I have a new pattern in Interweave Spring 2012! What a beautiful magazine filled with lovely knits. It's truly an honor to be included in the collection. 

All designs have a story, and the Cobble Hill Pullover is no different. I designed it just after a trip to Brooklyn to see old friends for a fantastic weekend. 

I find it a struggle to dress for such occasions. Styles in the Netherlands are particular to this small, flat land; and I realized that I had lost touch with the casual, effortless style found in many Brooklyn neighborhoods. Add that many of my friends work in fashion and packing for a trip to New York doesn't get any easier! 

I thought how nice it would be to have the perfect sweater; something casually stylish, comfortable yet elegant. And thus the Cobble Hill Pullover was born.  

The Cobble Hill Pullover is a convertible sweater that can be worn four different ways! As an oft harried mom of two, this may well become my "go to" sweater.   

It took a good deal of determination, a few hours, and some scattered curses, but Niels' mittens have been saved.  There were moments when I didn't think they were going to make it, and times that I was ready to throw in the towel and just knit a new pair, but in the end I'm just too damn sentimental to toss the first mittens I ever knit for my hubby.  

The old adage "a stitch in time saves nine" must have been coined by a knitter.  Darning when the yarn is worn thin or a little damaged is a quick and easy repair.  It's simply a matter of tracing the path of the damaged yarn with a new length of yarn and weaving in the ends.  But when the yarn is completely broken, the stitches missing and you've got to recreate the fabric...  that's a bit tougher.  There were about 12 small to medium sized holes, but the big hole in the cuff that spanned two color knitting and ribbing was really challenging to mend.  I had to wait until I had good daylight and a good night's sleep to tackle that fix.  That said, just in time for winter, Niels has mittens to warm his hands on his bike ride to work.  They're like us; a bit the worse for wear, but with a little care they still have a lot of good years left in them. 

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I knit Niels a pair of mittens as a going away gift a long time ago.  I'd had a secret crush on this handsome Dutch man for years, but was still taken aback at just how sad I was to find he was moving from New York back to his home country, so I knit my secret feelings into a lovely pair of convertible mittens to keep his hands warm during the chilly winters in Holland.  

I chose a deep orange as a nod to the Dutch royal family and it seemed to pair nicely with a dark blue. I chose my yarns and knitted away.  My secret crush returned to Holland and I gave him his parting gift.  Luckily, that's not the end of the story.  Almost a decade after our first meeting, and long since what I thought was our final goodbye, we're married and living in a village in the Netherlands, with our two beautiful children.  Life is good. 

That's my personal fairy tale.  But the mittens have not fared so well.  They've had some hard use, have lost a battle with moths and are badly in need of repair.  

While searching through my yarns, I came across the remnants of the original yarn that I used to knit the mittens so many years ago.  I've given them a good freeze to kill any moths, and a good soak.  Next time I'll save the soak until after the darning, since it made the holes a darn sight bigger.  Live and learn.  

I don't know if they're repairable, but I'm going to give it my best shot.  

It's with great pride that I announce the start of a new project that has been many months in the works.  EFN (the European Fiber Network) is launching a series of 12 monthly knit-alongs.  The goal of the KALs is to promote new European designers and to raise funds to promote education in knitting and related crafts throughout Europe.  

With our European focus, our November designer comes to us from Bonn, and appropriately the pattern for her Beethoven Mitts is available in both German and English.  

Join me in warmly welcoming, Melanie Berg, with her very first published pattern and join us to knit the lovely Beethoven Mitts. 


There's a lovely story behind the name for the mitts.  Check out the pattern page to read or knit along.  

About the designer: 
In the midst of being a wife, devoted mother of two (soon to be three), homemaker, shop-owner, and working fulltime, Melanie somehow manages to find a little time to relax and knit for a while.

She started knitting when her first daughter was born, crafting fancy caps and shirts but soon discovered her love for accessories like mittens and shawls and her passion for design. You can read more abou ther life and struggles on her blog. This is her first submitted design. 

Friday marked the official start of EFN's online Color in Knitting Master Class.  We're using Margaret Radcliffe's Color in Knitting book as guide and inspiration as we explore color theory and technique in knitting.

As a fun and quick tool to experiment with color combinations I've written a free pattern for a color wheel.  It's quick and easy, and uses less than 1 yard of yarn per color! The perfect combination for stepping outside of your comfort zone and discovering a whole new world of colors!


Download the free pattern now! And then come and join us in the Master Class! It'll open your eyes. 

I happened to see a Twitter post from the lovely Julia and Linda at Knit New Haven asking, "Have you seen the brand new Interweave mag Knit.Wear? Well hustle on in, because it's FABULOUS."  

Immediately my pulse quickened.  My first ever published pattern was selected for the premiere issue of Knit.Wear.  Could it be?  Was it really out in stores?  I hurried to the Interweave Store and lo and behold, what do I see but....  

My Stole!  On! The! Cover!

Whee! What a fantastic feeling! I'm a bit giddy with excitement and can't wait to hold my contributor's copy in my hands.  Please, International mail, be swift!

No time to rest on my laurels though.  I've set the bar high, and by Golly, I've got work to do!

Recently my husband bought an old oil carriage lamp on a whim. It had a satisfying heft, clean lines, and a deep patina to its brass. He brougnt it home, cleaned it up, and with some lamp oil and a new wick it was burning again after perhaps almost a century of disuse. For one week it sat on our open hearth, casting a warm glow on evenings that were too warm for a fire.  One such evening, my husband asked if he should give it to his father for his 65th birthday. Hmmm.. I mulled it over. I wouldn't begrudge much to Wieb. He's a deliberate and kind man. My response, "He might like it, but it's kind of an odd gift." We decided to give Wieb the lamp and if he didn't like it we could get him something else. 

He loves it. I didn't know it at the time, but Wieb gets up every day without fail, long before the sun rises and meditates in the dark on his balcony. He wrote to my husband that he now has the company of his friend during his morning reverie. It's nice to think that each morning Wieb lights the lamp he also feels the company of his son. I think the gift exchange even more lovely since my husband would have liked to keep the lamp, but he was willing to give it to someone he loved.  I find that beautiful. 

It turned out to be a fantastic gift and as I sit to review the book "Knitted Gifts" by Debbie Bliss I stop to ask myself what makes a good gift.  Top on the list, something out of the ordinary.  I think a good gift is unique. Lucky for knitters, each knit is one of a kind. As a bonus, when you have put your time and energy into making something, the recipient immediatley knows they're important to you.  And isn't that what gift giving is all about?  Showing the people in your life that you care about them? 

In Debbie Bliss' introduction to the book, she mentions that sometimes in the
hustle and bustle of hand knitting as a business it's hard to find that intiial
inspiration, the spark that drew her to this career in the very beginning, BUT
when she's knitting something special for someone special that feeling is back. 

A lot of the projects are suitable for beginners, but sprinkled in are more challenging projects for more advanced knitters.  I'd say that the majority of the designs could be completed in a weekend, though things like the lace baby blanket could take a week or longer.  But heirlooms aren't knitted in a day, and such a lovely item is bound to be cherished by any new mother.

As with all Debbie Bliss books, the photography is lovely, the styling divine and inspirational, but what I love most is that while paging through the 30 projects I found many things that are going on my Holiday knitting gift list.  First and foremost, a handsome iPad cover for our family iPad, the adorable bunny baby booties for a friend who just gave birth to a daughter, a stylish hot water bottle cover for my mother-in-law.  I can find something to make for just about everyone on my gift list, AND use up my growing stash in the process.  I've already assembled yarn for a lot of the projects  and am ready to cast on.  If I get enough of a headstart on my holiday gift knitting, I'm going to knit the moss stitch placemats for myself.  Now I just need to find a brass carriage lamp for my dear hubby.

Taking up knitting is a commitment to a new lifestyle.  It's an addiction, just like smoking or drinking, gambling or shopping.  Granted it's not going to give you cirrhosis (assuming you don't take up drinking after tackling one to many complicated lace patterns with planned pooling of your variegated yarn).  But it will change your life in dramatic ways. 

Perhaps you're still in early stages of the addiction.  You may still be a social knitter. You may not yet be tucking cones, hanks and balls of yarn into nooks and crannies in your house. You may not be buying furniture expressly for the storage of yarn stash and related knitting paraphernalia.

But one day, you'll no longer be able to hide the truth from yourself.  You'll discover that leaving the house without bringing at least needles and enough yarn for a swatch will make you distinctly uneasy.  I would venture to say it's the same feeling a pack-a-day smoker has when he discovers he's out of cigarettes and the shops are all closed.  You are officially addicted as these are symptoms of withdrawal.

You'll find that you can't sit on the train or metro without eying an interesting stitch pattern, counting the stitches and perhaps even surreptitiously snapping a photo or two with your camera phone.  You're beginning the descent into full blown addiction.

If I see someone on the street sporting anything that looks hand knit, I have absolutely no qualms about asking them to stop and pose for photos.  I'll inquire about where they got it, who knit it, and what it's knit from.  Depending on the knitted item, and who's wearing it, I'll even ask if I can touch it. 

Because I have fully accepted my illness, I'm not ashamed to share the pictures of the gorgeous hand knitted wool socks that I happened to spot gracing the calves of two gentlemen walking through Amsterdam in Swedish historical costume.  I wish I could tell you why they were in Swedish dress just outside of Amsterdam Centraal Station, but they were in a hurry and I was more interested in the socks.  I can tell you that they are knitted by an old Swedish woman in an old Swedish village who supplements her income by knitting traditional Swedish socks.   

I would bet she also has trouble leaving the house without needles and a bit of wool. 

If you've haven't been following the story, I set myself a deadline of three weeks to complete Level 1 of the TKGA Masters in Hand Knitting.  I completed it just under the wire and mailed it out the following day.  My completed binder, filled with swatches, my report, answers, final project and a lot of hope then took a very slow boat trip across the Atlantic.  I was just starting to worry that the binder had been lost in transit when thankfully I received a confirmation that the binder had arrived safely in Zanesville, Ohio - an excruciating 9 weeks later!  What a relief!  

I was hoping to get my binder back before my one month trip to the U.S., but as my departure date approached I resolved myself to a month long wait before knowing one way or the other if I had passed.  Extremely jet lagged (imagine one parent, international flight, two small children, no naps) I got the girls tucked into bed at Grandma's house and checked my email to discover the precious binder and I had crossed somewhere over the Atlantic and it was making it's way back to the Netherlands.  The committee chair who reviewed my notebook was considerate of the mail delays and very kindly emailed my review.

The news was good.  All of my swatches passed, some with flying colors.  Some with notes.  One of the things I need to focus on in future levels is that my cast on can be too loose.  I guess that says a little something about overcompensating!  

I've got a feeling my hat passed with more than a good helping of generosity from the reviewers.  I may decide to reknit it or perhaps work the ends in again to address the notes.  

My report passed! My answers to the questions were accepted bar two.  For some unknown reason I started calling the lifted increase a lifted bar increase.  Who knows why.  Easy fix.  I also somehow lost parts b, c, and d to question 8! Lost perhaps when Microsoft Word crashed and I reopened the "recovered" document.  Luckily, I had good photos of the swatches online and could answer the missing parts to the question without waiting to have the notebook and swatches in my hands.  Grandma bribed the girls with Hershey's Kisses to play upstairs and give me a few hours to complete the questions and resubmit.  

I heard back within a day that my resubmitted questions had been accepted and I've officially passed Level 1!  WHhheeee!  Now on to Level 2.  I've ordered the materials and started reading.  Level 2 is intimidating.  There are more swatches, more projects, more difficult techniques, more written work, and reports.  Argyle socks! Fair Isle Mittens!  Advanced techniques...  I'm just going to take it one step and a time.  When it's broken down to it's smallest component steps, each piece can't be THAT hard.  It's just a matter of taking it one little step at a time until it's done.  

Here it is, Persinette. Persinette was a French fairytale character who would let down her mane of lovely locks to allow her lover to scale her tower prison.  With this lovely acessory, skip the ponytail and let your hair down!  

They knit up super quickly.  I'm not a quick knitter, and I could knit one in about an hour if I weren't constantly stopping to admire my work!  

If you're interested in the pattern, check out Patterns for Sale page.  You get both patterns; the cabled headband and rose headband for only $1.50!