I am super excited to finally start my first Custom Fit sweater. The brainchild of designer Amy Herzog, the Custom Fit program allows you to create sweaters that fit perfectly because they are created for your specific measurements. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that during our recent yarn crawl I ended up with a ridiculous amount of …
I love the Southwest. The colors and landscapes have a unique beauty and spirit about them. No wonder I was immediately enamored with the book Free Spirit Knits: 20 Knitted Garments and Accessories Inspired by the Southwest. The author and designer, Anne Podlesak, lives in northern New Mexico. I can easily see the influence of her surroundings in her Santa …
Falling in love with a new-to-me yarn is one of my favorite parts of knitting. This happened to me when I tried Dragonfly Fiber’s gorgeous Djinni Sock yarn recently. A blend of merino, cashmere and nylon gives it a wonderful hand, and the just-right ply makes for delightful knitting. When I was a young, I spent a lot of time …
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY – In the knitting world, lace offers a romantic flair. Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I’m celebrating by giving away a fantastic book – New Lace Knitting: Designs for Wide Open Spaces by Rosemary (Romi) Hill. Fans of Romi’s shawl designs will be happy to know that the book contains several delightful shawls, including the “Main Triangle”: Romi has a …
In the past year I’ve gotten to know designer Heather Zoppetti’s work through industry trade shows. I admire her patterns and attention to detail. I was excited, then, to see her book Unexpected Cables: Feminine Knitted Garments Featuring Modern Cable Knitting. In her new book, Heather takes the magic of cables to new levels. Cabling may be an age-old technique, but she uses it to craft …
You may remember I’ve been working on the second level of the TKGA Master Hand Knitting Program. I’m learning to be a stickler for gauge (oh dear, I’ve become one of those people). In Level 2, we have to write instructions for our swatches, including gauge. A tool that I’m finding to be helpful is the Gaugefy app for Apple devices. It’s …
For me, one of the best things about knitting is that it provides a never-ending opportunity to learn something new. You might say I ‘m a techniques junkie! Through classes or books, I might learn a new variation on a technique I already use. Other times I’m exposed to a whole new way of thinking and creating. The latter’s the …
My latest favorite knitting book is Cap Sease’s Cast On, Bind Off: 211 Ways to Begin and End Your Knitting. It’s brilliant! I’ve recently had two reasons to put the book to the test. I was making socks with K2P2 ribbing on the leg, and wanted an attractive, stretchy cast-on. I have lots of reference books that include sections about casting on, …
When I last posted about Gwen Bortner’s online Entrelac Knitting class , I was just getting to know my way around Craftsy. Now I’ve had a chance to dig in and actually start taking the class. Gwen’s wonderful in-person teaching style translates well into her videos. She’s really upbeat, and she anticipates things that may prove challenging for the student. Her …
When I heard that Gwen Bortner now teaches her Entrelac Knitting course online, I was excited to check it out. You may remember I took a fantastic workshop from her in Cambria a few months ago. Gwen clearly loves to teach and her sense of humor make her classes fun. Her book Entree to Entrelac helped transform entrelac from esoteric to wildly popular. Since this is …
One of the best things about writing my book has been getting to know the work of other authors. I first met Stephannie Tallent at a knitting event. She was knitting an absolutely stunning sweater, which I walked up to admire. As fate would have it, she too was working on a book for Cooperative Press, and the sweater was …
Like a bystander being swept up into the mob surging into a free Black Eyed Peas concert, I’m suddenly surrounded by everything Craftsy. I’m just now discovering what all the excitement’s about. Craftsy bills itself as “the fastest-growing online crafting community on the web.” It offers online classes, workshops, patterns from indie designers, and an area for sharing photos of finished projects. It includes all …
