Shear Charlie

I've always liked green. It seems to do this magical contrasting thing with skin tones. I guess that makes sense because the compliment of green is red. Our skin isn't the color of a fire truck, but those warm flesh tones are enough to demonstrate that visual contrast.

So when I found this green J Crew sweater, I was pretty stoked. It's 100% lamb's wool, so it's nice and soft, and it's the same weight as that charcoal lamb's wool I always use. Score.



I had to figure the math for a while to make this work. Most of the time I'm shooting for a 12 inch length as a general minimum, and the pattern changes need to happen before I run out of room. In total there are four rib patterns in there that look great both outside and inside. I was seriously considering flipping it inside out. Maybe I'll just reverse certain parts. Hmmm... I better sketch that a while.

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Divide Alpha 2

Either I procrastinate way too much, or this hat sold before I could spit this post out. I suppose both are true.

After knitting up the first Alpha (the brown one), I felt it needed more length so I added about an inch to the pattern and made a duplicate. This brought it up to the proper size for a length-induced slouch and a nice meaty fold-over.

Anyway, after that second brown one I made this gray one, incorporating that additional length. So yeah, more hat. This recycled shetland wool is almost gone. I think I have enough for one more hat. I'm gonna miss this perfect gray.

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Reflect Charlie

It's a little mind-boggling how many different variations of this technique can be achieved. And by that I mean bumping markers around to create an angular effect. That's like.... all I do. Okay there's that, and the improvisational-ism of my scarves, but that's all I got. Really.

It's been two years this month that I picked up some knitting needles my mom hoarded from some garage sale, and tortured myself for days, figuring out how to get the yarn to roll smoothly through a stitch. After it 'clicked,' I did a couple of totally lame (free) patterns and got hung up on this idea of bumping the stitch markers around. It was like an irresistible urge or something. I liked it so much that I never stopped doing it.



So here's another variation of my OCD these past two years. That wide column style ribbing is really growing on me. I like how it looks when you fold up the brim and expose that pinstriped reversal. I think the sharp contrast compliments the angularity quite well, too.

The yarn is a recycled merino thread weight that I quadrupled together. It came from a barely worn long sleeve polo by Club Room (that's Macy's). The richness of this navy blue really appeals to me. Lately I've been substituting blacks with this color. It looks great with gray. Wait.... everything looks great with gray.

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Habits

They're hard to break. Killing sweaters is one of them. The past few scarves I've done have been bought up through private sale, and I'm grateful, but getting through these projects was a huge commitment. I was knitting forever.

Deconstructing sweaters is my respite from all the production, like the beer after a long day. I guess that's why I tend to tweet what I'm drinking while unraveling stuff. Hmmm... now I want beer...

It's also nice to know I'm unraveling big business to piece together small business.