Strake

The second design from Strata and Line I wanted to talk about is Strake, a drop-shouldered dolman pullover in Quince & Co. Lark Kittywake and Lichen.

(all photos copyright Bristol Ivy and Leah B. Thibault)

Strake is easily one of the simplest patterns I've ever written; the shape is tailored and clean, and the stripes and garter edging do all the work for a effortless finished piece.  Ravelry tells me I knit the sample in two weeks! But that ease doesn't stop it from being super wearable--I'm not typically a pullover person, but this sweater gets frequent wear. It was inspired by a shirt owned by my stripe-loving friend Aimee that I covet every time it makes an appearance.  I decided it was high time to make my own!

As with Stripanan, I had the colors and yarn picked out on this very early on.  I've spent a lot of time in the Quince warehouse, and sometimes certain colors just stick with you.  This is the second time I've used either color for a project; Lichen was used in the Tideline Cowl in Puffin, and Kittywake as the main color in Linnae.  I'm pretty certain I'll be using both of them again in the future as well!

Strake is worked in the round from the bottom up, and then split to work back and forth at the underarm.  The sleeves are picked up and knit down from the body.  It utilizes two of my favorite accents, contrast color cast-ons and bind-offs and garter edging.  I'll never tire of those!

Strake is available through Ravelry here, and as part of my four patterns in the Strata and Line collection for a discount with the code "STRATA".  I'll be discontinuing the coupon code once I finish with this blog series, so make sure to grab it quickly!

Stripanan

First off, thank you all so much for the amazing response to Strata and Line! I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about this collection, as it was the first time I'd self-published anything since late 2011.  That's a long time ago in my design career! But I couldn't be happier with how it's gone, and I have all of you lovely people to thank for that.

(all photos by and copyright Bristol Ivy and Leah B. Thibault)

I wanted to take some time over the next few weeks to talk a bit further about each design of mine in the collection, starting with Stripanan, the shawl with lace edging knit in Brooklyn Tweed Loft.  I don't have it with me now, but I will definitely see if I can find the sketch for this; it's hilarious. (In it, I've drawn a striped shawl, and instead of trying to represent lace on the edging with my dodgy sketching skills, have just written "lace! lace! lace! lace! look at me I'm lace! ooooooh wowee lace!" Pretty classic Bristol.)

Though they all look completely different, the Gemma shawl with Quince & Co., Stripanan, and Thorn with Brooklyn Tweed are all fraternally related to each other; they all start with the same basic concept of a shawl that increases along one edge every other row to create a triangle whose starting point is 45 degrees.  Stripanan takes this one step further by doubling the increase rate once along the way, and Thorn takes it another step by doubling, and then tripling the increase rate.  It's no secret that I love asymmetry, and each of these three shawls offers a different perspective on the shapes that can be achieved with this sort of parabolic increase structure.  (Please believe me that I hated all math except for geometry growing up; I have no idea why I decided going into a career where complex algebraic equations were part of daily life was a good idea.)

So once I had the basic idea for Stripanan in mind, the next step was yarn.  One of the perks of my day job is staring at the walls of yarn at Brooklyn Tweed, so it's no surprise that daydreams about color combinations happen frequently. Foothills and Pumpernickel feature often in these dreams, as I absolutely love the yellow and grey accents in the former and the deep, rich, velvety brown of the former.  It was inevitable that I'd combine the two at some point--plus they look like mint chocolate chip ice cream!

In addition to the color scheme, Stripanan has some other little quirks that I love: the blunt edges at the ends of the lace border, created by the cast-on and bind-off; the single stripes perpendicular to the stripes in the body of the shawl, a sort of pre-border border; the single yarnovers at the top edge that create the shawl's shape.  I love tiny details like those.  I'm definitely not finished playing with this shape or form, but I couldn't be more pleased with this iteration of it.

Stripanan is available on Ravelry here, and can also be purchased with my three other patterns in the collection for a discounted price with the coupon code STRATA.  Leah's patterns in the collection are also available as a whole at a discounted price with the code LINE.

On a side note, I have to give a huge shout out to my friend Becca, who was the brave early morning model for this photoshoot.  I've known Becca since she was teeny tiny, and I am so proud of the amazing woman she's become.  In addition, the girl can shred like nobody's business!

Strata and Line

I am SO happy to announce a project that has been percolating in secret for almost a year now! Introducing Strata a Line: A Study in Stripes, a collaboration with the lovely Leah B. Thibault around the concept of stripes.  Check out the lookbook below!

Each pattern in the collection is available individually, but Leah and I are offering discount codes to receive either of our pattern sets as a whole. You can receive all four of my patterns (Stria, Stripana, Strake, and the Earl Grey Mitts) for $12 by entering the coupon code "STRATA" at checkout, and the same for Leah's three (Lamina, Latitude, and Longitude) with "LINE"! I'll be talking more about each pattern as the week goes on, but for now, take a look at the lookbook and Ravelry to see what Leah and I have been up to!

Linnae

Let me preface this by saying: do you know how hard it is to blog when The West Wing is playing in the background? For example, this was meant to be another lightning-round 15 minute blogpost, and we're already on minute thirty.  Because I love this show SO much.  Heaven help my productivity if I keep watching!

Tearing myself away from my decades-long crush on Josh Lyman, I wanted to talk a little bit further about my latest design, Linnae, which came out with Quince & Co. a few weeks ago.  Linnae was inspired by Scandinavian design, Mod style, and my rabid love for polka dots. 

(Seriously, twenty minutes just went by.  Damn you, Aaron Sorkin!)

(all photos by Carrie Bostick Hoge!)

This past summer, my parents brought me back an Scandinavian interior design magazine from their trip around the Baltic (yes, I know, I'm crazy jealous, too), and the clear, fresh colors and simple, clean lines were amazing to see.  There was also always a little hint of quirk--a splash of color, a fantastic print, a mug with a squirrel tail for a handle.  I loved the aesthetic so much and, of course, began scheming how I could translate it into a knitting pattern.  The idea of polka dots was almost instantaneous--who doesn't love polka dots? They remind me of the fantastic style of the Mod era, another of my perennial design inspirations.

(Another twenty minutes.  It was a Josh and Donna interlude.)

The key to working with such a quirky accent was keeping the shape and style of the sweater clean, as the magazine had demonstrated.  I went with a simple, bottom-up raglan, with some gentle waist shaping to tailor the whole.  I also played with tiny details like contrast color edging on the hems and a centered polka dot motif on the raglans.  

(The raisin muffin email debacle! I'd forgotten about that!)

Being able to add little details like that are what make me love designing! 

The other part of this design process was narrowing down the colors for the Fair Isle.  I originally had my eye on Kittywake (the current main color) and Rosa Rugosa, a deep pink-red, but in keeping with the original Scandinavian inspiration, I ended up with Bird's Egg, a clean, clear grey-blue that I also used in the Bristol's Cowl.  But I also had a wonderful time daydreaming about what other colors of Chickadee would be amazing in combination.  Here are a few I've put together:

(let Bartlet be Bartlet! God, I love this show.)

 

Top row, L to R: Chanterelle and Twig, Kittywake and Honey, Twig and Marsh

2nd row: Marsh and Honey, Lichen and Iceland, Frost and Leek

3rd row: Frost and Winesap, Carrie's Yellow and Bird's Egg, Kittywake and Iceland

Bottom row: Bark and Gingerbread, Gingerbread and Apricot, Dogwood and Pomegranate

(can you tell I like neutrals, greens, and yellows?)

I could go on for days picking color combos.  My current plan is to spin for this during this year's Tour de Fleece, using a solid neutral fleece for the body and a hand-dyed roving for the polka dots.  Which colors would you use? 

Linnae is available through Quince & Co. here, can be found on Ravelry here, and Chickadee can be found here!

(That only took me two hours.  Damn you, Sorkin!)

Everyday Nesting

I was feeling so pleased with myself today for everything I've accomplished this weekend (Math! Charting! Cooking! Coordinating yarn support and catching up on the past two years with one of my favorite dyers! Taking a nap!), when it hit me with a thud that the blog was gathering a little dust.  So, a la the Mason Dixon ladies and their 15 minute blogging (p.s. do you see what Ann's knitting?!), here's a quick burst about what's happening in my life.

First and foremost, not much knitting! I'm in the throes of finalizing and teching past projects and swatching and mathing future ones, so most of my evenings have looked a little like this:

 

(I will apparently use any scrap paper to make myself pattern notes in the midst of knitting, even a Cirque du Soleil ticket.)

And this:

 

Suffice it to say, I'll be happy to be getting back to my normal evenings of knitting.  

There has also been a lot of time spent in the kitchen.  I am rarely happier than when I'm puttering around in there, especially when it involves baking.   The past few weeks efforts have included cheese gougeres from Amy's recipe: 

 

These were delicious, and didn't last two days.  I pretend they were healthy and protein-rich because of the number of eggs and amount of cheese in them, but I'm really stretching it there.

Today's baking was this cake; I had pinned it on Pinterest a few weeks ago and have been looking for an excuse to make it ever since.  A get together tonight was the perfect excuse! Despite a few hitches (apparently browned butter can turn into black and smoking butter in less than an eyeblink, and I always think I own confectioner's sugar when I don't), this cake is off the charts amazing.  I will be making it often!

 

Now that I've got the cake-making itch out of the way, I've got a tiny bit more math to do, and then it's smooth sailing on a new sweater design.  What are you working on these days?

(14 minutes!)

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!

Sallah Cowl

It's been a busy couple weeks for designs recently, and I'm still catching my breath.  But I wanted to talk a little bit about my design in last week's Knitty, the Sallah Cowl!

(all photos are copyright Bristol Ivy and star the lovely Dana, who was kind enough to do an early morning photoshoot with me on my birthday in August!)

Sallah was designed with a couple key features in mind: I wanted it to be a one skein project, and I wanted it to use variegated yarn.  I knew (from personal experience!) that single skeins of hand-dyed variegated sock yarn are incredibly tempting in yarn stores, but (also from personal experience) they can sit around for a while, waiting for the perfect project that will utilize their gorgeous colors without creating a muddy mess.  Combine those needs with an amazing stitch pattern that a German visitor to my local LYS showed me, and I knew I had a good combination! My super wonderful mom knit the original sample for me, and did an absolutely marvelous job.  Thanks, mom!

(we shot these behind the big barn at Gilsland Farms, one of the local Audobon locations, and one of my favorite places for a shoot.  It's also where I shot Telemetry and my own photos for Winnowing!)

Sallah is knit on the bias, which also helps move the variegation around even further and aids in preventing pooling.  However, this has led to a few questions from knitters, so I thought I'd go over a couple points here.

The first concerns the measurement point after completing the increases and starting the body.  The pattern indicates to measure along the left edge, but with a fabric made of ribbing and an odd shape, where exactly is that? Here's a quick diagram to help illustrate.

The bottom point is your cast on, and the top point is your bind off.  You're aiming for a parallelogram! (Thanks, mom and 6th grade geometry!) Keep in mind, too, that you'll measure that left edge unstretched--this comes into play with the question below.  Another note is that row gauge is pretty critical to this project (as all measurements are based on it), so make sure you're keeping careful note.

This second question concerns the cowl length before seaming; the final measurements are 22" in circumference, but you will start the decreases at 17" in length along the left edge (what we were talking about above!), creating a finished product 17" in circumference.  So where do those extra five inches come from?

Well, ribbing is stretchy.  And Sallah is knit on the bias.  When you combine those two things, you will add both length and height during the blocking process, when you'll stretch the whole project out to match the pattern dimensions.  Just give it a try--trust me!

Lastly, Sallah is almost completely customizable to whatever length you'd like! There are a couple bits of math to keep in mind, and it's necessary to have a scale for this part.
Step 1: weigh your ball of yarn before starting.
Step 2: weigh your ball of yarn after performing the increases.  Note this amount--you will need the same for your decreases.
Step 3: calculate an amount for your I-cord edging.  We reserved about 20g for the I-cord on the original cowl, for a 22" circumference, so proceed accordingly.
Step 4: Add the amount of yarn used for your increases together with the amount needed for your I-cord.  You can now knit on the body of the cowl until this amount of yarn remains! It may involved some complicated algebra to make sure that the changing circumference and the changing I-cord amounts meet up (algebra was 8th grade for me), but it shouldn't be too bad.

I hope this helps with your Sallah experience; it's been so much fun for me to see all the projects popping up on Ravelry so far.  I can't wait to see more!