Tag: green mountain spinnery

Weel Riggit

emilyWools4 Comments

I finished my would-be Rhinebeck sweater (super sad face that this year’s festival is cancelled, but I get it). It’s Kate Davies‘ Weel Riggit. Kate Davies released it in 2019 via her subscription club, so I had to wait a year before I could buy it. This sweater is very, very warm. It was “sorta-cool” today so I decided it would be bearable to throw it on for a few minutes for some pics.

a smiling woman is wearing a gray, green and teal colorwork hand-knit sweater.

I knew I wanted to knit this sweater with Green Mountain Spinnery yarn. I knit a hat with their yarn last year and loved it. Fast-forward to 2020 Vogue Knitting Live, and I went straight to their booth to see what would work for this sweater. I settled on Lichen, Spruce and Teal Weekend Wool for the colorwork against a backdrop of gray undyed Vermont Organic. The Weekend Wool is much softer than the Organic, so it was quite fortuitous that the pattern uses the colors at the most itch-prone spots of the sweater.

The back shoulder of a gray, green and teal colorwork hand-knit sweater.

I followed Kate Davies’ pattern to the T, except for the collar bind off. I used the same crocheted bind-off technique that Emily Greene specifies for Tectonic. I love how this finish compliments the raglan CDDs.

The inside view of a gray, green and teal colorwork hand-knit sweater.

Working with 4 colors at once was a big pain. Every few rows I had to untangle all the skeins so I didn’t drive myself nuts with the twisted yarns. I do love the look of the sweater, but WOW was it a lot of work. I understand now why most colorwork is limited to yokes.

A detail photo of a gray, green and teal colorwork hand-knit sweater.

WIDN

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Ages ago in “internet time,” back when I still used Instagram, #WIDN was a popular hashtag for sewers and knitters. WIDN, or “what I’m doing now” is something I’m going to try out here because I miss sharing my in-progress projects. So…. here’s WIDN.

1. Rose Plank Shawl

an in-progress photo of a hand knitted light gray shawl

This beauty is coming along, but slowly because of it’s intricate stitch pattern. I love it and the very special Cormo yarn I’m using, but I’m knitting slowwwwly. I think I am on the cusp of memorizing the repeat…. we’ll see.

2. Weel Riggit

an in-progress photo of a hand knitted, allover colorwork sweater

I’ve had this sweater in my queue since it came out last year. Once it became available as a standalone pattern, it jumped to the top of my queue. I decided to get some Green Mountain Spinnery yarn at Vogue Knitting Live to make my own. I’m trying out the “sleeve as swatch” technique, but I’m not sure how much I like the color combo I chose. I’m going to block the sleeve after I finish and see if I like it.

3. No. 13 coat from Otoko No Kōto No Hon

a photo of a sewing book of mens' coat sewing patterns next to a bolt of yellow calico fabric
I’m going to use this yellow calico for the muslin.

Jacob needs a new spring/fall jacket. Since he has very long arms, no RTW jacket ever fits him perfectly, so I’ve decide to make him one. I scoured the internet to find a suitable pattern, but nothing seemed right. I finally came across a blog dedicated to sewing all the patterns from a Japanese book of mens’ coats, and decided to bite the bullet and order the book. Spoiler alert: the book is entirely in Japanese. I think I’m up for the challenge, but we’ll see what happens when I tear into the muslin. Jacob has picked out No. 13. I am planning to start tracing and making a muslin this weekend. I am looking forward to fabric shopping for it!

In Praise of Color-Coordinated Outerwear

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Coordinated but not matchy-matchy.

I went to my first Rhinebeck this past fall. I was so overwhelmed by the enormous selection of yarn that I did not buy very much. I focused on absorbing the good vibes, learning about the different breeds of sheep and ogling all of the beautiful knitwear. I did end up purchasing 2 skeins of Weekend Wool from Green Mountain Spinnery. The bright Blue Lake color sang to me in the booth, and I decided to buy 2 skeins. I am trying to purchase yarn and fabric more mindfully, but at the same time I wanted some wool to commemorate my first Rhinebeck.

This wool has become a hat! I used Emily Greene’s Link pattern from Brooklyn Tweed, and I love it. I am not usually the fastest knitter, but once I got past the ribbing I couldn’t stop knitting– I think I finished the cabling in 3 days. I topped it off with a pom! I do not have a pom-pom maker, instead I used the 2 cardboard C’s technique. Easy, free and fast!

Sexxy cables!

As I was making it, I wondered how I would incorporate this bright color into my existing cold weather gear rotation. At this point, I remembered my long-neglected Endpaper mitts, languishing in the back of my closet, unworn for years. The bright blue I used for the colorwork would match-but-not-match exactly the way I like. The one problem was I did not like how the gloves had stretched out at the finger ribbing. I wore them to my knitting meetup to try to get over it, and complained about this issue. The group wisely suggested I rip out the ribbing and redo it. Duh! I made the ribbing longer so I could double it over for extra warmth, and to hopefully cause less stretching out.

Endpaper-y goodness.

I am very happy that in making my new hat, I have resurrected my gloves. What a great February pick me up!