Kniterature - Men who knit and the dogs who love them

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Title: Men who knit and the dogs who love them
Author: Annie Modesitt,Drew Emborsky
ISBN-10: 1579908748
ISBN-13: 9781579908744
Format: Hardcover
# of Pages: 144
Publisher: Lark Books (NC)
Published: 2007
Book Source: Dymocks
Price: $39.95
Skill level/Audience: Beginners to Intermediate

I wanted to like this book. I REALLY REALLY wanted to like this book. But expectations set by the title were not met.

When I nabbed it in Dymocks, I thought - what's cuter than a man that knits? How bout a man that knits and has a dog?? I was looking forward to anecdotes a la Franklin, Brooklyn Tweed and Guido Two-skeins (oh - and of course, David)

In the bookshop, I saw these one sentence blurbs, and thought they were highlights from a larger interview or article which would tell you more about the "Men who knit". Sadly, when I got home I found these "purls" were the only wisdom from the Men who shared their knitting experience with the author, and they are sporadically and infrequently scattered throughout the book. And as for the "dogs who love them" - not one of the male knitters so much as mentions a Fido.

So then my next thought was that patterns were knitted by men, or that male knitters had a big input into the finished objects shown in the book - but a quick look at the list of test knitters shows that there were a surprisingly large amount of female names listed...

Which left me with the idea that, perhaps, rather than models - real knitters were used for the pictures... but I'm not sure. First of all, the author thanks all the models (male and canine) for their assistance. And look at how this guy is holding his yarn... You be the judge.. So I get my major gripe with this book is the title is very misleading. Perhaps "Sweaters for Men and Dogs designed by a Woman and a Man-who-c******ts-but-doesn't-knit" wouldn't have sold many books but it would have been a helluva lot more accurate.

So - lets re-assess our expectations and consider this as just a pattern book.

First of all - it contains the "learn to knit" section. Most of what I have learnt is from books and illustrations - and I have no idea what is going on in these diagrams

I can knit both English (western in this book) and Continental (Eastern) and I have never had my stitches sit on the needles back to front. I understand that Annie Modesit has a rather quirky way of knitting, and says that there is no right or wrong way of knitting - but it feels here that she is trying to justify her special brand of knitting as a traditional style. I wouldn't recommend the lesson in this text to anyone wanting to learn how to knit.

However, what this text does do well is explain how to size both people and dogs. It has clear diagrams and tables that allow the knitter to ensure that they can knit a garment that fits.

Which really only leaves us with the patterns. From my extremely scientific survey of approximately 5 men, the best quote I got about these garments is that "only a man incredibly comfortable with his sexuality would wear these". This is mainly a comment on the colours used - for example, this item wouldn't be worn by any man I know. Or even any woman I know...

However, even if you could get past the gaudy colours (that would still look out of place at a psychedelic 60s drug party) - the construction still a very simple drop shouldered sweater. (although the model in this picture does have yarn woven through his fingers - is this one of the fabled "men who knit"?)

This colour combination of this sweater made a hungover Lara reach for painkillers - however, I would quite like this knitted in subtler colours.

This sweater was the all-round favourite. Again, the colours are a bit bright for most men I know, but they aren't completely out-there. Yes - there are a lot of matching Man & Dog sweaters - needless to say, the sweaters look a hellava lot cuter in the dog version. However, I think the men's toe-up socks are great, but didn't need the matching paw-covers for the dog.

If you are keen for some great knits for your pet fido, this is a great book. This dog bed was one of the winners-

- and quite possibly would make a nice interesting throw cushion for a couch as well. There is also a great pattern for dog toys, and several of the doggy sweaters are quite dignified (however, the doggie "saddle-bags" were a bit crazy)

Grab "men who knit and the dogs who love them" if you are keen for some cute patterns for your pup, otherwise I'd suggest you give it a miss.

If you are looking for some great men's knits, I would suggest you hunt down a copy of Patons new Jet book - in fact, if you're female (or a gay man) I'd suggest you grab just for the eye-candy of the models. I haven't seen it in store yet, but the preview on the Paton's site will have me keeping an eye out! (although I am not entirely sure chunky cardigans for men are ready for a comeback) Below is the news from Patons - notice not one mention of the sweater-curse...

Book 1266– Jet Mens
There is nothing more special than hand knitting a sweater for the man in your life! Patons Australia has received many requests for contemporary mens hand knits. In response, our design team has produced the Jet Mens Book 1266 containing 20 hand knitting styles – to suit all hand knitting skill levels from easy through to advanced knits. You’ll find sweaters, cardigans, vests and jackets – from the ever-popular classics through to styles reflecting the latest fashion trends. Sizes range from XS to XXL.
Patons Jet knitting yarn is a relatively quick to knit 12ply blend of 70% Wool and 30% Alpaca – for luxury and softness. Patons recommends Jet is knitted on 5.50mm knitting needles.
To add to your confidence with the Patons Brand, we offer a free help assistance telephone service – from 9am to 3.30pm Monday to Friday EST Australia. Our toll free number is – 1800 333 642. Any query can be answered by our professional design and knitting team. The Patons quality is assured – trust Patons – to help you knit for the man in you life.

And a photo from a lazy weekend

we invaded Fink Chocolate Cafe in Lane Cove with our needles and yarn. As we come into colder weather I'd suggest you stop by for the bestest hot chocolate north of the harbour.

Just to clear it up...

I was asked to do a recruiting photo shoot way back when Defence sponsored me to finish my Arts degree. However, I didn't realise that they ads would be all over public transport, all over the country, and that they would be using my real name (and for some time my real date of birth bar the year...) and it would still be following me around 3 years later.

I was told that the pictures (and an interview) would be used on a promotional CD sent out to prospective undergraduate sponsees... So a bit shocked when I got on the bus, but not completed unexpected as a couple of years ago a friend told me I rode on the tram to work with him every morning...

Hope that helps to clear a bit up!

Hoo-ray for Albert!

(quick note - thanks to anyone who has clicked on the skull-candy banner. If you haven't yet, it's over on the top of my sidebar! I've answered Q's about my headphones at the bottom of the post.

Also - thanks for the links to Vic knitting groups. I will check them out after I finish this post)

Eager to extend my knit-picks-bits, and use my $50 tapestry craft voucher, I have been calling Tapestry Craft regularly to find out if they had gotten in their extra shipment of knit-picks-bits.

Yesterday I called at about 4pm, spoke to the owner, Albert, and he told me that he was just opening the box with all the extra bits in it as he was talking to him, and if I went in-store today, I would be able to pick-up the bits I wanted.

Tapestry craft today was a bit hectic. There was a beginners crochet tutorial happening, and 3 sales attendants on the floor inundated with customers all asking difficult questions, looking for certain patterns and dye-lots.

To begin with I was a bit concerned as I didn't see any knit-picks paraphernalia anywhere - however, once I asked Albert rushed downstairs and ushered me into the back room where he then started to pull stock out of a cardboard box...

due to the busy morning the knit-picks stock hadn't yet been checked off against the invoice or put into their sales system....

but - SQUEE! - Albert let me pick what I wanted to take, and then found his price list and calculated whether it would be worth buying separate tips and cords, or the "chunky" set with some items I already had (and didn't need more of). Of course, this took some time - and was very nice of him to do it, as I was only going to buy the option that was cheaper for me.

I also grabbed the 15cm DPNs as well as some extra pockets. I came home with the following loot...
Of course, Albert was fantastic. He had to work out the retail price for each item (not in the system yet!) And then he had to figure out how to put the purchase through the til (again, not in the system) - and while this was going on he managed to answer the phone to get details of a dyelot someone was trying to match, and get the ball rolling on a special order for another instore customer without neglecting me.

Of course, what I was really happy with is that the prices for the knit-picks-bits were exactly the same as I have seen elsewhere - and I now have all of the interchangeable tip sizes, extra cords in the two smaller sizes, and DPNs in 2.0 - 3.25mm - and they all fit in the folder with the extra pockets I bought today. Nice and neat - I need all the help I can get to be tidy, so hopefully this system works!

I bought all the DPNs as I have a feeling I may be needing them to make my rockin' sock club socks. Now that I have the right sizes I will be starting on the Monsoon sock - and once I have used the DPNs I will be sharing my long-awaited review of the knit-picks.

The smaller circulars (that aren't available as interchangeable) and larger DPNs (in the 20cm size) I will probably purchase as I require them.

Oh - and because the knit-picks-bits aren't in the system yet, they won't show up on the website. If you're keen and unable to get to the store, I'd suggest giving them a call - I'm sure they would be keen to help you out, just as I was today.

A very weird moment...

I caught the bus home today and got quite a shock... this add was up in the bus 4 times...

What's so shocking about this add? well, see that tall figure on the right? She has my head...

And my name... She used to have my date of birth (but different year) but they seemed to have changed that a bit - they tend to keep me about 21! I'm not sure I really needed a body double though, I am rather proud of my figure...

So there was really 5 of me (or my head, really) catching the same bus home...

And what really cracked me up is this bit....

Have you got what it takes???? Well, I was medically discharged from the Navy, so I guess I didn't really have what it takes after all. Oh well... at least I can say I'm a model for a national advertising campaign....

And more free advertising for skullcandy

To answer Jejune's question's about how comfortable teh skull-candy earbuds are - I hate laying awake at night when I can't sleep, and Tuffer's hated it when I put the light on to read. I found these earbuds so comfortable that I could listen to audiobooks, lie on my side, and even fall asleep and when I woke up I didn't have any discomfort (except I missed quite a few chapters of my book) - I could never do that with my other ipod headphones.

Also to cater to different sized ears -

The include different sized rubber comfort plugs to go over the tip of buds. Like goldilocks, I find the small ones too small, the large ones too large, but the mediums ones just right. They stay in my ears while I'm running to catch a bus, but remain very comfy.

A couple of other features I like - you get a cute travel case for the earbuds, and there is a volume control on the cord, so you don't have to go fumbling in your bag for your ipod if you want to adjust the volume.

Help a gal out!

After Pierre ate the original headphones that came with my ipod, I went a hunting for a replacement.

I decided to buy some skullcandy earbuds for 3 reasons:

1 - the were a funky pink colour
2 - they donate funds to increase breast cancer awareness (if you buy the cool pink headphones)
3 - they have this cool warranty - no matter how you destroy you headphones they will replace them for half price.

Anyhoo - I use the headphones mainly when I am spinning, as I like to zone out and listen to audiobooks. The earbuds I got were noise-cancelling, and incredibly comfortable...

Until Pierre got to them...

...and created this carnage...

I am in contact with skullcandy at the moment to organise a replacement, but while cruising round their site, found that they were having a promo - but their banner on your website, have 100 people click on it, and get free headphones. Considering my run so far, I think I could do with all the headphones I could get...

So see this banner (here and in my sidebar) - click it. If possible, leave a comment here if you do so I can try and keep count of how many clicks I get.


And I also need help...

...to find a new stitch'n'bitch in Victoria. I'm keen to have one inGeelong (I'm thinking pubknitting) and haven't had any luck finding a group there yet. I may have to start one!

But - I'd also like to meet some of the Melbourne knitters - or gate-crash other groups in Victoria. So if your a Victorian knitter and you stumble across this, please let me know about any knitting groups. If I've missed a crucial website that has this info on it - please point me that way!

return to the scheduled knitting content..

Well - there will be some random cuteness in this post as well... Whilst in Canberra, Lucy-lou and I went into Lincraft and I came out with 10 ball of Cleckheaton Merino Bambino...

Now I have 3/4 of a ball left.. and Huey has the following additions in his wardrobe...

Ribbed jacket and booties

This is the easiest bootie pattern ever - and the jacket is also an easy (but time consuming!) knit. Knit from sleeve to sleeve with casting on and off making nearly all off the shaping, it is a rather clever design as it is all knit in one piece. I complicated things a bit by using a provisional cast on for the right front and back so I could go back later, pick up stitches and use a 3 needle cast off to avoid seeming, and also used a 3needle cast off on the left front and back. The result - super-neat seams!

THE STATS
NAME: Baby two-tone sideways rib jacket and booties
PATTERN: Cleckheaton Book#951 Design 7
YARN: Cleckheaton Merino Bambino
YARN SOURCE: Lincraft Belconnen
NEEDLES: Knitpicks Options 3.5 mm
COMPLETED: 07 April 07

Slip-on bootees

When Dilby was born, he was a rather large baby. So large, that Lucy and Hubby Lou were under-prepared for just how small Huey is - and as such, they have only one pair of booties in his size. I was rather passively recruited to help with this problem, and found a rather cute and quick patterns in a book of Lucy-lou's. The above is the finished knit, before seaming.


THE STATS
NAME: Baby Clogs
PATTERN: Slip-on from 50 Baby Bootees to Knit By Zoe Meller
YARN: Cleckheaton Merino Bambino (held doubled)
YARN SOURCE: Lincraft Belconnen
NEEDLES: knitpicks options 4mm
COMPLETED: 08 April 07
Baby surplice jacket

I have always wanted to try a baby surprise jacket, and found this pattern in the latest Vogue irresistible.

The diagonal crossover suits the clean lines and creates an oriental feel to the jacket. Again - rather than weave the shoulder stitches together I used a 3 needle bind off to create a very neat and interesting seam.


THE STATS

NAME: Baby Kimono
PATTERN: EZ baby surplice jacket in VogueKnitting Summer/Spring 2007
YARN: Cleckheaton Merino Bambino (held doubled)
YARN SOURCE: Lincraft Belconnen
NEEDLES: knitpicks options 4mm
COMPLETED: 10 April 07

And here is the boy showing off his new jacket and fancy clogs! Lucy-lou found a great vintage button (from her craft stash) for the jacket that completely matches the contrast yarn on the sleeves.

The baby kimono hasn't been modelled yet as it is rather large for the tyke.

And more random cuteness to close!

The Grandma edition, aka "ooh... egg... sthiney!"

This one is for Hubby-lou's Mum and Moma Tuff -

Both of Dilby and Huey's Grannies live way over the other side of the country (in WA) - but I was still surprised to find out that Hubby-lou's Mum is one of my regular readers (as well as being the main purveyour of Dilby's Couture!)

Moma Tuff also helped out an exhausted Lucy-lou over the past couple of weeks by helping to keep an exuberant Dilby entertained - it was a shame she had to miss out his first Easter egg hunt.

By the end of the hunt "ooh... egg... sthiney" was replaced with "oooh... egg.... toclate (chocolate)... openit?"

Sorry for the delay - did mean to go back and update on Easter Sunday, but blogger wasn't up to it.

Arrived back in Sydney very late last night - I didn't want to leave these two adorable boys so stayed as long as I could.

By the way - that blue crocheted rug in the picture of Dilby and Huey in the last post was made by Moma Tuff's friend Sue. Apparently she got quite a kick out of seeing it online...

gatecrashing in Canberra

As you have probably guessed, I am down in Canberra hanging out with Lucy-lou and her newly grown family. Hubby-lou was kind enough to hook my laptop up to his network in order to let me blog and surf the net and all other manner of fun computery stuff...


Well, first things first, I know you are all dying to see pictures of the adorable baby Huey - shown here napping on his sheepskin with his big brother Dilby.


Huey is a teeny-tiny ball of adorableness (he is still a tad bit small for a 0000!)- he has spidery arms and legs (very long and oh-so-skinney) and hasn't quite grown into his skin yet so at times it looks like gorgeous pink elephanty-type wrinkles around his elbows and knees.

And here is Dilby, who turned two last weekend (although he is usually a ball of hyperactive dancing and laughter, it appears he is beginning to show signs of the dreaded 'terribles'.... especially when it is time for his nap) This is the boy at his adorable best - helping me out by modelling my newly finished Shadow Tweed Cable Raglan (stats are a bit further down!) As you can probably tell - Dilby is a bit of a joker most of the time.


Being in Canberra, I took the opportunity last night to gate-crash the S'n'B in Civic. There were LOTS of knitters there (I found out that there were a couple of extra ring-ins like myself) and ended up staying quite late. The picture on the right is of Bells, who celebrated her 1 year blogiversary yesterday and me, showing off my new project - which uses up some of my ebay bargain Cashmerino SuperChunky . This picture was kindly taken by Jejune and emailed to me last night.



And speaking of Jejune - here she is with her problem child, Lulu, who appears to be attempting to reclaim wool that appeared to already been processed. Perhaps Jejune should show Lulu the picture of Huey and Dilby on the sheepskin so she gets the idea of can happen if the sheep don't have their fleece sheared off... And Bells has magically jumped into this picture too...



Of course, I did meet lots of other great knitters too - including Dotter (mentioned quite frequently on Jejune's blog) who I am suspecting if concocting a plan to kidnap Pierre...



...and Taph - who I ended up staying out past my curfew because we were having such a great chat (considering this was only our second face-to-face meeting, it was a fantastic chat and allowed me to talk through a couple of issues I am sorting through at the moment. Just one of the reason I love the knitting-blogosphere so much!)



...and the self proclaimed Caffeine Faery, who shares my passion of literature, pop-culture and vampire slayers, and well as being a knitter...



...and Brenda, who I don't think is a knitter but was happily cross-stitchin'n'bitchin'



...and many others who's names have escaped me since last night (I got lost getting out of the carpark, and then finding a fuel station, before being pulled over by the cops for a breath-test and having a rego-check done... with all that happening I am surprised I remembered the names I did!)



And without any further ado...




THE STATS
NAME: Shadow Tweed Cable Raglan
PATTERN: My Own
YARN: Paton's Shadow Tweed
YARN SOURCE: The wool inn at Penrith
NEEDLES: 6.5mm clover bamboo 80cm circulars, Knitpicks Options 7mm
COMPLETED: 05 April 07

And here it is on me - this is a great comfy sweater for around the house, although it is fairly casual, and I know there are a few errors in it, I think the yarn is such great colours it hides mistakes and is very forgiving. I have worn it (almost) non-stop since I finished it yesterday morning. And for those of you playing at home, Dilby is wearing the super-funkified-reversible-double-knit-weasley-sweater I gave him for Christmas. Still a bit big, but it was the first day cold enough to pull it out of the wardrobe... so Hubby-lou decided to give me a thrill and pop it on him.

The Katoomba LYS

A few weeks ago, David invited us to visit his LYS - Katoomba Wool & Needlecraft...

We weren't really sure where we were heading, but Katoomba isn't all that big, and we knew we were in the right place when we saw this cute sign in the middle of the footpath...hee hee hee - a knitting sheep (I wonder if he is knitting in cotton???)

Just in case we had doubts, we found the trail of yarnbaskets to lead us right to the door...

And inside - all sorts of treasures and delights. If I had to describe this store in one word it would be "essentials" -

The store has all the yarn lines, in all the colours from Australian Country Spinners (Patons, Panda and Cleckheaton) as well as Naturally. There was also quite a collection of British yarns such as Twilleys of Stamford and Sirdar.

Although not the main focus of the store there was also some luxury yarns, such as quite a bit of Jo Sharp in stock, but not quite the entire collection. And there were also a few novelty yarn s (however, the store was not overrun with them.)

As far as the fruity new vegan yarns (such as bamboo, soy, maize or corn, and hemp) - they haven't seem to made it to this store - yet!

My guess is that a lot of the custom for this store comes from 'traditional' knitters who may not adventure away from machine washable 8ply wool crepe...

The flavor of the day for us was the Twilley's of Stamford new yarn, Freedom Spirit. I think 3 of us walked away with enough for a garment out of this fantastic yarn (I have already completed my bolero!)

Of course, one LYS is much like another if you don't get any personality from the staff. Jan - the owner - was on hand to help us with all our queries. If you listen to Sticks&Strings, you have probably already met Jan, as David interviewed her for one of his earlier shows. She is every bit as loverly in person, and, I discovered, has great taste in dogs...

Yes - that calendar in the middle there is a whole year of Papillons! And she owns two Papillons herself, quite possibly distant cousins to Pierre...

If you are driving up the Blue Mountains I would recommend popping in and saying hello to Jan. She is incredibly chatty, and didn't mind us bringing our take-away coffees into the shop while we browsed. (For some of us it was the first caffeine hit of the day, and we really needed it!)

Shadow Tweed Sweater

This is what I have accomplished so far with my shadow tweed - front, back and sleeves knitted separately and then joined in the round and shoulder shaping completed via raglan decreases and a v-neckline put in.

I made the pieces of the jumper slightly smaller than I would usually and am completing a sleeve/side seam gusset to make up the extra width - yes, it was intentional. I wanted long colour repeats, and wanted to experiment a bit with the construction. I have grafted in one of the side gussets, and only have to complete the other to have a finished garment. I am thinking this will be a great hot chocolate, on the couch, in front of the telly, pouring rain outside kinda jumper....

New blog - welcome Sally

Sally - the unofficial leader of the Rubi and Lana group, has finally given into her blog-envy and created her own at pompoms.wordpress.com. Please pop on over and say "hi!"

Sally is also playing with Shadow Tweed at the moment, making a jacket from the Patons booklet. She made the comment that this is the first time in 20 years she has used a pattern, so hopefully she will have lots of wonderful, one-off designs to share with us when she gets into the swing of things (hehehe - put you in it now, haven't I Sally!)

Canberra knitters

I checked out the Canberra knitters blog, and looks like I'll be able to make it to the S'n'B this thursday evening (the 5th) at Starbucks Civic. Look forward to catching up with you all again!

I am actually heading down to Canberra tomorrow, and I'm not sure what interweb access I will have while I am away, so if you don't hear from me for a week - don't worry. I'm living life!