Irresistible Gifts To Knit is now available to buy online. We'd have put it on the front page of My Favourite Magazines in a super-sized box if it were up to us, but it isn't, so there's a bit of rigmarole to go through. Here's how to get your copy:

Go to My Favourite Magazines

Click on 'Stitch and Craft' in the 'Browse Magazines' box on the left-hand side of the page.

Click on Simply Knitting and scroll down until you see the cover of Irresistible Gifts To Knit, then click on that.

Choose your copy according to your location (UK, Europe, Rest of World) and proceed to check out.

If you want to make sure a particular pattern is in there, please do ask us in the comments section of this blog entry or drop us an email.

Also, if your local WH Smiths is telling you they know nothing about it, they do have it, we've given them crates of copies and they're handling the distribution themselves, so they might not have shipped it out to your branch yet. It is coming. We promise!

Don't forget that Mothering Sunday is on its way! It's probably too late to start knitting a large project like a jumper or cardigan for your mum, but there's still time to create something special. Here are some ideas for relatively quick knits:

A knitted, beaded bracelet using Habu wire.

A skinny scarf or pretty belt in a luxurious yarn like Colinette Tao silk - when you use yarn that beautiful, your creation will be more like jewellery than clothing.

A headband covered in a fancy yarn. There are instructions for knitting a headband cover as part of the earmuffs pattern on page 50 of the current issue of Simply Knitting. We used Muench Yarns Touch Me, available in the UK through Loop.

A small felted purse. If you're not sure what size the knitting will shrink to, buy your zip to fit after doing your felting.

A cosy pair of slippers, following the pattern in the current issue of Simply Knitting. To make them extra special, choose a fancy (but still soft) yarn and sew on sparkling buttons, a ready-made embroidered motif or even beads and sequins!

If mum's a knitter, Irresistible Gifts To Knit, a collection of Alan Dart toy patterns, is now on sale in the UK at WH Smiths, or you could get her a subscription to Simply Knitting through My Favourite Magazines. You could also inspire her buy buying her a pack of some special yarn – one of the many new organic cottons or some beautiful Manos del Uruguay silk mix might be just what she needs.

Have a great weekend with your mum!

We've been having a few enquiries about Irresistible Gifts To Knit our collection of Alan Dart patterns. It should be available in WH Smiths from today, although it seems some store staff don't realise they're getting the book in. It's all gone to press and been printed, so unless WH Smiths staff are hurling all the boxes of books onto a bonfire at their warehouse, your local shop should have it in stock soon!

If you're overseas or can't get to a branch of WH Smiths, Irresistible Gifts To Knit should be on sale through My Favourite Magazines in the future, although it's not on sale there at the moment.

The book features patterns Alan has done for Simply Knitting, including the Little Blossom elephant, Yuletide Gnomes, Noah's Ark and the farmyard scene. If you love to knit toys, it's a great book to have.

Have you seen the film The Golden Compass? There's been a lot of debate online about the yarn used to make Lyra Belacqua's red knitted coat. The costume designer, Ruth Myers, has stated that it's actually made out of twine and strips of fabric.

You could recycle some old red clothes and make your own version of the coat. Recycling clothes to make new ones is really environmentally friendly. However, if you don't want to try that, or are worried about the laundering potential of mixed strips of cloth, online knitters have identified a couple of substitutes. Noro Iro number 9 and Feza Alp Oriental have both been suggested as good replacements. Alp Oriental comes in a burgundy shade that's a good match to the original, and the Noro is a little pinker, which some young girls may prefer.

It's great to see a really distinctive knitted garment taking such a prominent place in a film. As much as we all love films here in the SK office, from Jane Austen costume dramas to The Lord of the Rings to Tim Burton flicks, knitted costumes seem to be very much an afterthought for most costume designers. The Harry Potter films' Weasley jumpers aside, can you think of an iconic knitted or crocheted film costume?

Which yarn are you using? Opal Uni
And which needles? Grafton Fiber DPNs. I borrowed these from work and my cat keeps trying to chew them!
Which size? 2.5mm
OK, confess: are you knitting to the right tension and following the pattern to the letter? I'm following the pattern exactly, but I haven't checked my tension. I'm more concerned about making the socks to fit me (size 5, but wide fitting). I made the middle size and I don't think it's wide enough for my fat little feet.

I'm a lot further on from the picture above now, being almost at the point of starting work on the ankle. I've made a couple of errors in the lace panels, always on needle 2 for some reason. My yo followed by k2tbl occasionally goes wrong and I end up with one stitch instead of two. It's not difficult to correct, though. I pay greater attention to that part of the pattern now!

The greeny-blue yarn in the picture (Louisa Harding Fauve; I'm also working on the Evelyn jumper from Gathering Roses) is there because I had trouble remembering which part was needle 4 when doing the increases, so that told me I'd reached the fourth set of stitches. Once I'd started work on the lace pattern I didn't need the reminder.
Have you been knitting long? Since Simply Knitting started. I'm a lefthander, and was taught knit stitch as a child but could never cope with purl. No-one had ever explained to me that I needed to bring the yarn to the front to purl! I haven't stopped knitting since.
Are these your first socks? Yes, and my first attempt at knitting in the round. I managed to pick up my knitting inside-out and so several rows came out purled instead of knitted - I swore lots while unpicking that lot! Even so, I'm a novice at this sort of thing and I'm finding it straightforward, so if you've never tried socks before this pattern is definitely worth a try.
What's your stash like? Can we see a photo? It's a basket of yarn. My husband reckons I should only have as much yarn as fits in the basket, but it's already started migrating into knitting bags and new balls appear when he's out of the house... There's a lot of eyelash yarn (Wendy Shimmer, Sirdar Boa) in there for a bedspread I'm making, some Colinette and Louisa Harding, Sirdar Snuggly Bubbly, Wendy Frizzante and a skein of yak yarn Kirstie gave me.
What's your favourite yarn? Sirdar Snuggly Bubbly or Louisa Harding Impression. If only Snuggly Bubbly came in black!
Tell us about a gadget you can't live without: Cable needle. I love cables.

Right, I've shown you mine, now you show me yours!

Want to join the Simply Knitalong and have your say on our blog? Debbie Tomkie's gorgeous Feet First lacy sock pattern is available to download and you can email us at simplyknitting@futurenet.co.uk with your comments. We'd love to see a photo of you with your sock or why not send us a link to your blog?

Has knitting has its day? Was the boom of the past few years a short-lived thing? It would appear not. Brit award winning musician Kate Nash recently announced that her ambition was to learn to knit, proving that picking up your needles really can be rock 'n' roll. She's already made a scarf. We'd be happy to give Kate a few lessons, but if she's looking for a celebrity tutor, perhaps she should ask Dame Helen Mirren to show her the ropes. She won an Oscar last year, and revealed in the run-up to this year's ceremony that she knitted a scarf for her statuette to keep the little naked man warm!

One thing we do wonder, though, is why we never see any celebrity knitters out and about in their own creations. Have you spotted one? Or could it be that they're secretly all knitting for charity? If you're a star who knits, or you know one, we'd love to know where all their hard work ends up!

I Knit London have announced that the special guest at this year's I Knit show will be Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, better known as popular blogger and writer the Yarn Harlot. Here in the Simply Knitting office we're especially fond of her book Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter because it's just so funny, including tales of mammoth projects and problems with patterns (and a family of non-knitters). Click here to see her blog. As well as writing books about knitting, Stephanie founded Tricoteuses sans Frontières, an organisation of knitters which raises money for medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières.

Last year's I Knit show was tremendous fun - just wait a couple of days for Simply Knitting 39 to come out, turn to page 70 and you can see for yourself just how great it was. There were workshops, a fashion show, retro music and modern yarns, plus much more. 2008's show is going to be on Saturday 6th September. Visit the official site for more details.

Those three words don't usually go together, but if you head along to the PYMCArt Gallery in London (upstairs at the Vibe bar, Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London E1 6QL) before the 30th March, you can see exactly that: a knitted leather catsuit. The piece was handmade for the Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears to wear at Glastonbury 2005 by designer Fee Doran, who works under the name of Mrs. Jones. The main focus of the exhibition is Paul Hartnett's photos of street and clubwear, but alongside it is a collection of Mrs. Jones' work. You may just be inspired to get creative with leather yourself, and if you are, we'd love to see the knitted results.

(If you decide to make a pair of trousers from pairs of knickers like the one Mrs. Jones made for Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, though, please don't send us a photo…)

Arrrrrrrr! Nowadays there are all sorts of themed cruises. If you've got a surplus of cash and time - sadly for us, we've neither! - the Stitch 'n' Beach cruise is due to depart from New York on the 27th February. While we'd rather sail the Caribbean with Johnny Depp, taking a few lessons from Debbie Stoller wouldn't be bad, especially in the bright sunshine, and the Beach Bag workshop would definitely come in useful.

While there are some great knitting events in this country, such as Rowan's many weekend workshops, they're all based on dry land. We've been unable to find anything similar with a British point of departure. Do you know of a British knitting cruise? Would you be prepared to go on one? We think a crafty cruise would be just the ticket - you could plan what souvenirs to bring home before you left port!

In case you've ever wondered what we're knitting, the answer this month is Debbie Tomkies' stunning Feet First lace socks - and we're all having a go.

Here at Simply Knitting HQ we're surrounded by crafty people so once a week we take over the sofas in the canteen and settle down for a lunchtime of chat - and a little bit of craft. There's some sewing, some cross stitching...



..and quite a lot of knitting! Having had a sneak preview of Debbie's gorgeous pattern, Mim, our new production editor, and I immediately ordered some yarn and set to.

The rest of the gang were highly entertained by my fumbled attempts at doing a neat crochet cast on (turns out it doesn't matter: it sort of evens itself out in once you've knit a few rows) but once the sock had got to the lace, interest shifted a bit.

"Is it difficult to do?" one voice asked.

"I've always wanted to knit socks..." said another.

"Can I borrow some sock needles?" asked a third.

And then we were off! Balls of yarn and sock needles were turning up on desks all over the building, from accounts to IT support, and a fierce debate is developing: DPNs or Magic Loop?



Although we can't fit all of you into our canteen, we'd love to invite you all to join us in our Simply Knitalong, so we've put Debbie's pattern up on our website, ready for you to download, and we're getting ready to interview our sock knitters, beginners and experts alike to find any useful tips or tricks they've discovered as they work their way through the pattern.

We'd love to hear how you're getting on, so why not email us at the ususal address simplyknitting@futurenet.co.uk and tell us how it's going. Let us know which yarn you're using or weigh in on the DPNs vs two circulars vs Magic Loop debate. Send us a picture of you and your sock, or just drop us a line to tell us about a great sock knitting tip. We'll put the best ideas up on our blog, so if you've got a website, don't forget to mention it in the email!

Download your free sock pattern (PDF) and join the Simply Knitting team in our first Simply Knitalong!

This lacey sock pattern, designed by Debbie Tomkies, is a great first toe-up sock pattern. The lace pattern is simple enough for a beginner to grasp, but interesting enough to keep more advanced knitters entertained. It's a great all-round pattern and produces a lovely finished item - perfect, we thought, for our first ever Simply Knitalong.

DT Craft & Design's gorgeous hand-dyed sock yarn is 90% stunningly soft alpaca and 10% hard-wearing nylon. It knits up to form a firm material which is soft against the skin and has a slight halo, making these some of the most luxurious socks around: a real treat for your feet. It's hand-dyed by the designer in unique colourways including




Feet First by Debbie Tomkies is available to download as a PDF document. It won’t open unless you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. You can download this program from the Adobe website for free. If you have Acrobat Reader and it’s still not working, try right-clicking the link and clicking “save as”. Save the document onto your computer – make sure you can find it again! – and try opening it from there.

This competition has now closed. You can find out more about other knitting and craft shows, or starting planning for Stitch & Craft 2009 at TwistedThread .

This competition has now closed but you can find lots of Lang yarns and patterns over at Art Yarn.

This competition has now closed but you can find a Stylecraft stockist near you by calling 01535 609798.

This competition has now closed but you a Clover stockist near you by contacting Viridian Trading online or by calling  0117 300 5211.

We've all been up to a trade fair at the NEC in Birmingham over the past few days. It's not the sort of event where you can buy things or bag freebies (although we were tempted to help ourselves to the display toys advertising Wendy's forthcoming range of knitted toy kits; the penguin is gorgeous). The event does give shop owners and the press the opportunity to see what new products firms will be releasing over coming months.

One thing that struck us was milk yarn. We first encountered it being displayed by Portuguese firm Rosarios 4, distributed in the UK by Moral Fibre. Sole Latte and Silk4Milk are both incredibly soft. Milk yarns are like buses, though, and as we carried on around the show we encountered a third, to be released later in the year by a major knitting yarn manufacturer. Like the Rosarios 4 yarns, it was wonderfully soft to the touch, and we're looking forward to getting our hands on balls of milk-based yarns to try out for ourselves.

We're still debating whether milk is an odder fibre source than chitin, a derivative of crab and prawn shells used in South West Trading Company's Tofutsies. Have you seen an odder fibre? We'd love to know what strange fibres you've found to knit with!

In case you've missed it, the latest edition of The Anticraft is up now. The whole site is packed with ideas for crafting that's slightly scary rather than sweet.

One project in the current issue is an absolute blinder - a cuter-than-cute amigurumi of H.P. Lovecraft's Great Old One, Cthulhu. Make it for the horror fan in your life, or keep the little monster for yourself. Start crocheting now and you could make enough to hand out to all the trick-or-treaters in your neighbourhood come Hallowe'en...

It's been interesting seeing the new season's yarns and patterns coming out and how they mesh with mainstream fashion. Florals look like being the big thing in the magazine and shops over the forthcoming spring/summer, with star patterns not far behind. There are a lot of light, floaty fabrics and lingerie touches. (Vogue has an excellent breakdown of the Spring/Summer trends, as you'd expect.)

Louisa Harding's new book, Dauphine, is full of dreamy, romantic knits that would go well with a chiffon skirt or add gentleness to everyday jeans, and Rowan's A Kidsilk Dream with its soft, sheer jumpers and delicate wraps, is bang on trend. There are more beautiful Kidsilk Haze designs in the new Rowan magazine (43). (Look out for a superb Louisa Harding cardi in issue 39 of Simply Knitting, out on the 28th Feb: one of the team liked it so much, she's already bought the yarn to make one for herself.)

For a quicker knit, Knitty.com has a superb lace scarf pattern called Branching Out - we've made one from Kidsilk Night and it's beautiful! It's a great introduction to lace knitting, and has the light daintiness that will be big news this spring.

Faded colours are big news: cream, beige, soft pink and muted green. The pastel tones and new pure white version of Sirdar Firefly knit up into lovely lacy tops and scarves. Sirdar Calico's pretty pastel shades are perfect, as are the delicate patterns released to support it. For the environmentally-conscious follower of fashion, Rowan Purelife also comes in a number of lovely soft shades, and is organic and produced without exploiting workers in developing countries.

The beauty of knitting is that you can make whatever you like. If you want to wear black when the world is wearing beige, or fashion says floaty and you prefer chunky, you can go ahead and do it. If you like to be fashionable, though, yarn companies have brought out some gorgeous yarns and patterns to help you do it.

Well, it's Valentine's Day, and even if you've declared yourself a romance free zone it's hard to forget what day it is. We're pretty evenly split, here in the Simply Knitting office, so whether you're gleefully opening cards and boxes of chocolates, wishing the whole thing was over or just trying to go about your normal life, we've found a pattern (or two!) for you.

If you're into romance, why not knit our free heart-shaped cushion pattern? Alternatively, show the world you're a couple with his 'n' hers crochet hats from Coats Crafts. Or say "I love you" with a Valentine's dishcloth, a cute ring or perhaps a loving cup warmer.

On the other side of the fence, the AntiCraft suggests you use the sweater curse to your advantage and if that's not enough, there's a knitted voodoo doll too. Once your revenge is complete, why not treat yourself to a pretty necklace to knit yourself or a box of chocolates to crochet?

For those less interested in the traditional hearts-and-flowers motifs, this anatomical crocheted heart is a quirky hat-tip to the holiday and a fun conversation piece to have on your desk. And, of course, nothing makes you more likely to forget what day it is than being ill - or perhpas a knitted Sam O'Nella will do the trick!

If you've inherited some old patterns or just like the stylish clothes from days gone by, get yourself over to The Vintage Knit-Along. Although it's not an active blog, it's a great chance to see how some old patterns knit up in modern yarns and perhaps pick up one or two tips before you try it yourself.