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Are You Ready For Some….

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No, it’s not football season, but we do have another giveaway. Not sure how that all ties in, hang in there with me, I can usually make it all work. How about an alternative to that football game? This one’s another of Interweave Knit’s DVD’s!

The only thing you have to do is leave me a comment telling me why you want this….

It’s another Knitting Daily Workshop, this one entitled, Classic To Creative Knint Cables. Featuring Kathy Zimmerman, this DVD will teach you how to do simple to complex cables, it’s easy!

66 minutes long. Interweave Press says: Cables are one of the most popular knitting techniques because they create the most wonderful surface interest and scale to any knitted fabric, whether they are classic textured ropes, romantic twists, or rugged braids. Become a cable knitting master with this DVD.

Let the comments begin (you have until Friday, Feb 5)………

Comments

  2. Because in England right now we’re having a major freeze and myself and my kids would look wicked in some cable knit jumpers, scarfs and pants!!

  3. Kathy Zimmerman is a great teacher and I would love to make cables look nicer and learn to do more complicated ones too. Thanks!

  5. I am a self taught knitter and I haven’t figured out cables yet. This DVD would be great to show me how! Thanks for the chance to win!

  6. oh yes, please add me to the drawing. I love cables, have never done one, kinda scared too and this would be great to learn with. Hit rewind and try again.

  7. This would be great to win! In this area we don’t have too many classes (more like none!) and I have to rely on books and the internet for what I learn. Having a DVD to play as often as I like would be just like taking a class!

  9. I would love this DVD. I took a cables class at my LYS, but the technique hasn’t “clicked” yet for me. I have never made so many errors on any knitted object as I’ve done with cables…I hope that this DVD would help me.

  10. I have had a few lessons with knitting. Nothing really big but I need help when it comes to the beauty behind cables. This looks awesome.

  12. I’ve always limited myself to the simplest of cable patterns, so I’d love to have this DVD and be able to increase my options.

  13. I am such a beginner – to be able to knit a cable WOW beyond the stars 🙂
    Thanks for the opportunity
    Cheers
    Catie

  14. Is “trix-a-cable-phobic” — the fear of failing cables — a word? If so, that describes me. I’d like to be a Fearless Knitter. Perhaps this is just the ticket!

  15. In my case, I love cables, but I always do the same old ones. I would add to add some variety in there, and the scarf on the cover looks gorgeous!

  16. I just started to learn to knit (last weekend) and this would be so nice to have so I can learn how to do more than knit and purl.

  17. I am just getting back into knitting and this book would be oh so helpful. I am on a very limited income,so, all the help I can get free is appreciated.

  18. Did you ever have anyone give you that “Why am I wasting my time with you?” look over the top of her bi-focals, heaving an exaggerated sigh, and icily announcing to the whole LYS, in stentorian, mock-patient tones, those totally demoralizing words “All right, I’ll show you this just one more time, but really Dearie, cabling is so easy I don’t see why you can’t get it right!” (which sounds so familiar, where had you heard that before?), and by then everyone else in the yarn shop is clucking, tsking and twittering (mostly not in the internet sense, but that one girl is definitely going to have this on you-tube with a zillion hits before you have a chance to slink away), and you’re just so embarrassed that you can’t even hear a word over the pounding of your heart as it pumps every last drop of blood into your cheeks, nor see a thing through the tears you are ever-so-valiantly-and-vainly trying to hold back, and finally the only possible action is to half-run, half-stumble out of the shop, into your car, where you try to compose yourself, but as the shame fades, the anger sets in and now all you can think of is revenge, so you call your friend Ginny, who knits like the wind, and she lends you the sweater she’s just finished, which has such beautiful, complicated cables, it looks like a relief map of Heaven, and the next weekend you take it into the shop and announce to all and sundry “See what GOOD TEACHER can accomplish? My friend gave me just one lesson, and I’ve been able to knit this in just a week!” and then Miss Snippy-Snooty comes over and says “Oh, yessss, of coursssse that would be Ginny. I sold her this one-of-a-kind hand-painted yarn, of which there was only enough for a sweater in her size (2), not your size (12), and it would appear that this is a size 2. Why, just two days ago she was in here buying these very buttons for it!” and you suddenly remember that it was Ginny who sent you to this shop to learn cabling in the first place, as she prodded you out the door of her apartment, brandishing a size 17 needle as if it were a scimitar, screaming at the top of her lungs “Really Dearie, cabling is so easy I don’t see why you can’t get it right!”?

    If you have, then you’ll understand why I need this nice, non-judgmental DVD to show me how to cable a relief map of Heaven.

  19. I just learned to cable and can’t think of a better person to learn from than the queen of cables herself!

    Thanks for the generous giveaway!

  20. I’ve always wanted to learn how to knit but, alas, there’s no one to teach me. I’m the only crafty one in the family and I just do cross-stitch. I’d always thought if I learned to knit, I could combine it with cross-stitching accents. Thank you for the opportunity.

  22. As someone who learns better by watching others, this would be a great way to learn a new knitting concept at home and at my own pace.

  23. I gave my sister-in-law a complicated cable afghan, my mother in law gave me a novelty yarn necklace. I haven’t touched cables since. Also, this will be the 4th year my husband will be home for his birthday and the Superbowl, and gone for Valentine’s Day. Please let me win once!

  24. I am new to knitting, but I am in LOVE with cables. Every pattern I try has cables!!! I would love this book!

  25. I am excited to learn how to knit cables and this DVD would be the perfect teacher! I am ready to become a cable knitting master!

  26. Oh my gosh cables!!! I’m a new knitter. And cables is one of my favorite stitches….I was amazed at how much fun they are to do! I taught myself to knit last fall and I’d absolutely love this book. Thanks for the chance… 🙂

  27. I’m knitting scarves to donate to a local shelter next winter. To date I have 5 finished. I’m looking for as many different patterns so that they will all be unique. I’ve just taught myself to cable and would love to add this book to my other patterns.

  28. i would love this book because i am sorta a beginning self taught knitter. i would love a book that would teach me new stiches. i also have cancer and when i am on my chemo i sit and sit and knit. :0) so i learn diffrent stitches. i think it would be cool beans to win a book. Thanks Di

Have you read?

Knit a Leopard Print Shawl and Learn about Yarn Substitution

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations. 

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind. 

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca. 

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl. 

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions. 

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic). 

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only. 

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]