To New York, with love

Linda and I are sending a box of knitted and crocheted items to New York, as part of the Hurricane Sandy relief effort.

If you'd like to make a knitted donation on your own, here's the information, provided by Vogue Knitting:

Molly says "Thank you!"

Unseasonal thoughts on a winter's day; an Ipad sweater pattern, and a contest

Snowing yet again, and predicted to continue another eighteen hours. Unbidden come the inevitably adverb-laden, highly dolorous thoughts.

His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.*


(For a distracting contest to enter, scroll down to the bottom!)

At least I have the satisfaction of having finished my Ipad's sweater.

To conclude the pattern, I seamed a 2" gusset on either side, attached a large button, and knitted a seven-foot-long I-cord. You'll notice that the top part of the I-pad sweater, just inside the triangle of the flap, is grey and brown. That's because I ran out of Noro Kureyon and substituted a small amount of Noro Silk Garden from my stash. The Silk Garden also provided the I-cord, which, unlike the pouch, I didn't felt. Though I didn't expect this to happen, the weight and colors of the two yarns mesh quite well.

On my roster now, to finish Cy's dinosaur sweater, which I started (gulp) more than a year ago. (Why this has taken so long is one of life's banal mysteries.) But after that, I've promised myself another treat, to knit yet another design by Deborah Newton, from her latest book, Warm Weather Knits.  Generally I don't enjoy knitting yarns that aren't wool or animal fiber, but these patterns are nearly irresistible, plus they remind me that spring cannot be far behind. The hardest thing will be deciding which to do first.

And while I'm singing the praises of Deborah's talent, let me point out that one of her hat designs is on the cover of the latest issue of Vogue Knitting.

So, to move from the sublime to the silly, if anyone can identify the opening quote of this post, I'll send you my personal copy of Sweaters from New England Sheep Farms by Candace Eisner Strick. Just email me with your answer! Contest closes January 31st.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Sometimes the best things are, you know. For example, who would have thought that purslane, a common weed-like infiltrator of otherwise impeccable gardens, is now the salad ingredient du jour, selling at chic venues like the NYC Greenmarket for upwards of six dollars a bunch?

 Find the purslane in this photograph!

Oh what does purslane, you may ask, have to do with Knitting New England? Simply this—that there are many knitting-relevant surprises in our own bailiwick, hiding in plain sight. The most recent discovery for me is the American headquarters of a fabulous European-based knitting magazine, Verena, in Providence, Rhode Island. And I was fortunate last week to have a conversation with Margery Winter, its American editor-in-chief.

Margery Winter, a RISD graduate and former editor of Vogue Knitting, comes to Verena with an extensive background in knitwear and fashion design, yarn development, and a fabulous fashion sense. The latter reinforces one of several major distinctions between Verena and other hand-knitting magazines. 

Verena patterns are haute couture far above and beyond what we usually see in American knitting magazines, and cause a serious knitter to think long and hard about what and how to knit. After all, if you’re going to put hours and hours of your life into knitting a garment, don’t you really want it to look amazing? Verena patterns—and at about 80 per issue, there are substantially more than in other knitting magazines—allow you to make a couture piece that you could probably not otherwise afford, and give you a real sense of how the European fashion industry operates in terms of fit, details, and finishing. The magazine's lavish photo spreads, too, are a pleasure, and as an additional bonus, the women's plus-sized, men’s, and children’s patterns Verena includes are definitely not your grandmother’s idea of hand knits. 

 Command Central at Verena, USA, in Providence.

I realize this sounds like a shameless plug, and I guess it is. I’m totally entranced by a preview copy of the Fall 2010 issue, which features a fabulous hooded vest on the cover, designed by none other than Providence’s Deborah Newton. The magazine can be purchased at some LYS and at Barnes and Noble, but it sells out fast.  Maybe the best way to get your own copy is to subscribe via the Verena website. Margery says the website will be totally redesigned and improved by mid-September. Even now, however, it’s still a good read and an interesting overview of the print publication.

As for my conversation with Margery, it was, to say the least, enlightening. Margery brings to the world of knitting a vision that’s new to me (and, I’d imagine, to many American knitters). She thinks about yarn, shaping, sizing, and impact from the perspective of the fashion designer who drapes and measures to fit, who plays with texture and color in unusual ways, and who understands the knit itself as fabric rather than stitches. But the bottom line, she says, is simply this—that “in fashion, as with art and beauty, there’s a universal denominator. People respond in a common way to what is beautiful. I’m searching for beauty. It’s a passion.”

Well, how inspirational is that?

Why do I knit? An Existential Inquiry

Lately I've been downloading patterns for knitted toys, most recently this, pictured above, last night: instructions from Bernat Yarns to make a "Topsy Turvy Doll, " which is somewhat like Siamese twins except usually only one is visible at a time. (For your very own copy, click on this link: http://knitandcrochetnow.com/fly.aspx?layout=patternsindex&taxid=163 )

Immediately I mentally started designing variations on Topsy-Turvy--e.g. Ego and Id dolls, Jane Eyre/Bertha Mason, Jekyll/Hyde, Estella/Miss Havisham, etc. The literary themes prompted by this contemplation reminded me that I own a book called Knitted Historical Figures by Jane Messent (Search Press, 1992), including patterns for biblical personages, Queen Elizabeth I, Mme. de Pompadour, and a Gibson Girl. I've never been tempted to make any of these because a lot of the highly labor-intensive knitting is done on scarily super-small needles, but the patterns are quite interesting to consider, as they include words like "oddments," "sprig," "waistcoat," "leg o' mutton," and "crochet hook."

But I digress.

The disturbing fact is that I have become somewhat obsessed with knitting patterns for non-wearable items. I just purchased Susan B. Anderson's book Itty-Bitty Toys (Artisan, 2009) which also features designs for a number of reversible toys à la the Topsy-Turvy doll, I follow the Fuzzy Mitten blog (http://blog.fuzzymitten.com/) filled with insanely cute knitted animals, and I recently downloaded patterns for knitting Percy the Pigeon, and a small acorn.

In my blissfully few idle moments, I wonder: what is going on? With me, I mean.

Frankly, I have no idea. If any one of my gentle readers has a theory, please suggest. My children are full-fledged adults, unmarried, with no families in the offing (that I know about), so I'm definitely not thinking about future grandchildren.

Meanwhile, I must draw your attention yet again to the extraordinary design work of Deborah Newton. Her pattern for an ingeniously-knitted "Tissue Cardigan" is in the just-released issue of Interweave Knits Magazine (Spring 2010, pp. 97-99), and the upcoming Vogue Knitting (Spring/Summer 2010) features her amazing back-buttoned sweater that is positively swoon-inducing!

January thaw

It's been just too cold in Rhode Island and so I betook myself to Boca, to visit a dear friend who winters there. I'm the only person I know who'd never been to Florida and I thought it was time to lose my virginity.

When I left T.F. Green airport in Warwick it was 17 degrees F. When I arrived in Fort Lauderdale it was 70, overcast, and very humid. I didn't mind at all. By the time I left Boca Raton, three days later, it was sunny, dry, crystal clear, and drop-dead gorgeous.

This mini-vacation was deeply salubrious. To prolong the ecstasy, I brought back two small bags of Key Limes to make H a Key Lime pie. Before spending an inordinate amount of time juicing the bitty things (with an electric citrus juicer, mind you), I posed them in the alien snowscape just outside my kitchen door. The temperature was, at the time of the photo shoot, about 20 degrees. The pie did not turn out all that well, I am sorry to report, but we ate most of it anyway.

I brought my knitting to Florida, of course, and finished yet another pair of fingerless gloves, this for my friend D who lives in Portland, Maine, and needs all the cold protection she can get. In the photo, they're posed next to a pair I made for Cy's mother, whose birthday arrives in about three weeks. Her mitts, plum colored, are from Debbie Bliss Chunky Merino, and D's are from Queensland Kathmandu DK (a merino, silk, cashmere blend), which I double-stranded. They look white in the photo, but are really a tweedy light brown. Here's the free pattern, on the Vogue Knitting website (you have to register to download it): http://www.vogueknitting.com/free_patterns/ribbed_wristers.aspx

It's on #9 double points and knits up really fast.

We Gather Together...

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and Friday is Buy Nothing Day, one of my favorite celebrations. On the lawn of the Rhode Island State House and at other locations around the state, the Green Party will be collecting and distributing overcoats to those who need winter warmth. (http://www.greens.org/ri/bnd.html) Find something that's been dust-collecting in your closet and make a contribution! It's an easy way to do good and feel good.

And in the spirit of good works, may I suggest that all of the knitters who observe Buy Nothing Day turn it into Knit Something Day? If you send me a photo of your Knit Something Day project, I'll post it on the blog.

Wishing you all halcyon days of peace, freedom, warmth, opportunity, nature's beauty, and everything else we in New England and the U.S. of A. have to be thankful for.

Love,

SMW

(I'm celebrating Knit Something Day with this WIP--a scarf in the Embossed Vine and Leaves pattern from Vogue Knitting's Stitchionary)

http://www.vogueknitting.com/resources/stitchionary/knit_purl/embossed_vine_and_leaves.aspx