clothing – Cowtown Knits

Introducing Capitol Hills Wrap

April 12, 2019Leave a comment

For the first time in a long time, I’m happy to announce the launch of a new pattern!

This one is a pretty lace number that’s perfect for spring and summer wear, and it’s called the Capitol Hills Wrap.

I’m very lucky to live in a great neighbourhood (Capitol Hill, here in Calgary) with an incredibly high proportion of fibre artists. We recently started up a Fibre Arts Club at our community association that’s drawing a surprisingly large crowd of crafters who knit, crochet, Tunisian crochet, cross stitch, embroider, sew, and dye yarn!

One of those crafters is Jenn, the incredibly talented dyer behind Fibre Goddess, who happens to live just a few blocks from me (our kids even go to the same school). When I got my hands on her Artemis yarn, a silk and linen blend, I knew it could be something special.

I wanted a shawl that I could wear every day. I sometimes struggle to find a good way to wear triangular or semicircular shawls, so I decided to go with a simple rectangle instead. I also wanted to utilize the beautiful drape of the yarn, so I made it nice and hole-y. I found a geometric wallpaper pattern I really liked on Pinterest, and converted it to knits, purls, and yarn-overs, because that’s the way my brain works. And because I wanted it to finish with points on either end, I started it from the middle and worked outwards.

Construction starts at the middle of the wrap with a provisional cast on, and a narrow band is then worked in opposite directions to form the horizontal centre panel. Then stitches are picked up along one side, and a broad chevron pattern is worked vertically in one direction, ending with a peaked edging. The process is repeated in the opposite direction to complete the wrap.

I’m so happy with how it worked out! The yarn is scrumptious, and the wrap is something I can wear every day, which is pretty much all I’m ever looking for in a knitted piece.

You can buy the pattern (which is $2.00 off until end of day April 19th) on Ravelry by clicking the button below.

Or come visit Jenn and I at the Fibre Shindig at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association on Saturday, April 13th, from 10am – 4pm. We will both have kits at our booths that will include 2 skeins of Artemis as well as a hard and digital copy of the pattern (at its discounted price).

This collaboration is all about great neighbours and lively neighbourhoods, which I’m so grateful to have!

Dublin

May 23, 2018May 22, 20185 Comments

Welcome to Dublin – the penultimate pattern in Travel Knits for the Family, and a city in Ireland.

The pattern is for a versatile cardigan to throw in your bag to keep you warm when those travel days get cold. It features a leaf lace pattern than flows from the shoulders down the sleeves and is integrated into the ribbing at the cuffs. The same ribbing and leaf lace pattern is repeated at the bottom of the body as well.

It’s designed with generous ease and no shaping to make it easy to layer on over anything. That being said, the body is a blank canvas to add shaping if you’d like to modify it.

The pattern is worked from the top down, seamlessly, beginning with the lace shoulders. After the shoulders are worked, the back is worked to the underarm, followed by each front. Then the body is joined and worked to the bottom. The lace pattern is continued down the sleeves as they are worked from the top down, with short-row sleeve caps. The collar is worked, followed finally by the button bands. The lace pattern is provided as both charted and written instructions.

For this pattern I was so lucky to get my hands on Travelknitter’s new DK weight Blue Faced Leicester yarn. This yarn was a dream to work with, and of course the colour is outstanding, as are all the Travelknitter colourways (really, every single one). You can check them out at the Travelknitter online shop when it’s open and stocked. But if you’re lucky enough to be heading to Woollinn Dublin this weekend, you can grab the yarn and the book at the Travelknitter booth. Larissa will have a limited number of Travel Knits for the Family books for purchase at her booth, and I believe you’ll also be able to check out a second sample of the Dublin cardigan there as well.

I wish I was going to be in Dublin for the festival this weekend as well (though that would mean missing the launch party at The Loop here in Calgary, so maybe not). We visited Dublin for a quick weekend trip at the end of the summer of 2016. We strolled around St. Stephen’s Green, learning about the Easter Uprising. We visited the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, as well as The Old Library and the Book of Kells at Trinity College. We took the best bus tour I’d ever been on – the driver provided the commentary, which was equal parts hilarious and educational, all while winding us through the narrow streets of Dublin. We finished off the weekend with a pub lunch along the river Liffey while listening to Irish folk tunes while it drizzled outside, which was perfection. Our main regret for that trip was that we didn’t get to see any of the rest of Ireland – so we’ll have to go back!

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(PS. I included the photo where Atticus is hanging his head to show that traveling with kids isn’t always a party. They were both really cranky that day, which happens. It can make it really hard to enjoy, but it’s rarely what we remember from a trip.)

For more information about Travel Knits for the Family, get all the details here.

Edinburgh

May 21, 2018May 20, 2018Leave a comment

Let me introduce you to Edinburgh, the cardigan. In theory, this is a men’s sweater, but in reality, I’m planning to wear this sample a lot when my husband isn’t.

The cardigan is knit flat in pieces, with an all-over cable and rib pattern, and seamed together afterwards. I know lots of knitters prefer seamless garments, but one with this kind of weight is greatly benefited by the structure that the seams provide.

This piece is all about the details – from the hidden pockets and edgings in a contrast colour, to the shawl collar and ribbing that flows beautifully into the stitch pattern.

For this pattern I used Sweet Georgia Yarns Superwash Worsted as the main colour, and their Superwash Sport for the contrast. This yarn was beautifully soft and squishy to work with, and its bouncy round texture provided lovely stitch definition for the cables. I chose the sport weight yarn of the same composition to make the pocket linings not so bulky, and holding it double allowed me to make contrasting cast-ons and bind-offs for a bit of pizzazz (because I have a hard time working with just one colour).

I love Edinburgh the city so much. Unfortunately, I’ve not seen nearly as much of it as I’d like to on my two trips there for Edinburgh Yarn Fest. My family, on the other hand, spent a lovely 4 days in the city exploring all the nooks and crannies while I immersed myself in the yarn fumes of the festival (and met Stephen West!). Looking at their pictures makes me very jealous, and I can see us making a point of returning some time in the future to take in even more of what Scotland has to offer.

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For more information about Travel Knits for the Family, get all the details here.

Paris

May 17, 20186 Comments

It’s now time to introduce you to Paris, the next pattern from Travel Knits for the Family.

It’s a beautiful sweater with a simple but attractive all-over texture as well as garter stripe edgings. Knit from the top-down with a Raglan construction, it is sized to fit from babies all the way up to teenagers.

This sweater, like the Oslo mittens, can be adjusted for different members of the family. The instructions are written with pullover or cardigan options, and are easy to follow throughout.

The samples were knit with beautiful Brooklyn Tweed Arbor. The yarn is so soft and lovely for kids-wear and shows off the textured pattern so nicely. You can use 1 skein each of the contrast colours and you should have enough to do at least two sweaters.

We visited Paris a handful of times during our time in London. Whenever we had visitors come from Canada we liked to take a weekend to hop on the Eurostar and show them Paris as well. We visited at Christmas time with my parents and enjoyed hot chocolate and roasted chestnuts in the Christmas market along the Champs Elysees. When my mother-in-law and sister-in-law came last spring we ventured to the top of the Eiffel Tower (well, some of us anyway). And when some of my very best friends came to visit we had a ladies’ weekend where we saw the sights, but mostly enjoyed fantastic food and wine. One of my favourite things about Paris is that there’s always something more to see and do.

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For more information about Travel Knits for the Family, get all the details here.

Oslo

May 11, 2018Leave a comment

The next pattern in Travel Knits for the Family is named after the beautiful city of Oslo, Norway.

The pattern is for some very versatile mittens. They feature the same cable and rib pattern as the Bergen hat, but in mitten form. And for those who are more adventurous and need some extra warmth, the pattern has optional thrums worked into the centre of the cables. If this is your first time working thrums, there is a handy photo tutorial at the back of the book to walk you through it.

The magic of the pattern is that it comes with lots of variations. Make them fingerless, full mittens, or flip-top. And you also have the choice to make them with thrums or not. For my family we ended up with two pairs of thrummed mittens – one flip-top and one full mitten – and two pairs without thrums – one fingerless and one full mitten.

We visited Oslo in the Fall of 2017. We spent a day and a half in the city, exploring the abundant museums, the opera house, and the harbour area. The highlight of the trip though was the train ride from Oslo to Bergen. It’s actually billed as one of the top train journeys in the world, with good reason. It leaves from Oslo and winds its way through forests, lakes, and fields up to snow-capped mountains and rushing streams, and then back down through beautiful fjords on the way to Bergen. I tried to take lots of photos through the train windows, but in the end I decided to just enjoy the view.

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For more information about Travel Knits for the Family, get all the details here.