Kay's Korner - A Knitters Notes

In early 2009, when ordering the opening inventory for Rare Purls, the yarn sales reps kept telling me that with the economy in such bad straits, the fancy, pricey novelty yarns were out of style. Those frilly yards of fun were not in the latest collections for so many of the lines. Knitting magazines featured smooth yarns knit in elegant cabled patterns, and knitted lace was everywhere. But for many knitters, well, they just loved their novelty yarns. To cast on a yarn with size 11 US needles and whip out an incredible scarf in a weekend was their idea of happy knitting. Slubs and flags, sparkle and fluff all served up in a single strand made easy garter stitch scarves look extraordinary. And remarkably, most errant stitching simply vanished in the glitz. The shop opened with an inventory of lovely smooth yarns of every fiber variety and colorway. Still, time after time, customers looked around, then finally asked "where are your novelty yarns?"

Oh yes, I parroted all I had been told, that more somber yarns were a reflection of more somber economic times, but they didn't buy it (literally) and honestly, neither did I. The average knitters wanted bang for their buck and nothing quite filled the bill for novice knitters like novelty yarns. When curious crafters, having seen a friend's froufrou wrap, came in to sign up for lessons and give knitting a whirl, I would pull out the simple wool sampler scarf taught in our beginner class. Their disappointment was obvious. Often, I would go home and pull from my own stash to sate a newbies appetite for instant gratification. Now that's love for a fellow crafter.

Fortunately, this saga has a happy ending. The yarn industry is responding to the outcry from novelty loving knitters who still want those wonderful, fulfilling skeins. Production of novelty yarns is back on track. In many versions, the plentiful nylon, used for so many ribbons and wrappers, is now being replaced by more natural fibers such as bamboo, and silk. Kid mohair, lovely solo, is also gorgeous incorporated in a more novel presentation. Though novelty yarns will never replace the bread and butter yarns such as Cascade 220 and On Line Clip, this is not their purpose. They make effortless knitting into striking designs, strong on texture. In fact, I think a year or two of innovation has brought us all to a better place. Maybe it is a form of "natural selection", because the new luxury novelties are better than ever. It is our attraction to fancy yarns that has brought them back to this season's collections. Knitters have been heard; the novelty has not worn thin.

Happy knitting!

Kay Mather

Copyright April 2010

On Kay's Needles

This month, my knitting is a multitask, for sure! I am about 10% across the 468 stitches, bound off in picot on my Peony Scarf by Twisted Sisters. I can hardly wait to block and wear. This project has been a long labor of love. My Ron Socks, knit in Opal's Harry Potter Limited Edition, are at about 45% complete. I knit the first sock with a slightly longer usual leg for Bill's socks, then noticed that this great, long repeat hand dye had less yardage than the yarns I had previously used for Bill's tootsies. Perhaps I will need to knit solid toes. Then the internal quandry, "how can I make these socks identical with a long repeat and so little yardage" So, I took the sock with me (in my new Daisy Muir project bag that Luke gave me for my birthday) to one of my local knitting groups, asking for a concensus. Should socks be identical or fraternal? (I had even found a Ravelry thread asking the same question.) I was met with humor and tough love. Finally, having knit the first sock to the toe and the second one, knit from the center of the ball, to the gusset, I am on track for an awesome pair of fraternal socks. I have let the dyer's talent shine, adding simply a tweek of 180 degrees in the two socks. If need be, I can knit the toes in both with a solid color, no biggie. I love that I let these socks take a different direction.

My most recent project is a crochet poncho crocheted in an elegant Gedifra ribbon for a friend's daughter.

Copyright 2010 Kay Mather

Since ancient times, people have used dyes to adorn fiber and to this day, men and women enjoy color in their clothing. But when it comes to knitters, we not only love colors in our projects, we are willing to go to effort and expense to cast on with lovely and interesting hand dyed yarns. Every season, new hand dyeds hit the shelves of local yarn shops to meet the demand for these artsy yarns. Knowing how to knit these unique skeins to show off their best advantage is key to successful projects using hand dyed yarns.

The road to hand dyed yarns is paved with years of innovation. Originally, colorwork in knitting was attained by simply using two or more solid yarns. Stripes from two tone to a series of seven Fibonacci bands were accomplished by knitting with separate skeins, leaving many ends to weave in at finishing. In 1963, H. W. Wilkinson, Jr. was issued a patent for a dyeing machine to produce variegated yarns, allowing mills to use multiple colors in a single skein, in a fixed amount and progression. The variegated yarns produced using this process were immediately very popular and continue to be to this day. Colorful knitting became easy and the finished projects were bright and cheerful. In the early 1980's, Eisaku Noro of Japan developed a line of yarns with long repeating stripes of elegant colors, a technique he still uses today to produce some of the worlds most popular yarns. Other companies got on the self striping band wagon, producing yarns of every weight and color, so knitters could enjoy effortless color work in their knitting, using but a single strand.

When hand dyed yarns hit the yarn shops, knitters were delighted and this category of yarns continues to enjoy widespread popularity. Rather than a machine dyeing the fiber or yarn, color was applied to hanks by hand with new and fabulous results. Even amateur fiber artists were able to attain unique, repeating color patterns using this technique and hence the indie dyers came on the needle arts scene. Some of these talented indie dyers went on to take their talents to stellar status, starting yarn companies featuring their custom colorways. Twisted Sisters and Aruacania Yarns are examples of women who have made their hand dyed yarns common features in local yarn shops nationwide.

I can still remember my first exposure to true hand dyed yarn. The owner of my local yarn shop suggested a wrap knit in two Colinette yarns, a mohair and a cotton chenille, both hand dyed in soft undulating pinks. Two weeks later I was back for more, knitting a sweater in a Colinette rayon blend, this time with more colors and interest. It seems that hand dyed yarns can be addicting! Even today, I have several works in progress that feature these fascinating yarns. I love the surprise of varying lengths of color and how each skein holds mystery. Where with machine dyed yarns, our finished projects were near identical to the pattern photos, now every project is unique. My Peony scarf from Twisted Sisters will be different than any other knit in the same colorway. The art in our craft has attained a whole new level.

Even with all its beauty and marvel, working with these yarns has its eccentricities. Where in my first Colinette pattern book, there was a designer note in the preface instructing to alternate skeins every two rows (if you went straight to the patterns, you missed this info), most of todays hand dyed yarns and patterns seem to assume that tidbit as prior knowledge. One of my favorite students was very disappointed when her first sock striped, but the second sock had pools of color. Those knitters who seek strict order in their knitting, may find hand dyed yarns a bit frustrating. For years, I worked very hard to line up the stripes on sleeves and to make my socks a matching pair. My relief from hand dyed frustration came when cover shot after cover shot in major knitting magazines featured sweaters with obvious color pooling. A sample knit had passed the scrutiny of a sample knitter, a photographer, a feature editor and a chief editor. Who was I to say that pooling is knitting gone wrong?

To experience and fully appreciate a hand dyed hank, it must be knit. When the hanks have not been reskeined to blend the colors, all you see is bands of color on the yarn.

Once reskeined, it is easy to see the distribution of the various colors. But the piece de la resistance comes when the strand is cast on and worked into a pattern. Even in simple garter, the lengths of color come alive, bumping into each other, sidling along, occurring and recurring. Sometimes, a simple striping appears, yet in a different project, even a different part of the same project, the colors may come together in a totally new way. The color patterns in a back and front and/or the left and right fronts will not be identical, but similar. I have come to love the differences in the sections of my projects. The surprise and mystery of hand dyed skeins are part of the art. That someone put dyes to fiber individually, becomes an individual opportunity.

The more staid knitter might prefer a space dyed, dependable, self striping yarn, but there is ever so much more fun in knitting with a unique hank. Learn to go with it, if you can, and experience the creative flow. If you must have more order in your knitting, alternate hanks every two rows and line up the repeats in the different sections of your project, for example beginning both sleeves at the same part of the color repeat.

Today's designers are savvy when it comes to which yarn they choose for a project, so if a hand dyed yarn is recommended, trust the guidance. Iris Schreier developed an entire line of yarn and patterns around hand dyeing techniques, as have other popular modern design divas. Both the talented Twisted Sisters and the mother/daughter team who began Araucania Yarns offer fabulous pattern support for their luxury yarn lines, as do Farmhouse Yarns, Colinette Yarns, Art Yarns and many others. The list of designer hand dyed producers keeps growing as does our love for these wonderful yarns. When you choose one of these artful hanks, you welcome aboard a collaborator and I promise you, the enlivened results will have you coming back for more.

Happy knitting!

Kay Mather

Copyright March 2010