quick + purly: 5 dolls

Whoohoo! My Jane Austen Knits 2015 patterns and samples are in, which means I can rejoin the world and focus on things other than gauge and stitch counts.

Have you ever knit a doll? I've knit a few teddy bears and dogs in my time, as well as created the Matryoshka Japonais doll set. But I haven't knit a proper doll, by which I mean one with arms and legs and outfits. This week I found five little charmers for you from some talented knitted toy designers.

1. China Doll by Sara Elizabeth Kellner $4.50 USD 

   

   I love that she is constructed like an antique china doll.
   Do NOT miss Sara's other patterns, including China Doll's outfit!

2. Homage to Jane Austen by Noreen Crone-Finlay $6.75 USD 

   

   How could I not include a Jane Austen doll?

3. Tulip Doll by Katie Boyette $6 USD 

   

   Katie's patterns are super-cute!
   I'm still holding out hope that she will publish
   her Henry VIII and Friends projects as patterns.

4. Marie Antoinette Knit Doll Pattern by Amy Gaines $6 USD 

   

   More cuteness! The hair makes me giggle.
   Amy is prolific in the adorable toy category.

5. Theodóra by Hélène Magnússon €5 EUR 

   

   Don't miss the adorable Icelandic wardrobe and sheep dog!

All images from the patterns' Ravelry pages. No copyright infringement intended - I just want to share the love!

There were so many pages of cuteness that I really had to get specific on which dolls to share. I think we will need a mermaid doll post, soon.

I'm off to decide which doll I want to knit most (right now) and to enjoy a calm Mother's Day weekend. Hope you have a good one, whether you are mother, child, or both.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen

New pattern: Sly Maid Stole

Today I have a lovely versatile accessory pattern to share with you.

Sly Maid Stole $7 on Ravelry (no account required)



At first glance, this stole is seems simple, yet the more you look at it, the more you find going on. Two different textures of Stockinette make this reversible, while the eyelet rows lighten things up. All you need is one skein of your favorite laceweight yarn (or perhaps fingering weight? ooh, that would make a lovely and more substantial version) for this beauty.

Sly maids always peek at you out of the corner of their eyes, never straight-on. This stole begins as a straight-up rectangle, but it ends up being all about bias and winking eyelets and never knowing which side is right. Once you get to know a sly maid, you won’t want to be without her – light, cozy, adaptable, never boring yet not difficult.

What you'll love about knitting Sly Maid Stole:

• 2tLTCO means you will have just the right amount of yarn for your cast-on
• working on the bias - it's just more fun that way
• when the rows of stockinette start to feel monotonous, it's time for some eyelet action!

What you'll love about wearing Sly Maid Stole:

• madelinetosh Prairie in all its glory (or your fave laceweight yarn - I adore Prairie)
• the bias fabric makes for a rhombus that is more interesting to wear than the usual rectangle
• it's totes reversible
• the fabric is just open enough to be wonderfully squishy - not too warm, but it will ward off any chills

Size/Finished Measurements 61”/155 cm (long edge) x 28”/71.1 cm (short edge), 16”/40.6 cm wide

Materials madlinetosh prairie (100% Merino; 840 yds/768 m per 4 oz/114 g); color: Tart; 1 skein {approx. 775 yds}
US6/4.0 mm 29-inch circular needle
Tapestry needle

Gauge
20 sts x 32 rows = 4”/10 cm in Stockinette Stitch Note: I am a loose knitter. While gauge is not critical in a stole, you may run out of yarn if your gauge is different from the gauge given.

Skills Needed Casting on
Binding off
Knitting
Purling
Increasing
Decreasing

Thanks! Technical Editing: Rachel Brown
Test Knitting: dezignmama, pinhappy, pretz2005

Pattern is professionally formatted (by me!) to ensure you have everything you need to create your own beautiful Sly Maid Stole.

This pattern is part of a bundle of four inspired by The Unicorn Tapestries at The Cloisters in New York City. Sly Maid Stole comes from the tapestry fragment known as The Mystic Capture of the Unicorn, where we can see a “sly” maid signaling to the hunters that the Unicorn has been lured into an enclosed garden by the fair maiden.

I hope you enjoy this pattern! It is one of my favorite things to wear (and having written that bit above about knitting it in fingering weight, I am seriously considering another one).

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

New pattern: Pomegranate Cardi

Apologies for the delay in posting today! I am finishing up a couple of special projects for Jane Austen Knits this week, so things are a little busy. But here is another one of my new patterns for you:



Pomegranate Cardi $7 on Ravelry (no account required)



Here is another lightweight project: sock yarn worked at a comfortable gauge with lovely split pomegranate cables ringing the hem and cuffs, as well as traveling up the cardigan fronts. To keep things tidy, Seed Stitch shows up on the hem, collar, and cuffs, as well as recalling the seeds of those cut pomegranates. By the way, can you see the sparkles in the yarn? Oh, sparkly yarn, how fantastic you are!

What you will love about knitting this sweater:

• Body worked in one piece to the underarms, as well as sleeves - working everything flat ensures the gauge matches on all pieces
• Seed stitch along the edges prevents them from curling
• Raglan lines created using centered double decreases have a crisp, delicate line
• Pomegranate Cables are a fun mashup of cable maneuvers and Seed stitch - written and charted versions of the cable pattern are both included
• Integrated buttonbands mean no fussing around with where to sew on your beautiful buttons - right over the buttonholes!

What you will love about wearing this sweater:

• 3/4 sleeves are versatile and perfect for all seasons
• Drape of the fabric is lovely and means you can skip waist shaping yet still have a flattering garment
• Square neckline draws all eyes up to your pretty face
• Telling people about the pomegranates in the Unicorn Tapestries is always fun!

Sizes/Finished Measurements Women’s XS {S, M, L, 1X, 2X, 3X} (shown in size M with 0 inches ease)
Chest circumference: 28 {33, 36¼, 39¾, 44¾, 48, 53} inches/71.1 {83.8, 92.1, 101, 113.7, 121.9, 134.6} cm

Materials Wooly Wonka Arianrhod Sock (75% Merino, 20% Silk, 5% Metallic; 435yds/398m per 3.53oz/100g); color: Byzantine; 2 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4 skeins {approx. 750 (875, 1000, 1200, 1300, 1500, 1600) yds}
US4/3.5mm 29-inch circular needle
Cable needle
Waste yarn
Stitch markers
Removable stitch markers
Tapestry needle
Buttons

Gauge
24 sts x 32 rows = 4” in Stockinette Stitch

Skills Needed Casting on
Binding off
Knitting
Purling
Increasing
Decreasing
Working from charted or written instructions

Thanks! Technical Editing: Rachel Brown
Test Knitting: Malinda, chau7, galzanne, strickgut

Pattern is provided in both charted and written formats professionally formatted (by me!) to ensure you have everything you need to create your own beautiful Pomegranate Cardi.

Pomegranate Cardi is part of a bundle of four patterns inspired by The Unicorn Tapestries at The Cloisters in New York City. Inspiration for this design came from the magnificent tapestry known as The Unicorn in Captivity, where the Unicorn lounges beneath a pomegranate tree with pomegranate seeds and juice dripping down it's flank. Pomegranates were a fertility symbol, thanks to their abundant seeds.

I hope you enjoy this pattern! There are two more new patterns and one re-release to share with you this week, so stay tuned :)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

quick + purly: 5 lacy stoles

Perhaps it's that I just blocked my two #seekritknitting projects. Or maybe all the pollen has gone to my head. This week I was drawn to lacy, nupp-y stoles, even if they might take a lot of yarn and a LOT of knitting. These five beauties are the opposite of my recently-published Sly Maid Stole - maybe that's why I like them.

Have you knit nupps (pronounced noops from what I understand)? Any tips or tricks? Let me know in the comments.

1. Forest Path Stole by Faina Latoutchaia $6 USD 

   

   I might even venture entrelac for this - divine

2. Sweet Embrace by Marriana Designs $6 USD 

   

   nupps on stockinette are so modern

3. Fairy of Happiness by Meeli Vent 4.90 EUR 

   

   perfect pattern name

4. Snowdrop Shawl by Nancy Bush $7 USD 

   

   Yes, that Nancy Bush

5. Ophelia Shawl by Miriam Felton $6.50 

   

   Miriam's photo shoot is as lovely as her stole

All images from the patterns' Ravelry pages. No copyright infringement intended - I just want to share the love!

Looking for your own nupp-y stole option? Here is my Ravelry search.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!

xoxo, Kathleen

P.S. More on those new patterns next week!

Slow Fashion: A Rant #slowfashion

I was going to tell you about another one of the Unicorn Tapestries, vol. one patterns today, but you are going to have to wait on that because I have to rant. I will return to our regularly scheduled programming with a quick + purly on Friday (any category requests?) and more pattern info next week.

If we are friends on Facebook, you may have already seen some ranting from me inspired by the hilarious and sadly-all-too-true story John Oliver aired Sunday night (go, watch it, it's very good - I'll wait).

 My rant-y highlights include:

The thing is that we are all paying a LOT for those lower prices. Skilled workers can't get jobs and have to go on unemployment and welfare. Then they can only afford "cheap" clothes and food (don't get me started on cheap food) that put small companies out of business.

I am as guilty as anyone of buying cheap clothes, especially for my kids, since I am in no position to buy $500 Burberry dresses for them. (And let's not even get into the fact that those ridiculously-priced dresses are ALSO made overseas because the diffusion and kids' lines of Big Name designers are the parts of the lines that support the high-end stuff that might actually be well-crafted. Oops, kind of just did get into it.)

But stop and think about it: People who don't have jobs still have to wear clothes, but they can't afford to buy Made in America, even if they could find it. Because everyone wants cheap clothes, even the people who don't need them. Except more people need them because they can't find jobs they are qualified for. Every single major retailer constantly pushes down on their supply chain to make things cheaper, so that WalMart and Target and Amazon can sell you lots of stuff for very little money (a dress for $5?!). Because America has been edumacated to want cheap stuff and lots of it. Because quantity now trumps quality. Because you're nobody unless you have ALL the stuff.

And all the people who feel they need a new outfit every week so they can be "in". And all that trickles down in the worst possible way to poorer countries where the work force is disproportionately made up of women and children making clothes they can't afford to buy out of cheap, disgusting fabric that will shortly fill our dumps. Crap.

Why isn't this a bigger deal? We've gone from 50% of our clothes being made here in America (many of them in the Fashion District I so adore here in Manhattan) to 2%. Two percent!?!

I am a #slowfashion queen - creating one of my designs can take weeks (sometimes even longer). And I wear all my work. But not everyone can (or even wishes to) do that. Knitting (and crocheting and spinning and dying and weaving) and sewing have become rarified arts. Most people don't even know how to sew on a button. Because we can pay someone a pittance at the dry cleaners to do it. Or we throw that thing out (or donate it, which creates its own set of issues, I'm sorry to say) and go buy another cheaply-made-because-it-has-to-be shmatte to fill that gaping maw of desire.

Listen to NPR's piece on Slow Fashion from last week.

I'm not saying that knitting yourself a sweater will solve the world's problems, but I do think pausing a moment to reflect on where your clothes come from is a good thing. We all wear clothes. Every day. Ask yourself why you need 50 pairs of jeans or 72 cheap t-shirts or 100 pairs of shoes of questionable quality and durability. Does it make you a better person? Are you more important that way? The one who dies with the most stuff does NOT win. They just leave more stuff to be dealt with (ask me how I know).

Of course, the other side of the coin is that it is increasingly difficult to find well-made clothes. Period. Even mid-level brands put more and more money into sales and marketing than production. Know why cropped trousers are such the thing? Because they seem like there is more design/thought in them, they can charge more money, even though you are getting less fabric (with my long legs, I'm always in danger of wearing too-short trousers so am hyper-aware of this cheap, annoying trick).

And that "silky" blouse that Kathie Lee fingers in John Oliver's piece? Ooh, a silk-poly blend that feels like silk. Stuff and nonsense. Silk is silk. And extruded petroleum-based fibers are not. Don't try to pull the wool over my eyes. Or the poly blend.

When I got divorced, I had to leave most of my stuff behind. And it made me realize that most of it was unnecessary. And after the divorce I had almost no money. Whatever there was went for necessities, and seven identical t-shirts are not necessary. I am grateful to have an improved perspective on all my stuff, and I still have plenty of it (I'm SO far from perfect). But we shouldn't all need a crappy life situation to open our eyes.

Clearly, I don't have the answers. But we do need to be asking the questions and thinking about what we are doing, not just to our over-stuffed closets, but to the world and her people.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen
P.S. Let me know what you think in the comments, my dears.

New pattern: Thistle Leaf Pullover

Thistle Leaf Pullover $7 on Ravelry (no account required)


Are you looking for a Springtime project? How about a Thistle Leaf Pullover? With a pretty lace body and stockinette sleeves, it's a lovely project in fingering-weight yarn to wear almost any time of year. My testers (and their friends) all went crazy for this one, and I must confess that when I wear it, I feel like a million bucks!

What you'll love about knitting your Thistle Leaf Pullover:

• worked in the round - always having the right side facing you makes it easier to see where you are in the pattern and means hardly any finishing work (weave the underarms together, darn in your ends, and you're all set)
• body is worked without shaping (no increasing or decreasing in lace - whew!) - put the stretchy quality of lace to work for you and your curves
• sleeves are worked straight from the elbow - no shaping, just knit around and around (and if you decide to make the sleeves longer, do the same and you'll have pretty flared sleeves with no more work)
• my three-motif-wide chart of Thistle Leaf Lace can be used to mark off your raglan decreases for the yoke - since I don't know where you will be in the lace pattern, I can't provide a definitive chart for the raglan decreases, but you can do it! Feel free to ask me for help - my contact information is on the pattern - or check in with fellow knitters in the forum.
• lace pattern is provided in both chart and written formats - I know that not everyone can read a chart (some folks just can't process visual information like that) and others cannot make their way through written instructions - use what works for you
• somewhere between two and four skeins of sock yarn will give you a pullover to wear almost any time of year (with a t-shirt underneath, I wore mine on all but the coldest days this Winter, and layered with a tank or camisole you're ready for Spring or Fall, maybe even Summer depending upon your weather

And what you'll love about wearing your Thistle Leaf Pullover:

• the curvy hem from beginning the lace pattern right away
• crisp, turned-hem cuffs on your sleeves - turned hems are a great way to deal with the curling nature of stockinette
• how the lace follows and flatters your curves, even though you didn't have to mess with shaping in lace
• the raglan lines, where the stockinette sleeves meet the lace body, drawing attention up to your beautiful face
• the delicate rolled neckline which doesn't distract from the lace and puts that stockinette curl to use

Size/Finished Measurements 
Women’s XS {S, M, L, 1X, 2X, 3X} (shown in size M with 4 inches negative ease)
Chest circumference: 28 {32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52} inches/71.1 {81.3, 91.4, 101.6, 111.8, 121.9, 132.1} cm

Materials 
madelinetosh tosh sock (100% Merino; 395 yds/361 m per 3.53oz/100g); color: Ms. Taylor; 2 {2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4} skeins {approx. 575 (680, 790, 930, 1050, 1170, 1290) yds}
US6/4.0 mm 29-inch circular needle
Set of US6/4.0 mm double-pointed needles (DPNs)
Waste yarn
Stitch markers
Removable stitch markers
Tapestry needle

Gauge 
20 stitches x 28 rounds = 4”/10 cm in Stockinette Stitch

Skills Needed 
Casting on
Binding off
Knitting
Purling
Increasing
Decreasing
Working from charted or written instructions

Thanks! 
Technical Editing: Rachel Brown
Test Knitting: BillS25, frankiepaige, jessicakunttu, jgeorgieff07, puddinknits

Pattern is provided in both charted and written formats professionally formatted (by me!) to ensure you have everything you need to create your own beautiful Thistle Leaf Pullover.

Thistle Leaf Pullover is part of a bundle of four patterns inspired by The Unicorn Tapestries at The Cloisters in New York City. Inspiration for this design came from the magnificent tapestry known as The Unicorn in Captivity, where the Unicorn lounges amidst mille-fleurs, including a single white thistle just in front of the right side of his fence.

I hope you enjoy this pattern! There are two more new patterns and one re-release to share with you this week, so stay tuned :)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

quick + purly: 5 men's vests

There are lots of knitting patterns for us ladies (and I'm doing my part to bring more of them into the world - more on that next week), but there's good stuff out there for the gentlemen, too, if you know where to look.

Today I found five handsome colorwork vests that any man would be proud to wear. I have yet to steek anything I've knit, but these might tempt me over to (eek) cutting my knitting. What do you think?

1. Abbey Mill Farm Vest by Anne Podlesak (Wooly Wonka) $5.50 USD (looks like Interweave is having a sale at the moment, so this pattern is currently available for $3.85!) 

   

   I love Anne's pattern and color choices!

2. Eastlake - Revisited by Varian Brandon $8 USD 

   

   Varian TOTALLY knows what she's doing!

3. Wartime Farm Sleeveless Pullover by Susan Crawford £6 (GBP) 

   

   TV show-inspired, comes in ALL the sizes...

4. Windsor Waistcoat by Lorraine Condotta $9 (USD) 

   

   Isn't this an eye-catching pattern/color combo?

5. Kelebek by Elizabeth Morrison $6 (USD) 

   

   I'm entranced by the color pattern!

All images from the patterns' Ravelry pages. No copyright infringement intended - I just want to share the love!

There were a few more stranded vest patterns (including some beauties for the ladies) but not nearly as many as I would expect. Do you have a favorite to share? Even more importantly, do you have any advice on working stranded patterns like this and then steeking them? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen