No-Bull Book Review: Knitting 24/7 by Véronik Avery

It is indeed a red-letter day when the UPS man brings me a copy of a brand-new book by my pal and girl-crush Véronik Avery.



I couldn't wait to get my sweaty little hands on a copy of Knitting 24/7: 30 Projects to Knit, Wear, and Enjoy, On the Go and Around the Clock (Stewart Tabori & Chang 2010) and a review copy arrived late last week.

I'm in heaven.

Knitting 24/7 is designed for the busy knitter: people who are passionate about knitting but never seem to find enough time to knit due to pesky little details like day jobs, family obligations, and chores. As Véronik puts it in her introduction:

I designed the projects in Knitting 24/7 to be portable and to make use of our "extra" time -- those nooks and crannies in our lives when we are busy, yet our hands are free to practice our craft. Many of us like to knit while we travel, wait, watch or listen, and times like these call for projects that can be easily stowed in a bag and contained in our laps. They also call for easily memorized stitch patterns so that charts are not needed once the pattern has been established.

Ostrich Plumes Stole

The book contains 30 projects designed to fill those little bits of time that knitters have -- while watching hockey practice or sitting in the car line or commuting on the bus -- with interesting, stylish, but do-able knitting.

Modern Pillow

The book is divided into three sections: A.M., P.M. and Weekend, each referring to different times when a knitter may be able to sneak in a few rows. (Each section begins with a brief list of suggestions for ways to sneak in more knitting -- in line, waiting for the pizza to arrive, while watching a movie.) A.M. begins with a gorgeous pair of stranded mittens knit in Harrisville Shetland:

Patterned Mittens

as well as lounging socks knit in DK yarn, a cute wool skirt (well, for those with trim little butts), a button-front "grandfather" vest, a lightweight transitional scarf shown in merino/tencel,

Transitional Scarf

a shawl, lovely arm warmers,

1965 Armwarmers

a cabled beret, a fetching colorwork pillow, and a pair of mesh kneesocks. (So many of these would look terrific in Black Bunny Fibers yarn, no?)

Arrowhead Kneesocks

P.M. begins with a cute spiral cloche with large button,

Spiral Tweed Cloche

a clutch with a clever knot at the handle, a pretty shrug, a fine-gauge turtleneck, a linen market bag, another lacy scarf, a slouchy hat, a pretty stole and a pair of slippers -- one version for winter and one for summer.

Weekend features a very smart-looking fleur de lis hat,

Fleur de Lys Hat

an acorn-styled tea cozy, a pair of toe-up socks, a pretty mesh tank top for layering, a striking striped cowl and mitts combo,

Redwork Cowl & Mitts

another pair of stranded colorwork mittens (I love this pair, too),

Heilo Mittens

a headband, a bookmark, lacy cable socks, and lovely red cabled gloves.

Cabled Gloves

If you're looking for a tally, that's:

• 2 pair of mittens and 1 pair of gloves, along with 1 pair of armwarmers and an armwarmer/cowl combo;
• 4 hats & 1 headband;
• 3 pair of socks, plus 1 pair of kneesocks and slippers (with 2 variations);
• one turtleneck pullover;
• one vest;
• one skirt;
• 3 home dec items (pillow, tea cozy and bookmark);
• one tank top;
• 2 bags (clutch and market bag )
• 2 scarves;
• 3 wraps (shawl, stole and shrug).

Olive Heather Skirt

Yarn weights are all over the map, ranging from fingering weight (e.g., for the pullover and some of the socks) to sportweight (e.g., the lovely St. Denis Nordique is used for bookmark, beret and headband), to heavy worsted (cloche & tea cozy) to chunky (the shrug). Techniques used in the patterns include lace, felting (one pair of the slippers), cables, and stranded colorwork, as well as a few stockinette items like the pullover sweater. Most of the items are one-size-fits-most, although the pullover is sized from 30.75 inch finished circumference to a 48 inch finished circumference, and the vest goes from 32 to 52 inches finished circumference -- generous sizing.

Fir Cone Shrug

As usual, it's a gorgeous book from cover to cover. It's paperback, about 128 pages, all color, with mouth-watering photos by Thayer Allison Goudy. The book contains a very brief section of special techniques but otherwise doesn't waste time on how-to-knit instructions. There are schematics and diagrams where appropriate as well as charts. We see nice clear shots of the stitch patterns, and close-ups of pattern details are thoughtfully included. With a MSRP of $21.95 (available via the link for a mere $14.93 as of this writing via Amazon), this lovely book full of beautiful patterns is worth every penny!

Leafy Knot Clutch

There is a certain knack to creating patterns that are easy and accessible to knit, but which are elegant and sophisticated-looking -- it's nowhere as easy as it looks. Thank goodness for us multi-tasking knitters that Avery has this knack. Knitting 24/7 is full of gorgeous but do-able patterns, great for making for yourself or giving as gifts.



All photos copyright 2010 by Thayer Allison Goudy.

In which Carol ogles a kilted man, sees lots of furry cuteness and blubbers like a baby

Day 2 of Rhinebeck dawned much grayer, although by the time we checked out of our hotel and headed for the fairground, it still wasn't actually raining. We only had a few hours to spend before our drive home, so we got to work right away. I started out by paying my annual pilgrimage to Dr. Mel and his handsome husband David, at Red Maple Sportswear.


While there are many, many reasons to go visit them -- gorgeous sportswear made from alpaca and other natural fibers! a disco ball! --


the top reason for me has to be Mel in a kilt.


'Nuff said.



By the time the drizzle started, I had seen Jody (of Knotions fame), Kristy and Christy:


Barb (posing here with Mindy):

some BBF customers (hi, Connie!) and all the other folks whose photos I forgot to take. Of course, there were lots of adorable fiber animals, like this alpaca




the obligatory goat shot for Mindy:



and sheep!

Including a parade of sheep wearing jackets!


Even two ducks


and a kangaroo.


By the time we had to leave, I was so sad at having to say goodbye to my pals that I got all choked up. But at least I have this photo of Veve and I to keep under my pillow.


When I got home, I realized there were a bunch of people I didn't get to see -- Lars, Lorraine, Kristin N., Lymie Melissa, etc. -- but there's always next year, right?


P.S. Next week at BBF: border leicester/mohair/silk blend roving....

In which Carol sees lots of friends, buys lots of roving and eats at the diner again

Now that you know all about Swatchy's trip to Rhinebeck, let me tell you a bit about it from my perspective.

Every year, I think "Wow, Rhinebeck cannot possibly be better this year than it was last year because I had such a great time last year," and I try to temper my expectations so I won't be even a teeny bit disappointed. This year, my expectations were even more measured; all of the weather guessers forecasters were calling for cold weather, rain -- lots of it -- and even snow. I had visions of sodden blue jeans, cold toes and stringy wet hair, punctuated by the smell of lanolin and wet llama poop.

And yet? I had an amazing time, I met some wonderful new people and got to see some wonderful people I already knew, I made a few most excellent purchases (three fleeces to be processed for BBF and an incredible bag full of silk/border leicester/mohair that is in the dyepots right now.....), and it hardly rained at all. In fact, there was not a drop of precipitation at Saturday's show, and only drizzly rain on Sunday. My theory is that wherever VeVe goes, the sun shines -- a kind of polar opposite to Schleprock.

As always, I attended with my faithful traveling companions Jim and Laura. Here is Jim, wearing the scarf I designed for him (I am hoping to make the pattern available soon)


and here is Laura, modeling the gorgeous stranded sweater she designed for the current issue of Vogue Knitting (I am sorry for the mirror glare; I tried to crop it out):


Saturday morning, we were up early and ready to go. One of the first things I did was to scout out the fleece options. I found three beauties and dropped them off for processing, thinking I'd try to beat the rain. Well, lucky for us, it never rained, and after I got my fleeces out of the way (I'm always thinking about you, Fiber Clubs...) I had time to socialize.

So many of my favorite fiber people were there, including Hyphenated Carol (posing with Mindy, Laura and Thea):


friend of my oldest kid, Somebunnyslove:


Kristen Rengren, who was signing her fabulous book Vintage Baby Knits at the author's tent:

and of course my love, QueerJoe:


One of the best new friends I made was the inimitable Ali P, who I now dearly love and want to visit all the time:

and of course there was Rav-stalking (here is Jess):


But one of my most important tasks was to help hand out the cutest little mini-skeins of Nordique, VeVe's fabulous new yarn, to passers-by, like this crew from Philly:

(hi, Lisa! hi, Purlewe! hi, Purlewe's auntie!).

As a special reward for all my hard work, I got to share this kielbasi with Veve at lunch:


While we were noshing, the lovely Sarah came up to show off her cap-sleeve lace sweater, from the fall St-Denis Nordique magazine

(That's my favorite color of Nordique, by the way: Blue Eggshell.)

After lunch, it was more socializing, including some LSGers from Ravelry


and a woman with an incredible Norah Gaughan sweater (from a prior Vogue Knitting, I believe):


Either that, or she's flashing the apple crumble booth.

I saw awesome Knittinkitties (another Laura),

and then had dinner at the diner with some of the usual suspects, including Mark, John, Ted, Marilyn & Gerry, Laura, Jim and the guys whose names I am forgetting (I'm sorry; my children ate my brain), including the couple who didn't make it in the photo but were sitting on my right and were delightful dinner companions (NYU artistic guy and banking-guy-whose-cat-licks-his-head).


And all of that was just Day One...

Breaking news: VéVé's got her own line of yarn!

I just got back from accompanying the first-grade on their field trip to the Liberty Bell and Betsy Ross's house, and am exhausted. However, I'm not too exhausted to be able to tell you this exciting news: VéVé is making yarn!

I've knit with it, and I can tell you: it's GORGEOUS yarn. Springy wool with awesome stitch definition and a beautiful palette:

cute little baby sample skeins

It comes in cute little buns like this:

this color is called Loden

Best of all, it will mean lots of new designs from VéVé! (and the project I was working on recently was for VéVé's line, which is thrilling but also scary, because designing a sweater for VéVé is like painting in oils for Van Gogh, you know?)

I don't want to steal her thunder, so I will finish. For now. Before I sign off, I will tell you that if you are a yarn shop owner, you need to order this yarn. And to lovely VéVé, I send this message: