Jaffrey

Jaffrey, the third project I've knit from the The LOFT Collection, is pretty cable intense. There were several points in the beginning where I was about to give up, doubting I could bring myself to complete the daunting number of cables still ahead of me. The slowest rounds took me 20 minutes to complete. But I decided to take it as a challenge. I figured that, with enough practice, cables will eventually feel as everyday as stockinette stitch. Having been a knitter for so many years, I feel it's time to step out of my comfort zone every once in a while.

I really like the Plume colorway of LOFT. One skein of it was enough for both this tam version of the the hat and the dominant color in the Carlisle mittens. While it's a thin yarn, the all-over cable pattern gives a uniform structure to the hat. Despite being a relatively fragile yarn, it didn't break once during some pretty tight cable knitting, which there was a lot of. I'm still a fan.

The Ravelry project page

Carlisle

I'm pretty sure two finished colorwork projects in a row is a record for me. The mitten patterns in the Brooklyn Tweed LOFT Collection definitely have inspired me, and the second pair was knitted with the yarn it was designed for. LOFT was a very pleasant experience for stranded knitting. It's a lot softer than I expected. It's also pretty fragile, and pulling too hard will break it, but at least my normal knitting style is not rough enough to break it. It's great for something that you'll wear against the skin; at least a test ride today didn't reveal any itchy qualities. I'm definitely looking forward to using it on many different projects in the future. It'll probably be great for most kinds of projects, except definitely not socks.

The pattern was also very easy. The hardest part was the tubular cast on, but that could be easily replaced by a regular long-tail cast on. Each row was easily memorized and there were no long floats. But it seems I still need some practice with either choosing color combinations for stranded knitting or my knitting technique, because I don't feel the pattern stands out enough in this pair of mittens, either.

The Ravelry project page

Burnham

As one might be able to tell by glancing at my knitting projects, colorwork is not among my favorite techniques. However, in my opinion, there is no beating stranded knitting for mittens, and I also happen to be in dire need of said accessories, considering I wore a hole through my favorite pair last winter. These factors combined with the publishing of the new Brooklyn Tweed LOFT Collection finally got me to a point that I was able to knit a pair of colorwork mittens from start to finish.

While the patterns are primarily designed for the newly published yarn LOFT, I had to strike while the iron was hot, and therefore didn't have the time to wait for an overseas delivery of yarn before starting the project. Instead, I went for some Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift that I purchased from Michigan three years ago, and some leftovers of Handu PukkIlu, both excellent yarns for colorwork, but the color combination may not have been ideal. I feel there isn't quite enough contrast to bring out the pattern. While immersed in water, the gray Spindrift turned a darker shade and made the dominant orange stand out much better. This effect was sadly lost immediately after taking the mittens out of water.

In any case, I'm very happy with how they turned out. Straight off the needles, they felt slightly tight, but some wet-blocking took care of that. I'm pretty sure these will see a lot of use this winter.

The Ravelry project page