Flint Knits

Hard to believe summer is over — it was 90 degrees yesterday, and September 1 just came around without my even noticing.

But it’s true! Nights are getting cooler, leaves are getting drier, and those Country Time Lemonade commercials with the squeaky, empty porch swing are airing on network TV. Fall is in the air, and all I wanna do is make big, squishy sweaters.

Luckily, I spent a good part of my spring and summer designing a whole bunch of them, in cahoots with Caroline Fryar. Together, we made 14 colorwork designs for the new Juniper Moon Farm yarn, Herriot (100% alpaca sport weight; comes in 10 awesome undyed, natural colors — for more info about the yarn, see Caroline’s post).

And then, with the help of a whole lot of people, including test knitters, models, a brilliant graphic designer, an angelically patient tech editor, and the always-amazing photographer Caro Sheridan, we put them into a book.*

The book is organized in order, from simple to more challenging colorwork — from basic stripes to Caroline’s insane double-knit coat masterpiece. Caroline’s post does a thorough job of describing all the pieces and crediting all the contributors, and the whole thing is available to be ogled on Ravelry, but I wanted to highlight a few of my favorites.

Let’s start with some of the pullovers:

This is definitely my favorite photo, and my favorite design, in the whole book. Caroline created this badass ombre striped dress, which we named Hattie. Caro photographed it in a beautiful, creepy old graveyard in Virginia, and then we borrowed most of the book’s garment names from the hundred-year-old gravestones there.

Edie, a trompe l’oeil intarsia pullover, with little short-rowed cuffs and a keyhole back.

Bessie, a comfy, slouchy, stripey sweater that Caroline designed, and that I want to wear all winter long.

And Maeby, a stranded, seamless pullover with turned hems, a kangaroo pocket, and a drawstring funnel neck.

Oh, and also there are elbow patches!

Truly, that’s just the beginning! Check out all the rest on Ravelry.

You can find the book, and Herriot, wherever Juniper Moon Farm yarn is sold.

More exciting announcements in the next few days — in the meantime, I’ll be sitting on the porch swing whipping up an Edie.**

* If you want your own knitwear or other craft photography to look half as amazing as Caro’s, check out her Craftsy class on product photography, “Shoot It!“

** Not true. I do not have a porch swing. But I AM sitting on the porch, and the chair I’m using is not entirely stable, so it is somewhat swing-LIKE. So.

First, of all, congratulations to Elizabeth! The random number generator picked her comment from among the 343 entries to win Minty’s Tapestry Cowl pattern and the yarn to make it. I knew Elizabeth from Flickr, but didn’t realize she had a knitting blog–it turns out she’s a teenage knitting prodigy from right here in Michigan.

Kirsten cranks out patterns like it’s nothing, and they’re all classic and clever. The Joni hat is no exception.

pattern: Joni, by Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops
yarn: Shibui sock merino
needles: US 3 Addi circular
[ravelry link]

Shibui yarn is lovely to work with, but, as others have noted, it pools. In obvious ways. Always. A lot. You can see in the photo above where it makes a huge swooping barberpole around the ribbing.

So, while it’s not my favorite for socks, I thought the Shibui was fine for the small, three-dimensional pieces of the Eden scarf. And now I think it looks fabulous in this kind of two-color work, where the pooling is less of an issue.

I just sent the finished hat to my friend Michelle, who will wear it and brighten up the Chicago winter this year.

Next up? Kirsten’s popular Thorpe hat [ravelry link] for myself, and a fingering-weight top that I just started. The top took me by surprise, and now I haven’t knit anything else in days. I expect to get heaps done on it while I’m glued to the TV during Tuesday’s election night party, but am a little concerned that my gauge will get VERY TIGHT as we watch the returns come in…

Hello! It’s been a while! Big thanks to all of you who suggested baby patterns — I got a ton of useful information, and I’m truly sorry I haven’t had a chance to thank everybody personally.

I’ve been swamped with the usual mid-semester demands, and just spent a few days out playing shows with the band. But this doesn’t mean I haven’t had time to knit.

A few weeks back, Ashley sent me a skein of the discontinued Rio de la Plata 3-ply as part of a swap. I’d never seen the 3-ply before, and it’s really, really lovely. Squishy and soft and much more hard-wearing than its single-ply sisters.

I immediately cast on for Jared’s fab Koolhaas hat, using a small needle to get gauge. After just a few inches, the hat was stiff and unpleasant, and my gauge was still a bit off.

Then I got this.

The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, by Clara Parkes. It’s brilliant. I read it cover to cover. Not only has it earned an honored place on my shelf next to the meaty knowledge-filled books (Montse, Elizabeth, Barbara), but it’s also got a ton of fabulous patterns by some of your favorite designers.

The book is just what the title says: a guide to yarn. The book jacket says that “The Knitter’s Book of Yarn will teach you everything you need to know about yarn: How it’s made, who makes it, how it gets to you, and what it longs to become.” The “what it longs to become” part is key — you learn all this stuff about yarn so that you can better match yarn + project.

Basically, It explains how different types of fibers and different kinds of constructions determine how a yarn will knit up. (And the patterns are arranged by yarn construction — 2ply, 3ply, chain, etc.) As (practically) a non-spinner, I apparently had a great deal to learn about such things.

And what I learned helped me choose a pattern that would do the Rio justice. According to Parkes, three-ply yarns are like a bar stool — perfectly balanced. And their stability and round shape means that your stitches will be well-defined and plump, and will fill up space generously.

In knitting the Rio on teeny needles, I was trying to stifle that plumpness! I was repressing the natural awesomeness of the yarn! I was a Yarn Fascist, only thinking about the glory of the state FO, when I should have been a Yarn Marxist working to provide space for the development of its own unique yarniness. (Yes, okay, I’ll be done teaching Political Science 101 very soon, and such comparisons will stop. We hope.) The point is that the first hat might have turned out okay, but it wouldn’t have been showing the yarn to its best advantage.

Armed with that knowledge, I hit Ravelry to check out a few patterns Ashley had suggested (yes, she figures strongly into the story of the hat, all the way through — I mean, she’s pretty much my puppetmaster), and settled on Debi’s Frivol hat.

The construction of the thing makes it great fun: it’s knit sideways, and the crown is shaped with short rows.

Congratulations to Ebony! She won yarn!

Ebony, you just have to choose whether you want the green Knittery sock yarn, or the stripey Vesper. Send me an email with your preference and your address, and the yarn will be headed your way toot sweet.

Thanks to everybody who entered my little blogthday contest! Your answers were funny and kind and helpful.

And the results are this:

1. I’m SO gonna cut that sweater.
2. re: lifelines, Laziness trumps fear. For the moment. Until I have a major catastrophe and am scarred enough to pull out the dental floss.
3. You suggested a number of really useful sources for learning Intarsia, as I knew you would.
4. I’m going to make two small, lacy neckwarmers from my grandmother’s angora yarn (one for each of my sisters).

And, since I’m giving yarn away, I had to replace it twice over. Not my intention, but that seems to be how things work, stashwise.

Sundara sock yarn in Crimson, for Twisted Flower

Madeline Tosh sock in Kale

Some friends and I are leaving tomorrow morning on a road trip to Minnesota, for a wedding and some serious reunion-ing. And since complicated charts don’t make for good car knitting, I’m setting aside the Peacock shawl and the autumn aran socks (now past the heel on sock #1), and bringing a new project.

Joy, by Kim Hargreaves, from Rowan Vintage Knits. My first fingering-weight sweater, knit on US3 needles. I’ve knit about 2.5 more inches on the back since this photo was taken.

The yarn is Rowanspun 4 ply, and it kicks ass.** I’d heard about breakage issues with the 4 ply weight, but so far have had none. One great thing about Rowanspun in general (besides the fact that all the weights of it transform into a supersoft, lightweight, cohesive, highly snuggleable fabric upon washing), is that it spit-splices like a dream. (Classier knitters may call this a “felted join,” and suggest using tap water, or fresh morning dew collected from faerie wings. I use actual spit, and see no reason to sugar coat that fact.)

My very ambitious goal for the weekend is to finish knitting the back of Joy. I’m a slow knitter, but it’s a 12-hour drive each way, and I’m only responsible for 1/3 of the driving. And I intend to selflessly volunteer for all of the nighttime driving, which will both please my friends and maximize my daylight carknitting hours.

**of course this means that it’s been discontinued.

Hey! Don’t forget to enter my wee summer catch-up contest.

And check out Brenda’s Blogiversary Contest, too — lots of fabulous prizes from her.

I mentioned that I came home from tour to find a number of exciting packages. The best of the lot was also the most unexpected.

First, I should say that I was touched and cheered by the awesome outpouring of knitblogger support and sympathy after the Great Computer Theft of 2007. As a fairly new blogger, I wasn’t expecting those online kindnesses to make such a tangible difference in how I felt, or how I dealt with the crisis (which, I know, was a relatively minor one in the scheme of things). You guys made me feel supported, comforted, and only slightly chided for my reckless failure to back shit up online.

And I should have known I could trust one of my favorite bloggers — the clever, talented, generous Ms. Fricknits — to make me feel even warmer and more loved than I already did:

Two balls of Habu cotton slub yarn, in a lovely deep pink that will look like blossoms in the snow this winter, when I make the “skinny rockstar scarf” that Julia suggested in her super-thoughtful note.