I finished the Playdate Hoodie a week or two ago.  I ended up giving it to a friend’s son because it was too small for Chris, but it turned out to be a perfect fit for her little one.  I used Recycled Cotton from LionBrand in Pebble Beach color on size 5 circular needles.  I used the hood to get comfortable with continental knitting.  Thanks Susan for all the encouragement!  I couldn’t have done it without you!!

I ran into three references of Elizabeth Zimmerman all in one day (which happened to be the day I finally became comfortable with continental knitting) and decided I had to do some research on this “godmother of modern knitting”. It turns out that she was the one who made circular knitting so popular and was incredibly clever about avoiding seaming and knitting flat pieces. She also promoted continental knitting. She passed away in 1999, but her influence lives on. “Knitting without tears” was one of her motto’s, and I think it’s even a book. She taught knitting on PBS tv, wrote several books and held knitting workshops. You can find DVD’s of her instructions at the Knitters Bookshelf. Twist Collective (one of my absolute favorite knitting pattern sources) has a wonderful article about a Zimmermann garment that resurfaced and recreated recently. I even ran across this blog by accident today, by a designer that is newly on my radar, Jared Flood, who appears to have taken the photo’s for the Zimmermann article in the Twist Collective!

So, for the record my absolute favorite designers so far are Ysolda Teague, Jared Flood and now Elizabeth Zimmermann (check out the Zimmermaniacs)! Their patterns make up nearly 100% of my queue.