The very first photo in Knitting With the Color Guys takes me back to when I was learning to spin and knit. In the late 1980s, Glorious Knitting revolutionized the way knitters approached design and color. In the new photo, Kaffe has a project in progress draped over his knees with a basket on the floor overflowing with a variety of yarns. It makes me smile!
Read more »Monthly Archives: April 2012
First of all, I excel in procrastination – the mountains that I need to climb are huge and overwhelming! I thought by sharing my woes, you might encourage me to kick it in gear!
Read more »Why, three bags full in fact!
Actually, I have so much more than that! But I did get those at the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival last weekend!
I can’t really pass up a deal like that – it’s scraps and seconds,
but $6 for 8 oz of fiber is just too good. Unfortunately I must come
across deals like that too often, because I have so, so, so much
spinning fiber that I’m quickly running out of places to put it.
So, obviously knitting is not my only pastime. Spinning is certainly
one of them, and although I wouldn’t consider myself to be a great
spinner, I love the process of watching a big ball of fluff turn into
something wonderful and useable.
This week we are featuring a big favorite around here – the Classic Lines Cardigan.
This is an older pattern but one we just simply love. Our own Alison wrote it – her one & only pattern so far – and it just looks good on everyone.
Read more »As the days get both longer and warmer, cotton yarns come to mind as we get ready for breezy summer projects. This week, Kelley catches up with Alison to review the variety of cotton yarns that are available through Knit Picks! Get inspired for your next summer project as Kelley and Alison discuss the different properties, characteristics and uses for the different Knit Picks cotton and cotton blend yarns. Kelley also shares behind-the-scenes details on what inspired her to expand the cotton selection to include customer favorites like Shine and CotLin. Not only will this mini crash-course in cotton yarns help you pick out the right yarn for your next project, you just might be tempted by Kelley and Alison’s project ideas that make the most of the unique properties of the variety of cotton and cotton blends that are available.
3 easy ways to listen…
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Pets love presents too and a new toy is usually an easy, fast knitting
project that can be tucked into the nooks and crannies in your travel
bag. I found the sweet Nibbles the Mouse pattern on Ravelry yesterday and got busy with my double pointed needles and some leftover pieces of Palette I’ve had at my desk.
The cable cast on is a great cast on method to have in your arsenal of knitting tricks, and yet oddly enough, it actually doesn’t have a lot to do with cables at all! The Cable Cast On is a way of casting on your stitches in a way that creates a strong, yet flexible foundation row that works well for edges that you don’t want to stretch out. This method also leaves you with a neat appearance on both the right and wrong sides of your work. Additionally, because it produces a firm and strong cast on edge, the cable cast on is one of my favorite ways to cast on stitches in the middle or end of a row and it also works particularly well on top of a section of bound of stitches, like a buttonhole.
And if you are anything like me, instructions can sometimes tend to turn into a jumbled mess when I am trying to learn a new technique on my own. However, watching the fluid motion of a technique is all it takes for things to click and make sense – which is why we have a video tutorial to help you through your first cable cast on! Like all new techniques, this cast on can seem a bit tricky at first but it is a great cast on to know as every method has its unique advantages.
Read more »We had a taste of summer weather this weekend so Kerin, Jenny K., Hannah and I all went for a scenic drive – which, of course, ended at the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival. None of us can resist pretty yarn & fiber!
Photo of the Upstream Alpaca booth
Read more »I love this pattern! Beth promises that it is easy to memorize and she is not kidding. It’s a progression acros sixteen stitches. Sixteen stitches that fit nicely on each of my four DPNs.
Read more »Sleeves… check. Body…. check. Front to shoulders… check. Back? working on it!
(Sorry about the grey-on-grey – I didn’t pick the color of the blocking board, unfortunately!)
All I have left to knit on hubby’s sweater is the upper back! I’m
already about two inches into it. But, because of the sheer beastly size
of this sweater, progress has been slowed.
It’s just so hard to carry the darn thing around at this point that
I’ve actually been working on a couple of other, smaller projects as
well.