Recently in Books Category
However, with the arrival of Ms. Z, I've been feeling a little guilty about my furry boys because they really get a lot less attention when she is around. Not to mention the fact that they don't get the respect they used to. They get shooed off of her play mats and they get yelled at when they run off with one of her toys. There's no room for them on the couch in the home theatre when she is nursing and we get particularly annoyed with them when they decide they want to take a nap on her changing table. And, to make matters even worse, now she is mobile and she's very interested in introducing herself to the kitties by grabbing large hunks of fur or a tail. It's tough to be a cat in our house right now.
So when Donna Druchunas gave me the chance to be a part of her blog book tour for Kitty Knits
, I thought this would be the perfect way to share a little lovin' with my feline companions. First of all, let me say that whether you are a cat or a person, this book is a lot of fun. There are 20 projects in this book. Roughly a third of them are meant to be made for your cat, but the remaining projects are divided roughly equally for people and for your home. The projects for people include a two color chullo (totally on my list for someone for Christmas next year), a Scandinavian style two color sweater and a lovely lace scarf. One thing that really stood out to me about these projects was that with the possible exception of the furry slippers, all of them managed to avoid the excessively cutesy look that is common with knit gear that is inspired by pets. The same is true of the "house wares" part of the book. The felted applique pillow and felted cat doorstop would be fun items in many homes. And if you wanted to try out a new technique, this book has a little bit of everything. From felting, to intarsia, to two-color stranded knitting, to embroidery to lace to shadow knitting, this book has it covered. There's a lot of punch packed into this 80 page book.
After seeing the book, I desperately wanted to cast on for the chullo (the hat on the right side in the cover picture above), but I figured that neither of my cats would appreciate that as a gift, even if I could find the time, so I opted for something a bit more simple -- felted mice. It was a hard decision, because while Donna had some traditional cat gifts like cat beds and murine cat toys, she also had some other clever options -- a felted intarsia "placemat" for cat bowls and the like (which I think could easily be adapted for a cute set of human use placemats as well)
I managed to get both these little guys knit up in less than the two hours it took us to travel from Champaign to Chicago. Simple knitting but very fun results and probably the best use of a bobble I've encountered. In fact, if you didn't want to felt these little guys, you could easily knit them on smaller needles and stuff them to get a nice result. These mice are knit out of some remnants of Cascade220 from some previous felting projects. Given the amount that I used for one mouse, I thing you could make yourself several families of these little guys from one skein. If I had had more time, I might have made striped mice or mice with different colored ears for a little extra entertainment value.
Because they are toys it doesn't matter at all what size they felt to. I just put them in for one full cycle in the wash and let them go through a full normal wash cycle with hot wash and cold rinse. When I took them out after the spin they were almost completely dry. All I had to do was stuff them. Aren't the ears fabulous? I decided against the embroidery, but the pattern does call for embroidered eyes and any other details. I think the shaping is good enough that even without the embroidery, it is clear what they are.
My Beezle wasn't quite sure what to make of them. But maybe that was because I liked them so much I woke him up from his nap to take his picture with them. No doubt I will find one in his water dish sometime soon...
Mercutio had a far more possessive reaction to them. He snuggled right up to the blue one. Ms. Z hasn't been able to find them yet, but I suspect these little guys would also make fabulous toys for little people as well as furry friends -- they are soft, squishy and noses, ears and tails can certainly stand up to a little chewing and they are small enough to hold in little hands.The cats and I give Donna's book two thumbs and four paws up. It's definitely a fun book with a lot of interesting ideas -- many of which you'll easily be able to take in your own directions. Which is one of the things I really love about Donna's books in general. Her patterns are great starting off points for experimenting with your own ideas in texture, color, shaping and new techniques.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was given a copy of the book for free to evaluate so I could participate in the blog tour.
Today, I have a special guest post -- I'm part of the blog book tour for Donna Druchunas, Ethnic Knitting Discovery
Theresa, thanks for inviting me to bring the blog tour for Ethnic Knitting Discovery to your blog.
What got you interested in writing this book?
I was talking to my publisher one day a year or so ago, and she mentioned that there were no books on ethnic knitting geared toward a younger audience or newer knitters and I thought, "You know, that's right." It seems like most of the books have have been published about knitting traditions from around the world focus on very traditional, even old-fashioned, garments. These books also tend to assume that the knitters have a lot of background experience, that they understand the shaping and construction of sweaters, and that they know how to do a lot of calculations without much help.
That's not to put these books down, I love them and I have shelves full of advanced books like this. But while most of the traditional knitting books give you charts and high-level overviews of garment instructions, there are very few that provide the basic tools to enable new knitters to get over the hurdles that they might feel stand between them and the ability to design a garment from scratch. In Ethnic Knitting Discovery, I am trying to provide more details of the process so there's not so much mystery involved.
I also wanted to show that you can update the traditional styles without losing the traditional feeling of the garments. For example, you can make what was traditionally a tight sweater, that fit snugly to be worn as a workman's outfit, into a loose fitting garment for casual wear today. You can take a black-and-white Norwegian design and do it in purple and green!
What fascinated you about the cultures you included?
I'm fascinated by many different cultures. I first got interested in Andean knitting when I was editing Andean Folk Knits by Marcia Lewandowski. Marcia had spent several years living in South America, and she wrote about her experiences and put together patterns for many of the knitted accessories she'd seen during her travels. I just loved reading her stories and seeing the color combinations she used on all of her projects. Some time after that, one of our local yarn shops held a class on Andean knitting and I took it because I love unusual knitting techniques. The instructor had a lot of sample pieces of knitting that she purchased when she was traveling in South America and I just fell in love with the knitting style after seeing the pieces up close. Some day I hope to make it to Peru to do some in-person research. But for this book, I had to be an armchair traveler.
The other sections of Ethnic Knitting Discovery were chosen more for the types of sweaters that were made in the region than for anything specific about the cultures. I wanted this book to feature drop shoulder sweaters, because they don't have much shaping and they're the most basic type of sweater for those who are new to designing. Learning about the cultures was a bonus for me.
What sorts of things did you think about when you worked on designing your own projects?
I wing it when I'm designing something for myself. I start with the basic number of stitches to cast on for the back (if it's going to be knit flat) or for the body (if it's going to be circular), and I just make up each part as I get to it. For example, on one Aran sweater I made, I got tired of knitting the cables after I'd finished the body, so I used the trim stitch from the bottom band for the full sleeves. It looks great, like it was planned that way, but it was a last minute decision. When I'm knitting a colorwork pattern, I pick a main color and contrasting colors, but I make up the color sequence as I go, just changing colors whenever I get bored. I might even add a new chart when I get part way done, just because I want to add another element or because I'm tired of knitting the other pattern.
If I'm designing for publication and I need a test knitter to make the garment because I don't have time, then I have to do a lot more planning up front. In that case, I make sketches and fill them in with colored pencils to get an idea what the entire garment will look like. I also put the specific colors into the chart for the test knitter. I still pretty much make it up as I go, but in this case I'm using colored pencils and charting software instead of yarn and needles.
Do you have any tips to encourage people to experiment? I just love the idea of experimenting with old traditional ideas.
Me too! That's the fun part, isn't it? Tradition is wonderful. But it's not like a law. Take the parts you like, and modify them to suit your own tastes. If you think a sweater with patterns all over it is too busy, make a plain sweater with patterning just at the hem or on the sleeves. If you don't like the colors used in traditional designs, go for bright, snazzy colors instead. In the Andes, knitters in the past used natural alpaca colors and yarns dyed with natural yarns, to the colors were limited to the materials on hand. But today the knitters in Peru and Bolivia love acrylic yarn that is dyed in bright, neon colors. They've modernized their own tradition to include modern materials and to cut down on the work of handspinning and dyeing their own yarns. But there's no mistaking a hand-knit Andean chullo for a commercial product, even when it's made with man-made fibers and dyes.
In the interest of full disclosure, I did get a copy of the book to look at as part of the book tour. But I didn't receive any other compensation. I just enjoy Donna's books, her knitting spirit, and keeping up with what another Lithuanian knitter is doing!
Today I have a special treat! Almost two years ago I first came in contact with Donna Druchunas' work through the book The Knitted Rug
At the same time, I was struck by Donna's last name. You see, if you see a last name with an 'as' or 'is' ending, it can almost only be either Greek or Lithuanian. I'm third generation Lithuanian, so, of course, when Donna left a comment on my blog while I was working on the rug, I just had to email her back to ask her a few questions about the rug book and ask her about her last name. Lo and behold, I'd found another Lithuanian knitter.
So it's a real pleasure for me to participate in Donna's book blog tour for her latest book, Arctic Lace
TW: Clearly this book is part introduction to lace knitting and Alaskan lace knitting forms and part fiber adventure. What do you hope people reading the book will take away from it?
DD: I'd like people to take away the simple idea that lace knitting is not hard! If you can knit, you can knit lace. Sure it takes more concentration than garter stitch, but it's not rocket science.
In addition, I'd like to instill some knowledge and appreciation of Yup'ik and Inupiat culture, especially regarding respect for the environment and making decisions that are not short sighted, but that consider the impact on future generations.
One of the things that Donna explains in the book is that each village or town usually ends up with a particular lace pattern that gets worked into the garments that they produced. Most of these patterns are based on traditional elements from Yup'ik and Inupiat art and embellished items.
TW: How were the signature patterns developed for the villages? Did the knitters in the villages participate in the designs with the Oomingmak co-op founders?
DD: The first lace designs were created by Helen Howard, Ann Schell, and Dorothy Reade. They worked together to develop the stitches and patterns for the co-op to use. After that, different knitters contributed designs. Some of the designs on the Oomingmak co-op website list the names of the designers. Most of the knitters, however, are working in the co-op knitting to make money, and they are basically production knitters. They may make different projects over time (scarves, hats, headbands, lace, colorwork), but they are really doing this to make money, so they like to memorize the patterns to improve their knitting speed. The design process is totally separate from the production knitting part of the business.
TW: What was it like to be close to the musk oxen?
DD: It was like being in Jurassic Park, only a little less scary. Because I was at the Musk Ox Farm, the animals were fenced (well, so were the dinos in Jurassic Park), and they also had the tips of their horns trimmed. Although they are still strong and muscular beasts, they don't pose a threat to tourists. The animals that have been hand raised are quite docile and will come up to the fence to get a treat from the familiar farm hands. The animals that have come from other places, such as zoos, are more timid and tend to keep their distance.
When I was at the farm, I got to stick my hand into the fur of one of the animals. Oh my! It was cold and damp out that day, and I was wearing a coat and hat. But inside the animal's fur, with my hand in the qiviut underneath the long guard hairs, it was as warm and dry as sitting in front of a fire. I was completely amazed. It's one thing to read about the great insulation of the musk ox coat, it's quite another thing to actually feel the warmth.
TW: Do you spin? If so, have you spun qiviut? What tips would you offere someone who wanted to try spinning this fiber to create a special yarn for a project of their own? What are the best fibers to blend with qiviut if you want to make your fiber go a little farther or want a yarn that is a little less insulating?
DD: I do spin, but I've only spun a tiny bit of qiviut. When I was in Alaska, I found an ounce of raw qiviut that was selling for $30. It is full of guard hair and flecks of skin or dander, but it is otherwise quite clean. And qiviut has no grease. So I started spinning it on a tiny drop spindle. It spun up beautifully into a fine, lace-weight yarn. But in the end, I decided to keep my qiviut fiber for show and tell at workshops, and I haven't done any more spinning with it.
Qiviut is, as you say, quite warm, which is why it is normally spun and sold in very fine weights. The heaviest qiviut yarn I've ever seen is sport weight. The yarn also has very little give or elasticity, so it drapes beautifully for scarves and shawls, but is not very good at holding its shape for ribbing or fitted garments. Qiviut is also not lustrous, as is normal for a down fiber. Merino and silk are often blended with qiviut to add elasticity and sheen. Yarns with up to 55% wool and silk still have the luxurious feel of qiviut, while being lighter in color and more lofty in the skein.
Qiviut is usually spun with a very low amount of twist for commercial yarns. I prefer it with a tighter twist, which adds more loft to the yarn and a some elasticity just because of the structure of the yarn.
Qiviut also blooms after washing, and develops a fuzzy halo that resembles mohair but is much softer. I have heard some people say that qiviut pills, but I've seen samples at the co-op store that are quite old and that have been handled by customers for a long time. They had a very pronounced furry halo, but no pills.
TW: How did you decide what kinds of projects to put in the book?
DD: There were two main considerations. First, I wanted to make projects that were reminiscent of the Co-op's designs. Second, I wanted to include a lot of small projects because qiviut is quite expensive and I knew that many knitters would not be able to afford 6 or 8 skeins to knit a vest or shawl.
TW: Given the insulating nature of qiviut, how did you identify good working gauges for your projects? One of the things I think is challenging about lace is to create something that shows off the open work, but is substantial enough to still create some warmth. But I would imagine with qiviut which has such a high insulation factor, that you also have to deal with the opposite issue: how to keep the garment from being too warm to be comfortable?
DD: Because it blooms when washed and the solid St st areas fill in with the halo, qiviut can be worked at a fairly loose gauge for lace. I preferred to work my projects at a slightly tighter gauge than some qiviut designers, because I wanted the lace patterning to stand out strongly against the solid background. My lace designs, like the co-op's were made with very strong geometric shapes that are outlined with yarn overs. The design is further emphasized by the placement and direction of the decreases, and by using twisted stitches to create very straight outlines around the shapes. This helps make the lace pattern stand out more against the background. Not all lace is designed this way, so if you want to use other stitches with qiviut, definitely make a swatch first.
If you've never knitted with qiviut before, I suggest making a small swatch and trying 3 or 4 different needle sizes. Block and wash the swatch to see what you think. You don't have to waste the yarn, however. If you leave it attached to the ball, you can always rip it out and reuse the yarn if you need it to finish your project.
The important thing is to make sure that your stitches are neat and tidy looking. If they are loose and sloppy, it spoils the texture of the fabric and might not even out when you block the item, again because qiviut does not have that forgiving texture of wool.
If you want to read more of the interviews from Donna's blog tour, or find out about the knit-a-long for Arctic Lace, you can check out her website Sheep To Shawl
... except a new book review over at Two Friends Collect Books (blame it on too much TV and video game playing). If you're interested, I've written down my thoughts on Alden Amos' Big Book of Handspinning.
For a long time I've wanted to have a section of my blog/website in which I shared information about the books I have in my collection. If there's anything that is true about me, it's that I love to buy books. Any time it's time to learn something new, the first thing I do is go and see if there is a book I can add to my collection. This means that I've amassed a pretty large collection of knitting books and other fiber arts related books over the last several years.
This morning, while I was going through my list of "in progress" projects that I would like to have to wear this fall, I decided that Liberty needed to be my next thing to complete. I chose Liberty for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I am concerned about having enough of one of the colors and if I need to get another ball of Mist, I want a halfway-decent chance of still being able to find the dyelot somewhere on the planet. So in order to get the right front cast on and on its way, I had to remember how to do a tubular cast on. And the first book I reached for was Nancie Wiseman's "The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techiques".
As I was paging through the book, I realized that I had used this book enough to give it a good evaluation. Relative to it's size, it's not a cheap book, but I find myself coming back it over and over because her explanations and illustrations are excellent. And that got me thinking about getting a little bit more serious about sharing my opinions on books. In many cases, it takes a long time of living with a book, especially a technique or pattern book, before it's really possible to talk about what makes it good or not so good. I've been blogging and knitting and buying books for quite some time now, and I've definitely got both a good library to talk about and a growing collection of books that I've had time to live with and really understand whether or not they are treasures, trash or fall somewhere in between. I hope that my growing expertise in knitting will be able to give me a good perspective from which to judge new and old entries into the field and that my writing skills are sufficient to provide anyone who reads my reviews with a good overview of the book in question.
So today is the day that the book reviews start. You can find them over at The Keyboard Biologist Collects Books. I've also added a link to the page to my side bar for easy access. I don't anticipate that I will have a regular schedule for updating this blog, nor will it be totally restricted to kntting books. Not surprisingly, given the subject of this post, my very first entry is Nancie Wiseman's book. I invite you to read, leave comments and add anything that you think would help me or someone else understand what the book I've reviewed is all about. My goal is to help others get a good picture of what's between the covers of my selections.
Once upon a time, I used to read a lot of books. I never used to go anywhere without a book, in fact. I had a wide variety of reading interests, general history, mystery, science fiction, sociology, history of science. I was pretty omnivorous. I like to think that I still have pretty diverse reading interests, I just don't have quite as much time to read as widely as I would like. It's hard to have too many hobbies that compete with each other.
While I was in San Diego in June, I got a chance to walk through a Russian submarine. By the end of the tour I'd decided that I wanted to know more about what it would be like to live on one and when wandering through the gift shop of the maritime museum I came across a copy of das Boot, by Lothar Gunther Buchheim.
Sometimes the right book comes to you at the right time and not only provides you with the entertainment of a good story, but also provides you with insights into your own life. One of the guys I once worked for told me that das Boot is one of the best books on managment that you could ever read. And I've got to agree with him. The captain of the U-boat could really teach a lot of people about what the difference between leadership and managment is. For truly, to be manager is not necessarily to be a leader. It got me to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what I think leadership really is and to ask myself if I am a leadership person or merely someone who is good at organizing and creating structure.
So if you like your WWII history combined with a good story and a healthy dose of things to think about, das Boot is definitely a good read. I wouldn't call it light summer reading, but it is a book that combines suspense, history and a good story.
A couple of questions came up in the comments to yesterday's post. I'm not sure how well I'll be able to answer them, but I thought they might be of general interest...
When you say you plied from a center pull ball, do you mean from one center pull ball, using both the inner and the outer ends of the single, or from two center pull balls at the same time?
You can do it either way. In this case, it was one single center pull ball and I plied the yarn using the inner and outer ends. You can do the same thing with two center pull balls as well, but since I only had a small spindleful, I chose just one ball. Setting the twist in the single before I made the ball made it a lot easier to control the yarn and prevent it from tangling.
Why do you set the twist on your singles before plying? Isn't one of the purposes of plying to balance the yarn (ply with as much Z twist as the singles have S twist)? If the single is balanced, how do you get a balanced plied yarn?
I set the twist on the single to make my life easier when plying. In the past, when I have not set the twist and tried to ply from a center pull ball, I have gotten a bit of a mess becaust the yarn wants to twist on itself. This a particular problem with finely spun singles that might break easily when I am trying to eliminate knots or places where the yarn had decided that it likes to bond with itself too much. Setting the twist eliminates some of that problem. I'm not very good when it comes to spinning theory yet, but I think even though the twist is set and the yarn is acting balanced, you still have a twist that that plying will complement. I set that twist after plying as well. I think setting the twist is more about convincing the yarn to be straight and behave. It doesn't actually eliminate the twist. But this is just a guess on my part.
This was going to be a picture-less entry with a short review of The Shop on Blossom Street that I finished over the weekend. But I arrived home this evening to find a package from the UK on my doorstep. Because I love treats that come from Wales, I thought I'd brighten up this post with a picture of the surprise I got from Marie:
These bright and beautiful colors (not as well rendered by my camera as I might like) were a special treat on a grey and not-so-great work day. (Thanks, Marie! You had excellent timing!) In fact, in this colorway, the Skye makes me think of Koigu on steroids. I'm beginning to have quite a lovely stash of Skye in my closet, soon I am going to have to come up with something creative to do with it.
We now return to my regularly scheduled blog post: The Shop on Blossom Street, by Debbie Macomber
This book was a pass-along from my mother, who picked it up for light reading and because she was curious about the knitting content. The story centers around a woman who has battled cancer setting up a yarn store and getting to know three other women as a result of the first class she offers.
As you might imagine, our cancer survivor and the three other women all come from different socio-economic backgrounds, all have issues in their lives that they are trying to work out (most of which revolve around men and family) and, in spite of their differences, all become friends and work through some of their problems together. By the end of the book everyone has pretty much made it through their difficulties (that shouldn't really spoil it for anyone as similar things are more or less said in the front leaf description of the book). Ah, better human relationships as the result of yarn and knitting!
While the characters are relatively well fleshed out, and it's easy to understand what motivates their problems and struggles, all of them conform to their stereotypes a little too well, and I found it hard to get too deeply engaged by any of them. I kept reading because I was hoping there might be some surprises that effected real character development, but that never really comes. Although there are a few bumps and false starts along the way, the book comes to the end with everyone getting a happy ending.
There are some nice references to current knitting community events, such as the Linus project, but otherwise, knitting related content is limited to the mention of a yarn purchase here or there or the peace and joy found in owning a yarn store. This is probably a good thing, since long-winded technical discussion of fixing knitting mistakes probably wouldn't make for a very enjoyable novel experience.
This book is a great light read for when you are looking for a little brain candy. It was a perfect "right before bed" book to help me relax before I turned out the lights, and would be a perfect read for when you need a little more happy ending in your life.
This entry is going to seem very over the top without some frame of reference. In my family, books are part of the coin of the realm. We all love them and we all love to amass them in whatever area we are inspired by.
When I was growing up my mom, brother and I had a more than respectable science fiction library. Mom always had an incredible collection of cookbooks and craft books -- my brother is beginning to take over the cookbook collecting. My dad is slightly less bookish, but has all sorts of woodworking and photography books and magazines to reference. You really just can't walk into a room in my parents house without encountering a large collection of some kind of book.
And I'm not much different. My book collection is a pretty reasonable barometer of what I am into... biology, computers, history of science, social history, science fiction, origami and other paper arts, mystery and suspense, espionage, the occasional gardening reference, knitting and a smattering of travel guides fill my shelves. I have to admit to not being a very lofty reader... you won't find too much high literature on my shelves -- probably a result of being force-fed too much of it during high school and college.
And the rooms with shelves keep expanding... first the office, then the guest bedroom, now the small upstairs bedroom. John tries hard to keep the spread of my library in check, but at some level he knows it is a futile battle -- his only recourse is to accumulate computer parts and Legos and the other things that engineers like to keep around them.
I did not have a very fibery birthday from a stash-advancement perspective (which is okay because I am beginning to feel a little stash saturated again). Instead, I got a might boost to my knitting library.
Here's the lovely gift that arrived on Saturday morning from Amazon from my brother and his wife:
Color Knitting with Anna Zilboorg
Both of these books by Anna Zilboorg are worth it for the pictures alone! Color everywhere! I really love the gauntlet mittens and the incredible variety of hat shapes. I was thinking that if I were going to try two color knitting, the best place to start would be on a small project or two... somthing that would give me some immediate gratification... or at the very least wouldn't become an expensive unfinished item (I try to be realistic about my expectations for myself). From what I can tell (I haven't read them thoroughly yet), these books are more jumping off points for personal knitting adventures than step by step guides to a given project. Which I like, but might not appeal to all.
On Saturday night, in addition to a fabulous dinner out at one of my favorite local restaurants, Meritage, my parents treated me to what has got to be one of the nicest book sets that a knitter could ask for -- at least if that knitter wants to design their own things -- the Barbara Walker treasuries:
The Ultimate Reference Library: Barbara Walker's Stitch Pattern Encyclopedia
Aren't they just gorgeous sitting there in all their primary color wonderfulness? A treasury of inspiration just waiting for me to dive into them. And as if that wasn't enough... Mom also enclosed a gift card for use at Knit A Round, one of my favorite yarn stores away from home in Ann Arbor. I'm a lucky girl!
(I won't even show pictures of the other two books that I gave myself as a birthday present... Weekend Knitting and Anne Budd's book of knitter's templates...)
This also seemed to be the time for me to get my knitting mags -- none of these were gifts, but the timing was auspicious for me...
Signs of Spring: The New Knitting Magazines Begin to Arrive...
I subscribe to Rowan and IK, and am a TKGA member. Not sure where the Knit N' Style magazine came from -- it was just a free copy that showed up in my mailbox. The Cast On and the KNS are mostly uninspiring, but I found a number of things in both the Rowan and the IK that I might need to do. Just my opinion, but I thought that overall there was a lot of good stuff in IK (and I was psyched to find the "Priscilla's Dream Socks" article available through the subscriber only part of the website -- I've heard such good things about this sock perspective but didn't really want to order the whole magazine to get it). When my husband picks up a knitting magazine and as he flips through points to half the items and says that he likes them, something good has to be going on.
Probably the only shame is that almost everything is cute and little and in cotton. I've got nothing against cute little cotton garments, but it's still pretty cold here in Chicago and I'm an instant gratification sort of girl. Be sure though, that "Polka Purl Dots" will be on my needles sometime in the future.
In the near term. however, I've decided that I need a pair of "No Sweat Pants" and have joined Allison's latest knit-a-long adventure -- the pant-a-long.
It's still hard for me to believe that only 4 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun can make a whole pair of pants (I'm pretty sure that the largest size will work for me). And yes, I know all about knitted garments that you sit in and stretch out, but I just can't resist these things. They seem like they'd be just perfect for lounging around the house in. And aside from knitting, lounging around is one of my favorite things!
