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Maybe that photo says it all, but here I folded some of the sleeve back so I could get more in the picture and show all the glorious colors, peeking out between the raised bands.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Completed R&J sleeve
LuLu, while you were taking care of our shared kids and grandboy, I was taking care of grumpy clients ("Haven't you finished my tax return YET???") ...and doing some knitting for therapy. Here's the completed #1 leg o' mutton sleeve! This photo shows the full breadth of the sleeve compared to the very, very tight cuff. (And remember, I made it only 2/3 of Kaffe's specifications, 120 stitches rather than 180!) You can also see that the final row, at the shoulder, consisted of serious decreases -- which will help accentuate the PUFF of the sleeve!
Maybe that photo says it all, but here I folded some of the sleeve back so I could get more in the picture and show all the glorious colors, peeking out between the raised bands.
Maybe that photo says it all, but here I folded some of the sleeve back so I could get more in the picture and show all the glorious colors, peeking out between the raised bands.
Waiting for the mailman
Buffy, this Long Leaf Coat will be the "full-blown" affair -- almost. Kaffe's coats suffer some criticism for being too big and unwearable. You've addressed that issue with Juliet, and so have I with the Jug Coat. Now I meet it again, and this time I'm opting to knit this LLC just as the pattern is written.
Yes, it will be big, and I know that the size of this coat has caused some knitters problems -- or not! Mette uses her coat as a blanket from time to time! And Rraveler RoulaV said she "... went merrily along knitting and not checking. By the time I realized the coat would fit a six footer(I’m 5’5”) it was too late. I now have a beautiful expensive throw with sleeves...."
And check out this Ravelry thread on changing the shape of Kaffe's patterns. I might take my own suggestion and gather the shoulders in as shown in the Swedish Book Sticka Med Kaffe.
I swatched this project in various ways, and I'm using one strand of Rowan Scottish Tweed DK and one strand of Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply together on size nine needles to give me the width-wise gauge, which also shortens the length-wise guage a small bit. That will give me a big, swinging coat that might work on my 5'5" frame. And if the coat is too long, I'll wear boots. If it's altogether a miss, I, too, will have a lovely couch throw that can be used as a snuggly.
I did find that when using 2 3-ply strands of Paternayan needlepoint wool together that the guage expanded a bit, so when using this particular combination, I cut back to five strands.
I'm knitting from "the tangle." I found that I like to use about 4-foot lengths of yarn and just pull the combinations from the tangle that is the mark of an intarsia project.
The knitting stopped this morning. I'm now ready to add color "2" and luckily I found 4 skeins of vintage Rowan Kaffe Kid Silk in gold that is perfect for this orange-tipped leaf. I'm waiting for them to come in the mail. It will make a interesting texture change, and maybe a slight gauge change across the leaf.
And the wait will also give me a chance to get an enlarged paper copy of the pattern. Right now I have been using an blown-up image on my computer screen. I get up and move to the computer room from the knitting spot to count small squares on the screen to determine the location of of the next color change--all too slow.
A printed copy is being sent to me by the folks at Rowan in Great Britian, and I will take it to the copy shop for enlargement immediately. Then I will be able to color in the pattern, mark off rows, and speed along.
Yes, it will be big, and I know that the size of this coat has caused some knitters problems -- or not! Mette uses her coat as a blanket from time to time! And Rraveler RoulaV said she "... went merrily along knitting and not checking. By the time I realized the coat would fit a six footer(I’m 5’5”) it was too late. I now have a beautiful expensive throw with sleeves...."
And check out this Ravelry thread on changing the shape of Kaffe's patterns. I might take my own suggestion and gather the shoulders in as shown in the Swedish Book Sticka Med Kaffe.
I swatched this project in various ways, and I'm using one strand of Rowan Scottish Tweed DK and one strand of Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply together on size nine needles to give me the width-wise gauge, which also shortens the length-wise guage a small bit. That will give me a big, swinging coat that might work on my 5'5" frame. And if the coat is too long, I'll wear boots. If it's altogether a miss, I, too, will have a lovely couch throw that can be used as a snuggly.
I did find that when using 2 3-ply strands of Paternayan needlepoint wool together that the guage expanded a bit, so when using this particular combination, I cut back to five strands.
I'm knitting from "the tangle." I found that I like to use about 4-foot lengths of yarn and just pull the combinations from the tangle that is the mark of an intarsia project.
The knitting stopped this morning. I'm now ready to add color "2" and luckily I found 4 skeins of vintage Rowan Kaffe Kid Silk in gold that is perfect for this orange-tipped leaf. I'm waiting for them to come in the mail. It will make a interesting texture change, and maybe a slight gauge change across the leaf.
And the wait will also give me a chance to get an enlarged paper copy of the pattern. Right now I have been using an blown-up image on my computer screen. I get up and move to the computer room from the knitting spot to count small squares on the screen to determine the location of of the next color change--all too slow.
A printed copy is being sent to me by the folks at Rowan in Great Britian, and I will take it to the copy shop for enlargement immediately. Then I will be able to color in the pattern, mark off rows, and speed along.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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!
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!
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