Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Day 10 Winner

by

shawl book winnerThis is another time the random number generator is making me smile. One of the commenters on this post said she was getting the roundup e-mail from Craft Gossip and when she clicked on the link it said the giveaway was closed.

This has something to do with the timing of when those links are automatically pulled from the website, but the good news is I have to manually close comments on the giveaways, so you can actually still reply (and enter) when it says it is closed, so long as I haven’t picked a winner yet.

The reason this is a funny story is because the winner is number 67, Carrie, the exact person who made that comment. So, see, there’s no penalty in entering a little late. Congratulations!

Next Pattern:

Comments

  1. That is funny. I was getting so bugged by it, I was checking my emails settings to see if it was hanging things up. I always get my craft gossip just after midnight, and I’m not ashamed to say I open right up to start peeking and bookmarking all the links I want to read and explore in more detail the next day. Just thrilled to end up with a book of shawls, it’s what is on my needles now, and what is considered winter wear here in arizona. Heck it’s summer wear here too with the AC that is cranked down wherever you go. Glad to find out I wasn’t going crazy, and I have something to look forward too. Thank you.

  2. Ive noticed that too but then Im over in the UK so time differences obviously factor in there. The US only draws I would be unable to take part in anyway and I tend not to enter any that are postally heavy, out of fairness to the Giveaway-er!
    I do enjoy reading the digests though and learn a great deal as well as find some fascinating blogs in any case.
    Congrats Carrie!

  3. Good to know. I was bummed when I got the message after having to fill in at hubby’s office yesterday and missing my morning coffee and blog crawl!

Have you read?

Book Review: Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary

Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.