Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 by
Rhonda Bell
A group of knitters have banded together to show all of Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting stitch patterns in color. The hope is to offer knitters a visual aid when knitting these stitch patterns.
Barbara G. Walker is the author of several time-honored knitting books that most knitters find indispensable to their knitting book library. The purpose of
The Walker Treasury Project is to display knitted swatches of these patterns and post them in full color because, although the books are a great resource of knitting stitch patterns, the small pictures in the books are in black and white and do not give justice to the true beauty of the stitch patterns.
The project will not post the actual instructions for creating the stitch patterns as they are copyright protected and are available in The Treasury of Knitting books. But now high quality color photos can be used as reference too.
The Walker Treasury Project is asking knitters to contribute to the project by selecting a stitch pattern from any of the books and knitting a big swatch in a light colored yarn using that knitting stitch pattern. A color photo of the swatch along with the stitch pattern name, the book and page number where the stitch pattern is explain, along with other information will be posted on the blog.
In return a link to the contributor’s website is included in the posting. And of course all knitters will have a continually expanding resource for knitting stitch patterns from Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting book series which include:
Get more information and see the collection of color swatch photos at The Walker Treasury Project.
Walker Treasury Project
Posted in barbara walker, continental knitting, knitting stitch patterns | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 by
Rhonda Bell
Knitty.com today released new knitting patterns and knitting articles as a bonus to its Winter 2006 issue.
Thermal by Laura Chau is a longjohn inspired top knit with a fine guage yarn.
Dragonfly by Laura Zukaite is a flirty knitted sweater with a dragonfly inspired neckline.
Elbac by by Laura is a knitted scarf that uses ribbing stitches for a reversible scarf.
Mad River Mittens by by Symeon North are great looking felted mittens with buttons.
It’s not a stash…it’s a collection by Kate Antonova covers collecting vintage yarn.
Cheating at color theory by Julie Theaker covers using Hue, Intensity, and Value when selecting yarns colors for knitted projects.
Knitty.com Winter Bonus Patterns
Posted in free knitting patterns, mittens, scarf, sweater | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007 by
Rhonda Bell
Getting Started Knitting by Jennifer Worick, review columnist for Yarn Market News, is a great resource for the beginning knitter. In this article, I review this book.
Getting Started Knitting is a beginning knitting book but takes knitters well past the usual first knitted scarf project. I especially like the section “A Tour of The Yarn Shop” in the first chapter. It can be overwhelming the first time we enter a yarn store. There are so many types of yarns and knitting notions. It is often hard to make sense out of it all. But Jennifer walks you through what you will find in a typical one and explains all this.
I also like the “Fiber Facts” section in the first chapter. She covers some of the major fibers used in yarn such as wool, mohair, cotton, and acrylic. She tells you about characteristics of each fiber type as well how to wash the finished knitted item that uses them.
The second chapter goes over the basics of knitting including casting on, the knit stitch, the purl stitch, gauge, ribbing, binding off, joining a new ball of yarn, and blocking. She even has a section on setting up your knitting space and storing your yarn stash.
The second chapter has basic patterns such as the garter stitch scarf, a novelty yarn scarf, a poncho, wrist warmers, and leg warmers. All of these are great, easy patterns to get the beginning knitter started.
The following three chapters introduce progressively challenging knitting techniques along with patterns that use these techniques. In the third chapter there is a cute baby blanket in the shape of a stop sign that uses increase and decrease explained in the chapter.
What I really like about the patterns in this book is a section in them called “Need to Know”. This part of the pattern lists all the techniques along with the page number where they are explained so you can successfully knit the pattern.
If you are a beginning knitter that wants a book that walks you through more and more challenging projects while giving you explicit directions, Getting Started Knitting by Jennifer Worick, is a good choice. It not only covers the basics in an easy to reading style, it also helps the knitter learn more advanced knitting techniques with some great looking and fun patterns.
Getting Started Knitting
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Saturday, January 20th, 2007 by
Rhonda Bell
Knitty Gritty is hosting a knit in on Super Bowl Sunday in order to encourage knitting for charity.
On February 4th, 2007, Knitty Gritty, the DIY Network’s knitting show hosted by Vickie Howell, is running a matharon of episodes from 5 P.M. to 11 P.M. EST. During the matharon, Vickie and DIY network are encouraging the knitting of 7″x9″ squares for Warm Up America!, a charitable organization dedicated to the creation of handmade blankets, clothing and accessories to help those in need.
The 7″x9″ squares knit and donated by DIY viewers will be sewn together into blankets, and distributed to women’s shelters, nursing homes and daycare centers.
For more information on how to participate in DIY’s year-long initiative, including a pattern for the square, log on to www.DIYnetwork.com/knit.
Vickie Howell will also have a live blog during the event which is being dubbed “Super Knit Sunday”.
For more information see, Knitty Gritty Knit In on Super Bowl Sunday!
Super Bowl Charity Knitting
Posted in knitting charity, knitty gritty, vickie howell | No Comments »