Stories in the Making

Colour choice is incredibly important to every fibre crafter I know. When you are working from a pattern, for example, your colour choice is the central most important element of your interpretation of the work.  Will you replicate the scheme exactly? Or choose your own colour adventure? As yarn-users, unless we are lucky enough to have the skills to dye our own, or know someone who can, we are limited to the palette set out by yarn manufacturers.  It's a different reality from that enjoyed by painters, and other artists with the freedom to create their own unique colours by...

Pattern is Maple Fall Fingerless Gloves For the visually-inclined, charts can transform the knitting experience and open up new worlds of non-native-tongue pattern collections.  As a designer, I find it a particular boon to be fluent in both written and charted instructions as one set often complements (or calls out issues) in the other. I am a bit unusual in that charts are my first "knitting language." I started out knitting from stranded colourwork charts, and then at a used book sale in Melbourne many years ago, I picked up this book, which continues to be one of my favourite...

Big thank you to Alison Ellett, who took us through crochet diagrams (or charts) last week! As Alison outlined, there are advantages and disadvantages to crocheting from a chart, but we think the awesomeness outweighs the drawbacks: Awesomeness! Universal - the symbols don't vary as they do in knitting charts, plus this eliminates the US vs UK terminology disparities. Result actually looks like the chart Challenges Good charting software is basically non-existent... yet Difficult for some learning styles Free Japanese hat patterns that you can work from the chart Tsubaki Cotton Hat Relax Ramie Hat Straw Top Hat Simple charted...

Jan Brett reads her illustrated version of an old Ukrainian folktale about the adventures of a lost white mitten. As I delved into the topic of mittens for this month's Yarn Club meeting, an interesting theme jumped out at me and began to bounce around in my head.  Mittens, arguably, are the most knitted item in history, with socks probably a close second. Every textile tradition includes its own variation, techniques, customs, and even, as in the example above, mythology surrounding the mitten. (I'm unaware of any sock or stocking folklore, but I'm already thinking that our study of mittens requires...

We had SO MANY wonderful mittens and other yarny things brought to Yarn Club in January.  Just look at our mitten table: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alexis | Phibersmith Designs (@alexis_phibersmith) Alison brought in the following: Hand Gusset Mittens by Carol Buchholz Furlana Mittens by Rebecca Harris   Ribbed Fingerless Mitts by Deb Gemmel Seine by Kyoko Nakayoshi (Alison's project notes here) Kris brought in the following: Blue Stores Mittens by Sarah F. Price  Mitt Envy by weezalana Project Peace by Christina Campbell (Kris's project notes here) Jo brought in the following: Fiddlehead Mittens by...