Textured Knitting

We have a new book coming next week. I am really excited about this. Lots of cables and textures.

Meiju K-P’s patterns are filled with elaborate lace, beautiful cables and carefully finished details – but at the same time they are fun to make. As a designer, Meiju likes to combine challenging techniques with a pleasant knitting experience. Meiju’s debut book, Contrasts – Textured Knitting, contains 22 patterns, including pullovers, cardigans, scarves and hats in a soft, delicate and feminine style. They have been designed by Meiju to be functional and fit well. The pullovers and cardigans are mostly knitted from the top down, making their size easy to adjust.

Meiju K-P lives in Helsinki, Finland with her husband and three sons. Even as a teenager, she never knitted from patterns, preferring to create her own designs. Later, knitwear design became a passionate hobby and part-time work. She hopes to spark new ideas for beginners and more experienced knitters.

The books is available online for preorder.

📷 © Stephen West

Stephen West has a new pattern. This is the Garter Marler Sweater. You can purchase the pattern on Ravelry.

Gather a colorful pile of fingering weight yarns to knit this scraptastic garter stitch sweater. The top-down construction makes the sweater easy to try on and customize the length as you knit. Two strands of fingering weight yarn are held together throughout the entire project for the ultimate stash busting sweater. Squishy garter stitch is framed by ribbing for a very easy to knit sweater, ideal for adventurous beginners and experienced sweater knitters alike.

A customer was in today asking about needle gauges. My favourite is from Cocoknits. This is from Julie (the founder of Cocoknits)

I have long wanted a tiny needle gauge tool for travel-knitting. The big squares or rectangles are okay for at-home knitting, but clumsy for travel - so I fashioned one based on those a jeweler would use to size diamonds. The result is a joyous rainbow stack of connected discs for identifying knitting needle sizes US 0-15 / 2-10 mm.  

And because Cocoknits is committed to avoiding plastic wherever possible, we manufactured it from PLA, a 100% biodegradable, plant-based plastic substitute!

The discs swivel out and click back together with tiny magnets (which makes it as much fun to play with as use) and the whole rainbow tool is small enough to pop into the Accessory Roll so you'll never leave home without it.

This needle gauge is easy to use. The needle has to fit through the hole. I have tested it with my Addis and the sizing is true.

We are closed tomorrow but will be back in the store on Saturday from 11am-4pm.