It’s been a dramatic week for us here in the city. On Monday, mother nature stormed in and reminded me of a few things.

Five days later – when several are still without power, heat and in some cases, even water (the irony) – it’s hard to remember how just a week ago the pressures of day-to-day life seemed so pressing, so immediate and so important. Funny how natural disasters have a way of giving you an instant reality check.

I’ve lived in the city for 7 years and have experienced a very small number of events in which we are all forced to stop, slow down, and wait something out. The transit strike in the winter of 2005 being the first, the rest being weather/disaster related – this week certainly being the most extreme.

There’s an eerie beauty to silence in a city like New York. Maybe I like it because it forces everyone to spend their time like we introverts prefer – staying indoors, getting cozy, gazing out the window, thinking about things, watching the light change, knitting… 

I was without power for just under 5 days, and though I’m so grateful to be wired again, these quiet days gave me a few things I really needed, too. Slowing down allowed me the chance to take stock on life and reorganize my thoughts and ideas – something I often have a hard time doing at such a busy time of year.

I also got the chance to spend some serious time with my knitting. A very welcome activity in the midst of a frenzied work season. Even in low light, I managed to chronicle my week in swatches. 

Recovery will be long and gradual for a lot of affected areas along the East Coast – and I’m grateful to report that all of us at BT have come away safe and mostly unscathed. We are well.

Thanks, too, to all who checked in on us over the last few days. For me, being reminded of strength in community – both in our knitting world, and our big city – has been the silver lining of this story.

I’m happy to get to share a new design with you that I created earlier this year for Tanis Fiber Arts – the Guernsey Triangle. This pattern is a special design for TFA’s Year In Color Club, and has now been released for that project.

Ever since designing the Guernsey Wrap in 2010, I’ve wanted to work up a triangular companion piece, so when Tanis and I first began discussing this project I thought it was the perfect opportunity.

The task was to create an enjoyable-to-knit and easy-to-wear handknitting design that was suitable for a single skein of yarn – in this case TFA’s Red Label Cashmere Silk Fingering (75 cashmere, 15 merino, 10 silk; 420 yards). Because club members would be getting a limited amount of hand-dyed yarn, I was sure to include detailed swatching instructions in the pattern and accounted for swatching yardage as well, so that no one is left hanging!

The triangular shawl is worked from the top down and features knit-purl patterning from traditional guernsey fisherman sweaters (I never tire of them). The pattern also gives instructions on blocking the finished piece with wires to get the clean, crisp edge that suits the geometric nature of the whole. The slanting ribs of patterning are mirrored over the center spine of the shawl.

Tanis and I collaborated on the development of the custom colorway “Smoke” – a beautiful silvery grey that features the subtlest of variegation in tone. Just enough to attest that the yarn has seen the careful hands of a talented dyer, but not enough to distract or mask the delicate patterning of the fabric. Just right.

Currently the pattern is only available as a club exclusive – click here if you are interested in joining or would like more details – and I will be making the pattern available as a Brooklyn Tweed PDF at the beginning of 2013. So if you’re not a club member but want to knit this, you’ll have access to the pattern at that time.

The wrap is pictured with our Bedford Pullover by Michele Wang – I thought the pieces looked great together. Then again, grey layers are my fashion “happy place”. For those of you wishing to queue the pattern on Ravelry for later, click here.

Hope you enjoy!

I’ve had several late nights of swatching recently… searching searching searching for the perfect balance of cables for some new design work. Composing with cables is always easier said than done – balance is everything.

Shelter in "Embers"

I’m still on the path with these, but the jewel-like colors glowing in the lamplight were too seductive – you know I’m a sucker for a good yarn halo.

Loft in "Birdbook"

This early Spring has inspired many a new lace idea (and exploration of our more “flowery” colorways). One benefit from this unseasonable warmth? Swatches dry about twice as fast.

Loft in "Blanket Fort"

Have a great weekend!

When we launched Spring Thaw last month, we also launched our inaugural BT knitting kit – the Seasons Hat. We waited to mention this on the blog, since we weren’t sure what to expect in terms of demand right out of the gate. Though we sold through our first limited run of these kits pretty quickly, we’ve been busy working on Batch Two so that we could make a formal announcement here. For those of you who wanted a kit but weren’t able to snag one when we launched, all four colorways are back in stock as of today! (Though how long they last is yet to be seen…)

The kits include five hand-wound mini-skeins of Loft in colors and amounts corresponding to your chosen colorway. We’ve also included a physical copy of the Seasons pattern – an 8-page folio printed on saddle-stitched card stock. Kits ship in our signature BT packaging.

I remember falling in love with this banded colorwork motif when I visited Shetland in the Summer of 2010 and saw it on a pair of hand knit gloves that I purchased from one of the regional knitters there. I’ve since swatched it several times for different design ideas, and it finally found its home with this one.

I used this motif in much of my early experimenting with multi-colored stranded knitting from the Loft palette. When it was time to decide which colorway to use for the final sample – I just couldn’t pick one. It was there that the idea of the “Seasons” were born. The four final versions were inspired by color families from each season.

We hope to expand our kit offerings later this year with more colors and more projects – it’s a fun variation on yarn ordering, not to mention a great gift idea for those die-hard knitters in our lives. (We’ve even had some of our own staff members clamoring for them…)

We hope you like them – happy kitting!

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Resources: Seasons Hat kits are available for purchase on our web site here. Hat design by Jared Flood. Packaging and printed pattern are printed/produced in the US. 

Though the garden is sprouting and Spring has arrived, work for Fall is well underway here in the studio.

I often think of swatches as post-it notes. They help me visualize a larger group of work and remind me of design details or color combinations in a more tangible way than sketches alone can.

Happy Monday to all — hope you had a wonderful weekend! Time to turn our hands to our work…

It’s been quite an extreme winter seemingly everywhere, and the city here has been no exception. Several blizzards and ice storms have walloped us, leaving large snow deposits virtually everywhere the eye can see. From an observer’s perspective, I’ve really enjoyed witnessing the different types of snow as it falls, as well as how it behaves on the ground in the days (or weeks) following. There are currently glassy layers of ice covering oddly shaped mounds. Some are still white, thankfully.

The inevitable Quieting Of Things that snow heralds has been really great for me. I’ve been slowly but surely finding my way back to balance after a a very crazy period following Shelter’s launch, and feel my creativity restoring as a result.  I’ve used a good deal of this snowed-in interlude to work on new projects and get back to basics with a healthy amount of swatching – one of my favorite pastimes.

I’ve also been spending some serious time reading (or, re-reading) Sharon Miller’s work, and continue to marvel at the amazing tradition of Shetland Lace. Her new book – Love Darg Shetland Shawls – is fantastic.  Above is a swatch of one of my very favorite Shetland Edgings that I’ve been playing with.  I’m so taken by soft, wool garter stitch lace and have a few pieces on my needles.  Knitted lace worked in garter with fine-gauge wool creates fabric with such vitality.

Color has been a focus as well.  I think it’s a good idea to seek color inspiration outside of my yarn stash every so often. Last week I dumped the whole of my thread collection out and organized it in palette order to get the creative juices flowing. All this color creates a welcome contrast to the grey days.

Speaking of Shetland, I’ve been deeply enjoying the use of one of my most treasured souvenirs from the islands.  I brought back this large woven blanket from my trip and really adore it.  Jamieson & Smith sells these beauties in a number of different designs, all woven from hand-sorted, undyed Shetland fleece. For me, this is pure luxury. I could’ve taken the whole pile home! Each limited edition blanket comes complete with a tag identifying the specific Croft from which the sheep were sourced — mine originated at the Kirkhouse Voe Croft.

I’m sure the weather is helping you remember and enjoy your own special luxuries too.  Stay warm and keep the wool coming!

To say that Shetland inspired me would be a total understatement.  When I got back, I had visions of lace and colorwork swimming in my head, even more so than I usually do.  For days afterwards I was engaged in swatching with endless color combinations from my wool closet and thinking about how I could translate just a bit of all that Beauty to a little piece of my own reality.  While feeling desperate for some traditional lace work, I came across a design I had begun in the Spring but time constraints and other distractions had gotten in the way.  It was like it had been waiting for me to come home for it.

Celes is my first attempt at bringing a little piece of Shetland home.  The motifs for both the Center panel and knitted-on lace edging are traditional Shetland stitch patterns that I find both arrestingly beautiful.  The center panel is a Tree & Diamond pattern, which is funny since trees are basically non-existent in Shetland.  The construction, too, is a nod to tradition, although updated slightly for ease of knitting and proper mirroring of vertical motifs.

The design is worked in fingering weight yarn — last winter on a visit to Bainbridge Island I had fallen head over heels for this lot of Isager Alpaca 2 — a 50/50 wool alpaca blend with silvery heathers and incredibly drape (it’s color 2105). It was screaming to be made into lace fabric.  I’m a huge fan of Marianne Isager‘s designs and yarns (her fingering weight Scottish wool is crisp, clean and wonderful) and knitting with this was a pleasure from start to finish.

The construction of the piece hinges around mirrored directional stitch patterns.  In order to create a mirroring of vertical motifs in the center panel, each half is worked separately (starting with a Provisional Cast On at the outer edge) and grafted at the center line using Kitchener Stitch.  To finish, a knitted-on lace edging is applied to the entire perimeter in place of any kind of bind off, framing the center panel.  If you’ve never worked a knitted-on edging before, this is a great project for practice.

The stole is a rectangle with approximate blocked dimensions of 74″ x 17″ — a generous size for wearing as a luxurious scarf as shown and still wide enough to wear as a shoulder wrap. (Tessa wears it so beautifully, doesn’t she?)  This type of project is great for seasonal transition from Summer into (and through) Fall.  Worked in Alpaca 2, the thing is deceptively warm for its lightness and will definitely also serve as Winter wear! On the day of our photoshoot, we had also been shooting some pieces worked in heavier weight wool yarns.  Tessa immediately reported this as being the warmest piece of the afternoon.  Alpaca is warm like that — I personally prefer it diluted with a goodly amount of wool, as here.

The pattern is available now as a PDF download either through Brooklyn Tweed or over on Ravelry.

The click from season-to-season is upon us, and nothing makes me happier than feeling that crispness in the air announcing Fall’s long-awaited arrival.  This Fall will be a big one for me, so I hope you’ll stay tuned for more as we knit our way into the cooler months.