I wanted to share this great idea from one of our teachers at Seed Stitch, Margie.

Margie uses these little spiral bound notebooks to help make her pattern reading easier and more transportable and I thought you all might like to learn from her.  Such a great idea.

First she grabs one of these little spiral notebooks and then attaches a locking key ring.  A shower curtain ring or other ring that allows you to easily open and close it like a carabiner might also work.

Then she photocopies the pattern from her book (of course purchased so she’s not violating copywrite laws) and cuts it up into manageable steps or pieces, pasting each step on individual pages of the little notebook.

Here you can see one of the pattern rows easily accessible and in the bottom snip it of the photo (yes I know this is a kind of crappy photo) you can see that Margie ticks off the rows as she does them so you always know where you are in the pattern.

Margie has found this to be a great way to take a pattern on the road, especially on the plane. She can attach this little book to the seat in front of her and easily flip the pages as she goes, never having to worry that it will fall under the seat in front of you.

Thanks so much Margie for this great trick!

I was sooo excited to this fabulous idea posted on the Etsy blog this week from Nguyen otherwise known as KnitKnit.  If you’re not familiar with Etsy or its blog, you have to check it out.  It’s a fabulous craft marketplace.  If you haven’t yet seen Nquyen’s designs, please also look.  She has some beautiful needle felted cameo necklaces for sale.  Fabulous idea.

Anyway, on to the idea at hand.  KnitKnit has brought us the wonderful idea and pattern for knitted postcards.  Seriously why did I not think about this yet?

How about knitting a postcard?

Wouldn’t these make a wonderful gift idea or a great tag for a hand knit or crochet sweater that you are giving as a gift?  The possibilities here are endless.  It seems these could actually be sent as a postcard with appropriate postage too.  Definitely well worth the effort to send this to a friend or loved one.  I know I’d be excited to receive one! You can see a feature on these on the Martha Stewart show.

How about a little love note or words of inspiration on the back?

Download KnitKnit’s pattern here or use your creativity to explore the possibilities of your knitted or crocheted postcards.

Nquyen will be leading an Etsy Lab on this project as well Tonight, Monday at 5:00 PM EST You can read more about the virtual Etsy lab and the project here on the Etsy blog.

All photos courtesy of KnitKnit and Etsy

Well it FINALLY feels like Spring around here.  This means we’ll be outside more and more, many of us sitting out on our patios or back yards enjoying the sites and sounds of the season.  So in honor of that today we thought we’d celebrate the patio chair.  Yes you heard me right, the patio chair.  If you’re from New England or ever visited us you’ll now that although it might be beautiful and sunny you still might need a sweater for those chillier New England evenings.  Sometimes even your run of the mill plastic patio chairs need a sweater too.

Why not knit your plastic patio chair a cover?

Now you can make one courtesy of a pattern from The Knitted Chairs Blog.  What a great idea huh.  The possibilities are limitless.

This is one of my favorites from a MA knitter named Tabitha.

Isn't this beautiful?

How great would one of these looked tucked in the corner of a room or as a fantastic do it yourself set for an apartment when you’re on a budget?

What are the possibilities for you?

Note: All photos courtesy of The Knitted Chair blog

I was so excited to discover a little feature in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting about the release of Sciaparelli’s Bowknot sweater pattern for free by Schoolhouse press.  Although this recent pattern has been slightly updated by Lisa Stockebrand, Meg Swansen, and Joyce Williams, this is such a great example of how classic style is always classic.

(photo courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Vera White, 1952)

If you’re not familiar with Elsa Schiaparelli she was an Italian fashion designer who was regarded by many as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Her chief rival was Coco Chanel. She launched a her collection of knitwear in 1927 using a special double layered stitch created by Armenian refugees. It’s a neat stranded technique where the accent color is carried through the body fabric, woven in periodically, creating a tweed-like effect in the main color body section of the sweater.

Don’t you just want to knit this?  How about charcoal gray with a pale pink bow? How about a cream sweater with a blue bow? What about a grass green sweater with a khaki bow?  All of the beautiful updates on classic style.

You may remember the free pattern I posted a few months back using Classic Elite Kumara.  Well they’re back with another fabulous free pattern.  I think it would look so scrumptious in white.

You can wear it as a big lovely cowl

Kumara is 85% Extra Fine Merino/15% Baby Camel, 128yd per ball, Knits at 4.5 sts over 4 inches on a U.S. size 9 and sells for $10.95.  Because of its short staple length the camel adds a lovely halo when blocked. The merino component is dyed before the yarn is spun with undyed camel hair. The blend of dyed and undyed fibers makes soft, muted colors. Kumara’s six twisted plies yield great stitch definition.

It also functions as a snood.

Designed by Pam Allan, Classic Elite’s creative director, this pattern leverages simple and very structural garter stitch and is a fabulous use of short rows.  Pam forgoes the wrap and turn technique, thus simplifying the short rows, and allowing the eyelets to become a design element in this piece. The simplicity makes this a great first project for someone new to short rows.

Download it here.

As you know we absolutely love Spud & Chloe yarns.  They’ve been a big hit since they day they arrived in the shop and of course Susan B. Anderson who authors the Spud and Chloe blog continues to provide us with inspiration.  She’s given us a fabulous little holiday buddy with the Tiny Elf pattern

Seriously cute huh? Photo courtesy of Susan B. Anderson

Susan structured this pattern as a holiday knit along so it was super fun to see him develop.  However the pattern is all together on the site in one place now and you could definitely pull this one off before the holidays.  Only takes bits of three hanks of Spud and Chloe Sweater.

You can download the pattern here for free.

During Sharon Brant’s recent visit she brought along the cutest little softie called Pete.  Pete is the cutest knit reindeer made from Alpaca Cotton.  He’d make a great gift for anyone on your list or a cute addition to anyone’s holiday decorations.

Seriously cute huh?

Mazie was anxiously watching me “yarn” this little guy over our Thanksgiving vacation to the west coast.  You can visit him at the shop until she wants him back again.

On a snowy day like today, Pete is already decked out with snowflakes

Download the free pattern for Pete here.

There is nothing like a gift designed to keep you warm and cozy and these thrummed mitts fit the bill.  The thrumming technique has been a very popular class and workshop around Seed Stitch and we hope to have another one scheduled in our January February class sessions.  Stay tuned.

However, if you’ve done this technique before or a quick book study, then you can tackle these mitts in time for a holiday gift.  The pattern, designed by the talented Helene Driesen, is a Seed Stitch exclusive.

Seriously great huh?

These were made using Lamb’s Pride Bulky and some multi-colored roving from Louet.

Here you can see the fluffy thrumms that keep your fingers warm

We have some great multi-colored roving in the shop and lots of color options in the Lambs Pride Bulky. Swing by and we can help you on your way to the perfect mitss.

One of my favorite yarns I saw when I was in Columbus OH earlier this year at our yarn retailers meeting TNNA, was Kumara by Classic Elite.  I could not stop smoothing this yarn as I walked around the show and found myself coming back to it again and again as I poured through my samples upon returning to the shop.
It’s now on the shelves and I think will be a favorite for many of you too.

This yarn is 85% extra fine merino, 15% baby camel with an amazingly marshmellow-y handfeel and lovely bloom, but will also have fabulous stitch definition.  The 50g ball has 128 yards and knits at 4.5 stitches per inch on a U.S. size 9.

To celebrate this yarn, I thought I’d share with you a great quick project and wonderful gift idea that you can surely get done before the holiday season.

Kumara Hand Wamers Free Pattern

These hand warmers only take two balls and are a reasonable little piece of luxury.  If you’ve never knit with Camel fiber before it’s incredibly soft with a micron count as fine as some cashmere’s.  Seriously great yarn!

Download the free pattern here.

As we approach the holiday season I’ll be sprinkling in gift giving inspiration.  Some of them will be projects to give as gifts and others will be gifts for the favorite fiber artist in your life.

First up: Opera Gloves!

The Opera Gloves pattern from Mac and Me is perhaps one of our all time favorites.  They fit like no other glove, are comfortable to wear, and an amazingly versatile pattern.

Shown above are two great modifications.  On the left is the full glove, but our Michele made flip finger so she could use her iPod.  On the right are mine where I made them fingerless after the thumb gusset increase.  Soooo many possibilities with this pattern.  The left is made with two skeins of amazing Koigu KPPPM and the right is one skein of Ambiente for the arms and one of semisolid Koigu KPPPM for the body of the hand.

We are also offering a fab class on this project that starts this coming Monday November 9th from 6:30-8:00.  Check the website for more details and call to register.  Margie is an amazing teacher and everyone who has taken one of her classes has been so excited!

Anyone would be lucky to recieve these as a gift.