Eskimimi Knits knitting blog

About a year ago I decided to treat myself to an absolutely stunning ball of yarn, a Zauberball, from lovely UK seller P2tog.com.

Schoppel Wolle Zauberball in 'Little Fox'

This wonderful ball of wild and frnzied colour eventually became my adored Baktus – certainly my most-worn project. I absolutely adored the Zauberball, with its hand-wound appearance and saturated colours. It’s definitely among my favourite ever yarns, but that’s not the yarn I wish to tell you about.

See, when I ordered the Zauberball, the lovely Alison of P2tog did something very, very naughty – she slipped in a small sample (10m or so) of Mini Mochi. That entire day was wasted away just holding the yarn against my cheek and making cooing noises. Some time later I decided I could resist no longer and gave in and treated myself to two balls of the most saturated rainbow shades I could find in her shop.

Crystal palace Mini Mochi yarn in 'Intense rainbow'

I haven’t knit with these two balls of yarn, yet. I’m not yet sure what I hope they will become, but I think perhaps a scarf or small shawlette – something where I can enjoy the softness and warmth around my neck, where I can nuzzle into the ultra-soft fibres and make those soft cooing noises whilst waiting at the bus stop in the hope that nobody hears me.

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I love knitting stitch dictionaries.  They are perhaps my greatest knitting weakness.  I can spend (literally) hours leafing through the same pages over and over before beginning a new projects, armed with a selection of sticky-tab page-markers as I whittle down what I think will ‘work’, first marking about 20 or so for further consideration, maybe picking five of these, then going back over the book and falling in love another 20 stitches I didn’t even notice the first time around, rinse and repeat.

So, when I noticed that the Harmony Guide series had a new book in town, and it just so happened to concentrate on my new found love of colourwork stitches, I was clicking my way through the appropriate Amazon pages within a heartbeat.

I then waited, and waited.  I know today is only the 7th of January, and we are experiencing some exceptional weather conditions, but I ordered the book last year, and it was supposed to arrive by the next working day.  Finally though, the book arrived.

The Harmony Guide to Colourwork, attending a family reunion.

There is so much I love about this book.  It is clear, well photographed and uncluttered.  The designs are clearly charted.  The book begs to be flicked through, then orders you to make a cup of tea and then flicked through again.  The edition distributed in the U.K. has a ‘u’ in the title.  Great stuff.

It isn’t perfect, though.  Like the other Harmony guides I own it seems to suffer from a lack of organisation.  The Harmony guides start off in a logical manner – the easiest stitches of the particular type being categorised coming first.  A simple openwork pattern begins the guide to lace.  A progression from garter stitch, to stockinette, reverse stockinette and k1, p1 rib gets the Knit and Purl guide off to an obvious start, and so it is with the colourwork guide.  Single dots on a plain background, placed one stitch apart.  Single dots on a plain background placed two stitches apart, two coloured stitches on a plain… you get the idea.  This very quickly ascends a learning curve into more complex patterns – bands of motifs, various snowflake designs of Norweigan colourwork, intarsia designs, but, inexplicably, possibly the simplest colourwork technique of them all – evenly proportioned stripes, isn’t found until page 200.

individual designs are well laid out and easy to follow

There also doesn’t seem to be (or at least I can not discern) any logic to the groupings of stitch examples.  Examples of snowflake designs are scattered throughout the publication, instead of being grouped together, traditional Fair Isle motifs are inter-spaced by designs that used four or more colours per row (shudder).  At least the publishers sought to keep the letters of the alphabet together and in the traditional order.

Once you get used to the idea that you will have to look through the entire guide each time you are searching for something though, you start to regard this as a pleasurable pursuit rather than a chore standing between you and your latest project, and that’s what I am about to do.  I have a good friend waiting to help choose some colours and motifs for his new sweater…

I have always wanted a Fair Isle tank top. Really.

Fly away on my Knitpicks Zephyrs (Photo © Knitpicks)

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to try the new Knitpro ‘Spectra’ needles (known as Knitpicks Zephyr in the US). Widely anticipated by the knitting crowd, many people have been eager to give these needles a go. So far the reception seems to be good. Many people regard these new additions to the Knitpicks/Knitpro brand as a lightweight and comfortable (and relatively inexpensive) alternative to the other needle collections offered by the company – the wooden ‘Symfonie’ needles (sold as ‘Harmony’ in the US) and the nickel-plated ‘Nova’ range (sold as ‘Options’ in the US) have been popular for some time now.   I have very much enjoyed using my wooden Knitpro interchangeable for the last 12 months, and was looking forward to this addition to my little collection and as the tips for the interchangeable set fit on the same cords as both of the other ranges, so it gives perfect opportunity to pick up a single pair of tips for experimentation.

I had a minor set-back in that I managed to run out of yarn a few days after receiving my needle tips, so I had a few days to sit and admire them.  Aesthetically they are pleasing – many people will find the clear acrylic helpful when working with dark yarns or with tired eyes.  At first inspection the tips did not seem all that lightweight to me, so thought I’d see just how lightweight they were.  I called upon my trusty precision electronic scales and found that a pair of 5.5mm plastic Spectra tips weighs in at 11g, as opposed to 6.8g for the wooden Symfonie tips of the same size – so nearly double the weight of the wooden tips.  What else could I examine without yarn?  OK – flexibility.  Well, I can feel there is a little bit of ‘give’ in them, but they don’t feel as flexible as, for example, the old Denise interchangeable set I used to own.  And now I have run out of things to examine.  I’ll just sit here and look at them.  Maybe I can make a mobile out of them?

(photo © Knitpicks)

Fast forward not very much time, but what seems like a lifetime when you cannot knit, and some yarn has come into my possession. I am extremely lucky, and humble.  A kind and thoughtful Raveller, whom I shall not embarrass by naming, (but lets just say I think she is Smashing), has sent me the most winsome parcel I have ever received, full to the brim with all sorts of wonderful yarn.  Time to cast on!

So, I’m knitting with a pair of 3.5mm tips and some 4-ply merino – just to give the tips a try.  The first thing I notice is how ‘grabby’ these tips are.  Far more than any other needles I have tried, in my own opinion.  This may be a boon when knitting with slippery, hard to control yarns, but with this merino it is slowing my knitting considerably, and I can now appreciate the flexibility that people have been mentioning – in the smaller diameter needles at least. I’m not sure if it is helping or hindering my knitting.  I’m having to stop every few stitches to coax the left hand needle stitches along the needle with my thumb.  As they reluctantly shuffle down the needle, the friction is causing micro-vibrations in the needle.  It is a strange sensation to start with, but (and perhaps I am particularly sensitive to things like this) after a short while it becomes bothersome, and I have to stop as my hand is numb.  I’m not feeling too good anyway, so I put them away to try again another time… And that’s where I’ll pick up from tomorrow…

There are times when the lily just begs to be gilded.  I’m all for the elegance of simplicity, but there are times when you just want something a little bit extra, and flowers are a feminine and timeless way to embellish garments and accessories.

100 flowers to knit and crochet by Lesley Stanfield - RRP: £10.99

Lesley Stanfield’s beautifully produced book promises 100 flowers for knitters and crocheters to make and use in their own work, but the title is a slight misnomer.  The book actually features patterns for 70 flowers, rather than 100, the remaining patterns being for a mixture of vegetables, various bugs, acorns, fruit and leaves.  This does not detract from the book, however – these additions compliment the flower designs very well and can be combined with the actual flowers to make larger motifs.  Apart from the asparagus – that’s just weird… and wonderful.

As a knitter who is only vaguely familiar with the wonderful voodoo that is crochet, I was slightly disappointed to find that the designs are rather weighted towards those that wield hooks.  Only 40 of the designs are knitted motifs, and of those there appear to be quite a few that only vary slightly in their design – the patterns for ‘large leaf’, ’small leaf’ and ‘citrus leaf’ do not present enough variety in their design to make them particularly distinct; the dahlia and chrysanthemum are also very similar in finished appearance.  There are a couple of beautiful knitted flowers – the sunflower and arum lily are wonderfully constructed, but in this book many of the more interesting designs are designed for the crocheter.  This may turn some people off, but for others it might just act as that extra push to pick up the hook and try twirling some yarn.

Knitting instructions are in written form, crocheted patterns are both written and charted. Patterns are divided into beginner, intermediate and advanced sections.

So, is it worth spending your money on?  Well, there’s the pinch, really.  It was only after buying the book that I was made aware that many of the designs included in the book were available online, for free, from the Lion Brand website in the stitch finder section.  If you only intended to use the book to occasionally find a little embellishment for a hat or purse, then you might well be satisfied with the selection available to you on the Lion Brand website without cost.  If you then find that you enjoy these patterns and would like more of the same, then it is certainly a charming little personal knitting library filler and be one of those books that you turn to when you want to make a standard garment that little bit special.