Swatch This Space: The Great Colinette Felting Experiment - Shimmer 5

The Great Colinette Felting Experiment was born because, unlike with other yarns, I couldn't find enough info on the felting of it online to guide my way into committing any of my precious yarn to the wash machine.

It pains me to swatch anything (too impatient and I don't knit a lot of fitted stuff and plus, Ravelry - some of you know what I mean!).  But Colinette - well, I'm not a wholesaler, I (should) live on a budget, and at over 20-25 American per skein, well - you do the math ('cuz I try to avoid it).  Also, I'm new to felting and kinda a sceerdy-cat about it.

Note:  The postings regarding felting are going to be edited as more information is gathered, they are not standalone blog posts.

So, shall we commence?  Shimmer 5.

Here is Yarndex's info page on Shimmer 5 - Colinette seems to be discontinuing it, but not sure.  HA!  Here is Ravelry's page on Shimmer 5 (not sure if this will work, but I'm gonna try).


My notes about Shimmer 5:  I just love the gloss on this yarn.  It's really subtle, and "shimmer" is a great adjective for it.  I have tried (tried, I tell you: see this Rav posting) to substitute Shimmer 5 for Point 5 in Colinette patterns, to limited success.  "Limited" in this case meaning no success with fitted garments.  Also, because of the rayon content, it doesn't have the give that Point 5 does.

But pretty!  It is so effing PRETTY!

So here are my Shimmer 5 swatches prior to felting - I did one in moss stitch and one in stocking stitch.  And I have to apologize to those of you who do metric - my trusty measuring thingee is in inches with no metric.  I will try to do conversions at some point.  (be gentle on the layout here, I am new to adding pictures and placing them and how this looks in multiple browsers, and I'm trying, people, I'm trying...)

After felting:

ANNNDDDDD: so you can see what the purlside vs knitside differences are in texture, and I'm making these pics big for you to see detail:

Yes, I know it says "money" colorway, ha.  It's Monet but I seem to always type Money...

SHRINKAGE STATS:

These are coming soon.  I have to consult with the statistics guy at work, 'cuz really I don't do math... not even knitting math.

 Happy clicking and hooking, y'all! 
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Chptr 25: In Which Our Hero Models the "Opie", with Eye-rolling Resignation

This is really a poncho. Really! Great drape for a scarf, though, don't you agree?

Pattern: Opie
Pattern Book: Colinette Akashya #51
Ravelry Pattern Review Page: hit me

Yarns I used for this one, and they look spectacular paired - Colinette Giotto colorway Dusk (#77) and Colinette Silky Chic Colorway Castagna (#128).

Future plans do include frogging the poncho and making two shawls out of it BECAUSE:

A)   It's really, really fuzzy.  And funky looking.  And I DON'T live in Berkeley or Portland (anymore). And I have to wear what I knit to work (well, I don't have to, but my hobby and my clothing allowance are one and the same, which gets complicated when it's time for new underwear), and if I could reproduce the look I got from the HR admin when I walked in the door wearing this (see below), I totally would.  Double take, eyes bulged, and then eyes rolled.  Shoulder movements were also involved. 

and...
B) Again with the downward growth of garment!  When I finished it, it was well above the ground (see above) but after a couple of hours, it had stretched so far I looked like I was wearing a bedspread, and that fringe was acting like a Swiffer and sweeping away my footprints.  Which could work on a covert operation in the woods, but which prompted more eye rolling at the office.  (Admit it, though, you love the red boots.)

So, a planned posting on Looped Yarn Works in Dupont Circle, DC.  LOVE!


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SOLD: Will Knit for Coffee. Or Money. Or Coffee Money...

So. This is the first sweater I made and sold - to a dear friend who is now starting to knit!

SHAZAM!

(Can I tell you that I am feeling excitement dangerously close to the kind I imagine I would feel if I was in a cult and scored a bonus-points convert - ? The kind of convert with a large trust fund and no heirs.)

Looking back at my notes on this project on Ravelry, it took me slightly less than a month to knit. I'm thinking I was fairly devoted to the project, and wasn't knitting on a lot of other stuff at the time.


Pattern Designer: Colinette - of course!
Pattern Book Title: Nostalgia (Colinette #63)
Pattern Name: Millais
Yarn Brand: Colinette
Yarn Type: Parisienne (in Fire, color #71 ) and Tao (in Windfall, color #149 )

Come to think of it, looking at the dates (March-April), I betcha this was knit with yarn I purchased at Woolwinders in Rockville (no longer carrying Colinette - but who is in DC these days? *sniff*) after getting a sweet little tax refund. It came out a little small for me, but I wore it a few times anyway, and when Leslie saw it her eyes lit up, so when an offer was made, I accepted.

Some notes on knitting this up: Pay attention to the Tao stitches. Also, they are a little tricky - the pattern is written for right-handed yarn throwers (English style) and I am a picker and knit in the Russian Continental style (more about that someday, it is such a pain to figure out stitching, let me tell you, and I am going to at some point get up and going on that; I need to do a page transposing stitches for those of us like me). I've even had English throwers contact me about how to do the stitch. Not that I'm much help.

Also, the way I knit, the pieces have a lot of horizontal give and not a lot of vertical give. So, I would go a tad longer than you think you need, at least on the body, and maybe go a little narrower in the body pieces.

Finishing: this was pretty darn easy to finish. I used the Parisienne to stitch together and because of the nylon or whatever man-made base is in that yarn, it's quite strong and disappears nicely. Just did simple mattress stitching (article with pictures from Knitty.com here), and it worked just fine.

Leslie mentioned this as a beach sweater - something nice for evenings in summer on your vacation when a chill is coming off the water... I have to say that the pattern dresses up and down, makes a great preppy-style shoulder wrap as well as a nice little pullover.

Work. Not at the beach today. Damn. Oh well...


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BTW, poking around online it looks like the pattern and yarns are being kitted and sold as of the date of this posting. If you are thinking about it, it is probably a good way to get a great color combination for this project, especially as not many US shops are currently stocking Colinette yarns. A state of affairs I would like to see changed! You really have to touch and feel and SEE Colinette to get it. Amazing stuff. (I know. Foaming at the mouth is not all that attractive. Sorry.)

More Absolute Fabulousity! (no afghans were harmed during this photoshoot)

Another Colinette Absolutely Fabulous Afghan following the knitted "stripe" pattern option, in the kit colors named "Meadow".

I went a little crazy towards the end of last year and got on total acquisition mode on these afghan kits. Colinette isn't bagging them anymore (although if you get the instructions for one, you can assemble the yarn types and colors to make any of them, except when the yarn type has been discontinued by Colinette and there are just no more skeins to be found, even raiding Ravelry members' stashes).

A LYS (local yarn shop) was divesting itself of the kits it had in stock, and I snatched them up because they made me a deal for half off. So I think I got three that way. Then I saw the possibilities... I found some Ravelry members selling the kits and ordered a few more, at deep discount off the $190 that is the US list price as of the date of this posting.

This particular afghan came out pretty long and narrow and when I gifted it, the friend and her daughter both liked wearing it as a shawl. This was truly gifted from the heart - Terri is a childhood friend whose mother was an incredible artist, Patricia Bourgeois (sometimes Patricia Bourgeois Bailey). Pat was an all around amazing woman - belly-dancer and compost maker (both in the 70s, so she was pioneering the 21st century for us), artist, nurse, and mom. Pat had a great influence on me by just being herself - and I wish she was still here so I could let her know this.

In the meantime, I have beautiful art, some significant pieces, that she made, prominently in my home. They are daily inspiration.

This afghan/shawl was a thank-you to Terri for gifting me with some of Pat's pieces. I mean, how do you say thank you for something like beautiful art? Made by someone you admired? Whom you actually knew? This was the closest I could get.

I still owe Pat's granddaughter, Rosemary, a little sumpin' sumpin'... promised and not forgotten...

Love you, Terri - and miss you, Pat.

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Colinette Rossetti Shawlesque Jacket - and they are Liberty Boots. Zappos. LOVE!

ETA: this is me at Mautner Gala 2009 in what is probably considered vintage (15 years old - ? Leslie, is that vintage?) Laura freakin' Ashley dress that I have decided I will have until I die or explode, whichever comes first. The shawl-jacket thingee is (but of course) a Colinette pattern, Rossetti, that I finished in one week (do not try this at home, I made a lot of mistakes in it) using Colinette yarn Parisienne in colorway Marble and Colinette yarn Tao (how do I love Tao, let me count the ways) in colorway (where did this name come from?) Whirley Fig.

The shawl was perfect though - it's lightweight from the lace yarn and still drapes well from the weight of the single-ply dk-weight silk yarn. The pattern is basically a long rectangle with slits for where you will insert the two smaller rectangles that are the sleeves. 4 seams to sew to put three pieces together. Totally doable.

You do have to pay attention while knitting with the lace yarn. More of a books on tape or NPR knit than a catch up on True Blood knit.

You can wear it upside down or right side up - depends on how much of a collar you want. And how much you want hanging around your knees.

This pattern gets-

Four stars for simple construction
Two stars for understandable pattern (the lace stitch has gotten me questions on Ravelry (friend me, I'm "puppycatrancher" on the Rav), which are hard to answer because I knit in the Russian style which is fairly obscure -'cept in Russia, I'm guessing- and this pattern is written in English for English-style knitters).
Five stars for the ba-gorgeous Colinette yarns
Five stars for a pretty pattern book (Nostalgia)
Five stars for a garment that you can wear in four seasons and dress up and dress down ('cept not waaaaay down - I don't even see Zsa Zsa Gabor walking the pooches in rhinestone collars in this - wait! I do. But not me. Let's say this pattern and your Orioles ballcap - never gonna work.)

and, oh yeah, the boots. My 45th birthday present to myself, found them at Zappos (BIG SHOUT OUT TO ZAPPOS - the friggin' president of it emailed me personally when an order got screwed up - and yeah it was him because I had an in to him ain't sayin' how, it wasn't some form response) along with the matching Tarina Tarantino jewelry!

Felt like such a princess that night (thanks, Sheila, for making me go)!

I had my makeup done professionally for the first and so far only time in my life, and was wearing false eyelashes... if my boobs were bigger and if I had a tan, I would have felt like Queen Latifah at some awards night. (and some love to the B and the single ladies and the Queen [she shows up at 3.28 looking totally amazing] and that fierce Jane Lynch show. and to my own true love who purports to be ring shopping...oops, who said that?)
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