This week I have a special treat for you, the giveaway features not just the work of one single designer, but of a master hand dyer and a talented knitwear designer. Beth Casey of Lorna's Laces has teamed up with Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed to create a new Lorna's Laces colorway for their "Color Commentary Series" and both have taken a moment to share their collective inspiration and the giveaway prize is a product of this collaboration, the Rock Island Shawl pattern and a skein of Helen's Lace in Grand Street Ink!
Helen's Lace Grand Street InkWe'll begin with Beth, it was a lot of fun interviewing her and her many talents shine right through in her thoughtful answers...
1. Every knitter has an interesting story about how & when they learned to knit, what is yours?
I learned to knit in the late eighties. I had just moved to Kansas City from St. Louis. I didn’t know a soul there and I had a sales rep job where I worked from home. Because of that work environment, it was really hard to make friends. There was none of the built-in socializing that goes with a traditional office job. “Wanna go to lunch?” or “Let’s go to happy hour.”
I had two colleagues that lived in the area and they were both knitters. I’d never done much in the way of crafts but it seemed like a good idea. So, I signed up for a beginning knitting class at The Yarn Barn of Kansas and never looked back. Not only did I find a life long love of knitting, but I also found a community and friendship.
2. I've read you were in textbook sales before becoming the owner of Lorna's Laces. How did you make that big leap to become the owner and master hand dyer of Lorna's Laces?
It was kind of a roundabout process. After 11 years in textbooks, I was getting kind of bored. I was good at my job and winning awards, but I was desperately unhappy. Next steps in the industry would require either moving to NJ or going on the road more than half the year. Neither one of those seemed like good options for me.
Instead of doing anything about it, I started complaining. Complaining constantly. One morning my husband looked at me and said "I'm tired of you being unhappy. It's time for you to quit your job. Do you want to make the call or should I?" So I took a deep breath, put on my big girl pants, called my boss and resigned.
I spent the next three years trying to figure out what was next in my life. I studied bread baking at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, I walked dogs, I watched way too much daytime TV.
One Sunday evening in the summer of 2002, I was thumbing through a knitting magazine. Like any good knitter, I am always on the hunt for the next project. One of the little half inch want ads in the back was for a hand dyed yarn company. It said it could be relocated. I sent an email to what turned out to be Lorna Miser. About a month later I flew out to California to see her studio and immediately fell in love.
Over the next couple of months we negotiated a contract and in January of 2003 I was introduced at TNNA as the new owner of Lorna's Laces. I spent a few weeks working with her and then we packed up the whole operation and moved it to Chicago. It was all a dream come true!
3. I grew up in Chicago and recognize that many of your colorways' names such as Pilsen and Beverly are actual Chicago neighborhoods, how do you go about naming a new colorway?
I didn't know you were a Chicago girl! What fun!
Besides creating colorways, naming them is probably where we have the most fun. Lorna started the concept of naming yarns after things and places nearby. Streets, neighborhoods, landmarks etc. We continue that tradition. From time to time we've varied the scheme but it's one we always return to.
4. Starting in 2008 you began creating some very special colorways inspired by our industry's prominent bloggers and knitwear artists, your "Color Commentary Series," will you share with us how you dreamed up this idea and how it began? And who you have been working with up until now? And give us some inside dirt on them?
Color Commentary evolved when a blogger named Grumperina made a post about how to avoid color jogs when you're knitting stripes in the round.
Her next post demonstrated the technique using four colors of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock.
http://www.grumperina.com/knitblog/archives/2008/03/dont_worry_keep_1.htm
A light bulb went off. I thought to myself, "I could take all those colors and make a beautiful colorway". I contacted Kathy and asked her if she be OK with it. She was thrilled. The Grumperina colorway was well received and the concept has just kept growing.
We've worked with Franklin Habit, Amy Singer, Wendy Johnson, Clara Parkes, Lorna Miser, Annie Modesitt, Cookie A, Ysolda, and most recently, Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed. Whoa, just looking at that list humbles me.
The greatest part of the series has been getting to peek behind the curtain and see how creativity works inside another person's brain. The synergy is so much fun and the inspiration remains long after the color has been invented.
5. Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed is the latest blogger you've worked with for this Series, creating his Grand Street Ink colorway, how did you and Jared collaborate and what was the inspiration behind this beautiful new colorway?
I had the pleasure of meeting Jared at a TNNA meeting a couple of years ago. We decided that we wanted to do a Color Commentary together and started a long email conversation. He told me about the graffiti on a Brooklyn street, Grand Street. He described a deep, wine-y chocolate-y purple. Or was it a deep, purple-y wine-y chocolate?
At the end of the day, I had a vision of a very dark luscious color that evoked all of those things at once in my mind. Then I put dye on the yarn and sent a few samples to him. It turns out I'd hit the nail on the head with one of them and Grand Street Ink was born.
At the same time I was working with dye, Jared was doing his magic with lace. He created a shawl, Rock Island, that literally took my breath away the first time I saw it. The open work of the lace juxtaposed against the really dark color was just a perfect combination. It really does embody the synergy I mentioned earlier.
6. You've taken Lorna's Laces in some exciting new directions since being announced as the new owner in January 2003, what's next for you and Lorna's Laces?
Thank you!
The next thing on the horizon is a new yarn coming out next month, Solemate. It's a sock yarn made from a blend of 55% merino, 10% nylon and 30% Outlast. Outlast is a fiber that interacts with your body's microclimate to moderate temperature from being too hot or too cold. It was used by NASA. Ferrari uses it for their race car seats. We're pretty excited about it.
7. In what direction do you see the fiber arts industry heading?
I wish I knew. My crystal ball is all full of wool. ;-)
I do think we'll continue to see incredible talent emerging that pushes us all to do better and better work. From yarn to color to design, we're all going to benefit from the gifts that each of us brings to the table.
8. And finally I want to ask you which colorway you've created is your absolute favorite, but I imagine that would be akin to asking a mother or father to pick their favorite child! So I'll leave it open for you to decide if you want to tell us or not....
Beth thank you so much for taking a moment to talk to us, your joy and love of color and fiber is evident in everything you say and everything you do and I can't wait to see Soulmate!
Next I have the pleasure of introducing Jared Flood...
JARED FLOOD is a New York based knitwear designer and photographer. A Pacific Northwest native, Jared holds an MFA from the New York Academy of Art and travels the country teaching traditional handknitting technique and garment construction. He has been living and working in Brooklyn since 2005.
His design work and writings have been featured in Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting, Knit.1, and Spin Off Magazines as well as various other print and online sources. Jared’s photography has been featured in Good Housekeeping, New York Magazine, NY Spaces, NY Living, Vogue Knitting, Knit.1, The Knitter [UK], Debbie Bliss Magazine, and numerous online and book publications.
In the Fall of 2010 Jared launched SHELTER - an artisanal line of wool yarn grown, spun, and produced in the US. He is the creator of www.brooklyntweed.net and author of Made in Brooklyn - a collection of original handknitting designs with natural fibers.
From Jared: "The Grand Street Ink colorway was inspired by a rich indigo color that I saw in a large graffiti mural on Grand Street in Brooklyn. The color was rich and beautiful, almost black but not quite. When working with the folks at Lorna's Laces on my color commentary contribution, I used this as a starting point for the final color that is now available.
The Rock Island Shawl was conceived from an ongoing adoration for the history and tradition of lace from the Shetland Islands. Both lace patterns (the edging, and the Bead Lace section) are traditional motifs found in historic Shetland stoles, scarves and shawls. I set them on a field of Garter Stitch, to let them be the focal point of the design, and set the pattern into a triangle, thinking carefully about the proportion and relationship between lace sections and (more visually solid) garter stitch sections. The shawl is knit with a laceweight yarn at a slightly looser-than-average tension for a veil-like effect that is stunning in its delicacy."
Jared thank you sharing your bio with us and also your thoughts behind the Rock Island Shawl design and your new colorway for Lorna's Laces.
Don't want to wait to see if you win this giveaway? The Rock Island Shawl pattern is available on my site along with all of Brooklyn Tweed's Patterns and Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace is sold separately and its On Sale. The Grand Street Ink colorway has been flying off the shelves and there are only a few skeins left, but I will special order it for you. And if you're on Ravelry the "Knit-along with Lorna's" group is hosting a Rock Island Shawl KAL and all are welcome.
CelesEnter this Giveaway: The more ways you enter, the more chances you have to win and make sure to leave a comment telling exactly what you did to enter. And please make sure to include your contact information.
1. Tell us why you should win the Rock Island Shawl Kit.
2. Tell us which Brooklyn Tweed pattern is your favorite.
3. Tell us which Lorna's Laces yarn is your favorite.
4. Tell us which Lorna's Laces colorway is your favorite.
5. Blog about this Giveaway on your blog and link it, leave a comment under this blogpost with the link back to your blogpost.
6. Join my Ravelry group Sandrasingh.com and introduce yourself in the "Welcome Tell us About Yourself..." thread.
7. Announce this Giveaway in your Ravelry group or in another Ravelry group that allows you to announce Blog Giveaways.
8. Friend me on Facebook: Sandra Singh and leave a comment under my post about this Giveaway.
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