Tuesday

Giveaway and Review ~Tahoe Knits~



Today I am very pleased to bring you a review of a lovely book by Kirsti Johanson entitled Tahoe Knits. I was first introduced to Kirsti and her work while working on Jane Austen Knits and I have always found her pieces both beautiful and inspiring.


Her newest project, a self-published knitting book inspired by nature and hiking, is a unique collaboration with a few of her very talented students. High school junior Jemima Liposcak created some lovely pen & ink illustrations which pepper the pages, high school senior Claire Wisniewski composed a poem for each chapter, and college student Britt Stevens wrote an essay for each chapter as well. Kirsti's students also modeled for the book, making it a true creative collective.


This beautiful collection of knitted accessories is accompanied by thoughtful essays, poems, and even a recipe for Cherry Almond Scones- they look delicious! Knitting instructions are both written and charted, and the photographs are beautiful. You can see all of the patterns from Tahoe Knits here on Ravelry.


The best part? Kirsti is graciously offering to gift one print copy and two digital copies of her new book to three of you lucky knitters.
Comments are now closed for this drawing. Congratulations to Gobzone, TerryLee, and MarianHooks for winning! Thanks!

Monday

Interweave Embroidery Webinar

photo courtesy of Interweave

This spring I will be teaching my first Interweave Webinar on the topic of beginning embroidery.
The live Webinar is scheduled to take place on May 15. I hope you can join me!

Needlecraft courtesy of Interweave

For more information, please visit the Interweave Store here:
http://www.interweavestore.com/embroidery-for-beginners-learn-planning-tools-and-techniques

Tuesday

Weaving Adventures Inspired by Stephanie


One of the best "side effects" of traveling to Ohio this winter to tape for Knitting Daily TV with Vickie Howell was connecting with Stephanie Flynn Sokolov, co-author of Woven Scarves. Stephanie is an incredibly talented and inspiring weaver. She did a fabulous segment for KDTV, and the guests all had a great time "backstage" in the green room ooh-ing and aah-ing over her gorgeous scarves.

Stephanie in the green room at the tv studio. 
It was really cold that day.


As an experienced knitter and an extremely novice weaver, I was overwhelmed by the clear and detailed instructions in Woven Scarves. Everything I needed to know was covered, from setting up, to choosing yarns, warping, weaving, finishing, and washing. The detailed to-scale photos of yarn wraps to show the various weights, colors, and textures of the yarns used are fabulous. And I loved being able to learn about how washing, fulling, and agitating the woven cloth can really influence the final design. I came home to my studio, and suddenly all of those random skeins of yarn had an entirely new meaning and purpose. Incredible.


For my first new scarf, I used the 5-dent reed and worsted weight yarn. For the warp I used yarn from the Susquehanna Knitting Company (dark blue) and a few lines of Wave from Filatura Di Crosa (yellow). I wove in a random pattern of mostly Fibre Company Savannah with a little Wave. 

As I wove, it looked really open, messy, and uneven. I was skeptical. But I forged on. I removed the scarf from the loom and haphazardly tossed it in my washing machine on a gentle cycle, then threw it into the dryer for about 20 minutes. Lo and behold, my messy work had been transformed into something beautiful. I was smitten. It truly all comes out in the wash. 

I'm now furiously reorganizing my entire stash into future scarves. Thank you, Stephanie!

Wednesday

~Amanda Hat for Phoebe Mouse~



The lovely and talented Gina House recently shared her adorable Phoebe Mouse doll, with her very own teeny tiny Amanda Hat. Isn't she sweet?


The original Amanda Hat is published in Gina's collection, Dreamscape. She very kindly provided instructions on how to knit this mini version of her hat for us to use.

Click here to go to Gina's project page on Ravelry, where you will find the pattern for a little Amanda Hat for Phoebe.

Thank you, Gina!!