Design Notebook: Academy Collar

  

Lately I've been working through a major backlog of projects, and whenever that happens I get the impulse to make and finish something really quickly. I've had the materials for this collar for over a year, but I kept on putting it off because it's a silly personal project, rather than one for work. I finally started it last weekend on a whim, and now that I've taken the time to knit it up, I'm so happy with it!

I've made a few of these collars before, but this one is particularly special. I knit the body in a mohair/wool/nylon blend bouclé held double, with an additional strand of Trendsetter Luna in a shimmery rainbow-silver color. Once that was finished, Lumberjack had the brilliant idea to work an edging on just three sides of the collar, just to spiff it up a little.

I decided to use just one strand of the Luna, which is a novelty yarn with teeny sequins attached to it. It was a pain to knit the i-cord, since the yarn is basically polyester thread - but the final effect is delicate and shimmering, a fine detail next to the richly textured collar fabric.

Since the gauge of the collar and the i-cord are so different, I worked the cord separately and sewed it on using a strand of laceweight alpaca/wool, which blends in perfectly. Overall, it was super fiddly and a bit time-consuming, but I'm so pleased with the end result that I don't even mind. I'm sure I'll be making more soon enough!

More details are on Ravelry here.

Happy Thursday, friends!

<3

Cory

FO: Gabrielle Collar

 

To start with, I might have a bit of a collar problem at the moment.

I've had one ball of this nutty Trendsetter Arabesque in my stash for years and years, and it wasn't until my recent collar excursions that I started eyeing it again. I've wracked my brain about this yarn for years: it was an impulse buy, and it's just fluffy and odd enough that it would be overwhelming as a larger-scale accessory, much less a full-sized garment. It's also sort of spidery and weird to work with, and well... it's eyelash yarn. (Enough said.) And yet, through stash purges and moves between and across countries, I kept it, because somehow, the flippy, impractical stuff still spoke to me.

So it sat, and it waited. And this week, as I knit my first collar, the seed of an idea began to form in my brain. What if instead of fighting against the ridiculousness of the yarn, I worked with it: paired it with another yarn with a more classic texture to create a fabric inspired by the flashy & classic pairings of a Chanel jacket trim?

So I grabbed some pink Kidsilk Night that I got from a friend's destash, held it together with the Arabesque, et voilà! Just the right balance of sparkle and substance - and finally, this stash orphan has found its purpose.

Happy Friday!
<3
Cory