Hatamaran: Prize Winners!

Congratulations to our winners, and thank you again to everyone who played along!

sumpol79 on Ravelry is our Prize 1 winner: Pow! shawl pattern, book-themed project bag, and 2 skeins of Jitterbug in colorway Lapis.

cougstamper on Ravelry is our Prize 2 winner: Talus hat pattern, sheepie project bag, and 1 skein of Bello in colorway Doublemint.

@hilapups is our Instagram winner: free digital copy of their choice from my Ravelry store!

ccb is our Ravelry winner: free digital copy of their choice from my Ravelry store!

I’ll be in touch with folks in the next day or so, and mailing of prizes will happen after I return from my trip next week. (I’m in Hawaii right now, hence the late hour for the prize drawing :)

Have a lovely evening, and congrats again to our winners! <3

Cory

Note: All winners were chosen using the List Randomizer on Random.org. If you have any questions about this process, feel free to email me!

FO: Uncommon Vasa

   

This past June, while on working holiday with Mr Blake, I took a stroll down Camden Passage to visit the famous Loop London. He was in company meetings all day, so after sleeping off my jetlag and devouring a ham croissant in the lobby of the hotel, I set off on the train to check out the sights. It had rained the day before on my visit to the V&A, but the sky hadn't been too threatening that morning, so I skipped the umbrella and went on my merry way to Islington.

Loop, as promised, was like a fairy cottage stuffed with wool. I spent over an hour there, growing a little collection of yarn that I carried around like a puppy in my arms. (Gift yarn for friends! Gift yarn for me! When in London, amirite?!) Then, as I poked around in the laceweight section downstairs, an afternoon rainstorm rolled in, and I had to stay a little longer than I had planned. So I stood there with an armload of yarn as the rain tapped its knuckles across the glass, and I breathed in the smell of wool and wet cobblestone from the open door and thought: this must be what heaven feels like.

When the rain finally let up, I left, carrying two precious skeins of Viola Merino Fingering in Speckled Mist (a special colorway just for Loop's 10th anniversary) and a skein of The Uncommon Thread Tough Sock, all part of the devious plan that was a-brewin' in my noggin:

My friend Sara and I had been kicking around the idea of a little seasonal sweater knitalong, as a way to keep accountable on our sweater knitting and have some fun along the way. Vasa was our first pattern choice: a drapey, universally flattering top, designed by Dianna Walla, a talented designer and delightful human to boot.

The only problem with the whole thing was my lack of suitable yarn, which is hilarious considering how much yarn I actually own. (Hint: it's a lot.) But then, with a well-timed trip to Loop, and the exciting possibilities of knitting with gorgeous UK (and hard-to-find Canadian) yarns, my problem was solved!

A month or so later, I cast on, and it became my at-home movie knitting until recently, when I finally bound off and blocked the darn thing.

Did I make it in time for the season, friends? I did not. Did I end up with a beautiful and wearable garment that will always remind me of walking around London on a rainy afternoon? Yes indeed.

     

Good enough for me.

All the details, including my modifications, are on Ravelry here.

Happy Wednesday, friends.

<3

Cory

 

Nusalong: It's An FO!

  

Friends, I think I've gone full-on mermaid. I can't get enough neon. All I want to is wear flowy things. I have this strange desire to comb my hair with a fork and wear a seashell as a hat. (Or is it a top? I can never remember.)

But I guess it's good timing that the Nusalong is ending this evening at 11:59 pm (remember to post to the Ravelry FO thread if you haven't already!!), because now I can quit my human job and apply to become a mermaid full-time! And how could that possibly go wrong?

...y'know, besides for every reason.

Oh well. I will content myself with wearing mermaidy things and smooshing my face in my new Nusa cowl, which is well and properly mermaid-tastic.

Thanks again to Stephania at Three Fates for sharing her gorgeous yarns with us, and to you all for participating! I'll be choosing winners of all three prizes and posting their names next Tuesday, May 17th. Stay tuned!

(Details of my Nusa are on Ravelry here.)

Happy (late) Friday, friends!

<3

c.

FO: Black Wolf Ranch Nusa

  

At this year's Madrona Fiber Arts festival, I chatted with Wendy of Black Wolf Ranch & Fiber for a few minutes while going for a spin around the market and admiring her lovely yarns. I had seen their booth at a few shows before, and was intrigued by the new dyed colors on their alpaca, alpaca/silk, and polwarth/silk bases, which take dye in the most jewel-like manner.

Fast forward a few months, when Wendy got in touch and asked if I could knit up a sample of Nusa using Black Wolf Ranch yarns. (Playing with pretty yarn and getting more indie.knits into the wild? Why yes, that sounds delightful!)

So after chatting about a few different color combinations, we settled on two colors of 100% alpaca Distinctly Alpaca Sport in Tuscan Sun and City Scape, a luminous acid green and a cozy medium gray. I cast on about a month ago and knit up the sample in a couple of weeks, and loved every second of it.

The alpaca gave such a wonderfully textural knitting experience, and the finished cowl such dramatic softness and drape, that I was a little sad to see this one get wrapped up and shipped off to its new home! But I'm so glad for the opportunity to knit with this gorgeous yarn, and honored that my work will be featured alongside Black Wolf Ranch's beautiful and thoughtfully produced yarns.

All the details are on Ravelry here.

Happy Monday!

<3

Cory

Two Hats: The Same, But Different

  

These two hats - both recently knitted, finished, and photographed - illustrate a split in my recent style of dress. On one hand, you have the über-feminine retro princess; on the other, you have the goofy, neon, punk-pop badass. Like an obnoxious baby of equal parts Megan Draper and Avril Lavigne.

Lately, I like to think that I channel both of these things to some degree. It's a part of being a human with a particular identity that I hadn't thought about much before now: that any given day, you might feel more one thing than the other; that it's okay to claim each as your own, and yet also express them differently (or not at all!) depending on how you feel at that moment.

Sometimes as I designer I put this pressure on myself to be one definable thing all the time - so that I might be more easily recognizable, maybe? - but at the end of the day, I enjoy the breathing room of not choosing. Some days I want to look soft and approachable, to wear pink and high heels and smile all the time. Some days I want to look like a neon sign that looks cool but also like it might fall on your head if you walk underneath it (but mostly in a friendly way?)

Is it possible to be strong and awesome and no-bullshit but also approachable and fun and nice? 'Cause gosh, I want to be that.

Oh well. Here's some hats.

Sweet Pea Cairn - more details on Ravelry here.

Magic Creek - more details on Ravelry here.

Happy Thursday, friends!

(I promise I will never be a neon sign that falls on your head. I was just kidding. Please don't run away.)

<3

Cory

FO: Fireweed With Me KAL!

  

These days, we have about four minutes of soggy daylight in Seattle - but even so, Lumberjack and I managed to duck outside yesterday to take some pictures of my finished Fireweed With Me shawl! As much as I love rainy weather, I get pretty bummed out by the constant darkness, so this shawl is a welcome reprieve - like a fruity cocktail on the beach, but in the middle of winter.

Side note - the cute little feather pin is a vintage French barrette from Mane Message, but it works perfectly as a shawl pin too! Ah, I love it when being a magpie pays off in unexpected ways...

Last reminder - to enter to win cool prizes for participating in the KAL, post post post to the Ravelry FO thread by 11:59 pm tonight, Friday, December 11th, and I'll post the winners here and on Ravelry on Monday! Finished shawls, WIPs - whateva! If you made it, I'd love to see it.

Thanks again so much for knitting along with me - I had so much fun seeing all of your color combinations and finished shawls, and I hope it was fun for you guys, too.

Happy Friday, friends!

<3

Cory

FO: Brick

  

After a few weeks of mindless knitting, I finished up my new sample of the Blake scarf, which I'm calling Brick after this amazing colorway of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Targhee Worsted. I used almost the whole skein - about 550 yards - and it was pretty awesome to have just two ends to weave in at the very end.

When the weather turns cold, I always find that I grab the longest, widest, squishiest scarves first. So with the new iteration of the pattern, I'm making it a teeny bit wider and a lot longer, for maximum cuddle factor. The pattern will continue to be free, and I'm hoping to make it available again around November.

More details are on Ravelry here.

Happy Wednesday, friends!
<3
Cory

FO: Violet Lupine

  

Oof, this week. Looming deadlines, business paperwork, class planning, and a veritable layer cake of family emergencies... looking back at the last few days, I'm impressed that I stood on two feet and spoke English, much less dealt with the aforementioned Important Adult Things with any semblance of competency. Not to sound unprofessional, but imagine a golden retriever wearing a propellor beanie at a laptop sending emails, and that's about where I've been for the last four days.

But hey, on the bright side, I finished a thing! This is my second Lupine shawl, knit in some Evil Genius Dye Lab single ply merino, which I bought at local shop in Puyallup a few months before it closed. It's not quite as squooshy as the Mechita, but with a tighter twist and overall texture reminiscent of Tosh Merino Light, I think it bodes well for this pattern playing nicely with a variety of yarns. (Clearly, I must make another one in a plied yarn, for science...)

As for this weekend, I'm going to head over to the Makers Market at Tolt Yarn and Wool with my friend Sooz to say hey to the Spincycle and YOTH gals, squish a prodigious amount of yarn, and check out all the other awesome local makers. And after this ridiculous week of mine, hanging out with yarn folks - who, according to my empirical evidence, are the nicest and best people on the planet - sounds positively luxurious.

ETA: Oh yeah... and details of my Violet Lupine are on Ravelry here.

Happy Friday, friends!
<3
Cory

FO: Socks, and More Socks!

  

Even though moving has dominated our free time over the last month, I've managed to fit in some major knitting of the sock variety! I've finished up not one but two pairs of socks in the last few weeks: one for me and one for Lumberjack. They're both plain socks, dead simple to knit, which was perfect for my scattered, exhausted brain. So even though my studio is still covered in boxes, our kitchen is half-unpacked, and the whole house is due for a good vacuuming... at least our feet are nice and warm?

More details on Ravelry here and here.

Happy Wednesday, friends!
<3
Cory

FO: Custom Fit Blouse

  

Oh, this one. I started this Custom Fit blouse a long time ago, probably back in November or so? Knit in Ultra Pima on small needles, this was a physically difficult fabric to create, so it took me quite a while to finish this sweater.

Overall, I'm glad that I went through the process, but the final product isn't quite what I'd hoped. As I've mentioned to many of our Custom Fit customers at the shop, it can take a sweater or two to tweak the pattern to your exact specifications, and my own experience was no different.

As far as my own fit issues go, here's a couple of things I would change, if the thought of tearing out this sweater didn't make me immediately curl up into a ball, pill-bug style:

- The width of the shoulders is very good, but the depth of the armhole is a little bit too much - I can feel the shoulder seams raising up every time I lift my arms. (I also like the armholes on my blouses high and tight, so that's a personal preference thing too.) Easy fix there.

- I did the Close Fitting silhouette, and it's just not fitted enough for my taste. The cotton yarn I used also stretched past my schematic measurements by about an inch total, so that can account for some of it. But even so, the schematic called for 2.5 inches of positive ease in the waist, which is way more than I'd usually prefer. I would have liked to see a very fitted option. As a busty person who can easily look 10-20 pounds heavier with less fitted silhouettes, I prefer to have a skosh of negative ease in the waist in knit blouses, which doesn't seem to be possible with Custom Fit given the sweater templates available. (Other Custom Fit folks, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about that!)

- Holy cats, the sweep of the hip is huge on this thing! There is so much extra fabric at the hip that it is unwearable with anything but a very full skirt. This is probably a gauge problem, and probably would have been fine if I hadn't gone up a needle size on the Daisy Stitch edging.

Overall, I think Custom Fit is a powerful product for knitters interested in garment construction, particularly prolific sweater knitters. The measuring process is a bit more in-depth, but well worth it for the detailed fit information it provides. I think it's worth it for any knitter to give it a whirl.

For me personally, I'm such a control freak, and I have such specific tastes in silhouettes and fit, that I don't think Custom Fit is the right program for me, and that's okay! I love understanding the nitty gritty details of design and construction, and now I know that I really do want to get my hands dirty with some math to get the fit I want.

And in the meantime, my Custom Fit sweater is gonna go chill at The Fiber Gallery with its Custom Fit sweater buddies.

More details on Ravelry here.

Happy Friday!

<3

Cory

FO: Chiral

  

I already talked a bit about this project, but with all of our duck-wrangling from the past few weeks, I didn't have time to get it photographed!

What started as an experiment in lace turned into a functional, interesting piece of knitting - my favorite kind. The natural bias of the fabric folds down into a big, squishy shawl collar in the back, with a deep, curved shape in the front. It's a clever little thing, despite its simplicity. I'll be working up a pattern for it soon.

More details on Ravelry here.

In other news, both Monsieurs Squishy and Pooper are doing just fine, but have advanced into Rattie Old Age, which means lots of antibiotics and frequent vet check-ups. They're both back to their cranky, exuberant selves, but it's been an interesting few weeks.

Also, pro-tip: if a rat refuses to take her medicine, try putting Hershey's syrup on it. Yes, even if the meds taste like chicken. No, I don't understand it either.

Happy Friday!

<3

Cory

FO: Talus & Heather

   

Sometimes the boundary between creative integrity and unreasonable self-criticism is a dark and murky line to tread. Take for example, this hat: I started and finished it a few weeks ago, and blocked it soon after, but I haven't had the heart to photograph it until now.

The reason? Because, in my infinite wisdom and forethought, I left it on my blocking table for a few days after it had dried. Each day I would walk by it, sitting in its little patch of sun, and think: now that is a good hat. It's pink and cute, and though it feels different than the original, I'm still quite fond of it.

It wasn't until I picked it up to weave in the ends that I had the sinking realization that while it basked in that bright patch of sunshine, the hat had faded from a clear, lovely pink to a tea-stained rose - just on the side that was facing the sun. A faint yellowed line marked the difference between front and back, and if I could tell, then goddamn it, anyone could.

So I got upset: with myself; with the yarn; with myself again. And I grumpily took photos, and I asked my fellow knitters for their advice. We all came down on the side of overdyeing it, and I let the matter rest until I could stomach the idea of actually doing it.

 

But yesterday, I picked up the hat, and I tried it on again. And somewhere between last week and this week, I unconsciously made the decision that sometimes 'good, not perfect' is good enough. I don't need to tear myself apart over a hat - a hat which, if I didn't point it out to anyone, wouldn't even register as flawed - just because it doesn't live up to my usual (read: unreasonably high) personal creative standards.

Because, for all my misgivings about it, the ethos that has served me best over the years is not perfection, but adventure. Without it, I never would have learned to knit socks, or gone to Indonesia, or gotten married; I wouldn't have built a ballgown, or worked at a yarn shop, or taken jazz piano lessons in Japan. All of those things were scary; they also define the moments at which I've been most thankful to be a human being.

So while perfection can be gorgeous, I don't want it, and neither does my hat. Which, if I do say so myself, is still pretty darn cute.

Details are on Ravelry here.

Happy Monday!

<3

Cory

FO: Ondrea Prototype

  

The moment that I cast off the sleeve for this sweater last week, I had the harebrained notion that I could finish it in time for my fashion school graduation ceremony (around NYFA it is simply called "going to tea") this last weekend. This sweater was one of the first pieces that I started for my senior collection in 2013, and around week 6 of preparing for the runway show, I dropped it after completing everything but the second sleeve and button band, thinking I could finish it really quickly afterwards.

That, my friends, did not happen. Although I haven't talked about it much here before, the months after the fashion show were pretty rough for me: there's this post-creative depression thing that seems to happen to a lot of people who work on big, overwhelming long-term projects, and I got hit with a pretty nasty case of it. And because of it, I could barely look at my sewing machine, much less this sweater, for almost a year.

But time heals many things - or at least, makes them seem less catastrophically exhausting - and after a long time, I began to entertain the idea of making things again at all. Which turned into a ballgown, and a tailored jacket, and finally, this sweater.

So it feels very fitting that I should finish the last loose end of my official fashion eduction, just hours before going to my final send-off. I'm very proud of this piece, and I'm very proud how far I've come as a designer and as a person in the years since I cast on for it. 

And with that - tally-ho, fashion degree! Let us advance into the world with winged eyeliner, fabulous shoes, and the best damn buttons a girl could ask for!

All the details are on Ravelry here, and I'll be posting a little about our ceremony on Wednesday.

Happy Monday, friends!

<3

Cory