Pattern Roll-Call: Something Gorgeous Around Your Shoulders

26AugApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Y’know, even though it’s still August and that usually means high temperatures and hot days, the weather has taken on a slightly cooler tinge this week, and that’s got me thinking about autumn. I’ve been day-dreaming about turning leaves, that crisp smell in the air, and lovely lovely autumn knitting. Is there anything better? And the first thing you need as the weather starts to change is something gorgeous to drape around you to keep that chill at bay.

Abby by Amy Singer

I’m crazy about cowls. They’re so easy — there’s no tying, no arranging, no fussing or adjusting… they just pop over your head and perfectly fill up the space around the top of a jacket to keep you toasty warm. Abby by Amy Singer has a beautifully simple stitch pattern that will work perfectly with any yarn from a Semi-Solid to a Wildly Varigated. I think it would look amazing knitted up in the gentle blues and purples of Mountain Mist.

Mirth by Stefanie Japel

The lace pattern on Mirth is gorgeous, just gorgeous — what could look more elegant draped around your shoulders on a cool autumn day? But the real beauty of Stefanie Japel‘s pattern is that it’s written in both text and charts, and the size of the shawl can customised by completing as many chart repeats as the knitter likes. The allover lace pattern will really shine in a Gently Varigated yarn such as Pink Autumn or Desert Wine.

Eventide by Laura Nelkin

Now here is a pattern that makes you want to grab that crazy-gorgeous yarn that’s been calling your name and just cast on. The long criss-cross floats of Laura Nelkin‘s Eventide really showcase the colours a variegated yarn such as the cool blue/green/purples of Midnight Swim or the gentle pinks and olive-greens of Bramble Rose. And the beautiful openwork creates a pattern that is perfect for those not-too-warm, not-too-cool days that autumn brings.

So, yeah, I know… it’s still August. And the sun in still high in the sky and we’re all still wearing our summer clothes. But one of these days, the weather is going to change suddenly and summer will be gone… And now is the perfect time to cast on so that, when that happens, you’ll have something gorgeous to see in the autumn.

Beautiful One-Skein Knitting Patterns for Hand-Dyed Yarns

11AugApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

One of the most exciting things about buying yarn from small, indie dyers like SpaceCadet Creations is that each skein is hand-created and unique, dyed on its own or in a very small dyelot, and not like any other skein in the world. But now and again, someone will look at my shop and then contact me to say that they love my colours but… what can be made with yarns from such small-batch dyelots? What can be knit out of a single skein of yarn?

Now, there are legions of addicted sock knitters who could probably jump in with an answer that question (“Socks!”) but, in reality, there are just so many beautiful projects that can be created from just one or two skeins of hand-dyed yarn! Let me share a few patterns that have caught my eye…

Simple Things by Mary-Heather Cogar

© Mary-Heather Cogar, Used With Permission

This beautiful shawlette was designed to show off the colours of a of a single skein of sock yarn. Mary-Heather chose simple stitchwork to compliment the colours of even the most wildly variegated colourway, such as those in Sunset over a Stormy Sea, and the regular increases help reduce the chance of pooling. The shawlette looks fantastic tucked into the top of a jacket — stylish and functional at the same time. And I think it’s a perfect first project for anyone who is experimenting with hand-dyed yarns.

SweaterBabe.com’s #87 One Skein Lace Fingerless Gloves

I fell in love with these the minute I saw them! The lace pattern is delicate without being fussy, and the gloves look warm and lady-like at the same time. Using just a single skein of yarn, I think this pattern would look stunning knit up in an autumn colourway.

Dalia by Ariane Caron-Lacoste

© Ariane Caron-Lacoste, Used with Permission

This little cowl is so sweet, so perfect, that I every time I see the picture I just want to cast on for it RIGHT NOW. It’s always at a moment when I’m busy dyeing or blogging and so I can’t cast on but… still, as soon as I see it… I want to start it RIGHT NOW! I love the simplicity of it, how quick it would be… how it would be a little gift just for me. I’m seeing it in a warm colourway such as Bramble Rose. You know… I really am seeing it.

In fact, I may just have to stop blogging and go cast it on. Right now.

Maybe I’ll Become a Cook

09AugApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Sometimes it’s good to push yourself outside your comfort zone. And if it works, it’s such a boost to the ego! And when it doesn’t… well…

Well, indeed. Last week I pushed myself right out of my comfort zone and straight into yellow. I don’t do yellow a great deal — it’s just never been a personal favourite of mine. But yellow is a great colour — sunny and bright, and filled with warmth. It was time to tackle yellow.

And, while I was pushing outside my comfort zone, I decided to shake things up even more by trying a new dyeing technique. It was something I’d never tried before — indeed, I’d never even seen it done before — and I got excited about it as soon as I thought of it. The technique would create very short bursts of colour — just one, two, maybe three knit stiches long — and unusual blends of shades. I couldn’t wait to try it.

And so I took a deep breath and mixed up my yellows… and in went the yarn.

And what came out did not thrill me. The yellows were beautiful, but The Technique had not worked the way I had expected at all. The short bursts of colour were there, but were much more ragged at the edges than I had hoped, and the shading was simply too haphazard for my tastes. I pursed my lips and shrugged… Chalk it up to a learning experience and be done with it, I thought.

“I like them! They’re interesting. They’re… earthy!” Turning these yarns over in her hands, my friend clearly saw something in them that I hadn’t spotted at first. And she was right. The shades are earthy, and the colour changes aren’t ragged as I first thought, they’re organic. And the yarns, I suddenly realised, are beautiful. Even if they weren’t what I was expecting and are completely outside my comfort zone.

So here they are!

The idea behind this one started as Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, but when it finally dried, I realised it makes me think so much more of Sunflowers, of their lovely golden yellow petals and dark seed-centers, of the earth they sprout from and the sun that nourishes them…

And this one… this one… I am trying to think of a good name for it, but time and again, all I see is Pasta in a Garlic Pesto. Even though the colours are exact, no matter which way I turn it, no matter how I look at it, that’s the only thing that comes to mind.

You know, if this dyeing gig doesn’t work out, maybe I could become a cook…

Dyeing Disaster, Last Minute Save

06AugApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

This yarn was a dyeing disaster. I was aiming for Garden In Spring, one of my favourite colourways, and the colour just went all wrong on me. I pulled it out of the dyepot and… Oh no! The pinks were crazy-bright, the greens were just plain ugly, and the purples totally non-existent. I have a picture of it… I can’t even show it to you, it was that awful. It was embarrassing.

I set it aside and decided not to think about it for a few days.

When I finally went back to it and turned it over in my hands (cringing, cringing the whole time), I realised what I wanted to do with it. I thought I knew the shade that would salvage it. I mixed my colours and in went the yarn. And a little while later, this is what I lifted out…

I had hoped to salvage it — instead, it has been saved. It came out so much better than I could have hoped!

There’s one skein in Astrid DK and one in Celeste Fingering weight. And now I just have to decide if they go in the shop or… if I keep them for myself!!! I may have to think about this for a spell.

Boy oh boy, it is soooo tempting…

How Thin Can You Spin?

04AugApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

Do you remember this?

This is the bombyx silk I was going to spun for the second half of the Tour de Fleece, but… life intervened and I didn’t manage to get that far. So, running just a wee bit late, I’ve finally got it on my wheel now, and it is a dream to spin.

Not that silk is always a dream to spin… Bombyx silk generally has a very long staple length, and that can make drafting a challenge. The distance that you’re used to holding your hands for drafting wool simply isn’t far enough apart when you’re spinning silk, and it can easily become a struggle as you start tugging at both ends of the same fibers.

A few months ago, I spun pure bombyx silk for the first time in many years and, even though I’ve spun a lot of silk in the past, I realised that my hands had forgotten what to do. It seemed to take forever to retrain my hands (…or more likely, my brain) and until that moment when it finally clicked, I was pulling and tugging on that silk as if I’d never spun in my life. As a result, the yarn came out much thicker than I’d wanted and lumpier too. There’s no doubting it’s beautiful to look at, and the colours ethereal, but because I spun so much thicker than I intended, I just didn’t get the yardage I was hoping for. It’s come out to a measly 143 yards and I’m really not sure what I could make with it.

So now, as I begin spinning this second braid of silk, I am really focusing on spinning as thinly as I possibly can. And, it turns out, I can spin pretty darned thin! Now that my hands (and brain) are back in the groove with spinning silk, this is how it’s coming out…

That is, as long as I don’t get too involved in a scary movie on telly and forget to spin super thin (see the occasional thick bits in the photo below? Yeah… that was when the film hit a tense spot…). But overall, this is coming out exactly the way I want it. And now that I’ve got the hang of it, it is just sooo much fun to spin.

And this time, I hope to come out at the end with a really good length of some truly beautiful, smooth, pure silk yarn.

The Dangers of Luna Laceweight

28JulApril 14, 2015 By Stephanie

So, let’s say I was holding out a skein of yarn to you — beautiful, light, airy yarn, with a slight halo that made the softness just call out to you. And let’s say that, as I held it out to you, I said, almost in a whisper, “It’s laceweight, a two-ply of silk and merino…” As you reached out to touch it, what would be the first thoughts that came into your mind? Would you be thinking strength? Would you be thinking red-hot? How about razor sharp? No? Those words wouldn’t be what popped into your mind? Huh. Me neither.

I’ve been dyeing the new laceweight yarn that will be going in the shop this week. It’s called Luna and it’s everything that laceweight ought to be: delicate, soft, luxurious, stunningly beautiful. With 20% silk blended into 80% superfine merino, it feels divine against the skin — the kind of yarn you just can’t stop touching. Oh, and it takes colour like a dream.

So far, so good.

It was when I was reskeining the dyed yarn that everything changed. I was turning the skein winder with my right hand and gently guiding the yarn with my left… I had the skein winder going at a good clip because, at 1300 yards per skein, it makes for very tired arms if it goes too slowly. So, we’re going along at a good pace, this yarn and me, when I realised my left hand is starting to hurt… The space between my thumb and my index finger is really starting to burn. So I moved my hand and rolled the yarn up my finger a bit and… moments later, that spot is red-hot too. This yarn is just so thin and going at such a pace that it was actually cutting into my skin!

So I looked about for something to hold it with — an oven glove would be ideal — and spotted a plastic coat hanger which will do the trick nicely. Arranging the yarn so it was running through the hook, I could guide it onto the skein winder by moving the coat hanger back and forth. And it worked perfectly …for a time.

After a little while, I realised that there wass a little ball of fluff forming on the hook of the coat hanger. Thinking that there might be a rough spot taking some of the halo off the yarn, I stopped the skein winder and took a closer look. And that’s when I discovered this…

That’s right. You are seeing what you think you are seeing. In a matter of minutes, my lovely, light, airy, and stunningly beautiful laceweight yarn was actually slicing through a coat hanger. You could have knocked me over with a feather!

And I’m so pleased I’d not carried on guiding it with my bare hand…

So, there you have it. SpaceCadet Creations’s new Luna Laceweight yarn: delicate, soft, luxurious and saturated with colour. Just as you’d expect.

…And also, apparently, red-hot and razor sharp. Not as you’d expect at all.