Mother's Day is nearly here

...are you ready yet? If like me, it is all a bit of a flying panic or you're just struggling for ideas for the lady who has everything, fear not. We have some great offers available from the knitonthenet shop.

A Stitch in Time, Volume Two is still available to pre-order with a fabulous package of goodies including yarn, a signed copy and a project bag as part of the pre order package. Save £5 on the retail price by ordering now, and take advantage of our Gift Certificate emailed to you to print out and give to the recipient.

We also have some other excellent savings in-store. For a limited period A Stitch in Time, Volume One is available for only £20 - saving £7.99 on the retail price.

And Vintage Gifts to Knit, featuring 16 designs for women, men, children, baby and home, by Susan Crawford, is now only £10, saving £4.00 on the RRP. And for the next 48 hours Susan is signing any of her titles ordered through the shop.    Purchase either of these great titles by 3pm on Thursday for guaranteed delivery for Mother's Day (mainland UK addresses only).

Father's New Socks

Father's New Socks is a lovely pattern from Susan Crawford's Vintage Gifts to Knit.  Knitted in a mock Fair Isle pattern using a slip stitch, they are much less complicated to knit than they look.

 Image copyright Arbour House Publishing

Susan called her pattern 'Father's New Socks' because she thought that they would be just the sort of thing that her own Dad would love to get. Although the ones in the picture above (and in the book) were made for her husband, she has now made a pair for her Dad too.

The pattern calls for Jamieson and Smith 2-ply jumper yarn, which is a pure wool 4-ply weight yarn and work in a whole variety of colour combinations, as you'll see below.

Skein Queen made a gorgeous pair of these out of her own Blush yarn before Christmas, seen below.

Image copyright Skein Queen

We also have a knit-along thread in the Just Call Me Susan group on Ravelry at the moment for Father's New Socks and there are some fantastic pairs of socks coming out of it. You can see some of them on the projects pages, and here are a couple so that you can see the lovely colours people are putting together.

Melarno on Ravelry made a lovely pair for her Dad's birthday using blue and brown for contrast.

Image copyright Melarno

Donna G has a lovely pair of the socks in progress for her son who likes 'old style'.

Image copyright Donna G

If this has whetted your appetite for knitting a pair, the Father's New Socks pattern is available as part of Vintage Gifts to Knit. You can get your copy in one of three ways. It is available from the knitonthenet shop as both a print copy and an e-book (bottom left), and also as a Ravelry download. 

Happy Sock Knitting
Ingrid x

Technical Bits: Intarsia

Following on from last week's post about Fair Isle, this time we are looking at another colourwork technique: Intarsia. This method is used when blocks of colour are required, rather than a smaller repeating pattern. A good example of this are the reindeer on The Perfect Christmas Jumper, below.

The Perfect Christmas Jumper. Image copyright Arbour House Publishing.

Motifs are worked with separate balls or bobbins of yarn, producing a garment only one layer thick (rather than Fair Isle's double layer of wool. Before starting to knit, you will need to prepare by winding small balls or bobbins full of each colour to be used. Bobbins are often easier for this, as it makes it easier to untangle the inevitable twisting turning yarns.

As always, knit a swatch up first ...I'm sure that you always knit a tension square anyway, don't you ;) But seriously, knitting a swatch for colourwork knitting is particularly important in order to gauge the tension, and to have a practice of the techniques, if you haven't done it before.

Image by ActionHero on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license.

When changing from one colour to another it is best to bring the new colour over the colour you have just finished using. The twists will show up on the purl side of the work (intarsia works best with stocking stitch). Try not to twist the yarns too tightly around each other or the work will look rather pinched, but be careful not to do it too loosely either or you will be left with a hole. This is where the practice swatching really comes into its own.

On the vertical lines of your pattern, you will need to twist the yarns on each row, but on diagonal lines you'll need to only twist on the rows where the yarn colour changes at the same point as it did on the row beneath.

As with Fair Isle patterns, charts are really essential for Intarsia. It is very difficult to follow written-only instructions

Hearts and Bunnies Cardigan. Image copyright Arbour House Publishing

If you'd like to try out some Intarsia, you could try one of the following patterns:

The Perfect Christmas Jumper: Ravelry link and Knitonthenet Shop link to the pattern

Hearts and Bunnies Cardigan: Ravelry link and Knitonthenet Shop link to Vintage Gifts to Knit

Happy knitting!
Ingrid x

Just call me Susan

If you're on Ravelry, you might be interested to know that we have just started a new group for anybody who is interested in our editor Susan Crawford's patterns (published both under her real name and her design name, Just call me Ruby). It's called Just call me Susan and you can find it by following the link here.

Hope to see you there!

Ingrid

What happened when we went to Knit Nation?

Here's a quick look at what happened last weekend when Susan and I travelled to the knitting extravaganza that was Knit Nation.

Imperial College was the setting for this fantastic show, organised by Cookie A and Alice Yu.

There were lots of designers there with stands: here's Susan with Ysolda Teague who had her sample knits photobooth with her (and her assistant Sarah who was lovely too).

There were plenty of yarn stands as well. Here's Skein Queen's fabulous stand, manned by the lovely Alabama Whirly.

Skein Queen's Tweety Birds.


Susan had a booksigning for Vintage Gifts to Knit on the Loop stand on Friday and Saturday.


Here she is, in action!

The lovely Meghan from Loop kindly modelled the Adorable Little Bedjacket with Hood.


It was a great time for meeting friends, old and new.

I went to the Ravelry talk in the evening in which Casey and Jess told the story of how the site started and grew to the behemoth that it is today! It was a great end to my Friday at Knit Nation and I have heard tell that the Ravelry party on the Saturday was even better!

What a really great event Knit Nation was. Did you go? Tell us about it in the comments!

Ingrid x

Hearts and Bunnies Cardigan

In the second of the series from Vintage Gifts to Knit by Susan Crawford, I'm taking a quick look at the very cute Hearts and Bunnies Cardigan.

The very sweet Hearts and Bunnies cardigan was inspired by the character Anouk in the film Chocolat and is reminiscent of children's knitwear of the 1940s. With clever knitted buttons, it really is a stashbusting project which will appeal to all who like to make do and mend.

Knitted in 4 ply, this cardigan is a good introduction to both fair isle and intarsia, which are used in different parts of the cardigan. The garment is knitted in one piece to the underarm and then divided for the back and fronts. Although knitted here in wool, it could also be knitted in cotton for the summer. Although seen here knitted in pink, it will gain a whole new look knitted in a blue or more contemporary colour scheme.

If you do knit one in a different colour, we would love to see it too.

Vintage Gifts to Knit is available in both print and e-book form, costing only £14.00 for the printed version and £10.00 for the ebook. Arbour House Publishers will ship Vintage Gifts to Knit anywhere in the world for the flat rate of £3.00.

Ingrid
assistant editor, knitonthenet

Some 50s Elegance : Town and City Tufted Cape

So, what are you going to knit first from Vintage Gifts to Knit? There's so much to choose from. That's why I'm going to do a little series featuring some of the patterns to whet your appetite.

First up is the beautiful Town and City Tufted Cape, as modelled by Susan's lovely daughter, Charlotte.

Town and City Tufted Cape by Susan Crawford. Image copyright Arbour House Publishing.

Using an unusual tufted stitch, this flattering garment is inspired by elegant capes from the 1950s. It is also reminiscent of the capes worn by nurses in the same period, and I can just remember my own mother wearing a longer early-sixties version with her uniform in the late seventies. It is a really easy knit and would be great to start now in time for the chilly days of autumn. (Yes, I know. Hard to imagine just now in the Great British Heatwave!*)

It really is a very versatile pattern which will fit sizes 30-52" bust and Susan says in her pattern notes that:

The finished length is measured from the top of the main body at the front neck and includes the garter stitch edging around the bottom of the cape. The cape is very generous and accommodating in size and shape and will fit a variety of sizes. As a result, I suggest you consider what fit you would like before choosing your size. The small will actually fit a 42 inch chest but it will fit higher and more open at the front.

The cape is knitted in a standard double knit yarn on 5mm needles and is very warm without being bulky. The tufted stitch pattern makes lots of surface area to keep you cosy without great weight. This pattern would be excellent TV knitting (whilst watching the World Cup or maybe Wimbledon at the moment?) and is a real stashbuster, using only 5 or 6 balls of the main colour and one other for contrast.

Town and City Tufted Cape by Susan Crawford. Image copyright Arbour House Publishing.

As well as being part of the Vintage Gifts to Knit book, it is also available as a standalone pattern from both the knitonthenet shop, and as a Ravelry download, if you are a member there.

I really love a project where I can try out a new technique or stitch pattern: it gives me such a feeling of accomplishment. I think I'm going to really enjoy knitting this and trying out the tufted stitch, and hope that you do too. Do let us know if you've made one and send us a photo to put on the blog.

Happy summer knitting

Ingrid x

*Give us a break, readers from abroad. 27 degrees centigrade is pretty hot for us!

Newsflash! Vintage Gifts to Knit now available in print.

We are all very excited to announce that Vintage Gifts to Knit by knitonthenet editor, Susan Crawford is now available to buy in print from the knitonthenet shop. Filled with sixteen gorgeous patterns, there is something for everyone (although like me, you will probably want to knit them all... for yourself).

Here's a quick glimpse of these glamorous patterns, from the sporty 'No Need to Skate' Skating Skirt to the pretty Flower-Ty Pot.

Vintage Gifts to Knit montage, copyright, Susan Crawford.

These gorgeous patterns are all inspired and adapted from knitting patterns of the 1900s to the 1950s, and are perfect to make as gifts or for yourself. There are projects to knit for women, men, children and the home, with the garments in a wide range of sizes. The women's clothing patterns range from 30-54 inch chest.

Vintage Gifts to Knit is available in both print and e-book form, costing only £14.00 for the printed version and £10.00 for the ebook. Arbour House Publishers will ship Vintage Gifts to Knit anywhere in the world for the flat rate of £3.00. The e-book is also available as a Ravelry download.

If you'd like to hear more about Susan's glamourous vintage knitting adventures, do visit her blog Just call me Ruby.

Happy Vintage Knitting
Ingrid