Knitting

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Giveaway: Magpies, Homebodies and Nomads

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magpies, homebodies and nomads giveaway

The winner is kajubo!

Cirilia Rose’s new book has a funny name, but it makes a lot of sense when you understand it. Magpies, Homebodies, and Nomads are all parts of the knitter’s personality. We’re magpies in that we love hoarding little bits of special yarn. Homebodies because most of the time we’d rather be at home knitting and hanging out with friends than anywhere else. But also nomads because many knitters like to travel to festivals and other events to meet like-minded fiber fanatics and show off what they’ve been knitting to people who will truly appreciate it.

This book celebrates all three of those personalities with 25 different patterns, plus tips and ideas that can help you develop your own sense of style, whether you’re working with garments you knit or things off the rack.

The book explores color, thinking like a stylist, finding inspiration, substituting yarns, even shopping smartly at the thrift store. And the patterns are pretty, too, including great hats, sweaters, cowls, tops, projects for the home and more than include sweet little details that allow you to make your projects as unique as you want.

I’m giving away one copy of this book this week. If you want a chance to win, leave a comment on this post before the end of the day Sunday, December 7. Why don’t you tell me how you would describe your style? I try to do a little better than classic mom slouch, but jeans and a sweater are my uniform. This book really does make me want to do better, though, and it might just inspire you, too.

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck!

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Comments

  2. Comfort, definitely. Nothing better than being cozy and warm with a cup of tea and my family nearby. Even if they interrupt me while I’m trying to count. 🙂

  3. I would like to be more stylish, but I think I always just fall back on my comfy clothes (I have a closet full of high heels but usually just wear flats these days). I also have a couple of cardigans that I knitted that I wear pretty much all the time.

    thanks for the giveaway!!

  5. Upscale thrift store: I find a lot of very nice styles that are classy yet comfortable without breaking the bank!

Have you read?

Practice Colorwork on a Cute Knit Bunny

Sometimes I feel like knitters get intimidated to try new things because they think they need to start with a big project. Your first time working in the round doesn’t need to be a sock, and your first colorwork doesn’t need to be a sweater, for example. You can find little projects that use the skills you want to learn to build your confidence before you move on to something that requires more time commitment.

This adorable knit bunny, for example.

The colorwork bunny from Knit Picks was designed by Amy Munson and is a kind of bowling pin shaped bunny complete with a knit hat, contrasting inner ears and a little stranded colorwork on its body. Note that the ears are attached the the hat not the bunny, but you could stitch them to the bunny if you’d rather.

It’s worked from the bottom up and also has a tiny pompom tail you can’t see in the picture but it’s a really cute touch. There are a variety of little fair isle patterns to choose from to make the best bunny for you.

The bunny comes out about 8 inches tall (or just over 20 cm) and use several colors to complete the colorwork, depending on the design you choose.

You can purchase the pattern by itself from Knit Picks, or make a kit that includes sport weight yarn in all the colors you need for your creation. There are gray and brown options for the main body of the bunny, but of course if you’re using your own yarn you can make it whatever color you like.

Once you’ve tried colorwork (maybe also working in the round and shaping if those are skills you haven’t used before) in a little project like this you’ll be ready to take on something bigger in no time.

Check out the pattern on Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]