Fashion: Yarn Style

Fabulous Accessories in Stitches West Yarn!

 

 

 

This year, during Stitches West, I decided to knit up the skeins I’d bought right away. This was possible because, instead of purchasing sweater quantities, I stuck to accessory knitting ( I had a trip to Edinburgh to save up for.) The result is that I was empowered to dive right in and try out all the different new yarns that intrigued me. What fun! My favorite of all of them has turned out to be Miss Bab’s sojourn, a blend of 65% cashmere, 35% silk which is to die for!!!

https://www.missbabs.com/collections/sojourn

 

Every year at Miss Bab’s, I bought one skein of this fabulous yarn until this year I had enough to make Joji Locatelli’s 3 Color Cashmere Cowl:

 

 

This whimsical little pattern produced the longest cowl I’ve ever knitted, but the yarn was so delicious that I enjoyed every second! I am intrigued to see that Miss Bab’s is currently selling mini-skeins of the Sojourn for $8, making it more accessible rather than the once-a-year treat the $32 skein has been for me. (The length of the regular $32 skein is only 200yards).

 

 

Another exciting yarn I found at the Stitches market was the Myak baby yak medium. The two skeins I purchased were more than enough to make a beautiful pair of Smocking Mitts using Carrie Bostick Hodge’s pattern. 

 

 

 I wore the mitts everywhere in Edinburgh and found them super soft and warm.

 

Silky Yak DK yarn

 

Next, knowing how could it was going to be in the UK, I knitted my husband a pair of Maize Mitts by Tincan Knits.  Maize It is a free pattern that looks great on a man’s hand and is very easy and straightforward to follow. I used Silkyak dk yarn by Handwerks in Pitch, as the minute my husband felt the yarn I was using for my Swoncho, he asked me to knit him something too.  

 

I bought that yarn at my LYS, as I try to spend part of my Stitches yarn budget locally each year so that my favorite yarn store doesn’t disappear! I did notice that the silky yak yarn pilled a bit, perhaps because of the silk content, while the Myak baby yak yarn did not, so in future I would probably use the Myak if I am seeking a yak fiber for a hard-wearing item. I have noticed almost no pilling in the Swoncho I knitted out of the silky yak dk, though, but then a sweater takes much less friction than mitts which are in constant use.

 

 

Finally, this week, I dived into the ball of Rowan Cashmere Cotton I’d purchased from my LYS. The yarn has the dry feel of cotton but not the toughness of many plied cotton yarns that I dislike. Instead, the cotton was soft and smooth in the hands, with plenty of give so I could knit with it comfortably. I used a free lace pattern, Speargrass Hat, to test it out, as I was wondering if it would be appropriate for knitting a lace summer cardigan. A 3-plied yarn is not ideal for knitting lace, because the roundness of the 3-ply structure can take away some of the negative space that shows off a lace design, but the lace still showed reasonably well. In future, I would choose Cashmere Cotton for a simple, eyelet-type lace rather than a complicated pattern for this reason.

 

I really enjoyed all the yarns I purchased at Stitches West, but my favorite is definitely Miss Bab’s Sojourn. That is a real pity, as it is the most expensive yarn of the bunch. I will just go back to purchasing one skein a year as a little treat for myself and sooner or later, I will end up with enough yarn to make a truly special piece.

 

My Ninilchik Swoncho!

 

Everywhere in New York at Vogue Knitting Live, my friend Stephanie and I saw designs by Caitlin Hunter of Boyland Knitworks. Swonchos! Hot pink and black, lime green, scarlet and gold Swonchos and Sunset Highways were absolutely everywhere!!!! All in all, the marketplace was absolutely glowing with hot pink and lime green:

 

 Vogue Knitting Live

 

However, what Stephanie and I noticed and you may as well after staring at the photo above for a moment is how tiring to the eyes hot pink, lime green and other florescents can become when you stare at them for a long time. Unlike the versions we saw in the wild, Caitlin Hunter had devised a subtle, faded southwestern color scheme for her geometric pattern on the Swoncho. When I saw the blocky design translated into shocking pink, black and lime green it looked so stark. Color is entirely a matter of taste and I do not want to take away from anyone else’s palette or choices. But what Stephanie and I took away from our time at VKL is that it was our preference to use natural subtle colors with blocky geometric designs. So when we returned from New York, Stephanie and I both searched for natural color palettes for inspiration. I chose a green forest color scheme with sunlight shining through leaves.

 

I chose a locally hand-dyed yarn, Handwerks Silky Yak dk, to knit this swoncho because I felt the design looked better when it had a lot of drape. I had a chance to try on a few stiff Swoncho samples in the marketplace that had been knitted in pure wool and I felt they looked a bit like paperdoll clothes. Rather, the width of the design, which calls for fourteen inches of positive ease, seemed to call for a silk blend that would drape well on the body. I used 3 balls of Handwerks silky yak dk in Wisp, and one ball each of Flax, Winged Teal, and Forest. I believe this yarn is only available online or at my local yarn store, Uncommon Threads, in Los Altos, CA as it is a new yarn made by a local hand-dyer, Handwerks. Her ravelry group is here:

 

My ravelry page for the swoncho

I am really pleased with the result of the modifications I made to the  pattern. I divided for the sleeves on row 10 of  Chart F rather than waiting to form the sleeves a few inches lower down when the stranded pattern was complete. I did this because I wanted real mobility in my arms as I plan to wear this as a work/hiking sweater in cold weather. It was really the gorgeous colorwork of the Ninilchik Swoncho thatdrew me strongly to the design, and soI pretty much made up the rest of the steps as I went along, knitting down from the sleeve separation.

 

I was also motivated to change the garment shape because my gauge was tighter than expected on the upper body. This is the first time in years I haven't swatched before making a sweater and it came back to bite me. I figured it wasn't necessary because the pattern just came in small and large sizes, and with 14 inches of positive ease, I thought, no problem, why bother? Hahahaha! Guess what? I ended up with a gauge of 26 sts = 4 “ with my stranded knitting instead of the 20 sts= 4” the pattern called for, in spite of the fact that I am quite a loose knitter and I used dk weight yarn and size 6 needles as the pattern required. This meant I ended up with about 4 -6 inches of positive ease instead of fourteen, which meant that it was more like a sweater than a poncho. Could I have unraveled it and started over? yes. I tried it on about twelve times as I knitted the garment and could have changed course anytime, but I loved the effect so much with the fit I was getting that I decided to keep it as is!

 

 

What do you think? Do you like the color work panels I added to the sleeve cuffs and hip sections? I thought it was prettier that way. Sorry this isn’t a very detailed blog post, but I am having some severe vision problems as a result of my concussion and can only do a little bit of computer work still. Each post takes about 3 days to put together. However, it’s spring break right now for all my students so I have much more time than usual to write and don't want to waste it! Every moment here and there that I am bright and frisky enough to work with a few photos I will so I can get out another blog post I hope before this week ends!

 

 

Putting Faces to Ravelry Names: London Meetup

 William Morris tapestry, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

 

 

I cannot tell you how amazing it is to correspond with international friends for years, only to finally meet up face to face!!!!  My Ravelry penpals from across the Atlantic have enlivened my life for years with forum posts, messages and chats about our common passion but knitting with them in person was even more delightful! Lesson learned: if someone seems charming and fun on ravelry they are probably 10x more so in person!!!! 

 

 

StTRinians suggested the meetup when I had reached out on ravelry about hotel recommendations in London and so I posted an invite in the Kim Hargreaves group for a face to face meeting. Normally I am a bit shy about these things, but I had corresponded with many people for a long time, and my mother in law, the lovely Maxida on Ravelry, accompanied me to the restaurant. Still it was kind of funny when Andrea arrived and she said, “so you are not bots after all!”

 

 

Actually, it was kind of miraculous when each knitter walked into the restaurant and I recognized her instantly! Suddenly there all nine of us were, hugging and sharing a table at a wonderful café called Canteen.

 

What a fantastic time we had! I think we probably spent about four and a half hours there knitting, all told! Everyone was wearing her favorite Kim Hargreaves knit, which made it even more fun. We also all went around the circle explaining how we chose our ravelry names and trading knitting gossip. Scully had come all the way from the North of England by train with a friend and I could tell that many of us had gone to considerable inconvenience to make this meeting possible. How I wish meetings like this could happen more often. It was really amazing to have the opportunity to share the warmth and passion and joy of our craft with others who really get it and who have so much to offer personally. I was really blown away!

 

I just want to thank the Universe for this deeply satisfying experience and hope that perhaps someday I can meet up with these incredible women again. I have much more that I would like to say, but to make a long story short, when I returned from my trip, I slipped on the kitchen floor, hit my head on the counter, and am now quite limited in my online activities due to a rather severe concussion. So you may not see much of me on Instagram, Ravelry, or the blog very often for a bit, but of course I am still thinking of you! Rather than trying to write a few long posts I may write several short ones as my capacity to handle many images or to stare at a lighted screen is quite limited for now so I am avoiding Instagram and a post like this takes the better part of a day to put together. But I am sending hugs to you all!

 

Xoxo Leah