Pattern Spotlight: Miki

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Miki Swatch in Frankie and Charcoal Gerty

Miki, pronounced mee-kee in Japanese, means flower stem. This hat looks great on everyone, so no matter who you're knitting for this pattern will be a go to. It's knit from the bottom up with two contrasting colors of Gerty. The hat features a slipped stitch pattern that is reminiscent of a flower stem. I had a lot of fun swatching with Gerty and coming up with the stitch pattern. The yarn has a lot of bounce so I knew it would work well with slip stitch.

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You only knit with one color at a time, super easy!

Slip stitch patterns are really fun to knit and it creates a warm and cozy hat. You are only working with one color at a time, so it's much easier to knit than it looks. The colors are carried up on the inside of the hat, so there is no need to cut your yarn as you knit the hat. This yarn takes dye very well. The colors are so vibrant. There are so many possibilities of color combinations with Anzula’s beautiful colorways.

One of my favorite parts about this pattern is that you will have enough yarn to make a second hat. Gerty’s yardage is very generous. As you can see, I reversed the colors for the 2nd hat. You can knit one for yourself and then gift the second one.

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Alternating colors makes super cute hats for best friends, parent/child, siblings, or any other 2 people who like each other.

Gerty blocks out beautifully. It plumps up nicely even after blocking and I do love a good blocking. I highly recommend blocking because it brings out the best of the wool. Gerty does best with a short soak in cool water. (Note from Team Anzula - If you add anything to the water, make sure it's designed for hand dyed yarns. Please don't use laundry detergent or softeners. They aren't great for hand dyes)

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The pattern is now available on Ravelry here. From now until Oct 13, you can buy Miki for a discounted price of $4 by using the coupon code “GertyLove” at the checkout. For yarn shops that would like high quality print copies for their store, they can be purchased at wholesale through Stitch Sprouts.

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You can find more of Angela’s designs on Ravelry. Follow her on Instagram to see what she is currently working on.

Gerty is available in the shops listed below, all of whom are happy to ship!

Baskets of Yarn - Charlotte, NC - (704) 733-9053
Wasatch and Wool - Park City, UT - (435) 575-0999
Yarn Refuge - Reno, NV - (775) 384-1600
Knit One Purl Two - Rockford, IL - (815) 904-6030
Harps & Thistles Yarn Emporium - Cuyahoga Falls, OH - (234) 208-9482
Avenue Yarns - Albany, NY - (510) 526-9276

Special orders only: Swatches - Fresno, CA - (559) 435-2813
Special orders are dyed to order and are typically ready in 3-5 weeks.You can place a special order for Gerty (or any of our yarns) at your favorite local shop. See a list of shops here and our map here. 

Book Report: The Art of Slip-Stitch Knitting

The Backstory

A few weeks ago I was lamenting that grown-ups never get to do book reports after my 8 year old got to make a campaign poster for Peter Parker/Spider-Man after reading a book about him. That was easily my favorite part of school and jealousies were high as he put the finishing touches on the poster- a dab of gold glitter on the radioactive spider.

Thank goodness for friends like Sabrina (the queen of Anzula, in case you didn't know) who always have my back. It was less than 24 hours before I had a shiny new book in my hands to read and review. 

The Book

After fruitlessly searching for slip-stitch patterns to rival those that The Art of Slip-Stitch Knitting authors Faina Goberstein and Simona Merchant-Dest remembered from their childhoods in Eastern Europe, the two set out to create new stitch patterns. 

These patterns challenge everything you've ever thought about slip-stitch knitting. Gorgeous yarn and the right needle can create divine garment that you'll simply love to put on again and again.

—That's what I'd write if I were leaving an Amazon review or something. But I'm not. So here's my real review book report on The Art of Slip-Stitch Knitting.

Charlie, the glue that keeps all of the behind-the-scenes day to day business together at Anzula, basically is gonna have to pry this book out of my cold, dead hands to get it back. I'm not a strong knitter, and my pattern reading skills are seriously lacking and I usually have to pry a knitting needle out of the couch cushion that I've stabbed it in after ripping all of the stitches. That said, I was able to follow along and swatch several of the stitch patterns with (relative) ease—a big deal for me. There's a lot of background information on slip-stitch knitting in the introduction, which talks beginners or knitters with crummy pattern reading comprehension down from the ledge. I have a feeling that amazing knitters (like my sister, UGH.) would be able to breeze through and get right to creating the knits themselves without tarrying too long on the swatches. 

Swatched with Cricket in Arizona

I got all swatchy with my bad self and experimented with floats. To my surprise, it actually looked almost like the picture. Guys, I can never do this on the first try. 

The Patterns

Textures and color combos are plentiful in this book, with patterns to emulate fair isle colorwork, textures galore, and garments that are timelessly classic. Each pattern has a Russian or Czech name, which I love about this book. My absolute favorite is the Koketka Sweater, Russian for Yoke. 

This one uses a DK weight and I can just imagine how cozy it would feel in Croquet, especially if you don't live somewhere that ever gets cold enough for alpaca sweaters like the pattern calls for. (Even so, let's all let out a purr of appreciation for how amazing alpaca feels. Mmmmm.)

Second favorite, and one that I could totally do without even having to frog and start over a billion times, is the Zlatý DéštˇCowl. Even better, it calls for For Better or Worsted. If you've never cast this one on, this is a good pattern to experience it on. Beautful zig-zags in super close shades (here in Temperence and Butter, but I'd love to see it in Denim and Elephant, or Shiitake and RootBeer and  a two-tone depth 

I mean, c'mon, right? It's gorgeous and most importantly, it looks super warm and comfortable without lapsing into A Christmas Story amounts of layers. 

And speaking of A Christmas Story, gift giving season is drawing near. There are, of course, smaller projects in the book, like the classic šiška Hat and , which would make beautiful gifts, or in my case, if you don't have time to knit for everyone on your list, you can always buy them a copy of The Art of Slip-Stitch Knitting. I'm pretty much crossing my fingers that my sister won't see this blog and she'll be surprised when she unwraps her very own copy, along with the perfect skeins of Anzula yarn to complete her first slip-stitched project!

PS— Faina Goberstein is currently in the middle of a blog tour promoting all of her slip-stitch prowess. Follow along here.