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I was fortunate at Stitches West to be able to take the “Color in Fair Isle: from Inspiration to Motif” class taught by Janine Bajus, whose book, The Joy of Color, I bought a few years ago and have admired ever since. It hasn’t gone beyond admiration because too much to make, so little time (isn’t that always the way?).
Homework was to bring (an) inspiration source(s). My self-assigned homework was a gauge swatch with Shetland wool. I worked this with Jamieson & Smith 2-Ply Jumper Weight 2 weeks before SW:
Well, I guess I come out as a loose knitter with this Shetland yarn. For the lower part I used 3.0 mm needles and for the top part 2.5 mm. The 2.5 gives me a nicer fabric and, bonus!, the stitch gauge I need to knit the Bougainvillea Vest kit I bought at SW 3 years ago (although nowhere near the row gauge, harumph, and that pattern suggests 3.25 mm). On to class!
On day 1, you chose an inspiration and used the Ultimate 3-in-1 Color Tool by Joen Wolfrom to select a few likely color families. My source is a photo I took of a painting by artist Eyvind Earle that hung at the Disney Family Museum. I ended up using page 4 for spring greens, which range from pale to bright to very dark, and page 21 for oranges as my main color families. The greens in the painting really lean spring and not green greens; my eye sees blue greens in the photo but the Color Tool disagrees. Janine explained that brown doesn’t have its own page because brown is always a blend of other colors, and she was right. I found the brown yarns in class belonged to their color family pages.
You then set the photo aside and went to the big yarn playpen containing 200+ colors of Jamieson’s Spindrift with only the Color Tool in hand to gather together colors from the pages you chose. The tool obviously does not have every possible shade of every color family, but holding the tool above the pile of yarns, yarns just jumped into my field of vision. It was so automatic and a little eerie. Choosing yarns took longer than I thought it would, up to the lunch break and a bit of time afterward. The goal was to end up with about 20 colors. Here are my choices next to the source photo.
In the afternoon of day 1, we cast on for our speed swatches, the striped bit in the photo below. This swatch is to ensure your chosen colors have enough contrast to give you strongly visible diagonal lines between the groups. My diagonal lines worked out well and I was happy with all but the beige. Others in the class had to do more revising and longer swatches and that is OK.
Day 2 began with some more work on speed swatches and then launching into motif swatches. Decision: which group of colors to use as background and which as pattern? I settled on orange as background and green as pattern. Further decision: which pop color(s) to use? I agreed with Janine in her critique that the bright yellow I chose interrupts the eye from seeing the motif’s pattern against background. She suggested I swap the position of the pop color in that row — use the yellow as background instead of as pattern color — so I worked the second motif that way without ripping so I could compare them.
It is still not quite right to my eye although I really like it from a distance. I over-embroidered 4 or 5 other colors on both rows during class to see what might work and none really did. Earle used that blue I pulled and it didn’t look right in the swatch. I am not worried; there are lots of shades of yellow and other colors to try, plus I can try a different motif or two because it might just be this motif that doesn’t work. I also want to add the beige (actually an orange) from the speed swatch back in for motif swatching because in sunlight instead of classroom fluorescents, it reads differently.
I deliberately chose an inspiration in colors I do not normally work with, hoping that breaking from the usual would prevent my eyes from drifting to the shades I like best rather than allowing the class curriculum to do its job. I think I succeeded — I like my swatch.
It is not much knitting to show for 12 hours of class, and gads, was I tired. Two-day classes always do me in.
It’s hard to quantify what all I learned. Janine is a knowledgeable, kind, and well-practiced colorwork teacher so if this topic interests you, I recommend her highly. I gained a lot of confidence with that Color Tool booklet and wander the apartment holding it up to various objects, watching the color families jump out at me when I find the right page. I used it to identify the Annapurna I bought from AVFKW in “mollusk” as a purple (I saw it as a pretty but unclassifiable brown). I always thought I was hopeless at this — Mr. MmmYarn was good at color pairing — and it turns out I only needed some instruction. After seeing the yarn playpen, I have an urge to buy all 200+ colors of Spindrift and must resist, although I think I will eventually buy the 12 colors I used and see where the yarn takes me. Of course, the 14 skeins of Spindrift I already have in the bins are not in these colors. Fortunately, I have plenty of other things to knit in the meantime.
Stitches West in Sacramento has come and gone. I spent Friday in the Market and Saturday and Sunday in class. Here are the spoils of the Market:
Top row: Shetland fiber from Clemes & Clemes, fish dish from Kunihiro Pottery at the Farm, embroidery patterns from Rosanna Diggs, Shetland/silk/firestar fiber from Goodie Supply Company
Bottom row: orange Mendocino from Bella Yarn, 3x speckled Tosh Merino Light from Madeline Tosh, 2x purple Cormo from Sincere Sheep, green Merino Sock from Lazer Sheep, 2 colors of Annapurna from A Verb for Keeping Warm, green and blue Dude from Schmutzerella Yarns, olive green Smitten from Wonderland Dyeworks
It is just 5,105 yards of yarn (under 3 miles) and 12 ounces of fiber this time. I went in intending to buy the 2 skeins of Sincere Sheep and possibly the 2 from AVFKW. Leaving with only 8 skeins more than planned is good, yes? 🙂 I didn’t plan to get mostly fingering weight, but that’s what I ended up with. No Addi Turbo needles or Jamieson & Smith yarn to be had this year. The Market was small already, and even smaller when it turned out a few vendors could not travel due to the weather.
I have plans for the Sincere Sheep. I have collected 6 colors of Cormo Fingering over several years and this is the neutral to tie them all together into a striped sweater. The Annapurna will be Rosemary Hill’s Mystery Shawl 2023. I didn’t buy the kit because I don’t need another project bag or another shawl pin, pretty as both were, and bought the yarn once I knew I could get the pattern without the kit. The KAL kicks off on April 21.
Leaving the hotel parking lot on Sunday, I noticed a fancy cupola peeking beneath bare and damp trees and realized for the first time that I had been across from the state capitol building the whole time. The joke’s on me for not noticing until then. To be fair, our room’s window had a view of the top floor of the parking garage and the weather was rainy, and I was distracted by yarn fumes, good friends, and tasty snacks. Next year, I need to plan part of Market day to wander the neighborhood. Just an hour won’t hurt, right?
You readers who know me may find this unbelievable (laugh if you must), but late October marks my first yarn purchase since Stitches West in February. While the total mileage of the yarn supply at home has increased in the 8 months since then, that was due only to industrious spinning. What tempted me, finally? This, which arrived in the mail yesterday!
I want to make the Crown Prince Square Shawl from “Knitted Lace of Estonia” (have had the book for years) and did not have enough laceweight, so I special ordered Reliquary II from A Verb for Keeping Warm in Vermillion. This was freshly dyed just 10 days ago and is pretty indeed in the sunshine on my fire escape.
In knitting project news, I am completely thwarted in the hats I want to make because tools are apparently sheltering in place also, wherever their place might be. Where in blazes have the size 4 needles gone? I can’t possibly have left them anywhere. Grump.
Another Stitches West has come and gone, and now that I’ve had a few days to recover (it is truly an exhausting experience when I go all three days), it’s time to share the loot photo!
Um… I may have lost my head a little. I went into it saying I don’t need any more project bags — notice I bought loose yarn rather than a kit for Romi Hill’s mystery shawl this year so I wouldn’t get another bag — and ended up buying two, plus got a kit to sew one and got one as a giveaway. What a pile of work fun that awaits me!
The details:
Top left section: 2 skeins Annapurna for Romi Hill’s mystery shawl, a sturdy needle threader, an indigo-dyed sashiko project bag kit, on top of a free-with-(big)-purchase bag from A Verb For Keeping Warm; 3 mini skeins of sock yarn from Forbidden Fiber Co. and 1 skein Rambouillet from Lazer Sheep (color “Space Sheep”), on top of a blue and orange project bag from Erin Lane.
Lower left section: Andy Shawl kit with project bag and yarn from Emma’s Yarns from Beautiful Systers; pins from Forbidden Fiber Co.; owl-shaped embroidery floss holder and small bobbin from Girl on the Rocks, sheep stitch markers and gray Romeldale/alpaca fiber from Sincere Sheep; Valley Yarns Northampton from WEBS; 2 Melanie Berg shawl books.
Down the middle: “On 5th” patttern, 4 Polwarth/silk fiber braids from Wonderland Dyeworks, mixed BFL fiber from 2 Guys Yarn. The Shetland section: Bougainvillea vest kit and 8 random colors of Jamieson and Smith Shetland from Lost City Knits.
Far right: Red Heart yarns, top two from the Pajama Party and bottom one as a gift from Marly Bird when I was in her class.
Believe it or not, it all fits into two medium-size tote bags. I confess I spent more than I intended, but not more than I should or than I could afford, so it’s all good. The Pajama Party on Friday night was fun but loud (must bring ear plugs next time so I don’t need to stuff torn bits of paper cocktail napkin in my ears), I took 3 classes (more on those later), and ran into fiber friends: stayed overnight with 6 of them and kept bumping into them and other friends and spinning guild members in the Market. A huge part of the fun of wandering is seeing everyone’s hand-made creations, proudly worn; we crafters have some amazing skills! I planned my daily wardrobe around what I wanted to show yarn vendors and pattern designers, wearing 1 or 2 things each day that I could show them at their booths.
Last night, I felt ready to tackle the goodies and catalogued everything into my yarn and fiber spreadsheet (8,164 yards of yarn, 27.2 ounces of fiber), and this morning printed the 3 patterns and wound a mini skein of Forbidden’s sock yarn for the next pair of fingerless mitts. Onward!
P.S. This was the view outside the convention center on Friday evening.
I had such a good time at the Stitches West market yesterday! Here’s exactly how much fun I had:
Top row:
Octopus Mitten kit from Dragonfly Fibers (yarn is Traveller); book “The Rhinebeck Sweater”; Hardtwist yarn in Glory (yellow) from Lisa Souza Knitwear and Dyeworks; 10 ounces Polwarth & silk fiber in Seawater from Wonderland Dyeworks; 3 skeins Oink Pigments DK in Watermelon Rind from Oink Pigments
Bottom row:
4 skeins Traveller in African Daisy from Dragonfly Fibers; 3 skeins Cascade Kid Seta in 3 shades of blues; 2 skeins Rothko (Polwarth/silk blend) in Cayenne (red-orange) from Abstract Fibers; BLF/nylon sock yarn in Plum Majesty from 2 Guys Yarn Company; Diaphanous laceweight in blue from Sincere Sheep
The market has been a one-day event for me the past few years so I have to make it count!
2 Guys Yarn Company is new this year. I had to take a couple of minutes to allow my eyes to adjust when I got to their booth, because most of the yarn I had just seen was brilliantly saturated with color and theirs are lovely muted colors. Well worth the couple of minutes! I decided pretty quickly I wanted a skein of BFL sock yarn, because that’s harder to find as a base, and took my time to finally choose a gorgeous purple. I recommend you stop by!
Wonderland Dyeworks is new to me but not new to the market. I don’t know how I could have overlooked them last year; I was drawn in 4 times yesterday, just loving the colors, and finally decided on the Seawater braids.
I went to Dragonfly Fibers early on, scoping out what they had because I found them so late in the day last year I hadn’t much money left; this time around I wanted a sweater quantity and enough cash on hand to get it!
All in all, added 6575 yards (3.74 miles) and 10 ounces of fiber to the stash.
Noteworthy-to-me absences: there were four booths I planned to go to and they weren’t there: Cephalopod Yarns, Kollage Yarns (need another set of square needles; only one vendor had them but not the size I need), Nordic Mart (I talked to someone who has the inside scoop and they are planning to go in even-numbered years), and Village Spinning & Weaving. I also ended up not attempting to cram myself into Miss Babs’ or The Verdant Gryphon’s booths, both too full every time I happened by.
After all the shopping I met up for dinner from my friends who drove up from where I used to live and spent a few hours catching up with them. Today I spent the day resting my tired legs, getting stuff done around the apartment, and admiring my pile of lovelies that I haven’t put away yet. It’s too bad it’s only once a year (all that eye candy) but, speaking honestly, best for the budget and yarn storage areas if it’s only once a year. 🙂
Some goodies from the Tausendschön shop in Saarbrücken. I bought 5 of the skein on the right.
I just got home from a short trip to A Verb For Keeping Warm, where I attended a very funny and informative talk given by Franklin Habit on the topic of Weldon’s Practical ___ (fill in the blank as you please: “Needlework” is the blanket term, but they put out specific booklets for many needle crafts (knitting and crochet and embroidery) and also branched out into crepe paper (horrifying, really!) and iron work and more). His talk covered some of the practical and much more of the not-so-practical items he has discovered in his readings of these publications, and he ended, as I am guessing he must end every conversation with knitters these days, with the striped bathing drawers made so famous on his blog, “The Panopticon,” a few months ago. So, while I did inspect drawers belonging to a man I have never met, all of us in the audience had an invitation to do so. They are, indeed, worthy of their fame. I must also add they were lying on top of a pile of yarn on a table and not worn by the man himself, lest any of you readers get the wrong impression here.
A trip to AVFKW rarely comes off without enhancing the stash because, boy, do they have some nice yarn. Some of it grabbed a ride home with me.
That’s Even Tinier Annapurna, in Sarah’s Sunny Disposition and Indigo Blue Sky, and the pattern I intend to use with them.
It was a good month for knitterly talks in the area; on the 6th I attended Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s scheduled book tour stop in San Francisco. She gave a short talk, read two chapters from her book, then probably developed a hand cramp signing her name in copies of her book over and over again (how she knits in the evenings on book tours after signing her name, legibly and in nice script, a couple of hundred times a night, I’ll never know). I bought her book, of course, and admit she’s the only the only author whose books I buy without having first gotten them from the library to see if they’re worthy of shelf space (once I check out a book 3 or 4 times, I consider that a copy of it might want to live here). This book is worthy.
Random thing to end a late-night post: baby hummingbirds in my friend’s rosebush!
I started a new cardigan for me with a lovely silk and wool blend, Noro Iro. It’s going so quickly — it’s such a treat to see a sweater’s rapid progress on size 10 needles. As always in my experience with Noro yarns, though, nearly each of the 10 skeins had a break where it abruptly changed to a different color in the stripe sequence. My solution: to wind each skein and start a new ball wherever there was a break, and to note all color changes. For each new skein I put on the swift, I found the ends, pulled out a few yards of each to see which direction the color changes were going and used the one in which the colors went the correct direction.
The result: a cookie sheet of yarn, with a piece of paper on top that’s the map for which colors are in each ball. Writing it here so I don’t forget: I wrote down the color sequences from the inside of the ball out while winding but I’m knitting from the outside, so read the sheet from bottom to top. The system is working well and I’m 7 inches into the body already.
Two skeins of Jamieson & Smith Shetland 2-ply were sitting on the shelf at the Goodwill today, two skeins for $2, yay!
Actually, it was a bag of random yarn for $2. Outside the store I opened the bag, removed what I wanted, and donated the rest back immediately so they can sell it again.
Random note: how is it I never stumbled across the band Interpol? I’ll have to hie me to Amoeba Records tomorrow whether it’s raining or not.
Some vacation souvenirs from Tausendschön in Saarbrücken.
Mmm... Yarn 