Say Hello to Spoleto

The Spring/Summer issue of Twist Collective is up, and I'm delighted to be included. In addition to my article about tips and tricks for knitting lace, the issue includes my new shawl design, Spoleto.

This piece was inspired by my love of outdoor theater in the summertime. I am fortunate to live in an area where summer Shakespeare festivals abound, and few things make me happier than taking a simple picnic and a good bottle of wine to a local park to spend the evening watching a play. The Spoleto Festival in Charleston is renowned for the quality of their music and theater productions. I've never been, but I'd love to go, and I just love the feel of the word Spoleto in my mouth.



I wanted this shawl to be a piece that you could drape artfully around your neck as a scarf while the day's warmth lingered in the air, then wrap around your shoulders as the evening cool settled in. Linear panels of moss stitch and simple lace make it easy to fold the shawl into accordion pleats. There is more solid moss stitch in the center of the shawl, where you want the warmth on your back and shoulders, and more lace toward the ends for a delicate finish. Seed beads are sprinkled throughout for just a touch of sparkle.





The yarn is Simply Fine from the wonderful people at Green Mountain Spinnery, in an absolutely juicy hand-dyed color called Melonball. This fingering weight blend of wool and mohair gives just the right balance of warmth and drape. I chose size 6 transparent gold seed beads with an iridescent finish. I prefer that beads provide a subtle accent, not be the focal point of a piece. They don't show up very well in photos, but are just glorious in person. No pre-stringing of beads is required - the beads are added to the appropriate stitches with a small crochet hook.

Thanks to Jane Heller for the wonderful photographs, and to Kate Gilbert for the beautiful styling. I love that the model looks so natural and happy - like she has just come in from the outdoors.

Re-entry

I'm suffering a bit from a Stitches West hangover.
First, let me tell you that this is not one of those blog posts that is rich in visuals. When I'm busy, I completely forget that I have multiple cameras tucked into my bag. Taking pictures simply doesn't occur to me. So instead of showing you photos of all the knitting superstars I met, or all the gorgeous booths, or the yarn out the wazoo, I'll just tell you this....

1. I love spending a weekend among my tribe. I got to talk with some of my favorite people in the world.

2. The knitting business is filled with the smartest, funniest, most creative and generous women I know.

3. I didn't teach this weekend. I spent the weekend working with my friends from Kollage Yarns in their booth in the market. As a result, I had the opportunity to talk about my designs with lots of knitters.

4. Things that make my heart go pitter-patter:

• Seeing someone wearing a piece that I designed. They saw a picture or sample, liked it, bought yarn, and spent their valuable time making something that started out as a idea in my head. Then they actually liked the finished product enough to wear it in public.  Amazing.
• Hearing that people look forward to reading the technical articles I write for Twist Collective. Perhaps that should be amended to be: Hearing that anyone other than my mother actually reads what I write.
• Having students tell me that they are using the information and skills learned in a class they took with me.
• Having a designer seek me out, introduce herself and tell me that she has learned a lot from my editing of her pattern.

5. Four days of standing on concrete makes me ache from the knees down.

6. Contrary to popular belief, the perfect booth snack is not Girl Scout cookies (not that there is anything wrong with Girl Scout cookies). The perfect booth snack is Cuties, a trade name for seedless Mandarin oranges. Easy to peel, not messy, smells wonderful, and a marvelous hit of sweet and juicy when your energy starts to fade in the afternoon. Want to make a friend? Hand them a Cutie. Next year I'm bringing 2 bags instead of 1.

7. I didn't shop. Really, I didn't. We were so busy in the booth that there were aisles of the market I never even saw. And seriously, did I need to buy anything? No.

8. Despite not shopping, I managed to come home with 2 braids of hand dyed BFL from Shady K Fibers which will make the acquaintance of my spinning wheel this week.

If you get the opportunity to attend Stitches, or a similar event, I hope you jump on it, and I hope you love it as much as I do.

Enough. Laundry awaits.

It's Stitches West Week!

Can you feel the excitement building for Stitches West? It begins on Thursday, February 21 and runs through Sunday the 24th.


I'll be working with my friends from Kollage Yarns in their booth, #513-515.  We'll be showing my new designs for Spring, some of which will also be in the Fashion Show on Friday night.

I'll also be representing Twist Collective at the show.  Come find me in the Kollage booth wearing something made from a Twist Collective pattern, and I'll give you a little present. I'll even tweet a photo of you. Keep your eye out for the ShowUsYourTwist hashtag!

Many new knitting shows have started up in the past several years, but Stitches West remains the biggest and the best. The most classes, the best line-up of teachers, and a market hall that will give you the vapors all await us in Santa Clara.

 Will I see you there?

PS - I'm still recovering from the finale of Season 3 of Downton Abbey. When Matthew was driving down that narrow road, I was hiding my eyes moaning "no, no, no". Ripped my heart out.

Sometimes Simple Isn't Easy

The new issue of Twist Collective was released yesterday, and I have a new design to share.

Meet Porto...

This pullover came about because I was curious about the possibility of shaping a sweater with cables. As you may know, the twisting action of cables draws the knitting in, making the fabric narrower.  Instead of the usual increases and decreases to shape the waist, could I achieve the same shaping with a cable motif? I charted and swatched to figure out just how much cable was needed to produce the shaping I wanted. Then I knit the sweater.

And it wasn't right.

The scale was off. The cable medallion produced the waist shaping I wanted, but it was too small to make the visual impact needed.

I had three choices:
1. Take a trip down the river Denial and leave it as it was.
2. Remove the sleeves, take out the shoulder seams, and unravel the body of the sweater to the beginning of the cable, then re-knit.
3. Cut off the sweater at the bustline, unravel and re-knit the lower body of the sweater with revised cables panels, then graft the sections back together.
Monty, I'll take door number 3, though number 1 is very tempting.

I don't have photos of the surgery in process (it's just too much like taking photos of a crash at the side of the road). As you can see, the operation was successful. The re-scaled cables are so much better than the original. After blocking, even I can't find the line where the pieces were grafted together.

The sweater has a deep V-neck with cabled decreases for just a touch of sexy detail.

For the yarn, I wanted to use something a bit luxurious. Something soft and warm, with good stitch definition to show off the cables, but without bulk. Lorna's Laces Honor was perfect. It is 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk. The yarn is drapey, but not droopy. It caresses your skin in the most wonderful way. And the nearly solid color adds depth and richness.

At some of the wineries in Napa Valley, tastings of port are offered with small squares of dark chocolate - truly a match made in heaven. In my fantasy life, I'd wear this casually elegant sweater in front of a crackling fire, bathed in candlelight, curled up on the couch with a charming man, sipping port and letting squares of chocolate melt on my tongue.

Click on over here to buy the pattern and begin making your own fantasy.

Also in this issue, I have an article on knitting myths and why you might choose to ignore them. I had a lovely e-mail in my box this morning from the one and only Cat Bordhi, thanking me for the article. Made my day.

Sources of Inspiration

In case you haven't seen it yet, the Fall 2012 issue of Twist Collective is online. I'm pleased to have been included with a design for a hat and mitten set called Sultana

I wanted to share a bit with you about the inspiration for this design.
Last December, my friend Carson and I saw an exhibition of Anatolian kelims at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco. These tribal weaving were amazing, packed with complex geometric and figurative motifs in a riot of colors.
The oldest example in the collection was just a fragment of a 15th century kelim in only two colors - natural and a faded tomato red (madder, maybe? Name That Dye is not a game at which I excel). I loved the interplay of positive and negative space, and the way the interlocking spear shapes were edged with little bubbles. The bold graphic seemed surprisingly modern for a textile more than 600 years old. Carson and I agreed that it begged to be reinterpreted in knitting. I pulled out my camera and sneaked a picture.

Even though the photo is of such poor quality, it was a fairly simple matter to import it into Illustrator and trace the motifs. Overlay a grid, and it starts to look suspiciously like a knitting chart.



Here is my original swatch, made with some Cascade 220 I had on hand. Yes, I do tend to make hats as swatches for color patterns. Such patterns are easiest for me when knit in the round, and hats make good class samples, or can be donated to organizations like Halos of Hope if not needed. I love the contrast in these Gryffindor colors.





For the magazine, we chose a thinner yarn, Romney Ridge Farms Sport Weight. This is a great yarn for colorwork. Grown in Maine, it is a nice "sticky" wool that knits easily and blocks into a beautifully cohesive fabric. The hand dyed colors have subtle variations that give the pattern extra depth and interest.

While you are looking at the magazine, don't miss my article about shaping in pattern. Many knitters struggle with maintaining lace and cable patterns while shaping armholes and necklines. The article takes you step by step through the process.

Old textiles are a great source of inspiration, particularly for colorwork. The landscape that surrounds us can also serve as the spark for great ideas.

These vines are full of grapes about 6 weeks from harvest. They've already shifted from green to purple, and are getting sweeter with every sunny day.

This is the view outside Roche Winery, where I spent the past 2 weekends pouring wine for their annual futures release BBQ event. My former husband works for Roche in sales. When they need an extra person for special events, they invite me to come play. Buying wine futures is like making an investment in the winery. You get a substantial discount by purchasing the wine before it's bottled, sometimes while it's still on the vine. Roche rewards these "investors" by throwing a great party when the wine is ready to be delivered. Leg of Lamb is cooked over a fire fueled by broken up old wine barrels. A great band plays classic rock and roll for dancing. And the full lineup of wine is available for tasting. I worked all 4 days in the tasting room, pouring and chatting.

I'm really grateful for the opportunity to do occasional work like this. Most of my weekends are indistinguishable from a weekday - I spend the day at my desk writing or editing patterns, and the evening knitting. It's a pretty sedentary, not to mention solitary, life. It's good for me to spend a couple of days on my feet interacting with people and working with a team.

A new design, some baseball, and a video I think you'll love

I know it's been a while since I last wrote. I've been busy, and paying work has to take precedence. But I want to tell you about a new design just released by Kollage Yarns.

The new design:
 This is Oakville.
It was inspired by an Elie Tahari sweater I saw at Macy's several years ago. That sweater was a long sleeve pullover. The circular yoke was worked with a much thicker yarn than the rest of the sweater - maybe the same yarn doubled or tripled. I liked the structure it gave the sweater, and the idea stuck in my head.
Oakville is worked in Kollage Yarns Riveting, with the Worsted weight yarn used for the yoke and the Sport weight in a marled color used for the body. It starts at the neck. The yoke is shaped into a crescent with increases. Stitches are bound off over the arms, then the body is worked downward in the round. The yoke closes with three buttons on the left shoulder.
I love the breezy elegance of this look. With white capris and sandals, it is perfect for cocktails by the pool or brunch at a seaside cafe.
The knitting is easy and fast. You could still make this in time to wear on the warm days of early autumn.
You can order a paper pattern directly from Kollage Yarns, or download a pdf from Patternfish.

In other knitting news:
Here is a sneak peak at a project fresh off the needles. It is destined for publication later this year, so I'll give you more details then. All I'll say now is that I love developing colorwork patterns nearly as much as I've grown to love knitting them.

Baseball:
I took a break from obsessively watching the Olympics on TV to attend the Stitch and Pitch game at the Marin County Pacifics in San Rafael last night. I conned my son into going with me by not telling him it was Stitch and Pitch, but I think he's forgiven me.

The Pacifics were playing against the Sonoma County Grapes (I know, I know - I can barely stand to type it), their rivals in the very minor North American League.

The ballpark is more closely related to a Little League field than to places like AT&T Park, but the knitters were out in force. Bluebird Yarn and Fiber Crafts in Sausalito generously provided goodie bags, and it was $3 beer night, so it was a good mother/son activity for a warm summer evening.

You must watch this:

Jesse Kornbluth posted a link to this video on his wonderful blog, Head Butler, and it just made my day. So much of what we see on the web and in the news is focused on people being mean, stupid and thoughtless. Take this opportunity to partake of a little kindness and joy, and let it color your worldview in happier shades.

One last thing:
We are within a day or so of the launch of the Fall issue of Twist Collective. It is a lovely collection of beautiful designs. I have both a new design and a tech article in this issue.

Fun in Fresno

Write a blog post has been on my list every day this week, and here we are at Friday already. Better late than never, right?
I had the good fortune to spend Saturday with the women of the Sheeper Than Therapy knitting guild in Fresno. This is the third time this group has invited me to come be their featured teacher. It is always an honor to be asked to come teach, but when a group asks you back it is a special thrill. Thanks, ladies!

  
I taught one of my favorite classes - Making the Most of Self-Striping Yarn. I've done a lot of work with yarn dyed to knit up into stripes (see here and here and here). I enjoy talking with other knitters about how to manipulate the colors and predict or control the way the colors will line up.

There was also some show-and-tell

And some puppy love from the guild's unofficial mascots
After a sack lunch (thanks for the chicken ceasar, Regina!), we spent some time with a box of samples from the Spring issue of Twist Collective, which I had brought along to share. It was 102F in Fresno that day, so I'd brought lots of lightweight lacy pieces. As lovely as the pictures in the magazine are, there is nothing quite like touching and trying on the samples in person.  I suspect there will be several Harrows and Stellarias showing up at future guild show-and-tell sessions.
The guild in Fresno is such a great group - accomplished knitters eager to learn something new, welcoming to newcomers, supportive of beginners, and willing to laugh at my jokes. I'll happily go back anytime. It's too bad every town doesn't have a group like this.


In other news...
I know you see lots of charitable organizations asking for donations on-line. I know you need to be selective about where you put your money. But if you don't know about Halos of Hope, you should. Pamela Haschke, a cancer survivor herself, founded Halos of Hope to provide handmade hats to people with cancer. She is doing the work of angels.
Though the hats themselves are donated (we know how generous the fiberarts community is), it costs money to get them from the knitter to the head in need. A new fundraising campaign was just annouced: The Great Buzzzz for Halos of Hope. For a $10 donation, you can vote to shave or save the head of Drew Emborsky (the Crochet Dude), Benjamin Levisay (from XRX, Inc.) or Mark Moraca (from Kollage Yarns). The ritual barbering will take place at Stitches East in Hartford CT in October. Click on over and check it out.



And finally, some knitting! I've been working on design swatches and editorial commissions, so can't show you what's currently on the needles, but I can show you a recently released design...
Here is Kenwood.
Knit in Kollage Yarns Fantastic, a smooth, many-plied worsted weight merino, Kenwood was designed to be a polished jacket that could take you to the office or out to dinner. It begins at the waist with a band knit horizontally.  Stitches are picked up along the edge and worked up for the bodice, then down for the peplum. A simple lace panel adds eye-catching detail along the front edges. The inset waistband creates the illusion of an hourglass waist, and gives you a great place to show off a special button.

A Tale of Two Sweaters - Part 2

A couple of months ago, I told you about the CVM/Romeldale fleece my friend Diane and I bought at the California Wool Festival. I showed you the wool when it came back all clean and fluffy from Morro Fleece Works. It's time for an update.
I finished spinning my half of the fleece last week.  I ended up with just over 2100 yards of yarn.  It is soft and springy and I an quite enamored.

 What's interesting, though, is how Diane and I have taken the same raw material and come up with two very different results.

In the middle is a staple length of the wool, ready for spinning. On the left is my yarn. On the right is Diane's. I spun a very airy woolen single with minimal twist, then made a 4-ply. With washing, the plies have fused into a lovely, cohesive yarn that knits like a dream. Diane spun a much smoother single, then plied it with a natural brown merino. The merino is slightly lighter in color than our CVM, and the 2 plies are much more clearly defined. Her yarn is also soft and elastic, but has a smoother surface, producing better stitch definition in the finished fabric.

Diane is knitting a gorgeous seed stitch pullover with staghorn cables. Sorry, no link to a pattern. Diane is designing this for herself, because that's how she rolls. You can see how her choice of yarn structure produced a cable that is crisply defined against the background texture.

My yarn is destined to make Crane Creek.

See how my woolen spun yarn makes a blurrier, less defined texture?
I'll show you both sweaters when they are done, but it may be awhile. Diane is nearly finished with hers, with only a sleeve and a half to go. My Crane Creek has not progressed past the swatch stage, and is likely to remain on hold for a while. I came back from Stitches West with tonnage of yarn for new design commissions (hooray!), so personal knitting is on the back burner.

Signs of Spring

In spite of the lack of a convincing winter, here are some sure signs of spring spotted in my neighborhood this morning...

Flowering plum trees

Japanese Magnolias

Bottlebrush

This weeks editing queue for the Spring/Summer issue of Twist Collective (live online April 16).

 I'd better get back to work.

Who me? Knit a skirt?

 My skirt design, Midtown, appears in the Winter 2011 issue of Twist Collective.  I want to share a bit about this design with you.

I’ve been on a bit of a knitted skirt kick lately.  In a fairly short period over the summer, I made Barn Dance for Kollage Yarns, Rumba for Universal Yarns, and Midtown for Twist. The funny thing about this is that I don’t often wear skirts.  When I’m not teaching, I work at home.  I generally find pants more suitable for my lifestyle.  But I love the look of a knit skirt, particularly when it is displayed on hips that are narrower than mine.

For Midtown, I wanted a classic, tailored pencil skirt silhouette. I envisioned the sort of skirt you could wear to the office or shopping in the city, something sharp and modern and graphic.

I love stranded colorwork for a knitted skirt, because the strands of yarn across the wrong side help stabilize the fabric, preventing the baggy butt that can result after sitting for a while. I wanted a design with diagonal movement, not the strong horizontal that “fair isle” patterns often have. I also wanted to keep the knitting easy, so I wanted to avoid long color floats. I played around with pencil and graph paper, drawing lattice designs until I had one I liked with floats no longer than 4 stitches.

Here is a pro tip for you – when I’m working a gauge swatch in stranded colorwork, I make a hat. It is important that the swatch be worked in the round and that it be fairly large so you get an accurate sample of your gauge.  Making a hat accomplishes both goals, and you end up with something cozy and useful.  I don’t worry too much about finished size for these hats – after all, its purpose is to be a gauge swatch.  If the hat doesn’t fit me or someone to whom I want to give a gift, I’ll use it as a class sample or donate it to a charity program.

I decided against a slit at the hem of the skirt – after all, knitting stretches, so a slit wasn’t needed for walking ease. I wanted to avoid bulky, bunchy gathers at the waist, so the skirt is fitted, with a zipper at the hip. Since fine finishing makes me very, very, happy, I decided to knit in a facing that would cover the zipper on the inside of the skirt.

Here is what it looks like on the inside. Don’t be intimidated – the pattern includes step-by-step photos of cutting the steek, sewing in the zipper, and sewing down the facing.

For color, the charcoal gray and cream that Twist’s Creative Director, Kate Gilbert, selected really plays up the modern graphic effect of this piece.  I think it would also be great in other color combinations. I’m a big fan of self-striping yarns, and this skirt would be fun worked in a self-striping yarn together with a coordinating solid, or in two different striping yarns.

While you could use just about any sport weight wool from your stash for this skirt, let me just put in a good word for the yarn Kate chose for this design.  Blue Moon FiberArts BFL Sport may be my new favorite yarn for this kind of colorwork.  It is soft and springy, but smooth enough that each stitch is distinct.  This yarn is a joy to knit – it feels good in your hands, is exceptionally cooperative, and blocks beautifully. The hand dyed semi-solids we used give this pattern subtle depth and variation that a solid yarn just doesn’t have.

I’m really pleased with the finished skirt. It was made to fit Kate (because sample size and Sandi size are not the same), and she has already put it into her wardrobe rotation.

It's a Soup Kind of Weekend

Sometimes I just need to make soup.  When autumn comes, and there is a cold wind blowing, nothing is warms body and soul like a pot of  homemade soup simmering on the stove.
Today's soup is one of my favorites, Butternut Squash. Easy, healthy, hearty and delicious. This recipe is an adaptation of one that appeared several years ago in Real Simple magazine.

Butternut Squash Soup

1 3-lb Butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes (or cheat like I do and buy 2 packages of already cubed squash at Trader Joe's - those suckers are hard to cut up. You need about 2 lbs of cubes)
3 tbs olive oil
salt
pepper

1/4-lb bacon
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
about 6 large leaves of fresh sage, chopped
4-6 cups chicken broth (I like Trader Joe's Organic Free Range, or Swanson's Natural Goodness)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oven to 400. Toss the squash with 2 tbs of olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread it on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
While the squash is roasting, fry up some bacon in a heavy soup pot (my 6 qt LeCruset Dutch Oven works perfectly). 4 slices will do, though I usually cut up an entire pound and cook it all, because you can never have too much bacon on hand.
Set the bacon aside, pour off the fat, add the last of the olive oil to the bacon fat that clings to the pot, and saute the onion, celery and sage until the onion starts to caramelize and the celery is soft.
Add the roasted squash and the chicken broth and simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes.
Puree the whole thing - I have an immersion blender, so I do it right in the pot on the stove.  If you don't have one, use a regular blender and puree in batches. Check the seasoning - you may need to add salt, depending on how salty your bacon was.
Serve with a sprinkle of bacon bits and grated parmesan.  Don't skip this part - the smoky salty is a great balance for the sweetness of the squash and onions.
This makes a big pot of soup - It keeps well sealed in jars in the fridge, though I usually end up giving some away to friends.
Slices of toasted baugette spread with goat cheese are a perfect accompaniment.

On the knitting front, I sent off a new design to my friends at Kollage Yarns this week, and I have to say I'm happy to see it go.  For this project, I wrote up the pattern, then handed it off to Pat the Wonder Knitter.  When it came back, it was wrong. Just wrong. Too long, not hanging correctly, just bad. Not Pat's fault - the design was flawed. I begged more time from the client, ripped the whole thing out, re-worked the pattern and started again.

This design is made in Kollage's Milky Whey, a 50/50 blend of milk and soy.  The yarn is soft, with an incredibly fluid drape. This design was intended to make the most of that drape, but my original pattern included borders which caused constriction along all the edges, and spoiled the effect.  Now it works. Here's a sneak peek for you.
This was one of those projects that fell into a hole in the space/time continuum. It took 3 times longer than I thought it should.  In all fairness, I should point out that I am a master of self-delusion when it comes to how long a project will take. Still, this one is done, and it looks the way I want it to, and the client will love it (right, Susie? You do love it, don't you?).

Now I'm making swatches and sketches for a bunch of new designs, and plugging away on my handspun cardigan, which can only be worked on during 49er games (I get to work on it this afternoon. Hooray!).
I'm spinning the Rambouillet/Alpaca blend I bought at the Boonville Wool Festival a couple of months ago. This is some beautiful fiber - spinning it is pure joy. I'm spinning the singles as a fine semi-woolen, and plan to make a 3-ply that should come out to about sport wieight. I only bought 8 oz of fiber, and I'm thinking I should call Morgaine and see if I can get 8 more.

Heads up - the new issue of Twist Collective goes live on November 15!  I have a new design and an article in this issue. As usual, Kate's styling is spectacular, and the issue is packed with designs you'll want to knit.

Crane Creek

How many mornings have you stood in front of your closet and thought, “What I really need is…”? This is the story of Crane Creek, a jacket design that was born of just that thought, and was published in the Fall 2011 issue of Twist Collective.

I have a dog. Baxter is an 8 year old Lab/Beagle mix who loves nothing more than our daily walk to the local Starbucks. Every morning, rain or shine, Baxter and I go to Starbucks for our morning infusion (non-fat Raspberry Mocha for me, water in an oatmeal cup for him), and a little social interaction.

Since I work at home, this is often the only time I leave the house in the course of the day. If I never left the house, the temptation to spend the day in sweatpants and a t-shirt would be nearly irresistible. But the morning walk to Starbucks requires that I actually put on real clothes and shoes and a bra. We do, after all, have standards. I try to land on the right side of the fine line between casual and schlumpy.

It’s often foggy and chilly in the morning here in Northern California. Our morning walk often requires a top layer over my standard jeans and a shirt. I need a sweater that I can pull on on my way out the door. A sweater that I can throw in the back seat of the car in case it gets cool later. A sweater that functions like a hoody, but has a bit more style.

Crane Creek was designed as that sweater. First, it is a button front cardigan, because this style is endlessly versatile. With a pullover, I feel like I need to build the outfit around the sweater. A cardigan is happy to fit in anywhere.

Here is my original sketch.

Second, it has a shawl collar. I love a good shawl collar – it’s cozy and polished, without being fussy. After making a lot of shawl collars that didn’t lie quite right, I’ve finally figured out the perfect shaping. I’m happy for any opportunity to put this knowledge to use.

Third, it has pockets. Pockets are essential, because I don’t want to carry a handbag on the morning walk, but I must carry my Starbucks card and dog cookies and poop bags.

I chose a combination of stitch patterns that are simple to knit, but create an interesting surface texture. I added a bit of waist shaping, fitted shoulders and set-in sleeves to keep the fit sharp.

I had told Kate I wanted to make this sweater in a “sturdy, wooly” yarn. While I love a good soft merino as much as the next girl, this sweater was intended to be an everyday, low maintenance piece. I wanted a wool that would hold up to hard wear without pilling or stretching out of shape. When Kate suggested Green Mountain Spinnery’s Maine Organic, I was thrilled. This yarn fit all my requirements, with the added benefit of being sustainable. In addition, the heathery gray natural color doesn’t show dirt or dog hair.

Sweater photos by James Brittain, courtesy of Twist Collective.

So what’s with the name? Crane Creek is a park in the hills just east of the town where I live. Baxter and I love to go there at the end of a long day to walk and breathe and listen to the birds.

The grasses are dry this time of year – in the early spring, this view is a carpet of wildflowers.

The most romantic spot for a picnic.

The creek is nearly dry in early September.

An ancient California Live Oak veiled in moss.

My walking buddy.

Crane Creek turned out just as I hoped it would. Now I just need to make time to make one for myself.