twist collective spring 2013

What a delight to switch on my laptop Sunday morning and discover that there was a brand new edition of Twist Collective to peruse over my birthday breakfast! Patter-wise this issue is a bit thin on the ground for me. There are a few things I find interesting, but nothing I’m gagging to knit. Article-wise, this one was fascinating. Spring and summer are difficult times to design for, but well-written articles are year-round.

To begin with the patterns, I really like the looks of Rebecca Blair’s Eliza jumper and Emmy Petersson’s Alvinda cardigan. They both take advantage of the breeziness of a simple lace pattern in a light sport-weight yarn. I also think both would be adorable converted into henleys. Don’t you think Eliza would be super-cute with a little column of buttons?

I also enamored by Iris Wildsmith’s Galliera tam. Not only does she have the best name ever (she’s a smithy of the wild!) but she has great aesthetic.

Finally, Michaela Moores’s Castanea is amazing! The stole is beautiful, but the giant circular shawl is spectacular. I love the yarns chosen for the sample patterns; the colours really make the stitch pattern sing.

On to the articles: I really recommend taking a look at Robin Melanson’s feature, ‘The Error of Our Ways: A Knitter’s Guide to Fixing Mistakes‘. It offers both excellent solutions to common problems and a great pictorial guide that demonstrates clearly what these issues look like and how to fix them. I’ve always been fairly fearless when it comes to dropping down and fixing things in situ rather than ripping back six rows to sort a mistake out.

All you really need to be able to do it without damaging your work is to follow one of the best tips she gives: learn to read your knitting. This tip is repeated in Sandi Rosner’s article on lace, but it is well worth learning how-to whatever your project. It’s a bit tricky in the first repeat of a new pattern or chart, but it saves endless heartache in the end if you sit back, spread out your work and read the stitches after every few rows/rounds. You catch errors much more quickly, plus it’s really lovely to just be able to admire the results of all that effort you’ve put into your work!

The other article that really caught my attention is Leslie Petrovski’s essay on plant-based fibres, ‘In the Weeds‘, which gives both a historical perspective of how these fibres have developed in human hands and their advantages/disadvantages over animal fibres. It’s a very interesting read. I’ve never been particularly into plant-based yarns, as I find the inelasticity of cotton yarns difficult on my hands (and the very thought of hemp and linen gives me arthritis). As I get deeper into working with colour and knitting jumpers and cardigans, I’ve got deeper into exploring how different sheep breeds and other animal-based yarns react to different stitches and contours. Plus sweaters and cardigans designed in cotton or linen always seem to be too tunicy and mother-earthy or just somehow less agile than those designed for wools. But this has made me reconsider some of my prejudices and has made me really keen to get my hands on some linen. It might open up a whole new world for me.

Does anyone have any recommendations for plant-based yarns?

All images taken from Ravelry and the Twist Collective site.

fo: larch cardigan

After a mere nine weeks, my Larch cardigan is ready to wear! This project actually started way back in the depths of last year when I contacted Lyndsey from Countess Ablaze to ask her if she could custom dye me some of her DK-weight blue-faced Leicester, Bluefaced Baron DK. We back-and-forthed over the colour for a few weeks until she hit upon the single most amazing emerald you have ever seen.

This is the emerald that makes you think of rolling hills and mythical creatures and burial sites full of untold riches. It is lush.

I knew almost immediately that it had to be a Larch cardigan. Larch, for the uninitiated, is an Amy Christoffers design. Amy occupies a place of deep affection in my heart. She is an incredible designer. (I’ve heard several people say that it’s like Amy designs just for them, but they’re wrong. She designs just for me.) Her cardigans are exactly my aesthetic.

I did a few small mods that others might find helpful.

1. I tend to find long, loose cardigans gape around the small of my back (because my bum sticks out and I have little natural waist), so I spread the decrease stitches evenly rather than at the sides where they would traditionally fall (every 50 sts for the first set and then immediately above [i.e. so they're stacked] following Amy’s row count). This seems to have worked very well.
2. As usual, I knit my sleeves until I thought they were long enough and then added an extra inch and then added ten rows. This seems to be the only way I ever manage to get sleeves that fit. NOTE: I did NOT do this for my Acer or my Tinder and my sleeves for both projects are definitely a bit too short. I think it works rather well with the vintage feel of the Acer, but I have a good mind to hack into the Tinder and add some rows.
3. I extended the sleeve caps and arm holes by about 6 rows. Amy’s main criticism is that her sleeves tend towards the tight side, which I noticed in my Acer. These sleeves fit perfectly. They are deep enough to be able to comfortably wear a couple of layers underneath (which is totally necessary at the moment! When will it be spring?!).
4. Amy suggests using a double-knit BO around the shawl part of the collar, which is super stretchy but looked very unfinished and amateurish when I attempted it. I stuck to my regular BO (k2, sl 1st st over 2nd, * k1, sl 1st st on right needle over 2nd, repeat from *), but looser than normal.

I am very pleased with the result.

On the needles now: not another Amy (I just couldn’t decide!), but my long-awaited Perfect Christmas Jumper! About time, no? Lou finished her’s years ago.

too many shawls?? – never!!

When I decided to knit my sister a shawl for her 30th birthday I didn’t think it would take me this long to pick one!

Her birthday was on 28th Feb!!

I knew I was leaving it late as I still hadn’t finished my brothers socks, (due 19th Jan! Still waiting to be posted!) but even though I’m never normally on time with knitted gifts, this is even late for me!

The first point I was stuck at was picking the yarn. I gave Jen six options and she got it down to two……

Wollmeise Pure in Petite Poison

And

Madeleine Tosh, Tosh Sock in Moss

Eventually I decided to go with the Wollmeise as Amethyst is her birth stone and I wanted a shawl with more delicate drape than comfort squish.

Other than finishing Adams socks and picking a yarn, my main issue was that I couldn’t decide on a pattern. I had a few ideas in my head but wanted it to be special and perfect for her. So I took to Ravelry to see if it would help.

Looking through Ravelry just made it harder, there are so many amazing shawls out there, all pulling me in different directions!

So I decided to put together my favourite five shawls and compare them all together to help me decide.

The greatest thing about Ravelry is having the ability to see many knitters versions of patterns, it different yarns, weights and colours.

The pics shown are a mixture of the designers own and other Ravelry knitters projects.

I love the bold, determined style of Trilinear designed by Cindy Garland, but the thought of having to make another decision for the second colour has put me off this but has also put this at number eight in my Ravelry queue!

© Wild Prairie Knits

The delicate draping leaves of The Lonely Tree Shawl designed by Sylvia Bo Bilvia are just gorgeous and the border adds such a pretty finish but I didn’t want a block lace pattern for the entire shawl. (I think this would be awesome in another yarn in my stash too)

© Sylvia Bo Bilvia

The shape of Lazy Katie has me obsessed! Brigit Freyer has designed a work of art in this shawl but it needs a bold, colourful, variegated yarn to create the brilliant effect.

© BonnieRed

Semele Shawl designed by Asa Tricosa is practically perfect, it has a delicate drape a base of stockinette stitch and pretty lace border, I think it has made the final cut….

Knittimo

Whenever I think to knit a shawl my default designer will always be Susanna IC and Oslo Walk is fantastic. I love the dangling ice crystals and the yo’s breaking up the main section of the shawl. Susanna’s construction is always a winner for me so into the final it goes…

© OrangeLauren

The final decision has been hard but due to the weather at the moment being so cold and so icy I’ve made my choice…..

The winner is Oslo Walk!!

new knitty, winter 2012

I was so happy when I opened up ‘Hot Right Now’ on Ravelry and saw that a new Knitty was out. Ahhh, fresh patterns! As ever there is a well-rounded selection to chose from, something for everyone. Here’s a round up of my favourite patterns from the bunch. Unusually for me, my favourites leapt off the screen at me — usually I dither and umm and ahh and faff for hours trying to decide which to highlight. Not so this time!

Starting with the Earlybird Socks, there is something about the textures and use of colour this year that really struck me. These socks are a really lovely case in point. The smooth, repeated lines are so satisfying. They almost look like the deep furrows of a ploughed field when seen from up high, out an airplane window, slowly arching round. The stitch pattern is one of my favourites, too. I think it’s the one that Lou used in the cuff of her Raspberry Ripple Socks.

Kittiwake, similarly, uses a really interesting, well-defined stitch pattern that looks like it would be fun to knit up. I’m nearly finished my Acer Cardigan and am consequently on a cables-and-lace kick. Kittiwake (oddly enough, one of the words I assigned my students for their spelling test just the week before I even saw Knitty’d come out) looks not only deeply satisfying to knit, but cosy and like it would fit beautifully. Mind you, Amy Herzog. Nuff said.

Two of the other cardigans in this Knitty also had me blown over. Iounn‘s gorgeous stranded work caught my eye initially, but the cuff detail and the amazing hemline are what sealed the deal for me. I bought a beautiful ginormous hank of teal merino at the Knitting and Stitching Show this year — practically the only yarn I bought there! — and I think it, paired with a soft dove grey or a daffodilly yellow, would make for a gorgeous Iounn of my own.

Rime’s the Reason is other other cardigan that I really liked. The name is not my favourite, but the construction is So Clever. I love the combination of buttons and zip, and the hood and in-built fingerless mitts are amazing added features — although it’s started to warm up a little here in London, last week I needed something that would keep me toasty. The zig-zaggy butterfly motif looks like it would definitely keep up knitterly interest, as would the protective hip panels.

Finally, as soon as I saw Lilaceous, I really wished I was getting married all over again. Or at least that this beautiful pattern had come out last year. It’s just so delicate, and so plush. It takes my breath away every time I look at it. I think I’m going to make one out of regular boldly jewelly sock-weight yarn and then another in the softest, most ethereal laceweight I can find. The description Derya wrote for it is equally lovely.

 

Honourable mentions go to rather fun mittens Caaaarbs!, the cardigan at the end of a really interesting article on Aran knitting in America, Ruth, and Argentière which has an amazing collar.

Note: All images slurped from Knitty.com itself.

new twist collective, fall 2012

I don’t know if it’s the Olympic fever or the heat, or the fact that EVERYONE is on holiday except me, but I cannot concentrate on anything for more than about 50 seconds.

Actually, I suspect it’s more due to the fact that the casing on my laptop has snapped, which means I can’t close the lid and thus am stuck at home (anyone have a laptop they’d like to sell me?) AND there has been building work going on in the downstairs flat FOR A MONTH. Being stuck at home — at my un-air conditioned, stuffy, noisy, nausea-inducingly drill-rattled home — sucks (seriously, I really need a new laptop, if anyone can help a girl out…). There isn’t enough lemonade in the world that can soothe my shattered nerves.

And yet, just when I thought the world had simply gathered up my pleas for help and swept them under a great cosmic carpet, the new Twist Collective arrives. [insert crowd going wild here]

I’m on a mad cardi kick at the moment — I’ve Paulie on the way off the needles, Tinder and Acer just on — so as soon as I saw Praline by Gudrun Johnston, it went straight into my queue. Obviously the pockets are excellent, but I also really like the delicate stitch pattern, which for some reason reminds me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Elizabeth Doherty’s Tenaya is also an immediate favourite — the cuff detail is delicious. It has the same cable-and-laciness that drew me to Amy Christoffers’s Acer cardigan.

As just about everyone I known is pregnant or recently given birth, I have been spending an inordinate amount of time gazing at tiny baby patterns. I am smitten with Kristen Rengren’s Barberry. The adult version is lovely, but the child’s size is fantastic!

(I really want to mention that I love how the editors chose to show the yarn for the storyboard Tenaya and Barberry are both from, Down East, and the One Morning in Maine storyboard. I like seeing what the strands will look like, as they usually display the yarn, but there’s something very satisfying about the close-up of the fabric created. Incidentally, I just noticed that both storyboards are photographed by Carrie Bostick Hoge — I wonder if that had anything to do with it.)

As well as the great cardi collection, there are some great little jumpers (Fortune Bay, Fara), fantastic mitten patterns, some very cute shawls and wraps (Pussy Willow, Bayfield) and some incredible sock patterns (Budapest Market, I’m looking at you); too many to play favourites, but I have a sneaking suspicion Rachel Coopey’s Banach or Barbara Gregory’s Horatio and Oren will find their way onto my needles at some point.

Lest you think I don’t actually read my magazines, Sandi Rosner’s article on shaping in pattern is GENIUS. I love these technical pieces that not only help (and inspire) budding designers, but explain just what our stitches are doing.

*All images slurped from Ravelry.

olympic heartbreak

My Ravellenic project has completed stalled. It’s the knitting equivalent to pulling a hamstring on the back straight, straining an Achilles tendon over the first hurdle, missing the bar completely and landing in the pole-vault pit shoulder first. With only two sleeves and the button band to go, I’ve had to rip out.

A week into the Ravellenic Games and I was flying along. My aim was originally to get as many WIPs finished as possible, but quickly turned into just getting my Tinder complete. I love this pattern and so although I have far less time than I did for the last Olympics, I’ve at least really been enjoying knitting on it. Which is a good thing seeing as I’m now going to have to reknit the entire thing.

My swatching had gone beautifully. I got just short of gauge on a thicker yarn, which means I would have been right on target for my size (MATHEMATICS!). On Monday, I had the back finished and ready to be blocked. On Thursday I had completed the left front. By Saturday I had completed the right front. Sunday I wound my second mega skein of Fleece Artist Organic Merino Aran and cast on my sleeve.

Notice anything?

These are not the same colour.

I bought them about three years ago from Purlescence back when it was run by Robynn, who was always super careful about this sort of thing, so even though there is no dye lot number I can be pretty sure they are from the same batch (NOTE: I’m not blaming the source in this AT ALL; it’s very clearly my fault as you’ll see). At the time, I untwisted both skeins and laid them between each other to check the colour and they blended in together beautifully, as though one. You couldn’t tell which strand came from which skein.

But a lot can happen in three years, including fading. I can only surmise that the paler skein is so because it used to live in the shelves that face my bedroom window, and our bedroom gets a lot of sun in the afternoons, which is what did the damage. Nonetheless, it’s heartbreaking. I’m going to have to knit the whole thing, as I should have done right from the start, interchanging strands to make sure the colours blend. Except now I’m worried that because these are So Very Different the finished piece will be noticeably striped. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I feel like such a dingus. I listen to the Knitmores, I should have known better: When gearing up for any major event like this, you have to put the hours into proper training. Lesson learned.

little knitting

With everything that has been going in with the move, the DIY, unpacking, the paperwork and all of the dull boring things that go along with changing address I’ve not had a lot of chance to knit anything or begin any new projects so when I realised that me and my love had a weekend free to ourselves I took the opportunity to cast on a gorgeous little baby vest top that I’ve had in my Ravelry queue.

It is the Stripy StashBuster Baby vest by Sheryl Greenfield and it was a quick pleasurable knit!

I didn’t even mind sewing in all of my colours!

I went for a 70′s style colour pallet using the left overs from Emmm’s Wedding Lamp and a purple merino I found in my scraps drawer.

What a cute little top! And it’s got me back knitting which was the main thing!

I’m now continuing on with the tie I was knitting as a thank you gift for a friend before the crazy-mad-new-flat-buying-craziness’ started!
This is made using the left overs from my other wedding lamp!

It’s going to be a long ongoing project but it’s fun to knit and is slowly but surely shaping up nicely!

mojo jojo

Despite my recent jumper/yarn posts, the evil, brainy monkey of knitting malaise had me in a headlock for months. Well, NO MORE!!! I’ve got that monkey beat.

June turned out to be an excellent knitting month — I finished Beatnik, I finished a sock and started its pair, I even nearly finished ripped out and am nearly finished again my Paulie! I think it’s partly because I started making myself make time to go running, or rather started making myself make time for myself!

I’m really hoping I can push this into July. The school year is almost to a close (no more crazy marking schedules, in any case!), so I feel like I can start fitting in yoga and knitting AND running without having to justify time spent away from planning, outlining, researching, marking, writing, reediting…

It definitely helps having a couple of projects waiting in the wings!

• I’ve already swatched for the Acer Cardigan by Amy Christoffers, in my gorgeous Bowmont yarn from Devon Fine Fibres (originally the nearly finished Welt and Rib Raglan sweater, which I tried on just before casting on the arms and decided it was NOT doing my waistline any favours).
• I’ve cast on Juuli by Suvi Simola in Fleece Artist organic Merino aran weight — I love the pattern, but I think the gauge is too loose and the lovely richness of the yarn isn’t quite working with the leafy stitch pattern. I think I’m going to have to wait to knit this one when I have a little girl to knit for, in a springier (i.e. seasonal, not textural) yarn.*
• So I’m now looking at Dark and Stormy by Thea Colman or Tinder by Jared Flood. Both patterns call for a worsted, and I think the FA will work better as a worsted yarn than aran!
• I’ve got the most AMAZING yarn from Countess Ablaze in the works for Larch, also by Amy Christoffers.
• And, last but not least, I’ve bought the Lakeshore Shawl pattern by Glenna C. to be knit up in the awesome Countess Ablaze aplaca/mulberry silk lace weight, as a present for Persons Unknown.

So basically, July will be full of Amy Christoffers and Countess Ablaze. It’s thematic (and they have palindromic initials — it’s thematic AND meant to be)!

Now I just need to get back on the yoga mat and I think by September I’ll start feeling like things are back to normal. Right in time for the school year to start up again!

* Incidentally, Juuli is part of the two-volume Hold Your Needles, a fab collaboration between Suvi and Mari Muinonen. There are so many patterns in that I want to knit! I ended up buying both e-books, and they are delightful. The children’s patterns are especially adorable.

** Also, the most fabulous post-grad secretary in my department pointed me in the direction of Park Run — has anyone participated in this? It’s a weekly (every Saturday) timed 5k through a planned route in a park, starting at 9 a.m. I’m so excited to do this!! I found running in the race really motivating, and I think this scheme will really help boost my performance. The first one I’ll be able to attend won’t be until 21 July, but I can’t wait.

fo! the glorious beatnik

In the midst of my Paulie debacle, I decided what I really needed was a complete change of pace. Something cable-y, in a thick yarn. Something that looked terribly impressive and was enough of a challenge to keep me interested.

Enter Norah Gaughan’s Beatnik. (That sound was the angel’s chorus.)

I LOVE THIS PATTERN! I love everything about it! But I especially love the yarn I paired it with! The one, the only, the most decadent yet sadly discontinued Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL. The yarn just makes the cables pop. It makes the seed stitch look complex and full of narrative. It makes the mistake ‘design feature’ I Very Deliberately went with look well-considered and carefully chosen (if you look not very closely, you’ll see the cables do not criss-cross — it’s to Norah’s credit that despite this, the jumper still looks awesome).

I finished it on the road in Wales, literally sewing in the sleeves as we pulled up to the Bunk House where our darling Simon was having his 30th birthday shindig. And I have to say, this jumper made that birthday hug super soft and squishy.

The jumper itself is super comfy and goes with just about everything. It should be too warm for summer, but thankfully it looks like we’re not having a summer in London this year, so I get to wear it whenever I want! SILVER LININGS.

wip it: paulie

When I went to Mexico in November, I very excitedly cast on Paulie by Isabell Kraemer. It’s a pattern I had wanted to knit for AGES. I knew I wanted to make it in Wollmeise in Versuchskaninchen — a gorgeous deep foresty blue/green, such a sublime colourway!  But it took a while to decide on what contrasting yarn to use. Finally, I went with Artesano alpaca 4-ply in a warm yellow.

Alas, it was not to be. The yellow wasn’t the right shade and the alpaca fibres kept getting on my nerves — plus, I knew that if it wound up in the wash, while the Wollmeise would do splendidly, the alpaca would felt immediately. I got all the way to my final hip increase and decided to rip out.

So that meant needing to find a new yellow in a new yarn, because there was nothing in my stash that would do. ARG! While I licked my wounds from ripping Paulie out, I decided to cast on a new project, which I naturally managed to finish in about four weeks (post to follow on this)!

But in those four weeks, I picked up a glorious warm orangey yellow in Colinette Jitterbug at Loop and the whole project has just been sailing ever since! I love these two together!

I started v2.0 25 May and now have a sleeve and a half to go before I do the collar. I think I’ve just about decided that instead of a button band, I’m going to try my hand at an i-cord edging and zip finish with this one. A zip will work with a shawl collar, right?