Twist Collective Blog

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Published: 25 April 2014

Every Friday we feature one of the garments from the magazine in a post about styling. We suggest different ways to wear the garment in question using mock-ups from Polyvore. We encourage readers to tell us what they think about these outfits via our Facebook page or Twitter, and if folks want to make their own outfits, please tweet them at us with the hashtag #twiststyle. You can find all of the Style Friday posts here.

Marnie, here. Carly asked me to fill in for her, this Friday, which is an intimidating task, indeed. For the past seven years, I have been working from home, and my sartorial decisions are based primarily on temperature. Giant red bathrobe for cold days, just my normal pajama bottoms and t-shirt on hot days. Suffice to say, my fashion sense has waned a bit, during these years in the fashion desert, that is my home.

I'm hoping some of Carly's brilliant fashion sense has rubbed off on me. I always love her Fashion Friday posts and look forward to being fashionable vicariously through her each Friday. With that said, since it's the first Style Friday post of the season, I get to pick from the entire edition and I just knew I wanted to pick Finery, for my post.

I loved Karolina Eckerdals piece right from the submission. The delicate mesh detailing, hidden button placket and waist shaping make this a perfect Spring cardigan.

My first instinct is to pair this with a dress or skirt. The mesh lace doesn't read frilly or fussy. If this stitch pattern were a color, it'd be a hard-working, easy to wear neutral that can be paired with almost anything. Since the garment will pick up the mood and feel of whatever you pair it with, I thought it might be fun to really play up its Spring/Summer side. Whether you wear it with a casual knit dress and flats, to the office with a skirt and top, or out on the town for a date night, Finery really pulls the look together.

I'll be honest, though, as much as I love dresses, I basically never wear them. Pants (trousers for my readers in the UK) are more my thing, and Finery is going to work just beautifully with them. You can always tell which item of clothing is mine, from all the dog hair, so I thought I'd go ahead and make a pup an official styling accessory.

Finery is comfortable being casual, fun, dressy or professional and I think it'll make a great addition to almost any wardrobe. How will you wear Finery?

PS. Did you notice the fantastic accessory you could currently win from Jordana Paige and Twist Collective? 

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Published: 24 April 2014

Mother’s day is coming up soon and it seems like a good time to remember women who have inspired us, mentored us, guided us and made us better people. We want to hear your stories about a woman who has made a positive difference in your life and what she means to you.

We will be giving away Twist Collective pattern gift certificates to our five favorite stories and sharing those stories with our readers on the blog. Then we’ll pick one person at random, from all the submissions to receive one of these beautiful Quinn bags from Jordana Paige, in the color of your choice.

Jordana Paige has been creating beautiful bags for knitters, for over a decade, and the Quinn bag is no exception. Check out all the features, details and colors here. The Quinn bag is sure to keep your knitting organized and safe from snags, snips and soot, but the bag is so beautiful, and so thoughtfully designed, you may end up using it for your regular handbag, too.

To enter, send an email to quinn (at) twistcollective (dot) com. Please keep your replies under 100 words and email your entry no later than Wednesday, April 30th.

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Published: 21 April 2014

Today's post is from Fiona Ellis. Fans of Twist are no stranger to her work. In the nearly six years we've been publishing, she's produced 21 designs for us. Today, she talks about her latest, Sugarbeach, as well as a few blasts from our publishing past.

Have you noticed that my Sugarbeach top has cables that divide and then flow around the V-neck to frame the face? It’s a pet idea of mine that I often include in my sweater designs. It serves to create a focal point for the garment and shows that you have spent time and effort to create a couture piece.

How does hand knitting differ from commercial practices?
Most commercially made garments are made by the cut-and-sew method. Each piece of the garment is cut from a length of fabric and then seamed together. So when it comes to the neckline there is already a cut edge and a break in the patterning. As hand knitters we are making custom made garments just as a couture house would do. We fashion each piece of the garment exactly the size it needs to be. So it is my belief that, as we are already engaging in couture practices (and harkening back to an age of elegance), we should continue this attention right into the details, edges, neatening and of course the neckline treatment. It’s what makes our work stand out as beautiful custom hand-work rather than the thrown together pieces we find so often in main stream stores.

Why do we need a focal point?
By careful placing a change in pattern we can ensure that the first place a viewer’s eye will be drawn to will be our best feature. Mostly I believe that the most interesting thing about all of us is what we think and say so it makes sense to draw the eye towards the face rather than say our derriere (unless you have a wonderful derriere of course).

How do we draw the eye towards the neckline?
Cables, generally speaking, create vertical lines (if we work them in the conventional fashion) automatically causing the eye to run up and down the piece. But we can utilize a number of different methods to further draw the eye toward the face. 

We can choose lines that create arrow shapes with the tip pointing towards the face - Rebecca & Chartres are both examples of this.

We can add collars and worked in contrasting colours they are be especially eye catching, as with Charleston.

Or we can add feature patterning in the yoke area, which creates an effect a little like placing a piece of jewelry there. Merise is a great example of this.

We can also continue the patterning around the neckline rather than just cutting into it to do the shaping, like in Mehndi & of course with Sugarbeach.

With these design elements it is often important to finish on a specific row before beginning the change in patterning or shaping. So we need to pay attention to row gauge and the length that you need to make the piece. You can’t just knit a few more rows to achieve the correct length and still end on the correct row of the pattern.

How do ensure that the correct row of the pattern is at the neckline?
In writing the pattern instructions I have taken care of this for you. But what if you need to make adjustments to the length from those I have offered?

1. Firstly we need to know our row gauge. I know that you all do gauge swatches right?
2. Then we need to know how long the piece needs to be. So measure a garment that fits you well and check it against the schematic measurements to see if you will need to make any changes.
3. We can then calculate the number of rows that will need to be worked to give your desired length. That is: the number of rows per inch multiplied by the length of the piece.
4. Divide this number by the pattern repeat to see if you will arrive at the correct row in the pattern at the neckline. You will need to check the instructions to see which row.
5. If it doesn’t work out quite perfectly we will need to adjust the pattern row we start from at the hem. The adjustment can be done one of two ways: To shorten simply begin on a higher number row, therefore subtracting rows.

OR to lengthen add extra rows before working row 1 of the pattern. These rows should be worked from the top of the chart as though you were ending a previous repeat before you begin working row 1.

I hope this has given you some food for thought and Happy Knitting!

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Published: 14 April 2014

The new edition is live, and our contributors have outdone themselves again. See the whole magazine here, read the articles here and shop for patterns here.