There’s snow on the ground and ice on the way, and the wind is bitter and cruel. I think no month can be called Deep Winter more than February, and it takes all our woolly armory to stave off the cold.
So when I saw the Sweetly Worn trio by Natalie Selles, I knew I had to show it to you. I mean, it caught my eye first because of the way it will show off a hand-dyed variegated yarn so beautifully by alternating it against contrasting solid yarn. And I love that the stripes travel across the fabric to form intriguing shapes and angles.
But today,on this cold, grey, snow-locked February day, I think I just really love the fact that this is a complete set — hat, shawl, and mitts — that will go a long way toward keeping this bone-chilling winter at bay.
I think this pattern would look wonderful with a deep, wintery colourway such as this Celeste in Stewed Cranberries (which went into the shop today) or Estelle in Spice Trade:
Celeste in Stewed Cranberries, Estelle in Spice Trade
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Or, if you are looking out at the snow and find yourself in need of a boost of bright summery colour, perhaps you could try these zesty yellows and greens that I’ve just put into the Dept of Rocket Science:
Estelle and Stella in Dept of Rocket Science 110120-010
Note from the SpaceCadet: My friend Amy (DPUTiger on Ravelry) is a knitting teacher, a quilter, and a newly-minted weaver. And she’s been kind enough to write about her favourite way to start new sock knitters on their journey…
Socks seem to be part of the “Magical Mystery Tour” of knitting. Somehow, people get all freaked out with sock heels, short rows, gussets, kitchener stitch … the list goes on.
And with all these amazing hand-dyed yarns to choose from, why not add sock knitting to your repertoire?
I teach sock knitting at Bloomin’ Yarns, my LYS. On Ravelry, I’d say one of the questions I see most often is how to get started with sock knitting. I have a prefab answer that I use over there, but you lucky folks get the expanded version with the why’s and wherefores behind my answer.
The number one thing that I recommend for a first sock is usually Fuzzy Feet. It’s a free pattern from the Winter, 2002 issue of Knitty.com. Why do I like it so much for a first sock?
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The first reason is that it calls for a worsted weight yarn. I believe that using fingering weight yarn and sock-sized needles is a skill all by itself. When you are used to using worsted weight yarns and needles in the neighborhood of a US 8, it’s a big change to go down to 8 sts/inch and a 2.5mm needle. And it’s better to learn one thing at a time, not two.
If you already do enjoy small needles and want to jump right in with that set-up, then you can go wind your next skein of SpaceCadet so you’re ready to roll with my next guest post.
So what else is so great about Fuzzy Feet?
They are knit with a worsted weight feltable wool (like Cascade 220) on US 10.5 needles, which makes them very quick to knit. I usually use a 16” circ, so I don’t even have to mess with a small-circumference technique like DPNs (double-pointed needles), two circular needles or Magic Loop. The construction is identical to a traditional top-down sock so you can learn the process with great big comfy needles. And the best part? It doesn’t matter in the least if you mess up, because when you’re done… you felt the slippers.
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Have you ever felted anything before? There is virtually no stitch definition left after the felting process so those wonky short rows to turn the heel? Those gusset stitches that you picked up that are a little loose and open? The kitchener stitch at the toe that isn’t quite perfect? Gone. All of it.
You wind up with a pair of comfortable, warm slippers. And you learned the mechanics of sock knitting! Even my uber-picky husband likes his Fuzzy Feet. He’s on pair #2, since he walked through his first pair by the end of Winter #3.
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So what’s the next step after you’ve finished your Fuzzy Feet? I’ll be back to talk about that next time!
C’mere, I want to show you something… Here, over here, through this door. It says, “Department of Rocket Science” and I’ve heard crazy things happen in there… No, don’t worry… it’s ok. Look, I’ll come with you. It’s this door here, see? Come on!…
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I love to experiment with colour — it gives me such a rush and it’s why I dye. For me, there is no moment in the whole dyeing process more exciting than when I lift a skein of yarn out of the dyepot and it reveals its colours to me. Darker on the outside, softer on the inside… opening up like a soft spring flower, or glistening like a decadent chocolate. No matter how many skeins I dye, that moment gives me a rush every single time.
Estelle in Dept of Rocket Science Colourway 101222-002
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It’s through this process of playing with colour that I’ve created all the wonderful colourways that I dye for the shop time and again. But, along the way, that process also produces yarns in colourways that probably won’t be repeated again — yarns that were stepping stones in the development of a new colourway, or yarns where I simply let my muse run free to see what would come out of the dyepot.
Stella in Dept of Rocket Science Colourway 110106-001
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And so I have created the Department of Rocket Science. It’s a special place where I can go to experiment with abandon — to mix new colours, to dye with my eyes closed, to play with new fibers and new yarn bases. And it’s place where you can come and discover results of all this wonderful experimentation, and choose one of these very special yarns for your one-of-a-kind project. (And remember that all these experimental yarns will go into this section, regardless of yarn/fiber type, so if you’re searching the shop for a particular yarn type, don’t forget to check the Dept of Rocket Science as well.)
Stella in Dept of Rocket Science Colourway 110105-005
So go ahead… open the door! You never know what you’ll find inside… But it will always be something exciting!
A few years ago, I took a class with Brandon Mably that completely changed the way I thought about colour. It was an intense 2-day course which challenged us to think about how we see and use colour from the minute we arrived in the morning, until we left at the end of the day. Brandon had us doing a lot of crazy things to shake up our brains, from throwing all our balls of yarn into the center of the floor and mixing them all up, to free-knitting swatches that contained 10… 15… 20 different colours. It was a great weekend (and if you ever get a chance to take Brandon’s Design in Colour class, I highly recommend it).
And there’s one technique that he taught that has translated particularly well from knitting to dyeing. He suggested that we use artwork that we love — paintings that really spoke to us — and use the colours as inspiration. If those colours work in the painting, then they would work in our knitting too. He walked around the room and let us choose from a stack of fine-art postcards and greeting cards, whichever painting called out to each of us the most.
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The thing about using this technique is that you suddenly realise how many colours you don’t see, even as they are right in front of your eyes. When you first look at a painting, you may see what you think of as a “yellow painting”…
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But when you take the time to really immerse yourself into the colour, you suddenly see so much more — little spots of red that jump out at you, the grays that fade into the background, subtle greens that you didn’t even notice. They all work together — these colours that you never would have thought of putting side-by-side — and they create a depth and complexity that pulls you back again and again.
Just realising that really began to set us free in that class, and we dove into the pile of yarn in the middle of the floor. Using our cards as a guide, everyone’s knitting exploded into wild colour — combinations of shades far more daring than we would have tried before.
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And then Brandon showed us a something else that I hadn’t noticed: different areas of the the same painting contain their own micro-colourways, and give off completely different moods from what you felt when you first saw the painting. So if you take a painting that you think of as mostly sunny and yellow, and cover part of it up, you might find an area that’s completely different… that’s moody and blue…
And when you switch your hands around again, the whole mood changes back to the sunny and yellow you saw before. Or maybe to a different section, and a different colourway and mood. Here are little colourways that you can pull out for inspiration in your knitting, and that I use in my dyeing — a whole world of colourways in one painting, just waiting to inspire you, if you stop and look closely enough! And once you start seeing them, you really can’t wait to start using them yourself… to start knitting as though you’re painting.
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(When I lived in the UK, fine art cards like this one from Woodmansterne were available in any card shop for just a couple of pounds. But here in the US, I don’t regularly see cards like this — the shelves seem to filled with the standard assortment of greetings cards with nice-but-not-overly-interesting artwork. I’d love to find a good supplier of art cards like this one to inspire me… Can anyone suggest where I might find something similar here in America?)
The first few days of January are probably supposed to be about looking forward, but I cannot help looking back. 2010 was a great year here at SpaceCadet Creations — it’s been exciting, it’s been educational, sometimes it’s been a bit scary, it’s always been colourful!… And most of all, it’s been successful. And ladies and gentlemen, I know that success is entirely down to you. You’ve been encouraging me, supporting me, talking to me… and buying my yarn and fiber. I am incredibly grateful.
For a little while now, I’ve been thinking about how I can show you my thanks, how I can make it real. And so I am very excited to introduce SpaceCadet’s Cadet Credits, a way to reward my loyal customers and let them know how much I appreciate them. Here’s how it works: I will give you a $10 credit every time your purchases accumulate to $150 (minus discounts, taxes, and shipping costs). Your credits will never expire, you can use them right away or saved them up to be used all together, and they can be used on anything in the SpaceCadet Creations shop. It’s my way of showing you how much your support has meant to me throughout 2010.
And that last sentence up there… that’s not just some kind of marketing waffle to make you feel good. I really mean it. So I’m not going to implement Cadet Credits from just today onwards, I’m going to give credit to my customers for all their purchases throughout 2010. Don’t worry — you don’t have calculate a thing. I’ll kept track of all the numbers and will be emailing you shortly to let you know how much credit you have, or how close you are to earning one.
And with that, it is time to look forward to 2011 — it’s going to be an exciting year! There are a lot of great things planned here in the SpaceCadet studio — some I’ll tell you about as they develop, and some that will stay top-secret until they’re ready for their reveal. I can’t wait to get started.
But you… You can start celebrating 2011 right away. So go on! Go spend those credits!
For full details of the Cadet Credit Programme (it’s not complicated!), click here.
There are so many things going at this time of year that it is easy to get all lost in it all — lost amidst the shopping and the rushing and the spending and the wrapping. It’s so easy to focus on what we feel we ought to do and we must do that we can lose sight of the best that season brings.
The best part of Christmas is the time we spend with family and friends, and when we open ourselves up enough to treat strangers as friends. It’s the gifts that come not from our credit cards, but from our hearts. And it’s the traditions that we keep — the old ones passed down through the generations, that link us to all those who celebrated the season in times before, and the new ones we create with our own families.
Yesterday, we celebrated our traditions. We baked gingerbread men and decorated our tree, which had been standing patiently and bare until its big moment on Christmas Eve. We gathered around the table and ate a feast. We laid out brownies and wee dram for Father Christmas. And we took some time to stop and remember what the season and holiday is really all about.
And on this bright and snowy Christmas morning, I want to send to all of you my wishes for very happy holidays and for all the best things that the season brings. Merry Christmas, everyone!
