Audrey Totter

January 9, 2012

Happy New Year, y’all! It’s been a busy holiday season over at Kninja Headquarters, but I think the coming year should be a really great one. As you probably have heard, the Sanguine Gryphon closed its doors at the end of 2011. This is sad news for all of us who loved the company, but the two new companies (The Verdant Gryphon and Cephalopod Yarns) rising phoenixlike from the ashes promise new temptations and beauty for all.

The pattern rights for Sanguine Gryphon patterns reverted to the designers when the company dissolved, and I am now rereleasing Audrey Totter through Knitting Kninja. Both companies will still be carrying the Bugga! yarn used for the body of the dress, and both will have some lovely laceweights on offer for the sash. If you previously purchased Audrey Totter through The Sanguine Gryphon and you would like a copy of the Knitting Kninja version, please let me know through email or Ravelry message (username Jejune).

I am very excited about the advent of these new companies, and I hope you’ll be seeing more Knitting Kninja designs using their yarns in future!

I am addicted to murder. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve never killed, but I love a good murder mystery, and I love a good noir film. I have a certain sympathy with the dames, broads, dolls, and molls of the noir genre. They may be bad, but in the words of Jessica Rabbit, they’re drawn that way. Every femme fatale needs a tight fitting dress that makes her look like a million dangerous bucks, and that’s what Audrey Totter is. Knit simply in mostly stockinette fit, the design uses dart shaping and negative ease to cling to every curve. The lace sash is knit separately and joined to the dress afterward for a retro look that is to die for.

SIZE
Woman’s XS (S, M, L, XL, 2X, 3X)
Bust size 28 (32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52) inches
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Bust: 26 (30, 34, 38, 42, 45.5, 49) inches

MATERIALS
* 3 (3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6) skeins The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga!
[70% superwash merino, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon; 412 yds per
113 gram skein], shown in colorway Longhorned Beetle
* 1 (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2) skein(s) The Sanguine Gryphon Gaia Lace
[40% Mongolian cashmere/60% silk; 420 yds per 56 gram skein],
shown in colorway Cobblestone Mazes
* U.S. size 4 (3.5 mm) 24” or 32” circular needle
* U.S. size 5 (3.75 mm) needles (straight or circular)
* U.S. size E (3.5 mm) crochet hook
* 5 stitch markers, one distinct
* tapestry needle
* waste yarn or 3 stitch holders

GAUGE
22.5 sts/32 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch in Bugga on size 4 needles
12.5 sts/25 rows = 4 inches in Vine Lace stitch in Gaia Lace on size 5 needles

Buy it now for $6.50 US

One thing more! I will also be rereleasing the pattern Dear Jane, previously available through The Sanguine Gryphon. However, that pattern was knit in Sanguine Gryphon Codex, a yarn that will not be regularly offered through either company. (Sad tears here – that yarn was a real favorite of mine!) I am planning on reworking the pattern in a currently available yarn of similar fibers offered through another company and Dear Jane will be rereleased when the math is all done and the sample knit in the slightly different weight yarn. Thanks for your patience.

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Posted in Audrey Totter, Dresses, Knitting, Original Pattern, Pattern for sale | 1 Comment »

Tamarind update

December 8, 2011

I created the Tamarind Cowl a few years ago as a way to use up my surplus of Malabrigo in Rich Chocolate. It’s an easy little free pattern, and one of my more popular patterns to boot. I didn’t substantially change the pattern, but I did update it a little today both to match my current layouts and to make it a little easier to follow.

You can download the updated Tamarind Cowl pattern here. It’s a simple little knit that doesn’t take very much yarn, so you still have time to make one (or a few) for holiday gifts!

Posted in Cowls, Free Patterns, Tamarind Cowl | 1 Comment »

Wovember round up and rats

December 6, 2011

I had meant to post a lot more wool related posts in November, and even did the research for some, but life intervened, and suffice it to say that I am glad to see the back of November. It was a mess of applying to schools, illness, holidays, injury, and general overwhelmedness. Welcome, December!

So what did I do for Wovember? It wasn’t cold enough to dress primarily in wool for much of our November, but I did work on my happy fun times spare time project, which is a Jewel Lake Pullover for me in yummy Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted. I made two wool hats for my offspring, and we wore our hats and scarves when the temperatures dropped at all. I read up on the history of sheep farming and wool production. I looked at the Wovember blog a lot. It’s good to have the occasional reminder of what we’re doing and why, and why material matters. I’m sure some of what I learned will be informing my work as I go forward, and I’ll try to share more as it becomes cohesive and coherent.

Incidentally, isn’t this color, Poppy, gorgeous? It is such a lovely opaque red with just the right amount of orange. I love the color and I love how Shepherd Worsted feels while I’m knitting it. This is a seriously relaxing project when I get time to work on it.

This isn’t scientific or sensible or anything, but this does sort of circle around to what Wovember made me think about wool. The comfort inherent in sheep hair is astonishing. I think there’s something about touching this material that is good for the senses. It’s not just that it feels soft – many wools are not exactly soft – but the lanolin in the wool often leaves my fingers feeling better than they did before I touched wool. I know too much vegetable matter in yarn is bothersome, but a little is a reminder of where it came from – a living breathing animal that spends its time outdoors and is intimate with vegetable matter. Wool has a scent that may not be perfumed, but is a real animal smell, not unpleasant, and deeply connected to a larger world. And of course, wool keeps us warm when we wear it. No wonder so many stores wish to capitalize on these unspoken qualities of wool that the word can call to mind. It is a large comfort in a world that often demands comfort.

Hey, I promised you all pictures of our new pet rats and failed to follow through. So for your viewing pleasure, let me introduce Clio

and Amelia, who doesn’t really hold still for pictures.

Aren’t they cute? They are extraordinarily naughty, but we’re glad to have them. Rose is, too, though at times they are too rambunctious for her taste. She’s getting to be a very staid lady rat, and she doesn’t have the energy of the little ones.

I have some thoughts on the knitting world and the male gaze that I’d like to get in order, so if you have anything you think would be pertinent to such a discussion, let me know. Twitter seems like the best way to snag me lately, sadly enough.

Posted in Miscellany, Wool, Wovember | 5 Comments »

Wovember 2nd – Merino

November 2, 2011

What’s Wovember? Look here.

By far the most common knitting wool in use today, merino was not always so accessible. Sheep originate from Asia Minor and parts of Europe, but the ancient Phoenicians, in their role as importers and exporters, introduced them to the North African region, and from there they were imported to Spain, Wikipedia suggests as late as the 12th century. Compare this to England, where sheep were introduced by Neolithic settlers around 4000 B.C.E.

Superwash merino dyed by Sundara Yarns

Spain made up for lost time, though, by breeding a fine wool sheep. The Spanish imported English sheep to improve the quality of their stock and between the 12th and 16th centuries they became major wool exporters. The new breed, Merino, had a small body and soft, fine wool with a short staple. The flocks were owned primarily by powerful land owners in Castile who formed a guild known as Honrado Concejo de la Mesta. They formed agreements to allow the nomadic sheep right of way along Cañadas Reales (drover’s roads) still legally protected for sheep to this day, though the laws are no longer strictly followed. Some of the older cañadas may be neolithic in origin, following the paths laid out by migratory herd animals. Sheep can graze in areas too unstable for arable farming, so the sheep moved freely through the no man’s land between Islamic and Christian Spain, moving with the seasons, and making the members of the Mesta, who included many Spanish nobles and Church officials, rich. Members of the Mesta were exempted from military service. Exportation of their precious Merino sheep was punishable by death. Their power and wealth grew and wool money financed much of the Castilian economy. With only Spain and England as the only European wool exporters, it seemed like the wealth was only going to continue growing.

Single ply merino, dyed by Malabrigo Yarns.

Habsburg Spain, however, had become overdependent on the wool money of Castile. The Mesta’s power was too great, the sheep too cossetted. The powerful Mesta began to ignore the cañadas, allowing their sheep to trample farmland without fear of repercussion. The land of Castile became barren. Crops failed, and grain had to be brought in from outside the region at great expense. The price of food staples skyrocketed. The economy was in trouble for other reasons as well. Near constant wars fought largely on credit had brought Spain into difficult straits at a time when it was still recovering from plagues and famines of the previous centuries.

In the 18th century, Spain relaxed its hold on the merino and began exporting small numbers of live sheep to other countries. The first major exportation, though, would come in 1765, when a large number of sheep from the Royal Escurial flock were sent to Saxony. In 1786, King Louis XVI purchased more than three hundred Spanish Merinos, the foundation of what would become the Rambouillet breed, which would in turn be the basis for the Australian Merino. Merinos have served as the basis and backbone for many sheep breeds around the world since they became available as breeding stock. The world at large gained access to the Merino sheep after Napoleon’s invasion of Spain, during which time many flocks were killed or destroyed by the invading army.

Undyed Rambouillet yarn, from The Sincere Sheep.

Today, the sheep that once was a protected state valuable is now the most common in the world. Almost all finewool breeds today are at least in part Merino. There are worries that a preference for merino wool may be endangering some of the more rough coated sheep, as the fall prices of wool in favor of synthetic fabrics have made the wool industry a costly and losing business proposition for many sheep producers.

Extreme close up of superwash merino yarn, dyed by Little Red Bicycle.

(Note: Most information in the above post was obtained through specific web searches for information. I did try to find more than one source for much of the above, but there may be inaccuracies. Please let me know if I’m wrong in any specifics.)

Posted in Knitting History, Merino, Sheep, Wool, Wovember, Yarn | 1 Comment »

On wool and Wovember

November 1, 2011

I grew up in Southern California, where average winter temperatures rarely drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so I didn’t really have much need for warm winter woolens.  I’d heard tales, though. Tales of itchy, scratchy, terrible winter garments that were warm, yes, but that made you wince when you wore them, embarrassing things that your mother knit for you with love and no sense of your personal style. Wool was a bogeyman.

I know now that the wool of my nightmares was damaged wool, apparently common in the sixties and seventies in the U.S. when the price of wool dropped steeply due to demand for synthetic, washable fabrics and made wool production less desirable to sheep growers. The first superwash yarns were developed in a hope that washable wool would be more desirable to the public. Unfortunately, the early treatments burned the scales off the wool though carbonizing, leaving something washable, yes, but uncomfortable and ugly. Poorly treated wool behaves as any hair will when mistreated. It splits and burns and frizzes and if you then decide to wear it on your body, you are braving all those pokey little ends sticking into you. Of course it was itchy. It was abused wool.

Picture from Medical Sheepskins. You can see the natural scales on the wool at the left.

My first challenge to the notion that wool was a terrible itchy material used to punish children came rather late in the game, when I had started knitting and was getting ready to branch out into more sophisticated yarns than the synthetic blends I’d been using as starter materials. The very first knitting books I purchased for myself were from Rowan, and without knowing anything about brands or materials, I started looking for Rowan yarns online. My first pure wools were glorious Rowan tweeds, specifically Yorkshire Tweed. It felt quite unlike the terrible itchy menace I’d been imagining all those years, soft enough that I knit a next to the skin sweater for my toddler daughter. Knitted up and blocked, the wool was soft and strong and lovely. The more she wore it, the softer it got.

Today, it’s easy for knitters to get quality wool yarns (though most are now merino, which is a rather limiting palette in a world of unique wools) but wool labeling has gotten shamefully lax for the average consumer. I can find many items labeled as wool on J. Crew’s website, for instance, but no details on what percentage of wool these items actually contain. Nordstrom has a similarly opaque system; they list the materials used in the manufacture of their items, but not the percentages. Is the wool item you’re paying for 60% wool or 12%?

This wool blanket from Nordstrom contains wool, but how much?

There’s no way of knowing without a clear labeling system that includes standards for using the term wool. The Wool Product Labeling Act of 1939 does introduce some rules, so you can’t call something wool in the U.S. unless it contains wool. But what percentage of wool is up for grabs. Anything over 5% is fair game, and frankly, I don’t consider a 6% wool product to be accurately labeled as wool. (There’s a more comprehensive explanation of wool labeling here.) The product is labeled in percentages by law, but apparently it’s OK to leave the percentages out when you’re creating an online listing.

What are the advantages of a true wool? Wool is hygroscopic.  To quote from The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, by Clara Parkes, “Hygroscopic means that the fiber is able to absorb up to 30 percent of its weight in moisture while still feeling warm and dry against your skin. This helps the fabric breathe, readily absorbing and releasing moisture to maintain a steady ecosystem of comfort against your skin, no matter how cold or damp the external weather may be.” The advantages to a hygroscopic fabric in winter weather are obvious and manifold, but wool is more than this. It’s fire-resistant, it doesn’t conduct static electricity, which means it stays clean more easily than most fabrics, it’s long wearing and tough, and it can stretch a third of its length and still return to its original shape. Clara Parkes again, “Despite over a century of effort, not a single manmade fiber yet possesses all these amazing qualities.”

Wool is completely, totally marvelous, which is why I want to support the efforts of Wovember, a joint project from Kate Davies and Felicity Ford. This November is all about wool, glorious wool, and the humble sheep that provide it.

Over the following days and weeks, I’ll be posting about wool and photographing some of the wools in my stash. I hope to see lots of exciting woolly posts from a lot of my knitting friends, too! Wool for life! *chest bumping/secret knitter gang sign here*

Posted in Wool, Wovember | 10 Comments »

Introducing a couple of bad girls, and a discount

October 16, 2011

I am so excited to finally be able to tell you all about Audrey Totter, the Bad Girl. Audrey’s part of the Sanguine Gryphon Film Noir line for Fall 2011, and most definitely the sexiest thing I’ve ever knit! When the call went out for Film Noir inspired ideas for fall, I think I jumped up and down with excitement. I am an old movie junkie with the entire Thin Man collection on DVD, and for the last few years I’ve become deeply obsessed with mystery stories of any sort. Many of my favorite movies are noir, and I love the look of the period as much as the actual content.

I am not the world’s fastest knitter, and I am trying to know my own limitations, so although my brain caught fire at the prospect of making noir themed clothing, I decided to limit myself to one submission. Although at first I was drawn to creating menswear for a detective type, ultimately, I knew my sympathies lay with the femme fatale. And you know, I’ve really, really been wanting to design a dress for ages, so…

I immediately started looking at pictures of femmes fatale in dresses from my favorite movies. Some of these dresses were surprisingly sensible compared to what I was imagining, such as Barbara Stanwyck’s costumes from Double Indemnity. She wears a lot of twin sets and suits in that film and of course looks like a million bucks, but I was aiming to clothe a sultry nightclub singer, not a housewife, and I wanted something more revealing and clingy. There’s a sultry nightclub singer played by Penny Singleton in After the Thin Man, but her costumes are actually kind of silly looking. After a while I sort of went out on my own and started trying to look at period costume and make it more sultry and more like the picture in my head. What ultimately inspired me was this photo of the Boswell Sisters, a singing group that became popular in the ’30s.

I’m not sure which sister is in the center of that photo, but I do know I loved her dress right away. I’d never seen a dress with a sash threaded through it like that, and while the Boswell dress is not tight and sultry, the possibilities were very interesting. A sash threaded through a keyhole like that creates an exaggerated hourglass, highlighting the shape of the figure. (Also, seriously, I want those shoes. And the ukelele is pretty rad, too.)

This is what I drew.

I know the point of a garment sketch is to convey the idea of the garment, but let me tell you, I agonized over how terrible those hands look. I feel the need to put a disclaimer that I can actually draw, even if I didn’t do such a great job here. At a certain point, I was realizing I was spending all my time on the sketch and not enough on the actual submission and I let it go, but I am still not over those stupid hands.

My original idea was to knit it in a worsted weight yarn with a laceweight sash, but the wise folks over at the Sanguine Gryphon HQ knew better and chose Bugga! for the dress body instead. Bugga!, although thinner than I had planned, is actually a fabulous choice for a dress. It’s a hardwearing yarn (my son has Bugga! mitts that he’s worn for several successive winters and he is HARD on them) but soft as can be with a merino/cashmere/nylon blend, saturated, and the nylon content that can be very helpful in maintaining wear and shape in a garment. The sash is knit in Gaia Lace, a seriously luxurious cashmere/silk blend.

Despite being a dress, this is not a slow or a difficult knit. It’s done in the round to the armpits from the bottom up, and shaped with placed darts. The stretchy fabric created by the Bugga! hugs the curves with negative ease, but I wrote a very little positive ease into the waist so that the dress won’t cling at the tummy. The sash is knit separately in one piece and seamed to the neckline at the end. I’d originally planned to bind it off onto the dress, but when I tried, it looked absolutely terrible, so a little seaming it is!

The lace used for the sash is a very simple Vine Lace repeat to keep it all nice and easy. With very few rows to memorize, the lace breezes by. I was worried about whether I’d finish to the deadline because the idea of knitting a whole dress with sport and laceweight yarn was intimidating as all get out, but no sleeves and open lace makes for a pretty straightforward knit!  When I’d finished, I asked Mr. Kninja to take a picture of me in the dress before we sent it off, and he got super excited and asked our neighbor if we could take the picture in front of the neighbor’s Model A.

I don’t quite have the enviable proportions of the model used by the Sanguine Gryphon, but the stretchy fabric means it fits me too! You can buy the Audrey Totter pattern at the Sanguine Gryphon website for $7.00. Please do check out the rest of the Film Noir collection, as it is AMAZING! I love so many of these patterns and wish I had time to knit more of them. As it is, I want to knit both hats, and I think I can probably swing that!

I mentioned another bad girl. That would be our new rat, Amelia. I didn’t blog about this when it happened because I was so depressed about it, but one of our rats, Daisy, died some months ago after what should have been a routine surgery to remove a benign tumor. Her sister, Rose, has been kind of down since then, and since rats are healthier with cage mates we decided to get two new baby rats to keep her company. They came home on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning we introduced them to Rose and put them in the big cage. It went great until I checked on all the rats a short while later and found only two of them, Clio and Rose. Amelia was loose. We spent a very upsetting day and a half searching and attempting to lure her out and feeling discouraged, but on Thursday afternoon, something nibbled my toes when I stood in front of the couch. I peeked under and there was Amelia! She took off for behind the piano, but once we knew where she was, catching her was not that hard. She’s in rat reform school now and I’ll post adorable baby rat pictures soon.

And finally the discount! I know we’re all deep in holiday knitting mode, and to aid in that, I’m offering 15% off any Knitting Kninja pattern from now through the end of November. Just use the coupon code jumpstart at checkout and you can get 15% off any pattern or ebook.

Happy knitting!

Posted in Audrey Totter, Dresses, Knitting, Original Pattern, Pattern for sale, Sanguine Gryphon | 7 Comments »

Horatio

September 27, 2011

I have this same challenge yearly: I go to knit hats for the family, and my husband turns crazy picky. He likes many of the hats I’ve knit him, but he expresses annoyance with the brim, believing that a brim that isn’t long and that doesn’t turn up does not a man hat make. I look over hats and he sits by and tells me what’s wrong with them. I love knitting hats, and I love a lot of patterns that he looks at once and then says, “Ehhhhh,” to.

I am frankly, sick of this. I want to knit him a hat that he loves and wears all the time without hearing about how the brim makes it less than perfect. I wanted to knit something where he’d say, “PERFECT!” This year I decided to make some hats that incorporated all of the elements of the essential man hat as described by my husband, with a caveat that it couldn’t bore me silly to knit it. The end result of this experiment is Horatio, a nautical looking watch cap that works equally well for a man or a woman. (I stole one of my sons’ hats briefly and loved how it looked on me.)

SIZES
newborn, 3-6 months, 6-12 months, child, adult S/M, adult L

A note about sizes:
Children’s heads are often bigger than one might think, and the adult S/M will fit many children. Roughly speaking, the sizes correspond to the following head circumferences.

newborn: 13-14”, 3-6 months: 14-17”, 6-12 months: 16-19”, child: 18-20.5”, adult S/M: 20.5-22”, adult L: 22.5-24”

MATERIALS

  • 50 (75, 85, 100, 135, 165) yards worsted weight yarn (wool is suggested); shown in Malabrigo Merino Worsted, Forest colorway (green hat) and Classic Elite Princess, Regal Teal colorway (blue hat)
  • U.S. size 4 (3.5 mm) 16” circular needle
  • U.S. size 7 (4.5 mm) 16” circular needle
  • 1 set U.S. size 7 (4.5 mm) double pointed needles OR long circular needle for Magic Loop
  • tapestry needle
  • stitch marker for start of round

GAUGE
19 sts/29 rows= 4 inches in Semaphore Stitch on size 7 needles

Tech edited by Lauren Cross

Buy it now for $5.00 US

P.S.  Two little ironies: One, the blue hat in the photo is no more, as my young model lost it on his first day of wearing it. Two, after all that input, my husband is the only male person in my immediate family without one of these hats! He decided he wanted stripes instead of texture. Go figure!

Posted in Hats, Horatio, Knitting, Pattern for sale | 6 Comments »

How’s it holding up, part the second

September 21, 2011

Yesterday I posted about the wear and tear on five sweaters, and today I have five more to talk about. All of the sweaters today have actually held up very well, so hooray for that! No more disasters like my poor Yoke Sweater.

Francis Revisited

Francis Revisited was an impulse cast on knit between other projects last winter. I used Cascade 220 at a very loose gauge, and that loose gauge means it probably won’t hold up as well as it would at a tighter one. However, Cascade is a workhorse yarn, and while the sweater pills a bit, it’s still in excellent condition. I tried to get a picture of the pilling, but it’s so minor that I don’t think it really shows in the photograph. My favorite thing about this sweater is the color and that has not faded or changed in any way. It’s hardy and has softened with wear. There’s a reason Cascade is such a popular yarn, and that’s the winning combination of a low price, wide selection of colors, and a hardwearing yarn. (My daughter has a toy cat I knit her in Cascade 220. It shows almost no wear on the yarn despite the fact that she drags it around with her. The stuffing’s shifted, but the yarn itself remains sturdy.) You can find fancier or softer yarns, yes, but for the money, Cascade 220 delivers exactly what it promises.

Flutter Sleeve Sunniva

I made two versions of my sweater Sunniva, and this yellow one was the first and the last. First because I started it first, but I had to rip it when some aspects went very wrong, and I put off starting over until after I’d finished the purple version. This version of Sunniva is knit in Malabrigo Sock. It’s shown pretty much no wear, and has held up very well, with a lovely drape, a lovely color, and a very soft hand. My only complaint is my own fault: as you can see, this sweater is embarrassingly uneven in terms of my stitches. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that it was knit and then ripped, but some of it is likely my own knitting. I’m not sure how that happened, as I think my knitting is usually pretty even, but multiple blockings have not made the stitches lie flat. At a distance, this is not very visible, but it bugs me every time I look at it closely. I have not had this issue with Malabrigo Sock past or since. I don’t know how Malabrigo managed to make a sock yarn that is almost as soft as their one ply and still have it be sturdy enough for garment knitting, but they have. This is a great yarn and I love this shade of yellow.

Long Sleeve Sunniva

This version of Sunniva is knit in Orange Flower BFL 4 ply, which is unfortunately very very hard to get these days. Orange Flower updates sell out in like five minutes flat, and that is not an exaggeration. However, if you can manage to snag some of it, do, because this sweater, which I wore pretty much constantly last fall and winter, looks brand new still. BFL is amazing. I wear this sweater against my skin. It does not itch, and there is no major pilling. The photograph is of a high stress area under my arm. (I put a false seam on this version of the sweater, which is not included in the final pattern.) Although I wore this sweater all the freaking time, and although my arm rubs that area a good deal, there is no real wear on it. It is soft, warm, breathable, and beautiful. I want to knit all my sweaters in BFL.

Atalanta

Atalanta is a younger sweater than many of the ones already discussed, but it’s still worth talking about because of how well the yarn’s holding up so far. Atalanta is knit in Knit Picks Shine Worsted. I was a bit wary of cotton and cotton blends. So many of them are hard on the hands, and then the growth rate after knitting can be immense. Soft cottons sometimes flake or become shoddy very quickly, like dishcloth yarn. Shine is a cotton/Modal blend, and it seems to avoid cotton’s sins. I think it looks great, and it has not stretched, faded, flaked, or shown any of the unpleasant qualities that I think sometimes crop up with plant fiber yarns. This is a very soft yarn, but it’s not a shoddy one, and the price is fantastic. This sweater has gone through the wash a number of times, and I don’t think it shows.

The Ever Popular Drops Sweater

I saved the Drops Sweater for last because it’s probably my most worn of all of them. I knit this in 2008 when everyone and her mother was making one of these. It’s an easy, fast, free pattern from Drops, and it doesn’t have an actual name. I knit mine in Rowan Scottish Tweed Chunky that my husband gave me as a gift. Scottish Tweed Chunky is not a soft yarn, but oh does it wear. And wear. And wear. I am constantly in this sweater from the moment it gets cool in autumn until winter is well over and we’re out of the spring chills. Yes, it has pilled a little, but considering how often I wear it, hardly at all. It is hardly different than the day I finished knitting it, and that includes the fact that our now deceased rat Daisy once took a small bite out of it. I darned it with a little leftover yarn, and the thick, tweedy texture of the yarn makes it next to impossible to see where unless you are looking for it. This yarn is impervious. Rowan has of course discontinued its Scottish Tweed line, because Rowan is constantly discontinuing its various tweed lines and replacing them with something new. I suspect that the current Felted Tweed Chunky, while not of the same composition, would be a similarly hard wearing and long lasting yarn. I do love the sport/DK Felted Tweed, and Chunky is the same stuff writ large. Rowan yarns are not cheap in the U.S., but I think they can be a very worthwhile purchase for a quality product. Just don’t get the RYC stuff!

Posted in Knitting, Sweaters, Yarn | 1 Comment »

How’s it holding up?

September 20, 2011

First off, I did an interview with the incredibly gracious Lumia of Worsted Knitt, so if you’d like to read it, head on over and check it out!

I’ve been meaning to do this for ages: take out old projects that I’ve worn many times and check in with how the yarn is holding up. My initial reaction to a yarn is often enthusiastic. I choose yarns because I like them, and I usually like working with the yarns I chose, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right yarn for a given project, or even that it’s a great yarn. I’m going to pull out some of my most worn sweaters and let you know how they’re doing. I have taken photos of high stress areas on each sweater, but sometimes a photo alone doesn’t convey what is right or wrong with a given yarn for a given project.

I’m going to start with the bad news here.

Joelle’s Favorite Yoke Sweater

Oh my gosh you guys. This is my Joelle’s Favorite Yoke Sweater, which I made back in 2008. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy. I loved this sweater so much when I made it, but it has not worn well at all. Part of this is probably not the fault of the yarn – the sweater was accidentally put through the washer and dryer a couple of different times, and although the yarn is superwash merino, this is really not the best way to treat it. However, I don’t think all of this can be blamed on the washer. The yarn under my arms felted and stretched and wore very poorly. The whole sweater has almost a crispy crunchy feel to it. I have a scarf knit in Smooshy that has worn much better with hand washing and less friction, but I never wear this sweater now because it’s plain uncomfortable. It also looks kind of icky because of the fabric’s stiffness. I do not think I will use Smooshy for a garment again because of the way it’s worn in high friction areas.

O W L S

The next sweater on our tour of ugg is my O W L S sweater. The pattern itself is one of my favorites, and I will surely remake this sweater one day. However I am very, very disappointed in my yarn choice, which was RYC Soft Tweed, now discontinued. I don’t really know the intricacies of Rowan’s decision to have a separate line under the RYC label, but so far my impression has been that RYC yarns don’t hold up as well as traditional Rowan label yarns. Soft Tweed was a wool, rayon, silk, and nylon yarn that was spun in a soft, puffy multi ply that looked like a single ply. It felt heavenly when first knit up, very warm and light. It had an unfortunate tendency to grow when worn, and this had done that – a sweater that was skin tight when first knit has gradually loosened over time and become baggier. But that’s not my main complaint. The yarn itself went from being soft and puffy to dry and sort of shoddy in look and feel. High stress areas on the garment became pilly, which I don’t always object to much, but in this case, they felt first pilly and then noticeably thinner than other parts of the sweater. The whole thing now feels cheap and unattractive instead of luxurious and soft.

Maude Louise

Maude Louise II was made from another discontinued RYC yarn, Soft Lux, a blend of merino, nylon, angora, and a metallic sparkly thread. This yarn has held up considerably better than the Soft Tweed, but still has not held up quite as well as I’d hope, particularly in high friction areas like under the arms and against the sides of the sweater. It has loosened over time so that ribbed areas are now quite baggy, and the elbows have stretched out a little. It is still soft and while I think it looks less lovely than it did when I first finished it, I can and do wear it. I would use a stronger wearing yarn, though, were I to make it a third time. (I don’t foresee a third time coming up, but if it did, I think I’d pick a strong pure wool.)

McQueen Knockoff

I know this sweater looks pilly, and it is, but the news here is mostly good. This is my McQueen Knockoff, knit in Knit Picks Andean Treasure. Andean Treasure is a pure baby alpaca that comes in beautiful heathered shades and at Knit Picks’ typical excellent prices. I wear this sweater a lot in the winter, and it is crazy warm and pretty. It does pill, yes, but the sweater itself has remained structurally intact despite frequent wearings, and the yarn has gotten softer with the wearing. I do have to depill high stress areas of the sweater, and the yarn has settled a bit around the cables, making them oddly smooth, but I love this sweater so much, and I think Andean Treasure is a really nice sweater yarn. If you don’t mind going over your sweater with a sweater stone every so often, this yarn is a great choice for a late fall/winter sweater.

Liesel

Liesel was my first knit of 2010, a birthday present to myself knit out of Sundara Aran Silky Merino, one of the most expensive yarns I’d ever purchased at that point. I was very very pleased with how it looked and knit up, and overall, I am still just as pleased. I think ASM has just enough twist to the single ply to make it stronger than a one ply merino/silk blend might usually be. It has fuzzed and softened with wear, but has not worn out. Part of this is that I wear it fairly rarely, and when I do, I am very careful of the yarn. The colorway, Arabian Nights, is one of my favorites and I want it to last. It is not the strongest yarn out there, but I think it’s a good choice for Liesel, a cardigan that I wear in the spring and late autumn when the weather is sort of undecided, and that dresses up a tank top beautifully. Another reason to combine this yarn and pattern is that Liesel takes very very little yarn to knit, making it a perfect showcase for expensive yarns you might not usually buy.

I have five more sweaters that I took out, so I’ll continue this soon!

 

Posted in Knitting, Sweaters, Yarn | 4 Comments »

The time has come, the walrus said

September 12, 2011

to talk of holiday gifts.

I know. Hard to believe it’s that time again already, but if you’re planning on knitting gifts this year, now is the time to start. I usually knit a good few gifts for my friends and family, but this year I probably won’t, which is sad, but I have too many on the go projects to feel secure in adding anything to my workload at the moment. That doesn’t mean other people won’t be knitting gifts, though! Alex Tinsley of Dull Roar made a completely rad list of ideas, and I am totally copying her, because, let’s face it, it’s a good idea.

SO! If you were me and you did have time to knit gifts this year, here’s some of what you might be knitting. All links point Ravelryward. My apologies for a lack of pictures, but I didn’t want to use other people’s photos without permission, and I am lazy and didn’t want to contact a ton of people and wait to hear back from them before posting. I promise the next post will be photo laden. (As I’m working on a few patterns, this seems likely enough as it is.)

For the LADIES (oh yeah):

Frick Frick BERET! by Pamela Wynne – This flipping adorable little hat is knit in one of my most favorite yarns, Little Red Bicycle Hipster Sock. It has two options, a slouchy and not-so-slouchy version, and you can make both from one skein of sock yarn, which is just great for holiday knitting.  I love the insane red used for the originals, and it makes me want very much to crack open my own skein of Shark Week! Bloody and gorgeous.

Vagabond Fingerless Mitts by Misa Erder – Sweet little colorwork mitts that can be knit in leftover sock yarn. I am often advised against fingerless mitts as gifts because some people might not wear them. I think this argument lasts until someone gives you a pair of fingerless mitts. I wear mine constantly in cold weather, and many of my friends have tried to make off with my mitts. These ones are particularly cheery and you can pick the perfect color combo for your recipient.

Cable Braided Necklace by Olga Buraya-Kefelian – You can whip one of these out in an evening or two using very little yarn and the ease with which it is knit is in direct proportion to its extreme beauty. Olga’s patterns all show a particularly designerly way of thinking that taking simple knitting and turns it sideways or upside down, creating designs with clever construction and a unique visual sensibility. I made one of these last year for a friend, and it turned out beautifully.

Nouveau Bohemia by Carolina Carvalho-Cross – Another beautiful hat pattern that offers you options. In this case, three distinct versions from a fitted beanie to an extra slouchy beret. A fast knitting project in worsted weight yarn, it looks great in solids or variegateds and it utilizes cables AND lace, which is my favorite thing when it comes to knitting. I love the colors Lina chose for her samples, and I think I’d crib from those were I knitting one as a gift!

Mystère by Kitman Figueroa – It’s no secret that I enjoy knitting shawls, and I think they often knit up surprisingly fast and easily given the amount of work they appear to be. This is a lovely shawl with a bit of texture to liven up the lace. Kitman’s designs are consistently stunning, and this one is no exception!

 

For the GENTLEMEN:

Masse Mitts by Ann Budd – I swear I’m not just posting this because of the model (note: OMG look at the model!) but also because they’re some seriously handsome mitts. Remember when I said that I thought people objected to fingerless mitts only until they were given a pair? Yeah, that holds doubly true of men, who frequently try to steal my mitts. Making them their own mitts should help you to keep them from stealing yours.

Corbin by Vanessa Smith – This is a handsome hat. It has the plain styling that so many men enjoy, but knit in semi solid handpainted yarns it has its own beauty and depth, plus the contrasting hem makes for a nice place to tuck away a more exciting shade.

Setzer by Jared Flood – Another simple pattern with some small details that hold the interest. This beautiful cowl from Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed fame looks great on men and women alike, and the diagonal rib pattern keeps a knitter’s attention.

Urbana by Stephen West – You can’t go wrong with a Stephen West pattern, and my husband’s Urbana is hands down his favorite scarf. Stephen drags the plain garter stitch scarf to the side, creating a parallelogram shaped wrap that is cozy as can be. It’s a modern take on the plain garter scarves so many men wear in old costume dramas. (Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes often sports a particularly nice black one.) If you use the recommended Malabrigo Twist, you will have one of the softest, coziest scarves you have ever felt.

For the YOUNG ‘UNS:

Grumpus by Anna Sud0 – I love this hat ridiculous amounts. Look! It has horns! And texture! Your kid will look like a little goat baby!

Baby Cobble Shoe by Bekah Knits – Felted shoes for babies are so darn cute. This particular pattern is doubly charming with little tongues and laces on the tiny shoes.

The Downtown Bonnet by Wendy Bernard – I love bonnets. This one updates the old take on the bonnet and makes it fun with stripes! Cute for little girls and for grown women, for that matter.

Garden Snail by Hansi Singh – All of Hansi’s toy patterns are beautiful and original, so you can’t go wrong with any of them, but this one is especially lovely and can show off many colors of yarn. Huggable and funny

I will be introducing a new Knitting Kninja hat pattern shortly, and when I do, I’ll offer a coupon code for all individual Knitting Kninja patterns so those of you planning on getting to work on holiday knitting can have a bit of a break. Happy knitting!

Posted in Knitting | 4 Comments »

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