**Hey there Boston area folks--I am teaching an iphoneography class at Craftworks Somerville on this Saturday 12/3 -and I just learned there are 3 seats left! 11 am- 1pm. Join us! Why make Just Average images?
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I'm not done with the bulky knit love yet. Not even close.
Portillo Cowl from Drop Dead Easy Knits. Of all the patterns in the book, this one is the drop dead easiest. It is also my lone design contribution. Given the talents of my two co-authors, I kept it simple and left the amazingly stylish and beautiful yet easy-to-knit designs to Kirsten and Mary Lou. If you have the book, you know what I mean.
Big squishy yarn + warm snuggliness + contrast yarns that are fun to knit = excellent gift knitting.
That's my formula.
The sample for the book is made with two skein of Malabrigo Rasta. I kept it graphic and crisp with two mostly solids but you can go WILD, check out their color card. This is a pattern to use handpainted yarn, and variegated yarns. The stitch pattern breaks it up.
Personally, I wear it doubled over, like this.
About choosing the yarn: one of the things we did with Drop Dead Easy Knits is keep it yarn shop friendly--meaning, that you can pretty easily find the yarn we used, in your local yarn shop. Since every shop can't stock every yarn, we also added a page in the back where we list substitution yarns-- all also easy to find in yarn shops. And, we want to offer economic alternatives.
What's that you say? Yup, we kept thinking about your knitting budget. My Portillo costs about $44.in beautiful hand dyed yarn, and its worth it--but not always in the yarn budget. Or maybe, like me, it's in the budget for a special treat, but it's a stretch to spend that for multiple friend gift knitting.
Substitutes*! Any nice super bulky with 90 yards/skein or more will be equally fab. Or possibly even fabbier. Here's Rowan Brushed Fleece,** which has a bit more yardage , two balls will total about $27. US. It's also amazingly cloud like and delicious to knit.
Or the higher contrast red and grey. Love.
Kirsten grabbed these four balls of ValleyYarns SuperWash Super Bulky . You only need two for a Portillo Cowl but we loved these colors together- so you could mix and match. And guess what? $ 9.49 /skein, which means your project clocks in at just under $20. Winner-winner chicken dinner. Also, check at the link, a lot of color options.
A real life Portillo Cowl testimonial: I was visiting my BFFL Arline on a Friday a couple of weeks ago. She hauled out these two balls of yarn in her favorite colors, purchased long ago for some unrequited project. (They are a discontinued Tahki Yarn, but that company has other excellent super bulky options). Arline rarely knits. I had to refresh her cast-on skills. Above is what her Portillo looked like by Friday evening.
Monday morning! (photo courtesy of the knitter ) And I know she didn't just stay home and knit all weekend. I rest my case.
As for me, I came home with some of that Rowan Brushed Fleece *** in the pinkest of fluffy fuschia hues. It is going to be an Azel Pullover for Zoe, it qualifies as both a bulky and super fast knit= good gift knitting. I'm trying to keep it a secret and surprise her for Hanukah. Shhhh, ok?
PS are you following the MasonDixon Knitting GiftAlong on their Lounge site?
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* You might notice from this link to the Rowan page that suggested needle size is US 10 but this pattern is knit on US 15. This is why the word suggested is so important. For the Portillo Cowl you want a nice drapey gauge and let it fluff up. Fear not and go with the larger needles (and of course, the smart money is on doing a quick gauge swatch).
** Many thanks to Kirsten Kapur and Beverly Army Williams for the yarn choosing and hand modeling The three of us were in Webs, where the options are mind-boggling. I don't know how they put up with shopping with me when there are so many oooh look squirrel choices but I love them both for it.
***this last link is to the discontinued Rowan Brushed Fleece colors at Webs. You can knit a super duper economical Portillo Cowl. Just sayin'.
Knit big or stay home. No, wait---knit big AND stay home! Nominating these for Craft Friday single day projects, and fab gifts, all from photo shoots for my clients earlier this year.
Coast Redwood Hat . I love everything about this photo--the Tilda Swinton-ish model, the natural undyed bulky yarns from the Tahki Terra collection, the styling by Karin Strom (I mean, that acorn necklace? Nailed it) and the colorless dewy light that we had, thanks to drizzly rain as we were shooting. Of course, the hat, itself. One of my favorite photos from the year.
Silver Fir Hat from the same shoot, also a contender. It has a matching capelet. (I am not sure I'd call it a capelet but you can see, it is one of those big shoulder covering not-quite-a-poncho-but-way-bigger-than-a-cowl things) This is the most amazing mash-up of natural wool yarn and high fashion that I've ever shot. My forever gratitude to Stacy Charles for just letting me do my thing with these.
You can see the rest of the collection here, in the Oh, Natural flipbook. (I also love that cover piece.)
Annnnd....two fabulous super bulky hats from Lar Rains' new book Presto. Excellent gift knitting ahead from Mr. Modern Lopi himself.
Threesome So cushy and lovable that the model requested to pleeeeeeeeeease keep it, and got her wish. (Thanks Lars!). For me, I'll just make that pompom a little chubbier, and then: perfection.
Polar Coordinates , a rare slouchy super bulky hat. As usual, Josephine rocked it. It's got volume, and a lot of warmth.
The whole Presto book is fun, upbeat projects in MadTosh ASAP. You can see the cover cowl knit by Kay of MDK here, along with a great review. You could sub in the super bulky yarn of your choosing, no prob. Fun fact: super bulky doesn't always mean the warmest-- because you knit in a fairly loose gauge to keep things drapey, the air gets in between the stitches. So don't rule out the supersized just because you are in an non- arctic zone. There's something about a big hat that's...cheerful.
If you're prepping for Thanksgiving today in the US (or elsewhere), have a blast! And take a break to knit a little. It can't hurt, right?
