Twitter Sweater: Yarn Choice

Geisha in Downpour from Blue Moon Fiber Arts
I had a long debate with myself about yarn choice for this sweater, obsessing over Louet's Kidlin Pixie/Laceweight before realizing I had some beautiful Geisha in my stash.

Kidlin is a "traditional" mohair yarn with a twist - in addition to the usual nylon binder thread, which holds the mohair fibers in a twist, there is a thread of linen. This linen takes the dye differently than the mohair fiber, giving the yarn a dimensionality that traditional mohair yarns don't have. Mohair takes dye beautifully, soaking it all up and glowing with it (see Kidsilk Haze, which uses silk instead of nylon for even more sheen - that link does not do the yarn justice). Linen doesn't seem to absorb dye evenly, so it ends up mottled and lighter than the mohair. All this to say it has a depth and ... rusticity that can really add to a project.

With the Kidlin I had been having a hard time deciding what color to work with. Something close to the inspiration dress (All Spice or Amber), a shade that just spoke to me (Flag Blue, Regimental Red), or whatever was available at the OYS (Doeskin, Smoky Grape), since no LYS near me stocked the yarn? In the midst of my obsessing, I reorganized my stash (many thanks to Nick for all his hard work moving the Expedit in question) and reacquainted myself with some hidden gems, including two big skeins of Geisha (64% Kidmo (kid mohair), 20% Mulberry silk, 16% nylon; 995 yards, each) in the subtle yet intriguing Downpour colorway. This one varies from a dusty brown to silver with some taupe and peachy tones in the mix, all very subdued yet shiny from the silk and mohair, really beautiful and subtle.

Could this work? The inspiration is so over-the-top, design-wise, yet the color Mme. Grès chose was quiet, letting the beautifully impractical sleeves shine in all their silk paper taffeta glory. Now, I love a variegated yarn, perhaps more than the next knitter and, after a few years of knitting, I know the drawbacks of those colorful skeins - flashing, pooling, stripy-ness. But in my swatch these subdued shades seemed to flicker, shimmer, not mix but mingle. So, we're going to give it a go.

The swatch you might be able to see at the bottom of the photo (from my phone, hence the lower quality) is worked in stockinette with garter stitch borders on US6 needles. This yarn is classified as a fingering weight, with a suggested gauge of 28 stitches over four inches; however, most knitters use it for lace, and I'm getting 18 stitches over four inches here, which I think will work for the body of the sweater. I don't want a tight gauge, since I want room for the mohair's halo to get in on the action, plus mohair is just so warm that a tight gauge would make for a little hot box. Since my skin is so sensitive, I plan to wear this with a camisole underneath anyway, so a loose gauge isn't a problem from a modesty perspective. I am wearing the swatch under my shirt at the moment without any discomfort, just to see what I might be in for.

Tomorrow: Ideas on sleeve construction.
Last night: Really enjoyed the color class with Amy Hendrix, and a skein of Merino Light in the Van Dyke Brown colorway may have come home with me. The fingering-weight superwash single-ply yarn is really interesting, and I have a sweater that just needs some finishing touches in another colorway of this yarn. So, yeah, I'm sure I needed more.

Twitter Sweater

As you may know, Vogue Knitting is sponsoring the Magic of Mohair design competition. Designs will be shown in a fashion show at Vogue Knitting LIVE in January. I've been going back and forth, round and round, trying to decide what I think about this competition. The exposure for the winning design would be invaluable, but the designer gives up all rights to their design - it becomes the property of VK, as does the knitted sample. As a self-publishing designer, I don't want to give up my rights (and I don't want to give up a sweater I've worked so hard on, either). All that's assuming I win or "place", hehe

While I'm making up my mind about submitting, I thought I'd start tweeting about my design process. I'll probably cover some of the same ground in a little more depth here on the blog. If you want to follow, be sure to check out my Twitter feed, and I'll be using the tag #kdsweater.

First question: What to design? An "original ... women's fashion garment". I've got a ton of ideas for ladies' sweaters, and my visit to the Brooklyn Museum at the beginning of the summer added even more. Especially, an amazing silk paper taffeta evening dress by Madame Grès (on the right).

Not the greatest picture, but the dress is amazing. The volume of the sleeves is crazy, in a good way. And inspiring. Isn't mohair the perfect fiber for creating that kind of volume? Tomorrow we'll talk about the yarn I'm using.

P.S. I'm going to a color workshop at Knitty City tonight with Amy Hendrix of Madeline Tosh. Time to sharpen my colored pencils!

You Know You're a Knitter (part 1)

... when you see a television listing for "Twisted Sisters" and you immediately think of Twisted Sisters Knitting, not the lady wrestling thing that it apparently is. Thanks, MSNBC, for getting my hopes up.

In more exciting news, I've submitted patterns to Knitty and Twist Collective in the past month, so am keeping my "pointy sticks" crossed. If they aren't accepted, I will publish them myself. And then I have some other designs I'm working on.

For now I'm taking a wee break now to knit up a special request: a Hap-style blanket (variation on Ysolda's from Whimsical Little Knits 1, doing the center panel on the diagonal) for my stepson. I'd made one for Nick for Father's Day, and Stevie wants his own. Nick's uses some of this natural, cream-colored Lopi with Manos del Uruguay in this fiery red for contrast. Stevie's uses the same Lopi (I have a LOT of it) with two strands of this gorgeous blue from Wellspring Woolens (thanks, Annie!). This Poppi's Worsted Plus is an icelandic wool from the Minnesota River area, so it's a perfect complement to the Lopi. It's all a little too itchy for me to think of having next to my skin, but Stephen is always snagging his Dad's blanket, so I know he'll like it. And it's nice to work with. Sometimes you just want some good ol' wool, you know?

Speaking of "sensitive skin", it turns out that I am allergic to Propylene Glycol, which is in SO MANY THINGS, Gallate Esters, which luckily are not as common, "fragrance" (seriously?! even things that are unscented often have masking fragrances in them), and dust mites. At least I know what to avoid, even if some of those things are virtually unavoidable. Hopefully, I can avoid the horrible eye area rash of this past spring in the future (or I'll have to start hiring models to photograph my knits on, which is not in the budget :)

Darn! I thought I had some photos to share of Thursday night's book signing at Knitty City, but, having just checked (and deleted) them, my camera did a terrible job of capturing Julie Turjoman, author of Brave New Knits. I had seen an advance of the book at Purl Diva in August so was excited to meet Julie and snag my very own copy. It's a book I'm really looking forward to reading, as well as to knitting some of the patterns. Happily, I ran into the Subway Knitter herself, as well as Connie Chang Chinchio, Kristen Kapur, and Melissa Wehrle, who are profiled in the book. I had hoped that Mr. Brooklyn Tweed might make his way uptown for this, but as he was announcing his new yarn line, Shelter, the next day, I guess it makes sense that he wasn't there. Still, his photographs are lovely.

I know there's more to catch up on (new yarn stashed, an adjustment to the home of the stash, and a raft of other books to talk about), but this will have to suffice. Hope you had a great weekend!

In Memorium: Riley

As those of you who follow me on Twitter or are a friend on Facebook know, my sweet cat Riley died at the end of last month. He was such a sweet boy, patient with the kids, soft as a kitten, and well-behaved around yarn. Every night after the children went to bed, he'd roost behind my head, me on the couch, him on the table. At bedtime he'd curl up next to me, effectively pinning me into one sleeping position. We all miss him. Soon we will bring home a new ball of fur, but we needed a little mourning time.

I realized that I'd avoided blogging the past few weeks, except for the new scarf pattern, because I knew I needed to blog about Riley. I even avoided putting birthday wish list together (something I usually enjoy immensely) or acknowledging this blog's fourth anniversary (I've babbled about knitting for FOUR years?!). Losing my grandmother and Riley in the same month has done a number on me, but it's time to pull myself together (all the way - I've gone part of the way getting the kids back in school and all). So, there will be more blogging, more pictures, and some new patterns coming down the pike. I might even have a contest, so, please, keep reading. And give your pets an extra hug for me.

Pattern: Captain Austen's Scarf

I've had an idea for a red captain's scarf for quite some time (think "Captain Jack Sparrow", if you've seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). Then, one day I walked into Yarntopia and saw this Malabrigo Twist yarn in Ravelry Red - perfect color for what I had in mind and, oh my, what a yarn! All the softness and richness of color that you love in Malabrigo Worsted with multiple plies to keep pilling at bay. 


A cozy scarf is a must for walking the deck of your ship, and what better way to dress it up than with a little of Frank Austen’s fringe? He worked the very same fringe (on some curtains) while on shore leave with his sister Jane. Luscious, bulky Malabrigo Twist makes for a quick knit, and the reversible Seaweed stitch pattern will keep your interest until it’s time to tie that fringe and board your ship.

The pattern is available here on Ravelry, or you can purchase it directly using the button below.

Pattern: Captain Austen's Scarf

Apologies for the blog silence - I've been, alternately, very busy and getting away from it all, but that's for a different post. I have a new pattern!

I've had an idea for a red captain's scarf for quite some time (think "Captain Jack Sparrow", if you've seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). Then, one day I walked into Yarntopia and saw this Malabrigo Twist yarn in Ravelry Red - perfect color for what I had in mind and, oh my, what a yarn! All the softness and richness of color that you love in Malabrigo Worsted with multiple plies to keep pilling at bay. 


A cozy scarf is a must for walking the deck of your ship, and what better way to dress it up than with a little of Frank Austen’s fringe? He worked the very same fringe (on some curtains) while on shore leave with his sister Jane. Luscious, bulky Malabrigo Twist makes for a quick knit, and the reversible Seaweed stitch pattern will keep your interest until it’s time to tie that fringe and board your ship.

The pattern is available here on Ravelry, or you can purchase it directly using the button below.

Nick took the photographs for the pattern, as usual, this time at Conservatory Water in Central Park. I thought you might enjoy this outtake. I LOVED sailing the boats, but I don't think Isobel really appreciated that :)

In Memorium: Kathryn Amelia Wilson

After an amazingly full life of 94 years 356 days, my darling grandmother passed away earlier this month. Since this August 15th was to have been her 95th birthday (a milestone any way you look at it), we planned a celebration for her in Freeport, Illinois - her hometown for all of those years. In addition to the little partay the family planned, I designed a shawl for her - a pi (circular) shawl to be named Perseid Shower in her honor, since her birthday always comes at the end of the annual meteor shower of the same name. It has a variety of leafy and starry motifs that take you out from under the shelter of a tree to a starry, meteor-filled sky.

So, this shawl. I cast on at the beginning of July (once we were up in Maine) and immediately had problems. My second chart was wrong, but I didn't realize this until I completed the second repeat. I got frustrated, put the shawl in timeout, knowing I had lots of time until mid-August, and cast on a sweater (more on that later). Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and I know I need to get this show on the road. The charts are revised, and I'm ready to go. Things go pretty well until just after the last increase, when I discover that I'm off by a stitch at the end of the round. Ack! This is when I have 576 stitches on the needle. Five hundred seventy-six. And the yarn is the super-thin and super-duper sproingy Jade Sapphire Lacy Lamb. And the stitches to be tinked alternate between sl1-k2tog-psso and sl2-k1-p2sso. Impossible. Just maddeningly, frighteningly impossible. If you manage to discern the slipped stitch(es), it might work. But the yarn is so fine and sproingy that you're more likely to have stitches slip off the needles and bounce out of the row below. Suddenly you have runners into some pretty complicated lace.

Did I use lifelines? Of course not, because I'm an idiot. But after tinking back what seemed like hours, leaving a raft of coil-less safety pins in dropped stitches in my wake (and only a small fraction of the stitches tinked), I knew something had to be done. So, I bought a gigantic cone of crochet cotton, laid the poor shawl out, stretching it onto two needles, and wove the thread through the last two increase rounds (the inner round was for "insurance" in case something went horribly wrong again). It didn't take as long as I thought it might, and I started to feel better immediately. I also realized that my plan for which lace pattern to use after the last increase needed to change - this whole thing had been Fate/God/Karma/What-You-Will's way of saying I'd made the wrong decision when waffling over the plan at the 576 stage. OK, OK, I'm listening!

That was Wednesday, August 4th, and I spent that Knit Night ripping back to the lifeline and putting the stitches back on the needle. And I have to say I'm pretty proud of my lifeline weaving - I managed to weave all the stitches in the correct row (it helps that it was the increase row: yo, k1 all the way around). I started the new lace plan on those stitches and persevered, knowing I had a car ride from Maine to NYC to put a big dent in the last section before the border and then a few more days for border knitting before blocking needed to happen; I knew such fine yarn would block in a matter of hours.


Unfortunately, that Friday was a flurry of phone calls and messages about my grandmother. She was short of breath and taken to the emergency room. She was admitted to the hospital with fluid in her lungs. They had eased that situation and she was resting, then sleeping, then restless. And, suddenly, she was gone.

Honestly, we were all surprised. She had pulled through many things before; she was a tiny lady by the end of her days (under five feet, though she was half a foot taller in the prime of life - eat your yogurt and take your calcium, ladies), suffering through fractured vertebrae due to osteoporosis, but she was so strong, such a force to be reckoned with that I think we thought she would always conquer whatever health problems arose.

She was gone, and we had to get back from Maine to New York and then out to Northwest Illinois to say goodbye. I worked some more on the shawl on the drive back to New York, thinking I would give it to my aunt or just hold onto it. But the wind had gone out of my sails. It sat in my bag on the plane, and in the car, and on our annual family trip to Wisconsin. It's sitting in there, still. I'll take it out at some point, but it's going to be a while, I think.

There's more going on knitting-wise, and I promise to blog about that "real soon now". In the meantime, if you still have your grandparents in your life, give them a call or stop by if you're lucky enough to live close.

Three out of four generations of Wilson women (Christmas 2009)