May was a horrible month for me productivity-wise. The wolflings were home a lot more than usual (a lot of holidays and such). I was sick for a while. And now we have the first real heatwave of the year with temperatures of 30°C (86°F) and up, no rain for weeks but high humidity anyway and very little cooling wind. And since we are living in a big city, in an apartment building right at the very top we get stuck with 30°C inside even at night. (Almost all apartments and houses come without air conditioning here.) I like summer, but I hate heat. But I did manage to find a few interesting and fun things I loved so much I wanted to share them with you!
1 – How to Techniques in Depth: Making Buttonholes By Kate Atherley @ Mason Dixon Knitting
This is a fantastic post for beginners and intermediates in garment knitting. It is quite detailed and explains a lot about how you can make a buttonhole, how to make a smaller round buttonhole, and how to make one both horizontal and vertical. There is also useful information on how to place a buttonhole in ribbing and how you might fix a stretched out one.
2 – A Cautionary Tale About Gauge (What Else) by Kay Gardiner @ Mason Dixon Knitting
As I’ve said before, gauge is important. But there are projects where it might not be as important as elsewhere. Like scarfs and shawls. In this article Kay Gardiner shares with us one of those experiences where gauge did matter – even though she was knitting a shawl. It has to do with yardage. This is one thing we like to forget, different gauge means you might need more yarn.
3 – Outtakes: Shockwave Wrap by Julie @ Knitted Bliss
Shockwaves by Beata Jezek – This is the pattern Julie knit
This is a fun little post by Julie where she shows us the photos that didn’t make the cut for her shockwave wrap. What I like about these posts is not just that they can be funny and show us a another side of her. But also that you can usually learn something about photography and styling photos. I love her photos; it’s something she’s very good at and I would love to be good at. I like to learn things through the examples of others and I find these types of posts very helpful.
4 – Twist Collective Blog – Designer Post: Harlow by Kate Scalzo @ Twist Collective Blog
“Harlow” by Kate Scalzo published in Twist Collective May 2018
I enjoyed reading this because I like to find out where designers/creative draw their inspiration from. For Kate Scalzo it is swatching and stitch bibles. Which is similar to how I’ve been doing it so far, actually. I find a stitch I really like and then want to incorporate it into… something. And see about how best to do this.
Also, the new Twist Collective May 2018 is out. Obviously. I almost missed it, though. As I said, May wasn’t a very productive or even focused month. From what I could see at first glance it looks pretty great!
5 – How to Grade Knitting Patterns Using a Spreadsheet by Clare @ Sister Mountain
A must-read for anyone who even just thinks about designing garments! A low-cost way of doing your pattern grading with google spreadsheets. In the next post of this series, Clare will explain how to use a grading spreadsheet to calculate your knitting patterns. Can’t wait to read that! She has a lot of good articles for new designers, like this one or that one. What I would love to see on her website, though, is a list of categories or tags so I can find similar posts easier. I find it difficult to keep track of all of the design-related articles she’s posted.
6 – Sewing in Space as seen @ Knitty Blog
Knitty Blog shared a video of an astronaut explaining which problems she is facing trying to sew in weightlessness on the ISS and how she trying to deal with them. I know it’s not knitting but it’s still crafty. Besides, it’s cool!
I tried to find some knitting in space, but of course, there’s nothing like that. I only saw this video about the software used to run Apollo’s guidance systems – which again is very cool but more weaving than knitting. And it’s SciShow, one of my favorite Youtube channels out there. I did mention that I was very much a geek of many things, right?
7 – Review and Giveaway: Country House Knits by Julie @ Knitted Bliss
“Tidal Bore” by Shireen Nadir published in Country House Knits from The Blue Brick
Julie over on Knitted Bliss reviewed the new collection of patterns from The Blue Brick. If you’ve been following me on Pinterest or take a look at my “Yarn” board, you’ll see I’ve pinned some of their gorgeous gradients before. I love their yarns, and I plan on owning at least a skein or two at some point in the future. Most of the patterns in this collection incorporate those colorways. The book is available both as a hardcopy (35 C$) and a digital download (29 C$). If you buy the hardcopy, you will automatically get the digital version as well.
Also, Julie is hosting a giveaway for a hard copy of the collection along with the digital download. It will go on until midnight on Saturday. So go on and enter if you still can!
8 – Coffee Mugs for Knitters
Oh, there are so many of them. And can you ever have too many? Well, probably yes. If you can’t fit any more into your cupboards for example. But I enjoy geeky things like these. And those mugs are combining two things I love: coffee and knitting. Just look at this one (*) and that one (*) would have been the perfect mother’s day gift. And of course, there is this one (*). And that mug speaks to the tech nerd (*) in me. And there are tons more where those came from (*).
The best thing about coffee mugs? They are multi-purpose. You cannot just drink coffee out of them. Tea works just well, and in a pinch, they may even hold wine. 😉 If I have one problem with these mugs it’s that most of them are all white. I know it’s easiest for printing but still. I like color and variety.
9 – Nomadic Yarns (*) Etsy Shop by Ashley Aguilar
“Amortentia” (*) by Nomadic Yarns (*)
A pin for this shop suddenly appeared in my feed in May and I had to check it out. I like self-striping sock yarn from hand-dyers. They don’t have very many colorways right now but they do offer a number of different yarn bases. Including a sparkly one. The two colorways you see are my favorites among them. They also sell a number of project boxes. They are basically the same as project bags but are a bit more cube-shaped. I am in love with this fabric (*). It’s so cute and my daughter would just love it – and therefore steal it and use for her own purposes… So maybe it would not be the best option for me. 😉
10 – The Woolen Homestead (*) Etsy Shop by Tiffany Szymanski
“Nebula” (*) by The Woolen Homestead (*)
Another shop that doesn’t have that much in the store. But what is there, is beautiful! It’s mostly fingering weight with a DK weight option here and there. It’s mostly variegated and speckled with a couple semi-solid to solid colors thrown in.
What was your favorite link this month? Do you like coffee mugs as much as I do? Would you like to see knitting done in space? Please let me know in the comments below.
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