Sweater Give Away - Enter by January 13th

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

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.

Big Yarn - Small Yarn

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.

Sweater Give-away!

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!

Knits Men Want - On TV!