Day Blossom

When we make projects for the store, I choose them with you in mind. You’ll can probably figure out which things I like to make for myself – mostly sweaters with simple silhouettes, accessories for the family, and quirky little things (mohair tissue box covers, decorative mini-sweaters, tea cozies with limbs growing out of them, etc). Day Blossom is kind of a crossover – I came across it while looking for a store project, and figured I’d take a chance on it. I fell in love with the texture, I love texture and playing with texture. It combines two weights of Quince’s linen yarns, one thicker and one thinner. In the pictures the yellow is the thicker yarn (Quince & Co Kestrel) and the neutral colour is the thinner (Quince & Co Sparrow).

I kind of like the little fringes, they reiterate the changes in the textile and create a bit of visual interest, but you don’t have to make them if you don’t want to. The size is nice too, it’s very comfortable as a scarf and as a shoulder cover. The linen is cool and comfortable, all drape. After a long winter and cold spring it’s nice to wear a garment that’s feels different. Linen and wool are kind of binary opposites; wool is all about warmth, air and body, while linen is cool, dense and drapey.

I like knitting linen with wood needles, but Liane said it drove her up the wall. When I made my first sweater with Quince & Co Sparrow I swatched quite a bit to make sure I got tension, and I tried both bamboo and brass needles. At first I didn’t like the wood, then I tried the brass, and after that I went back to the wood and preferred them. In the end, the needles weren’t really the factor I expected them to be, but getting used to working with the linen was the important part. Once I was accustomed to the fibre I was happy with my regular needles. As for all those swatches, Sparrow is super soft and machine washes beautifully so I use them around the house and the store. They’ve replaced disposable tissues for removing makeup, washing my face, and cleaning up little messes. To my mind, that’s a big bonus – the less I have to send to landfill the better!

The colours shown in the original pattern are Quince & Co Sparrow in Moon (a grey with a blueish cast) and Quince & Co Kestrel in Minos (purple). Their colours are STUNNING, I love them, and for a bit I had a hard time thinking outside of that box. But it’s been such a cold & dreary spring here that I felt I owed it to everyone to come up with something brighter, happier, more optimistic. To pull myself out of that blank mental space I pulled all of the colours off the shelf and shuffled them around on the table. I’m glad I did, the colour combo I came up with is sunny, it has just enough colour to brighten things up without being “HI, NICE TO MEET YOU! I’M YELLOW!” You can’t go wrong with the combo of a colour on a neutral, you just have to make sure that the tones in both shades are complimentary.

Materials

• Quince & Co Kestrel: 2 skeins (colour shown is Yarrow)
• Quince & Co Sparrow: 4 skeins (colour shown is Sans)
• 3.25mm/US3 – 32″ circular needles
• Tapestry needle
• Pattern