teva durham, who has previously authored loop d loop, has pulled out all the stops in terms of releases for this year. for starters, there's her genius new book loop d loop crochet. we're a sucker for how she's put her own innovative stamp on the designs, such as the full length coat and shawl featured on the cover. go knit in your hat has photos and ace no bull book review of teva.
that's not all! there's also the free set of steak knives in the form of her new yarn line and associated pattern book.
and...then there's the added bonus of designs in the new vogue knitting 25th anniversary edition. and it's pink. consider us duly impressed. (as of writing the vogue knitting site is down...hopefully they have preview photos)
now we're starting to get warmer temperatures on this side of the world, keep in mind to clean your woolens before storing. the age gives the lowdown on the nasty cashmere eating critters:
"Alexandra Shulman, the editor-in-chief of UK Vogue, recently revealed that her own extensive wardrobe was under attack. The blighters had destroyed Jean Paul Gaultier, Rick Owens and Clements Ribeiro sweaters without compunction, she revealed. "This is war," she declared." read the full article.
bring in the troops!
ouch. just when we start to get going - we've got to take a break. hello sciatica. maybe if we can work out a way of knitting whilst lying on our back...
definitely something for us to work on - the craft of elegantly creating handknits. if you're looking to finesse your knitting/finishing skills, check out the blog where "25 years of knitting tricks want out of my mind, and into yours" at techknitting while nonaknits gives the lowdown on her experiences with catherine "couture knitting" lowe.
there's a little kinda trend that we've noticed that's awesome. take a traditional pattern, then add your urban twist. take for example, timorous beasties toile wallpaper - the london version with mugging, or the charming glasgow version complete with junkies, and a guy pissing on a wall (as of writing, removed from site).
parking meters and water hydrants mix in with flowers and birds for dan funderburgh.
how designers have successfully submitted for publication:
kat coyle, her folio of published patterns on flickr, her book boho baby knits.
one of the big advantages of living in london is that you get to go to liberty and view their yarn porn. kidsilk aura seems so super shiny and lush. bonus points to rowan for dishing out their yarn as "donuts" so knitters can have a sugar free splurge.
not new, but worth a look if you haven't seen them before. Showstudio has free patterns from designers - the catch being that there isn't the handholding you might be used to with commercial patterns. Like Junya Watanabe dress, alexander mcqueen top or yoji yamamoto jacket or john galliano or martin margiela.
we've grabbed the yamamoto jacket with the idea of seeing how it might translate into a knit garment.
"The Cambridge Women's Pornography Cooperative asked women, young, old, rich, and poor, "What really, really gets you hot?" Armed with their findings, they worked day and night to create Porn for Women."
check it out on amazon.
thing is, we reckon if there was ever a knitting porn for women, brooklyn tweed scores the centrefold. we're talking "honey, can i design and knit you a sweater? i've just done mine. maybe there's something in my stash you'd be keen on?". bound to set pulses racing.
talk about great minds thinking alike...on craftster, a neat idea for wrapping simple scarves up as cupcakes (via), and our own submission to the latest yarn magazine - a scarf that (sorta, kinda) resembles a flower. let us take this opportunity to mention that we totally head over heels in love with rainbow wools mushroom yarn - we've always wanted a strong thick yarn that doesn't fall apart like roving, yet mushroom is the most wonderful kittenish fairy heaven cloud floss to knit with.
(excuse us whilst we grab a scanner to get you an image...)
how ace is the concept of a knitting group to go with sport? we feel lucky in that we have no connections to sporting teams whatsoever (and we're not aiming on getting one, unlike marcus who is on a mission with what's my team?), but your significant other is sports obsessed, you're still able to carry on the conversation after the big game, and get your knitting done. witness stitch'n'pitch (thanks to yarnharlot).
we've fallen in love hard with a color/crochet project - babette:
thing is, it's the concept of the process which has us hooked (oh, the pun...). purl soho has the most beautiful blog - purlbee, which covers their makings of babette, and an interview and mini tutorial with babette designer kathy merrick.
we had fun checking out purl soho's kpm yarn and playing with colour combinations:
however the concept of buying and shipping canadian yarn via new york seems kinda weird when we're suckered by the concept of the knittery yarns:
there's other combos that we wouldn't mind playing with - for example, the all white babette is interesting in how different it looks compared to the others. what if there were super subtle differences in the yarn shades? (just realised - the creator is suggesting that they wished they had...)
there's an interesting phenonemon happening over at flickr. imagine that you, the sock knitter are keen to show off your yarn/knitting skill/the fact that you churned out not one, but two (yes! 2!) socks. so, you upload your photos to flickr, and make 'em public for all and sundry to see. then you start getting people without photos in their profile commenting - can i see your feet? can i buy those socks? would you like to join our photo pool?
it's not your knitting that they're into - it's the foot fetish aspect, which you might like to keep an eye out for. long socks example.
while we're keen on the concept of tootsies encased in cashmere, it's the knitting of said project which is causing the angst. to our shame, it's the gusset that we tend to get stuck on. for those without gusset/sock issues, a couple of patterns from i may be knitting a ranch house - bloody mary & charade .
beautiful machine knit installations from ghbrett - check out the set on flickr.
Sheila Pepe creates installations using found materials in her "radically local" works, such as rubber bands and crocheted shoelaces:
ok, do lock away the credit cards before going any further. there's a few of oz places that you might like to check out - natty yarns, which while the site leaves a little to be desired, do stock sugar'n'cream cotton (handy for homesick yanks?) & hand dyed merino. interesting fibres, along with bamboo, and soy sock yarn are at ecoyarns, and we've been well and truly lusting after the yarn porn that is the knittery.
if you're looking for a free knitting lesson, this week you're in luck. the handknitters guild is open in ross house, flinders lane from 12-2 and offering their help with whatever burning knitting issue you have. more info - handknitters guild site.
the knitters workshop - a wonderful store which was our (great time) working in retail. being surrounded by yarn, patterns, and people just as suckered in as you are on a regular basis was a total treat, and a great experience. so, it's sad that the store in closing in october, however, make lemons out of lemonade and hit the sale, which starts on saturday, the 18th august. more info - knitters workshop site.
here's the deal. every day for the next week, a minimum of ten posts a day, due to an overload of info that we're sitting on. we're going to cheat (or take it easy) and call this post one for today.
