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Leavin’ on a jet plane? Me, too. I’ve rounded up the air travel regulations for taking works-in-progress through security, as well as travel-friendly tools and cases, over at caitlinmakes.com.

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Spring is here, so I’ve rounded up six beautiful knitting patterns for triangular shawls/scarves at http://www.caitlinmakes.com/2013/04/spring-bandanas.html.

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New project up at caitlinmakes.com.

I’ve rounded up this and three other great beginner patterns on caitlinmakes.com.

photo © nimblefingers

Finished, as of Saturday: my first pair of socks. I used the Purl Bee pattern Men’s Socks for Giving Away. It’s a great first-sock pattern: the clear instructions and step-by-step photos made turning the heel a breeze. I also love the athletic stripes and contrast heel and toe. But the next time I knit a pair of socks, I’ll go with a pattern that’s a bit less … slouchy. That said, Michael loves his long-promised hand-knitted socks. (Which are the same length, I swear! The right one is just pulled down a bit more in the first photograph.) 

If you’re interested in seeing more of my knitted projects, check out my projects page on Ravelry. I spent a little time today editing and uploading new photos, so it’s looking fancier than ever (hey there, Damson, you’re looking fine tonight). You can also see the updated photos at http://caitlinmakes.tumblr.com/tagged/projects. 

Hold This Thread

After spending much of the fall letterpress printing and embroidering, I’m back to my first crafty love, knitting. My needles are pretty much spoken for at the moment (socks for my husband, a hat for me, and a long-promised cowl and mitt set for my mom), but that hasn’t stopped me from daydreaming about knitting my first adult-sized sweater later this spring.

I’ve heard Jane Richmond’s Oatmeal Pullover is a great starter pattern (one of my favorite Ravelers has referred it as “nasty easy”), but Melissa LaBarre’s Agnes (above, photo by Carrie Bostick Hoge) has really turned my head. I love the simple construction, the chunky yarn, and the mod, a-line shape—not to mention those hidden pockets. (Aren’t they calling out for a bright contrasting color, and maybe even a tipped edge on the garment itself?)

I can’t cast on yet, but I can play around with possible color combinations in the pattern yarn, Quince & Co’s Puffin:

Twig & Cypress

Peacoat & Delft

Chanterelle & Carrie’s Yellow

What colors would you choose? (I’m leaning toward the third one.) Are you working on any projects, knitted or otherwise, this weekend? I’d love to hear about them.

Trend Pieces: Tipped Knits

Lately I’ve been taking notice of knitted pieces with tipped edges—such a fresh look. (It also reminds me of edge painting, one of my favorite printing processes.) You could apply it to any pattern, easy, but it looks particularly gorgeous on classic or traditional pieces knit in a neutral yarn. The next time I cast on for a project you can bet I’ll be searching my stash for scraps of colored yarn.

Two especially beautiful examples:

Knit and photo by Audrey Romano || via Design*Sponge

Knit by David Keyte of Universal Works || via Fringe Association

Have you seen—or made—any tipped knitted pieces? If you’d like to share, I’d love to see …

New York City WPA War Service, 1942 poster

Color Story: Joelle Hoverson

Joelle Hoverson is the owner of Purl Soho and the author of two of my very favorite knitting books: Last-Minute Knitted Gifts and More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. Her clean, classic designs are elevated by their color and texture, and she has a tightly controlled aesthetic that you can see at work on Purl Soho’s craft blog, the Purl Bee. (The shades she chooses for her samples are so spot-on that I often recreate them in the exact same yarn and color. Not very adventurous, but why mess with perfection?)

Hoverson talks about her approach to color in the above video, in which you can see a number of her designs and her Manhattan shop, which I hope to visit someday. You might also be interested to see this tour of her home on the Martha Stewart website. 

LEARN MORE

In Hoverson’s first book, Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, she devotes an entire section to color theory and recommends the following books. I haven’t read them yet, but I plan to:

Color Works, The Crafter’s Guide to Color by Deb Menz (Interweave Press, 2004)

Color and Fiber by P. Lambert, B. Staepelaere, and M. Fry (Schiffer Publishing, 1986)

Interaction of Color by Josef Albers (Yale University Press, revised 2006)

This post is part of a month-long series about color.

Life List #22: Knit a sweater

In the novel Gone With the Wind Melanie Wilkes says, “The happiest days are when babies come.” There’s a lot to find fault with in GWTW, but I do love that sentence, and whenever close friends or family members welcome a little one into the world it always pops unbidden into my head.

Last weekend two good friends of ours got to see and hold their baby boy for the first time. He arrived a little ahead of schedule which meant I had to scramble to finish a gift, but fortunately the Easy Baby Cardigan, from Joelle Hoverson’s lovely book More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, is the perfect pattern for that situation. It came together in less than a week of evening knitting, and the pattern yarn, Fibre Company Terra, is soft and slubby and irresistible to work with. (It’s also a merino/alpaca/silk blend—handwash only, which seems a bit cruel to inflict on new parents, but I couldn’t help myself.) The color, Olive Leaf, is perfect for autumn.

Working on this sweet little cardigan also dovetailed nicely with my goal of knitting my first sweater this fall. I’m so pleased with the result that I think I might have to try my hand at a grown-up sweater next.

More detailed project notes, if you’re into that sort of thing, on Ravelry.