TIK Knits

Well, Christmas is upon us: the shopping’s done, the wrapping’s almost done and the rest will be done tomorrow. That picture’s a fair idea of what we’ll be up to until the New Year begins. Unsurprisingly yarn, festive food and armchairs will feature prominently.

So we had a quick survey of what we’re relaxing with, patternwise. Lisa’s going for Golden Wheat with Malabrigo Rios in Jupiter – you might remember that she did Folded by the same designer earlier this year and loved it (we blogged about it here).

Jacqui’s making the dotiest little toddler’s baseball jacket from Debbie Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino Book Four. It’s the top right picture here (awwww….). There’ll probably be a shawl or two as well – watch this space!

Nadia’s making an In Leaf cardigan, also in Malabrigo Rios. There’s at least one Pax shawl planned as well, and the Portulaca cardigan whose sleeve you can see above will be finished (oh yes it will!). Portulaca’s a lovely example of the magic that Carol Feller works with cables, so we can’t wait for her workshop on charts and cables in February.

That’s a lot of crochet and knitting, so we’d better buckle down. A mince pie and a big pot of tea will help as well, of course. But before we go, season’s greetings to every one of you – we hope it’s all you could wish for and more.

The shop’s been echoing in the last few days to one sound: “Awww!”. The cause, you won’t be surprised to learn, has been this baby jacket, made recently by Lisa.

It’s a present for a little baby called T, whose mother is herself a fantastic knitter (we’ve marvelled at her projects on these pages before). It’s a free pattern on Ravelry called Snug, and it knits up fast in plump squishy yarn (Debbie Bliss Rialto Chunky is perfect, and comes in lots of happy colours).

It’s a terrific little knit – it’s entirely made in soothing garter stitch, but it’s kept interesting by an unusual sideways construction. It’s almost entirely seamless, with that cosy hood grafted to avoid an uncomfortable seam against a little head. So if you’re looking for something dotey that’s also fun to knit, then you couldn’t do better than Snug.

So welcome, baby T – the world is a better place now you’re here!

A final note to say that we’re open on December 22rd with our usual Saturday opening hours (10.30am – 5.30pm), and on Sunday 23rd from 1.00pm to 6.00pm. We’ll reopen at noon Wednesday 2nd January, ready for a whole new year.

It’s so easy to get dazzled by choice at this time of year – either by what to buy in the first place or what colour to get. Well, we’re on the case, and the answer, we’ve found, is kits!

Whether you’re buying a present for a loved one or for someone else, we’ve got convenient little packages all ready for you to give. Each of them contains the yarn and the pattern for one of our very own designs, in a sturdy little gift bag which could go on to be a project bag in its own right.

There’s the Ringend Cowl, in luxurious Malabrigo Silky Merino – a simple piece of straight knitting with an ever-so-easy frilly edging:

We’ve got several versions of the Party Lace Scarf, in a variety of Debbie Bliss Angel yarns, and some of them even come with beautiful Swarovski crystals to sparkle along the edge (we have a handy tutorial for beading the edge here).

Debbie Bliss’s lovely mohair/silk blend gets used again in the Slushy Cowl with Louisa Harding’s delicious Grace:

A perennial This Is Knit favourite is the Scribble Lace Stole – it’s been featured on TV, it’s been knit all over the world and it’s had pride of place in many wedding outfits. We have kits for it in yet more Debbie Bliss Angel with Noro Mossa providing the flash of contrast.

Just room for one more: we’ve got the Glenties möbius cowl in Mirasol Api, a soft-as-anything alpaca/wool blend.

If you’re considering a present for a knitter who would like to expand his or her skillset in 2013, then we have lace and möbius knitting classes in the New Year, as well as beginner and intermediate classes. What would make a better gift than the materials and the class together? You can find details of all our classes over on our booking page.

And if you’re looking for a gift that will keep giving long into 2013, may we suggest a subscription to the Irish Indie Dyers’ Lace Club? Exclusive, hand-dyed yarn from Irish craftspeople: what could be better?

(Of course, if you’re a knitter looking for a gift, then you might want to leave this web page open on the monitor….)

There’s a lot of gift knitting going on just now, and most of it has been carefully planned for ages. But it happens to all of us: the need for a last-minute yarny present hits, and we look around for something that is fast and lovely (with particular emphasis on the “fast”).

It’s with this in mind that we bring you Scurry. It’s a scarf that you can knit in a few hours, and the result is simply gorgeous. The lovely pair in the picture above are both made from Malabrigo Rasta, which is stunningly cosy and has an amazing colour palette, but any superbulky yarn will work as well. And when we say that Scurry knits up fast, we mean it: each of the scarves in the picture were knitted by different knitters in two evenings. This thing goes like a rocket on 12mm needles, and takes just two skeins of Rasta.

In keeping with the season and with the tradition set by the Rivendell hat last year, this pattern is our Christmas present to you.

Scurry Scarf

Cast on a multiple of 3 stitches, plus another 2. (In other words, 17 will work (15 + 2), as will 20 (18 +2).) As long as you use this formula, you can make Scurry as wide or as narrow as you like. The red/purple scarf used 17; the orange used 20.

Row 1: *knit 2, purl 1, repeat from * until only 2 stitches remain, knit 2.
Row 2: knit

Repeat these two rows until a metre or so of yarn remains, and cast off.

And that’s it. Two simple rows of mistake rib, and a truly delicious result.

We hope you enjoy knitting Scurry, and we’d love to see your finished projects when you’ve made them, please. Now, if you’ll excuse us, there’s more Christmas crochet and knitting to do, and we’d better get onto that right now.

That’s not really the name of this cowl – it’s actually called the Willow Cowl, but it’s got that nickname in here because it’s the most delightfully elastic, tactile object. It snuggles round your neck and gives you the gentlest, warmest hug.

It’s such an easy knit too, with rounds of stocking stitch alternating with a very very simple eyelet pattern, so that you get that clever concertina effect. It takes just a single skein of Araucania Botany Lace, and this sample was knitted on 3.25mm needles.

We’ve been talking about the boingy boingy all afternoon, probably because there’s a teeny little bit of a chill in the air the last couple of days – that, and we’ve just got some new colours of Botany Lace into stock. Just imagine a cowl made in one of these…

This cowl is so elastic that it’s good to use a nice stretchy cast off: we recommend Elizabeth Zimmermann’s sewn one, which we blogged last year at this link. It’s easy and it stretches beautifully.

You know, the general level of excitement’s quite high here, because tomorrow night we’re attending the Grafton Media Blog Awards. If you follow us on twitter (we’re @ThisIsKnit), we’ll be tweeting the evening’s proceedings from the Osprey Hotel in Naas, so you can follow along with us. We can’t wait!