Fashionknitsta Thursday: 3/4/10

Happy Thursday everyone! If you're in PDX I hope you're enjoying this beautiful day, it's really looking like Spring!

If you've been keeping up with the recent current events, i.e. the Olympics and Fall 2010 Fashion Week you may have noticed the same trend we have, a resurgence of Fair Isle and cozy knitwear! Sara has blogged a bit about it when she featured the Peruvian Alpine Skiing Team uniform and we've all been very excited to see it! With all this wonderful sunshine lately I've been trying to get into a Spring feeling and so far it's really not working out. Really, how could it with amazing patterns like this one by Helena Bristow based on the official US Olympic Hat designed by Ralph Lauren available (for free!) on Ravelry:


Love the moose motif! This little beauty is done with a worsted weight yarn so it would go super fast, I think because color is such an important part of this I'd stick with Cascade 220 Superwash (sadly not on our website, but available in the store) to get really clear reds and blues. Keeping in the Fair Isle spirit, one of my (and everyone else's it seems!) favorite pieces from this years Olympics was this great sweater for the Canadian Olympic team by the Hudson Bay Company:

I haven't stumbled upon a pattern based on this one yet (big surprise, right?) but I hope its on the way. Until then I suppose I'll have to be satisfied with this pattern for coordinating mittens.

Designed by Heather Desserud, this free Ravelry pattern is done with fingering weight yarn. Again, making color the first priority I'd use Jameison's Shetland Spindrift.

EDIT: Shortly after finishing this blog, on a whim I decided to take another look. This isn't exactly what I was looking for, but its pretty great. I'm not sure how I ended up at Canadian Living Magazine, but they had a beautiful pattern available for free by Paton's Design Studio for His and Her's Reindeer Sweaters!

Done originally in a chunky Shetland, I would love to see these in Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky or Shibui Highland Wool Alpaca.

Whoever was coming up with concepts for these Olympic looks was obviously on the right track as this knitwear and Fair Isle trend was present all over this years Autumn/Winter runways. In my opinion the D&G show at Milan Fashion Week was by far the stand out for this trend. Here are a few of my favorite looks:

I just love how they put the twist on the classic look of this traditional design. It was such an interesting move to incorporate the printed Fair Isle motifs on chiffon, but pair it with such a substantial knit leg warmer. In the third look I really love the juxtaposition of the leather with the little knit rib trim.

After a quick Ravelry search I found a couple of things that will I am hoping will get me started on the accessories I'll need for fall. The Oslo Legwarmers by Martha Mertzig is a step in the right direction, as well as the Cotton Reel Mittens pattern by Ysolda Teague that we just got in.

It was nice to see that there were options in this trend for men as well. Also at Milan Fashion Week Gucci showed a nice chunky Fair Isle Sweater:

I found a similar pattern on Ravelry (for free!) appropriately named The Dude by designer Andrea Rangel.

The pattern calls for bulky yarn so Rowan's Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky would be a gorgeous choice.

If you're looking for something a little more tailored, British designer Lou Dalton showed a more traditional approach at London's Fashion Week:

Just beautiful, I love the classic look of a Fair Isle Vest.

As far as knitwear goes, Fair Isle wasn't the only trend to be see on the runways. Everyone from Michael Kors to Lacoste to Pringle of Scotland were showing knits:

Michael Kors

Lacoste

Pringle of Scotland

These are all lovely, I'm especially interested in the big chunky scarf at Lacoste, but by far the stand out of this season in the knitwear world was Prada.

Absolutely beautiful, the entire collection is wonderful (so Mad Men!) so I suggest taking a peak at the rest of it if you're interested. These pieces were really standouts, the cabled dress in the second image is beyond words and I love the stockings and the chic headbands. I'm going to have to get started on a pair of Cookie A's Rhiannon Socks immediately (definitely in Isager Alpaca 2 to get the wooly look!):

And one of these babys. This pattern, Julia's Cabled Headband is a free Ravelry download by Paulina Chin. My search found that there are quite a few cabled headband patterns on Ravelry so if you like the look, there is a lot to choose from!


Before this post gets too out of hand (I really could go on for days!) I probably should get back to shipping. I hope everyone gets to enjoy the sun today (hope it stays through the weekend!), as always check back next week for another edition of Fashionknitsta. Until then, stay chic blogfans!

-Lindsay