Friday, March 30, 2012

Favorite Pattern Friday - Jared Flood

©Jared Flood Photography
This FPF will be dedicated to one of my favorite designers, Jared Flood. 

Jared Flood is a Pacific Northwest native, founder of Brooklyn Tweed, knitwear designer and photographer. His outstanding designs are clean and strong and focus on quality, texture and detail.

Another thing I like about his patterns is that they are mostly worked in the round. As a fan of Elizabeth Zimmermann, who was big on easier, more adjustable 'recipes' rather than line by line patterns, Flood tends to use her construction styles and creates most of his designs to be as seamless as possible.

There was a great two-part article, titled "Going Seamless," by Jared Flood in Vogue Knitting about converting flat-knitted and pieced sweaters to a seamless version, specifically with bottom-up construction. You can read parts of his tutorial online in Vogue Knitting's article archive.

Martina Hecht, a German knitwear designer and writer, had really inspiring interview with him last year; it's available on her website MaschenGold.

Enough said. Time to share some of my favorites!
Published in BT FALL 11
© Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood
Published in Brooklyn Tweed
© Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood
Published in Brooklyn Tweed
© Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood
Published in Brooklyn Tweed
© Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood
Published in Brooklyn Tweed
© Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood
Published in BT FALL 11
© Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood
Published in Brooklyn Tweed
© Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood


Thursday, March 29, 2012

First Pullover Finished!

It has been crazy during the last few days.. Papers, projects, exams and on top of all that we are getting ready to move to a different apartment soon!

Somehow, I still found time between all of this to finally finish seaming Shibuya! It looks and fits great; I'm extremely proud of my first sweater! Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take nice pictures of it so far, but I promise to post some soon. Until then, here some cellphone cam shots:


After continuing to work on the Scent of Lavender socks for a while, I realized I still have enough leftovers of Jamie's merino yarn to make another sweater for myself! One sock is almost done.. but I think it will have to be put on hold again soon..


The next sweater will be either #20 Eyelet Pullover by Joan Forgione, Mary Jane by Sarah Moore or Slinky Ribs by Wendy Bernard. They would be knit in the same dark gray as Shibuya, which would make them look a lot different than their sample pictures. I don't really know how to decide yet..

#20 Eyelet Pullover by Joan Forgione
Mary Jane by Sarah Moore
Slinky Ribs by Wendy Bernard

Which one do you like best?

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Easy Last Minute Presents

All my relatives and friends are excited about getting handmade presents, but we all know it takes a lot of time and effort to make them. Most of the time I also don't have the money to buy multiple skeins of yarn or order patterns I would only use once. As a solution for all of us busy present crafters, I created a little list of great last minute presents.

All of these patterns are free and use less than 400 yards of yarn! Depending on your knitting skills and available free time, they should all be relatively quick and easy to make.

Each picture is linked to the patterns' page on Ravelry and details about its name and designer are below. 
 

From left to right:

Row 1
Ilene Bag by Hannah Ingalls
Fish Hat by Thelma Egberts 
Mug and French Press Jacket by MK Carroll 
Row 2
iPhoodie by Emily Vanek
Bandana Cowl by Purl Soho
Row 3
Garter Yoke Baby Cardi by Jennifer Hoel
Habitat by Jared Flood
Cabled Kindle Sleeve by Emily Nimz 
Row 4
Lyon Hat by Veronica O'Neil
Thermis by Kris Knits
Java Socks by Cailyn Meyer


Tell me what you think! 

Are there any patterns you like to use as last minute presents?

Friday, March 16, 2012

Favorite Pattern Friday - Projects from fellow Ravelers

I will use this Friday to show some of the awesome and extremely creative work that's done by people like you and me on Ravelry. If there are any knitters/crocheters/weavers out there, that haven't signed up for this website yet, they should do so immediately! And if you are a person that would like to craft and do things, but think you are not talented enough, just try it! There are tons of websites out there that offer help and instructions for beginners.


But now it's time for 10 of my favorite Raveler projects:


 Joorwol's Blackburn
Orig. Pattern: Blackburn by Martin Storey

This project is from a Rav-friend of mine. Thanks to her, I was able to knit the beautiful Shibuya pullover I've blogged about before. She has tons of beautiful projects in her gallery, so it was hard to pick only one.. but I really like this sweater. It's a perfect fit, the yarn creates a really nice texture and the picture she took of it is really cool too! I'm not surprised her boyfriend wears it so often.


villapeikko's Arch-shaped socks
Orig. Pattern: Arch-shaped socks by Jen Showalter   free!

Awesome color & great modification with the rib pattern! 

strikkefrenzy's 14 Totoros
Orig. Pattern: Paper Dolls by Kate Davies

There is a reason this pullover pattern has 562 finished projects and is in 2,360 queues (including mine).. It is gorgeous and the possibilities of the yoke design are endless! Kate, the designer of Paper Dolls, wrote about some of her favorite customizations on her blog.
My favorite is and always will be the Totoro version from strikkefrenzy!

Purlescence's Catasaurus Rex
Orig. Pattern: Cats love Sweaters by Christine Landry   free!

I think this one is self-explanatory!

Orig. Pattern: Miralda's Triangular Shawl by Nancy Bush

Stunning Lacework! I love the color! 
I really need to buy some more yarn soon..  

KNITTINGinHI's Chullo
Orig. Pattern: Four Egg-Cozy Hats by Miriam G. Briggs

This is the coolest little kokeshi chullo ever!


More projects after the break!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Ravelry: where my stitches at?™

 The Numbers:
2,015,094 members - 6,505,596 projects - 269,692 patterns & 82,687 of them free!
 
If that doesn't impress you, find somebody who knits.. There's a high chance they will be a member of this website.. And there is a very high chance they will tell you Ravelry is the greatest crafting website ever!

Ravelry.com
How did this all start? Jessica Forbes, a knitter and blogger who was tired of the unorganized and chaotic knitting communities out there, and her husband Casey, a Web-developer who was tired of programming Java, decided to create this community in 2007. It started as a small, closed off community, but popularity grew fast and thousands of people were waiting to join. The couple was in desperate need of money, and Ravelry fans donated $71,000 to help keep up the site. Since then, it grew and turned into something no knitter or crocheter would ever want to miss again.


Today, the website is managed by a small team of four extremely creative and talented people:
Jessica & Casey (Founders), Mary-Heather (VP of Operations) and Sarah (Community Support).

Ravelry.com

But, Ravelry is so much more than just a free site for knitters and crocheters..
Let me try to describe it in its main points:

It's a extremely helpful Organizer! 
Ravelry.com

Members can keep track of everything in their notebook. They can catalog their projects with details about pattern, yarn, needles, modifications, how long it took to make and more. It's possible to save patterns they want to knit in the future in a queue-list, to add patterns to a favorites-list and to catalog all of them after whatever label they want. It's possible to create a library of owned knitting & crocheting books and magazines and to check out all of their featured patterns online. People can keep track of their blog posts and even link them to their project pages.

It's a Database!
Ravelry.com

I don't even know where to start to describe their insane database! I don't think people would be able to really understand until they signed up. All of it is carefully organized by volunteers and absolutely everything is linked and cross referenced to everything else.

Ravelry.com
I can click on a pattern and see numbers of already finished projects; I see a variety of suggested yarns, which have been used as alternatives to the pattern's instructions; I can see people's comments, modifications, ratings and so much more. I click on a specific yarn and see everything that has ever been knit with it by ravelers. I have three balls of yarn left over from knitting a pullover and don't know what to do with them? I type in the yardage and yarn weight and get every possible pattern I can use for it! The options and possibilities are endless.










Social Network! 
Ravelry.com

More than 23,000 groups and forums allow people to interact with other knitters and crocheters from around the world. Members can ask questions when they need help with a pattern, exchange experiences about different projects and techniques, share pictures of their cats and talk about how they manage to keep their recent yarn purchase a secret from their husbands. They can follow their friends' activities, recent projects, hand spun yarns or favorites. I have so many nice and creative people from so many different places in my friends list - Germany, England, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Bulgaria, France, Australia - It's really interesting to see the different types of yarn and knitting styles people from different areas use.

Designers can sign up as well and showcase and sell their patterns with only a tiny cut taken by Ravelry.

You can watch the Radar and see new projects pop up the second they were finished.

It's not possible to accurately describe it; I tried, but there is really no end to the awesomeness of Ravelry.


Tomorrow I'll introduce you to some of my favorite projects from people on Ravelry! 
You do not want to miss that!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Shi-Booyah!!

Pattern: Shibuya by Cirilia Rose
Forget what I posted on Thursday! 

I finished the front over the weekend and have all the parts ready for blocking and sewing! 

March really is a good month for crafting!

I still don't really understand how I knit it that quickly; I only worked on it during the evenings of the last three days! I love this pullover already!

Now it only needs to fit! Wish me luck for sewing the pieces together and adding the neckband!



Thursday, March 8, 2012

National Craft Month!

Unfortunately, I didn't have that much time for crafting so far.. I had a ton of assignments and papers due the last few weeks. I finished the back and both of the sleeves of Shibuya last month, but the front is still laying around and waiting for spring break to come.

But that doesn't mean that you can't celebrate National Craft Month!
 
There is a really nice article on About.com by Sherri Osborn that lists more than 20 different crafts and interesting projects and techniques, including knitting, crocheting, cross stitching, weaving, pressing flowers, beading and how to make candles. All of the crafts are linked to pages that describe the topic more in-depth and give instructions and help. So get inspired and do something crafty and creative this month!

I love learning and experimenting with new crafting techniques! My only problem is that I tend to stop halfway through the process of one project and start a new one.. The widespread curse of UFOs.. If you like knitting and crafting, you will probably have enough "Unfinished Objects" laying around your home to understand what I mean.

Because I can't celebrate this year's Craft Month by showing you a new and exciting project I'm starting, I will share some of my UFO's!
 
Two of the more recent projects that still need to be finished are The Scent of Lavender by Stephanie van der Linden, started in January, and Perfection by Patricia Kristoffersen, started last December. I would probably be able to finish both of them in less than two weeks, but for some reason I just can't get myself to start. Maybe when Shibuya is finished..


The next one in line would be Captivating by Patricia Kristoffersen. It's a really stunning pattern, especially crocheted in black. I started it in March 2011 and have about half of the doily finished - much more than this picture shows. Unfortunately, I don't have a recent picture of it; the doily is in Germany right now. You can take a look at epawelko's finished Captivating, to get a better idea of how it would look.


Another unfinished projects would be my On the side.. Blanket!, started in January 2011. The pattern is 124-1 Crochet blanket in ”Delight” and ”Fabel” by DROPS design. I really love this project and can't wait to finally finish it. I have almost 50 squares done and should really continue working on it.. I think it's my favorite out of all the UFO's and people on Ravelry seem to like it as well. It received the most hearts out of all my projects, closely followed by Age of Brass and Steam.



The next two are cross stitch projects and so old that I don't even remember when exactly I started them. The first one is a table cloth I planned on making for my mother. It has a three-colored bamboo design, which I really liked when I first picked it out in 1999. Now, 13 years later (what?! wow - I feel really old right now..), I can't really understand the weird color scheme at all; why would bamboo be black, light blue/gray and yellow?!

It's a medium-sized square table cloth with two of these motifs stitched in opposite corners. There's not a lot missing from the second design and my mother still seems to like it, so hopefully someday I will manage to finish it. 


The last project is probably to most complicated one I have ever started.. I think I started it sometime in 2007 as a birthday present for my sister, who was a big Emily Strange fan at that time. I used an image and transformed it into a stitch pattern with the help of a cross stitch program. Unfortunately I really don't remember which one it was; I know I only had the two month trial version.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to finish it in time, so I printed all the charts and color information before the two month were over. I guess I was right.. after about 5 years, it's still waiting to be finished.


I really have to finish this one. It's about 3/4 done and already looks stunning with all the shapes and subdued colors. The last few parts are the faces and eyes and the slightly more complicated detail work. I have all the thread and instructions here and would only need time and the right mood to actually continue.. "only"..


There are probably a few more UFO's hiding around here somewhere, but this is it for today. I hope you are inspired and willing to start some crafty projects for yourself and remember to stick to them and finish them! Digging out a 13 year old project will not make you feel too good..