Vogue Knitting Fall 2011

contributed by Shawn

The only good thing about the 12 straight hours of rain on Sunday, was that it gave me a chance to dive into the new Vogue Knitting Fall 2011. There are a lot of great things in this issue!

For those of you looking to "Shape Up!" there is an excellent article by Meg Swansen on 3 short row shaping methods that can help you produce professional looking handmade fitted garments.

Neutral Fair-Isle knits are featured lovely contrasts of black, white, and grey. I think the Nordic Gloves by Lone Smevik Soleng would be lovely knit in SMC Juvel Yarn. This yarn is new for us, and it's perfect for mittens and gloves because it is a superwash sport/dk weight wool.  Easy care is a must for winter hand wear here in Vermont!

The Nordic Yoke Pullover by Ruth Garcia-Alcantud is worked in the round from the bottom up and is shown here in Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport Yarn which is a new favorite of our customers, both local and online. This yarn comes in an amazing array of colors, is soft and really reasonably priced.

Wenlan Chia presents 2 oversized sweater patterns knit in Twinkle Handknits Soft Chunky Yarn.  The Striped Cardi 

and Striped Back Top are both great looking pieces.

I think my favorite is the relaxed-fit zip-front cape by Kristin Omdahl. Knit in in Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica Yarn, the openwork sides of this Lace Belted Cape become sleeve-like with the addition of a belt for a flattering sillouhete.

And there's a BONUS! Don't miss the GREAT article on brioche cable knitting by Nancy Marchant.  I really can't wait to try to knit this hat - stunning!

Knit in the round the hat features crossed stitches and linear decreases done in the two-color brioche technique.  Nancy's article "Crossing Over" describes everything in detail and even though I haven't tried brioche knitting yet with this article I know I can do it!

In over my head

It's the time of year to be finishing up my projects, and not starting too many new ones until things are under control. But I think I'm failing! I've got quite a lot going on right now. My couch is covered with vinyl zippered project bags full of different projects, and my coffee table with needles, notions, needle kits, tape measures, etc. I keep trying to tidy it up, and I tell myself that I can't start anything new until I finish some of these things up, but it's just not working.

I recently started a sweater for spring - with Rowan Purelife Revive - a new recycled yarn we will be selling beginning next month. It actually came out last year and was so well received that I decided to bring it in to our product offering for this spring. I had a bag sent to me ahead of the full shipment so I could start a sample. We got the Purelife Recycled Collection, which includes 15 great designs made specifically for this yarn, and I started the Shallot sweater last week. It's quite beautiful, and I just love the color and texture of the yarn. It's a really simple pattern, but as there's a YO, p4tog (that's right... FOUR stitches being purled together, OUCH!) I decided to use the Addi Turbo Lace needles. And it was a good thing. Those extra pointy tips make those rows go more smoothly, although they are still not as quick as the other rows. But suffer I will, because it's really a gorgeous sweater! Not sure how long it will take though, because I am quick to put it down when anything else comes up.

My kids have been complaining that they don't have gloves or mittens for school. They do have ski gloves, but I don't let them take those to school. You know how things ALWAYS get lost at school... those gloves are necessary for happy Saturday ski days, and if a glove is at school, and school is locked, well, let's just say Mommy gets very tense. So those gloves stay at home and we usually buy them cheap-o gloves or mitts somewhere. Because, again... they get lost. But I haven't bought any cheap-o's this year.

Instead, I thought I would make them each a pair of mittens. Who knows? Maybe a hand-knit pair will be considered more "precious" to them, and they will take extra care not to lose them? I used the Yankee Knitter Hats & Mittens pattern - which I love because it's knit flat and it's super quick to make. I used Malabrigo Rios (super soft merino wool, and YAY machine washable - because how often do those mittens fall on the nasty, dirty bus floor?) and I have enough yarn left to make another pair in each color. NOT that I'm planning on it. But if a mitten just happens to get "misplaced" I can whip up a replacement in no time. Smart, I'm thinking!
After Barb brought in her Snobuddy family last week, I just had to jump on that train too. I made one to take as a gift to a Christmas party last weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't make the party - I was recovering from being sick last week - but the girls delivered it. And Lucy got to check it out before it left for its new home.In addition to these projects, I have a skein of Twinkle Soft Chunky waiting to be wound and knit into a super bulky hat (it narrowly escaped a cat attack last week though - I had left it within view of the felines), another ball of Malabrigo Rios to be made into another hat, and some Plymouth Select Merino Superwash that's going to be a little kid's sweater. I hope you are all not as buried in projects as I am!

Oh it's maddening...

...when you run out of yarn! I started the Tidepool sweater on Saturday and cruised through it. Last night I was all set to finish up when I found I was JUST short on one color of Soft Chunky. My gauge is right on, and I have about 3 more rows at the neck, but I do not have enough yarn to knit those 3 rows. After all the mistakes in the first Twinkle book, I have to say, I'm not surprised. But at least the directions seem to be without technical problems! I grabbed another skein to finish it tonight, but of course I only have one set of 19 circulars... and I will need another set to finish the neck. Oh well, one more day won't kill me.

So I had to switch projects at 9:30pm last night when I realized the Tidepool sweater was at a standstill. Luckily I had grabbed a skein of the Blue Sky Worsted before heading home yesterday. I wanted to knit something with just one skein, and Barb suggested the Twisted Wrister Bag, a fun little pattern by Iknitiative. I only got a few inches done on it, but it's quick and fun, and oh, how I love that yarn. I chose the new hot pink!

She knew that pattern would be perfect because we've been working on getting these patterns online, and she'd just been focusing on getting all of the pattern details up, as well as linking to the yarns they call for. She had just finished working on Iknitiative patterns, and remembered that she had linked this one to Blue Sky Worsted. Cool!


If you haven't checked out our online pattern selection yet, now's the time to do it! We've added hundreds of patterns in the last two weeks. More coming!

In a knitting rut?

I have to confess, I'm in a bit of a knitting rut. I've been working on my hooked rug non stop for the past week, and for the past two nights I've been too exhausted to do it. There's something about having to put a big frame on your lap that just makes it seem too... I don't know, tiring. So I've gone to bed early and cuddled up with a good book, which is a nice change.


And though we did have some gorgeously sunny days earlier this week, the gray skies are back and even the snow is back this morning. I love snow, but at this time of the year, I am ready for spring. Warmer temperatures would be most appreciated, as I have a half marathon coming up in the end of May and I would much rather be out there training with fewer layers on.


Luckily, some yarn arrived yesterday that really got my juices flowing! We got all new colors of the Twinkle Soft Chunky and I am going to dive in and make the Tidepool sweater from Twinkle's Weekend Knits. It should be a very quick knit - as it's on size 19 needles. It's only going to take 4 skeins, and I'm using Icy Blue and Sea Green. I'm a little worried about those huge needles - as I'm dealing with some hand/wrist pain right now... most likely from all the data entry I've been doing for our upcoming enhanced search feature.


We also got three huge boxes from Blue Sky Alpacas yesterday... Six AMAZING new colors of the Blue Sky Cotton in dyed colors, one awesome new color in the Blue Sky Organic Cotton, and 5 SICK new colors of the Blue Sky Worsted. I think those are my favorite.
I have always loved that yarn, but the colors have always been really neutral and dark. These new colors will WAKE YOU RIGHT UP. And they are certainly a sight for sore eyes, especially on a grey and snowy day like today. I might just have to break into a skein or two...