HRYC

 Sourced by our Twitterers! 

A quick run down of our favourite technical help sites and links, as mentioned during #twitknit on Monday.

Technical Knitting - a seriously good site with clear written and visual instructions, neat wee tricks and sidesteps when you make mistakes.

Techniques With Theresa on knitty.com - I particularly love the tutorial on kitchener stitch, increases and decreases and fixing mistakes. Actually, ALL Theresa's tutorials are excellent.

There's also a bunch more instructional posts on knitty.com that are well worth a look through.

For those who love to learn from videos, pop on over to knittinghelp.com or tried and trusted Youtube.

My absolute favourite Magic Loop tutorial can be found over here on knittingdaily.com - in case you fancy venturing into socks if you haven't already!

And the book Tash learned from - Stitch 'n bitch by Debbie Stoller

Not just for learners, this is full of handy technique tips and is a great book to have on hand when you can't be bothered going to the internet.

Have I missed anything? 

 Hip hip hooray it's FRIDAY!

Which means it's time for another Weekend Treat. This time round it's 20% off all printed patterns in store....and as they are only stocked in store, to make it fair we'll throw a free tote bag into every order placed online from 5pm Friday 14 September to 9am Monday 17 September.

Hooray!

And because i'm loving the excuse Saturday Sit & Knit gives me to bake, i've got all the ingredients assembled to make this tasty treat...

I hope you can join me in eating it, or i'll be sporting a big fat tummy full of chocolate tart.

Our first ever Twitter Knit Chat was a huge success - thanks so much to everyone who took part! You helped make #twitknit the top trending hashtag in New Zealand! Now that's pretty awesome. I think we should try for the same every week...

Number one!

I thought a quick round up and links to some of the great patterns mentioned would be useful - so here you go!

Pathways Blanket by Frankie Brown

I Heart Aran sweater

Flying Without Wings

I'm already looking forward to next Monday! Join us at 8pm NZ time for a whole lot of fun knitting chatter. There's a also a growing list of special guests being lined up for future sessions...hooray!

 Hip hip hooray! It's the weekend and the weather is looking pretty frightful here in Wellington. 

If you're local, pop out to the shop (avoiding stray tree branches and big gusts of wind) and grab 10% off all Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky yarn. It's big, soft, squishy and a delight to play with. 

I've also just whipped up a batch of Nigella's chocolate brownies (gluten free, hooray!) for Saturday Sit & Knit. 

If you aren't so local, the code 'Weekend Treat' will get you 10% off in the online shop until Monday morning. Happy shopping and knitting! 

xx Tash

 The number of people taking up the needles is noticeably increasing - lots of my personal friends have been inspired of late, which fills me with joy. It means i'm on the hunt for patterns that are beautiful finished objects and feature just one or two techniques that are challenging enough to keep a new knitter interested but not so hard that they throw their work in the corner in frustration.

Here's a bunch of easy going projects that are perfect to transition into warmer weather knitting.

Mira's Cowl - a drapey 4 ply cowl that will be lovely to throw over your head on a summer evening

Easy Peasy Newborn Sock Hat - cuteness!

Terribly Simple by Caitlin Ffrench - seriously, awesomely simple but a great shape and you can use any yarn your heart desires.

Carol Feller's Adrift: besides the fact I LOVE this colour, this is a good foray into a simple garment. In fact, I might just make one. Going by the projects on Ravelry it looks like people have used 4ply yarn with no modifications with success.

Do any of my tried and true knitters have any simple pattern suggestions for our newbies?