Feminin Strik Comes to the USA!

Those who drooled over the Danish masterpiece Feminin Strik, but didn't want to pay the postage, can rejoice in the fact that Debbie Gremlitz of Nordic Fiber Arts will be carrying the book sometime in October.

There was also some talk about getting it translated in this Knitty thread.

Those who do have the book can participate in a loosely organized KAL for the Circle sweater with me and KnitYoga.

Got my yarn, got my needles, and even got my translation! Ready to roll!

Adorable (But Not Knitting)

I found these in a strange little Japanese book called Wonderland. Not much else in the book worth mentioning, but I thought perhaps someone could figure out how to make these sweet, little snails. The technique looks like crochet to me.

Food Knit

I know my neighbor will read this post and think to herself: Some people have too much time on their hands....

The rest of us will goggle at this publication and wonder how on earth did she do that?

This book is composed entirely of knitted food photos. Sounds sort of stupid, but I am not talking about crude stuffed bananas or your basic felted oranges. These confections are works of art.

A little sushi appetizer...

A fish dinner...

Some Japanese fruits...

A good, old American cheeseburger...

And a mind-boggling tour de force.

The back of the book offers a few simple instructions for making cookies and strawberries--neither of which make me rush to my needle stash. If you want to be amazed by an imaginative knitter, though, order this book.

Now That We Have Mastered Knitting in Japanese...

Let's learn Danish!

There was a mass stampede a few weeks ago when someone discovered a truly lovely shawl and wondered where the pattern could be purchased. A Yahoo group was immediately formed for the sole purpose of begging the designer to make it available.

Well, one thing leads to another and I started galloping around Scandinavian web sites in search of the pattern. I couldn't find it, but I did find something else:


This book is full of mouthwatering designs--mostly sweaters--but a few bags, hats, and scarves are tucked into the back. The designs incorporate a pleasing amount of lace in just the right proportion.

This sweater is truly charming:


And this one is just delectable...


It's difficult to see the detail here, but the designer incorporated the Frost Flowers pattern into the hood and front placket.


And I don't think this design needs any words from me:


You can purchase the book here and here. If you have a better place to shop, here is the info:

Feminin strik
by Lene Holme Samsøe
ISBN: 8711265965
ISBN-13: 9788711265963
Price: 229,00 Danish Kroner

Saxo ships internationally and Danish bears enough resemblance to German, which bears enough resemblance to English, that I didn't have any trouble figuring out how to order. The use of the Roman alphabet was refreshing!

Alas, the entire book is in Danish. The good news is that Danish knitting terms are relatively easy to master. For example, go here for a list. And perhaps some enterprising person will start a few KALs for this book. Hope so!

Cover Designer Loses the Plot!

The subtitle to this book is 25 Flirtatious Designs That Flatter Your Figure. Um.

I don't know about you guys, but I don't want marshmallow arms and a protruding posterior with a tail wandering down the skirt.

Mind-boggling image selection filed under the category of "What Were They Thinking?"

Superimposed Knitting Explained

Blogless Susan posted a wonderful explanation of superimposed knitting, but she pinned it as a comment to another, much later, post. So, for those of you who missed these entries the first time around, I am combining my original blog posts with her how-to description.

By an amazing coincidence, the book I reviewed in another post, Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace, also contains written instructions for using this technique on a set of baby clothes with pretty lace edgings.

From Blogless Susan

In short, the technique is similar to, but different from, double knitting. For the shell motif I cast on 15sts using a strand of both yarns. Purl 5 using both strands, then the fiddly bit.

Separate the yarns for the next 5 stitches. Put the colour to be patterned on a dpn at the front, and the pattern background sts onto the left needle. Then, using the pattern colour and right needle, pattern across the 5 stitches.

Drop the pattern yarn, pick up the background yarn and using a dpn work the 5 background stitches, pick up the other yarn and work the remaining reverse ststs with both yarns.

So, you need 3 needles, or two longs circs (but I hate circs). It becomes obvious pretty quickly when to change yarns and needles.

When you need to incorporate one of the edge sts into the pattern you just separate the strands (ie row 3), or knit two together with two strands when you need to decrease the pattern number (ie row 9).

Working more than one motif across the row is a bigger pain. You really need to use 2 circs, as there is very little flexibility when using straights. I put all the pattern background onto one needle at the back, and the patterns and reverse stst on the front needle. Lots of fiddle working across the row - needles and yarn all over the place. But the finished product looked good.

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Original Posts

I found this pattern (and several others like it) in a Japanese pattern book. Look closely at the picture. You'll see that there are two layers of knitting here. What? How did they do that? Any ideas?


Here is another example of superimposed knitting that I talked about yesterday.


Both of these are from the book 1000 Knitting Patterns. The book is in Japanese, and available here. Like all Japanese knitting pattern books, it is lavish and full of unusual, elegant patterns. There's an entire section on multicolored cables, something I've seen only one other knitting book ( a really old pattern book that I am too lazy to go look for right now).

1000 Knitting Patterns weighs a ton, and costs the earth ($60). I hauled it back to my apartment in Japan on the train, in August, so I know how much it weighs.

As with all Japanese knitting books, everything is charted, so rarely will anyone have trouble following the patterns provided he or she has invested in a Japanese knitting symbol dictionary. For those still searching for one, go here.

Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace--A Source for You

Update

The new edition is slated for June, 2007.

Someone emailed Margaret Stove and apparently, there will be a new US edition soon. So be patient and ignore the $60 copies that are floating around.


The Needlepoint Joint may still has copies...

A Book for the Thinking Knitter

Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace by Margaret Stove is one of those gems that doesn't get a lot of press, and it's a shame. I can see why it's been ignored. First, the book title contains none of these words: funky, chunky, one-hour, instant, or not-your-(mother's/father's/grandmother's/2nd cousin's twice removed)-knitting. Also, it's expensive, a bit esoteric, definitely not a laught-a-minute, and cannot be appreciated without a careful reading and some time investment in the exercises.

Having given you the bad news, let's toddle on to the good news. And the news is really, really good. The bottom line (which my editors always tell me needs to be in the first two paragraphs of any review) is that this is a Must Purchase Immediately if you want to truly understand knitted lace.


The first few chapters start off a bit slowly, (read: very dry), what with history, definitions, and an intro for the true beginner that can be happily skimmed by the more seasoned needle jockey.

Beginning with chapter 4 though, you'll be walked through a series of valuable exercises that show you how lace is constructed, what happens when you vary the program, presents thorough charting lessons, and leads into my absolute favorite chapter: translating sketches into stitches.

This lady actually paints her lace. Yeah. She knitted part of a lace shawl with white yarn and painted it with cold-water dyes. Trust me, your eyes will pop at when you see her Sea Spray and Scallop Shells shawl.

I frankly learned more about lace from the chapter Cause and Effect with Stitches, than from all my other lace books put together (and that pile would flatten a good-sized watemelon, assuming one could balance the pile on top of the fruit).

If you have any interest in the Hows and Whys of lace, you really should invest in this book. But don't buy it from Amazon--it's twice the price offered by Elann and Schoolhouse Press.

Decorative Knitting

My quest for the unusual and beautiful doesn't begin and end with foreign books, although it might seem like it at times. There are several books that were published here in the USA that qualify for my, um, reviewer's touch. *

*To qualify, a book needs to be both unique and interesting. And there's little point in my reviewing books that have been done to death by zillions of others, unless my viewpoint is swimming against the majority flow, as it were.

One of my favorites is a book called Decorative Knitting, by Kate Haxell and Luise Roberts. It was published in 2005. I found a single copy in the local bookstore and then never saw or heard about it since.


What a shame! It's gorgeous!

There are a bunch of elegant projects inside, but the meat of the book is all about ways to embellish your knitting with unique stitches, additional yarns, embroidery, beads, and trimmings. Each page is crammed with ideas for turning a plain old knitted object into a unique creation.



You can buy the book here at a huge discount (I saw one copy for five bucks.)

On Another Note
I often get queries from folks who don't leave any way for me to contact them. If you post a question and don't hear from me, it's probably because you don't seem to have a blog, email address, or cannot hear me telepathically when I try to beam my thoughts at at you.

So Susan, to answer your question, nope, I haven't had any time to fiddle with superimposed knitting. I'd love to see what you did, but you'll need to post a blog address or something so we can all go take a peek.

An Unusual Japanese Knitting Book

It's small, and the cover is downright weird, but this book features a dozen of the most imaginative sweaters I have ever seen. The designers mixed and matched lace, colorwork, ribbons, and cables to create dazzling designs for the, ah, adventurous knitter.



This sweater is a composite of fluffy lace stitches. The detail is hard to see in the small pix, but you can click the pix for a larger view. I can see it knit in a variety of mohair yarns--plain and subtle colorways.



I crave this sweater--it's colorful without being blatant and the ribbonwork detail on the sleeves is elegant and inspired. I've been toying with the idea of incorporating a bit of this into a pair of socks just to see how well it works in practice.




Even if you never make a single sweater from the directions, the unique ideas presented here can easily be incorporated into sweater designs written in English. but don't forget that all the designs inside are charted. However, only a single size is given, and I would be that all of them would be too small for the average Westerner.

The book is available from Amazon Japan, but I couldn't find it on Yes Asia. The ASIN number is 427711251X.

Irresistable Kids' Knits

At the risk of sounding like a whiny old bat, I gotta say that I haven't seen any original or interesting children's knitting patterns for a long time. The stuff in the stores is boring, dull, hackneyed, and uninspired. I see an occasional cutie on-line, but, in general, there seems to be something missing from the designers' imagination. Meh.

But of course, I wouldn't be writing this post without something delicious for you to peruse and one of them is actually in English and easily available!

Lesley Anne Price wrote Kids' Knits in 1983, and I still want to knit every single design inside this book. Not a one is dated and they all feature original styling and exquisite color. Fortunately, the book is available used from Abe's Used Books. When I looked there, there were several copies available for under $2--a complete and total steal. Many designs in this book can be scaled up for adults, if knitting for children makes you flinch or something.




The other book is in, ah, Japanese. I found it in a tiny shop in Kyoto. I got lost walking back to my hotel and stumbled upon a yarn store so small that I nearly missed it. I must have smelled yarn, because the store front was piled with plastic buckets and cheap ginger graters.

The stock was dusty (unusual for a Japanese shop), but the lady saw me grazing through some of the magazines stacked on the counter and she started bringing out these incredible pattern books---piles and piles and piles of them--from the back room. I bought more than I could really carry. I felt sorry for her--it looked like she hadn't made a sale in years, so I purchased some yarn I didn't need and bamboo needles I didn't want as well. Her parting smile could have lit up Kyoto at night, all by itself.

Fortunately, I found a taxi before my shoulders dislocated from the weight of the bags.



This book was publishing in 1993 and I just couldn't find it on Amazon Japan. The ASIN (ISBN) number is 4-277-14136-6--perhaps someone else with more persistence can track it down. It's another of those volumes that I never tire of perusing. If nothing else, the images are presented as ideas that you can adapt to a pattern, should you be the adventurous type.

A Japanese knitting book for cat lovers

Here's one of the most charming knitting books I have ever had the pleasure to, um, look at the pictures of. It's in Japanese, but experienced knitters shouldn't have a problem working the patterns from the charts. The book is called Zakka & Wear. "Zakka" roughly means knickknacks--things with no conceivable use that you display in your house but have to dust periodically. There are a few zakka projects inside (pillows), but the Wear part of the book was what forced me to hand over my yen to the bookstore.



The pictures are totally clear and make me want to drop my current WIPs and immediately start knitting...cats. I know I promised no cat pictures, but really, these cat pictures are eminently knittable, so they don't count. It's my blog and I say so.


Cat haters should avoid this book like the plague, but the rest of you will enjoy every single page.



You can buy the book here.