knitting

Backroad Hats updated, now with set discount!

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Just over a year ago, Interweave Knits published my Backroad Hats pattern in their Gifts special issue. It’s a good gift pattern, if I do say so: the stitch pattern is very stretchy (so the hat fits a lot of sizes and has some wiggle room for gauge) and works well with variegated colourways and the tonal variations of hand dyes; the hat takes about 126 yds/115m of worsted to Aran weight yarn and is a quick project. (The grey sample is in Malabrigo Merino Worsted, and the variegated sample is in Widdershin Woolworks Targhee Worsted, now only available through Mooncat Fiber in Taos, NM.) I’d always intended this hat to be available as part of a set, and now it is.  Continue reading →

Sunday Sock Day

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Yesterday was a most excellent knitting day here at the Casa de Cusser. All summer, I’ve been working on design samples, one after the other, many of which I can’t even talk about here until some time in December. They’ve been fun projects, and I’ve enjoyed making them, no doubt. Too many work projects in a row can make one a bit squirrelly, though. With all the note-taking, the directions-following (even if they’re your own directions), the need for a perfect finished object: after a while, a knitter needs to break free, you know? I try to have a fun, playful/mindless/doesn’t-have-to-be-perfect project to turn to, and with the end of the tea cozy, it was time for something new. I’ve been obsessing about self-striping sock yarns again, so I dug into the stash and found just the thing: an insanely bright self-striping sock yarn bought at the dreary end of winter last year. Continue reading →

Brightsides

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A while back, my friend and sometime model announced that she was expecting. She’s a pretty special woman, and so I made her a pretty special baby blanket. She loves grey, and stripes, and especially stripes done in greys. I added a pop of bright green to set off the border.

thecusserknits.com | Brightsides corner with periwinkle

It was a pleasing thing, this blanket, so, with her permission, I wrote up the pattern. I called it Brightsides. Continue reading →

Icelandic for tea cozy

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For a knitter, I sure have chosen a strange place to live. Most of the time, it’s hot, and when it’s not hot, it’s just sort of cool. Light weight sweaters are handy from late October ’til April, but those lovely heavy sweaters, the cozy cabled and stranded beauties that would be so perfect up north? Yeah, not so practical here. But finally, finally, I’ve come up with a way to have a lopapeysa of my own that will see regular use. Indeed, it will get used every single day. Continue reading →

Tutorial: The Emily Ocker Cast On

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It’s been ages since the last tutorial, hasn’t it? Time to fix that. With a new centre-out design coming out in the fall and the release of a revised version of the Sweet Lullaby Seamless Hooded Baby Blanket, now’s a good time to demonstrate a useful cast on for projects worked from the centre: the Emily Ocker cast on. This is the cast on that I go to for centre-out work, as I find it fairly easy to do, and a simple tug on the tail closes the hole left in the middle of your work. Continue reading →

Comfort and joy, indeed

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I have, in the past, expressed my feelings about Christmas knitting, so I’ll summarize here: No. Well, mostly no. No with exceptions, those exceptions being very young (for now) and very dear to my heart. The niece and nephews still get Christmas knitting, because they’re still young enough that anything they might want will be quite small, and if I get it right, they’ll think it’s totally neat, and I’m hoping to be fondly remembered as the crazy aunt who knit them great stuff every Christmas. Last year’s gifts were pretty good—I still watch the video of the oldest nephew shouting “It’s Santa’s hat! It’s Santa’s hat!” as he unfolds and dons the hat-scarf thing. This year, though. This year, I think I hit it out of the park. Continue reading →

Designer Interview: Susan Andrews, aka Design Tonic

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As the year — and the Indie Design Gift-A-Long — draw to a close, I’d like to treat you to an interview with a participating designer. Susan Andrews’ collection of designs is carefully curated: each one shows attention to detail and a love of geometry and colour, as well as a great sense of style. In my interview with Susan, I found out why this is.

All photos © Meridith Shepherd, except for Reunited, which is © Susan Andrews. Click each photo to go to that design’s pattern page.

Tommy Cowl detail
Tommy Cowl detail

Continue reading →