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A French Girl Giveaway….

by

frenchWell, not technically a French Girl, but Kristeen Griffin-Grimes uber cool, French Girl Knits book!

Need some criteria here….. ok, how about this….. your favorite needles!

Mine? Well, thanks for asking. I almost always knit with circulars. Why? Because my old arthritic hands and wrists from years and years of farming feel better when the weight of the knitting rests on my lap and not supported by my hands and wrists at the end of a large needle. So, unless I’m doing something that requires double points (yes, I’ve tried the Magic Loop and 2 Circular needle methods, prefer the double points) I’m all about the circular needles! I have the Denise set that I love, but also some bamboo circs which are awesome.

Yours? What are your favorite needles and why? A copy of this book depends on it!

Oh, and you can get a copy of this book, if you don’t win it here, published by Interweave Press, here: http://www.knitpicks.com/French+Girl+Knits_BD31105.html

Comments

  1. I knit almost exclusively with dpn’s and circs. Like both of those WAY better than single points.

Have you read?

A Shawlette with a Ton of Design Options

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette. 

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up). 

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley. 

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design. 

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like. 

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going. 

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]