We’re continuing with our Canopy theme this week with a spotlight on Canopy Worsted, the (aptly named) worsted weight cousin to Canopy Fingering.
Many of the same properties apply when talking about the Worsted and Fingering — it is the same wonderful blend of 50% Baby Alpaca, 30% Merino and 20% Bamboo. It has a smooth texture and is a 3 ply yarn with a medium-twist which provides great stitch definition as well as strength and sheen so the yarn holds up well and does not pill easily. Canopy Worsted was first introduced in the 10 original “springy”colors, and this June we added another 10 colors to the line to create what we feel is a really beautiful and well-rounded palette.
Canopy Worsted is a little bit lighter in weight than Terra, Road to China Worsted and Organik. When knitting sweaters — and we think Canopy Worsted is a perfect sweater yarn! — or an item where we want good definition and structure we like to knit it at a gauge between 20-22 sts/4 inches. If we’re doing something where we want drape — a scarf or cowl, for instance, we loosen it up a bit and sometimes even knit it as loose as 16 sts/4″. Canopy Worsted is an incredibly versatile yarn gauge-wise — but ultimately it is up to you to find the drape and knitted fabric you like best!
Like all of the Fibre Company Yarns — especially, as you can well imagine, Canopy Fingering — Canopy Worsted has a decent alpaca content, which, as we have said before, adds a ton of softness, drape and warmth. The merino adds warmth and softness as well, but also has a little more “memory”, so depending on the application, the final fabric can have a lot of structure. The bamboo, unique to the Canopy lines, ads a wonderful sheen and drape to the yarn, and produces a unique subtle heathery dye effect due to the application and type of dyes used.
One pattern that shows off the versatility of Canopy Worsted is the newly published and popular 5th Avenue Scarf (ravel it!) by Margaux Pena (aka tentenknits). We have always been a big fan of Margaux, and love seeing her and Patricia of Patricia’s Yarns, in person at TNNA and the Sheep & Wool Festivals and were doubly excited when Margaux showed us her new scarf at Rhinebeck.
The 5th Avenue scarf is a perfect accessory for fall and winter, as it provides the warmth of a full-size scarf with a multitude of styling options. We love it both ways, either draped around the neck in a big loop or as shown below wrapped a few times around the neck. Kate was the passenger in a long drive this past Thanksgiving weekend and is in the middle of some projects that either require a lot of thinking or adjusting charts in excel as she knits, or some other element that makes them not so great for a car ride, so she cast on for her very own 5th Avenue Scarf in Palm Blud, a very light blue. She is already a few skeins in and totally in love, so hopes to finish by this weekend!
(Photos courtesy of Margaux Pena)
Another pattern that is a wonderful use of Canopy Worsted is the Give a Hoot mittens designed by our friend, Jocelyn Tunney. These mittens were one of the first Kelbourne Woolens Free Patterns that we published and we continue to be delighted with their popularity!
And, as some of you may already know, Courtney is knitting an adult version of her adorable Fiddlehead Pullover as featured recently on the Purl Bee in Canopy Worsted. We are doing thigs a little differently this time, and she is putting up a little tutorial as she knits based off of the original numbers for the baby version. The first installment is here (scroll down a bit), and if all goes well she should be posting the next step in a few days!
