13 posts tagged “publications”

Crochet!, July 2007: Very nice - a step away from the high-end runway-styled fashions they'd had the past few issues I'd looked at, and I'm pleased to see they've got some patterns sized up as big as 4X. On the downside, the two things I was leaning towards making (the jacket on the cover, and a lacy top) both have glaringly obvious errors in the patterns; I'm going to have to contact them about it. The lacy top might not be a "go" anyways - it's not one of the plus-size-able patterns. A few nice blankies, some cute baby stuff. They are also starting a "stitch library" feature; every month they'll have two stitch patterns, and they note that you can make a square of each pattern they'll put out for a sampler-ghan (although at two every two months it will take years, if you do it that way!) Worth the $5.

Crochet Today, July/August 2007. Also some very nice stuff. There's a top and a dress and a wrap I'd make, given infinite speed and infinite money, and some nifty stuff designed for kids just learning to crochet. No errors, and I have to say they do a good job of featuring Coats & Clark yarns. And no, you will not be seeing me in the crocheted bikini any time soon - that's not plus-sized either. :)

Knitting Rules, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. A little more "how-to" than some of her other books; instead of hitting the funny straight-on, it's a gasping-for-breath-funny almost-how-to-knit book. Does have very generic directions for a few items - socks, hat, scarf. I loved it, which is why despite my best intentions I did end up buying...

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off - straight humor about knitters and knitting. Again, gasping-for-breath funny.

On a more 'knitting book' level...
The Opinionated Knitter, by Elizabeth Zimmermann, edited by Meg Swansen - EZ's newsletters, with some additonal material by her daughter, and some lovely photos. My first direct contact with EZ, and I see why she's so revered in the knitting world. Directions are straightforward and common-sense - and so are the vignettes from EZ's journals. And all the sweater patterns are absolutely timeless, as opposed to...

Sasha Kagan's Sweater Book. My sister found this at a used book sale, and despite the claims of timelessness, the featured designs are so '80s even Cliff Huxtable would recoil from some of them. Some of them - a lot of the geometric patterns, especially - aren't too horrible, but in this day and age (or maybe even in that one), who would wear a sweater with an all-over pattern of repeated intarsia girl-with-umbrella motifs? Patterns aside, the styling on some of the sweaters is painfully '80s... and the photography makes EZ's point about photography not necessarily being the best way to show off knitwear, because even if the sweater designs stand up to 20 years, the models probably won't.

On the crochet front...I browsed through the current issues of Crochet Today and Interweave Crochet. For a change, the Interweave left me going 'meh'; nothing in it that I just thought "Wow, I'd love to wear that if they had it in a size that would fit me", and I thought a lot of the designs were very similar in style. Crochet Today was good, though. Might buy it.

One hint (read: link to an eBay auction) and a long wait for the Royal Mail later, I'm the proud owner of the issue of Cross Stitcher magazine that came with the freebie booklet with the Margaret Sherry stitching kitty. And a lot of other really cute Margaret Sherry stuff, too. And, well, the whole magazine beside, which has some other nice patterns in it.

Yippee, yahoo. :)

Nothing like "try before you buy" to save money, and keep clutter from accumulating on the bookshelf.

I got Big Girl Knits from the library, and loved it. I think I might, given enough time, make about half the projects in it, and the styling tips for bigger girls are absolutely invaluable. I was thrilled to receive my own copy of it.

I browsed through At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much. A nice read. Some thoughts to keep in mind about knitting. Not something I especially want to own, though. (The same author's Knitting Rules is coming soon to an Amazon wishlist near me, though. :) )

And then I was looking at Yarns To Dye For, containing the secrets of dying self-striping and self-patterning yarns. It was actually kind of disappointing - there were three chapters with technical information about dyeing, and then some projects that, while I suppose they were useful in being an example of the technical information put into use, just didn't grab me. I'm glad I checked it out before purchasing a copy of it; I've got holds on a couple other books about dyeing that might be more what I'm after, or when all else fails, there's stuff all over the Internet.

Yesterday was Part 1 of our Gift Card Blowout, and we hit Border's, where I had a whopping $10 to spend. After buying a pocket calendar (half price), I went looking for something I could get for $6 - which was not a book. But was a magazine. After browsing the craft aisle a bit, I selected a copy of Crochet Today, which had a very appealing blanket on the front cover.

Reading the patterns, it was obvious that Coats & Clark was the responsible party for the magazine - every single one called for Red Heart, TLC, or Moda Dea yarns, some I'd never heard of. (I suppose fair's fair - Lion Brand seems to 'own' a magazine or two like that...) Now, generally, you say the words "Red Heart" and I run screaming, but in this case I was impressed. Some lovely home accessories. Some lovely sweaters including sizes that will fit me. A tutorial on a skill worth being tutorialed on (crocheted cables). And a baby blankie that made me and

sexyscholar squee with the cute. The patterns were neither Annie's Attic/Crochet World tackyish nor Crochet! supertrendy nor Interweave Crochet high fashion on luxury yarns - in general, some very classic stuff, from desigers I recognized (some Crochet Me contributors there, and a Big Name or two) with not a scrap of Fun Fur in sight.

And, as people have pointed out to me repeatedly - yarn substitution is a fine and time-honored art.

Almost done with the birth announcement: I think I'm down to one shade of yellow to finish, and then backstitching that $#*(&@ line around the whole thing. I think I'm going to finish it as a wall hanging rather than frame it.

My knitted rectangle is growing, thanks to some time at work lately when my job was "wait until it's time to do your actual work" and knitting being more portable than the birth announcement. Not sure if I like how the colors are going. If I had it to do over again, I'd get circular needles and knit it as a tube, felt it, and then cut it open. I think you can do that with felted stuff.

And...the Ann Arbor Public Library has provided me with a copy of Big Girl Knits on a temporary basis. (While I'm not plus-sized anymore, I wanted to take a look at this book because I'm also definitely not built anything like that redhead who models for Interweave...even at my very most skinniest, I suffered from what I'll call "overboobage", and it makes me Hard-To-Fit. :) ) I might have to hit the relatives up for a copy of my very own for Christmas. It covers design elements and shaping techniques to work around oversized Boobs, Belly, and/or Butt (but does not assume that all Big Girls are equally big in all three areas...). There's a nice selection of patterns, some of which are ugly, but some of which made my eyes pop out and think "That's me!"...and a lot of the patterns are custom-fit. There's also some skirts and pants for the Butt crowd (but nice on everyone), although I'm told knitted bottoms are not the best idea, and some accessories (pretty [and custom-fit] socks, customizable mittens, a tote bag scaled for a bigger woman, a couple wraps).

...and the author lives in Ann Arbor. Go figure.

I may someday wear a sweater that fits my chest properly.

I was reading Knitty's feature archives, and found this article that describes how to use short row shaping to increase the amount of room in the bust (or waist, or probably butt) of a sweater.

Now I just need to figure out how to do it. Two questions come to mind:
1) Should I still pick the sizing that works for my actual bust size? I know in sewing they suggest anyone larger than a B cup pick a pattern sized for their "high bust" and adjust the darts.
2) Is there some way to do this with a crocheted sweater?

If I ever get really ambitious, I might have to explore the series of articles about altering patterns to fit your actual body.

...umm, no pun intended.

But I noticed that a lot more of Interweave's stuff in this issue is large enough to cover my boobs and/or butt. Go Interweave. :)

...now if we could just get them to specify yarns that don't cost $200 for the garment...

I have got to have this. (shown as stitched by

kiramowett). It is me. It is so me it's painful.

Unfortunately the pattern was a free gift included with a British cross-stitch magazine - and by the time I figured this out and went to look for it, that issue was off the shelves at Border's and B&N. I can obtain a copy of the issue for about 7.35 GBP - at today's exchange rates, about $13.50.

Noting that...
- Current issues of the magazine from Border's are $9.99
- I paid $10.99 at my LNS for a (not especially large) pattern by the same designer
- I would not only get the kitty pattern, but a whole magazine full of other stuff
- I'm getting holiday pay and maybe an overtime in my next check...

I'd initially gaped at the price, but it might be worthwhile.

...and if not, maybe I can ask if I can glom the pic for an icon, or if anyone has the chart and is willing to part with it.

That's Stash Enhancement eXpeditions, pervs. :)

I went to Stitch 'n Time in Westland about a month ago - as reported by

losgunna, they were clearing out their Caron threads, which meant they had Waterlilies two-for-one. And there was w00tage, and six skeins bought, and also the last metallic thread I needed for a surprise someone will be getting when I have time to stitch it.

I also went by Rocking Horse a couple weeks ago, and acquired Catacello (my gosh that's pricey for a fairly small chart, but it's soooooooo cute - I think I'm going to use waste canvas to put it on a shirt), along with some silk thread to do Dragon Dreams's Blackwork Dragon (I went with a kind of burgundy color.) Nobody seems to stock Kreinik Silk Bella, so I went with twelve-strand silk and kind of guessed how much I'd need.

Over the month of the going-out-of-business sale of a local Hancock Fabrics branch, I raided their embroidery section several times. Got some nice linen (a couple big pieces!), some perle cotton to try to learn Hardanger with, a pair of reasonably good scissors for that purpose, and Teresa Wentzler's Tea Scene....which will put those Hardanger skills to use if I manage it. :)

And, at the local used book megamart, I found Cross Stitch Myth and Magic for roughly half the cover price. Good enough. (Although I've found one problem with it, so far: for at least one of the designs, the size fabric they tell you to buy seems to be the completed size of the picture, which means you'd have like an eighth of an inch on each side for finishing. Not good.)

On the crochet front, I picked up a couple magazines (a Crochet! that had a couple nice tops in it and some pillows Daughter will love, and the Spring 2006 Interweave Crochet), but so far I've managed to resist Meijer's yarn clearance - maybe since mostly what they're clearancing are the myriad variations on Fun Fur. I should see if one of the mohair-ish yarns I saw clearanced will work for the big pullover from the last Interweave, though... This particular Interweave has the same problems as the last one (really high-end yarns for the most part, and very little for us somewhat larger girls...), but if I can find good yarn substitutes there's four or five garments in there that I'd actually wear. (I am not going to buy hand-dyed handspun silk. I haven't found a price quote on that one, but good lord...)

Now I just need to finish stuff for the niece-or-nephew-to-be so I can actually work on some of this stuff...