Today’s the day! It’s launch day for my new cable & lace wrap, MARZEN, part of the Hudson + West Co. Spring 2022 collection. Marzen marks my latest collaboration with the good people at Hudson + West and I couldn’t be more thrilled! This rectangular wrap for spring juxtaposes cables and airy openwork.
Marzen, by New Orleans-based designer Cheryl Toy, is a lightweight cable + lace wrap made in our springy Weld. Ideal to wear over the shoulders on chilly days or wrapped like a scarf, this versatile accessory pairs beautifully with dresses or with a light spring jacket.
THE PARADOX
You had me at cables and lace! I just love this kind of paradox. Classically warm things (like cables) pierced with little pinholes (like eyelets) create a fabric that is perfectly transitional. The rich depth of crossing stitches plays beautifully against the lacy fragility of openwork. This makes Marzen something unique for spring, a cable and lace wrap that provides airy femininity and real-time warmth. Marzen is a generously sized rectangle that features a woven diamond cable backed with beaded rib. The cable is asymetrically placed, allowing for a field of stockinette pierced with rivers of eyelets.
TECHNIQUE
Marzen is constructed in the simplest way possible – from end to end. It is framed by a perfectly matched Double Chain cast on and bind off creating an elegant chained edge on either end. If this is a new technique for you, you’ll find full easy-to-follow instructions within the pattern. The cables are intuitive and once the eyelet columns are placed, Marzen becomes a very meditative knit. The ribbed trim that runs down one long side is worked from stitches picked up along the edge.
THE YARN
Marzen marks my seventh collaboration with Hudson + West Co and my fourth project with Weld. Weld is such a unique yarn! Blended from merino and corriedale fibers, Weld is blissfully silky, yet toothsome and wooly at the same time. It’s a deft mixture of drape and airy lightness and comes in some very lovely shades indeed! I’d been dying to get my hands into this shade, “Dusk”, ever since the launch of Ward in H+W Deep Winter 2022.
Weld is a well-balanced three-ply yarn, with a slightly more energetic twist for strength and durability. It has a beautiful balance of stitch definition, bounce, and wooly, cohesive bloom that produces both beautiful stockinette fabrics and delicate lace, texture, and brioche, and is perfect for stranded colorwork.
I hope you’ll enjoy Marzen as much as I have! It makes a perfect wrap for year round wear and once you start, you won’t want to put it down!
