Matching Knitting Patterns to Yarn
By Megan Goodacre
Speaking of tweed, isn't this a beautiful sweater? This is my mom's Kendrick in Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran, 85% wool 15% angora. Kendrick is a design by Ann McCauley, published in Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People 2. Kendrick has lovely detailing: columns of coin cables on the body that merge gracefully with the front neck shaping, and single coins at the cuff and waist that gather the fabric gently.
This is a great example of how you can adapt a knitting pattern to your yarn choice. You don't have to buy a Debbie Bliss pattern book when you buy Debbie Bliss yarn, or Brooklyn Tweed yarn when you buy a Brooklyn Tweed pattern. But the more mindful you are of the designer's sensibilities and the qualities of a particular yarn, the more successful your adaptation will be.
The Luxury Tweed is a very different yarn than the suggested yarn, Shelter; it's a soft, singles spun yarn with a pronounced halo because of the angora, unlike Shelter, which is a firm, plied yarn with very little halo.
Because it's a singles, the Luxury Tweed stitches tend to be more squat than Shelter's, meaning a little adaptation is necessary. But it suits the design in that it has beautiful color depth and saturation, like the original, and is firm enough to allow the cables to stand out.
It's also (mostly) wool, which I think is key to all the designs in the Wool People collections.
And it comes with a wool-warming-device, which is key to all successful knitting.
This is a great example of how you can adapt a knitting pattern to your yarn choice. You don't have to buy a Debbie Bliss pattern book when you buy Debbie Bliss yarn, or Brooklyn Tweed yarn when you buy a Brooklyn Tweed pattern. But the more mindful you are of the designer's sensibilities and the qualities of a particular yarn, the more successful your adaptation will be.
The Luxury Tweed is a very different yarn than the suggested yarn, Shelter; it's a soft, singles spun yarn with a pronounced halo because of the angora, unlike Shelter, which is a firm, plied yarn with very little halo.
Because it's a singles, the Luxury Tweed stitches tend to be more squat than Shelter's, meaning a little adaptation is necessary. But it suits the design in that it has beautiful color depth and saturation, like the original, and is firm enough to allow the cables to stand out.
It's also (mostly) wool, which I think is key to all the designs in the Wool People collections.
And it comes with a wool-warming-device, which is key to all successful knitting.
