Wanderlust Knits, a new pattern club from designer Janina Kallio, is a responsible yarny indulgence. Members receive four accessory patterns released in April, June, September and November, well before they’re available for sale individually. The first pattern, which you receive when you sign up, is Daydreamer, a two-color crescent shaped shawl with stripes, eyelets and a knitted-on edging, exactly the simple, striking, pattern that Janina is known for.
Take a bike trip through France, courtesy of Invictus Yarns. Sue is sponsoring Tour de Sock, a sock-knitting event and fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders that is based on the famous bike race. Registration begins on May 1 and there are prizes! Sue is also headed to Pasadena May 13 to 15 for her first year at Vogue Knitting Live. There will be some sock yarns in the shop during VKL to support the Tour de Sock, with more added on May 17.
Barbara of Spencer Hill Naturally Dyed Yarn teamed up with an IU newcomer, project bag-maker and knitwear designer Rock Solid Designs, on the Turtle Cove Cowl. The cowl uses two mini skeins of Spencer Hill’s Nell MCN to create a beautiful two-color design. You can purchase a kit through the Spencer Hill website.
Another Barbara, Barbara Benson, also worked with a new-to-IU dyer — Gale of Gale’s Art, who creates sock blanks stenciled with fun patterns — to design a wavy lace pattern for a shawl that perfectly shows off the sea-themed yarn. The shawl pattern uses beads, which Barbara says evokes “a fishermen’s net fresh from the water with sparkling droplets caught in the mesh.”
The folks at Bijou Basin Ranch just got a whole bunch of qiviut, the champagne of fiber! There is lace and fingering weight in both 100% qiviut or a qiviut blend in bright hues or natural-colored skeins. The fiber is warm, but light, perfect for all seasons.
Bellbrook, Mindy Wilkes’s newest shawl design, is completely reversible, which means you can choose to show off the bell-like leaves on the “right” side or the borders of ribbing on the “wrong” side. And it takes just 400 yards of fingering-weight yarn.
Stephannie Tallent’s new design, the Sand Ripples Shawl, features a lace edging, worked first with a combo of stranding and intarsia, a two-color cable pattern and a short-rowed garter stitch body.
In the Game of Shawls, you knit or you freeze. Lara Smoot’s The Great Game, the latest in her Game of Thrones-inspired series, was designed with a seven-color gradient set from Miss Babs.
Rock Solid Designs sells cute box project bags with unique snap closures that act as yarn guides, allowing you to work on your project with the bag closed, without the risk of fraying or snagging your yarn.
Here’s a closer look at the fun stenciled sock blanks from Gale’s Art.
