The best part of being “out of session” is you get to experiment a lot, knit a lot and find new great things. I have spent December and will spend January dyeing new yarns, a mulberry silk/ wool blend that is natural, non superwash- but yes, the silk worms do not get to become moths. This is a fact I will need to weigh. It is a beautiful yarn and takes color very well.
This is in marigold and avocado, a double knit hat size 3 needles. I am making plans to dye the rest of this, choosing which colors I love. I kinda love these! Next I wanted to knit with and wear my merino wool in worsted weight. I had some yellow, not usually my thing for a whole garment but I am so happy I did. This is the Felix cardigan, I love it. I did take the buttons off and replaced them with penguin buttons. My daughter said I looked like a preschool teacher, but hey I am channeling my inner Antarctica. By the way the sweater is shone on the same weekend, different light. It is still very very bright yellow!
Ok, so then I wanted to check out exactly what a certain color combo looked like. These photos are not well lit, but I achieved my goal. When you go buy a two color skein, what will happen when you knit?
These were natural and avocado. I like the look a lot on this simple 2×2 ribbed hat. I knitted that up in a night for my kid to take on a ski trip- will they ever know what we really do for them?
OK, so the big reveal is the CHICKEN PANTS as we have come to call them at my house. They are actually Hosenmatz by Mayumi Kaliciak and Antje Litzmann once published in Lanade in 2016, now available free online. You can locate the pattern via Ravelry. I have made many pairs of these pants from the pattern. In the past I had used a fingering weight and a smaller stripe but I wanted to try out The Darling Yarn Company’s alpaca sport and it is perfect! So soft!!!!!
Now you see why we call them CHICKEN PANTS. Anyway, these are knitted in the smallest size and are, as expected, a size I would call 3-6 months, instead of 0-3. This is a yarn substitution which, happily with babies, works well. The belly cuff and ankle cuffs can fold up or down to help with size and accommodate some growing (as they do so quickly). The only thing I will do differently in the future on these is indeed use the smaller needle on the belly cuff too so it will be a bit more snug. There is an option to add an I cord for larger sizes if you look through the pattern. If you look at the ankle cuff close up you can see the bind off is a ribbed bind off. I went through a gazillion videos and pdfs to find a ribbed bind off that was not overly cumbersome but still worked very well. I really like this bind off and will teach it in an upcoming class at The Artful Yarn this Spring, along with the other skills needed for these, German short rows, ribbed cast on, jogless stripes. Oh what fun. The other question these answered, as they are washed and blocked is THE COLORS DON’T RUN. I get asked that a lot. You can see no color migration to the natural wool from the yellow.
OK, so there was a lot of yellow in this knitting session. It happens to be my favorite color (not necessarily to wear) and it is a very happy color. There are many other colors available at the store. That is all for today- I need to get a baby blanket finished too. I am doing crocheted starburst granny squares in Mrs. Moons Plump DK, it is finally getting finished and is so cute. I will put it on Instagram once it gets all put together.
Knit Naturally 