book chat - Beginner's Guide to Colorwork Knitting

Beginner's Guide to Colorwork Knitting: 16 Projects and Techniques to Learn to Knit with Color

by Ella Austin

Expected publication: April 2nd 2019 by Sewandso

This book would be great for the knitter wanting to jump into colorwork as well as the more seasoned knitter looking to try something new. Projects begin simply with stripes, only requiring the changing of yarn to create the colorwork. As the reader progresses through the book, the difficulty of the projects increases allowing the knitter to build on their skills. Colorwork directions are written as well as charted. Other knitting skills can be built as well through the projects, such as steeking with the Steeked Mug Cozy. New skills needed are clearly illustrated in writing as well as through the accompanying photos. The 16 projects cover all the basics of colorwork including stripes, slipped stitches, stranded colorwork, intarsia, double knitting, modular knitting and entrelac along with a lesson on color theory. This is a great introduction to colorwork!

Thank you to F+W Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. 

book chat - Coffeehouse Knits

Coffeehouse Knits by Kerry Bogert, Expected publication: March 31st 2019 by Interweave

Another great knitting book from Interweave! There is a nice selection of patterns here with a little something to suit just about any knitter. Included are designs for sweaters, scarves and shawls, cowls, a hat, mittens and socks. I was initially excited to see the wide range of sweater sizes included, but quickly realized it was only certain sweaters. A couple of the sweater designs go up to a 60/63" bust, though I noticed at least one only sized into the low 40s so if this is a concern, you might want to check this book out from your local library first to be sure the design you're interested in is written for your size or you think it might be up- or down-sized utilizing your own skills and experience. Multiple well-lit photographs are included to show details well, always appreciated. Knitting patterns all seem simple enough to be worked on during know nights without concern of making errors. Interspersed with the designs are stories centered around knitting which is a nice departure from just knitting patterns.

Thank you to F+W Media and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. 

book chat - Block Print Magic

Block Print Magic: The Essential Guide to Designing, Carving, and Taking Your Artwork Further with Relief Printing

by 

Emily Louise Howard

Published February 12th 2019 by Rockport Publishers

Printmaking has always fascinated me, but I've not yet tried it myself. In Block Print Magic, Howard has covered all the tools necessary and outlined all the steps clearly to enable the reader to successfully get started and improve their skills in this craft. I love that she has included several DIY instructions for making some of the tools needed since a new hobby can be cost-prohibitive. Projects are clearly explained using both written instruction and numerous photos for easy follow-along. The included artist spotlights were a perfect addition, featuring some of the artists for whom printmaking is a passion. This book would be a great resource for anyone interested in printmaking!

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group – Rockport Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.  

book chat - Whimsical Cross-Stitch

Whimsical Cross-stitch by Cari Buziak, Expected publication: February 13th 2019 by Dover Publications

A super cute collection of cross-stitch designs! Designs are grouped in the following categories: animals (real and fantasy), dashing designs, home and hearth, nature in bloom and special occasions. As expected in this type of book, the basics of cross-stitch are covered before getting into the designs and many designs would be easily stitchable by a newbie, but there are also designs that would present more challenge. Charts are clearly done. I found quite a few designs I'd love to stitch for myself and for gifts.

Thank you to Dover Publications and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. 

book chat - Tiny Stitches

Tiny Stitches: Buttons, Badges, Patches, and Pins to Embroider by Irem Yazici, Published November 13th 2018 by Roost Books

What a great collection of embroidery projects! I love the small scale of the projects. These would be perfect for a beginner to try their hand at embroidery without committing to a large project that may never be finished or for someone more advanced just looking for a quick project. There are plenty of cute patterns to choose among - from buttons to patches and badges to small hoop projects. I especially love the cat paw patch, tree hugger badge and desert and forest landscapes. The book includes step by step guidance for each featured pattern and a stitch guide for those not familiar with the various embroidery stitches. 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this fun book. All comments are my own, unbiased opinion. 

book chat - 100 Knits

100 Knits: Interweave's Ultimate Pattern Collection by Interweave Editors, Published October 2nd 2018 by Interweave

Another great collection of knitting patterns from Interweave! With 100 designs in a variety of styles, any knitter is sure to find plenty of inspiration for future projects in this large volume. Many of the included designs have been previously published in various Interweave publications (magazines, books) so some will be familiar to fans of Interweave, however, this collection would be a wonderful addition to most knitters' pattern libraries. The items are beautifully photographed, including multiple photos to show details when needed. Lace, colorwork and cabled designs are charted as well as written. My only complaint is that a few project samples were knit in dark yarn, making detail difficult to see at times. Normally, when browsing books of knitting patterns, I may find a few I'd like to knit. In this case, I found a ton of patterns I'd love to make myself in this book.

Thank you to Interweave Editors, F+W Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. All comments are my own, unbiased opinion. 

crafty chat - wait, there's yarn?!

Projects:

• Woven dishcloths

Podcasts mentioned:

• Color and Life Podcast
• Fiber Pusher Podcast
• Never Cast Off Podcast

crafty chat - fiber arts tag

I was tagged by Amanda of Mandobug Crafts and thought, what the heck, this could be fun! =)

Questions: 

1) Who are you?
2) When/why did you start knitting/crocheting/spinning/weaving?
3) Your favorite or proudest make?

• Handspun Poncho (spinning and knitting)
• Painted Warp Wrap (weaving)
• Owl Bag (crochet)

4) What is your most disastrous make?

• Shalom by Meghan McFarlane

5) Do you have a favorite place to buy yarn or fiber (online or local)?
6) What is your most used or most loved pattern?

• Barley Hat by Tin Can Knits (4! - my handspun Barleys for him and her and a pair to donate)

7) Your most dreaded knitting/crocheting/spinning task?

8) And your favorite task?

9) What is your favorite crafty entertainment?

10) For patterns, do you prefer books, magazine, Ravelry, or would you rather make up your own?

11) What is your favorite brand of knitting needles or crochet hooks and for spinning, what is your favorite wheel?

12) What is your favorite notion or tool?

• HansenCrafts miniSpinner

13) What is your current favorite project?

14) Favorite place to knit/crochet/spin in public?

15) What is your favorite fiber arts book?

16) Do you have any other hobbies?

17) If you could meet anyone in the fiber arts community, who would that be?

• Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka The Yarn Harlot
• Amy Beth of The Fat Squirrel Speaks

Rapid-fire:

18) knit or crochet?

19) weave or spin?

20) color or neutrals?

21) sweater or socks?

Thanks for the tag, Amanda! (Be sure and check out Amanda's video!) I tag Emily of AndersMill Knits, Julieanne of My Muddlings and Sheila and Debbie of Never Cast Off podcasts.

less wonky pottery and a little yellow uke!

Book:

• Ukulele for Dummies by Alistair Wood

One of the YouTube videos I've found:

• How to Play the Ukulele in 5 minutes

two new episodes!

There's a bit of a change this time around. First up, a crafty video:

And the non-crafty chatter:

Videos that will help you make your own Amish knot rug:

• Starting out your rug
• Increasing
• Ending your rug
• Whitehouse Whimsies and Rugs on YouTube has some other good tutorials if you'd like to make an oval or rectangular rug as well.

Be sure and enter to win a copy of the Black Tie Affair wrap pattern from designer Jennifer Runyan over in the Ravelry group!

The books discussed:

• Movement Matters by Katy Bowman
• Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

And the vegan dog food my boys are now enjoying:

• V-Dog

episode 77: wonky pottery is wonky

This episode can also be watched on iTunes or the podcatcher of your choice. =)

As announced in this episode, Janine McCarty, yarnandewegirl, has so generously offered up a copy of her new shawl design, Yeksa Shawl, as a gift to one of my lucky viewers!

You can choose to enter here on the blog or in a comment on this episode on the YouTube channel or in the thread for this giveaway in the Ravelry group. I’ll take entries until September 5th, 2017. One entry per person. Membership in the group is not required. You will need to watch to find out if you win though! =)

So tell me, what have you done this summer to stay cool?

episode 76: cross-craft lessons

Show notes are in the Ravelry group here.

DIY dog bootie tutorial

Winter has been colder and snowier than normal here in the Pacific Northwest this winter. I whipped up dog booties for my boys and for those of friends to keep tiny toes warm and shared the process in case anyone wants to do the same. =)

episode 66: thankful for small blessings

FOs:

• 2 Barley hats from handspun

WIP:

• Micala Shawl

Ornaments:

• Angel
• Sheep
• Tree
• Yarn Basket
• Red Bird
• Snowman
• My Stocking
• Pet Stocking
• Wreath

episode 65: living with less (stash)

FOs:

• Spring Lace Ponchette
• DIRK the Dragon (check out episode 50 for the destruction of the dragon slayer)

Check out Babbles Travelling Yarns if you love travel and eco-friendly discussions. =)

The 2017 Biggest Loser Stash Reduction KAL/CAL/WAL/SAL is being hosted by Benita of The Fiber Pusher Podcast and Debbie and Sheila of Never Cast Off. Check it out! I already know I'm not winning, but it'll be fun playing along! =)

episode 64: secondhand love

FOs:

• Pfeilraupe shawl
• Eyre of Romance Jane shawl
• Brickless shawl
• Trillian shawl
• Surf & Turf Handspun Poncho

Caring for Cast Iron:

The book:

Live Your Life Not Theirs by Rachel Cruze

the return of video... episode 63 of the simply stash less vlog is up!

Projects in this episode include:

FOs

• Stripey Vanilla Socks
• Cell Phone Caddy
• Chic Little Pumpkin

WIPs

• Spring Lace Ponchette
• Surf & Turf Poncho

I recorded with my phone and the video gets a bit twitchy at times. If I can't fix that for next time, I'll use a different recording device. For this one, I hope you'll bear with me. =)

August craftiness

With the massive destash done, my yarny stash has drastically shrunk to a much more manageable size. It felt so good to let all of that yarn go! This is my new, much, much smaller stash:

Yes, the cabinet I once hoped would hold my entire yarn stash now holds all of it plus my drum carder, serger and some sewing supplies too! I love my new smaller stash. 😄 There's still plenty to play around with and be inspired by, but not so much that it feels overwhelming anymore. 

Ravelry organizes the Ravellenics to coincide with the Olympics and until this year, I'd never participated. But for some reason (likely due to the start following my huge destash), this time it relit my crafting bug and I jumped right in. I started with just one small goal, finish one shawl as part of the Shawl Sailing event so I pulled out three skeins of stash from 2009 (it's about time!) and started on a garter stitch shawl formed by knitting a billion (only slightly exaggerating here) short rows:

Eyre of Romance Jane Shawl by Kay Meadors

This was a great choice for knitting while distracted by the various Olympic events. Simple to keep track of where I was but not so simple that I got completely bored of it. Details here.

As I was finishing up the shawl, I took advantage of the Frogging Trampoline event and pulled out the Shalom cardigan I finished last year but never did even weave in the ends because I just didn't love it. The cardigan is now once again a pile of skeins with lots of potential:

Once the shawl was done, I still had a week of Ravellenics fun left, so I jumped into the pool with a braid of faux cashmere for some for Synchronized Spinning:

I split the braid roughly in half lengthwise and then plied the two singles together so the colors would mostly line up. Still inspired, I chose another shawl pattern and quickly knit up this:

Spring Garden Kerchief by Clare Lakewood

This was my first experience with faux cashmere. Not bad, but I won't be buying any more. Faux cashmere is nylon and I'm trying to stick with just natural, plant-based yarns and fiber from here on. This braid had been in my stash awhile though so I'm glad it has finally reached its potential. It sat in my stash since 2013 but its journey from fluff to shawl? Five days. (Info on the pattern and fiber can be found here.) Be warned, there is an error in the written directions for this shawlette. I've noted the correction on my project page and let the designer know, but it doesn't appear that the file has been corrected yet.

With only a couple days remaining, I decided I wanted one more project so I grabbed the remainder of the yarn from the Eyre of Romance shawl and knit up a quick hat for the Hat Dash event:

Kitkat Hat by Andre Sue

Super simple and quick! (Info here.) And with that, my 2016 Ravellenics Games were complete.

I thought after all that, I'd be all knitted out, but I quickly got the urge to cast on again and used Ravelry's awesome pattern search function to find my next project. I decided I wanted to use some stash from 2013 and used that yardage/weight to search. The first result? This shawl I'd seen ages ago, wanted to knit and... then forgot about:

Pfeilraupe by Alpi Alpenrose

I'm past the halfway point now and the rows are finally getting shorter! This will likely be the first of my donation shawls for 2017. (Pattern/yarn info here.) Another warning here, the shawl is quite simple to knit. The most difficult part about this shawl is deciphering the pattern instructions. The written instructions aren't incredibly clear and the charts aren't completely accurate. Between the two though, you can get the gist of it and as long as it's close, no one would know anyway. Garter stitch is forgiving! I may eventually make another from this pattern to keep.

So, that's it for August! See you next month for another crafty update. Until then...

Craft what makes you happy!

charitable crafting

For the past few years, Sheila and Wendy, of the Knit1,HeartToo! podcast have helped a local (to them) group collect shawls for a comfort shawl program. Last year, I was able to send a few shawls, but I set myself a goal of a dozen for this year. Though my knitting mojo has waned this year, I've also been reducing the things I hold on to and this year? I was able to send a whopping 14! The charity accepts not only new shawls, but gently used shawls as well and of any fiber content. Most charities I've come across require acrylics and I'm not a fan of working with acrylic. This opens up the possibilities immensely! I do label all my shawls with fiber content and care instructions in case there are any allergies. I did a quick search online for free printable labels. I've made up my own in the past, but this year I used the ones found here (KnitPicks).

Getting them ready to pack up, I gave all of them a bath that hadn't already been done. Need a reason to always wash a shawl by itself the first time?

So. Much. Bleeding. Happily the shawl made from a skein I dyed... didn't bleed. =) Another happy moment? Realizing all but one of the shawls I needed to wash could be hung out on my clothesline to dry rather than being pinned out to block which meant they all got washed and dried in a single day.

Here they all are! If you're interested in more info on patterns/yarns used, see my Ravelry page and click on the specific project you're interested in for details.

Fall 2016 donations

Do you have any unloved shawls hiding in your closet? Or do you love making them but have already gifted them to all your knitworthy friends/family? Find a local charity to donate them or you can send them off to the group I did. Info can be found here.

I'm aiming for another dozen next year!

crafting with my conscience

I've been thinking more about where my crafting materials come from. I have been for awhile. I've already reigned in my fabric acquisitions to better align with my beliefs. I decided to only add secondhand fabrics with maybe an occasional organic cotton or linen purchase and it's probably been a year since I purchased anything but secondhand. But what about my other crafts?

Last month was kind of a turning point for me. Spokane hosted its third annual Vegfest and I experienced my very first. 😄 These are my people! I wasn't super interested in the various booths, but the speakers were so inspiring!

Gene Baur, president of Farm Sanctuary and me

I transitioned to a vegetarian diet when I was around 11 or 12, but have been eating a mostly vegan diet the past few years. I make my own nondairy milk (and ice cream!) and have plenty of options for replacing eggs when baking and even make a darn good tofu scramble. I have been using local honey the past year or so in an effort to limit my use of cane sugar (the industry is very environmentally taxing), so not totally vegan, but close.

Gene talking about one of the rescues living out her life at the sanctuary

I've always struggled with using animal fibers in my crafts however... or I suppose not using them. I prefer not to use synthetics whenever possible so have mostly natural fibers in both my wardrobe and craft stash. A few years ago I decided I wouldn't buy animal fiber yarns unless I found them secondhand, but I'd still use what I already had... and I had a lot. I was still buying wool for spinning (I know, I know, I didn't say it made sense). This year, I swore off buying anything but consumables (with just a few caveats) so the new animal fibers stopped coming in. I did happen across a local doing her own destash however and picked up some inexpensive secondhand wool for spinning. (I didn't even look at her yarn destash!)

So I suppose this change has been slowly coming on for years and I'm a big believer that making changes is easy when we are ready for them and until now, I just wasn't truly ready to let go. But now? I really am. I started thinking through what was actually stopping me from letting the yarn go. It wasn't the money I'd spent that I knew I wouldn't recoup. I'd already sold off or donated a lot, but my stash was down to the yarns I really did like and were on the nicer side. I've donated so much other stuff though. Why was this so different? It wasn't, really. So, I finally culled my yarn stash. I'm not ready to let my handspun go, but nearly everything else with animal fiber content not currently part of a project got pulled and marked for sale:

I did say I had a lot! I decided this needed to be a quicker process than trying to sell off individual skeins so after some thought, I packed up boxes to sell as lots at what I thought was a very good price for the buyer and would hopefully make it a quicker process for me... and oh my was it quick! Did I get back all the money I'd spent over the years? Not even close! But these yarns are now in the hands of crafters who will put them to use and they're not here making me feel guilty over past decisions.

I'm not telling you that your values should fall in with mine. We all make our own decisions and need to be at peace with our actions. Someday, I may be ready to let my woolly handspun go too, but today is not that day. Baby steps (and sometimes giant leaps)!