Comfort Through Color

You know what I find myself wanting most at this time of year, when the grey Northwestern winter feels like it will never end?

Color!
This is the New Traditions Afghan, which I designed hoping to soothe the post-holiday winter blues. At this time of year, I always need a little bit of extra cheerfulness and a shot of color is a surefire way to provide that! The geometric blocks themselves, which borrow their star motifs from traditional quilt blocks, are bright and colorful, while the borders between them are worked log- cabin style (which is another quilting technique that has long been used by knitters–or did quilters borrow it from us??) in a neutral palette.
I loved designing a piece that owes debts to two different craft traditions, and I loved that I got to use my math background in working out the geometry of the quilt blocks! …

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Movies to rip by

I was chatting with a friend yesterday and she had discovered a mistake in the ribbing of her current project.
I loved her solution to this knitting disaster. As she said, “You can’t really go back and fix ribbing easily. So, I slipped my Julie/Julia DVD into the machine and laughed my way through 10 inches of ribbing ripping!”
That got me thinking. When I had to rip out my Shiver Scarf, I chose to wait until we were out to dinner with friends so it wouldn’t hurt so much. Then I starting wondering which movies I would watch while ripping. I know the actual ripping doesn’t take long but I am including getting started again so that you have your project back on track.
As much as I admired my friend’s choice to laugh as she ripped, I have to admit that sometimes I could do with a good cry. It may …

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Crafty Vacation

I went home to Northern California for Christmas, and although I’ve been back for a week, I haven’t had a chance to blog about it until now! While in Northern California, I took a day trip to San Francisco to visit friends from college and to check out some art museums. I know that there is quite a bit of debate within the knitting community about what is art and what is craft and whether knitting should be recognized as an art. Still, I kept seeing folk art and traditional crafts in art museums all over and over again! I thought that you might be interested in what I saw.
I started out in Berkeley, and literally stumbled upon Lacis Museum of Lace and Textile by accident. This place is an amazing resource for all things lace. Knitted, crocheted, tatted, bobbin, woven…they were all represented at Lacis. There were antique lace …

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New Tutorials Page

Hi Everyone!
We have been working on improving our tutorials, reorganizing them in a logical way, making them easy to search and navigate, and adding more content. Now if you click on the tutorial tab in the Knitting Community, you will be redirected to the new tutorial site. Here is a link.

We now have over 100 tutorials, and I have tried to curate them so you can find exactly what you need in categories.
Just starting out? Check out the Beginner category, which will show you all of the techniques that you need to get started, without overwhelming you with more specialized or advanced techniques that you don’t need quite yet. Or if you are working on a specific project, like your first sweater or hat, click on the Projects category and you will find all tutorials you need that are related to that specific project. Working on …

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Erica Jackofsky’s colorway for her Shiver Scarf….

….and my color selection.

I know you are familiar with my choice of Kenai (Merino Style) as the scarf color. Particularly since I had to knit it twice due to my not paying attention to Erica’s very clear instructions in her Independent Designer pattern. But, I’ve been holding back on my selection of colors for the patch pockets.
Erica’s instructions call for you to knit the colorwork patches first and then the scarf. But, given the hustle/bustle of the holidays, I chose to enjoy the easy knitting of the scarf body. Well, even easier the second time! 🙂
My colorwork choices are Masala, Asparagus and Bare DK. I was thrilled to see that heavy rain is forecast for this weekend. I am going to have a very lazy weekend in celebration of the holidays being behind me. Whew! A fire in …

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There may be something to this New Years thing after all!

Maybe the holiday season is hectic so that we appreciate the quiet that follows. Time to ponder plans for the New Year, as I have been doing. Lots and lots of rain combined with a fire in the fireplace makes for a productive weekend. Sorry, Linda, but it was raining so hard on Friday that I didn’t want to go out to find a Hot Chocolate Pot. But, it will be a priority for next week!
Let’s play the “Remember This?” game!

From Ann Budd’s absolutely fantastic book!

Well I am ready to felt it!!! I’m using my copy of Emma as a “before and after” size reference.

The trick is to just barely felt it leaving some flexibility. I’m working on the 3 1/2 yards of i-cord for the bridle while I wait for Bob …

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Gifts revealed…

Now that the holidays are over and my sisters’ birthday has passed (they’re twins), I can finally blog about what I’ve been knitting since last summer!
When I cast on, I had no clue that my mom’s socks would take longer to knit than my dad’s Harry Potter scarf. That was my first project on size 0 needles (and probably my last!). Mom saw the yoga socks in a magazine and wanted a pair to wear with her flip flops now that she’s moved from sunny Florida to North Carolina. Like a good daughter I obliged.

Yoga Socks in Make Believe Stroll Handpainted Sock Yarn
Dad is a huge Harry Potter fan, so he got a Wool of the Andes Gryffindor scarf.

The kitties all got felted toys this year. Alison taught me how to make little felted balls using roving and …

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Slouchy Hat Madness

The past few months I’ve pretty much just working on projects for other people & last week I decided I needed to do something quick for myself…which turned into 2 quick projects, which turned into 3! All were slouchy hats – I think I may need an intervention! 🙂
First was Ysolda Teague’s Ripley pattern (Ravelry link)

Took just a little bit over one hank of Swish Bulky in Garnet Heather. Man, this yarn is so soft & fun to knit with. I changed up the pattern a bit – I did just a regular 2×2 rib band instead of the band called for in the pattern…mostly out of laziness. I went down to a size 8 needle & I’m very pleased with the fit…not to mention the warmth!
Then I had some leftover Gloss HW in Jade from a scarf for my guy’s mom & decided I needed another …

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Roxy Lady!

I must admit, there’s something about foxes that I think is totally adorable. I think of them as ‘puppy kittens’. Just too cute! So, when we were all throwing ideas back and forth about what would make a cute stuffed animal, it just had to be a fox! When I went to swatch to get gauge for Roxy Fox, I couldn’t stop. I ended up with most of Roxy and both her pups.

What I love about these little guys is how they showcase a really cool quality of Suri Dream – its fluffiness. What’s interesting about Suri Dream, though, is that when knit at a tighter gauge, it doesn’t look that fuzzy at all. The stitch definition is pretty remarkable, considering what it looks like in the ball!

Even though that’s the right gauge to keep the stuffing in, it wasn’t ‘foxy’ enough. …

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Beep Beep! Transportation Playset!

This was just way too much fun to design!

Kerin and I collaborated on the Land and Sea Playset kit, and it was a realy treat, since this is exactly the kind of toy my brother and I loved as children! I wrote the patterns for the pickup truck and taxi cab (brought it back to my New York routes with a real yellow checkered cab!) and Kerin did a great job on the sailboat and happy choo choo train! These are all knit out of soft, washable shine sport.
I wish we had a recording of the squeals of delight when these samples came back into the office–I think everyone reverted to childhood for a minute as we all got down on the floor and pushed the little toys along the roads and tracks on the playmat:

The playmat is a downloadable pattern I …

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