Short Rant, A Cupcake, and a Few Links

So it looks like my glove knitting booklet got dissed again on Amazon, this time by a reader who I think is having some confusion about thumb gussets. He/she stated that the booklet contains only one pattern (it contains two patterns) and wrote "Do not write "make the second glove as the first and reverse the thumb gore pattern". A novice knitter most likely has not reversed a pattern or even made their first pair of gloves."  I NEVER SAID THAT - the Geometric Gloves use a sore thumb gusset and you knit two of the exact same glove and the Colorblock Gloves have a peasant thumb and there are separate instructions for the right and left hand thumbs.

The reviewer also reviewed The Knitter's Handy Book of Knitting Patterns and was also unhappy about the same right hand/left hand glove issue. I left comments under the reviews trying to explain that sore thumb gussets do not have a right and a left side so perhaps their confusion will be cleared up. It doesn't seem fair to receive a one star review that says things about my booklet (including using quotation marks??) that aren't even true. 

To sweeten things up around here, how about a cupcake potholder? I was approached to do a book proposal for a British publisher last summer on the subject of knitted potholders. Each potholder was to highlight a different technique. The proposal was a rush job and not particularly pleasant and the cupcake would have looked better if the green I-cord was longer. I like the cherry though. I haven't heard back about the book but I have already decided to stop designing and writing technique booklets (and reading my Amazon reviews!!!) and learn to enjoy knitting again. I just have one final fingerless glove design to knit up next month using Carol Sunday's beautiful yarns.

Here are a few new links for color knitters. I am going to try to post these more frequently so you don't have 100 links to go through at a time.

FREE PATTERNS

Dale of Norway is offering this free pattern for a cute toddler dress with flowers (PDF).

Designer Varian Brandon has done a series of free chullo-type patterns with earflaps using Cascade 220: River Fire (my fave), River Blossom, and River Star.

I'd make this geometric Drops sweater for DH in a flash if it was sized up to XL. Best part? No boring plain color sections.

This colorful hat was inspired by the book the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and uses Shetland Spindrift.


PATTERNS FOR SALE

The Wintry Mix Mitts by Grace and Alice Schnebly use 3 colors of sport weight yarn.

I like these Zigzag Tams from Classic Elite Yarns.

The Douglas Mittens are a wonderful lined mitten using Cascade 220. I think DH would love these and it is usually hard to find colorwork mitten patterns he'd like.

I like the Cascade 220 colors used on these Folklore Mittens by Randi K. Design.

I love all of Mary Ann's designs - check out her newest Tulip Mittens. I love how you can add your initials and date on the inside of the thumb.

KALs

Here is a KAL for Ann Feitelson's pretty Hillswick Lumber sweater.

EBOOKS

The Four Seasons ebook includes four colorwork hat patterns for $6 CAD.

YOUTUBE

Kristin Nicholas has a whole video series showing how to embroider on knitting HERE.

KITS

Holiday Yarns is offering this pretty sock kit, Coeur d'Oro.

BOOKS

Norsk Strikkdesign is being republished next month as Norwegian Knitting Designs.


ETA:

I apologize that I keep forgetting to mention the Warm Hats Not Hot Heads group to promote civility in politics no matter your political affiliation! HERE is their Ravelry page and they are attempting to knit hats for every member of Congress.

Finally Some Links!

I forgot to show you this shot of South Mountain which overlooks Edgewood, NM. Yes, it is true that the yarn stores there look quite modest from the outside but check out what I noticed in looking closely at this photo from the needlepoint section of Edgewood Yarns and Fibers.

Those bagged kits are from the wonderful Ehrman Tapestry!! I even had one in my hand and didn't inspect it closely enough!

Laurie asked me what books I bought through Knit Picks' 40% off sale. I don't even think I'm done as I just got Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks from the library and I need to get my own copy. It is full of technique goodness. Anyway, my newest purchases are: the new Mette N. Handberg Norwegian book (will review it here), Elizabeth Lovick's ebook on Fair Isle knitting (will review it here), Respect the Spindle, Knitting More Circles Around Socks, Bev Galeska's Magic Loop book and the book co-authored by Stephanie Van Der Linden, The Sock Knitter's Workshop.

I've been remiss on posting the colorwork links so go grab a cup of tea and check some of these out.

COLOR KNITTING LINKS

HERE is a link to an upcoming Martin Storey Nordic Knits book available in October. Amazon says not until November.

Fleegle has posted a review of the inexpensive charting software, Intwined Studio. I plan to get a copy for myself to check it out soon. It sounds more handy than my current software, Stitch and Motif Maker.

The FREE pattern for Mitaines Danseuses is in English and French and perfect if you have a little ballerina in your life.

I just love the stranded gloves by designer Alexis Winslow especially the Red Bud Gloves. I plan to purchase some of her patterns as soon as I am up to knitting more gloves.

This link goes straight to the FREE Sandnesgarn PDF for the spectacular and ornate Viking Ship sweater (they call it the Dragon Boat.)

It looks like all 13 intarsia sweater patterns from Borealis Sweaterscapes are now FREE for downloading. I like the the Moon Garden Cardigan  and Northern Forest sweater myself.

Check out the Chuncho colorwork socks complete with llamas and bugs and all sorts of stuff. If your taste runs to Peruvian designs, this pattern is for you.

While you're at it, check out the Peruvian-inspired Oslo Cairo hat pattern. It is FREE and available in Spanish, English, or French.

Ixtab has a great video showing a two-color cast on for toe-up socks. Plus I love her accent! :)

If you are not reading Mary Ann Stephen's Two Strands blog, HERE is a link to the Ravelry page for her newest beautiful design the Amaryllis hat. It matches her Amaryllis mittens - you can buy the patterns alone or the kits using Baby Ull.

Uh oh! Shetland teaching cuts might endanger the tradition of Fair Isle knitting.

Just found this pattern today and I love it! A child's Merry-Go-Round hat that uses one solid and one multi-colored yarn.

The Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry is working on a toe-up colorwork Mystery Sock (called a Mock) designed by Chrissy Gardiner. The first clue has already been posted and you have until the end of July to sign up and until the end of August to finish to qualify for all sorts of prizes.

I'm considering this kit for a Sandnesgarn man's sweater from Allegro Yarns. It looks like there is very little boring solid color knitting. I'd have to sub the Peer Gynt for the superwash.

Have you always wanted to knit some Kaffe Fassett's intarsia sweaters with a zillion colors? HERE is a web site where you can purchase the older kits with rare yarns.

OTHER KNITTING LINKS

Knit Your Own Donuts! High in fiber but low in fat?

I may make this FREE Nancy Bush Estonian pattern for the Fox Faces Socks the next time I do some solid color knitting.

Here is a mitten tree you can buy to dry off your handknit mittens by the fire. I love it!

Here is a FREE pattern for some adorable knitted baby alligators.

HERE is a good blog post on needle gauges - did you know the plastic ones can stretch out over time? Personally I always break them or lose them before that happens.

My Summer of Pillows

The comedian Jim Gaffigan once talked about his wife's excessive love of pillows and wondered if she was stockpiling ammo for the global pillow fight. I can relate and will soon be ready for the Great Pillow War as I plan to spend this summer making knit and embroidered pillows.

Here's the first one with the embroidery finished - it is a simple snowflake candlewicking project from Janalynn. I'll get a better photo after blocking and assembly - I think I'm going to add either tassels or an I-cord edging if I can find a yarn color that looks good with the design.

I have also been purchasing pillows - I just ordered this fun ribbon embroidered pillow cover at Pottery Barn Teen on sale for $9.99.

I am not even that fond of needlepoint but I loved this medallion design so I have to make it as well.

Besides the Starmore Celtic Keynot pillow in progress, I have chosen a few colorful knit pillow designs I hope to make:

Here are three choices from the Interweave store. I like that the Fair Isle Pillows use buttons to close one end. The Origata Pillow download includes instructions to make a bolster pillow. And finally they have the lovely colorwork Paisley Pillow designs.

I love Kristin Nicholas' Sunflower Pillow design with the addition of embroidery. Her Turkish Motifs Pillow design includes embroidery and duplicate stitch for a complex colorwork design.

I like this October Fair Isle Pillow pattern for use with a multi-colored yarn (It specifies Noro Kureyon.)

The Snowy Sheep Pillow is really cute - it has sheep grazing in the woods on a snowy day.

I did find one free pillow knitting pattern I really like - the Classic Elite La Gran Fair Isle Pillow uses a zillion colors and would be a perfect way to use up stash yarns. I will re-work it to use my Cascade 220 stash and to yield a smaller pillow. If I feel like doing some intarsia, the La Gran Posies Pillow is also free and really pretty.

Nothing But Links

In September Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting book will be reprinted; it has a new cover and the blurb says it is expanded. I think I'll wait to hear about the expanded part to determine if I should buy another copy. The photo above is a close-up from my St. Enda sweater from the book; the finished sweater turned out large enough for DH and I to fit into it at the same time!

GLOVES

I wanted to link to the work of a wonderful glove designer, Asa Tricosa. I am especially in love with her Io Gloves.

COLORWORK

HERE is a free pattern for a pretty Latvian hat pattern that uses Satakieli yarn.

Check out Cynthia Wasner's (cwoz on Ravelry) Norsk Needlework site. I am especially in love with her Quaker Sampler sweater with matching mittens.

I don't recall how I even found EvaL8 on Flickr but check out the embroidered felted mittens at the bottom of the page. If you scroll through her photos you'll also find some wonderful stranded shawls.

I greatly enjoy Johanne Landin's Born to Knit blog. She designs colorwork accessories patterns and lives in Sweden. The blog is in English and contains beautiful photos.

HERE is Jorid Linvik's pattern shop - she does a lot of wonderful stranded designs featuring animals. I love her cat socks.

Jessica Tromp is offering a beautiful stranded cardigan pattern for free; the Noors Vest uses DK weight yarn.

I'm considering making these spectacular Nordic Kathrine socks by Ellen Haugland the next time I'm in the mood to knit socks.

This free pattern for the La Gran Fair Isle pillow is a good stash buster and it only uses 2 colors per row.

PATTERNS FOR CHARITY

P/HOP stands for Pennies for Hours of Pleasure and is a knitting fundraiser for Doctors without Borders. They have a few pretty stranded sock patterns and you decide how much you want to donate when you download the pattern.

Inside Out Sweater

I will have a finished mitten design to show you this weekend when DH is available to take photographs. I used Vermont O~Wool's Classic-2 ply which is an organic merino wool. Every time I knit with merino I get so thrilled with the softness and elasticity that I declare I will only knit with merino wool from here on out. Of course I make the same ridiculous pronouncements whenever I knit with cashmere as well!

To my knitter's eye there was something weird about this sweater when I first saw it in the Territory Ahead catalog. On second viewing I realized half of it is inside out so the floats are on the front. What do you think? They call it a mixed-knit sweater and the upper sleeves are lower torso are inside out.

Here's a view of storm clouds approaching the Sandia Mountains. This is actually the other side of the Sandia Mountains that you usually see in my photos and was taken in Bernalillo, NM. They call my side of the mountains the green side so I guess this is the dry side of the mountains. Some say the mountains are named Sandia (watermelon in Spanish) because of the gorgeous rosy color they turn in a sunset but I've also heard that the early Native American settlers actually grew watermelon.

Today's Color Knitting Links:

Check out Mary Ann's gorgeous Polar Bear Chullo pattern in the winter Twist Collective. If I wasn't still laboring to finish another fine gauge hat (Selbu Modern) I'd cast on for this one immediately. Mary Ann also is offering yarn kits for the pattern HERE. Also in Twist Collective is the Frost Tapestry pattern - you get the pattern for the hat, mittens, and neckwarmer that calls for Elann's Peruvian Pure Alpaca.

Mitten knitter extraordinaire Ann (pinneguri on Ravelry) offers some beautiful free colorwork patterns - I just love her Latvian mitten pattern.

Here's another tutorial on How To Catch Floats in Fair Isle Knitting.

Bea Ellis Knitwear is having a 20% off sale on Dale of Norway's Baby Ull yarn. Would you believe that I've never knit with it? I even have some in my stash. I'm going to pick out some colors to design a pair of colorwork gloves.

Here's an apron useful for color knitters to help keep track of all the balls of yarn while you're knitting. I like that they mention it helps you avoid tripping over a strand of yarn when you get up to answer the door. Been there, done that a million times!

For those of you who love traditional Fair Isle knitting in naturally-colored wool, check out the always-amazing Ron Schweitzer. It looks like his newest collection is called Shetland Lighthouses.

Dale of Norway now sells directly to the public. Check out their close-out pattern and book shop to grab all the booklets before they disappear forever.

I just found these gorgeous hats on the Virtual Yarns web site. It sounds like you get enough Hebridean 2-ply yarn in 10 colors and the patterns from Ms. Starmore to make all three hats for around $60 US. HERE's a larger view. Breathtaking!!