On Knitting: Sleuthing and Discovery

It’s time to come clean about something. Sometimes my knitting projects can languish – forgotten, unfinished, pining for the day that I see them again out of the corner of my eye and excitedly exclaim “there you are! I’ve been looking for you!” Perhaps if you’ve read any of my previous posts you’re rolling your eyes a bit because almost every single one of my knitting projects finds itself in this position at one point or another. A 10-year-old sweater waiting to have its ends sewn in, a mitten at the bottom of a basket longing to be part of a pair, a hat wondering when its time will come to receive the oft-promised pompom.

Or in this case, a well-intended gift that missed its deadline. This yarn, or rather the project I am making with it, was supposed to be a birthday gift for Kyle at the beginning of February. A little knitted version of the beloved Frog and Toad, with cute little clothing accessories and flipper feet. I feverishly worked in secret to get these done in time, knitting late into the night and keeping my knitting bag tucked away so he wouldn’t see, but alas the ticking of the clock was simply too fast for the clicking of my needles.

I got close. I got so close. Their bodies are done, I closed up the seams, wove in the ends, dealt with any gaps in the meticulously-shaped joints to prevent stuffing from poking out. But do you know what ultimately did me in? The eyeballs. I have to crochet a tiny little circle and then hand-stitch the details onto the eyeball before cutting a hole into the head of the frog/toad, picking up stitches, knitting eyelids, and then somehow masterfully sewing the eye into place without making him look lopsided or cross-eyed. I made eight eyeballs – I only need four. Some didn’t make the cut. I still may need to make more. I tried sewing one in and immediately took it out because despite how it looked, I am not trying to make haunted dolls that come alive at night. So I took a break and moved on to the clothing.

Look at these lovely little outfits ready to go! Again, I finished all of the knitting, I wove in the ends, I tidied up any wonky edges. I even gave them a good soak and blocked them so the fabric would lay nicely. Please ignore the fact that one pant leg is longer than the other. At this point it’s a design element. But by the time I was ready to return to facial assembly, Kyle’s birthday was upon us. I had no other option but to pack these unfinished pieces into a tin and present them to him as an “IOU”. I believe this to be a rite of passage for any knitter, or any crafter for that matter, which is why I generally try not to make gifts for specific occasions (“try” being the operative word, because I set myself up for this sort of thing time and time again.) But now that we are five and a half months past the IOU delivery, it might be time to take a deep breath and have a go at those eyes again.

As a palate cleanser, I had started a pair of socks for myself, just to take the edge off. I have no idea when I started these socks, but thanks to this blog there is a post from the beginning of April showing that I had half of the first sock finished, so I must have started them sometime in March.

Once the first sock was finished, I must have forgotten about them. But then I remember texting with my sister saying that we had family coming to visit at the beginning of June and I didn’t have any knitting projects lined up to work on while they were here and was thinking about what I wanted to get on the needles. But then, as the fates would have it, as I was vacuuming in preparation for their visit I found a single forgotten sock behind the couch where it must have fallen months prior. The fates were listening, and presented me with a project that was already half-finished!

I didn’t actually do any knitting while we had guests, but at least I was reminded of this project and was able to pick it up again last month. Usually my record-keeping is much better, but I also don’t have any documentation of when I finished the second sock. I do, however, know that the yarn is Tosh Sock in the colorway “Mare” (sea, not horse, glad I got that sorted out) from my deep stash and I used Charcoal as the contrasting toe/heel/cuff. The pattern is the exact opposite of a pair of socks I made for Kyle last year. As I was knitting his socks, I was pleasantly surprised that I liked the inside of his socks as much as the outside, so I thought I would flip it around and use the stitch pattern again for myself.

With these complete, I cast on to knit a sweater for Kyle. Aha! Applying my sleuthing skills, I know I started his sweater on June 28, which means I must have finished my socks the day before.

This is a sweater Kyle has wanted for a long time – Longfellow by Michele Wang. In fact, he started knitting this sweater for himself ten years ago when we were at a knitting retreat with Michele Wang. Sadly, it has been sitting for the past ten years with only about 2″ of the back complete, so it was definitely time to make this sweater a reality. Also sadly, the company that makes this yarn, Brooklyn Tweed, announced a few months ago that they were halting all yarn production effective immediately. Oh, that was such a huge blow to my heart!

This is such a special yarn to me. Jared Flood, the founder of Brooklyn Tweed, used to write a knitting blog by the same name which I started following nearly 20 years ago when I began knitting. I was but a wee child in college but I loved his work and he took a lot of his inspiration from Elizabeth Zimmermann (knitting royalty), whom I also adore. The first sweater I ever knit for myself was designed by Jared Flood and published in the Fall 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. I remember when he founded Brooklyn Tweed as a yarn/pattern company when I was in grad school and I was so excited. Domestically-sourced wool, dyed before spinning and then the mill would blend up to eight different colors together to get the most beautiful, complex palette of colors. This yarn is woolen-spun, which gives it a lot of bounce and lightness, and I have really loved working with it over the years. The company started with a worsted-weight yarn – Shelter – and then followed it up with this fingering-weight yarn called Loft. I remember my very first project using Shelter 15 years ago. It was a cabled scarf in the “Button Jar” colorway; a beautiful green with flecks of blue and yellow. I was so hooked.

A little over ten years ago, I was fortunate enough to work at a yarn shop that was one of Brooklyn Tweed’s “flagship” stores – one of only a handful in the country that carried their yarn. Shortly after, I also began working as a sample maker for Brooklyn Tweed, knitting sweaters and accessories for upcoming patterns or traveling trunk shows. I made samples for them on and off for almost a decade. I have seen them introduce and retire new yarn lines, limited runs, new colors. I’m sure I have knit at least a dozen sweaters with their yarn, for myself or for them, and just absolutely love the depth of color and the hand of the yarn as it glides through my fingers. All that to say, Brooklyn Tweed and the yarn they produced has been such an important piece of my knitting history and I am so incredibly devastated that they made the decision to halt yarn production in order to focus on pattern development. All businesses have to make difficult decisions all the time and I will absolutely continue to support and look forward to what comes next for them – their patterns are top notch, some of the best in the industry – but it really is hard to know that the precious few skeins remaining in my stash are all that I will ever use. It’s the end of an era, and I am so excited for Kyle to have another Brooklyn Tweed sweater of his own.

My stash isn’t empty yet, though. As part of the sample knitting contract with Brooklyn Tweed, they had a “yarn match” program in addition to monetary compensation where for every yard of yarn used in making a sample, I was also eligible to redeem that amount of yardage in yarn. I didn’t realize I had a balance, but I was so pleasantly surprised to receive an email from their sample knitter coordinator telling me that I had a few thousand yards to redeem and to let her know what I wanted. For years I had been wanting to try their Dapple yarn – 60% wool, 40% cotton – but had never quite gotten around to it. Well, this was my opportunity! So I ordered a sweater’s-worth in the brown plus a few skeins in cream that I can use as a contrast. I know you’re shocked that these neutral tones are the colors I chose. What can I say, I know what I like. With this, I know my stash can provide me with two more sweaters and a vest (TWO vests! I just remembered I have one that is almost finished already!), and then sadly I will have to confront the fact that I need to find a new favorite yarn. I better dig out that vest before I forget about it again – we wouldn’t want that to suffer the same fate as all my other knitting projects.