Since starting the MBA, I have less time for many things.  One of them is reading knitting blogs.  Since I had my Stage 1 exams two weeks ago, I have had a small breather which means that I was able to catch up on what others are blogging about.  In this episode of Surfing the Knit, I will show you some of the cool things I’ve been reading.

1. The 100 Day Challenge

Leah, of Fashion: Yarn Style, has just finished a series of posts documenting a challenge set by her husband: to wear something hand-knit every day for 100 days.  You can find the first post in this series here; links to further posts can be found at the bottom of that entry.  Leah includes a photo of every day’s outfit.  I have long been an admirer of Leah, both as a knitter and as a blogger.  She has a very confident sense of style and I love to see the way she wears her pieces.  This is a really fun and beautifully crafted series of posts.

Don’t read it just for the photos and the sweaters, however.  The writing is lovely, both witty and thought-provoking.  I was taken with her description of a television show in which very wealthy women showed off closets filled with expensive handbags, hundreds of pairs of Louboutin heels and Chanel suits with the tags still on.  Leah compares the jaded attitude of these women towards their clothes with the time and care that Leah invested in knitting a Chanel-inspired jacket.  Her insights into the knitting process, and into style and fashion, are always intriguing and make for good reading.  If you don’t know her work already, you should definitely check it out.

Special kudos go to Leah for finishing the 100 Day Challenge despite sustaining a neck injury in the middle (and then re-injuring it).  I think that her husband should reward her with piles of new yarn; don’t you?

2.The Great Tapestry of Scotland

I adored Kate Davies’ recent posts about the Great Tapestry of Scotland.  Kate’s blog is one of the most beautiful ones out there, with fabulous photos, great knitting, knowledgeable accounts of the history of the craft, and a very honest and personal account of recovery from stroke.  I am sure that Kate needs no introduction from me; however, if you haven’t read her posts on the Great Tapestry, you should absolutely do so.  Here is the first one; I dare you to read just one!

3. It’s all about the pretty!

Of course we readers of knitting blogs are interested in fashion, and history, and amusing anecdotes, and techniques, and travels.  But, sometimes, its all about the pretty!  If you want to see some absolutely fabulous knits, check these two out.  Carly, of Carly in Stitches, knit a fourth (!) Grettir sweater, which she calls Grettir Il Magno.  This is one of the best men’s sweaters I’ve seen.  Carly knits astonishingly beautiful sweaters at great pace; furthermore, since she lives in the tropics of Australia, she gives most of them away.  Oh, to be one of her relatives!

Another greater knitter/blogger is Ilana of bespokeknits.  Her Monomania sweater, which she posted about here, is positively drool-worthy.  Definitely worth a look (or two, or three). Two things that I really enjoy about Ilana’s blog: first, the photography is always top-notch, and second, we have very similar tastes in sweaters.  If I open up her blog and see she has something new on her needles, it is nearly always something I’ve thought about casting on myself.

4. And the winner is…

The writer of the blog, The twisted yarn, lives just a few miles from me as the crow flies, though I have yet to meet her.  She recently entered a blog post into the Deramore’s Blog Awards, and won!  The winning post, which you can find here, is a very well-written and informative post about how to design stranded motifs for knitting.  If you are interested in the design process, you should definitely have a look.  (Also, if you have any interest in yarn-bombing, she is systematically yarn-bombing her house: check out her balcony, complete with knitted pigeons (!) in this post.)

5. Everything you ever wanted to know about fiber

Karen, of The Sweaty Knitter, writes a fascinating blog, which combines excellent writing and research skills with a finely-tuned intellectual curiosity about everything (oh, yes, it has knitting too).  Karen has just started a new series about Fiber, and if the first post, about the morphology of fiber is anything to go by, the series will be great.  It is likely to tell us everything we ever wanted to know (and then some) about fiber.  Also, as someone who wrote a dissertation on morphology (of language), I am happy to read anything that has both morphology and fiber in the title.

That concludes this episode of Surfing the Knit.  Happy reading!