Miscellany...

A miscellany is a random hodgepodge of things, and knitwear designer (and lawyer) Carol J. Sulcoski's petite volume entitled Knitting Ephemera (recently published by Sixth and Spring) fits the definition well. Be warned: The print is minuscule and packed onto the page, so you may need your magnifiers. And, there is no Table of Contents (there is an Index) or organizing principle, really, other than factoids about knitting (and some about crochet). Disorientation is part of the process, but it's a temporary state, kind of a portal state, really, to render you receptive to the luminous yarn halo of knitting consciousness.

Reading the book is like walking into a messy knitter's house (not yours, of course), that nonetheless feels familiar and comfortable, chaos notwithstanding, because, and only because, you are a heavily-addicted knitter and therefore love anything to do with the craft, and also you have the type of mind that delights in such a random collection of informational tidbits.  You are in Knitterland! To mix metaphors somewhat (actually, a lot), the book is like a recipe collection that someone has put together over the years in a folder, a collection that consists of smeary words scribbled onto index cards, recipes ripped from newspapers, or cut off the backs of food boxes. It is very disjointed but you love fooling around in the kitchen, and you love culinary history, and you love deathless volumes like The Joy of Cooking--so you don't care about its disorganized state--in fact, it feels kind of good. You also enjoy books that mimic the conventions of nineteenth-century and even eighteenth-century publishing, and come with lovely red ribbon markers to hold your place. (Again, like The Joy of Cooking.) If you are such a person, my advice is Go for it!, buy this treasury, and also think about giving Knitting Ephemera to the Knitter Who Has Everything, before someone else does. Or before the volume becomes ephemeral.

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I encountered the word "miscellany" as a child, and since I only read it--I think there was a column in Time Magazine of yore entitled "Miscellany"--I thought it was pronounced miss-SELL-a-knee, and for many years I couldn't figure out what it meant. Then, as a graduate student, I encountered Tottel's Miscellany, the first-ever published anthology of poetry in English (1557). Subsequently the term has proved useful.

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Perhaps some of you, gentle knitters, convene occasionally with like-minded souls, for social as well as instructive purposes. My cabal, a group of exemplars styled K4TOG, meets as often as manageable for knitting-centric discussion and edification. Thus we inaugurated our 2016 agenda last week....Here you may observe one of us conscientiously winding yarn and conversing with the other knitters, while admirably ignoring the temptations of alcohol.

Cowling All Knitters...and a book giveaway!

I recently wrote a mini-article about the stress of holiday knitting, and how we knitters should think about making ourselves something, along with the procession of gifts for others. Then I went back to my holiday to-do list, hypocrite that I am.

My preferred knitted gifts these days are cowls. Done on larger needles, anywhere from size 9 to 15, they go very quickly and are a great way to use stashed yarns. Moreover I've discovered that I actually prefer wearing cowls with much of my heavy outerwear (cold is a way of life in New England!), because they don't lump up inside the jacket and create the Michelin Man look, and they can also be pulled up in the back, if they're sufficiently wide, to serve doubly, as both neck-warmer and hat. When I make a cowl for a friend, I don't feel as if I'm giving something just for the sake of giving, because I actually wear these things myself, plus I have the satisfaction of creating space in my stash for cramming in new purchases. Amen.

So, when a book about cowls crossed my desk recently, I was extremely interested to peruse the patterns, which are plentiful, and dream of future cowl projects.

As my devoted readers will recall, I am particularly fond of "60 Quick" series, published by Sixth and Spring Books. It's not just that there are enough patterns included to make all in the series very reasonable buys, but also that the patterns come from a range of experienced designers, so they're all distinctive and attractive. Moreover, since the designs in this series--whether for cowls, Baby Essentials, Quick Knits, Luxury Knits, etc.--are smallish projects, they offer useful opportunities to learn different stitches, techniques, and so forth, without intimidation. When you knit a cowl that involves beautifully complex cables, it's just not as daunting as doing an Aran sweater. I think of the cowl patterns in this particular book as small canvases that let you trial new techniques, yarns (all the featured yarns are from the Cascade Yarn Company), and stitches.

This beautiful, if unfortunately named design, gives you lots of cable practice without locking you into the months (years?) that a comparably-patterned sweater would entail, and when you're finished you've got this classy hybrid cowl-capelet that's both gorgeous and super-warm. (This is definitely on my to-do list for moi). The cover illustration, similarly offers coin stitch and applied I-cord practice, and looks like it's a lot of fun to work up.

So, not only am I going to recommend this book to you, gentle knitters, but I'm also going to offer a free copy, courtesy of the publisher, to the first reader who correctly identifies the following lines:

...I like a cowl;
I like a prophet of the soul;
And on my heart monastic aisles
Fall like sweet strains or pensive smiles:
Yet not for all his faith can see
Would I that cowléd churchman be.

To enter the contest, which will close on 6 December at midnight, please leave your answer in the comments section of this post, then make sure to check my next post for an announcement of the winner. In some past contests, the person who has won has not responded to my request for contact information, so that the publisher was unable to award the prize.  NB:   If you want the book, and your answer is correct, then please stay tuned.

NB:  We have a winner, Bonney, and a runner-up already, and it's still 6 December.  So, contest closed for the nonce.  Bonney, will you please email me via the button on my blogger.com profile with the address to which you want the book sent? I need it by tomorrow midnight (12/7), else I move on to the next runner-up.  Happy Chanukah to all.

Noro v. Winter

Greetings from white-out world, where, yes, it's snowing once again, having started in the wee hours of the morning and predicted to continue till well after dark. We expect between nine inches and a foot. So relentless.  So depressing....

The white expanse between the horizontal lines of trees is the solidly-frozen and snow-covered Wood River. It has recently become a conduit for a small herd of deer. They march around eating shrubbery that ordinarily would be overhanging the water.

Luckily for me, like an infusion of mega-mega vitamins, a review copy of the latest Noro book arrived just the other day. Perfect timing!

Full disclosure: I love Noro yarns, as I've said here before. So this review isn't about why Noro yarns are great, because so far as I'm concerned, that's a given. This review is about the power of Noro yarns to dispel gloom, because simply looking at the photos in this book--all of them exquisite--is as mood altering as a sunny day in June. Add to that the beautiful patterns contained within, and I can almost forget that the weather outside is frightful.

Noro yarns possess two outstanding qualities. First, the colorways are always surprising and uniquely beautiful. Second, the fibers, no matter what Noro yarn is used, are strong, warm, and soft. For a knitwear designer, the challenge is to develop a pattern that displays these Noro advantages effectively. I'm happy to report that all the patterns in Noro Lace succeed fabulously in this respect. The book offers the work of top designers--Deborah Newton's instant classic Tabard with Cowl, done in Taiyo, Laura Zukaite's Bobble Band Scarf in subtle Silk Garden Solo, Pat Olski's Elbow Length Gloves in cashmere-blend Shiraito, Patty Lyons's Poplar Leaf Beret in Silk Garden worsted--to mention only some.

As with most collections, the garments are keyed to different levels of knitting expertise, so anyone from advanced beginner to pro will find an appropriate project. There's a lot to like in the thirty featured patterns, but the star of the show here is always the yarn. And on a white-out day like today, it's really a thrill to flip through this book. Whether you read it, or knit from it, it's a perfect antidote to this New England winter that never ends.

Design by Lars Rains

Design by Anna Davis

The publisher, Sixth and Spring, has kindly offered a free copy of the book to one lucky reader. If you'd like to be that person, please post a comment telling me why, by midnight, Saturday March 7. (Restricted to U.S. mailing addresses.)

You need this book.

Why? Because it's a great concept and compendium.  Billed as "the ultimate yarn crawl," 60 Quick Knits from America's Yarn Shops (Sixth & Spring 2013)--really is just that. Save on gas and Metrocards; be an armchair knitter/traveler and do the crawl from the comfort of your personal knitting nook, wearing whatever you damn well please.

The patterns within--all in Cascade yarns--come from LYS all over the country. Think about it--part of being a yarn store owner involves guiding patrons towards projects within their technical comfort zones, projects that turn out well without a struggle. It takes a good knitter/designer to understand this.

So IMHO it's brilliant that the editors tapped the creative, accumulated wisdom of these knitting gurus and published sixty of their patterns. And Cascade yarns, especially 220 and 220 Superwash, are backbone yarns: high quality, wonderful colors, durable, excellent value. You can't go wrong with this book. Since the idea here is quick knits, the projects are small, but they're the kinds of things you'll make repeatedly: lovely mittens, charming children's and adults' hats, socks, scarves, shawlettes. This is basic good design that's stylish, classic, and useful.

The publisher has kindly made available one giveaway copy. If you'd like it and you live in the U.S. or Canada (sorry, no overseas mail), post a comment on this blog by midnight December 8th telling me why. I'll choose the knitter with the most interesting reason.

Snowflake Mittens, designed by Trish Mitberg of Knitting Bee, Portland, Oregon.