A few weeks ago I was perusing the Rowan pages on Ravelry, and came across a discussion about discontinued yarns. A number of Ravelers were expressing dismay over the discontinuation of Rowan’s Kidsilk Eclipse. Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of Kidsilk, in all of its incarnations. Here is one of my favorite projects ever, knit in Kidsilk Haze:
And here is another, knit in Kidsilk Spray (now discontinued) for my lovely daughter, Emma:
But I have had my head down lately, studying and working hard, and Kidsilk Eclipse has not hit my radar at all. I had not even heard of it, and now it has been discontinued.
I then came across a comment from Leah, who writes the lovely knitting blog Fashion: Yarn Style. She said:
“I have never seen anything to equal the gold shade of Kidsilk Haze eclipse! I am knitting a pullover in it right now, and every time I pull out my knitting a ton of people gather around! The yarn is that beautiful.”
I thought to myself “If Leah thinks it is beautiful and unique, then it must be true.” I have absolute faith in Ravelers. Then, I thought to myself “I wonder if I can still find any of it for sale here in the UK?” The first site I found had sold out, but then I located some at Derramores. And then, somehow, mysteriously, my credit card was in my hand, and I ordered a dozen balls! How could that have happened?
The yarn arrived and it is lovely and gossamer light.
The colour is hard to describe. The gold metallic thread is very gold and shiny, but only in certain lights; otherwise it is quite muted. But the mohair thread is a lovely, pale champagne, more beige than gold, and provides enough subtlety for the gold to bounce off of. It gets more beautiful, but also more interesting each time I look at it.
Of course, one cannot receive 12 balls of Kidsilk, be it Haze or Eclipse, and not want to instantly cast on. This is definitely going to slow down my progress on my Escher cardigan, but I plead knitigating circumstances here: Ravelry made me do it!
I have just finished up a few intense weeks of work and study in which there was no time for knitting. I mean that in the broadest sense of the word. It was for all intents and purposes a period of Knitting, Interrupted. No knitting, no reading about knitting, no writing about knitting, no daydreaming about knitting. Even in those moments when I was idle, I was too tired to move, much less knit. My thanks to all those who left lovely comments on my last post and on Ravelry about my Lightweight Pullover; I was happy to read them.
Despite these past few weeks, I do have some knitting progress to share with you from before my knitting blackout.
As you may recall, I had picked out my next project, the very cute and architectural cardigan called Escher, by Alexis Winslow for Brooklyn Tweed:
As with all projects, the first step was the swatch. For this sweater, I needed to match a stockinette stitch gauge and a 2×2 ribbing gauge. I started fooling around with some swatches very late (around midnight) on a Sunday evening. I remember this because it was Superbowl Sunday, and here in the UK the coverage started around that time. I also remember it because I had a question about the gauge and I wrote an email to pattern support at Brooklyn Tweed. When I woke up the next morning, I discovered that my email had been answered within two hours of sending it, ON A SUNDAY, and DURING THE SUPERBOWL. There is no denying that is exceptionally good service.
My question was: “How can you get the same gauge in rib with a smaller needle, than you get in stockinette with a larger needle? This seems to me to be physically impossible: ribbing always draws in the stitch count, even when blocked; knitting it with a smaller needle should make it even tighter.”
The answer was: “The ribbing is blocked more aggressively to achieve the same gauge as the stockinette stitch. The ribbing will be more flattened out than it normally is.” Message to self: Be more aggressive.
One of the more interesting features of this cardigan is the triangle at the back which is formed with short rows. Here is a progress shot as I was starting the triangle:
The short rows are interesting and the way they shape the fabric quite mesmerizing. It is also pretty fast knitting. A warning, however: it is very easy to do the first side of the triangle, but you have to pay attention on the second. I kept miscounting and had to rip back twice. Finally, I marked each wrap-and-turn with a removable stitch marker so that I could see where I was.
In the Notebook section of the Brooklyn Tweed website, Jared Flood has a series of interviews with BT designers. The interview with Alexis Winslow is really interesting and it has a lovely discussion of the design process behind Escher. Alexis says:
“Escher was definitely a challenge for me. My original design concept didn’t have that beautiful V-shape–it was straight up and down like a stripe. I knitted the sample, and realized that I could achieve a much better fit if the armholes angled downward a bit. I went back to my sketchpad to work out solutions. There were a lot of different ways I could do this, but I decided the central triangle would be the most elegant way to solve this problem.”
Please check out the interview. I love that it shows some of Alexis’ sketches of the original design idea for Escher – before she added the triangle to the back. Alexis has recently written her own post about this design, which you can find here, which has even more info on the design and its development. She also has photos of it buttoned, which are missing from the Brooklyn Tweed shots. Anyone interested in the design process or in this lovely garment should read these posts.
Here is the most current progress shot, taken this morning:
I really love the way that the short rows change the direction of the knitting. It makes the piece very striking and fluid. I am nearly done with this portion of the cardigan and have come to the realization that two-thirds of this piece is ribbed. If you don’t like ribbing, this may not be the project for you. I am going to look at it philosophically: all of that aggressive blocking will help get rid of my frustrations. First I’ll knit myself into a Zen-state, and then I’ll pin the crap out of it. More proof of the health benefits of knitting!
Last week I finished knitting and blocked my turtleneck based on Hannah Fettig’s Lightweight Pullover pattern. I then procrastinated for a week before weaving in the few ends. Finally, this morning, I was able to wear it!
I love how this turned out. The fit is perfect. This might be because I tried it on every few inches and knit it to fit.
I mentioned in a previous post that I was considering making the seed stitch border at the hips a bit longer. I ended up doing this, taking out the cast-off border and adding half an inch of seed stitch for a total of 2.5 inches. The pattern calls for ribbing at the cuffs and hem, but I really like the look of the seed stitch; I think it gives the sweater a bit of a dressier line.
I knit this with Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Tart. I wet blocked it, giving it a good soak. I poured a cup of white vinegar in the water to help set the dye. It definitely ran – if you are going to use Tart in colourwork I strongly recommend you wash all the dye out first. I put it through a gentle spin cycle in the washer (inside a bag for delicate wash), and then laid it out to dry. I didn’t need to pin it as the size was already perfect. A warning, however, Tosh Merino Light does grow lengthwise after a soak – the sweater is two inches longer than pre-blocking. Luckily, I was expecting this and the length came out perfectly.
I am particularly pleased with the fit in the shoulder and arm. I mentioned in a previous post that I didn’t follow the numbers in the pattern, but just winged all of the math. This method works well when knitting top-down in the round since you can try it on as you go.
Most knitters will alternate skeins every row when using hand dyed yarn to avoid pooling. It turns out that I am terrible at doing this when knitting in the round; the join always looks messy. Besides that, it is awkward and I hate doing it. For this sweater, I only alternated for an inch or so every time I joined a new colour. I was lucky and didn’t get much pooling.
I love the fact that this sweater is so versatile. I wore it above with dressy navy slacks and heels. Here it is with a skirt. (It would look better with a navy,brown or black skirt, but you get the idea.)
Once I finished posing for the photos, however, how do you think I styled it? Well, how else does one wear a jumper to go walking in the muddy English countryside?
Answer:
You put your hair in a ponytail.
You wear your wellies. Wellies are essential; trust me.
You borrow your husband’s way-too-big-on-you coat. Why? Why have a husband if you can’t wear his clothes?
Now I’m off to find a muddy field to trek through….
(By the way, I asked Doug to look at this post and he said “You should have named it Tart in Turtleneck instead of Turtleneck in Tart”. He deserves to have his clothes stolen!)
