Knits Men Want

upcoming Austin knitting classes

2011-05-04T09:31:00.002-04:00

I'm teaching in Austin at Hill Country Weavers!

While I'm in Austin next week to teach cooking at Lake Austin Spa I've agreed to teach some knitting classes at HCW. They're charging a really low fee so everyone can come and knit with me! You’ll pay only $30 for a 3 hour class!

Call today to reserve your spot: 512-707-7396

REVERSIBLE CABLE SCARF
May 14, 10 am - 1 pm
$30

Rule #10: Men are Oblivious.

We don’t pay attention to our clothes. In fact, you might find me on any given day wearing my shirt inside out. So how do you knit for a guy and get over this problem? Knit a reversible cable scarf. The pattern in KNITS MEN WANT takes 5 cables and ribs and combines them to create a scarf that not only is the same front and back, but it’s also challenging and fun to knit.

You’ll find it so gorgeous, you might just want to knit it for yourself. Come start this amazing pattern with me and I’ll show you how to vary the pattern to fit any yarn, thicker yarn makes it more feminine and he’ll show you how to adapt the pattern to make it work.

Want to turn this gorgeous pattern into a blanket or throw? I will show you how to do that as well. We’ll spend the first part of class choosing yarn and doing our swatches. Not necessarily for gauge, it’s not crucial, but instead we’ll swatch for fabric - to see how changing needle size changes the fabric we make and changes the finished document.

Knitting requirements: You must knit and purl - have experience with ribbing, and if you’ve never done cables, well if you’re a quick study we can make that work but this is not a intro to cables class.

WOVEN KNITTING
May 15, 10 am - 1 pm
$30

There’s nothing quite like creating a knitted garment that looks like it came right off a loom. It’s easier than you think but goes against common sense. Very thin yarn… but much larger needles. Really? Sometimes.

I will show you how to knit his reversible herringbone scarf which looks loomed. But this one is made with a fairly thick yarn.

Then we’ll move onto the linen stitch as well as a tweed stitch, and three and one (which I like to call a woven dense garter). Each of these is made with thinner yarn. Slipped stitches create dense fabric that’s just perfect for throws, shawls, scarves, and even table runners.

Knitting requirements: You must knit and purl and be comfortable with a wide range of yarn gauges and needle sizes.

Spaces are limited. Call today! 512-707-7396

Sweaters for the new Book

2011-04-25T14:31:00.002-04:00

Well, after months of sketching and designing - swatching and ripping, the first few projects are going out to my tech-editor, Therese.

The new book is called The Boyfriend Sweater and there will be 14 sweaters and 4 scarf projects designed for men or women. The first one here is a willow green 3-dimensional honeycomb in a women's medium.... it will be knitted in black for a man - photographed two ways in the book.

Also going out are 2 scarves using a woven stitch that makes the scarves look like they were loomed.

Along with writing and designing and knitting for The Boyfriend Sweater, I'm writing a whole grains cookbook to be published by Rodale sometime in 2012 and I'm testing recipes for Weber grills. Busy busy busy.

Next week, I'm off to Texas for 2 weeks of book publicity for my latest book GOAT: Meat Milk Cheese, teaching goat classes all across the state. Ending with 2 days of knitting classes at Hill Country Weavers in Austin.

Stay tuned... more to come as projects progress including a houndstooth jacket, a plaid pull over, and the prefect varsity sweater in cashmere and baby alpaca!

2011-02-18T17:50:00.006-05:00

As a knitwear designer, it's always heartwarming to see the results others get from my patterns. The color choices are enlightening and while gauge changes make my designs look completely different than I imagined, it's always wonderful to see people put their own stamp on things.

Nine months ago, I put this reversible herringbone scarf up for sale on ravelry.com and over 100 people have bought their copy. Here are some wonderful versions folks have shared with me.

Justine made the scarf for her husband in a two-tone colorway of hazelnut and chocolate. It looks as delicious as it does warm and comfy.

Natalie from Laval, Canada made if for her husband in these two shades of gray. Perfect if you want to blend into the snow. But gorgeous nonetheless.

Luisa in Austin made this beauty in a solid blue.

Subtle and beautiful.

Please, keep sharing your photos of finished projects. We all love seeing them!!!

Where does your yarn come from?

2010-12-31T15:31:00.001-05:00

As much as I find the word locavore over-used, I do eat that way. Mostly, by eating local meat,

I not only know and support local farmers, but I know the animals: how they lived, what they ate, and how they were slaughtered. It's all important to me and I talk about how important it is to know more about your food in my book REAL FOOD HAS CURVES.

And as much as I can, I also like to know where my yarn comes from. Some factory in China?

Good to know. A native artisan in Peru hand spinning baby alpaca? Even better to know. What about tracing the yarn all the way back to the flock of sheep? Incredible -- and doable with Mountain Meadow Merino.

I discovered this at Stitches East in Hartford this past Autumnyarn from Laurel of www.handknitting.com. She offered me a skein of Mountain Meadow to try out and

I couldn't refuse. It's the merino of my childhood. The kind of yarn that my grandmother

would have loved, natural colors, soft and bouncy, and it just calls out to be knitted.

But best of all I know it comes from this flock at Camino & Sons KID Ranch.

I had one skein to play with and came up with this adorable cabled Yurt Hat.

To purchase this pattern, simply click the button

Sweater Give Away - Enter by January 13th

2010-12-19T21:43:00.003-05:00

Are you a member of ravelry.com? If not, now's a great reason to join - and remember, it's completely free and and incredible resource. Think of it as facebook for knitters. Anyway, I've started discussion group on ravelry.com called KNITS MEN WANT. And I've posted a great new sweater give away to celebrate the fact that we have 600 members in that group. Here's what you can win.

It's the green sweater from my book KNITS MEN WANT. The very one you see here, worn by our adorable model and photographed by Jared Flood, Brooklyn Tweed himself.

What do you have to do to enter? Well, as I said, go to ravelry and sign up. If you're already a member or once you sign up join our group KNITS MEN WANT. Look at my notice for the give away. Find a knitted garment thats owned by someone else, something you really love. And take a picture of yourself wearing that - what ever it is. Post that picture and the story behind it as a reply to by notice of the give-away. On January 13th I'll put all the names of folks who entered into a computer program and get a random winner. I'll pay for shipping to wherever the lucky winner lives.

Good luck!

Knitting on the Road

2010-11-17T11:35:00.006-05:00

Mark and I are on the road for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Four days in Austin then five in Dallas. Now packing my clothes was easy, one carry-on suitcase, done in about 5 minutes. But packing my knitting projects was another story. What to take for theplane ride and inevitable airport delays. Well, something small for starters, this isn't the time to be a hero and start that color-work sweater I promised Mark. Something in the round that I can do with magic loop, after all looking for a dropped double point needle in the coach section of the plane aint no fun for anyone involved.

So, I've chosen to make myself a pair of handwarmers from Knits Men Want.

Here they are from the book, knitted in Blue Sky Alpaca Merino blend. Very thick and warm.

But I just received a sample of baby camel yarn from Laurel at www.handknitting.com.

The fiber and yarn comes from herds in Mongolia. Camel fiber is an undercoat, like Cashmere. Baby camel is the from the first shedding of a the young camels in spring. And the color is natural. What I didn't know was that 10% of all camels produce white fibers and that makes very rare yarn indeed!

I'm using an 8-ply version of this yarn which comes in 87 yard skeins for $14.95. There is also a 4-ply available for the same price with nearly double the yardage.

This yarn is a dream to work with, feels like heaven in the hands. I'm thinking I may need a sweater to match my new handwarmers.

So I'm stuck here at Bradely airport on a 2-hour delay, and expect that the rest of this handwarmer will be done (if not both of the them) by the time I reach Dallas.

In the news at on the stage!

2010-11-02T23:00:00.004-04:00

Great news. Mark's and my recipes are heading up the New York Times vegetarian recipe collection for the holidays. No, we're not vegetarians - we'll not in the past 30 years for either of us, though we both gave up meat in our early 20s. But we do love to find ways to make veggies the center of the meal at lunch and a few times a week for dinner. What have we offered up? How about a butternut squash pizza with caramelized onions and pine nuts as a Thanksgiving starter! Anyway, if you want to check out our recipes for the holidays, click here.

And there are a couple of cool articles about us in the Pittsburgh press. Click here for the article that just ran today. Very nice. And there are the recipes for the dishes we'll be making at 12:30 on the "celebrity chef" stage at the Pittsburgh Food Festival this Saturday.

Finally, there was also this pretty-tall-cotton piece recently in the faboo Pittsburgh magazine WHIRL (click here).

If you can't make it to the festival, follow us on twitter: @bruceweinstein and @markscarbrough. Or facebook friend us. We'll be chatting away this weekend. And if you're around on twitter on Friday at 3:30, we'll check in on the @finecooking holiday tweet-up.

Big Yarn - Small Yarn

2010-11-01T16:00:00.012-04:00

Okay, so I bitched about knitting socks with sock yarn on size 2 needles. I even tried them on size 1 needles but just didn't have the stomach for it. But as I've written before, as knitters, we sometimes have to knit things we hate for people we love. And my friend Faye is going to get this pair of socks (almost finished) knitted with more love than merino.

And while I was still in sock mode, I took a stroll through the aisles of Stitches East this past weekend.

Sock yarn seemed to be the theme of the show. Booth after booth of it. One of the most beautiful was this light mossy green merino blend from Holiday Yarns. Talk about tiny yarn - 8 sts per inch on size 1 needles. I may just blend it with a skein of natu

ral beige yak yarn I picked up at Himalayan Trail's booth. Together, I'll probably get 4 or 5 sts per inch which will make this a perfect cardigan weight.

Then just when you're sure you're about to start knitting dental floss on toothpicks, this comes at you from left field.

No, it's not the velvet ropes they were using to hold back the crowd of rowdy knitters at the Hartford Convention Center. It's 100% polyester yarn that was bring given away at the Universal Yarn booth. Not sure exactly if I need a knitted bath mat or bathrobe belt, but it's sure soft. Even the dog didn't mind it used as a leash (he's a 65 pound collie, btw).

So we go from one extreme to the other. And somewhere in the middle I think I might just find a new sweater for this winter.

Vogue Knitting Review

2010-10-26T11:22:00.003-04:00

Knits Men Want has been reviewed on dozens on blogs and I thank everyone for their kind words. But this month something truly wonderful has happened. We got reviewed in Vogue Knitting Fall 2010. And all was right with the world.

Come Cook With Us

2010-10-22T09:00:00.005-04:00

Mark and I are spending most of November on the road teaching cooking classes. Please come and cook with us.

Nov 6th we're headlining at the Pittsburg Food Festival, cooking from our book REAL FOOD HAS CURVES.

Real Food Has Curves is a fun and ultimately rewarding seven-step journey to rediscover the basic pleasure of fresh, well-prepared natural ingredients: curvy, voluptuous, juicy, sweet, savory. And yes, scrumptious, too. In these simple steps—each with its own easy, delicious recipes—you’ll learn to become a better shopper, savor your meals, and eat your way to a better you. Yes, you’ll drop pounds. But you won’t be counting calories. Instead, you’ll learn to celebrate the abundance all around. It’s time to realize that food is not the enemy but a life-sustaining gift. It’s time to get off the processed and packaged merry-go-round. It’s time to be satisfied, nourished, thinner, and above all, happier.

Later in November, we'll be teaching at Central Market schools throughout Texas. All recipes from our book HAM: AN OBSESSION WITH THE HIND QUARTER.

Sat., 11/13. Fort Worth Central Market. 6:30 to 9:00 pm

Sun., 11/14. South Lake Central Market. 5:30 to 7:30 pm

Mon., 11/15. Dallas Central Market. 5:00 to 7:30 pm

Tues., 11/16. Plano Central Market. 6:30 to 9:00 pm

Fri., 11/19. San Antonio Central Market. 6:30 to 9:00 pm

Sat., 11/20. Austin Central Market. 6:30 to 9:00 pm

Then finally, we're doing our cooking show and teaching classes on Holland Americas Amsterdam from January 14 to 26th Lima, Peru to Bora Bora, French Polynesia. It should be a blast. Please come and sail AND cook with us.

x-mas gifts - some people get ketchup

2010-10-14T09:35:00.014-04:00

Okay, I don't knit gifts for every one. This year our beloved editors and publishers of our cook books and food magazines are getting homemade ketchup.

First on the list comes a thank you to my neighbor (well she's 1.5 miles down the road, but when you live in the country that counts as being a neighbor) Marty. She and her husband Chip have a huge vegetable garden and donated 50 pounds of tomatoes to the cause. This is their gorgeous house and gardens where the tomatoes came from.

When I ordered the 20 qt all-clad stock pot I thought that would be the largest pot I could ever imagine using at home. I was wrong. It took 2 batches to process all those tomatoes into ketchup. First I had to chop and cook them briefly to soften the skins. Then I passed them all through the food mill to remove the skins and seeds.

Next, I added ground onions (a quick whirl in the food processor did that nicely) along with a little sugar (only about 2 cups for this entire pot), a touch of salt, and cider vinegar that I infused with cinnamon, fennel seed, all spice berries, star anise, garlic, and dill seed (from my own garden of course). Then began the fun. Reduce, reduce, reduce. This large pot took 13 hours to from wet and soupy to thick and ketchup-y.

Knitting Things We Don't Like

2010-10-04T14:50:00.002-04:00

It's kinda the whole subtext of my book, Knits Men Want. Even if you find it boring to knit, so plain, so monochromatic, if he wants it, knit it anyway. Well, as a male knitter, I rarely have a chance to knit for women-folk - usually doing up oversized sweaters for me and Mark. Or thick warm socks for hiking boots or wearing in front of the fire. Knitting thick and bulky has become ingrained in me. Lace? Not likely.

And I've always said that sock yarn is for sissies. No man wants to wear thin little hand-knit socks knitted out of what looks like dental floss (albeit colorful dental floss) on toothpicks.

Then at dinner last week, in a moment of supreme generosity and love - brought on by my true admiration of my friends Rich and Faye along with bottle of incredible Cabernet, I promised them each a pair of hand knit socks. Rich will be easy. As a guy and he'll love a pair of bulky warm socks. Faye, on the other hand, is very feminine and only a sleek, sexy but funky pair of socks are going to do.

As you probably guessed, I don't keep much sock yarn in my stash, so I traded half a dozen skeins of Rowan SilkKid Haze for some Claudia Hand Painted fingering to knit Faye's socks. If you haven't used Ravelry to search other people's stash and swap things around, you don't know what you're missing.

Am I looking forward to using 2s (if my gauge swatch lets me, 1s if I must)? Absolutely not. But I push my students to try something new all the time. And I encourage every woman who complains that her man only likes bulky boring and dark things to give up the colorful yarn and tiny needles for a while.

I'll get a taste of my own medicine over these socks, but I expect that I'll be better knitter and a better friend when I'm done.

Great Sale Going On

2010-10-01T16:26:00.004-04:00

I love to share the wealth. While it lasts. There's a killer sale going on at Twisted, in Millerton, NY.

It's a great shop where I teach on Wednesday evenings (6 to8) and Sunday mornings (11 to1).

Kim's put a ton of yarn on half price, like Aslan Trends Cotton, Natura, Greenland Merino, Seduce, and much more.

But it's only on until Columbus day, so act fast.

Join Us In Spain!

2010-09-16T15:13:00.009-04:00

We're on the quest for the perfect Ham. Jamon Iberico. Produced in Andalucia, Southern Spain.

When: March 21st - 25th 2011.

Why have we put this trip together? Well, last year Mark and I wrote this book -

Ham: An Obsession With The Hindquarter.

See what's gracing the cover? A gorgeous Iberico Ham. Donated by A Taste of Spain. The same Spanish agency that's put together our amazing itinerary.

Our trip will start in Sevilla on Monday, March 21, 2011, and quickly move out to the beautiful Dehesa, the eco-system that has nurtured these "black" pigs whose acorn-eating habits (combined with artisanal craft) produce the prize delicacy of jamón ibérico. We'll be deep in the country at Aracena Natural Park, staying at an Andalucian-style posada, a perfect place to explore the region and its ham producers. Plus, it will be spring in Spain!

The next two days will feature trips to meet jamón ibérico producers, to see the pigs themselves in their gloriously protected eco-system, to explore Almonaster La Real with its castle-mosque, and even to have a cooking class with one of the up-and-coming chefs in Spain's burgeoning restaurant scene. From walking in the meadows to visiting food sites few tourists ever see, from exploring a beautiful landscape to getting our hands dirty in the kitchen, these days promise to be a highlight of any trip.

Except it doesn't stop there! Before we head back to Sevilla, we'll visit a local foie gras producer who raises his geese with no forced feeding--and then be ready for a day or two of sight-seeing in Sevilla that includes a visit to the local food markets and a private cooking class to learn the real secrets of Andalucian tapas, offered by one of the city's premier chefs and taking place in his lovely, penthouse apartment.

After a walking tour of the sights of old Sevilla and farewell dinner that evening, you can either take the transfer back to the airport, or you can arrange further trips to the countryside with A Taste of Spain (sherry or olive oil, anyone?), or you can pick up a car and head down to the Spanish coast for a few days of relaxation in the gorgeous Spanish sun.

This details for this culinary tour are being handled by Kora Dalager at Bonsai Travel in California. Her email is kora@ca.astound.net. You can contact her directly or you can leave a comment here on this website and I'll send you the full brochure, including the exact hotels and the meals covered--every meat except one (and you know we'll all sneak away and make a great evening of it together). The land travel cost is $2490 per person, double occupancy. Space is limited to 10 people--and already several spots are gone.

Truly, this is the culinary trip of a lifetime to see what few tourists ever see. We hope you'll consider joining us in Spain. Just imagine how much fun we'll have--how many laughs, how much good food, and how very much jamón ibérico!

Gauge is everything - and how it works in Knits Men Want

2010-09-08T16:15:00.001-04:00

I hear it all the time from students.
"But I hate knitting a gauge swatch!"
And they hear this back...
"If you want to be surprised at the fit, if you want to have wasted 30 or 40 hours knitting a sweater that the recipient can never wear, then don't knit a gauge swatch.
Sure, we see this little icon on every ball and skein of yarn we buy.

It means that the manufacturer only suggests using a certain needle size to achieve a certain number of stitches per inch knitting in Stockinette Stitch. In this case size US 8 (5mm) needles might give you 5 stitches per inch.

Might? Well, sure. I knit loosely and would probably test out size US 6 (4m) needles first. Then I'd go up to 7s (4.5mm), 8s (5mm), or maybe even down to 5s (3.75mm) all the while looking to achieve the number of stitches per inch called for in my pattern. And if you don't think there's a big difference between 3.75 stitches per inch and 4 stitches per inch, just do the math. One quarter of a stitch per inch adds up to 10 stitches in a 40" sweater. And that can turn your 40" sweater into a 42.5" sweater, yikes!

But is there really that much difference in the way different people knit the same yarn? I mean, if the manufacturer says 5 stitches per inch on US 8s (5mm), didn't they test that? Isn't that what most of us would get?

This is from Jacqueline Fee's The Sweater Workshop. The image on the right shows three different gauge swatches knitted by three different knitters. All knitted with the exact same yarn and needle sizes. It this doesn't show you that you need to test your gauge I don't know what will.

But what's the gauge swatch on the left? Jacqueline tested her yarn with 11 different size needles to get a gauge she liked. Wait a second cowboy, a gauge she liked? I though we were talking about looking for a specific gauge that a pattern might require? Well most of the time that is what we're looking for in knitting our gauge swatch. But sometimes we are just looking to be creative. To find a knitted fabric that we love and create something from that.

This is from my book Knits Men Want. Every pattern starts like this, with size across the top and gauge along the side. Sure, you can use the yarn I picked for the project and go with the gauge I liked and knitted the sample with (not always what the manufacturer had in mind). Or, you can choose any yarn, knit samples on all sorts of different needles, choose the knitted fabric you like best and measure your gauge (that is, stitches per inch). Go across the top for your size, down list to find your gauge of choice, and voila, you get what you need - be it yarn requirements or the number of stitches

And remember, you've made the commitment and bought the yarn and you're going to commit weeks to the project. So, even if you spend the entire first evening on a new project knitting gauge swatches, know that it is time well spent.

Reversible Herringbone Scarf

2010-07-26T16:17:00.001-04:00

What is it about Herringbone that in suits and coats it gets eye-rolling but when you knit it up into scarves or sweaters it elicits such oohs and ahhs.

I was on book tour last month for KNITS MEN WANT and one of my stops was for a book signing at SIt-N-Knit in Bloomfield, CT. I used to teach there and it was nice going back for a visit. And as soon as the pleasantries were out of the way, I headed back to the sale nook to grab something for a flight to California - where I knitted on the TV show "View From The Bay" in San Francisco. Well, the first thing that caught my eye was a small basket of Duchess, by Classic Elite. It's a supersoft blend with Merino, Cashmere, and Angora in the mix. There were only 8 skeins left - 4 light brown and 4 dark. And at 40% off I grabbed them all.

Now, I'me a loose knitter so I always go with needles 2 sizes smaller than the manufacturer suggests, which was a 10.5 US. So I grabbed some 8s, 9s, and 10s, and figured I'd swatch my way across the country.

By the time we reached Chicago, I had stockinetted, gartered, seeded, and even cabled in all three sizes but it just wasn't jiving. I am a firm believer that picking the right stitch and pattern for any given yarn is everything. Even an inexperienced knitter can make something that looks fantastic when the stitch/pattern and yarn mesh well. And if they don't, even Ms Zimmerman herself wouldn't be able to make something wear-worthy. Across the aisle from me was a small woman in a 2-tone herringbone tweed suit (in JULY!). I thought how nice that might look knitted very tightly in my new Duchess yarn. I knit herringbone as a coudlbe knit stitch, each stitch being worked twice - first as you knit (or purl) it onto the needle and then again when you get to it on the following row, working it on the row below along with the new stitch being created on the needle. The result is a thick and warm yet very masculine garment that's reversible. But all that thick knitting required size 13s, which I wouldn't be able to get until I landed in San Francisco.

Finally, with my needles in hand, I began the scarf, only to realize that the herringbone pattern was going side to side and I wanted them to shoot up and down the length of the scarf, not from side to side. So back to the store I ran for a 40" circular needle And began the scarf lengthwise, 420 stitches in each row. I had to keep telling myself that it's only 28 rows.

Like the pattern? Check it out (and all my other patterns) at http://www.ravelry.com/designers/bruce-weinstein and download it to make for yourself! to order this pattern, just click here! buy now

And The Winner Is....

2010-06-15T14:07:00.001-04:00

The lucky winner is Roxanne Smith from Atlanta, Georgia. Good thing she won the cotton sweater since it's pretty warm down in Georgia. The picture is her baby - her ravelry avatar.

Thank you all for participating in the Sweater Giveaway and for spreading the word about KNITS MEN WANT.

This cotton sweater won by Roxanne is a new design that will be up for sale on ravelry.com very soon.

Stay tuned for when and how you can get the pattern to make one for the guy in your life.

Also in the news today, Astrid Reda from Germany sent my pictures of the reversible cable scarf from KNITS MEN WANT.

Beautiful job Astrid, I know your brother is going to love this.

I'm still in the middle of a 2-week book tour for REAL FOOD HAS CURVES - in Denver today, off to St Louis tonight. Working on a herringbone scarf on all the plane rides (11 flights in 13 days, yikes!). Will share pics and pattern soon.

Sweater Give-away!

2010-05-19T17:14:00.000-04:00

Okay, time for a contest. Take a look at this sweater.

I knitted it for the book and after the photo shoot, everyone involved asked me to make a few changes to the design. So, I softened the saddle shoulder a little, making it more of a raglan/saddle combo, which is pictured now on the front of the book. And we switched from the Mission Falls cotton to Berrocco Pure Merino.

I love them both. And I want to share the cotton one with the world. In fact, I'm going to do a random drawing to choose one lucky winner. All you have to do to enter is post a review of KNITS MEN WANT on amazon.com, b&n.com, or any other online book seller site or knitting site between now and June 15th. Just drop me a note so I know who you are. And if you've already posted one, you've got a chance at the sweater, just let me know who you are. I'll pick the name out of a hat on the 15th.

The black and beige sweater is a size medium and it's really comfortable.

Thanks for spreading the word, and good luck!

Up Coming Meet & Greet

2010-05-18T16:18:00.001-04:00

Hey All

Please forgive my lack of postings this month, it's just been nuts. Yes, the book came out and I've been doing lots of TV and radio to promote it. In fact, I'm on my way down to Philly this week to do an NPR show called The Chef's Table. Chefs Table and knitting? Sure, why not.

What else is going on? Well, on Saturday May 22 I'll be at Purl Soho at their new location on Broome Street. The class if from 4 to 6 and you have to call and sign up. We'll be making the reverse cable scarf from KNITS MEN WANT. I'll show you all how to make it in the gauge it's picture in in the book and how to alter the design to fit bulkier yarns. Plus we'll go over a few other tips and tricks for knitting for the guy in your life.

Can't make it to Soho next Saturday? I'm doing the same class again at Colorful Stitches in Lenox, MA on Saturday June, 26. Plus, I'll be bringing goodies to munch on from one of my latest cookbooks. So join in the fun, either day, it will be great to see you!

Random Acts of Knitting Kindess

2010-04-13T14:57:00.000-04:00

Everyone kept telling my how lucky I would be after the photo shoot for the book and then after all the LYS visits that the garments I knitted and that my dear talented friends knitted for me for the book, would be mind to wear and cherish. HA!

All the garments pictured in the book are in mediums and yikes, even some smalls. First, with the time deadlines that a book brings, it's so much faster to get things done when you do them up smaller. Second, most of the models who volunteered to for the photo shoot were smaller guys. And third, I don't think my sweet and generous friends who did some of the knitting would have offered to do it if everything had been sized for me, in an 48 wit extra extra long sleeves!

All that said, Barbara Fabian of Sit-N-Knit, did knit the 9 foot scarf in sock weight yarn in size 5 needles. Bless her for that.

So unless I lose 65 pounds and shrink from 6'4" to 5'9 nothing we knitted as samples is going into my wardrobe. Sigh. So I started up the henley in my size with Rowan Wool Cotton.

You'll remember from a pervious post that it was supposed to be for Mark, but he lost some weight recently and it was fitting me better. Great for me! Until I ran out of yarn rounding the final bend and beginning the second sleeve. I didn't think it was huge problem since the yarn is still in production. But the new skeins were a different dye lot and the color was way off. Then to my rescue, Pam (aka 2muchfun) on ravelry.com traded me the 2 skeins in her stash for 2 of the off color ones I recently bought. Hers were also a different dye lot but they were much closer to the original. Thanks Pam, you saved the sweater and inspired me. I'm going to start putting my stash up on ravelry.com and if anyone ever needs anything, give me a shout.

Knits Men Want - On TV!

2010-04-02T17:37:00.000-04:00

Free Give Away Contest - Win Projects or Yarn!

2010-04-01T17:31:00.000-04:00

Well, KNITS MEN WANT has had it's official pub date today. I've booked a few signings at knitting stores and hope you'll drop by for meet and greet as well as a bite to eat. Yes, I always bring food to my events.

Wed, April 14th
Knitty City
West 79th street between Amsterdam and B'way in Manhattan
6 to 8pm
Buy my book there and get a chance to win a free 2-hour class with me - for you and up to 3 of your friends.

Sunday April 25th
Twisted
7 Dutchess Ave, Millerton, NY
6 to 8pm
Again, if you buy my book there you get a chance to win a free 2-hour class with me - for you and up to 3 of your friends.

And now, for the big Knits Men Want "Cringe or Crush Sweepstakes!"

Think about a guy you made something for. Did he cringe and recoil when you presented him with your labor of love? Or did he totally love it? Go to http://www.melaniefalickbooks.com and leave your story. You will be entered to win one of four great prizes. To enter, just share your story in the Comments section before noon (EST) on April 30th, 2010.

After the deadline, we'll choose four entries at random. All winners will receive a signed copy of Knits Men Want. In addition, the prizes below will be awarded in the same order winners are chosen--it's luck of the draw in this sweepstakes!

First winner: This print from Knits Men Want by photographer (and Brooklyn Tweed blogger!) Jared Flood.

Second winner: Two projects from Knits Men Want, knitted by author Bruce Weinstein: the Watch Cap (in red) and Fingerless Mitts (in olive)

Third winner: The Thick and Warm Socks (in green)

Fourth winner: From ShibuiKnits, two skeins of their gorgeous Hand-Dyed Merino Worsted yarn, in “Stone.”

For the full rules, click here.

buttons and more buttons

2010-03-12T16:53:00.000-05:00

It's always about the finishing. You can do the nicest job knitting ever, but if a seam isn't smooth or you pick the wrong size zipper or buttons that don't match, it's just not going to be a good piece. The first thing my grandmother used to do when she looked at another person's knitting was to turn the piece inside out. "Look at those seams," she would say. "Sloppy." The first time she looked at a hem I did by hand she asked me to hand her the scissors and she instantly took out my uneven sewing and rehemmed the pants for me.

Now when it comes to seams, I baste, the more often then not, run the seam through the sewing machine. Okay, I heard that collective gasp. And I've gotten it often from friends and students who abhor the fact that I would finish a hand knit sweater with a machine. But in the end, If the seam looks great, it doesn't bother me that it's not all hand finished. That said, the two little shoulder seams on the Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket were a cinch to sew up evenly and smoothly by hand. Which left only the buttons.

Mark and I took a drive into New York yesterday to tape a few video interviews for our upcoming book REAL FOOD HAS CURVES. It's a 7-step plan to get off processed food. And Guideposts magazine is doing an online interview with us. Our publisher, Simon & Schuster did one for their website as well. Anyway, the trip in gave me two incredible side benefits. First, I got to eat Incredible Chinese food for lunch at Szechuan Gourmet on 39th between 5th and 6th avenues. Second, I had a chance to stop in M&J Trimming on 6th avenue and 37st to go button shopping.

Unlike the small, sedate, and classy feel of Tender Buttons on the Upper East Side, M&J (in the garment district) is bright, gaudy, loud, and at times overwhelming. But you will find what you're looking for. I threw the surprise jacket on a counter and started pulling button boxed off the walls—Mark helped.

Kids' garmets are more forgiving. If a button is a little more over the top or just plain silly that can seem kind of cute on a 2 year old.We narrowed it down to glass pears, pewter flatware (the parents are both chefs so it all seemed appropriate), but what finally won out were these Italian glass buttons with lemons - in exactly the same colors as the yarn.

Picking buttons for my henley was a little more challenging—there seemed more at stake. This sweater took 32 skeins of Rowan Wool Cotton at $9 a skein. The buttons had to be perfect. But the nice thing about buttons is that they can be changed, so even if I got them on and didn't like them 2 weeks later, they could always be changed (what's another 5 hours in the car back and forth?).

I tried plenty. Round, oblong, plastic, leather, wood, horn. And in the end went with antler. Thin dark slices off the tips of elk antlers, each drilled with 2 holes. They weren't cheap ($3 each) but compared to the yarn it seemed like a bargain.

most popular sweater, ever

2010-03-09T09:33:00.000-05:00

Big words, I know, but Elizabeth Zimmerman's Surprise Baby Jacket must be one of the most knitted patterns ever. On ravelry alone there's a surprise baby jacket group with over 3500 members with topics on classes, buttons, help, and yes, finished projects complete with photos. And that last group alone has over 2400 postings. Holy cow folks, that's a lot of babies being kept warm with this one design. But the best thing about it is that each one is unique. And almost everyone puts their own touch to it. One of my favorites was posted by BUZZKNITTER who used a cherry red yarn and only one oversized button on the top giving the jacket a 60s couture look.

For the nonknitters reading along or for the new knitter who hasn't discovered this right of passage, the Zimmerman surprise baby jacket is wonderful puzzle to knit. Done in one piece with strategically placed decreases and increases (to form corners), the finished "flat" garmet is folded origami style with only two short seams to sew at the top shoulders. And voila (did I actually read that someone wrote Walla recently in their blog???), a beautiful jacket.

Since you're working in one piece and you've made corners, part of a single row goes down the front around the back, and back up the front. This allows for wonderful color work that baffles the average admirer.

The pattern only comes in one size, and by changing the yarn gauge you can make it fit a new born or a 7-year old. Zimmerman says to put button holes on both sides, assuming you don't know the sex of the child upfront. But if you do, just make them on the appropriate side. Left of boys, right for girls. Ah sexist conventions.

This one is for my friend Denise's baby - due any week now. I used Berocco Comfort so when the kid throws up on it (as kids are wont to do) it can go from washer to dryer and back to baby in no time.

Frogging on the high seas.

2010-02-04T22:40:00.000-05:00

Most of my friends thought I was nuts to bring wool knitting on a Caribbean cruise. Mark and I do a fair number of cruises on Holland America as the guest chefs. We come on board and do a cooking shows and hold private cooking classes on days at sea. Right now, we’re on route south from the Bahamas to Barbados. Which means tomorrow we’re at sea and are going to present three spectacular cookie recipes from THE ULTIMATE CHOCOLATE COOKIE BOOK in the morning in the ship's Culinary Arts Center.. After that, the day is mine to knit on deck.

I grabbed 5 skeins of Classic Elite Water Lilly on the way out of the house 2 days ago to make a reversible cable scarf for my friend Rich R. What I didn’t know was that the yarn was in 2 different dye lots. Ugh. Pay attention folks. No one at your LYS is going to point that out to you, lest you decide not to make the purchase.

As you can see, I sat on the deck this morning working my way through skein one. And 2 inches into skein 2, I noticed the difference. Maybe if I had nixed that mid-m

orning pina colada I would have caught it sooner. But as you can see, there’s a lot to rip.

So what’s the best way to deal with crossed dye lots? Alternate rows. It’s easy to do with circular needles. Luckily I always travel with circular needles instead of straights. I ripped out the scarf and started again casting on with both versions of yarn at the same time using two needles. Then I worked my way across the first row splitting each stitch into the individual yarns. So my cast on and my very first row had a nice combination of both dye lots. Now here’s where circular needles save the day. I worked my way across the next row using the yarn from ball A. The instead of turning my work, I slid it back to the other side of the circular needles and worked my way across it again using the yarn from ball B. Then I repeated the process alternating yarn from each dye lot in each row.

It’s actually making for a much more interesting colorway. But as I said, I have 5 skeins of yarn and 3 are from one dye lot and 2 are from another. So I’ll work 4 skeins this way and see if the scarf’s long enough. I’m making it an inch narrower to make the yarn go that much farther. I’ll post the finished piece when we get to Barbados in a few days.

ON YOUR MORNING

2010-02-01T17:13:00.000-05:00

Lucky Me -

2010-01-31T11:20:00.000-05:00

I'm lucky. My spouse Mark (yes we were married last year, woo hoo!) wears everything I make him. Well, almost everything. He has one raglan sleeve sweater in Malabrigo that I made in the round from the top down and he'll only put that on when it's in the single digits outside. This man sweats at the thought of wool. And he won't touch a hat, so I don't bother to make them for him, much as I would like to.

But for the most part, he picks out the yarn, scours the patterns and books in my studio and picks out what he wants. He just asked for the 6-button henley that's in KNITS MEN WANT. By the way, the photos for the book, including the henley shot below were taken by Jared Flood, AKA Brooklyn Tweed.

Mark picked a brown rowan wool cotton from my stash for his henley, a good choice for a guy who sweats. But like most men he hates fittings and I know better than to try and get him to try anything on. I measured an older sweater of his for the measurements, but didn't take into account that he's trying and succeeding in losing weight. I should listen more when he tells me his clothes are starting to hang on him. The body finished and the sleeves ready to be picked up and knitted down, I slipped it on myself to get a sense of size. You know that feeling when you put on a piece of clothing that fits so perfectly and hangs so well on you that you never want to take it off? Uh oh. If this fits me so well, his new slimmer physique is going to go for a swim in this sweater.

And here's where the lucky part comes in. He comes in to my studio, sees me in his sweater, sees how amazing it looks on me, and before I could even offer to rip it out and start again, he tells me that he would be delighted if I kept it for myself and just made him something else when I'm done. So what's he going to get? Probably the same henley, but in a different color than mine.

Which, by the way, has 1 sleeve left to go, then it's off to Tender Buttons on east 62nd street for the perfect finishing touch. I'll share pictures of that experience in a few weeks.

recycled cashmere

2010-01-25T13:19:00.001-05:00

In my new book, KNITS MEN WANT, I offer all the rules women need to know before knitting for a guy. And my favorite is that NOT ALL MEN ARE WORTHY OF CASHMERE. In the book, I tell the story about a young woman who knitted a cashmere hat for her husband who thought it would make a great paper towel substitute. He drove her to tears and he never got another thing knitted with such fine fiber.

I have to say that as much as I love soft yarns, I'm just not a big cashmere wearer. It's warm and soft, yes, but it just doesn't have the weight behind it I like for a sweater. I want to feel that garment on my back, protecting me from the elements. It's the same reason I'd rather have 4 quilts on my bed in the winter than 1 thick down comforter. Sure I get the same warmth, but it's the weight, the comfort of the pressure that I look for.

Having said all that, I don't think there's a single fiber I prefer to knit with than Cashm

ere. It's lightness means my hands never get tired from holding a and turning a heavy garment while I knit. And it feels so wonderful being pulled through my fingers as I knit. But then there's the cost $12 for 45 yards - yikes! That's a $50 hat, forget about a sweater in a man's x-large.

So what's a knitter to do? Check out thrift stores and ebay.

On ebay today I found a bright red cashmere sweater in a women's medium for $5.99 and a gray cashmere hoodie for $7.25. When you get the garment home, dry clean or wash it before you start into deconstructing it - or even smell it—remember, not everyone's hygiene is as good as yours. Once the sweater is cleaned, you're ready to begin surgery. One disclaimer; you're going to lose a lot of yarn and that's okay, you've gotten it cheap and if you can get 500 yards out of it you've gotten a steal.

Start by taking apart the seams, to separate the arms, front, and back. Start this at the very top or bottom so that if you accidentally nick the garment you won't do it in the middle or a long run of working yarn. Pull the front and back away from each other and look at the seam. You should be able to see the thread that connects them. It only takes a clip at one spot to know if you got the right thread. Once you clip it, you can pull and see that the two pieces are coming apart. If see that stitches themselves are unraveling, you've cut the garment and not the seam. That's okay, it will just be a break in the yarn once you get going. Keep trying until you get it.

Once the parts are separate, look at the neck. If the neck or collar have been sewn on, just cut them off straight across, keeping your cut as close as possible to a straight line of stitches. Now, using a tapestry needle start to pick out the top row of stitches pulling out the scraps that have been cut until you can start to unravel the piece. I like to put it on my ball winder and simply watch the garment unravel as I wind. It helps to have a yarn meter so you'll know exactly how much yarn you have.

Now, most yarn that's used in cashmere sweaters is pretty thin stuff. So I like to double what ever comes out of vintage garments. That makes for 4 or eve six ply cashmere to work with. This yarn came from an old Lord & Taylor men's cashmere sweater that've had in my closet since high school. I got 500 yards of usable 2-ply cashmere and I've rewound it doubled for 250 yards of 4-ply cashmere giving my 5 stitches/inch on size 7 needles.

The hat I'm making is for a my friend John E, to thank him for a lovely weekend in the Hamptons with him and his wife Rainey last week. The pattern is the watch cap from my new book KNITS MEN WANT. And although NOT ALL MEN ARE WORTHY OF CASHMERE, when you can buy 500 yards for a mere $7, all men are worthy of a second chance.

Wrapping parks and trees.

2010-01-19T13:46:00.001-05:00

In 2005, the artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude filled Central Park with orange nylon gates. It kept blurring the line between eyesore and masterpiece.

At least it was more colorful than their previous work in Riehen, Swizterland where they wrapped a stand of large trees in 1998.

This was clearly not a problem for my friend Richard's sister in Columbus, Ohio. Her tree wrapping is a work in progress, as she adds more to it all the time. The weather felts the knitting that surrounds the bark. And according to the knitter, the dressed up tree works better than any speed bump the city could ever have installed on her street. Tell me you wouldn't stop and look, feel, and start your own tree sweater as soon as you got home.

Circular needle organization

2010-01-13T09:47:00.000-05:00

A few people have noticed my circular needle case hanging on the wall in my studio and asked me where I bought it. I didn't, I made it and it only took a few hours at the sewing machine. The frist step is to pick fabric. For that, I headed out to Traditions by Pamela Kline outlet in Claverack, NY. The fabric loft has amazing deals and if you ask to see the fabric scarps in the production studio you can buy as much as you want for $5 a pound. I picked some heavy velvets brocade that would hold up to the weight of all those needles without stretching out of shape.

I cut the fabric into 4-inch wide strips,

starting with the narrowest, making each subsequent layer 2-inches wider than the one below it. Hem the edges then lay out all the strips and pin them, together before sewing.

Next, I joined the fabric horizontally across all the layers starting at the bottom. Then measured up 2.5-inches for my size 13s, 2.25-inches for the 11s, 2-inches for 10.75s and 10.5s, etc, up to 1-inch for the 3s, 2s, and 1s. The smallest fabric strip in front holds the double point needles and I use the wider fabric slots for circular needles.

The clip on top is an quilt clip from Pottery Barn that I bought in the 80s. Now I have all my circular and double point needles at hand without tangles or mess.

Welcome to my studio.

2010-01-12T14:38:00.000-05:00

Those of you who know me, know that I’m a chef and have had 18 cook books published in the past 12 years. Those of you who just met me know that I’m also a knitting teacher and am going to have my first knitting book published on April 1^st, by Melanie Falick at Stewart Tabori and Chang, KNITS MEN WANT. So now I split my time between the kitchen and my cozy knitting studio.

Stewart Tabori and Chang is also publishing my book HAM: AN OBSESSION WITH THE HIND QUARTER in March. How do I write and publish this much? Well, I do it with my partner Mark. In our cook book world, I'm the chef and he's the writer. About 18 months ago, we were at a meeting in the New York office of STC with our former editor Luisa Weiss and she asked if I had made the sweaters we were both wearing. I had made them and that led to a meeting with the amazing Melanie Falick which led to my first knitting book.

And just when you think it can't get any better, Melanie suggested we get Jared Flood (aka Brooklyn Tweed) to do the photos. We shot half the book at my friend Barbara's house in Bloomfield, CT, and the other half in Brooklyn. I'm knitting a few pieces for Mark from the book and I'll share them with you along with a few outtakes from the book along the way.

This past year I've also designed a number of pieces for ShiBui, including hiking socks and a dropped shoulder sweater made with their luxurious merino worsted.

You can find me at TWISTED in Millerton, NY on Wednesday nights from 6 to 8 and on Sunday afternoons from 1 to 3. There's always a theme (reversible cables, magic loop, etc.) or bring any project you want help with. And to add to the excitement, I always bring something to eat from one of my cook books. So call and sign up and I hope to see you soon!