Fashion: Yarn Style

Lauren Bacall Faux Fur Cowl

 

Filatura di Crosa really hit it out of the park with this Cincillà faux fur yarn! I am so in love with the Cincillà! It knits up so smooth, and is unbelievably soft and warm. This pattern, #8 scarf/neckwarmer, is from the Filatura di Crosa pattern book, Cincillà. The dark grey faux fur yarn is knitted in stripes with charcoal Zara. It was a very easy pattern to follow, and fun to do! Best of all, you can switch it from a cowl to a hood if the cold wind is blowing around your ears.

 

I will definitely bring this to Zurich when I travel there this fall. Now that I am familiar with the Cincillà, I am going to take on a more ambitious project—a full, faux fur jacket!

 

This looks more complicated, as I will be knitting the entire jacket in one piece, from side to side. Still, any excuse to play with this luxurious, ultra-soft faux fur is irresistible!

When faux fur is everywhere, I can't resist trying to get in on the fun!

 

Photos Imaxtree. Colored fur from Gucci, Emanuel Ungaro and Michael Kors

 

 

2011 Fashion Trend: Film Noir

Love by Marie Wallin

According to a recent article I read in July Vogue, the Film Noir look is in! Fall and Winter 2011 fashions convey a sense of mystery and sophistication evocative of Lauren Bacall. The marvelous photo display Grace Coddlington put together in the point of view section highlighted the “ice-cool, adult panache” that made films like the Big Easy so seductive.

I love the new emphasis on adult sophistication this fall. It is a refreshing departure from the cult of youth in the media that saps the self-confidence of many otherwise contented women I know. When did life experience and accomplishments become divorced from the glow of beauty for us? For once, adult poise is in, and I am loving every minute of it!

Apart from the fabulous glamour of this shot, I am reveling in the use of fur to highlight the shoulders. As I mentioned in my last post, fur and faux fur shoulder accessories are materializing everywhere, accompanied by fanciful hats and muffs:

 

Perhaps one of the reasons I find this fur trend so exciting is that it is undeniably adult. Inspired by these Vogue images, I decided to find a way to knit something in the same vein. Determined to find an animal friendly solution to this fur fashion, I have stumbled upon Filatura di Crosa’s Cincilla. Although the yarn is composed of wool and synthetics, it is fabulously soft and fluffy, and when knitted up, gives real fur a run for its money:

 

 

 

This yarn has just been discontinued, but I found enough of it to experiment with the film noir look. Inspired by Lauren Bacall, I have embarked on this cowl project:

 

 

In the thick of winter, I plan to stalk around in this fur hood, exuding an air of mystery!  

 

For once, Rowan’s design team seems to be ahead of the trend curve, for they have created some fabulous film noir inspired knits in Rowan Magazine 50! My favorite is Love, which seems like it was made expressly for a Myrna Loy.

 

 Myrna Loy I am not, but due to the democratizing power of knitting, I can wear her sweater. I am really in love with this design. Adult panache indeed! I have paired it with a maxi skirt, in keeping with the fall trend of skirts with hemlines below the knee, and the “mermaid” like silhouette mentioned in the Vogue point of view.

 

Choosing the right yarn for this project was not as easy as you might think. After experimenting with different combinations, I realized it was important to mirror the color gradations of the design, which moves from a darker color at the waist to a lighter, but complimentary color for the cowl. In the end, I decided that pairing neutrals with a similar sheen worked best. I used Rowan felted tweed dk for the ribbed section, and some discontinued Rowan kidsilk night in a pewter grey shot with metallic threads for the cowl. The brown tweed yarn was flecked with grey, harmonizing with the pewter color above. There was also a texture gradation, as the tweed had a subtle fuzz that blended into the must more pronounced halo of the kidsilk yarn. Wearing this top really makes me feel special, as if I have wandered into a film noir world. Now all I need is a leopard-spotted hat, or some fabulous snap-top clutch to complete the illusion. 

Paris: Scarf Style

I am still marveling at the scarves I saw in Paris, and the myriad ways the Parisians seemed to have of tying them. The photo above is courtesy of the website:

http://www.fashionising.com

I guess I brought the wrong guidebook to Paris. Apparently, Fodor’s contains an illustrated guide on how to tie a scarf, Parisian style! Who knew it was such an art? Not me. A California native, lightweight knits are my go-to style, and even the summer scarf trend has passed me by. When I got to Paris, though, I realized what I had been missing. But too late! I didn’t bring a single scarf along, and those I looked at in the trendy fashion boutiques were too costly to bring home. As it turns out, I was due for a rescue. After reading my last post about my scarfless state in Paris, one of my readers, Maria, sewed a lovely scarf for me and mailed it all the way from Germany, along with some scrumptious yarn!

Wow! As a blogger, sometimes I wonder if anyone out there is really interested in my random yarnstylings. I was very touched to receive such a lovely gift! As it turns out, Maria is a very talented seamstress. She has lately designed and sewed a scarlet retro-inspired suit decorated with kidsilk haze rosettes, which you can find on the Bernina website:

http://www.berninablog.com/2011/07/seidentraume-maria-prasentiert/

 

Thank you, Maria! Next time I go to Paris, I will wear your lovely scarf! And the yarn will perhaps become a fabulous winter scarf as well, and some other things I will share as I find perfect projects for them. :-)

 

On a separate, but still scarf related topic, the 2011 Fall/Winter lines seem to have gone crazy with faux fur. I understood, during the recession, the swing to fur in a nostalgia for expensive luxuries. But now fur seems to be everywhere, from yellow and red fur scarves by Sonia Rykiel to a lavender fur coat by Gucci.

 

 

Although this coat looks fabulous, it is real fox fur. Now that there is so much faux fur available that looks like the real thing, I prefer to leave the foxes alone. Celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe has a chic new line of faux fur coats and jackets which are featured in a recent episode 5 of America’s Top Model where the fur-clad models are cavorting in a zoo with a baby leopard. You can find the episode at cwtv.com.

Rachel Zoe faux fur vest

 

 Inspired by the glamour and texture of this latest trend, I have given myself the challenge of knitting something in faux fur. I can’t say that my first foray has been entirely successful. I was seduced by some 70% mink/30% cashmere yarn at Stitches West last year, the mink having been gleaned from brushing out the undercoats of the animals. It was fun to think of knitting an animal friendly “mink” coat, and the booth had a sample of a black jacket that looked like one of  my grandmother’s real furs. However, the skeins of yarn themselves looked like just normal, rough textured yarn in some seriously zany colors, ranging from orange to dark green. I was told that, although the yarn didn’t look like fur, the more you touched and watched it, the more fur-like it would become. Sceptical but unable to resist, I bought one skein of natural, undyed yarn, as the black mink was out of stock.

Great Northern Yarn, 70% mink, 30% cashmere

 

Perhaps I’ve just been checking the manufacturer’s website at the wrong times, but 8 months have passed since I bought my little skein and the black mink yarn still seems to be out of stock. I have been experimenting with my little natural skein, which I knitted into a keyhole scarf:

 

 

 This pattern is the Arwen keyhole scarf, by Tabitha’s Heart. It’s a great one-skein project, and I took advantage of it to explore the properties of the mink/cashmere yarn. When knitted up, this still looks like normal yarn to me, not fur. I have spent time petting the scarf, trying to bring out the fur texture, and I have washed it twice, but still no fur-like fuzz, just a tiny halo. I’m not really sure how much manipulation is necessary to create that transformation, but my feeling is, I am already paying $23 per skein for this yarn, if this yarn is supposed to look like fur, pre-treat it for me so I don't have to spend months of work trying to get that effect! 90% of the projects I saw knitted up with this yarn on ravelry were not fur-like either, so I have gone back to the drawing board. Somewhere, out there, the right “fur” yarn is waiting for me.