And the Logalong winners are …

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And the Logalong winners are ...

Dear Everyone, thank you so much for your patience with me as I’ve been out tending to my post-operative husband, thereby delaying the hotly anticipated prize announcements! And thank you, also, for making it so difficult. When I first had the thought of doing a Log Cabin Make-along, I honestly wasn’t sure how many people would come along for it. It was a broad and abstract concept, a technique a lot of people might see as obscure or outmoded or something, and had the potential to involve some very large projects and a lot of time — although my point from the beginning was you could make anything from a washcloth to a bus wrap, up to you. So I’m thrilled that not only did so many people get on board, but it’s been really inspiring to see what everyone came up with, from the beautifully traditional to the wildly innovative and everything in between.

When it came to picking winners, I started by boiling my saves and faves down to a shortlist of what I felt were the strongest contenders, which wound up still being a whopping 31 projects … competing for 5 prizes. So to say this was a daunting task is to put it mildly. The scale of the projects has been diverse — from a little cross-body bag to sock cuffs and slippers, pillow covers, teapot cozies, even a circle skirt! However, there were definitely many more blankets than anything else, and it’s good that I thought to say at the outset that things needn’t necessarily be finished by now in order to win. I’ll be continuing to keep an eye on the hashtag to see how everything turns out!

I wish I could give an individual shout-out to everyone on the shortlist, and a prize to everyone who participated, but alas. So with all of that said, here are the category winners, who’ve each won a $100 gift certificate to Fringe Supply Co.—

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BEST LAID PLANS — for the most inspired or creative concept

Pictured up top. When @breiwerken first started describing her plans, I absolutely loved the concept — the notion that she was going to use this traditional knitting technique, modeled on a traditional quilting technique, to emulate a distinctive textile tradition from a completely different culture, namely “the strip weaving cloths of the Ewe people from Togo/Ghana.” Such a unique idea. But honestly, I had a hard time imagining the end results. I watched it grow as she shared it all along the way, and found her enthusiasm for what she was doing utterly infectious. The photo above of it wrapped around her like a shawl melted my heart. But it wasn’t until she posted the most recent photo, of it draped out across a bench, that my jaw hit the floor. I am awestruck by it.

Click through to her feed (as with all of the following) to see all of her posts about it along the way — and follow her to see how it turns out!

. . .

And the Logalong winners are ...

HOUSE PROUD — for best photos/documentation

@elsbethsteiner created an Instagram feed just for the documentation of her project, the concept for which rivaled @breiwerken in its originality, and has documented it so thoroughly and lovingly throughout the last two months. She calls it her Rare Sheep Corral Blanket, and I implore you to go visit her dedicated feed to read all about it, as I couldn’t possibly do it justice. (I mean, there are undyed rare-breed yarns, knitted sheep, mountains and fences, creative construction …) Start at the beginning. Or if you only read a single post, make it this one. On top of all that, it’s just so beautiful.

. . .

And the Logalong winners are ...

SQUARE AND TRUE — for best traditional use of log cabin

If you skipped by too quickly, you’d swear @clairesounes‘ blanket was a quilt. She’s not only kept it super traditional in terms of the log cabin blocks themselves (right down to the pinkish-red centers) but she’s truly thinking like a quilter. The light/dark distribution of the blocks makes them combinable in countless different ways for different effects, as you’ll see if you click through the frames in this post. And I love how she’s made it seem that much more scrappy and patchworky with the (so controlled!) mix of her palette, occasional instances of stripes, and so on. Really masterful.

. . .

And the Logalong winners are ...

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BLOCK — for best non-traditional use of log cabin

Ok, I can’t do it so I’m declaring a 3-way tie on this one.

TOP: @lakesaltknit did her own rendition of a Josef Albers-inspired cowl (meaning, different from Ann Weaver’s Albers Cowl pattern). Her version is two large, striking, Albers-inspired blocks joined together into a tube for a generous cowl. I would love and want it even if it weren’t for the fact that she works at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, which owns this particular piece, and was able to photograph it with the original (modeled by a colleague). Amazing.

MIDDLE: @autumngeisha used elongated long cabin to create a fantastic and uncontrived pair of footie socks. If there were a pattern for these, it might lure me away from my endless Log Cabin Mitts making. Just sayin.

BOTTOM: @oystersandpurls had the sweet idea to build a log cabin washcloth, basically, into a bib-front baby romper. The result is so charming, but the really inspired touch is the little bit of color-blocking on the bum and straps, which makes the whole thing feel cohesive, rather than tacked together, and just that much more adorable.

. . .

And the Logalong winners are ...

LIKE CABIN (aka MOCK CABIN) — for best adaptation/variation on modular knitting

I’m honestly no longer 100% sure what I was imagining when I came up with this category at the outset. But of all the people winging it, free-forming, improvising things in variously modular ways, the most fascinating to me has been this pullover WIP from @i_knit_wool. The way she’s going about it is almost more Lego than log cabin, and yet the end result has a completely log-cabin feel about it. I’ve been riveted as it’s grown, and will be continuing to watch with bated breath until its completion.

. . .

And then there are the random drawing winners, who’ve each won a Field Bag in the color of their choice:

• @honeyfolkclothing
• @seniah.hm
• @ellendavisions
• @lady_olivia57
• @stricken_ohne_naht

. . .

WINNERS: Please email <contact@fringesupplyco.com> to collect your prizes!

And of course, it’s not over yet! Our illustrious panelists are wrapping up their projects and I’ll have those FO interviews starting very very soon!

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PREVIOUSLY in Log Cabin Make-along: Log Cabin Mitts (free pattern)

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A hat to rival Gentian (2018 FO-8)

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A hat to rival Gentian

I’m over here combing through my giant stack of Logalong prize contenders — tearing my hair out over how thrillingly hard you’ve made it! — and hope to have it all sorted, settled and written up in the next day or two. Meanwhile, an update on my February hats project: The latter two of the four are currently wending their way toward Florida, and not a moment too soon.

You guys, this beanie took me two weeks to knit. And I’m not talking about two weeks where I didn’t have much time for it and so it got scant attention. I’m talking about two weeks that included large amounts of stress knitting, two cross-country flights, seven hours in a surgical waiting room, etc etc etc. I’m talking about two intense weeks of knitting. A hat!

My plan had been quite simple: All I needed to do was knit one hat a week. Piece of cake, right? For the final two, I had it all mapped out. I’d knit the ribbing on my sister’s Første before boarding my flight to Stitches West, so I could sit down on the plane, pull out my cable chart, and focus on nothing but it for the full length of the flight. (I’ve knitted worsted-weight cable hats before; I know the lay of the land!) Then I’d get yarn for my niece’s hat at the show, and knit hers on my flight home. Worst case scenario, I might still have some crown shaping or tassels to do, between the two of them, and then they’d be on their merry way.

Well. I started the fisherman’s-rib brim a few nights before my flight, and knitted about an inch of the 4.5 to be done. A little more progress the next night. And the one after that. I boarded the plane thinking I was surely just a few rows shy of the chart — I could whip them out before we were even in the air. Mm, no. We were probably somewhere over the Grand Canyon by the time I got to start the chart, and when they said we were beginning our descent into Oakland, I was the one bellowing “Noooooo …” from aisle 12. I’d only managed to knit about 10 rounds.

Long story short: It eventually dawned on me that this hat is as much knitting as a sweater body. In addition to the 46-round brim (that alone being as much or more than the usual number of rounds for an entire worsted-weight hat), the body of the hat is 144 stitches — that’s a sweater, in my world — and the hat totals 101 rounds of knitting. And let’s not forget the knitting is fisherman’s rib followed by densely packed cables. Not to mention chainette yarn that requires you to be really deliberate about where you’re sticking your needle. Of course it took two weeks!

But hear me when I say that it was worth every minute it took. This thing is MAGNIFICENT, and especially in this luscious yarn. I wish you could paw it. I might not have savored the knitting the way I did with Gentian, but the finished result is at least as thrilling. A hat to marvel at and beam over, and I’m so happy it’s going to my sweet sister. I just hope it fits.

Tell you how my niece’s hat turned out once she’s seen it. ;)

• Første pattern by Jessica Gore in Woolfolk Far / Like it at Ravelry

PREVIOUSLY in FOs: Black and bluish mitts

Still kickin’

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Hey, so everyone’s fine at my house. (Exhausted and beat up, but hanging in there!) Bob came through his surgery like a champ but, as has happened in the past, he’s suffering from a complication that’s a lot more trouble than the post-op recovery itself. And managing it all on crutches for another six days, minimum. So helping him get through the day is literally all there’s time for right now.

I apologize for the cliffhanger on the #fringeandfriendslogalong front, but I will have prize announcements (and otherwise resume blogging) just as soon as I can give it the attention it deserves. Meanwhile, Kay wrote a lovely “So log, farewell” post on MDK today which includes a look at the three patterns that have come out of the logalong — so far! I know there’s at least one more alleged to be coming, and please do speak up if you know of any others.

Don’t forget to hug your loved ones as often as possible — and have a wonderful weekend.

Black and bluish (2018 FO-7) + BRB

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Black and bluish Log Cabin Mitts (free pattern)

I’m in a hospital waiting room today as my husband is having some outpatient surgery. Nothing to be alarmed about (although all positive thoughts beamed toward Nashville are mightily welcome!), but I’m just not sure how much blogging I might get done this week since my focus will be on him. I’m sure many of you are thinking it’s been absolutely ages since you’ve gotten to see a pair of Log Cabin Mitts, so I’m leaving you with my latest pair. These got their thumbs on just in time to travel to Stitches West with me and get fondled by countless curious knitters along with the rest of the stack. (Those present having been the originals, ebony-and-ivory, toffee, these and the ones in progress — the grey ones were given to a friend.) This is leftover Shelter in Fossil and Newsprint, carried over from previous pairs, along with leftovers from my blue Bellows-in-waiting, and I absolutely love the interplay of the b/w and the blue/purple/green Harrisville tweed. These might be the last symmetrical pair for a minute — I’m headed into the asymmetrical part of the sketch pile.

Meanwhile, I’ve got my work cut out for me choosing winners from the #fringeandfriendslogalong feed, where there’s a daunting abundance of creativity and gorgeousness. Remember it isn’t technically necessary to be finished with your project — all of the prize details are here — but you can’t win if you don’t enter, which you can do by posting to the feed, i.e. by using the hashtag. (Photos do have to be appearing in the feed in order to be eligible, so if you have a private account, either switch it public for a few days or make a separate account just for sharing your log cabin pics). I’ll do my best to get it done between now and the end of the week, and will be back just as quick as I can—

Log Cabin Mitts (free knitting pattern)

PREVIOUSLY in FOs: Toffee mitts

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Lost and found at Stitches West

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Lost and found at Stitches West

My whirlwind trip to Stitches West was a punch in the gut and a slap on the back. Flying into Oakland — looking out the airplane window across the whole of the bay — was more emotional than I expected. And then it was like Old Home Week being back in that convention hall, at the first knitting convention I ever attended as a knitter, the first I ever sold at as a vendor. It was a joy to see so many of my industry friends, longtime customers, new faces, IG acquaintances, former students, well-loved totes and Field Bags, and so on and so on. I can’t say thank-you enough to everyone who stopped to say hello to me. It can be a weirdly isolating thing, writing a blog and/or running an online business, and to have people with actual faces take the time to stop and tell me what they like about what I’m doing is the just the sort of encouragement a girl needs sometimes, you know? So thank you from the bottom of my heart — and of course thanks also to everyone who bought off the Fringe shelf in Verb’s beautiful booth. And to the Verb crew for making me feel like part of the family,

This might come as a two-part surprise to you, but A) I knitted some log cabin mitts and B) I bought some yarn. The California Rambouillet, Range, that Verb has used for their pretty Log Cabin Mitts kits, which is what I was knitting in the booth, was such a beautiful and surprising yarn that I had to have a few little skeins. And sitting next to the indigo-marl Pioneer of theirs that I’ve been coveting from afar left me incapable of leaving without any. I couldn’t decide what I might want to make of it, garment-wise, so I was a good girl and bought a single skein. For now. From my dear friend Brooke of Sincere Sheep, I bought naturally dyed US Cormo, special stuff, for my niece’s hat. And I also couldn’t resist buying a skein of Plucky Knitter’s new Yakpaka. (If Susan Anderson hadn’t been cleaned out of the worsted weight of her Wisconsin Woolen Spun by the time I got there, some of that would likely have followed me home as well.)

On Preview Night, in YOTH’s booth, I went straight to the display of Veronika’s project for the #fringeandfriendslogalong (FO post coming soon) and the yarn she’d used for it. Dubbed “Neighbor,” it’s a collaboration between YOTH and Abundant Earth Fiber mill in Washington state. I have a couple of skeins of Abundant Earth yarns in my stash — one I purchased at Tolt long ago, and one I kept from that time I sold a tiny batch of Wensleydale she’d milled. In this case, YOTH had dyed the wool and Abundant Lydia had milled it, and it was completely irresistible to me, in a slubby, true faded-denim blue. So I bought a SQ (I know!) plus one skein of the marl. And on the way out of the hall after the show that night, along with so many other vendors, learned of the terrible news about Abundant’s booth. On their drive down for the show, their entire trailer had been stolen off the back of their truck, with all of their yarn inside. It was so heartbreaking to read the sign posted in their otherwise empty booth explaining the situation. But it ended with “we’ll be back tomorrow” and I’m so impressed with how they handled it. Rather than letting the booth sit empty and licking their wounds, they filled the display panels with photos and text, spent the time telling people about what they do (from the mill to their new Wool Tinctures) and taking online orders. Such a brilliant show of resilience — my hat’s off to them.

It’s never possible to sum up a thing like a weekend among knitters (and there’s never enough time to see everyone!), but suffice to say I’m grateful for the experience. I only wish I had taken more photos!

p.s. If you’re the lovely woman who embroidered the Woollelujah! tote pictured above, please raise your hand — I didn’t catch your name!

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PREVIOUSLY in Craftlands: Scene at bought at Rhinebeck

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Toffee mitts + YARN for sale (2018 FO-6)

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Toffee mitts + YARN for sale

So you know how I’ve been using these Log Cabin Mitts as a way to finally knit up some of the incredible skeins I have sitting around on shelves and in bins? Obviously one of the first ones I reached for is this delicious toffee-colored wool I bought from what was then TN Textile Mill (previously and once again Shutters & Shuttles) at Porter Flea in late 2016. The yarn had been custom-milled for a project that didn’t come to fruition and I’ve been intermittently pestering Allison ever since about what would happen to it. (If you don’t know, Allison now works part-time at Fringe Supply Co. keeping the trains running.) Today I’m thrilled to announce that I was able to acquire the remaining skeins from her and they’re for sale in the shop! This is the DK weight in Toffee, but there’s also a chunky weight, and both weights are available in Toffee and Black. Obviously supply is inherently limited, and I’ve hoarded some for myself! So get it while it lasts, whatever you may opt to use it for.

Related: Remember it’s only a week until I pick winners from the #fringeandfriendslogalong, so get those projects posted, whatever state they’re in! Full details on all of that here.

In other news, I’m off to Stitches West for the weekend (first time since I moved away), where I’ll be alternately roaming the show floor and hanging out by the big Fringe display in the A Verb for Keeping Warm booth (917/919), so if you’re there, please say hi!  Verb will have a full range of Fringe goods, including a stack of the limited-edition Mini Porters, and they’ve also made up exquisite little mini-skein bundle Log Cabin Mitts Kits! If you aren’t at the show, they’ve made a small number of kits available on their website.

Have a great weekend — I look forward to seeing some of you! — and I’ll be back on Monday.

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PREVIOUSLY in Log Cabin Mitts: Ebony and ivory

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Idea Log: Not quite harem pants

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Idea Log: Not quite harem pants

I have a longstanding longing for a pair of utterly perfect drop-crotch pants. Something slouchy and cool. Understated — not overly harem-ish. Definitely not Hammer pants. The other day I ran across the image above (middle left) on Pinterest, linked to a page where someone had dumped a ton of images with no credits, so I have no idea who designed them or was photographed wearing them or anything, but they are pretty damn dreamy. The mutton-leg shape is just the right proportion between the upper volume and the lower leg width, and omg those pockets. But even if I could locate and order them up, they’re still a little bit more voluminous than I probably really want to wear. They’re just such a polished example, something to strive for! My friend Kate alerted me to the Straight-Cut Sarouel Pants pattern pictured above (middle right), from “Happy Homemade Sew Chic,” and they look pretty promising. Especially this slightly modified pair. But basically I’m looking at these, my toddler pants pattern (modified Robbie) and Folkwear’s Japanese Field Pants pattern, and imagining what sort of hybrid I might be able to cook up. I have a few lucky yards of this lightweight fabric made from recycled denim that’s begging to become … these.

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PREVIOUSLY in Idea Log: The pre-Spring sweater

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