No matter how hard you measure, repeatedly try on your knits, or promise your first-born sweater in a devil deal... sleeve length rarely plays nice! If you are hand knitting a garment, there are two ways to invisibly lengthen sleeves: Top-down? You lucky knitter, just unravel your bind-off and keep knitting. * Bottom-up? Unravel the cast-on, catch the live loops on a needle and knit downward. ** *: Uh-oh, what if you have no more yarn? **: Uh-oh, what if your stitch pattern gets distorted by the 1/2 stitch shift that occurs when you change the direction of knitting? I'm looking at you, ri ..read more

Maple by Marie Wallin Ok, let me explain why I'm rather tired after this epic knit! Colorwork knitting comes in many flavors: Stripes – 1 color per row Slip stitch colorwork (a.k.a. mosaic) – 1 color per row slipping a different color from a previous row Fair isle / stranded colorwork – 2 colors per row carried across the row together Intarsia – unlimited colors per row knit one at a time off of bobbins Oh wait I forgot one: Stranded colorwork on drugs!! – 3 or 4 colors per row carried across the row in unison I love stranded colorwork. Knitting with two colors is totally doa ..read more

Oo-weee, a lot of people have used Rowan Felted Tweed at some point. In fact, you may be one of the knitters behind the 39,904 projects I currently see on Ravelry using it, wow! And probably, if I were to tally all the Rowan designs by "yarn used", Felted Tweed would rank very high in pattern number... if not first. The Rowan Fall/Winter Magazine always seems to have designs for the yarn, which is exciting when you get it in the mail and have a robust FT stash lying in wait. Here's a favorite design from Marie Wallin that I've made from Rowan Magazine 54: Anatolia by Marie ..read more

"Isn't it good, Norwegian wood?" -- The Beatles "Isn't it gool, Norwegian Wool?" -- Me Ok, so Rowan's yarn name for "Norwegian Wool" seems to be a cute take on this classic tune, though I haven't confirmed that intention! Don't worry, at first touch the yarn is 'gool' as in 'cool' not 'ghoul'. ? Rowan Norwegian Wool was first released as an Arne and Carlos branded 'Rowan Selects' yarn, meaning it was available on a limited run. Once it was gone, it was gone. BUT it was so popular that it became one of the few Selects yarns that has joined its sisters in the main Rowan Yarn line. As such ..read more

This is my finished Osborne, a "recent" pattern by Anny Blatt, the French yarn and pattern design company. It came out so decadent and beautiful! Why do I have quotes around 'recent'? Well, this patten is from the second to last published booklet before a complete Anny Blatt revival took place with new ownership in 2021. Imagine my delight when I saw that Anny Blatt Officiel on Instagram had posted my WIP picture on June 27, 2019: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Anny Blatt Officiel (@annyblattofficiel) But imagine my surprise when it was the last photo posted ..read more

This month's KnitCrate features my new Aran Skull Hat pattern and two skeins of a beautiful Suri/Huayaca alpaca blend, just in time for Halloween knitting! I wanted to let you know that there is a great deal for 50% off until the end of the month -- that's just $14.99 plus shipping (and international shipping is available). Simply go to this link (it tells them that I sent you there!) and add the $29.99 crate to your cart. That will activate the deal: I have been playing around with cabled skull motifs ever since I saw a ready-to-wear skull sweater by Alexander McQueen. My husband want ..read more

It happened again! I opened the next issue of Vogue Knitting and had to cast-on immediately. This just happened for the last issue, resulting in my beautiful Isabel by Norah Gaughan and knocked off in about one obsessive week. ? If this trend continues, my tennis elbow (though not my brain) will thank Vogue Knitting for having less issues per year. Could two inspiring back-to-back issues be due to Norah's new editorship? It's a good sign. Are there less Mags? Yes. But is the Mag getting better? I think so. To add to this hypothesis, I was even more enthused by a different pattern ..read more

There were two garments that popped out at me from Mode at Rowan's Collection Four. At first I thought that it was just that they had new, interesting shapes. Juniper, by Lisa Richardson, had this über-comfy Dolman robe thingy going on. [$7 on Ravelry or knitrowan.com, available in English, French & German]. Floss, by Quail Studio, looked a like a big polar bear hug in... wait, was that angora? Couldn't be. How was it so drapey, yet so fuzzy?! A closer look revealed that both garments were made in a sumptuous fabric created by holding Rowan Summerlite 4-ply (100% matte cotton ..read more

There were two garments that popped out at me from Mode at Rowan's Collection Four. At first I thought that it was just that they had new, interesting shapes. Juniper, by Lisa Richardson, had this über-comfy Dolman robe thingy going on. [$7 on Ravelry or knitrowan.com, available in English, French & German]. Floss, by Quail Studio, looked a like a big polar bear hug in... wait, was that angora? Couldn't be. How was it so drapey, yet so fuzzy?! A closer look revealed that both garments were made in a sumptuous fabric created by holding Rowan Summerlite 4-ply (100% matte cotton ..read more

One of the delights of having a knitting machine is to be able to knit long pieces of stockinette in minutes – especially in a tight gauge! It's not that I don't like knitting stockinette, it's just that I prefer knitting all the other crazy stuff more. A yoke sweater is the perfect example of a hand knitting pattern that can easily become a machine & hand knit hybrid. Most yoke sweaters have a simple body in stockinette and an elaborate yoke either in colorwork or stitch work. From the moment I opened the Winter 2020-2021 Vogue Knitting Magazine to Isabel by Norah Gaughan, I knew I wan ..read more