Fashion: Yarn Style

Fair by Kim Hargreaves: Transition piece for Spring!

 

 

This is just a quick post to share details about Kim Hargreaeves' Fair in

case anyone is interested. This is a pure alpaca cardigan, so I used a 

size3 needle to really compact the yarn and attempt to avoid too 

much drape or loose fabric. I just couldn't resist the color, 

which is perfect to wear over a little black dress on date night! 

 

This garment is knit in pieces which is very important because of the 

loose structure of Alpaca yarn. Clara Parkes, the yarn fiber expert,

describes alpaca as a slippery fiber with "exceptional elasticity." For

this reason, I would never knit a pure alpaca yarn in the round but

instead choose to seam it to create a more structured garment. For

The same reason, I reinforced my buttonhole and button bands with

ribbon. While this step required a great deal of handwork and time,

I have learned from experience that a droopy button band can ruin

the look of an entire handknitted cardigan.

 

 

As you can see, I am terrible at embroidering buttonhole edgings, but 

I alone will have to see that, and it is worth it to create a snug fit at the

button bands, holding them in place so that the fabric does not gap and

wiggle. Even worse is the look of a cardigan front sagging under the 

weight of metal buttons that are too heavy. I chose lightweight plastic

buttons for this reason.

 

 

Kim Hargreaves designed this garment as a boxy, shapeless cardigan,

relying on the drape of the alpaca yarn. However, I decided to add in 

waist shaping and subtracted about 18 stitches from front and 20 stitches

from the bag to create a more flattering silhouette for my figure. I was the

last person in my KAL group to finish my alpaca cardigan as my friends c

chose a looser gauge and Petite Knit pattern which is similar. However, I

will always stand by Kim as the best designer I know!

 

 

Using a Vest Template with Marie Wallin’s Aisling

 

 

 

As you readers know, I am a huge fan of Marie Wallin’s gorgeous colorwork. Her sweaters are masters of hue and pattern and I don't know how she achieves such extraordinary effects. What a creative genius she is, and how lucky we are to get to knit the textiles she invents! Unlike the model Georgia who shows off any shape of garment so beautifully, many of us who wear these knits are not over six feet and extremely thin. Some of us have bumps and curves that need to be accommodated in a knitted garment, and a loose-hanging cascade of fabric may only emphasize an unflattering impression. So I have decided this year to devote myself to applying a template to knitting Marie Wallin textile designs for those of us with curves. I wish to prove it is possible to incorporate gorgeous colorwork while wearing a fitted garment that flatters a curvy shape. And I am trying this with Nigella.

 

 

I fell in love with the Nigella design as soon as it appeared in Marie Wallin’s Meadow book.  It is a very long tunic, without added shaping for the waist, hips, or bust.  Later, Nigella was reimagined by Marie Wallin with a background of many alternating colors and renamed Aisling in Marie Wallin’s later book, Cherished. My knitting group decided to all knit Aisling together. It wasn’t just the complex colorwork charts but the shaping of the back, chest and sleeves that puzzled us immensely. In spite of the gorgeous fabric, knitters on Ravelry who had similar problems compared the sleeve size to “those of a clown” and echoed our issues with a large cowl shape that formed in the back due to extra fabric needed to keep the pattern motifs consistent all the way around. One of my friends and I significantly diminished stitches in the yoke--I believe I eventually removed about 48 stitches from the upper torso, and Sylvie about 25. Valerie opted to knit the sweater as is but later said that although it had a beautiful presence in her closet, she didn’t feel comfortable wearing it.

 

 

I love my Aisling now that I've steeked it to take out a lot of fabric, but I wanted the opportunity to create a more Nigella-like garment without the fit issues I knew I would experience if I knitted it straight from the pattern. I went back again to the vest template I created using the Clara vest by Kim Hargreaves, which I blogged about here.. Using the same stitch gauge of 28 stitches = 4", since I again knitted my vest using Marie Wallin’s fabulous British breeds yarn, I imported the Aisling chart into my template which allows significant hip, waist and bust shaping to suit my figure. I used the British Breeds raw, the undyed color of her yarn, as my background, and arranged some of the other colors of her British Breeds yarn to create an ombre effect. Here is the list of colors I used in order from bottom to top:

Thistle, Ocean, Woad, Mallard, Seagrass, and Rose.

These colors lasted through a whole repeat of the colorwork chart for Aisling, and then I just repeated them once more. I used the same neck and shoulder shaping that I used for my Keris.

 

 

I am more inexperienced with yoke knitting and how to calculate the correct fit in the shoulders and upper arms, so right now I am sticking with using a stranded template for just colorwork vests. Vests are the hottest new clothing style anyway this year, so I figure this is the perfect time to be knitting them! Next up will be a beautiful, spring-inspired vest designed by Mary Henderson. The vest is called Islay, and I am going to import it into my standard vest template, since the gauge is 27 sts = 4 “ and my standard template is not that different at 28 sts = 4”. Since the gauge is slightly looser, I will be able to go up a needle size which will be fantastic, as so far I have been using a size 1 US needle for the ribbing and size 2 for the body work. So to do the stranded knitting using the Jamieson and Smith yarn using a US size 3 will feel so luxurious and fast! However, I have a few other projects on my needles to finish up first. Mary Henderson truly is an amazing vest designer and you can find a bunch of her stranded patterns here: 

 

 

I have thought of maybe recording a little video explaining how to apply a vest template to stranded knitting patterns. Would you readers have any interest in that?

Fabulous woolly wool Spanish yarns!

 

 

 

Before traveling to Madrid and Toledo, I extensively researched and discovered wonderful treasures! The first  is the company, Wooldreamers. This is a fifth-generation wool processor trying to make a difference in the low valuation of wool in Spain. Although merino wool originates in Spain and was one of Spain’s greatest imports—some say it helped fund Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the new world—it has fallen into disfavor as in America. The trends of synthetic fibers and processing any wool here in Asia or other countries has led to sheepherders in both the US and Spain only earning pennies on the dollar for their sheep’s fleeces and actually losing moneyto have their sheep sheared to keep them cool in spring/summer months. However, just as in the US, there is a rising appreciation for natural wool and  sustainable textiles, so Spanish companies like Wooldreamers are starting to pop up. If you wish to investigate this company more, you can find Spanish language interviews with them here and here.

 Manchelopi

 

For those of you who have explored woolly wools from Iceland such as Léttlopi or Plöttulopi, its unspun sister, Manchelopi greatly resembles Plöttulopi except that it is MUCH softer! It comes from the same Manchego sheep that produce Manchego cheese, and this 1ply fragile yarn is marvelously soft and comes in 2plies which you can separate off to make a fingering accessory or knit together to produce a dk weight. I have purchased a handmade wood yarn spindle to use with it because unspun yarns like Plöttulopi or Manchelopi break easily if you pull on them and then have to be spit spliced back together. I have heard putting this yarn on a spindle and gently unwinding the cake is a better way to prevent the yarn from breaking.

 

 

One of the best aspects of preparing to travel to Spain was watching lively Spanish podcasts to learn the vocabulary used in Spanish yarn shops. “Madeja” means skein, versus the word “pelota” I already knew, for a ball of yarn. By the way, the word for yarn is “hilo,” and the word for wool is “lana.” Also, “lana autóctona” is the correct term to use for indigenous yarn, in this case, merino yarn originating in Spain. Through watching fun Spanish-language podcasts such as Beagle Knits and Tejer en Inglés, I discovered a vibrant knitting community in Spain, embracing knitting groups, Spanish-language podcasts, yarn festivals such as Barcelona Knits and Love Yarn Madrid. My best source of Wooldreamers yarn in Madrid was a little boutique named Trizas y Trazos, which also carried other beautiful woolly wools. There I got my hands on Wooldreamers’ Dehesa de Barrera, a scrumptiously soft Spanish merino that comes from a very high-quality merino sheep farm in Estremadura, Spain. It’s 448 yards or 100 grams of 3ply fingering yarn for $26 or $27 dollars, and in the US you can buy it here: I purchased 3 skeins for a cardigan at trizas y Trazos and I just can’t wait to knit with it!!!!

 

 

Next to my skeins of Dehesa de Barrera you will find a natural skein of Wooldreamers’ Mota, which comes in 230meter/252 yard balls or 100 grams of worsted 2ply yarn from the Manchego sheep. Belén of the Tejer en Inglés podcast offers several patterns you can use with this yarn—I know they are available in Spanish but probably English as well, as she is bilingual and lives in Oxford, England. Mota is thick and smooth and buttery and is on its way to become a gorgeous cabled cowl. For those of you interested in knitting tourism, there were about 10 yarn stores in Madrid alone, and two more in Toledo. Fabulous merceries and fabric stores were also easy to find and I purchased some fabulous sale wool fabric from Italy for about $25.

 

 

Speaking of wool, I’ve finished several projects using my deadstock fabric that I blogged about a bit ago for my Snow White capsule wardrobe. I will have to get help photographing those outfits so I can get them into the blog! In the meantime, I will leave you with one more important Spanish yarn company name, which is dLana*. dLana* is at the forefront of raising awareness in Spain about the importance of wool and paying shepherds a fair wage for it. They launch small-batch yarns using Spanish merino and have even used crowd funding to help produce a lovely yarn recently called Sorrosal. Although that was not available at stores, I was lucky enough to purchase an incredibly affordable merino called Madrilana when I visited Miss Kit’s knitting store, founded in Barcelona with a sister city in Madrid. The Madrilana yarn offers 450 meters for only 13.5 euros per skein!! Wow! I have been planning to knit a striped pullover with short sleeves in a vintage style so I chose a bold red and pretty mottled dark grey to go with it. What a deal!  I just can't wait to start knitting some of this yarn!

 

 

 

Dragging Snow White to Spain: Capsule Collection Knitting On the Go!

 

 

This is Frenchy by POISON GRRLS. It is the first vintage-style pattern I’ve knitted by this designer and I really enjoyed how well her design is written. When knitting on a big trip it is important to bring a project with clear instructions so that you aren’t tearing your hair out trying to understand the short rows on the sleeve while also counting your luggage and making sure you didn’t drop your needles under the seat! This top has huge, puffed sleeves and is part of my Snow White-inspired Capsule collection that I’ve been making to empower myself to get out there in the world again after the Pandemic. Traveling abroad was obviously a big fear and I did come home with a really terrible cold that I’ve been dealing with for about 14 days now. Still, being able to work on my Snow White pieces while facing the unknown gave me courage to poke my nose out into the world again! You may recognize the Bousta Beanie by Gudrun Johnston which I also knitted for some protective headgear while I was traveling in Madrid! (Yarns used for the hat were Biches et Bûches le gros lambswool in grey, and Rauma Vandre pink and vanilla.)

 

 

As you can see from this side view, there is a LOT of puffed sleeve action going on in this top and I’m all for it! This seems to be the decade of interesting sleeves. I am also tempted to knit a long-sleeved black puffed shoulder top for everyday wear using some Rowan calmer cotton from my stash later on, but we’ll see. I am trying to only knit items that I know will get a ton of wear, and perhaps this top fills that niche. I have already worn Frenchy a lot and find it really fun!

 

 

How many of us were imprinted by this image in our young years? There is something very endearing about it. And look at those crazy sleeves!! What do you think, does this capture a similar style?

 

 I admit there were moments on airplanes or buses or in large crowds that I clutched my Frenchy knitting project pretty tightly and encouraged myself to move forward, comforted by the soft feeling of the silk/merino blend in my hands. As a tutor who helps teens with Spanish language as well as Ancient and Medieval history, it was extremely rewarding for me to venture out into the Madrid bookstores or Museums in Toledo that housed the materials I was seeking for my summer program, and I was very glad I could take my knitting hobby along to empower me! It is amazing what a lifeline knitting has become, especially since the pandemic began. I am also starting to really feel encouraged by my fledgling sewing skills to have more confidence. I was always surrounded by women who could sew in my childhood, they just didn't have the time or interest to teach us young folk, so I've taken the learning into my own hands. Funny how, for me, learning how to make clothing by hand feels like such a fundamental skill to becoming an accomplished woman. I just had no idea of how much comfort and joy it would also bring until now!

 

The yarn Frenchy is knitted in is Killington by Miss Babs and it does produce a lustrous, soft and beautifully draping fabric! While I may not have been encountered any forest creatures while knitting my Snow White top, I did find some wonderful indigenous Spanish yarns made from Merino sheep living in the Castillo or Estremadura regions of Spain. I will be sharing another blog post in a few days about those yarns. Happy Knitting Everyone!

 

 

Knitted Accessories for Snow White Collection 2023

 

 

Isn't this hat pattern lovely? I knitted it in Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift using main colors 684, Cobalt, contrast color 660 Lagoon, and an unmarked white, gold and green from my stash. We do a free yarn exchange every year during the SuperBowl and sometimes we trade unmarked balls with each other. If I have a chance to look at the Spindrift shade card at my LYS, I will try to track down these 3 colors I ended up with from someone else's stash because I really think it's a good color combination.

I wore this hat a lot in New York to keep off the cold. Can you guess the name of this fabulous fabric store in downtown New York? It's often featured in Project Runway! As you can see, recently I have been making little accessories to match my handsewn and handknitted Snow White capsule collection! Corinne Thomlinson of The Woolly Thistle just released this Flowers of Fortrose pattern, which is free to anyone who is participating in the Wooly Thistle Fair Isle Accessory Knit-a-long from February 17-March 18 2023! The pattern has not been published on Ravelry yet, but is available to anyone who purchases a kit here . It's also available to anyone who signs up for the fairisle KAL on the website of The Woolly Thistle. I knitted this during the Vogue Knitting Live conference in New York which met for the first time in 3 years, and convinced my friend Stephanie to model Flowers of Fortrose here:

 

 

Stephanie has a smaller head and you can see the Flowers of Fortrose hat fits her perfectly. If I were to knit it again, I would add another round of flowers to the top of the hat to ensure it fully covers my ears, although the hat is relaxing and stretching out a bit with wear. The hat I am wearing is called Sarandi and was designed by Yoko Hatta. I also knitted it at the convention (it’s a long flight from California to New York and back again!) This is definitely a wicked stepmother color scheme, in my opinion so I was happy to get this photo of me and Stephanie wearing our Snow White and Wicked Stepmother hats! Sarandí was knitted using 2 contrasting colors of Malabrigo Mecha yarn. Sigh. I really need to do better at finding out the yarn names of some of these random balls in my stash! The original is knitted in the Arco Iris #866 and VAA #051 colorways, which are similar.

 

 

I am also knitting the Rumple socks by Kay Jones. She designed the sock pattern for Rumple Stiltskin while she and her daughter were watching Once Upon a Time. I test-knitted the sock and made one version for a student that was really cool. I think it is a very versatile pattern that works for both men and women! This is the third in my series of Howarts socks I am making him for each of the houses (he already has Hufflepuff and Griffindor), so I sewed on these slytherin patches. I thought the grey main color of the sock looked a bit like the old brick walls of Hogwarts Castle:

 

 

Kay Jones then inspired me even more by knitting a pair of Rumple socks in a luxurious white yarn with only a blue-lavender heel to reference Snow White in Once Upon a Time and the pretty lavender blue knit hat she is always wearing. So I am now knitting myself a pair:

My friends have already finished their pairs, but I just had to knit the hats above first because I knew New York would be very cold! However, it is amazing when you are used to knitting mostly sweaters how much one is able to accomplish when switching to a smaller knitting project like a hat or pair of socks. However, my goal is not to pile up a bunch of finished objects, but just to share my excitement about this little capsule collection which is giving me courage to venture out into the work and travel that I avoided the past 3 years because I am armed with my little handmade things. Just because these knits don't have any REAL magic protective powers doesn't mean I can't tell myself they help me to feel safe anyway, right?

 

My last accessory on the needles for this Snow White capsule collection is the Blackberry Kerchief by Churchmouse yarns and teas which I am knitting in a bright, sparkling snow white. I am using the discontinued yarn, Rowan kidsilk night which includes a silver thread of sparkle yarn. I discovered this pattern at the latest free Rowan Connect online forum, where the designer and founder of Churchmouse shared it as a good project for using up just one skein of mohair yarn. It is a very pretty lace pattern and some friends and I all started knitting it, but the three of us are finding it to be a rather frustrating and slow-going process. There was some ripping out on one side, some repairs of holes with sewing thread on my side because I struggled to read the pattern and my knitting at first, and it is generally being discussed as a pattern we will knit on for one or two rows a day to avoid getting frustrated with it. However, the finished result will probably be very pretty. 

If time permits this year, I will eventually make 2 more woodland/flower-themed accessories to go with this collection:

 

1)  Sarah Dallas’ Fairisle Beret

2)  Marie Wallin’s Meadow Mittens

Are you enjoying the last vestiges of your winter knitting before spring comes as well? Please share!

Inspiration for Color Scheme & Style Capsule Collection 2023

 

What are your style inspirations this year? We are coming out of a long hibernation where some of us spent more time living imaginary lives versus going into the outside world. That was certainly the case with me, and so my Capsule Collection for this year is strongly inspired by Once Upon a Time, which is a television series imagining what happens to well-loved fairy-tale characters such as Snow White if they are transplanted into the real world! I have just watched the first season but this theme for me captured some of the struggles of trying to find meaning in a different world after the last two years we have lived through. I have always adored the character of Snow White because of her love of animals, whom she always surrounded herself with, so she became my inspiration for my capsule collection and overcoming my fears in venturing out to work in person after two long years of very strict shelter-in-place rules in my area.

 

 

I chose a really bright red to sew my boiled wool skirt using McCalls 197 because the apple that has tempted me out of hiding is “resuming” normal life and sharing with others but our new world is a bit fraught with uncertainty and for me and some close friends, due to health limitations, even sometimes danger.

I also picked up some thick black wool that is designer deadstock and is as dark as night to match the cloak the Evil Stepmother is wearing, and am in the middle of sewing a Hollyburn skirt out of that. Inspired by Snow White’s love of birds and song, I found a beautiful bird-themed fabric and sewed myself a Hollyburn skirt. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t have survived without the warm kindness and love of my pets the past few years!

 

 

 

Finally, I am planning to knit some puffed-sleeve sweaters to go with my new skirts. I have a blue yarn already picked out for the first, round-necked top and will possibly knit the second, high-necked top with puffed sleeves in some Black cotton blend yarn. The great aspect of creating a visual map of my outfits for this year is that I can pop in different sweaters, skirts or dresses I have already made and figure out how they will go with my new clothing items so I can get the most use out of what I have and limit new purchases. For anyone who wants to try this, check out canva.com, which I am using to create my clothing plans.

 

 

Do you have any style inspirations this year, real or inspired by fiction? Please share!

 

 

 

Planning to Knit & Sew a kinda Sustainable Capsule Collection for 2023

 

 

 

 

Now that I am finally confident enough with my sewing and serging skills, I am switching from sewing with all (affordable) cotton to some wool garments. This will allow me to make matching knit/sewn outfits for 2023 which is soooo exciting! I’ve been fooling around with how to pair handsewn items with my knits for a while, but at first, I was not very successful and it’s taken me several years to a better sense of what works. This year I’ll be posting photos of some sewing patterns that I feel go well with certain knit designs. Ever since I read Karen Templar’s blog, and looked at her capsule collection photos many years ago, I’ve wanted to try to create my own capsule collection. Of course, I try to wear hand-knitted and sewn clothing items regularly but finding combinations that really go together and can be mix & match can be tricky. This is the year I’m going to focus more on getting that right, especially now that I’m learning to sew with wool! I will be using fabric and yarns that mostly come from stash as well as designer deadstock fabric which (lucky me) is readily available locally at stores like Stomemountaindaughter fabrics.

 

 

These two skirts are both sewn using McCalls 197 which I used for years to sew cotton skirts. The red skirt is sewed with a boiled wool which I found super challenging to work with. Somehow, (it had been 4 months since I’d sewed a skirt, y’all and I’d forgotten some basic things) I cut the front into two pieces instead of cutting it on the fold, which made the front longer than the back where the two front pieces were seamed. When I unpicked the hem, the smallest threads unravelling seemed to create holes in the boiled wool! I had to cut off the whole hem and shorten the wool skirt and its silk lining considerably. Someone at Stomemountaindaughter explained that boiled wool contains synthetics and that as a beginner, I will be better off using 100% wool for a while, so that's what I'm doing this year! After much adjusting, I am finally happy with how the skirt is looking and find it pairs nicely with Lisa Richardson’s Eliot design which can be found in a UK knitting magazine here or in Rowan Magazine 66. The houndstooth check fabric you can see below was some designer fabric deadstock I purchased at Stomemountaindaughter after the boiled wool incident and, being 100% wool was MUCH easier to use. Then again, I’d learned from my mistakes and cut the front skirt piece on the fold so there was no seam to take out! Did you know there is a second floor room of this fabric shop in Berkeley where you can get fabric half price? The houdstooth check fabric was so affordable ($13/yard x 2 = $26) compared to normal 100% wool prices that I was able to sew and serge my skirt without biting my nails.

 

 

I paired my new houndstooth skirt with with Vilma by Sarah Hatton which I knitted in 2019. It looks good both tucked into the skirt and worn loosely over it.  Overall, my color palette for 2023 is red, blue, black, white and grey ( if I get fancy, there may perhaps be a teal, forest green, or hot pink thrown in as an accent.) Here are some photos of my stash/ deadstock fabric that I will be sewing with in 2023:

 

 

 

 

 

Kim Hargreaves’ Peace Cardigan

 

 

I’ve been knitting hats for my husband and friends using Rowan Alpaca Soft yarn for the past few years because it’s so soft, and I finally decided it was time for me to make myself something out of such scrumptious yarn. I chose Kim Hargreaves’ Peace Cardigan to also showcase the beautiful antique Fleur de Lis buttons I had purchased from Unbottons! I added some additional waist shaping to the pattern but otherwise knitted it completely as written. Sorry there is no link to Ravelry, but I have stopped linking my blog there since the redesign caused some readers headaches and other problems a few years ago. 

 

Isn’t this a beautiful use of a Peplum? I feel this V-neck is flattering for different body shapes and will go with a lot of different outfits. I sewed myself a blue and white skirt to wear with it, using McCall’s 7197. Previous readers may recall that I used this pattern to recreate some Chanel zipper-front skirts a few years ago. This time, I just followed the pattern as written and kept the zipper in the center back. I used an Italian cotton poplin I purchased at Britex, and I am very sad about this fabric. As I ironed the pieces of the skirt, the blue ran in some places. Due to the busyness of the print, it’s difficult to see from far awy, but damaging the fabric just by ironing it at the start of the project was a huge downer. From then on, I used a presser cloth to iron the skirt, but I’m still really disappointed by the fabric. I will still wear this piece since I need a blue and white skirt in my wardrobe and I hate to waste clothing. Hopefully the blue streaks are not super visible!

 

 

This back photo illustrates the pretty use of garter stitch in this cardigan to emphasize the shoulders. After all the Holiday gift knitting I worked on from October to December, it was really fun to take a break and knit a garment just for me, and it is so soft and pretty! I am still working on my colorwork sweater, Troutbeck, for my husband, but once I traveled to France and returned with a severe stomach flu, I decided to retire it for the time being. There was no way I could focus on that fiendish color chart during my long convalescence, which meant no chance of finishing it by Christmas, so instead, I knitted my husband a silly colorwork hat with inappropriate reindeer fraternizing with each other, which he had requested about 6 months ago.

 

As soon as I do a bit more knitting for me—three months of knitting for others was a lot--I will return to his Troutbeck project. Hope you all enjoyed the holiday season and are approaching the New Year refreshed, your creativity recharged, and many fun projects queued up for 2023!

 

 

A Curvy Version of Marie Wallin Keris Vest

 

 

 

 

 

 

My challenge this year has been to systematically apply body shaping to stranded knitting patterns in order to adapt them to my curvy figure. I am a huge fan of designers like Marie Wallin, who produces gorgeous colorful designs every year. They are often designed in quite boxy shapes which are not flattering on me, so my challenge has been to find a way to adapt them. My first step in 2022 was to knit a template garment with the perfect fit, the Clara vest by Kim Hargreaves. 

 

I found the Clara vest in Kim’s book Amber, a Winter Gathering. I knitted it using Rowan wool cotton 4ply at 28 sts to 4 inches, which is the same gauge of Marie Wallin’s British Breeds yarn when it is stranded. Once I knitted my Clara vest and determined the fit suited me , I could use that garment as the template for the stranded vests I will be making this year. For my first stranded vest, I have chosen Keris by Marie Wallin. This high-necked vest uses 14 colors of British Breeds in a complex color design that can be broken down into combinations of two colors on each row. I cast on the same number of stitches for my Keris vest as I had used for my Clara vest, and used the same needle sizes. Size 1 for the ribbing and size 2 for the stranded colorwork. I reduced 1 stitch at each end every 4 rows until I reached the waist, knitted 9 rows straight, and then increased stitches at each end until I had the medium-size stitch count again for the bust.

 

 

Adding shaping to a stranded project is challenging, especially using a Marie Wallin chart where the yarn colors and patterns frequently change. But I had my schematic of stitch counts for each area of the vest, mapping the increases and decreases in my notebook which I had drawn after finishing my Clara vest, so I knew exactly what to do. I am delighted with the result. My Keris fits me just as well as my Clara vest does, and the combination of subtle, grey-toned colors allows me to combine the vest with many different items in my wardrobe, such as the Hollyburn skirt I sewed with indie fabric in the image above. This project proves that we curvy girls may need to work a bit harder to get a good fit in a stranded garment, but the goal is achievable. I also feel that choosing a vest with all-over pattern rather than a pullover may be more flattering for those of us with wider chest measurements, as the bare arms or contrasting unicolor sleeves underneath such a busy vest can provide relief and draw the eye from focusing so much on the upper chest area.

 

 

I purchased the Keris kit from The Wooly Thistle yarn store, and my Keris received a little shoutout in their recent The Woolly Thistle shopcast, episode 180 on youtube [56 minutes in]. Obviously, adding curves to a stranded garment is much easier to accomplish in a vest where one is only adapting hip, waist and bust shaping, rather than a yoke sweater or other full-size garment where there are many more variables. So I will be sticking with knitting vests for some time. Good thing vests are super trendy right now! My next project will use the same schematic and shaping. I will again use Marie Wallin’s British Breeds yarn to ensure consistency in size and gauge but this time, I will create my own color scheme. I’ll keep you posted on my results!

 

 

 

Experiment 1: Using a Template Garment for Marie Wallin’s designs

 

I find that many of Kim Hargreaves’ older designs fit me very well, so I knitted her Clara Vest (warning: this links to Ravelry project page) . I did add additional shaping for the waist and bust, which meant reducing approximately every 4 rows to the waist, knitting 21 rows straight, and then increasing every 4 rows to the bust before the armhole shaping. I photographed the garment from multiple angles to ensure the fit was reasonable:

As a result, I am using this as my “template garment” for any fair isle vest I knit this year. The first one up is the Keris vest from Marie Wallin’s new book of designs, Cumbria.  I purchased the kit using the British Breeds yarn from The Wooly Thistle and I have completed the back piece.

 

 

By some good fortune, the stitch count for Keris (size small) was the same size as the stitch count I used for Clara (size large) so I cast that on. Both patterns used a stitch gauge of 28 sts = 4 inches so I thought they might be interchangeable although Clara is a one-color vest and Keris requires stranded knitting. Anyway, I used the same stitch count for the back piece of Keris as I did for Clara [135 stitches] but I discovered that in spite of having knitted 3 Marie Wallin patterns in a row using British Breeds, the gauge for this garment was not the 28 sts = 4 inches I expected but more like 32!!!!!!. Perhaps it was because I had broken my Knitter’s Pride wood needle I used for the other 3 garments and had to substitute an Addie metal needle, but the resulting stitch gauge was much finer so the hip measurement of the back piece of my Keris came out much smaller than expected. Thank heavens I was measuring as I went along!

My friend helped me determine the back vest piece would still fit (just barely) but I then purchased another Knitter’s Pride wood needle (which will probably break at some point—honestly, I’ve had so many problems with these needles!) and the gauge loosened up to get me closer to the dimensions I wanted. Worrying that still would not be enough, I kept increasing stitches after my 21 row waist so that I ended up with the stitch count at a medium size for the bust (149 stitches) instead of the size small I had intended for Keris (135 stitches). This means the vest piece looks a bit top-heavy, but it will still fit me as it is a very cropped vest and so it does not flare out very much at the bottom. 

 

 

I am now knitting the front of Keris and due to my gauge issue I have cast on a size medium using 149 stitches. I am again reducing every 4^th row to the waist, knitting 21 rows straight for the waist, and then increasing back up to 149 stitches for the bust so that the front and back pieces match where the armholes/armhole finishing needs to be precise. The bust measurement of both pieces with be 20" for a total of 40" which is my exact measurement, so I will achieve my goal of 0 ease in the garment. I am about to reach the armhole of the front piece. I find it fascinating that not all stranded patterns in the same yarn have the same gauge, even though the last 3 did. I’m not sure how large of a role the different knitting needles (metal Addie vs wood Knitter's Pride) played in this; I am guessing quite a bit. I’ll post a new update when I finish Keris. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my Clara vest. Happy Knitting everyone!