let the ribaldry begin!

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this is one of the smartest knitting sites i've ever seen. and, as far as i know, ravelry is completely unrivaled. thanks to olga for clueing me in on this one. it is your very own incredibly well-designed and impossibly easy-to-use stash for every bit and byte of your personal knitting info: your projects, yarns, friends, chats, yada yada yada. you can even post and sell your own designs. beware: this thing is addictive. you may find yourself reveling in ravelry more than you do your ever-growing pile of UFOs. (as i have.)

bookish

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i wish my friend dona had an etsy shop or somewhere to link to so you could purchase some of her amazing crafts for yourself. this is a woman who doesn't own a cell phone. who tools around town in a jeep cherokee she bought in 1985. and who still believes in the indelible power of the printed word.

welsh rarebit

it's not a giant scrunchy. or a beached sea urchin. rather, it is a bit of welsh ingenuity from the knitters of flocks. their funky flash site is the perfect showcase for their unique designs, handspun and knit from the wool of rare sheep and rabbits. dig deep and you'll be treated to a few hidden nuggets, including a fun scan of a how-to-knit page from a vintage knitting book.

jazzzzzed!

huge congratulations to a great pal, olgajazzzzy, on winning the front cover spot with her stunning design for an exciting new book due out next year.

i first met olga when i was trying to figure out how to recreate the ferragamo knit handbag. not only is she a genius at decoding designer knits, she is also a gifted knitwear designer in her own right. her passion for knitting and keen fashion sense keeps the rest of us jazzzzzed with inspiration. on top of all that, she is one of the nicest, most helpful people i've met in blogland.

go jazzzzzy girl!

planes, trains, and addi turbos

nine of us boarded amtrak in rochchacha for a pilgrimmage to the rad lace and subversive knitting exhibit at the MAD museum in NYC last weekend.


eight hours of knitting, gabbing, and eating ensued. (modalura girls rachel and jackie O tried their hardest to remain anonymous.)



after tossing our bags in the room at the W, we made our way to purl soho. the shopkeepers did their best to look the other way as we ravaged their perfectly organized bins of wild wooliness.



sated with yarn, but starved for carbs, we headed over to magnolia. NB: magnolia cupcakes are best eaten before embarking on the new york subway system. unless, of course, you prefer to consume your cupcakes via deconstructed buttercream formations on the top, bottom, and sides of a bakery box. mmmmm, cardboard.

the next day, we visited the rad lace exhibit. if you haven't seen it yet, go. you'll never look at lace or knitting in the same way again. for example, one installment was an arrangement of junk the artist found on the roadside: chairs, shelving, shopping carts. each item was tightly wrapped with bright white tape to create a huge, three-dimensional piece of lace.

another piece i loved was a chandelier knit from fiber optic strands. no light bulb required. the strands come to life with light when they're bent, which happens during the knitting itself.

the worst part is you can't touch anything. of course, that's all we knitters want to do! the museum guards were on us like a hobo on a ham sandwich. the one consolation was a participatory installation where visitors could knit a couple rows on a bunch of hats they're sending to soldiers in iraq.

more amazing lace

someone has found a way to combine two of what i consider to be life's greatest pleasures: intricate stitchwork and bicycling. behold: a charming bike basket inspired by crocheted lace tablecloths. another scandinavian work of art, this one via design house stockholm.

unchain my heart

these danish designers are pushing the boundaries of our craft with projects such as this lace fence. amazing.

inna-crotcha-da-stitcha

any knitting instructor who can refer to a knit stitch as a "crotch" one moment, and turn it into a reference to iron butterfly the next, is a freakin' legend in my book.

that's just annie being annie.

the knitting heretic herself, brought her mad, red skillz to my hometown yarn shop last weekend for a class on colorwork, and yours truly was scrambling to keep up. here is my sad little swatch. it barely deserves to be called a swatch. it's more like a swench. despite my inability to produce anything even remotely close to a plaid, i had a blast. if you can call three hours of working intarsia stripes, checkerboards, and stranded plaid a blast. and god knows i can.

gucci reducci

remember this? i was obsessing about decoding it last summer. obviously, i was not alone.

knit.1 had their own version in the winter 2007 issue.



fashionably late to the party, the frenchies have just launched their own homage to the gooch in the new spring '07 phildar.

personally, i prefer the original design. the puff of the sleeve is what it's all about.



speaking of phildar, this coat may have to go on my list of spring to-ducci's.

UFO alert

at last, a smile from ny fashion week. specifically: benjamin cho. i really gotta hand it to the guy. brilliant.

shades of gray

the forecast for fall '07: gray, gray, gray. when i was six my mother bought me wear a gray wool jumper. she thought i'd look "darling" in it. i refused to wear it; i thought it made me look old. now that i actually am old, i couldn't love the grisly gritty hue more. olga and i were drooling over the top two from oscar de la renta. i'm such a sucker for interesting sleeves. the bottom is behnaz sarafpour. i love the color and fit, the ease of it. it's so simple, but very sophisticated, too.

literati: i heart sart

this amazing cabled cape is just one of the many reasons why the sartorialist is my favorite fashion blogger.

sart is a kamikaze papparazzi (kammakazzi?) for the rest of us, dive bombing headfirst into fashion as it happens, right there on the street. his blog is a shining example of an economy of words with an intensity of meaning. smart sart mostly shuts up and lets his uncanny eye for style do all the talking.