New Books

The last two days, I've received 3 new knitting books. One I have been waiting a long time for: Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knit One, Knit All. The designs are ones that she wanted published in a book, but publishers never agreed with her. Now, her daughter and grand son together with some volunteer knitters have put together the designs and published this book. Many of the designs had no written instructions so the patterns were put together from her notes or drawings, her journal, or the actual garments were disected. I have made one of the designs many years ago-the Suspender Sweater at Door County Knitting Camp with Carol Anderson of Cottage Creations. I thought the book contained patterns never before printed, but they are patterns not in any of EZ's books. The Suspender Sweater was from a Wool Gathering and is a sweater I get many compliments on every time I wear it and it was fun to knit-interesting construction.

The second book is the book completely about charts. This I ordered as a reference for my teaching. Anything you ever need to know about charted knitting.

The third book, 10 Secrets of the Laidback Knitters, A Guide to Holistic Knitting, Yarn, and Life I bought just from a blog and pictures on the internet and it turned out to be an absolute gem. The picture on the cover of the little lace scarf is the one that yelled out to me as it looked like it was made from the stainless steel yarn I bought last year at Stitches and which had about 3 inches of a scarf which I wasn't very crazy about. The big surprise was seeing the pattern and seeing that it-plus one more in the book-are designed by Romi! This book has stories, pictures, patterns, history, and lots more.

Oh, for more time to knit!!

EZ Ribwarmer

I test knit patterns for Carol Anderson of Cottage Creations and she wanted me to test this pattern. She is giving a workshop on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Ribwarmer so for the class to be able to complete the project she is having them do it it doll or bear size. Isn't it cute? I wonder if it would be a good class to teach the adult size?

Green Sweater Again

The first publication of the pattern has a red border and an errata page available at www.schoolhousepress.com. The revised pattern has a blue border. I used the red bordered pattern combined with the errata and had some trouble when I got to the neckline. Previously, the pattern had you cut the steeks, fold to the inside and stitch down and on each side of main body, fold under steek plus an additional 5 sts. But when I got to the neckline, I was supposed to have used those 5 sts to continue for a facing. I think I should not have stitched down the 5 sts until after I had completed the neck and I would have had a neater edge on the neckline.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Green Sweater

The Olympics are over and so are the Knitting Olympics. My project also is finished and I am so happy with it. This is such a wonderful pattern with nice design elements. Of course we can expect nothing less from Elizabeth Zimmermann!

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann's Green Sweater available from Schoolhouse Press.

Yarn: Ella Rae Classic

Needles: Size 6 US

Sleeve decreases are made on the top of the sleeve.

The sleeve is a deep dolman sleeve but has directions to make it slimmer. It does get small at the bottom, but fits nicely and keeps the gauntlet from sliding down the hand. The gauntlet is so cute at the bottom of sleeve when worn.

Underarm gusset. I just noticed the picture is sideways.

The steeks stitched, ready to be cut. I like to run a contrasting thread on the cutting line to make it easier to stitch and also to cut.

Ez's Green Sweater

When I heard the history of this sweater, I just had to make it! I have always been a fan of Elizabeth Zimmermann. She made this sweater for her god daughter over 50 years ago and never made any notes about the construction. The sweater was worn by both the god daughter and her daughters for all these years and was pretty worn out, so she wanted it repaired. It was beyond repair but Sunday Holm heard about it and decided to duplicate it, which she did and wrote out the pattern. The story of the reconstruction can be found at www.twistcollective.com and the pattern is available at www.schoolhousepress.com

Oops! This is the sweater body upside down. It is started at the bottom hem-which is at the top of the picture. There are 4 steeks-2 for the sleeves and 2 for the front, one to the neckline and one for the upper neckline. The white running stitches are the steeks, ready to be stitched and cut. Phoney seams at the underarms.

The bottom hem, turning ridge and shaping for the mitered facing.

This is my Olympic challenge. (Choose a project which is a challenge, but do-able to be completed during the Winter Olympics.)I cast on at the opening ceremony and hope to finish the knitting portion of the sweater at the closing ceremony. I didn't set my goal to finish the sweater because I thought the steeks would be done at the end and I won't be home, near a sewing machine for the last 3 days of the Olympics.

EZ Shetland Shawl

Finished! A lot of plain garter stitch but the finished product is so soft and drapes so nicely.

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann's Shetland Shawl. Start the center square by casting on 2 stitches, increase every row to desired width, then decrease every row back to 1 stitch. I did the increases with a YO at the beginning of every row and then continued by YO followed by 2, K2 tog on the decrease rows. Then each side is picked up and trapizoids are made and the edging applied.

Yarn: Alpaca and Silk

Needles: I think I used a size 6 and 7 needle for this. I used Knit Picks Harmony interchangeable needles (which I really, really love) and when I was checking the size to get a DPN for the edging it checked as a 7. The needles just didn't feel right after a good share of the border was done and discovered I was using one size 6 and one size 7. You'd never know.