New Jersey Dyer Profiles: Interview with Myra Rubin of Woolbearers

As part of the Jersey Shore Knits project, it was important to make sure that local companies played a big part. It wasn't hard to find some really talented people with great hand dyed yarn based in the garden state, it was however quite unusual to have the opportunity not only to work with Myra Rubin of Woolbearers in Mount Holly, NJ, but to visit her incredible store. There she is on the left wearing the Seashells Shawl, knit in her Fingering Wool. Below she answered some interview questions about her story, yarns, and retail shop. 

Q. Can you share a little about your business and how you got started?   
A. I started Woolbearers 11 years ago with a partner.  We envisioned a tiny yarn shop with lots of our hand dyed and hand crafted  yarns. It morphed into a big yarn shop with lots of commercial yarns as well as Woolbearers hand dyed yarn. 

Fiber Friday: Wild Knitting, Tattoos, and Fascinating Fashion

Starting this week, I'll be listing my favorite 3 awesome fashion, fiber, and textile links that I found this week.

So here they are -

Field Trip: Lion Brand Retail Store

Last weekend I took a trip to the Albany area. The trip included a stop at the Lion Brand Retail store in Colonie, NY. If you like Lion Brand or live in the area, this store is worth the trip. It's one of the only places to see nearly all of the yarns and colorways that Lion Brand has to offer including clearance and discontinued items, new yarns, and a few small batch products that are only carried in their retail and factory stores. Any knitter, crocheter, or general crafter can find something there.

☠ chromatose ☢

I got this yarn on impulse, thinking that maybe it would make a decent sweater. The idea of entirely unique skeins made from mill ends is really wonderful. I want to make a bunch of these just to group skeins into sweaters. I am looking into getting this yarn direct from the mill in Michigan to make some machine knit sweaters for retail!

Machine Knitting Trip Part 2: Knitting

The 2 day intensive machine knitting course at the Textile Arts Center in Carroll Gardens was incredibly informative.The instructor, Mandy Kordal, Really knew her stuff, using a combination of demos and one on one instruction to make sure everyone was able to grasp the basics.

Machine Knitting Trip Part 1: Shopping

Last weekend, I took a very sudden vacation to New York City to take a machine knitting class at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn.

A while ago a generous person gave me a knitting machine to use, but after a year of improperly installed sponge bars and jammed carriages, I knew that I needed help. I found a knitting machine class on tumblr and found that it was relatively easy to get to. Immediately, I found that my mother wanted to share a hotel room to reduce the commute time and so we made plans.

Solarita

I was thinking of the sun, margaritas, and very warm, autumnal shawls when I designed this crescent wrap. I'm even cold in the summer sometimes. Especially after dark, or in late August when the weather starts to shift. Thinking of the summer sun setting as I sit outside with friends, chatting and watching the sky change color - this is when I start to shiver and look for something warm like the sun.

So I drew up a shawl like the setting sun in my sketchbook. It has a bold border with triangles and finger-like fringe. I found another use for my crazy stripe stitches that did not need color changes to show up. 

Surprisingly, the finished shawl looks almost exactly like the drawing, That rarely works out so well.

The yarn is Brooklyn Tweed Loft, a very springy yarn with bright flecks of orange and green undertones.

The best part is that it matches my favorite (only?) formal dress. No more cheap ugly cardigans or cold arms.

If you are interested in this pattern, you can check it out on Ravelry or buy it here.

Feather Flame Pattern

Feather Flame is a chevron patterned scarf knit on the bias.  It has a scalloped edge and a slight curve that makes it easy to wear. The stitch pattern can be scaled to fit any gauge and yarn weight. Self  striping sock yarn gives definition to the waves of the flame stitch pattern.

Instructions are given in both chart and written form. Difficulty is intermediate, you need to know about increasing and decreasing using a few techniques but all are explained in the pattern. 

Yarn: 1 skein Lion Brand, Sock-Ease Prints, 438 yards (401 meters) shown in Red Hot,
or any fingering or sock weight yarn.

Needles: Size 6 (4mm) straight needles.

Gauge: 24 stitches and 32 rows in a 4 x 4” (10 x 10cm) square in pattern stitch.

Other Materials: Row counter, sewing needle, stitch holder.

Finished size: Approx 60 x 8” (152 x 20 cm)

You could definitely use any wight yarn with this pattern and change the number of repeats to get the  width you desire, striping sock yarn just happens to be a great way to show off the flame stitch pattern without using multiple colors to create stripes. That said, the pattern still looks nice in solids.

I hope you'll give it a try. The pattern is now on sale in my ravelry store or you can buy it here, use coupon code spring14 to get a 50% discount for the rest of March.

Crazy Stripe

The last few weeks have been really busy for me with outside work coming in, but I have been spending all of my free time watching netflix swatching some really interesting patterns. Usually I design knits with overall shape in mind, not lace or cables and complex textures. To make things interesting, I decided to look at Missoni style textiles. None of these are copies of commercial knits, their machines do things that hands can't, but in studying the technology , I have come up with my own new ideas.

Here are some of the stitch patterns that I have made using stripes. each pattern is worked with one color per row, yet they look a lot like stranded motifs. the advantage is that there aren't any messy loops on the wrong side, making them great for shawls, wraps, and blankets.

1. This is how the idea started, extend chevrons vertically, lobes will form.

2. Put lobes on the lobes and it will look even cooler.

3-4. Alter the pattern slightly to try to flatten the fabric.

5. Garter stitch makes everything fit together perfectly and lay flat. I amgoing to make an afghan in this pattern and I am working on a wrap with this as well.

These look super hard to knit, but in reality, they are just glorified chevron patterns with increases and decreases - no harder to knit than any other stitch pattern.

1-2. I am looking at ways to make deeper chevrons, you can expect a  detailed post about the number of increases and decreases to make all sorts of chevron patterns as soon as I have time to knit examples. #2 has waves along the chevrons as well.

3. This is a border pattern. It looks cool, but it has short rows in addition to incs and decs. Ain't nobody got time for that.

4. Lobes - loving these lobes. They are easy. You'll see these in a scarf design.

1. I am working on a triangular shawl and thought this would be a good border.

2.  Yet againn, everything lies flatter in garter stitch.

3-4. These are center and corner experiments for the shawl. I am feeling very good about it right now and the pattern should be ready in august.


That's what I have been knitting these days. For now, I am keeping my technique secret until I release the patterns. It's difficult to write because they should be chartable, but most are not due to the change in stitch count from row to row. Maybe I will need test knitters next month. Any interest?

Carroll for Clotheshorse Magazine

I'm really excited to say that my first pattern made for a magazine is out. Clotheshorse magazine has published this color blocked sweater with set in sleeves and slimming side panels in a contrasting color.

Find it on Clotheshorse Mag

It's a style that is everywhere often seen on dresses, the color blocking creates the illusion of a slimmer waist. You can also see it in my prototype of the sweater, the dark sides definitely create an optical illusion.

I also did the trim in a different color and added a few short rows in the bust because I'm not a standard XS in the bust area. You can see the side stripe on the extra small is thinner, it's proportional to the size.

Double mustard reversible cabled scarf

I found this basic single ply wool at the craft store in bright mustard yellow and could imagine how a long cabled scarf would look - perfect for windy days. Cabled scarves are really nice to have in winter because they are thick and warm and really keep out the cold.

The only problem with my dream of the perfect cabled scarf is that I really dislike things that curl or look bad on one side. The solution is to make the cables reversible, its a little tricky to figure out upon first glance, but they are much easier to knit than they are to imagine.

Knit for work or play: Midnight Blazer

Last year, when working in a freezing office, I went looking around the internet for a  super warm work appropriate blazer. There wasn't a lot that left my forearms free to do computer work and fit my intern budget. I got the idea to knit something that looked work appropriate and chic yet a bit edgy with a bit of extra shoulder padding like a tailored blazer.
This silhouette is designed to flatter “pear shapes” by drawing the eye up and balancing a bottom heavy figure.

Working with Lamb's Pride Bulky (budget appropriate and a quick knit) I came up with this simple fitted cardigan with a modified set in sleeve. In 4 days of commute knitting and about $40 I had a great new piece to wear and established myself as "the intern who could fix your knitting."
 

My mom also made this and added long sleeves which are a great easy mod. she doesn't know I'm using her picture here, but she looks great, so I'm sneaking it up before she can object.

Also, Look at how nice her back neck looks.

Sizes - determined by bust measurement:

Bust Measurement (from body): XS(28-30”), S(32-34”), M(36-38”), L(40-42”), XL(44-46”)

Garment Bust: XS(15.5”), S(17.5”), M(19.5”), L(21.5”), XL(23.5”)
Garment Waist: XS(12.5”), S(13.75”), M(15.5”), L(17.5”), XL(19.5”)
Garment Hips: XS(17”), S(18”), M(20”), L(22”), XL(24”)
Garment Length: XS(22”), S(22.5”), M(22.75”), L(23”), XL(23.25”)

Grading, test knitting, tech editing, and illustrating the unique sleeve seams may have taken a year, but it is finally out and ready to purchase right here or view via ravelry so please take a look . 

l i m e s t o n e cowl

A few weeks ago, I went on a field trip to Purl NYC to get some Cascade Magnum yarn. They had a whole bunch of pretty Manos del Uruguay colorways out including a dayglow yellow color called Highighter. It really reminds me of the color of mountain dew in the sunlight. I bought 2 skeins, The Highlighter and Foil- a light grey with a touch of lavender. They looked wonderful together, and it didn't take long to develop a cool stitch pattern that showed off the contrast.

This one turned out kind of nicely and had cool horizontal stripes on one side and a kind of moss stitch on the other.

It turned into a very nice cowl. Even though the Maxima is wool, it is very soft against the skin. I will be wearing this one all summer in spite of the heat and then all winter.

If you like this cowl and want to make one, You can get the pattern on ravelry or Buy it here!

Superfine

I ordered a pound of 64 count merino top from Paradise Fibers with the intention of spinning the yarn for a sweater. It is extremely soft, white, clean, and easy to spin. The only problem is that I'm not good enough yet to spin it thicker than this.

This is the single ply.

And this is the ribbed swatch knit from the 3 plied yarn on #2 needles.

With about 1.25 oz spun, it isn't looking like the best thing for a sweater. Maybe in the future when I can get it up to a fingering weight.

For now, a scarf seems like a good little project.

Testing Now: Midnight Blazer

 Midnight Blazer: Super quick cold weather knit with accented shoulders and a fitted silhouette. Like it?

 If you do, Sign up to test this new holiday pattern on Ravelry

graffitti yarn

It must be true about the hip-hop culture seeping deeper into the mainstream consciousness, or maybe just deeper into my yarn stash. This is a swatch of the "hand painted" result.

Yes, I hip-hop-ified my stash.

This is what you need to do yours:
Mercerized cotton yarn
Montana gold/black (krylon if you are old skool, spray paint in simple terms)
Some cardboard

Wrap your yarn around the cardboard, you can see that mine overlaps quite a bit, but, as long as the wraps aren't too condensed, the painting will be OK.

Note the box with my 12 favorite Montana colors, it is always good to keep them around for projects like this.

So shake the can and trow yo' piece up (Mix your paint as instructed on the can of your given brand. Spray with a quick, close burst. You should have a dot of color).

Continue to use this technique with as many colors as you want. I used 5. Note how close the can is to the cardboard.

I used vertical lines of color to ensure that the colors that I wanted to show more were actually hitting more wraps.

You can keep your colors dense like mine, or really spread things out and keep things monochrome.The amount of craziness infused into your yarn is really up to you.

Below is my swatch before washing:

 

And after.

The color and texture will soften and even out, and surprisingly the paint is safe in the machine. The marled, variegated color character is hard to find in a store, yet it is becoming a big commercial trend.

You will really have to try this technique yourself to see how it works. It is deceptively easy for something with such a finished, coherent look. I would recommend starting with Patons Grace cotton yarn ($5) from a craft store rather than an expensive cone of french cotton, but you can go with just about anything in your stash. Fuzzy fibers like wool, acrylic, or even an un-mercerized cotton will not paint as neatly, so always test with a swatch first.

Have fun!!