THE ULTIMATE KNITTING POST - PART 2

So, we have procured our yarn from THE ULTIMATE KNITTING POST - PART 1, either by purchasing a gorgeous specimen already made or spinning up some luxurious fibers on our own...now it's time to procure a pattern. I'm a fan of winging it myself, perhaps picking up just a stitch pattern and turning it into something...but then again, I would NEVER be able to improvise these babies:

Knitted Lace of Estonia.




They're soooo beautiful but SO intricate. I'm going to have to work my way up to that one.


In the meantime, I can sate myself with

Luxury Yarn One Skein Wonders



Loooook hoooow fluuuuuffffyyyyyy....o_O

Purlbee, along with offering a slew of free knitting patterns (among other things) on its site offers a wide array of knitting and stitch pattern publications, such as these prim-covered little Treasuries by Barbara Walker.




And then there's Ravelry which is alarmingly overwhelming with free and purchasable patterns FOR EVERYTHING.

I happen to own The Big Book of Knitting which is, frankly, really difficult to navigate through...but it has SO MUCH in it that it is inevitably helpful. It just takes some searching to find it...




Meanwhile, I eagerly await my One Knitting Pattern a Day calendar that I ordered for my desk at work so that when I'm not knitting I can fantasize that I am.

Finally, Vogue Knitting offers a ridiculous amount of fancy-shmancy (if cumbersome) fashion knits both in print and online.

And there's always Google.


Then there's a question of knitting implements, mainly needles, stitch markers, crochet hooks and stitch holders.

I'm personally a fan of Brittany needles



Because, though a bit pricey, I believe it's important when making beautiful things that you use beautiful things...it puts you in the right state of mind.

I've never used a Brittany crochet hook



but they look stunning. I know they're available at Woolcott and Co. in Harvard Square.

and Lenabrowndesigns.etsy.com offers endless beautiful knitting needle cases to store them in.



I have one and it has made my knitting life that much more organized.

And in case you ever needed to order circular needles in bulk, check out Brilliantknitting.etsy.com



My goodness!

Then for complex patterns, you'll need markers. Etsy offers stitch markers galore, for every project and personality...but I would be partial to using these markers by meredithknitting.etsy.comfor my next Irish aran:




And speaking of Irish arans, I will be featuring some beautiful, hand-knit Irish aran sweaters in my final post of this series, dedicated to lazy-(wo)man knitting - buying premade! Stay tuned for a plethora beautiful sweaters and lovely knitted items in THE ULTIMATE KNITTING POST - PART 3!!!