Knitcircus

Twilight Winners

Drum roll, please....the winners of the Twilight audiobooks (picked by random number generator) are:

Grace and Lisa! Please email me, jaalaATknitcircusDOTcom with your snail mail addys and I'll get those audiobooks in the mail for you tomorrow.

Thanks so much to everyone for your fun comments; if you'd like to try again, we've got a copy of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  audiobook to give away next week. It doesn't have a lot to do with Twilight but sounds like a great read. 

 Thanks and good night,

Jaala

Issue #8 pdf available and Twilight Audiobook giveaway!

The latest issue is out and about! All of our stores and subscribers' packages have arrived or are winging their way to their destinations. If you'd like to purchase the pdf of the new issue, you can visit our website to download it without waiting for the mail or using any trees. To download our four free patterns from this issue please scroll to the bottom of this page, click and enjoy!

November means lots of holiday knitting and the release of New Moon! It's a perfect time to settle down with the needles for a cozy evening and listen to Twilight again to get ready for the sequel. (Mike and I always re-read our fave books before the movies...we're a little more smitten with Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Twilight than I sometimes admit.) Thanks to Little, Brown and Company, I've got two copies of the Twilight audiobooks (all 12 hours and 15 minutes) to give away!

Take a listen here:

Twilight clip

If you'd like to win a copy, please leave a blog comment and I'll pick the two lucky winners on Monday (Nov 9th) as soon as I get home from the Madison Knitter's Guild meeting.

Thanks and good luck!

Jaala

Free Top-Down Hat Pattern

 Here it is! When we update our website, we'll add it as a downloadable pdf there, too. And it will include pics of the lovely Mike modeling the adult 3x1 rib version of the hat, but I left my camera at my brother's so he was spared modeling for today. :)

Jenny Hat

A great first pattern to try the top-down technique. The Noro yarn does the fancy color changes for you, and the mock-cable rib needs no cable needle; pattern  includes both ribbed and twist-stitch to make it a great gift for almost anyone! With a polarfleece lining, you’ll add extra warmth and softness and evade the itch.

Please knit these up for family, friends and charities! This free pattern is provided by Knitcircus as part of the Hat Circus event to warm up Wisconsin’s kids. Named after our gracious model--call it the Jamie Hat or other manly name if you knit it for a guy.

 

Skill Level – Beginner

Skills needed: knitting in the round, kfb increase; twist st if you choose Twist St pattern.

 

Gauge:  19 st and 32 rows = 4 inches (10 cm) in St St.

Size

Child’s (19-20”),  [Medium Adult (21-22”), Large Adult (23”)] Large and small sizes shown.

Yarn

Noro Kureyon, 100% wool, (100 m/50 gms): ), 1 skein

Needles

Size 7 dpns and 16” circ or size needed to obtain gauge.

Pattern Notes:

The Small version is made to have a longer ribbed bottom so you can turn it up for extra warmth and to show the underside (as shown on child). Not recommended for the Mock Cable Twist edging.

Mock Cable Twist  Rib

Worked over a multiple of 5 sts:

Round 1:

*p1, k1, p1, sl 4th st to R needle, drop 5^th st off L needle; slide 4^th st to L needle, pick up 5^th st on L needle; knit both sts.*

Round 2-4: *p1, k1, p1, k2* around

Repeat Rounds 1-4 for pattern.

3x1 Rib St.

 Worked over a multiple of 4 sts

Every round: *k3, p1*

Hat Instructions:

CO 5 sts on 3 dpns.

Round 1: Join for working in the round; *kfb every st* (total 10 sts.), using 4^th needle to knit. Pm to show beginning of rnd and mm every rnd. 

Round 2 and all other even rounds: *Knit*

Round 3: * kfb* (total 20 sts.)

Round 5: *k1,kfb*

Round 7: *k2, kfb*

Round 9: *k3, kfb*

Transfer sts to 4th needle when sts seem too crowded and add 5^th as working needle.

Cont in this manner, inc sts between kfb by 1 each odd round, through Round 19:*k8, kfb.* (90 sts).

For med and large: Round 21: *k9, kfb* (100 sts)

For large only: Round 23: *k10, kfb* (110 sts)

Switch to circ; cont in st st (knit every round) until hat measures 5.5” (6”, 6.5”) from top of crown.

Decrease set-up round:

For Mock Cable Twist: dec 5 sts evenly spaced.

For 3x1 Rib, dec 6 [8, 10] sts evenly spaced.

Ribbed section: Begin working Mock Cable Twist Rib patt; or 3x1 Rib; cont until just enough yarn rem for BO round (approx 16 rnds S, 14 rnds M and 12 rnds  L).

Bind off all sts in pattern.

Finishing: Weave in all ends. If desired, cut 2”x 20” [22”, 23”] piece of fleece material and hand baste inside ribbed section of hat for softness and extra warmth.

Below: small/child's version with turned-up cabled section.

Enjoy!

Jaala

Hat Circus Winner!

The winner of Inspired to Knit is Carol, who came to the Hat Circus event! Carol, shoot us an email and we'll send your copy of the book right away.

 

In Knitcircus news, the Number Eights have flown the coop! All of our stores' packages are winging their way to LYS's and all of our subscribers and designers' envelopes will hit the post office this morning as soon as the kids are in school.

Happy Halloween!

Last week, we went to Halloween at the Zoo--here Little Red Riding Hood is helping my surfer dude give us a smile. Watch for the Noro hat to appear here soon as a free pattern!

Yesterday, Belle and I spent the morning making a Fern the Green Fairy costume, which she loved so much she wanted to sleep in, but no pics yet! We've been working our way through the Rainbow Magic books at bedtime, and while I'm a little snooty about how only books I read as a kid are the good ones, they can't get enough of them.

Between soccer, a Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF party (gingerbread and musical chairs are on the menu), jack-o-lantern carving plus trick-or-treating, it's going to be a big, fun pumpkin-y day around here.

We're carrying on my dad's tradition this year of buying a Giant Size Hershey Bar and then surprising one trick-or-treater with banging of pots and pans and yelling, "You're the 40th Trick-or-Treater! You won the big candy bar!" You have to arrange it so that this pleases, rather than scares, the kid in question, so some creative counting can ensue. It's also good if your own kids are back from their outing so they can bang and cheer.

Happy day, everyone! Hope it's safe and sweet--but just a little spooky.

Issue # on it's way!

Yippee! Knitcircus #8 will arrive from the printer's tomorrow!

Here's a sneak peek inside:

Bisbee, by Miss T.

 

All Things Nice, by Harpa Jansdottir.

Just two of the 19 total patterns in the new magazine! And four are free downloads, three of which are already available (scroll to the bottom of the page).

It really is the best issue yet, and I can't wait for y'all to get to see it...

Jaala

Yum: Books and Yarn

We reviewed three new releases in our online newsletter, and here are the juicy pics! First up, this one just came out in paperback, with lots of practical patterns and news from the farm.

A new addition to the Japanese Craft series from Shambhala Press, this book offers plenty for grown-ups, too.
Another new-in-softcover from Potter Craft, this instant classic has already influenced my designs and self-image for the better.

In fiber news, here are more contestants in the Most Delicious Yarn Support contest:

Ewetopia Merino, Bamboo and Nylon sock yarn.

Ewetopia Superwash Merino sport weight sock yarn.

Hope y'all had a great weekend!

Jaala

Yarn Con Yarn

Ooh, Yarn Con was fun. A lot of new people got to see the magazine, we met some of our subscribers in person, and let me tell you, the fiber--er, people--watching was delightful. Everyone attending seemed to have taken the opportunity to show off a handknit, from Ysolda shawls to a Dutch girl cap (out of Malabrigo?), of course, Owls, an impressive Paper Dolls sweater and many more I couldn't name but wanted to touch!

Ms. SABLE blogged nicely about our experience there, too, with pics.
Thanks a million to her for driving there and back while I tried not to fall asleep. She even scored free parking right next to the event!

We scored big on yarn support for the magazine; check it out:

Exhibit A, Sophie's Toes superwash merino sock yarn in colorway Iris Garden.

Exhibit B, Yarn Hollow Merino/ Bamboo/Nylon superwash sock yarn in color Lemon-Lime.

Exhibit C, Yarn Hollow Tencel/Merino sock yarn in a one-of-kind colorway.

Yum!

I also took home this gorgeous thing for myself: Sophie's toes worsted in Grape, because her booth was right next to ours and, you know, I wanted to be neighborly.

Coming soon--more yarn!

But now it's time to fly through the rain in my magic minivan to pick up the kids.

Yarn Con!

Just a quick update to let anyone in the greater Chicagoland area know that Knitcircus will be at Yarn Con

this Saturday! It's our first time participating and we're looking forward to meeting a bunch of new knitters and seeing lots of yarn and handmade things to hold, work with, count, control and decorate yarn.

We're busy while the kids are in school getting our display ready for the Con and preparing to send Issue #8 to print--crossing our fingers for all of our final copyediting to get finished today and to be able to send it out tomorrow!

Welcome to Wisconsin

Snow fell this weekend; not enough to stick, but it added excitement to the soccer game, I can tell you. We decided to change the name of the kids' team to the Silver Snowmen in honor of kids with down coats on under their short-sleeved uniform shirts.

The sun came out on Sunday and we headed out to Eugster's Farm at Li'l Buddy's repeated urging (his class field-tripped there last week). 

We started with feeding the sheep--thanks for the good times and the wool, friend. The kids decided that this one was Shaun the Sheep. 

The kids were so excited for the Haunted House, which was mostly just a very dark and foggy maze with a scary soundtrack; they got to feel brave without getting freaked out.  I was just glad Li'l Buddy wore his glow-in-the-dark shoes so I didn't bash my head on something when they pulled me through it. We tromped through the corn mazes, where you really did feel as if you were in a forest of corn with only the blue sky above.

At the end, a huge tractor pulled us quite far out, past the apple orchards and corn fields to the big pumpkin patch.

Belle was determined to find the perfect one, and dragged her wagon over the muddy ruts to look at many, many pumpkins before she finally found it.

 

Not pictured: the best part of the pumpkin trip was seeing a jolly farm dog (I would call it a Vanilla Lab) who ran up with an ear of corn in his mouth. He wanted to eat it, and I kid you not, he placed a front foot on each end and grabbed the husk with his teeth, pulling it down the ear, repeating several times until he had peeled the corn. Then he ate it with gusto.

By the time we headed out, almost everyone had numb fingers, igniting my Must Knit to Save Family gene.  I had finished this hat for myself just in time:

(pic by Li'l Buddy). Part of my foray into learning top-down hats; this one I think looks a bit more like a viking or maybe Narnian leather helmet than I would like. But I did successfully increase while cabling, so it served its purpose...

I had just finished a version of the Top-Down Noro hat for Li'l Buddy, but it turned out a bit long. So another fleece-lined one for him, then it's time to work on Belle's Sweater which she chose on Ravelry last year and was hibernating
I'm looking forward to knitting that; cables and bobbles and intarsia, oh yeah!

In Knitcircus news, Ms. SABLE and our tech editor have been working away and the issue is going into final copyediting any time now!!! I can't believe we came out with 19 total patterns, and I want to knit them all.