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.

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.

Info

Comment

Short Row Knits by Carol Feller

Welcome everyone to the first stop on the Short Row Knits blog tour, kindly hosted by Anzula! Short Row Knits was published on the 15th of September and it can be purchased in both print and electronic formats, see here for purchase options.

I’m very excited to have this book published; I’m completely in love with short rows and use them in almost all my designs. This book really has been a labor of love; I started it nearly 2 years ago and I wanted to create a book that explored short rows in more depth than I’ve seen before. It moves from several different short row techniques right through to tutorials on different ways of actually using those techniques in your knitting. After all there’s not much use have the information if you don’t know where to use it!

I learn best by practicing rather than reading, so in addition to the technique sections, this book also has 20 patterns. Each pattern uses short rows in a different way. The type of short row used is detailed in each pattern and I’ve given little tips and suggestions along the way for anything that made knitting easier for me.

Lets take a look at the hat I designed for Anzula’s yarn; Limon. This hat uses Anzula’s Cricket yarn in color Avocado. This yarn has got a nice tight twist which is great for knitting hats as it can be knit nice and firmly. To keep the fabric firm the hat is also knit using a tight gauge on size 4 (3.5mm) needles. This gives you the structure you need for a hat and will help reduce stretching on the brim so it’ll keep fitting your head.

Limon is a side-to-side hat that uses Japanese short rows to create the generous beret shaping. When knitting a hat from side-to-side you are working a wedge shape that tapers at the crown and repeating it over and over again. If the stitch pattern at the brim doesn’t pull in then you will create a beanie shape but if you have a vertically compressed pattern at the brim you create a beret shape. That is what happens with Limon, the brim uses a slipstitch pattern that is very dense vertically which means that for the same number of rows the brim is much smaller than the body of the hat. I love the full beret shape this creates, its very flattering to wear.

I opted to use Japanese short rows for the brim. You are working many short rows one after the other and by using a series of Japanese short rows with the yarn loop held on a single strip of waste yarn it becomes very fast and intuitive to work. The hat begins with a provisional cast-on and when all of the wedges for your size are finished you end by grafting the live stitches at the end of your work with the provisional cast-on stitches at the very beginning.

Have you seen the great Cricket colors that you can knit your Limon in?

Anzula is offering a giveaway of Cricket yarn and a copy of the book. Leave a comment on the blog and let us know what color Cricket yarn you’ll knit your Limon in! Anzula will use a random number generator and announce the winner on September 25th below and on Facebook. Shipping to US and Canada only.

If you want to keep following along on our blog tour, the next stop is on September 21st with Knitspot.

And the winner is....

Well, we picked two winners. We just couldn't help ourselves. We had 32 participants, duplicate comments were not counted and used the random number generator at Random.org.

Congratulations to Bonnie and Susan!

Winner #1, Bonnie, drawn at 11:39 am, wins 2 skeins of Cricket in a colorway of her choice and a copy of Short Row Knits.

Winner #2, Susan, drawn at 11:42, wins 2 skeins of Cricket in a colorway of her choice.

Winners, please send us a message with your colorway choice by using our Contact Us form.

Info

42 Comments

Pattern Spotlight: Afternoon Tea by Curious Handmade

Revisiting one of her most popular patterns, designer Helen Stewart from Curious Handmade has just released a special edition of her Afternoon Tea shawlette. Originally published in Knitty in 2012, the vintage-inspired pattern has garnered almost 1000 projects on Ravelry, introduced many new knitters to the wonders of lace, and hit a special chord with brides who wanted it to be a part of their special day. When Helen decided to revisit Afternoon Tea, she added a new, full-sized shawl version to the pattern and rewrote the instructions in the special percentage checklist style that has become so popular with her knitters and fans. We’re excited that she chose Anzula Luxury Yarns Squishy for her new samples. They turned out absolutely beautiful.

“I completely fell in love with Squishy, and I’m going to be looking for every opportunity to use this yarn in the near future. It’s an absolute pleasure on the needles. The softness, sheen, and most of all the wonderful colours have really stolen my heart. I knit the new small sample myself, in Teal, which may be my favourite colour, ever (if I had to pick one!) It used one full skein pretty exactly, which was wonderful.”

“The new larger sample, in the Candied Apple colourway, was knit by my mum. I was so grateful for her help, as she’s an absolutely beautiful knitter and I was a bit overloaded with work at the time, but I have to say it was hard to hand over those two skeins! I really wanted to just keep knitting with Squishy for as long as I could!”

“I just got the shade card in the mail the other day with all of the colors, and it absolutely made my heart sing. I just can’t say enough about it. It’s my new love affair!”

The special edition of the pattern, with the new size and checklist instructions, is available to buy now on Ravelry. For anyone who would like to try the free version of the pattern, it’s still available on Knitty and always will be!

If you’d like to learn more about Helen and her work, she’s HellsBells on Ravelry, and the host of the Curious Handmade podcast and blog.

Info

Comment