Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Giveaway – Simple Style By Ann Budd

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Remember this post:

I run across quite a few knitting books in my travels, excursions and jaunts, most are kind of cool, however since my life and tastes run far, far from the NY runways, and while I can drool over patterns and techniques, a lot of them don’t have a practical use in my daily life.

Enter Simple STYLE. These sweaters, jackets, vests, wraps… offer a lot of style, with minimal “runway flair”.  13 designers contributed to this latest in the “STYLE” series including Veronik Avery, Deborah Newton, Ann Smith, and quite a few more. This book combines simple patterns and techniques to create stunning, contemporary designs, even garter stitch looks awesome, paired with lace edges. These styles seek to elimnate unnecessary details, minimize seams, and reduce finishing steps.

You can get Simple STYLE from Interweave Press, here: http://www.interweave.com/books

Well, you don’t have to go to Interweave to get the book  now, I’ll give it to you.  Leave me a comment by 3.31.09 and tell me what your favorite knitting blogs are. I’ll put you in the drawing.

Wow! 3 giveaways in one day. Someone needs to clean out their stash more often!

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Comments

  1. I would love to win this book.
    My favorites are (besides this one)
    Wendy Knits, Shut up, I’m counting, and Simple Knits.
    Sheryl

  2. The blogs I check daily include The Yarn Harlot, Vickie Howell, The Rainey Sisters, Knitgrrl, And She Knits Too, The Heathen Housewife, and this blog, in addition to several others and some spinning blogs. Takes me forever to get through them all! LOL

  3. knitty.com
    nonaKnits (what happened to that?)
    Grumperina

    I also hop around, depending on what I’m looking for.

  6. My favorite knitting blog is Little Cotton Rabbits. I find Julie’s work amazing. Thanks much for the giveaway.

  9. Yarn Harlot hands down – she knit and makes me snort my coffee – what more do I need?

  15. I love Ann Budd and don’t have this book. Please add me to the giveaway.

    one of my favorite blogs is Kris Knits. She is very talented and does some really cute dishcloths and other patterns.

  16. I love blog.berroco.com! Their works are truly amazing and make you want to grab your needles and give the projects your best shot.

  19. I think my favorites are Vickie Howell and Knitty.com but I am always in search of others too. I would love to win this knitting book.

  21. I’m afraid that I keep adding more and more knitting blogs to my RSS feed but the main one I always read is the Yarn Harlot. She is a riot and brightens my day. Other ones are Grumperina and Knitspot. I just added this one this week.

    I love Ann Budd and refer to her books often.

  24. It’s tough to choose favourites, but I really like Cosmicpluto and The Plucky Knitter’s blogs.

  26. Please enter me in this great giveaway! My favorite blogs are Vickie Howell, Yarn Harlot, and Rachel’s Knitting Blogspot. Thank you!

Have you read?

Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!