Yarn and hand knits at Riga's Christmas market

Riga has a fantastic central market which is held in 3 adjoined Zeplin hangers. Among the piles of dried fish, meat, breads and fruits, I once again spotted some yarn and mittens. Actually my husband, John snapped these photos for me, so I could spend my time ogling.

More yarn and knit goods!Knit items for sales in the big market

…and it goes on.

Knit items for sales in the big market

Santa brought me a cool lens for my iPhone, so most of my Riga photos look like this!

If you ever get a chance to visit, go for it.  I would love to go back in the summer, when there is a longer day,  and see the country side.

– Norah

This is the view I have of Amanda from my desk.  One of us is too tall, or  one of us is too short!

I tortured her last week insisting she download almost every program in my repertoire – Evernote,  Bento, Easy draw, and who could forget – Circus Pony Notebook, lovable for its name alone , not to mention the fantastic way it handles outlines.  After that initiation Amanda got down to the constant drone of  tasks like writing Knitbits, dreaming up descriptions for the 70+ new patterns for fall and , oh, designing sweaters. Her title is “designer” after all.

Here is a glimpse of of Amanda’s swatch for an upcoming free pattern – but what will the sweater look like?  You’ll have to check in with Knitbits over the next few months to catch its debut.

So, first a sneak peek at my vol 9. I am not sure quite how it happened, since I distinctly remember  just finishing  vol 1…  This Fall’s booklet is all about cables:

My favorite pillow wears hats well

So I don’t give away the whole shebang, some back views:

Ok – WordPress is driving me crazy.  There must be a way to have a large photo AND a gallery, without repeating the large image in the gallery – but it is staying for now.

Remember Amanda?  She’s starting next week, Soon she will be blogging and writing Knitbits, & many other things….

Norah

I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the experience I’ve gained here. There is a time warp that Norah and I suffer from, and it makes 2.5 years feel like just a handful of months. When I look back at all the things we’ve done, it feels like a decade!! We’re heading into our last round of photography together, and I couldn’t be happier about it. These intense days are always the most fun, and it feels like the perfect way to end my tenure here. All of the meetings and arguments and stresses morph into magical images (if we’re lucky). I’m sure I’ll be taking plenty of mental snapshots.

Would you like to replace me? See the job posting here. You can continue to follow my work on Ravelry here, and I will certainly update you when I have new blogs and Twitter accounts!

Love,

CR

What might we debate next?

– Norah

Alska originally had a mock turtleneck style and simple metal buttons. In case you haven’t heard, we’re in the middle of one of the snowiest, iciest, coldest winters in recent history. This has me reaching for scarves and my most generous collars, like the one seen on Wordsworth, a sweater from last fall that I am still madly in love with. Cut to TNNA. I was in the JHB booth, admiring all their new buttons when I came across Nicky Epstein’s new line, and a button called Dead King.

I knew what I had to do! As soon as I got home, I carefully undid my bind-off and studied the directions for the Wordsworth collar. Since the collar folds over, the directions are a bit unusual. You start by knitting two button bands and sewing them on (slightly stretched, as Norah recommends in our video tutorial). When the bands reach the collar, you transfer the stitches to a stitch holder. Then, you knit across these held stitches while you’re picking up the collar stitches. If you’re a bit forgetful like me, place markers to indicate where the button band stitches end and the collar stitches begin. Then you just knit the collar until it is…really long!! I did about 8″ of collar, keeping the button band stitches in 1×1 ribbing and the collar stitches in the mistake rib pattern.

Note, I knit the left button band in red, for a little peek of color. When I knit the collar, I switched to the main color. If you wanted to keep the red going, you could do a bit of intarsia or keep knitting it and sew in on as usual, but I wanted the clean look that knitting it all in one piece gave.

Taking another cue from Wordsworth, I finagled the top two buttons so they would face out when the collar is folded over. You might also notice that I put snaps underneath the buttons, a trick I like to use when I want the sweater to close securely.

I’m “done,” but not really…as soon as I have time, I might add some afterthought pockets! Elizabeth Zimmermann makes it look so easy in Knitting Workshop…

Stay warm!

CR

There were many highlights, especially our (standing room only!!) fashion show. It was a thrill to share our Fall/Winter 2010 collection; we’ll have video footage of the show later this season.

After the show I was lucky enough to be able to take a class with Josh Bennett. I’d been admiring Josh’s work for Vogue and have been personally fascinated by men’s wear of late. I jumped at the chance to enroll in his Designing and Knitting Men’s Wear class. Josh shared some amazing tips about fit and finishing, and we goaded him into a private fashion show!

He favors a “clean” look (not just “simple”) and he is an ardent supporter of thoughtful knitting and finishing. He urged us to use needle size changes to manipulate the fabric as necessary. A tighter ribbed cuff, a looser hood, these are all the sorts of things that can be forgotten in a rush to finish a garment. He was inspiring, and hilarious, the very best sort of teacher!

I couldn’t leave New York without a couple of pit stops! In addition to feasting at the Farm in Brooklyn (rule of thumb: any place with Farm in its name is pretty much guaranteed to be delicious), I snuck over to the free galleries at FIT, and the charming Tender Buttons.

Knitting tips, Bakelite and Japanese fashion retrospective? It doesn’t get any better, does it? Oh, but it does. I overcame my cupcake aversion (they’re just so CUTESY) to try the tiny cakes at Magnolia Bakery. Besides looking absolutely dreamy, they weren’t overly sweet and had the fluffiest frosting I’ve ever tasted (buttercream MERINGUE? Such a thing exists?!)

Many thanks to the Vogue Knitting Live team! I told them every chance I got, but it really was such a fun, exciting event and their hard work was evident everywhere.

Now, to turn these city memories into some knitwear…

CR

It was his cool cardigan that drove me to pick up knitting needles and attempt to make a slouchy black sweater of my own. Today I watch as cardigans beat out all the other patterns we put out in a season time and time again. In 2009, people couldn’t get enough of flyaway shapes that only closed at the top. 2010 was all about cozy draped fronts and grandpa cardigans not unlike the thrift store score sweaters of the 1990s.

They remain one of my favorite items to knit and wear and I thought I’d offer a few tips for successful cardigan knitting.

• First things first: when knitting two cardigan fronts you’ll often run into a direction that says “Knit as Right (or Left) Front, reversing all shaping.” This can throw a lot of knitters off! We don’t do it to be tricky, we usually have to do it to save space. I came across a wonderful answer to this stumper on Bonne Marie Burns’ blog.

• Seaming is easy! Really! It just takes patience and know-how. You should never rush the finishing just because you’re eager to wear the sweater (unless you’re me and you’re finishing a sweater moments before it’s about to be photographed…). While you’re slogging through the boring parts, watch our video tutorials:

Mattress Stitch

Shoulder Seam

Seaming a Set-in Sleeve

• Consider your closures. Do you like the pattern as is, or do you want to change it up? This is an area that can always be improved and personalized, and I am always on a mission to improve the button bands. I’ve finally settled on a favorite buttonhole (the one-row buttonhole) and I’ve been favoring Norah’s standard, the sewn-on ribbed buttonband. It requires a bit of extra work, but the neat look is very, very worth it. Here are some videos that cover closures:

Installing a Zipper

Sewn-on Buttonband

Button Loop

• Buttons! One of the very best parts of a cardigan are the buttons! Buying the perfect buttons, super fun, sewing them on? Not as much fun. I have some tips for that too! My first tip is to pick a button before you finish your sweater. You’ll need to coordinate the size of your buttonholes with the size of your buttons. Seems obvious, but is easily forgotten. Try to pick buttons that aren’t too heavy. They might be gorgeous, but heavy buttons will quickly pull your sweater out of shape. If you’re using a heavy button, use a flat plastic button as a backing button: sandwich the sweater fabric between the two buttons and sew through the buttons. This will keep the strain on the backing button and not the fabric. A row of grosgrain ribbon can also serve as a supportive backing.

• As for sewing the buttons on, debate rages on what to use. Often the yarn you’ve knit with will be too thick to pass through a regular needle eye or a button. Some people suggest using sewing thread, but others feel that this can eventually cut through the  yarn. Using yarn to attach the buttons might work but a rough button might eventually cut through the yarn! My favorite compromise is using a sock yarn, or a thin yarn that contains silk, mohair or nylon. These are naturally strong fibers and will stand up to lots of wear. UPDATE: Kathleen left a brilliant suggestion in the comments–she uses embroidery floss!

• Which reminds me! Buy an extra button!! Buy two!  And have fun with them! Buttons are a delightful adornment and thoughtful buttons will set your sweater apart from mass produced garments. Use a contrasting thread color to sew them on, or make your own buttons using fabric and inexpensive button cover kits(this is a favorite trick of mine: Americano, Miroux and Double Decker all feature homemade buttons).

That is it for now, I have gone on long enough! If you have any specific cardigan questions, leave them in the comments! Norah and I are headed off to TNNA this week, where the weather is in the 60s! I’ll still be wearing cardigans–lightweight and belted, maybe over a sundress. In January!

CR

1. New designs from Amy Christoffers! Last week we featured Amy in a table that showed off all the great designs that have been released in our yarns recently. Today, Amy launched another winner! It’s called Larch and I LARVE it! Sorry. She knit it in Tupelo, and amazing new shade of yellow Ultra Alpaca Light. Fun fact, Amy can knit and hula hoop at the same time. Awesome!!

2. Hot Toddies! To keep warm and relax, I’ve been concocting all sorts of delicious warm treats. If you need some recipes (and some amazing knitting inspiration) check out my friend Lee Meredith’s Bundle Up! post (scroll to the bottom for recipes). My personal variation is Good Earth Original Tea with a glug of Kraken Black Spiced Rum. Bonus points for gorgeous packaging:

3. My new Nook! After seeing our pattern writer swatch and read at the same time, I knew I had to have an e-reader. I’d been a little wary about them, I tend to be opposed to the increasing number of gadgets we humans tote around, and I really love the experience of reading a book, taking in the cover, the typeface, the paper, everything. That said, I end up watching a LOT of stuff while I knit, and I know my brain is getting mushy because of it. So I picked up a Nook and a fancy cover, downloaded 100 classics for a whopping 6 bucks and I haven’t looked back! I’m tempted to knit a Baobab while I wait for my Jack Spade cover to arrive…

4.  Winter movies! My favorites are It’s a Wonderful Life, Elf, the Charlie Brown special and a new one, Rare Exports. This is bizarre movie from Finland that I absolutely loved. It was a taut and twisted little fairy tale, not for everyone but right up my alley. A bonus? There was some great knitwear on view (of course)!

5. Go-to recipes. This is a time of year when I do a lot of cooking and baking but I do have a few go-to favorites: Martha Stewart’s Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies and something my hairdresser told me about called BRICKLE. The Brickle is ridiculously addictive and easy to make, a total win-win.

Well, it is time for a tea break here. Maybe something with ginger…

CR

Participants add links to thinks they love and organize them into themed boards. I find the organization easy and pretty intuitive. While we can’t figure out how it’s possible, Pinterest is so very beautiful, and so, so nice.  Cirilia and I are keeping board on things we love , some tangentaly affect our work and some more directly, like  Cirilia’s “color” board and my “geeky nice” board.  I am finding it very inspiring and uplifting.  Time will tell how it affects my work, but I am sure it will.

NG