more wool-people!

Fans of Jared Flood and his brand Brooklyn Tweed might want to have a look at this

Design Sponge presents a very nice Q&A with the man himself, with insight into how he keeps organized and inspired.
Brooklyn Tweed has also just released a new batch of patterns under the handle Wool People 4. Have a look-see.  If you see things to your liking don’t be shy about telling me all about it.  I will try to include them when I next order patterns.

Craftily yours
Kristin

in praise of beautiful distractions

This post wrote itself.  Or, perhaps more accurately it was ghost curated by friends and interlopers.  They threw eye candy at me this morning, while I endeavored to concentrate on work.  Check out some of the fruits of labor – our new class schedule can be found on the Knit Cafe’s home page here.
…and now on to the beautiful distractions…
An exquisite photograph of a divine shawl.  The photographer is Jared Flood from Brooklyn Tweed.  The shawl is from the the Icelandic Textile Museum in Blönduós. Those large egg-shaped  holes are a delight! See more of Jared’s photos here.

Back in January I was in some kind of state of exhaustion when I posted about this incredible crochet park.  I was only too glad to go back and visit the work of Toshiko Horiuchi-MacAdam with more clarity.  Thanks to Jill for the link with even more pictures of the National Park in Sapporo Japan.  Don’t we all wish we could go there and frolic about in the crochet?

Jill’s link advanced the good news that Horiuchi-MacAdam is not the only one building textile parks.  Check out the work of Numen, an Austrian/Croatian design team and their contemporary art space in Belgium.  Numen also made some art from sticky tape in Australia, that looks enchanting.

Knit designer Cecily Glowik MacDonald has just published a new booklet of knitting patterns this August.

Stand-outs like Spendrift↑

and Newale↑, are in good company with 10 more patterns.  You can purchase the collection called Landing: Winged Knits Vol 1, and individual patterns too on Ravelry here.

Cheers to ghosts, interlopers, and distractions too.
Craftily yours
Kristin

Brooklyn in Toronto

Yesterday was the day that we received our first ever delivery of patterns from Brooklyn Tweed.  The intrepid Jared Flood who has risen to star status in hand knitting circles helms the Brooklyn Tweed enterprise with steady and very busy hands.  His designs revisit good old fashion basics to reveal new classics.

To date we have received the pretty Autumn Stole, and Pavement – a scarf with reversible cables, a cap called Fortnight and the much admired Rock Island Shawl, as well as Brownstone – a pullover with panache! More patterns are on their way. Arrival may be expected even before weeks end.

Only days ago Mr. Flood released even more patterns.  His Fall 2011 look book can be looked upon here.  This is hot on the heals of his last collection called the Wool People.  What a prolific gentleman! Levenwick and Holl from the Wool People collection are already on their way to the Knit Cafe and I will work on securing patterns from his lovely Autumn line up as soon as possible. Please let me know which patterns you favor and I will add them to my wish list.

All the new patterns and the new yarns that have arrived over the last few weeks make a mathematician’s dream of possibility and probability equations.  A new season of knitting is definitely upon us.  This is truly in evidence with no math required.

Till soon,
Craftily yours
Kristin

Comings and Goings

Is this old news now?
For sure it is good news, so all the better to repeat it.
We have Noro!
Noro Taiyo,  cotton, silk, wool, nylon
Noro Taiyo Sock  (same as above but sock weight)
Noro Kureyon, 100% wool
Noro Silk Garden, silk, mohair, wool
Noro Silk Garden Sock (same as above but sock weight)
The Taiyo is new to us.  I am especially excited to have a yarn to recommend to folks who are eager to get their needles into some Noro colour-ways but are put off by the wooliness.  Some might say darn right itchiness in the case of Kureyon (I would not- I love a wooly-wool)).  Did you know Kureyon means crayon in Japanese? A fitting name for yarn that captures the imagination much like a new box of crayolas might. All the other Noro varieties capture the same magic.
My first Noro project was my first sock project too, and I was hooked. A Noro addict and a sock addict too.  If it has been said once, then it has been said again, and it is about to be said once more now: knitting with Noro is like reading a good book you never want to put it down.  The anticipation of what will happen next is too much to bear.  What colour will it be?
Since the sock days though I have sadly not knit much with Noro. I rediscovered the joy of it all when I made my Confetti mittens. Whoever said one can never go back was not talking about Noro.  I was even more enraptured.

Also showing off Noro’s Style  are these knit works from Jared Flood. The first pic is the Mitered Mittens, a simple beauty of a pattern by the genius knitter Elizabeth Zimmerman. Made more beautiful thanks to Noro. You can find the Mitten-How-To in both “The Knitter’s Almanac”, and “Knitting Around”, books by EZ.  The second pic is Jared Flood’s Noro Striped Scarf, easy, effective, and a joy to knit!

Since December I have been diligent about blogging. Rain/shine-twice a week was my regiment.   I must now admit that my perfect attendance record has been shattered.  I missed my weekend post. Fortunately I have always found that perfection is over- rated. Perhaps you all will also forgive me for my truancy.
But really – can you blame me? The computer’s charms, they fade compared to the view from Bear Island.  Notice the yarn on the bench?  Though I may be a truant, I am no idler.

I was lucky that my vacation did not come earlier.  If it had I might have missed the visit of our old friend Sophia.  It was good to see her.  I had not done so since she moved back to the UK, some time ago. Now here I am back in the big smoke and she is now safe and sound on her own side of the pond where she is writing the nicest things about us.  I felt a little teary when I read her blog post but I concede that it is true.  The nicest people do come to the Knit Cafe- bar none!

Read all about it on Sophia’s blog aquarterto 

Nice to be back among the yarn.
Craftily yours
Kristin