I have been knitting for WATG Wool and The Gang for a few months now after answering a call on their web site for "Gang Makers".
I loved the concept of their Company, the idea that a bunch of home knitters all over the world could be incorporated in to a knitting "gang" to knit, knit, knit, see their creations go live on the WATG web site and earn a little cash in to the bargain.
The cash side of it , was not what enticed me into working for WATG , No I was more interested in the challenge. The challenge of working to deadlines and of working strictly to knitting patterns. You see, yes I can follow patterns, but being a self taught knitter, if I see something I don't quite understand in a pattern or something is not quite working as it should, then I just make things up. Working for WATG, I knew I couldn't just make things up, If I didn't understand the pattern I had to ask and find out before progressing, if something wasn't working out as it should I had to double check things out with the WATG office. And the fun thing was, if I came across stitches I had never heard of, I HAD to learn them!
The 1st set of items I attempted to knit was the Zion Lion Beanie , a staple item on the WATG web site and knit by many gang makers and gangsta's before me. So I thought easy peasy it must be.
On receiving the pattern , straight away I was flumaxed , what's a long tail cast on? , ha ha I had come across a stitch I didn't know. I watched the Long Tail cast on Video I found on the WATG and I was well away.
By the way, there are a whole host of knitty How to Videos on the WATCG web site.
After the long tail cast on the knitting was a breeze. I soon became skilled in knitting these I could do them in my sleep, lol.
The Zion Lions can be found on the WATG web site here. They come in a multitude of colours and you can buy one ready knit up by a gang maker (could be me!, look out for my name "Sandra N") or you can knit one yourself.
You can all be a "Gangsta" by purchasing your own "WATG" kit and knitting up your own garments and accessories
Mustard has been my favourite colour for a good many years and whilst I don't wear the colour , I have incorporated it subtly in rooms in my house , usually on covings and picture rails and in curtains.
But I found this wonderful mustard chunky yarn in a new yarn shop I came across in my home town and knew I had to buy it.
Within a day I had designed a new cowl incorporating some lovely chevron shapes just by knitting simple knits and purls....and then I started knitting in the lovely mustard yarn.
What a yummy result.
I listed the cowl in my Etsy shop and within a month, someone had snapped it up!
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Using the same pattern I knitted the cowl again, this time in a lovely blue 100% big wool yarn from Rowan. I knitted 2 different sizes just to see the effect of extending the pattern, nearly doubling the size and WoW ! what a cowl that was.
Because these knitted up so beautifully I decided there and then to write up the design into a knitting pattern so others could knit the cowl in whatever chunky yarn they fancied.
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The knitting pattern is now available on line here at my Craftsy store
I was really surprised when earlier on this month Craftsy ran the pattern in one of there own blog postings.
"Get instant gratification with trendy chunky knitting patterns"
A little mosaic knitting
I always thought that knitting diagonal stripes would be very tricky. Yes I could see that Fair isle knitting would work, but I wouldn't fancy knitting the wrong side, I'm sure I would not only get my threads in a tangle but my mind too, working out which way the stripe was going.
Right side......>
So imagine my amazement when I found this great little trick with mosaic knitting. Not only is it really easy to do , once you have done the first 4 rows , but there are no tangled threads and you can't go wrong really.
And the wrong side is nearly as cool as the right.
<......Wrong side
My daughter, Michelle watched me this morning whilst I worked a couple of rows and she summoned the process up in a way that I never thought.
She said that whilst you knit the row in one colour you leave stitches behind so that they could be knit in the other colour later on. I think she summed up mosaic knitting rather well.
The article below nicely explains the difference between fair isle and mosaic knitting when working the same pattern. It's a great intro to mosaic knitting.
http://readknittingpatterns.com/rkp/introduction-to-mosaic-knitting-part-1/
The 1st set of items I attempted to knit was the Zion Lion Beanie , a staple item on the WATG web site and knit by many gang makers and gangsta's before me. So I thought easy peasy it must be. 
