Thorn

First things first--happy new year! I hope your final weeks of 2012 were as lovely as mine; I got to spend Christmas being extremely mellow with my family (read: multiple naps occurred), and then had a wonderful and fun New Year's Eve playing board games with friends and laughing a lot.  I ended the night in the wee hours on the couch in my jammies with a cup of tea, and I can't think of a better way to kick off a new year!

One thing that happened right before Christmas was the release of the latest in Brooklyn Tweed's amazing guest designer series, Wool People 4.  Now, I know I'm a wee bit biased about Brooklyn Tweed stuff for obvious reasons, but I think this collection is breathtaking.  The color sense, the photographs, the location, and the unbelievable designs--I love it and am so proud of it all.  I was lucky enough to be part of this collection with my shawl design, Thorn. 

(all photos copyright the unmatched Jared Flood/Brooklyn Tweed)

Leila Raabe, one of my fellow designers in WP4, my coworker, and my good friend, designed the Kindling shawl for this collection.  We joked that my Thorn and her Kindling were the sequels to Winnowing and Ashby.  While it's always true that designs and designers develop over time, building on what's come before, I definitely feel like these two of mine are linked together.  I will never tire of sweeping lines, of ribbing against textured background, of unexpected shapes and sweeps. I apparently will also never tire of never-ending borders.  :) They just tie things together so nicely!

The idea for Thorn started a few weeks after Winnowing came out, when I was continuing to experiment with unconventional shapes and increase rates.  I had swatched a shape where the increase rate grew exponentially over the course of the shawl, creating a gentle, asymmetrical curve along two of the edges.  However, the increases on that shawl were placed traditionally, on the edge.  Things only started clicking for Thorn when I shifted that increase rate into the body itself, and used it to create the sunburst of stockinette and garter stitch.  I knit on it during Medomak and during the knitting designer meet-up, and was completely happy when it came off the needles.  This is a design that I am really, truly proud of, and I couldn't be more pleased with its reception so far!

You can find Thorn on Ravelry here, and find the Loft to knit it here.  It takes four skeins and about 1,075 yards, so could also be knit from about three typical skeins of fingering weight sock yarn. 

Oh, did I mention the best thing about it?

It's my favorite color. 

One final note: I took a leap tonight and started a Ravelry group for discussion of my designs.  You can find it here, and I'd love to have you!