I Want, I Want, I Want…

It’s not my birthday. It’s nowhere close to my anniversary. The best I can hope for is Christmas.

This is what I want, I might even trade my next few breaths for it:

30 years of great patterns. 30 years of their most popular designs, and 80 photographs!

Rowan — a name synonymous with quality. Originating in England in 1980, Rowan has achieved world-class status for its fine knitting yarns as well as its knitting publications and classic fashion patterns.

A 30-year retrospective. Rowan’s Greatest Knits brings you 30 of its most popular knitwear patterns from the 80s through today — all in one big, beautiful book. Here, you’ll also be treated to 80 stunning color photographs from the original pages of Rowan magazine.

Classic knit patterns. With clearly written instructions, knitters of all skill levels can reproduce these enduringly beautiful patterns for knitted sweaters, vests, scarves, mittens and socks. Patterns include helpful yarn replacement suggestions.

Inspiration from top designers. Some of today’s leading designers have partnered with Rowan to produce outstanding knitwear. Kaffe Fassett, known for his brilliant designs and use of vibrant color, wrote the introduction to this book. And the works of Jean Moss, Sasha Kagan, and Annabel Fox, among others, are also featured.

This book is truly a “keeper”. It’s perfect for anyone who loves to knit and enjoys creating classic fashions with style.

<swoon…> I knew you’d want it too. Here’s the link to get your own directly from Taunton Press: http://store.taunton.com/onlinestore/item/rowans-greatest-knits-kate-buller-071298.html

Must. Go. Knit!

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]

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