This week's star: Kelly (kellyincville)
This is Kelly. I can think of a hundred reasons to hate her. She is exquisitely beautiful, clever and quick-witted. She makes me laugh. She has incredible style and taste and is a beautiful knitter. She lives in Charlottesville, VA where she's learning to make wine, has an awesome home in the country (and horses) and a fabulous husband who takes her on amazing trips. Cue the hatred, right? Not possible. Kelly's got a big, generous heart and a passion for sharing things with others. This Christmas, she sent all of her friends hand-made mulling spices. Best gift ever. Once, a big group of us travelled to Charlottesville for a weekend - Kelly was the greatest host ever, and arranged for us all to go on a wine tour in the area, provided us with awesome restaurant reccommendations for the weekend, and made sure we were stocked with wine in the hotel.
I would absolutely love to raid Kelly's yarn stash, which is mainly comprised of the most beautiful neutral colors and luxurious wools you can imagine. Of my many knitting friends, I think Kelly makes some of the most wearable items, things you might not immediately realize were hand-knit because they're so wearable and beautiful and professional-looking. For example...
Kelly's Pull Empiècement Sweater
Pattern: Bergère de France
Yarn: madelinetosh eyre in Composition Book Grey
February 2010
Where do I begin to tell you all the reasons this sweater is fabulous? First of all, it's impeccably made. This is a worsted weight yarn, which is thicker but not bulky, but Kelly knit the sweater on medium-sized needles, which means that the fabric's gauge is nice and dense - which makes it look a little bit more like a sweater you'd buy in a store. Lots of people think of knitted sweaters and they think chunky and bulky, but this sweater is fitted and shapely, warm enough for winter but still quite sexy. So she's keeping warm while also looking super hot. It looks great with jeans, as seen here, but you could also pair this with a skirt and boots for a bit more dressed-up look.
The color is also a win. This is a hand-dyed yarn, but a pretty semi-solid colorway, with just enough color variation to provide interest, but not enough to make it seem stripey or color-pooly. It doesn't scream, "Someone dyed me by hand! Wahoo! Handmade!" You have to look at it closely to realize it's not commercial yarn. And one of the toughest tricks to master as a knitter is matching the right yarn to the pattern you plan to make. This sweater is a perfect match for this pattern.
So, now that we're all insanely jealous of Kelly for being so freaking beautiful and awesome, and for her sweater-making skills, I think we can agree once again that hand-knit sweaters are, in fact, amazing.