Black Raspberry and Honeydew Anyone?

August 20th, 2009 by Gwynn | Posted in General News |

You mention black raspberry and honeydew in 90 degree heat and it must be a reference to sorbet. Or shaved ice. Or ice cream. Frozen yogurt at least. Right?

No, not here at our local Yarn Mecca – Halcyon Yarn. I am talking about wool baby. 100% wool – Victorian 2-Ply Wool to be exact. If you don’t know about Twist Collective, a fairly new online knitting magazine, I give you permission to go and look at it right now. (Just come back and finish reading this when you are done.) I am 1000% impressed with every single issue – agog really, at how beautifully realized the designs and photography are. The projects are smart and crisp, not a dud in there. The mix of traditional and edgy is fresh and intriguing. Besides all that, it’s just plain fun to click through the pages with my mouse and watch all the pics appear.

As I said, I’ve been a fan of every issue but am particularly enthralled with the current offering because of ‘cottage garden’. (Which brings me back to Victorian 2-Ply Wool and black raspberry and honeydew, pictured above.) The pattern, designed by Cheryl Burke, is done with our own Halcyon Exclusive Victorian 2-Ply Wool. This yarn is sport weight and comes in a myriad of colors. It is a wonderful choice for color work because of its ‘sticky’ quality. There are no gaping holes at the color changes because the strands grab on to each other and stay put. The weight and twist of this particular fiber make for very clear and crisp edges between the colors giving an outstanding result in Fair Isle knitting. Victorian 2-Ply does not have a reputation for being soft but don’t let that put you off. It softens nicely with a washing and performs so well you’ll be back for more. It has a hefty 325 yards a skein and like I said before, comes in a veritable rainbow. The hardest part will be choosing your two colors. So far, not all of you have stayed with the chosen path and I have been delighted with the color choices that have come in over the internet. Here are a couple of them:

The black raspberry and honeydew is my choice. Here is my progress as of last night. It is a wiggly thing to take a picture of. But at least I got enough done to see the first picot welt and the groovy color contrast. This sweater is at least 15″ of in-the-round stockinette on size 4 needles – but I have a plan. To keep from going cuckoo, I will choose one of the bulky weight sweaters from last week’s post and offset one with the other. Thus accomplishing (eventually) two terrific (and terrifically different) sweaters. Stay tuned.

On a Weaving Matter: Here is a new scarf pattern that Michael Patterson designed and wove for the shop. He made it on a rigid heddle loom using Chirimen by Noro and a yarn we don’t have anymore. So we have to make another one. For the new one we will be using the Chirimen  and Debbie Bliss Rialto DK.  These are the new color choices. The staff and in store customers are voting on which one they would like to see and I am offering all of you in cyber space a vote as well! Chime in with your favorite and we’ll give results next week. All 5  choices shown below… Choice 1 – fuschia; Choice 2 – blue; Choice 3 – green; Choice 4 – brown; Choice 5 – black. Staff member Lori is a knitter turned weaver (she is modeling the scarf) and she is going to weave the new scarf for us. You will hear more about her next week. Thanks for your input and comments!

Until next week, Happy Crafting!