There’s a lot to be said for gift yarns. When my friend went walking along the knitting shop row in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she bought a lovely skein of hand-dyed, ribbon yarn. It took a long time for me to find something to make out of the precious skein. I wanted a scarf or shawlette that I could knit without worrying about the yardage.
Read more »Love the look of lace but intimidated by the techniques? Let Kelley
guide you through the process of knitting lace as she goes over the
quirks of lace knitting, in addition to tips and tricks for successful
lace projects. Next, Kelley chats about one of her favorite things to do
while knitting or spinning – listening to audiobooks! Kelley gives an
overview of audible (an audiobook service) as well as several reviews of
recently completed audiobooks she has enjoyed listening to while
crafting. Finally, Kelley catches you up with projects that are on (and
ones that have recently come off) the needles. In keeping with the topic
of lace knitting, Kelley talks about her Elizabeth Zimmerman Anniversary Pi Shawl
that was recently completed. Kelley also chats about all of the lace
projects she was dreaming of while blocking her newly finished Pi Shawl, as well as a few socks that are still in progress.
And for even more …
Whenever I head out the door during the cold winter months, mittens are an essential part to my outfit. My hands always get so cold, especially during those early morning car rides into work – I really don’t know how I would manage without one of my many pairs of mittens! In fact, I have just started to wear holes through the top parts of where the pads of my fingers are on my very favorite pair of mittens. Instead of sulking in the tradegy of my fast fading pair of mitts, I saw this as a great opportunity to make myself another pair. So in honor of my love of mittens, we will kick of Technique Tuesday with Kelley’s Mitten class!
And just what is Technique Tuesday, you ask? Every week, we will feature a different technique, lesson, or video class to help build your crafting skills! Mittens are such a wonderful project for beginning knitters who are familiar with knitting in the round, but want to throw in a few extra skills. In addition to ribbing for the cuff, you will learn how to create a gusset for your thumb through a series of increases, which leads into the hand of the mitten that will later be tapered down through decreasing.
Read more »As we talked about in the last color theory blog post,
inspiration for color is all around us. In addition to seeing amazing combinations of
colors in nature, we can even look back through works of art to find patterns
of color combinations that have stayed true for hundreds of years. Continuing
along with our theme of warming up the winter blues, we will take a closer look
at different shade of blue along with colors that are often paired with
blues – including paintings from centuries ago to present day fashion.
When I think of exceptionally lovely uses of the color blue,
I can’t help but think of the 17th century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer. Known
best for his domestic scenes of middle class life, Vermeer was also
particularly fond of bright, vibrant shades of blues which were often paired
with bold colors such as yellows, oranges, and reds.
Begins with a single slip knot!
The yarn for hubby’s sweater is here! I think he was even more
excited than I was when I first opened the box on our couch. He grabbed
it and took a deep whif of its woolly goodness. I’ve trained him well!
Now for the fun part – designing the sweater!
This week our Freebie Friday pattern is a beautiful lace cowl!
The pattern is Drawstring Lace Cowl by SweaterBabe – a designer with so many gorgeous patterns!
Read more »One of the first things I spotted when I joined Pinterest was Karen Barbe’s beautiful diagram of a needlepoint leaf stitch. The chunky yarn, texture of the stitches and overall “squishability” of the stitch instantly caught my imagination. So, I stopped by a craft store on my way home and picked out a roll of needlepoint canvas and set about picking through my Palette stash the minute I walked in the door.
Read more »I’ve been holding off on posting about it publicly, but once I saw the pictures from our de-stash party I figured I could start telling folks that I’m pregnant. Dan and I are expecting our first child this June, a boy, and we’re super excited.
Read more »Please, please, please buy Finishing School by Deborah Newton!!
It’s not that hard to find the time to learn how to knit – take a class, spend an afternoon with a knitting friend or even get trapped next to an enthusiastic knitter on a plane who just happens to carry along extra needles and yarn for spontaneous instructions to total strangers. Of course, by the end of the flight you’ve become lifelong friends but that is another story.
Read more »Being relatively young, I still have the energy to ask the bland questions: Why should Valentine’s Day matter to us? In this, I mean the Valentine’s Day of you and me—the general, stodgy adults—since I think we can agree that children could never have any objection to candies and little cards and fun days at school.
As it’s a time to acknowledge and reward Romance, let’s also give some thought to love-in-actuality and what endures. Now being in a position to look back some, I can say that I’ve forgotten nearly all of my Valentine’s Day gifts through the years. I’ve certainly forgotten all the flowers and candies and trinkets. I’ve forgotten most of the books and records.
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