Made in Montana | Mountain Silk DK in Review
by Brittany Tyler

It’s a common question from a new acquaintance – a non-invasive, socially expected conversation accelerator that people use all of the time. As I travel and meet strangers all over the world, I ask and am asked this question constantly: “Where are you from?”

Through this repeated social encounter, I have made some interesting observations. I have discovered that Montanans have a world-wide reputation that proceeds them as a humble, generous, hard-working, and self-made people. The kind of people who pull themselves up by their bootstraps while giving you shirt off of their back. I can not attest whether these characteristics are common to all Montanans, but they are certainly true of our ranchers.

There definitely is an aire of pride for all things handcrafted, independent, and local in Montana. We enjoy a vast selection of microbrews and small distilleries, locally roasted coffee beans, farmer’s markets, and family-owned restaurants who often usee montana grown produce and meats. It also seems here that everyone has a creative hobby of some kind. Quilting, painting, jewelery making, woodworking and, of course, knitting and crocheting (did I mention it’s frickin’ cold!), are all prevalent pastimes at least in Bozeman where I live. So it is unsurprising that there is an increasing number of montana-made yarns and fibers coming through our doors at Stix all of the time and we are proud of our selection of local goods.

Sweet Grass Wool | Mountain Silk DK
(80% Targhee Wool and 20% Silk)

Targhee is a relatively new breed of sheep that is growing in popularity because its fiber is very soft, dense, and bouncy. Yarn made from Targhee sheep has great elasticity and stitch definition – almost a slightly bumpy texture when knitted, depending on how it’s spun. It’s a great fiber because though it is not quite as soft as a superfine wool like merino, the density makes the yarn (and your garments!) less likely to pill. Also, Targhee yarns (and again, your garments) are so invitingly and visibly cushy that you just have to squeeze them!

Ruche and Welt Cowl by Sarah Jordan | free!
Sample shown in Mountain Silk DK

The new Ruche and Welt Cowl is a perfect example of what I am describing when I say “visibly cushy.” That cowl sample looks so cozy on display at Stix that people just have to touch it. Knit in Montana native Sweet Grass Wool’s Mountain Silk DK, the cowl is stretchy and bouncy and soft enough to wear on your neck – no pricklies. The Targhee and silk blend is also kettle dyed here in Montana giving it that fantastic slight tonal variegation that is characteristic of yarns dyed in a small studio … or one’s kitchen. The bit of silk gives this yarn a slightly luminous quality and the happy colors make this yarn perfect for delightfully bright, but not too childish, stripes, fair-isle, or tunisian crochet colorwork.

If you’ve added the free Ruche and Welt Cowl pattern to your mental queu, or you’re simply curious what the hype surrounding Targhee fiber is all about, you’ve got to get your hands on some Mountain Silk DK or other yarn from Sweet Grass Wool. If you find yourself lucky enough to live in Bozeman, come by Stix and check out our great selection of local yarns.

The sunsets in Kenya can be breathtaking. Then there are the trees. I have never seen anything else like Balboa trees, which are nearly surreal outlined against the vast stretches of African sky. Their branches twist and turn unexpectedly as they stretch dramatically outward from their thick trunks. These cables in the Jua Belted Cowl are meant to mimic those trees.

Original design by Talitha Kuomi
With four little ones at her side, Talitha doesn’t go far from home much these days. Instead, she lives vicariously through where her yarns have come from and where she imagines them going. Yarn travel itineraries, or something like that, can be found at TalithaKuomi.com/blog.

Malabrigo Rios Review: The Ultimate Kid-Friendly Yarn
by Brittany Tyler

As unicorn, robot, piggy, owl, and puzzle projects begin to crop up on Ravelry, I have been feeling the urge to make all of these adorable kid projects – not for the little ones in my life, but for myself! I cherish my unicorn hat already. I receive compliments on it at the LYS where I work almost daily. I envision myself wearing it with my powder blue snowboarding gear this winter and I’m sure it will get a lot of attention on the slopes. It makes me think perhaps I need a Springy Robot Hat too. I also dream of a large Puzzle Blanket for my bed in more grown-up colors, a whole family of Piggy toys, and super bulky Robot Stuffies throw pillows! I even think I would look great in the Owl Dress worn as a ballet wrap tunic. The possibilities are endless.

Me in my unicorn hat.
Pattern here —>

As I have been scheming up these new projects, I have been debating yarn choices for each one and I keep coming back to Malabrigo Rios. It’s a very versatile yarn that is perfect for kid-friendly pieces. It’s well plied making it resistant to wear and tear, It’s 100% merino wool making it both soft and warm, it comes in fantastic crayon-box brights, it retains it’s shape well with great stitch definition, AND it’s safe to put it through the washing machine! It’s the perfect yarn for all of the projects in the latest “kid’s collection” and with the exception of the super-bulky unicorn hat, it’s the right weight too. Here’s a short video yarn review I filmed for Stix about Malabrigo Rios…

Consider some of the color combinations I’ve put together below, or go to our online store and mix and match your own. I personally think a more subdued, grown-up puzzle blanket in “playa” and “pearl ten” would be incredible or “ravelry red,” “purple mystery,” and “glazed carrot” for a brighter kid’s blankie. “Purple mystery” and “ravelry red” would make adorable robot stuffies too. And who ever said piggies had to be pink?! If you’ve had any of these cute projects stored in your mental queue, Malabrigo Rios is an excellent yarn choice. You won’t be disappointed.

Unicorn of Honor (continued) by Brittany Tyler

The word “wedding” conjures images of white dresses, frilly cakes, flower arrangements, and tuxedos. I recently participated in a wedding that had none of those things. The bride wore black cat ears instead of a veil, the groom was donned in every color of the rainbow, donuts were served with coffee in place of traditional slices of cake, and the only flower arrangement to be found sat atop the mother-of-the-bride’s hat accenting her “mother nature” costume. In addition the guests all brought dishes for a pot-luck buffet, a pig was slow roasted on an open flame, the local high school drum line preceded the bride in walking down the aisle, and electronica music spilled out of the venue all. night. long. All of these elements came together nicely in the spirit of the ceremony’s overriding theme
- “anything goes.”

Brittany and Hannah in their wedding attire.
You probably want to make a unicorn hat too…
Here’s the link to the pattern —>

I walked down the aisle dressed in rainbow tights, sparkly legwarmers, a fire engine red dress, and a hand knit unicorn hat as the maid of honor at my best friend’s recent wedding. The best man wore a white furry vest. Other costumes making up the wedding party included Blue of Blue’s Clues, a bird, Jill of Jack and Jill, and a bumblebee. The pastor arrived dressed as Captain America and had taped his notes to the inside of his shield. The bride was an “aristocat” and the groom was “Roy G. Biv.”

Some of the wedding party.

My nerdy, nerdy boyfriend donning his Legend of Zelda Link costume.
Hannah and Jeremy awarded prizes to the best dressed at their wedding.
Justin won the people’s choice award. Guess he wasn’t the only geek in attendance.

The bride with her bouquet of wild flowers.

The happy groom.

The ceremonial traditions of the typical wedding hold little meaning to Hannah and Jeremy – they simply wanted to throw a big party with their family and friends in celebration of their decision to spend their lives together without all the fuss of things like flowers. What resulted was a wedding that none of us will ever forget.

Unicorn of Honor by Brittany Tyler

When my best friend, Hannah, asks me to be her maid of honor in her upcoming wedding, I anticipated planning a bridal shower, assembling wedding favors, choosing flowers, measurements, cakes, dresses, the usual. But, Hannah is no ordinary person and it was frankly foolish of me to expect her to plan an ordinary wedding. On the contrary, this epic wedding event includes camping, bagpipes, kites, donuts, a pig roast, all night dance party, and a costume contest. It’s a wedding only Hannah and her groom could invent.

When it was agreed upon that this was going to be a costume wedding, I knew I didn’t want to recycle any of my pre-worn get ups that Hannah would have seen in the past at other events. I needed something fresh and new. I wanted to be original, I wanted to wear a cute dress – there will be wedding photos, after all – and I wanted to wear bright colors. With all of these criteria in mind I decided to be a unicorn. Mythical, magical, pretty, sparkly, unicorn. It just seemed appropriate for the most unconventional wedding those of us in attendance will ever experience.

I began gathering supplies for my outfit, but I was not satisfied with the unicorn horn and mane options I found, and as a crafter and artist, my solution, of course, was to just make my own. Hence, I knit a unicorn hat. The hat features a tightly knit and stuffed horn, a long rainbow mane, tall ears, earflaps with ties finished off with multicolored poms. I didn’t leave myself much time to complete this project, so I used super-bulky merino Rasta from Malabrigo for earflaps, hat, and ears. It took me longer to adorn the hat with the mane than it took me to knit the hat itself.

Wanna see photos from the wedding and get the free pattern for this magical hat?
This story continues on the next blog post —> ]]> http://stixyarn.com/tangled/unicorn-of-honor/feed/ 5 http://stixyarn.com/tangled/do-you-have-a-favorite-number/ http://stixyarn.com/tangled/do-you-have-a-favorite-number/#comments Fri, 03 Aug 2012 23:24:55 +0000 Stix http://stixyarn.com/tangled/?p=3597 Continue reading →]]>

Do you Have a Favorite Number? by Jennifer Crowley

Mine is two, but sometimes it three. Three is optimal for kisses, eating M&M’s (my favorite combination is one orange and two blue), watching movies, or lifting weights (must finish on a multiple of three! And once I get to 12, it’s only three more until 15!).

Sunburst Shawl by Jennifer Crowley

The number two, on the other hand, has a long and interesting history. The Chinese empire, which had one of the earliest writing systems, wrote two as an equals sign (=) one line over the other. Two is the only number that is a both a prime and even. It’s the first number in the fibonacci sequence that is even. It’s the number of polynucleotide strands in DNA, and the number of electrons that occur in the first valence for atoms. In the periodic table, group two contains all the alkaline earth metals, which are all shiny and somewhat reactive – I like shiny things, so I think this is great.

Two is optimal for designing, because I find symmetry deeply satisfying. We have two eyes, two arms, two ears. I also love multiples of two – four is great because it’s two twos, 16 is even better because it’s a 4 squared.

Original Sunburst sketch for pattern submission.

When I was designing the Sunburst Shawl, I wanted to have something that had motifs that were easy to memorize (both for me and for others) and were symmetrical. This took some effort, because crochet doesn’t always want to cooperate into even or repeatable numbers. (I’ve found in my experience that crochet also tends to like the Fibonacci sequence, which I wasn’t interested in doing for this piece.) Finding the right combination of single crochets, double crochets and broomstick crochets to get the motif to lie flat left me with several different motifs that didn’t quite work out, either not expanding enough or expanding too much and ruffling out.

Original Sunburst swatch for pattern submission.

I also wanted the shawl to have a certain amount of negative space, to give the yarn room to breathe, expand, grow and drape.

The beads, one of my favorite parts of the patterns, were a later addition. My local yarn store, The Yarn Spot, stocked some beads of a perfect color that simply HAD to go with the Aspen Sock yarn. It was fate. Adding beads to the edge is one of my favorite tricks to give pieces that I want to have a bit of swish. When a piece has some extra weight at the edge, I find it drapes better, and gives it a more dramatic flair.

Late in the working of the shawl I ran into a hiccup. Originally, I planned for the Sunburst shawl to have an uneven neckline, but I was finding it wasn’t laying on a person the way I wanted to. At the last minute I worked up some half motifs to attach to the neck edge, and then worked single crochet along the edge to stabilize it and keep it from rolling.

The result, I hope, is a romantic and slightly dramatic shawl with a historical twist. Using old techniques like broomstick crochet, but with newer tools, like the magic loop, the goal is to create an object that contributes and changes the way we look at crafting, art and math.

I keep coming back to broomstick crochet when I design. While brainstorming one day, I realized that the same recent advances in circular needles that enable the Magic Loop in knitting are applicable to broomstick crochet. Those familiar with broomstick will find this join-as-you-go pattern to be a new spin on an old motif. Beads along the edge provide a bit of sparkle and an accent to the points.

Original design by Jennifer Crowley
Jennifer is the owner of J’s Creations, knit and crochet designs with a quirky fashion eye. She also teaches a variety of knit and crochet classes that feature her high-energy style and ready sense of humor. When not crafting, she enjoys reading romance novels and gardening. E-mail her at jennifer.t.crowley@gmail.com or visit her website.

Gauge Down by Tracy St. John

We love fooling around with gauge here at TWH (Tangled World Headquarters). We just can’t leave well enough alone sometimes. For instance, we see the perfectly lovely Poppins Scarf by Michaela Moores, made with the lace-weight Kidsilk Haze, and can’t resist working it up in super-bulky Malabrigo Rasta. Brittany wrote about that gauge adventure in her post “Gauge Up” a few months ago, and here are the photos to prove it…………..

Lacy Poppins Scarf by Michaela Moores
Sample shown in Rowan Kidsilk Haze

Gauged Up Poppins by Brittany Tyler
Sample shown in Malabrigo Rasta “Laguna Negra”

Last week, we published the Birdseye Beret by Becky Herrick. It is a great hat, perfect for a quick gift…..super soft and squishy in Rasta. (AND, we think it might be awesome to make both the Gauged Up Poppins Scarf and the Birdseye Beret and wear them together! Good idea, isn’t it? Maybe that’s just Brittany daydreaming.)

Birdseye Beret by Becky Herrick
Sample shown in Malabrigo Rasta “Paris Night”

So, in true Tangled spirit I wanted to try this pattern using Rasta’s little sister….Malabrigo Merino Worsted. You can try it too…..it only takes one skein and this is a really easy pattern to play around with. Here’s what I did:

Gauged Down Birdseye Beret
Sample shown in Malabrigo Merino “Rhodesian”

I used a size 6 needle for the ribbing and an 8 for the body.

I doubled the number of cast-on stitches and followed the pattern exactly as written (except I worked about 2″ of ribbing instead of 5 rounds) until the  increase round.

I changed to increase round to: *P4, yo: rep from * to end of round.

I resumed following the pattern as written, working until I had about 6″ of lace worked, ending on the round specified in the pattern.

Continue following the decrease instructions exactly. TaDa! A super soft and squishy lighter-weight hat!

It would be very easy to adapt this pattern to any weight yarn….you just need to have a multiple of 12 sts on your needle after you have worked the increase round, and adjust your length measurements as desired. I might have to try one out of the Malabrigo Lace next, that way I could also make a Lacy Poppins and have the set as a tiny version!

Super-chunky doesn’t necessarily mean super-clunky. When you knit a lace pattern with very bulky yarn, the result is the best of both worlds; cozy thick and warm yet sweet and lacy. This beret is super-fast to knit too, making it a great go-to gift hat. Indulge yourself and knit one in each of your favorite Rasta colors.

Original design by Becky Herrick
Becky Herrick lives on the western slopes of the green mountains in Vermont. When she’s not cross country skiing or snowshoeing you can find her curled up on the couch with a fire in the stove and some knitting in her lap. Either that, or at her day job. Find out what she’s up to right now on her blog.

Related Links:

Gauge Down —>
Tracy makes a worsted weight version of Birdseye.

Malabrigo Rasta is a super bulky, super quick project yarn that is perfect for warm winter accessories. This stunning single-plied, kettle dyed merino wool is quite possibly the softest yarn we have ever felt. Read more —>

“I’ve always wanted to design a pair of fraternal twin hats. In this knit twin, only one color is worked at a time, switching every row. Front post double crochets are worked into stitches of rows below to create the bold lines on the surface of the work. The resulting fabric is very dense and comfortable to wear. Together, the twins are a great BFF or couple’s set without being overtly ‘matchy’.”

Original design by Amanda Muscha
Amanda is wrapping up her degree at MSU Billings. When she’s not knitting, crocheting or mathing, she likes to collect vinyl records and play video games. You can find her on Ravelry as TheStrangeKnitter, at her website www.StrangeKnits.com.

Related links:

Mint Chocolate Beanie (crochet version) —>
This pattern has been cross-theadified. Check out the crochet version of this design.

This 100% merino wonder yarn is so soft and beautiful you’d swear the knitting gods themselves spun it from cloud fiber and kettle dyed it with rainbows. Read more —>