Happy Fall!
By Megan Goodacre
Happy first day of fall!
It was quite brisk yesterday here, what about where you live? A little nippy? I had to scramble for appropriate footwear. But the temperature is going to shoot back up to balmy with a touch of wet, so I can put those boots back in the closet for a little longer.
You know that Winter Is Coming. Birds are doing strange things and going new places. A lovely blue jay just landed outside my window; such natty dressers, blue jays. But you really know that it's fall because the squirrels are going crazy, packing on their winter weight. We woke on Saturday to the sound of a squirrel chewing its way through the screen on the kitchen window. There was butter, sugar, and cocoa out on the counter (ready for baking), and the squirrel was about 3 seconds from breaching the perimeter. (We had this problem with baking and squirrels last year, but were not home on that occasion. We caught that squirrel in flagrante with some fresh baked cookies and a bag of hot dog buns. The squirrel then panicked and ran all around the house trying to get out. I have some very funny cell phone video with me, standing on a chair, trying to hoosh the squirrel out the door with a broom. Little C locked himself in the car.)
But I'm digressing.
Yesterday was a big day for Tricksy Knitter. I have been working on a collection of 5 patterns for quite some time. The pieces aren't complicated, but it was one of those projects where you fuss over details. You know, the kind where you spend too much time choosing a font.
The collection was inspired by the idea of being able to layer your knits. Instead of one big chunky sweater, I wanted finer, versatile pieces. A fine-knit pullover.Sport weight wraps that can be worn as scarves under jackets. Loose short cardigans that can be worn over tanks or long-sleeve t's. Fingerless arm warmers that add a hint of luxury under a coat.
Over the next few days, I'll post about each pattern, with a few more details.
First of all, the Lyric wrap.
I love lace knitting. But I'm also such a lazy knitter. I know my limitations. Projects must be easy enough for tv knitting. So I played around with lace options, looking for a balance of visual interest and easy to work. The stitch pattern in Lyric has a 4 row repeat! That's so easy to remember. And, because it's vertical, it's easy to find your place at any time. You could watch a movie with subtitles.
The edges are nice wide garter stitch, with little picot nubs all the way up. The garter stitch borders at the beginning and end, if you work Lyric in lace weight, can be blocked into points.
And the other thing I wanted to do with this pattern was design something that uses several single skeins. I don't know about you, but I'm not a very good yarn shopper. I usually come home with lots of lovely skeins but not enough in any one colour for a big project! And I don't learn. At any given point, I own about 300 cubic feet of yarn—that sounds like a lot, but it's really true, I just did the math—but most of it is very assorted.
So Lyric is also meant to look good in big, bold blocks of colour. That way, you can pick your favourite skeins and combine them. Each block takes about 80 grams of sport weight.
A little more about it...
The stitch pattern is both written out and charted.
Nicole modelled for me at the Central Experimental Farm here in Ottawa. Nicole is the incredible knitter and photographer behind the cocoknits blog. She has been posting her photos of a trip to Shetland with Gudrun Johnston and Mary Jane Mucklestone. That sensation you're having? Oh that, it's envy. Don't worry, it will pass. And when I say Nicole is an incredible knitter, I'm not just throwing adjectives around. You will see her impeccable sample-knitting in patterns by Brooklyn Tweed, Carrie Bostick Hoge, Hannah Fettig and more...
The name...
You'll notice the patterns in the collection are all poetic (Lyric, Ode, Sonnet, Lexicon, and Couplet). It's getting hard to come up with new names on Ravelry. There are plenty of Sonnets, mine is the 7th) but I'm please that mine was the first Lexicon, a word I love. It has a nice sound, and is quite smartypants.
Let's see, what else.
Ooh, the yarn...
The lace version, which is the coral red on the cover, is Americo Original's Linen Cordón. 66% linen 29% cotton 5% silk in a heavy lace weight, in a lovely palette. The colour used in this one is Coral, but I have two skeins of Stone and it too is gorgeous.
The sport version is a mix. Americo Original again. Starting with the green and moving up: Pima Cotton in Chrysoprase, Baby Suri in Charcoal Plum, Pima Cotton in Light Goldenrod, Dehaired Baby Llama in Feather Grey, and Dehaired Baby Llama in Paprika.
It was quite brisk yesterday here, what about where you live? A little nippy? I had to scramble for appropriate footwear. But the temperature is going to shoot back up to balmy with a touch of wet, so I can put those boots back in the closet for a little longer.
You know that Winter Is Coming. Birds are doing strange things and going new places. A lovely blue jay just landed outside my window; such natty dressers, blue jays. But you really know that it's fall because the squirrels are going crazy, packing on their winter weight. We woke on Saturday to the sound of a squirrel chewing its way through the screen on the kitchen window. There was butter, sugar, and cocoa out on the counter (ready for baking), and the squirrel was about 3 seconds from breaching the perimeter. (We had this problem with baking and squirrels last year, but were not home on that occasion. We caught that squirrel in flagrante with some fresh baked cookies and a bag of hot dog buns. The squirrel then panicked and ran all around the house trying to get out. I have some very funny cell phone video with me, standing on a chair, trying to hoosh the squirrel out the door with a broom. Little C locked himself in the car.)
But I'm digressing.
Yesterday was a big day for Tricksy Knitter. I have been working on a collection of 5 patterns for quite some time. The pieces aren't complicated, but it was one of those projects where you fuss over details. You know, the kind where you spend too much time choosing a font.
The collection was inspired by the idea of being able to layer your knits. Instead of one big chunky sweater, I wanted finer, versatile pieces. A fine-knit pullover.Sport weight wraps that can be worn as scarves under jackets. Loose short cardigans that can be worn over tanks or long-sleeve t's. Fingerless arm warmers that add a hint of luxury under a coat.
Over the next few days, I'll post about each pattern, with a few more details.
First of all, the Lyric wrap.
I love lace knitting. But I'm also such a lazy knitter. I know my limitations. Projects must be easy enough for tv knitting. So I played around with lace options, looking for a balance of visual interest and easy to work. The stitch pattern in Lyric has a 4 row repeat! That's so easy to remember. And, because it's vertical, it's easy to find your place at any time. You could watch a movie with subtitles.
The edges are nice wide garter stitch, with little picot nubs all the way up. The garter stitch borders at the beginning and end, if you work Lyric in lace weight, can be blocked into points.
And the other thing I wanted to do with this pattern was design something that uses several single skeins. I don't know about you, but I'm not a very good yarn shopper. I usually come home with lots of lovely skeins but not enough in any one colour for a big project! And I don't learn. At any given point, I own about 300 cubic feet of yarn—that sounds like a lot, but it's really true, I just did the math—but most of it is very assorted.
So Lyric is also meant to look good in big, bold blocks of colour. That way, you can pick your favourite skeins and combine them. Each block takes about 80 grams of sport weight.
A little more about it...
The stitch pattern is both written out and charted.
Nicole modelled for me at the Central Experimental Farm here in Ottawa. Nicole is the incredible knitter and photographer behind the cocoknits blog. She has been posting her photos of a trip to Shetland with Gudrun Johnston and Mary Jane Mucklestone. That sensation you're having? Oh that, it's envy. Don't worry, it will pass. And when I say Nicole is an incredible knitter, I'm not just throwing adjectives around. You will see her impeccable sample-knitting in patterns by Brooklyn Tweed, Carrie Bostick Hoge, Hannah Fettig and more...
The name...
You'll notice the patterns in the collection are all poetic (Lyric, Ode, Sonnet, Lexicon, and Couplet). It's getting hard to come up with new names on Ravelry. There are plenty of Sonnets, mine is the 7th) but I'm please that mine was the first Lexicon, a word I love. It has a nice sound, and is quite smartypants.
Let's see, what else.
Ooh, the yarn...
The lace version, which is the coral red on the cover, is Americo Original's Linen Cordón. 66% linen 29% cotton 5% silk in a heavy lace weight, in a lovely palette. The colour used in this one is Coral, but I have two skeins of Stone and it too is gorgeous.
The sport version is a mix. Americo Original again. Starting with the green and moving up: Pima Cotton in Chrysoprase, Baby Suri in Charcoal Plum, Pima Cotton in Light Goldenrod, Dehaired Baby Llama in Feather Grey, and Dehaired Baby Llama in Paprika.
