Flagel Knitting Files

 A picture is the only way to describe this: And the knitting world goes wild about this sweater offering for the Team U.S.A 2014 Olympics apparrel.  The Ralph Lauren design has created a knitting buzz. If you'd like a closer look at it, please click on Ralph Lauren above. There are those knitters eagerly looking for a pattern so they can duplicate it and those who can only imagine this sweater appearing at an Ugly Sweater event.   Perhaps in a group like this, the entire effect is better, perhaps. Having implied I'm not personally fond of the sweater above, another design for the Olympics by Ralph Lauren is much more favorably received by me and fellow knitters: This more traditional Norwegian designed sweater with the US flag and Olympic rings does have a handmade feel without shouting homemade.  It does also have a large snowflake and two moose on the front with the Polo logo. (To see this just keep scrolling through all the Ralph Lauren Olympic outfits

You'll remember my son,  asked me at Christmas to knit a set of hand puppets for his daughter, my grand daughter, M.  I may or may not be able to figure out how to make hand puppets, but I knew I could knock out a quick set of finger puppets and we agreed, for now, that was a nice start. My jungle of finger puppets so far Between my Fair Isle toque knitting I managed to create a few puppets.  First there's the friendly, furry Lion.  I'm using the same free pattern designed by Kerrie Rycroft found on knitty.com  used back in January 2012 .  But this time I tried to improve the overall look.  The mane of the lion was improved with Tena's suggestion I treat it like fringe.  This secures the mane and with a few quick brushes with a needle the wool becomes frizzy and from my POV more lion mane like. With Tiger I decided to forego the around the body stripes and use the Fair Isle technique instead.  This makes the stripes look more realistic, again in my opinion

The return last weekend (at least here in Canada and the U.S.) of the Sherlock series from the BBC starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, brings Sherlock mania back into full swing.  PBS ran several hours of programming about Sherlock Holmes, his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and their combined contributions to forensic science to this run up.  Additionally programs about the faces and voices of the numerous actors who have played Sherlock and Watson in the theatre and on the big and little screens were available before last week's return. Full disclosure here, I didn't read the entire series of Sherlock when I was a kid, but I live with someone who did.  I like very much the versions of recent Sherlock actors, Jeremy Brett, Jonathon Pryce, Robert Downy Jr. and Jonny Lee Miller in Elementary and have become a true fan of the video versions. Cumberbatch has brought a special flair to the role of a modern Sherlock using a smart phone while Freeman's Watso

The Yarn Harlot , Stephanie Pearl-McPhee wrote it was 10 years ago on January 23, 2004 she posted her first blog entry .  That first post listed the reasons she believed she met the qualifications to actually blog about knitting. (Feel free to click on the word Yarn Harlot  above to see her blogiversary post and first blog entry  above to read her first post.) The new post states Stephanie has written over 2,000 posts, started l-o-n-g before Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Ravelry and was forced to learn some HTML and spam control along the way.  The other, less writing intensive options, have cannibalized readers and writers away from the knitting blogosphere; but needless to say, Stephanie blogs on because she has created a huge community of like-minded followers.  Her popularity is very widespread and her followers, although mainly North American, do extend into the entire world. Stephanie looks as if she has a halo surrounding her head All this got me thinking again abo

My knitting and writing has been off a bit lately because frankly my work is keeping me so busy that my energy to knit and write at home has diminished.  Again, this is not to be taken as a complaint, merely an explanation for the paucity of posts. Having said that I am nearing the completion of a third Fair Isle toque.  It is the one where I'm knitting with the leftover charcoal Rowan Tweed used in the first toque and some sock yarn I had in my stash.  The sock yarn was not exactly DK weight so I doubled it by pulling yarn from both the inside and outside of the skein. What I've created looks very masculine to me, the tweedy charcoal with the bluey/black combinations of the sock yarn.  So I just jumped into redesigning the DIY Fair Isle Hat designed by Meg Myers.  Instead of changing the diamond up as was done in the first toque, I repeated the first and second diamonds in this one.  All has gone very well so far, but if this is to be for a male, the pretty flower created

The second Fair Isle toque is complete. Drying on it's own balloon mold This is a free Classic Elite Yarns pattern called DIY Fair Isle Hat designed by Meg Myers.   As you can see if you click on the link, the pattern is made with a taupe background and variegated red foreground.  When I was visiting my LYS last week, Helen recommended the cream and light blue I used.  These colours represent a classic Fair Isle colour combination.  What I love is the play with the diamond design and the different-to-me decrease that creates a dramatic set of lines creating a flower at the top. It is called a DIY Fair Isle pattern because attached are two grids for you to use for designing your own patterns.  Perhaps some day I'll try that but for now I'm quite happy to successfully knit this complicated looking toque.  There feels like one more Fair Isle toque in me before I move on to other things.  Today I did some shopping in my own LYS, upstairs and lo and behold, I th

Selbu Modern  is the name of a free pattern found on Ravelry to make a woman's toque/cap designed by Kate Gagnon Osborn.  Selbu is a municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway, the birthplace of Selburose.  It has a very distinct diamond-shaped pattern that can be seen here .  Obviously the Selbu Modern pattern, more clearly seen below, has rounded the diamond shapes and added the three roses making it more updated. This pattern was recommended by Judy, my instructor, after the two-handed knitting class (Fair Isle) as the first project one should knit this way.  I looked at the flower-motif and thought, this would really be beautiful if I could pull it off. In November at the end of the second night of class I asked Judy to help me select yarn that would work best.   I wanted to use a charcoal gray colour as one of the two and she recommended a light gray both in Rowan Fine Tweed.  Judy also suggested I use the light gray as the background (MC=main colour) and the char

I couldn't answer my own question about one of the Christmas advertisements FedEx recently ran here in North America.  Rather than describe it, I'll let you watch this 15 second ad by clicking here . Nana keeps knitting to fill a box from FedEx because she only has to pay One-Rate.  During the video you see she's already made a toaster, a refrigerator, a dog, and a Christmas tree cozy and at the very end, even a cozy for her grandchild.  She's a knitting machine! Question is should any knitters be insulted by this advertisement?  It does so play to the stereotypical knitting type.  Nana is sitting in her chair in a home that hasn't been redecorated in years, surrounded by yarn and photos from the past. Nana's home from the video Her daughter in standing in an active, modern household where her husband is finishing the decorating of the Xmas tree under its own cozy with all the additional cozies in sight, except the child. Daughter's home T

“Since 2000, the Pantone Color Institute™ has been designating a Color of the Year to express in color what is taking place in the global zeitgeist. A color that will resonate around the world, the PANTONE Color of the Year is a reflection of what people are looking for, what they feel they need that color can help to answer. Not necessarily the hot fashion color of the moment, but a color crossing all areas of design which is an expression of a mood, an attitude, on the part of the consumers.” Or at least this is what Pantone thinks.  Personally I find that the Colour of the Year does in fact seep deep into fashion and that includes yarn colours as well. For 2014 the Colour of the Year is Radiant Orchid. Should you want to know more about how and why this colour was selected for 2014, check out this 2.5 minute  video featuring Lea Eiseman, the Executive Director of Pantone, explaining the selection. What is particularly great about this year's Radiant Orchid co

I have been knitting long enough to be able to say I've learned a few things along the way.  I thought I'd put some thoughts together at the relative start of a new year to remind me about them.  Perhaps some will resonate with you as well.  (BTW, many of these can be generalized to life and don't only hold true for knitting.) Just knit it - Sorry Nike, this is a play on your Just Do It slogan.  Never, never limit yourself by thinking "I could never knit that"!  Just knit it and you might be surprised what you can do.  I know I surprise and periodically amaze myself with what I am able to do.  It is good to surprise yourself. Embrace your mistakes - We all make them and you control what you do about them.  Mistakes can help you learn how to fix, deconstruct or invent something new.  Embrace those mistakes as an opportunity trying to teach you something despite your resistance to it.  Once I convinced myself I love knitting and all it could teach me, mistakes

JRR Tolkien probably never thought about the characters in the Hobbit worked up into yarny statues but, of course, you know someone would think of it. Denise Salway from Penyfai, South Wales, UK decided to take on the task.  She admits most of the characters took only a day or two to knit, but Smaug, well it took over a month to get him done. A picture, however, is worth a thousand words (especially mine about this topic).  So here you go: The characters from The Desolation of Smaug by Denise Salway There are things about this work that impress me: The figures are standing on their own.  I don't know what Denise did to insure they are stable enough to support themselves.  In the past when I've knit figures I have to attach them to something to have them stand. Look at the size of Smaug!  Denise stated Smaug took her over a month to complete and you can tell why that would be the case when you look at the detail she added. The details, the embroidered facial featu

Someone recently created a post on Knitting Paradise about what characteristics she'd like to see in a LYS .  It got me thinking about what I'd really like for my particular needs.  So here's my list First and foremost my ideal LYS would have a wide selection of yarn and wool types with an equally wide range of prices.  So often LYS carry only the high-end, aka expensive wool, and those of us who also use low-end yarn, like acrylics, are forced to go to big box stores.  This lack of a variety of yarn and wool types requires another stop; I'd be very happy to make one stop and get it all even if the low-end is a bit more costly. Arrange the yarns by weight and not manufacturer.  Most LYS put all the weights of one manufacturer together, which I'm sure must be convenient for the shop when shipments come in.  However, shoppers are generally looking for a particular weight of yarn and would not necessarily know all the places to look for it in the shop. All LYS hav

Presents were shared again this year and many had a knitting theme to them.  Here are the gifts I received that are completely knitting associated. Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti  by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain.   Ny DIL was paying attention to my interest in yarn bombing and selected this one for me.  There are very practical directions on how to prepare to yarn bomb, what to watch for and how to get a gang together to create a large-scale yarn bomb.  However, inside are some very nice patterns of things to knit as well.  There's a pattern for a sweater with a detachable cowl that is very practical and something I am adding to my list of things to knit~~sometime in the future.  (If you actually look inside the book you can see a photo of the sweater at the top of a page where Chapter 5 is outlined in the index.) My Chica bags are in this colour scheme My other DIL took my suggestion for some on-the-go knitting bags to heart and got me two Chica

Yes, you did read that right.  Apparently knitting with your arms and not needles is nothing new; this skill's been around for at least a century.  Remember when I talked about the Guinness Record for finger knitting , well this just eliminates the digits, sort of. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal there's a real interest in arm knitting in the 18-34 year old group often referred to as the Millennials.  The Millennials are drawn to this type of knitting due to its do-it-yourself approach.  The finished product is very droopy and loopy and although I recently knit something that looks very much like the cowl below with large yarn and needles, I can guarantee anyone who is interested that I won't be using my arms instead of needles any time soon, meaning never. This is how items made with your arms as needles will look A cowl A blanket The technique is essentially the same as using needles with the only difference that fingers are use