If you follow the wonderful indie dyer Countess Ablaze, then you will know all about her initiative called Tits Out Collective, if not have a read here.

As soon as I read about this I knew I had to join in, because I hate plagiarism and copying of any sort.  I also know how difficult it is for people to earn a living in the world of yarn, be they designers, dyers or the myriad of other workers, which makes plagiarism by anyone in this field doubly criminal.    If you know how hard it is for others, why steal from them?  Well some do – and rather than get angry it’s an excellent idea to do something positive!  So I am in!  Here is my rapidly designed crochet shawl:

This really is a rapid design and I am amazed at how I managed it!  I read about the Tits Out Collective on 19th June, and I designed the shawl within 2 days, drafted the pattern then made my sample by the end of 24th June – 5 days!   It has gone to test, one tester is already finished.  And the pattern is now with my tech editor.  Hopefully everything is in place so I can launch this at noon (UK time) on 1st July.  And I am not the only designer involved, in fact there are over 250 dyers and designers involved in this so far – the excitement is amazing!

A bit more about the design:  It is an asymmetrical triangular crochet shawl where you start at one point and work across until you run out of yarn.  The edge is inbuilt, so once you do the final row you are finished.  I find these sort of designs great for using all your yarn.  I called it Twits Shawl because it can be made from two skeins of 4ply yarn – so if you buy 2 different skeins of Tits yarn colourways from 2 different dyers you could use them both in the shawl – TWo skeins of tITS yarn – get it?

Actually this can be made in any yarn weight, provided you use a suitable hook.  I didn’t have any the original colourway for my sample so I used some 50g skeins of vintage NDS yarn (Godiva Silk 4ply) in colours that are vaguely similar.  I started with a variegated skein then added varying stripes of solids.   I used a 3.5mm hook and just over 200g in total which made a large shawl – it’s over 200cm long;  2 skeins of 4ply should make a shawl approx. 200cm long by 60cm deep.

Finally, but most importantly, during the month of July I will donate £2 from the sale of each pattern of Twits Shawl to The Christie, my chosen charity.  The pattern will cost £3.50 and be available from Ravelry only during July, as this makes it easier for me to control launch and check sales, after July I’ll upload to other channels.  It has a chart and will be available in UK and US crochet terms.

If you want to buy some of the yarn from dyers, then be poised over your keypad/board at noon on Sunday as I predict it will sell quickly – I’ll be poised as well 🙂

Until launch…..happy crocheting xxx

#titsoutcollective