I loved that Stephanie of Asylum Fibers dyed her Acadia Lights Knitting Our National Parks colorway on two bases, as it provides multiple project options for those of us who aren’t always in the mood to take on a fingering-weight project (though I’m still going to get both bases!).
Stephanie sent my several good ideas for both her Solitary fingering and Golden Goose DK.
Solitary
Haruni by Emily Ross
Constellate by Hunter Hammersen
Messaline by Bristol Ivy
Boxy by Joji Locatelli
Golden Goose
Boxley Hat and Boxley Mitts by Bristol Ivy. Photos ©Tolt Yarn and Wool
Lake Reed by Asita Krebs
Campside Cardigan by Alicia Plummer
Campside Pullover by Alicia Plummer
Check out more suggestions here.
A 2016 IU Year in Knitting Review
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Considering the year we’ve had, most of the looks back at 2016 are not going to be likely to lift your spirits. My hope is that this roundup of Indie Untangled FOs will be the exception.
For my Year in Review, I’ve culled a list of several FOs using yarn and/or patterns from Indie Untangled dyers and designers — or both, in the case of the photo above of my Drops of Honey shawl. Designed by Janina Kallio for the inaugural Where We Knit yarn club, it used Silk Single Fingering in an exclusive colorway from Lakes Yarn and Fiber (the photo above is from fellow knitter Carolina of Triple C Photography, taken for an upcoming blog post).
I hope these projects serve as an inspiration for your 2017 knitting.
Mindy/knitwithhappiness’s Goldfinch in Magpie Fibers Swanky DK
Kelly/KellyInTexas’s Safer in Cages in Duck Duck Wool DK Limited
Nance/kathynancygirl’s Toketee in Lakes Yarn and Fiber Kelso Sock
Erica/ejsufka’s Palier in Western Sky Knits Willow DK
Lori/Momwouldbeproud’s A Hat for Dana in YOTH Yarns Father
Lavanya’s Season of Persimmons in Astral Bath Yarns Tesseract DK
Amy/booeyedee’s Atlantique in Bare Naked Wools Hempshaugh Lace
Adrienne/killerb’s Crosshaven in Canon Hand Dyes Charles Self Striping Sock
Marta/sbnyc’s Imagine When in Skeinny Dipping Silky Worsted
Kim/Xarix’s Barley Wine Hat in Skeinny Dipping Polwarth DK
What to stash this week: The fandom at the end of the yarn rainbow
If you’re still bummed over the cancellation of Firefly, then smuggle this yarn into your stash. The inaugural Third Vault Yarns yarn club has quarterly packages of yarn and goodies themed around fandoms that knitters vote on, with the first inspired by Joss Whedon’s space western.
Michelle of Berry Colorful Yarnings has not one but two kits to tempt you. One is a Rainbow kit with a 463-yard skein of 12-color self-striping sock yarn and a handmade zippered project bag. The other is the fourth installment in Michelle’s popular Potterful series. It contains a three-color self-striping yarn in Ravenclaw house colors and a drawstring project bag.
Down in Australia, Mitenae is suffering through a heatwave, so she did what any knitter would do — she designed and knit up a set of hat and mitts. The Callistemon Beanie and Mittens both have a tiny bowknot pattern, with two cuff options for the mitts. Both patterns are 20% off on Ravelry through midnight AWST Feb. 17.
Add some rainbows to your winter accessories. Mothy and the Squid has a DK-weight version of her popular Summer Skies Rainbow Brite colorway. Available in 100% Merino, it’s made for self-striping hats. The colorway has a background of blue skies, with the stripes emerging in clouds and a rainbow.
In time for Valentine’s Day, KarenDawn’s latest hat and cowl design is inspired by star-crossed lovers Pyramus and Thisbe, with the tall, skinny cables resemble the crack in the wall through which they communicated. Both call for sport-weight yarn and the instructions are written and charted.
What to make: Get your mitts on these
I usually don’t go crazy with holiday gift knitting deadlines (my husband and my mom, the two people I’ve knit gifts for that were Official Holiday Gifts, haven’t minded getting them a little late, as long as they can wear them when it’s cold!). This year, my gifts are a little more time sensitive, as I decided to knit a cowl for my hair stylist in lieu of a traditional tip, and then realized I can use the remaining yarn, Madelinetosh 80/10/10 Sport, to make some mitts for my sister-in-law.
Along with hats, or bulky cowls, mitts are a perfect gift knit as they can be completed relatively quickly, can often use a partial skein and are useful even when it’s not bitterly cold. Here’s a curated list of patterns — some from IU designers and others that I’ve favorited — that I think you can easily add to your holiday gift-knitting list:
DK or worsted
Pictured above: Spiced Cocoa by Laura Aylor
X-Mitts by Toby Roxane Barna
Back Roads Mitts by Melissa Burke
Pinehurst by Natalie Selles
Nalu Mitts by Leila Raabe
Fingering or sport
Inverse Mitts by Keya Kuhn
Mouton’s Boutons by LeMou Designs (likely what I’m going to make if I have enough Tosh left over from the cowl I’m knitting)
Fallberry Mitts by Anne Hanson
Antiquity by Alicia Plummer
Shallows Mitts by Bonnie Sennott
Multi colored
Gradient Mitts by Krista McCurdy
Andrea’s Mitts by Kirsten Kapur
Camberwell Mitts by Lara Smoot
Maroo Mitts by Ambah O’Brien
Pixelated Palms by Jennifer Beaumont
Check out more of my favorites on Ravelry.
What to stash this week: Yowza! Whatta pairing!
Designer Lara Smoot has had some really fun Game of Thrones-inspired collaborations with Tennessee-based indie dyer Babs Ausherman, better known as Miss Babs. Lara’s latest designs are inspired by none other than Babs herself, whose “likeableness and charm come out in the beautiful yarns that she dyes,” Lara says. The three-piece set includes mitts, a cowl and boot toppers, which can all be made from just one skein of Miss Babs Yowza! The simple cable pattern on each of the pieces can work well with fun variegated colorways, such as Zombie Prom and Funny Papers or semisolids like Vlad’s Red and Blackwatch. All three patterns in the Babalicious set are available on Ravelry for the introductory price of $5.99.
If you’re going to make a cowl, mitts and boot toppers, why not make a hat? Brangien, a new pattern from KarenDawn Designs, is inspired by a character in the medieval love story Tristan and Isolde. The hat is knit in fingering weight yarn and features a cable panel on a background of textured moss stitch.
Karen, a veteran knitter, works full time on her small business Hemlock Springs Soaps, crafting goat milk soaps in fun-sounding scents like Dazzleberry and Sexy Man, as well as lotions and potions — including an Arnica Muscle Rub for your tired knitting hands — out of her farmhouse in the New Hampshire woods. The products are made in small batches with ethically-sourced ingredients.
So many indie dyers. One email.