Knitting in the nation's capital

I lived in DC (well, Northern Virginia really, but close enough) before I moved to the UK. But that was a time Before Knitting (BK), so I had never familiarised myself with the area's yarn shops. So when we made our biannual visit over New Year's, yarn shops were high on my itinerary.

But first, the obligatory visit to the Mall for a
dose of museums and  marble monuments.

Top of the list was Fibre Space, in Old Town Alexandria, which is also in Northern Virginia rather than DC, but again, close enough. I had forgotten to bring the details, but was able to find free wifi on the Mall, and quickly found the address on my iTouch. Then came the effort of explaining to my Dad's new SatNav, which we were kindly testing out for him, where exactly we wanted to go. For some reason it couldn't find the street, so we made it take us to a random location in Alexandria. From this point it was suddenly able to find the exact address, and off we went. (There was a map in the car, but we've become used to being disorganised and taking twice as long to accomplish anything by relying on the latest technology.)

At least Fibre Space was worth the effort. It is a bright and cheery shop with friendly, helpful staff, a wide range of yarns, and a computer you can use to search Ravelry. I particularly liked that they arrange their yarns by weight.

Fun and funky Fibre Space

I picked up a few yarns I haven't seen in UK yarn shops - a lovely berry-bright SweetGeorgia Yarns sport weight and two skeins of gorgeously soft mauve Fibre Company Road to China Light (also a sport weight).

This is one of my absolute favourite colourways for winter
(when a little bit of brightness is essential)

Mauve is a new colour direction for me - just so I don't get stuck in a rut.
Road to China is a luscious baby alpaca, silk, camel and cashmere blend.

A few days later we went to Dupont Circle to check out Looped Yarn Works. Unfortunately, I spent too long in my favourite consignment shop Secondi (where I bought a brown coat - just an excuse to knit more accessories, really), and we showed up at the yarn shop 15 minutes before they closed early for New Year's Eve. I just had time to pick up a skein of Cascade Yarns Eco Duo (undyed baby alpaca and merino), matching buttons and a project bag. Probably for the best - I would have a much more manageable stash if I restricted my yarn purchases to one souvenir skein per shop. But who can do that?

Michigan yarn and dolman sweaters

There are two yarn shops that I frequent whenever I'm in Grand Rapids - Threadbender and Country Needleworks - both of which are quite near where my parents live. Country Needleworks, which as the name suggests does not exclusively sell yarn, is particularly convenient as it is located right next to a great fabric shop, so between the two of them you can cover all your crafting needs in one trip. Threadbender has a better selection of yarn, but Country Needlework is not bad, and I picked up a sweater's worth of a lovely Michigan yarn there.

The yarn is Shepherd's Wool from Stonehenge Fibre Mill. I discovered this yarn in a shop I visited in Virginia just before New Years, and when I got back to Michigan I was tempted to go up and visit the mill. But it's located in East Jordan, even farther north than Traverse City - over a 6 hour round trip from my parent's place - so I couldn't really justify it after the 24 hour round trip we had just made to Washington DC. Maybe on my next visit.

Shepherd's Wool is a merino worsted weight, dyed in a range of lovely subtle colours. I picked a light toasty browny-orange colour. I thought it was quite reasonably priced for a merino, and the 100gm skeins have a good yardage. I got 1000 yards for about $50 - around £35.

When I got home I just had to start knitting it right away. I've had Holl by Kirsten Johnstone on my list all Autumn, and the Shepherd's Wool seemed a perfect yarn for this project (I had planned to knit it in Debbie Bliss Fez, but I couldn't get gauge, and Fez would undoubtedly have been too soft to maintain the structure of the pattern).

Ziggurat - for more photos and notes visit
www.ravelry.com/projects/perkniticky/holl

Holl is a reverse stockinette, regularly ridged, cropped, dolman sleeve sweater, knit from the bottom up, over the shoulder and down the back. You cast off a neck hole, sew up the sides, and voila, a sweater. You can add long sleeves or not.

I find this sweater construction extremely satisfying. There is something childishly simple about it. In fact, it reminds me strikingly of doll dresses I made as a child. Take a rectangle of cloth, cut a hole for the head, sew up the sides leaving holes for the arms, tie on a belt, and you're set.

Yet it has a sophisticated look that belies the simplicity of design. The shoulders are boxy and almost mannish, but the drape you get from the extra fabric under the arms lends a more feminine air. The term 'dolman' comes from the Turkish for robe, a style that was adopted for military dress in Europe from the 16th centuries, and then for women's dress in the late 1800 and early 1900s. The style had a revival in the 1940s and another mini-revival in the 1980s.

It's not a style that is particularly in fashion at the moment, but I like it all the better for that. Also, according to Wikipedia, dolman sleeves "had the effect of making the shoulders look sloped therefore minimizing the appearance of the waist" - not a bad effect around this time of year.

Christmas gifts and New Year's resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had wonderful holiday season. I've been a bit slow getting back to the internet because I was so busy spending time with family and friends in the real world . But now I'm back refreshed and ready to spend time with friends in the virtual world (I got a webcam for Christmas, so who knows where that might lead!)

I managed to visit lots of yarn shops in GR (Grand Rapids, Michigan, where my family now lives), DC and NY. I also did pretty well in the Christmas present department.

I got the main things on my list - knitting baller and swift - but not the books. After looking through the Vogue Knitting book I realised a good portion of the patterns are from magazine issues I already own, and besides it was really too heavy to transport back. And the Christmas ornament book was not available in any of the shops I visited, and it was too late to order it in time for Christmas. So that one will have to wait for next year.

Instead my husband bought me a book to help me design my own clothes: Knitwear Design Workshop from Interweave Press. This book looks like an absolute mine of information (or a minefield, depending on your view of mathematics). It gives you step by step instructions on how to take measurements, lay out designs, pick fibres, and then offers all the standard sweater designs and lots of extra neck and sleeve options.

The rest of my Christmas presents I bought myself, at the many yarn stores we visited. I'll write about some of the highlights (Habu!) in upcoming blog posts. For now, before it gets any later in the New Year, I better address New Year's resolutions.

I'm not particularly strict about New Year's resolutions - I don't usually manage to keep them, but I do feel it is useful to have goals. Looking back on last year's resolutions, I realised that I achieved one out of two, which is not such a bad accomplishment.

My mother's Christmas jacket. As per usual I had great
difficulty following instructions, hence the strange puckers
at the shoulder, but they blocked out and it looks FINE!

So I'll continue the tradition this year.

Resolution number 1: Start designing my own garments. With the lace shawl design class I took in October, plus my new design book, I should be well prepared to take the next knitting step.

Resolution number 2: Finish the Bayeux tapestry for my husband. Not the WHOLE Bayeux tapestry, of course. Just a scene that I foolishly promised to make for him over four years ago. I'm more than halfway done, and I really need to get it out of the way so I can focus more on knitting.

And maybe just one more, to really challenge myself...

Resolution number 3: Learn to weave!

So, has anyone else made any New Year's resolutions?