Pattern Writing Who??

Hey Hey!!

Happy 2024!! I hope everyone had a fantastic time over the 2023 holiday season, I was busy working my hands off trying to finish those last minute Christmas gifts I tried so desperately to plan ahead and finish far before the fact (that obviously failed).

I think in total I finished nine different gifts for the season, two pairs of socks, two hats, 3 pairs of fingerless mitts, one headband, and one wall tapestry. Safe to say my hands were very relieved to see the new year on the horizon!

And now we’re in a whole new year! (A whole new worldddd) And with this new year I am NOT making resolutions, but I will make some goals to set out and achieve over the next eleven and a half months. And pretty much every goal except one is related to you and me! I am going to be working hard on my business approach, dedicating more time to my creativity and production for the community I want to create here at Espresso Fibers.

So vaguely these goals are as follows, pattern writing, blog posting, increased stock here on the shop, and creating a social media presence. And I believe I’m off to a great start! I have been working on many ideas, two patterns are currently being worked on, and I am knitting on a new idea for a launch on the site. And obviously I am here writing for you beautiful people so there’s progress there too!! As far as the social media thing, it is SO time consuming, but I am looking to post more consistently on my personal Instagram (@thiscaitlinknits) and on my profile for Espresso Fibers (@espressofibers)! And I have already worked towards this goal as well! Now the key is to keep it up (pray church).

Other than these goals for the year, the only other announcement I have is that the site has been reorganized! After taking time away from the shop, I realized it needed to be rearranged to be optimal for your shopping experience! Being user friendly is a HUGE step in becoming the most successful I can be, so I’m very happy to have this new insight and to be able to make things more shoppable for you! So as of today, I’ve compiled all the physical items you can shop for, including custom order pieces into the ‘Shop’ tab, and then I created a pattern shop as well to host all these new pattern ideas I have kicking around, simply labeled ‘Patterns’. The Shop tab is sorted into categories for those who are looking for something specific, and they will continue to change and adapt as stock ebbs and flows!

Announcements concluded! I’ve had so many life changes going on since last summer, and its greatly affected my productivity here, but no more! This work, feeding into my creative mind and inspiration is what brings joy to my day and I am so privileged that I get to share that, and honored that you want to read about it. So thank you! Thank you so much for the continued support and for your patience on me finding my footing again to continue here with you! :)

For those who were following my project updates from last post (forever ago I know) I shall update you here, so we can keep up going forward. From the projects previously mentioned, I was working on a second format of sock to knit for my husband, which I did finish and gifted him for his birthday! He wore them for the next 23/30 days and wore gigantic holes in the bottom of that pair. He wasn’t happy about it but I took it as a huge compliment, seeing as he loved them enough to wear them down to needing to be replaced. The beautiful cardigan that took over my life?? Is in the exact same spot it was in when I posted last, sad I know. It is sitting holding my needles captive, waiting for some sleeves and to be seamed shut. Pitiful, and something I desperately want go get around to doing soon, because honestly I think I want to knit another one minus the stripes, because I really enjoyed the simplicity of it! The story is the same for the lace shawl, but like I’ve said, I am not rushing that project at all it is there when I need a break from all the OTHER things, and its gorgeous so I could never be mad at it. And finally the bag design I was kicking around didn’t pan out and I ended up frogging it and moving on to something else. Maybe I will come back to it and give it another go, but that’s not going to be any time soon.

Now! What is currently on my needles/hooks??? (Everything obviously) I still have a mountain of languishing wips, very hard to climb said mountain and conquer it, especially when I continue to come up with new ideas and impulsively dive into them (oops). With that being said, what is on my needles that I know I will be working for the foreseeable future is this. I have started a crochet pillow case, this is a gift for my husband (shocked? Neither am I), our anniversary is rolling back around and he knows I am busy with designing but I still wanted to give him a little something to commemorate another year with him. He’s been asking me to make him a velvet pillowcase for some time now, and his mom actually gifted me some velvet yarn for Christmas that was perfect for it so, easy into stash and right back out into a gift for him! I’m crocheting that up currently and it is so nice, I don’t work with velvet yarn often but I think I might have to start because the sensory joy it gives me is insane. Staying on the velvet train, I am also knitting him a hoodie (I know I KNOW, the boyfriend sweater curse, I’m challenging it) I’m knitting the Hot Toddy Hoodie by Knitatude, I adore her patterns, and originally bought that pattern for me, but naturally I did not get around to making one for myself just yet. And lastly I am working on socks! I feel like socks should always be a constant thing on my needles because they are so convenient, but also I have been wearing my handknit socks almost everyday this winter and I am BEATING them up y’all. I am going to be in desperate need of more in my rotation very very soon, so I am working on that in my down time. That’s everything I am actively working on personal project wise, obviously I have many wips in time out that I can and will return to over time, but until I make some leeway on these design ideas they will just have to wait!

Beautiful! And with that I will leave you with this, Espresso Fibers hit its one year birthday this month, and I am so excited to see the next year with you.

See you in the next post!! Happy making!

Coffee coffee coffee: For the chocolate lovers, try a mocha macchiato! Substitute the caramel in a caramel macchiato for mocha or white mocha! I think it would work best hot, but you do you boo.