Letters
Debut Pullover: Delicious from the First Bite
Dear Kay,
I’ve been feeling like I’ve had a delicious cookie in my pocket. Just waiting for the perfect moment to gobble it up.
It’s been months, actually, of looking forward to starting Karida Collins’s Debut Pullover from Field Guide No. 18: Beginnings.
Watching it evolve from an idea to a finished pattern has been good fun. Now—finally—I’m jumping in on the Karidalong that is shaping up to be easy knitting in the weeks to come.
The yarn here is Karida’s Neighborhood Fiber Co. Organic Studio DK. The color is Charles Village, which of course I had to go investigate because Karida names her yarn colors for neighborhoods and streets in Baltimore and Washington, DC.
Charles Village sounds like a beautiful neighborhood—clearly I need to have a ramble there in my new sweater. Just a few things to finish up, of course.
One gift of this pattern is that the sleeves come first. This is a bottom-up sweater, knit in the round, so you want to make your two tubular sleeves first so you can join them at a triumphant moment after you work the torso. I love having the sleeves done early. Makes me feel so on it.
It was nice to know that Jen Arnall-Culliford’s Little Lesson: Join, Being Careful Not to Twist was there for me if I needed it.
I’m actually grooving on these short double-pointed needles—I dug them out of a nest of DPNs, and they’re shorter than most of the ones I use.
And this color!
It’s one of the most subtle tonal colors I’ve seen from Karida—barely shifting, but just enough to remind me that this is hand-dyed yarn.
Join the Karidalong!
This Karidalong is just under way now—read all the details right here. If you’re looking for a summer project that will make you very happy, Karida’s designs in Field Guide No. 18: Beginnings are superb.
And the knitalong conversation is just under way over in the MDK Lounge, so definitely head over there for help and good folks all knitting Karida’s designs.
As for this yarn, we saw a lot of knitters fall for it at the MDK Knitting Getaway. It’s merino, so it’s soft. And it’s worsted spun in a cool way that makes it sort of like a beautiful rope. Also, knitters were loving all the saturated colors, an interesting thing to watch. Canton! Belair! Bolton Hill! Go for it, everybody!
Love,
Ann
Hopefully comments are working here too! That color is spectacular! Karida’s yarns make me think of Jill Draper’s – they both have that saturation and richness, but with such different colors. And now I’m thinking of color work with dark and rich and bright and rich together….
OK I am terrified about doing these sleeves first because I HATE DPKs. Can you do these with magic loop? I think that might be more my speed!
You can totally do sleeves magic loop! I actually like doing two sleeves at a time on a long circular. That way you have two perfectly identical sleeves. As Ann says, it makes you feel so on it. 🙂
Ohhh OK this sounds MAGICAL. I’m going to learn magic loop for a hat I’m knitting–which I tried to finish with DPNs. Hahah. Didn’t work. 😛 So had to frog and start again and I am FEELING magic loop!
Don’t forget Lakeland—another great color!
Not sure if this is in the right place. Was the sample Debut Pullover that was photographed for the Field Guide knit alternating skeins or not?
Hi there! I will find out–not sure.