Hi friends…

Putting the “new” in “newsletter”

Hi friends, and thanks for stopping by!  I’m Jocelyn Peters, the maker behind Mountain Song Designs.  Today, I want to introduce myself a bit and let you know what plans I have for this newsletter.

First and foremost, this is a space for KNITTING!  I love knitting so much that I began writing knitting patterns for publication a year and a half ago.  Now, I am venturing out on my own into the vast world of independent designing.

I can tell you, that I have had to cram more usable information into my brain in the last couple months than I have, perhaps, ever before in such a short amount of time.  (A close second was when I was studying for my exit interview for my Masters, but—in theory—I should have already learned most of it….) 

Fortunately, one of the newly-minted benefits of learning all the things is that I’m here on Substack, chatting with you.

Last fall, I celebrated my 20th Knitting Anniversary.  And let me tell you how good you youngens have it.  I was in my senior year of college, and YouTube hadn’t been invented.  In fact, finding a video embedded in a website was a really big deal. 

But, I wanted a Gryffindor scarf.  I had enough money to buy a pair of Boye aluminum knitting needles and two skeins of Red Heard Super Saver.  (I bought US10.5 straight needles, so my ignorance merely led to a loose gauge and not an abject disaster.)

Online, I found typed instructions for how to knit, complete with two hand-drawn line illustrations….

After an hour of determination and flexing some serious reasoning skills, I had cast on 20 stitches.  A triumph!  I spent the next many months knitting my garter stitch scarf.  I watched the five dvds I owned on repeat while I did so.  (That was also the period when I went on a war movie kick, and I rented them all on VHS for $0.25 each.) Obviously, Knitflix wasn’t a thing yet either.

My first scarf was complete with dropped stitches, picked-up stitches (since I didn’t yet know to count the stitches on my needles), and angry, threatening-to-strike knots at the color changes.

That wonky scarf is still dear to me.

Going out on a precarious limb led to one of the great joys in my life.

If you can manage not to fall off, it usually does.

So in that spirit, and with hopes of not falling off this yarn-bombed indie designer branch, I’m setting off.  And I appreciate your joining me.

Going forward with this newsletter, I plan to include pattern releases (and coupons!).  I will also share with you my knitting life, perhaps throwing in bits and pieces from the rest of life as well.  Some posts will include info from my YouTube episodes, or just short stories like the one I shared today.    

Thanks for joining me in this space, and let’s see where this scarf takes us.

If you want to find Mountain Song Designs around the web…

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MtnSongDesigns

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MountainSongDesigns

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mountainsongdesigns/