2014 looks like it will be a great year for knitting. The Polar Vortex phenomenon lately seen in the Northern hemisphere has knits coming to the fore as people deal with the extreme cold.
The Pantone Colour of the Year is ‘Radiant Orchid’. I will try to change the banner on these pages to reflect the pinky-mauvey colour. You can see it at www.pantone.com.
From the Internet
Lion Brand, a large and long established yarn manufacturer in the US, has made some predictions about what knitting and crochet will look like this year.
1. Big, Bigger, Better – thick yarns and big stitches to give a chunky silhouette. Time to break out the Vario!
2. Make it Your Own – modify patterns and change details to personalise the garment. Of course, we machine knitters have been doing that since the beginning of machine knitting.
3. Responsible Crafting – use locally made and sourced yarns and investigate some of the modern fun furs.
4. Yarns that do Everything but the Stitches – try some space dyed yarn that works up in balanced stripes or ‘faux isle’ patterns.
5. Modern Baby – use bright colours with grey to create garments for the baby of today.
6. Colour Trends – use grey as a neutral rather than tan or white.
7. The IT Accessory – knit up some hats; they are the item to have this year.
Read the article at: http://blog.lionbrand.com/2013/12/23/knit-and-crochet-and-yarn-trends-for-2014/
Knitbot: a knitting machine powered by Tweets, created a sensation when the UK branch of the beer manufacturer, Budweiser, ran a marketing campaign to support designated drivers during the Christmas season. The video appears to show an antique knitting machine turning out two-colour pullovers but I think that they have used an electronic Silver-Reed. You can read the article and see the video at http://makezine.com/craft/knitbot-budweisers-tweet-powered-knitting-machine-is-knitting-christmas-sweaters/. The competition only ran for 3 days and I wonder how many they had to give away.
2014 Sochi Winter Olympics
The national Olympic teams have announced their winter Olympic uniforms. You can see the United States opening ceremony uniforms at http://www.today.com/style/patriotic-style-team-usa-reveals-olympic-opening-ceremony-uniforms-2D11970728 . More photos at http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/10/united-states-winter-olympics-fashion-ralph-lauren/ .
Dale of Norway have produced a range for the Norwegian team and it can be seen at http://sellroom.de/shop_suche.html?suche=sochi&send=Suche+starten .
The Latvian team’s uniform can be seen at http://bnn-news.com/latvian-olympics-committee-presents-uniforms-sochi-olympics-2014-107006 .
Free Patterns
We are all on a quest for free patterns and KangaMoo Knits boasts that they have the best free machine knitting patterns on the internet. Check them out at http://web.archive.org/web/20090524213359/http://www.kangamooknits.com/freepats.htm . I think that they are aimed at the Bond/Sweater Machine knitters but can be easily made on other machines.
Another trove of free patterns are from the BBC These are premmie and stillborn patterns and the few I read can be knit in two strands of Cashmilon. http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/stoke/my_pages/babywear/patterns.shtml