One of the nice things about having a holiday is that I have some time to catch up on my reading.  In this edition of Surfing the Knit, an occasional series in which I bring you cool things I’ve read on the net, I give you four great posts from knitting bloggers (not all of them about knitting).

1 – October is the month is which many bloggers write about slow fashion, inspired by Karen Templer and her blog, Fringe Association.  Of the many great October posts in this vein, one I really enjoyed is Leah’s post What makes a good knitting investment?  #Slowfashionoctober on her blog, Fashion: Yarn Style.  I like Leah’s posts because she is (1) a terrific knitter, (2) an enthusiastic fan of couture, both from an aesthetic and a technical perspective, and (3) a very thoughtful writer and blogger.  Here she talks about the costs of hand knitting a wardrobe, and what constitutes a good investment.

2 – Last week Georgie (georgievinsun on Ravelry) put up some photos of an amazing patchwork blanket she made.  It is composed of large squares, each one knit with a stitch pattern from a Kate Davies pattern.  It is SUCH a clever idea, and looks amazing.  Luckily, Georgie has just put up a post about it on her blog, which you can see here.  I am in awe. Here is a photo (used with permission) but I urge you to go check out her post for more photos and the story behind her inspiration.

© georgievinsun

3 – I love the blog Julia Hedge’s Laces, written by Ravelry’s BlitheSpirit.  This blog is sometimes about knitting, and sometimes about travel and other general musings.  Last week she wrote a lovely post, Taking ‘The Canadian’ across the country (well half of it anyways…).  In her words:  “I recently went back to Toronto to celebrate my mum’s 80th birthday.  As a treat, she really wanted to repeat a journey across Canada that she did almost twenty years ago, taking the train from Toronto to Vancouver; I was more than happy to accompany her.”  It is a photo-heavy post which makes me want to fly to Toronto right now and hop on a train!

4 – I have mentioned Marzi’s blog before, as an example of a really great non-English language knitting blog.  Marzi has recently gotten married, and she published an absolutely gorgeous post, The best day ever, with photos from the wedding.  You do not have to read a word of Polish to appreciate this gorgeous wedding photo post; it is so stylish, sweet and joyous, it will put a smile on your face!  Congratulations, Marzi!

I once overheard a knitter responding to the question: “What’s the most difficult type of knitting?”  “The boring kind,” was her response.  She went on to say that she liked to knit lace and stranded patterns – the more complicated the pattern, the more colours used, and the smaller the needle size, the better.  Sometimes, however, boring is good.

There is nothing quite so boring, and yet so uniquely compelling as knitting in stockinette in the round.  Stitch after stitch, well over three hundred on the needles at this point, with no end of the row, no need to turn the needles, no purling, no counting, no thinking.  It may be boring knitting, but boring knitting can be mesmerizing.  It is sometimes just what the doctor ordered – a little bit of Zen, an escape from stress, time to let your mind wander.  And when the colour is as rich and lovely as this, it’s a bit of eye candy too.

In a break from my Zen-knitting today, I spent some time “Surfing the Knit” – another mesmeric activity but definitely not as productive.  I’ll bring you a few tidbits here:

1.  Ginger Twist Studio has an announcement on her blog for a Historic Music Knitting Event in Edinburgh on October 6th.  Here is a brief description: “Knit one, pearl 1942! A Stitch in Time: Lost Knitting Songs from the World Wars is a musical lecture about knitting (yes, knitting!) songs that were written during WWI and WWII in both North America and Britain.”  How cool is that?
2. I found the most amazing site today.  It is in Beta now, and they are looking for comments, so please check them out.  It is called Yarnsub.com.  I was looking online for substitutes for Brooklyn Tweed Loft (I love Loft, but can’t always dish out for the expensive stuff) and came onto this page.  It lists the characteristics of the yarn you are trying to match, and then rates each of several substitutes according to weight, texture, fibre content, gauge, etc.  I love this!
3. And here’s an interesting one: “As part of the Great British Bioscience Festival, BBSRC is running Knit-a-Bug: The Great British Bioscience Knitting Competition. BBSRC invites knitters from across the country to get creative with bioscience by knitting bacteria and viruses that can impact human and animal health. ”  I think I’ll stick with my Zen-knitting, thank you very much.

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!