If you are knitting or have already knit a pattern that I’m talking about, leave me a comment and I’ll update my post with a link to your version. If you’ve written up a pattern and you want me to link to it, send me an email or leave me a comment and I’ll post it! It makes the list longer and my job easier. Here are this week’s patterns:

• I have a feeling these guys are going to be big. Sidewinders are a pair of sideways socks. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and finally Part 5.
• Martha Stewart has ideas for woolen gifts made from felted sweaters. I especially love the stuffed animals. A nice example of the knitting basket is here.
• There is a pattern for Charade Socks by Sandra at I May be Knitting a Ranch House. There are already examples here, here and here.
• Here’s a Baby Kimono.
• There’s a Steppe Sweater being knit up here.
• These Lacy Cables Knee Socks are in recipe form, but they should be reasonably simple to recreate.
• Here’s a basic ribbed hat in Noro Silk Garden. Really simple hat, beautiful product.
• Feather + Fan bonnet (Another version here.)

You know you love knitting when you carry a non-rolly suitcase and backpack all the way from U of T campus to Lettuce Knit to Romni Wools to the subway home, all for a bit of yarn and a magazine. My neck hurts so much I can barely think. It’s taken me 20 minutes to type the above sentence. I am really so so tired.

On the up side, I managed to find a copy of Phildar Tendances 443 for five bucks. I also bought some tweedy red cotton for a baby sweater. I’d finally decided on Tatamy Tweed DK, but the shipping would have been an arm and a leg, and all the folks with cheap shippin were like “order by telephone” or “I don’t carry Cherry” or whatevs, anyway, I was willing to spend a little extra so I didn’t have to deal with all that. Anyhoo, all this traveling and knitting reminded me of what happened on the subway the last time I was downtown. An old European man sees me knitting away and he catches my attention and says, “40 years ago I see this all the time, but now, it is rare.”

“Thanks,” I say. And then he continues (I kid you not), “you are worth a lot of money. A lot.” And see, this is where I didn’t know how to respond. So I thanked him again. A couple of seconds later (after I got over the shock), I totally had a killer comeback involving references to cattle and dowries, but by then it was too late. I was also thinking about a joke with me needing more experience pulling ploughs, but I thought it was too Borat. Oh well.

Ayayayayaye!

So I subscribed to Interweave Knits in March (that’s 72 days or 2 1/2 months ago), and my copy only just arrived in Toronto about a week or so ago. It took two months to get to my doorstep. What’s more, they said that I would receive the Spring issue as well as the summer issue. Boy howdy did that so not happen. I am angered! Angered and enraged! Not only did it arrive heinously not-on-time, but it was also emblazoned with a big 29 across the front, as if to suggest that 29 post office employees had personally licked the spine as it passed through customs.

Does anyone know what this 29 means? Because I think it is a rating of my anger out of 30.

I am actually not really angry (I am Canadian after all), but I think everyone needs a little fake angry post on their blog every now and again. The patterns are still all there (obvs), so it’s not like I hugely care. Still, if all my IKs show up with big frickin’ numbers on the front, I’m going to get royally ticked off. What kind of a resale value am I going to get on these babies if I have to clarify that “no, the number on the cover is not the number of individual semen samples that are sticking to the inside pages” or “no, the number on the cover is not the number of times I sneezed on it when I had bird flu”? I’d like to keep them, but if I have to de-stash at some point and the patterns really suck in one issue, I’d like to be able to sell or trade them.

Anyhoo, at this point I’m putting Canada Post ON NOTICE. You watch out, Canada Post. If you do this again, you will be DEAD TO ME.

• Note to self: check out Mary’s Yarn in Markham, Ontario.
• Primrose Design’s Stitch School.
• Build Your Own Tetris Bookshelf via CRAFT.
• Woven glass by Eric Markow & Thom Norris.
• Well ex-CUSE ME, Princess. Super Mario’s princess is cross-stitched on a t-shirt!
• Reupholster a chair via shelterrific.

I got Teva Durham’s book, Loop-d-Loop, out of the library last week. This week, I had some time to look over it. Teva’s introduction was an interesting look into her process:

“I want my designs to reveal the craft at its most elemental and to focus on the experience of forming knit fabric. To do this, I often emphasize a single technique or tradition and blow it out of proportion (such as colossal bobbles or a massive cable) so the hand-wrought is in your face.”

This is exactly how I like to look at knitting, too, and I think that’s why I love her designs so much. My favourite knitting projects have always been those where a) I focused on and learned a particular new technique, or b) the pattern caused me to look at basic techniques in a completely new way. I’d much rather wear something that was fun and interesting to put together, and Teva’s designs never disappoint in the interestingness and process category.

Then again, I think she’s a bit pretentious about her designs at times and talks about how she’s oh so very creative and adults tried to squelch it, etc etc etc. I prefer writing that’s a bit more down to earth, but there are plenty of great patterns in here to make up for the starving artist bit.

Read the rest »

Tejemanejes is a new Spanish knitting magazine. I’m not a Spanish speaker, but I’ve had some success reading the patterns with Google Translate.

Without further ado, here are my favourites: some pretty lacy socks, a cute Domokun backpack (the only pattern available in English), a hat with adorable stuffed bear ears, and a hilarious monster.

I collect a lot of patterns over the week, and usually I just toss them in with a post or save them for later or put them in my del.icio.us feed (on the right) where they don’t get noticed. Starting now, I’ll be collecting them all in one place with a weekly post called “Saturday, Pattern Day.” (It doesn’t really rhyme, but I like the way it sounds.) I’ll also attempt to provide examples of the patterns in the blogosphere, so if you are knitting or have already knit a pattern that I’m talking about, leave me a comment and I’ll update my post with a link to your finished/unfinished version. Here are this week’s patterns:

• Two-Colour Newborn Socks (a nice single-colour example here and a two-colour example here)
• Beech Wood (another single-colour example!)
• Fern Leaf Lace Socks (take a look here)
• Baby bell bottoms (see here, here and a most delicious pair here)
• Waves Scarf
• I’ve been at Vintage Purls before, but they have added some great new patterns recently so it’s worth it to take a look again, even if you’ve been before.
• Coriolis Socks, named after a swirling toilet effect I’m assuming. A neat way to increase at the instep without needing gussets and all that horrible stuff. Here’s where I found it, and another few versions are here, here and here.
• Here’s a new pattern for Father’s Day: the ever-present silk tie.

If you’ve written up a pattern and you want me to link to it, send me an email or leave me a comment and I’ll post it! It makes the list longer and my job easier.

I know I said I would no longer post about Threadless, but they have been on a serious sheep binge lately. Check out one of the shirts they just released.

OMG! How do they get it so nice and poofy? Now you know. I love the little afro pick!

(BTW FYI: If you want to buy this shirt, buy it before the $10 sale ends on June 3rd!)

I bought a sewing machine! For $7.50! Canadian!

Read the rest »