Tag: berroco

in the pipeline, august 2017

DiannaLeave a comment

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I’ve just returned to Tromsø after about three weeks away, visiting friends and family in North America, but things aren’t going to slow down any time soon; in the next three weeks we are packing up our place as we prepare to leave Norway by the end of the month (my degree is well and truly finished, and we’re moving on to what’s next for us… but more on that at a later date), followed by some travel for academic conferences, and then hopefully moving on to our new home and starting to get settled there. In the meantime, I’m daydreaming of garments.

Tromsø’s summer hasn’t been much of a summer this year, as far as I can tell. Beyond a few spectacularly warm and beautiful days here and there, I think it’s been largely wet and chilly. Spending time in North American summer for three weeks was a little bit of a shock – I think I managed to be in Seattle for the hottest week of the year there – and I’d forgotten how much really hot weather makes me positively pine for autumn. So, garments…

I’m determined to get my Garland off the needles before I cast on any new garments (not to mention I’m still working on deadline knits, one of which is a sweater), but I’m on the second sleeve of Garland now and it feels like the end is near! So here’s a glimpse at the next several garments I’m planning to cast on, all of which I already have the yarn for.

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First up is the Mount Pleasant tee by Megan Nodecker of Pip & Pin. I’ve been fairly obsessed with this tee since I first caught sight of it on Ravelry, when it was still in the testing stages. I’ve got two skeins of a special yarn set aside for this one: a merino singles base from Garnsurr, which is a small, new indie hand dying company here in Norway that’s also a refugee integration project (you can read more about Garnsurr on their website in English – and if you’re in the NYC, Do Ewe Knit in Westfield, NJ is stocking their yarns!). This is a project I’m so pleased to support, and this blue is going to be pretty gorgeous knit up. I think I’ll probably cast on this one first once I’ve finished Garland. Incidentally, Megan has also started a video podcast on YouTube, so if you’re into knitting podcasts, you should check it out!

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Next up is the Ingen Dikkedarer Genser, or the No Frills Sweater as it’s known in English, by PetiteKnit (the pattern is available in Norwegian, English, Danish, and Swedish). This is a super simple fingering/sport weight sweater (one strand fingering held together with one strand lace mohair), and I found myself craving something just like this to wear during our lingering winter this year, especially around April/May. Warm and cozy, but lightweight and easy to wear. This one’s exciting because I’m going to use the Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine that I frogged during last year’s Slow Fashion October, and it’s good to find a new purpose for that yarn. I’m planning to hold it together with Pickles Silk Mohair in a similar dark grey, which I picked up in Oslo in May.

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Third up is a very special combination: Norah Gaughan’s Circlet Shrug from issue 3 of Making, knit up in an unusual-for-me shade of Hillesvåg Tinde, their sport/DK pelsull yarn (swoon – pelsull is the same fiber my Dalur is knit in; this is just a different weight). Looking at my existing sweater shelf, my affinity for blue, green, and especially grey comes through loud and clear, so between my pink Garland and this deep golden yellow shade, 2017 is turning into the year of getting out of my color comfort zone. It felt a bit crazy to buy this yarn, and when I got home the first thing I did was photograph it against my face to make sure I hadn’t made a huge mistake. And while this color still makes me feel like a slightly skittish cat when I look at the pile of skeins on their own, the photo helps me feel more confident in this decision. It’s a color I always find myself drawn to in autumn, so I’m willing to try it out in my wardrobe.

This was another pattern I fell in love with immediately the first time I saw it (it’s easy to obsess over those cables), and I hope this yarn will work out for it. The Tinde is a woolen-spun 2-ply in structure, so it’s not going to have the same amazing stitch definition as Brooklyn Tweed Arbor (which the sample was knit in), and the natural heathering of the yarn runs the risk of obscuring the cables further (although that natural depth, caused by the undyed grey shade of the yarn, is one of my favorite things about Hillesvåg’s pelsull yarns). So it’ll require a big and proper swatch to make sure I’m happy with the fabric before I move forward with it. And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll be happy to use this yarn for something else – it’s a yarn I won’t really be able to get easily once we leave Norway, so I wanted to scoop it up before we go, as a kind of souvenir of my two years here.

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Are you thinking about fall yet, or does it feel too early to you? What kinds of things are you thinking of casting on in the near future?

FO: fringe and friends top-down KAL

DiannaLeave a comment

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This past week’s Slow Fashion October theme is HANDMADE, and for whatever reason I’m not finding myself in the right headspace to write about it. Maybe it’s because I feel like my style is in flux at the moment – I wrote about how moving to northern Norway and breaking my shoulder in March have both had an effect on my wardrobe. I make clothes by hand because at this point, I don’t know how to not make things by hand. There is an element of habit and compulsion that I’m in the process of reflecting on. So I’m still working on how to acquire new materials thoughtfully and with purpose; meditating on how to avoid buying too much, or things I don’t need. And while my stash doesn’t feel like a burden the way it did two years ago, there’s still a lot of it.

So I suppose when it comes to handmade, my priorities are a work in progress. Karen also brought attention to the handmade vs. homemade distinction, which I think is really interesting. For me, sometimes handmade is homemade (by me), but I’m also perfectly willing to invest in handmade clothes made by someone else for commercial production. I love small batch producers of ethical clothing. And since my forays back into sewing in the past few years have left me feeling a little frustrated (and I also no longer own a sewing machine), clothing handmade by small brands has real value to me. I am much less prone to excess when I’m spending a lot of money on a Jennifer Glasgow dress or a Curator top (or even a home-sewn dress from a vintage boutique). I’m forced to really think about how that piece will fit into my existing wardrobe or whether I’m buying a second version of something I already own, in a way that doesn’t always happen when I’m casting on for a new project. I find that a useful exercise. But all this starts pushing into next week’s topic, which is known origins, so let’s get back to handmade for the moment…

I already wrote that I jumped in on this year’s Fringe and Friends KAL almost on impulse after getting an idea for a stripe sequence that would use a buch of stash yarn. Just over two weeks ago I finally finished weaving in all the stripey ends and got that sweater blocked and seamed, and I’m so pleased with it that it’s hard not to just wear it every day.

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So here’s my Improv (I used Karen’s top-down tutorial on the Fringe blog). It’s really interesting to write about this sweater this week, with this handmade theme for Slow Fashion October. Part of why I went ahead and cast on for this sweater when I had planned to stick to WIPs was because it was something that could be made entirely with stash yarn – I mean, how many of us have stashes full of single skeins (or perhaps pairs of skeins) of yarns we fell in love with and bought without a plan? Most of us don’t have sweater quantities of single yarns in one color sitting around in our stashes. So a sweater entirely from stash – that felt like an exciting challenge. And sometimes the best time to jump in and start something is when you feel that spark. So I did! (And for the record, I’ve been doing pretty well at not casting on new things and working my way through those WIPs, so I’m giving myself a little pat on the back.)

I’ve written before that the idea for the stripe sequence was able to emerge in my head largely because I’ve started cataloguing stash on Ravelry – I’d handled these yarns in the recent past, I’d weighed them to note the amounts I had, and I’d photographed them. I’d also noticed that some of the colors went really well together. So once I got the idea, I was able to determine pretty quickly that I had more than enough yarn for a sweater. Looking at the exact amounts allowed me to finalize the stripe sequence – I had remainders of single skeins of three colors, and I had about two skeins each of two colors. Technically, these were all leftovers from other projects, though in some cases I overbought for the initial projects (or the original plan changed), leaving an unusual amount of yarn leftover.

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These are all worsted weight yarns – three of them are Berroco Ultra Alpaca (in Charcoal Mix, Heathered Olive, and Turqoise Mix), and two are Stonehedge Shepherd’s Wool Worsted (in Great Lakes and Blue Spruce). I wasn’t too concerned about mixing these bases even though one is a wool/alpaca blend and one is 100% merino, and since the vast majority is the Ultra Alpaca, it really didn’t matter in the end. Because I had the largest quantities of the Charcoal Mix and Heathered Olive, I worked stripes of both of those colors between each contrasting stripe. The distinction isn’t one you really see from far away, but up close the subtle effect reveals itself and I love what it does for this sweater.

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The finished sweater very closely resembles my original vision. There’s some subtle decreasing on the sleeves, but the body has no shaping. The bottom features a split hem. The one compromise I had to make in the end was the neck – when I imagined this sweater initially, I pictured a wide sort of foldover turtleneck (think Birch Bay), which seemed both posh and cozy and felt really inviting. But it became apparent really quickly as I worked my way through the sweater that it was very unlikely I’d have that much charcoal yarn leftover. I spent awhile thinking about whether to simply finish the neckline with the yarn I had or if it would be better to stay faithful to my initial vision and buy an extra skein of the charcoal to make the generous neck happen. (I also asked for your advice on Instagram at that point, and thank you all so much for your helpful feedback!) In the end I decided that I would rather not buy extra yarn – so much more satisfying for it to be entirely stash! – and just see how far the yarn I still had would get me. I also had the realization that practically, a simple open neck would be much more useful in my daily life than an oversized cowl/turtleneck, since I wanted to be able to wear this sweater inside, and I overheat really easily. And now that it’s done? I’m really, really happy with the neck of this sweater. It truly does fit seamlessly into my existing wardrobe. And I definitely knocked back my stash a little bit. The photo at the top shows the leftovers of each color – from left to right there’s Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Charcoal Mix, Heathered Olive, and Turqoise Mix, and then Shepherd’s Wool in Great Lakes and Blue Spruce.

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While I was knitting this sweater, I had dreams of photographing it in front of the beautiful golden birches, but by the time I got all the ends woven in, I’d kind of missed my window in Tromsø. The closest I got was this progress shot (above) during our trip in Nordland, when I was working my way through sleeve number two. (We’ll just have to use our imaginations. But you can see that it would’ve been great, right?!)

I learned a lot making this sweater. I learned about finding creative ways to use my stash to supplement my wardrobe. I learned a lot about why you might want to knit a sweater top-down (I’m still a steadfast bottom-up devotee, but now it’s easier for me to see which cases might call for top-down). And I learned that my original vision may not always be the best fit for my wardrobe, and that taking time to reflect on that will probably help me knit pieces that become staples (and don’t get frogged down the road). You can check out my Ravelry project page here, and I highly recommend taking a spin through the whole #fringeandfriendsKAL2016 feed to see everyone’s beautiful sweaters. They are all so different and all so special – thanks to everyone else for sharing along the way!

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slow fashion october: introduction

Dianna1 Comment

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When Karen launched Slow Fashion October last year, I really wanted to participate. I wasn’t able to take part in any very active way, though, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, I was knee-deep in the first semester of my master’s program, trying to keep up with readings and homeworks tromand paper-writing after several years away from any type of schoolwork. For another, I had only moved to Tromsø two months before, so I was only just beginning to adjust to my new climate, which has had (and continues to have) a great effect on my wardrobe. This year, I’m in a much better place to join in on Slow Fashion October with some active reflection. I’ve spent over a year in my new climate and I have a much better idea of how it’s transformed my relationship with clothing. It’s also been a year and a half since I decided to step away from running Paper Tiger as my full-time day job and start the transition back to this being a part-time gig. It feels like a good moment for reflection.

For those unfamiliar, Slow Fashion October was started by Karen Templer of Fringe Association last year as an opportunity for conversation – about what “slow fashion” is and means to us, about the ways in which we approach it, and reasons why a slow fashion wardrobe is a choice many of want to make. In Karen’s words, “the conversation is not just about handmade — it’s about all the ways (and reasons!) we can approach a slow-fashion wardrobe.” This includes finding ways to make do and mend, buying second hand, and thinking about how to keep clothing out of the landfill. I have many, many thoughts on fast fashion and the state of the fashion industry, but for today I’ll focus on how my own context affects my approach to clothing.

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I’ve spent much of the last year thinking critically about my wardrobe and how my move to Norway is affecting my choices, as well as ways to make do with what I have. Even though I donated about half of my yarn stash before the move, my stash is still…. sizeable, to say the least. It no longer overwhelms me, but I would like to knit from it before buying new yarn, and it always feels good to find the holy grail: the right project that fits into my long-term wardrobe plans using yarn I already have. So I’ve slowly (very slowly) started to catalog my stash using Ravelry’s stash feature. While it’s an ongoing process, I’ve already seen the benefits – starting to catalog worsted weight yarns on Ravelry led directly to my Fringe & Friends KAL sweater (pictured at top, and nearly finished!), knit entirely from yarns in my stash. I don’t think that stripe sequence would have popped into my head if I hadn’t been handling the yarns and noting the quantities for my Ravelry stash page.

So, how has my new climate affected my wardrobe? Those of you who follow this blog know that I live in Norway, but many of you probably don’t realize exactly how far north Tromsø is. This felt like a good opportunity to provide some conext:

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Tromsø sits at 69ºN, well above the Arctic Circle (and the entirety of Iceland, which only just barely crosses the circle), and nearly due north of Stockholm (since Norway wraps around the northern coast of the Scandinavian peninsula, it shares a border not just with Sweden, but also with Finland and Russia). I’m up there. Tromsø is about as far away from Norway’s capital, Oslo, as upstate New York is from Savannah, Georgia. Thanks to the Gulf Stream winters are actually quite mild for this latitude, but there’s still about four months of the year when we’ve continuously got snow on the ground. Summers are also mild – 20ºC/70ºF is a hot day – and they can be on the wet side. It’s often pretty windy here. My wardrobe has been moving in a more androdgynous direction for a few years, and living in Tromsø has definitely continued that trend, along with a healthy dose of practicality. When I think about things I want to make for myself now, I’m always taking the weather into account. This is obviously a wool-friendly climate, and truth be told, the biggest gap in my handmade wardrobe now is socks. I wear my few pairs of handknit socks with boots on a very regular basis for most of the year.

Breaking my shoulder in March had an effect on my sartorial choices as well. Spending two months in a sling with instructions not to move my arm in certain directions meant getting in and out of clothing became a special challenge. Button-down shirts and loose boxy tops that were easy to pull on and off with one arm became my go-tos, and to be honest, things didn’t really change that much after my shoulder started improving and I could move my arm again. Clothing that layers well and fits under a coat or jacket is also important. That means most of the time I find myself at a happy medium between fitted clothing and super oversized pieces.

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Continuing this line of thought, I started off Slow Fashion October by frogging a sweater. In the midst of reassessing my wardrobe, I’ve realized there things I just don’t wear anymore. With the exception of the short summer, I rarely wear skirts or dresses here, so my pre-move plan to knit more things I could wear with high-waisted skirts now seems pretty low on the priority list. When I do reach for a sweater to wear with skirts or dresses, it’s my Chuck. Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile may remember the sweater pictured in that previous blog link – my Splitta Genser, with the lovely foldover back and dark grey garter stitch. It’s a nice sweater. I genuinely thought it would help fill a hole in my handknit wardrobe. But – here’s the crucial bit – I never, ever wear it. Truth be told, it came out too small (it’s been rather aggressively blocked in those FO photos). Also, dolman sleeves? Not for me, it turns out – they don’t work so well when you try and tuck them into a jacket. So over the weekend, I sat down and carefully unpicked the grafted seams and then frogged the whole thing. I love wearing grey and I have more of this yarn; I can easily turn it into something I’ll actually wear on a regular basis. I’d rather have it as yarn waiting in my stash than as a sweater that I never wear (clothing storage space is at a premium for us in our closet-less Norwegian apartment).

When it comes to buying ready-to-wear clothing, I’m a little at a loss these days. I find it very hard to avoid fast fashion in Norway and I’ve ended up buying clothing online from the US instead because I know I can buy from companies who are doing their best to make ethical business decisions and promote transparency in the fashion industry. If any Europeans (especially in Scandinavia) have suggestions for clothing companies that are sourcing their fabrics ethically and manufacturing domestically, I’d love to hear about it. Basically, I’m looking for a Norwegian version of my favorite shop in Seattle, Velouria. It feels like it must exist, but if it does, I don’t know about it yet. I guess the silver lining is that I don’t really need anything new – I do have plenty of clothes already.

There’s so much more I could say about my thoughts on slow fashion, but I’ll save some for future posts. I’ve already been doing a lot of thinking and reading in these first few days of October. Karen linked to a really important piece of writing called No One Wants Your Old Clothes – it’s an eye-opening piece that feels like an excellent prerequisite to this year’s conversation. I also just last week started reading Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert, which is already an excellent book just two chapters in and I’ll have a lot more to say about that in a later post as well. Will you all be taking part in this year’s Slow Fashion October?

project updates

DiannaLeave a comment

Since the whole idea of my queue check of sorts from a few weeks back was to hold myself accountable to my plan, I figured I’d post a follow up! I’ll start with the good news:

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I finished the Hugin and Munin mittens! As I mentioned in the earlier post, these only needed thumbs, so once I had time to sit down and chart them out, the knitting itself was pretty quick. I’m so pleased with how these turned out, and even more pleased that they’re finally done! The Rauma Finullgarn is so fantastic for mittens, and since these are knit at a fine gauge (on US 1 / 2.25mm needles) they’ll be very warm.

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I also powered through and finished my Inglis Mitts in time to wear them this year before it’s too cold! Already I’m wearing them without the top folded down a majority of the time, so they’re extra long. My project page now also incredibly has an absurd number of faves on Ravelry, since Sarah featured my mitts in a community eye candy post on the Ravelry blog (thanks Sarah!). And if you’ve been eyeing the Inglis Mitts but didn’t get the Edinburgh Yarn Fest magazine in which they were originally published, I’m really happy to be able to let you know that they’re now available as an individual pattern on Ravelry.

I’ve also made some progress on my Dunaway scarf, though I have yet to finish it. I think that’s probably top of the priority list now.

The neutral news: I haven’t touched my Sandneskofte since I last posted about it, but I still have plenty of time to finish it before the Oslo Knitting Festival, so I’m not too worried about that.

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The curve ball: many of you probably saw on Instagram that I did end up casting on something new after all. It was one of those times where you get an idea in your head and it just takes hold – I tried to push it to the back of my mind for later, but this was one was stubborn. I got an idea for a stripe sequence that would use up a bunch of worsted weight yarn in my stash and I couldn’t get it out of my head. After a couple of days of trying not to think about it, I gave in and decided to work up a little swatch to test the sequence of stripes to see if it would work out in real life the way it was working out in my head. And oh, it did. I wrote last time about how satisfying it is to find a happy marriage of stash yarn and pattern, and once I saw that this stripe sequence would work, imagining the sweater I could use it on was the easiest thing imaginable. And so I threw caution to the wind. I decided to join in on this year’s Fringe and friends KAL with my stripes, so I’m working my way through an improvised top-down pullover. To make it go quickly so as not to disrupt my existing project plans too much, I’ve worked the whole thing seamlessly in the round, with purl columns on the sides of the body in case I want to seam the sides. Stockinette in the round is my speediest knitting, and on US 8 / 5mm needles it is flying along. It’s ready for the sleeves, but I think I’ll knit those flat.

I’d like to wrap this up soon, but I think I should finish the Dunaway scarf first! And so that’s my planned weekend knitting. What will you be working on this weekend?

stash less & thoughtful crafting

DiannaLeave a comment

A month or two ago I discovered The Craft Sessions via the Woolful podcast, and it didn’t take long once I’d wandered over to the website for me to add the blog to my blog reader. Felicia lives in Melbourne, Australia, and founded The Craft Sessions as a way to provide opportunities for craft and fiber retreats in the Australian craft community. I found myself reading backwards through the archives, and I definitely found myself drawn to a concept Felicia started writing about a few months ago: Stash Less. She also talked about Stash Less in the podcast, so here’s a link to that episode if you haven’t heard it.

The Stash Less concept comes from a desire to be more thoughtful about what we make and why we craft. It’s about intentional making. This quote from the post that introduced Stash Less really struck a chord with me:

“‘In the presence of good materials, hopes grow and possibilities multiply.’ And I truly believe that is so so true. But I also think that there can be too much of a good thing. And that maybe that is where I am.”

I tend not to voice my own concerns with the materialism and consumption involved in the craft community too loudly – after all, I sell patterns, which also help to sell yarn, which helps local yarn stores and indie dyers and needle makers and all other sorts of folk in this beautiful web in a mutually beneficial way, and above all it helps encourage others to take up the needles and share this craft with more of the world. But it has not escaped my attention that the encouragement can go a little too far – we can become obsessed with this or that yarn, or dyer, or notions maker, and we can develop a fear of missing out that drives us to purchase things we don’t need because we want them and we can probably find a way to use them later.

This isn’t to say that I think having a stash of yarn or fabric is a bad idea. It’s a totally good idea. Not only can it bring inspiration to be surrounded by beautiful materials, but you always have tools on hand when you want to try out something new. But I also believe that life is about balance, and after a period of acquiring a lot more yarn than I actually need, I’m starting to feel the other side of the stash more and more. It’s making me want to slow down, pull back, and start to balance the scales. I know I’m not alone in this, but despite having a sizeable stash, I still tend to buy new yarn when I have a very specific project I want to make. This means that some of the stash yarn just sits there for years and years. Once yarn’s been in your stash for nearly a decade, it’s not likely to be super inspiring anymore, you know?

So Felicia’s Stash Less concept really spoke to me. I don’t feel the need to make it an actual challenge, like she has – or perhaps I’m just setting different parameters for myself – but I have noticed a change in the way I’m thinking about my projects, particularly after I wrote about wanting to take it easier this year. I’m definitely still thinking about the perfect slouchy cardigan I’d like to knit, among several other things I’d love to cast on for, but some time in the last few weeks I decided to make a real effort to finish all my current WIPs before beginning any new purely personal projects. Having 12 WIPs going at once stresses me out, so what’s fun about that? I’ve managed to work my way down to five active personal WIPs since the new year (excluding my Beekeeper’s Quilt, which is a leftovers-eater and will likely be going on for quite awhile), and you know what? That feels really amazing. Really amazing.

I don’t know that I’ll ever be a totally monogamous knitter again. I’m not sure I can do just one project at a time; I’ve written before about the balance between having a complex project and a simple project going at the same time, and how it’s nice to be able to pick up whichever I’m feeling up for that day. But it does feel extremely good to be working through half-finished projects that have been on the needles for ages, neglected as I distractedly run from one thing to the other, starting new projects with reckless abandon. I thought I’d share one of those projects here on the blog today since it’s been a little quiet lately!

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This is the Splitta Genser, or Slitted Sweater, a pattern from the Pickles team (Pickles is a yarn brand/store in Oslo). I fell in love with the pattern right away when I first saw it on the Pickles blog, even though the sample is a vivid Pepto-Bismol-pink (I don’t tend to go for pink). I saw potential, and I saw how the silhouette would fill a hole in my handknit wardrobe – namely that I don’t have a lot of knits to wear with high-waisted skirts or dresses. I’m thrilled that the final result is exactly the sweater I had in mind when I cast on. Here’s a peek at the back:

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The overlapping panels is the detail that really sold me on such a simple knit. I think it’s a lovely feature and a little unexpected if you’ve only seen the sweater from the front. You can read my project notes and details over on Ravelry, and the pattern is available in both Norwegian and English.

I started this sweater in April of last year, so it’s a relief and a joy to finally have it finished, and I’m so happy it fits into my wardrobe in a way that nothing else I’ve made really does. It’s quite in line with the Stash Less philosophy I’ve been swept up in, so I feel like it’s helping me get off to a good start. I’ve been reorganizing the Paper Tiger studio again, trying to optimize the space to improve my focus and workflow, and I’m working on getting the whole yarn stash more or less into one place, where most of it is visible (see also: episode 11 of knit.fm, “Stash Control”). My hope is that this will help my shift in thinking, and prompt me to think about what I could be making with what I have on hand (and where that overlaps with what my own garment and accessory needs).

I’d love to hear about your own efforts at stash control or project planning. How do you keep things from getting out of hand?

simple knits

DiannaLeave a comment

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Lately I’ve realized the importance of having a simple project on the needles. I’ve been working on two new patterns (more on them soon, I promise) that both involve multiple charts, and in my free time I’ve been working on a pair of Twisted Flower socks from Cookie A’s Knit. Sock. Love. and I’ve started swatching for Quadrillion from the most recent fall issue of Pom Pom Quarterly. Both of those patterns are also heavily charted, and while I’m totally a chart lover, I think I’m beginning to understand the importance of balancing those more intricate projects with much simpler ones. I call this kind of knitting mindless knitting – think miles of plain stockinette, or extremely basic knit-purl patterns (ribbing, seed stitch). It’s the kind of knitting I can do while I read, because I don’t have to look at it. Ideally the most attention I ever have to pay to the project is to tick another row off in my notebook when my finger hits the stitch marker marking the beginning of a round.

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Craving this kind of project this weekend, I found myself casting on for a pair of basic fingerless mitts with some Noro I recently received as a gift. Initially I thought I’d do stripes, but then I decided I’d rather showcase the color change of the yarn on its own, with some texture for added interest. I divided the skein into two little balls, cast on 31 stitches for each mitt (an odd number, so that each row started with a k1 and was therefore exactly the same), and knit until there was only a little yarn leftover for the thumbs. I didn’t even have to count my rows as I went, which was wonderful. I seamed up the sides, leaving holes for the thumbs, then picked up stitches and worked 12 rounds for each thumb. Unfortunately, there were two knots in the skein, both of which landed in the right mitt, which is partly why the color shifts so much more often on that mitt, but I don’t mind. I kind of love how delightfully mismatched they are.

With this realization in mind, I’m planning to make sure I’ve got at least one mindless project going at all times, and last night I cast on for a three-color Inkling with some super lovely shades of Berroco Ultra Alpaca:

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I think it should keep me busy for a little while.

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In other news, I’m putting together wholesale linesheets this week and I finally have hard copies of several Paper Tiger patterns (including the FW 13 collection) ready to go. If you’re a yarn store or other retailer interested in carrying Paper Tiger patterns, shoot me an email at dianna (at) paper-tiger.net to request a linesheet.

fall/winter 2013: inkling

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It’s been a race to the finish, but Paper Tiger Fall/Winter 2013 is essentially done, and the first pattern has been released! You can see all five patterns in the lookbook, which is viewable here. The patterns will be released via Ravelry over the course of the week and I should have some hard copies on hand this weekend at Knit Fit! I’m incredibly proud of this collection and I’m thrilled to finally share it with you.

I’ll be writing a little bit about each pattern in the collection as it’s released, so this evening I thought I’d start with the first one: Inkling.

The end of summer and beginning of autumn always makes me feel the anticipation of going back to school I had as a student, even though I haven’t been a student for years. I’m still a lover of new books, fresh notebooks, and any knitted garb with an academic bent (and I still read books about phonology in my spare time). This cowl is a nod to my huge soft spot for academia, my years in grad school, and I must admit, it’s also a nod to a few of my favorite fantasy authors and academics, both in name and appearance. I wanted to give the old school scarf idea a more modern treatment, so Inkling is a seamless infinity cowl, long enough to wrap twice around your neck when you need some cozy warmth, but not too long to wear down in one loop. I’ve been trying not to wear the sample too much, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t want to take the thing off! It’s simple and cozy and goes with everything, and the color possibilities are endless. Wear your nerd pride with some Hogwarts house colors, or go for muted neutrals and pastels to soften it up. I want to knit about a dozen in different color combinations.

The pattern is simple; it starts with a provisional cast on and the cowl is knit in the round. When it’s long enough, the ends are grafted together so it’s completely seamless with no wrong side. For a full list of details including yarn and needle requirements, and to purchase the pattern, visit the Ravelry page for Inkling.