Tagged: fair isle february

Feb 28

One more Fair Isle February giveaway!

Wow, it’s the last day of Fair Isle February — how did that happen? I’ve been promising one more colorwork-related giveaway, and I’m just barely squeezing it in! But colorwork is fun enough to spill into March, don’t you think?

Mastering Color KnittingThanks to the generous folks at Potter Craft, today’s giveaway is a copy of “Mastering Color Knitting,” by Melissa Leapman, a gorgeous book that is part how-to, part pattern collection, and part stitch dictionary. I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of these kinds of books in my knitting library — it’s the kind of book that you’ll reference all the time, even when you’re not knitting patterns from it. And it doesn’t just cover stranded colorwork — Melissa also delves into intarsia and two-color double knitting as well. So no matter how you want to introduce color into your knitting, this book has you covered. The book includes a dozen patterns, including a throw, pillows, hats and sweaters. (The little girl’s sweater with a giant intarsia bow on the front is so sweet.) But it also features pages and pages of stitch patterns for every kind of color knitting, so you can design your own projects. Once you understand the basics of colorwork, you can integrate these patterns in simple projects like baby sweaters or hats or mittens or socks. Melissa explains every colorwork technique in intense detail, with great illustrations that are ALMOST as good as having someone show you. Basically, if “learn colorwork” is on your to-do list, you must have this book.

OK, so how do you win it? Well, I thought I’d make you work for it just a little bit this time. So here’s the plan: Head to the Knit and Stitch group on Ravelry, where I’ve started a thread for this giveaway. There, leave a Ravelry link to any colorwork pattern that you’d love to try. It can be super-ambitious, or just a simple first-step pattern. It can be stranded colorwork, intarsia or double knitting. You can enter more than once, as long as you post a new pattern every time. (Please enter on Ravelry, and not on the blog!) Hopefully, we’ll get a nice list of colorwork patterns that we can all reference when we’re ready to try something new. Sound good?

This giveaway will run until Sunday, March 6 at noon, when I’ll randomly choose a winner. I can’t wait to see the patterns people find — I’m always looking out for great new patterns. (Which is probably why my list of Ravelry favorites is very, very long.)

P.S.

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the “Brave New Knits” trunk show last week. Author Julie Turjoman was just wonderful and the projects from the book were AMAZING. It’s incredible how patterns that you might have skipped right over in a book just jump out at you when you see them “in the flesh.” It was a great evening!

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Posted in Patterns

Feb 13

Fair-isle faves

Now that I’ve given you a few tips for a (hopefully) smooth first colorwork experience, here are a few of my favorite patterns to get you started on stranded knitting. (Most — but not all — of these patterns are free. I’ve indicated the ones that require purchases with a $.)

Blue Rabbit Hat

Blue Rabbit Hat

Blue Rabbit Hat: First, this hat is just adorable. Second, it’s a great introduction to stranded knitting AND to knitting bobbles, which are a nice way to add texture to your knitting. There are relatively few rows of colorwork, and the result is so, so cute. I knit the hat at right for a baby-to-be of unspecified gender. When she was born, I added a big, pink pompom to the top. I also held a strand of Rowan Kidsilk Haze along with the plain wool I used for the bunnies, so they are soft and fuzzy.

Inga Hat: This hat looks complicated, but don’t be scared off. I knit this pattern as one of my first forays into colorwork, and I lived to tell the tale. It’s really not any more difficult than some of the other patterns I’m listing here, but isn’t the result beautiful? Trust me, if you knit this hat, you will be so proud of yourself that you’ll tell strangers that you knit it yourself, even when they don’t ask. (Or maybe that’s just me?)

Drifty Hat ($): This is just one of the lovely colorwork patterns in Mandy Powers’ Red Collection. But if I had to choose one to recommend, it would be this one for a few reasons: 1. It’s cute, no? 2: The colorwork pattern is reasonably simple, and the chart is easy to follow. 3. It’s knit in bulky yarn (Cascade 128 would be perfect), so it will fly off your needles, even in an adult size. That means almost-instant gratification, which is excellent when you’re mastering a new skill.

Quo Vadis mittens: Designer SpillyJane is well-known for her clever socks and mittens featuring hamburgers, hippos and pints of beer. But most of her designs are knit in fingering-weight yarn on tiny needles (and most aren’t free). Lucky for you, Jane publishes a few free patterns each year, and this one is knit out of worsted-weight yarn! These mittens would look great in lots of different color combos, and the pattern is easy enough for a rookie to follow.

Simply Fair Isle

Simply Fair Isle/Sara Parker Photography

Simply Fair Isle ($): Baby hats are a great entree into colorwork — they’re small, so if you completely screw it up, you’re not losing days and days and days of knitting. Kate Oates, the designer behind Tot Toppers (and her adult line, When I Grow Up) is always coming up with cute and clever designs for kids. (And if you knit for little boys, take note: Kate is the mom of two little men, and she knows how to design for boys!) Simply Fair Isle is just that — a very simple fair isle earflap hat for the child in your life. (Though it wouldn’t be hard to size this up for an adult.) Leave the earflaps off and add some ribbing to the bottom if you prefer a traditional beanie style. Either way, you’ve got a great intro to stranded knitting, and a super-cute accessory.

Cheery Scrap Cap: Another of my favorite Tot Toppers designs is the Cheery Scrap Cap, which is a free pattern featured on the wonderful knitting-for-kids website Petite Purls. The pattern features designs for boys and girls, and last year, Kate even introduced extra charts for holiday-themed hats. This is another one of those patterns where the finished object looks totally impressive, even though the knitting is not difficult. Yes, there are quite a few ends to weave in (though you could use fewer colors), but if you can follow a chart, you can knit this hat. (Trust me, I’ve knit it four times.) A few rows use three colors, but you could skip those and repeat another motif, or just use regular stripes instead.

Camp Hoodie Swatch Hat: Another great worsted-weight hat, sized from newborn to adult. Can’t beat that! Popular designer Susan B. Anderson knit this hat to serve as a swatch for her Camp Hoodie vest, and was kind enough to offer knitters the hat pattern for free. This is a very simple stranded pattern, and the optional embroidery is a fun way to learn to embellish your knits.

Obviously, this is just a tiny sliver of the wonderful patterns out there. If you’ve knit a stranded colorwork pattern that you loved, please share it in the comments. Also, take advantage of the wonderful Stranded group on Ravelry. You can see examples of beautiful projects from simple to complex, and the discussion boards are always buzzing with great advice. Or stop by the shop and we can give you some tips to have you stranding like a pro.

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Posted in Patterns, Techniques

Feb 04

A Fair Isle February giveaway!

Welcome to Fair Isle February! I always love a good theme, and I also can’t pass up a good alliteration, so Fair Isle February it is. This month, I’ll give you some tips about colorwork knitting (including a discussion of the terms “fair isle” and “stranded colorwork”), share some favorite patterns, and host a few giveaways. If learning colorwork is on your knitting to-do list, be sure to keep an eye out for lots of encouragement this month.

I want to get right to the first giveaway (!), but quickly, let me tell you about a few classes that we’re offering in the shop this month to get your colorwork juices flowing:

  • Endpaper Mitts: In this class, Joanna will help you knit Eunny Jang’s famous Endpaper Mitts, a pair of colorwork fingerless mitts that can be worked in endless color combinations. These are absolutely gorgeous mitts, and a good way to learn both colorwork and double-pointed needles. This class starts next week, so call the shop to register now! (Monday, Feb. 7 and 14, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.)
  • Stranded Colorwork workshop: If you’re looking for a quick way to dive in to colorwork knitting, try our one-session workshop on Sunday, Feb. 27 (10 a.m. to noon). This is a low-stress way to try out the technique — you’ll learn different ways to carry your yarns, how to manage floats and more.

See those mittens in the photo above? They’re the Girdwood Mittens by Mandy Powers. And as soon as I saw the pattern, I knew I wanted to make it a part of Fair Isle February. Mandy’s stranded colorwork patterns are a wonderful entree into this technique, because they are well-written, straightforward, intuitive, and of course, beautiful! This is a particularly special pattern, because it includes sizes from newborn to adult large. You change the size of the mitten by changing the size of your yarn and needles — fingering-weight yarn for baby mittens, all the way up to bulky yarn for large adult mittens. It’s genius. I whipped out that adult mitten in the photo in just a day — I am totally in love with it. And as you can see, I’ve started the second one, so I hope to have a pair very soon.

You know how sometimes you come across a technique or tool that seems to improve your knitting immediately? Well, I’m pleased to say I’ve discovered TWO while knitting this pattern. The first is the i-cord cast-on (see a close-up photo at right). I know the Latvian braid is a hot technique for mittens and hats right now, but I have to say, I like the i-cord cast-on better. It’s so nice and tidy, prevents curling, and is easy to do once you get the hang of it. (I referenced this tutorial to get me started.) I am already itching to use it on another pattern. The second revolutionary knitting helper I discovered really has nothing to do with this pattern at all. I just happened to find it on the day I cast on! See that yellow strip in the photo above? That’s Post-It Label Roll, and it is the best thing that ever happened to me (knitterly speaking, anyway). If you knit from charts for lace or colorwork, you MUST find this stuff. It’s basically a long roll of Post-It tape — an inch wide and 700 inches in a roll (!). I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been able to find the perfect way to keep my place in a chart. I even bought a fancy magnetic chart holder, but the magnets never wanted to stay where I put them, and they cast a shadow over other parts of the chart. This is the perfect solution: It stays exactly where I put it (the entire back side is sticky), and is completely unobtrusive. I thought I’d need to replace it several times throughout the pattern, but one piece lasted me all the way through one mitten chart. I should tell you that this stuff was not easy to find. I saw it mentioned on Ravelry last year, and have been looking for it ever since. Anywhere I go that sells Post-Its, I look. Finally, this week, I happened to be in Staples, walking past the file folders, and there it was. Not in the giant aisle of Post-It products, mind you. Ugh. You can also find it on Amazon, though it was cheaper at Staples. And next time I go, I’m buying enough for the rest of my knitting life.

Back to the giveaway: Mandy has generously offered to give away a copy of the Girdwood pattern to one Knit and Stitcher! So here’s what we’ll do — leave a comment on this blog post telling me the tip, technique or tool that revolutionized your knitting. It doesn’t have to be fancy — sometimes it’s the simple things that turn out to be lifesavers (see above!). I’m going to make this a short giveaway, because I have several other fun giveaways planned this month. So I’ll close the comments and randomly choose a winner at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9. Mandy has nicely offered to send the PDF to the winner, or put it right in your Ravelry library, if you’re a member. Don’t forget to leave your e-mail address and/or Ravelry name with your comment so I can find you if you win. Good luck!!

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Posted in Classes, Patterns, Techniques, Tools, Workshops