St-Denis Magazine Issue 3: Preview

Okay, I'm a little late getting to some of these magazine previews, but what the heck. It's that dead part of summer where the heat in Philadelphia makes everything seem used up and dried out. We need some inspiration, some color, some beauty to perk us up. And when it comes to beautiful knitting patterns, you all know how Véronik Avery is at the tippy-top of my list. One of the best things I got to bring home from TNNA with me was a copy of her latest St-Denis Magazine, Spring 2011, Issue 3. Let's look at the pretty things....

The issue begins with a gorgeous lace stole created by Franklin Habit in honor of his grandmother, Pauline, knit with St-Denis Boréale, in fingering weight:


One other item features lace, Vévé's Lace Weekend socks (love the photo!).

If you're looking for sweaters, you've got several gorgeous options, from Robin Melanson's versatile Woodward Cardigan,

to Laura Grutzeck's wonderful pullover with a detachable cowl,


to Cecily Glowik McDonald's Spicy Rose crossover cardigan,

to Véronik's Dolman

and Market Jacket,

but my absolute favorite might be her Ito Yoked Sweater vest... love it.


For accessories, you've got the aforementioned socks and shawl, along with two lovely pairs of stranded mittens, one by Jared Flood

and one by Kirsten Kapur (which also includes a hat pattern).


Pam Allen and Véronik collaborated on the adorable slippers:


while my Popcorn Muffler is shown on a dead-sexy Justin Timberlake-esque gentleman.


The cover pattern is Robin Melanson's Lucky Seven Beret (aren't those mushrooms around the edge too cute?).


For kids, you've got an adorable bear


and a sweet boy's sweater -- I like how the sweater is interesting to knit but not too cutesy or ornate for a boy to wear. Of course it would look darling in, say, Cyclamen, Magenta or Azalea for a girl....

Last up is the Galaxy Pillow, which I can appreciate even more given my current obsession with patchwork and quilting.

You can purchase St-Denis Magazine either directly from the St-Denis website, or from many fine shops (there's a list on the St-Denis website).

New St-Denis Magazine ....

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this before, but did I ever tell you how dearly I love Véronik Avery? Just out: the second issue of St.-Denis Magazine, the magazine which accompanies Véronik's lovely yarn line.

I am thrilled to report that I have two designs in this issue. The first is a tabard, a layering piece, for little girls:


It's knit in one piece and requires very little finishing. Nordique yarn is really wonderful for colorwork, so it was great fun to play with swatches. It probably won't surprise you to learn that it was designed with Little Miss in mind.

Although we were unable to fly Little Miss to Montreal for a photo shoot, the little girl who is wearing it is absolutely beautiful, no?

The other garment is a woman's sweater called Michelene (my great-grandmother who emigrated from Poland was named Michelene):


This sweater is knit in the new St.-Denis yarn, Boréale, which is a fingering-weight version of Nordique. For those of you wrinkling your nose at "fingering weight," be advised that Michelene is knit at a looser gauge, so that you can't complain about it taking too long to knit.



If you'd like to ogle the rest of the patterns before you immediately call your LYS to see when the magazine will be in stock, go here. There are so many lovely patterns in this issue, including a terrific cardigan by Laura Grutzeck and designs from such other knitting luminaries as Robin Melanson, Kat Coyle, Jared Flood and Pam Allen.

P.S. My Asymmetric Pullover design from the first St.-Denis Magazine



is now available as a single download exclusively from Patternfish. Go here.

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.

A weekend with Vévé

Ah, what a wonderful weekend it's been! Instead of getting sad that I had to take Véronik to the airport this morning, I will tell you about some of the fun things we did during her whirlwind visit. After arriving Friday evening, we swept Véronik right from the baggage claim into Center City, where we had a lovely Thai dinner with Craig of Loop, Laura G. and some other friends. Veronik appeared at Loop on Saturday:



On display were many of the garments from the fall issue of St-Denis's magazine, including this lovely vest



and Mary Jane Mucklestone's beautiful jacket:



Craig had stocked up on plenty of the lovely Nordique yarn:


and best of all, we got a sneak preview of the new St-Denis yarn, called Boreale, which will be coming out very soon. It's a fingering weight and comes in the same lovely palette as Nordique. Veronik had brought a few of the garments that will be in the spring St-Denis magazine, like these stranded gauntlets, and underneath you can see another lovely stole:


And of course, so many great people came, like Anmiryam


and Lisa and Allison (I'm sorry your eyes are closed, Craig!!)

and this friendly group of NJ knitters (but can you guess which one is called "Gooey"? she sure didn't look gooey to me, she looked pretty):


and the Irish goddess herself, shown here hugging the Polish Princess:


I was having such a good time, I didn't even get to take photos of pals like Aileen or Laura or Jennifer (not Genyphur) or some of the nice new folks I met like Jenny and Terry or the Facebook friends I met in real life like Hope. . .

It appears that some people ended the afternoon by looking for hot men wearing knitwear on teh Interwebz:


By the coy little smile on Craig's face, I'm guessing they just found a particularly hawt model.

Sunday was brunch in New Hope with Joe (posing here with Tom)

les beaux mecs

and Kathy Merrick and Liza Lucy,

le baiser

who has a fantastic quilting book with Kaffe Fassett about to be released by Stewart Tabori & Chang.



We ogled the quilts and the fabric



and more amazing quilts



and two incredibly sweet dogs (this is Sadie):


But alas, even the best weekends must come to an end. Bon voyage, Véronik! Come back soon!