This is one of the new Berroco chicks (Millenium edition):
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God, I love Norah Gaughan.
Just as we walked toward the gate, we were treated to an exhibition of sheep-herding skills. It didn't look intentional, because a few sheep seemed to sneak out of the festival grounds and head onto the gravel road leading to the parking lot and the highway where they could easily have been hit by a car. Shortly thereafter, two dogs came running hellbent
and rounded the sheep up in front of us. At one point, a sneaky straggler sheep tried to avoid the herding dog and ran toward us. We stood very still and we could have touched the sheep as it ran past, then the dog as it herded the sheep around us.
It was much more sedate after that and we saw farm animals
and the obligatory sheep shearing (it must be a testament to my regular attendance at sheep shows, because this used to fascinate me and now it seems almost jejune)
and we saw some gorgeous alpacas and llamas, including a white one
and a black one in the same pen (Ebony and Ivory?):
This is a very small festival, but it's charming and good for smaller children. My kids are getting a bit old for it, especially Elvis, but I'm thinking about getting a table there next year as a vendor and selling Black Bunny yarns.
In other news, it's been pretty quiet here. I'm knitting and dyeing and trying to pick up the slack given Tom's very busy work schedule right now. We are doing some edits to the book manuscript, and still on track for a June 2008 release date. (I've been told to hold off on giving you details about the book for now, but as soon as the publicist okays it, I'll give you the scoop.)
[A]s handspinners, most of us had to adapt either our yarn to fit a pattern or the pattern to fit our yarn. So we agreed to meet this challenge. Knit an original sweater by altering a basic drop-shoulder pullover – expand, shrink, shape, and decorate it to meet your practical requirements and express your personal style.
You’ll learn several important things about the book from these sentences: the main goal is to allow a handspinner to adapt handspun yarn for knitting into a sweater; the basic sweater style is a drop-shoulder pullover (although variations are included, which I’ll get to later); and the sweater that you knit will be custom-tailored to meet your measurements. And the book admirably arms the reader with the information required to do those three things. Looking at it chapter by chapter:
The first chapter of the book is called “Yarn and Fabric,” and it discusses some of the basics that any knitter will benefit from knowing: yarn weight (including the Craft Yarn Council’s new system for standardizing (ha!) yarn weight, wraps per inch and gauge); a discussion of drape; a brief section on knitting with variegated yarns; and a section on calculating yardage. Especially helpful is a chart which lists the traditional yarn weight names (e.g. worsted), yards per pound, wraps per inch, gauge, and a comparison of the kind of fabric the yarn will make when knit at regular, tighter-than-normal and looser-than-normal gauges. Very experienced knitters may know all or most of this; less experienced knitters should find this information extremely helpful if they haven’t encountered it before.
The next chapter introduces the “Knitter Fitter System,” which is basically consists of (1) a list of important measurements (“Fitter List”) and (2) a general guideline or map (including schematic) for the sweater (“Sweater Map”). This chapter is brief, the meat of it contained in the two pages of the Knitter Fitter System. (There is also a brief discussion of ease.)
Chapters 3 and 4 walk the reader through the construction of sweaters, first up/down, and then side-to-side, using a basic crewneck pullover pattern with drop shoulders as the example. These chapters tell you how to calculate some of the measurements you’ll need to knit your custom sweater, with charts and diagrams. Chapter 5 covers variations on the crewneck: making it a cardigan, different necklines, different sleeve configurations (so if you hate drop sleeves, you can check out the sleeve and shoulder variants) and edgings. Tips – like using selvedge stitches or how to incorporate stitch patterns – are sprinkled throughout these chapters. There’s a lot of valuable information packed into these chapters, even though they fill only about 30 pages.
The remainder of the book is devoted to the Twisted Sisters’ projects. Ten specific projects are shown in detail, each with color photos, designer notes and description, a completed Fitter List and Sweater Map, along with a general list of steps in knitting the sweater. These are intended to illustrate some of the ways that you can tweak the basic sweater to meet your own individual taste and needs – for example, knitting a turtleneck in one piece from back hem up to the shoulders and down the front, or adding all-over cables,
Last, a “Gallery of Inspiration” shows photographs of additional sweaters (photographed flat rather than on models) to show even more variants.
In terms of the basics, the book has all the quality that one would associate with Interweave Press: lots of color photographs: plenty of charts, tables, drawings and schematics; good technical information; a glossary of techniques used, nice photography; quality paper; easy to read type and sufficient white space on the pages. The book is paperback, about 144 pages, with color throughout. Many of my usual benchmarks just aren’t applicable here: for example, since the goal is for the knitter to create her own custom-sized sweater, there are no size ranges and the potential for sizing is really limitless so long as you are willing to do the math. All the garments shown are for women and kids, but theoretically there’d be no reason why you couldn’t apply this fitting information to men. The photography is clear and pleasant but this really isn’t a book that relies on extensive fashion photography to set a mood – it’s much more pragmatic in nature (and I don’t mean that as a criticism, simply a reflection of this book’s unique approach).
So…. how to tell if you should buy this book?
If you have trouble finding patterns that fit you well, or are in a size that isn’t often covered by commercial patterns; if you would like to know how to create your own designs but aren’t sure where or how to begin; if you are a spinner who’d like some ideas for how to use your handspun in creating sweaters or even just to get some inspiration from what other spinners have done; if you are a new knitter and/or don’t feel you adequately understand sweater construction or the math that goes into calculating a pattern; then I think you are likely to benefit greatly from reading and using this book.
On the other hand, if you are a very experienced knitter, if you already have several comprehensive books in your knitting library that cover sweater construction and design, if boxier garments with variegated or multiple colors/textures of yarns don’t appeal to you, or if you simply don’t want to mess around with creating your own designs, then you might want to take a pass. Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters is an excellent book, full of helpful information, but their approach – while informative and valuable – won’t be everyone's cup of tea.
I cast on another pair for him in one of the Kaffe Fassett colors of Regia. This one is called Carribean (number 4261) and it's full of turquoise/cobalt blues, bright greens, with some rust and brown to provide contrast.
Over the weekend, I finished knitting the pieces of the little skirt for G., and I bought buttons so today I'm blocking it. I used a new yarn from Reynolds called Cottontail, and really liked it a lot. It's a blend of cotton and acrylic, but feels very cotton-y and knits easily. A little strand-y, like all cottons, no big deal though. And at five or six bucks a ball, it's nicely priced. I hope to have a photo of the finished skirt soon.
I also have been making slow but fairly steady progress on a cardigan for me. I'm using Frog Tree Pima Silk from my stash, and it's a beautifully soft, drapey yarn. I'm nearly halfway up the back. It's very plain, almost all stockinette, but that's okay. I'm in the mood for some low-key knitting after the summer full of excitement.
Black Bunny update
I'm planning a Black Bunny update on Friday. I've got this batch of wool/nylon (the one with the tighter twist):
as well as some superwash merino, a few batches of Finn wool from Canada, and some more of the alpaca blend sock yarn (also from Canada). Three batches of roving, too. In the meantime, I'm working on some more pure silk as well as some laceweight. I'm also playing with a new yarn, and I'll let you know if it works out.
I think Ravelry may prove to be helpful in other ways as time goes on. For example, I think that if you check it before you start a pattern, you might find information that will help you -- like a link to errata, or a note that the sleeves are on the short side, or something that might save you some work. This will depend on whether people keep using it and keep inputting information over time.
As a designer, I would love to see Ravelry set up some kind of PDF-sales system whereby I could use Ravelry to sell PDFs of patterns. (One of my on-going projects is to start selling my own patterns via PDF and hard copy.) Certainly as a marketing tool, Ravelry is extremely worthwhile: you get lots of exposure by having your patterns entered in there and it's nice to see that a lot of designers and publishing entities are allowing photographs of their designs to be used. Ditto for Black Bunny yarns: I hope that anyone who hasn't tried BBF yarns but is considering it will page through the photos of projects on Ravelry because people have knit some beautiful things. (By the way, I'm hoping for an update later this week.)
I initially thought that I might find the Stash and Books organizing functions to be helpful, and to some extent, they are -- but, quite honestly, since I have massive (and I do mean MASSIVE) amounts of yarn and books, it'd take an awfully long time for me to input all the stuff I have.* I've put a lot of my books and some of my stash in, and I'm going to try to continue to enter it on an on-going basis, but I'm not going to attempt to put every last skein in.
*I' ve already gotten one email from someone commenting on how many books I have. To the commenter: you should see my house!
Using unconventional placement of Fair Isle patterning, such as at the cuff or shoulder, and asymmetrical or striped color placement, Ellis creates a wide
variety of moods, movements, and graphic impact. And Inspired Fair Isle Knits isn’t just about Fair Isle knitting; it combines the basic method with other knitting techniques such as cables, lace patterning, felting, and even pleats.
And my longtime favorite Debbie Bliss just released another book of baby knits, called Essential Baby: Over 20 Handknits to Take Your Baby from First Days to First Steps (Trafalgar Square; already available). I'll probably pass on this one, since I've got tons of baby patterns and my kids are getting too big for this size range, although I'm sure it's lovely, as Debbie Bliss's books always are.
Interweave Press
In addition to Louisa Harding's new book, our friends at Interweave -- always a source of excellent knitting and crochet books -- have just released The Best of Interweave Knits: Our Favorite Designs from the First Ten Years. As you may have guessed, it's a compilation of the best-loved patterns from past ten years of Interweave Knits magazines. If you've got all your back issues, then you may not want to spring for it, but if you're like me and your magazines get all dog-eared, it might be nice to have a beautifully-bound book version of the best of the best. This one is already on sale at some places and should be at your local yarn shop or bookstore soon, if it isn't already.
Kim Werker -- new editor of Interweave Crochet -- has written Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution (expected October 28). I met Kim at a booksigning last year and although I found it hard to believe she's only been crocheting a few years, she is so cute and nice that I found it easy to get over my hook envy. (Plus she's pals with Shannon Okey, who's always fun to hang with.)
Bag Style: Innovative to Traditional, 22 Inspirational Handbags, Totes, and Carry-alls to Knit and Crochet, edited by Pam Allen, is the next installment in Interweave's beloved Style series, and Folk Style: Innovative Designs to Knit, Including Sweaters, Hats, Scarves, Gloves and More
came out a few weeks ago, edited by color-savvy Mags Kandis (the owner and founder of Mission Falls yarns).
All Toilet-Paper Cozies, All the Time
On the (ahem)more eclectic side, a book devoted entirely to toilet paper roll cozies is slated for release this fall, Toilet Roll Covers, along with a prequel (?) Tea Cozies
.
I Guess You Can't Trademark Titles
You might think that Interweave's super-strong "Fill in the Blank" Style series -- e.g. Lace Style, Scarf Style, Bag Style -- would have put the kibosh on another publisher starting a knitting/crochet series with Style in the title. However, Martingale is releasing "Stitch Style, Mittens" and "Stitch Style, Socks". Each is a compilation of knit and crochet designs having to do with mittens and socks, respectively. I'll leave it to you to debate whether that is a blatant attempt to trade off the popularity of Interweave's series or simply a coincidence.
In addition
you'll find the following titles, fellow knitting-book lovers:
I'm sure there are some more titles that I missed, but this will give you a flavor for some of this fall's offerings. We live in good times for knitters: the fact that there are a lot of new knitting books coming out on a such a regular basis is a great sign for the continuing vitality of the craft.