Modern Lopi: A Book Review

Today's post is a review of Modern Lopi: New Approaches to an Icelandic Classic, written by Lars Rains and published by Cooperative Press. Let's get down to looking at the Icelandic-inspired goodness within, shall we?

Asymptote, Men's Version. Lovely. The yoke's pattern has such a wonderful rhythm to it, and those grayish greens work so beautifully with the gray main colour.

Asymptote, Women's version. The Her version is also lovely.

Clapping Music. Not a bad-looking hat. It can be worn inside out for a different look.

Gimli. I like this design overall, but don't know if I care for the unusually deep yoke, which has a foreshortening effect on the torso.

Hildur. Very much like this one with its Fair Isle style yoke pattern and wrist bands. The colourway is lovely. Rains is clearly a very talented colourist.

Rúntur. This sweater was named after Iceland's infamous bar crawl tradition, with the implication being that this sweater was knitted by a drunk person who got it partly inside out. The concept is witty, but the execution looks lumpy and, well, too much like it actually was knitted by a drunken person.

Katla. Classic Celtic cabled sweater, with the difference that it was knitted with Lopi. It is rather on the big and bulky side, but sometimes a woman just wants a sweater she can cuddle into.

Hornstrandir. The basketweave stitch and blues and grays of this scarf are meant to represent the choppy waves and rugged cliffs of Iceland's fjords. It's an artistic concept and piece and yet is still a scarf that most men would be willing to wear. Nice work.

Winter Blueberries. Warm and wearable and attractive, and it will give you a chance to take your nicest shawl pin out for an airing.

Westfjords. The variation of stripe widths gives this piece more interest than the average striped hat.

Monsina, women's and men's version. This is pretty, but it is really, really big. Don't be afraid to neaten up the fit of any of these sweaters if you wish, and to add waist shaping.

Amazing Lace: A Review

Today we're going to look at Amazing Lace: 13 Handpainted Shawls With and Without Beads, written by Sharon Mooney and Cheryl Potter, and published by Cooperative Press.

Entourage. Not a bad little cowl. The stitchwork gives it a nice finished look, and it's quite practical. I'd have gone with different buttons.

Hankie Panky. This is pretty but much less practical than the previous piece. This is intended for tucking in a pocket in such a way that an inch of lacework is left coyly visible, for daintily wiping away a very few manipulative tears during a moment of conflict with one's beloved, for waving fond goodbyes to friends departing on ocean voyages, for strategically dropping in the path of attractive strangers so that common courtesy obligates them to return it to you. In other words, I can't imagine a real use for this one unless it's to practice lace knitting or possibly line a bread basket or candy dish, but perhaps you can. I don't know your life.

Kingfisher. Pretty little shawl that isn't so elaborately lacy that it can't be worn with everyday clothes.

Serengeti Sunset. Nice piece. Its small scale would make it easy to wear. One of the photos on this pattern's Ravelry page shows its maker wearing a charcoal and light gray version over a denim jacket, and it's a good look.

South Seas. A more traditional full-sized shawl. I like the slightly ruffled edges.

Feeling Groovy. I'm not finding this mish-mash of colours and stitches too appealing, and the scarf is so big it would be a little awkward to wear.

Sing Me the Blues. Thanks to this design, I'm adding "what an elegant, beautiful poncho," to the list of phrases I never thought I'd say and yet have. The stitchwork is beautiful, the beading is lovely, and the piece drapes incredibly well.

Grand Finale. This is pretty, but I'm finding the sporty stripes are at odds with the elegant lacework.

Punting on the Thames. Quite attractive. The garter and mesh stitches and the latticed bands of stockinette stitch work well together.

Purlieu. The stitchwork, beadwork, and shaping are fine, but I'm not liking the stripes, which make this design look more than a little Christmas tree skirt-y.

Et Tu. This one is like some afghan your grandmother cobbled together out of odds and ends of yarn for your birthday and that you pretended to like but then gave to your cat.

Cheryl's Shawl. This one's gorgeous. The stitchwork and shaping is exquisite, and the pearls set off the teal yarn.

Entre Nous. This one makes a very skillful, creative use of the entrelac technique, which tends to look bulky. Here the entrelac section of the shawl becomes a fun and feminine ruffle. The colourway hurts my eyes a little, but that's easily changed.

Spilly Jane Knits Mittens: A Review

Today we're going to have a look at Spilly Jane Knits Mittens, written by Spilly Jane, and published by Cooperative Press. This book would make a good primer for someone who has never knitted mittens before, as it includes lots of helpful technical information and very detailed instructions, including excellent tutorials on the gusset and peasant thumb techniques, and offers lots of tips and inspiration for anyone who'd like to have some fun making arty mittens. Mittens can be treated like tiny canvasses, and one can be very whimsical when designing them without the project becoming too much of a time hog, and still have a wearable result.

Plain Blue Mitts. This is a very simple design technically speaking, and these mittens could be made with odds and ends of yarn, but the stripes make them eye-catching. "Phasing in" stripes with alternating stitches of the new colour is such a nice effect and gives stripes more sophistication.

Plain Brown Mitts. Another basic pattern, this time with a gusset thumb and classic stripes.

Nougat mittens. These are rather pretty, and well named, because the colourway does remind me of a box of chocolates.

Midtown Mittens. Love the graphic pattern on these, which was inspired by New York's subway grills. I'm not a fan of pointy-tipped mittens, which always look silly to me, but if you feel the same you can easily borrow the more oval shaping from one of the other patterns in this book.

Under the Hostas Mittens. These are totally cute and just the right pair of mittens for those days when you're in an Amélie kind of mood.

Codfish Mittens. Also cute, and with greater longevity than real fish.

Cupcake Mittens. I would ordinarily find something like this too twee for words, but these are irresistibly adorable. The pastel colourway is perfect for the theme.

Aurora Borealis Mittens: A Review

In this post we're going to have a look at Aurora Borealis Mittens, written by Shannon Okey and published by Cooperative Press, the publishing company that Okey founded.

In the interests of full disclosure, before I get started on the review, I should probably say that Shannon Okey and I are both longtime members of Metafilter.com, though I don't think we've ever had any more direct contact there than that of commenting on each other's posts. But as I informed myself a little more about Okey's work preparatory to writing this post, and found out that, besides heading up her own publishing company, she has a long string of craft books to her credit and was formerly a columnist for knit.1 as well as editor of the British knitting magazine Yarn Forward, it amused me to recall that the Metafilter community, at least in its early years, was sometimes considered by outsiders to be a bunch of slacker nerds typing away in their mother's basements with Cheeze Doodle-stained fingers. While we may have some members like that, we also have a lot of very accomplished members who, like Okey, are very productive high-achievers in real life with their own not inconsiderable online following. Not incidentally, the crafting community is well represented on Metafilter.

But to get to the review. Aurora Borealis Mittens offers some sound and even creative advice on technique, offering knitters a number of ways to customize its patterns. There are no fewer than seven cuff options detailed in the opening pages, along with mitten-specific advice on how to swatch and wet block, and a tip on how to economize on expensive hand-dyed yarns (by sharing a large skein with another knitter who is also making mittens).

Solveig Mittens. Pretty, and super warm, thrummed mittens. I like that an old rose was used for the thrummed stitches, as they look like little hearts.

Sigrún Mittens. These mittens are actually liners intended to be worn inside another pair of mittens. Very practical for those whose blood tends to run cold.

Fannar Mittens. These mittens are felted and can be embroidered after being felted. They're very plain. These are meant to be worn as an outer mitten (with or without a liner) so I'd want to either use the embroidery technique or go with a more interesting yarn.

Thora Mittens. From the pattern description in the book: "These mittens are named after a specific Thora: Þóra Borgarhjörtr, one of Ragnar Loðbrók’s three wives. Ragnar, who you may know from History Channel’s excellent series Vikings, was actually a historical figure, and married to one of my foremothers." Way to name drop that impressive little ancestral factoid into your mitten pattern book, Okey! Pretty pattern. I think I would want to make the cuff a little longer than they are on the samples. These are longer length mittens than is usual (Okey is making sure there's no bare wrist exposed between the wearer's sleeve and mitten cuffs, which I'm on board with), and the short cuff makes the proportions look a little off to me.





Nordic Stars Mittens. These are back of the hand and palm-side versions of this pattern, done in different colourways. It's a pleasingly intricate pattern.

Aud Mittens. Love the play of colour against the pale bluish-gray background here.

Halldora Mittens. The pattern in this one (and the zig zag stripes on the palm) shows to good effect in the white and teal used here.





Aslaug Mittens. Love the contrast from front to back and detailed cuff used here. Don't love the pointy mitten tips. I know that's a standard feature of mitten design, but it always looks so silly and awkward to me.

Eydis Mittens. The black devices are supposed to look like spears but look a little too much like spiders to me here. If they look that way to you too (and you're not into spiders), going with a different colourway should solve that problem.

Astrid Mittens. These have a striking, graphic appeal to them.

Iðunn's Garden Mittens. The colours used here are gorgeous and work really well with the floral pattern. They make Iðunn's garden sounds like a fabulously exotic and vivid place that I would want to visit.

Freydis Mittens. Very pretty and inventive interpretation of the snowflake pattern.

Sindri Mittens. Bold star pattern, and this colourway really makes it pop.

Dagmar Mittens. "Flowers reaching for the sky" on one side, and "a restrictive gate" on the other side. These seem like the perfect things to wear on a skating rink date with a beau one is feeling iffy about.

Gulla Mittens. Pretty pansy and striped pattern mittens.

Nordic Stars Tam. And finally we have a bonus hat pattern, to help you use up the yarn left over from your mittens, and that you did not want to have to share with another knitter. You could adapt this pattern to suit any motif from any of the patterns above.