Flight and Striation are the final patterns from the 2012 Cookie A Sock Club.
Flight features a not-too-complicated airy feather motif.
Striation’s geometric lace pattern is mirrored from left to right.
The yarn is Sinful Sock from Stricken Smitten, a luxurious cashmere blend in a deep, rich violet that proved nearly impossible to photograph accurately – but was so lovely to work with!
These patterns are exclusive to the Cookie A Sock Club until December 15, 2013.
I just picked up the latest issue of Vogue Knitting (Winter 2012-13) and was delighted to see Radial featured in the Style section on page 14. The headline is Geometry: Experiments with shapes yield bold statement knits, and Shapes + Form gets a mention alongside the designs of Norah Gaughan, Kristin Ford for Shibui Knits, and Bergère de France. Exciting!
The final patterns from the 2011 Sock Club, Rambutan and Dragon Crystal, are now available.
The Rambutan socks are a play on texture with an eyelet welted pattern that swirls around the foot. Because of the heavy twist of the pattern, the two socks are mirrored in opposite directions.
The Dragon Crystal socks are highly three-dimensional and have large swathes of smooth fabric within the stitch pattern itself.
These were originally knit up in Sanguine Gryphon Bugga!, which you can now find at either Cephalopod Yarns or The Verdant Gryphon. With 20% cashmere these are a real treat for your toes!
Of course, if you’re looking to get in on the sock club fun, there are a few memberships still available. I’d love to have you join us!
2012 was a busy year. As I look forward to 2013, here are a few highlights from the past year.
In April I took a trip to Iceland, where there was beautiful scenery,
Wonderful knitters, and of course lots and lots (and LOTS!) of wool.
The summer’s work culminated in the publication of Shapes + Form…
And sweater knitters took themselves in new directions.
I visited Chicago twice to teach socks with the Windy City Knitting Guild and Vogue Knitting Live (and eat Italian beef, of course).
Knit. Sock. Love. was reprinted both in Finnish and in German.
 
Sock club knitters kept busy knitting up socks and baking cookies. Reykjavik was one of the most popular patterns this year.
But Jedi Mind Tricks might have been the most fun!
Anne Hanson came to visit in November and we spent a lovely weekend visiting friends at A Verb for Keeping Warm and enjoying the scenery in Marin County.
2013 is shaping up to be an interesting year, too. Between teaching and a vacation to somewhere a little exotic (can you guess?) I’m going to be traveling a little bit more.
Merry Christmas! I hope you and yours are having a happy holiday season.
Just for fun, I instigated a White Elephant gift exchange at knitting last week. The main rule was that everyone’s gift had to come from inside their house – nobody was allowed to go shopping beforehand. We had a hilarious time at the coffee shop and I’m pretty sure some of the other customers thought we were crazy. We all piled our presents on the big table…
White Elephant exchange gifts
Then we drew numbers to determine the order of choosing gifts…
Drawing numbers
Inside one of the big boxes was… oh yes, a leg!
The leg!
Which was promptly stolen.
The leg is stolen
Participants could bring anything, provided they didn’t have to go out and buy it. We were warned not to squish this bag to determine what was inside.
What’s in the bag?
Yum, robot cupcakes!
Robot cupcakes!
There were also light-up knitting needles, a trivet, singing and dancing stuffed hamster toys, a vintage My Little Pony figurine, and some very chocolaty bath products. I think some people even got some frantic last-minute gift knitting done.
If you still need a gift for that special someone (perhaps yourself!) there are still memberships available in next year’s sock club. I’d love for you to join us for another year of sock knitting and cookie baking!
It has truly been a year of sweaters! After this summer’s release of Shapes + Form, I  am excited to introduce Chicane,  featured in Wool People 4 from Brooklyn Tweed.
Chicane is a simple zip-up cardigan with cycling-inspired details for both men and women. When I was designing Chicane, I thought about creating a garment that both my husband and I could wear, something aerodynamic and unfussy. The shaped elbows are knit sideways and provide extra flexibility in a critical area.
The cardigan pattern has sizes ranging from 34″ to 58″ in both the men’s and women’s versions. The women’s sizes have waist shaping and a slightly different fit to the armholes and shoulders for a more flattering fit.
Shelter is so different from the sock yarns that I ordinarily find myself working with. It’s light, lofty, and unmistakably wooly. I really like the complexity of the colors in Shelter as the color play within each strand of yarn creates a tweedy effect with lots of depth. Simple knitting really shows off the beauty of this yarn.
It’s been a pleasure working with Jared Flood and the entire Brooklyn Tweed team. As always, they have put out a great collection of pieces from designers all over the world. I’ve been checking out the Wool People 4 lookbook this morning and I love the variety of shapes and textures.
You can get your copy of Chicane directly from Brooklyn Tweed or on Ravelry.
All photographs © Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood
Congratulations to Louisa in Melbourne who has won a free membership in next year’s Sock Club!
All members of the Cookie A Sock Club Ravelry group who completed a pair of socks, knit up something in club yarn, or baked cookies and posted photos in the appropriate thread were entered into the drawing (one entry for each finished object). There were over 840 entries! The winner was chosen using the random number generator at random.org.
Louisa’s Prizewinning Nanaimos
Congratulations again to Louisa! She knit her Nanaimo socks for her brother-in-law and says they are a treasured gift.
It’s been interesting sifting through the Ravelry group, taking another look at all the lovely socks and yummy cookies over the past year. Judging from the Ravelry tally, 2012’s most popular cookie was a tie between the Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing and the Flourless Fiery Fudge cookies. The sock that had the most FO’s posted to the Ravelry threads was Nanaimo, with Reykjavik coming in a close second.
There are still spots available in next year’s club. I am looking forward to sharing another exciting year of new sock patterns and delicious cookies with you! Get all the details and sign up for the club.
I’m also pleased to announce the November winner of the Shapes + Form Knitalong, Gus in California!
Gus has been a prolific knitter-alonger (is that a word?). She finished Conic and has started in on Rotation, with plans for Pivot in her future! She wins 5 skeins of Plucky Knitter Primo fingering and a copy of Landing by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. Thanks for knitting along.
Gus’s Prize
First Finnish, now German.
Knit. Sock. Love. is now available in a German edition with a new cover!
I was actually initially considering this photo (with Sake) for the cover, so it’s exciting to see it on the German edition. Google Translate tells me that the subtitle says “23 clever ideas for unique socks”. I know there are a lot of German-speaking sock knitters out there, and I’m delighted to be able to share these patterns with them more easily!
An astounding 58 members of the knit.sock.love group on Ravelry have completed all 19 pairs of socks from the book in their recent knitalong! All the members who completed all 19 pairs got a prize. I was able to contribute some patterns and copies of Shapes + Form… and a sock club membership to one lucky winner!
This group’s knitalong started almost two years ago with Hedera and Monkey and wrapped up with Sake and German Stocking. Over 300 knitters have participated in at least one month of the knitalong.
There is a really fun thread in the group where club members have stacked up all their socks or made photo collages of all their projects.
These are Sue from Wisconsin’s socks. Her Ravelry username is CO64… sounds like the perfect name for a sock knitter!
Ann from Boston knit up all the socks and made a cool photo collage:
Simone from Germany also made a cool photo collage to show off all her socks.
Debbie from Ohio knit all 19 pairs of socks and was the very lucky grand prize winner from the group: she’s won a free membership to next year’s sock club! Check out her project collection here.
Registration for the 2013 sock club is still open and going strong. You can see all of this year’s patterns and yarns to date here and catch up on what current sock club members are up to in the Ravelry group. If you’d like all the fine print on the club, be sure to visit http://cookiea.com/club/.
Join the Cookie A Sock Club for 2013 and enjoy the pleasures of sock knitting and cookie baking with the only group of its kind. Every other month in 2013 you’ll receive two exclusive Cookie A sock patterns, two delicious cookie recipes, and a batch of independently produced yarn.
Here’s some of the yummy cookies we’ve baked over the past two years…
And some of the fun sock patterns we’ve been knitting.
You can see all of this year’s patterns and yarns to date here and catch up on what current sock club members are up to in the Ravelry group. Check out all the details and sign up now for the 2013 Sock Club at http://cookiea.com/club/.
I’m looking forward to sharing another wonderful year of socks and cookie recipes with all of you!
