The Home and Away Woolful Knit-a-long is off to a radiant start, and you can still join if you’ve been hoping to! It’s been so great to see all the beautiful images on Instagram (via #woolfulkal) and shares on the Ravelry group. I’ve been super anxious to cast on, but alas it will have to wait until this weekend when I have the yarn and a moment to swatch. In the meantime, Hannah has some great tips on styling and choosing the right yarn…
My wardrobe is pretty minimal. This is partly from necessity, as we’ve always lived in old New England homes with very small closets. But in reality even if I own 20 shirts, I only truly wear 4 of them in high rotation. Is this the case for you, too? Go to your closet and set these much loved and worn pieces aside. Arrange them into outfits, top to bottom. Do you notice any patterns? For instance, is there a lot of the same color showing up? Are they all the same fabric or cut? Now, with these outfits in mind, you can start making your pattern selection. Which design from Home & Away will best work with the outfits you’ve put together, the outfits your wear most often?
Once you’ve selected a design, it’s time to choose a yarn and a color. For myself, it really helps to make yarn selections in person. Hopefully you have a local yarn shop that you can go to. If you don’t and will be ordering online, Ravelry can be very helpful. You can look up a particular yarn and then choose to see all the projects that have been posted on Ravelry in that yarn. This gives you a chance to see what the yarn and various colors look like knit up into garments.
When substituting yarn for the ones used in the book, keep in mind the fiber content of the original yarn. It’s listed in each pattern. The majority of designs in Home & Away are knit in 100% wool. Quince & Co. yarns are quite light and airy, squishy, sproingy (if that’s a word, ha!) When considering a substitute yarn that includes a blend of other types of fiber, or is perhaps a denser wool yarn, think about what the finished knit fabric will be like as a result. If you’re not sure, you can ask your local yarn shop owner or ask the community in the Woolful KAL Ravelry group. Clara Parkes Book of Yarn is a very helpful resource on understanding fiber in yarn, too.
Every design in Home & Away is something I would personally wear. And I styled the outfits, so that’s how I would wear them! However, these garments could be styled in many ways. I look forward to seeing how you all incorporate them into your wardrobes. Get knitting!!
*Next up, some sneak peeks of the giveaways for the knit-a-long.
6 Comments
Very smart! I definitely need to do this the next time I head in to knitting something. And I think the next thing I knit might even be for myself! How exciting. Can’t wait to try a pattern from the new book. 🙂
Thank you for the ‘to the point’ styling tips. 🙂 They were very helpful. I hope to put them into use soon. I am still contemplating which of the beautiful patterns from Home and Away to knit first. I think bringing my uniform staples to the front of my closet will definitely help.
Hannah’s tips are very helpful. I’m in the process of moving into a new house and I will be really cleaning up the wardrobe 🙂 I’ve also got a great tip, that I’ve agreed with my daughters (17 and 14) – whenever, they need a new thing to buy (t-shirt, top, jeans, sneakers and etc.), they have to through away minimum one item, because we are not buying new things, we are replacing the old/small/etc. item. 🙂
I really love Jackie’s knowledge on fiber and fiber processing. Very interesting episode! And I was to try their yarn badly!
I really loved this interview–I have a skein of Swans Island fingering burning a hole in my stash so I’m inspired to go find something to do with it! I would love to see the “garnet” colorway in person–it looks lovely. Congrats on the move!!
Reminds of summer ice loeills! What’s the best stitch, needles and yarn for a blanket? I’ve tried to knit squares before with aran weight and they’re always too loose, I want something that’s going to be fairly substantial and actually last years without getting all out of shape.