Rowan 40 Years: A Review

Rowan is celebrating their 40th anniversary with a special collection of 40 patterns drawn from their archives. I've only been reviewing their patterns for six of those years, so I've reviewed their anniversary edition though it means I've reviewed some of the designs for the second time. Just for the fun of it, I've linked back to my original assessment of the designs from 2012 on, and talked about whether I stand by my words or not. When I began work on this review, I was expecting that Rowan would truly have gone back over the past 40 years and provided a cross-section of patterns from all four decades. But that's not what they did. Most of these designs seem to be from the past twenty years, with just one dating from 1990. It felt a bit like going to a modern history museum and finding out that half of the exhibits were closed. But I understand why the Rowan editors did it. Fashion hasn't changed very much over the last twenty years and it is easy to select designs from the last two decades that look current and attractive by 2018 standards, while designs from the previous twenty would require some serious tweaking to make them usable, and a lot of knitters don't care to do that much work, especially when they are paying for a newly published pattern.

Onza. This is a pattern from 2000. It's so simple and classic I doubt it will ever look out of date.

Anice Shawl. This wrap design seems to be from 2009. A shawl this beautiful will definitely never go out of fashion.

Winter Flower. Here's another design from 2000. I like the understated floral theme, the shape is good, and it would be fun to pick out a colourway for this one.

Orkney. This cardigan is from 2012. I reviewed this one when it came out in 2012, said I liked it overall, and complained about how the neckline and bottom edges were sagging open. It's true that the way the sweater sat on the model in the original product shot did the design no favours. It sits quite well here.

Carlotta. From 2004. At first glance I guessed this pattern to be from the early 1980s, and I suppose without the beading and the ribbon it might have been, but those bits of bling make for a more recent look. It's pretty, but I might very well decide to do without the ribbon and the beading if I were making this. The rose detail is pretty enough for me.

Striven. From 2007. Rather a nice piece. I like the subtle and sophisticated plaid.

Plaid Coat. I don't know when this design was originally published as it doesn't appear to be on Ravelry. It actually looks better in the original photo than it does in this one, as the model in the first one lets it hang free. I like the collar and cuffs detail, but I can't help wishing it had a little bit of shaping to make it look less bulky.

Evia. From 2002. It's amazing how much that bottom contrast panel does for what is otherwise a very traditional pattern. Really freshens it up and turns it into something different.

Agnes. From 2004. The French knots really make this one work.

Soumak Scarf Wrap. From 2013. When I reviewed this one the first time, I wrote, "The Soumak Scarf Wrap is really very striking, if you're the type of person who can carry off a dramatic wrap like this (and can stand to do the constant adjustments). If you're not that person but love the design, buy twice as much yarn as specified in the pattern and make a beautiful afghan." Fair enough, I think. There is some great texture in this.

Addison. From 2012. In my 2012 review, I wrote: "I wouldn't normally have included a sweater as generic as this, but I did want to point out the things that set this sweater apart: the texture, raglan sleeves, funnel neck, and easy but not sloppy fit. The care that's been taken in construction gives this basic design a very finished look. Knit this sweater in your favourite colour and you'll get more wear and real pleasure out of it than three or four intricately patterned and eye-catching sweaters." Back when I first started blogging I didn't do all the patterns in each magazine review the way I do now. I still think this is a very decent plain sweater design. And that it deserves a more attractive colour.

Tillie. From 1999. So pretty.

Plain Cellini. I don't know when this one was published, as there doesn't seem to be a Ravelry page for it. It strikes me as one of those designs that will look frumpy on most women. Even this professional model can't quite make it work.

Guiseley. From 2009. Rather a nice piece with good texture that would add quite a lot of interest (and warmth) to a simple outfit.

Bressay Hap Shawl. From 2007. This works better than I ever would have thought an afghan-style wrap ever could, but it still looks much more like the former than the latter.

Wayfarer. From 2010. Useful and attractive wrap.

Fickle. From 1991. And this design is very 1991, as it offers both the oversized and the cropped fits that were in style then. I don't know why it never occurred to us to aim for a happy medium in those days. I like the overall design of both sweaters, but would reshape them to a standard fit with waist shaping.

Valentina. From 2010. There's no denying that this is rather fabulous. It's one of those designs that you couldn't help noticing if you saw it on someone in the street.

Powder Puff Pullover. From 2003. Cute, fun look. I would neaten up the fit a bit, and I also like the idea I see in one of the Ravelry user photos I see on this pattern's Ravelry page: that of adding a narrow band of colour to the neckline, cuffs and hemline.

Kintyre. From 2012. I wrote that it was a "beautiful pullover". And I stand by that daring and controversial stance.

Brocade. From 2005. Gorgeous. I've had my eye on this design for quite some time myself.

Robinia. From 2011. Love the floral motif, but can't help thinking I'd reshape this to a more standard fit. But I must admit this design looks well on the Ravelry users who have knitted it as is.

Flora. From 2004. This is rather cute. The edgings and the good shaping turn what would be a basic little striped sweater into something pretty.

Burghley. From 2009. A handsome piece.

Lidiya. From 2010. The Fair Isle pattern is terrific (it is after all a Kaffe Fassett design), but I'd reshape. I see from the Ravelry user projects that many Rav users have done just that, using the Fair Isle pattern to make whatever kind of sweater they wanted, or legwarmers.

Celtic. From 2006. A very attractive and wearable jacket.

Flourish. From 2001. Pretty. This design is also shown in a short-sleeved version without the intarsia floral pattern, but I think it looks better with the floral motif.

Kirkwall Wrap. From 2012. Here's what I said in my first pass: "I like this wrap, but only theoretically. The theory being that it would only be worn while sitting on a couch and when feeling chilly." In six years of writing knitting design reviews, I've never really got past my conviction that while large scale wraps can look beautiful in professionally styled photos, they're cumbersome and impractical in real life. I don't see many women wearing them in the street at all.

Mist. From 1999. This one's a little too minimalist for me personally, but I must admit that it's wearable and it looks well on all the Ravelry users who have made it.

Dhurrie. From 2013. Here's what I said about this design: "I wish I could see what's really going on with the Dhurrie design. It looks like it's essentially a cape with a matching scarf worn over top. I'm not crazy about that concept. Capes can be unflattering as it is; adding another bulky element to it is not going to improve matters. If you want to make this set for yourself, I'd suggest you wear them separately." Turns out the cape and the scarf are attached. I'm still not sold on the concept of a scarf/cape merger.

Franziska. From 2014. Here's my 2014 review of it: "I can't get behind (or more to the point, into) the very oversized sweater thing. They're unflattering for most women and they catch on things and generally look sloppy. The overall design of this is quite attractive, but if I were to make this I'd make it a standard fit and raise those dropped shoulders." Present day me agrees with 2014 me.

Martha. From 2000. A wearable, classic piece.

Rapunzel. From 2003, and this looks so very 2003 to me, because empire-waisted everything was having a real moment at the time. It still looks current, and the stitchwork is fantastic.

Flora MacDonald. From 2001. I love the bright stripes and the tartan band, but I don't love the cropped, boxy shape.

Restful. From 2010. This is one of those pieces that have such a relaxed elegance to them.

Monty. I don't know when this pattern dates from, as there doesn't seem to be a Ravelry page for it. It's so oversized and shapeless the model is having quite the time trying to make it look stylish.

Wentworth. From 2009. A pretty and mood-boosting striped cardigan.

Game Board Cardigan. From 2000. Love the yarns used here and the checkerboard pattern, which work so incredibly well together, but not the shaping.

Snowberry. This is another pattern I can't find on Ravelry, so I don't know when it was originally published. It's very pretty. I love the floral pattern and the picot edging, and the shaping is good too.

Olive. From 1999. Quite attractive and smart.

Interweave Knits Winter 2019: A Review

Interweave Knits has released their Winter 2019 issue -- and it's science-themed! Let's have a look at it.

Periodic Pullover. This design, which is based on the periodic table of elements, is okay but I'm not too taken with it. The table looks a bit on the rough and ready side.

Rhizome Pullover. Very pretty. The pattern "depicts subterranean stems and root structures", which makes for one graceful-looking scroll pattern.

O-Chem Tunic. Nice! The hexagonal cable pattern, which is "inspired by organic chemistry compounds", is very attractive, the shaping is good, and I do like a cowl neck.

Atomic Pullover. Another cabled pattern, this time based on atomic orbitals, that's attractive in the same vein as the previous one.

Asteroid B 612 Scarf. Nice stitchwork in this scarf, which was inspired by the scarf worn by the little boy in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. I'm not so crazy about the deep ribbed hem on the end of the scarf, which makes this model look as though he has a sleeve wrapped around his neck.

Star Cradle Wrap. This, which was inspired by the Pillars of Creation photo captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, is quite a fabulous piece, though I'd be more inclined to leave it on the couch than to wear it.

Saturn's Rings Pullover. Extending the yoke pattern down to the midsection was a nice touch, giving this an original, contemporary look.

Chrysalis Pullover. This is different, and it is an interesting and carefully finished design, but I can't help thinking it has a slightly too lumpy, bulky look.

Crystal Pullover. Lovely. Great shaping and neckline, and the yoke detailing is eye-catching and attractive.

DNA Pullover. An attractive cabled sweater for double helix fans.

STEM Cardigan. Beautiful cables, and this looks beautifully soft and warm even if I'm not entirely sold on the way the front sits.

Celia Cardigan. This wouldn't ordinarily be my type of thing, but I'm find myself liking it. It has such a 1918 vibe, while being perfectly contemporary.

Sediment Pullover. The designer of this one was inspired by the "geological layers of sediment in rock formations" but while I admit that it does evoke that, it's also the perfect "nerdy yet cute" striped sweater.

Arge Humeralis Pullover. This is one of those rare designs in which a dropped shoulder and a foreshortened sleeve actually work. This has a funky yet attractive look to it.

Solidago Hat and Cowl Set. I'm not sure about the split shaping of the cowl, but I suppose it looks okay -- and would sit better under a coat than the usual style of cowl -- and I like the set on the whole.

Dionaea Muscipula Cardigan. Attractive and distinctive.

Laboratory Pullover. This is one of the nicest men's pullovers I've seen in a while. It's definitely a new take on the "stripe across the chest" design so ubiquitous in men's sweater design.

Unified Field Cowl. This cowl is okay. It will look better worn double around the neck rather than in the singlefold, "deflated inner tube" style, but then we couldn't see it as well.

Dropping Shoulders With a Vengeance & Other Knitting Fables

Clothilde wasn't about to let her limited knowledge of knitting techniques stop her from realizing her dream of being a knitwear designer.

Henrietta had designed a look she thought was perfect for the mothers of small children to wear on car trips: a checkboard outfit with pockets to keep the checkers in.

Inspired by her the success of the checkerboard outfit, Henrietta next designed a tic tac toe sweater. She was pleased with it too although her friends exhausted their ingenuity trying to find out ways to gently point out that it would be better if she hadn't pre-finished the game.

After receiving a particularly scathing review from that narrow-minded knitwear reviewer on The Knitting Needle and the Damage Done, Ruby dropped the shoulders on her next design with a vengeance.

Buddy was always looking for subtle new ways to use his designs to signal that he was a Friend of Dorothy.

Kimbra prided herself on her practicality and considered that her invention of armwarmers that could also be used as legwarmers was particularly inspired.

Kimbra, who had initially decided that she'd peaked with her arm and legwarmers idea, pleasantly surprised herself when she then came up with a romper that could also be used as a fetal position pod.

Jemma found there was nothing like a spot of strategically placed embroidery to pull together an outfit that basically consisted of random knitting swatches.

Candra, who loved heavy knitwear but found it tended to be too warm for her, eventually came to a life-changing epiphany: she could resolve the problem with proper ventilation.

Model Brianna did not know why designers insisted on making sweaters twice as wide as was necessary, but she inwardly resolved that her next contract would stipulate that her employers were going to be picking up the tab for her chiropractor bill.

Six Years and Still Counting Stitches

Today is The Knitting Needle and the Damage Done's sixth anniversary! I have sometimes in the past managed to come up with theme posts on the anniversary gift for that year, but the sixth anniversary gifts of iron (traditional) or candy (modern) are leaving me rather uninspired. I could write a post about the use of an iron in steam blocking I suppose, but.. meh. So this year you just get the usual photo memes, which you probably don't find nearly as funny as I do, and some of my thoughts on the occasion.

In terms of external markers, this blog has done about as usual this year, with me posting as regularly as my chronic fatigue issues allow. When I'm posting regularly, the blog gets approximately 1000 page views a day, and it's approaching 2 million total page views since its launch. The Knitting Needle and the Damage Done Facebook page is doing very satisfactorily, having surpassed 15,000 likes a month or so ago, and it has long been exactly what I had hoped it would be: a fun, chatty place for knitters to hang out and enjoy interesting and amusing knitting-related posts. The page's engagement rate compares quite well to the Facebook pages for some of the best-known knitting magazines, though they have far larger followings than my page does:

The KNDD group on Ravelry, which I set up two years ago, has over 330 members. I'm also on Pinterest and Twitter, though I use both of those accounts as much for personal stuff as I do for promoting this blog.

When I think back over the past six years, the most remarkable outcome of my blogging efforts seems to be the effect this blog has had on me. For one thing, I am surprised to find myself still doing this, and still enjoying the work so much. Learning about, evaluating, and documenting my thoughts about the newest designs and ideas in the world of knitting never grows old for me. Secondly, I've learned so much from my efforts. My knitting skills have improved considerably -- my rule is to try to learn something new from each project -- and I'm so much happier with the items I make because I've better defined my tastes in general and learned so much about what I really like and don't like and what will and won't suit me, as well as how to put together a coherent, versatile, comprehensive wardrobe. I don't buy on impulse any more, but instead plan carefully, decide exactly what I need or want, and then make or shop around for just the right thing. And amazingly given how little I have to spend on clothes these days, my wardrobe is in far better shape than it was in 2012. (Except for shoes, sigh. I have yet to find a way to get good quality shoes for next to nothing the way I can with clothes.) And if, besides entertaining my readers, I've helped any of my readers learn to take the more critical, strategic approach to their knitting projects and wardrobe planning that I've developed myself and that will save them money, make them happier with their projects and purchases, help them dress and look their best, and reduce their environmental footprint, then I've accomplished something that I can be proud of.

So, this site has been worthwhile in terms of its effect on me, and hopefully on others as well. But I don't know how much longer I will continue blogging. From a financial point of view, the site has not been a success. It makes just a few hundred dollars a year, which for the amount of time I put in on it is not a good return -- it's something in the neighbourhood of a dollar per hour of work, possibly less. When I have so few good hours in the day in which I have the energy to focus and be productive and I'm not making a living (and, truth be told, am living partly on borrowed money), I should probably be investing that time in something that pays decently. I'm not thinking of throwing in the knitting needles just yet, but what I may do is re-evaluate next year.

If you'd like to help keep The Knitting Needle and the Damage Done going, there are a few ways you can help. For one, there is a donation button on the sidebar. If you read the site regularly, and can afford it, please consider making an annual or semi-annual donation in much the same way as you might renew a subscription to a magazine or other periodical that you enjoy. If, say, 80% of my regular readers gave me $25 a year each, I'd be making a reasonable income from the site. If you are a regular reader but are struggling financially yourself and can't afford to donate, please continue to enjoy the site. I'm glad to be here for you in the same way as other people make their web content available to me for free.

Whether you donate or not, there are other no-cost ways you can help me. If you shop on Amazon.com, your navigating to it via the Amazon link on my sidebar or any other Amazon link on my site will mean that I get a small percentage of whatever you spend at no extra cost for you. And as I am sure you know, sharing links to the blog on your own social media accounts and telling other knitters about it will also help grow my readership, which will mean more ad revenue for me over time.

Lastly, but above all, thanks for reading and following and commenting, everyone. Your interest and feedback and enthusiasm is one of the rewards of blogging. Here's to at least one more year of knitting damage!

Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible: A Review

Today on The Knitting Needle and the Damage Done, we're going to have a look the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible: 260 Exquisite Patterns by Hitomi Shida. Let me start off by saying that the book's title is no exaggeration of its contents. This book is an amazing resource for knitters. It contains 260 different stitch patterns that are positively pornographic for knitting enthusiast to browse through. Dozens of photos follow dozens of photos of beautiful, intricate, creative, elegant stitch patterns, the sight of which had me gasping with amazement, sighing with delight, and breathing heavily to an extent that I was glad I was viewing the book in private. I don't have a way to show you the interior of the book, but I suggest you take a good look at the stitch pattern depicted in the cover photo and imagine stitch design on that level multiplied by 260. And all of these stitch patterns came from a single brain, which blows mine. Hitomi Shida is an extraordinarily talented designer, and she might just have the kind of genius for stitchwork that Kaffe Fassett does for colourwork.

I should probably warn you that, if you're used to standard Western-style knitting pattern instruction conventions, you may find the instructions in this book a slight change of pace. Japanese knitwear designers use the more pictorial style of chart that's only relatively recently begun to come into use in North American knitting publications, in which the knitting chart is intended to be a visual representation of how the completed stitches will look, rather than the more linear charts common in English-language patterns, where each square of chart represents a corresponding stitch in the pattern. There is also not typically a key, as every published Japanese knitting pattern uses the same standardized symbols and knitters are expected to know what the symbols represent. Since the English-speaking knitters this book was translated for don't necessarily know the symbols, explanations have been provided in this book, so it shouldn't be too hard for a knitter who is new to these knitting pattern conventions to learn them and to learn to use a slightly different style of knitting chart, and it will certainly be worth it.

There are only five actual project patterns in the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible, so let's have a look at them specifically. They're all simple as to shape, as Hitomi Shida's focus as a designer seems to be almost entirely on stitchwork. A look at her Ravelry portfolio reveals hundreds of project design patterns in wearable, flattering shapes with gorgeous, elegant stitchwork.

Mini-Scarf with Frill. Oooh, very pretty. The little frill adds such a perfect little touch of feminine style without going over the top.

Socks for Warm Feet. A pair of very serviceable and handsome socks.

Hat with Crossed Stitches and Lace.. When I look at the intricate cabling in this one, I get the sense that this is how highly evolved brain matter would look.

Cute Fingerless Mitts. Attractive and wearable.

Elegant Decorative Collar. Oooh, pretty. This will add a special touch to a simple dress or sweater.