New Pattern Release: the Adrie Vest!
I'm so excited to introduce you to my latest design, the Adrie vest!
It's been a long time in the making but the process was a pleasure. Along the way I took several in-progress photos, so you get to see much more of the design process than usual! Here goes . . .
First off, the yarn is insanely beautiful. It's Madelinetosh Tosh Merino light and it has these subtle shades in it that take my breath away. The colorway I used is called Calligraphy and it reminds me of mushrooms, with shades it it that go from brownish to greyish to pinkish. Every time I look at it I get the same thrill I got initially, so that really speaks for the beauty of the yarn. And the finished fabric? It's flowy and light, soft and smooth, and drapes likes nobody's business. If you haven't had a chance to work with this yarn yet, run, don't walk, to the LYS to grab a skein!
I knew that I wanted to use this stunning yarn for something drapey and cozy, but I didn't want to make a shawl simply because I wanted to do something new. The flowy vest was the perfect solution! I sketched, swatched, and ripped a bunch until I came up with the Adrie vest. It features a cable along the neckline that has no up/down direction (you'll be knitting it from both ends!) and various textures that show off the beautiful yarn.
Here's a closeup of the cable that starts everything off:
And bonus: in this unusual construction method, each section is knit from the previous one, so there are no ends to seam! I know you love that.
Here's how my vest looked when it was nearly done:
You can't really tell from the photo but the fronts are picked up and knit off the back, so you don't have to sew them to each other. It makes finishing so much simpler when all you need to do is weave in the ends and block!
Here's how it looks from the back when worn:
I wore this vest around at Vogue Knitting Live this year and got tons of compliments. I like to wear it over a fitted long-sleeve shirt with fitted jeans, that way the proportions are balanced out. I think it would be cute over a sleeveless dress too, if you're more of the boho type . . . I just can't pull that look off myself!
Here are the basic details:
Size & Finished Measurements:
Sizes: S(M,L)
Shown in size Small. My bust is 37”.
Back width at bust: 18”(21”,24”)
Length at center back: 19”(21”,24.5”)
Gauge:
25 sts/38 rows = 4” in stockinette stitch on size US #4/3.5mm needles
Materials:
3(4,4) skeins Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light (100% superwash Merino), 100 grams/3.5 oz, 440 yards/402 meters, in color Calligraphy
The knitting pattern is 5 pages long and includes detailed schematics to help you understand the unusual construction.
The PDF is available for purchase as an immediate download. Price is $5.50 and you can either purchase from my site or via Ravelry:
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If you have any questions about the design please ask!
Sorting buttons*
So I've been on a bit of a cleaning-out and organizing kick lately, and last week I took a few hours to go through my button stash and create some order out of chaos. Above is only a part of the button stash that needed to be organized and culled! My previous storage method was just not working anymore:
As you can see from this picture, my previous method could be succinctly describe as "shove everything in a ziplock to figure out later." Well, later finally came!
Inspired by this picture on the Berroco blog, I went out an procured a cork board off Craigslist ($5! score!) and hung it up above my desk, then sat down for some serious button-sorting time. I used black sewing thread to connect buttons by type:
And as I worked the messy pile grew smaller and smaller and the cute, grouped-by-type pile grew bigger and bigger.
It shouldn't have taken me so long to get these all done but I kept getting distracted by how cute some of the buttons are! I'd forgotten about maybe half of these, like those awesome metal squarish ones that were supposed to go on a jacket design . . . there I go again getting distracted. I literally stopped more than once to quickly sketch an idea to go with the buttons!
After a few hours of sorting and watching DVR'd episodes of How I Met Your Mother (I just discovered this show and LOVE IT, you should watch if you've never seen it!), I had finished the whole pile. The finishing touch was hanging each little loop up on the cork board:
Using neon pushpins is optional, but it certainly doesn't hurt!
Now every time I sit at my desk I can look up and admire my neat and organized button collection. Hopefully this is the start of many new designs featuring some of these buttons ;o)
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*Funny how "sorting buttons" would be the equivalent of "watching paint dry" for most people, but for us knitters/crafters, it's actually fun!
Daily Photo: How much is that sweater in the window?
This Vince cardigan/robe has been in a window near my office for, oh, a month now. Every time I pass it I can't help but stop to admire it! It looks so cozy, and so easy to knit. I may just have to add this one to my fall knitting/designing queue . . .
Speaking of fall knitting/designing, last night I bound off for a project that is going to be in a magazine! I love the little design and the yarn so much, I immediately cast on for another one so I could knit one to keep to myself . . . I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk about it yet so I'll keep it vague, but suffice it to say I'm very excited. And believe you me, when it comes out I will definitely be telling you all about it!
New pattern and kits: The Loreley Scarf!
I'm so so happy with how this little scarf design came out!
The idea was to make a scarf that would shade colors of Koigu into each other, to seamless go from one color through a bunch of other colors in a way that made them look like the fade into and out of eachother magically. I knew that I wanted a simple stitch pattern that wouldn't detract from the colors, but knitting an all-garter-stitch scarf is pretty boring, so I threw in some eyelets to keep your interest as you knit. The eyelets ended up being my favorite part of the design! The different texture of those rows brings out the subtle color changes in a different way than the garter stitch does, so it gives the whole piece much more depth of color.
You can see the full color progression here:
I've done lots of projects in Koigu but never one where the colors changed this drastically. I'm still amazed at how great they look fading into and out of each other! Which probably explains why I can't seem to stop admiring the different colors . . .
And in this one, you can really see the texture of the garter stitch and the eyelets:
The pattern is available to purchase for $4.00, and will be delivered immediately as a PDF download. You can purchase it here!
Speaking of colors, as you know that's my favorite thing about Koigu. I decided to offer up some kits for this scarf, and had lots of fun coming up with colorways!
I'm offering limited-edition kits for $39 plus shipping of $5.50. I didn't even write down the colors I used here, so I can't make any more of these even if I want to! You're guaranteed to have a very unique scarf if you choose one of these =)
Here are the colorways I came up with so far:
The first one is called Dark and it's the colorway I knit for the project photos:
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I love the way the finished scarf came out and I know I'll get lot of use out of this colorway, as it pretty much goes with everything!
For the next colorway, I wanted to go exactly the opposite and came up with the Light kit:
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In this one I particularly love all the speckle-y colors, they're more rare than the stripe-y colors of Koigu so I tend to fall hard for them when I find them as they're so unique! This colorway would probably go with pretty much everything too, and would make a more spring-like finished scarf.
Finally I wanted to go a bit crazy and use some of Koigu's really bright, wild colors, so I put together a Bright colorway:
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This one makes me think of Mexico and would be wonderful worn with a tame outfit. Like many New Yorkers I often end up in head-to-toe black with just a small bit of color from an accessory, so this scarf would be perfect!
Winding all the yarn up for these kits took way longer than I expected it to take, let me tell you. I used my kitchen scale to weigh each skein and then split each one up into 3 equal sections, building a little pile of wound up balls as I worked. I think from start to finish it took me over an hour to do 6 kits!
Here's a crappy iPhone shot of the process (and my messy table in the background):
I'm thinking of doing a little tutorial on how to do this, would anyone be interested in that?
Daily Photo: Binding off!
This morning before I left for work I bound off Whippoorwill and gave it a good soak, leaving it to dry during the workday. I'm going to make it just under the deadline for Camp Loopy! So excited to see my project up there with everyone else's. Have you checked out the Project One Gallery yet? There are some really beautiful pieces in the group. It's worth a look, trust me!
With any luck I'll do some proper FO photos tonight or tomorrow. I think I'm going to get a LOT of wear out of this one . . .
