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!

Bits and Pieces

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the Bristol edition of Reader's Digest?

• Did you see that the Kit Camisole is now available for sale on Ravelry? It is!
• Did you see that the Tideline Cowl from Cecily's wonderful book, Landing, is now available for sale individually on Ravelry? Well, it is, too!
• Did you see I'm teaching my wet felted vessels class at the Portland Fiber Gallery next weekend? I am!
• Have I yet talked about KnitEast 2013, where I'll be teaching my shawl design class, my picots, pleats and welts class, and my Bristol's Cowl, among such unbelievable company as Ann Budd, Mary Jane Mucklestone, and the Yarn Harlot? I can't wait for September!
• Did I mention that I finished the first lingering deadline project last week, and officially ran out of yarn on my second deadline project last night, so I can knit whatever I want until more yarn arrives? I did!
• Did I mention my big brother is moving cross country on Monday? He is*! 

What exciting things are happening in your life these days?

*(Knitters of the world, he has with him a black and blue marled beanie that I knit for him a few Christmases ago.  If you see that hat on that guy as he makes his way across the country, be nice to him and steer him to whatever awesome donut or beer place is nearby.  I'll appreciate it more than I can say.)

A Belated Anouk

I was having a wee gander over the last few blog posts here on the blog, and I realized that I'd never done a formal introduction for my latest published pattern, Anouk!

(all photos by Carrie Bostick Hoge!)

Anouk has to be one of the quickest page-to-screen patterns I've ever produced;  I just found my original concept email to Pam at Quince, and from that date to publication was less than a month.  A month! Crazy! But sometimes when you've got the design itch, it has to happen!

The idea for Anouk came about from a simple "what if?" question; what if the chevron patterns that everyone knows and loves were turned slightly askew? All the versions I had seen were symmetrical and lovely, but I wanted to see what might happen to the fabric were the decreases pulled off-center.  Anouk is the result! It's a one skein project using Quince's gorgeous fluffy Osprey, one of my favorite yarns ever, in the gorgeous Gingerbread colorway.  I am rarely without a huge scarf, shawl, or cowl around my neck this time of year, and I can't wait to snuggle down in this one!

As an aside, can we discuss how much I want the shirt the model wore for this shoot? I've been stalking it and the rest of the Pendleton Portland collection for both my own wardrobe and design inspiration.  I think it fits wonderfully with Anouk's aesthetic!

A huge thanks to everyone who shared their own stories of the knitting wandering eye after the last blog post; it was so great to hear that I'm not alone. :) I'm closing in on the end of both deadline sweaters, so a bit of frivolous knitting is in sight!

What I would be doing if I weren't me

Friends, I am sad to say that ennui has set in.  I am hip deep in two deadline projects, and all I want to do is knit handspun socks, tiny baby hats, and every single thing that isn't one of the two currently on the needles.  I am sure this is a temporary glitch, but I thought it might help to share some of my current obsessions with you in hopes that my recovery will be quicker in coming.  Because these sweaters won't knit themselves!


So what's catching my attention at the moment? The Alfalfa Hat by Kate Gagnon Osborn and the Crooked Little Baby Bonnet by Melissa LaBarre.  I have quite a few pregnant friends and I am itching to make tiny hats for all of them.  (Not to mention the tiny sweaters. . .) The Stockard Cardi by Cecily Glowik MacDonald, the Clarity Cardigan by Gretchen Ronnevik, High Country by Carol Sunday, and Toulouse by Leah Thibault.  Swing knitting.  Oversized cables.  Marling.  The Fair Isle hat in Loft leftovers I've had planned for a month.  Spinning scrappies from Funky Carolina and Into the Whirled for the most colorful pair of socks ever.  Setting up another project on the loom.  And. . . and. . . and. . .

So you see, I have a terminal case of the wandering fiber eye.  But if you'll excuse me, I'll be over here staring balefully at this sweater.  Send good thoughts.