Happy Fall Y'All!!! October 2017

Hello Everyone!

In keeping with our theme for October, Happy Fall Y’All!!! As many of you may know, the term “y’all” is not something you hear too often in New England. But, half my Family says y’all without missing a beat, as well as many of my former work colleagues. Hearing y’all makes me think these of amazing people in my life and that always makes me smile (big time!!). Since Fall is such an incredible time of year, full of color and beauty, and all things pumpkin spice, and the happiness this time of year brings, y’all fits just perfectly!

As we make our way fully into Fall, we are continuing with another Mystery Knit Along, Speckle & Pop, by the one and only Stephen West. I think I have successfully branched out into brighter colors from my experience with the “What the Fade?!” MKAL. Having to choose three main colors and five pop colors could sell the great iPhone alone. Thankfully, Linda helped me choose my colors and even she was surprised I picked the brightest of the gorgeous choices. Although one of my three main colors for Speckle & Pop contains my all-time favorite dark neutral shade, one of my colors is a combination of the darker neutral with the brighter shade that is my third shade. The names are really a lot of fun, too. I am using Hedgehog Skinny Singles in Potluck (bright and light oranges and pinks with speckles of purple and turquoise), Madeline Tosh Tosh Merino Light in Dirty Harry (!!) (dark charcoal with medium and light orange with speckles of purple and red), and Mrs. Crosby Plays Satchel in Frank (a shaded dark neutral in charcoal). My pop colors are from Wonderland Yarns Cheshire Cat in turquoise, purple, red, light plum, and pink. I look at combinations of colors so differently now since I have learned how to fade. And anything that breaks me out of my dark neutrals but still lets me keep some of them is great all around! And I love my yarn, because as you recall, for larger projects especially, you have to love the yarn!!

We all have different ways of approaching a project that has multiple changes of color and specific placement of markers. While the stitches themselves are not difficult, the mastery in using their simplicity in intricate ways is the sheer creativity of Stephen West. Who would have thought my years of planning at work would be so helpful in retirement where knitting is a daily activity. In fact, one of our very resourceful knitters created a spreadsheet (love this!!) to keep track of the rows and color changes. I am using the spreadsheet along with positioning my yarn much like the last MKAL, with my different color pens, and notebook at the ready. I have my assortment of markers waiting. I was more than a little excited to use my WeeOnes Hedgehog markers. What else could I use with Hedgehog yarn??!

While knitting through Clue 1, I highly recommend viewing Stephen West’s embedded video. He offers great instruction and tips (my favorite - folding your yarn to decrease ends to weave in) in a highly entertaining way. As I knit Clue 1, I can see the beautiful lacy effect fingering weight yarn with yarn overs have on size 4 needles. Although each of my yarns is the same weight, their textures are different. I think this adds to the tactile delight of knitting in addition to the yarn’s visual stimulus as the clue itself and future clues unfold.

Here are my yarn selections and my progress, so far. I am looking forward to Clue 2. I am also finishing my What the Fade?! Shawl so our living room has been taken over by my knitting projects. I have a feeling that I am not alone in this!!

Enjoy everything this season brings and Happy Fall Y’All!!!

Knit On! Lisa

What the Fade?! MKAL, Part Two (Socks, Suspense, September! 2017)

Hello Everyone!

Time for an update on knitting my first MKAL and Fade. 

I am now a big fan of MKALs. For those who have happily knitted your way from Clue Five to Clue Six, I applaud you!! But, if you're like me, you are somewhere between Clues Four and Five of Andrea Mowry's Mystery Knit Along, "What the Fade?!" Waiting for each clue is much like reading a mystery novel, trying to guess what's next as each page turns. In the beginning, it was hard to visualize what this shawl would look like. The "spoiler" pictures from Andrea Mowry's Drea Renee Knits Ravelry page helped with picturing what my shawl might become shape wise. The color choices were bright to muted and everything in between. As you may recall, I chose Mrs. Crosby Plays Speckle Fade Kit. When I first picked this fade kit, I vacillated between the Speckle and the Purples Fade Kits. I really liked each one, ok, I loved each one, but decided to go brighter; my eyes were attracted to the Speckle Fade Kit first. I think after knitting on what are well over 400 stitches a row and counting, that maybe the most important thing is to love your yarn. You have to love the yarn weight, the feel, and most of all, you have to love the color. I say this because you will have this yarn on your needles for a while, knitting many Brioche and Garter Stitches, and the project is that much more enjoyable if you love your yarn.

The next important aspect of knitting this shawl is becoming as Andrea puts it, a Brioche “Rockstar”. Without exaggeration, there is a lot of Brioche knitting in this shawl. The Brioche knitting gives shape and dimension to the shawl all while sharpening the skills required to execute the stitch and colorwork knitting with “fade” colors. This is a stitch I could barely knit until last month and here I am, knitting it without hesitation. I think I can even correct an error without ripping out my work (although I hope this is an increasingly rare occurrence!). I finally saw the pattern between the stitches. It felt like a huge light bulb went off!

Another aspect to consider is your knitting needles. I use convertible circular needles for all my knitting and these needles made all the difference in my ever-growing shawl. I stared with an eight-inch cord and grew to a 50-inch cord! I have never used my 50-inch cord, but I had one, just in case. Would you believe that the 50 inch cord with five inch tips are almost too small?! I can connect two cords together to make an even longer cord, which is just part of the beauty of convertibles.  Like loving your yarn, it is also important to love your needles.

And as I continue to knit this beautiful shawl, I am amazed at how the colors play off each other and how the intricacy of the stitches is displayed. I will keep you posted on my progress, through finishing and blocking. And, I am already looking forward to our next project, Stephen West’s Speckle & Pop MKAL. Linda helped me pick out some incredible colors and to see how they come together will be exciting.

One last Thing for this blogpost entry, take time to admire your hard work and your progress. Take pictures along the way. It will surprise you at how far you've progressed. Here is my progress, so far...
Knit On!

Lisa

Socks, Suspense, September 2017! Part 1

Hello Everyone!

This is an exciting month! We have a wonderful free class with yarn purchase for easy roll-top ankle socks using pattern Rose City Roller by Mara Catherine Bryner. This sock project is portable, has some different stitch techniques to make it interesting, and helps us prolong the warmer weather as we transition into Fall. And they make great yoga socks!

We are also working  on the What the Fade?! Mystery FADE Along by Andrea Mowry, www.dreareneeknits.com. Everywhere you look, local yarn shops, knitting groups, and individual knitters are participating in Andrea Mowry’s first ever FADE Along where six different gradient colored yarns “fade” into each other as each clue is revealed. There are eight clues in all, with the first clue dropping on August 31^st and the eighth clue coming out in October. Here, at Yarns by HPF, we are using Mrs Crosby’s Fade Kits, which includes six individual colors of her Satchel yarn chosen to play off of one another.

But first, here’s a little bit about designer, Andrea Mowry. Who is this tattooed, engaging, prolific and talented, beautiful designer? She literally burst onto the knitting scene with great force and has been designing unique and fabulous-to-wear knits since 2014. In an interview on the Woolful podcast when it was new (2014), Andrea said that she wanted knitting to be her life and she was taking the leap to do just that. Now she’s arguably one of the most popular pattern designers around. Taught as a child by her grandmother, she says it is rarely a day that passes without yarn in her hands. She also bakes and embroiders, as well as sews. She says on her website that she believes in enjoying every stitch and wearing at least one hand knit everyday – which she obviously does! She emphasizes style and quality, focusing on designing accessories and garments to fit the modern wardrobe. Her patterns are fun to knit and stylish to wear with clear directions for every level of knitter. Her patterns’ embedded videos are fantastic. By her own account, she greatly loves learning new techniques and skills and luckily shares with knitters through her patterns. She believes that one of the fabulous aspects to knitting is the multitude of ways you can end up with the same result. Andrea creates and supports a handmade life through knitting and sewing garments for herself and her family. A stay-at-home Mom, she cooks from scratch and tries to shop locally and support small businesses. She says that when she began designing, it was very important to incorporate her feelings into her work. She is definitely the real deal! Knowing a bit more about Andrea Mowry makes knitting her designs even more special and fun.

Now onto knitting The What the Fade?! Mystery FADE Along. This is my first MKAL and first fade project. I am someone who reads a pattern through a couple of times before I begin knitting a project. To knit in “installments” is a bit outside my comfort zone. But, I really like Andrea Mowry’s designs, I learned Brioche in August, and Mrs. Crosby’s yarns, www.mrscrosbyplays.com, were calling to me to come “play”, so there was nothing stopping me. In this blogpost, I will talking about starting the Mystery FADE Along and my progress so far. I am in the middle of Clue Two, working towards finishing it by the time Clue Three comes out on September 14^th. To set up for this project, I picked out my yarn - I chose Mrs. Crosby’s Speckle Fade Kit. The colors are also outside my comfort zone. They are bright and pronounced, not my usual dark neutrals. I have my color-coded pens to yarn color to keep track of the pattern rows as I knit. I do write down what I knit from the pattern because I have found through much trial and error, my knitting is better off for it. This is my methodology to keep track of rows. It is a bit over the top, but it works for me. As always, use whatever method makes you comfortable. My tiered plastic containers to stage my yarn helps prevent tangling, which is inevitable in this project where at any one time you can have as many as four skeins going at once.  Yes, it is quite the production!

When I began with Clue One, I decided to go with a color arrangement of a lighter to darker fade, like the yarn is set up in the package.  This is in contrast to what is suggested in the pattern, but like Andrea says, the same knitted project can have different outcomes. At first I couldn't see how the color combinations worked. Colors A & D, B & E? And then, a blinding flash of the obvious or BFO for short - Brioche is reversible, two fades in one project, one for each side! And then it all made sense. I highly recommend viewing the pattern's embedded videos, especially for the Brioche increases. The videos are very well shot and Andrea's sparkly pink fingernails contrast well with her green hand tattoo!!

The pattern growing from the center spine is intricate and magical at the same time. Bringing in two additional colors through Clue Two makes knitting this shawl like reading a good mystery. I want to see where this clue leads and I am anxiously waiting for the next clue to drop! I am also waiting to see if I can reach Brioche Rock Star status?!?! 

So for now until the next installment, I am going back to finishing up Clue Two. Clue Three will be here before we know it! I am thoroughly enjoying decyphering the clues to this mystery. Check out our Instagram @yarns.by.hpf for a look at our wonderful knitters working on their What the Fade?! projects. 
Stay tuned for the next What the Fade?! installment!

Knit On! Lisa