bricoleur knits

The LIGHTENING ROUND! Johnny Vasquez from Fiberstory.TV...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:00:46 -0700

The LIGHTENING ROUND! Johnny Vasquez from Fiberstory.TV interviewed me last month, it was a blast! Watch the full interview here.

springtime frivolity…

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:43:49 -0700

springtime frivolity…

Midgard

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:09:00 -0700

It is APRIL, how did THAT happen?! We are firmly entrenched in 2012, and I am excited about the travel filled summer ahead of me. This month I’ll be visiting Atlanta for Stitches West, then San Francisco for the very first time. I don’t have much of an agenda there besides eating and seeing yarny friends.

June of course means TNNA, a sort of summer camp for professional knitters. I look forward to copious ice cream, the best in the world, and the affordable, unique boutiques, especially Substance.

July is when a lifelong dream comes true and I head to ICELAND for Body, Mind & Lopi. There will be shopping, sight-seeing and all sorts of Icelandic treats, but there will be work as well! Stephen, Ragga and I will all teach. Stephen and I have also been working on a collection that we plan to shoot in Iceland. I’ve been calling it Miðgarðr, or Midgard, and it will feature Skacel yarns! We share a love for neutrals with BOLD colors, and a desire for dramatic scale, something that Icelandic landscapes certainly offer.

Here is a peek at some of my favorite images from our collaborative mood board. It has been so interesting to work across an ocean, and I can’t wait to see what emerges…

XO CR

TREAT YO SELF!!!

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 02:45:00 -0700

TREAT YO SELF!!!

geek girl

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:38:00 -0700

This post has been sitting in my draft pile for eons, probably because I’m afraid to write it! Writing about a favorite writer is all kinds of daunting, and not something I do often. Exactly 166 days ago, I saw Jane Espenson speak at the first Geek Girl Convention. This happened right on the heels of the day I discovered that the Hellmouth is in fact Los Angeles.

It’s been a good long while since the talk so I’m afraid my memories are dim. What I do remember is that she was wickedly, adorably funny. When she dropped an F-bomb within minutes of taking the stage she purred, “hey guys, sorry for the spicy talk!…”

She went on to tell stories of her early days writing spec scripts for shows like Star Trek and M*A*S*H. Many of her “breaks” came from her putting herself out there. It reminded me of the quote “the harder you work, the luckier you get.”

Most of us know and love Jane for her work with Joss Whedon on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (note Spike + Buffybot, just out of view, below):

Eventually the conversation turned to slang and voice, two areas where Jane is pretty much unparalleled, in my opinion. Her fascination with language is backed by years of serious linguistic study, and she shapes her characters with specific verbal tics that always sound authentic and new.

All in all, Jane confirmed that writing for a television show sounds like some of the hardest and most fun creative work around. During the Q&A I raised my hand and asked her what she likes to watch if and when she has the time (she loves reality shows like Amazing Race and Project Runway).

Time management is just one more thing I have learned (or rather, am fighting like mad to learn) from Jane. If you follow her on Twitter @JaneEspenson you will have the option of joining her in a writing sprint (you could also learn how to revive a day-old sandwich—Jane is a woman who takes snacking seriously).

These sprints are bounded times where you resolve to eshew distractions and work on a specific task, uninterrupted. I haven’t joined in on a sprint in a while but I LOVE working on something knowing that Jane is tinkering with a script in tandem. She’s an incredible digital cheerleader, and so gracious with her fawning fans (askmehowIknow…)

I’m such a Jane fan that I had to name a knit after her. Last year I designed the Espenson caftan tee. It wasn’t necessarily inspired by Jane the lady, but by Jane’s ladies. She has a habit of writing for sci-fi and fantasy and this comfortable striped tee looks like something an ass-kicking woman of the future might wear while slaying demons or exploring a new moon.

Speaking of geeky fashions, I am absolutely LOVING Geek Chic, a nerdy and well-researched fashion column from Boston University junior Shannon Kiang. My personal favorite is Lord of the Rings round-up, but I can’t wait for her to tackle some Espenson material!

XO CR

Belated Happy St. Patrick’s day, everyone!

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:23:49 -0700

Belated Happy St. Patrick’s day, everyone!

I’m on TEEVEE! Well, YouTube. Check it.

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:20:00 -0700

I’m on TEEVEE! Well, YouTube. Check it.

Wellspring

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:21:59 -0800

Greetings! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’ve fallen silent because I’ve been fervently working on a new project. As you might know, I’m the new Creative Director at Skacel Collection. In addition to design, social media and yarn development, one of my major missions there is to spread the word about the fabulous yarns that live alongside the famous addi Turbo needles.

I’ll be doing that in a brand new studio, the Skacel Fiber Studio to be exact. I will still maintain this site, and will cross-post when it makes sense, but for now all things Skacel will live on that site. It will be a fiber-filled space, so I already know it’ll be a happy one.

See you at the studio!…

XO CR

Happy New Year

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:38:00 -0800

This year, I’m celebrating Chinese New Year. It is the Year of the Dragon, the year I turn 30 (along with Vogue Knitting magazine, I’m in FANTASTIC company) and the year that I truly began my duties as Creative Director at Skacel. My skills were immediately put to the test planning for two of the hottest industry events, the third Vogue Knitting Live in NYC and the biannual TNNA show (the January show is usually in California but has recently moved to Phoenix, Arizona). You can see all of my photographic notes from this whirlwind of a month here, but here are some highlights in the meantime…

Before heading off, I knit myself a Twin Cities headband using one ball of Schulana Cashmere Moda. It is a major party foul to work a booth and NOT wear at least some of your yarns. This fit the bill perfectly: it knit up in no time on my size 4 Addi Clicks and only took one ball of luxurious yarn in the color of the year, Pantone #17-1463 Tangerine Tango. I barely took it off all weekend, not even when crammed into the back of a limo with Alice Starmore and over a dozen other knitting denizens!

I also had to carefully consider my polish options for the weekend. I settled on a favorite neutral, Butter London’s All Hail the Queen. Appropriate when spending time with knitting royalty like Debbie Bliss, Sarah Hatton, Josh Bennett and Trisha Malcom, no?

What followed was a weekend full of fashion shows, bento boxes, shopping and chatting with friends and new to me knitters. Every hour seemed to outshine the last and I spent all of them with my vivacious new boss Karin. I knew she was a kindred spirit when we hit my beloved Momofuku Ssam Bar the first night in town. We devoured a plate of pickles, then artisanal ham, then pork belly sliders, then crack pie…we both couldn’t stop snapping photos and saying “MMMM!!…” She even indulged my fan girl squealing when I spotted and subsequently fawned over Amanda Brooks.

Together we ran a cafe themed booth where we introduced the latest in the Click line. Interchangeable needles with long but pointy tips, a lifeline threader built right into the cable…very exciting stuff!

At Loopy Mango, an incredible blend of haberdashery, antique shop and boutique. I am really, really glad this store is all the way in Soho and not Seattle!!

The same is true for Brooklyn General, a yarn shop that more than lived up to the heaps of praise I’d heard about it (they stock TONS of our yarns, too, maybe I’m a bit biased…) I especially fell in love with this giant squishy cowl, knit in Imperial Stock Ranch Bulky 2-Ply, a roving style pencil yarn that comes in giant wheels.

La Casita, another cozy and well-loved Brooklyn yarn shop, won me over with their wine bar and this dissected frog. Pattern is by Emily Stoneking, her amazing post-mortem menagerie is available here.

Clearly, I love New York. More and more with every visit. If I find myself missing it I will watch one of my favorite NYC movies. In no particular order:

Crossing Delancey, Hannah and Her Sisters, Taxi Driver, Royal Tenenbaums, Bill Cunningham New York, The Baxter, Pieces of April, Tiny Furniture, The Warriors, Muppets Take Manhattan…

3/1/2012: You can find part two of my January travelogue here.

XO CR

In Lieu of Snow

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:30:00 -0800

UPDATE: As though on cue, the darling Ragga Eiríksdóttir reminded me that today, DECEMBER 15th, 2011, is the last day to get Early Bird Pricing on the Body, Mind + Lopi retreat that Stephen West and I will be teaching in gorgeous, enigmatic ICELAND. I cannot WAIT for this excursion and I am busily plotting a mini-collection to shoot with Stephen while we’re there. Hope you can join us!

I am heading into my first winter here in Seattle, and I must say, I really miss snow! It could be the visual thrill of a sparkling expanse of clean white, or the noise dampening effects of a fresh blanket of cold powder. It could be the fun of trudging through suddenly silent woods, or the cozy feeling of being trapped indoors while a storm rages outside.

I recently designed a simple cowl that could be knit in one snowbound evening. It calls for 4 balls of Schulana Cortina Nuvole, a yarn that reminds me of freshly fallen snow—soft, fluffy and light. Download the free Columbia Cowl pattern here.

I’ll be heading back East to celebrate the holidays with family, and I’m crossing my fingers for some snowfall. Until then I’ll content myself with holiday nail varnishes and my Yuletide board on Pinterest…

Even though it is premature, I’m already feeling the January self-improvement impulses kick in. I have many goals, including updating my 5-year diary more regularly, eating more healthfully, carrying a more ladylike purse, learning to watercolor, working diligently on all of my deadline knits (!!!) and learning to manage stress with a bit more grace than I did in 2011.

Hope your winter is inspiring you as well, snowy or not…

XOCR

Bookworm

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:46:00 -0800

I recently moved into a new house. Moving twice in one year, not so fun. Getting my very first dedicated crafting space? Extremely fun! The very first thing I did was unpack my most used, most loved craft books. I usually arrange by height, but this time I tried something new, something borrowed from one of my favorite yarn shops, Purl Soho. Even though I’m 3000 miles away, I consider it an LYS. They arrange their yarn chromatically and I really love the effect that sorting method has on my books:

I always love getting a peek at other people’s bookshelves, so I thought you might like to take a peek at mine. Some of my current and/or enduring favorites:

Built by Wendy Coats and Jackets by Wendy Mullins
Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman
The Knitted Odd-Bod Bunch by Donna Wilson
The Fashion File by Janie Bryant
Second-Time Cool by Anna-Stina Linden Ivarsson et al.
Anything by Kim Hargreaves
The Knitter’s Handbook by Monste Stanely
The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket
Fashion Forecasting by Evelyn L. Brannon
I Love Your Style by Amanda Brooks
Aran Knitting by Alice Starmore

What are some of your favorites?
XO CR

La-la-land

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:21:27 -0700

Hello! It has been extremely busy here at Bricoleur Knits (btw, I will finally explain the blog name this weekend). I’m delving into my new job as Jr. Creative Director at Skacel! It’s so exciting to join a family business that just happens to make some of the best knitting needles on the market. Most knitters don’t even realize that they ALSO distribute many fine European yarns. Luscious luxury fibers from Schulana, wildly inventive sock weight yarns from Schoppel Wolle, stalwart sock yarns (and much more) from Zitro n…and that’s just a sampling! I’ve had these yarns in my stash for years, it’s going to be fantastic fun working with them. What else have I been up to? Stream of consciousness update:

…I celebrated a birthday, the last of my roaring 20s…

…made my first Skacel purchase with a birthday gift credit: Hikoo Simplicity for the next Skacel KAL, Zauberball Crazy, a cashmere hat kit and (the most exciting thing) a set of Lace Clicks!…

…I visited Los Angeles for the very first time and adored it. I was there teaching for VK Live: Los Angeles. As a total media junkie I was tickled to be walking by movie sets, talent agencies and production houses. I was giddy when I saw Janie Bryant at Bloomingdales. I had an incredibly awesome encounter with Danny Strong, an actor who stars in THREE of my favorite shows (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls and Mad Men). I practically fainted when I boarded my plane and saw Seth Green, aka OZ the sitting in first class. The Hellmouth is Los Angeles!…

…VK Live, hands down the most glamorous knitting event! Runway shows, amazing lectures from masterminds Kaffe Fassett and June Hemmons-Hiatt, leisurely dinners with old friends, YOGA, sassy new friends…oh yes, and TEACHING! Classes full of wise-cracking, awesome knitters. It was an honor to have them share their weekend with me…

…new pattern, the Annex Snood, featured in Weekend Hats, a new book edited by Cecily Glowik McDonald and Melissa Labarre. Knit in Dream in Color Smooshy (truly dreamy) it is just the thing for dodging paparazzi ;)…

…and perhaps most exciting of all, Body, Mind & Lop i was announced!! Stephen West and I will make our way to Iceland, a place I’ve obsessed over my entire life. Ragga Eiriksdottir puts together incredible Icelandic experiences and I can’t wait to get to know her and her gorgeous country…

…I think that brings us up to speed! Fall is creeping in and I am going to be hunkering down with my book projects and cooking my way through Love Soup! And oh yeah, moving O_o but only to a different Seattle neighborhood this time. If you’d like to see a few more pictures from VK Live click here.

XOCR

Teeming Masses

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:25:25 -0700

I’ve been putting off this post, hoping it would coalesce into something more intelligible, but I am realizing now I just have to go for it…

I have been admiring Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s media mash-up project hitRECord for over a year now, so when I heard he was bringing a live show to Seattle, I jumped at the chance to see him live and learn more about the endeavor. Beyond being a fan of his work (and, ahem, his visage…) I am in awe of what he is doing. Here is an actor who could absolutely rest on his laurels, or spend his days in a money-fueled narcotic haze, but here he is, earnest as all get out, making art and encouraging others to do the same.

From the very start, the show was crackling, effervescent, emotional and more than anything, fun. I found myself trying to categorize the beautiful short films so I could explain the project to others, and so I could start to get a toehold and contribute myself. I couldn’t do it, and moreover, I realized that it didn’t matter. The work is alternately whimsical, hilarious, political, stripped down…most of all, the work is in a liminal state, all of it subject to remixing and reiteration, open-ended art in progress. To quote a hitRECord, I love living in the future!

The themes at work at hitRECord are themes that I’ve always been interested in: originality, ownership, creativity, reference, and of course, bricolage, but there is a bracing positivity that permeates this work. Whereas Guy Debord and neo-Situationists like Kalle Lasn take culture and détourn it by adding a cynical or didactic spin, hitRECords seem to emphasize simultaneously personal and collaborative work. In a time of intellectual property battles and homogenization in every sphere, the work that comes out of these collaborations feels honestly new.

That’s not to say it is without flaw! There is something übermeta and almost stifling about recording every movement, but here it seems less about broadcasting minutia and more about collecting observances. JGL acknowledges the need for things that are special only in the moment by playing music that can’t be used on his site, i.e. Lithium by Nirvana. These records still end up on the web, but I really like the sentiment.

An interesting side effect of the project is the commentary it prompts on Internet friendships in general. Since the project is basically a digital bee, it’s natural to assume that participants are the kind that prefer to work in solitude, who are socially maladjusted in some way. Quite the opposite: being in a room with people who use the site or intend to was thrilling. I went alone, but ended up connecting with a Twitter friend (who wrote a thoughtful write-up here) and three others, all of them delightful, smart people.

Beyond that heartening experience, I noticed that the nucleus of the project himself was setting an awesome example of what it means to be our age (30-ish) right now. I’d wondered whether MR. JGL was merely “narcissing” himself with this undertaking, but he seems genuinely committed to pulling stories out of other people, which is something I thought our generation had forgotten how to do, something I thought the Internet killed. As I Tweet and blog and blather, I remember something from the Almost Famous screenplay:

103   INT. HOTEL ROOM -- DAY				103

They sit together, hair askew, in sunglasses, resting against
the headboard.  Carefully, Russell identifies his thoughts.

		RUSSELL
	I feel... like his parents.

Penny runs a worried hand through her hair.

		PENNY
	I know.

		RUSSELL
	I wonder how that happened.

		PENNY
	You ever notice that all our sentences
	begin with "I?"

		RUSSELL
	I hadn't, no.

		PENNY
	'Cause we should work on that.

He looks at her, plays the guitar a little.

JGL and his growing legion have taken up the challenge, and I’m ready to join them!

XOCR

References

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:21:59 -0700

I was so very lucky this week! I had a chance to hang out with Mary Jane Mucklestone, a lively, accomplished, totally inspiring knitter/designer/stylist/all-around fibrous lady. It was great to hear all about her upcoming book projects and to share our thoughts on styling, a shared passion (see pictures from our visit to Earthues here). I had to laugh when I saw her arrive—we were both in shades of blue, plaids + stripes and were both toting LeSportSac bags. Some kind of knitter’s uniform, or Pacific NW Chic?…

I brought a copy of I Love Your Style by Amanda Brooks. So often books about style are slightly bossy or overly cheeky or just plain boring. This book is right up my alley, with a hugely diverse and incredibly literate range of references. I love that she includes lists of sartorially inspiring films to take in, and not just the usual like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

MJ, Amanda and I all share this tendency for referentiality, and we’re hardly alone. Friend and founder of Ravelry Casey Forbes recently tweeted a link to Steven Soderbergh’s so-called Media Diet. He basically assigns himself a steady diet of specific media that will help him develop his aesthetic.

I am currently in the middle of rewatching Mad Men (and reading the comprehensive and sartorially focused re-caps by TLo), and Mary Jane and I are both over the moon for Downton Abbey, both available on Netflix Instant. Gorgeous television makes all of our deadline knitting tolerable, and it heightens our respective visual repertoires. It’s so much more than passing time, it’s new color combinations, inventive framing and postures we’d never think to use, moods and places conjured for us while we do the more practical work of turning yarn into garments.

What scenes and costumes and faces have found their way from your screens to your crafting? You can see just a few more of my favorites here.

A Thing of Beauty

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:37:19 -0700

What a weekend for the humble sock! Last weekend, Doug and I ventured to Portland, Oregon to attend the second Sock Summit and visit friends. Our farmer friend Caitlyn took us to Sauvie Island where we swam in the Columbia and ran into the wheat fields.

The lovely Leethal put us up for the evening and we had a great time getting accidentally drunk on delicious Hair of the Dog beers. A highlight of the weekend was meeting her super plush and adorably named cat BANZO, which is short for Garbanzo. We also spent some time hanging out with some urban goats that were hired to mow a lot downtown.

Lee and I are both in the issue of Twist Collective that just went live! Lee designed a pair of hats and I contributed a pair of knee-high socks (they’re FREE, btw). They are knit with Miss Babs Northumbria, a DK weight Blue Faced Leicester that is treated to be superwash. I absolutely adore working with BFL, it is so soft and so well-behaved. It was perfect for a pair of warm, cozy socks, and the heavier weight means you can knit these in the last few weeks of summer and have them ready for your favorite fall boots.

The colors I’m knitting tend to creep into my life, and this time was no exception. Wheaten, a soft yellow, showed up in my wardrobe…

…and in what I was watching. As I slogged through the second sock (I’m NOT a natural sock knitter) I watched Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” a second time. If you haven’t seen this film yet, DO. The costumes and color palette are sublime, and needlework plays a major role. These practical but beautiful beaded socks are just the sort of thing I can imagine Fanny Brice wearing as she lolls around the house reading letters from her love, John Keats. I borrowed the title of Keats’ poem “Endymion,” which opens with the line “A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness…”

Indeed…

Falling in love again

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:42:50 -0700

I’ve always had a hard time answering the question “Where are you from?” Truth be told, I’ve lived so many places I’m not even sure I HAVE a hometown. My family is based in New England, Texas and Washington, D.C. and since my father was in the military I’ve lived in Japan, Europe and all over the East Coast.

The wanderlust is ingrained, and in less than three years of dating, my boyfriend and I have been to 26 states together (he has been to all but Alaska), and I have moved from Western Massachusetts to Providence, RI to Seattle, WA!

Since I spent my youth moving around, I’m pretty adept at learning to love new places. There is always a period of stubbornness, but eventually each new place reveals its charms, I seek out new ones, and before long I am begrudgingly in love.

It happened in Providence, and it is happening again with Seattle. When I arrived in Providence, I wasn’t sure I liked the gruff, serpentine little city on Narragansett Bay, but I did a 180 pretty quickly. The crafty, gorgeous town seemed completely mine—every time I went to a tiny art house cinema or visited a boutique or rowed in the choppy cold water, it felt like my own personal dollhouse. That city and I are sympatico!

My first few weeks in Seattle felt a bit Twin Peaks to me, but the more I venture out on my own, the more I am won over. From the free dance lesson I stumbled across downtown…

…to the fully grown woman reading Calvin & Hobbes: Weirdos from Another Planet on the bus…

…it’s a delightful city. And it is just as aqueous as Providence!

Being so close to the water and the mountains mean that it can be chilly in July! The weather here is so much more than just “rainy,” and it’s kind of nice to be enjoying autumnal delights in summertime.

I’m currently working on a Gansey for the book that is inspired by these parallel maritime cities. Providence and the surrounding area had a hugely inspiring nautical feel (click here to see my visit to the New Bedford Whaling Museum) and Seattle shares the same feeling, with an added dose of Scandinavian and Japanese influence. Add that to the drizzly, cool temps and its a perfect storm for this knitter. Case in point: here’s a little sneak preview of a Cousteau/Zissou inspired knit I hope to release in the next few weeks…

But in the meantime, I have several deadlines staring me down, and oh yeah, Sock Summit in Portland, which is practically my backyard now. Can’t wait to go high-five some old friends and hit up a few food carts, oh yes, and BURGERVILLE…

XOCR

California

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 08:20:00 -0700

Contest is now closed, thanks for entering! Congrats to Heather Nielsen! Please email bricoleurknits@gmail.com to claim your prizes.

Have you heard? I’m a West Coast girl now! Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m still rooting for the Red Sox and missing Rhode Island clam cakes something fierce, but I’m starting to love my new home here in Seattle. The stunning views, the gorgeous produce (yes, I said produce) and the vast scale of it are slowly creeping into my heart, which is why I’m SO excited that the vibrant East Coast knitting scene is making its way out West!

Vogue Knitting Live, the incredible event put on by the lovely people at Vogue Knitting, is coming to Los Angeles, California and they’ve invited me to teach! I had such a blast at the inaugural NYC event (read more here) that I jumped at the chance, and I think you should too! You can leave a comment here to enter to win admission to one class at VK Live L.A. this September. Tell me what California style means to you, or what kind of knitting you’d do if you were suddenly an L.A. resident full-time.

The winner I randomly choose on 7/15, 11:59 P.M. will also receive a Cali style gift bag from me: a copy of my favorite fashion read at that moment, a specially selected L.A. inspired nail varnish and a sneak peek at what I’m working on for my book!

If you’d like to sign up for my classes, you can click here. I’ll be offering these 4:

Knit Different: This course aims to introduce knitters to the myriad ways there are to make a knit and a purl stitch. We will survey the many methods of knitting from around the globe and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. At the very least, throwers will try picking and pickers will try throwing, and two-handed colorwork will be introduced.

Design with Confidence: Designing knitwear involves technical knowledge, knitting skill and artistic vision, but beyond that it requires confidence. This course will help you articulate your goals as a designer. Lecture and discussion will take place in the first half and the second half will be devoted to construction of a mood board, croquis and specs, and if time allows, swatching and preliminary planning.

Finishing Tricks: Find out how professional knitters finish sweaters! From blocking to buttons, I’ll share all of the tricks I”ve picked up working in the industry.

Internet Workshop: The Internet has revolutionized the craft of knitting, transforming it from a hobby into a lifestyle. This workshop will introduce you to the many resources available online, from blogging to buying and selling stash. Consider this workshop a safe space to ask all those questions you’ve been afraid to ask!

Visit all the stops on this blog tour to learn more about other course offerings:

7/4 Carol Sulcoski @ Go Knit Your Hat

7/5 Shannon Okey @ Knitgrrl

7/6 Beth Casey @ Lorna’s Laces

7/7 Amy Singer @ Knittyblog

7/8 Amy Swenson @ Indigirl

Can’t wait to see you in California!

XO CR

Concetta

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 22:51:00 -0700

When I first met creative wonder Larissa Brown, she told me that she was working on a book called My Grandmother’s Knitting. I instantly fell for her gumption. Her book is going to offer a gorgeous counterpart to the countless, careless, LAZY instances of journalists saying “This is not your grandmother’s knitting…” This book says, “Hell YES this is my grandmother’s knitting, and it is awesome.”

I am so glad I was able to convince Larissa to include my Concetta Swing Cardigan, a project inspired by an heirloom that I’ve loved my entire life.

Most families pass down folksy, traditional items made with love, things like Christmas stockings, christening shawls and Fair Isle mittens. My treasure is decidedly decadent, a total indulgence for the knitter, my great-grandmother Concetta. This sweater, which has a matching skirt, was knit with a singular intention—to dazzle.

Creating the fabric was no doubt labor intensive—every other stitch on every right side row is decorated with a clear, iridescent sequin. The yarn was well chosen, a smooth, plied yarn that appears to be a wool-nylon blend, perhaps a yarn intended for baby garments. Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine makes a wonderful substitute and stands up to the abrasion of pre-stringing all those sequins.

The inside reveals several loose ends, not woven in after 60 years. I had to laugh—it appears that my at times laissez-faire approach to finishing is in fact genetic! I like to imagine that my great-grandmother simply couldn’t wait to wear this masterpiece.

While the trim, three-quarter length-sleeved top is perfectly modern, my first impulse was to simplify. Knitting with sequins has fallen out of fashion, and perhaps with good reason—there is no getting around that it is a somewhat tedious practice (a tip for threading: measure the length of 10 stacked sequins, then use this measurement to estimate how many you’ve threaded).

To minimize the monotony, I converted the cardigan to a simple circular yoke construction with abbreviated, slightly puffy cap-sleeves, and a decrescendo of sequins. These simplifications keep the knitting pleasant and the overall effect more Vargas than Vegas. I hope you love it as much as I love the original. I wore the original to my senior prom with a vintage jersey disco dress and I felt, quite literally, like a star.

XO CR

Hothouse Tomato

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:25:00 -0700

Dear readers, I am BEACH BOUND. And I couldn’t be happier about it. I originally wanted to photograph what I packed so I could share it with you, but I am lucky I got out of the door at all! I tend to pack for trips the way a costumer might style a movie wardrobe. I pick a character or era and pack for that. My schizoid closet can make packing a chore, so I love this organizing principle. I originally planned to pack items that Audrey Hepburn might have worn on the French Riviera in the 1970s, but I hit up a sale at Levi’s and suddenly my summer wardrobe was more Appalachian watering hole than Cote D’Azur (see proof here).

This threw my packing schema into upheaval, but my suits and my polish choices are still heavily 70s (mostly American Apparel one pieces and a range of peach, burgundy, persimmon and one olive green).

I just finished reading Furious Love and am suddenly preoccupied with Elizabeth Taylor. I am a total neophyte, and am looking forward to tackling her filmography over the next few months. One of the things I loved most about the book was all the images and stories of Richard and Liz on various beaches and boats. While it is clear that Miss Taylor was not slathering on any SPF, I find her confidence totally inspiring. She was teased by directors and Richard Burton about her prodigious curves but it never seemed to get her down. Let’s all take that to heart, and to the shore.

(Yes, I bought a commemorative magazine at the airport. What?!)

XO CR

Mixt

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:24:03 -0700

The I nterweave Knits Weekend 2011 preview just went live, and I’m so happy to be in this issue. It is my first time in IK, actually, and it’s really just a simple little thing, but I’m still pretty proud!

I contributed an extra-long cowl that I am calling the Mixt Cowl. I used Berroco Boboli, and I had so much fun watching the colors change, it seemed like each stitch was a new color, some shiny, some matte, all of them fascinating. I chose a simple biasing lace stitch and watched the prismatic eyelets chase each other around and around. It took next to no time to knit because I could barely put it down.

The IK team placed it in a summer story and left it long and loose, which is exactly how I like to wear cowls in the warmer months, but I had a lot of fun playing around with this cowl before I mailed it off. It can easily be worn doubled or once around your neck and once over your head, like a Hollywood starlet in a vintage Roadster! If only…

There is a built in twist that will make this cowl look elegant with minimal fussing. Pick a color (or several, each colorway of Boboli seems to contain at least a dozen) and cast on!

XO CR