Up, Down, All-Around Stitch Dictionary Review

You may know that I love stitch dictionaries!  This one is no exception.  I pre-ordered back in December without hesitation, and it finally arrived a few weeks ago.

I loooove this book!  So very nice to have the thinking done for you to convert stitches from flat to circular knitting. But wait, there's more :0)  Maybe you want to work the pattern top down, or in the opposite direction.  You can do that with this book!

 This is a great for top down shawl knitting - you know how stitches appear upside down when you knit a shawl that way.  No more with this book!

Not every stitch has instructions for top down/circular, as I had thought.  Some of the swatches are in a yarn that does not best display the stitch, but I don't mind so much.  The book is also spiral bound so it lays flat - a real bonus.
It is well written, and I am sure I will put it to good use!

This is an excellent addition to your knitting library. If you do not want to purchase it, check your local library.

The book is broken up into Knits and Purls, Ribs, Textured, Slipped and Fancy Stitches, Yarn Overs and Eyelets, Cables, Lace, Colorwork, and Hems and Edgings.

There are even some patterns too, such as a cowl, a watch cap, bed socks, a bolero, a vest, pull over, mitts, a scarf, a stole, a slouch cap, and mittens.

If you like to design your own projects, this stitch dictionary is a wonderful resource and I encourage you to add it to your knitting book collection.

Color changing yarn!

Ever since I started messing around with dyeing my own yarn years ago, I've wanted to do those wonderful, slooooowww color changing yarns.  I think I have tried every single method out there, read just about every book, blog and article I could find on dyeing this type of yarn.  I even bought a fancy schmancy machine to make my own blanks, but that didn't work out too well.  I've just not been able to find a quick way to do this type of dyeing. 

I've been asked by several people about slow color changing yarn lately.   The other day, I remembered a method I had thought I would like to try, but up to now had not.  I thought I would give it a whirl.  Below are the results of my experimenting.  What do you think?  These, along with some other colors, will soon be available in my shop!    

Calypso Shawl - Free Pattern!

MY YARN SHOP HAS CLOSED.  THIS YARN AND PATTERN ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Here is a free shawl pattern for you!  This is super easy and pretty quick to knit up. I wanted a shawl that wasn't just another triangle, or shaped in the usual way.  I had fun with shaping on this, and absolutely love how it turned out.

I used some of my Shimmer yarn, but you can use any fingering weight yarn you like.   (The color I used has sold out, but I do have a few other colors available in this yarn if you would like to use the same yarn!)  This is knit in garter stitch, so even a beginner can do this.

I used yarn overs as my increases, but you can use any increase you like.  The yarn overs at the beginning of the rows are for increasing, and you won't even see them once the shawl has been blocked.  If you will be using another increase, I would knit the first stitch, then work the increase - kfb just as an example.

I wanted to use up as much yarn as possible, without ending up having too little to finish my bind off, so my last increase section is significantly smaller than the others. You can stop and bind off before the last increase section, or you can even continue on if you want the shawl to be bigger.