Tag Archives: knitting

Top posts of 2015

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Top posts of 2015 — Fringe Association blog

It’s always big fun to dig into the stats at the end of the year and see if what I think was a hit really was a hit. And since a lot of people have a lot of leisure time during this last week of the year, it’s also a chance to highlight some things you might have missed! So with that—

Top 10 posts from previous years that continued to dominate the charts this year:

1. Q for You: What’s your peak knitting experience?
2. Pullovers for first-timers: Or, an introduction to sweater construction
3. How to improvise a top-down sweater, Part 1: Casting on and marking raglans
4. Joining sweater parts at the underarm: Here comes the fun!
5. Super Simple Mitts
6. Holiday knitting cheat sheet: A hat for every head
7. How to weave on a hand loom
8. Best summer sweater knitting patterns
9. Double Basketweave Cowl
10. Knit the Look: Mariska van der Zee’s EZ pullover

Full disclosure: That number one post is full of great responses — a really wonderful discussion — but it’s garnered so much traffic in part because the photo is an enormous hit with the Pinterest community. On top of which, someone somewhere along the line pinned it and put the words “free pattern” in their caption, which has been re-pinned like that a hundred thousand times. Gentian is an amazing pattern but not a free one.

Top 10 posts from 2015:

1. Fringe Hatalong No. 1: Audrey by Jessie Roselyn (pictured top right)
2. Fringe Hatalong No. 3: Hermaness Worsted by Gudrun Johnston
3. Slow Fashion October — get ready!
4. Fringe Hatalong No. 2: L’Arbre by Cirilia Rose
5. Fringe Hatalong No. 5: Seathwaite by Kate Gagnon Osborn
6. Fringe Hatalong No. 4: Laurus by Dianna Walla
7. Basted knitting: Or, how (and why) to seam a seamless sweater (pictured middle right)
8. Hot Tip: Let the knitting remember for you (pictured bottom left)
9. Fringe and Friends Knitalong 2015: Cowichan style (pictured bottom right)
10. Q for You: What’s the knit you couldn’t live without?

Notice a pattern (no pun intended) in that list? (Hatalong 6 hasn’t been live long enough to compete.) The most popular posts that didn’t include a free knitting pattern, in addition to the few sprinkled in the top ten, were the Hot Tip about minding your edge stitches, sewing pattern ideas for what to wear under cardigans, the Slow Fashion October post about my Gallery Dress (pictured middle left), my vintage waistcoat and modified Wiksten tank FO post; how to knit a hat; and my sleeveless turtleneck FO post (pictured top left) (and I swear, I swear, I swear I will have a pattern for it soon!). So that struck me as an unexpected mix.

Clearly everyone loved the big initiatives this year — the knitalongs and Slow Fashion October.  And I did, too! But I’d love to hear from you all personally: What was your favorite thing on the blog this year? Could be a single memorable post, a series, a pattern, a tip, whatever the case may be.

p.s. There’s a wee year-end clearance sale going on over at Fringe Supply Co. You might want to take a look!

Idea Log: Cowichan blues

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Idea Log: Cowichan blues

Here’s one last Idea Log for 2015, and it will be the first sweater I’m obsessing about in 2016 — Do I just have a heightened awareness of them or are Cowichan-inspired sweaters suddenly everywhere? I can’t open an indie boutique email or flip through a mainstream catalog without seeing them. The one that recently got torn out and taped to my wall is among the least authentic — that blue and white number up top, currently for sale at J.Crew. (It’s called Abstract Fair Isle Sweater, and has about as much in common with true Fair Isle as with Cowichan, but there you go.) I’m still dying to cast on another Cowichan-ish sweater after finishing my knitalong vest, and although it continues to be spooky 75-degree tornado weather here, I know we’re headed for that time of year when I’ll be wearing my Bellows every day and wishing I had another super woolly shawl collar cardigan to alternate with. Before casting on my vest, I contemplated doing it in black and navy or ivory and navy. As much as I love all-neutral colorwork, I also swoon hard for blue and white. (Some notable examples here.) It’s like Delft knitwear or something — so dreamy. So I keep gazing at this J.Crew cardigan and wanting a version, and over the weekend it dawned on me that it could be as simple and knitting Andrea Rangel’s Knitter’s Dude in ivory and navy (two colors instead of three) and perhaps doing the wide stripes as a pair of thinner stripes to play up the linework quality. I might want to bulk up the gauge, though — I’m thinking Lettlopi in colors 0051 and 9420 (as pictured via Tolt). And then of course with a zipper instead of the buttons, because zippers forever and ever amen.

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PREVIOUSLY in Idea Log: Perfect outfit No. 1

Queue Check Deluxe: Holiday 2015

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Agenda for my Week of Making

Merry peaceful Christmas to everyone who’s celebrating today, and happy Friday/long weekend to everyone else! I’m still harboring this fantasy of spending the next ten days doing nothing but making. The reality is I have a ton of administrative work to do in the next week that is unavoidable, but I’m setting a goal of working on that for a couple-few hours each morning (starting early), spending the rest of the daylight hours sewing, and then knitting in the evening. Plus there’s today and both weekends, of which I’m giving as much as possible to this project. How much can I actually accomplish in these hours, especially being a slow sewer? I really don’t know. So I’m just setting priorities and low expectations, and will be happy with my accomplishments, whatever they may be!

After getting my WIP mania corralled, along with my wild dreams of all the countless things I’d like to make, narrowing it down to immediate needs and assessing how those factor into my uniform (before branching out from there), I have arrived at an actual list of things to make, with fabric attached and everything! One nice thing about me and this whole wardrobe planning folderol is that I never have to stop and ask myself what my color palette is. It is always the same: blue, black, grey, white, natural, camel. At least that part is easy —

TOP: For the sleeveless Gallery Tunic, I’m starting with two fabrics — natural with a dark blue stripe, and midnight blue with a faint tri-dot pattern. Both are remnants I bought for $5/yard at Imogene+Willie last summer.

MIDDLE: For the modified Scout tee, I’m also starting with two — blue with an off-white stripe (same fabric as my still unhemmed dress) and a black and beige buffalo check, again both from I+W. I really want the Gallery in the blue/white stripe as well, and have plenty of fabric for both, so that could happen.

BOTTOM: For the woven modified Hemlock alt-sweater, I’m going with this salt-and-pepper Italian wool I bought at Drygoods last month. Instead of ribbing for the neckback and sleeves, I’m going to use the wool for everything — gathering the sleeves into a wide cuff and trimming the neck sweatshirt-style, with a strip cut on the bias. Will it work? Dunno, but I’m really excited to try it!

BELOW: And then there’s the knitting. I’m making progress on Bob’s rollneck, and set aside my grey sweater for now, as noted. I’ve ordered the Lettlopi for this little pullover, which should arrive late next week. I truly believe I can knit this sweater in a week — top-down on 10s? cropped? with short sleeves? So depending how far I am on Bob’s when the yarn arrives, I might beg off of it for one little week and see if I can crank out this much-needed pullover for myself.

So that’s my plan! What are you making this weekend?

Queue Check Deluxe: Holiday 2015

Hot Tip: Save time at try-on

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Hot Tip: Easiest way to try on a top-down sweater

The number one benefit of knitting a sweater from the top down is being able to try it on as you go, fine-tuning the fit along the way. The only challenge (such as it is) is not losing stitches off the ends of your circulars as you pull it over your shoulders, especially once you’ve joined the body below the armholes. The following tip is buried somewhere in my top-down tutorial but I wanted to pull it out and shine some daylight on it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to do any extra work — whether that’s threading stitches onto waste yarn and then back again onto the needles, or inserting “try-on tubes” or anything that has to be done and then undone. The easiest way to resolve the issue, when you’re on a round where you want to try it on, is to simply knit half the stitches onto a second circular needle. That’s it! As long as both circs have a cord length that is at least half the circumference* of the knitting, you can pull both sets of needle tips free and clear of the stitches — so half the stitches are resting on one cord and the other half on the other — and pull it safely over your head. Then when you’re ready, just start knitting again. When you reach the end of that round, all of your stitches will once again be on a single needle, with no extra doing or undoing of any kind.

You may also find it useful to steam your sweater before you try it on — especially if your swatch changed meaningfully before and after blocking.

This tip builds on the very first Hot Tip, too, regarding mismatching your needle tips. If you’re knitting with interchangeable needles, you don’t even need two sets of tips!

*You can see that the second needle I used for the top photo is not half the circumference, but the two combined lengths are still equal to or greater than the circumference. Just make sure your second needle is of appropriate length for completing the round. This one will be a tight fit for the rest of the stitches, but you can always switch back to your first needle on the following round, if the second one is either too short or too long for carrying on with.

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PREVIOUSLY in Hot Tips: Turn one strand into three

Winter silhouette 1: Short over long over skinny

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Winter silhouette 1: Short over long over skinny

So then, after drafting that seemingly narrowed-down list of key garments to be made in the nearest term possible, I began trying to put onto paper all of the various outfit combo possibilities those garments open up. I can draw outfits one helluva lot faster than I can make the clothes, but I can’t draw them half as fast as I can think them up. (I need to consider the possibility that I may actually be addicted to Fashionary.) Reeling it in, I thought I’d do what I did last April and take it one bottom at a time — this time concentrating just on winter outfits (while trying to be vaguely mindful of how things transition) and using only garments that I either own already or are on the immediate to-make list. (That was where my April efforts failed me: too vague.) Maybe I’m a lame-o who ran immediately to her comfort zone, or maybe I’m a genius who subconsciously thought it would be wise to start with her uniform first, but after the above Bottom Number 1 outfits were on paper, I realized I had, in fact, started with my uniform first. Intentional or otherwise, in retrospect I can recognize the genius of that. This is really wardrobe triage I’m doing right now, more than wardrobe planning. So by all means, uniform first!

What that really means — to me, at least — is I’m starting with the one “silhouette” (am I the only one who cringes at that word?)  that comes most naturally to me, especially in the depths of winter.  The skinny pants in these drawings are a super-thick black ponte pair I bought at J.Crew several years ago. I actually have two pair. Every winter I think I’m done with them, and every winter I wind up living in them. They’re somewhere between leggings and pants, and I do believe in keeping my rear-end covered in them, no matter how dense they are, but I also just love the long-over-skinny silhouette. My legs are a little short for my height, so the best overall look for me is a shorter, boxier top layer — whether a sweater or vest of some kind — over the long top, over the skinny pants, with chunky boots.

So I’ve got the pants. I’ve got multiple cardigans that work here (my Amanda, my trusty old camel cardigan, and my Bellows is borderline long for this, but I can get away with it). I’ve got many vest options (knitted, denim, cargo, trench …). I bought two long-sleeved wool workshirts a few weeks ago at Hey Rooster, made in the US by Fischer; one is heather grey and looks awesome with every vest I own, including my Cowichan-ish vest. What I’m lacking are the three core pieces from last week’s list that are now officially my starting point: the tunic-length tee, the sleeveless band-collar tunic and the woven alt-sweater. As soon as I make some final decisions about colors/fabrics from my stash, I’ll be ready to start cutting!

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PREVIOUSLY in Wardrobe Planning: Mind the gaps

One-night knits!

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One-night knits

Whether it actually is the night before Christmas and you’re short one gift, or you’re just desperate for a quick finish between long projects — or whatever the case may be! — here are four excellent free knitting patterns with fast and highly satisfying outcomes. All blissfully simple in garter, stockinette and ribbing, so they’re also great for beginners—

1. CFC Hanspun Toque by Patrick Rush
If you happen to have some Camellia Fiber Co. handspun in your stash, let me be the first to profess my jealousy! But if not, any superbulky will do. This one is designed by a guy and I can vouch for the fact that it’s worn by the whole CFC crew, so it’s unisex as well as being fast and great-looking. (See also: EZ’s Brioche Watch Cap)

2. Whichaway Mitts by Karen Templer
My own pattern for two-tone mitts that can be worn either direction. Again, perfectly unisex depending on your yarn choice. And it was specifically designed to use up leftovers! (See also: Super Simple Mitts)

3. Lara’s Hat by Susan Ashcroft
This is the most specifically feminine item in the group, but such a stupendous hat! Again with superbulky yarn on US15s, so you’ll be done in a flash. (See also: Purl Soho’s Chunky Cable Hat)

4. Simple House Slippers by Simone A.
These would be welcomed by any member of the family. They might take slightly longer than the previous three patterns, especially since you need to make two — but you could totally wrap up one finished slipper and an IOU for the second one. (See also: Tootsie Toasters)

Another great last-minute gift idea (no knitting required!) is a Fringe Supply Co. gift certificate, which I will happily send to your recipient as a personal email! ;)

For more gift knitting suggestions, see Warm hands, warm hearts; Cowls all around; and A hat for every head

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Next of the Best of Pre-Fall 2016: Elizabeth and James

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Next of the Best Knits of Pre-Fall 2016

I have to tell you, what really stands out about the Pre-Fall 2016 collections is the outerwear. I mean, incredible incredible coats and jackets everywhere you look. I’m particularly taken with this and this and this and the countless gorgeous iterations of the bomber jacket showing up in nearly every collection. But let’s talk about these Elizabeth and James knits! I have a hunch those two photos up top are the same sweater, worn forwards and backwards. I’m guessing the idea is you could actually tie that waist strap as a belt over the flap, but I can understand why whoever styled the shoot left them dangling. Either way, pretty great. Obviously I’m gonna love the slouchy sweater over slinky skirt look below, especially with those super ’80s shoes. And I also like this little boxy sweater with the wedge slipped into the side seams. Check out the full collection for more.

Next of the Best Knits of Pre-Fall 2016

PREVIOUSLY in Pre-Fall 2016: Fresh turtlenecks