New Favorites: amazing colorwork from Brooklyn Tweed

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brooklyn tweed winter 13 adara altair and kimmswick shot by jared

The latest BT collection, Winter 2013, came out this morning and it’s Brooklyn Tweed at its very best. There are eighteen designs presented in the most lavish BT lookbook yet — filled, of course, with Jared Flood’s beautiful photos. (The interlude of Hudson NY scenes is just gorgeous.) Eighteen is a lot of patterns and, while some of them are more to my personal taste than others, there’s not a clunker in the bunch. I’ll be mining this collection for weeks, but what tugged at me most on the first viewing is the colorwork at the front of the book, which isn’t ordinarily even my thing. But this is when I love Brooklyn Tweed the most — when they take classic styles and techniques and make them a little bit sharper, a little bit smarter, but without damaging the timelessness. Pieces worth the precious investment of your knitting time.

— The Adara Turtleneck by Michele Wang puts the colorwork around the waist.

— A little intarsia goes a long way on the Altair Cap by Jared Flood.

— Julie Hoover’s Kimmswick Scarf is miles beyond my skill set, but I would wear it in a heartbeat.

— And I adore both versions of Jared’s take on the lopapeysa, the Grettir Turtleneck and Crew (contained in one pattern).

grettir turtleneck and crew pattern and photos by jared flood

17 thoughts on “New Favorites: amazing colorwork from Brooklyn Tweed”

  1. this is seriously my favorite collection so far, they have put together such an amazing team of designers. So so so inspiring!

  2. I am a first time poster and relatively new to your fantastic blog. I agree also with your assessment of the latest from BT–gorgeous. I love the Julie Hoover scarf, too, but I think a bit much for me.
    Although I haven’t added them to my ravelry gallery yet, I just finished a pair of Tootsie Toasters and a pink stocking cap. Thanks to you guys for the patterns, especially Mom and her typed copy of her slippers. Wouldn’t I love to have a pattern from my mom!

  5. Really beautiful designs. I love the way the photographs of Hudson have a little interlude in the middle. They really fit the mood of the knits. I’m not brand new to knitting, but knit beginner to intermediate patterns. Many of these intermediate patterns make me want to be brave!

    • I haven’t knit a lot of their patterns but I do have quite a few of them and have read them through. (I’m a nerd who reads knitting patterns for fun and edification.) They’re so smartly crafted and tightly edited and detailed, you’re in really good hands. But yes, be brave! It’s so worth it.

  6. I agree, great BT collection as always. I actually knit the sample of the Altair hat you posted, as well as the other scarf that Julie Hoover designed, the Kirkwood. Knitting for BT is such a joy and privilege!

    And oh, I want to tell you that you can TOTALLY do colourwork. It’s not hard at all, especially on a simple project like the Altair hat. This video shows the basic technique really well:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC-KpE1Jl20

    I would suggest you practice doing the two-handed method. It’s a bit awkward when starting, but once you get used to it, it is the fastest, neatest and most enjoyable way to do fair isle.

    • Thank you, Nicole — for the encouragement and the video! I’ve been wanting a recommendation for a good one. Altair seems like a nice, small, two-color place to start, no?

      And beautiful work on those samples, as usual. I’m in LOVE with the Kirkwood.

        • One of these days — I swear! I just cast on for the Guillemet Hat, and my Garance yarn arrived! (Not to mention all the other things I already have the yarn for that were supposed to be next …)

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