Book Review: 60 More Quick Knits

Hope you all enjoyed the book review from last week. And, thanks again for all the comments. I love reading them! I think I am going to try to do book reviews on Mondays until I get through the stack of review copies. So, onto this week's book review:

This week I am taking a look at 60 More Quick Knits. The book features 20 hats, 20 scarves and 20 mitten patterns.

I have to say, I found the mitten patterns to be especially charming. Here is a shot of my favorite one, the Nordic mittens:



And, I thought many of the hats were very clever too. Here is the Bridcage Beanie:

All the patterns in the book are written for Cascade 220 sport. A nice affordable yarn if you ask me. I think what I like the most is since you know that all the patterns are written for sport weight, you could easily subsitiute yarn, if you wanted to. 

I think this is a great book and there are tons of things I would knit in it. It retails for $17.95 and I have seen it on Amazon for as low as $11.27!

This is the exact kind of book I would keep for myself, except I don't think I will get around to knitting anything in it for awhile. So, how about another giveaway! Just leave a comment here (and make sure leave a Rav id or something so I can find you should you win) and I will draw a winner on Friday, 2/3 around 5pm central time. Good luck!

Note: I received this book as a review copy. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy here.



The winner is....

Thanks for all the comments on the book review. I enjoyed reading all of them!

And now what you actually want to know - the winner.

 Using a random number generator, the winner is ..... KristyR! Congratulations. Kristy, I have sent you a Rav message, so be on the look out for that!

To those that didn't win, stay tuned. There may just be another book review giveaway on the horizon. Just sayin'.

New Stitch Markers

So, my friends, Cathy and Melissa, love them some Disneyland. They are frequent visitors and I love their collection of Disney things that pop up in their knitting bags. On a recent trip, they brought back our knitting group a souvenir. One kids bracelet with the elastic out of it. The result? Stitch markers!

Pretty smart if you ask me. Each of us in the group took a little handful to add to our stitch marker collections. I can't wait to use them!

Book Review: Terrific Toe-Up Socks

The review copies of books have been piling up around here, so you will likely be seeing book review here on a weekly basis for awhile. The upside to this? Many of them will be giveaways, so you will want to stay tuned.

The first one to review is Terrific Toe Up Socks by Janet Rehfeldt.

What I like about this book is that half the book discusses the techniques needed to successfully knit toe-up socks. There are a variety of cast ons, increases, and decreases illustrated as well short row heels including wrap and turns (which admittedly are my nemesis).

If you are an experienced toe-up sock knitter, you may find this book too be a little too much technique and instruction. But for someone like me who has knit toe-up socks before but struggled through some of the techniques, this book is great. I wish I had it when I was first trying to go toe-up!

The book also includes about 8 patterns. That's quite a lot of info in this book!

The book is published by Martingale & Company and retails for only $14.99. On Amazon, it's currently only $9.99.

Want my review copy? Just a leave a comment here on the blog (make sure to include your Ravelry ID in your comment or some way for me to contact you) by Friday, 1/27. I will draw the random winner at 5pm Central Time on Friday! Good luck!

Note: I received this book as a review copy from Martingale & Company. For more information, please see my disclosure policy here.

FO: Caponcho

My 12-year old niece, Hallie, asked me for a poncho. Like 2 years ago. She wanted turquiose and grey. I finally made her one and gifted it to her for Christmas. Better late than never, as the knitters like to say. :)

 

I used the Rosa'sCaponcho pattern (it's free Rav download) and made a few mods. I added some ribbing at the neck and the edge, and changed yarn colors every 4 rows for some stripey goodness. Oh, and I knit until it "looked big enough." I used Loops & Threads Charisma yarn. Bulky, soft and cheap. :)

Hallie loved it! She loved it so much she thanked me twice for it. Which when a pre-teen thanks you twice for something and means it, you know you did good.

I will have to try to get a couple pics of her wearing it. I didn't have the camera with me on Christmas morning, but she tried it on and it fit perfectly.

Cork Management

It's no secret to readers of this blog that I recently became obsessed with knitting Korknisses.

 

Seriously, wish I was knitting some right now rather than sitting at the computer. :) Love those little guys. Anyway, it's getting to the point where I am saving every wine cork I can get my hands on, and have had friends give me a cork or two. So when my MIL received a cork cage from my SIL for her birthday in November I dropped some serious hints that I would like one for Christmas. I was quite happy that my hinting paid off.

It's cute, it's practical for the woman weirdly obsessed with knitting cork people and looks quite good in our kitchen. It sure beats the plastic bag shoved in a drawer, which is how they were being stored before.

New Spring Designs from Kollage

Spring is coming (although it has been feeling wonderfully Spring-like in the greater Chicagoland area lately) and I am happy to report I have not one but two Spring designs that have just been released from Kollage Yarns!

First up, it's Edmond:

Edmond is a hat and cowl set knit out of Lofty. I love me some Lofty! Edmond is named after a dear coworker. Perhaps my favorite coworker of all time. Yeah, I said it. Anyway, I am currently considering my color options and plan on making another set just for her.

You can get the Edmond pattern on Patternfish.

And then there is the Crashing Waves shawl:

There were so many amazing photos, I couldn't choose just one! :)

Crashing Waves is knit out of Creamy. If you haven't tried this yarn...do it now. It is so soft! As a girl who gets kinda itchy from wool, I love this alternative for shawls. Cotton and milk? Yes, please!

The Crashing Waves pattern is also available on Patternfish.

Hope you enjoy knitting the new patterns as much as I liked designing them!

Note: Photos used with permission by Kollage Yarns.

FO: Bonnie Jean

I finished this up awhile ago, but the camera card ready thingy had gone missing (found it buried on the bottom of my knitting bag).  Here is the Bonnie Jean scarf I knit for the Kollage KAL on Ravelry:

Knit out of just one skein of Riveting. A little garter stitch, a little texture, a little lace. What's not to love?

Yes, I knit on my wedding day.

I know I have posted lots of wedding stuff on the blog lately, but I couldn't resist posting this last set of pics. Our photographer, Lindsay*, made sure to tell me to bring my knitting along on my wedding day. And, since Jenni was in the wedding, I told her she had to bring hers too.

 

This was one of my favorite parts of the day. It was the perfect little break among all the craziness.

Jenni and I made sure to have knitting with us that coordinated with the wedding colors of pink and navy blue. Jenni is knitting with some yarn I dyed her to match the wedding, and I am knitting with Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR lightweight in the FemmeBot colorway (which Jenni had bought me).

So glad we took the time to get these photos. I mentioned this already on Facebook, but I look forward to looking back on these pics with Jenni when we are knitting away at the nursing home together someday. :)

*Lindsay and her husband, Ken, are seriously the best photographers ever. Hire them for your wedding, family photos, I don't care. They are soooo awesome.

My new notions holder

Like many knitters, I am a sucker for anything cute that will hold my knitting crap. And, right before Christmas, I found the cutest little thing ever at Walgreens.

 

I paid something like $1.49 or something for it. I mean, maybe it will completely fall apart, but for  $1.49 I am willing to take the risk. The little metal closure seems ok to me:

I put some of my stuff in there and it all fits nicely. If I can cram a little tape measure in there I'll be good to go.

Now, you might be thinking, isn't some of that stuff in there from your KnitKit? And the answer would be yes, yes it is. While I love the idea of the KnitKit, I wish there was a bigger compartment to put the extra stuff. Like a tapestry needle or extra stitch markers. So this is my new self-made KnitKit.

And a little Tinkerbell never hurt anyone. :)

Good-bye 2011. Hello 2012!

I wasn't going to post a 2011 review, but then I started thinking about how 2011 was the best year ever and why not relive a little bit of that, right? :)

Of course, the best thing ever was getting married!

 (from l-r we have my dad, my mom, Alex, me, my sister, my BIL, and my two brothers)

(this is one of my fav photos from our wedding day. thanks, Lindsay!)

There was Sock Summit which was super super fun. I also had my first pattern in a magazine! We finally got the awful wallpaper down in our kitchen and painted in there. I got a book deal! We had some fun with mystery shawls and mystery socks. My full time job at the end of this year has made another turn for the better. Even though my job is getting better, I started making spreadsheets that say things like "exit strategy" and "financial game plan," which means I know I am getting closer to my goal of working for myself. I lost 30lbs (which I have more to go, but 30lbs isn't too shabby)! I completed two 5K races.

Yeah, I can't complain about 2011. And now here we are in 2012. As 12 is my fav number, I figure this year has to be good. Here are some goals I have for this year (knitting and otherwise):

• Finish my book!
• Work out my second e-book idea and make that happen
• Host some good mystery KALs (March is coming, mystery shawl, just sayin')
• Do four 5K races and complete at least one of them in under 35 minutes
• Get my craft room/office all pretty
• Lose another 30lbs! 
• And, the ever popular, start knitting holiday gifts in June. I have plans for a couple Christmas gifts for next year. 

So, what are your goals? Hope you have a great 2012!