Fashion: Yarn Style

Willowwood by Caitlin Hunter

 

I have finished knitting the boylandknitworks Willowwood

pullover in Woolfolk Far yarn. The combination of design and

yarn was absolutely scrumptious! I immediately became obsessed with the design when I saw the Pom Pom magazine because I feel it captures the drama and exhuberance of Victorian style but the cropped shape keeps it modern too!

 

 

The whole theme of the woman warrior with Victorian style in Pom Pom Quarterly 27 is just fabulous. Too often strong women are portrayed as hard-edged but the designs are so sumptuous and elegant!

 

Nightingale by Nora Gaughn

 

I have my eyes on the above design, Nightingale, as well. What a genius idea to create a suit of armor out of woolen cables! And the design uses an American made yarn, Quince & Co Lark, which I’ve been interested in trying. The other reason I am so obsessed with these Pom Pom designs is I’ve been reading some wonderful literature lately about strong Victorian women. Deanna Raybourn’s series that features a fearless Victorian female butterfly hunter and explorer, “A Curious Beginning” is just as sumptuous and well-fashioned as the Pom Pom knit collection.

 

The heroine Veronica Speedwell (Speedwell being the scientific name of a cornflower) is a blue-eyed warrior who will stop at nothing to capture the butterflies that take her fancy or the villains that threaten people she loves. It is so refreshing to read a thriller romance series in which a wounded hero is the retiring, beautiful character who must be ultimately stalked and trapped by an adventurous, world-traveled heroine.

 

Willowwood neck detail
 

Deanna Raybourn has been a bit of a muse for me of late, and her incredibly intelligent and entertaining interview in this podcast informed me about the intrepid Victorian woman explorers that Raybourn modeled Veronica Speedwell after. So knitting this pullover was mandatory for me, as it brings me one step closer to the marvelous world of adventure and thrilling scientific pursuits that Veronica Speedwell and the explorer Stoker inhabit.

 

 

I had the wonderful opportunity to try on a sample of Willowwood at Stitches West which resolved me to knit a more fitted version for myself. Although the second size of the pattern fit me rather well, it was quite wide at the bust which made my chest look simply enormous. For those of us who are on the busty side, I feel it is really important to pay attention to this area of a sweater. I altered the pattern accordingly by casting on only 160 stitches to define my waist and then I added in an additional 10 stitches every inch until I reached the armhole, at which point I’d reached the recommended 220 stitches. This created a gradual widening of the sweater so that there was NO wide swath of fabric hanging from the armhole to the waist, which had seemed to triple the actual dimensions of the chest area.

 

 

I also made the sweater more fitted by knitting the body on a size 7 cubix needle which tends to create a tight gauge instead of a size 8 needle as the pattern required. I only switched up to size 8 for the stranded sections of the pullover and sleeves. Otherwise, I knitted the pattern exactly as written and it fitted just as I wanted it to! I am planning to sew a dress to go with this pullover but I’m going to have to find a dress pattern with a lot of waist definition. The dress pattern I tried was too high-waisted for me to wear with a cropped cardigan and has become a house dress instead:

 

 

Between the cropped high waisted top and the high waisted dress, my waist seemed to disappear.  I'll try to post a photo next time to show you what I mean. So I’m going to try the Dahlia dress by Colette patterns instead:

 

 

Striving for the Ultimate Chanel Skirt

 

As y’all know, I have long been a fan of Karl Lagerfeld. Ever since I saw his Chanel Spring Summer 2017 collection I have been obsessed with the A-line zippered tweed skirts.

 

Some of the tweed prints were even based on circuit boards, which, since I'm the wife of a computer programmer, particularly appealed to me.

 

 

I mean, only Lagerfeld could have made a circuit board so fashionable! Anyway, I’ve been pining for one of these skirts for years knowing that I could never afford to even purchase one resale. Considering that new, the skirts were priced at around $6,000, even at 1/10^th of the original cost, a used skirt would be $600! But now that I am taking sewing classes, it occurs to me that one day this skirt might be in my reach.

 

For this reason, I am starting my sewing adventures with skirts! My first pattern was Gertie’s Short & Chic Aline skirt. Overall, I liked the Gertie pattern but felt that it was not made for a beginning sewer. The patterns were all overlapped on top of each other so that it was confusing to tell where one ended and the other began, and so I ended up cutting the pattern out to the wrong shape and wasting $25 of fabric.

 

I feel that the money the author saved in avoiding adding additional pages to the patterns may have been a false economy. As a user, I would much have preferred to pay more for the book than to lose at least double that money on fabric I cut into the wrong shape. I even traced the pattern ahead of time as I’d never tried to follow one pattern superimposed in top of the lines of others but still I got confused. Oh well. I ended up with a wearable skirt in a different piece of fabric.

 

 

However, this half circle skirt was too full to reproduce the Chanel skirt I adore. So, inspired by cleocmc’s video podcast, Stitching Over the Days, I sewed a Hollyburn skirt. It's pictured below with my Karen Cardigan by Sarah Hatton. 

 

 

I made a muslin of the skirt first, to ensure a good fit, and ended up adding in a dart to the back pieces of the skirt so that it fit better at my waist. I had tried adding a back dart to the Gertie skirt and it worked so I just copied over the same dart I’d added. Overall, I feel the Hollyburn skirt is more figure flattering for me than the Gertie pattern because the Hollyburn has a waistband to define my waist and the skirt is less full. The Hollyburn is a super easy and fun pattern to use and I highly recommend it for the beginning sewer. Like Constance, or CleoCMC on ravelry, I can definitely see myself sewing another one of these skirts for summer! I’m thinking of a red linen skirt with a red and white checked top!

What do you think? If the pieces work out, I could knit a white Myrna cardigan to complete the outfit:

 

As happy as I am with the Hollyburn skirt, I still feel it still has not achieved the correct shape of the Chanel skirt I am longing for. I am now looking for a simpler, A-line skirt pattern with a front zip to practice with. Perhaps by the time I find it I will have acquired the necessary sewing skills to create my heart’s desire. In the meantime, I am continuing to knit happily away on various projects

 

1) Willowwood by Caitlin Hunter is in progress

 

2) I’ve finished my Hermione’s Everyday socks in Junkyarn which I loved:

 

3) I’ve knitted my second version of the Bargello Beanie by Vickie Howell in Malabrigo Mecha:

 

Is anyone planning to participate in MeMadeMay? I just signed up here with my pledge. But more about that next time…..

 

Wardrobe Style: Integrating Knits with Sewing

Short & Chic A-Line Skirt by Gertie + Emma Tee

 

I recently finished sewing Gertie’s pattern, Short & Chic A Line Skirt from her book, Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. It was the first skirt I’d sewed myself from beginning to end in years, and I was proud of the accomplishment.

 

However, I realized that the skirt shape I’d chosen wasn’t super easy to pair with sweaters that have any positive ease. The skirt is so wide, as a half circle, that it really needs to be paired with a top that is not bulky. At first, I thought the A line skirt would be perfect to pair with my Emma Tee, because the fabric and knit share a pink and black color scheme:

 

 

I think the outfit is generally cute if I pair it with a black belt. But the sleeves look a bit loose on the arm and that stands out when the Tee is paired with this skirt. On the other hand, the Emma Tee looks great with my black lace Maje skirt. I think it’s because the loose lace and grommets of the skirt flare out and that goes better with the flare at the sleeves of the Emma Tee.

 

 

Who knew that there were so many details to keep in mind when trying to put together an outfit made by hand?????

 

Since I’m a rather inexperienced sewer, I’m going to keep my wardrobe focus on knits and try to sew complementary wardrobe pieces. But now, after my first few efforts, I'm starting to realize how much I DON'T know what I'm doing and how much there is to learn. So I will start by imitating people with experience. My thought is to look at how knits are styled in pattern photos. For example, the cropped pullover Willowwood that I'm knitting is paired with a rather fabulous looking dress in a floral print:

 

 Willowwood by Caitlin Hunter on the right is from Pom Pom Quarterly #27

So I’ve decided to sew a print dress to wear under my Willowwood, and casting around for an easy sewing pattern, I found Simplicity Pattern 8231

 

 

It looks like it just uses elastic to draw the waist and bust in, and I should be able to handle that. So as soon as I finish sewing my Hollyburn skirt, which I will blog about in my next post, I will sew a wearable muslin of this Simplicity pattern. 

 

Here is the cotton fabric I’m going to use to sew my practice dress. I found it at the Discount Fabric Warehouse of San Francisco yesterday, and it was $6 a yard, so I hope I can make it into a dress I will enjoy wearing on its own, even though it is my “practice run”!  I know some of my readers have been sewing for a long time. What strategies do you use to find sewing patterns that will work with your knits? I would truly be grateful for any advice you want to share!!!!

 

 

Gransmoor by Lisa Richardson

 

I sewed the pieces of my Gransmoor sweater together on the plane! I was determined to wear the pullover to Interweave’s Yarnfest in Loveland and I got my wish! You can see my husband teased me about my mad deadline knitting until he caught me in a silly photo:

 

 

Gransmoor is designed by Lisa Richardson using Hemp Tweed. The design is from Rowan Magazine 62. I have been longing to knit it, but working a whole stranded sweater in pieces is not for the faint of heart. Adding another level of difficulty, the sweater has raglan shaping so you have to track many decreases for the body and sleeves on both front and back while stranding on knit and purl sides. Since it was so complicated anyway I decided to add waist shaping as well. However, I feel the raglan structure is the trickiest part of the pattern. All of the side decreases for the raglan shaping means the pattern is constantly shifting over one stitch on each side and so I did end up making a mistake as I was working on the purl side of the garment where I couldn’t see the pattern:

 

 

This is the correct version of the top panel, which converts from a grey leaf to a white leaf with the stems of the leaves aligned in the center. I hadn’t realized this was the anchor point when I was knitting the motif the first time. As I decreased the WS edge for the raglan and purled across, I accidentally shifted the center point of the leaf motif over by one but I couldn't see the pattern as I was on the purl side. I didn’t discover the error, actually, until I knitted the front piece. At that point I went back and unraveled the whole top panel of the back. Now the pattern is correct but the raglan sleeves may be just a bit too long. I hope they will not lengthen even more with wear!

Paired with this sweater is the pencil skirt I sewed with Maxi, my mother-in-law’s help several years ago. She left me to finish it on my own and you can see that I put it off for quite a while! But I think this skirt is super versatile and I plan to wear it with many different knits. Such as…..GASP…. the gorgeous sweater Maxi gifted to me during my visit!

 

 

The gorgeous stranded creation I am wearing is Magnolia by Marie Wallin knitted in Rowan felted tweed. Maxi purchased the kit and altered the shaping across the shoulders for a better fit. This cardigan is really a masterpiece! Maxi decided to give this sweater to me and I will treasure it FOREVER! You can find her notes on the project here.

 

 

I think with this gift I have won the knitting lottery of all time! 

2019 Couture Knitting and Sewing Goals

 

I’ve been mourning the Great Karl Lagerfeld and reflecting on his remarkable life’s work. I doubt there will ever be another designer like him in our lifetime with his combination of creativity and output. Anyway, this has led me to realize it’s time to get back to couture inspirations for my knitting. After all, this blog became my way to share and learn in pursuit of knitting heirloom pieces I could not buy in a store. I am happy to say that I achieved some of my goals.

 

Isle by Kim Hargreaves

Isle styled like Lagerfeld's jacket from Chanel Paris Salzburg runway

 

My adaptation of Steed by Kim Hargreaves

 

Steed colors modeled on Lagerfeld's Plaid dress from Chanel F/W couture 2014
 

 

Then with my challenges of wearing my knits for 100 days in a row, I shifted my focus to everyday wardrobe staples. I still tried to keep up with trends and create beautiful fabric but my focus was on wearability:

 

Cherry by Anna Bell

 

 Cherry leaf pattern similar to Lagerfeld top: Chanel Paris Soeul runway

 

Martin Storey's Braid

 

Finally, with my head injury last year, I switched to small, manageable projects like socks and hats so that I could still craft in spite of dizziness and neck pain. I do love all of my projects, but I am back to feeling if I am going to spend time working on a garment, why not make it one that will be treasured forever?

 

My Design: Gabrielle in Winter  inspired by Lagerfeld's 2013 Fall Winter Couture runway

 

One of the reasons I have been reflecting on my goals is that some of my concussion symptoms returned this week so I had to take off from work.  This may have been triggered by the stress of both my cats developing IBD and the resulting struggle to hand feed them multiple times a day to keep them from starving. Anyway, it has been important to find a positive way to fill my time. I adore my students and miss them and of course it can be challenging to power through nausea, blurred vision and fatigue for large blocks of time. Especially when covered from head to foot with yummy tuna heated in the microwave one plate at a time to tempt the kitties to take a bite.

 

So I put together a binder of photos of some of my favorite projects and the couture inspirations to remind myself of all that I can accomplish although I am temporarily on pause. The binder has been a really fun project because it creates an immediacy with comparing images side by side of inspirations and completed projects. And then once you start putting in photos that inspire you, it easy to add more! I'm sorry a lot of the binder photos above in this blog were so dark. My vision is poor right now and if I were to wait to post this until I could edit them properly....... However in the moments when I've perked up, I have created a pinterest board for inspiration.

 

Perhaps it's time to brush up on my sewing so I can plan full outfits instead of knitting tops and cobbling wardrobe items together with them. This will also allow me to support some local California fabric makers. So here is a list of my 2019 goals:

 

  1.     Take sewing classes to create a template (sloper) of a well-fitting top and skirt. This way when I create a knit that needs a complimentary top or skirt, I can sew one without fiddling with a ton of patterns.

 

 

     >2.    Experiment with adding knitted or crocheted trim to sewn fabrics.

 

     >3.    Improve my crocheting lace skills.

 

     >4.   Sew a basic fitted top and add a knitted, crocheted, or embroidered element.

 

     >5.    Sew an Alabama Chanin pattern such as: The Basic Tank Dress

 

 

      >6.    Sew one Gertie pattern such as: The Short and Chic A line skirt

 

Biggest goal of all—rest up and get healthy again! It’s essay season and my students have lots of papers to write--they need me!

 

 

Reflection, an Update of 70’s Style + Flaming Hydrogen!

 

My husband and I often walk around our Eichler neighborhood pointing out vintage color schemes in the paint of some of the homes. One day, we noticed a vintage van that completely reminded us of the 1970s. So when I finished my Reflection pullover by Kim Hargreaves, my husband insisted we include the van in the photograph. I'm wearing bell bottom jeans which I adore because they're high waisted and actually fit my shape. After years of low rise jeans, it seems the good jeans are back!

 

 

I made a few modifications to Kim Hargreaves’ pattern. I increased the amount of waist shaping, and decreased the exaggerated bell shape of the sleeves. It was very easy to modify the sleeve, as I cast on the number of stitches for the size small, but then shaped the sleeve the rest of the way up like a size large. I think I decreased an extra 8-10 stitches to bring the waist in more, as I wanted it to be a flattering, date-night sweater.  I really like the fit and will wear it a lot.

 

 

The pattern features a split hem, which provides a modern update to the bell-sleeve look, and has a fully finished neckline. That made the finishing particularly easy and enjoyable, which I appreciated, as the sleeves were a bit fussy to make.

 

 

I am not entirely in love with the Rowan merino alpaca dk yarn I used to knit this pattern. While it is soft and lovely to wear and creates a beautiful, smooth surface, I found the yarn very splitty. This meant that I had to really take my time knitting each stitch which made it a slow process. Since the pattern required oceans of stockinette, I found myself putting the sweater aside several times. It took me about nine months from start to finish to complete it but I am happy to wear it now.

 

In other news, two local yarn stores have allowed me to display my Enduring Hearts Sock samples in store, so if you wish to see them in person, you can view the socks up close knitted in Manos del Uruguay Alegria at Uncommon Threads Yarns in Los Altos, CA and at A Verb for Keeping Warm in Oakland, knitted in AVFKW Gather yarn. AVFKW recently added a gorgeous blue shade to their yarn line, using indigo, as well as some yellow-toned hues:

 

 

I am so grateful to those who have purchased my pattern, thank you from the bottom of my heart! As you know, I designed the sock pattern to support what I felt was a really worthwhile cause of trying to bring more California wool into the hands of knitters and the sustainable mill that spun the Gather yarn is also noteworthy. We all have our pet projects that are close to our hearts, so to those of you who purchased the sock pattern and/or Gather yarn, I am really touched! The Manos del Uruguay nonprofit is also doing amazing things with their yarn and I look forward to a later discussion of their efforts. As I mentioned earlier, I am not in any way affiliated with AVFKW and I just designed the sock to support their courageous business venture.

 

 

 

Do you remember my student, E, who wrote the western about a Banana bandit armed with a smaller banana? Last week his science class had to give a presentation on an element with an attention-grabbing intro. So E dressed up in a transparent cube-shaped top (hydrogen is colorless) and acted out setting himself on fire, waving red handkerchiefs around his face, and then making exploding sounds (hydrogen is volatile) while throwing himself onto the floor. After this, he launched into a scientific analysis of hydrogen. What I would have given to be a fly on the wall in that classroom!

 

Stitches West is currently going on so expect some fun haul photos and a recap soon!

 

Enduring Hearts Pattern is Live!

 

I released my Enduring Hearts sock pattern on Thursday, hoping this would give anyone who wanted heart-themed socks for Valentine’s Day some time to make them. It was a huge learning experience and I am incredibly grateful for the generosity of my test knitters!

 

 

The sock features a panel of hearts, created with a simple knit and purl pattern. The hearts are framed by twisted stitch “cables” knitted without a cable needle as I enjoy knitting socks on the go and don't want to fuss with a needle when I grab a quick moment to knit. The purpose of this pattern was to direct my love to the special yarn, Gather by A Verb for Keeping Warm. As I mentioned in my last post, Gather is the product of local California wool and Arizona alpaca, milled sustainably in Arizona, scoured with rain water and available in natural tones as well as hand-dyed colorways.

 

 

The above sample was knitted by me in the Fig colorway of Gather, which is sourced from the madder plant. A Verb for Keeping Warm has dyed up plenty of Fig in time for the pattern release. Also, my test-knitter FrenchieCanuk made a lovely sample in the Smoke colorway, which is one of the undyed colors of the yarn and would be a good choice if you knit the socks for a man:

 

 

When you knit with this grey, you know it directly reflects the coat colors of the sheep in Lani’s Bare Ranch flock, combined with the colors of the Alpacas herded by Mystic Pines. It is a remarkably pretty grey color for a natural yarn shade. I am currently also knitting a sample in the Lighthouse colorway of Gather, as I think it will show off the pattern stitches very well:

 

 

Perhaps I would never have written a knitting pattern if I didn’t like the Gather yarn so much. But then I did, and since I felt the pattern had merit, I wanted to make it accessible to people so I decided to bring in the Manos del Uruguay sock yarn Alegria. I know that everyone does not have my interest in California fiber and might want to knit the Enduring Hearts socks with something easily purchased from their LYS or with yarn from stash. Here is a sample in the Celery colorway of Alegria, knitted by my test knitter, Valbou: 

 

 

Manos del Uruguay is a remarkable, woman-owned cooperative that I will write more about later. But for those of us who have oodles of sock yarn in our stashes, any fingering weight fiber that gets 30sts to 4”/10cm on a US size #1.5 needle (2.5mm) will work for this pattern. I have not gotten bored of knitting this yet, because the twisted stitches and heart motif make it kind of entertaining to go on to the next round.

 

test knit by Valbou

 

Next step: I must knit a pair for my husband in time for Valentine’s Day! Wish me luck!

Creativity, Bananas, and My Upcoming Knitting Design!

 

Somehow I have finally gotten up the courage to cease designing knits in secret. I will be publishing my first pattern on Ravelry around Valentine’s Day and it will be a vintage-inspired pair of socks. I would probably never have found the gumption to go public with my creative activities if it had not been for my students. They come up with the wackiest ideas and they are so uncensored and joyful in their inventions that I’ve finally decided to give up my shyness and share more with others.

 

 

Take my twelve-year-old student, E, for example. We often study word structure and spelling/sound patterns to help him with his dyslexia. To entertain himself though his sentence writing, he kept adding in a postscript about people dying because of bananas. The more he did this, the more he giggled, and since he had completed all his grammar studies and had 10 minutes left over, I gave him the free writing prompt, “A dangerous masked banana strode into the post office.” To my astonishment, this is what E wrote: 

“A dangerous masked banana strode into the post office. He pulled out a smaller banana and held it up to the officer.

"Tell me where the nearest local supermarket is!"

""It's just up the street," said the officer.

"Thanks," said the banana and pulled the trigger. The postman died because the acid from the gun had melted him. The banana holstered his weapon and strolled down the street….”

Where did E get the idea of the banana bandit carrying a smaller banana to use as a weapon? I never know what my students will think up next!

 

 Then there is Kristine Vejar, founder of A Verb for Keeping Warm, who has inspired me with her boldness. She saw how little California wool was being used and she just went out on a limb and started making California yarn with few resources or supports. I think that must have taken an enormous amount of courage.  Maybe some of that has rubbed off on me as I contemplated designing with one of the beautiful yarns she now sells.

 

The above yarn is called Gather, a light sport-weight Rambouillet (75%) and Alpaca (25%) blend, which is available both in the natural colors of the animals, ranging in some lovely naturals, browns and greys, as well as hand-dyed colorways using natural plants, such as Madder. Above you see Red Pear, and below is the Fleur colorway. That is the one I have chosen for my pattern:

 

 

Valentine’s day is coming up and I feel this color is just perfect for an old-timey, heartfelt message of love. So I’m designing some socks which I hope to make available on Ravelry on Valentine’s Day or before, depending on when the test knitting/tech editing is complete. It is funny how when you feel deeply enough it helps you push past your own barriers, and my heart just hurt for all that California wool being produced and then left to rot in barns all over our state. Rambouillet is very similar to Merino, and it is lovely and soft to the touch. The bit of alpaca in the yarn makes it even more enjoyable to knit with.

 

 

Gather is 75% California Rambouillet, produced at Bare Ranch, and 25% Arizona Alpaca, milled by the same family that raised the alpacas. You can find out all about the yarn if you are interested, as A Verb for Keeping Warm has just released two podcasts about Gather:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reverberate/id1439713745?mt=2

 

The January 7^th podcast, “Breaking out of the Wool” features an interview with Lani, who raises sheep in California, and has taken the bold step of selling her wool to local yarn and fabric producers instead of shipping it to the commodity market in Roswell, NM where it will then be sent to China. It was really fun hearing all about Lani’s farm operation, and how she partnered with North Face clothing company to create the Cali Wool beanie and scarf.

https://www.thenorthface.com/featured/cali-wool-collection.html

The January 28^th Reverberate podcast, “Making a Wool Alpaca Yarn” features an interview with an owner of Mystic Pine’s Mill in Arizona. The mill scours wool entirely with rain water! Hearing the sustainable nature of the mill and their step by step process in creating the yarn was totally fascinating!

 

https://www.mysticpinesfiber.com/

 

I should probably mention here that I am not employed or paid in any way by A Verb for Keeping Warm or any other California Wool producer. I am simply a knitter who lives in California and is pained by how much of our local wool is going to waste. After listening to the two Reverberate podcasts, I was profoundly touched by the number of hands and hours involved in the production of a local yarn like Gather. I feel that by designing the first sock pattern for Gather I am adding to that total and making it possible for more people to become involved in supporting our local economy and environment. I will keep you all posted about the pattern release date. One of my test knitters has finished the first sock and I’m guessing at least three pairs will be finished by the end of this week! In the meantime, Happy Knitting Everyone!!!!!

Are Bell Sleeve Knits Back on Trend?

Amy Adams in American Hustle

 

I don’t know how this is possible, but recent movies and fashion shows seem to be bringing 1970s styles back on trend. Who can forget the absurd collars and cuffs of the seventies and wide-bottom courduroy pants? Not to mention the avocado and orange shag carpets! There is one photograph of my father I treasure--he stands posed against a window looking dashing with his overlong black curls and sideburns, tight pants and color-blocked bright blue and pink button-up shirt. Now that is a photo for the ages! I never thought I would say this, having barely survived one go around of seventies styles, but I find myself drawn to bell sleeve tops all over again! Is it just me, or is the above outfit fabulous on Amy Adams?

 

Kim Hargreaves Reflection

 Kim Hargreaves has designed a sweater with many elements of the Amy Adams top that I really like. It has a split hem which gives it a more modern flair, and the V is not nearly as plunging as Adams' blouse, which makes it wearable, for, say a date night with my husband. I feel this is a flattering design because the V neck breaks up the bulk that would otherwise be created by a sweater with such heavy sleeves. Another cool top with bell sleeves that I’ve been eyeing is Caitlin Hunter’s Willowwood. Its oversized but cropped cut gives it a modern update.

 

 

Another sweater I’ve been eyeing from the same Pom Pom magazine is Nora Gaughn’s Nightingale, which has a bell shape in the upper sleeves which seems like a fabulous 1970’s Victorian mélange of the bell and mutton chop sleeve. And how fabulous are the cables????

 

 

What do you think of the bell sleeve trend? Should it stay? Should it return to the 1970’s? I haven't entirely made up my mind. A few months ago, on a whim, I cast on Hargreaves’ Reflection, partly because I had the required yarn in stash and partly because of the nefarious influence of that glamour shot of Amy Adams. Then I had second thoughts and put it aside for a few months. But there is one thing I am sure of--if you are going to knit a trendy piece, you should make haste to finish it before the trend goes away! So I have picked the project up again. And let me warn you, dear readers--when you knit sleeves with this much volume, each one takes as many stitches as the back piece of a sweater. So this impulse sweater has become something of a commitment. I hope it will be worth it in the end to have my little moment of retro flair!

Where Does my Sock Yarn Come From?

 Blizzard Socks by Kay Jones

 

On Christmas day, after I had finished all urgent Christmas knits, I treated myself by casting on a pair of socks for me! I used the pattern, The Blizzard Socks by Kay Jones. Kay seems to specialize in patterns with unique details that can be easily memorized and then knitted without too much mental exertion for a true relaxing experience. I am also a big fan of her Jemima socks:

 

 

I can’t tell you what yarn I used for my Blizzard socks, because it was a one-time purchase at Vogue Knitting live in San Francisco. I wound it during a cleaning whirlwind in our home and the tag disappeared. The resulting yarn mystery got me thinking about how little I really know about the sock yarns I knit with anyway.

 

 

We truly live in a time of spectacular artistry among yarn dyers. Whether I am purchasing sock yarn from Olann (my favorite), La Bien Aimée or any of the great indie companies out there, I know my purchase supports the artistry of that particular brand. I love supporting small businesses, especially woman-owned businesses, as I run one myself [Academic Tutoring.] But what are the sources of the fibers that different indie dyers use? Before now, I've been too shy to ask, as I heard it might be a “trade secret,” and I didn't want to put anyone on the spot.

 

 

The hand dyer, Krista McCurdy of Pigeonroof Studio yarns admits in her newsletter, “almost all dyers, including me up until now, won't share sources, and it's stupid…. People don't buy your yarn for the yarn. They buy the colors you dye, which will always be unique to the dyer.”

Pigeonroof Studio yarn

 

I can imagine important reasons why yarn dyers might not want to reveal their source. But Krista revealed her yarn is sourced from AshlandBay and Wool2dye4. I felt it was really admirable that she was willing to share this information, as I could then research those companies. I am currently interested in buying yarn made from “local” fiber or at least fiber originating from the United States, so I found it interesting that AshlandBay and Wool2dye4 are both NorthAmerican companies although the yarn itself does not seem to be American. Out of curiosity, I visited the AshlandBay website and I read that they  offer "a meticulously curated selection of fibers and yarns from around the world.” A further search revealed two sources of AshlandBay’s fiber: Falkland Islands Sustainable Wool and South African Cape Wool. Wool2dye4's website reveals they offer Bluefaced Leicester Bases that come from the UK which they then make into yarn in their Virginia mill. The sources of their merino alpaca and silk were not mentioned directly and I only spent a few minutes browsing the site.

 

 

But I feel it would benefit me more as a consumer to ask more questions. Yarn traceability could empowers me to make educated decisions when I purchase yarn. Olann, whose yummy yarn is pictured above, is embarking on a natural dye-based yarn club using non-superwash yarn, which is exciting to me because my favorite dyer seems to be moving in the same direction I am. She has mentioned she is seeking in future to source yarn in Ireland where she lives and keeps her dye studio. Overall, I feel more information just generates more interest in a yarn. If I'm lucky enough to afford it, then I can decide if I prefer to spend, say, $28 for a 400-yard skein of Pigeonroof Studio fingering yarn that might originate from sustainable Falkland wool, or subscribe to Olann's natural BFL yarn club, which just opened for membership today. Would I rather spend $30 for a 400-yard skein of Forest yarn from Green Mountain Spinnery? That sock yarn is 30% tencel and 70% Targhee wool from herds “along the front range of the Rockies” and spun in an organic wool mill in Vermont.

 

Perhaps I want to support a Virginia mill so I could seek out indie dyers who use the BFL made at Wool2dye4. Or I might prefer to splurge $36 on Cormo fingering from Sincere Sheep since it's made by a California rancher. Why do I care? You ask. Well, I spend a lot of time with that skein of yarn in my hands so its natural to be curious about its fiber source.

 

Cormo Fingering from Sincere Sheep in California

I’m not going to go all rigid about yarns and where they come from because I think it's all fabulous. But recently, while perusing youtube videos of Fibershed's wool symposia, I discovered to my shock that at least 50% of the wool produced in California is sold for pennies on the dollar on the commodity market, which often results in a financial loss for Californian sheep farmers. The California wool is then processed in China, South America, India or elsewhere using methods and or chemicals that may be undisclosed or unregulated.

 

 

However, California and other states need wool so the fiber processed overseas is later shipped back to the USA, without much of any information about how it was milled. Then it may be dyed by a small producer, and ultimately end up in my hands. I’m not saying this always happens or is always an environmental issue, but would you be happy buying apples that were grown in Washington but then shipped overseas to have a special wax added to them to make them look appetizing, only to be shipped back to Washington again for you to eat? Those apples may be cheaper than the ones you can buy at a farmer’s market, but are they as good for your system, or the local economy? You can learn more about this issue here:

 

 

The fact that some California farmers actually lose money when they pay to have their sheep sheared because there is so little demand for their fleeces locally just seems sad and makes me wonder how much longer people will want to keep farming sheep in my state. I feel that since I am a California resident I should try to keep this problem in mind as one of the criteria I use for selecting yarn. In fact, recently I've been knitting with Gather yarn, a California wool and Arizona Alpaca blend milled in Arizona and sold in gorgeous sportweight balls at A Verb for Keeping Warm: 

 

 

Perhaps it’s time to slow down my pace of yarn consumption so I have the time to learn where my hard-earned dollars are going. I don’t have any influence as an individual over the current government shutdown or other nation-level decision making, but on a local level, my purchasing power is real. And I’d like to use that power consciously.

 

This post was revised from its form earlier today with the goal of clarifying my ideas...