Twist Collective Spring 2014: A Review

Twist Collective has released its Spring 2014 issue, and it's probably the best spring issue I've seen yet this season — and I've seen quite a few. So, while snow falls in Toronto and I worry about the well-being of my tulips which had just begun to come up, let's have a look at it.

The Restalrig design is one of those good minimalist designs that have a good shape and just enough detail to keep things interesting. The result is a very useful sweater that will go with lots of other items in a woman's closet.

The Aello design is just stunning. This is a shawl fit for a princess bride, and for bringing out on special occasions for decades to come, such as wrapping around the baby at the christening.

The Aphelion is a cute and wearable little summer top with a retro vibe.

The Nopales cardigan. I'm usually less than enthusiastic about gathered front closures on a cardigan, but I think this one is working because it sits well and has good lines.

The Ivyle top. Very pretty and wearable.

The Carnica shawl. I wish we could see this shawl better, but what is shown here looks good and seems to have an interesting texture.

The Tybee top. Quite like this one. If the drawstring detail isn't for you, you can always omit it and perhaps add a little waist shaping. This top has plenty going for it without it. Love the picot edging and the back view.

The Daralis cowl is beautiful. I love the intricate cable work.

The Belleville cardigan. I'll be adding this one to my Ravelry favourites. It's perfect.

The Chainlink design is another very wearable and attractive summer cardigan.

The Belarra shawl is just as gorgeous as the Aello shawl above.

The Crush socks are cute, and I love the combination of hearts and stripes, which keeps the hearts from being too twee. My one nitpick is that perhaps those hearts could be better shaped.

The Brightwood design apparently can be knitted as either pullover and cardigan. It's a classic, wearable item in both views.

The Walkabout socks are cute.

The Finery cardigan is a lovely piece. The shape is good and the openwork edging around the neck and front pieces is distinctive.

The Facet design. Oooh, those twists and openings are a truly original touch. I like this one, which lets a woman show some skin without being all "EVERYTHING'S IN THE WINDOW COME AND LOOK" about it. I'm also adding this one to my Ravelry favourites, but I will have to figure out how to get a bra underneath it before I let myself make it. Strapless is probably the way to go.

The Megunticook design is another very useful, wearable piece that will flatter most women.

The Glaize pattern. This is a nice little summer top. Do make sure when you make it that it is properly sized to fit the wearer. This one is a little small on the model and is gaping between the buttons and pulling apart too much at the top.

The Interleaf design is really striking and graphic. This is a striped design that really pops.

The Leola sock pattern. Quite like these, but then it would be hard to go wrong with a classic sock pattern like this.

The Aristea shawl is a lovely piece, and offers both a rectangular and a triangular option. Both are beautiful.

The Portia top. I'm not sure how flattering this drawstring waist style will be on most women, especially considering it's not doing a lot for this model. You could make the top in a standard fit, but then it might be easier to just make another pattern.

The Lanai top. Very wearable summer top. The lace v-neck detail is really well done, quite unique and attractive.

The Verbena top. Asymmetrical modern designs like this one don't usually appeal to me, but I like this one. It's well shaped and it drapes well. Alas, the Verbena top is verboten for me, because it's for small-breasted women, but I can see several women I know rocking it.

The Sugarbeach top is a nice classic summer top that almost any woman could wear.

The Calendula top. I love this top on the whole, but I don't love that centre front seam, which keeps catching my eye, and not in a good way, but more in the way a run in a stocking does. If I were to make this top, I'd rejig the design to make that front piece seamless.

And we end this excellent issue of Twist Collective on a good note. Love the Demeter skirt, which is cute and polished.

Made From Cool

In this series of commercials for the retail clothing company Jack & Jones, Christopher Walken demonstrates how a really cool tailor, knitter and sheep shearer makes suits and sweaters. Warning: attempts to replicate Walken's methods at home will result in wasted time and materials and a very exasperated sheep.

Portuguese Knitting

Most knitters in Western society are familiar with the two most common styles of knitting: English style, in which the yarn is kept at proper tension using the right hand; and Continental, in which the yarn is kept in play using the left hand. A number of knitters employ both, switching to either hand as the other tires, or using both hands when working with two different colours. But there is another common method you may not know about called Portuguese knitting.

Portuguese knitting, also known as Turkish Knitting, Incan Knitting, Andean Knitting and "around the neck knitting", originated among Arabic knitters. The technique gradually spread north from Africa and the Middle East to the Mediterranean, the Balkans (especially Bulgaria and Greece), the Iberian Peninsula and eventually came to South America via Spanish and Portuguese colonization. Knitters in these countries sometimes use hooked knitting needles but it's not necessary to do so as the Portuguese style of knitting is often practiced with the standard knitting needle.






When using the Portuguese knitting technique, the yarn in play is wrapped around the right hand, and then strung around the knitter's neck or through a pin fastened to the knitter's shirt or sweater, before continuing to the piece being knitted. It's a smooth, easy, fast technique involving only a flick of the left thumb to wrap the yarn around the needle for the next stitch, and it could be of great help to those who can no longer knit English or Continental style due to injuries to their hands. In the video above Andrea Wong demonstrates knitting and purling in the Portuguese knitting style.

Andrea Wong says in the above video that she uses knitting pins (such as the one above) "for comfort" rather than running the yarn around her neck, and she uses more than one pin if working in different colours. But I would be concerned about the holes it would create in my clothes.

There are also Portuguese knitting pendants available, which look like a better idea to me. These pendants can be strung on a cord and worn as a necklace, such as the one above, which is from Knitting Boutique.

Another option is to use a magnetic pin that can be fastened to your clothing (the magnet goes on the underside of the fabric) without risking any damage to the garment. This magnetic pin is from Etsy vendor Flighty Fleurs.

There are some very pretty knitting pins and pendants available on the net that could almost pass for jewelry, such as the pins above, which were made by Etsy vendor Lazy Cat Fibers, but if you just want to try out the technique before investing in some beautiful pins or pendants, you can always begin by simply stringing the yarn around your neck. If that irritates your neck, try making your own pin by fastening a bent paper clip to a safety pin, or making a Portuguese knitting pendant necklace by slipping a bent paper clip onto a cord.

On Handwork

Renate Hiller, co-director of the Fiber Craft Studio at the Threefold Educational Center in Chestnut Ridge, New York, explains beautifully and eloquently why working with our hands is so necessary and so satisfying.

Polar Vortex Chic and Other Knitting Fables

York was pretty sure that his latest birthday present was some kind of comment on how he'd refused to stop at a store so his girlfriend could buy a new tape measure the time they were on a road trip and she'd lost the one she had, and when she complained about it, scoffed that she didn't need one anyway.

Althea had thought she was tapped out design-wise until one day she realized how much inspiration lay in common kitchen supplies. From making tinfoil masques to recreating banana bunch shapes to knitting with the roll of twine in the utility drawer, the possibilities were endless!

Althea planned to do an entire line of sweaters that could do double duty as pot scrubbers.

Althea also found inspiration in the mat and toilet seat cover in the bathroom.

And then, Althea thought, when she'd exhausted both kitchen and bathroom as a design source, she'd move on to the garbage bins on the porch and knit with found objects. She was so thrilled with this new direction in her work she thought she might just donate all her yarn stash to other, less gifted knitwear designers than herself.

After a January 2014 visit to Montana, Marcella had decided to design a whole line of outfits that had the look people got when it was so brutally cold outside that people stopped giving a shit about what they looked like. She called it "Polar Vortex chic" and was confident it could be the next big thing in winter outerwear fashions.

Marcel was sure his sweater made from Jane Fonda's upcycled eighties-era workout wear was innovative and daring enough to win the "Upcycled Fashion" aware at his design academy, but for extra insurance he crated a modern halo that he thought captured the spirit of aerobic exercise.

Carey had always been a big Tetris fan.

Lorna had heard every designer should have a recognizable trademark, and had decided hers would be the fringe.

Lorna was toying with the idea of calling her design company "Fringe Theory" and of making garments that consisted entirely of fringe. It was, she thought, a design element with a lot of scope.

How to Knit a Popular History of Media

At an event held at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine & Society at the University of California, Berkeley, in October 2011, Kristen Haring of Auburn University gave a presentation called "How to Knit a Popular History of Media".

From the YouTube page for this video: "As part of a study of the cultural history of binary systems, Kristen Haring undertook an unusual hands-on project. Her talk will explain how her knitting of Morse code serves to engage a general audience in discussion of communications theory, binary systems, and the history of media. She will also recount the surprising ways that physical production deepened her historical understanding. The talk will highlight the rich answers that can come from explorations that are at once artistic and technical, popular and scholarly, historical and contemporary."

Knitscene Summer 2014: A Review

Knitscene has released their Summer 2014 issue. Let's have a look at it, shall we?

The Tuolumne Tank. I think I may already own this. It's downstairs in one of my kitchen cupboards with about 5 kilograms of basmati rice in it.

The Kaweah Tunic. Here we have a dress of what looks like flour sacking, with a draggled-looking hem and stretched-out looking pockets.

The Petaluma Tee. This pattern has a bit of life and smartness in its colourway and graphic design, and is at least not sack-like, though it is baggy in way that is going to make many women look dumpy.

The Morro Tank. This one I can see working on a woman with a very contemporary dress sense. The buttons are a good thought and add a bit of interest and style.

The Argon Tee. This one isn't bad. It's got a decent shape, though surprisingly it doesn't seem to sit very well through the shoulders in any of these photos. I'm not sure how I feel about the drawstring around the waist. It looks a little awkward. I think a knitted in line of yellow and maybe an intarsia bow might have served this sweater better.

The Helium Sweater. For a random bit of colourblocking, this works surprisingly well. The overall shape of the sweater is good and the curved colourblock seems in accord with it.

The Krypton Hat. Really cute little cabled hat.

The Xenon Mitts aren't a bad little pair of fingerless gloves, although I don't know who needs fingerless gloves in summer. Perhaps this model has an especially hard time staying warm in summer, and has therefore provided herself not only with the gloves but with a hair pillow in lieu of a hat. You know what your mother always told you about how much body heat you lose through the top of your head.

The Radon Pullover. Oooh, I like this one! It is genuinely original and interesting and yet still quite wearable. I'm also imagining it lengthened into a dress.

The Stoxa Tank is a quite a nice little piece, though I think there are better colourways for it.

The Bethel Tank. This is pretty and could be a nice addition over a simple summer dress.

The Kinross Tank. I love this one. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that diamond lace pattern.

The Indio Cowl is pretty and, as you can see, it lends itself to being worn a few different ways.

The Leven Shawl is very pretty as well.

The Austin Tee. I very much like this one. The lines and stitchwork are both so good and this is a flattering and useful summer top that can be worn many places.

The Manchester Pullover. I'm not really a fan of this one, though I suppose objectively there's nothing wrong with it. The shape is good and the tie detailing down the arm is an interesting touch. I think it's the I-cord ties at the end that are bothering me. Such ties have a way of looking too thick and tend to coarsen the look.

The Lea Pullover. I do like the openwork detailing across the shoulders and sleeves here, but this top has one major flaw, and that is the shaping. Notice how it's even making this lovely professional model look dumpy and frumpy? If you want to make this one, shorten the sleeves to at least midway between your elbow and shoulder and neaten up the shape and fit.

The Sunspot Tank. This is a nice casual summer top with a good shape and a creative use of polka dots. I'd want to pair this with a skirt in a polka dot skirt in the same colours.

The Bokeh Tank is elegant and flattering, and yet so simple it will go with all a woman's summer shorts, trousers, jeans and skirts.

The Datura Kerchief. This is pretty, though if worn in certain areas of southwestern Ontario it might get you asked if you're a member of one of the offshoot Mennonite sects.

The Gambeson Tunic. Not liking this one, which looks rumpled and frumpy even on the model.

The Dowlas Tee. Knitscene used this design for the cover shot, and I don't know why, as there are far better patterns in this issue. The pocket is sagging open, none of the design elements are working together, the item doesn't sit very well as a whole, and even the model has a, "Seriously?" expression on her face.

The Linum Tee is simple, wearable, and attractive.