Well, hello there. I know I have been AWOL for quite a while, but here I am now. Back to business. I have told you about the Raglan sweater and the Drop Shoulder one – now here is another: The sweater with Set in Sleeves. In my opinion this is the kind that you can make fit best. The sleeves, as the name says, are fitted to your body, due to what is called the…
Continue readingI am a child of the 80’s and thus very familiar with drop shoulder sweaters. It is the easiest way to knit a sweater – if you will: two squares plus two trapezoids make a sweater. If you want to get fancy, you add a front neckline. The drop shoulder sweaters in the 80’s were very over sized, and the sleeves were huge. Fortunately, for the newbie knitter, drop shoulders are back in fashion, however,…
Continue readingIf you are new to knitting sweaters, the sheer amount of choice out there can be daunting. Where to begin? I’ll tell you. That is, I am going to talk a bit about the different styles, knit in pieces or in the round and will try to explain the good, the bad and no uglies. Let’s start with the Raglan sweater. Any kind of sweater that has the sleeves attached diagonally to the front and…
Continue readingI have a thing for interchangeable knitting needles – especially when they look so very pretty as the Marblz do. I also enjoy knitting with the Symfonie Dreamz from Knitter’s Pride, specifically when I knit with cotton or linen. There are things you can do with an interchangeable knitting needle set that you cannot with your regular fixed circulars. Today I have a few pointers in that direction, maybe you’ll even find something that you…
Continue readingHi there. Today I have something to show to my fellow sock knitters – it’s a little trick I do and that I teach in my sock class, so nothing special, unless you’ve had to deal with these pesky holes before and want to try to avoid them. When you knit socks and have just finished the heel, you need to pick up the stitches for the gusset. This requires picking up one stitch into…
Continue readingToday another edition of *What Would Mona Do. As you might have heard me say, I do love knitting with linen. I do like the crisp fabric – often called ‘scratchy’, however, I don’t think it is – of 100% linen. Everything that follows is valid for 100% linen, not mixes, not cotton, I am talking about LINEN. We have a variety of 100% linen at the store: Euroflax Sport from Louet – it is…
Continue readingIf you have paid attention to the knitting scene for a while, you might have realized that knitted mesh or net turns up every once in a while in a design. That could be interpreted as knitters being fashion forward – it is apparently a trend right now (see pic) or one could think that knitters really do not care and do/knit whatever they feel like. What it definitely shows is that you cannot go…
Continue readingDropping stitches is usually a stressful event since under normal circumstances we do not want stitches to drop. However, there are stitch patterns out there that make you drop stitches on purpose. Yes, you read right. On these occasions you really want to drop the stitches (or, as you will see, yarn overs) to achieve an airy, loose pattern that you can use to create different effects. One pattern that makes use of this technique…
Continue readingAbout the “Color of the Year”? Well, this is it. Just in case you feel like whipping up a summery design in that particular colorway, I checked on our inventory to see if we could oblige. Shibui Linen, Bordeaux Classic Elite Firefly, Sangria Quince Sparrow, Port Rowan Creative Linen, Raspberry As with every color, there are different interpretations. But these come as close as possible. Four out of, well, I don’t really know, but a…
Continue reading‘Sheer’ as in ‘nearly.’ ‘Sheer’ as in ‘diaphanous’ (no one tell me I do not make an effort with the English language) also. Diaphanous is big this year – especially for Spring and Summer. It is not new, the sheer, see through fabrics usually turn up around this time of year, yet I find some or other new idea that I feel drawn to. Pictures courtesy of eileenfisher.com These two sweaters are just an example…
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