Maryland Report, part 2 (or Eye Candy Monday)

One of my favorite parts of Maryland Sheep & Wool is going through the building that houses the prizewinners: finished projects and yarn that have won the ribbons. This year was no exception; the entries ranged from the absurd to the sublime. It's exciting to see how much enthusiasm there is for the fiber arts and how many talented people are out there. For example, look at these lovely lace entries:




The felted objects always fascinate me. This year someone made an entire, life-size LAMB using felting techniques:



For the kids, there were the VeggieTales


and a bunneh


and, um, other things:



I took a special interest in the socks; I think the first one was made with handspun yarn, too.




Look at this heirloom christening dress:


Last but not least, I am always inspired by the skeins of handspun that I see:





And now, with QueerJoe in mind, I present to you a special selection of : Men Wearing Kilts.





Kilt-lovers of America, rejoice.

Md. Sheep & Wool report

Two words that best describe yesterday's visit to Maryland Sheep & Wool: ungodly hot. The combination of ninety-plus degree weather, lots of sun, and lots of people and animals crowded into barns meant that it was an uncomfortable and sweaty day.

Fortunately, there were plenty of things to distract us from the weather. Our drive down was uneventful and very pleasant as we exchanged gossip and caught up with each other. Alas, faithful companion Jim was unable to attend, but Kathy was able to come, which was very fun (although it would have been even more fun if Jim came too!):


When I first started coming to Maryland, it was all about the fiber. But as my stash has grown and my tastes have developed, it's now become all about the people. We quickly found Anmiryam:


(I would like to point out that after years of dedicated trying, I believe I have finally managed to take a photo of Kathy in which she is looking directly at the camera, eyes open and smiling. It's a Christmas miracle (early)!)

We immediately went to Kid Hollow and found Mindy, and were delighted when Bridget joined us;


Along the way we ran into Lisa and Sherry:


and cutie-pie Turtlegirl76


I left Poorluci's cell phone number in the car, and I was really sad that I'd miss her, when look who we saw on the way out of the parking lot:

Poorluci and a bunch of Ravelry LSGers!

I simply cannot forget the Sisters D: Knitty D and her wonderful sister Alison:

As usual, they set up base camp near where Brooks Farms used to be (they changed the layout of some of the booths) and while I was visiting, I got to see Robin, Wendy, and some other Philly folks.

It seemed crowded when we first arrived, but as the day wore on, we got the impression it wasn't as packed with people as it has been in years past. Maybe the heat was sending people home early? It is kind of hard to get excited about wool when it's 90 degrees out. It's also hard to get excited about going inside a yurt made of felted wool in that kind of weather:


Were there cute animals there, you ask? Well, of course! Here's a bebeh alpaca:



and here are some of the Kid Hollow goatehs


and I won't even discuss the teeny gray bunny that I almost brought home to be Charcoal's pal. (I was afraid to, though, because I didn't want Charcoal, Tom and the new bunny to get into some weird love triangle. It's already bad enough when your husband comes home from work and greets the pet rabbit before he greets you.)

There was the requisite sheep shearing,


and clearly this sheep disapproved.


Did I buy anything, you ask? Not tons -- trying to save money for Elvis's braces, you know, but I did get some fleeces to be processed for BBF and I did splurge on some luscious Koigu roving:



As we reflected on the day, we couldn't help but think of friends who weren't there to share in the fun, like Franklin, and the rest of the Wolvies, and Ve-ve, and of course, Jim, and a bunch of others, including L. and A., my Facebook pals. Someday I'll meet L. and A., and when I do, I imagine it'll look something like this:


Tomorrow: a look at the prize-winners and a special treat for QueerJoe....

Other people's FOs: Emo socks

Here are some pix of a lovely sock made by Anmiryam, in BBF Superwash Merino Classic, colorway Emo.


Because I have early onset Alzheimer's, I forget the name of the pattern but I'm sure she'll chime in.


Other than that, I got nothin'.

Update today: beautiful bamboo/merino blend & a new laceweight

Sorry I've been quiet lately. Nothing unusual going on; just haven't had much to blog about other than the occasional book review and pattern or yarn announcement. I am very much looking forward to Maryland Sheep & Wool, which is this coming weekend. I will take lots of photos and give you the full report. In the meantime, I've got two lovely new base yarns. The first is a laceweight, a blend of 80% alpaca and 20% silk.

Spring Rain

I just bought a little of this to see how it would perform in the dyepots and what it would be like texture-wise, and I think you'll like it. Super-soft and takes the dye beautifully. I've got 800-yard skeins in four colorways.

Chocolatte Plum

I'll definitely be getting some more of this for future updates.

The other yarn is a fingering weight blend of 80% superwash merino and 20% bamboo fibers. I've called it "Bamberino" and the skeins are around 420 yds/100g.

Dew-Pearled

This is an extremely soft yarn with a gorgeous hand. Because of the merino content, it doesn't feel excessively limp but you get an extra sheen and silkiness from the bamboo fibers.

Frosted Violet

I tried to create some colorways that felt like spring, a bit softer and clearer.

Tawny

There are some brights, too, but I love the way the yarn creates gorgeous muted colorways like this:

Cherry Blossoms

Use the code on the front page of the website for free shipping on merchandise over $25....

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.

Blog Tour: Knits Men Want, by Bruce Weinstein

Knitting for men is a proposition fraught with peril. Sometimes it seems as though the kinds of things the knitter wants to make for a man in her life are completely different from what that man wants to wear. Add to that the varying styles that men can have (compare a hipster working in a creative field in Soho to a suburban guy with an office job to a man who lives in a rural area spending a lot of time outdoors) and although a knitter may badly want to make something for her guy, she may not know exactly what.



Enter Bruce Weinstein. Fresh from our friends at Stewart Tabori & Chang comes Knits Men Want: The 10 Rules Every Woman Should Know Before Knitting for a Man~ Plus the Only 10 Patterns She'll Ever Need (2010; MSRP $18.95, available for $12.89 at the time of this writing through the link). Weinstein is ably assisted in his venture by Jared Flood, a.k.a. "Brooklyn Tweed," who took the beautiful photographs that fill the book.

Raglan-Sleeved Henley

Knits Men Want is a somewhat untraditional knitting book. It begins with an introduction explaining Weinstein's philosophy, and then is organized into ten chapters. Each chapter begins with one of Weinstein's "rules" for knitting for men, backed up by a few paragraphs of personal anecdote (my least favorite part, actually, since I thought that it veered into stereotype a bit too much), and is accompanied by one master pattern. The master pattern is a kind of template or table, giving the knitter different sizes to pick from and different gauge choices, enabling her to select the type of yarn she (or her man) prefers, determine its gauge, and then go right to the numbers that correspond to yarn gauge and size.

Because this is a book that is premised on the opinion that men and women think very differently about knitting, I've decided to do something a little different for this post. You may be aware that I am not a man, nor do I play a man on teevee. Therefore, I have enlisted the help of a real, live, 100% certified man to proffer his opinion on Knits Men Want: Mr. Go-Knit-In-Your-Hat himself, my beloved husband.

First though, I will run through the mechanics of the book for you. Knits Men Want is a paperback with fold-in covers, approx. 128 pages long. I know I've already mentioned that Brooklyn Tweed did the photography, but it bears repeating because the photographs (and the styling) are so beautiful. The book contains a total of ten patterns, but as noted above, these are more in the nature of templates, since they provide instructions for multiple gauges. The ten patterns consist of the following: six sweaters (one contains a vest variation, too), fingerless mitts, thick socks, a cabled scarf and a watch cap. The sweater sizes range from 40" to 60" finished chest, going by four-inch increments. Even the mitts, hat and socks come in varying circumferences, a nice touch that recognizes that men come in different sizes too. (The scarf is, obviously, presented in only one size/gauge, but features an inset box with tips for changing gauge.) Schematics are provided for the sweaters (note that some of the tech editing was done by the eagle-eyed Robin Melanson) and the cable pattern for the scarf is charted. There's a page of special techniques in the back, but the book wisely assumes that the reader already knows the basics of knitting.

One final note: if you have a knitting-for-a-guy story, check out STC's Knits Men Want sweepstakes here. There are all sorts of prizes available, including some of the sample items from the book.

Without further ado, to give you the man's opinion on the patterns and advice, I now present a Very Special Guest Contributor:

Mr. Go-Knit-In-Your-Hat's Book Review

As a non-knitter, but someone who isn't clueless about clothes (unlike the standard-issue guy described by Weinstein), I had a mainly positive reaction to Knits Men Want. Weinstein gives some solid recommendations about what men look for in a knitted garment -- muted colors, subtle styling (e.g. no big shawl collars), finer gauge fabric, small plain buttons, non-shiny zippers, and so on. On the other hand, he frames his advice in too many Mars-Venus stereotypes (women love to shop; men wear the same thing for 20 years; women are verbal; men just buy 10 copies of the same sweater in different dark colors; men use their sweaters to clean up spills and can't be trusted with nice fabric; women love cute bright stuff; men are big babies who only want to wear oversized soft clothing).

I used to think that Italian-American stereotypes were the last socially-acceptable prejudice (see, for example, commercials for jarred pasta sauce; commercials for The Olive Garden; Tony Danza's entire career; Joey from Friends) but I think the stereotype of the always-befuddled, helpless, meathead guy/dad/husband/boyfriend may have the guido thing beat. (Could you imagine the uproar if women were routinely portrayed in the media as being unable to dress or groom themselves, make decorating decisions, operate household appliances, or follow instructions on over-the-counter medicine labels without assistance from their smarter, savvier spouse, fiancé, children or sassy gay sidekick?)

But now I'll climb down from my soapbox and talk about the garments in the book.A couple of the sweaters in the book are great and go right to the top of my maybe-a-certain-someone-could-knit-that-for-me list. The Baseball Jersey with the saddle shoulder (rather than the traditional raglan sleeves) is a definite keeper -- deceptively simple looking but with an unexpected design element that keeps it from being boring.

Baseball Jersey

The Zipper Cardigan manages to avoid the Mr. Rogers look with a nicely proportioned collar and some subtle stripes created with different stitch patterns -- not colors.

Basic Cardigan

The Hooded Sweatshirt seems like a great weekend pullover that you could wear most of the year (I might suggest a slightly less elfin shape to the hood, but that's a minor quibble).

Hooded Sweatshirt

On the accessories side, the Thick and Warm Socks are simple-looking but helpfully designed to not fall down (one of my pet peeves with socks).

Thick & Warm Socks

The Reversible Cable Scarf is a handy wardrobe staple and would work with both a casual jacket or a longer topcoat you would wear to work.

Reversible Cable Scarf

The book had a couple of "Huh?" moments for me as well. After all of the advice about understated color and subtle design, the book has some items that made me raise my manly eyebrows -- fingerless mitts in traffic pylon orange (might work in Park Slope, but I'm not expecting to see them in suburbia any time soon);

Fingerless Mitts

and the mock turtleneck, all-over-ribbed Ski Sweater in, um, heathered teal ('nuff said).

Ski Sweater

If I had one major complaint, it's that a book that purports to be a selection of knits for men ignores some major categories of traditional men's designs that I would place under the admittedly imprecise heading "preppy basics" -- for example, there's no argyle, no fair isle, no aran/fisherman sweater, no Norwegian or Lopi-style motifs. Given the aesthetic sensibility that runs through this book, a Weinstein take on one or more of these design traditions could be very interesting.

Overall I liked Knits Men Want for its nicely done patterns for wearable wardrobe basics presented with attractive graphic design and excellent photography. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to watching the game in my undershirt while sitting in my recliner with a beer in my hand.

Mr. Go-Knit-In-Your-Hat is an attorney, raconteur, lagomorph-lover and occasional spokesmodel for Black Bunny Fibers. He is rarely befuddled or helpless and never a meathead.



All photos c.2010 by Jared Flood.