IS #10: Brooklyn Tweed

Recently, Jared Flood's studio for his knitwear design and yarn company, Brooklyn Tweed, was featured on the Design Sponge website. Besides being an interesting look into the space and process of one of knitting's very prominent designers, it got me thinking about how much I'm inspired by Jared Flood's designs and how often I've admired them... which got me wondering which designs of his I've actually knit and which I've queued and which I simply love. Let's look at some pretty designs, shall we?

The Sanguine Gryphon Mithril, colorway Brightness of Day

Rock Island is the only Jared Flood pattern I've actually finished. (This is not a comment on the worth of his patterns, just a testament to my WIP weakness.) It is, without a doubt, beyond gorgeous and produced one of my favorite accessories. Knit in laceweight wool, this shawl is surprisingly warm but light enough to be worn comfortably indoors kerchief-style, which is my favorite way to accessorize an outfit. I think it's gorgeous enough to be worn over a summer dress and casual enough (something about all that garter stitch, maybe) to be worn during errands on the weekend. The lace edging is knit first and is a bit of a slog but then you pick up stitches along it and the rest goes pretty quickly. I really enjoyed the lace stitch in the middle and would like to use it again in a stole or scarf.

The Sanguine Gryphon QED (sadly discontinued)

I started these Flint mittens last year (how time does fly...) but I swear I will finish them someday because I am still in love with the pattern. It is a tad fussy and it is rough on my hands knit in thick yarn at a tight gauge but I love love love the details: the cables, the colorwork braid, the turned hem. Love love love. They are going to be glorious... someday.

Cascade 220

I started this Hemlock Ring Blanket (a free one!) almost... *gulp*... three years ago. (Shame on me.) It is one of my oldest hibernating projects but I SWEAR I WILL FINISH someday. Partway through the lace that makes up the main part of the blanket, the cord for my needle broke and I lost a bunch of stitches. At the time, I didn't have the confidence to frog and pick up stitches and fix the mistakes... and since then I just haven't found the time/motivation. Perhaps this post will help inspire me to get it done because it is a really lovely little blanket and the middle part was fun to work. Part of my goals for this year is to finish or frog all of my old WIPs and this one is high on the list to address.

Now that I've finished my walk of shame of unfinished goodness, let's talk about some of Jared's designs I'm itching to start. I have no less than 10 of his designs in my Ravelry queue, but I'll only mention my top 3 favorites here:

Copyright Brooklyn Tweed

This is the Juneberry Triangle shawl pattern. I love the edging, the bobbles, the thicker worsted weight. There have been so many gorgeous ones made with Codex (a 50/50 silk and BFL wool blend) on Ravelry and I just love the shine and drape it gives the pattern so that's what I plan to use.

Copyright Brooklyn Tweed

Bridgewater is one of those epic knitterly endeavors that I will probably never undertake but that I admire nonetheless. It is a gigantic, lace-edged square shawl knit out of 1,600 yards of laceweight yarn and damn, is it pretty. Huge, but pretty.

Copyright Alexandra Grablewski

This is Strago, from The Knitter's Book of Socks. I'm particularly in love with this pattern, not just because it would be a funky and modern first step into colorwork for me, but because it is designed specifically to feature Brooklyn Tweed's own American-made yarn: Shelter.

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, colorways Button Jar and Fossil

Shelter is a woollen-spun worsted-weight wool, sourced from Targhee-Columbia cross sheep in Wyoming and spun in a historic mill in New Hampshire. Many commercial yarns, particularly sock yarns, are worsted-spun so I'm excited to see how this woollen yarn feels knit in the sock pattern. Also, I'm down with using sort-of-locally-made products. Plus, the yarn has a subtle tweedy texture to it that I love and am excited to work with.

Finally, the Winter 2013 lookbook was just released, have you flipped through it yet? If you are a fan of colorwork or cables you'll probably enjoy it. I really like the crown details on the Altair cap:

Copyright Brooklyn Tweed

Phew! Who knew I had so much to say about one designer/man/photographer/company? His designs and photos are truly inspiring so I encourage you to check them out. I'd love to hear about your favorites or anything else that's been inspiring you lately, please leave a comment or link along a blog post below!