Recap Thanksmas 2011

My family celebrates Thanksgiving and Christmas on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.(2010, 2009 blogposts) It works well and reduces stress because everyone is rested and not rushing between obligatory visit. I've blogged about it before. I rather enjoy the event. For those interested, we draw names for a gift exchange. This year I had my brother Steve and I knit him another pair of socks. I used Ella Rae superwash in navy. I finished these during the Annual Boy's Fishing Trip. Here's a photo of them after he opened them. I find the beer in the top right corner humorous.

My sister Terri had my name in the exchange. She got me a copy of The Knitter's Handy Book of Socks by Clara Parkes. I'm really happy about this gift. This book is filled with great information and a nice range of patterns from a variety of designers. I'm looking forward to reading the book and knitting a few of the patterns.

Gauge Swatch #1

Here you have what could be a pathetic gauge swatch. Honestly, I didn't really expect this to be a true swatch and I was so excited to start on the project that I couldn't help myself. What I've learned is I want to try and knit more of a swatch, maybe even the full 6" swatch in st st. I'll try a size 6 needle but change to my Knit Pick Options (rather than the harmony that I used). Clara Parkes book, The Knitter's Book of Yarn tells amazing details of a variety of yarns. You might want to check this one out from your local library. St. Clara gave an inspiring description of "romancing yarn" before committing to a project. Knitting a gauge swatch never sounded better!

I do read the articles!

My thoughts on knitting magazines.

• Cast On Magazine is the official publication of TGKA. I think this magazine has a lot of good resource material on knitting and knitting techniques. I get the magazine as part of my membership to TGKA. I read it for the articles. There are very few men's patterns.
  
• Vogue Knitting is a very "vogue" magazine in style and photography. I enjoy this artistic and fashion forward approach to knitting. The few men patterns see to be vests or drop shoulder sweaters. I have enjoyed the designed by Brandon and Kaffe. One article I regularly read is by Meg Swansen from Schoolhouse Press.
• Knitters Magazine is not a magazine that I enjoy. I do not subscribe and probably won't. The patterns tend to be over-the-top on last years fashion trends knit in colors that are too loud and scary. The photography is quite nice but doesn't highlight the sweater. I don't think it's too much to ask to have the knitted garment be the focus of the photo instead of the building behind the model. The Perri Klass articles are my favorite section of the magazine.
  
• Spin-Off has my attention recently because of their good articles and exciting knitting patterns. This might be a magazine that gets a subscription from me. No wonder I like the magazine, it's an Interweave Press product!
• Interweave Knits is my knitting magazine of choice. I subscribe. Great articles and well written patterns. I can see the knitted garments pretty well. Franklin Habit's blog can be found here. Contact me Franklin so I can be one of your 1,000 Knitters! Clara Parkes writes Knitter's Review and spoke at Knitters Connection in June 2008.
• Piecework is a magazine that's an unexpected find for knitting magazines.

Thanks for watching. My goal is to not have a video that runs more than 3 minutes. After this post, if I can't say it in under 3 minutes, I should say it.