Remember when tweed was out of style, dowdy and old fashioned? Me either! What a perennial classic is tweed and what an amazing array of tweedy products we have to choose from these days.
I’ve long been a fan of KnitPicks City Tweed. It comes in a dizzying array of colors and several different weights. It is the first tweed yarn in my experience that wasn’t scratchy (not that scratchy is always a bad thing).
Then came Brooklyn Tweed, the brainchild of designer Jared Flood. Though I’ve never used this yarn myself, I’ve heard wildly varying opinions. Some say it’s splitty and weak, some love it and say it coheres during blocking. I love that it’s spun from domestic (US) sheep and dyed in the US too. The range of greens is stunning.
And speaking of green…
No discussion of tweed would be complete without the iconic shade of green known as “Lovat”. A grayish, blue-y green, Lovat is said to be named for Thomas Alexander Fraser, Lord Lovat (1802-75), who popularized tweeds in muted colors, particularly green, as hunters’ dress. This green hits every base for me.
Lately, I’m very inspired by tweedy stitches. Barbara Walker includes several types of tweed stitches in her “Treasury of Knitted Stitches” books. I think I need to experiment with some of these!
I hafta go. I got a great idea!
emccarten
Lovat was Elizabeth Zimmermann’s favourite colour of Jamieson and Smith jumper weight. About a decade ago, J&S discontinued it. There was an uproar. I believe it has since been returned to the colour charts.