Mandy Moore's Blog, page 102

Knitting Mondays: Cooperative Press Giveaway!

It's the middle of winter and I don't know about you, but I need some knitting inspiration.

 

How about a package of 6 knitting books from some of the most creative knitting minds?

Any one of these books will make your fingers itch to knit.

The folks at Cooperative Press have donated 6 of their most recent knitting books that 1 lucky knitter will win.

 

The usual rules apply for our giveaway: Leave a comment on this post before midnight, eastern time, on Friday, February 10, 2012.

 

1 comment will be chosen at random to answer a skill testing question.

If he/she answers correctly, they will win our prize! Prizes valued at $153.75. Good luck, everyone!

 

Obsession: good tools

WWW: Pucks & Purls, Collapsible Knitting Needles, The 'Hoxton Bonnet'

A match made in heaven.

I know that a lot of knitters in North America enjoy a hockey game to go with their knitting. After all, between October and April, there's an awful lot of it on TV. However this year, for the first time, you can enjoy the hockey live! Saturday February 11th the first annual Pucks & Purls event is being held at the Toronto Marlies game. Tickets are very affordable, and the caliber of the game very good. There will, naturally, be contests and prizes and much yarny fun. More info at the blog. Tickets are available through Toronto's Downtown Knit Collective, online, or at participating stores.

The artist's own face.

A fascinating interview with artist Andrew Salomone who hacks a knitting machine to realize his design ideas. Using Photoshop and the knitting machine, he is able to knit photorealisitc designs into knitwear. He started with a knitted balaclava with a picture of his face on it.  His best known idea is the 'recursive Bill Cosby sweater', showing an image of Bill Cosby wearing one of his trademark sweaters that shows an image of Bill Cosby wearing one of his trademark sweaters…

Starting a new trend, on radio

Fun story out of the UK… two popular radio DJs, Radcliffe and Maconie, helped by the Treacle Wool Shop in Northumberland, are trying to start a new fashion trend: the 'Hoxton Bonnet'.  Yes, that's right – starting a new fashion trend on the radio. The DJs had been commenting on-air on a new  trend amongst their fashionable co-workers: hats with bobbles (pom-poms) on them.  They  mused on the size of the bobble, wondering about the biggest you might be able to put on a hat. Always up for a challenge, the team at Treacle Wool Shop decided to help them out: they knitted up a couple of hats and made the largest pom-poms they could manage – each using over 100gm of yarn!

Our DJS have been wearing their hats since they got them, and talk about them on air frequently. The funny thing is that it seems to be catching on… the term 'Hoxton Bonnet' is starting to spread.

An interesting little project reported on the MAKE blog: collapsible knitting needles. For knitters who prefer long straight needles, this may be the answer to how to safely transport them.

From last year, an interview with New Zealand sock knitter and designer Belinda Too, telling the world at large what we all know about knitting socks: it's not difficult and it's enormous fun!

Best papparrazi shots ever? Katherine Heigl has been photographed shopping for yarn!

Spinning Tuesdays: This Is What Spinning Startitis Looks Like

I've been thinking about my spinning goals for the year, but I have a case of a particular crafting illness.

I have a bad case of Spinning Startitis. For the past week or so I've started a bunch of things.

Here are a few of the bobbins that I've been working on.

 

Yarn Hollow, Yarn Hollow, Spunky Eclectic and Bricolage

A bobbin spun from Shetland roving  from Yarn Hollow, spun woolen. This will become a tight three-ply and eventually mittens.

 

A bobbin spun from Cheviot and Shetland rovings from Yarn Hollow, spun woolen with a double marl to see how the colors work together. This will become a 2-ply, then eventually a shawl.

 

A bobbin spun from South African Fine top from Spunky Eclectic, spun worsted. It nearly killed me, the worsted spinning. It's going to take a lot of practice to get to the point where worsted is a relaxing spin for me. But look at the blue color, that alone kept me going. This is going to be 2-ply, and eventually a lace crescent shawl, I even have the stitch pattern picked out already.

 

A bobbin spun from Bricolage  Studios' handpulled roving. This one I just let rip, it's lumpy, bumpy, thick, thin and all kinds of textured. Right now it's just hanging out. I may ply it with some shiny thread.

 

 

So it's seems I'm really getting the hang of my Spinning with Intention goal for the year. Not really a surprise if you know how much I like to plan things. I probably should add finish what you start to my list of goals. Maybe for 2013.

Our Knitting Goals for 2012: Update #1

Kate's 2012 Knitting:

I've been focusing some time on the Must Have Cardigan, and I'm making decent progress.

 

I decided to be a clever-trousers, and knit both sleeves at the same time.

 

It's actually a great technique for for ensuring that two pieces match completely – they will be the same length, and I can feel comfortable that the shaping rows are all worked at the same time in the same way.  And the cabling will all be lined up.

Coming along.

The challenging bit is that it significantly reduces the portability of the project.  I've got two balls of yarn attached, and it makes it bigger and more tangly.  It no longer fits neatly into my purse.

 

It feels slower, too.  I mean, of course it is, a row takes twice the time to work, since you're working it twice.  It's not, in that you're done both at the same time, but it takes longer to see visible progress.

 

There's also the tiny risk that if you're not paying full attention, you get confuzzled and work too many rows on one side, and get out of alignment.  The green marker is there so I can keep track of which is which.  It's easy enough to get back on track, once you notice it, but it is disconcerting. (I blame it on last week's episode of Fringe.)

 

 Jillian's 2012 Knitting:

I thought I had my Escargot done. I was flying along the decreases, and I noticed something strange. The hat seemed awfully long and quite the wrong shape. I reread the pattern paying attention this time.  I was only doing half of the decreases. Knitter error! Riiiiip just a few inches, and now onward.

 

I do love it!

Escargot in Dream in Color

 

 

Amy's 2012 Knitting:

I missed posting my 2012 goals, due to a missing portion of my left  pointer finger. It's since healed well enough to allow me to not only type [massive relief] but return to knitting! [Ukulele isn't quite back to normal yet. Soon.]

 

Goals for 2012:

- Always have a new shawl design on the needles [after designing Tuscany in 2007, I haven't really done another one since. Am rectifying.]

- One of these shawls will be knit with the handspun I've been making and hoarding for the last 3 years.

- Learn more about the new fibers I am discovering I can knit with after all and how they behave! [Camel, yak, alpaca.]

 

On the needles:

coming along nicely

Lanesplitter, of course. Holding it up to my body, it's already long enough to reach my knees without a waistband, but it's not even 18″ yet. And I'm 5′ 5″, so I'm not that short. I think I'll get a 2nd opinion, and then perhaps start on the main body section. I really want this baby done.

 

The shawl thing is well underway, but as it's meant for Brenda Dayne's Welsh for Rainbow book [!], I can't show you. I will tell you honestly that I constantly shock myself at the stupid mistakes I make in knitting. I spend a lot of time trying to find zen, making the pattern just go, resulting in forgetting essential pattern details like how many plain rows of stockinette go between the lace repeats, for example. This has resulted in much frogging. Despite the attempts of one kind knitter to help me avoid the frog by ripping down and reknitting two small patches of lace, I found another set of glitches that had me pulling everything off the needles. Reknitting lace, laddered down, is not a skill I possess, and may never. I'm okay with that.

 

Anyway, this shawl is now well on track, more than halfway done [properly, this time!] and will be in Brenda's hands as soon as I can arrange it.

WWW: Olympic Knitting, Putting a Knitter's Stash to Good Use, Design-Your-Own-Lopi

Last week we told you about knitters around the US making scarves to donated to volunteers at the Superbowl festivities. In the UK, a similar initiative is asking knitters to create cushion covers to be given as gifts to participants in this year's Olympics and Paralympics being held in London.

Visualize your ideas

Wow. Just wow. An Icelandic software developer and husband of a knitter tells us that he has developed a software application to help knitters design their own Lopi sweaters. It allows you to choose and place patterns and colors, to experiment and create your own unique designs. It does require Microsoft Silverlight to be installed [a cumbersome experience if you need the latest version...you have to uninstall it manually before installing. But worth it, we think.].

All the best things in life.

Speaking of Iceland, Clara Parkes has announced her upcoming Iceland Fiber Experience. This coming September 18-25, the tour promises "a hefty dose of fiber, unforgettable sheep chasing and wrestling, Clara's classes, world class chocolate tasting, all the Lopi from your wildest dreams and of course the usual; spectacular nature, delicious meals from the best local ingredients and excellent company of knitters from near and far".

A "warm-hearted bequest"… a Cleveland librarian and avid knitter, Diane Mathews, bequeathed her collection of knitting books to her library, and her stash of yarn to local knitters, with the condition that the yarn be used to make scarves and hats to donate to the homeless. Thanks to her generosity and thoughtfulness, the program "Warm Up Cleveland" has gathered hundreds of items to be donated to the homeless and shelters around the city. Other knitters have added yarn, since Diane's original stash has been used up.

Witty knitting alert: A knitter in the UK has been making wooly replicas of her colleagues, the gardening team at Paignton Zoo.

Spinning Tuesdays: Kate's Spinning Goals

I have a confession to make: I haven't been practicing.

 

After an initial, energizing success at spindle-spinning, I got distracted.  I picked up the spindle only a couple of times in the fall, and when all we got together in Waterloo a couple of weeks ago, I proudly got my spindle out, rakishly drafted a bit off the braid of BFL Jillian gave me, and started to spin.

So much potential... as yet, unfulfilled...

And it was an unmitigated disaster.  I dropped the spindle. I had lumps the size of grapes. I couldn't draft. I kept breaking the roving. I couldn't control the twist. It was a mess.

 

The worst part was that, naturally, I was surrounded by expert spinners at the time – goddess of all things fibre Denny, Amy, Jillian, our host Sue, and Tabi the spinning teacher from Shall We Knit.  At first, they were all smiles, but as it became quickly clear how badly I was doing, they averted their eyes. I think I might have heard a snicker.  (I kid, they were all very encouraging.)

 

Denny, sitting beside me on the couch, was very polite: she gave me a few pointers (including, most helpfully, to remember to spin the spindle in the same direction all the time… ), and refrained from laughing.

 

We all agreed that you don't get better at spinning by keeping the spindle in a box, so I've made a plan. I need to practice every week. I teach a class on Thursdays evenings at Lettuce Knit, and Denny works a shift there Thursday afternoons.  My plan is to go to the shop early so that she can watch over me while I fumble my way through this, and hopefully expand my skills.

 

Once I've mastered the basics with the BFL, I'm keen to get started into a little sampler project that the lovely Sue put together for me.  I've got a collection of little bags of rovings from various breeds – each is enough to try it  out, get familiar with the fiber, and experiment.

 

So much to explore!

And then – THEN! – I am desperate to try this mittens-from-silk-hankies thing that all the cool kids are doing.

 

I figure that's enough for a year.  Wish me luck!

 

Lanesplitter: Resistance is Futile

Lynne was Knitter Zero. The lovely Lynne showed up at a Knitty Roundtable wearing her Lanesplitter skirt, and we all fell over at the wonder of it and how flattering it was on Lynne, and Jillian and I almost immediately cast on for our own.

 

At least five or six other knitters who were there that night have made their own, including Susie L, Jennifer and Lynn W.

 

We had a mini-reunion last December, my skirt with Lynne's, and Susie L's terrific version.

It's all Lynne's fault.

The contagion continues to spread… Kate inevitably infected Denny (although their styles are very different, they are spiritual knitting twins), Lynne passed it to Sue, and Jillian and I finally found a sheep-free yarn for Amy to knit one of her own, Lang Yarns' Sol Dégradé. Last weekend, we once again gathered around Lynne for a new photo op.

 

L to R: Amy with Lanesplitter-to-be, Sue, Kate, Knitter Zero Lynne, Jillian and at the bottom, Denny.

Amy may have cut the tip off her finger a few weeks ago, but it is healing well, and she's resumed kniting…slowly. She's making great progress so far, even with her injury.

 

not so bad for non-wool, eh?

WWW: Knitting for the big slopes and the big screen

Jimmy Beans Wool is very proud to announce that they have signed a multi-year partnership with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA), the national governing body of Olympic skiing, snowboarding and freeskiing, to become the first ever-official yarn, knitting and crochet supplier to U.S. Snowboarding and U.S. Freeskiing.

A driving force behind the partnership is to build awareness of the yarn industry and to expose people to different crafts, fibers and companies. Jimmy Beans Wool has partnered with Red Heart® yarns to create "Stitch Mountain", a marketing and promotional campaign that encourages people to be creative on and off the slopes.

The knitter and her aunt, hard at work on a secret project...

A fun and fascinating profile of Jane Whatley, a knitter in the UK, who has worked on projects for the wardrobe departments for  various movies, including the recent War Horse, and the Harry Potter series, and Love Actually.  She has even knitted for Colin Firth!

Knitters in the Indianapolis area will be eagerly watching the screen during the upcoming Superbowl, being held February 5th, in their city. Knitters contributed 12,494 scarves to be given to volunteers working at Superbowl activities over that weekend. The scarves were all knitted in blue and white, the colors of the Indianapolis Colts, the local team, and wearers should be easy to spot amongst the crowds when the game is televised.

Shibori Girl Studios has announced a new slate of classes for 2012, including an innovative online workshop about Indigo dyeing. More info here.

I know it's crochet, but that's a very cute kitten!

Special Caturday Feature! Knitters in Winnipeg are creating blankets for cats and kittens at their local Humane Society. Bonus video of adorable cat-on-knitting action!

Knitting Ninja! Veronik Avery received a really rather wonderful gift from her clearly talented 15-year-old daughter…

Knitting for babies.

High-school students in Brooklyn are knitting blankets to be donated to babies with HIV/AIDS in the New York Area.

Spinning Tuesdays: Getting Started on Spinning Goals

I'm getting right on my 2012 spinning goals by choosing fiber – that's the best part isn't it?

I've chosen this to start making friends with worsted spinning.

Spunky Eclectic Peace On Earth

A club fiber from Spunky Eclectic, South African Fine in the colorway Peace on Earth. I'm going for a 2 ply, DK or a little fatter.

 

For sweater knitting I have this

Southern Cross Fibre Dirt

Southern Cross Fibre Falkland, colorway Dirt. I'm going to spin a woolen 2-ply, with probably a little extra ply twist.

I've even started sample spinning

Southern Cross Fibre Falkland

It's looking a little too contrasty for me, but I'm going to spin more, a little finer and knit swatches.

 

How are your goals coming?