create the Modern Granny Throw, my newest free pattern for Red Heart Yarns. The classic granny is taken to the modern age with locks of double crochet to break up the sections. This is and Ideal pattern for beginner crocheters who (if you're anything like me) have a few spare skeins of Red Heart Super Saver!

Get the pattern for FREE ​here or by clicking on any of the project photos.

Click the video below for a full YouTube tutorial for the Modern Granny Throw!

It's finally time to introduce you to my favorite Red Heart pattern to date! Welcome the Cabled Hooded Cowl. Back in February Red Heart contacted me about designing a pattern with their brand new Hygge Charm yarns, a beautiful acrylic line that has a soft halo and subtle sparkle. I immediately began work on the new design. The pale mossy green of the yarn stuck in my mind as I sketched out a few possibilities for the piece. I knew I wanted cables, and decided to play with a new design element I've been working on which I call "Wedged Cables". You will hear much more about the technique down the line, but let this debut suffice for now!

Once I had the cables down, I needed to move on to shaping and structure. Up to this point I had never made a hood, and many of my designs hadn't strayed far from the standard rectangular construction format. To get the shaping and accessory I wanted though, I knew I would have to break my own status quo and challenge my designing skills. 

I would like to take this time as a moment of silence for all the cotton fabric I destroyed while creating a muslin prototype of the cowl. Seriously, there was a lot. I'm not sure how many other designers create fabric proofs of their crochet and knit pieces, but for me it is a great help. One audiobook and countless yards of fabric later I finally had the shaping I wanted. That is where the Cabled Hooded Cowl was born!

As per usual, Red Heart did a phenomenal job with the formatting, tech editing, and photography of the pattern. The one thing that didn't made the cut for the downloadable pattern was the cable chart. If a cable chart is helpful for you, I've left the chart for the Cabled Hooded Cowl as a free errata download below! The repeating cable chart starts on row 8 of the cable section.

Get the pattern for FREE ​here or by clicking on any of the project photos.

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If you were to look around my room, you could quickly tell that I love two things; eyes and hands. On my bookcase, there are three separate hand forms, and many tchotchke pieces involving eyes. When combined, the two make a powerful image. In Middle Eastern and North African cultures, a hand with an eye is called a Hamsa and is used to ward off negativity. In Japanese folklore, they appear on the body of Tenome, a powerful entity, and on March 24th, a new meaning will be forever ingrained into this symbol. 
    
In light of the recent school shooting in Florida, many have decided enough is enough. Surviving students were left with a million what-ifs and no closure. This is when the March for our Lives was formulated. The march aims to call attention to the inadequate regulations put forth for guns. It lets Congress and the world at large know that the people are watching.


After hearing about the march, craftivist, and creator of The Pussyhat Project, Krista Suh lept into action. Within no time at all, Suh launched the Sea of Eyes project. The symbol is simple and strong, a fingerless glove with an eye in the middle. The knit version was available right away, and I knew that I had to help as well. Not even twenty-four hours passed between when Krista accepted my offer for a crochet version and its publication.
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It is my hope that people in the crochet community can gather and make many gloves to donate to the march in Washington D.C. and elsewhere on March 24th. Click the button for a free download of the crochet Evil Eye Gloves, and visit Krista Suh’s website for more information about the project.