Category Archives: Finds

New Favorites: Textural neckwear

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New Favorites: Textural neckwear

Summer seems to me like the perfect time for knitting neckwear — scarves and shawls that fall just in the sweet spot on the continuum between interesting and mindless, that are portable, that don’t require you to worry about fit or to have a growing sweater in your lap, and yet last long enough to carry you through road trips or baseball practices or whatever the case may be. Plus they’re the first thing you get to use when the weather begins to cool off (or when the sun sets at the beach). So why don’t I tend to knit such things? These three recent patterns have me wondering hard:

TOP: Madison Scarf by Norah Gaughan, who must have been smirking if she happened to see that whole conversation we had about adding a back flap to the Grete dickey when this one would have been deep in the pipeline and is that very thing! A scarf with a headhole and lovely overall knit-purl texture, which can be worn a variety of ways.

MIDDLE: Adrian by Dianna Walla is a traditional scarf (designed for cotton) that takes typical colorwork motifs and renders them in purl stitches instead.

BOTTOM: Orthogonal by Emily Greene is a stunner of a shawl with a mesmerizing geometric-lace maze of a stitch pattern. I saw this on her at Squam, artfully bunched around her neck, and it made me want to be a fingering-weight shawl knitter.

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Clever garter colorwork

Elsewhere

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Aiding Sally Fox, swatching buttonholes and more Elsewhere

Do you know about Sally Fox of Vreseis? (I hope you do, as she comes up around here from time to time.) Sally is a legend in the fiber world, having spent decades developing naturally colored cotton plants, pursuing climate-beneficial farming, supplying the wool for one of my favorite yarns, Pioneer, among so many other things. Her farm is in the path of the wildfire that’s currently blazing near Sacramento, and she has had to evacuate and relocate her sheep to an irrigated pasture where they’re hopefully safe, but all at great expense and jeopardy. If you would like to help, you can do so by ordering any of the amazing goods she offers in her shop, or by making a direct donation. Don’t miss the heartmelting story of Sally’s generosity to one knitter in @beththais’ IG story. And you can keep abreast of developments by following @vreseis on Instagram. My heart goes out to everyone affected by the fires, and this is one way to be able to help someone who does so much good work in the world. (photo above, top)

Beyond that, Elsewhere:

– “So if I can feel joyful in mismatched wrinkled linen with dark lipstick and silver temples in June well, then, that’s what I want to wear. Not because someone told me I’d feel joy but because I discovered it.”

– Have you ever done any buttonhole swatching? (I have, but rarely) (See also: What is your favorite buttonhole method?) (photo above, bottom)

– Truck driver replaces smoking habit with knitting (via)

– I’d like to take a turn on the scarf-knitting bike (thx, Barb)

– As a Danish-modern furniture aficionado, how did I never know about the knitting chair? (via)

– Belatedly, I love this mini tribute to Eugene Wyatt, who I first learned about during Clara Parkes’s Great White Bale project several years ago. RIP, Mr. Wyatt — wish I’d gotten to meet you. (Dear Clara, if by chance you see this: Any way you might make those Bale posts available to the public at this point? As a subscriber, I know I would not mind a bit — so much amazing info in that odyssey.)

– And another good overlap KAL for Summer of Basics: see Plucky’s #thedogwalkerkal

Happy weekend, everybody!

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PREVIOUSLY: New tote + Elsewhere

The fight for what’s right

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Happy Independence Day, for the Americans among you! I know we’re going through something of a national existential debate (to put it mildly) over what “America” really means and what this country stands for, but it’s heartening to know that nearly all of us agree that separating children from their asylum-seeking parents at the border is not what this country is about. You hopefully know that every quarter, I donate a percentage of Fringe Supply Co. revenue to Heifer International, which goes to “Knitters Baskets” — supplying needy families with sheep, alpacas, llamas and angora rabbits, from which they derive milk, fiber, income and offspring (and the first female offspring of each animal is passed forward to another family). I’ve just made our Heifer donation for the second quarter, and I thank you so much for the opportunity to do that. But in light of the recent atrocity at our borders, this time around I’ve also made a $3500 contribution to RAICES and their attempt to ensure that each and every one of those separated children has legal representation as everyone works to locate their parents and get them back together. So for today, I just wanted to say thank you, again and profoundly, for your support of Fringe Supply Co. and the many things that support makes possible.

And here’s a thought-provoking read for you today: God Bless America. You could have a lively discussion about it at your cookout! ;)

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Summer of Basics June highlight: The planners

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Summer of Basics June winners: The planners

Being away for so much of the first month of Summer of Basics was SO HARD, but I’ve also really enjoyed submersing myself in the Instagram feed over the past few days and getting caught up. There have already been so many amazing statements and contributions, plans, and even finished garments! As always, you’ve made it hard to narrow it down to just a few to feature here. For example, I was struck by the thoughtfulness of @saltairarts’s chosen three, the motivation behind @ephie_jg’s participation, @bookishnathalie’s decision to not overthink it, just let it happen. (“That in itself is enough of a challenge for a control freak like me.”) Among so many others! But I’ve settled on the following THREE as the June prizes winners (in no particular order):

TOP: @thestoryclubpdx
TSC had a nice, ambitious plan to stretch her skills in three directions: hacking a sewing pattern, doing some natural dyeing, and knitting her first adult-sized sweater for herself. Then she made a very sage and clear-eyed decision about that sweater.

BOTTOM LEFT: @moorejamknits
I loved what JM had to say about coming from a long line of black women who knitted (about that not being an anomaly!), and how her SoB 3 picks have been influenced by the women who handed down their skills — and their garments — to her.

BOTTOM RIGHT: @anelementallife
Sara, a school teacher, talked about how and why summer break is a struggle for her, and how she’s using SoB to lend some structure to her time off, while also filling some gaps in her closet.

Congratulations, you three! In addition to the magnificent plans you’ve embarked on, you’ve each won a full set of Fringe Supply Co. notebooks: 1 large notebook, 1 pocket notepad, and 1 leather-covered memo book, each in the color of your choosing.* Please email contact@fringesupplyco.com with your choices and your mailing address!

And three more participants have each won 1 leather-covered memo book** in the color of their choice, via the random blindfolded scroll-and-tap method: @kerknits, @weliketosew and @ebbandsew. Please email contact@fringesupplyco.com with your color choice and your mailing address!

July’s winners (prizes TBD) will be all about works in progress, the actual progress made, and how you share about it. So keep those #summerofbasics posts coming!

*A $70 value. No substitutions and cannot be redeemed for cash.
**A $32 value. No substitutions and cannot be redeemed for cash.

 

New Favorites: Clever garter colorwork

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New Favorites: Clever garter-stitch colorwork knitting patterns

I’ve basically been asleep for four straight days (even when my eyes are open), since getting back from Portugal — I can’t get enough shut-eye or enough water, for some reason. Which means I don’t yet have my arms around the first round of Summer of Basics prize selections or how to even begin to tell you about the trip. But this is a rare summer in which, so far, the flow of droolworthy knitting patterns is uninterrupted. So can we talk about these clever garter-stitch beauties for a minute?

TOP: Picket Fence Afghan by Julia Farwell-Clay (from the new MDK Field Guide: Ease) is made up of 3-color garter-stitch blocks which somehow magically eliminate the weaving of ends and create a magnificent tapestry, which I think would be great at wrap proportions

BOTTOM: Ellsworth by Scott Rohr takes garter stitch, two colors of yarn, and short rows to a new level of magnificence

(Side note: If I owe you an email, I’m trying!)

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Dianna’s dream sweaters

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New Favorites: Dianna’s dream sweaters

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New Favorites: Dianna's dream sweaters

It’s always fun to see a designer really hit their stride, which is how I feel about my friend Dianna Walla’s recently released mini-collection, Fog & Frost. It’s five pieces that feel completely true to Dianna, and while I love the hat and the mitts, I can’t stop looking at the sweaters! They’ve got me fantasizing about sweater weather in the thick of TN summer—

TOP: Mountain Hum is a fitted colorwork yoke sweater with a slight vintage vibe, which makes stunning use of a gradient yarn in a large-scale feather-like motif

BOTTOM: Polar Night is its sweet, slouchy cousin, with a hybrid raglan-circular yoke bearing a more understated stranded design

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: A little something to knit

New tote! + Elsewhere

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"Bury me with yarn and needles" tote from Fringe Supply Co.

Sometime last year, my brain coined a funny phrase: Bury me with yarn and needles and I shall rest in peace. Morbid but lovely, right? I asked myself: If I were to print that on a tote bag, would anyone but me want to carry it around? Based on the response when we previewed it at the Squam Art Fair, the answer is a resounding yes! Thankfully, because when I love something, I really hope you will too! And am so thankful that you do. The tote is available today at Fringe Supply Co. and at yarn stores all over — ask for it at your LYS or order it here.

And with that, here’s a small but meaty Elsewhere!

– Off topic, but fascinating and so important — please read from start to finish! The nut behind the wheel

– Lovely piece by Karen Peacock about her crochet life and her groovy Logalong sweater pattern

– Comprehensive guide to sewing buttons onto your handknits

– And hooray! the custom croquis-maker MyBodyModel is now in beta

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PREVIOUSLY in Elsewhere: Overlapping make-alongs