Interweave Earth Day Bargains

It's Earth Day (please tell me I'm not the only one who didn't realise until I saw the Google homepage) and Interweave is having a sale on digital items (get it? because they're paperless).

Digital back issues and ebooks are on sale, but the big draw for me is $6.99 videos. That's only £4.65, a steal compared to their usual price.

I really appreciate Interweave's spinning videos because, for the ones I have watched at least, they cover the topics at great depth and the presenters are all very knowledgeable. They go beyond the basics and I really feel like I've ended up learning something new.

The Interweave Shop's search and filtering options leave something to be desired, so here are some of my recommendations:

Three Bags Full by Judith MacKenzie-McCuin is an absolute pleasure for anyone who enjoys processing raw fleece or wants to learn. Judith is a wonderful, calming, and extremely knowledgeable instructor and I would in fact recommend any of her videos.

The Gentle Art of Plying is another great video of Judith's. You might think you know it all, that plying is an elementary step in the creation of yarn -- far from it. Judith talks in great depth about a wider variety of topics within the field of plying than you even knew existed.

Rita Buchanan is sort of a polar opposite to Judith MacKenzie-McCuin, in terms of energy and presence. Where Judith is calm, Rita is energetic. Where Rita is lively and silly, Judith is tranquil and smooth. Both display a great passion for their crafts, and I love watching them both, though they are completely different.

Rita's In Praise of Simple Cloth video is not really instructional - It features techniques, but it's more of a conversation about lots of different aspects of crafting (spinning, weaving, knitting, and various other fibery bits). How I Spin is decidedly more instructional and full of a lot of interesting information. I have enjoyed watching and re-watching both of them, very much.


And what am I getting myself? Well, here's a few of the ones I'm picking up...
Spinning Cotton by Stephenie Gaustad, because I just re-discovered my charkha and would really love to weave myself some towels, pillowcases, a blouse...

Handwoven Garment Construction, to help me with the goal above once I've spun all that yarn

Make That Yarn, Reproducing Millspun Yarns - A topic that really piqued my interest when I heard about the video.

Respect the Spindle: The Video - I already have and enjoy the book, as well as Abby's other video on drafting (which I wholeheartedly recommend). Normally I wouldn't be sure if I would learn anything new from what is marketed as a basic video on spindles... but every time I watch or read something from Abby, I learn something new, so at this price I can't resist.

The sale ends on Friday the 24th, so I suggest picking up some bargains while you can.

~Joyuna

Craftsy class review - Curvy Knits with Marly Bird

I've just finished watching a Craftsy class - Curvy Knits with Marly Bird - and I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on it.

I'm a plus size, there's no denying that. And while I've knit a few sweaters before - and I'm in the middle of several more right now - I'm always worried that after all that work, things won't fit well. Sure, I know some of the principles involved to knit things that fit, but I'm always looking for new tricks - which is why I signed up for this class.

The class covers all the main topics for knitting a sweater for plus-size women - taking measurements, knitting a generous swatch, gauge & ease, choosing the right yarn and pattern, and finally getting down to brass tacks and modifying a pattern (covering shaping, short row bust darts, necklines and armholes/sleeves). There are also two 'bonus lessons' at the end - one on blocking, and the other (apropos of very little ;) on recommended knitting-related apps (iOS only).

Marly is a bicraftual designer - and she also does a class for Curvy Crochet.

Marly is a very charismatic teacher, and just a fun person to watch! She manages to mix real, valuable info (like math for modifying sleeve caps) with funny anecdotes and a pleasant personality. She is also able to talk frankly - which is vital in a class like this, where we have to be honest about how our bodies are shaped in order to achieve a good fit. For instance, when she suggested taking measurements while wearing our 'good bra' - yep, I knew exactly what she was talking about!
Another fun moment in the class is when she shows us how to make a duct tape mannequin, and Stephanie Japel makes a guest appearance :)

While there are a lot of tips in the class that are specific to bigger knitters, many of the modifications that Marly explains could be applied to any body type - for instance changing a neckline or adding in bust darts. I thought the class might cover body shapes like Amy Herzog's Fit to Flatter tutorials, but Curvy Knits takes a more intuitive than analytical approach to selecting patterns - you choose some garments out of your closet that you already know suit you well, and you use them as a guide for what you like.
(I just learned - apparently Amy's Knit to Flatter has its own Craftsy class, too!)

When I take a Craftsy class, I like to watch lots of lessons in one go and finish the class over a weekend or so. I think I must be an atypical Craftsy user, because some classes can get pretty repetitive when you watch several lessons back-to-back. I could have made a drinking game out of how many times Marly mentions she's bad at math, or that we can use video notes to bookmark things. (Though if I had done that, the math-heavy lessons towards the end would have been much harder...) ;)

The materials included for this class include a ton of worksheets for recording measurements and calculations, along with some extra information. The class materials also include 2 sweater patterns - Darlene Sue, a simple stockinette sweater used for illustrating bust darts and shaping, and Lacey Dream, an open lace cardigan in sportweight yarn.
The materials are all laid out nicely, easy to understand and packed with information. Plus, they're broken up into logical sections rather than all bunged into one huge PDF, which was how the materials in the Sizing Knitwear Patterns were formatted. The class materials summarize many of the key points of the class, so they would be useful to keep on your computer, tablet, or phone to refer to after watching the class videos.

The examples in the class are all for bottom-up, seamed sweaters, but the principles can easily be applied to any construction. It did throw me for a loop at once point, when I was only paying half-attention and she mentioned 'all 4 armholes of the sweater'... But no, it wasn't a sweater for an octopus, just two separate pieces for front and back.

I learned some helpful tips and tricks from this class, and re-enforced ideas that I already knew (yes, a lot of the time it just comes down to knitting a big swatch and doing the math...). And with Marly's bubbly teaching style, I had fun doing it. I would recommend this class! Check it out here.

~Joyuna

Review: Pure Wool by Sue Blacker

I recently got Pure Wool: A Knitter's Guide to Using Single-Breed Yarns.

As the title suggests, the book is all about knitting with single-breed wool yarns, and recognising the unique qualities of each breed. I've been spinning for a while now, but only recently have I begun really appreciating the wide range of wool available. And recently, mill-spun yarns showcasing individual breeds have become more common, allowing non-spinners to discover the world of wool in the same way.

It's not a massive book - weighing in at 144 pages, it pales in comparison to my Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook, but Pure Wool has a different focus. It doesn't try to be an exhaustive resource for every breed of sheep. Instead, Sue Blacker has chosen 16 breeds found in the British Isles and focuses more closely on their strengths and weaknesses.

The book contains 21 patterns tailored to certain breed-specific yarns. Most of the patterns are quite simple and I didn't find many of them too inspiring - but I didn't buy the book for the patterns. I will say they all look quite knittable and wearable, but many are garments and knit in pieces, so not really up my alley.

I think this is a beautiful sweater, but it's hard to tellHowever, there is a nice Guernsey which is knit in the round, and there is also the Climbing Vine Cardigan which looks lovely, from the one photo of it - though I would have liked to see other views of it. (I find the photo issue particularly concerning because there are photos of garments scattered throughout the book which are not even included as patterns - I would have appreciated a second view of a pattern which is actually included)

This is a nice sweater knit in Manx Loaghtan yarn... but the pattern isn't included (you can find the Chevron Cardigan pattern by Rita Taylor on Blacker Yarns' website)The photos are generally high-quality, and well-composed, though the darker yarns lose some detail which is disappointing. Each breed of sheep has a page showing the fibre in its raw form, prepped, and spun (and sometimes dyed).

My favorite part of the book is the charts in the back - an easy quick reference to the qualities of the wools, substitutions, and the natural colors in which each breed can be found. I'm a sucker for charts and graphs, and these brief charts pack a lot of information into a small space.

~Joyuna

Christmas Pressies

I had the most wonderful Christmas - though I am spending it in the UK, away from my family in the US, I have spent it with my 'British family' - being my partner's lovely parents, sisters, cousins, grandparents, aunts & uncles, all of whom have made me feel so incredibly welcome.

What was on my Christmas list this year? I could have asked for practical things like clothes, toiletries, cookware... nahh. I took this opportunity to clean out my Amazon book wishlist.

I have a lot of reading ahead of me! A fantastic selection of books awaits me, mainly dealing with historical and traditional knitting. I am thrilled. I haven't had time to give any of the books a full read-through, but I have flipped through them. Here are some first impressions of the books:

Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace by Margaret Stove - What a gem. I actually really like the anecdotes she includes in her writing, taking this journey with her as she converts some native New Zealand flora into lace. I can tell I'm going to really enjoy this book.

Cornish Guernseys and Knit-Frocks by Mary Wright - This is a small book but extremely interesting and full of photographs. The photos are old, of course, but I would've liked to have seen more detail in dark areas (since nearly all the guernseys shown are in navy blue or slate grey) - I think that in at least some of the cases, this is a fault in the book printing, rather than the source photographs. However it's an extremely interesting little book, with some traditional Cornish gansey stitch patterns included (made of knits & purls and some with cables - all both charted and written), and well worth adding to your collection.

Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller- This is a formidable volume - a big, heavy book with nearly 300 generously sized pages. I look forward to giving this one a proper read, because I can see there's too much to just summarize it in a few minutes. There's history, technique, construction, design... Just about everything you need to knit Shetland lace. Plenty of charted stitch patterns and edgings with some explanatory text about each - where to use it, how to modify it, or other useful things to know.

Shetland Hap Shawls Then and Now - Though a much smaller book than its neighbor Heirloom Knitting, it packs an impressive amount of information - dozens of beautiful photos, many pages of text as well as charts (both lace charts and stripe charts). I've been planning to make a hap-style shawl for myself, so I was especially pleased to receive this.

Knitting in the Old Way - A very interesting book that I really need to delve into further. A range of ethnic designs, from arans to Cowichan sweaters to American folk motifs adapted for knitting. All about sweaters, but a good reference to have.

Real Shetland Yarns - This isn't really a knitting book, per se, but I got it after reading Kate Davies' rave review on her blog. I haven't sunk my teeth into it quite yet but it does have some breathtaking photos in it.


An even more special gift also arrived for me recently. I hold the belief that the best presents aren't the ones you ask for, but the ones you didn't even know you wanted. When someone knows you well enough to pick out something even better than you could yourself - those are very special gifts indeed.

I was fortunate enough to receive such a gift this season. A little package from Edinburgh, from my most excellent friend Shobha.
This is a ball of St Kilda Lace, a blend of Boreray and Soay wool - the Boreray undercoat being from the very special project to produce a run of Boreray knitting yarn.

It's the most beautiful mid-grey, and soft, way softer than you'd expect a blend of two primitive rare sheep's wools (and yet, as I explore sheep breeds, I keep saying that - why do I always expect rare breeds to be rough and scratchy? Just because they're not merino?). I have no idea what I will make with it - I have to find a perfect pattern. For now I'm more than content with having it as a pet skein to keep and cherish for a while.

~Joyuna

Review: Knit Your Own Scotland

I recently received an adorable new book - Knit Your Own Scotland. It's just what it says on the tin - a book of 14 patterns for making your own various Scottish things.

The authors, Jackie Holt and Ruth Bailey, are costume designers by trade - and this shows in their fine attention to every last detail in the designs. For instance, each of the humans included goes off of a basic doll pattern (which I may also use for future, non-Scottish projects) - but each has their own face, some have a unique head, and every one of them has several of their own clothes. Take a look at Robert Burns, for example, clothed in the height of 18th-century fashion with his waistcoat, jacket, breeches and boots:

Just about every Scottish icon you could hope for is included: From Robert Burns and Nessie, to a Saltire flag and highland cow, to Scotch whisky and teacakes! They're all really cute and some are just exquisitely detailed.

Can you believe those teacakes are knitted and not real?
The suggested yarns for the book are all quite easy to find - Rowan, Sirdar, Debbie Bliss and the like. One thing that tripped me up at first is that amounts of yarn are not listed unless it requires more than one ball - but this makes sense as a space-saving measure when the toys are small and only need a little yarn. Needle sizes are given in mm and old UK sizes (the smaller the needle, the larger the number).


I've started knitting my own Highland Cow, one of my favorite British animals (fuzzy and ginger and hair all in his face, what's not to love?).
The instructions are easy enough to follow, with numbered rows and stitch counts every time there are increases or decreases, which makes it easy to catch a slip-up. There are a few abbreviations or pieces of phrasing I found non-standard (like 'inc in next' for kfb), but there is a list of abbreviations in the back.

You can purchase Knit Your Own Scotland on Amazon.co.uk, and it has just been released in the US - find it on Amazon.com here.

You can also find additional pictures and a very special add-on to the William Wallace doll at KnitYourOwnScotland.co.uk.

Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the publisher.

~Joyuna

Review: Sizing Knitwear Patterns class on Craftsy

The most challenging aspect of knitwear design, for myself at least, is sizing. Resources for grading patterns are not easy to find, so I try to absorb all the information I can from all the sources I can find.

With this in mind, I signed up for Sizing Knitwear Patterns taught by Faina Goberstein on Craftsy. The class contains all the information you need to grade a woman's sweater in a wide range of sizes.

Course Videos

In the video lessons that take up the majority of the class, Faina takes us through the grading of a sweater step-by-step. It starts with a basic guide to taking measurements or using standard measurements, moves on to teaching the basic Excel formulas used in the spreadsheet, and then the spreadsheet gets filled in row by row. All sections of a woman's sweater, knit flat in pieces and seamed, are covered - and the principles can easily be applied to knitting in the round seamlessly as well.

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Yarn and Polish. Yes PLEASE!

Over at my nail blog I've got a quick post up about Soak's newest project, the Soakbox: a box of awesome coordinating goodies including matching nail polish and yarn!

I just think this is the coolest idea in the world. It's going on my Xmas list, or next time I've got some extra cash I may just have to treat myself.
Read my full opinion and all the details here.

~Joyuna

Fit to Flatter: You must read this!

Amy Herzog has an absolutely fabulous series on her blog called Fit to Flatter. I've been reading through it in dribs and drabs over the past week or so, and I have learned so much. Heck, even if you're not a knitter, the first few chapters are worth a read - it takes the basic 'apple / pear / hourglass' formula and adds extra nuance to it.

The series helps you to a) identify your body type, b) figure out what kind of clothes flatter that type, and c) choose patterns or adjust patterns to suit your body. The beginning lessons are more general, and toward the end she gets in to specifics on how to alter a pattern to suit your figure.

Maybe it's old news to some people, since the series is a couple years old, but the advice is timeless and well worth a look. For instance, I learned as a bottom-heavy shape, colorwork yoke sweaters would flatter me because it draws the eye upward, balancing out my wide hips and my narrow shoulders. And I already knew that it was more flattering to wear a dark bottom and a light top than vice versa, but now I know why - for the same reason, attracting the eye up to my top half.

The series is available free as a series of blog posts, or you can buy it in a nicely formatted, go-anywhere PDF set.

~Joyuna

The Best of Knitscene

I was sorting through my queue on Ravelry lately (13 pages isn't too much, is it...?) and I found something interesting - a whole bunch of patterns in my queue are available in a single volume - The Best of Knitscene (Rav).

So if you've wanted to knit the Central Park Hoodie, Geodesic Cardigan, Heather Hoodie Vest, Molly Ringwald top, Opulent Raglan, or Riding to Avalon, now's your chance to get them all and others at a steal of a price.

This is a seriously fantastic collection of patterns - I was already planning to make the Geodesic Cardigan (with the Wollmeise Lace I got at Knit Nation) and I have at least 4 of the other patterns in my queue. The a la carte price is fine if you only want to make 1 or 2 patterns, but you can't beat the bundle price of the book if you want to make lots of them, like I do.

The Best of Knitscene is available in hard copy or as an eBook. I got the eBook version because I'm impatient ;) It was available for instant download right after payment.

Not only does the book contain 20 patterns, many of which I want to knit, but it also includes articles from past issues of Knitscene and a profile for each designer. I may write up a full review once I've had the time to read through it all... I am looking forward to it!

~Joyuna

Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design - Review

As part of Knitgrrl's Kickstarter campaign for Cooperative Press, I got a digital copy of The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design. This was a real bonus, as I was intending on buying the book myself. :)

The book starts with some marketing nuts and bolts - social media. With such a rapidly changing field, it's difficult to keep on the cutting edge in a book. The data is mostly up to date, but with a few minor things that have changed since publication (like automatic re-tweets on Twitter, for instance, and several references to the now-defunct AKD - Association of Knitwear Designers). There are also a few mentions of flash-in-the-pan internet phenomena - for instance, a subscription service which was started last year (!!), Patterndraft, which now has disappeared!

While the core ideas of the book are solid, I worry that parts of it will be less and less relevant as time goes on. Unless there are plans to release a new edition every so often, some sections will no longer be relevant, say, five years from now. Think about it: a little over five years ago, Twitter didn't even exist (it was launched in July 2006). Luckily, a digital copy can be easily updated as trends progress.

The book also covers more timeless topics, such as maintaining a professional persona, setting up multiple streams of income in addition to selling patterns, copyright, and formatting patterns. It's all really useful information - a lot of it I already knew, but some of it was new to me. Intriguingly, tucked in an appendix at the end of the book is a Book Proposal Template - a sample book proposal with notes about writing your own. If you dream about submitting your own knitting book to a publisher, this is a heck of a start.

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Woolly Thoughts Design to Fit eBook - Review

As a new designer, I've been devouring everything I can find on designing knitwear - up to now, I've been designing what I know: small accessories - hats, mitts, socks, shawls. But eventually, I want to take it to the next level and design garments. Lucky for me, there are a number of books on this subject. They are mostly aimed at the home knitter rather than the knitwear designer, but the fundamentals are still useful. I already read and reviewed The Knitting Architect, and the next book I've been reading is Design to Fit by Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer, the design duo otherwise known as Woolly Thoughts.

The Woolly Thoughts team are best known for their mathematical and modular patterns and their books Woolly Thoughts and Second Thoughts.

Design to Fit is a book of two parts. They were originally published separately as Creating Knitwear Designs and Making Knitwear Fit. Now, the two sections of the book are entitled I Have Designs on You and I Have the Measure of You.

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Design book - The Knitting Architect by Sion Elalouf

I've been reading up on design a ton recently, trying to perfect my technique and learn some new ones as well.

The full text of The Knitting Architect is provided on the Knitting Fever website here. Paperback and spiral editions are also available via Amazon.

The Knitting Architect seeks to teach the American knitter (as opposed to the European knitter, who has generations of tradition and 'knitting intuition' behind them) to think beyond the confines of a pattern and simply pick up the needles and knit a well-fitting sweater. The author's thesis is that generally speaking, in Europe, the method of constructing a sweater has been passed down through the generations, while Americans are fairly new at the craft. So, Americans are more reliant on patterns to tell them explicitly what to do, while European patterns leave more to the reader (take a look at any of the Norwegian DROPS patterns, for instance, and you will see what a European-styled pattern is like!).

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Working with Intwined Pattern Studio

Since I'm a big-time designer now (ha, ha, ha), I've sprung for some design software. A little while back, I purchased Intwined Pattern Studio. Intwined is a relative newcomer to the knitting software scene, but it's also at a much lower pricepoint than its biggest competitor, Knit Visualizer.

Nearly every piece of software on my computer came with it or was downloaded (legally) for free, so it takes something special for me to pay for software. And was I satisfied with it? Yeah, pretty much.

Intwined has a huge library of stitches, and you can create your own as well. You can either work with Intwined's stitch elements (say, to create a unique cable symbol) or you can import your own stitch image. You can also change the existing stitch images, if you like your purls as dots instead of lines, or you have your own decrease symbols you prefer.

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LUSH Porridge soap review at American Nailgirl

You know I love handmade soap, and over at my other (new) blog An American Nailgirl in London, I've just posted a review of the LUSH 'Porridge' soap. It smells divine.

~Joyuna

Joyuna's Handmade Favorites: Beeswax Soap

Okay, so this isn't an Etsy favorites post, per se, but it is a handmade item that I'm raving about.

The Ohio State University has a Bee Lab, and every year they have a honey sale. At the honey sale not only do they offer delicious honey - with free samples! - but a wide variety of beeswax products such as candles, lip balm, and soap.

Yes, soap!

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This Girl's Bookshelf: My new blog

I am pleased to announce my new blogging project, This Girl's Bookshelf. It's a reading blog mainly featuring book reviews. I'm so excited to be able to read as much as I can during the summer, so I thought I'd share some of my excitement with the world. :)

Does this mean that Joyarna is going into retirement? Certainly not! I will be updating both blogs regularly. If you're interested in hearing what I think about the books I read, please visit This Girl's Bookshelf. It will be an Entrecard and Adgitize enabled blog as soon as it gets accepted into those programs.

I've reviewed two books so far, with a couple other miscellaneous posts. More reviews are forthcoming, as well as best-of lists, informational articles, and more. Check out This Girl's Bookshelf!

~Joyuna

Guest post by Espanolbot: Handknit Heroes review of first 2 issues

Today I am featuring a guest post by Espanolbot, otherwise known as "the boy". He usually blogs here on his Livejournal, but today he has written a post for me about the first two issues of Handknit Heroes, the knitting-themed comic book. I gave my opinion of the first issue previously, as a hardcore knitter and casual comics fan - Lewis, on the other hand, is a hardcore comics fan and a casual knitter.

I'll tell you what I think about the second issue once I have read it - I just received it. In the mean time, here's Lewis' thoughts.
~Joyuna

In a city plagued with crime, three teenaged superheroes are out to bag the bad guys, while mysterious experiments by those close to the heroes are performed in the sidelines...

Oh, and knitting’s involved.

Handknit Heroes is an independently published comic that started in spring 2009, out of creator Stephanie Bryant’s desire to combine the current popularity of superheroes with the knitwear available on such sites as Ravelry.com.

The result is... enthusiastic but flawed, to put it mildly.

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Smells yummy - Oh, Soy! - candles

I got an awesome package in the mail... A whole bunch of soy candles ("Oh, Soy!") from Things that Make Scents.com. I won a $25 gift certificate from J. Leigh Designs' blog. Thanks! I got a really nice haul!

Here's what I got with my gift certificate:

-Red Velvet Cupcake Candle
-Orange Caramel Crumble Cupcake Candle (say that five times fast!)
-Cinnamon bun tealights (set of 12)
-Pears & Petals votives (set of 6)

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Handknit Heroes - Issue 1 - Review

Recently I received the first issue of a new comic series called Handknit Heroes.

That's right, they're cashing in on that prominent demographic of knitting comic readers (don't laugh, I actually know a few and am one myself).

The premise is simple enough - A quarterly superhero comic involving fiber arts in various ways, with a pattern at the end of the issue. The story is simple so far, about a trio of superpowered teenagers (twin siblings and the sister's best friend) and a mad(?) scientist mom. (Who knits. Naturelement.) Being the first issue, introducing the characters, there isn't much to say about the story so far other than it's intriguing and well enough written.

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