Tag Archives: Knitting

New Feature: Yarned by You! – Chadwick Gallery

Posted on September 26, 2012 by | Comments Off on New Feature: Yarned by You! – Chadwick Gallery

Hi everyone!

Lauria here. You might know me as one of the moderators on the JMF Ravelry Group. You might know me as the test knitting coordinator for Juniper Moon Farm’s Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter 2012 yarn lines. You might know me as the cover girl for the Sabine Booklet:

You might not know me from Adam!

But you’re about to, because I cajoled Susan into letting me do a series of blog posts because I’m constantly looking at and favorite-ing projects on Ravelry made with Juniper Moon Farm Yarn. There are so many gorgeous projects, they just have to be shared! So every Wednesday I’m going to post some of my favorite projects found on Ravelry. (All names listed are Ravelry names and the photos will take you to their Ravelry page.)

As the weather is starting to get cool in New England, I thought it would be the perfect time to take a look at Chadwick. In case you missed it, Chadwick is 60% Merino / 40% Baby Alpaca and 202 yards come in a center pull ball. It’s deliciously soft, airy, and unbelievably warm – perfect for fall knitting and crocheting to wear well into winter.

First up, these Sluggy Bonnets (designed for Chadwick by Tanis Gray and available for free right here!) were knit by jdunsmore

They’re done in the same colors as the original (Swimming Pool, Clear Skies, Clean Sheets), but using one of the contrasting colors as the master color in each hat. You can knit three hats out of three balls by doing this!

Another Sluggy Bonnet, this time done by yarncakes:

I adore these colors (Hannah, Mississippi Mud, Clean Sheets) together, don’t you?

Sheeri made this great Fair Isle V-Neck Sweater (also designed by Tanis Gray specifically for Chadwick) in Clear Skies and Dawn:

I love the added torso length on this sweater, and when I get around to making mine, I’ll be sure to do the same.

This Spiderweb Capelet, knit by subpolka in Hannah, really makes her red hair POP:

Such a pretty openwork pattern and I adore the pom poms! From subpolka: “I ADORE this yarn! Animal fibers typically make my skin crawl, but the Chadwick is sooooooo soft and snuggly.” I would be so sad if animal fibers made my skin crawl! I’m glad that subpolka has at least this yarn to turn to.

This Rocky Coast Cardigan,  looks like the perfect thing for mere to be able to layer as the weather changes.

I love the textured stitches and open front. Knit in Mercury, it definitely evokes a rocky coastal sea!

I’m a sucker for a pun, and knitting Mystic Pullover in colorway Swimming Pool and calling the project Swimming Poolover? smelanie88 is clearly my kind of girl!

Check out her project page to see the great side-seam pockets!

Last up this is gorgeous colorwork scarf called Min Ulla knit in Indian Paintbrush and Clean Sheets by MargaretNuovo:

It reminds me of what Susan affectionately calls The $300 Scarf if you were to knit it in two colors instead of all the colors that Chadwick is available in.

Didn’t these women do amazing jobs? There are so many great Chadwick projects on Ravelry, it was really difficult to narrow it down! In fact, you haven’t seen the last of Chadwick, yet!

What are your favorite Chadwick yarnings? Share your projects (or projects you admire!) in the comments below!

You can find Chadwick and the rest of the Juniper Moon Farm Yarns in a LYS near you by clicking here then clicking “find a store,” inputting your zip code and selecting Juniper Moon Farm as the yarn brand.

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Working On: Socks for Jay

Posted on September 26, 2012 by | Comments Off on Working On: Socks for Jay

I’m having so much fun with these.

Back in early July, my friend Maggie came to visit and casually let it slip that she’d just visited our friend Jay, and that the socks I’d knit him had seen better days (actually, verbatim: “So, I’m supposed to mention to you in a sort of an offhand way that they’re super worn-out, and that maybe you could just make another pair, if you have the time.”).

With that in the back of my mind, I went down to my old-but-new-again LYS last week, in search of something suitable. Lorna’s makes a spot-on Carolina Blue, it turns out (and exclusively for Yarns Etc!), but businesslike, it’s not.

I went with a yarn I’d never used before– Online Supersocke Silk in a granite-like gunmetal grey color. Online, a German yarn company (Ganze Banderole auf Deutsch? Absolutely.), is distributed by JMF’s distributor, so that extra familiarity made it all the nicer. The silk content– 20%– really made the slipped stitches shine, and gives (I think) an attractive look of precision & exactitude to the whole thing. You can tell that these don’t have any mistakes in them.

The pattern, aside from the skyp stitch, is a pretty uncomplicated one, but it’s very popular (also, it’s free! Thank you, Adrienne!). The herringbone running down the center of the ribs is really unusual, but looks especially great, I think, with this yarn.

I’m flying through these, so, soon!


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I’d Love to Knit: Things for Friends & Family

Posted on September 24, 2012 by | Comments Off on I’d Love to Knit: Things for Friends & Family

I’ve accrued a pretty large mental collection of people I ought to knit for, and I need to write everything down.

  • Back in July, at a trunk show in Williamsburg, I told my sister Charlotte to pick out some yarns, because I was going to make her a pair of socks and a hat for her birthday (less than a month away!).
  • I need to knit a pair of socks for my friend Jay, because he’s not only been a good friend to me, but also emailed me a photoessay called “Socks on a Train” (choice quote, “After a shower and commute to work, these socks give me the confidence I need to be successful in today’s competitive corporate environment.”), and also because I hear they’re wearing out.
  • I also hear that my friend Shaddi’s jacket is starting to wear out.
  • And Zac’s parents have been so incredibly good to us in the past few weeks that I feel moved to knit some nice things for them, too.

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Equinox

Posted on September 22, 2012 by | Comments Off on Equinox

Happy first day of fall!

It is decidedly UN-fall-like out there today, but that’s okay.  Paul’s working on brush burning and I am working in the craft room.

You ever get mostly done with a dress and realize you have to tear out the zipper and re-do it? No?  Just me?

Yeah, that’s what I am working on.

Also, these:

Halloween – colored socks.

If I get this dress sorted out I’ll be making more couch pillows from this:

Love those fall colors.


Tagged: Knitting, Seasons, Sewing

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Knitted: Ladies Useful Stockings

Posted on September 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on Knitted: Ladies Useful Stockings

Okay, fine.

Let’s go ahead and get any and all bluestocking references out of the way.

caroline fryar nancy bush knitting vintage socks

Although I think Nancy Bush says it best:

I feel that this stocking– for that is truly what it is, long and shaped– suits those who do reenactments or belong to the Society for Creative Anachronism, if no one else.

Now, some facts. These stockings:

  • are awesome
  • will allow me to be okay with this winter’s projected thermostat setting of 50°F
  • are perfectly suited to my active lifestyle
  • are the VERY LAST project in Nancy Bush’s venerated work, Knitting Vintage Socks. I’ve knit all 24 pairs. I am through. It’s a special day in anybody’s life. I guess instead of a diploma, I get to have 24 pairs of socks.

Not that this is the end of socks. I have at least two pairs that I’ve promised to knit in the very near future– I’ll tell you about them on Monday.

caroline fryar nancy bush knitting vintage socks

The tops are especially grippy, and the pattern includes directions for knitted garters, but, well, that’s a little beyond the pale for me.  Speaking of beyond the pale: I purposely tried to keep the styling as matter-of-fact and non-sexy as possible– I love the way that Plümo does it, but, well, that’s not me.

Pattern: Ladies Useful Stockings, from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette, in Marine Heather, 3 balls
Needles: Takumi DPNs, US sz.1
Time: February 7, 2011 – September 1, 2012
On Ravelry: here


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Designed: Bessie

Posted on September 20, 2012 by | Comments Off on Designed: Bessie

One of the first decisions we made, when putting together the Herriot book, was that it was going to start easy and finish hard– we wanted to start our knitters off with stripes and simple shapes, and take them on a neutral-toned tour through all the colorwork techniques we could think of. I wanted to add a little something– but not too much!– to my stripes, so I designed Bessie in a ticking stripe, then added set-in sleeves, waist shaping, and turned hems for extra neatness.

A few changes were made along the way: the set-in sleeves became faux set-in sleeves with saddle shoulders, the crew neck became a boatneck, and I became the model (so, well, there were a few more inches of ease).

I’m really pleased with the result:

photo © Caro Sheridan

If I could wear this outfit every day of the fall, I’d consider it a fine season. I’m in the market for pants & boots.

photo © Caro Sheridan

My favorite part about the ticking stripe sequence I chose is that you can’t tell whether it’s a light stripe on a dark background, or a dark stripe on a light background. While knitting it (I had to pinch-knit for this one– it’s not usual that I’d knit my own sample), I kept going back and forth on what it looked more like.

photo © Caro Sheridan

This technique of creating faux set-in sleeves + saddle shoulders is probably not my own invention, given all the neato work that’s currently being done in the world of armscyes (I am being completely sincere.), but I’m pretty fond of it and will most likely use it in my future knitting.

Queue it up, y’all.


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Working On: Funchal Moebius

Posted on September 19, 2012 by | Comments Off on Working On: Funchal Moebius

I’ve been working on this since last year– November 20, 2011– but things have ground to a stop.

This pattern, Kate Davies’ Funchal Moebius, is graphic, striking, and a simple knit. Since it was released last year during Wovember, I decided that I’d use my own fingering-weight handspun to make it– the gold is some Corriedale that came with my spinning wheel, and the white is Tunis from Infinity Farm in Cedar Grove, NC (I wrote about going fishing there, a few years ago).

However, therein lies the problem: I’ve done 4 pattern repeats out of 14, and I’ve run out of the Corriedale yarn. I sure can’t buy anything like it.

I’ve got plenty of roving, luckily, but it’ll be a challenge to replicate yarn I spun 2 years ago. We’ll see how it goes.


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Soupy Fall Day

Posted on September 18, 2012 by | Comments Off on Soupy Fall Day

Y’all might want to sit down for this one.

I finished a pair of socks.

I know, shocking.  A finished object.  What’s more, I immediately cast on another pair of socks that’s been waiting in the wings for a few YEARS.

If you can believe it – these are from the same ball of yarn.  This is just the way it knitted out.  Crazy.  I wasn’t sure I was okay with the difference at first, but honestly, a pair of hand knit wool socks is a pair of hand knit wool socks.  They will be well appreciated in my boots come winter.

They also fit quite comfortably inside my new orthopedic shoes.  (Orthaheel – I love them!)

The pattern is Grumperina’s Jaywalkers (this is my 4th pair I’ve knit – I know the pattern so well now that they are easier to whip out).  The yarn is Schoppel Wolle (Zauberball, I think) that I picked up at Maryland Sheep & Wool last year.

It’s been awful and dark and rainy and very windy (we are under a tornado watch until 7 tonight) and thick out  so the kids are snuggled on the couch watching movies and I am working on the next pair of socks.  On the stove we’ve got some Butternut Squash and Apple Soup bubbling for dinner.  This is my favorite go – to fall dinner because it’s easy, delicious and terribly in season.  You can find the original tutorial I posted for it a few years back  HERE.

Make yourself a big pot (it’s gluten – free!!)  and serve with a salad or some hot sweet potato rolls.

Go! What are you waiting for???


Tagged: food, Gluten-free, Knitting, Seasons

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Ferguson Beanie

Posted on September 17, 2012 by | Comments Off on Ferguson Beanie
Ferguson Beanie

I’m slowly working my way through my gift todo list. This little hat is for someone who like’s a beanie style hat that doesn’t cover the ears. I hope it’s going to fit!

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Want to Knit: Wellwood & Breton, Plus, My Pattern-Purchasing Policy

Posted on September 17, 2012 by | Comments Off on Want to Knit: Wellwood & Breton, Plus, My Pattern-Purchasing Policy

I know I’m preaching to the choir on this one, but the BT Fall 2012 collection is nothing short of jaw-dropping. And it isn’t just the gauzily lovely work with the 50mm (please, God, one day)– the designs, written by Jared Flood, Michele Wang, Véronik Avery, and Julie Hoover, are all things I really want to wear.

Okay, so, a few days ago, I splashed out on two patterns (…and, while I’ve got your Divine Ear, if anyone wants to send me some Loft…).

photo © Brooklyn Tweed 2012

This is Wellwood.

photo © Brooklyn Tweed 2012

And this is Breton.

My usual way, when it comes to purchasing patterns, is to only buy what I can’t reverse engineer on my own. Two years ago, I would have asked, “Why do I need pay Jared Flood $6.50 to make a striped pullover?” but, these days, I am all about buying patterns.

It isn’t just that I’ve gotten older and lazier, and want someone to do my math for me. Nor is it because, now that I have this small bit of experience designing, I know what it’s really like, and want to support other people who are doing the same thing. I buy patterns because, these days, the production values are so damn high.

I could slap together a pattern for a striped pullover in a paragraph (in fact, I have this fantasy of Caroline’s Insulting Knitting Book, where the directions are just: “Okay, now, if you want sleeves, make sleeves. What are you, stupid?” Except people would call it witty and pithy, instead of just short-tempered and mean.). These patterns are both twelve pages long. Everything– every. single. thing.– is fully explained, elucidated, elaborated, and expounded upon. Brooklyn Tweed is going to take care of you, knitter! The schematics and specifics– no, the blueprint– come on fancy grid-ruled backgrounds. Shoulder tops, increase, and decreases are fully-fashioned. Different types of selvedges are employed for seams that will see more or less wear and stretching. Charts are purpose-built– zero crappy charting software to be seen. Need to know how to block something? Here’s what would pass as a short magazine article on the subject! I’m not even going to talk about the fact that there’s a whole lookbook that was laid out and put together (plus, it included an article/photoessay on maple sugaring? IS BROOKLYN TWEED MAGAZINE IMMINENT!?!?).

Now that I’ve seen a bit of what it takes to put together, let me just say: good Lord this took an incredible amount of work. I’m amazed I only paid $13 for the two. Wonderful job, y’all– I am too impressed to even be the slightest bit jealous.


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