Nature's Las Vegas!

Buffy, a friend on Ravelry asked me how I chose Long Leaf Coat colors. The obvious answer is, With a little help from my friends!


As I understand it, after Kaffe designed the coat, the pattern was issued twice (at least), once in Rowan Magazine 12, using a combination Rowan Donegal Tweed 4-ply yarn, Rowan Lightweight DK, and Kaffee Kid Silk. This original pattern can be downloaded free from Rowanknits.com, and it is the one I am using. The yarns are no longer available unless you are lucky to find them in Ravelry stashes.

So I began with the Rowan download list of yarns as reference. I looked the old yarns up in the stash holdings on Ravelry, and found all but six of the colors. The images gave me a good indication of the specific colorways and whether a particular yarn was a light, medium or dark shade of the color.


Raveler chris4252 has posted copious notes and pictures with her Coat I project, and she quickly answered all my color questions, giving clear discriptions of the six colors that I could not find. (Who knew that Kaffe's Kid Silk "Pillar Box" was named after the red collection boxes of the Royal Mail?) And chris4252 is going through a color metamorphosis of her own right now, starting Coat II in an altered color scheme!


A second edition of the pattern was in the Swedish knitting book, Sticka Med Kaffe Fassett (Knitting with Kaffe Fassett??) , using Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply and DK yarns, and Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-Ply.  Ravelry member lahodges has collected all yarns original to that coat edition, and all of those yarns are pictured on her Ravelry project page.  I used her yarn pictures for reference to purchase my Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply and dk yarns. The discontinued colors were quickly disappearing, so I bought what I could (with the exculsion of that bright pink.) 


Next I compared all the colorways of images of finished Long Leaf Coats that I could find on the web, starting with this Kaffe original--or so I like to think!  Kaffe gave a lecture in New Hampshire in May, 2009, and brought this Long Leaf Coat along for display. Quiltamama attended the lecture and posted this image on her blog. When I asked her if it was the "original" Kaffe coat, she replied: 


It was definitely knitted by either Kaffe or his partner, Brandon Mably who was there too and is heavily involved in the knitting business.  I'm sorry I can't remember which one, though I have a feeling it was Brandon.  It was part of their display they had all around the room.


The brightest rendition I found was on Mette's blog. Vivid in snowy surroundings, Mette uses it as both a coat and a blanket at her camp in Norway.


The Rowan Magazine 12 download is more saturated than Kaffe's coat, and the Scottish Tweed yarns look like they will perhaps render a subtle colorway.


So I have my Scottish Tweeds -- about 15 of them, or almost half a coat's worth. I've picked the  Green Mountain Spinnery yarn Mountain Mohair Claret as one of the base yarns. More of it is used than any other color, about 400 grams. The other heavily used color is Rowan Thistle, a deep purple. My coat will have a deep claret look about it.

 The remaining 17 or 18 colors will be chosen and blended from Paternayan needlepoint yarn as I reach first insertion point of each. I'll take a look at the coloring of the other "trees in the forest," and pick the next color following the shades of the Rowan download image and it's yarns, working towards a saturated colorway.

My daughter said it best:  Autumn is nature's Las Vegas! So I'll make a coat with autumnal glitz--befitting a grandma, of course!

Feed a fever. . .the Kaffe Long Leaf Coat

Buffy, this heat wave has given me a fever. All I can think about is the cool New England autumn that is just around the corner. And Kaffe's Long Leaf Coat (free download) which he designed, I understand, while he was in Vermont...

        

                                        

... So I noticed last week that Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply and DK were on sale at WEBS. Then I noticed  that Rowan Scottish Tweed DK was an eBay Buy-It-Now at Yarnbow. A quick inspection of both online stores showed that only a few colors were left -- DISCONTINUED!

So I leaped. At WEBS I found the following 4-Ply skeins:

4 Machair (light green)
1 Lewes Grey
4 Rust
4 Sunset (red orange)
4 Claret
4 Heath (grey brown)
4 Lobster (dark red)

And the following DK skeins:

2 Sunset (red orange)
3 Thistle (eggplant)
1 Indigo

And at Yarnbow, these colors in DK:

2 Lewes Grey
1 Lobster (dark red)
2 Thatch
3 Purple Mix (rosy)
3 Celtic Mix (dark mossy green)
1 Lavender
2 Herring (blue/grey)
2 Autumn
1 Indigo

Even at heavily discounted prices, these yarns added up fast:  $234 with an extra $13 shipping from Yarnbow. (I asked that the WEBS order be held for pick-up.)

So out came the stash for the other 17 colors of the Long Leaf Coat.

I've got two beautiful mohairs from the WEBS tent sale, one a rusty Italian color blend appropriately called Autumn. And a real fabulous discontinued Valley mohair in a glowing red colorway. I bought packs of ten skeins for $20 a pack.

I did a few swatches:  2 strands DK on #10s, 1 strand DK and 1 strand 4-ply on #10s, 1 strand of DK and 1 strand of 4-ply on #9 needles.  The last swatch gave me a perfect gauge stitch-wise, and a bit shorter gauge row-wise, and was the winner. But the true tipping point was the #9 needles -- so off to the  local yarn shop for Addi Turbo Lace circulars in 40 inch length.

So what's a girl to do? Just cast on!

The 3-inch thistle hem is curling up for there is a purl row to set the bottom of the coat. The turquoise strand is woven in and out every 10 stitches to mark the grid so that I could start the leaf tips in the correct spaces. The dark claret yarn in the center is one of the heavy lifters (along with thistle). I had a 2 oz. skein of Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair yarn. It makes the perfect blend for the dark bottom of the coat. I need 7 more skeins (and one or two more of Thistle DK.) And the small thistle (purple) ball is the Scottish Tweed Thistle DK "unplied," as I am knitting a base of 12 strands--here the GM Spinnery yarn counts as eight, and half of the DK counts as four.  The needlepoint yarn is 3-ply for a total base six, so I can just use two full strands of needlepoint wool, and match and mix the colors easily.

I'm not jumping ship on the Jug Coat. I just need a project that is a bit easier with less thinking to take me into winter. So this is it, and you'd better get knitting because I'm hot on your heels!

Everybody into the pool

Buffy, fabulous sleeve! Reminds me of the color changes in Noro yarn: Kaffe was ahead of his time.

Yes, there is lots of action here, and a bit of it is knitting -- but the knitting is not on my coat. Dear Daughter and I are both knitting sweaters for her, of course. And then one room of the house has been emptied and two looms are now found, cleaned and set up to begin weaving projects.  DD has never woven, and she's determined to try with some of the mohair that I got at the WEBS tent sale in May.

Dear Grandson has a 16-foot donut pool in the back yard, and two inflatable boats with attached squirt guns. And a beach ball and canoe paddle. Lots of stuff for the basement as soon as DG leaves. I guess my part of the coat project is on hold for another two weeks as I enjoy all the frenetic activity that a family visit brings.

I've made two quick trips to the midwest and will soon be making a third. Dear Sister, since she is one in one hundred million,  might be invited to Omaha to see the expert who helped develop the hot chemo treatment (HIPEC) that is now having a bit of success in some circumstances. HIPEC is used in conjunction with the major surgery, but in her case it was thought that she had ovarian cancer so this procedure was not set to go. Now, after the fact, it can't be used. Maybe later. She's up against the age barrier, too. HIPEC has not been used on anyone over 67 since it is combined with the surgery and requires a five week hospital stay.

Tomorrow might be the last day of the heat wave; we're expecting an 80° day on Saturday. Can't wait.

The Bouffant Sleeve

Dear LuLu,

I know you have your hands full: our shared grandson is visiting you! Are you sweltering in the East Coast heat wave we've been hearing about? I'm safely back from Nicaragua, where it was hot and very rainy--and very green and lush. It's continued cold and wet here in the Northwest, until today, so I made some progress on Sleeve #1: