On My Bookshelf: Pop Knitting

A shorter version of  this book review was originally published in Knit Edge magazine, issue #2. The review copy was purchased at full retail price. As a member of the Powell's Books Partner Program, I receive a 7.5% commission on referrals.

Pop Knitting: Bold Motifs Using Color & Stitch

Pop Knitting: Bold Motifs Using Color & Stitch

Pop Knitting: Bold Motifs Using Color & Stitch

Britt-Marie Christoffersson

Interweave Press

With decades of experience in design, textiles, and knitting, Britt-Marie Christoffersson offers up 200+ pages of striking examples of using basic knitting techniques to create eye-popping textures, color patterns, and embellishments. It’s a wonderful way for experienced knitters to reconsider the possibilities of knitting, and an exceptional way for less experienced knitters to explore how simple techniques like slipped stitches, casting on, binding off, and knitting in different directions can create interesting fabrics. 

Instructions are provided for each stitch pattern in written form, accompanied by color photographs. A few of the stitch patterns are also shown worked up as cardigans, and a very simple cardigan template and brief instructions on how to use stitch pattern swatches to calculate a garment are provided. Knitters may find additional books such as Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns handy for finding ways to use the stitch patterns to make wearable pieces.

 Many of the stitch patterns are time-consuming and will leave the knitter with a lot of loose ends to weave in and tidy up. They are also excellent ways to use up small amounts of yarns, with striking results. 

Ankle Socks (gift knit)

Not only did I get a knit gift done in time, I got to see them in action. The recipient wore them for 3 days straight - I already knew she was knitworthy, but that sure clinched it. I'm knitting another pair for her now!

Ravelry project link: Ankle Socks

Ravelry project link: Ankle Socks

Pattern: Top-Down Socks, Fingering Version by Kate Atherly, in her book Knit Accessories: Essentials and Variations. I used the pattern as a jumping off point; worked at a different gauge, so the numbers aren't the same. 

Yarn: Twisted Fiber Arts Playful in Self-Striping colorway Firefly. This had been sitting in my stash for a couple of years and hadn't worked out for another project, so I was especially happy to use it up. 

Survey: Honolulu Yarncrafting Workshops

Do you live in Hawai'i? Would you like to help me out? I'm drafting proposals for knit/crochet/spin/yarn dye workshops in the Honolulu area, and I'd like to be able to narrow down my focus as well as have something to show potential event sponsors. Filling out this short questionnaire (4 multiple choice, 2 short text) would help a lot! I won't share your name or email address with anyone without your permission, and you can remain anonymous if you prefer. 

If you have any questions, there's a section in the questionnaire for that, or you can email me (info@mkcarroll.com).  

Of use

There are several handmade things that I use in my daily life, yet haven't been finding worthy of photos and blog posts, because they are so ordinary and so simple. Yet these are also the things that I use daily, like the kitchen towel hanging on the oven handle. My mother has crocheted dozens of these loops onto kitchen towels and gives most of them away; the drink coasters in the photo below are ones that I've made several of and which get tucked under glasses, mugs, and a teapot. Sometimes it's the little things that make a house a home.

Kitchen towel with crocheted hanging loop

Kitchen towel with crocheted hanging loop

To Be of Use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil, 
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used. 
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real. 

Marge Piercy

Crochet drink coasters

Crochet drink coasters

Sock in progress

Priorities: I remembered to put this project bag in my purse before leaving the house today, but I forgot my office keys, so I wrote most of this post sitting at a coffeeshop waiting for the building to open.

Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, knit with Malabrigo Sock in colorways Turner and Playa

Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, knit with Malabrigo Sock in colorways Turner and Playa

Although I cast on for the second sock immediately after binding off the toe of the first sock, this has been marinating a bit in my project bag while I focus on getting projects that are on deadlines finished. I've also been fussing a bit about the needles. A simple sock is soothing, pleasurable knitting for me, but I'm still working out which needles I want to use. I have a set of aluminum dpns that I've had for years and which are just the right length. However, it's a set of 4, and I prefer working a sock with a set of 5. A few weeks ago I picked up a set of 5 steel dpns which are lovely but just a little bit too short for my hands; I ordered a longer set that will hopefully turn up soon. I also have 2 short circular needles that would be great if the needles were just half an inch longer (I have big hands). I've probably got a single long circular in the right size, but I'm not a fan of knitting a sock on a single circ.

It's a lot of fussing for a pair of socks, especially a plain pair earmarked for travel. Lately, though, I have been opting to have a project in progress at all times that is just for me, with no deadlines and no specifications other than the ones I set myself, something that is for fun and that I will get to use when it is done. Earlier this year, when I spent a few weeks traveling, I packed several pairs of socks, mostly commercially produced, with wicking and arch support and machine washability. I packed the one pair of handknit socks that I own, knit for me years ago by Opal, which I had been keeping safely tucked away and treasured. Well, on this trip, those were the socks I wore every day except for the one day that I did laundry and had to wait until they were dry. Wool is excellent for travel socks - they don't pick up foot odors and can be worn repeatedly before washing (wish I could say the same about my boots). Knitting myself a pair of socks means making a nice treat for myself to wear on my travels in 2013! 

Ravelry: A Good, Plain Sock