My thoughts lately are all about fast knits and finishing things. I’ve found some wonderful tutorials online to help me with that pesky “finishing” issue that plagues me. Maybe this year I’ll actually get some holiday knitting done up early as a result.
But First up: sneak peek at new kits coming to the shop and new yarns that are here on the shelves, perfect for fast gift projects.
Nelkin Designs Jewelry Kits
Laura Nelkin’s sweet one-night kit projects: Butin Kit and Crochet Butin. How nifty are these?!
A stash-bustin’/one night/beaded necklace project – seriously… a finished project in just a few hours. Even I can do this one…and actually finish it....
The kits are perfect for gifts to make-and-give, or as a gift-kit for the craftster in your life. It’s a jump-start on my holiday gift making plans. Watch for kits to land in shop late next week.
new stuff in the shop
The new fall yarns are all arriving with plenty more on the horizon in upcoming months.
I’m not a bling-bling gal that likes shiny….but for this yarn I make an exception. Super soft, stretchy chainette construction. Wonderfully sqooshy.
It’s a fabulous yarn. It showed up on a Thursday. I cast on this hat, and one week later I finished it. You heard right… f-i-n-i-s-h-e-d! In a week. Me….a finished item!Pattern is knit flat in a 2-color slip-stitch technique, then seamed. No dpn’s and I learned a great new technique. Affordable, fast and oh so soft and smooshy. Gift knitting at its best.
Zorina Booklet #311
Berroco added new colors this fall and pattern booklets: #311 Flicker and free eBook. Check out the Flicker audio slideshow (I love these). The next Flicker project in my queue: Andra’s Grey Quartz Cowl. I’ll let you know how fast I finish that one up.
Yummy colors, great yardage and perfect for big infinity cowls so popular now. One cowl done (yes…done! another project done!) and a second half-done. Both cowls take 1-2 hanks so it’s affordable and stylish. No pictures yet of my cowls so you’ll have to trust me on this one.
Boboli is good for hats, mitts and garments too. It’s soft, lovely multicolored layers with a bit of sheen. And no…I didn’t order it up just so I could chant Boboli, boboli, boboli to myself when alone in the shop ….well at least that’s not the only reason I ordered it… It’s also got great yardage (206yds) and nicely priced ($14.99) so it’s perfect for making up gifts for the holidays.
As always Berroco has patterns and an audio slideshow to highlight this yarn’s potential.
Just dropped off the delivery truck today!
It's thrilling when deliveries makes me squeal! This is a brand new pattern from Kollage Yarns that I can't wait to make up. The moment the rep showed it to me I knew we had to have it.
Dangerous Curves is (yet) another big luscious infinity scarf using their Whimsy yarn (mohair wool blend). Want it short and sweet?
Pattern has both sizes and takes 1-3 hanks. Two colors arrived today with more coming later in September. But any worsted-bulky yarn will work. It'd be gorgeous in Berroco's Ultra Alpaca, Remix or Flicker for something truly decadent. Oooo.... I see many new cast ons in my future.
tips…tricks…and tutorials galore
I’m the first to admit it. Finishing things is not my forte. The more I knit the less this happens but still… we all know I’m the Cast On Monster so my experience with things like perfect bind offs, weaving ends, seaming is naturally less than my skills at casting on. Here’s some links to great stuff on internet to help us (me) finish things.
I’m a big photo/video tutorial fan. Certain techniques just don’t sink in my brain until I’ve found the right tutorial to help me along. This is one thing that the internet is awesome for…endless tutorials!
Nelkin Designs tutorials
Here's another reason to add Nelkin Designs to your bookmarks. Laura’s posted up a clutch of lovely tutorial at on her website for beading your knits, a handy kitchener stitch (with a handy cheat sheet chart to remember steps), circular cast on and sewn bind off too! Plus sessions dealing with using beads in your projects.
weaving in ends tutorial
No matter how careful…my weaving in ends technique mocks me. Little pesky bits of yarn poking out, shouting to the world “look at me!” I was thrilled when my favorite blog posted up this great tutorialall about getting those ends to stay put.
nifty shawl cast on step-by-step
Some shawl patterns call for a funny type of cast on with a few stitches, knit several rows then you have to pick up and make a rectangly-shaped-thingy. It can be tricky to figure out from written instructions. Thanks to Westknits we now have a lovely photo tutorial to illustrate it step-by-step. His preferred cast on for many of his shawl patterns is the garter tab cast on. Now you’ll be able to cast on those top-down shawls no problem!
got gauge?
Ah yes . . . that pesky problem called “gauge” – the road block to beginning a new project right now, this minute, with no delay. As much as we want to dive into a new pattern asap, gauge really is important, especially for garments that need to actually fit.
What is gauge and how to you “get gauge”? Twist Collective published a great tutorial recently: Got Gauge?. Check it out. It’s one of the better explanations I’ve come across. Pictures and tips on how to measure your gauge swatch are included.
Once you’ve done that pop over to this article in same issue: Swatch It! Clara Parkes is a Swatching Queen and I’m always amazed at just how dramatically yarns knit in same pattern can yield such different results.
Now as for myself… I tend towards endless swatching to get gauge but never seem to actually cast a sweater for myself. Someday I will. Until then I will keep swatching away. Or knitting up baby sweaters. Because if I make it a bit bigger they’ll always grow into it, right?
preview of future
Not enough time or space to cram everything into one newsletter but here's a peek of what's in the works:
maisieblue's online bookshop
holiday gifts kits club
new monthly crochet clinics
details in next newsletter...
Take care!
Kim
Great post with so much good info - thanks for compiling this! Loving that cowl as well - have to go check out my stash now ......
ReplyDeleteGlad the links are useful! I love links... :) Happy stash hunting
ReplyDelete