Knitty doll

I thought you'd like to see this knit-inspired drawing I did recently - wouldn't that be a cute fair-isle Christmas sweater? It's for sale as Christmas cards on my etsy shop.

Owly

Rest assured I am making progress on my EZ bottom-up sweater, but 2 arms-worth of plain stocking stitch isn't exactly fascinating enough to blog.

For now, enjoy this eye candy: fabulous owl yoke sweater by Needled. I'm smitten; enough so that i'm wondering whether to put these onto the yoke of my sweater instead of a fair-isle pattern. For more knitspiration, see my Tumblr.

Twist Collective

Twist Collective is a group of brilliantly innovative and talented knitwear designers who publish their patterns quarterly. The styling and photography is drop-dead gorgeous too. I especially love this elegant textured snowflake-white sweater and snuggly-looking slouchy coat.

London knitters..

Like cakes go to along with your knitting? Of course you do. Pop down to Socktopus on Sunday for knitting fun and delicious (trust me) cakes from my friend Arianna's new bake shop Bittersweet. Don't even try and resist.

Knitted video

Check out this sweet music video made entirely of knitted frames! Very clever. The band is even called Trichot Machine (Knitting Machine in French).

Via drawn

Thanks, EZ

I needed a little kick in the right direction to really get knitting again, and it came in the form of freezing weather + a trip back to my parents' house, where I found my copy of Knitting Without Tears. I love Elizabeth Zimmermann's way of writing and her philosophy that you don't need to follow the rules, or be particularly precise, in order to create successful knits.

The above is the start of a bottom-up sweater which i'm going to knit in the round with sharp rounds of decreasing in the yoke. I'm then going to try my first ever steeked cardigan by - yikes! - cutting down the front and picking up a rib border. I'm already terrified of the idea of cutting my knitting; it might well remain a pullover.

Here's the fair-isle chart I designed for in-between the yoke decreases. I'm going to knit the pattern in some sparkly snowy white Rowan Soft Lux from my stash. (The body yarn is Sirdar Click, frogged from the start of my Gentle Fawn cardi which I decided would be a failure.)