Video Book Review, WestKnits BestKnits by Stephen West

Video Book Review, WestKnits BestKnits by Stephen West 

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Today, I have a brief Book Review of West Knits, Best Knits (Vol. 1),  by Stephen West, published in 2016. Link is to view the patterns in the book through Ravelry.

I mentioned that I first was introduced to Stephen West on the Fiber Hooligans podcast. If you'd like to hear that episode go to THIS LINK and look for the episode dated 7/24/14 (apologies, there's not a link for the single episode that I can find.)

This is an unsolicited opinion, mine, of a new book. You can find me in Ravelry as wearingpurple, in Twitter as wearingpurple1 and I have a public group in Facebook called Pursuit of Happy Knits. Also, I'm also in Instagram account and in Pinterest.

Extra: The shawl I'm fussing with is the Strandwanderer (link to my project in Ravelry). I purchased the Lorna's Laces Iris colorway from Ewe and Brew when they very first opened, then began the project as part of a KAL, but it took me forever because I only worked on it at knit night AND because I doubled the size. Did I mention I like big shawls? When I moved away from that shop, it bothered me that I hadn't finished it yet, then I bought some LuLaRoe leggings that matched the colors. That made me churn it out to the finish!

Video Book Review of Urban Knit Collection by Kyle Kunnecke

Thank you for accepting my invitation to view this new post.

Today, I have a brief Book Review of Urban Knit Collection: 18 City Inspired Patterns for the Modern Wardrobe,  by Kyle Kunnecke, published by Interweave as of this month. Link is to view the patterns in the book through Ravelry

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This is an unusually long 20+ minutes because I also received a package from Dizzy Blonde Studios as well. This was consisting of goodies I ordered to celebrate their Knit Dizzney 2016 event, held every year the Sunday AFTER Labor Day weekend (this year was September 11th). Dizzy Blonde makes things available for those who attend and those of us who wish we were there. This year's items (based on the yarny theme 'HOOK') was a t-shirt, yarn and project bag. Check it out ~ I talked like a Pirate for a couple of days, with all of the booty that came in this package!

This is what happened at my desk with the package from
Dizzy Blonde Studios arrived. 

This is an unsolicited opinion, mine, of a new book. You can find me in Ravelry as wearingpurple, in Twitter as wearingpurple1 and I have a public group in Facebook called Pursuit of Happy Knits. Also, I'm also in Instagram account and in Pinterest.

Happy Sunday!

This is actually as we were starting out, from the boat launch area.
I love the lily pads to the right there, I can't recall having seen
that before we moved here. 

Hockey jacket, hooray!

My husband's grandson attends NHL Minnesota Wild Hockey games fairly often. So I thought I would create a jacket for him. Using the same seamless raglan pattern I've often used and Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted in the Cranberry color I started at the neck.
This was the end of the first day. The safety pin marks where increases in the pattern went a particular way.

The second day I made fairly good progress.

I think this was the fourth day, I had a little stripe of the gold color and working into the hunter green at the bottom, with the sleeves on hold. I decided I would create the logo on the back at this point so that I wouldn't have to try to manipulate it later when it was finished and have the full bulk of the sweater working against me.

I found the logo that I wanted to use, and then searched the internet for a FREE chart generator.

I used duplicate stitch to create the logo on the back of the sweater. When that was finished, I worked to the end of the body. I believe this was the progress by the eighth day.

I picked up stitches along the bottom of the front to create pockets. Here is the finished left pocket and the beginnings of the right.

Pockets weren't part of the pattern and neither was the hoodie. I picked up the neckline stitches, the same as for a collar band, added a few for a casing and along the center back to the top then kirchener seamed the crown. I created an i-cord and used spring toggles to finish the hoodie.

Then the left sleeve and the right, with ribbed cuffs.

Try as hard as I might, I wasn't organized enough to sew the zipper in myself, so I called around and found a nice lady at the dry cleaners who sewed it in for me. I think she did a very nice job, as good as I would have done for myself, double stitching the zipper both near the teeth and at the edge of the band, and took care to match the colors. Her meticulous care really finished the whole project.

I took pictures of it and we boxed it up and sent it off to Minneapolis. On Saturday morning, we got a call from a very happy sounding ten-year-old.

It looks like it fits him pretty well too.