Day 6: It's In The Bag Blog Tour- Yeah for Knitting Bags! Laura Nelkin of Nelkin Designs, Great Travel Tips & Namaste Knitting Needle Case Giveaway!

Yeah Laura! More knitting bags and some awesome tips too! It's great to make your knitting look pretty with just the right bag. Laura Nelkin of Nelkin Designs shares a few traveling tips and is holding a contest too! Don't miss on your chance to win a Namaste Needle Case.

Check out Laura's post here, and don't miss tomorrow's stop: Day 7- Cindy, The Fitter Knitter will chat with Colleen Smitherman about her It's a Wrap shrug. Colleen will share some of her inspiration behind this fashion-forward design!

It's In The Bag Blog Tour- Day 5: I'm Knitting As Fast As I Can

On today's stop, Susan Lawrence of Knitting As Fast As I Can interviews Colleen Smitherman about her Knit, Then Weave Placemats. I appreciate how Susan has taken things a step further by sharing a weaving tutorial. If you wan to catch the full interview, you can read it here. You can also take part in Susan's contest to win a free copy of It's In the Bag.

Tomorrow, Day 6- make sure you visit Laura Nelkin's blog: Nelkin Designs Laura will discuss some fun and innovative ways for you to make traveling with your knitting a breeze! Leave Laura a comment with your own tips and you can get another chance to win a free copy of It's In The Bag and a Namaste Needle Case!

It's In The Bag Blog Tour- Day 4: Inteview With Laura Bryant of Prism Yarn & Contest to Win a Free Knitting Bag!!

As promised, today's the day to enter your comment to win this Molly Bag by DellaQ! All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. But here's the catch -- you need to answer this trivia question- What company designed the knitting bag on the front cover of It's In the Bag? If you guess correctly, your name will be entered to win the Molly bag!

Today, I'm chatting with Laura Bryant of Prism Yarn about her two designs in It's In the Bag, and Laura has also generously shared some insight about how she got her start in the knitting industry.

Kara: What was the inspiration behind your Gossamer Capelet and Simply Stripes Scarf?

Laura: Simply Stripes grew out of a desire to use really luscious yarns in a project easy enough for a beginner. Hand dyed yarns often look better when the stripes are stretched out, so working the scarf long-ways allows those long color runs to really shine. Also, Angora is a dear yarn where a little goes a long way, and working stripes with plainer yarns allows it to be prominent without breaking the bank. Definitely a case where less is more…the Angora becomes more important when contrasted with a plainer yarn. The Gossamer Capelet grew out of a class I teach called “Flounces, Frills & Fichus”. It explores making lacy fabric that has built in arcs (the Capelet is a circle when you lay it flat). Usually that kind of shaping is achieved with short rows, a technique I also work with, but that drives some people crazy. Again, this is a project that even an inexperienced knitter can make, and opening up the gauge on the lace weight kid mohair is really economical.

Kara: Can you share a little about the yarns you used for each of these projects? The color combinations are so vibrant and beautiful. How do you decide on what colors to use each time you create a new collection? What kind of inspiration do you draw from?

Laura: Of course, color is what I do all day long every day. 35 years of working as an artist, teaching color and designing color combinations for Prism, my hand dyed yarn company, sort of makes it pervasive! I love wacky combinations: acid greens functioning as neutrals, as they do in Simply Stripes, and soft glimmers of pastels accented by beige, like the Gelato colorway (mint, blueberry, raspberry & mocha—just imagine!) of the Gossamer Capelet. As I said, a little bit of angora goes a long way, so pairing Prism Angora with Lotus, a lovely merino/silk/bamboo blend, allows the Angora to create a soft fuzz while the Lotus anchors it and stretches the value. Lace weight kid mohair, Gossamer, is perfect for the Capelet and for the general technique of using long stitches to create shape as mohair’s long brushed nap causes the air spaces to be filled with fiber, keeping the stitches in their place. Really, just a kiss of warmth on your shoulders. I kind of look at the world with wide-eyed wonder, noticing color all the time and gaining inspiration from color combinations I see in the world. I have a large file of things I’ve torn from magazines: fashion, landscape, ads, science photos—you name it. If I don’t have a strong sense of a season’s color direction, I go to the file for inspiration.

Kara: You provide a great tip with your Simply Stripes Scarf to “fringe as you work.” How might a knitter traveling with this project use something they have handy to make fringe on the go?

Laura: Interesting to me how many knitters are also avid readers! A paperback book is the perfect size to measure the tails as you cut them. I also find that the distance between the tip of my outstretched thumb and middle finger is just about 8”, a perfect length for fringe. Once you have measured one tail, you can continue to measure against it for new rows, remembering that no matter how good you are at measuring, you’ll still have to even the ends up when it’s done.

Kara: I love the use of the loose garter stitch on your Gossamer Capelet. The use of large needles with skinny-gauge yarn makes for a such a unique look. What inspired you to do this? Why did you choose a lace-weight yarn and a size 8 needle for this design?

Laura: Not quite as radical as it seems, as the Gossamer is doubled. That particular construction requires a needle small enough to hold the tighter end tightly, and allow the double and triple wraps to blossom out. I love thinking outside of the tradition box, and this is just one example.

Kara: Can you share a little about the construction process of this Capelet?

Laura: The idea is that bigger and bigger stitches cause the fabric to flare out. If you look at how a flounce is created when sewing with fabric, a long circular piece is straightened out and the inside curve is sewn along a straight line. The capelet, and a long scarf that is available as a free pattern the Prism Yarn website. Take advantage of the fact that you can create the same kind of arcs by knitting tightly at one end of a row and using double and triple wraps to make bigger stitches at the other end of the row. Then it’s reversed, first working triple, then double, then regular wraps. This isn’t the same as making a yarn over between stitches; it is actually wrapping the yarn two or three times around the needle as the stitch is made. A little awkward at first, but really fun and quick to knit (thus economical!) once you get into it.

Kara: Can you tell me what first attracted you to knitting? When did you start designing and producing yarn? Prism Yarn is quite popular in the industry. How did you first get the company off the ground?

Laura: Mom taught my Brownie troop how to knit and it just stuck. I was always a busy kid, much happier when I was engaged in creating something. Prism Arts began in 1984 as a side interest to my art weaving career, when I discovered that selling artwork was an unpredictable business and I needed a more reliable way to earn a living. While clerking in a local yarn shop, I realized there were such positions as manufacturer’s representatives: sales reps that traveled from store to store showing the season’s yarn lines. I talked my way into a rep position for several better yarn lines, including Tahki Stacy Charles, and began traveling through upstate New York. While visiting stores and attending national trade shows, I had a “V-8” moment when I realized that there existed a market for hand dyed yarns. Having trained extensively in color and dyeing while in art school, I thought “I can do that!”, and approached Diane Friedman at Tahki Stacy Charles about hand dyeing their Designer Tweed line of wool. Thus Prism was born. It started in my basement in Buffalo, migrated to a garage at my husband Matt’s machine shop, and then really got going in 1992 when we moved from Buffalo to Florida.

Kara: You also design patterns under your Prism label. Can you tell me a little about your current collection. What kind of projects can we expect to see?

Laura: I am doing a lot of work with interesting silhouettes and colors—I just finished a booklet for Prism called Hoodinis! They are a take-off on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s moebius hoods, but I updated them with fashion yarns and made them bigger and longer so they can be worn a multitude of ways: as a scarf, wrap, hood, collar and even a shrug. For spring we have a great new chunky cotton/rayon yarn with thick slubs that we are using for shrugs and hoodies, like a beach cover-up. I am more and more interested in using sand washed solid colors together in things like subtle stripes and simple fair isle patterns.

Kara: Martingale recently re-issued a book that you co-authored with Barry Klein of Trendsetter Yarns called: A New Knitter’s Template. I would love to hear more about this book. What kind of designs are featured? Are the projects approachable for knitters of every level?

Laura: Actually, we just finished the re-writes and the book will be released next June. Tentatively titled A New Knitter’s Template, the book no longer features patterns for specific sweaters. Rather, it is a work-horse handbook of nine different gauges across thirty different sizes, with many style options for necklines, armholes and length. Chapters move step by step through taking proper measurements, matching yarn to project, deciding on style details and ease, and then actually pulling numbers from our templates and plugging them into the pattern blank so that you have exactly what you want every time. Any knitter with this book will no longer be searching for a shawl collared sweater in XXL at a 5 ½ per inch gauge. You simply plug the numbers in and voila! A custom pattern. We have written it in a very approachable, conversational style that is accessible to even advanced beginner knitters.

Kara: Please share a little about your one-of-a-kind pursuits. You also are a weaver. Can you share a little about that?

Laura: I started life after college (art school to be exact) wanting nothing more than to be an artist. The realities of selling art reliably enough to live hurt my artwork, and my search to make only “saleable” work took its toll. As a result, I decided to keep my artwork part of my soul, and make a living with more commercial work. Prism has been so busy over the last few years that I haven’t had much time for artwork, but I am very fortunate to sell most everything I manage to make. I had a show 18 months ago here in St. Petersburg, and you can view that work here. It is interesting how much my knitting and weaving/painting influence each other. They are very different processes: my weavings are made with very fine, plain yarns and the images have a lot of geometric structure, while knitting often entails lots of texture. Nonetheless, they both involve color, color, color, which really is at the center of my life.

A colorful life indeed! I can clearly see how your love for weaving and color have such a strong influence over how you design your unique yarn collection.

Thanks again for sharing such an inspiring interview Laura, and for taking some time out of your busy schedule to chat with me today!

Tomorrow's stop-- Day 5: Susan Lawrence's blog- Knitting As Fast As I Can Susan will be interviewing Colleen Smitherman about her Knit, Then Weave Placemats, and hosting a weaving tutorial. Also- don't miss out on another contest to win a free copy of It's In The Bag. Don't miss this post!

It's In The Bag Blog Tour- Day 3: Knitting Knoobie "A Newer Knitter's Perspective"

I really like how Knitting Knoobie took the angle of the "new knitter" because I made sure that many of the projects in It's In The Bag would be approachable for beginners, and I think I've accomplished that. Susie Gauguan has provided a very nice overview of many of the projects that are perfect for someone just heading into the unknown waters of starting their first sweater, and the Take It On The Road Tank, pictured below, is the perfect project to jump in with.

So, instead of giving away too much, jump on over to Knitting Knoobie and check out the full review here.

Tomorrow, don't miss my in-depth interview with Laura Bryant of Prism Yarn about her Gossamer Capelet and Simply Stripes Scarf. Laura will also share will also chat with me about how she became a success in the needle arts industry.

It's In The Bag Blog Tour: Day 2- Kat Coyle with Laura Nelkin

Here we are, already on Day 3 of the It's In the Bag Blog Tour, and now I must play a little catch up after few days of mommy duty and play dates!

What a treat it was to read Kat Coyle's Interview with Laura Nelkin. Laura, what a Renaissance woman you are! The first part of Kat's interview opens with an introduction to Laura's gorgeous Andrea Cuffs, made in Schaefer Andrea, 100% cultivated silk. When Laura sent me her design concept for these cuffs, it was a no-brainer too feature them in the book. They're easy enough to make in a few days, and you don't need to invest lots of $$ to make them either. If you're a fan of Laura's work, you know that she designs some beautiful little gems using small quantities of many of Schaefer's beautiful yarns, making the purchase of just a skein per project won't hurt anyone's pocket book.

So now, without further ado, you can read Kat Coyle's full interview here with Laura Nelkin of Nelkin Designs. When you're done reading this inspiring interview, don't forget to hop on over to check out Laura's very informative beading tutorial here.

Thanks Kat & Laura!

Stay tuned for my mini review of today's post: Knitting Knoobie's review from a "Newer Knitter's Perspective."

It's In The Blog Tour- Day 1: Hook and Needle Girl

Hook and Needle Girl kicked off the blog tour yesterday with her great introduction to many of the projects in It's In the Bag. Holly shares bits and pieces of many of the projects, which is a great way to give you a little "primer" of what to expect! You can view the full book review here. Thanks for a great review Holly!

If you want the full tour schedule, you can get it here here.

Also...stay tuned for more info about today's stop- Kat Coyle's blog, where she interviews Laura Nelkin about her Andrea Beaded Cuffs.

It's In The Bag Blog Tour- The Tour Schedule & Contests

We're finally ready to make this tour happen, and I promise it's going to be lots of fun, so don't miss out because not only will you get an inside peek at the projects in the book, but you'll also get a chance to win some pretty cool knitting bags and free copies of It's In the Bag too!

SAVE THE DATES!
When: 11/16-11/25
Where: 10 Really Cool Blogs

Tour Itinerary:
Day 1- 11/16: Holly Barcelo's blog- Hook and Needle Girl
Don't miss Holly's introduction to many of the exciting designs in the book. Holly will also chat with me about the editing process, and a behind-the-scenes look into how this book was created.

Day 2- 11/17: Kat Coyle's blog- www.katcoyle.com/blog/. Kat will spend some time with Laura Nelkin discussing her Andrea Beaded Cuffs. Also- Don't miss Laura's beading tutorial at Nelkin Designs.

Day 3- 11/18: Susie Gaughan's blog- Knitting Knoobie Don't miss Susie's review of many of the easy and beginner projects as she discusses them from a "newer knitter's" perspective.

Day 4- 11/19: Kara Gott Warner's blog- She Knits In The Loop I will talk with Laura Bryant of Prism Yarn about her two designs in It's In the Bag: Simply Stripes Scarf and Gossamer Capelet. Laura will also discuss how she got her start, and how she became a sensation in the knitwear world. I will also be holding a contest to win this really cool Molly Bag by DellaQ.

Day 5- 11/20: Susan Lawrence's blog- Knitting As Fast As I Can Susan will be interviewing Colleen Smitherman about her Knit, Then Weave Placemats, and hosting a weaving tutorial. Also- don't miss out on another contest to win a free copy of It's In The Bag. Don't miss this post!
Day 6- 11/21: Laura Nelkin's blog: Nelkin Designs Laura will discuss some fun and innovative ways for you to make traveling with your knitting a breeze! Leave Laura a comment with your own tips and you'll be entered in a drawing to win a free copy of It's In The Bag and a Namaste Needle Case!

Day 7- 11/22: Cindy Moore's blog- The Fitter Knitter Cindy will chat with Colleen Smitherman about her It's a Wrap shrug. Colleen will share some of her inspiration behind this fashion-forward design.

Day 8- 11/23: Glenna C's blog- Knitting to Stay Sane Don't miss Glenna's post, because she'll be holding a contest for you to win the sweetest DellaQ drawstring bag! Also in store is an interview with Cecily Glowick MacDonald about her Uptown Chic Satchel.

Day 9- 11/24: Lynn Hershberger's blog- Color Joy. Lynn will chat with Melissa Leapman about her 3 designs in the book: Dual Texture Tunic, Outback Basket Weave Pullover and Saucy Stripes Pullover.

Day 10- 11/25: Faina Goberstein's blog-Faina's Knitting Mode Don't miss Faina's review: "What's in the Bag for Kids," where she emphasizes great projects for kids, and great tips for knitting on short trips! Don't forget to leave Faina a comment about what kinds of traveling tips you use with your kids. They don't even need be about knitting...but of course we love that! If you still want another chance to win the book, your tip will be entered in a drawing for another chance to win a free copy!

See you on the 16th!

It's In the Bag Blog Tour

I'm getting ready to launch the blog tour for my new book: It's In The Bag: Knitting Projects to Take & Make. There are so many different kinds of blog tours, and they can be done in a multitude of ways, and they're always lots of fun. This tour will be a mixed bag of sorts.

Tour Details

Each chosen blog host can choose to feature a designer interview, a designer tutorial, or hold a general book review. The best part-- at specified intervals throughout the tour, I'll be giving away free copies of the book, and some of the gorgeous bags featured in the book! So if you love to knit and blog, this is your lucky day! The tour will run for 10 days, with a tentative scheduled start date of: Friday 11/20, ending Sunday, 11/29.

The Rules

If you would like to be considered as one of the host blogs: Send me an email here. In your message, mention your blog URL. Tell me what kind of post you would like to feature, and don't forget to leave your name! I will let you know that your blog is under review.

Once the host blogs are chosen, you will recieve a free copy of the book, and your posting day. Then, all you need to do is let me know what kind of post you'd like to feature. (interview, review, tutorial, etc.) If you're interested in doing a Q&A with a specific designer, let me know and I'll hook you up!

I'm looking forward to seeing your fabulous blogs!

Tops & Toes Blog Tour- The Final Days

I can't believe we're nearing the end of the tour! It's been great chatting with all of the designers in Tops & Toes. They are all very talented, and I feel so honored to have them featured in the book!

Today's interview with Joanne Seiff has certainly been inspiring. Her Playful Polka Dot Socks are a great addition to the book. Joanne chose Knit Picks Palette, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool for this design. Not only is this yarn so nice to work with, Knit Picks offers a beautiful selection of colors to choose from and the price is amazingly affordable. I highly recommend checking it out!

Joanne suggested several different color choices, since she had many of the Palette colors in her own personal stash. She first recommended a more tonal selection, but the decision was finally made to go with hyacinth and petal for the polka dots, toe and heel, and black as a backdrop to really make the polka dots "pop."

To get the rest of my interview with Joanne, you can get it here. Also, don't miss my interview tomorrow with Cindy, The Fitter Knitter about the making of Tops & Toes: A Whimsical Collection to Delight Hat & Sock Knitters.

Tops & Toes- Day 8: Laura Nelkin of Nelkin Designs

Welcome to the final leg of the Tops & Toes Blog Tour. Today I have the honor of chatting with Laura Nelkin of Nelkin Designs and Design Director of Schaefer Yarn.

Kara: Hi Laura, thanks for stopping today to talk with me about your designs in Tops & Toes: A Whimsical Collection to Delight Hat & Sock Knitters. We met for the first time in Long Beach at TNNA last January in the Schaefer Yarn booth, how long have you been working for Schaefer?

Laura: I’ve been working for Schaefer Yarn for 3 years now. I was initially hired to lend a hand and come up with new ideas to help grow the business. That position quickly morphed into me becoming Design Director. Working at Schaefer is fabulous, there are days, as with any job, that it sounds more glamorous than it is, and days that I end up on the computer WAY more than I play with yarn. Luckily, there are other days that make up for that in spades! I’ve also started my own pattern design company, Nelkin Designs, which allows me to explore my knitwear ideas even further!

I received the submission guidelines for Tops and Toes from you right after TNNA and the rest is history. I remember having SO many ideas that would use only one skein of yarn. Schaefer Yarn’s fibers lend themselves to hat and sock patterns and I had to spend some serious time streamlining my concepts and deciding which yarns to focus on.

Kara: So why did you decide on the Walking Spiral Hat & Socks and the Cozy Cabled Leg Warmers?

Laura: I really wanted to make something for little ones, and something I would love to have. I am a big lover of babies and toddlers and LOVE to design and knit for them. I also definitely enjoy designing accessories I want to wear myself.

The Walking Spiral Hat & Socks are based on a spiraling textured knit and purl stitch. I had been spending a lot of time last winter playing with stitches that “move” while you work them. This is simply achieved by moving the stitch pattern over one stitch on every round. This technique lends itself incredibly well to working with hand-dyed yarn as it typically helps mix up any pooling or striping that naturally occurs.

Kara: Tell me about the yarn you chose for the hat and socks.

Laura: I ended up using Schaefer's Lola, a fabulous 100% superwash merino wool that is perfect for baby and toddler wear. It’s soft and cushy, and washable. What more could you want? Besides that, Lola soaks up the dye in a way that shows Schaefer’s colors off to their best advantage. We chose the color Hermione because we both loved how bright and fun it makes the cap and socks look. In the future, I would love to try this design in one of Schaefer’s Subtly Solid colors as I think the stitch pattern will really pop out even more. In fact, my friend is about to give birth and I plan on making the set for her new wee one.

Kara: I like the shaping of the hat, how did you achieve that?

Laura: I love hats that cover little ears, so I designed this cap with ear flaps. I started working each flap flat and once I had them on double-pointed needles, I worked across one flap, casted on the stitches for the front of the cap, worked across the second flap, casted on the stitches for the back, and then joined the cap into the round. Working the rest of the cap was quick as the pattern just keeps you going around and the purl stitches spiral on each other. I remember being challenged trying to figure out the crown decreases for each size to keep the pattern intact. It worked out in the end, but there was an evening where my brain hurt!

Kara: Well, I’m so glad it worked out in the end! What about the Cozy Cables Legwarmers? I’m sure they have a story.

Laura: They do! I am enthralled with one of Schaefer’s bulky yarns, Esperanza. This yarn is 70% lambswool/ 30% alpaca that takes dye beautifully, works up quickly and feels so good when you're knitting it, that you never want your project to end. I remember being sad when the legwarmers were done as I didn’t have plans to knit anything else in Esperanza for a bit.

I live in upstate NY, which has a cold climate, and have recently re-discovered leg warmers. I used to wear them in the 80’s, and forgot just how functional they can be. Sometimes I really want to wear a skirt, but it’s 20 degrees, and I would just freeze in tights!Throw on some gorgeous wool leg warmers, and you are good to go. I placed a cable pattern down the back of the leg to break up the colors and create some surface interest (and to keep me from getting too bored while I knitted them.) The vertical element of the cable also makes one’s legs look longer, which is never a bad thing!

Kara: Thanks so much for taking some time out of your busy day for the interview, and being a part of Tops and Toes: A Whimsical Collection to Delight Hat & Sock Knitters.

Laura: Thanks to you Kara! Designing and knitting are things I can talk on and on about. If anyone wants to learn more about my design process, check out my website at: Nelkin Designs, or visit me on Ravelry, I’m loladesigns!

Don't miss tomorrow's interview at Joanne Seiff's blog: Yarn Spinner. Get the complete blog tour schedule here. Don't miss the last few days!

Day 6- Some "Coffee Talk" at Faina's

I just got back from Faina's lively interview with Amy Marshall, Lois Young and Diane Zangl. I would have loved to have that cup of coffee, but I've certainly had my fill of caffeine for the day!

Don't forget that after today's interview, I'm giving away a free copy of Tops & Toes. So get over to Faina's blog and leave a comment!

Tops & Toes Blog Tour Day 1 Recap: Not a Yarn Snob

The tour kicked off with a great interview between Sarah Wilson and Jennifer Tallapaneni on Sarah's Blog: Not a Yarn Snob. Sarah shared some great insight into the design process, which you can read here. I thought it would be great to start things off with a contest, but no takers. Maybe next time. There will be 3 more giveaways, so don't miss out. If you're the first to comment after each of these interviews, you will win a copy of Tops & Toes!

2/26- Faina Goberstein: Faina's Knitting Mode. Faina will conduct a lively conversation with a group of designers in her "Cyber Cafe."
2/28- Kara Gott Warner: sheknitsintheloop. Don't miss my interview with designer Laura Nelkin.
3/2- Cindy Moore: The Fitter Knitter Catch her interview with me about the making of Tops & Toes!

Don't miss today's interview at Jennifer Tallapaneni's blog PieKnits
To view the complete schedule, you can find it here.

Tops & Toes Blog Tour

The Tops & Toes: A Whimsical Collection To Delight Hat & Sock Knitters blog tour is about to begin in just 3 short days!

So you may be wondering- "what the heck is a blog tour?" Well, I wondered that myself just a few months ago. A blog tour is a pretty neat thing! It brings a whole bunch of people together to share in the excitement of something we all love- KNITTING!

On the "tour," I will visit various blogs, which happen to belong to many of the designers in the book. I will interview the designers in Q&A style about the inspiration behind their designs, why they chose the yarn for their projects, and various other in-depth questions.

Since the books are hot off the presses, many of the designers have decided to get to know each other, by doing a "show and tell" with each other about their designs. I can't wait to see what they have to say!

If you follow us along on this 11-day journey, I'm sure you'll be inspired!

Here's the 11-day Itinerary:

2/21- Sarah Wilson: Not a Yarn Snob
2/22- Jennifer Tallapaneni: PieKnits.com

2/23- Erika Flory: It's About The Knitting
2/24- Erssie Major: ErssieKnits
2/25- Ann Squire: Annie-O
2/26- Faina Goberstein: Faina's Knitting Mode
2/27- Celeste Pinhiero: Two Stix In The Woods
2/28- Kara Gott Warner: sheknitsintheloop with Laura Nelkin

3/1- Joanne Seiff: Yarn Spinner
3/2- Cindy Moore: The Fitter Knitter Catch the interview with me about the making of Tops & Toes!
3/3- Sean Higgins: Kblicious

Don't forget to bookmark this page so you don't miss out on the tour!