Spring is trying to take hold in the Northeast, and succeeding about 2/3 of the time. Since it was 65 degrees and sunny just a couple of days ago, and will be again in a day or two, I've been digging through the wardrobe looking for appropriate clothes for the season. Not so successfully.
Like any good knitter, it's time to go off to the LYS. Bulkier yarns in cotton, silk and linen seemed like the order of the day. Luna by Cascade Yarns, in cotton, is one of the few I saw that color for color matches up with the Pantone Spring Color Report. It's a light worsted, but traps a lot of air because of its slight texture. Plus, it comes at a very workable price, and is frequently featured on sale. I was delighted, as I want to knit something that works with my current wardrobe but also steps "fashion forward" a little bit. It's a yarn that could make pretty spring things, or transitional pieces that would work from Spring into Fall and Fall into Spring. It knits up beautifully, washes like a dream, and in two years of wear in one garment, hasn't pilled or changed shape. Cool. Put some in the basket. Maybe make one of these...
A yarn with dreamy texture and good hand at a moderate price point is Katydid, by Classic Elite's Verde line. It's a cotton "tape" yarn that is impressively soft for its amazing durability. It hold is color well, is easy to knit, and creates a slightly textured fabric. That's very on trend. It scores very well on every critic's review, and yet is often found on BIG sale. It can be worked as a heavy worsted up to a bulky. This yarn also comes in lovely colors on the Pantone chart as well as closely related colors. A little texture in every piece is huge for spring and fall 2012. Toss 'em in the basket.
Flying in the face of "trendy" is the incredibly classic "Provence" from Classic Elite. If you're looking for that perfect New England twin set yarn that feals like a liquid breeze, look no farther. It's a solid DK weight, and it's mercerized cotton, so minimal shrinkage! You can easily find every color in the 2012 palette, but you can find all your classic favorites, too. This is especially helpful when your intended recipient isn't an edgy fashionista. If you have a classic or retro wardrobe, you'll find what you need here, and you'll adore working with and wearing it. Yep, I'll take 10.
Last but not least, Karabella Lace Merino Silk. Lovely, whisper soft colors, a gorgeous hand, and strong. If you're going to take the time to knit lace, you want it to stand up to the little inevitable pulls and snags. The twist is high enough for durability but loose enough for just a little bit of halo. And the merino adds some nice warmth to a very lightweight yarn.
I hope these musings help you in your spring shopping. Knit well and quickly. Spring is close!
Showing posts with label Classic Elite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classic Elite. Show all posts
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Internet Knitting Info - Where to Look
A while back I wrote a post called "Pattern Hunger" listing where I like to prowl for new patterns when the seasons change. I listed some of my favorite Internet outlets, and the response was huge. Don't get me wrong - I'm a huge fan of the LYS, and try to do most of my shopping there. If I stop, I'm afraid my only local options will become Michael's, and JoAnn Fabrics. At the LYS I have a community, experts, lessons, and more variety that I can possibly ever knit my way through. But I can't prowl patterns as quickly as I can on line, and so I prowl on the Internet.
The Internet can also be lifesaver for techniques and general information. I assume by now everyone knows I'm a huge fan of Ravelry, so I'll leave that one alone. Nearly every major manufacturer has a website full of info, patterns, a newsletter, an advice blog, or all of the above. (Classic Elite, Cascade, Mountain Colors, Holiday Yarns, Kraemer, Berroco, Rowan, are all faves) - if you've heard of them, they have an Internet presence. The sites usually have a variety of free and paid patterns, an opportunity to sign up for the newsletter (more patterns and info), detailed information about every yarn in the line, and tales of knitting seen through the eyes of the manufacturer and distributor. This quick reading is great if you don't have a knitting community nearby, or it's 11:20 pm and if you call your friends to talk about yarn, they may stop being your friends.
I'm also a huge fan of YouTube for knitting lessons. I know, I never would have thought of it either, but my intrepid assistant, Colleen, filled me in years ago. (Thanks as always, Coll!) I still peak at videos of techniques I haven't used in a while, whether it's making bobbles, Kitchener stitch, or (gasp!) brioche. (No, I haven't finished it. You want to make something of it?) I also love to see the excerpts of knitting art installations, knits and knitting featured in movies, and interviews with famous designers.
There are also several good online magazines out there for knitting info. Knitter's Review is authored by knitting expert and book author Clara Parkes, and she reviews everything to do with knitting. With 11 years of archives, you'll likely find a review of anything you need.
Knitty is an online only magazine, with an entire community associated with it. Beautiful patterns (free), great articles, and a helpful community are just a click away.
Twist Collective has articles about knitting history, current knitting issues, an advice column, and of course, patterns. (These patterns are not free - you click on the title and the pricing info comes up in a separate window.)
The Daily Knitter has daily free patterns (yep, daily), articles, help articles, help videos, and a very thorough list of LYS throughout the country. If you're travelling, it's a great resource to make sure you can get a knitting fix where ever you go!
The Internet can also be lifesaver for techniques and general information. I assume by now everyone knows I'm a huge fan of Ravelry, so I'll leave that one alone. Nearly every major manufacturer has a website full of info, patterns, a newsletter, an advice blog, or all of the above. (Classic Elite, Cascade, Mountain Colors, Holiday Yarns, Kraemer, Berroco, Rowan, are all faves) - if you've heard of them, they have an Internet presence. The sites usually have a variety of free and paid patterns, an opportunity to sign up for the newsletter (more patterns and info), detailed information about every yarn in the line, and tales of knitting seen through the eyes of the manufacturer and distributor. This quick reading is great if you don't have a knitting community nearby, or it's 11:20 pm and if you call your friends to talk about yarn, they may stop being your friends.
I'm also a huge fan of YouTube for knitting lessons. I know, I never would have thought of it either, but my intrepid assistant, Colleen, filled me in years ago. (Thanks as always, Coll!) I still peak at videos of techniques I haven't used in a while, whether it's making bobbles, Kitchener stitch, or (gasp!) brioche. (No, I haven't finished it. You want to make something of it?) I also love to see the excerpts of knitting art installations, knits and knitting featured in movies, and interviews with famous designers.
There are also several good online magazines out there for knitting info. Knitter's Review is authored by knitting expert and book author Clara Parkes, and she reviews everything to do with knitting. With 11 years of archives, you'll likely find a review of anything you need.
Knitty is an online only magazine, with an entire community associated with it. Beautiful patterns (free), great articles, and a helpful community are just a click away.
Twist Collective has articles about knitting history, current knitting issues, an advice column, and of course, patterns. (These patterns are not free - you click on the title and the pricing info comes up in a separate window.)
The Daily Knitter has daily free patterns (yep, daily), articles, help articles, help videos, and a very thorough list of LYS throughout the country. If you're travelling, it's a great resource to make sure you can get a knitting fix where ever you go!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
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| Naturesong Plant-dyed Merino |
I've decided that there is no single answer for me. It's kind of like going on a diet - I'm reducing my environmental impact. I can't go from 0 to 100% in one step. As it turns out, neither can most yarn manufacturers. There are simply too many details, and going fully organic is impossible to do in large volume. Here are some of the details: Is the fiber produced without chemicals, pesticides, in sustainable ways with minimal impact to soil, air, and water? Is it processed on machinery made from sustainable sources? Powered by water, electric, gas, ethanol? How is dyeing handled? Is it vegetable dye? Sustainable? Low impact? Conventional? If it's silk, were the silk worms allowed to become moths, or were they killed when the cocoons were complete? Is the entire process cruelty free? Is the packaging and shipping done in a low-impact way?
Many of the major manufacturers/distributors have come up with eco-friendlier lines to supplement their existing product line. To simply stop producing conventional yarns would put the big manufacturers out of business, as eco is so expensive. Lion Brand, Cascade, Knit Picks, Lana Grossa and Classic Elite have all added eco-friendly and/or organic yarns to their product lines, among a mountain of others. Using these yarns is a step in the right direction. It sends a message to the company that I'm willing to pay a bit more to do better for the environment.
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| Allhemp6 Hemp Yarn |
Dyeing is the subject of huge debates now, and it's more complex than you would think. Tiny amounts of conventional dyes will color massive amounts of yarns, and will leave low environmental impact. Massive amounts of natural dyes are required to dye small amounts of yarn (approximately 100 times more by volume than conventional dyes), and have an enormous farming footprint.
How do you choose? I don't have a neat answer. Research your favorite yarns with regard to your particular concerns. If you worry about the treatment of animals, environmental impact, land use, or recycling, those are all things you can discover about most fibers. Jump on company web sites and learn what you can. And if you can't find the answers you're looking for, ask the company. They won't know you care if you never tell them. :)
Monday, May 23, 2011
Classic Elite Yarn Lovers
I started a group on Ravelry today for the lovers of CEY. Different from the only other CEY group, this group is NOT limited to Classic Elite patterns, it's open to all projects. If you love their yarns, Jill Eaton, Verde, Classic Elite, Twinkle, and St. Denis, drop by and let us know what's on your mind!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
A Surprising New Favorite
Fall 2011 and all of 2012 fashion highlight all-over texture in every garment. Gorgeous stuff if you're a knitter, to be sure. But how? Boucle yarns? Complex pattern stitches? I can be kind of predictable in my yarn preferences. I wouldn't say that I'm in a rut; I'm more diverse than that! But I don't usually go for a textured yarn, or a particularly chunky yarn. Usually.
Then, over the weekend, I started playing with Katydid, a fully organic-cotton tape yarn (conventionally dyed) from Classic Elite's Verde Collection. I had some mixed feelings at first: as beautiful as the colorways are, and as soft yet strong the yarn is, I was out of practice with tape yarns. Would I find this tape yarn, technically a bulky (though extremely light) awkward? The long and short of it is, NO! I was pleasantly surprised to see that Katydid is as easy to knit with as any simple worsted. Really! Much of the credit goes to its easy drape and smooth hand. If you haven't worked with tape yarns before, this is an ideal first choice.
Tape yarns can create rich and beautiful textures without the need for lots of fancy stitching. Soft yarns often pill and shed, but tape yarns don't, due to the way they're woven. Katydid has the best of both worlds. In the swatch below, I worked stockinette, knit-purl alternating, reverse stockinette, yarn overs, and then bobbles. None of these are difficult stitches, though I understand they may seem complex if you knit them in such close succession. The question was this: the texture is great on stockinette, but does it enhance other basic stitch work? My answer is definitely YES!
Tape yarn tips:
1. Use the recommended needle size, or larger. Smaller needles will remove the textured affect.
2. Use a dowel to hold your yarn. Like your paper towels, tape yarns are much easier to use if you work the skein from the outside with the ball on a dowel. Take a spare knitting needle and stick it into a block of styrofoam. This will keep the ball from rolling around, which can lead to excessive twisting of the yarn.
3. If you twist the yarn as you work (though the dowel thing makes this unlikely), untwist frequently. Twisted tape yarns look like standard yarns if they are very twisted during the knitting process.
4. Tape yarns are not ideal for garments with negative ease, as they tend to be much less elastic than standard yarns. If you are making a garment designed to have negative ease, consider sizing up to ensure a good fit.
5. If it isn't listed in the pattern, consider doing a cable bind off. It's a little stretchier, and will make your seams and edges behave like the rest of your garment.
I encourage you to go get some. Play with it. It's delightful. If you're unable to get your hands on Katydid locally, ask your LYS to order some. Don't want to wait? It's available online at WEBS, Yarn Barn, and many other shops. Enjoy!
Then, over the weekend, I started playing with Katydid, a fully organic-cotton tape yarn (conventionally dyed) from Classic Elite's Verde Collection. I had some mixed feelings at first: as beautiful as the colorways are, and as soft yet strong the yarn is, I was out of practice with tape yarns. Would I find this tape yarn, technically a bulky (though extremely light) awkward? The long and short of it is, NO! I was pleasantly surprised to see that Katydid is as easy to knit with as any simple worsted. Really! Much of the credit goes to its easy drape and smooth hand. If you haven't worked with tape yarns before, this is an ideal first choice.
Tape yarns can create rich and beautiful textures without the need for lots of fancy stitching. Soft yarns often pill and shed, but tape yarns don't, due to the way they're woven. Katydid has the best of both worlds. In the swatch below, I worked stockinette, knit-purl alternating, reverse stockinette, yarn overs, and then bobbles. None of these are difficult stitches, though I understand they may seem complex if you knit them in such close succession. The question was this: the texture is great on stockinette, but does it enhance other basic stitch work? My answer is definitely YES!
Tape yarn tips:
1. Use the recommended needle size, or larger. Smaller needles will remove the textured affect.
2. Use a dowel to hold your yarn. Like your paper towels, tape yarns are much easier to use if you work the skein from the outside with the ball on a dowel. Take a spare knitting needle and stick it into a block of styrofoam. This will keep the ball from rolling around, which can lead to excessive twisting of the yarn.
3. If you twist the yarn as you work (though the dowel thing makes this unlikely), untwist frequently. Twisted tape yarns look like standard yarns if they are very twisted during the knitting process.
4. Tape yarns are not ideal for garments with negative ease, as they tend to be much less elastic than standard yarns. If you are making a garment designed to have negative ease, consider sizing up to ensure a good fit.
5. If it isn't listed in the pattern, consider doing a cable bind off. It's a little stretchier, and will make your seams and edges behave like the rest of your garment.
I encourage you to go get some. Play with it. It's delightful. If you're unable to get your hands on Katydid locally, ask your LYS to order some. Don't want to wait? It's available online at WEBS, Yarn Barn, and many other shops. Enjoy!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Back From Classic Elite
I'm back from Massachusetts, and had a fabulous visit at Classic Elite Yarns. As you might think, it's nothing short of knitter's heaven. Wandering their halls, seeing samples, skeins, sketches, and of course lots of great people made me think I'd walked through the looking glass to the perfect wonderland.
If you haven't been, they're in Lowell, MA in the historic mill district. Their building is a treasure of a place, and huge! It's now home to dozens of artist studios, a musicians' studio and music school, a restaurant, their entire company, a yarn shop, and more. This is several city blocks' worth of interconnected real estate with an 1890's feeling. Really amazing. Their "Hub Mills" yarn shop is chock full of their yarns as well as several other very high-end brands making for shopper heaven. I particularly loved the cashmere display with 6 shelves of cubbies! I could have died happy just with the shopping.
On to the office of Betsy Perry, the President and sole owner of CEY. She is a cheerfully dynamic woman, and welcomed me warmly into her office. Her office has huge windows original to the historic building forming one wall, making for a spacious, naturally lit workspace. Well-placed industrial antiques and turn-of-the-century knitting accessories gave the otherwise efficient room a clear personality and purpose. We visited about Lowell and her company for a few minutes before getting down to work.
I showed some sketches of patterns for their recently-added Verde Collection of eco-friendly yarns, and Betsy was very supportive. We decided to work on a project together with a long ramp-up period. And then it happened.
Judy, an employee charged with trunk show and designer management responsibilities, brought in the fall color cards for Woodland and Chesapeake (limited color cards below). OMG! Woodland is a DK wool with nettles, a natural moth and bug retardant. It's soft with a slight halo, and a faintly marled color absorption. It comes in cozy, cottage-y colors that are heavenly. Chesapeake is a worsted 50/50 blend of cotton and merino in richly saturated colors with a distinct marle. With its high cotton content, it exhibits excellent stitch definition.
Chesapeake -
5903 Mephisto
5904 Scuba Blue
5912 Meyer Lemon
5920 Oxford
5925 Tokyo Rose
5938 Bracken
5948 Bronte Blue
5949 Arabian Night
5955 Shanghai Red
5957 True Blue
5979 Catawba Grape
5981 Tendril Green
5985 Mandarin Orange
5995 Rosetti Purple
5998 Metro Green
3101 Ivory
3103 Silver
3138 Bracken
3148 Prussian Blue
3150 Sunshine
3155 Carnelian Red
3175 Charcoal
3177 Ash
3185 Orange
3192 Celestial
3195 Violet
3197 Fern
It's an abundance of riches to have so many exciting yarns in wonderful colors at hand. Where to start? After some deliberation I realized I can start anywhere. It's all that good.
If you haven't been, they're in Lowell, MA in the historic mill district. Their building is a treasure of a place, and huge! It's now home to dozens of artist studios, a musicians' studio and music school, a restaurant, their entire company, a yarn shop, and more. This is several city blocks' worth of interconnected real estate with an 1890's feeling. Really amazing. Their "Hub Mills" yarn shop is chock full of their yarns as well as several other very high-end brands making for shopper heaven. I particularly loved the cashmere display with 6 shelves of cubbies! I could have died happy just with the shopping.
On to the office of Betsy Perry, the President and sole owner of CEY. She is a cheerfully dynamic woman, and welcomed me warmly into her office. Her office has huge windows original to the historic building forming one wall, making for a spacious, naturally lit workspace. Well-placed industrial antiques and turn-of-the-century knitting accessories gave the otherwise efficient room a clear personality and purpose. We visited about Lowell and her company for a few minutes before getting down to work.
I showed some sketches of patterns for their recently-added Verde Collection of eco-friendly yarns, and Betsy was very supportive. We decided to work on a project together with a long ramp-up period. And then it happened.
Judy, an employee charged with trunk show and designer management responsibilities, brought in the fall color cards for Woodland and Chesapeake (limited color cards below). OMG! Woodland is a DK wool with nettles, a natural moth and bug retardant. It's soft with a slight halo, and a faintly marled color absorption. It comes in cozy, cottage-y colors that are heavenly. Chesapeake is a worsted 50/50 blend of cotton and merino in richly saturated colors with a distinct marle. With its high cotton content, it exhibits excellent stitch definition.
Chesapeake -
5903 Mephisto
5904 Scuba Blue
5912 Meyer Lemon
5920 Oxford
5925 Tokyo Rose
5938 Bracken
5948 Bronte Blue
5949 Arabian Night
5955 Shanghai Red
5957 True Blue
5979 Catawba Grape
5981 Tendril Green
5985 Mandarin Orange
5995 Rosetti Purple
5998 Metro Green
Woodland -
3101 Ivory
3103 Silver
3138 Bracken
3148 Prussian Blue
3150 Sunshine
3155 Carnelian Red
3175 Charcoal
3177 Ash
3185 Orange
3192 Celestial
3195 Violet
3197 Fern
It's an abundance of riches to have so many exciting yarns in wonderful colors at hand. Where to start? After some deliberation I realized I can start anywhere. It's all that good.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Free Patterns for Frigid Monday
From Classic Elite Yarns is this beautiful La Gran Stole. Pick a color, pick a yarn, and knit this up quickly. The pattern is easy, and the look is elegant in mohair, casual in cotton, and versatile in wool. Don't let the lacy look fool you; lace can be very warm in mohair or alpaca!
From Naturally Caron is the Santiago Entrelac Shawl. Thick and cozy, this is a basic entrelac pattern with a beautiful effect. Make it in the staple colors of your wardrobe for a go-to garment to moderate those drafts. Make it in a slightly shimmery fabric for a unique evening wrap. Make it in white mohair or alpaca and it's perfect for a winter bride!
I hear the coffee pot beeping. (Thank you inventors of Mr. Coffee!) Keep busy and stay warm!
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