Yarns to Love
Birkin: Game On
Yes, it’s true that Kay recently declared Caitlin Hunter’s Birkin the It Sweater of Rhinebeck. (Read Kay’s Declaration of Itness here.) Today, I’m here to declare this pullover the It Sweater of My TV Room.
Refresher:
This beautiful yoke sweater drapes a bower of posies and vines across the shoulders. It’s pretty in multicolors, graphic when only one color is used for the yoke. I’ll bandwagon onto this Birkin It Sweater, no problem.
Picking yarn is a great game in this situation.
I’ve just finished a large piece of knitting that has had me in its thrall for about three weeks (to be revealed soon), a whole lot of natural color. I was feeling the post-finish loss of meaning in life and also a craving for knitting with color again. And then I came upon my pile of Backyard Fiberworks Sock yarn.
In deciding on a Birkin colorway, I counted how many dark blue and gray handknit sweaters I have in my closet. The answer is eight. I was thinking about going with Inkling for this sweater, but that would make Birkin my ninth dark blue or gray handknit sweater.
I beelined for Patio, the aquatic blue that has fascinated me ever since Alice O’Reilly sent us sample skeins. She proposed seven juicy colors. Plus Patio.
Patio is fun. Patio has a better attitude than all those other serious shades. Patio is the friend who’s always game, who sticks a dozen of her chickens’ eggs in your mailbox, who gets you to ditch work to go to a yard sale, who doesn’t care when you have to cancel at the last minute.
Patio is the swimming pool at the Coronado Motel in Fort Walton Beach, back in 1978, when spring break with your sister was kind of lame but filled with adventure anyway.
This Birkin is going to have a one-color yoke, in Backyard Fiberworks Jamberry. Jamberry is a fuschia that occasionally wishes it were pink, but it just can’t get there.
One fine thing about Alice O’Reilly’s yarns is that the color shifts are subtle at first glance, but actually range pretty widely once you start to knit with them. I’m already feeling the What-Will-Happen-Next anticipation. These yarns are not one solid color. They’re a quiet-shifting riot of one color. Which is big fun to knit.
Patio is the antidote to the blue gray blues.
Ann! You are going to look amazing in that color. I love your combination.
Oh no. I have three sweaters-worth of yarn in the stash plus two sweaters just lacking sleeves. I am NOT buying yarn and starting another sweater. Just because that blue is OMG. Especially with the Jamberry. No, I have two blue sweaters already and one of the already-mentioned sleeveless is blue. And I live in Texas. Not sweater country at all. Damn you. Damn you all.
Texas is surely sweater country. Just crank up the AC, like we do in Nashville . . .
That color is so absolutely delicious I could eat that unraveled hank. (Puns about “fiber” and “diet” will not be entertained.)
Beautiful
The PERFECT sweater to wear in Edinburgh!
OMG yes!
It’s tough to not continue knitting with the “comfortable colors” – your dark blue and gray. I commend you for going with the Patio and Jamberry. I constantly think of your many Easel Sweaters and the wild yarns you used as I work on my current sweater, which is a riot of color!
What yarns are you using? Would love to see what you’re up to! Color seems to be a balm to me these days.
I’m using Yarnover New York, The Nutcracker Suite colorway. It’s my very festive Christmas sweater.
One of my sisters, while admiring my Kiawah v neck in Shibui Twig color Graphite, sniffed that I had to start expanding my colors. What does she know? You, however, are onto something.
P.S. Just heard the sweetest podcast (BBC Seriously) on Country music in Nigeria, especially the love for Gentleman Jim Reeves. The last bit where a singer with a faked American Southern accent talks of his dream of going to Nashville is touching. (He’s never been out of his small town area.). I thought of you, the only Nashvillian I know.
Gentleman Jim Reeves is so brilliant! I will definitely track down this podcast–Hubbo is a student of old country, and also the BBC, so wow what a conflation!
It is like a Liberty blanket you can WEAR!
That’s so funny! Ten years later I’m picking the same weird colorway . . .
So, if I understand correctly, the whole yoke pattern will be Jamberry? I can’t wait to see this completed and might have to copy at some point!
All Jamberry, all the time! I️t is SO JUiCY!
Ann, You must have been at the Coronado in Ft. Walton with your sister the same year I was just west of that at the Holiday Inn in Navarre with my sister. I think that Patio color was probably all the rage back then. I certainly remember wearing a whole lot less black. Looking forward to seeing the finished Birkin! Chloe
We probably sat next to each other at the Gulfarium! Here’s the weirdest thing on the internet, “Fort Walton, Fort Walton, that’s my home town.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGXNPJAotKI
What fabulous colors! That blue has me swooning. You’re going to look amazing in it. Want to knit another in two colors!
I think that’s a lovely color choice, mostly because the gray days will actually make you want to work with color and actually finish. (Finish is a big hurdle for me, ha!)
Beautiful. Patio is so pretty, and I really, really love Jamberry, and they look great together. However, you say, “I’m here to declare this pullover the It Sweater of My TV Room,” which is probably pretty great for Birkin. But I have to ask, how does that make the other sweaters in your TV room feel?
Love your colors…
That Patio is YOUR COLOR. And the Jamberry just makes it even better. Looking forward to seeing you progress!
In a turn of the tables, I’m knitting with gray and a grayed blue. It’s…very peaceful. Will need to jazz up after this little project is done.
Peaceful is good! (she said, wearing one of her eight blue/gray sweaters)
YUM.
I am just about to finish a very dark grey wooly ‘grandpa cardigan’ – something I have been craving for this winter – but I have already bought lots of bright madelinetosh to make the So Faded cardigan next, in blues and pinks.
But this Birkin, and these colors from Alice O’Rielly – I’m thinking Patio, with a Pumpkin yoke… is that crazy?? Crazy awesome!
Patio and Pumpkin? I think once you give in to the siren call of Patio, the yoke can be pretty much anything. Pumpkin is a great, rich tribute to the ’70s. Go for it!
I saw this post yesterday. I mulled it over and thought about it. I told myself I did not need another project. And it kept creeping back into my knitters mind. I went to an event last night and decided this Birkin would have been the perfect thing to wear. Then I walked past my stash and the project bags lined up waiting for me to JUST GET IT STARTED already, girl. But there it was again, staring me in the face this morning. I’ll be casting on in Local Honey and Pepper Sprout.
I see what you mean about subtle color shifts – in the first picture, I thought you had three colors going til I cleverly counted the strands of yarn. This has been a real November day – gloomy, raw, raining, HAILING!, dark, cold. Wearing that candy-colored birkin would be a tonic on a day like this!
Can’t wait to watch your progress! Your gorgeous colors are a great antidote to winter gray ( I’m knitting a luscious undyed Shetland sweater but it IS gray – so I’m vicariously thrilled for you!)
Oh My…those colors are just beautiful, also my favorite. Love it much! ♥