Last weekend, I left the state of California for my first time since the beginning of the pandemic. As I mentioned in my previous post, Irina and I planned a Pac NW roadtrip/mini-yarn crawl.
My first shop was at The Hook Nook in Salem, OR. I've been following the owner, Jessica Carey, on IG for ages now and it was really cool to meet the maker IRL. Her retail space is brand new and very modern. She was very friendly and gracious enough to pose for a silly selfie with me.
I bought a mug and a giant pom pom maker that Xena is totally in love with!
Then Irina and I went to Starlight Knitting Society in PDX. I was already familiar with them from buying from their booth at Stitches West and it was delightful to visit their spacious and stylish store front.
I bought a pint glass and a squishy grip of yarn for sock knitting:
Spincycle - Dream State SWM - Verba Volant (worsted) and Burning Sensation (sport)
Farmers Daughters Fibers - Zodiac - Aries, Sagittarius & Aries - I'm not 100% sure of the weight or fiber content but they look and feel like fingering SWM with perhaps a bit of nylon
Perennial - 60% SWM/25% suri alpaca/15% nylon - Lot 276381 - Col 105 Natural
Then we visited the shop I've been looking forward to visiting the most, Ritual Dyes, also in PDX. I intentionally wore the cardi and socks I knit in their yarn so I could pose for this mega fan girl photo.
Having recently purchased a ton of yarn from the shop online over the past few months, I managed to restrain my in store purchases to a clay canvas bag (to match my cardi) and the most beautiful stitch markers ever.
One is turquoise and the rest are sapphire. I wanted to get enough to use as raglan markers on sweaters.
In mid-May I finally started knitting Kindred Red's Ardent Tee pattern Pompom Issue #33. I wanted to knit this pattern as soon as it came out but just couldn't find the time until recently.
I used Elemental Affects Cormo Fingering in Oyster, Citron and Coral, all from Atelier. The pattern calls for sport weight cotton yarn but because I knit and purl a lot looser flat than in the round, after swatching, the fingering weight wool felt fabulous and I used the needle sizes called for in the pattern.
You really get your bang for your buck with this yarn because each hank weighs 4 oz is approximately 550 yds of soft and springy U.S. bred wool.
Honestly, when I first glanced at the 6 page long pattern which included a mirror-image intarsia chart, I was quite daunted. I doubted if I even had the ability to follow it but it is written so clearly that it was incredibly easy to follow and all of the new techniques that I learned were simple to understand.
It was painless to seam with the applied I-cord and all of the folded hems and ruffles make the tee look and feel so effortlessly stylish! But as you can see above, it looks pretty cool just as a sleeveless tank as well.
I knit size 3 of the pattern.
I am not exaggerating. It fits me perfectly. I steam blocked the entire sweater with my iron on the wool setting. It really helped to uncurl/relax the edges of the bottom hems and sleeve ruffles.
I couldn't pick a favorite photo!
It was hard to capture the phosphorescent glow of the citron color in the grey SF morning.
High contrasting colors are 100% my thing.
I love stripes and semi-circles and bold blocks of color in general!
I literally feel like this pattern was made for me.
Xena told me I look cool and ultimately, that's all that really matters, right?!
I styled this outfit with shorts but it easily goes with pants, a skirt or even over a dress.
The fabric is incredibly light weight and airy.
The back is just as cool as the front.
The photos of the finished garment hanging on a hanger don't do it justice.
There has been a lot of discussion about size inclusively in the sewing, knitting and crochet communities lately and I think this pattern was very conscientiously designed to meet the needs of a variety of shapes and sizes.
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