a must-have...

a stunning new book by one of our talented local designers...

knit, swirl!

by sandra mciver

is a study of variations on a simply wonderful circular sweater pattern--a garment that is knit in one piece (my kind of sweater!) and can be made to fit

anyone like a dream...

leaf through this book and drool over the many luxurious versions that sandra offers...

the gorgeous mustardy number she wore at last week's book-signing draped so beautifully that i decided then and there that i simply must make one...

...amazon is sold out of this book, but you can get

knit, swirl!

at the mendocino yarn shop  

(where sandra will have a knit-along next month, by the way)...

berets and flowers...

...fellow knitter silvia m. has made a bright, cheery version of the baby beret...her "boina da catarina" is made in rowan's luxury cotton and is embellished with crocheted flowers...you can see it on her blog, ao longe o mar...I love it!

speaking of flowers...

little knitted daisies are easy to make!

grab some yarn and a pair of needles...

cast on 40 stitches

(knit one, bind off six) five times...

you should have ten stitches left on the needle (one stitch on either side of each set of six bound-off stitches)
it should look like this:

break yarn and pull through those ten stitches...

partially weave in ends and use the excess to stitch the flower onto your hat

(or sweater, or...)

et voilà!

questions?  just ask!

pink and white...

picked up a new yarn at the

mendocino yarn shop

an organic cotton from debbie bliss...

these two balls will become a striped

sea star hat

for the infant daughter of one of the

v.i.p.'s of this year's

mendocino film festival

pattern for the sea star hat is available

here