Welcome to the first stop on the November Knits blog tour! We’re happy to share our four designs for the book with you.

Kate: For my contributions to the book, I was immediately drawn to the Ivy League chapter – color work and tongue-in-cheek preppy is, as many of you know, totally my “thing“. I knew I wanted to design smaller accessories for this chapter and focus on stranded color work, partly because I think accessories are a great way to add color to a wardrobe and partly because a lot of people are still a little wary of color work, so I thought both projects would be great way for people to step up their repertoire. Although more than two colors are used in both sets, only two colors are ever used per round, making it the simplest form of color work!

The Hilton Field Cowl is a reversible three-color cowl designed using Canopy Worsted in orchid, fern and quetzal. There are a lot of great techniques packed into this little accessory – a provisional cast-on, jogless stripes, stranded color work, and kitchener stitch.

Its small size is perfect for throwing in your bag; the double layer of warmth created by the fabric guarantees protection from whatever the weather brings.

I find I always want a warm, comfortable hat on-hand during the fall and winter, as putting one on immediately warms me up, and I cannot leave the house without mittens, as there is something about them that add an element of coziness that immediately gets rid of the chill. The Morris Cove Hat and Mittens are a traditional Fair Isle inspired hat and mitten set featuring Organik in seawater, arctic tundra, oahu, lichen + atoll.

The use of only two colors per round makes either project ideal for first-time color work and the jogless stripes at the top of the hat, mittens, and thumbs finish off the set with ease, eliminating the need for decreasing in Fair Isle and adding additional visual interest.

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Courtney: I live in Philadelphia, but my family is on the eastern shore of Maryland, in Washington DC and spread across Texas from the East to the Valley. I like a lot of layering options, especially in the fall and winter when we’re travelling around for the holidays. It might be 30 degrees in Philadelphia and 70 degrees when we land in Dallas!  As a result, I love warm cozy knits that can be shed quickly, like light and warm cardigans, shrugs and legwarmers. As a result, the light, feminine layers of Southern Comfort was an obvious choice for my contributions to the book.

For the Spanish Moss Legwarmers, I had been swatching and developing this lace pattern for over a year. Its first incarnation appeared in an article in Interweave Knits, Holiday Gifts 2011 about stitch pattern design called Gift of a Stitch. I then adapted the pattern for the Carina beret, which was released last Spring. Its last and final tweak became the pattern for these delicate lace legwarmers.

By simply moving the last yarn over of the chevron I was able to make the motif look like a little vertical row of hearts, subtle but very sweet. I live in legwarmers in the fall and winter, even when I’m visiting family in Austin, and these are perfect for a southern climate, as the yarn overs allow for a bit more air, while the wool, alpaca and bamboo yarn, Canopy Fingering, provide maximum insulating coziness!

I designed and knit the Tallulah Shrug travelling from Philly to Los Angeles and it was a perfect travel project. For the lace pattern I wanted something that would be easy to knit on larger needles, and a lace pattern that would be easy to memorize and read well in a large scale gauge. This fits the bill, and it was the perfect layer for unpredictable weather.

The Road to China Worsted is knit at a loose gauge creating a fabric with even more drape than usual.  The pattern is written for only one size, but can be easily sized up.  Simply add one repeat to the beginning and end of the row to add width, and add more repeats vertically for more length.  (Tip: the lace repeat is 14 sts. To add two repeats you’ll add 28 sts to the total number you cast on.)

In conjunction with our stop on the tour, we’re delighted to be giving away a signed copy of November Knits and 2 skeins of Canopy Fingering to knit the Spanish Moss Legwarmers.

Just leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite season – winter, spring, summer or fall – and why. Comments will be open until 12 noon EST on October 13th and one random winner will be chosen from among the comments!

Comments are now closed. Thanks so much to everyone who entered! We will announce the winner on Monday. Good luck, everyone!

Make sure to check out the lovely post on the Green Mountain Spinnery blog about the not one, but two!, gorgeous designs featuring their yarn in the book.