Jan/Feb Color Knitting Links

I completely spaced the January Color Knitting Links so I'm combining January and February for one huge list. I promise to try to keep the links to a more manageable size in the future.

FREE PATTERNS

The Peony Handwarmers include a feather and fan type cuff and are knit in DK weight yarn.

The mosaic Burntwater Socks use one solid and one multicolored sock yarn.

The My Rose Red hat by Christi Wasson uses two colors of worsted weight yarn and might be a perfect gift for a special Valentine.

The I Love Someone with Autism Beret uses three colors of Paton's Classic Wool.

This Drops baby sweater pattern has a rabbit motif and it even includes matching trousers and socks.

Maria Leigh's wild and crazy Brickwork socks use one solid and one variegated yarn for an eye-catching result. I may have to make these.

The Colorwork Turtleneck Sweater from Better Homes and Gardens uses worsted weight yarn and is a good choice for a beginning color knitter.

Bernat has this Yoke Sweaters for the Whole Family pattern available. The sweaters feature turtlenecks and should be quick to knit in bulky weight yarn. 

HERE are some free patterns for Icelandic sweaters and a few hats using thick Lopi yarn.

The Helsingland Toddler mittens are a quick knit in Aran weight yarn and feature a flared cuff.

PATTERNS FOR SALE

I still have post-traumatic stress syndrome from having to read Beowulf in college but the rest of you might love these incredible Hwaet socks from Sanguine Gryphon which use some of the text from the first page of the manuscript. I love the yarns used for this project.

Barbara Gregory's Dragon Paws use fingering weight to make a great fingering weight mitten for dragon lovers of all ages.

Lynn DT Hershberger of Color Joy offers these colorful Keys and Coins Andean Style Hats with Optional Ear Flaps through Patternfish. The hats use a self-striping yarn along with a solid and are a good choice for a beginning color knitter.

Kirsten Jensen's Sant'Angelo Sweater is a gorgeous pattern knit in sport weight yarn. I love the flared cuffs.

If you love corrugated ribbing as much as I do, check out Lucy Neatby's Sizzling Hot Hat. It is double knit using sock yarn.

Rebecca Blair's elaborate and intricate Guardian Gloves use 3 colors a row and duplicate stitch in Palette yarn. Check them out to see how magnificent a stranded design can look when you add extra colors to each row.

Mary Jane Mucklestone's Halcyon Hat uses 6 colors of fingering weight yarn and looks like a good pattern for beginners.

Elinor Brown's Forest Mushroom Mittens use lots of my beloved braids with some simple color designs in 3 colors of sport weight yarn.

TECHNIQUES/REFERENCE

Tips and Techniques: Color Dominance in Stranded Knitting has a good photo showing a pair of geometric mittens with the dominant color switched on the second mitten.

Here's a PDF form you can fill out to keep track of which colors of Palette you have. Speaking of Palette, here's a great photo on Flickr of the Palette colors with names and numbers in grayscale so you can get a better idea of the contrast between colors.

I've been working on updating the group pages for the Stranded forum on Ravelry. Check it out especially the recommended Color Knitting Books list, Wool Yarns Recommended for Colorwork, Other Yarns Recommended for Colorwork, and Cast On and Bind Off Techniques.

There is a good thread HERE in the Xtreme Fair Isle Knitting group on Ravelry on Knitting with Older Eyes. My personal favorite suggestion from a fellow mod on the Stranded forum - put a white towel on your lap to help see your knitting better.

Another good Rav thread is this one on how to break out of color ruts in the Color Coordinated forum.

OTHER

Laura is giving away a free copy of her book about intarsia, Picture Perfect Knits. Just comment on her blog by tomorrow at 3 pm Pacific time to enter.

Sam from Lakeland is the chullo queen of Ravelry. Check out her project page for photos of dozens of gorgeous chullos.

Looks like Bea Ellis is selling off her inventory on Ebay HERE. Check it out if you're seeking any Dale of Norway patterns or yarn.

Need a new knitting notebook? You can't do much better than this cool Fair Isle notebook with a stranded wool cover from the Shetland museum.

Loopyworks' Fitted Jacket with Embroidery is a work of art. I'd make this myself but I doubt I'd ever wear it.

One of my favorite color knitting inspirations is MariannAn on Ravelry. Check out her mind-boggling Leaving for Miklagaard at Sunset socks. She used the Sandnes free Viking Ship pattern for some of the colorwork. Also check out her Tudor Roses socks using the Starmore Henry VIII pattern for inspiration.

Another Ravelry FO I love is Jenniferaf's Bohus Blue Shimmer Hat.

Here is a Chicago Tribune article on how traditional Fair Isle designs are inspiring today's fashions.

Beckyzzz's beautiful A.S. Inspired Sweater used colors from one of her mom's paintings.

Here's a good message thread about Jamieson and Smith raising the price of their Shetland yarns and the future for this industry.

I'm planning on trying out some new needles soon. First I'm going to get a pair of the 5" Kollage square double pointed needles for gloves and I also want to try some of the new 9" circular needles for mittens and socks. Has anyone tried either of these needles for colorwork?

EVENTS 

We're starting a KAL on Ravelry's Stranded Forum for the Undergrowth Hat in the current issue of Knitty on the Stranded forum on February 15th. It uses two colors of sport weight yarn.

Our Glove Knitter's forum is doing a Stranded Gloves KAL. It starts March 1 and goes for two months and even includes prizes. I think I'm going to do the Red Bud Gloves by Alexis Winslow.

Knit Picks is holding an ongoing Colorwork KAL with reference info and links to some of their colorwork patterns.

SpillyJane is holding a contest. If you knit her free pattern for Camilla patterns (PDF here) and send her a photo before the end of February, she'll send you any of her patterns you choose.

February is Stephanie van der Linden month on Sock Knitter's Anonymous. Cast on any of her sock patterns in February and you have until the end of March to finish. There are lots of great prizes for some of the lucky competitors. 

A Few September Links for Color Knitters

I'm still terribly behind on work - I'm already a week behind on my hat for Knit Picks. I am not able to attend Taos Wool Festival this weekend so I hope those of you attending will have extra fun for me.

I do have a few links for you and I hope to be back to normal soon. I have a ton of stuff I want to post about dealing with floats in stranded color knitting. Plus I have several new books to review.

LINKS FOR COLOR KNITTERS

I absolutely love Lorraine Condotta's  Scare Isle tam in the new Knitty with ghosts and spiders.

Some charts and German instructions for a beautiful sweater - the design reminds me a bit of Dale of Norway's Kashmir sweater.

Here's another blank mitten chart you can print out for making your own color design. This one comes in three sizes and is for fingering weight yarns.

Has anyone ordered Colorwork Creations: 30+ Patterns to Knit Gorgeous Hats, Mittens and Gloves by Susan Anderson-Freed? I think I am going to wait for the Kindle version. (The photos won't be in color on the Kindle but they should be if I transfer the book to my PC using the Kindle for PC software.)

Another new stranded book I'm going to order is Kathleen Taylor's Fearless Fair Isle Knitting. Amazon doesn't give a date though.

I did two quick surveys on Ravelry that are proving interesting. How do you hold the yarns in stranded color knitting? and How do you deal with floats in stranded color knitting? Be sure to read the comments in the floats survey - there is some interesting stuff there.

Knit Picks has a new kit, the Falling Stars kit, for a Bohus inspired sweater and hat, and it is under $35.


Well back to the grindstone!

August Links for Color Knitters

I saw this colorful Churro yarn at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market last week.


COLOR KNITTING LINKS


Here are a few more links for you. I am taking next week off from blogging but I should be back after that with some sort of FO.


The 3rd Annual Nordic Knitting Conference takes place October 15-17 at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle. Instructors include Nancy Bush, Beth Brown-Reinsel and Evelyn Clark. Be still my heart!


I'm completely in love with the adorable bunny mittens on this page and want to make them soon. I think the way it works is that you order the pattern and then print it in a limited period of time. I don't have a printer so I'll have to convince DH to do it at work.


The kit for the Knit Picks Chullo hat has returned in two colorways of Palette. I really like the jewel but I am going to order the earth tones since that is what DH requested. Supposedly you can manage 3 or 4 hats with the yarn making this quite the bargain at $17.99.


Looks like Drops has a new multicolored yarn out called Delight. They have a few new free stranded patterns using it with a solid color - Delight Mittens, Delight Socks, and Delight Mittens w/Dancing People on the cuff.


Speaking of mittens, we just started a Mitten KAL on the Stranded Forum on Ravelry. You can knit any mitten or fingerless mitt pattern as long as it has some colorwork so come join us!


And on Sept. 15th we're starting a Glove KAL on the Glove Knitting Forum on Ravelry. This is a perfect opportunity to finish a pair of gloves for a holiday gift.


HERE is a new book out with intarsia cat designs and lots of info on different cat breeds.


And for the dogs, a Fair Isle Dog Bed Kit from Jimmy Beans Wool.

August Color Knitting Links

An eagle-eyed knitter on the Dale of Norway Ravelry group noticed that in the Norwegian Patterns for Knitting book by Mette N. Handberg some of the color charts extend over the center page fold. I'm not sure if you would be able to xerox the charts or even read them accurately without breaking the spine of the book. I've encountered some Dale booklets w/really large charts over 2 pages but the Dale booklets are easier to just dismantle to copy the charts properly. It looks like four of the charts in the book extend over the center page fold. I'll edit the original review to include that info.

COLOR KNITTING LINKS

Lizbeth Upitis (author of the Latvian Mittens book) will be moderating a Latvian Mitten KAL on Ravelry. I believe it starts tomorrow and you need to sign in HERE. I wish I could join but I cannot add another thing on the needles right now.

Yarns International is featuring some sweater kits from Ron Schweitzer's new Shetland Lighthouses collection. There's also a slideshow of the lighthouses that inspired his designs.


According to Janel Laidman's blog, she is starting a colorwork sock of the month group. Registration for the club starts today.

Whenever I feel wanderlust, I go to the Alpine Adventure Agency's 2010 Fiber Workshop schedule? Knitting watching the boats at Portofino? Or perhaps a winter vacation in the Tyrolean Alps? I could definitely handle it. The photos are spectacular. Their Ravelry page is HERE.

It isn't too early to start thinking about your Christmas knitting! Here are some fun free Christmas stocking patterns (PDF) using Cascade 220.

The Dale of Norway Peace Sweater is on sale now at Zappo's - from $372 down to $181. I really wish they'd release the knitting pattern!


Here is a Ravelry photo of Lucy Neatby's Paradoxical Mittens. The knitter says she switched up how she held the yarns for each mitten to make them even more paradoxical and it shows off the whole yarn dominance thing quite well. I love the knitter's choice of black and white with a peek of red for the pattern.

Don't you need to build yourself a yarn playpen so you can dream about color combinations? Janine the Feral Knitter offers instructions.

The first issue of Knitting Iceland is offering this free pattern for the lovely Freyja cardigan using Lopi unspun.

Pam Allen has started her own wool yarn line from US sources, Quince and Co., and each weight offers a good selection of colors for colorwork. Tern is the sock yarn and those colors aren't up on the web site yet.

I'm debating buying this Kilim Sock kit from Renaissance Dyeing - they are outrageously beautiful but we're talking 3 colors a row throughout. Hmmmm. Perhaps I should get the Roman de la Rose kit instead - a lot more colors but only 2 colors a row as far as I can tell.

Because I've been chained to the computer this week, I chose a wonderful free pattern for Log Cabin Dishcloths to work on while staring at the monitor. They are seriously addictive; I've knit two more since I took this photo.The pink and green yarns are Lion Brand Bamboo (splitty but beautiful) and the purples are Knitpicks Shine. Speaking of Log Cabin knitting designs, check out Janine's beautiful Parcheesi Afghan (the pattern is also free) in over 30 different colors of Shetland jumper weight yarn.

Every time I go to our library branch, I want to bring this wonderful jade plant home with me. I'll bet it is older than the library building.