Fashion: Yarn Style

What Makes a Good Knitting Investment? #slowfashionoctober

 

 

 

Karen, who authors the Fringe Association blog which kicked off slowfashionoctober, recently documented the cost of making her own clothes for a year: Through her blog and others, I have learned a lot about the hidden costs of “fast fashion” ranging from the cost to the environment in terms of cheap clothing going into the landfill and chemicals generated by excessive clothing production and disposal. In addition, many bloggers have been reflecting on standards of quality in different levels of garment manufacture, including hand knitting.

 

Anny Blatt trunk show of hand knits, Paris

 

As hand knitters, we have total control over our own quality standards, which are only limited by our skill and our budget. But for some reason, this is not commonly discussed in my knitting groups. So I was intrigued to read comments on Karen’s post in which other hand knitters reflected on the money Karen had spent on yarn to knit a baby camel sweater ($300) versus how much she would spend on it in a store, and estimated the wears she would get out of it, and if it was worth it or not. It suddenly seemed really weird to me that we knitters talk all the time about what we are making, but we don’t talk about how often we wear what we make, and what our best investments have been.

 

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/yarnstylist/wren

 

In the past, I haven’t spent much time thinking about this topic, as my primary focus the past few years has been on developing my ability to create couture-quality fabric in hand knits. For example, the silver-trimmed jacket above was knitted after I watched Chanel’s Paris Dallas fashion show, which included a $6,000+ denim jacket with silver trim.

 

www.chanel.com

 

In my mind, I spent $225 on materials for my jacket, which meant I was at least $5, 800 ahead! But that is an absurd calculation, given that I would never spend $6, 000 on a jacket anyway. In fact, given the prices of couture these days, who can afford to buy it new except for celebrities and the top 1%?

Rihanna wearing Chanel

Amy said it best in her blog, red, speckled white, “I don’t need to be Beyonce, I can embroider.” And frankly, the greatest enjoyment I got out of my silver-trimmed jacket was the skill I learned in crocheting metallic trim onto the knitted fabric so that it was good enough to wear. This took a lot of time, but my investment in developing my skill was worth it. 

 

 

Who says that couture always offers top of the line quality anyway? My grandmother, who grew up on a farm in East Texas sewing all her own clothes, experienced a unique boon in which for a time, she was able to afford couture, and she made the most of it. But the first thing she did, when she brought a designer ball gown or suit home from Neiman Marcus, was to throw it under the presser foot of her sewing machine, first reinforcing all the seams and then tightening all the buttons by hand. That taught me an important lesson, and I always put extra effort into the finishing of my knits, pressing my mattress-stitch seams and making my buttons extra secure. I doubt my grandmother ever admitted her sewing tricks to any of her well-dressed friends, and similarly, I feel we knitters keep important stores of knowledge to ourselves.  I hope others will start to write more about their hard-earned knowledge of what yarns, garments, and techniques they have found to be the best investment over the years! Here are my first thoughts about this topic:

 

What Makes a Good Knitting Investment?

 

    1)  Garments I have knitted at a tighter gauge have lasted longer than garments I knitted at a looser gauge. It seems to be a huge trend right now to take fingering or lace-weight yarn and knit it on a big pair of needles to create more drape. While I am a fan of drape, I am not a fan of the slow “dissolve” I have witnessed over time to the garments I knitted too loosely.

 

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/yarnstylist/darcy

 

My Darcy, a Kim Hargreaves pattern knitted in Karabella Aurora sportweight yarn in moss stitch, is the worst example. Being a loose knitter, I decided to use a fine yarn on the pair of needles the pattern called for instead of using a dk weight yarn on smaller needles. The result? The first time I washed the cardigan, it lost all its bounce and deteriorated into a soft mush which the combined efforts of myself and my mother-in-law only barely saved through frantic blocking. Every time I wear the jacket, I feel it is barely hanging on by a thread, and I am terrified to brush hairs off of it, lest it fall apart. It was a very bad investment, in spite of the fact that I had splurged on pure Italian merino yarn. By contrast, the Kim Hargreaves jacket I knitted in Rowan Felted Tweed Aran in moss stich on smaller needles is practically indestructible and I wear it all the time:

 

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/yarnstylist/elizabeth

 

 2)  Garments I have knitted with high-quality tweed, cotton, and silk blends have lasted much longer and draped better than garments I knitted with low quality yarns of the same fiber content. My favorite sources are Habu and Handmaiden for silk, and Rowan for tweed, cotton and mohair blends.

 

Knitted in Rowan felted tweed

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/yarnstylist/raine

 

 3)  I wear garments knitted in soft, non-irritating fibers twice as often as I wear garments knitted in “durable” natural fibers because I have sensitive skin. This means, that in my case, high-quality cotton blends, cashmere, angora, merino and silk blends are a much better investment than mohair, alpaca, tweed, pure cotton, and many wools. Although the latter fibers may “last” longer, if I only wear the piece once a year, what is the point? This means that in future, I should reserve those fibers for fall/winter jackets, vests and cardigans I can wear over long-sleeved shirts or dresses. All tops and tanks should be made in soft yarns unless they are to be worn in the middle of winter with a long-sleeved top underneath. And my cardigans for spring/summer should be knitted in soft fibers as they might touch my arms.

 

Knitted in Handmaiden sea silk

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/yarnstylist/adelphe

 

 4)  Any garment that requires learning a new technique or novel color combination is a good investment. But perhaps a smaller project is best? I was particularly satisfied with my cowl, below, because it was a small project I knitted from stash, so the learning curve was not too expensive in time or money terms.

 

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/yarnstylist/snuggle-up-either-way-snood

 

PLEASE share your experiences, dear readers!!! What have you found to be your best knitting investments, and why?

Antarktis: Celebrating Our Handcrafting Community in #Slowfashionoctober

 

 

I recently completed "Antarktis", a shawl designed by Janina Kallio. I used a wonderful yarn to knit the shawl: Miss Bab’s Yummy 2-ply, which I had purchased at Stitches West.

 

 

I was inspired to knit my shawl by Stephanie, the owner of my local yarn store, who is constantly wearing some gorgeous hand-knitted shawl which completes her fashion ensembles. In fact, as I have been reading all the blogs about making one’s own clothes during #slowfashionoctober, it has become clear to me that one of the biggest advantages of knitting is the supportive community that comes along with it!

 

Trunk show for String Cashmere yarn at Uncommon Threads

Uncommon Threads Yarn

The latest event at the local yarn store I frequent, featuring champagne and cashmere, is a case in point. Imagine a festive, giggling throng of women sampling String’s 100% cashmere yarns (Scozia, bulky, and Norway, dk are to die for!) as well as their merino/cashmere blends (Oslo, aran weight and Dolcetto, bulky also felt sublime) while sipping champagne and nibbling on chocolates and strawberries. The feel of the cashmere was sheer heaven in my hands, but the delicious experience was enhanced by the enthusiasm of the women surrounding me.

String Dolcetto

 

By contrast, shopping for clothing in a department store is not a personal, or always woman-friendly experience. In fact, some of my shopping experiences have confronted me with unattainable goals of beauty or wealth which can even, at moments, feel demeaning. Don't get me wrong, I love to shop just like anyone else, but I don't always feel great afterwards. This month, reading all the blogs of handcrafting, what stood out to me the most is how affirming many women find stitching, knitting and embroidery to be. The blogger Amy Bornman of redspeckledwhite explains the difference this way in her post: shopping for fashion is the experience “I want, I want” and handcrafting clothing is the experience “I am, I am.”

 

 

This month, my local yarn store is featuring a knit-a-long for “Shoctober” or “Shawls in October”.  Every Friday, the long table at the back of the store slowly fills with interesting Silicon Valley women: lawyers, chemical engineers, moms, mathematicians, artists, and educators, who are all drawn together to knit shawls from 3-6pm. As we admire each other’s handiwork, share tools and techniques, and tell stories, I am reminded of the sewing and quilting circles I loved to read about as a child in books such as “Little House on the Prairie” and “Anne of Green Gables.” Most of us no longer live in farming communities, but instead pursue a variety of careers once reserved for men, but the need for our own stitching circle perseveres.

 

 

Frankly, as a sweater knitter, I would never have tackled this shawl project if it hadn’t been for the example of other accomplished knitters. The warmth and fellowship and learning that our knitting community provides is endless. But community is a different experience for everyone. I would love to hear from my readers about your favorite knitting group, locally or online.

#slowfashionoctober: Knits that Stand the Test of Time

Cloth, Ancient Egyptian Artifact:

http://www.ancientresource.com/lots/egyptian.html

 

The art of creating textiles from plant and animal fibers has been

celebrated from ancient times to the present. Now that

slowfashionoctober is upon us, it has been fascinating to read

the proliferation of blog posts, books and articles on the subject

of disposable versus durable fashion. Along the way, I discovered

this amazing treasure: Alabama Stitch Book, which provides

detailed patterns and explanations of how to sew your own projects

and hand-embellish them using beads, stencils, and embroidery.

The explanation of sewing tools alone was worth the purchase. 

 

 

This appliquéd corset in cotton jersey is my favorite piece in the book.

But there are wonderful patterns for household linens as well. Best of

all, the instructions are all tailored to hand-embellishments on jersey

fabrics, which have a fair amount of stretch, so I imagine they would

translate well to hand-knits also. I discovered Chenin by reading

through the comments and blogs linked to this post, and "Fringe 

Association's" slowfashionoctober post from 2015. Fringe

Association also introduced me to a hilarious and touching GQ

article, in which a bemused father reflects on his teenage son's

fashion choices and how the thirteen-year-old free spirit uses

his clothes to define himself here. It includes a first person account

of Fall Fashion week in Paris!!!!! 

 

 

Best of all, these articles and posts have encouraged me to reflect

more on my own choices around knitting, purchasing knitting

supplies, and clothing. So I decided to set some simple rules to 

prevent my crafting from being overtaken by "productionitis."

For those of you who haven't read my post:

"Caught up in the Knitting Race? Stop and Knit an Heirloom Instead!"

 

"Productionitis" is brought on by overexposure to glamorous

 patterns, scrumptious yarns and the continuous uploads

 of ravishing knitting images from the two million plus

members of Ravelry. Every day how many more stunning

finished objects  appear before our eyes? ..It is hardly surprising

that we frown at our fingers, wondering how to make them move

faster, as if we were manipulating a mechanical device! It seems

that all of the excitement has created a brain inflammation and

Productionitis has set in!" Hah! I wrote that post back when 

there were only two million ravelry members!

 

 

Now, however, my featured finished objects include a

variety of children's toys as my life has expanded to

include many wonderful new friends and family!

 What hasn't changed is that the online knitting

community keeps exposing me to different viewpoints

about crafting and consumption, ranging from the 

ladies who work an extra job just to support their yarn

buying habit or sneak skeins into the house in grocery

bags to the frugal shoppers who toil for months over

pieces knitted out of cast-offs or bargain basement thread,

only to see their projects fall apart and fade due to

the inferior quality of their materials. This leads me to

rule number one:

 

 

  Rule  1. Use durable, high-quality yarns for adult-sized

clothing projects in colors that harmonize with my

wardrobe. Use hand-dyed specialty yarns for shawl

and other small accessory projects. Use cheaper,

lower quality yarns for baby & toddler projects.

 

Although this rule seems like plain common-sense,

it is not as easy to follow as you might think. How

many times do we "die" for a certain prism of hand-

dyed yarn that looks gorgeous in the skein, but 

proves to be totally impractical for a work sweater?

As a color person, I am always drawn to buy garment-

size yarn lots in deep purples, blues, reds and greens,

which, while lovely in themselves, are not particularly

versatile colors to blend with everything else in my

wardrobe. Note to self: buy more neutrals in future!

 

random cross-section of my stash

 

Then there is the whole issue of yarn durability. But with

experience, comes wisdom, and the selection of a handful

of yarns that perform well again and again. Here are my

top five: Rowan Felted Tweed, Rowan Calmer, Rowan

Kidsilk Haze, Cascade 220, and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino.

 

 

"But Calmer has been discontinued for years," you say.

"Girl, haven't you ever heard of thrifting?" I reply.

 

There are so many wonderful sources of second-hand yarn,

ranging from the stashes of other ravelers to ebay, etsy and

shopping & swapping the stashes of your friends! And what

a great way to avoid the "disposable" yarn problem! Then 

again, I am enormously attached to my local yarn store, so

I try to be generous in supporting its offerings as well.

 

Rule 2: Stick to a Yarn Diet this month!

So far, so good. Rather than yielding to the shopping

instinct, I am focusing on a teeshirt in Calmer, one in

Felted Tweed (my projects in this yarn have lasted 20

years and more!), and a shawl in two Handmaiden Sea

Lace and Anzula Breeze, 2 novelty, impulse buys.

 

 

Rule 3: Ask for input when choosing patterns!

I am going to be knitting "Leah" next month to

complete my knitted suit because my blog

readers voted for that pattern unanimously! In

retrospect, I realize it is a much more versatile

garment than the other pattern choices. The 

more versatile the garment, the more I will wear

it, and the less "disposable" it becomes.

 

Rule 4: Recycle your Knits!

It's been enormous fun gifting my younger,

"girlier" tops and cardigans to actual girls in

my family and circle who look appropriate

wearing them!  Which brings me to another rule:

 

Rule #5: Knit what Flatters YOU!

For years, I typed and doodled drafts of

chapters about the importance of knitting

designs that flatter the maker in terms of 

shape, color, and design. Luckily, Amy

Herzog came out with her "Knit to Flatter"

book, saving me the work of trying to write one!

 

But all of us know people who parade around in

tent-like or shrink-wrapped garments, so proud of that

cable or color scheme that they never bother to glance at

themselves, the wearer, to evaluate the fit. Which brings me 

to my last rule in knitting for durability:

 

Rule #6: Swatch Early and Often!!!

Take that new lot of yarn home from your local boutique and

swatch one ball of it right away for your pattern! That way,

if it doesn't work out, you are still in the time window to return

it for something else! So many of us lose the thrill of the excitement

of the buy and put it away, only to pull it out months later and 

gaze at a cluster of alien balls of yarn in utter astonishment. Now

you have to buy a new pattern in order to use up this weird-ass

yarn that you have already outgrown, while the pattern you really

liked calls for another purchase! And so the crafter's stockpile

grows....

 

Speaking of which, I am not going to even attempt to quantify

my own stash. But perhaps I should work on organizing it 

better this month. What if any resolutions are you setting

for yourself, readers, this month?

 

 

#slowfashionoctober: A Celebration of Handcrafting

Closeup of my hand-knitted fabric for "Honoured"

 

As I toil away at reproducing by hand a fabric that is masquerading as a

handweave from an Italian mill, and combines four separate yarns of

different fibers made in Japan, Germany, Italy and the United States,

I sometimes wonder if I have lost my mind.  Just the back piece of

"Honoured" took me three months to complete. However, it looks as if

 I am not alone. All across the country, blogs are celebrating

slowfashionoctober this month, as part of the Slow Clothing

Movement. What a fun opportunity to read about what other

knitters and handcrafters are doing!

 

The author of fringeassociation started off this extravaganza 

 

Here

 

My Gabrielle in Winter

 

My personal preference in crafting is for "Heirloom Knitting",

the process of hand-making a textile that somewhat resembles

couture fabric, such as "Gabrielle in Winter," above.

More information about Gabrielle here

 

In high school I wanted to become a textile designer as my future

career, and even went so far as to study Scandinavian languages 

in the hopes of working at Marimekko in the future. Although I 

was unable to realize that dream profesionally, I love to combine

different yarns and stitch patterns together in order to create unique

and wearable fashion:

 

 

The stitch pattern and colors of my "Dior", for instance, were

inspired by wrought-iron doorways I saw in Paris. You can find

more information about my Dior project here.

 

For more fun posts about slofashionoctober, see Miss Agnes'

fascinating blog, "ready to knit" here.

 

I believe the idea is that the blogging community will be posting a

series of reflections, projects, and challenges throughout the

month, so watch this space!

 

For more information about heirloom knitting, click on the "heirloom

knitting" category at the top right hand corner of my blog, or use

this link here.

 

 

Readers, what does the Slow Clothing Movement mean to you, and

how do you follow that mindset in your own life?

 

Kidsilk Haze + Kim Hargreaves = Magic!

7

 

I have just finished Flora by Kim Hargreaves, from her book Wilder.

You can find the pattern here:

 

http://www.kimhargreaves.co.uk/view-books/wilder/

 

This is such a genius pattern! It is not as easy as it seems to create a

simple, classic, elegant design using a sheer, laceweight, fuzzy,

yarn, but Kim has pulled it off again!

 

 

I knitted this cardigan using Rowan's Kidsilk Haze Eclipse, a 

discontinued version of Kidsilk Haze that contains a metallic thread.

In my opinion, it is a great pity that this glamorous yarn has been

discontinued.

 

 

My only hope is that Rowan will produce another variation of it in 

future, much as KSH eclipse was a "revamped" version of the former

metallic Kidsilk Haze Night. It is rare that one finds a tasteful use of

metallics in yarn that blends dazzle with understated elegance. I seem

to have become a bit of a connoisseur of metallic yarns (read mad

obsessive) considering that, at my last count, this is the tenth pullover/

cardigan/jacket I have knitted using some variation of Kidsilk Haze

night, Kidsilk Haze eclipse, or Rowan shimmer. 

 

http://yarnstylist.com/2015/01/metallics-meet-knitwear-a-divine-match.html

 

http://yarnstylist.com/2015/05/favorite-designer-inspired-jacket-ever.html

http://yarnstylist.com/2015/12/semillon-and-how-i-love-knitting-with-swarovski-crystals.html

 

Metallic threads can easily look cheap or flashy, Las Vegas style.

In my opinion, the easiest way to use them is to pair them with 

a tweed or other natural fiber to tone them down. However, 

sometimes you need to shimmer from head to toe. Under

those circumstances, a casual, simple shape is essential!

 

Flora is a simple boy cardigan, with a boxy shape and pockets. LOVE the pockets!!!

 

 

I did add waist shaping to the garment, otherwise I knitted the pattern 

as is. I think the rolled edgings add to the understated, casual look.

 

 

I think this garment is the perfect use of a metallic yarn, and is much

more versatile than the lace top I knitted in this yarn:

 

 

 

 Flora is such a versatile cardigan, in fact, that I am tempted to knit it 

again in another color. Then I remember the three long months I spent

making this using size 2 and 3 needles, and I reconsider....

 

Still, this one was worth it!

 

You can find the project on Ravelry

here: