Sunday, December 16, 2007

I want this hat

We went and saw the Golden Compass yesterday. I'm not sure if it is a good idea or not to take a row of knitters to see a movie that has lots of knitware in it. We found several pieces that we want to add to our knitting collection. The one we all liked most was this one:


If anyone knows of a pattern like this PLEASE let me know. I really want to make this hat and have two daughters who want one. I'll even pay (nominally) for it (IOW I don't want to buy a whole book for one pattern.)

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Time for Reviews

The new Magknits and Knitty are up and it is time for my scathing reviews :)

Magknits first. Well, aside from Hannah, a cute chunky weight quick hat with a hole for a ponytail, and Vine, a pair of lacy fingerless gloves, I was not impressed with Magknits at all this month. Maybe it was the choice of colors or something. Rosy is a moebeous gart stitche scarf that just looked too much like a tourniquet than a scarf. Five Fruits is a basicl raglan sleeved jumper for a toddler which is cute, but probably something I would never have knit even when I had kids. Not sure why I don't like this sweater. Reasonably Hip is just unimaginative. Again it may be the color or it may be the stitch. It just turned me off. I would never ever ever in a million years knit anything that accentuated my breasts the way Excuses would. I don't care if it is written for up to a size 3X I am not putting anymore focus on my breasts than they create on their own. Fall Rainbow isn't bad. Not my colors and I'm not sure why this is listed as an advance technique. The yoke is interesting, but not difficult. It's one of those patterns where you don't question what you are doing, just follow the pattern and it will turn out in the end. I find very little knitting difficult though (except fixing $*)@#$*$)(# mistakes in lace!!)

On to Knitty! Ice Queen is just lovely! I actually have some yellow lace weight yarn like this in my stash. Although Yellow Ice Queen makes me think of that old addage about eating yellow snow!

Quant is just fun! I have some SWS that might knit this up quite nicely. I love enterlac and this would knit up quite quickly. Mary might even like to make this for herself. I think she is ready for the I-cord challnge :)

I LOVE Tams and Three tams is a nice collection. I love psuedo fair isle that uses variegated yarns to create the pattern. Although I might forgo the Noro Silk Garden in leiu of something more affordable!

Tudora is another tourniquet. If you haven't figured it out by now I can't stand anything scrunched around my neck. Must.... breathe....... It's lovely if you like suffocation.

Halcyon is cute and lacy. Not something I'd wear. Must not show Em's or it will be on my ever growing list of things that Gothgirl needs in her collection of black and red. Somehow I can see Gothgirl wearing lace, but not Gothgirl knitting lace.

Justify just isn't me. Not my colors or style. I would be tugging at it all day. And I'm really not into the babydoll shirt look of Dahlia either. It probably has everything to do with my body shape more than anything else. Same goes for Abotanicity Yet another sweater that would make me look continually pregnant.

While I like the complexity of Aoife I don't like the mix of the heavy cables and belled sleeves with the short bolero. It is unbalanced. It also doesn't look like the model was the right size for the jacket. It looks oversized on her like it was made for someone more my size, but they used the cute petite blonde to model it.

Stardust is cute, but not my style. I am SO making Laughing Carrots for Keon, though! He would get a kick out of it. Although I may make it out of a washable Wool-Ease rather than the recommended Alpaca. He's so hard on his clothes! I also like that it is a cardigan which will work well for my pumpkin headed son!

We'll do the gloves all at once. Gloves can be deceiving are an interesting pattern, but I don't care for the colors at all! Matrix are interesting, but aside from some colorwork, they do seem to be just Your Average Mitten.

I like Fair Isle Rapids. It is interesting with some nice texture and movement going on. Nice to see more men designers as well! And I definitely see Entangled in my future. I love bags and this one has character! Speaking of characterful bags, I think Square Cake is a fun little bag, too! Altough I think I am going to forgo the $38 a skein silk for something a tad more in my reach. While the pattern only calls for 1 skein, I think I can find a fair substitute at the same guage (4 st to inch on size 8 needles)

Socks, socks, socks, socks, socks! While this issue isn't as full of socks as past issues, the ones in this issue are simply lovely! The Lighthouse Gansey Socks are fun and I like how the heel isn't a traditional heel flap, but continues to rib pattern into the heel. Same goes for Azure with its faux cables. Both of these definitely made the list. I am also taken with the Toirneach kilt hosen even though I don't own a kilt. Of course I am not beyond making an outfit to go with my socks! (Suna, you'd do that, right?) Chevrolace are quite nice and I think this may be a nice pattern for my Marmalade hand dyed sock yarn. And Slippery Socks may be the very sock for my mom, although not in oranges.

I'm not sure if I like the hat or the kid, but Toasty Topper is quite cute. And to add to the collection of patterns I have no use for is Cables and Bits but one would need babies and dogs for these two patterns. I have neither (thank the gods!) I'm also not sure I would knit Sally, the eco fairy although she is darling and I like that she has a pair of dainty panties!

I really have more to do with my days than knit soccer balls. I doubt I would ever get around to knitting Doddy. Maybe if I was bored and had run out of projects. (I'll let you know when that happens! Bwahahahahahaha!!) Probably same story for Kitty. While cute, I've got too many other pressing projects to work on.

And last, but certainly no least of the projects is Jeanie It's patterns like this that make me wish I was a shawl person. It's pretty and dainty and yet interesting. I do worry about how much those carries woudl catch on my rings and fingers. I could see myself becomeing intwined in a shawl like this quite easily!

Well that is all for now. I'm not sure if there are going to be any Surprises from Knitty this season as there aren't any listed at the bottom like usually. I guess we will just have to wait and see. Now it's the wait for the next issue of The AntiCraft to come out.