Cemara Story

Cemara was my first non self-published design. Originally, when I designed this shawl, I wanted to use it for my usual Mystery Knit Along. However, I found that this design is too repetitive, thus was not ideal for a MKAL. In the end, I just pushed it aside.

My Original Sample

Pattern: Cemara (Medium Size)

Materials: Wollmeise Pure 100% Merino Superwash (575 yd / 526 m per 150 g skein) 

in Lila Ludmila colorway 

Quantity: 1 skein 

Needle: 3.25 mm and 3.50 mm 

Start Date: 21 July 2012 

Finish Date: 28 July 2012 

Finished Size on Blocking Board: Wingspan: 134 cm / 52.75" ; Depth: 56 / 22"

When I stumbled across Twist call for their Fall 2013 publication, I immediately thought that I could submit Cemara to them. I thought it's time to try to publish my pattern out there, and Twist is one of online publication that has already established their name. So, I made my first proposal and sent it out on 28 Dec 2012. I didn't put my hope high and didn't really think about it anymore until I received the acceptance letter on 8 March 2013. The yarn support was sent on 4 April, but I only got it a month later, which means I only have 6 days to knit the samples to meet the deadline. I was suppose to knit 2 samples, 1 small size with beads and 1 large size without beads. Luckily, they were willing to extent my deadline if necessary. In the end I finished knitting all my samples on 11 May and mailed it out 2 days later after blocking.

Here are my samples for Twist:

Pattern: Cemara (Small Size)

Materials: Indigodragonfly Merino Silk 4 ply Sock (430 yd / 100 g skein) 

in Tiny Blood Sucking Dancer colorway 

Quantity: 1 skein 

Beads: TOHO Silver Lined Light Topaz Size 6

Needle: 3.25 mm and 3.50 mm 

Start Date: 8 May 2013 

Finish Date: 11 May 2013 

Finished Size on Blocking Board: Wingspan: 110 cm / 43.25" ; Depth: 43 cm / 17"

Pattern: Cemara (Large Size)

Materials: Indigodragonfly Ultra MCN Sock (400 yd/366 m/115 g skein) 

in You Punched the Highlight Out of Her Hair! (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) Colorway

Quantity: 2 skeins 

Needle: 3.25 mm and 3.50 mm 

Start Date: 3 May 2013 

Finish Date: 8 May 2013 

Finished Size on Blocking Board: Wingspan: 164 cm / 64.5" ; Depth: 70 / 27.5"

I was a bit disappointed, though, when this pattern went live on 12 August 2013. The photos of the pattern didn't show the texture of this shawl well enough. The texture is actually the attraction of this pattern as you can see from all the photos I took. 

Instead of focusing on the texture, here is what I saw:

Very disappointing!