Simple knitjutsu

• All is well in Casa Fixler, the husbeast and I have just been ridiculously busy this month! I have lots to write about though, so I'll be posting soon. :)

Some time back in June I was having a bit of a dilemma, four skeins of amazing yarn, and issues winding them into balls. For some reason it seems sacrilegious to unwind beautiful hanks of yarn and further taint them with knitting that I don't feel 100% about. The biggest thing holding me back from starting a project with my Terra was being unsure how to combine the colors. I had a pale pink that was almost white, a red-gold, a red-purple, and a dark lavender. My first thought was to pair the pink and red together, and the two purples together, but the results proved less than adequate. The pink and red reminded me of a melted candy cane, and the purples didn't match up well at all. I hated frogging the yarn too, not because it didn't frog well...but because I felt bad about it.

I ended up putting the yarn away for a few months, I mean, it's not like I don't have a million more patterns to knit up. So, after forgetting about the Terra completely, I asked my husband for yarn money, to which he wisely answered: "Shop your stash." Duh, I have way to much yarn to begin with. This is how the Terra was rediscovered. Now, at this point, I had picked up an issue of the Fall Knitscene, and in the back of my mind, I remembered a mitten pattern. I realized that it would allow me to use up two skeins of Terra, which is great!

I spent a few hours casting on and trying different color combinations until I finally saw something I liked. The red-gold and the red-purple looked amazing together, while being subtle at the same time. Which left me with the pink and lavender colors to pair together.

I'll have more pics of the finished project soon...when I find my camera again.

With knitting...that is. Now, I know my last post seemed like a rant on how awesome Berroco is, and don't get me wrong, I love them, but it seriously wasn't meant to be an advertisement.
Today, my rant is centered around Vogue Knitting's new approach to the knitting fashion world.
I've always been a bit of a sucker for knitting magazines. What's not to love about them? They're normally packed with info on unique yarns, needles, designers, and techniques. Not to mention the wealth of patterns that meet all skill levels.
Vogue Knitting has been going strong for years. I have an issue that my Godmother gave me from 1992. And even though Vogue Knitting has always been there, it hasn't always been practical.
In all honesty, I seldom was able to pick up an issue and find something wearable. The challenge was there, but not the sleek, "fit into my wardrobe" feel that other magazines sometimes achieved.
Vogue seemed to want to cater to a "high fashion" crowd, when realistically, most people weren't there. It seems as though a good portion of the patterns in past issues would not flatter any body type, and were not exactly wearable in public. I honestly have a philosophy on knitting: If you are going to invest the time and money, make something that you'll love to show off. And honestly, I never got that with Vogue...until now.
First of all...OMG!!!! THIS ISSUE ROCKS. I mentioned in my last post that I received Vogue's Holiday Issue recently. And to be perfectly honest, I was blown away. Everything about this recent magazine issue was incredible. And for the first time ever in my owning a knitting magazine history, I want to make just about everything out of it.
One of the best stories in the magazine is titled: "Through the Looking Glass", which is where I borrowed this picture from. The beret in the picture is one of Kate Gagnon Osborn's designs, and it is stunningly beautiful. This story appeals much better to the younger crowd in knitting, while still holding a timeless elegance that anyone could appreciate.
It seems like Vogue has turned an amazing new leaf, and I'm loving what I'm seeing. I'm currently working on Cathy Carron's "Cabled Cowl" as a birthday gift for my mom, and I'm almost positive that it will be a long time before I'm finished with this issue. It's kind of like what my husband refers to as "replay value".
And for my obligatory complaint about the weather...it's still too hot! 90F is not November weather, but...oh well.

Image copright: Vogue Knitting

First of all, it's now November, and as much as I'd like to be saying: "Burrrr...it's cold!", I'm not. Today was about 85F, which is great...in July... For some reason, there was one week in October that wanted to fool us into thinking it was actually fall. But, seeing as how this isn't a blog centered around complaining about the weather...
The handsome man in the picture to the left is my husband, and he is modeling the manliest hat ever: The Wilson Hat, by Norah Gaughan, featured in her new book just for men, titled: Norah Gaughan: Men.
Knitting for Blake has been a struggle. He's never really been interested in anything more than a cozy pair of socks, or the occasional pair of fingerless gloves. I guess I understand, I mean, it's probably the same as him getting a video game for me.
For the last three years, Blake has pretty much resisted the idea of a knit something other than the aforementioned items. I finally decided to ask him about it. Part of me wondered if it had anything to do with the dread "sweater curse", or if he secretly thought my knitting was weird, I really wasn't sure.
The talk went really well. As it turned out, the main reason why he didn't want anything big was because his dad wore sweaters, and for some man mystery reason, it was taboo for him to wear sweaters too. He also seemed to think that sweaters made men look feminine. I couldn't quite argue that point, there were a lot of sweaters out there that didn't exactly make men look... well...manly. So the subject dropped.
So in August, with the weather being cold whenever it feels like it, I decided to make Blake a warm hat. I hopped on Ravelry, and started searching for an awesome pattern, which is how I stumbled across this amazing hat. Now, I'm a huge fan of Berroco, and an even bigger fan of their Peruvia yarn, which comes in a huge variety of heathered shades. But for some reason, while looking at the pattern, it didn't click. I overlooked the pattern, and kept searching. I didn't find a pattern I liked that time, but I still decided to order the pattern book, and then forgot about it.
Some time went by, September rolled around and we got married, (which, if I'm not mistaken nullifies the sweater curse), and the weather became more unpredictable. While on a walk, Blake commented on how he wished he had something to keep his head and ears warm.
When we got home and checked the mail, the new Holiday issue of Vogue Knitting had arrived, (and in my opinion, the best issue so far). In it was a small advertisement for the Norah's book and the Wilson Hat. I went ahead and pulled the book out and discovered that I had some extra Peruvia from a previous project. Things couldn't get better...right?
Blake decided to look through the book, and saw a picture that changed his view on men's knitted accesories forever. The model in the book had an axe, and was posed in pre-swing. Blake was amazed, and has requested that I knit almost everything out of the pattern book for him, with the Wilson hat being first.
So the point of this long winded blog? That this pattern book is amazing, especially if you knit for reluctant men, and all the patterns are guaranteed to look handsome beyong words on them.