Well, it's time for this week's free project giveaway. This week the pattern is from Fitted Knits, and it's one of my favorites from the book, the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank.
I have been wanting to try this one, but I'm a little scared of the
dropped stitches part. I've played around with drop stitches once or
twice, but the truth is I still don't fully understand them. I hadn't
looked at this pattern for a while, and when I looked through it again,
I realized how easy it truly is. It's basically a simple rectangle!
That's it. So please, give it a try! I've been thinking about knitting
for summer lately (it's just around the bend...right?), and this one
would be perfect for it. If you're interested in knitting this tank,
make sure to check out who's already knitted it on Ravelry. I found one
knitter here.
If you like the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank and the Two-Toned Ribbed Shrug (check out our free knitalong project), then you might think about buying a copy of Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits for yourself. Seriously, there's tons of stuff any gal would like to knit in there.
Speaking
of knitalong projects, here's a peak at my progress on the shrug. I hit
a bit of a snafu earlier this week as I failed to read the pattern
closely. I picked up all my stitches for the main ribbing without first
seaming the sleeves. I was talking to a fellow knitalonger at work who
was just getting ready to pick up stitches, and I warned her that it
was kind of confusing because you had to skip a section. The next day
she told me she hadn't found it confusing at all. And that's when I
realized I had made it unnecessarily confusing. So last night I ripped
out all the picked-up stitches. Now I'm finishing up seaming the
sleeves. I'll start over on the ribbing at our weekly lunch knitalong
in just a bit.
But here's me trying on my shrug-in-progress. The
sleeves seem a bit tight, but I'm hoping that's because I tried the
shrug on over my long-sleeved shirt.
How are you doing on your shrug? Post a comment and let us know!
We are excited to be offering you two free projects today! Click on the Knitalong button on the Knitting + Crochet home page to download a PDF of our first Knitalong project, the Two-Tone Ribbed Shrug from Fitted Knits. Or just click here. The shrug will be my second project from Fitted Knits. Last summer I made the Split-Neckline Cap-Sleeved Tee...can't wait to wear it again when the weather warms up a bit. Have any of you made a project from Fitted Knits? Leave a comment telling us which project you made and what you thought, and we'll randomly choose someone to receive a free copy of the book.
Or maybe the suspense is killing you and you'd rather just go out and buy your own copy now?
Also check out Stefanie Japel's Web site to see what she's up to. Sometimes she gives away free patterns! Or join the Fitted Knits group on Ravelry. I just joined myself!
We also have another free project for you today, from AntiCraft, by Renée Rigdon and Zabet Stewart. The project is the Belladonna Sleeves, beautifully modeled by an F+W employee. Lovely! And perfect for spring weather. (We hope that's coming soon...) Also check out what Renée and Zabet are up to on their Web site, theanticraft.com.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today it's official...MyCraftivity.com is
up and ready for business. If you've already been checking in for the
last month or so, we've enjoyed having you as part of our community. If
you're brand new today, welcome! Keep checking back as new features are
added. We'll be giving away free patterns, and we encourage you to join
our knitalongs (check out the messageboard for the free pattern our
group here at F+W is working on currently). My shrug is coming along
nicely...I got most of my first sleeve knitted up last night while
guiltily watching some of that stupid TBS special on the funniest
commercials.
In addition to it being St. Patrick's Day and the
official launch day of MyCraftivity.com, I have something else to be
excited about today. I am writing this blog from an offsite location as
we begin shooting for Glam Knits, the sequel to Stefanie Japel's first book, Fitted Knits.
This
book is filled with all sorts of glam things to wear and to carry as
accessories. There are dresses, skirts, tops, wraps, shrugs, bags...and
tons more. All of it is so pretty...and so luscious. These pieces are
all knit with luxe yarns like silk, cashmere, alpaca...yum. I am
lusting after this one particularly soft and feminine gray cashmere
cardigan with sparkly, sparkly rhinestone buttons. It might be a little
cruel of me to mention the book at this stage since it won't be coming
out until November...but I thought maybe you'd appreciate a sneak peek
into the process of making a book. We pour at least one year (and often
longer) into each book we make.
Here are some images from the shoot--we're shooting at Alias, a studio in downtown Cincinnati
The first shot is the photographers and the art director hard at work. Next we have the model and the stylist fixing her up! Stay tuned for more sneak peeks...
Happy St. Patrick's Day! And Happy MyCraftivity launch day. Hope to see you around. We'd love to see your knitalong project in progress!J
Welcome to the knitting and crochet group on the brand new mycraftivity site! We at F+W are so excited to be online and building a community of crafters. You'll be getting to know three bloggers for this group. I am Jessica, an editor on the North Light craft team and the acquisitions editor for knit/crochet/fiber arts books. You'll also meet Eileen, a new knitter who works for Memory Makers books. Finally, you'll meet Jay, the editorial director for KP books and an experienced knitter, quilter, felter and more.
It's funny, "community" is a word that you hear a lot and sometimes it's easy to forget what it actually means. Over the last few years, i've realized how much my different communities really enrich my life and help me grow as a person and feel connected to the world around me. Of course, we all have the most basic community, our families. We also have our communities of dear friends that, for many of us, become an extended family, especially when you don't live in the same city or state as your actual family (as is the case for me). Then you have even more specific communities.
For instance, I belong to a running group, which comes in especially handy when you're training for a marathon, as I am now. Without my community of runners, I'd never make it 26.2 miles! In fact, I'm quite sure I wouldn't have made it even the 6.6 that was on the schedule last night if I'd had to go it alone. I'd have taken one look out the window (dark, rainy, windy, cold) and not even gone outside! And NO WAY would you catch me sprinting up the same quarter-mile hill over and over again by msyelf. But tucked safely inside my community of runners, I did run 6.6 miles in the dark and cold (although we somehow miraculously escaped the rain!) and I did run hill repeats...and surprised myself by actually enjoying both.
This same principle holds true with crafting communities. Without my groups of knitters, I might have given up hope on every single project I've ever started. My community of knitters encourages me, challenges me, helps me come up with solutions to problems that seem insurmountable...and best of all, they admire my work. As most crafters know, this admiration is something to be treasured, as only someone who actually knits can truly appreciate that amazing fairisle sweater or the beauty of your very first hat.
At F+W, we have a community as well. We have our team of in-house editors and designers, as well as production coordinators, sales people and marketing staff. We all work together to make the best books possible. Our community also includes our talented authors. I often work with authors from afar and may meet them only seldom, so it was a real treat to hang out with several authors in person at this winter's TNNA (the national needle arts convention) in Long Beach, CA.
From left to right: Karida Collins, co-author of Pints & Purls (due out March 2009), Narumi Ogawa, author of Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful, me, and Hannah Fettig, author of Closely Knit (due out next month). A lovely little community!
Here are a few more pictures from the F+W booth at TNNA
We'll be sharing what we're up to with you, and we would love for you to share your craftiness with us. We hope this community of crafters becomes a place you can come to connect with others, be challenged creatively and find solutions to those crafting conundrums. We welcome you to post pictures to the knitting and crochet group as well as to your own personal account.
We look forward to getting to know all you crafters out there. I look forward to hearing from you!
