So I asked some fellow knitwear designers, who have daughters that they knit for, if they would take part in a wee blog tour for the new book……and they said yes!

First to kick off is Thea Colman (aka babycocktails) …..she also has a teenaged daughter called Maya and she knit Rubens for her in the Pomegranate colourway of Puffin……

check out her lovely post here.

(She looks like her mum-gorgeous)!

Each stop on the tour will also include a giveaway for a copy of the book so be sure to stop by these blogs and leave a comment to be eligible to win!

Susan B Anderson – January 2nd
Kristin Nicholas – January 9th
Laura Nelkin- January 16th
Mary Jane Mucklestone -January 23rd
Kirsten Kapur-January 30th

See you all in the new year!

It is always so exciting to see my design in Jared’s collections….and always so thrilling to see all the other designs revealed too.

Wool People 4 is packed with gorgeous designs and gorgeous photography……a true feast for the eyes!

Runa is my design…a textured hoodie worked in Shelter in “Long Johns”.

All the details can be found here.

I knit most of this when on my trip to Iceland so when it came to naming the design I decided to go with an Icelandic name….in fact a nickname for my very own Icelandic name, Gudrun!

I also have a confession to make…..I almost lost this project to the icy waters of a certain fjord in Iceland! In my defense I was distracted by my fellow teacher and friend Mary Jane  Muckelstone as she dove into the frigid sea………I was so pre-occupied by making sure she promptly got warm that I left  poor Runa on the shores……..thankfully one of my lovely students spotted it and safely returned it to me!!

Here are some more pics of my lovely red-headed friend Lucy doing a quick bit of modeling for me before I sent this off to the Brooklyn Tweed Headquarters!

I’ve been reading over the interwebs that lots of people have already started or have plans to start something from the new book so I decided to host a couple of different knitalongs so we can all have some knitterly fun together!

What I’d like to do is have one general knitalong that can begin now…this one will include anything from the book….garments or accessories.

The 2nd knitalong will be for the Simple Sweater only. I’d like to begin this one in the New Year, January 7th, and give it a more structured aspect so that those new to sweater knitting will have plenty of  guidance and moral support! I may even have some friends of my own that will be taking part!

I will be managing a forum for each of these over on my Ravelry group so if you would like to take part please join us over there!

General KAL thread

Simple Sweater Thread

So what do you think you’ll knit first?

I think I’m going to make either another Brock or Empire and a Granny Smith of my own…but what color?

More exciting news to announce this week!

I will be teaching once again at the Squam Arts Workshops in June of 2013! All classes and teachers are up on their website and some of you may notice a familiar face in the teacher line up…..yes my hubby is going to be joining me this year (David Durham)! So if you fancy dabbling in your creative writing skills than I highly recommend that you take his class!

And of course check out my classes too!

(This is only a small sampling of the teachers btw)

You can also pre-register this year but class sign ups wont happen until the New Year (make sure to read all the info regarding pre-registering).

This is the 5th anniversary too…..it will be awesome……who’s coming?!

No I’m afraid I’m not able to give away cute kitty  “Muscles” who, along with his siblings, managed to sneak into several photos during our shoot!

How about this awesome giveaway instead: If you place an order for the book on the Quince & Co website tomorrow, 12-12-12, (when the book gets launched) you will automatically be entered for the chance to win a free skein of Puffin in Carrie’s Yellow-enough to make either version of Rubens!

3 lucky winners will be picked!

Quince will begin taking orders at 9am!

In the meantime take a peek again at all the patterns in the lookbook below!

Today I reveal the remainder of the patterns in the book, the accessories and Beginner’s Sweater.

All of the accessories are simple enough to be attempted by a newer knitter. They all utilize easy to work (and easy to memorize) stitch patterns with great textures. Three of them are worked in Quince’s Puffin yarn for a satisfyingly quick knit!

Rubens and Hampshire

 Rubens is knit in Puffin and comes with two options, depending on your preference of  hat style. The slouchier version is seen on Izzy in Carrie’s Yellow and the shorter pom pom version is being worn by Sedona in Bird’s Egg. This hat is worked in a slip stitch pattern with great textures on both the right and the wrong side…infact you are seeing what is technically considered the wrong side here but if you make the hat without the pom pom then you can pick whatever side you prefer….change it up depending on your mood!

Hampshire is also a slouchy hat (I have a thing for those too) and is worked in Quince’s Chickadee yarn. Although not quite as quick a knit as Rubens it is still easy. The texture for this pattern is created by using two different sized needles, one US 5 and one US 10. The smaller needle is used for the garter stitch bands and the larger for the Stockinette portions. I already have several orders in from friends for this one!

Rubens on Ravelry

Hampshire on Ravelry

Honeycrisp, Porter and Cortland

Honeycrisp is the cowl in Puffin yarn that you see above on Cynthia. This accessory uses the same stitch pattern as Rubens and could be easily adapted to any length or depth as the stitch pattern is only a 2 stitch repeat. This version was knit in Clay (a really pretty shade in my opinion)!

Porter is a super-duper-easy-peasy scarf worked in a broken rib pattern….I love this texture…..and really enjoyed knitting this sample! The resulting scarf is so deeply textured and cozy. This pattern is also worked in Puffin and is shown in Lupine.

And last (but not least) on the accessory front are the legwarmers, Cortland. Another slip stitch pattern creates an almost crochet looking type texture and again is easy to remember…an easy to bring along project! These are worked in Lark and are shown in Pomegranate.

Honeycrisp on Ravelry

Porter on Ravelry

Cortland On Ravelry.

Granny Smith

Granny Smith is the very last pattern in the book, the Beginner Sweater pattern. This is the only pattern that uses Quince’s Osprey yarn (an Aran weight. My intention with this one was to provide a simple template for those new to sweater knitting. Although you see the sweater here with ribbon and pocket these are easily left off if that’s not your thing! Mostly it’s about knitting your first sweater and hopefully having a good experience! The pattern itself has links to useful “how to” tutorials and offers lots of extra information to help make the process go smoothly.

I had to make an exception to my “don’t wear samples” rule for this one as Maya was very anxious to add it to her wardrobe!

Granny Smith on Ravelry

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about a wee giveaway Quince & Co will be having on the release date!

So yes, one of these designs is not named after an apple…and in fact some of you may recognize it from a while ago……

I actually published Soay in April 2011!!

I made one for myself….then Maya requested one too! When I first began thinking of the mother/daughter collection I had pictures of Maya and I wearing ours in the mood board.

So seeing as how Soay was technically part of the launching point for this whole collection I decided it should be included. Both Maya and I still wear our Soays often so it is a true testament to a pattern that works perfectly for both the mother and the daughter! It also shows how wonderful the durability of Quince’s Chickadee yarn is!

Obviously this pattern will continue to be available as an individual pattern outside of the collection too.

and now without further ado….Brock, McIntosh and Soay!

Brock

As I mentioned yesterday I’m partial to a cute little cardigan! Brock has lots of little understated features that make it a versatile piece . With it’s subtle yoke pattern, curving hemline and drapey texture it really speaks to the feminine side of one’s wardrobe!

Brock is worked top down in a circular yoke fashion separating at the underarms to work the sleeves and body separately. The 3/4 length sleeves bell out and then are quickly drawn in again and finished with an I-cord bind off. The I-cord theme continues up the fronts and around the neckline. The lower body is shaped using short rows (The Sunday Short Row method which is now officially my favorite) to create a delicate curve at the hem.

Brock is worked in Quince’s Tern yarn.

Brock on Ravelry.

McIntosh

The first thing I thought of when considering designs for Jenn and Sedona was stripes! Jenn has a great collection of stripey tops in all sorts of awesome color combinations. For McIntosh I decided to stay on the more neutral side for the colors so that the cardigan would work well with a number of outfits. I wanted to keep this piece super simple so I went for a top down raglan construction with an open front, no body shaping and a 1×1 rib trim bordering the fronts.

I was so into my curving lower hemlines by this point that I threw another one in for this piece. Only this time I made the fronts longer than the back.

McIntosh is worked in Quince’s Chickadee yarn.

McIntosh on Ravelry.

Soay

 I don’t really need to tell you a whole lot about Soay…it’s another cute wee cardigan! I still love it as much as I did when I first knit it!

Soay is also knit in Chickadee (think that yarn is my favorite of all the Quince yarns)!

Soay on Ravelry.

There won’t be a post tomorrow but I’ll be back on Monday to introduce all the accessories!

Braeburn, Empire and Ambrosia………do you see the theme? Seeing as this was shot on a friend’s New England property in the Fall, during apple season, I decided to name the designs after varieties of New England apples!

Here are the first of the three sweater pairs in a little more detail:

Braeburn

Braeburn is actually the very first design I completed for the book. Once I knew that my friends were committed to modelling  I spent a lot of time thinking about the types of garments I could imagine them in, and sharing with their daughters.

For Cynthia, who lives in the beautiful old farmhouse where we did the shoot, I immediately thought of a cozy sweater. Many of my coziest knits are ones with a cowl or turtleneck so I knew I wanted to include one here. The subtle mock cabling adds some texture and the use of short rows at the hem creates a delicate curve to the lower half of the sweater, both adding a touch of sophistication! The textured front panel is formed using crossed stitches without a cable needle!

I love how it is more fitted on Cynthia and then fairly oversized on her daughter Izzy….both styles work…and yet they are the same sweater!

This one is knit top down with raglan shaping using Quince’s Lark yarn.

Braeburn on Raverly.

Empire

I’m a sucker for a sweet fitted cardigan! So of course I had to have one in the collection. I saw my friend Jenn and her daughter Sedona wearing this garment. Jenn is a Kindergarten teacher and has a lot of sparkle to her personality and her wardrobe too. I thought it could be useful to have a fairly simple looking cardigan to layer over other clothing. She always looks amazing in bird’s egg blues so it wasn’t difficult to choose the color of her Cardigan.

Sedona often favors more neutral colors so we went with this lovely shade of brown but used some cute blue buttons for a bit of a contrast.

Empire is knit bottom up with seamless set-in short row sleeves. It features a lovely seed stitch textured pattern called King Charles Brocade. This one is knit in Quince’s springy Chickadee yarn…perfect for popping out stitch patterns!

Empire on Ravelry.

Ambrosia

And the last one for today is Ambrosia. I have to admit I have been sneaking little wears of this one (not too much as I need it for a sample). It is super cozy being knit in Quince’s Puffin yarn. This means it also knits up pretty fast too!

It is worked bottom up joining sleeves and body at the underarm to work a round yoke construction. The Floating Hexagonal pattern is super fun to work-it does involve slipping and dropping sts but it’s not difficult and produces a lovely end result. I wanted a bold stitch pattern on this yoke, something reminiscent of and Icelandic style yoke.

Ambrosia on Ravelry.

Tune in tomorrow for the other 3 sweater pairs!

Welcome to day one of our five day reveal of Knit With Me!

Today’s post is going to be a general overview of the book with following posts going into more detail about each of the designs.

It was last Fall, when I was over in Scotland, that Pam Allen and I initially started talking about a possible collaboration. I was thrilled at the idea of a whole collection of patterns using Quince & Co yarns having already sampled most of them. And, I already had a little idea swirling around in my head having just finished knitting a sweater alongside my daughter Maya (you can see that sweater here).

I thought it would be great to design a collection with the notion of a mother and daughter being able to wear the same pieces.  I was thinking about an older daughter seeing as how my then 12 year old and I were often finding ourselves borrowing each others clothing! Maya had done some knitting at this point so I also wanted to include some simple patterns that would be accessible to a newer knitter.

What I ended up with is a total of 12 designs: 6 sweaters, 5 accessories and 1 simple “beginner’s” sweater.

The sweater designs are all shown as pairs worn by 3 different sets of mothers and their respective daughters (Maya and I and two other mother/daughter friends of ours who kindly agreed to model). I wanted to make sure that the pieces would have an ageless quality about them and work well worn within a wide age range. With that in mind I kept to fairly simple outlines and wearable shapes with plenty of little details to keep the knitting interesting. They are knit in various different weights of the Quince yarns, with each one employing a seamless construction and ranging in difficulty (with none being overly complicated to work).

As I mentioned above I also wanted there to be patterns that a beginner knitter could access. The accessories fall into that category-easy to work patterns in fun, but simple, stitch patterns. Several are knit in Quince’s Puffin yarn, a quick to knit up soft bulky yarn.

Why stop at simple accessories? Seeing as Maya had just managed to complete her first sweater (with a little help) I decided to  include a simple sweater of my own in the collection. This one is modeled off one of the first top down sweaters I ever knit without a pattern. The pattern itself includes plenty of extra information and helpful tips for knitters who may be venturing into their first attempt at garment knitting.

The book also includes some lovely illustrations by Maya, decorative and instructional ones!

It has been wonderful to have her be such a part of this book all the way along and to have some of our very best friends appear in it’s pages!

Above is a selection of some of the designs…not everything!

Tomorrow I’ll be focusing in on 3 of the sweater pairs …more pics and more details!

Before I launch into all the preview posts about the new book I just want to let you know that you can now buy my Loren Shawl as an individual pattern through Ravelry.

The original was published by Jamieson & Smith and you can still purchase the kit (pattern and yarn) for it through them here.

I re-knit it using Shibui Cima lace……find all the pattern info here.

If you happen to have knit one already and you are on Ravelry, then please do link to the pattern page there.

Remember to check back in tomorrow for the first revealings of the new book!