Tag Archives: marie wallin

New Favorites: Crazy good colorwork

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New Favorites: Crazy good colorwork

Seems like every time I’m writing about Marie Wallin, it’s her colorwork. And almost every time I’m writing about colorwork it’s Marie Wallin. All my favorite things lately seem to be colorwork (including Julie Hoover’s Ashland from BT Fall ’15), so I better hurry up and get more comfortable knitting it. I want a fully stranded sweater, and right now I want it to be Sleet by Marie Wallin, above. I don’t want it to be alpaca and mohair, mind you, but the patterning and the shape of this are slaying me right now. I even want it in those exact colors. (I mean: Duck Egg, Steel, Clay, Pearl, Ancient, Drab, Carbon and Anthracite? Come on!) Bought the pattern the instant I saw it.

I’m also immensely smitten with this month’s free Rowan download, more amazing Marie Wallin colorwork, which is Jura, below. Exquisite.

New Favorites: Crazy good colorwork

PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Trace

New Favorites: from Rowan 58

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New Favorites: from Rowan 58

There’s one thing and only one thing I love about July — that moment where I can feel the sands almost imperceptibly shifting. We’re far from the floodgates of Fall, but the trickle of comfy-cozy sweater patterns is beginning to begin, with Rowan 58 as a whopping example. This volume of the illustrious British mag-book contains 35 sweater patterns and 5 accessories, but these are the ones I’d buy it for—

TOP: Glacier by Martin Storey — I’m slightly dubious about the neck shaping, but those chain-link cables are to die for

MIDDLE: Alderney Cardigan by Martin Storey — perfectly proportioned and I’m surprisingly into the giant leaf pattern; I want it in black and navy!

BOTTOM LEFT: Anglesey by Marie Wallin — another for the long list of classic stranded Wallin jumpers

BOTTOM RIGHT: Colonsay by Lisa Richardson — boxy plaid jacket that is just plain cool

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Grille

Someday vs. Right Away: Fair isle practice

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Someday vs. Right Away: Fair isle practice

As much as I might like to fantasize about knitting an allover fair isle sweater, it’s probably more of a never than a someday. I have no doubt that if I practiced my stranded colorwork more and got more comfortable with it, I’d also get faster, and a sweater like Windermere wouldn’t seem quite so far fetched. So what better to practice on than lovely little hats like Schuyler by Jennifer Burke (free pattern) and Fjordland by Dianna Walla?

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PREVIOUSLY in Someday vs. Right Away: Small-scale Amanda alternatives

New Favorites: from Marie Wallin’s Lakeland

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New Favorites: from Marie Wallin's Lakeland 2

These patterns published in July, part of Marie Wallin’s Lakeland: Collection Two, when the plaids and tweeds and windswept English countryside looked soooo appealing, but it was difficult to imagine ever donning a woolly jumper. That was then, this is now, and I’m coveting these sweaters:

TOP: Derwent is a chunky, heavily cabled, drop-shoulder cardigan-jacket, roomy enough to be worn over a plaid suit, apparently. I love the neckline in particular.

BOTTOM: I fantasize about knitting allover fair isle someday, and a two-color jobbie like Windermere is possible to imagine working into my actual wardrobe.

Now if only I could download them instantly like it’s 2014. “Dear Rowan — You don’t know me but my name is Karen, and all I want for Christmas is for every Rowan-related pattern ever to be available for individual download …”

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UNRELATED SHOP NEWS!

– Hot on the heels of Knit Wit, Pom Pom and Taproot, the second issues of both TAC and Trouvé have arrived — and they look pretty dreamy. As always, there’s a peek inside on each of their shop pages.

– The Japanese thread snips are back!

– I’ll have another small number of Fringe Supply Project Bags this week (the rest of what was meant to be my pre-Thanksgiving batch), and will be sending an alert to the shop mailing list only. So if you want to know when they’re available, make sure you’re on the list! (Sign-up box is in the upper right corner of the shop.) I expect to have one more small batch before Christmas, as will the three stockists.

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Hearth Slippers

New Favorites: House socks redux

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New Favorites: House socks redux

Is anyone else out there as hungry for Fall as I am? It’s my favorite season (obviously) and I basically haven’t had one in 17 years, so the idea of living through a real true Fall this year is exciting beyond description. Plus it’s 1000 degrees in Nashville right now, and paralyzingly humid. Plus September (sweet September!) is the month we’ll finally have a home again. So I’m like the proverbial horse who can smell the barn — if only I could gallup toward September instead of waiting for it to come to me. Alas, I wait. But while I’m waiting, I’m fantasizing about all sorts of wooly, Fall-y goodness in that new home of mine, starting with house socks. I’m still thinking about the ones from this earlier New Favorites, but have added these to my which-ones-will-I-knit list:

TOP: Cuckoo by Marie Wallin, lovely mix of texture and cables

BOTTOM LEFT: Inglenook by Adrian Bizilia, a good answer to those Toast socks in the previous list

BOTTOM RIGHT:  Supreme Bedsocks by Emily Foden, so simple, so right

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Palmyre

New Favorites: Groovy crochet tunic

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New Favorites: Groovy crochet tunic

I’m still thinking about my new year’s resolution to crochet something, and about the Kelbourne girls’ #crochetsummer14 campaign. It occurred to me I could use this Purl Bee potholder pattern to crochet that Shelter 7 blanket (rug?) I want. Which would probably take me a few summers. But then I came across this Marie Wallin tunic called Gozo that I want even more — in heather grey, of course. I’d seam the sides together, leaving just a long slit at the bottoms, to make it a little less poncho-ish. I don’t think I have anywhere near the crochet skills required to work it, but that’s how we learn, right? I might be crazy enough to try it.

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Summertastic wash cloths

New Favorites: Marie Wallin’s Autumn

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Favorite patterns from Rowan Autumn Knits by Marie Wallin

You know how you never want to buy the knitting magazine or pattern collection because there’s only one thing in there you might want to make? And then along comes Rowan with their Autumn Knits issue, and wow, what don’t I want to make?

Still, I have favorites:

TOP LEFT: Wye turtleneck, (so Chloé!), also my lifelong back-to-school fantasy outfit
TOP RIGHT: Derwent bat-wing, great shape but it’s that cable detail that’s killing me
MIDDLE LEFT: Hassop vest, yes to vests
MIDDLE RIGHT: Ilam pullover, dude
BOTTOM LEFT: Hope pullover, pretty chic fair isle
BOTTOM RIGHT: Monyash cardigan, geometric splendor

All designed by Rowan’s head designer Marie Wallin, to whom I hereby send a virtual curtsy.

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