Alina

New Day

Happy Sunday! I am sorry for disappearing for two weeks, the truth is this time seemed more like months to me, so many changes in my life that I am still not sure what to do with, so much has to be done and so little time. But it is also time for my growth and a new phase in my life that I believe will never be the way it used to be. I am discovering a new me, who turns out to be much stronger than I ever thought. And I am proud of that, proud that no matter how lost I am, I find the strength to keep going and be grateful. Grateful for just being here, grateful for soft morning light getting through the window, grateful for my busy and often exhausting schedule, grateful for inner peace, and of course for people in my life – I am the luckiest girl in the world to have so many friends who love me and carry for me! I didn’t knit for two weeks and physically feel the lack of it, like my hands are missing something, but in these moments I realize how deep my attachment to knitting and this community is and how fortunate I am to have something that I always want to come back to!

Thank you for being here, I just want to say once again how important it is for me!

Have a wonderful Sunday with your loved ones!

By Alina| 2018-10-21T08:00:27+00:00 October 21st, 2018|Gifts Of Life|3 Comments

Knitwear Review. Milan/Paris FW, Spring/Summer 2019

Knitwear Review. Milan/Paris, Spring/Summer 2019. The Gift Of Knitting.

Jill Sander

Today I am sharing with you my last knitwear report for spring/summer 2019 season. Milan and Paris designers presented their collections during these past two weeks and I couldn’t resist hunting for knitwear pieces in each of the shows.

Les Copains played with neutral colors, stripes and contrasting materials – if you look closely you will see sparkling golden threads contrasting with white.

Tod’s “drew” geometrical patterns with intarsia, whether Jil Sander quiet literally drew on a piece of fabric and attached it to the sweater.

Skirt + sweater tendency started in New York/London shows was supported by Christian Dior, Chanel and Atlein in Paris.

Missoni created a fabulous knitwear collection – their traditional colorwork patterns are reinterpreted in intarsia, stripes and the use of speckle yarn.

Loose oversize long cardigans in neutral colors by Agnona and Les Copains.

Boho, sporty and casual – variety of dress styles from Etro, Erika Cavallini and Les Copains.

Cables in metallic yarn by Ermanno Scervino.

Oversize, exaggerated mohair sweaters by Loewe and Balmain.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

P.S. All photos are courtesy of vogue.com

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By Alina| 2018-10-06T20:27:15+00:00 October 7th, 2018|Knitwear Review Fashion Weeks|2 Comments

Amber

One more sweater is finished and just some scraps of yarns, swatches and ripped off beginnings are left. I love this feeling so much of holding a finished piece in my hands, but at the same time I miss the process of creating it. The good thing I can “re-live” all of it while putting each step of the process on the paper… Looking forward to sharing with you this cozy, texture rich pullover that I enjoyed working on so much!

I wish you a wonderful Sunday!

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By Alina| 2018-09-30T08:26:52+00:00 September 30th, 2018|Knitting|1 Comment

Cables and Chocolate

My hands were devoted to YOTH yarns for the past several weeks. I will be happy to share with you soon what I have been up to in the knitting department 🙂 Meanwhile I would love to introduce you to Daughter yarn in Chocolate shade. As you can see, the skeins are much smaller that the Natural Vanilla one that I shared with you in July. I love how YOTH offers you the choice – you can get either the standard generous 330 yds size or go with mini, which is 165 yds, depending on what you need for your project.

I love this shade so much and it turned out even better in real life than in photos – those tiny white speckles add more “life” to the fabric and make the whole knitting process much more engaging. It is perfect for simple stockinette stitch knits with minimum texture.

One more thing that makes my knitter’s heart sing is this amazing book that I have just ordered – Knitted Cable Sourcebook by Norah Gaughan. Being obsessed with cables, I can’t believe I didn’t get it before!! I actually saw its copy for the first time during my trip to St Petersburg, but the idea of adding so much weight to my luggage didn’t really appeal to me, so I waited until I came back home and ordered it right away. I was not disappointed!

Apart from amazing cable stitch source, this book is a treat to the eye! Neutral colors, luxurious textures, beautiful layout – it is the perfect coffee table book if you need some inspiration.

In Knitted Cable Sourcebook the cables instructions are both charted and written row by row. Each photo of the swatch just makes you want to grab your needles as soon as possible! Apart from the stitches collection, the book breaks down the basics of cable knitting – from how to read the charts to fixing mistakes in your knitting. It also includes 15 projects that you can use to practice your cable knitting skills!

I hope you will have a wonderful weekend! I don’t have any major plans this weekend, just working, walking and dinner with friends.

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By Alina| 2018-09-28T07:02:39+00:00 September 28th, 2018|Books, Knitting, Yarn|2 Comments

Sweater Diary

Lately I’ve been thinking that I would love to share more of the process of creating my knitwear pieces, because at the end of the day knitting is not just a pretty finished object, but all this beautiful WIP mess in between that we love so much. I do share of course some parts of it here, but not enough and for those I usually grab my Canon and try to take beautiful photos, but recently I started just grabbing my phone, which is easy and snap one or two photos of the process, without trying too hard – the swatching mess, first cast on, ripping off, starting all over again…

So I thought I would love to keep those memories here and create Sweater Diaries that I can come back to and look at and remember those moments of inspiration that ended up as a wearable piece and a PDF file that walks you through each step of the way. I hope you will also find them inspiring in some way.

My first sweater diary is for Polar Bear – here you will see those moments when I first got the idea to mix very different fibers in one project; first cast on, that I believe was ripped off later and started all over again; ripping off old ideas that didn’t end up as knitwear, but came in handy for this project…

I hope you are going to have a wonderful Sunday!

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By Alina| 2018-09-23T07:57:45+00:00 September 23rd, 2018|Knitting|2 Comments

Knitwear Review. New York/London FW, Spring/Summer 2019

Cushnie

This September designers from all over the world are showing their collections for Spring/Summer 2019 season. I always browse through the shows to filter out knitwear pieces and look at knitting and crochet techniques from a different point of view. Today I put together a review of knitwear pieces that caught my attention from New York and London fashion weeks.

Ulla Johnson is reinterpreting a classic granny crochet square in colorful tops and dresses; plays with textured ruffles and mixes knitting with patterned fabric.

Classic stripes in Sies Marjan and Markus Lupfer collections find their way in sweaters, dresses and skirts.

Crochet dresses by Oscar de la Renta – graphic patterns, fringe, neutral colors.

Oscar de la Renta

Full knitwear look will definitely be “in vogue”. Natural materials, summery colors and simple knit stitches – all of this you will find in JW Anderson and Calvin Luo collections.

White dresses, created by using crochet techniques, intricate machine knitting, exquisite handwork by Carolina Herrera, Eckhaus Latta and Self-Portrait.

Delpozo

Burst of color by Prabal Gurung. I loved how different techniques are being introduced in these sweaters – dipped in color classic sweater, mix of textured knit stitches and stripes, mix of different materials on a slightly oversized drop shoulder pullover.

Sally LaPointe plays on contrast – from neutral to fuchsia monochrome look.

Dresses and colorful knit tops by Prabal Gurung scream summer! I absolutely love how the designer played with color blocking.

I was very pleased to see different technique used to create the dresses – crochet, metallic yarns, classic simple stockinette stitch.

Those two knit dresses were particular interesting for me to look at – I love the construction and how wearable they are! Classic silhouette with a front split by Mara Hoffman. And such a cool dress with uneven hem by PH5 – love the visual effect the stipes create!