Afghan Hound & Woodstacking Cowl

I’m always searching for great 1 skein projects, especially for skeins of yarn that are around 200 yards. I was able to find a beautifully textured cowl that takes between 145 and 185 yards of DK weight yarn, called Woodstacking. It was designed by Ann Hanson, a prolific designer from Canton, Ohio who has been featured in a number of pattern books. This cowl of hers features a cable-and-moss texture that looks incredible in any shade or color. It’s particularly extravagant when made from Afghan Hound, Fiber Hound’s 50% Silk & 50% Superwash Merino DK yarn; I chose the Mush! colorway.

The cowl comes with the option of 3 sizes of width; the only time that the difference in stitch counts comes into play is when casting on and knitting the border ribbing. The inner section is easily customizable for how tall it can be by repeating the sections.

The cowl begins by casting on normally, and creating a 2:2 ribbing for a set number of rows. It quickly goes into the body section, which has the option of being read from a chart or written out. The instructions have two of the three sections written out, with the first section being repeated after the second. The layout is very basic; part of the section is an easy cable, the other part a moss stitch surrounded by purl stitches, creating a box. The first and second sections are almost identical, with the changes being in the position and the direction of the cable.

After completing the delightfully simple and easy to memorize pattern, the pattern is finished by repeating the ribbing section that started the pattern, and binding off.

I cannot say enough great things about this pattern; it’s well written, easy, and kept my interest the whole time knitting it. It makes a great gift as it only took me 3 days to create, and it shines being made from Afghan Hound because of how soft and squishy it feels..

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Caitlyn Faust and filed under Pattern Review and tagged Afghan Hound Mush! Cowl.

Basenji & Echo Flower Shawl

Because of Reverie Yarn, Décor & Gifts’ Puppy Love Party, I wanted to create a sample out of one of the yarns they were planning on stocking, Basenji. I decided to knit the Echo Flower Shawl because of its versatility; the shawl can be knit in various sizes with one skein of Basenji. The pattern was a fantastic challenge, encouraging me to try out new techniques and stitches. It comes with two sizes, shoulderette and shawl, but can easily be adapted to any desired size. I decided to knit the shoulderette in Running Dog Nebula.

Echo Flower Shawl was designed by Jenny Johnson Johnen, who is a yarn dyer and designer from Sweden. It was her first design, and she did a brilliant job.

“This shawl was inspired by Estonian lace and especially the beautiful shawl, Laminaria, by Elizabeth Freeman. This shawl also shares the blossom stitch with that shawl. The border is inspired by various designs but mostly I had a mental picture of how I wanted it to look so I tried to transfer that mental image to a chart – and yes, it came out exactly the way I wanted.”

The pattern begins by casting on with a small crocheted cast on, and quickly goes into chart work. The first chart sets out to increase the stitch count by using “2 into 9”, which is a stitch used throughout the pattern. The premise is to knit 2 (or later, 3) stitches together, and without dropping the stitches after knitting, yarn over and knit the stitches again, repeating until 9 stitches are created. This stitch creates what appears to be a blossoming near-half circle flower design, which, when repeated throughout the shawl, is mesmerizing. The second chart continues on with this pattern, growing the shawl as it goes.

The border charts are set up oddly, but after a bit of consideration they make sense; it has one chart that is split up into 3 pieces for the sake of space. The edging goes tremendously faster than the body of the shawl does, but comes with one potential setback: nupps. This was the first time I had encountered this technique, and I’m happy I learned it. Nupps are similar to the “2 into 9” stitches as they are 7 or 9 stitches knit into one stitch, but in the next row, they are all purled together, creating a tight little ball. Many people, including I, have difficulty purling them together without losing any of the stitches. I tried a few different techniques: one with using only the knitting needles, and another using a beading crochet hook to grab the yarn to pull through the stitches. I found using the crochet hook method to be easier, and overall, more successful than using just the needles. What’s pleasant is that if one does not like to create nupps in their shawls, the nupps can easily be replaced with beads for a similar (and more shiny) effect.

Finally, the edge chart is a satisfying conclusion to the shawl: it limits the amount of nupps and mimics the body chart in the floral design. The bind off uses 2 strands of yarn which creates the illusion of a thicker edge.

The pattern is very well written, but a small word of warning: it only comes in chart form, not written form as well. I found that adding extra stitch markers in between the pattern repeats helped to keep me in check, rather than relying only on sight and stitch count. Despite the challenges of this pattern, I absolutely treasure the result; the shawl is delightfully light and squishy, and I’ll be happy for it to cover my shoulders when the weather gets cooler.

Also, the best part of this pattern: It's free on Ravelry.

When dealing with nupps, do you prefer to create them, ignore them, or replace them with beads?

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Caitlyn Faust and filed under Pattern Review and tagged Basenji Running Dog Nebula.

Puppy Love Party - Recap

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of attending my first yarn release party for Fiber Hound! Reverie Yarn, Decor & Gifts is the lucky first shop to carry my yarns, and I am so fortunate to be able to work with them. The shop is owned by 7 people who came together with a common vision, and grew from the ashes of a closed yarn store in Goshen, Indiana. Conveniently, the shop is located 45 minutes away from my studio. They feature a wide array of yarns from Berroco, Manos, Lorna's Laces, and Kauni, as well as many non-yarn items. Their shop aesthetic is perfect: homey, warm, and full of yarn.

Reverie's first order consisted of various colors of Afghan Hound, Dachshund, and Basenji, and they prominently featured these yarns for the party. They also had a new and talented designer, Denise Devereux of d. Designs, create a pattern out of my yarn! I was happy to see many of her patterns fly out the door at the party.

One of Reverie's great ideas for the evening was to create a matching game based on the names of my yarns on the back of custom order forms. For each dog photo you could match with it's breed name, you would get 1% off. I'll admit that some of these were tricky, because a lot of the dogs I named my yarns after look like long haired greyhounds!

The event went very successfully, and I'm so pleased to be associated with them. I intend for them to be the first of many lovely stores that Fiber Hound yarns will be associated with.

The view of the store when you walk in.  Beautiful! — The view of the store when you walk in. Beautiful!

Basenji, Dachshund, and Afghan Hound yarn.

Pressed Leaves, from Botanical Knits: Twelve Designs Inspired by Trees and Foliage, made out of Afghan Hound in Cerberus.

The lovely cowl pattern designed with Fiber Hound's yarns!

The vibrant cowl from d. Designs

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Caitlyn Faust and filed under Events and tagged Yarn Store Reverie Yarn Decor & Gifts.

Puppy Love Party!

I announced last week that my yarns would be sold at our first yarn store, Rêverie Yarn, Décor & Gifts! This store is located in Goshen, Indiana, and is about 45 minutes from my studio. I had the pleasure of meeting with the ladies who owned the store about a month ago, and they were very enthusiastic about what Fiber Hound has to offer. They placed their first order, and they are releasing the yarns at a launch party on Thursday, July 18th, from 5PM to 7PM.

As announced in their newsletter:

Caitlyn will be there with plenty of samples and models for you to see (and nuzzle) as well as to answer questions about her process and the yarns. You will have the opportunity to buy some of her luscious yarns that evening, of course, but there will be a limited supply, so in-store sales will be first-come, first-served (so come early!)

There will also be some puppy-themed snacks, games & prizes.
Come join the fun!

If you're interested in seeing more details of this event (or any other events in the future), please check out our Events page! It has all the dates, times, and addresses of this and future events that I will be participating in.

I'm really looking forward to this party, and I hope to see you there!

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Caitlyn Faust and filed under Events and tagged Reverie Yarn Decor & Gifts Yarn Store.

Norwegian Elkhound & The Warm & Tingley Mitts & Headscarf

I recently had the pleasure to have knit from the Needles and Artifice collection by The Ladies of Mischief. The publication (from Cooperative Press) carries twenty-three beautiful patterns and has an ingenious layout: it's not just about the patterns, but also tells great stories to tie them together.

Gentle ladies and kind sirs: welcome to the world of Needles and Artifice, where corseted Victorian fashion gets an energized infusion of punk.

In this fantastically playful take on steampunk knitwear design, the Ladies of Mischief offer not only 23 original patterns, but also a high-flying, busk-snapping adventure that plays out across each chapter.

Pull on your goggles and spats, knitters: you’re in for a wild ride.

I was originally looking for a pattern for interesting fingerless mitts to knit a sample from Norwegian Elkhound (colorway Sirius), and came across the Warm & Tingley Mitts, a pattern from the collection. The pattern was designed by Heidi Kunkel, who, besides for designing beautiful patterns like this, has an Etsy store featuring her amazing pottery.

What made this a perfect choice for a sample is not only the beautiful cabling, but the fact that with one skein of Norwegian Elkhound makes two mitts and a headscarf and still have yarn left over. In terms of yarn structure, the more plies a yarn has, the more round it is, and rounder yarns show off cables better. Because Norwegian Elkhound is four plies, it makes beautiful cables. What I did not yet know was the most important part: how ridiculously quick and fun this pattern would be!

I was able to knit both mitts and the headscarf within 3 days, which makes it a great pattern choice. for gifts; I'm sure if I had a dedicated day, I would have easily knitted all of them within 8 hours. It's also extremely versatile because of how it's sized: the ribbing on both the mitts and the headscarf ensure that they will fit most, if not all adults. The pattern recommends a size 9 needle, gauge depending, and worsted weight yarn.

The mitts start off with a 2:1 ribbing, then go into the cabling chart. There's no written version of the chart in the pattern, which, since I prefer knitting from charts, was fine. The bind off was a picot bind off, which creates a surprising and fun texture at the edging. The thumb is called "an afterthought" in regards to the technique and is added after the mitt is completed.

The headscarf starts off with a normal cast on and features short rows for shaping the garment. The short rows in this pattern don't come with the normal "wrap" instruction; rather, they purposefully leave holes in the fabric for a button. The cabling on the headscarf coordinates with the cabling on the mitts, but isn't exactly the same. The difference between the two cable patterns is that the headscarf pattern has the design wider, which better fits the wider garment. The final addition is a button, which is always the most fun to choose.

This set of patterns was a tremendous amount of fun to make, and knitting it with the Norwegian Elkhound was a treat! I had only done swatches with that yarn before, but the soft, squishy texture and beautiful stitch definition made me not want to put it down. I've always selected my yarn bases carefully, and it's rewarding to finally knit a full-sized garment with them and find that I absolutely made the right choice.

How do you decide what yarns to use with which patterns? Have you ever made a really bad choice, or an absolutely perfect one?

Announcement: Fiber Hound is now going to be sold at its first yarn store, Rêverie~Yarn, Décor & Gifts! The store is located in Goshen, Indiana, and is around 40 minutes from the Fiber Hound dye studio. I'll be sharing more updates about when there will be stocked there soon! For better updates, don't forget to follow Fiber Hound on Facebook!

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Caitlyn Faust and filed under Pattern Review and tagged Norwegian Elkhound Sirius Headscarf Mitts.