This week's star: Elin!
So, to tell you about Elin, I have to confess myself a stalker. A few years ago, when I joined Ravelry (I guess this would have been in 2008), Elin was one of the first people I noticed. Her projects kept popping up in my searches, and holycraptheyweresobeautiful. I pored over her projects and her yarn stash, feeling envious of it all - her gorgeous taste, her obvious knitting talent, her photography skills...GAH! I requested her as a friend on Ravelry (which basically just means the person's projects fall into a stream you can check out handily) and looked for reasons to talk to her. I totally admit it, I was a little bit of a creepy stalker.
But I was really inspired by Elin, because she has color preferences that are similar to my own, and she has such a knack for knitting things that look clean, crisp and professionally made. It was Elin's stash that led me to many hand-dyed yarns and wools that would become favorites as I eased my way into the vast world of luxury yarn. Eventually, I found myself in many of the same groups as Elin on Ravelry, and over time we would casually chatter on the boards, finding that we agreed on a good many things. This led to eventual emailing about projects and patterns, and then one day we ended up talking about non-knitting and discovered we had a lot more in common than we thought. And somehow about a year and a half ago, I realized we had become ACTUAL friends. And I did a happy dance. I love it when stalking ends up working in my favor. :)
So now we're real friends, and we chat regularly about plenty of stuff that has nothing to do with knitting. She lives faaar away in Melbourne, Australia and it's winter there when it's summer here and sometimes it's tomorrow when I talk to her today - it's straight-up Lewis Carroll-esque, this friendship! But I love Elin, and after all these years, I still turn to her when I have a question about whether or not something is going to look good in a particular yarn, or if I want to make a modification to a pattern. (She's the genius behind the Josefin pattern I showcased a few weeks back).
I could pretty much link just about any of Elin's knits to show you how to look good in a handknit, but here's one of my favorites, Elin's Frankie sweater.
Elin's Frankie Sweater
Pattern: Frankie by Kim Hargreaves
Yarn: Rowan Pima Cotton DK in Badger
December 2009
Wow. Where to start? One of the many things Elin and I share, aside from a love of autumnal and neutral colors, is a love of commercially dyed yarn. In the knitting world, sometimes it seems like everyone is all about the hand-dyes all the time. Hand-dyed yarn is awesome, but it usually looks hand-dyed. And sometimes you want something that's more perfectly matched in terms of color. Not to bore you with details, non-knitters, but if you're knitting hand-dyes, with lots of inconsistencies in the color, you have to alternate skeins of yarn while you knit or else you have a mess. Not so with commercially dyed yarn, which is dyed in large quantities so you usually always have reliably matching skeins. Also, commercial yarn often just looks more "professional" as a finished fabric.
With this sweater, Elin used a readily available but still luxurious commercially-dyed yarn to make this gorgeous everyday cardigan. She wears it all the time and as you can see above, it looks super with a cute dress, but also great with jeans and a tee. I love the NEATNESS of this cardigan. It's big and cozy and could easily look messy and slouchy, but Elin's sizing is just right, and her knitting is so TIDY and she does such a great job with finishing that the sweater isn't sloppy at all. Just super awesome.
I tend to be pulled toward sweaters that are seamless, knit all in one piece with just a little finishing, because I'm lazy and I hate sewing the pieces of a seamed sweater together. Elin is not lazy. She loves seamed sweaters, because she appreciates the way they always seem more tidy in the end, and she never slacks off on the finishing. When you've knit this huge thing, you just want it done, and it's a common mistake to rush through the finishing. With Elin's knits, every detail is perfect, and the result is a garment that works for years and looks amazing.
Can you tell I have a bit of an unhealthy crush?
Did I mention she's coming to visit me in September?!?!?!